School Committee: March 10, 2023

Transcript captured from YouTube auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:04 good morning good morning Dr Bucky yep got the message it’s being live streamed yes Michelle you’ve been doing a lot of work thank you trying your latest document three minutes ago and I spent three focused minutes and uh like there’s a lot of good information there well I remember I’m printing it right now

0:26 just to give you the data points I know a lot of people have been asking for it but um it’s we’re still trying to prove it out to certainly I’m going to pause everyone and just call us to order sorry

0:39 make me a co-host please oh yeah and we got Pat joining us now I’m guessing I’ll be sharing things you see

0:51 so I want to start off and apologize I thought I was live streaming which makes it an automatic upload last week apparently I wasn’t so I started to work on the minutes right after that meeting so that in hopes that we could vote them today um and the one of my kids wound up a couple hours after our meeting getting admitted to children so that kind of threw a wrench in in my life for a little bit but I’m gonna get back to those minutes so that when we meet next week we can vote them and I’ll hopefully have minutes from today as well um I’m going to open it to public comment if anybody else have a comment raise your hand do not see at hand all right so that brings us to the FY 24 budget planning and discussion including District comparison information

1:37 comparison information comparison information um Michelle’s been working hard to get some information out to um everybody in response to some requests that were made so I will kick that off to Alec because you I believe it Alec you were the one that requested some of the specific data if you have further questions on the data that you want to ask Michelle

2:07 so I think the first and most important with respect to our steps to getting to your budget that will be included as part of article 30 is to review kind of the word doc that I had sent out a month or so back maybe three weeks ago um the first category which is just kind of walking through I mean you sent it over last night Michelle um maybe we could walk through that um is that the line item budget yeah you’re referring to yeah uh um I can’t screen share Sarah do you want to make me a co-host sure I was just about to run to the computer or printer and grab my copies of your new screen share let me

2:52 trying to find her name on the list here we go

2:58 you should be a co-host now okay thank you [Music]

3:10 and guess while you’re pulling it up I’m looking at it on a separate screen of mine

3:19 maybe I’m missing something but is the reduced Services budget presented in here

3:28 yes it’s the pink column okay gotcha it’s just yeah so in terms of we did have to for for right now for the time being um we haven’t identified every single person by name it I see in terms of the cuts so therefore we’re just just you know blocking out the line item detail for the what has been referred to as our austerity yeah that so when I get down into page five where it says total I can see the total salaries austerity as you’re defining it versus level service versus initial request okay yeah and our initial request have our level service and then the pink column is our austerity budget with the

4:15 800 000 increase from the town is everybody else getting so much feedback that you can’t hear it I’m not getting any feedback no no

4:28 okay so let’s just walk through so basically yeah yeah so basically our our austerity our eight hundred thousand dollar budget that’s been referred to has an actual decrease of Staffing costs of of roughly thirty seven thousand dollars over our current budget this year um so I just want to mention that but it includes a lot of cuts a lot of positions yeah um a lot of things that are in play right now and we’re trying to deal with in a confidential manner right now before it goes public right and and so I guess um the far right column here is comparing your your full fiscal year 23 that was an approved budget versus your reduced Services austerity budget that 37 000 um however um obviously a very important data point

5:14 um for everybody here to understand is the difference between fiscal year 24 level service right which presumably that includes increases based on all of your contractual obligations of your existed prior year funded approved positions correct so the difference between 38.9 and 37.5 is 1.4 million dollars right yes yeah and exactly so I I mean ideally I just I don’t know about Cam and Pat but I’d like to better understand you know that reconciliation what that means to the school department um what positions those are are those currently filled positions things like that so I don’t know we have a breakdown of that

6:01 information I could share that if that’s helpful yes yes we have a separate sheet that that details all of that um and are we are we um because I know like first year with the schools last year in depth liaison review for me personally I think cam as well um Pat officially too or maybe this is his first year officially but he’s been kind of dialed in for a number of years um I know that that was a moving Target I’m looking at fiscal year 24 budget level service 38.9 million that was a moving Target I feel like right up until you know agreeing upon with with prior Finance director we feel pretty comfortable with the 38.9 right now I do um I have not yet touched base with

6:47 Alicia the brand new Finance director right um haven’t had a moment this week she’s come down looking for me I’ve gone up looking for her we just have not connected um at some point I do want to um touch base with her and make sure she has the Comfort level on the town side as well but certainly I can provide any documentation um that anyone would want on that okay yeah but um just so the rest of the document is right now allocated by line item for all non-salary lines um it does have the initial request the level service and what is referred to as the austerity budget um there are some increases in here because they’re really contractual obligations that were paid

7:32 for with grant funding one-time grant funding so um for example we have an iready software program that had been paid for by grants for the past two years um the FY 24 cost is 110 000 so we had to roll that up into because it’s a contractual obligation we have a three-year contract on it so that further ate into what we had to cut in order Michelle I want to point out because for those who don’t have a child in the school um which I think is all of income right now um you wouldn’t you might not know that’s our new math curriculum we adapted a new math curriculum um I I think I want to go through some of these I ready or some of our acronyms out to the public don’t translate to what they might be so if we can just as we move through kind of point out what some of

8:18 this stuff is just a point of clarification Sarah iready is not the new math curriculum that’s oh I’m sorry it’s the assessment tool that relates to to our math and we do have a contractual obligation in math and with I ready okay yes it’s such a point of clarification I have a senior in the high school so one child excellent excellent so yes so we do have contractual obligations other than um our salary lines which is where most of our discussion has been focused and when we say we had contractual obligations and fixed costs really in the past the town had funded what our payroll contractual obligations were and then in recent years we had discussions over our out of District contractual obligation costs um and the town had always absorbed our

9:05 increases in utility costs so really those were three data points that we were we were terming contractual obligations but we do have I just want to point out that we do have other contractual obligations within our expense lines that we had to cut further into our current operating um and that’s expected there’s other Testaments I’ve reviewed personally and I’m sure Cam and Pat as well that you know contractual obligations is not solely defined by a union contract’s wage it’s it’s also a contract with any you know yes elephant or whatever it may be or service provider to any department so I guess if I’m looking at the way bottom line of your level service budget

9:50 what we’re saying is it’s a 5.0 0.06 percent increase over your fiscal year 23 budget correct so correct we’re talking about contractual obligations only is what’s being represented to us it’s a five percent increase and correct of that amount we could probably I don’t know if it’s summarized here but do the math of how much of that increase is attributable to wages I can just do it quick it’s not in Excel I gotta it’s right under 1.4 million can I just clarify that that point uh because I think it’s not just contractual obligations it’s keeping present staff right it’s current Services of Staffing in addition to contractual obligations so it’s no reduction of service as in no reduction of Staff right correct yeah

10:36 correct yeah correct yeah Michelle um so our out of districts are included in that correct okay um one question I have and I may be jumping ahead to the blue column where I see 10.84 the last number I saw was at 7.9 we had done a version of the override to be 7.9 but our initial ask was that 10.4 it actually was the 12 12 um I believe but it had a it had an error in there a contractual obligation error so when we backed off that era it came out to our initial okay high level Watermark ask was 10.84 okay I just want to make sure for anybody at the public

11:21 we’re not still at 10.84 we are at 7.9 so some of these things in the blue column have been removed um so you could actually add a green column if it would be helpful to kind of pull out those things that get us to the 7.9 Little Words kind of a rainbow by the end of this I like the color coordinated so appreciate it yeah but no that’s so we’re really we’re we’re trying to tweak the 7.9 to to be cognizant of our FTE counts at the same time where we’re we’re really evaluating the program so we know what our level service budget is we know what our initial test was we know what our Bare Bones budget is assuming the town can come up there eight hundred thousand dollars so really it’s it’s just the the

12:08 seven percent dish budget that we’re working on right now um which would essentially mean an override I mean right now at this point our level service budget would also need an override um so so I just um not to do numbers live but I looked at page five and I said 38 865 443 which is your level service salaries and wages assuming you know no cuts of positions like Cam said right last last year’s total salaries and wages thirty seven five four six five two five approximately is actually closer to 1.3 million one three one eight nine one eight and I divided that by the total budget from fiscal year 23 of 43 982273 and I’m coming up with on the dot

12:56 three percent increase related to your union labor contracts and and administrative increases which I think is generally in line with prior years right that seems to be in the 2.5 to 3 percent range across the town yeah it’s typically a little bit higher because of steps but right now we have a lot of our staff at top steps so they’re not receiving steps every year so yes yep but that’s typical and then I guess what we’re saying is that there’s non-salary expenses that are being defined as contractual obligations that represent a two percent increase right 5.06 less than three right well the average comes out to the 5.06 yes um but that does include the utility

13:42 costs which have skyrocketed um it includes our out of District tuition and transportation costs it includes um and other just other contractual obligations such as the two programs the two the two biggies are the i-Ready in the math curriculum yeah those are the two big ones maybe a breakdown of that would be helpful as I think about um the path here I think you guys have done a great job on the the far right of your austerity budget and just being forthright from day one you know what’s been communicated to you from the town I know that is potentially still a moving number unfortunately I I would really like that to be finalized by next Friday so it would be yeah um but I do think as we move along to

14:28 the next steps here which we haven’t been presented with as a fincom but like Michelle said in order for even the middle column to be part of to to you know be part of the budget would have to be an override right correct and understanding you know I think that’s the next step after we approve your budget not not to start after it needs to be going on right now but and I know the town’s working on it and will need to be in communication with you on it but defining what the level service at least right represents um the difference between the level service and the um reduced Services budget and it sounds like three percent salaries and Wages that’s something that you feel comfortable with today Michelle I know you and Steve agreed upon it last minute last year but it wasn’t

15:14 materially moving from where you presented it originally so we can you know for lack we we can kind of understand that that’s probably pretty close to 38.86 right now and then really understanding the detail around that other two percent and then um you know why you know if it’s you know 1.8 percent is utilities um and it’s always been funded from the general fund then that’s pretty much says it I don’t know what the you know I haven’t had enough time with this to move it into Excel to really you know do the percentages as to what represents that two percent yeah I’m just trying to find the key points from my perspective to get us all as a town through the next steps of the process

16:00 I do have a um a document that brings us from the 23 budget you know change by change Dollar by Dollar to the austerity budget I can certainly um expand that to the level service budget as well um 908 000 is is what it is I think it’s just bucketizing that into you know what you define as the categories of that and then um you know again kind of alluding to another portion of our requests this year is you know are there any other funding sources to fund any of that unfortunately no we’ve used all the funding sources that we have available we’ve used circuit breaker we’ve used our special ed tuition um

16:47 and our kindergarten preschool tuition accounts those are the three main revolving accounts that we use to offset the budget routinely we have utilized all those would it be helpful to um to just look at some of that I mean I’m looking at them as you’re scrolling you know some of the more notable line items in that 908 you know I’m looking at the uh you know the district-wide maintenance contract Services you just had on there for 40 something thousand and I mean some of those are 48 000. so some of those are again contractual some are supplies and and you know so I think this to Alex point I think if we can understand the big one the contractual ones what is that total the utility related costs you know sort of what are the immovable objects right and most of those might be immovable objects and then there are some small ones that are supplies and things like that but I I

17:34 think even now if it’s possible just to look at the large items maybe we’ll get a sense of yeah it looks to me like you know one-fourth of it is electricity or you know one maybe maybe one fifth maybe one 3.5 yeah I mean um yeah 100 000 of the 900 right so right so yeah so let me just go back to page five just walk you know I mean obviously two thousand dollars pretty much is most most of our supplies have gone up due to the cost of paper has actually increased by 72 percent this year so we are heavy on paper um we use hundreds of pallets of paper a pallet of paper is 40 cases so we use lots and lots of copy paper we get it off of a state contracted bid price so we get it lower than the average person

18:19 can go out to a Staples or at least Mason um but the current cost of our a case of copy paper is over forty nine dollars right now um two years ago that was twenty two dollars so our copy paper has skyrocketed and a lot of these two thousand dollar increases you’ll see in each of the schools is attributed to copy paper and just the cost of supplies um so I won’t really dwell on the small increases like that um I’ll point out the larger ones mentioned that just the cost of doing business has has substantially increased to us um I think every every business and every homeowner sees that I mean anybody that’s been to the grocery store right of course right exactly um so one of the larger changes is

19:05 Village Fine Arts supplies she’s actually allocating that and has created a couple new or um One new account Village music supplies um so really that’s a transfer of one line to another line of six thousand dollars um the rest are just the cost of the supplies we’re trying to right size the lines um she eliminated a line social studies instructional supplies to try to support some of those increases um she’s also a lot of it’s just clean up negative 3703 is clean up to another line so the small ones and are a lot of cleanup um in terms of Veterans School we also

19:50 have a lot of cleanup he removed 3 700 under textbooks um because we’re trying to get to a level service trying to make it work um Library supplies removed thirteen thousand dollars yeah um is that contract it says contracted services is the title of the line item yes it would be a contracted Services line so basically our lines have to be a supply or a service it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily contracted but it would be a service that we would hire so or it could be a software program is considered a service for us I think the library software program Destiny is encapsulated in that line probably but I think he’s reallocated that to the line um Matt has spent a considerable amount

20:37 of time trying to get his lines in in place where we want and you’ve if you actually look back through the years we’ve done a lot of tweaking with the lines but the bottom line usually doesn’t change a lot um for example he has an instructional software account that’s going up thirteen thousand dollars so where you saw that thirteen thousand dollar decrease he’s really really renaming it so something to be more accurate of what it really represents um and the math textbooks is then repurposed into a social studies textbook line for seven thousand dollars so we’re just repurposing lines trying to call them out for what they are

21:15 um you go down to cut Heist hell high school health instructional supplies

21:22 that or is that I’m trying to I need my lines going across that’s actually consumer science supplies so that is a lot of food costs so where your grocery store costs have increased that’s exactly what it is most of the supplies come from Market Basket or one of our local grocery stores yeah so um I just did a little bit of math over on the side here so it looks to me like the largest drivers are like I said electricity is at 212 that represents about a half percent of the two how is that line item determines the 740 000 just so we understand um the electricity the the electric costs as as you if you if you pay a Marblehead electric bill you probably know

22:08 know know um your rates have gone up roughly 33 percent so we did an analysis um looking at our actual rates and looking at the price price increase and it is estimated to go up typically the town in the past has well they have what they call it energy Reserve so if the budget went up we were we did not have to increase our budget because there was a reserve on the town side but that Reserve is capped and we have found the past few years we have been fully using that cap um so now they have not increased that cap so therefore with the rate increases our budget has to reflect that increase because there’s nowhere else to fund it um so we anticipate fully using our

22:55 energy Reserve that the town holds for us um in addition we think we’re going to need um the additional amount that is um I’m not sure which page it’s on here yeah so that’s another item that I just think um since there’s kind of like multiple ways to look at that uh yes in terms of like you need to understand what you’re getting from a reserve that’s capped and it’s kind of not in your control so I think like the salaries and wages where I say let’s just agree upon those contractual obligations I think that’s an item that we should you know between you and you know Alicia’s here thankfully now um really make sure because again like you know Pat and cam as we if we’re seeing this on the school side I would I would imagine we’ll see it everywhere

23:40 yeah we should be seeing something like this everywhere right right I’m not as involved on the other liaison meetings going on right now but I will be getting minutes from everybody soon enough so it’ll be interesting to see how that compares and and if it’s the case then that’s you know it is what it is and we just you know right there we’ve got a half a percent of the two percent um you know contractual obligations that are non-salaries and wages right there yes and so the electricity number is on near the bottom of page eight from the bottom 212k that’s correct that’s pretty substantial yeah I mean just looking at like 22 verse 23 it’s it’s obviously a jump you know yeah every dollar counts right so

24:26 there is there is um a one-page summary of our utility cost within the budget binder um I can put that actually up is I don’t want to do that while I’m screen sharing because then I’ll be looking for it in my files um but I do have that in the budget book which details our utility costs over the past few years and what I’m anticipating yeah and then this page is helpful I think it shows most of the costs right and most of the large items at least that I’ve seen so far are right right on the screen right now some of which are you know something yeah the other one was um yeah agreed Kim was the 166 and the 110. can I combine those into one category well one is the math curriculum and one is that iready software those are the two biggies that we’re really talking

25:13 about and sorry that’s those two that’s the 166 and the 110 yes okay so that can I really work with respect to contractual obligation um level service so when was when were those contracts signed I guess because it doesn’t look like large budgeted line items for fiscal year 23 for those no I believe they were two years ago um they were initially funded by I believe that Essa Grant the first year um I ready was also the Essa Grant the second year Well I ready was the 110 000 was split for 23 between the Esser grants and a state math Grant um that Nan was coordinating through the states that the grant did not come through our books it’s actually on the

26:02 state side and then the um math curriculum was 100 State grant for the past two years we did not see that costs come through our Ledges whatsoever but we are in the third year of that and we need to continue that program okay so that the Esser and the math curriculum I mean the i-Ready and the math curriculum started with grant funding correct um correct um um okay I’m and this I mean that’s like an example of you know the other requests that we’ll get to is how does the finance committee understand your full picture Budget on on grants and and revolving funds you know that that’s just a prime example right there like we need to understand you know the

26:48 grants that are coming in and what those are being spent on certainly when something’s shifting between grants and operating fund expense wise right absolutely right because I mean with the if that was a grant in um there were no there wasn’t restrictions that it was uh uh to be a one-time um expenditure like so many of the grants that came through were under

27:22 the i-Ready is is a software program for assessment of our students and really that was needed in terms of measuring the learning loss and seeing where our students were through the coven pandemic um so really that’s why it was implemented during that time and it was actually I mean some of the coveted funds that were available to us did not have specific guidelines but we tried to keep them very very clearly aligned with um things that were you know hitting Us in terms of a covet impact and that was clearly one of them um a lot of the grants did require that we need to address learning loss and measurable measurably um determining what where we needed to focus our efforts and that was really the eye

28:08 but if if it was a multi-year um contract it’s an ongoing contract it’s every year now it’s an operational cost it is now but yes it you you initiated the program with Esser funds that were a grant funds right part of it yes okay

28:34 I I and I know you’re concerned because the concern is that we use one-time funding to fund recurring items so I sat in I wasn’t on the finance Liaisons that year I had been taken off that year but I sat in on every meeting when we started that budget process we asked for our math curriculum to be part of the initial request that was when Ben was the chair and and we were told to pull it out to get our number to be what it should be and to use Esser for it our initial request was to have it part of the operating budget we were directed by the chair of fincom to pull it out

29:19 that’s how we ended up here we originally presented it I still have my budget phone to show you in our initial request to the town and then when we start kind of the Fourth Street right away it was used that same year we had some technology asks that in a meeting again Ben and Jason said use arpa for that and so we’re like okay and then we were never paid the art but to the tune of 100 well over a hundred thousand dollars so we’re we’re trying to to note this stuff in our our budget and we’re being told to do something else and we follow it and then when we are two years down the line and it needs to come back in because those those are

30:05 gone I understand your frustration and we share it we tried to put it where it belonged okay I mean fair enough I it’s not really a frustration it’s just a a comment and and for consideration and and um to potentially have to yeah um explain um how the whole thing trans um transaction how we got to a one-time Fund bring coming into our operating absolutely agree um so I I want to take the opportunity I know there’s a lot of dialogue out in the community and my feeling is if it

30:52 doesn’t happen in a public meeting it didn’t happen so I just want to take the opportunity for all of us to be able to speak and and so the the public clearly understands where we’re all coming from and if there’s an individual out there sharing another story that we’re clarifying this once and for all

31:17 my understanding is we have article 30 which is our budget our austerity budget which every town department will have their own ping column if not yes is it the pink column every department will have their own pink column and that’s the number we’ll vote under 30. then there’s 31 which according to the selectman’s meeting from Wednesday night seems to be that that will be to fix a structural deficit a Reliance on free cash my understanding is that the schools from what I hear from the Town Administrator I just want to know fincom’s been very supportive at no point has any member of fincon that’s in this meeting given me in a meeting any idea that they would

32:04 not welcome us to join the town in the yellow column if you will um so there’s this narrative out there that that possibly fincom is would not approve the schools being part of that I have never felt that you you as as vincome reps have been non-supportive of the schools I have always felt we would we would be included in any structural deficit from the town so I think it’s really important that we just clarify that piece because it’s not helpful to him out there yeah I think I said it at the last meeting and I’ll say it again is that I fully expect the schools to be part of

32:50 what I’ll call a phase one at least get back up to level Services budget now that has not been defined the gap between um you know pink and yellow here for you or any other departments in full right now it’s being worked on um so that’s what we’re trying to you know I hate I hate to do it but we have to go in steps we can’t even start talking about the blue until we kind of Define you know the the pink first yellow but yes Sarah you know I’ll say it from my perspective our expectations is the school is part of the structural budget challenge the town faces this year and moving forward is my expectation too um but if if you know difference between yellow and blue that may not be part of that I don’t know that that’s on the

33:38 table as part of that override this year that’s still a discussion totally understand that but I just wanted to you know I don’t know how many calls you guys receive but I receive a lot of did you like I’m hearing the town will not allow you into article 31. that is not I don’t think that yeah I don’t think that’s going on I think maybe the town can can always say you know we don’t know what that’s going to be yet so we but at the same time I and I’ve spoken with a number of people as well both in meetings and on phone calls and I I’m not getting that impression myself either so perfect thank you and and just for Claire it’s article 30 which is the basic Town budget for where you’re included right and then

34:25 and 30 and 31 is the yellow yellow and then possible residual would be 32. that would and that would be the determination of the school committee and the school department yeah um again that’s my that’s my whole thing is I don’t you know we haven’t finalized town-wide not nor we we would have at this time any any year we usually finalized article 30 by the uh warranteering right that’s when we vote on the full um you know we have our budget hearings coming up we’re doing two nights this year because of the condensed schedule rather than three but you know we also individually vote on what rolls up into article 30 of those that’s not final yet and then the next step is to finalize

35:11 you know 30 31 and what’s included in there that’s where I lack Clarity in is it truly like everything to bring contractual obligations up as defined by every Department that’s what we’re trying to kind of look at here okay and there may be a little bit of you know that’s going to be a strategy on on you know the you know Town Administrator Thatcher um Alicia’s here so she’s certainly going to be a part of it and I think the select board is part of that as well as they they would likely need to review and vote whatever that override would be that’s my understanding so I don’t know if it’s full contractual obligations I don’t know if it’s something above that or below that but it would be the select board Thatcher and um

35:59 and the town uh the finest finest director so that’s another thing that’s not the finance committee exactly finding what that number is we need to vote on it though because it’s an article that we need to vote on and we get buys on it and and that’s part of what I’m articulating in this meeting right now is my position as as chair is this um and I’ll let Cam and Pat speak as well I saw Dr Bucky son and then cam San yeah um I just appreciate the work that Alec and I did this week in getting information to the finance committee I think we’ve been as transparent as we can possibly be in getting information to people the challenge that I face right now with the pink column is we continue to operate on the 800 000

36:46 assumption there’s been no clarification if it’s 800 will it be 600 will it be 900 and so you know getting to a final number and I just didn’t know if there was any update uh from the finance committee on the town side of where that number is so we met with Thatcher last Friday and thankfully now he’s got Alicia here to get her up to speed and be part of the conversation but my understanding is he’s meeting with other Town departments as well I don’t know that you if you’ve met I know that you met with him on the capitol because we talked to Wednesday on Tuesday I think you met with him yep um but he’s meeting with all Town departments you know whether it’s under the select board or you know outside with their own boards right

37:33 um to figure out the message as to what those numbers are for everybody um as he’s navigating the full budget as a whole so my expectation is that if you haven’t spoken to him this week about it um you should be having that conversation very quickly and I will say as a charity-ism of this committee at least you guys are presenting the data with the estimate because it’s very helpful to at least be based off of that let’s let’s hope it doesn’t swing much from 800 right either way because it’d just be challenging right um but that needs to be defined as soon as possible we’re running out of time and I I you know Dr Bucky and I spoke on Tuesday and we agree with that both sides so I’m we are we are relaying our

38:20 anxiety related to that needs to be finalized as soon as possible and we need to draw a line in the sand and move this process forward if it’s an estimate that could move by 200 000 town wide on a 100 million dollar budget personally I’m not too concerned about 200 000 town wide right we just need to give every Department guidance on what their number is and what we’re going for for a balanced budget and and kind of prove what that balanced budget is and how it was created um cam I want to let you speak because you’ve had your hand up so yeah thank you um no I just want to Echo what you’re saying Alec just so it’s clear it’s not you know just Alex opinion where the three of us talk and a lot of us are talking and I think it is very

39:05 much our hope that the um article 31 will be a uh town wide override which include the schools and you know I can’t speak for everybody else but I think your presentation on the current Services is um it is very clear very transparent um you know I don’t see anything there that that concerns me and I I don’t think that we know exactly yet where the select board is on each of these questions and you know I think but we’ll be very clear and Alex been very clear with them and they’re just Outreach to the select board so that all of us can come together um you know with a common recommendation I mean I feel I feel strongly just having witnessed what occurred last year that if we can’t come together with us with a common recommendation and an override we’re going to be really challenged to convince the town to

39:51 support an override so um so that’s where we are I think if you know and I would just say having just read Michelle’s work last night and this morning this really is helpful it’s very clear it’s very transparent and I think it’s going to help us as we articulate to others select board members other income members um you know what’s at stake in this um you know I think we’ve we’ve really we’ve got the ammunition we’ve got the information so um you know I understand your concerned Sarah I can’t speak for what everybody else is saying around town but I think at least within our conversations there’s a pretty focused effort here to come together and uh you guys are helping that to be very clear Dr Bucky Michelle in creating the information and sharing it and I think that’s going to

40:37 help us thank you um one sheet I’ll ask either Dr Bucky or Michelle to share that was presented to us yesterday I believe this was something that was asked for last week but as a budget subcommittee we kind of need to see it anyway um was the proposed Staffing reduction to reach the austerity budget we’ve identified those there are not names here but there are positions and some of them are identifiable some of these positions are only one person in our district but I believe people have started to be notified um can you make me a co-host sir Oh I thought I did yeah I think can you jump well while you’re doing that can I just um try to answer Dr Bucky’s question about where do we do we know where

41:24 800 000 plus or minus whatever that’s going to be and and that is it correlates back to Alex’s comment that um that Thatcher is is scheduled to have met with and everybody all the other departments at this um by the end of the day today and so at that point they’ll have to be a roll-up that he’s going to do that that then can be compared to available revenues and as far as we know that’s this is like round one of even the austerity budget so to your point um it could

42:09 we don’t nobody knows right now what that number is going to be for any of the Departments including the schools and so I mean let’s let’s hope that at least rolls up to the available revenues and doesn’t have to there doesn’t have to be another iteration through any of this um so that that’s just a point of clarification I wanted to yeah like it’s not finalized yet I’m hopeful that the estimates that have been presented and all the work that’s been being done on the town side is getting it close to being final and we’re not going to see a large swing but Pat makes a good point we haven’t signed off on anything yet it’s a very challenging year because of the different levels here and um it’s out of our control to an extent but we have been happening

42:55 happening happening we’ve been we’ve been trying to work this too we have the same concerns yeah John actually that is the version before our edits yesterday afternoon okay I’ll stop this screen share and let you know okay it’s not a wide fluctuation no it’s just when we’re talking layoffs I’d rather have the most up-to-date data uh well we’re waiting for her to pull that up I just want to review I I was at the selectmans meeting on Wednesday and I made a public comment that I think is really important for me to reiterate here and when we talk about balanced budgets balanced budget is when your Revenue stream as we all know matches your

43:42 expenses and we also know the Department of Revenue has pretty strict guidance on what is acceptable use of free cash in that it is not a revenue Stream So what I would as we move through the yellow column phase and what will be article 31 I I would just strongly encourage people and I did this at the select boards meeting to please bring forward a number that gets us to balance which means the stopping the Reliance on free cash because that is not a revenue stream we need to make our revenues match our expenses because if we don’t if we still continue to plan on use a free cash July 1 we’ll start ourselves in the same

44:30 situation we’re in I I really think that we need to finally fund what it costs to run the town of Market um so I’m just I I will put that plug in and every time I have a chance that we should we should get too balanced where the revenue matches the expenses so you can see on the screen that we have uh further delineated um and above this box are the specific uh school by School uh information but you can see in the aggregate the number of teachers that would be laid off the number of unfilled vacancies that we had retirements that won’t be filled uh positions that would be reduced for a total of 18. in each of the

45:17 bargaining units you have that breakdown that in total is 37 people in our community that would not have a position with Marblehead Public Schools next year and above that it goes school by school program by program identifying um we should have shared this with the Union uh yesterday and principals are having kind of quiet conversations with staff so that their position isn’t seen on screen on a document like this but the anxiety that this provokes Michelle shared with you in that pink column um the union will have bumping rights so although the position is identified here the individual may not actually be known

46:03 at this time because of professional status teacher in a similar position with a similar license at a school could bump a non-professional status teacher in another school with similar licensure so again I call it the bumper cars but when if let’s say if we get to this level um the ripples through our community will be significant and and for me when I I reviewed this list some of the big ones you know that we will no longer have any freshman Sports freshman Sports will cease to exist um we are gonna be down to science teachers at the high school um

46:51 you know Human Resources Director speech pathologists I mean some of these are some of these positions are retirements or resignations that you know we really should feel if we had the money we’re we’re choosing not to fill those positions because it’s a way to have savings on the other side of um the unemployment costs because as we can see that’s we it’s literally costing us money to lose staff it’s costing us three hundred thousand dollars in our budget to lose staff um so then we have to further reduce our Workforce by another 300 000 just to pay for what we’ve already lost so you know all of these positions are extremely

47:37 impactful in my mind you know heras I can tell you from what I see that’s what allows a teacher to do differentiated learning you know small learning groups if if you have 23 third graders you can do a reading group with level a level B level C because you have a para to run and work with those other students while you’re doing targeted learning for children’s individual levels things like that will become much harder so I I now that this list is out in the public and John I believe we’ll be putting this on our in our packet for Monday’s meeting is yeah so this is this is just really impactful and I’m sure that you know police and

48:24 fire will have an equally impactful list and so on and so forth and so it’s really important I know at the select board meeting um Aaron and Jackie talked about needing essentially this and the town side because voters need to understand that numbers represent services and for us services our service that we provide is education so all these numbers will reduce the educational opportunities of students Allison your hand’s been up

48:58 if you wanted to go ahead and you know Compound on that first you can I had a kind of an offshoot question Pat

49:08 I didn’t expect to have to get back to me so quickly um so if am I correct that the um that these reductions would be folded back into your level Services budget

49:31 yes okay so this this is the impact of the austerity or the reduced Services budget we’re we’re trying to call it reduced Services Budget on the finance committee side and then the level Services contractual requirements so these would be back in for yeah whatever that second color was I printed in black and white so um so the the CH one of the challenges we’re seeing as a district right now there’s such a vacuum in the education World which is why we’ve had open positions that were unable to fill there’s a huge vacuum there’s like much like in the nursing field there’s not enough people to fill these positions we’re not necessarily a district of choice you know

50:17 our pay rate is not the top one in the area so so when by contract we have to uh by April 15th notify people of any what’s called um involuntary involuntary transfers and because this will be a lot of movement those will go out and then by is it June 1st Sean June 1st yes June 1st we have to for lack of a better term pink slip anybody so because we’re passing the pink budget the the reduced Services budget at town meeting will know that Deed on me first we won’t know if even if we’re part of a town override we won’t have that number till June 20th so we are going to have

51:05 to pink slip all these people and our concern is where there’s such a vacuum in the educational World we’ll lose these people because I I get it I couldn’t hold on I would want to start looking right away and then because there is that vacuum we then aren’t sure if we’re going to be able to fill these positions later on so we may For Better or For Worse still not be able to say get science teachers are so even without the vacuum that exists right now if you were looking at eight years ago science teachers in the high school are one of the hardest things to find um and and so we’re we may very well be in a position and actually will be in a

51:52 position that that we don’t know if we’ll be able to fill these positions in order to open schools I mean the schools will open they’ll just open with large air science classes or whatever else is on this list just as Sarah’s point about uh average teacher salary um any one on the finance committee that wants a data point about the North Shore about our comparable districts through the department um you can go on the Desi website and pick any school district and compare it to Marblehead for average teacher salary per pupil expenditure teacher retention rates so if I can get any member of the finance committee data like this uh that

52:38 would be helpful I’m happy to provide it yeah and I’ve pulled the reports too um and this was kind of my topic too of the request so I appreciate you putting this together um I think this looks like the North Shore which I think is helpful um I can go up to the makes me feel you know growing up on the North Shore very close to all these towns so it’s a good comparison I think you could also present it in a way of Jesse defined peer communities which I think what’s on screen is this yeah and I just think it’s good data both on a from a um you know from a middle budget requests level you know your level services and then also good data from A reduced Services budget perspective right like I know it’s

53:24 probably hard to you know calculate all that perfectly but you know I just think that those data points since since clearly Massachusetts values them as metrics for schools since they’re publishing them um it’s important to understand the good thing about the Desi site is it does a five-year analysis so you can go back and get comparable data for Essex County and go down to Marblehead get the district data go into what they Define as our peer communities yeah I think I was on a different Destiny so this will be helpful maybe we could connect on how to get to this screen but yeah and then you can pick any district and compare this data so

54:10 you know since yeah all I’m saying is like this year right you’re in it you’re in your multiple budget scenario right so to to be able to show the metrics on a reduced Services budget versus if you were going to keep it level could be a you know a defining moment for people as they as they view what it means right so John can you go back to your chart which one your chart you know and by the way can you send us all everybody on this meeting if people don’t want it that’s fine but all of us the link to that section because I agree with Alec there’s so much information on Desi that sometimes I wind up in a place that isn’t as effective as that information so if you can send us that that portion so right here looking at what Desi defines as are

54:58 here communities we’re solidly below average which

55:04 I mean I don’t know anybody any other young parents looking to buy a house anywhere but we’re solidly below average is not really something that we’re going to put on the one page right with it um and then on the North Shore that’s really important for the teacher salary piece because as we release these people through through layoffs hoping we pass and get back you know a teacher we’re a comparable districts maybe an hour and a half away We’re not gonna we’re by Desi standards we’re not going to lose a teacher to hang up I mean No One’s Gonna drive to Hingham for three thousand dollars a year but they sure will drive to Beverly or they’ll drive to Salem or so so this is right now we have this but you know

55:50 what I’m hearing also in the community is teachers who are who are safely not on this list who are safely you know 10 tenured or professional status are at the point where they understand the downstream effects well wait I’m not gonna have a two I’m not gonna have tutors in my class I’m not going to have a para myself I’m okay for a science teacher position but my class just went from this to seven to ten percent higher those teachers are now like well you know what by driving an extra 10 minutes I can make you know six percent more and be in a district that’s well funded and have the supports I need you know Marblehead be starts to very quickly become a place that people don’t want to

56:37 work in so I I just these are all things that quite honestly keep me up at night that run through my head you know how can we keep how can we maintain a really great staff um how can we therefore providing a a good education a great education so all of this works into it and I hope all those talking points will really encourage people to support where we need to be with funding things um and and I’m not just talk I’m talking to the general public that you know that we need to do this so Allison your hands still up yeah I thought Bucky needed to Compound on what you were saying before I passed um hard to get a word in edgewise so I

57:23 have a question about I just wanted to touch on something because we’re talking about you know funds coming from different places and that sort of thing and I know I happen to be the one that asks kind of those off shoot questions all the time part of it is because I’m learning so bear with me there please for we have Charter students coming back correct this year and how similar to my question about um when teachers leave getting the the 20 000 kind of benefits back what happens to that the cost of a child going to Charter no longer going to Charter where does that money go or is that accounted for anywhere

58:10 it’s on the Cherry Street yeah it’s not within the school budget it’s within the town budget so the town receives a charter school assessment in a charter school reimbursement um it’s a determination based on the actual number of students in the charter school each year so it is just strictly on what they call the cherry sheet which is the town revenue and assessments from the state and so that doesn’t impact us directly the one thing it does impact us those kids whether they attend Charter or they attend Marblehead schools are still in our per pupil count so when we’re talking per-people expenditures it includes those students either way so there would just be moving from basically the town’s budget to the school’s budget but they’re still included as it was one of our pupils so

58:57 on Destiny’s report reporting for Marblehead for Pew per pupil spending that includes what Charter spends on their their Marblehead students as well so it’s not a clear picture of what the Marblehead public schools are spending right and it’s spent out of um presumably the Chapter 70 funds is that how it works I’m not sure how the town intends to fund that but basically it comes out of general fund yes okay so that’s not something I I just I’m thinking back to suddenly asking us for the twenty thousand dollars for benefits for new positions so that just kind of got my mind thinking I want to make sure that the same thing doesn’t happen with there so there’s really no it doesn’t come from instance they go

59:42 there so we don’t get anything back when they come back so we it just it increases our our pupil count that we need to service within the Marblehead school department but it’s a good point right and that goes back to the town though yes because they pay it out yep initially okay so Michelle what this year we roughly I think had 27 kids come back in so it was 27 more kids we needed to educate what is the rough per pupil reimbursement for Chapter 70 just rock um I don’t know that off the top of my head I know the additional increase is thirty dollars per student for the um I mean would you say it’s like roughly two thousand roughly three thousand I mean really round numbers here

1:00:25 honestly I can’t I can’t do that without doing the math so it’s in the thousands 27 students is in you know over a hundred thousand dollars came back in but and we had to educate those kids but it didn’t come to us so uh Siri agrees apparently sorry um so I guess what you’re asking Allison is is that a negotiable Factor yeah I mean that’s just kind of a another chunk of money again I fully realize and agree I’m I’m looking at this from a data perspective I’m looking at this from a viability perspective I’m looking at this from a it’s children and they deserve the world but at the same time it’s also you know

1:01:10 a business that we need to run and we should be able to have revenue streams coming in routinely to fund these operations we shouldn’t be looking at money have to look at money from arpa or Esser or uh this in this money coming back from Charter but until we get until you know and I’m I’ve talked to Dr Bucky at lengths about really starting you know this summer doing a deep dive school by school and looking at exactly what we need and it’s a ton of work but that is what I think needs absolutely needs to get done to get us back on track so that we can have every detail we need to share with the public to share with the town and to refute all of the stuff that kind of gets spoken about you know are talked about right

1:01:57 wrong or indifferent outside of actual public meetings like you said Sarah because that’s certainly frustrating for all of us to hear and I just this made me think that’s a significant chunk of money I mean it you know it’s not a million dollars but it’s still a good chunk of money and it seems strange to me that that doesn’t come back to us uh yeah I don’t know and and I I don’t know because I again being new but that’s just no that’s I mean it’s something to look into and and I guess more importantly before I talk about the charter and trying to navigate that like I totally appreciate everything you just said because I think not only do the schools have to do everything you just said but every town department needs to do agreed okay we’re in a

1:02:42 new reality in Marblehead we’ve hit our structural cliff and a very in-depth analysis needs to be done on all revenue sources from wherever they come into every department and then how we ex how we budget you know through the general fund how we budget through other funds and things like that and and the more data the better I think we’re taking steps in the right direction as a town well first filling positions that have been vacant like our finance director for a year we have new budgeting tools coming in play we have a new accounting software that is being looked at which I fully expect which I think Michelle will appreciate she says um so I I agree with that with respect to the Charter Schools um I haven’t looked at this in depth so I think maybe we could have it as a follow-up item as we get more clarity on

1:03:30 how it works but I guess as my brain works I can’t recall exactly what your you know students in the Marblehead schools not including uh the Charter School’s number is year over year but I think you guys have gone up a slightly right we have which is how many students off the top of my head I don’t know but our enrollment on Monday was 20 or yeah 26 26. so is so is it like you know 20 students more than last year or or is it like significantly more I guess I guess my point is wouldn’t those charter school kids coming back to be included in that so potentially you then would say

1:04:15 absent those students coming back then our our student population would have actually gone down right and we would have hypothetically been able to save money on in our budget so we can get in we can get into the details of it next time I I was just trying to think of how how the full picture is looked at right that makes sense so what would what did you say the number was John I’m sorry I think it was 26 26 or 2662 I don’t remember I was trying to find that on my screen okay um um sorry one other did you want to elaborate on that okay nope yeah so um one other thing um Michelle I saw that um

1:05:01 um um I guess let’s see what you’re calling it the uh Revenue expense summary and it looks like 19 through 24 which you’ve been working on for the school committee that came through this morning um so that’s kind of my topic three from my perspective um I don’t obviously we don’t have time today to go through it and I want to spend some time with that before next week I also talked with Dr Bucky about meeting with Emma um just to get a better understanding of the process um same as Allison fact finding trying to learn how how you guys have to report to the state how you report through article 30 and everything like that just more data the better um but I do think you know next week is kind of our at least scheduled final liaison meeting so I’d like to You Know

1:05:46 cover that topic next week now that I have a better draft of data to just ask questions about it which looks at both you know funding coming from uh grants fed State and revolving and what that was spent on per deci and then funding coming from article 30 whether that’s through a school appropriated amount or through indirect costs paid for on the school behalf it reports all that on the expense side and it sounds like there’s some better data that was sent over this morning that I just haven’t had a chance to review yeah so I just looked up the number on our enrollment on 620 which would have been the end of the school year last year was 25 10 and as of this morning or on Monday morning our enrollment reports come out every Monday morning it was 26.62 so that was an increase of

1:06:34 152 students from uh June 20th of 22 which was the end of last year and Monday morning yeah so that I mean my first reaction is that seems a lot higher than earlier in these discussions what was what I remember so you know that that’s the facts but yeah all this data is helpful so we gotta look at them all yeah yeah and I think what what I did see a big drop with with fiscal year I think 22 verse 21 so maybe that’s brought it brought us back up yeah we had a lot of kids leave during covet parents who could afford to were paying for private school that that was open every day and now between escalation costs and the economy and other other

1:07:19 factors and we also when we opened Brown we got a lot of kids back um and oddly enough week to week our numbers can change we have kids that move in to District week to week and things like that so

1:07:34 all right so we are pushing on after 10 1008. is there anything that has not been covered that people need to be covered no okay you will get by next week we will have hopefully an answer on the 800 000. preferably sooner if we can um yeah I’ll do my best to communicate with Thatcher um but I encourage as the middle person here who has no control over anything really other than voting things and Advising or the middle you know finance committee okay but um like please don’t hesitate to reach out to the town as well I know that yeah I think Dr Bucky Michelle do that very very regularly but I think a gentle push from fincom like let’s get these

1:08:21 numbers might be helpful trust me Pat’s doing it and I’m doing it um I I did just want to mention that we do have to have our budget hosted for our budget hearing by the end of next Thursday so Thursday evening or Friday morning first thing we have to have our full budget posted for our budget hearing so we’re that’s kind of our deadline so if we don’t have that 800 000 I’m not or you know confirmation of that number either when you all um when you all vote your budget which I think is the week of Sarah said the week of the 20th right yes yeah so our budget hearing is the 21st and we were going to vote past we have a placeholder to vote at the end of the budget hearing if there’s no need for further movement if there’s need for some further work we

1:09:06 have a second meeting posted on the 23rd I just was contacted this morning one of our members hit a death in the family and so won’t be available on the 23rd um right before this meeting I got that information so I’m gonna try to push for that vote on the 21st barring if we hear a lot um in that hearing then we’re obviously respond to it so when you um just process wise because I’m so defined on our process when you vote your budget is it going to be the austerity budget that you officially vote um that’s to the will of the committee I don’t know the my assumption would be the primary motion would be to vote the austerity budget but procedurally speaking um anybody can amend that in and vote the blue budget made their own budget

1:09:53 you know we’ve had some tumultuous years the motion that Michelle will lovingly write up for us I’m sure is I would assume going to be um the austerity budget yeah well I yeah I don’t know how the rules work which like within the school committee sense but you know that’s that’s where I’m at with the finance committee like our next step in terms of official steps where is voting reduced services for the whole town not sure how that all gets allocated but that’s what we’re working on and then the next step for us officially would be to vote for an override which TBD on what that’s included so that I just want to be clear like those I think you’ll be voting before and over right or again you don’t know that you’ll be voted yeah no that’s a good question I said

1:10:41 this this morning ideally it’s at the warrants hearing the vote right okay that’s April 11th it would be a warrant article um

1:10:51 um I don’t want to give people more time because people take more time and I want people to get things done um but I can’t control whether it’s presented to us that date and quite frankly town meeting is not until May 1st so technically like we did last year on like the uh the bike path item you can have a round two warrants tonight if any of them the fincom is not ready to vote on that night we can have a follow-up between warranteing and town meeting not sure if we’ll have to take advantage of of that or not I but I’d be hopeful to have at least a very good presentation whether it’s voted on or not on the 10th at the warrant hearing due to the spirit of transparency we’re meeting as a school committee on Monday who discuss

1:11:37 if we how we want to proceed with next steps because from a political viability standpoint if we are going to move forward with an override um just personally having been a gigantic part of the override PAD as you know for to pass the new school you can’t do that starting mid-april like you kind of need to do it start in January um so we’re already we need to get information sessions out so we’re going to be making our decision on what kind of we as a as a body want to proceed hopefully um sooner rather than later because we also at our budget hearing want to present you know the austerity budget but also what are

1:12:23 your options so we’ll probably be more to our our numbers in the next week I would think correct Dr Bucky Michelle like we’ll know what the three asks are because that’s what we will present at our budget hearing and once we present it to the public there’s not a ton of movement okay so am I wrong no okay go ahead so there’s no uh do you plan to do you the school committee plan to present and approve the three different budgets that are delineated in in this summary sheet as being um the the um

1:13:10 reduced Services level services and um notional ask or whatever what did you call it here

1:13:23 is getting presented at all we’re at a 7.9 we’re at the green that we don’t no no I I get that um so it is it is we’ll take our Direction on Monday from the committee of what we want to do if it’s if it’s you know the red the yellow the green it but that from there we will present our options to the public at our budget hearing that’s our time to communicate to people what you know what these various items look like we don’t we don’t have two hearings so the difference between a public meeting and a hearing being that the community really can ask whatever they want interact we want to make sure that when they’re interacting and asking their questions they have those three options and then they can speak to those

1:14:12 okay because I think in general we haven’t had any reviews um with Town departments on a liaison subcommittee basis like we like we have here relative to any of the other budgets that aren’t either Enterprise funded budgets which don’t affect the tax base or um mandated amounts which are the other two two other liaison subcommittees that I work on I got I got it easy this year so um but the the other departments I expect will be presenting us with two two options with the um

1:15:00 reduce services and uh on uh level services and um so I just wanted that so the the other thing I think the the reduced Services is what we’re voting on at the budget hearings that roll up into article 30. um and then the difference between that and whatever is included 31 wide override needs to be hashed out between first steps would be between the finance director Town Administrator and each department with us very very aware of what’s going on yeah and that becomes article the article 30. that’s my understanding so we’re going to lose Quorum in one minute because I think Allison has to go to a work meeting yeah so I just wanna so we we

1:15:46 will our the whole what we’ve done every year and what we’ll continue to do is we at our budget hearing will present what our proposed you know balance like what you’re going to vote on for 30 but also what are are what we need to run our schools so that’s fine you know we can continue to work through what you guys need for background I was just curious so that’s the only reason why I asked but that’s what we’ll be doing okay last word next time we’ll look at topic 33 I’ll be ready and I’ll probably be reaching out to you Dr Bucky and Emma just to be prepared for that piece of the agenda okay okay thanks thanks everyone have a good day