00:00:34,719 S1: Because we're having an internet. We're having an internet issue. 00:00:43,359 S1: Yeah. 00:00:44,520 S2: Like that's how you get through middle school. You can handle it. Okay. Really? It's accessible yet another way. We like to get open. Well, we can't just stop. Right? 00:01:00,229 S1: What? Amy. Doing. Amy. 00:01:03,710 S2: Okay. 00:01:04,790 S1: Where are you going? Back to the evening. I don't know. 00:01:08,829 S2: I don't know. 00:01:12,709 S2: Wait a minute. 00:01:14,950 S1: I might get cold later, so I'm glad. Thank you. 00:01:19,670 S1: Are you okay? Yeah. I think. 00:01:24,870 S1: We're going to wait till she comes back. And then. 00:01:38,590 S2: We just did an upgrade around 3:00 in the afternoon, and then one day at daylight. So we're having a little bit of pull back from. 00:01:49,950 S2: When we get on and off we go all the way through because. 00:01:56,310 S2: That's what a lot of. 00:02:01,939 S2: I know that when. 00:02:09,900 S1: I say the other thing is, do you have. 00:02:12,219 S2: I can, I will. You have a pretty one as well. Yeah. So I. 00:02:18,539 S1: Just thought. 00:02:20,580 S2: Okay, there are a lot of. I think. 00:02:29,819 S1: I'm going to. 00:02:44,939 S3: Test one. Two. 00:02:47,460 S1: Yeah. 00:02:50,699 S1: Yeah. You don't have to read it in the beginning. 00:03:04,680 S1: Okay. 00:03:07,879 S4: Here we go, Brooke. 00:03:08,800 S5: And then I would try just. Amber sanders. 00:03:10,520 S6: Thank you. Uh. Good evening. I call to order the meeting of the Hamilton Regional School Committee on Thursday, May 7th, 2026 at 7:03 p.m.. Um. 00:03:24,599 S6: And, um, I just before we get started, we're having a little bit of an internet connectivity issue, but I think everyone's. So let me know if you need to stop if you're not able to. Um, so you do have everything this is. We do have one copy of everything printed out. Um, but you can fight a little bit with that, and, um. Okay. Um, so first order of business, um, Our regional agreement, um, states that we, the school committee, will tabulate the election results in a meeting. Um, so I will turn that over to Amy to read the tabulating of the results. 00:04:09,830 S7: Um, so the tabulated results of the. 00:04:13,750 S6: Is your mic on? 00:04:17,430 S7: No. 00:04:20,470 S8: This one. 00:04:23,550 S7: Um, okay. So for the three year, um, seats, the all the following are the results. Uh, Dana Lara, 1157 votes. Jeffrey Austin, 588 votes. Kristen Noone, 1188 votes. 11 write ins, 674 blanks, for a total of 3618 votes For the two year seats, which we had two of, um, Janet Bart 738, Karl Berger 458. David Polito 915. Thomas Reed 777. 00:05:09,860 S7: 13 write ins and 717 blanks, for a total of 3618 votes for the two questions. Question one regarding the override. There were 1247 yes votes, 511 no votes, 51 blanks, for a total of 1809 votes. For question two, the debt exclusion, there were 1374 yes votes, 370 for no votes. 61 blank votes, for a total of 1809 votes. 00:05:48,860 S7: Back. No. Oh! The mate. Yes. 00:05:52,610 S5: Sorry. 00:05:54,730 S6: All right. Thank you. Um. And so that being said, uh, the new committee is here. Really excited to have a full seven member committee. Welcome to Tom. Um, welcome back to David. And congratulations to Kristen joining us. 00:06:14,449 S9: And to you and to you, Dana. 00:06:16,490 S6: I'm happy to be back. Um, next up is an opportunity for, um, citizens comments. Um, before I give my spiel, just see, is there anybody on the zoom link that looks like they're interested in offering a citizen's comment? 00:06:40,370 S7: Can we get. 00:06:41,930 S6: Like I said, we're having a little bit of an internet problem. 00:06:45,529 S4: Nobody. 00:06:46,089 S6: Nobody. Okay. Is there anyone in the room that's going to offer a citizens comment. 00:06:53,439 S6: Okay. Seeing none, I will spare you all my, um, spiel about today's comments and we will go ahead and close the zoom. Um. All right. Uh, and citizens comments are closed. Um, next up, we have a portion of the school committee protocols that you. Kristen. 00:07:17,079 S9: Yep. 00:07:18,399 S10: As elected members of the Hamilton Windham Regional School Committee, we, including the superintendent, accept the high honor and trust that has been placed in us to ensure that the students of the district receive the best education possible. To that end, we hereby commit to the following in the conduct of our business. Members will refer constituent concerns and complaints, including issues relating to district personnel to the appropriate person within the district chain of communication. 00:07:49,350 S6: Thank you. Next up is a portion of our school Committee mission statement. Julia. 00:07:55,550 S11: The Hamilton Windham Regional School District School Committee's mission is to ensure our schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning, together with critical skills needed to maximize their potential. The Hamilton Wenham Regional School Committee will lead and inspire a district that empowers administrators to seek innovation, responsiveness and creativity in all aspects of district operations. 00:08:22,949 S6: Thank you. Uh, next up is Mr. Tracy with the superintendent report. 00:08:31,230 S4: Great. Thank you. Um, very straightforward report tonight. And, uh, really try to keep an eye wide open on the FY 27 state budget and the shifts that are being made. Um, people may know. Last time I reported out, we reported out on the House results and that the House had improved many of the areas that we were looking for improvements. Um, Senate Ways and Means just finished their view of the FY 27 budget and just looking at chapter 70. Um, alone, it's up. Uh, the difference from the House to the Senate is $602 million. They generally don't, uh, give us all of it. So I'm assuming we'll come somewhere in the 200 to $300 million increase overall. It's a $7 billion pot of money. So, um, and as we all know, every district is trying to get more state aid. Uh, same thing with circuit breaker. The circuit breaker is, uh, something that almost every, uh, group, the governor, the the House and the Senate, ways and means came to a similar number, which is about 653 Million. It looks like they're planning to backfill it with supplemental funds from the millionaire's tax, so that that's what they did last year. And it's good if they do a circuit breaker, because then we have the money that doesn't automatically drop to E. And if they don't, if they do it with chapter 70, we don't touch the money. If they give it to us at the end of June and it goes right into excess and deficiency, and then regional transportation is also showing an increase of about $50 million. Uh, comparatively. So some good numbers coming up through the house right now. I mean, through the legislative right now. And we'll continue to watch it and figure out what what the final numbers are. I just always want to caution people, you never know until you till the end because, uh, the supplemental funds are one piece of the puzzle, and there's quite a bit of money in there. From what I understand, the secondary piece of the puzzle is that we are currently tracking in April, $1.5 billion, which is about 4% higher than the target for revenues for the state of Massachusetts. So that speaks well for for opportunities to, to to they'll fund earmarks with some of that. And they'll also use it for some of the, the supplemental side. So um, we'll keep tracking that again. $1.5 billion is is is a healthy place to be above the same period of last year. Um, and it's a, it's it's 4% above what they had targeted for this period this year. So we're looking good on state revenues right around. Now is a nice time to be able to see where the where the money is starting to fall. So I'll keep you in the loop on that. There are several more stages. We won't really have any final numbers until probably the third week in June. Second week in June. Um, but I'll, I'll bring them forward as soon as I can get them. 00:11:33,590 S6: Um, does anybody have any questions? Because I have one. Does anybody else have questions for. 00:11:39,029 S9: I. 00:11:39,230 S10: Just have I had one bike. 00:11:40,220 S9: Go first. Go ahead. No. Go ahead. 00:11:41,299 S10: I think I also saw maybe it was in Senator Tara's Facebook page that there was some motion about create or some activity around creating a commission to study chapter 70, but that does not impact whatever the award will be for next year's budget. They're still trying to increase chapter 70 funding, even if they're also studying it basically. 00:11:59,940 S4: Okay. One of the I think one of the things the state legislators heard from all the superintendents, city councilors, selectboard, everybody was that we were all in trouble. Everybody is is teetering. So that I think they're doing the work. They've heard it, they understand it. Where the money comes from is really, I think the conversation there is language on a commission that has been agreed upon in both the House and the Senate. Um, that would still have to go forward and be approved if not vetoed by the the governor. But I don't think that would happen, given that Dessie is working on, um, has been working on that for a year now, and they're supposed to come out with their final report in the next couple of weeks. So that should coincide with language that establishes that committee. So yes, that is true. Okay. Yep. 00:12:46,730 S9: Yep. 00:12:48,769 S6: Um, so my question was I just want to make sure I understand about because I did understand previously about the supplemental funds. If we get supplemental funding in June, say that it's we would need to spend that supplemental funds in our FY 26 year. And that's almost impossible because. 00:13:07,250 S4: It was chapter 70. 00:13:08,210 S6: Well, that was my question. So explain to me because that was my understanding entirely. But it sounds like you're saying that circuit breaker is different, that we if we get circuit breaker supplemental or funds, is that because we normally get the circuit breaker is like retroactively? 00:13:24,009 S4: It's also a different account set up. 00:13:25,809 S6: Okay. So what happens if we get funding in June. 00:13:28,330 S4: For Circuit. 00:13:28,809 S6: Breaker? Yeah. 00:13:29,649 S4: So both circuit breaker and transportation are revolving accounts. So money can go in there directly and be used into the next school year. 00:13:38,759 S6: So we could use. 00:13:39,399 S4: It. Unlike chapter 70, chapter 70, automatically, there's no revolving account for it. It just goes. It comes in and drops into E and D almost automatically. So that last year, if you remember they did that, they doubled the uh due to the. So they, they doubled from $75 per student to $150 per student. That money basically just dropped to E! And for us. 00:14:02,240 S12: If we technically can't spend it because it would be an amendment. 00:14:06,039 S6: Above the budget. 00:14:07,120 S12: We would have to increase the budget, right? Yeah, technically. 00:14:10,039 S6: But I just so I guess I just didn't understand that circuit breaker is different. 00:14:13,919 S4: So yeah, the revolving accounts design that's allowed in circuit breaker and transportation allows you to put money in there and leave it in there and use it, which helps us offset like so. For next year, it will be helpful to have some extra monies in those accounts to offset some of the the. We're seeing some pretty dramatic increases over the last month and a half of special ed costs, so we'll probably need it. 00:14:39,179 S6: All right. Thank you. You have more? 00:14:42,019 S4: Just one quick one. I just want to say congratulations and thank you to last night. They had the concert and the senior art show at the high school. Um, if you have not been through the art exhibit, I've been here now 13 years. It was unbelievable. The work that the kids did was is amazing. It's still up. It'll be up all week. It just blew me away this year. A little more than usual. It's always great work, but, um, there are some really, really strong, uh, strong, skilled artists that we have in this group. And so I know several of them are going to off to school. So that's exciting too. Um, and the great concert. So just and then when you have next week, we'll have the middle school concert. You have AP exams going on. We have MCAS exams going on. So this is, as I've said in previous meetings, this is a messy time of the year where there's all kinds of stuff happening. This is also, uh, teacher appreciation Week. So thank you to all of our teachers and our teaching staff. Um, it was Nurses Day. Uh, school nurses day on Wednesday. 00:15:40,809 S13: Back to school day tomorrow. 00:15:42,490 S4: What's that. 00:15:43,169 S13: Like? 00:15:43,649 S4: Bike to school day tomorrow day. 00:15:45,330 S6: Something. 00:15:46,129 S4: Something. That's what I mean. Like, May all of a sudden there is something happening every single day. So, um, just some some notes and really appreciate the work everybody's done. Because in the past week, it's been kind of everybody's day. It was Principal's Days last last Friday. And I just, you know, just make sure that people understand that this is, uh, this is the time of year when it's it's fun to celebrate these things with the kids and all the work that everybody's put in. You can start to see the culmination of of all the work at every single level. So thank you to everybody. 00:16:16,649 S9: Thank you. 00:16:18,730 S6: Anybody else have any questions for Eric? 00:16:21,929 S9: Okay. 00:16:23,450 S6: Um. All right. Next up is the consent agenda. Typically items on the consent agenda are those things we don't anticipate that there will be, um, any discussion or they're non-controversial. Um, does anyone have anything they'd like to hold from the consent agenda? 00:16:42,120 S11: Julia, I move that we accept the consent agenda as presented on in the exhibits. 00:16:50,240 S9: Second. 00:16:51,039 S6: Second. By Jen Carr. Um, all those in favor? That is unanimous. And the motion passes. Okay. 00:17:04,119 S6: All right, next up, um, is a potential, um, discussion of a potential new field trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. I understand we have a presentation. 00:17:17,039 S7: Sure. 00:17:17,880 S4: We have Stacy Pawson, who is a science teacher at the high school with her, is also the curriculum leader for science department. Regina O'Neill. I think Stacy is going to present Gina's cheering. She's the cheering section okay. Okay. 00:17:30,269 S14: I'm going to pass out a copy of the itinerary. There are. There was a slight change in the price. And then I also I added a QR code with that. 00:17:45,789 S14: Um, there is a short promotional. 00:17:51,109 S7: Video at the start of. 00:17:53,470 S14: This that is not necessary for you to to watch, but that is on the next slide. So I don't know. Yeah. 00:18:01,829 S4: This this I want to skip it. 00:18:03,869 S14: I mean it's cute. It's got it's cute just but it's not. 00:18:48,700 S15: I would recommend it to other students because it's a really great experience and you get to have a good time with your friends and you learn a lot. 00:19:00,819 S16: You get to be hands on with things, you get to learn things with your friends, and you get to actually see what you're learning in class in real life. 00:19:14,900 S17: I love you. 00:19:22,579 S14: Okay, so this is the why of why we want to do this. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for many students to go somewhere that they've heard since, you know, middle school, probably elementary school. We've talked about Darwin and evolution, and now they get to go to this very special place and see these organisms in their natural habitat. So it's just it's an amazing opportunity for them. 00:19:58,609 S14: Um, this is I'm just going to take you through the itinerary really, really quick. Um, we would depart on the Friday before spring break. Uh, we would need that day for travel because it is a long travel day. It's a very long travel day. Um, the next day we have here this is the itinerary that you're looking at in front of you. Um, we are hoping that when we meet with our rep next week, provided that this is a go to swap out some of those activities for something a little bit more Stem. So that museum there would take the place of these two activities here. That is the museum at the equator. Its talks about how the Incas determined the middle of the Earth, and has a lot of really cool science experiments that you would only be able to do at the equator. 00:21:00,750 S14: This is the first day that we would fly over to the Galapagos. So we start off on Santa Cruz, and we would be going to the Skalica Forest, which is a really important habitat in that area and features all kinds of different organisms, but most notably to the students that would be of interest are the number of the Darwin finches. We would be able to view these lava tunnels that are going to be able to kind of showcase the volcanic nature of the island, and there are also very special habitats in these tunnels that you wouldn't be able to find other places for cave dwelling organisms and very unique species. From there we would go to the Turtle Ranch, and that is a tortoise refuge. So that's all in that one day. Um, the next day, we would be headed over to the Darwin. Go back. I want to go back one. This is the Darwin Research Station, and here we would be able to, you know, look at some of these incredible specimens that they have on display there and really kind of learn deep, you know, deeply explore the research that we have there. And then we would be headed over to our Tortuga Bay. And Tortuga Bay is a, um, breeding site for the Galapagos. No. I'm sorry, this is the breeding site for the black sea turtle, which is an endangered species. So it's a very unique experience for the kids to have there. 00:22:51,890 S14: Um, this is day five. We would transfer to San Cristobal Island again. Keep in mind that these islands have very unique, distinct tortoises on each of the islands. Right. So that's something they've read about in textbooks. And now they get to see firsthand. So we would be visiting this, um, turtle breeding facility, which would be really, really exciting for them because this would be a time when all of the turtles are hatching, and they would get to see all the little babies. We would be taking a hike to El Junco Lake, which is a volcanic crater lake, and we would be able to snorkel. This is the beach where we have the Galapagos sea lions. They have a breeding area there. We would also have another full snorkel day at kicker Rock. Kicker Rock is a very unique um, it is a 500 foot volcanic cone. And in the center of that there is a very deep region where you have nutrient upwelling. So you get to see a number of really interesting, unique species. And in addition, you have nesting colonies for the, um, the blue footed boobies there. Then it's back to Quito, where again, this is a travel day. So they have a little bit of downtime. And then. 00:24:20,349 S14: We get to go to another ecological reserve just outside of Quito. This is a 1.8 million acre reserve, and it is a very important spot for the endangered Indian condor. Then we are headed home. So this is what we would be showing the parents that the students know what to expect. 00:24:49,910 S14: And here is our price. So this is a little bit different than what we have in the original doc. Because we asked if we had more students, could we increase it. And that would decrease the actual private fee that they had us down for before. So this is our cost based on 36 participants. 00:25:13,150 S14: Um, this is your payment plan that we would be presenting to them. So it would be enrollment $99 monthly fee of 538. 00:25:25,140 S14: And this is our eligibility. So we would be offering this to our A.P. science students to our dual enrollment students. So that's environmental science. And we have now a dual enrollment anatomy. And to our fab tech students. 00:25:45,660 S14: This is a slide talking about the safety aspect of this. 00:25:54,380 S14: Which leads us to our protection plan. Again this would be recommended for all students. 00:26:03,940 S14: And then this is just a slide about fundraising. 00:26:09,940 S14: This last slide this is the QR code that you have on the itinerary that I gave you. This is just a Google form that the kids can go to and fill out for interest. And thank you so much for having me here, and. 00:26:24,880 S6: Thank. 00:26:25,240 S14: You for your time with us. Thank you. 00:26:27,440 S6: All right. Do people have questions? 00:26:30,440 S7: Um. 00:26:32,559 S18: Is there any way to have some scholarship funds for students who can't afford that price tag? Because that's a lot. 00:26:40,440 S14: It is a lot of money. And we have talked even about potentially fundraising as a science department to help cover some of those costs. 00:26:51,960 S18: I agree it's a once in a lifetime trip, but I would hate to have a student who qualifies on all other accounts missing this account. 00:27:00,680 S4: We generally make sure that that happens. I mean, we we work closely enough with kids, and the staff works with the kids to know where the need is. So we do set aside monies, um, for things like that. We do it for every field trip that we offer, with some that has some cost to it. 00:27:22,829 S6: And can just. I know you mentioned the risk, the travel insurance. So that is something that's offered to families. It's offered through World Strides. Correct. So it's not it's not the district is not. 00:27:38,910 S14: Oh no. This is something. 00:27:40,950 S6: That. 00:27:41,829 S14: They have to opt in on that. So that's that would be an extra fee for them. But guarantees that if anything were to happen in like last minute, the kid can't go for whatever reason that they get fully refunded. That is through world strides. Yeah. 00:27:59,549 S14: They have very good. Um, I mean, this is a this is who the Spain trip used. And so this is a very respectable, reliable company. They take care of everything. They have their normal coverage of travel insurance. This would be on top of that. 00:28:19,579 S19: Have you done Galapagos before? 00:28:21,299 S14: We have not. So this is this would be brand new for Hamilton. Um, our students, they have such great experiences when they go with the language departments on these wonderful trips. And, um, you know, I just had a brainstorm one day of why, why don't we do something for science? Like, this would be a great opportunity to get the kids out in the field and doing some real good, hands on science stuff. 00:28:53,900 S6: Other people. 00:28:57,740 S14: Thank you, thank you. 00:29:00,940 S6: Um, okay. Uh, Julia, do you have a motion. 00:29:09,369 S5: Oh, man. 00:29:10,650 S6: Uh, Julia, do you have a motion? 00:29:13,569 S11: I'm not sure what the motion would be. 00:29:15,329 S6: Would be to approve. 00:29:17,930 S11: Okay, I move that we approve the Ecuador field trip as presented. 00:29:23,529 S18: Second. 00:29:24,250 S6: Second by Jen Carr. Um, does anyone have any further discussion questions? 00:29:33,730 S8: No. 00:29:35,289 S6: Okay. Looks like we're ready to vote. Yep. Um, all those in favor? That is unanimous of the unanimous. And the motion passes. 00:29:48,970 S6: Thank you very much. And thank you for your work. And thank you for your time to come. Um. And it's. 00:29:53,130 S5: Exciting. 00:29:54,130 S4: Thank you. 00:29:55,289 S6: Yes. Up until my. 00:29:57,009 S5: Son is in high school. 00:29:58,849 S19: Oh, is it qualified for this yet? 00:30:00,849 S11: My son's in fifth grade, so just kind of keep it. Keep it going. 00:30:04,250 S6: No. And I mean, I'll just say it's a neat. I love that. I like to think about that. Like, it can be science based. Rather than language based. Like that's a. 00:30:14,240 S11: I love. 00:30:14,759 S6: That innovative. 00:30:15,480 S11: Thought maybe English could do. You know the English department could do a field trip? 00:30:20,079 S19: Yeah. Rocco is the cooler of the two. 00:30:22,599 S6: Um, um. All right. 00:30:27,440 S11: Thank you. 00:30:29,799 S6: Um, so next up, uh, we reorganized the committee once a year. I'm going to turn the chair over to Eric. 00:30:40,920 S4: Just how to do it. One. 00:30:41,920 S13: How to do it, I love it. 00:30:43,480 S4: Do it once a year. 00:30:44,440 S13: Yeah. 00:30:45,559 S4: Um. Thank you. Uh, we'll move into the next section of the meeting, which will be school committee reorganization. As we you know, we have several newly elected members this time of the year is when we reconstitute the positions. Um, and in this portion right here, I will begin the process by taking nominations for the chair. And then once the chair is. Nominated and finalized, we'll hand the gavel back. So I am taking nominations for the chair of the this current group of the school committee member for the 20 rest of the 2526 school year. 00:31:21,829 S11: I nominate Dana Lara to be the chair for the rest of the school year. 00:31:30,509 S4: And the others? Dana, do you accept the nomination. 00:31:35,470 S6: But accept the nomination? 00:31:36,869 S13: Okay, we're lucky. 00:31:38,150 S19: To have we yet for running again. 00:31:39,630 S13: Yeah. 00:31:42,869 S4: Okay. Okay. Do I do. 00:31:46,390 S13: That? 00:31:47,829 S4: All right. So do I have a motion? 00:31:50,670 S11: I move that we appoint Dana Lara to the chair position on the school committee. 00:31:56,710 S4: Thank you. Julia. Second by Amy. All in favor? 00:32:03,970 S4: Any opposed? Unanimous. Dana is now the chair of the school committee. Welcome back. 00:32:11,089 S6: Thank you. Happy to do it. 00:32:14,450 S19: Um, big shoes to fill. 00:32:18,849 S6: Uh, next up, do we have nominations for vice chair? 00:32:24,289 S7: I would like to nominate Kristen. 00:32:25,930 S20: Moon as vice chair. 00:32:29,250 S6: Is there a second to that nomination? 00:32:31,089 S13: Second. 00:32:32,049 S6: Okay. Second by Jen and Julia. We'll give it to Jen. Um, is that nomination something you would accept? Kristen. 00:32:39,049 S13: Yes. 00:32:40,130 S6: Okay. Are there other nominations for vice chair? 00:32:45,930 S6: Okay. Seeing none. Uh, can we have a motion? 00:32:49,250 S11: I move that we appoint Kristen noon to the position of vice chair on the school committee. 00:32:55,329 S18: Second. 00:32:56,049 S6: Second by Jen Carr. Any further discussion? All those in favor? That's unanimous. Congratulations, Kristen. 00:33:05,279 S13: Thank you. Yay! 00:33:07,440 S6: Um, so next up is the secretary position. Um, 00:33:16,480 S6: does anyone have any nominations for secretary? 00:33:19,720 S18: I nominate Tom Reed for secretary. 00:33:23,799 S13: Oh. Second the bus early. 00:33:27,119 S12: Right into. 00:33:27,640 S13: It. Oh. 00:33:29,079 S6: Is there? Do we. Do we have a second? 00:33:32,759 S11: I did a second. 00:33:33,640 S6: Okay. Second by Julia. Um, is that so? I should just warn you that oftentimes, oftentimes, new members are asked to be served as secretary. It's a good learning experience. Um, so is that something that you would, uh, nomination that you would accept? 00:33:49,640 S12: Yes. 00:33:50,319 S6: Okay. Um. Thank you. Do we have any other nominations for Secretary? 00:33:56,680 S6: All right. 00:33:57,680 S11: I move that we appoint Tom Reed to the secretary position on the school committee. 00:34:03,069 S18: Second. 00:34:04,750 S6: That is seconded by Jan Carr. All those in favor? That is unanimous. Unanimous. Um. Congratulations, Tom. Um, it's a good opportunity to. 00:34:17,110 S4: Be. 00:34:17,230 S6: On fire. Exactly. Um, it's a good opportunity to learn, you know, the Robert's Rules and that kind of thing. 00:34:23,230 S11: I, I was the former secretary. I can bring you up to speed. 00:34:26,309 S13: Thank you. 00:34:27,150 S6: Yes, exactly. Um, which brings us to the we call its vice secretary is listed here. I think it's technically assistant secretary, but it's always good for us. Secretary for the secretary of the secretary? Exactly. It's always good to have, um, two. Because in case someone's not here. And also, as Julia just said, to help. Um, so do we have nominations for the vice secretary? 00:34:50,869 S11: I love to be the warrant signer. Can I nominate myself? We're not there yet. Oh, I thought that was the same person. Vice secretary and warrant signer. I want to be the warrant signer. 00:35:02,739 S6: Do we have a nomination for Vice Secretary? Anyone? Anyone? 00:35:06,099 S18: I nominate Amy Berger as vice secretary and secretary. 00:35:10,099 S11: Second. 00:35:10,940 S6: Second by Julia. 00:35:12,539 S21: I accept that nomination. 00:35:13,900 S6: Okay. Can we have a motion? 00:35:16,179 S11: I move that we appoint Amy Berger's vice secretary. 00:35:21,420 S18: Second. 00:35:22,019 S6: Second. By Jen. All right. All those in favor? That's unanimous. Thank you. Amy. 00:35:28,500 S19: Second. 00:35:29,099 S6: All right. Does anyone have a nomination for Warrant Signer? If anyone does. 00:35:34,659 S11: Nominate Michael. 00:35:35,900 S12: Do it. 00:35:37,340 S21: Do it. Okay. 00:35:39,019 S6: Um, is there a nomination? 00:35:41,820 S18: Uh, I nominate Julia. 00:35:43,980 S19: Second. 00:35:44,340 S21: Second. 00:35:45,219 S6: Julia, are you interested in that position? 00:35:47,179 S11: Yes. I just like hanging out with Vinnie. 00:35:50,340 S12: There you. 00:35:50,539 S21: Go. Um, okay. 00:35:53,179 S4: I brought some, um. 00:35:55,570 S6: Uh. 00:35:56,929 S11: Motion. I move that we appoint Julia Campbell as Warren Steiner. 00:36:02,250 S6: Second by Emiko Berger. All those in favor? And that is unanimous. Um. Thank you. Julia. Um, so a couple things. So, for our new members, um, the warrant signer is a really important position. Um, in that, uh, each week, uh, the warrant signer needs to come and sign all to allow the district to pay all the bills. And so it's really important. Um, we typically also need to. It's not listed on here, but we typically have authorized. And I'll leave it to the committee, but we have typically made a motion to authorize any member of the school committee to sign the warrants in the event that the warrant signer is unable to, because, as I just mentioned, it's essential that the warrants get signed. So in an emergency, um, we've typically allowed that any member so that Vinnie could chase down any one of us. No. 00:36:53,920 S11: Do I need to make do I need to make a new motion? 00:36:56,159 S6: Well, I mean, that motion is is valid. That you are the warrant signer. But separately, I think we should have a motion that if needed. 00:37:05,119 S11: I move that we appoint any available school committee member as designated warrant signer in the event that the warrant signer cannot sign. 00:37:19,960 S21: Second. 00:37:20,639 S6: Second by Amy Berger. Is there any discussion on that? All right. All those in favor? And that is unanimous. Um, excellent. Thank you all. Okay. Um. 00:37:36,119 S6: I was very focused on that and realize I didn't really take proper notes, but I will. I got it, I got it. Um, okay. Um, so next up is our, um, reconfiguration of our subcommittees. So one thing I sort of thought about, um, and conferred with, uh, Amy, our vice chair at the time about um, was we have on here appointing school committees. You know, um, school committee subcommittees. And we also have a separate item. E is discussing whether or not we want to have a communications point person. Um, so I just want to look to the committee because I think those are sort of linked in terms of determining who might want to serve on which committees. It might be important to know whether we're looking for a point person or working group, or if we're creating another position. It might be helpful to discuss that first before we put people in positions, I don't know. So I guess I'm just looking to take it out of order. 00:38:45,619 S11: When you say point person, what do you mean by that? 00:38:48,019 S6: So. Um, well, before we get to that, I guess I'm just asking whether everyone's comfortable sort of taking that out of order and talking about the subcommittee communications idea before we. Yeah, sure. 00:38:59,489 S21: It's just out of order. 00:39:00,090 S10: I think that makes sense. 00:39:00,929 S21: Okay. 00:39:01,449 S18: Can we even have a communications person based on the campaign finance? 00:39:06,650 S21: So. Yeah. 00:39:08,250 S6: Yes. 00:39:09,170 S19: Um, we have a whole communications subcommittee, right? 00:39:13,050 S6: We could have a subcommittee. We could have a point person. We could have a working group with, which would be two people. Um, I. 00:39:23,250 S6: I know I've done a little bit of research. I know that Amy's done a little bit of research, and I don't know, Kristen may have done some when when the two of them were working on, um, communications around. I'm not sure I don't want to, but, um, I'm just going to be. It was. I'm the one that put this on here originally, and I'm just going to be out there and say, um, I've I sort of noticed. I'm sure there are lots of examples out there in the world, but I. You know, um, Melrose had just a horrific tragedy this just recently. Um, so it's awful that it's under that. However, one of the things is, is that I was really curious about I noticed that many of their communications actually came from the school committee, and I felt like they were able to quickly provide accurate and appropriate information. And I did sort of a little bit of looking at their communications, and it made me sort of realize how challenging that would have been for us to produce. Um, given that we aren't haven't really authorized any one person or any two people or whatever to speak for us in the event we always have to meet together. So anyway, that's just a part of why I felt like, well, that was really good information for me to sort of see a school committee that's doing it differently. 00:40:49,949 S21: Um. 00:40:50,869 S6: So, um, I'm gonna leave it at that and see what people are thinking in terms of whether we need that, what it looks like, whether people are thinking it should be a subcommittee, a point person, two people. What are the people thinking? 00:41:03,949 S7: I feel like I. 00:41:04,750 S21: Don't think my name. 00:41:05,469 S7: Is working the right way. I have to press a button, but I have to, like, keep my finger on it. Um. 00:41:10,909 S21: There you go. That's working. 00:41:12,590 S7: I just have to hover over it. I just, um, I feel like it would be hard to have a subcommittee. 00:41:20,070 S19: Sort of defeating the purpose. 00:41:21,389 S7: The same issue. Right. Like we would have to meet. Um, and it wouldn't be as nimble as a working group or an individual person. An individual person I've had concerns with. Because what if that person isn't available and something happens? Um, so my I would be a fan of a working group for a communications effort. 00:41:44,190 S11: I feel like. Also, if I was asked a question, I would always defer it to Eric, right? Or to you. So we do have that kind of chain of command when something happens, and I'm very comfortable with that. Like if, you know, not making a comment on my own until things simmer down or making a comment just as a private citizen. But, um, I don't know, like if there was something that happened and a reporter called me, I would say, no, I'll talk to Dana or Eric on on my behalf. 00:42:18,699 S6: Yeah, I think I think we, um, well, I. 00:42:24,460 S21: I don't know. 00:42:24,820 S6: Other people have responses to that. 00:42:27,940 S4: I don't know. I think I think Dana and I talked a lot about this, and I look at it from not just the tragedy perspective, but just general communication in the community. That's the one thing that came up over and over and over in the last six months about communication and transparency and all the different things that we should do. This is probably a good opportunity for the committee to have an individual who could work with, um, an outside agent to craft weekly or monthly communications, like, here's the school committee recap that that could go out and not have to bring it back to a meeting wordsmith that would have it approved. It would just be this kind of constant flow of information that comes from the school committee, which we don't have at all now. It could even be, you know, a column in the Superintendents Weekly or something that goes out that people see. So I think look at it from just an opportunity to be, um, to put more information out into the community. 00:43:24,050 S21: And. 00:43:24,369 S6: And and I yeah, I mean, Eric and I have talked about this and I think it's, um, I think Julia's point is really important that very often the message would be particularly in the current working environment that we have right now, this school committee with this administration, I think that the messaging would oftentimes be very, very similar and coordinated. There might be times, however, that there might be a message that needs should come from the school committee. That could be something that's going on on the school committee that it should come from the school committee. Um, or, you know, an action that the school committee took, um, you know, voted to do something, not to do something that it's more appropriate that the school committee comments on. It doesn't mean that it wouldn't necessarily we wouldn't. It's not that we would be leaving Eric out of the loop, but there just might be times when the when the messaging. 00:44:24,110 S21: Um. 00:44:25,869 S6: Could be important that the messaging could come. 00:44:28,429 S7: Um, more outgoing information. Not necessarily like feeling questions like you're right in that if we receive a question and we would do it the same way, it would go to the rest of the committee and Eric and then. 00:44:40,219 S21: Although. 00:44:41,179 S6: To be clear, you are all allowed to answer questions from. 00:44:44,099 S21: Yes. I mean, that is totally. 00:44:46,099 S6: You're allowed to. Um, but yes. Um. 00:44:50,699 S10: So, Dana, just to follow up on that, just to make sure I understand that this either point person or working group would basically be authorized to speak on behalf of the body as a whole, like with these outgoing communications, um, through whatever channel. 00:45:07,380 S6: Yeah. And I and my vision is that it might be useful for us. And my vision is that it would be if we decided to either make, let's just say, a working group or a point person, then it might be on that person or those people to do a little research and come back to us and say, this is how some other places do this. Um, because, yeah, they would have to be authorized to speak on behalf of the committee. Um, we all know, you know, we've all sort of been trained and like the rules that you really can't speak on behalf of the committee unless the committee has spoken. Mhm. Um, so, you know, it does. You know, but those are things that we're going to vote on. So you know, if it's just informational, these are the things that occur. This is what you know, this is um this is what's upcoming. Like these are what's going to be on the agenda. These are the dates, those kinds of things. Um. 00:46:03,969 S21: I don't know. 00:46:05,849 S10: I think it's worth trying because I agree with Eric. I think we heard from a lot of people that they didn't feel that they had the information that they needed to make decisions. So I think this is worth trying, which I think ties into my second question, that if for, say, we try the working group thing and I know we have other things on the agenda to talk about, like retreats and different things like that, and like, say we get to October and like it's not working. Can we make a change or are we sort of locked in for okay. 00:46:35,250 S21: Yep. 00:46:35,650 S6: I mean, it's always. I mean, in other words. And and it's a great question. In other words, if and if even one person on the committee felt like they wanted to revisit it, they would just request that as a topic for future meeting, it would be on an agenda and we would discuss it, and we could certainly revote or, you know, and. 00:46:55,639 S21: Yeah. 00:46:56,159 S18: If we're going to do it as a working group, would it be worthwhile to just make it the chairs of a group made up of the chairs of each committee? Because that way all the information from all the committees is coming into the same working group. 00:47:10,480 S6: Yes, exactly. 00:47:11,400 S21: Except that would be three people. But that would be all right. 00:47:14,119 S6: But that would be three people. 00:47:15,719 S7: Which we don't want. 00:47:16,559 S19: So then it would be a subcommittee. 00:47:17,800 S6: All right. So two is the maximum. 00:47:20,360 S18: For a. 00:47:20,679 S21: Working group. For a working group. 00:47:22,239 S18: So we have people who double committees so we could still cover it with two people. I bet. 00:47:28,039 S6: That's about. Yeah. That's a that's a thought. Um, yeah. Which we haven't figured that out yet, but yes. 00:47:35,550 S7: Like, yeah. That's interesting. 00:47:36,869 S6: Yeah, that is an interesting thought. 00:47:38,630 S19: I think that having done this before, when I first came on the board, um, or the committee did this, the first subcommittee I was actually on, um, we, we pushed out a lot of information back in the day, and it got really draining. Um, and, and that's sort of why I think it fell off. Um, I like the idea of sort of having this for, um, you know, especially for sort of that emergent state, uh, you know, if, God forbid, something happened. But excuse me, um, you know, to to sort of piggyback on what Chris was saying a little I don't think it needs to, um, come in, like, hit the ground running. You know, it's sort of just sort of be there and then sort of see where their need really is. I think it's obviously, you know, great hearing. Um, just just trying to sort of re-emphasize the, the transparency of the, of the board and, and push that information outward. Um, you know, but that does it just because somebody else on the table says it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be heard by the people who are then going to say, I still didn't know about it. So, you know, I don't think this is going to be a, you know, be all, end all type of situation. But but I do I do think it is valuable and it takes some pressure off of you personally, you know, which I really like because like pushing everything to you just is it fair? 00:49:20,260 S21: Um. 00:49:21,260 S6: Well thank you. And also, I mean, I will just say that as much as people know, social media is not my forte. And so if any of. 00:49:33,639 S19: This really I'm great on social. 00:49:35,159 S6: Media, anybody else? Anything. 00:49:38,960 S19: Happens. I am so clear. 00:49:42,679 S11: On social media. Dave. My god. 00:49:45,320 S6: Um, but I don't think. 00:49:48,719 S11: Necessarily need. 00:49:49,480 S6: To. Well, I. 00:49:50,079 S11: Think that we're we're getting the weeds here. So like, I think a working group should be, should create, okay. Where we're saying. 00:49:57,079 S6: Things and I actually heard. 00:49:59,039 S11: How often were we. 00:50:00,000 S6: Heard a couple things. And so let's just see if I heard I, I'm sort of hearing 00:50:07,280 S6: people interested in potentially the idea of a working group. I heard both Kristen and David expressing an interest in sort of maybe testing it out by maybe deciding who's actually going to do this. And maybe the first thing they do is kind of come back and say, this is what I'd like to do. Right. Not necessarily today in this meeting, but like maybe the first thing they do is say like, I've kind of looked around and this is what I'd like to do or we'd like to do if it's um, so I guess I'm wondering that I'm open to other people's ideas, but I would like to sort of think about, first off, do we want to create something, and if so, is it a working group or do we think it's best to to be a point person? I didn't hear a lot of interest in having it be a subcommittee. Was that accurate? 00:50:52,710 S14: Yes. 00:50:53,630 S11: Yes. Subcommittee takes too long. 00:50:55,750 S7: Right. Yeah. 00:50:56,269 S6: Well, right. And I just. 00:50:57,789 S11: So then we have to post. 00:50:58,949 S6: Them, just say. Right. The difference between 2 and 3 is three people you need to have posted meeting 48 hours in advance open to the public. Um, so it makes it difficult to move swiftly. 00:51:11,789 S11: Well, I, I'd be interested in working in a working group with, with another person where we can say, do some research, look around, talk to Eric, see what's needed, um, see where the gaps are. Kind of do like an audit almost first and then do let you know, say the come back to the full committee and say these are the things that we think are needed. 00:51:38,900 S22: That makes the most sense to start there, because there's a lot of vehicles that already exist. Yes, that we can piggyback on to like superintendent update. Every principal has a weekly. There's a lot we can just inject into quickly and make this very, very simplified to get information out. 00:51:53,820 S12: Yep. 00:51:54,699 S7: Am I allowed to say this is something I'm interested in doing? 00:51:58,739 S14: Also, I think. 00:51:59,780 S6: Julie just said it was something she was interested in doing too. So. 00:52:03,019 S12: Interesting, interesting. 00:52:06,820 S6: Um, all right. So I guess the first thing I do, we want to try to craft a motion there around creating a. 00:52:16,860 S7: Working. 00:52:17,139 S6: Group. 00:52:17,340 S14: Working group? 00:52:18,739 S19: What? The new guy. 00:52:20,099 S6: All right. Oh, yeah. 00:52:21,780 S18: You have to have a motion. 00:52:23,699 S12: Um, creative work. 00:52:25,329 S6: To create a working group? Yes. And then I guess what I'm thinking is if then the committee were to do that, then we're moving into the next section where we're going to fill all these buckets. So, um. All right. Let's look at Tom, who's our new secretary. Okay. 00:52:43,929 S7: Oh, I. 00:52:44,530 S11: Didn't make the motion. 00:52:45,730 S6: I don't make the motions anymore. 00:52:47,769 S19: Most difficult part of the job. 00:52:49,730 S23: We were making a motion on the floor. 00:52:52,130 S22: So I make a motion to create a working. 00:52:55,329 S12: Group for. 00:52:56,369 S22: Information and communications out. 00:53:00,610 S7: Second. 00:53:01,170 S6: Sounds good. All right. Second by Amy. Anybody have any further questions? Discussion. No. 00:53:08,489 S14: All right. 00:53:09,489 S6: Looks like we're ready to vote. All those in favor? That is unanimous. And we have created the working group of communications working group. Okay. So next up we have. We're going to look at all of our school committee subcommittees. And if you're okay with it, I'm going to throw the communications working group into there. Um, I heard back from most of you. I'm looking at you, David Polito. 00:53:37,239 S19: I I'm sorry, I do not read, but I know exactly what I want to do. 00:53:41,039 S6: Okay. So why are you willing to just shout it out about what you what subcommittee you'd like to be on that negotiation. 00:53:49,000 S23: Okay. 00:53:49,840 S6: Um, okay. 00:53:51,039 S7: To leave negotiations. 00:53:52,159 S6: Okay. So I'm going to just, um, so everyone so I'm going to just throw some things out there. I so what I did was I took what people, um, thought they were interested in. Oh. Well, I guess I should say, I heard I don't want to put words in people's mouth, but I heard two people say they were potentially interested in the communication working group. I heard Julia and Amy is accurate. 00:54:15,320 S7: It's accurate. 00:54:16,360 S6: Is anybody else interested in that? 00:54:21,670 S12: Okay. 00:54:22,630 S6: I am here. I am very much not. Okay, I'm going to read you what I have. Nope. I'm not. 00:54:29,309 S7: Either. 00:54:29,750 S6: I'm going to read you what I have, and I'm going to just sort of let you know people, not everybody, but some people let me know things they were really wanting. You know, that that was their top sort of choice. I'll let you know though. So I heard capital Finance people that said they were interested in being on Capital Finance was Jen, Tom and Julia. And Jen expressed that that was her top choice. Is that accurate? Um, I heard on, uh, negotiations, uh, Dana, Kristen, Tom and David. And I know it sounds like that's David's top choice, and I know it's mine, too. Um, I don't know whether you expressed that was your top or not. I think that was the only one. So. Yes. That's so. Yes. Um, and I know Tom had expressed flexibility around different, um, policy. I heard from interested. Amy, Jen, Julia and I also would be willing to serve on policy, and I think Amy had expressed that as a favorite. And then again, communications. I've heard Julia and Amy. Does anyone want to? 00:55:36,130 S11: Well, I would say my my two top choices are capital Finance um, and the Communications working Group. 00:55:43,010 S6: Okay. 00:55:43,369 S11: And then if I need to be on another committee, I write. 00:55:47,409 S6: I had you in policy without a star. Like. 00:55:50,690 S11: Right. Like, I'm interested in policy, but, I mean, if someone else is very, very interested in it. 00:55:55,730 S6: Um, okay. Um, I know that was a lot of kind of information. Um, I will just say, like, I'm looking at my it looks like it could just kind of fall into place if, um, my question, I guess I'm looking at what I'm looking at. I have a question, which is, uh, we usually have two people that serve on two, right? 00:56:19,280 S18: You're Julie on. 00:56:20,440 S14: Me. 00:56:21,079 S6: Right now. Julia is on. Right? Okay, so, Jen. 00:56:26,679 S18: You can pull me out of policy. 00:56:28,360 S6: Well, no, I'm not trying to get you out of policy. I'm just asking you like you've been on to for a long time. 00:56:33,760 S18: I wouldn't mind going for one. 00:56:35,440 S6: Like. Yeah. I mean, I know that's been a while, so, um. Okay. 00:56:41,880 S11: She's the chair of capital. 00:56:43,440 S6: Of Capital Finance. Um, okay. Um, so let's let's start with capital Finance because that seems really easy. We have three people interested in that. So the three people that expressed interest in capital finance were Jen, Tom and Julia. 00:57:02,079 S18: So Capital Finance can get crazy around budget season, but other than that it's pretty laid back. But around budget season, we're meeting quite frequently. 00:57:13,840 S6: In the. 00:57:14,159 S18: Fall. Um, yeah. Yeah. And part way in the spring, too. Um, usually we meet Mondays during the day, but we could reevaluate that if it doesn't work for you, Tom. 00:57:27,630 S6: And you all typically meet on zoom. No, no, we. 00:57:30,469 S11: Mean. 00:57:30,869 S18: We meet in person. 00:57:31,710 S6: Okay. 00:57:33,829 S22: That works. I'm work from home, so it's very flexible for the most part. 00:57:37,110 S11: Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. I work from home too. So. And but Jen teaches, so. Okay. It's kind of based around her schedule. 00:57:44,349 S18: I don't have classes on Monday, which is why we have it on Monday. 00:57:48,349 S6: Um. All right. Do we have a motion on the capital finance subcommittee? 00:57:53,869 S22: Uh, yeah. I make a motion to approve the Capital Finance subcommittee. Members of Jen and Julia and Tom second. 00:58:03,510 S6: Okay, I heard a second by Jen. All right. All those in favor? That is unanimous. And the motion passes. 00:58:12,789 S11: We don't have we don't have our next meeting set yet because we were waiting for third Committee member. 00:58:17,300 S6: Right. Um, Jen, were you willing to continue to schedule that? And then you all can regroup once you're there and. 00:58:24,579 S18: Absolutely. 00:58:25,019 S19: Oh, for sure. 00:58:26,139 S6: Huh? 00:58:26,780 S19: And vote. Revote. The chair. 00:58:28,500 S6: The chair and all that. Yes. Um, okay. So, um, negotiations. Um, so we have, uh, Dana and Kristen who are currently on the committee. Julia, who is on the subcommittee. Julia, who is departing the subcommittee. Um, and, uh, David's interested, and I know, Tom, you had said you were open to that. 00:58:54,260 S22: One's good for my first year. 00:58:55,460 S12: Okay. We just made you secretary. Yeah. Yeah. 00:58:58,820 S19: It's a nice slight lift. 00:59:00,900 S6: And, yeah, negotiations is a lot. It's going to be. Yeah. Um, upcoming will be. Um. All right. Do we have a motion? 00:59:12,019 S22: Yeah. Put a motion for Dana, Kristen and David to be on the negotiation subcommittee. 00:59:18,769 S7: Second. 00:59:19,969 S6: All right. All those in favor? That is unanimous. And the motion passes. All right. Policy. Um, so Amy is expressed interest, and it looks like Julia and I could fight about who wants to have the second spot or the or. No, Jen, if we don't have Jen, then Julia would be. You'd be on two. 00:59:43,929 S4: Two and three because. 00:59:45,929 S11: I'd be hungry if I'm on. Oh, okay. 00:59:48,889 S6: All right. So that's too many. Okay. So. 00:59:52,650 S10: Well, I'm only on. Well, if I stay on policy, I'm on to. But if somebody else really. I mean, I'm happy to do two. 00:59:59,050 S6: Okay. 00:59:59,449 S12: Well, so I really do. 01:00:02,690 S6: All right. Well, I'm just saying. So I just wanted to acknowledge that Jen has literally been years on two committees. Yeah. Um, I have been only on negotiations for a long time. I haven't served on two in a long time. 01:00:14,840 S14: You're the chair. 01:00:15,320 S6: I do some other things. Um, yeah, but, um, Julia is looking. We haven't voted it yet, but you're looking to be on the communications, and Amy is looking to be on. You can't be on policy twice. 01:00:26,679 S7: Um. I'll try. 01:00:28,639 S6: Um, so. 01:00:32,480 S6: I mean, I'm I'm willing to do it, but we do need another person, so I'll help. Okay. Not to put you on, too. 01:00:40,320 S22: That's fine. 01:00:41,360 S6: Policy is. 01:00:42,079 S12: Not. 01:00:43,239 S19: That. That's kind of a heavy lift for Tom. Like being on. 01:00:47,400 S7: Policy. 01:00:48,320 S19: And. 01:00:49,000 S18: His first. 01:00:49,800 S19: Capital. Um, yeah. Trust me, it's not that you can't. Yeah. Just looking out for you. Um, like I said, I could. I could do it. 01:00:59,760 S18: I can do it, too, you know? 01:01:01,360 S19: No, no, it's I I'm just I'm not a for whatever reason, I was just never a fan of the policy. I don't like being. 01:01:08,639 S12: On and off. 01:01:10,340 S19: I think it's, like, really valuable. I don't understand it just. 01:01:14,059 S12: I mean, the. 01:01:16,739 S6: Good thing about policy is that it doesn't usually have something that's like, oh my gosh, we have to get this done. 01:01:24,579 S19: Well, that's a problem. I was on policy where we were shifting right over. 01:01:29,059 S6: I'm just saying I'm like. 01:01:30,780 S12: I'm just sick. 01:01:31,860 S23: Of. 01:01:32,300 S12: Trying. 01:01:32,699 S6: Yes. Unlike. Right. Yes, exactly. And, um. All right. So I heard I heard I appreciated Tom's willingness. I do think you have a lot on your plate. Perfect. I heard David. Um. And so are we. Is anybody. Nobody's fighting him for it. Oh. 01:01:51,219 S12: I'm there. 01:01:53,059 S6: All right. So it looks like, uh, I have Amy, Dana and David. What we think. 01:02:01,500 S22: So I motion to put on the policy subcommittee. Amy, Dana and David. 01:02:07,170 S18: Second. 01:02:07,969 S6: Second by Jen Carr. All right. All those in favor? It's unanimous. And the motion passes. 01:02:14,329 S19: That was honestly just to save you from. 01:02:16,050 S22: No, I appreciate it. Yeah. I don't know what I don't know, so I'm. Yeah, I appreciate it. 01:02:19,730 S12: No. 01:02:20,530 S18: Particularly during budget. 01:02:21,690 S19: Season. 01:02:22,730 S18: You're going to have a ton of extra bandwidth. 01:02:25,369 S12: Perfect. 01:02:26,769 S6: Um. All right. And now that leaves us with the Communications working Group, which we discussed. And it looks to I mean, it looks like Julia and Amy, unless people are fighting them for it. Um. 01:02:41,449 S7: Right. 01:02:42,250 S22: I motion for the communications working group to be Julia and Amy. 01:02:46,250 S18: Second. 01:02:46,889 S6: Second by Jen Carr. All those in favor? And that is unanimous. And the motion passes. Um. And, uh, I just make sure I think we have somebody in each group that. So Jen will organize the first meeting of capital finance I negotiations. We already have meetings on the schedule. We will update you, David, and the rest of the committee in executive session tonight. Um, and then um, policy. 01:03:19,519 S7: We don't have a meeting on the calendar. 01:03:20,800 S6: So are you willing to take that on? Because you'll have to vote on who's the chair. But if you're willing to take that on. Yes. Um, and then Julia and Amy, can the two of you just agree to have a conversation and maybe we can talk at the next meeting about where what direction you guys want to go? 01:03:34,840 S12: Okay. 01:03:35,920 S14: Um. 01:03:37,679 S24: Okay. 01:03:41,079 S24: Okay. 01:03:45,280 S6: Normally much better at notes. I don't know, I'm not taking good notes. Okay. Um. 01:03:53,079 S6: Next up, um, we do have some liaisons to discuss. Um, I don't want to take too much time. I know Vinnie's got some important. I want to hear of any presentation, but, um, we have a couple of things that are vacant and that we also might want to do a deeper rearrange. I don't know how the committee feels about maybe just doing the vacant right now, and then that's fine. Rearranging kind of later. 01:04:27,150 S10: Um, it makes sense in the fall. 01:04:29,030 S7: Is that right? 01:04:29,510 S6: You know, the school year is just sort of. So we really just have two vacancies. Cutler and the capital improvement plan. 01:04:36,389 S19: I'll jump on the capital improvement plan. 01:04:38,909 S6: Okay. Anybody else want that one? 01:04:44,789 S24: No. Um. 01:04:47,389 S6: And Cutler, does anybody have any Cutler connections? No. 01:04:53,909 S24: No. 01:04:55,429 S22: I live right down the street. 01:04:57,630 S6: My children went there 20 years ago. 01:04:59,510 S18: Um, did you used to go there? 01:05:01,469 S11: Say what a liaison does. 01:05:03,420 S12: I mean. 01:05:05,179 S6: The it depends on what the particular group is that you're liaison liaising to. But for the elementary schools, I mean mostly it's really just connecting with the friends group. During budget season, we usually try to have at least one, um, sort of opportunity to go into the school. Um, but it's not a heavy lift. Um, so. 01:05:32,539 S24: I mean. 01:05:36,099 S22: I'll take it if. 01:05:36,820 S12: Nobody. 01:05:37,179 S22: Wants. It's fine if it's not a heavy lift. 01:05:38,780 S12: No it's not. 01:05:39,539 S11: No, it's more just like connecting with the. 01:05:41,659 S12: It's certainly not the heavy lift. 01:05:42,780 S6: Between now and the end of the year. We might regroup in the. 01:05:45,739 S4: Yeah, yeah. 01:05:46,780 S12: Oh yeah. 01:05:47,340 S11: The end of the year. I don't know if there's a friends group meeting. 01:05:49,699 S12: There may be there may be. 01:05:50,820 S6: Literally maybe nothing. 01:05:52,219 S12: But right at. 01:05:53,019 S6: The end of the year. Um, so. 01:05:55,340 S12: Oh, beautiful. 01:05:56,139 S6: Yeah. Um, so. 01:05:57,380 S7: I usually just sign up for, like, the friends group email if it's a school that I'm not already having a relationship with, okay, you kind of get this into what's going on. 01:06:05,530 S12: What's going on. Okay. 01:06:06,409 S11: Yeah. And then, um, talking about the, the budget when it comes up. 01:06:10,769 S6: Right. 01:06:11,010 S7: Which is, which is. 01:06:12,090 S6: A long time from now. 01:06:13,329 S11: A long time. 01:06:14,010 S12: Okay. 01:06:14,489 S22: No problem. 01:06:15,010 S12: Then. 01:06:15,329 S6: Okay. Um. All right, so I heard, uh, Tom at the Cutler liaison and David at the capital improvement plan. If you want to make a motion. 01:06:25,090 S22: Tom, can I make a motion for both of these? 01:06:27,610 S12: Beautiful. 01:06:28,690 S22: So I make a motion for David to be the capital improvement plan liaison. And Tom to be the Cutler liaison. 01:06:34,489 S12: Second. 01:06:35,369 S6: Second by Kristin. Um, all those in favor? That is unanimous. And we got it done. 01:06:42,130 S24: All right, there we go. Um. 01:06:46,489 S6: All right. 01:06:47,409 S19: Um, first time in a while. We've done it all in one night. 01:06:50,130 S6: I know I didn't it didn't seem so ambitious when it was, but now it does. Um. All right, we're going to just quickly try to talk about retreat dates. If we can't do it tonight, one of the most important or things I bring up all the time is the one thing you can talk about as much as you want to outside of a meeting that doesn't violate open meeting law is scheduling. So we're going to try to talk about a retreat date. But if we can't figure it out right now, quickly, we can do that over email because that's something we can talk about. We can even argue about it. Um, all right. Um, so ideally, I would love to have a retreat day sometime between August 3rd and August 10th. In my dreams, someone would pick a day and all of us would say, that's perfect. 01:07:42,190 S18: From when? When? 01:07:43,550 S6: August 3rd. August 10th. 01:07:45,230 S18: I mean. 01:07:45,670 S10: Is this an evening event. 01:07:47,150 S14: Or. 01:07:47,829 S11: Oh, I'm okay. 01:07:48,869 S12: It doesn't matter. Um, it usually I'm a way. August 3rd. August. Pretty like like an Ari all day. Like G2. I'm just a second. 01:07:58,460 S4: I know I've done it on Saturdays. 01:08:00,019 S6: I guess we could do it on a Saturday. We could do it in the week. It's like. 01:08:03,780 S12: So sorry. 01:08:04,820 S6: Jen just said. 01:08:05,619 S12: No. 01:08:05,900 S18: It's Julius. 01:08:06,739 S19: Two. Strike two. 01:08:07,860 S12: All right. 01:08:08,139 S7: I know also. 01:08:08,940 S12: Okay. 01:08:09,579 S6: I will send you all an email. 01:08:12,179 S11: The next week. Could work the week after. 01:08:14,340 S10: We did the 10th. 01:08:15,820 S11: Yeah. 01:08:17,300 S12: Well, very lucky it is, but. 01:08:18,579 S6: Not the 10th. 01:08:19,420 S7: Not on. 01:08:19,779 S6: The 10th. You couldn't do the 10th. 01:08:21,220 S11: Oh, maybe. Could you do the time? 01:08:22,739 S18: I could do the 10th. 01:08:24,739 S11: Um. 01:08:25,460 S18: I could actually do the sixth or seventh. Two. 01:08:27,899 S6: Oh, well, why didn't you throw some of these days? 01:08:30,140 S11: No, I can't do that whole week. The whole week of August. 01:08:35,060 S6: Well, but. 01:08:35,659 S11: I could do the 10th. I could do this. 01:08:36,979 S12: Oh, ten. 01:08:37,460 S18: I could do the ten for sure. 01:08:38,979 S11: I can do the 10th. 01:08:40,220 S10: I could do the 10th as well. 01:08:43,420 S12: David. Yeah. 01:08:44,619 S10: I'm gonna hold on my calendar right now, okay? Okay. 01:08:48,899 S19: This is. 01:08:49,579 S22: It. Looks open so. 01:08:50,220 S12: Far. 01:08:51,500 S7: Something's wrong. 01:08:52,300 S12: My God. Yeah. 01:08:53,500 S11: I saw something in the universe. 01:08:55,449 S4: Oh. I'm busy. 01:08:55,970 S12: That's okay. 01:08:58,289 S6: I actually have my annual physical that day, I think. I'll reschedule. 01:09:02,210 S12: Oh. 01:09:03,609 S19: It's tough getting a doctor. 01:09:05,409 S12: Got it in my calendar. 01:09:08,449 S6: Okay, well, so we will. Wow, that. 01:09:12,970 S7: Yeah. I'm suspicious. 01:09:14,050 S12: Yeah. 01:09:14,930 S6: Um, so please block it out. We typically have done. I can't remember what we've done. Eight to 2 or 93. 01:09:20,090 S12: But. 01:09:20,449 S4: To 293. 01:09:21,170 S12: Yeah. Yeah. 01:09:21,529 S4: Like six hours. Good lunch. 01:09:23,569 S6: 8 to 3. 01:09:24,770 S12: And, uh. 01:09:26,770 S6: Awesome. All right. That was amazing. Um. 01:09:31,449 S7: Get me. 01:09:31,729 S12: Out. 01:09:31,930 S4: No. 01:09:32,170 S12: You okay? 01:09:35,210 S6: Uh. To you. Vinnie. 01:10:58,149 S25: I'm sorry. 01:11:00,029 S7: Mikes are. 01:11:01,750 S26: Staying. Uh, thank you guys for joining us tonight and letting me, uh, present. I'm here to show you our FY 26 year end financial forecast as of quarter three ending March 31st, 2026. 01:11:19,590 S26: Uh, before I get into the bulk of the presentation like I normally do, I'd just like to take a second to go over the exhibits. Uh, some of them are a little daunting. Uh, the first exhibit linked to the agenda is this PowerPoint presentation. It's the summary version of our year end financial forecast. Exhibit number two is a. 01:11:39,829 S27: PowerPoint. 01:11:40,430 S26: Presentation. Uh, this presentation is broken down by school or district wide department and is further broken down by the Department of Elementary and secondary education's expense categories. This is the most detailed exhibit of the four. This is really where we break down the complete year end forecast and where all of those funds are coming from. Uh, exhibit number three is the account detail behind exhibit number two. It is the full detail of all roughly 450 of our general ledger, uh, expense accounts. This is an Excel document. It lists out prior year budgets how much we spent in these accounts last year. It also lists out the current budget for this year. Um, any amendments or transfers the school committee has approved? It has all of our year to date expenditures. It also has a column for our encumbrances. Those are monies that, uh, department heads have put in, uh, purchase orders that they've entered that we know we're going to expend at the end of the year. And then it has our current balance, which is where we stand today. And then the last column is our projection. That's where I work and try to figure out where we're going to end the year. So if you're reviewing that, really go to the column all the way to the right to see what we are projecting for our year end balance. And then number four is kind of the summary of all of our major changes from budget to actual that are either bigger or less than $5,000. If I had to point out to you guys which one you should spend your time on, if your time is limited, I would really go to exhibit number four. This is really where you're going to learn the most on what our actual variances are compared to our budget to actual. And then if you have more time and you want to get more in depth, I would definitely go to exhibit number two. That really captures everything that we've done all year. And what changes in the budget. And if you really want to geek it out, you can go to exhibit number three and start looking at all of the Excel's and start and try to Um, extrapolate some of the data. 01:13:50,470 S26: Uh, so to go over our agenda tonight, we're we're going to review our FY 26 year end forecast from three different perspectives. We're first going to do it from the school or department perspective. Then we're going to move into the DC categories. Then I'm going to try to give you kind of my own perspective on where these funds come from. And then the last two items we're going to take a vote on the prepayment of FY 27 special education out of district tuitions, and then take a vote on budget transfers. 01:14:25,430 S26: Uh, so presented here is our financial forecast for year end. At this time, I'm predicting that we're going to end the year around $440,000. Just to give you perspective. This is about 1% of our budget. So we really are coming in just about 99% accurate. There are a lot of changes. But in terms of a whole dollar amount, I'm predicting we're going to have somewhere around 1% left over at the end of the year. Um, things could change from now till then, though. Just as an example, in our year end forecast, we have encumbered funds to do a lot of window work around the district, mainly at Buca and the Central office. This was going to be done in June. However, some things have arose at Winthrop School that we might have to go and remediate. If that occurs and we can get that done this year, we would probably put the windows aside and move those funds over to the Winthrop School to solve the issue that arose over there, as long as we can do it by June. Another thing that could change my financial forecast, where we're estimating $400,000, is is built in the fact that all of our department heads and all of our five schools are going to spend their supplies and materials and contracted services funds. These funds are, though not as large as payroll. It is a good chunk of our budget, and it is where the principals and department heads have a little more discretion on what they can buy and what they can do with their contracted services funds before year end. I have incorporated that. They spend all of those funds. Historically, they do not. There usually is a residual balance at the end of the year. If that happens again this year, that would increase my number. You see here. There is a deadline for them to encumber these fund and end to purchase orders. It's the end of this month. As you can see, there's still one more month after that left in the year, the entire month of June. So when May 30th comes, I will run another analysis. If there are a large increase of unexpected funds that they turned. 01:16:29,210 S12: Over. 01:16:29,930 S26: We might look at doing both things replace the windows and remediate at Winthrop. So it really depends on what happens over the next three weeks and how much money the schools and the departments have left over at the end of the year. The last thing that could change is our prepaid tuitions. So we are predicting that at the end of this year we are going to prepay funds. Those could change depending on our enrollment, depending on where students are out of place and what those costs are. So those numbers could change. Right now I do have an estimate in there. But right now, if you look at it, there really are three major categories that have large balances. There are benefits and fixed charges are capital and fixed assets. And our special education district wide department. I'm going to briefly talk about those three and what is, um, causing those deficits or surpluses. It's not working. 01:17:28,399 S26: So just to talk about the first one, benefits and fixed charges, what's included in that number. So it covers all of our payroll taxes. That's our Social Security and our Medicare. It also covers our property and casualty and liability insurance. It covers all of our unemployment benefits. It covers that $1 million payment we make to Essex County for our pension system, for our some of our employees, and it covers the health insurance for all of our active employees, as well of all of our retirees, whether they're on basic plans, whether they're on Medicare. All of these expenses fall into our benefits and fixed charges categories. So at year end, I'm predicting that we're going to have $375,000 left over in this category. After all of our transfers that we've conducted through quarter one and quarter two, it's really broken down into four major areas. It's our health insurance, which is the biggest one. As a lot of you know, our health insurance is our second biggest line item in our budget. Um, and there's a lot of things that go into this number. We have to predict what the premium rate increase is going to be that Harvard Pilgrim applies to us. We have to predict what our change in enrollment or participation is going to be. And then we also include any vacant positions. We include full health insurance for the entire year when we go to set the budget. When we set the budget last year, we had eight vacant positions, so we budgeted health insurance for all eight vacant positions. That budget alone for those eight people was $183,000. So depending on what they enrolled in is why you're seeing a bigger balance here, because a lot of them did not enroll in our health insurance. We also have roughly $50,000 left over in unemployment because the usage of unemployment is a little lower this year, not as many people have been asked to leave or were let go. We also have $22,000 left for our sick day buyback. This balance is here because although we have five retirees this year, two of them have pushed their retirement dates off into September or October of next year. So we budgeted to pay out their sick day buyback, which happens after they retire. But because they're now not retiring until the beginning of FY 27, we can't pay that with FY 26 funds. So we have funds remaining for the six day buyback payout. Last, we are seeing a balance for our crossing guards. We have about $12,000 left over and this is mainly because of vacancies. And this seems to happen every year. And it's because crossing guards is a very unique position. It really takes a certain individual that has a certain lifestyle to do this. It's a two hour a day position and it's not like it's two straight hours. It's one hour in the morning and one hour at the end of the day, so you pretty much can't go anywhere for ten months of the year, and then you can't go anywhere too far during the day because you got to come back here by 2:00 to help kids cross the street. So we're going to try to figure something out. Over the summer, I did do a poll of surrounding towns. It looks like we do pay a little bit less than the surrounding areas for our crossing guards, so we might need a salary adjustment for next year. I'm not sure how much that's going to help with our vacancies, but hopefully there's a promising outcome for that next year. Moving on to our capital and fixed assets. Here is where you would find any of our capital stabilization fund transfers. This is also where we contributed about $1.6 million to the Turf Field project, to help pay down that borrowing. You would also see funds to repair or replace any of our aging equipment. If we needed to replace any of our vehicles, this is where they would be purchased out of, and any major big bulk technology purchases are also budgeted under our capital and fixed assets category. So for this, I'm projecting that we are going to, at the moment, end the year in a deficit of about $300,000. And again, that's after all, transfers. And this is because of the Cutler Water mains. So for those of you who have heard or Tom, if you're not aware, uh, this year was the second year in a row that the water main going into Cutler, uh, broke and started leaking. We had an emergency repair, and it's been decided since it's the second time that the really needs to be completely replaced. So right now we're estimating about $300,000 to replace. Uh, I'm sorry for the whole project is $300,000. So after we replaced the water main, we really are digging up majority of that parking lot. And that parking lot is already in pretty bad shape. So after we dig up the water main, we're going to lay down a new parking lot. It's estimated that the repaving of that parking lot and the replacement of the water main will cost roughly $300,000. This has not been put out to bid yet. It goes live next week, I believe on Monday or Wednesday. Bids are due back the first week in June and the project will probably start the last, uh, the last week in June. So we'll have more accurate numbers in about three weeks from now, but working with our engineers and estimators, they predicted to at least set aside roughly $300,000. 01:22:39,130 S26: Next is our district wide special education department. Within here there are roughly ten FTEs. It is 3.88 special education administrators and 6.0 FTEs of district wide special education teaching staff. The special ed department in total accounts for about 92 FTEs, but the district wide special special education department only covers roughly ten of those FTEs. So if an individual works at one school, we budget them under that one school. So if you go and look at Booker, there's a section for special education. Every school has their own special education section. However, when a teacher or any staff for that matter starts working at more than two schools, so three or more, we place them in the district wide department. So right now we have six instructional staff members who teach in more than three buildings. So they are at the district wide special education. Um dach. So the other 80, roughly 80 FTEs in special education staff are spread out amongst the five schools, ten of them again in here. So it does not cover the entirety of the special education department. Again, it's only the district wide ones. So at the end of this year, I'm predicting we're going to have roughly $352,000 remaining. Uh, the bulk of this comes from tuitions and transportation. So the net result of the out of district prepayments we made in FY 25, we did that to help pay for the replacement of the high school boiler that broke over the winter. Uh, after we paid for that and after we plan on paying again for next year, we're left with roughly Hundred and $60,000 left over, which is adding to the bulk of that $350,000. In addition to that, though, we are at the moment projecting to end in a deficit for this year. If you look at our budget to actual expenditures for a district of roughly $137,000. This does incorporate three new placements that we are currently under mediation with. They might not go out, but they also might before the end of the year. So we are reserving those funds just in case they go out by the end of the year. You've heard us speak about this before. The superintendents on the North Shore all came together to come up with a plan to help reduce our special education out of district transportation, and all the districts came together and decided to have the North Shore Education Consortium be the head of this regionalized transportation. That result of bringing all the communities together saved Hamilton roughly $32,000 in our out of district special education transportation for this year. In addition to that $132,000, we are also realizing that $90,000 credit that Dan's Garage gave to us when we initiated their contract last summer, and we are realizing it through a reduction in our special education transportation that they provide to us. Moving on into the DC category, it's that same number. So now we just break out that $441,000 to the way DC wants us to report it. If you're looking at it again here, there are still three major categories that have larger balances than I would like. They are our pupil services and again our benefits and fixed charges and our capital and fixed assets. So just briefly our capital and fixed assets and our benefits and fixed charges. Those are the only two um D.C. categories that are represented on the district wide department. So when you either way, you look at our budget, whether you look at it by DAC or by school or location, or whether you look at it by DC, these two categories are exactly identical. So we already went over those. I'm not going to bore you and go over it again. So if you just circle back and you look at the only other one, it's our pupil services coming in at roughly $318,000 left over. And when you look at this, it's almost the same thing because transportation falls under pupil services. So the first two items you see here are the first are the same items. We just went over the NEC regionalization and Dougherty's garage credit. In addition to those two items, we are also realizing an additional $48,000 in athletic user fees. So this year, our participation rate increased with our athletes more than we had realized. If someone had to take a guess on why that happened, my guess would be because of our new facilities. So we're seeing an uptick in our athletes. We didn't Anticipate that large of an increase. So we took in a lot more revenue than we had anticipated. That means the district's, uh, user fee match or the reduction we set to user fees is lower because that fund has taken in a lot more money than we anticipated. Approximately 44,000, I'm sorry, $48,000. We also have some vacancies around our lunch and recess monitors. And this is really similar to our crossing guard situation. Again, it's only two hours a day. The difference here at least that two hours is together. It's not split one hour in the morning, one hour at the end of the day, it's two hours anywhere between 10 and 1:00, depending on what building you're in and what time they serve lunch. But again, taking a poll of other districts, it seems like we are a little bit low on our lunch and recess monitors. We're paying them the same. We pay our crossing guards, just like most district districts do. So we'll probably look at that for FY 27 to help the schools fill their vacancies here. We also have about $18,000 in unutilized stipends. These are stipends that we put into the budget that just ended up not being used. A great example is our new teacher mentors. In a historical year, we have anywhere between 15 and 25. In a very bad year of new teacher hires, we have to give them all a mentor. And then there's a mentor stipend associated with that. This year, we did not have that many new teachers. So those stipends went unfilled and unutilized and are there at the end of the year of approximately $18,000 last. We have an increase this year on our additional late bus that services the middle school and high school that's costing roughly $30,000. 01:29:15,260 S26: Okay, so when I went over this, I said to myself, I really wouldn't know what anyone was really saying that to me if they told me so. I just tried to take a different direction, a different approach, and if someone just came up to me in town and said, why, I just saw your presentation yesterday, can you give me a kind of quicker example or a quicker explanation on why you have $400,000 left at the end of the year? Um, what I would explain to them, I wouldn't use the numbers you see here. I would really just tell them what happened. I included the numbers here for you guys so you guys can match those up as well. Um, but to start, really what you have to do is rewind back to FY 25. At the end of FY 25, we prepaid $1.4 million in out of district tuitions for FY 26. If you just look at that alone, that means in FY 26 we freed up $1.4 million. So if everything else have happened as it should have, we would have ended this year with the 1.4 million because we prepaid However, a lot of things happened and good thing we did prepay because we had two major emergencies this year that those funds were used for. So when I look at out of district tuitions and prepayments, to be honest, I hate prepaid out of district tuitions. It causes a lot of accounting headaches and a lot of explanation to the auditors and on our end of year report. And I really don't like to do it. But to me, there's two reasons you do it. The first thing is to cover a future deficit that has occurred. So if for whatever reason you passed, in our instance, we passed our 26 budget, we for out of district tuitions. After the budget was passed, we found out there might be three additional out of district students. That means that there's going to be a budget deficit the following year, because we didn't budget for those out of district students. So if a good thing to do at that point, if you can, would be to prepay those out of district tuitions. So the following year you don't have to make budget reductions based on that increase in out of district tuition. So to me, the very first thing you would use your prepayments for is to cover your future deficit. The second thing is, is any major emergency, whether capital related, that might have happened. Well, we had a $1 million boiler failure. It was actually three boilers failed at the exact same time. We lost the complete heat up at the high school. We had to come in and bring in emergency heating system to keep the building heated. To replace that system, it cost just over $1 million. So from those two items alone, we almost use our entirety of that pre-payment. But then we had another emergency. As I just stated, the water main broke. So of that $1.4 million, we used roughly 270,000 to fund the Cutler water main. It costs roughly 300,000. So again, right there, we would have ended the year in a deficit of roughly Hours and hours. However, everything else that happened this year obviously happened. We have our health insurance. This changes in health insurance all the time, just like we realized we had lower participation rate than we did. The district tries to be conservative when it sets its budget and tries to have a little bit of reserve funds on hand in case anything happens. Well, with everything that else happened this year, we didn't need those reserve funds. So those are still there to access at the end of the year. This year we had a little bit larger than normal staff turnover. So we're realizing almost $260,000 in savings just from staff turnover. That's that's us hiring younger or less educated staff members in more seasoned, higher educated staff members, either leaving, retiring or exiting for whatever reason. We also have a lot of vacancies this year now. Dollar wise, it's comparative to last year. However, position wise it's not. This is only three positions. One of them makes up nearly half of this entire balance alone. So when we don't have a vacant position, it causes a lot more headaches for everyone else. Somebody has to make up the work, but the district is saving money because we're not paying out that salary. So we realized a lot of savings from those vacant positions. And then we had a lot of change in our transportation this year that gave us almost another $200,000. So these are all surpluses and balances that we had left over at the end of the year. However, we do have some additional expenses this year. If you look at our operations and maintenance budget alone, and you compare the original budget to where I'm estimating they're going to end the year, we are already $280,000 over budget, and we still have three months left of the year after this forecast was made. We also had some things occur with our 27 budget and had to make up some of those things this year related to technology and some other, uh, the broken curtain at the high school. Middle school? Um, some other major things this year. Uh, the federal government and the state government lowered the federal, lowered the grants that they give to us. They dropped at about $43,000. We pay for salaries out of all of our grants. That means the district had to come up with $43,000 to cover that reduction in the grants that was passed on to us. We also had the additional late bust because of greater participation up at the high school. And then we do have six more school choice kids that are deciding to go to a different public school system that do live in Hamilton, Wenham. And then lastly, we have the prepayment that we're going to apply to to FY 27. Even after I read wrote all this, I still said to myself, it's still probably too long. I should still probably summarize it for somebody, but I thought at least showing it maybe this way, um might help. Instead of doing it by the D.C. category and by the dashboard. Um, so I do have a request to transfer funds to cover those deficit. Dessie categories and then the prepaid motion. But I will stop and take any questions. 01:35:17,899 S12: Thank you. 01:35:20,020 S19: Why is the school choice out 29 and on 30. 01:35:24,100 S26: There is. 01:35:24,460 S25: A. 01:35:25,020 S26: Special education increment in there. So it's not exactly $5,000 per person per student there. It's could be anything greater than that depending on the services they receive. Also, if a student goes to the tech Tessa it is not $5,000. I believe that's like $7,650. So it's not 5000 even for everyone. 01:35:51,020 S19: Yeah, but that that's a choice out. 01:35:55,180 S26: That's a choice out. So it's a Hamilton Wenham resident who's deciding to go to another public school or the virtual school. Yeah. That's not kids coming in. It's it's our kids going out. Yeah. 01:36:08,760 S12: Oh. I'm sorry. 01:36:09,479 S10: No, no. It's okay. 01:36:10,560 S19: I just had the three new out of district. Um, what level are they at? 01:36:16,079 S26: Grade level? Yeah. Elementary. 01:36:17,880 S19: Elementary? 01:36:18,600 S12: Yeah. Where? Where? 01:36:22,000 S19: Never mind. I don't want to get too deep. Oh. Thank you. 01:36:26,840 S12: Yeah. 01:36:28,119 S10: Um, my question just. And I know you've reviewed it before, but if you could remind me how we were able to prepay 1.4 million in out of district placements. Like where? That 1.4 million, effectively. 01:36:40,600 S26: Oh, boy. You're going to have to rewind like five years. 01:36:42,960 S12: Ago to be. 01:36:44,079 S10: In the situation. Okay. 01:36:45,560 S26: No it's. 01:36:46,039 S12: Covid. Okay. Okay. All right. 01:36:48,319 S26: I mean, I'll try to make it as short as I can. When Covid hit, the buildings closed and we stopped spending money at the end of that year, we had a large balance left over, and we decided to prepay then because we thought the next year When everyone came back, we were going to have a large uptick in services that we were going to have to provide. But the year they came back, they were half remote and half in person. We had even less expenses than we originally anticipated. So it's kind of been a rolling thing that we keep kind of pre paying that money. That's part of the reason I don't like doing it, because as soon as you stop doing it, all that money is going to fall to you. 01:37:29,989 S12: Excuse me, budget. 01:37:30,989 S26: Fall to end and make it three times as large as it is right now. 01:37:36,710 S12: Yeah. Yep. Okay. Yep. 01:37:38,149 S26: Got it. So you got to kind of keep going with that cycle until something large happens. Um, usually either out of district placements or some sort of capital item. 01:37:49,590 S12: Yeah. Okay. 01:37:51,750 S18: But wasn't 1.04 million of that previous paid tuition? We paid it because we wanted to free up money for the boiler, which didn't come in last fiscal year. It came in this fiscal year. 01:38:04,220 S26: Uh, correct. 01:38:05,060 S28: Yes. Yep. Yep. 01:38:08,100 S25: Yeah. 01:38:14,180 S6: Anybody have anything. 01:38:15,060 S12: Else? 01:38:21,819 S6: Um, so you're looking for a motion? Two separate motions, though, because I correct. I actually do have a question on the next one, but not sure. Yeah. 01:38:31,539 S12: Yep. 01:38:32,100 S26: Uh, this first one would transfer the funds to, uh, bail out the deficits that I'm projecting at year end. 01:38:41,180 S12: Okay. Um. All right. 01:38:45,500 S6: Do we want to torture Tom and make him try to read this? Do this as a motion? 01:38:50,100 S19: Just one. Is it too bad? 01:38:51,380 S6: Yeah. So you just want to start with I move that we. And then read all of that. 01:38:58,220 S22: I move that we transfer 14,000 from other teaching services to guidance. Counseling. Testing. Transfer 300,000 from benefits and fixed charges to capital and fixed asset improvement. Transfer 35,000 from benefits and fixed charges to insulation materials, equipment and technology. Transfer $145,000 from pupil services to operations and maintenance. 01:39:20,329 S6: Second second by Dave Polito. 01:39:24,890 S6: Are there any further questions? 01:39:26,609 S12: No. 01:39:27,210 S6: Is there a discussion? Okay. All those in favor? That is unanimous. Of the six members present and the motion passes. Uh. 01:39:39,810 S7: Next time you should bring a latte. If you're going to call it a coffee house. 01:39:43,729 S12: Bring a latte. 01:39:44,409 S6: It's a good point for everyone. Mine will need to be decaf. Um. 01:39:50,090 S26: Uh, so this next one is seeking approval to use current year funds to prepay our some of our FY 27 out of district Tuitions. 01:39:59,920 S14: Um. 01:40:01,600 S6: So I have a question. I don't. 01:40:03,239 S12: Know, of course. 01:40:04,000 S6: So I don't know. I did ask Eric this. Um, I feel like in the past when we have done this, that there's been a specific amount here. 01:40:16,560 S26: Uh, there has not. This is the exact language we've used before. 01:40:19,720 S6: So I'm. 01:40:20,319 S12: Wrong. Yep. 01:40:21,479 S26: And the reason I can explain why. 01:40:23,680 S12: Well, I think. 01:40:24,159 S6: I understand why, which is just that. Because we don't actually know how much money is actually going. I mean, this is a forecast. It's not the final. Yep. Right. So I assume it's because the amount could actually be more or less depending on. 01:40:38,479 S12: Correct. 01:40:39,000 S26: I literally will not know the exact number until the last Friday in June after the last payroll warrant is posted. 01:40:45,920 S6: So I guess Monday night. 01:40:47,479 S12: Yeah. 01:40:47,920 S6: So but my question is. 01:40:50,840 S26: There is a legal limit though. And that's what you're saying I cannot exceed the legal limit. 01:40:56,119 S12: Right. 01:40:56,510 S6: You're not. 01:40:57,350 S12: You. 01:40:59,029 S6: So tell me more about the legal limit. 01:41:01,029 S26: So you're allowed to prepay the first three months of a student's tuition. So I'm making it up. A student. Even if a student starts in August and it's only the last week I count that month. You technically could go further, but I don't. 01:41:17,189 S6: And I actually think I think I like that. I think you've explained to us what I really am. Not quite. In other words, it's not to. Is it the entirety. 01:41:25,869 S12: Of. 01:41:26,029 S26: The entirety of their tuition the first. 01:41:27,630 S12: Three months? 01:41:28,109 S6: Is it the entirety of the, um, like, balance? In other words, if we were ended at 441, would you be paying 441 if that were allowed? If that as long as that were. 01:41:40,029 S26: No, I would still aim to end at roughly 1%. So that include the 441 already takes out the prepayment. So I would still aim to end in that general area. 01:41:54,430 S6: Okay. Regardless of. 01:41:56,170 S12: Okay. Okay. 01:41:58,569 S28: Yeah. 01:42:01,970 S12: Okay. 01:42:03,649 S6: Other people have questions. 01:42:09,609 S14: All right. 01:42:10,050 S6: Um. 01:42:12,090 S12: We need a motion. Yeah. 01:42:13,529 S22: I motion the Hamilton Regional School Committee authorizes the assistant superintendent of finance and administration to prepay fiscal year 27 out of district tuitions, with fiscal year 26 funds not to exceed the amounts established by the Massachusetts General Law. Chapter 44 E, chapter 7171 D. 01:42:33,649 S11: Second. 01:42:34,369 S6: Second by Juliet Campbell. 01:42:35,810 S19: He's pretty. 01:42:36,289 S12: Good. Yeah. 01:42:39,970 S6: Um. All right. Anybody have anything else? All those in favor? That is unanimous. Of the seven members present and the motion passes. 01:42:49,689 S26: So one thing I just wanted to clarify is you read that the you're allowed to pay the first three months of a student's tuition that goes to a private school if they go to a collaborative. You are allowed to prepay the entire year. 01:43:03,039 S12: Um, but. 01:43:04,920 S26: Either way, it will still be the dollar amount. But just to clarify. 01:43:11,880 S12: I think that's. 01:43:12,560 S6: Right. And the amount and obviously the amount will get reported to us when. 01:43:15,279 S12: You at. 01:43:15,600 S26: The. 01:43:15,680 S12: End of the year. Yep. 01:43:16,840 S6: All right. 01:43:17,079 S12: Thank you. 01:43:17,760 S28: Yeah. Thank you guys. 01:43:18,880 S10: Thank you. 01:43:19,359 S7: Thank you. 01:43:21,159 S26: I think I still got one more right. 01:43:23,119 S12: Yeah. 01:43:23,399 S11: So much work. 01:43:24,479 S7: Then I definitely. 01:43:25,159 S11: Have the prior year invoices. 01:43:26,560 S12: Oh. 01:43:26,760 S11: Prior year? 01:43:27,399 S12: Yeah. Yeah. 01:43:28,199 S26: So it does not bring me joy to ever bring these in front of you guys. It usually means we miss payment on something. Uh, someone ordered something without a purchase order. We do have specific policies that says you're not really supposed to order anything until you have an approved purchase order, but some of these items were still on a purchase order. The problem is, the state has specific rules that you cannot roll over a purchase order farther than December 31st. So if December 31st comes and you still haven't paid it, you have to close the purchase order and then go through this process of bringing it forward. Two of these invoices did happen at the end of FY 25, the last week or two. It was obviously a chaotic time at the end of June. I think these were just small items that were overlooked. The elevator inspections, again, they happened at the end of the year and I think they were just overlooked. The other two items, however they were put in. They were recorded, but the services we received, the budget holder was not satisfied and they would not release payment until the company remedied the situation. Uh, a few months went by, back and forth. They eventually agreed that they could not fix what happened, and we requested a new invoice, reducing it to exclude those services. The company took a little longer than we wanted. That's why they weren't on the prior request that I brought you guys, I think, in December. So these were kind of left over from December. But we're seeking your permission tonight to use our 26 funds to cover these four invoices totaling $2,473.64. 01:45:12,220 S26: Oh, it's not up. Sorry. 01:45:14,979 S6: Oh, do you have one? 01:45:16,539 S26: It's two screens, so I gotta. 01:45:25,140 S14: All right. 01:45:26,220 S6: Tom, do you want to give it a shot? 01:45:30,619 S6: We can help. 01:45:31,699 S22: I motion to pay from our fiscal year 2626 budget. Elevator engineering, $150. Elevator engineering, $260 R.B. Allen and Co, $65. Power products $598.64, 01:45:52,250 S22: for a total of $2,473.64. 01:45:56,810 S10: Second. 01:45:58,010 S6: Second. By Kristen. Anybody have anything else? All right. All those in favor is unanimous, and the motion passes. 01:46:07,050 S28: Thank you guys. 01:46:07,529 S12: Appreciate it. 01:46:08,210 S14: Thank you. 01:46:09,890 S12: Thanks. 01:46:12,170 S6: Okay. Um, I'm going to run through the committee reports, but I don't anticipate that we have a ton at this moment. Um. Capital finance. 01:46:24,329 S18: Um, we met on Monday, and we went through what Vinnie just went through. Great with you guys. 01:46:30,329 S12: Awesome. 01:46:32,970 S6: Um, policy. 01:46:34,289 S7: I need to schedule our next meeting. There's a bunch of policy updates that came through from mask that we probably need to talk about. 01:46:43,010 S12: Great. 01:46:44,210 S6: Um, negotiations. We are continuing to negotiate with the SP union, and we will update the committee in executive session. And we do have a scheduled meeting and I don't have my calendar up. 01:46:58,600 S12: Thursday. 01:46:59,199 S6: The third. Would you say 14th? 14th? Yes, on the 14th. Um, the secretary report just not to terrify you, Tom. Your first of all, not in charge of taking any notes. We have a recording secretary who is doing that. Um, and typically, the secretary report would just let us know which, um, which subcommittees have outstanding minutes. Okay. Um, do you know whether we have any information on us? 01:47:24,000 S11: No, I don't think we do, but I'll let you know. Excellent. Um, and then also just to take me, um, notes at the executive session. 01:47:32,760 S12: Yes. Okay. 01:47:33,479 S11: Yeah. And submit those to Janelle. 01:47:35,680 S6: Yes. But. But this meeting, we have a recording secretary who is watching this. 01:47:40,079 S12: Yep. 01:47:41,239 S6: And she does an excellent job. Um. uh, in our inboxes. Do you have anything? 01:47:46,859 S7: Amy, I don't have anything for that. 01:47:48,859 S14: Okay. 01:47:49,939 S6: Um. All right. Um, I, 01:47:56,819 S6: um, just have a couple of reminders for people. Um, so. Superintendent evaluations. Um, the due date is May 17th. Um, those need to be delivered to Julia. Um, that is for the five of us who are here for that. Um, if you have any process questions, please feel free to reach out to myself or any other member. Um, I'm happy to talk about that. I am, um, I did speak to Kristen because she's really the only new member that's trying to write a evaluation. She and I set up a time to do a little bit of, um, training on just the process. Um, but if anybody else wants to chat about that, we can have you join if that's something you want to do. 01:48:51,329 S12: Um, we'll. 01:48:52,090 S11: Just review the schedule again. So they're delivered to me by May 17th. And when am I getting it? 01:48:56,329 S6: It's on, um, on the June 4th meeting. 01:49:01,329 S11: Okay. So when should I. 01:49:02,289 S12: Have. 01:49:03,689 S6: The Friday before? Um, ideally, um, you would deliver it. Uh, to, to get it on the agenda by May 29th. Um, legally required to be on there by June 2nd. 01:49:17,770 S12: Okay. 01:49:18,250 S6: Um, does that make sense? 01:49:19,210 S12: Yes. 01:49:19,810 S6: Um, uh, we had discussed that at that meeting. We would discuss and provide feedback with an anticipated vote on the 18th. Um, but that, of course, at the will of the committee. Um, I did I already alerted Janelle. I don't know if anybody else has started to do it. I did find something a little wonky in the, um, form. It was much better than in the past, but I did send it to Janelle because I don't know if it's just me. So, um, I'll let you know if she. 01:49:51,960 S12: If she. 01:49:53,439 S6: Figures it out. Um, yes, it's much better. But I did find one thing that I was wrestling with. Um, I did just want to let you know we all got invited to the senior symposium at the high school on May 13th. Um, from 916 to 10:16 a.m.. Um, I just wanted to. I am not able to attend at that time, and I know that's a challenging time. Um, but I will just put a plug in if any school committee members can go. It's a great. Um, it's. 01:50:31,479 S14: Really. 01:50:32,079 S6: Cool to meet and see what our students are achieving. It's a combination of some students do detailed research projects and they present them. And some students do. Internships. And they present them. And you get to just walk around and talk to. Individual students about their work. And I'm sure anyway, if I'm just putting in a plug, if you're able to go, I would highly recommend. Um, and I'm sad that I'm not able to go this year. Um, and I think that's all I have. 01:50:58,869 S12: Unless anyone has some questions for me. 01:51:01,310 S4: Who's had. 01:51:01,710 S12: One. Yeah, of. 01:51:02,350 S4: Course it's going back to my evaluation. I have one document coming out to the five people to give you a better outline of the strategic planning, because that's when the evidence was due. There was not a lot of information in there at the time. So now we've had we've got meeting number seven coming up. So I'll give you a breakdown of what's happened over those seven meetings. 01:51:22,829 S12: Okay. 01:51:23,229 S18: Great. 01:51:23,550 S12: Thank you. Thank you. 01:51:25,310 S6: Um, does anyone have a topic for future meeting? 01:51:28,909 S12: Uh. 01:51:29,949 S7: Communications? 01:51:30,909 S6: Yes. Oh, yes. 01:51:31,710 S7: Thank you. Some sort of. 01:51:34,189 S12: Does it. 01:51:35,670 S6: Feel like. that. You want that? On the next meeting, do you want to let me know? Do you want. 01:51:42,739 S12: To? 01:51:43,220 S7: Do you want to talk about it? And then let Diana know what. 01:51:45,859 S11: Is the next meeting. 01:51:46,739 S12: In? 01:51:47,140 S7: Um. 01:51:48,260 S6: Our next meeting the 21st two weeks. 01:51:52,140 S11: Okay. 01:51:52,899 S7: Uh, do you want to do two. 01:51:54,819 S11: Two weeks? I think two. 01:51:55,939 S7: Meetings. Yeah, we do two meetings for now. 01:51:57,979 S6: So we'll look at. Look at the. 01:51:59,340 S12: Fourth. 01:52:00,060 S7: Thank you. 01:52:01,100 S12: Okay. 01:52:03,140 S6: Um, anybody else have a topic for future meeting? 01:52:07,100 S4: Strategic plan. Draft will probably be in front of the committee June 4th as well. 01:52:12,300 S12: Okay. That's going. 01:52:13,300 S6: To be. 01:52:13,460 S14: A busy. 01:52:13,779 S12: Meeting. 01:52:14,380 S4: Target date. 01:52:15,579 S12: Okay. 01:52:19,220 S12: All right. 01:52:21,859 S6: Anybody have anything. 01:52:22,659 S12: Else? 01:52:24,100 S18: Do we know next steps on changing school start times? 01:52:29,180 S4: Um, that is also coming, but probably not for the last meeting in June. Got to do a survey with the kids before I bring it forward, so. 01:52:39,050 S12: Right. 01:52:40,930 S14: Um. 01:52:42,210 S4: And cast time is the worst time to do a survey with the kids. Yeah. 01:52:47,850 S6: Um. All right. Are we all ready? Because I'm gonna. Okay. I move to adjourn into executive session under general law. Chapter 38, section 21, a number three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation with SP Union. If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body and the chair, so declares and not to return to open session. 01:53:13,529 S7: Second. 01:53:14,090 S6: Second by Amy. So this is a roll call vote. Uh, David. 01:53:19,250 S19: Yes. 01:53:19,810 S12: Jen. 01:53:20,409 S18: Yes. 01:53:20,850 S12: Julia. 01:53:21,649 S11: Yes. 01:53:22,210 S6: Amy. 01:53:22,649 S7: Yes. 01:53:23,609 S12: Tom. Yes. 01:53:25,210 S10: Yes. 01:53:26,130 S6: Yes. And we are adjourned.