School Committee: March 16, 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.

0:36 order at 7 00 pm

0:42 and we’re gonna open with the state of the district Dr Bucky yeah I want to start tonight by discussing the budget you have heard me say many times that it is an iterative process but some of the iterations this year are very difficult none of us want to be in the position of not being able to provide our Educators and our students what they deserve and what they need on Monday we made a difficult decision to present two budgets one that would significantly reduce Personnel programs and resources and another that would level fund our current operations I share the collective disappointment

1:28 and frustration we all feel as we find ourselves in the unprecedented position of being four days out from public budget hearing and not having a public budget figure from The Town the committee’s unanimous support as we navigate this is helpful as we speak with one voice about future decisions our community was clear last year that they would not support the schools going out on their own for an override particularly when town is forecasting that they will be going for another ride the fiscal reality of our town is real

2:13 one of the community’s main concerns last year with the override request is that it did not provide for our teachers bringing the same request back knowing that we are going into collective bargaining will no doubt result in the same decision house and Taylor has astutely pointed out that next year with collective bargaining we have the opportunity to bring a request forward that gets our teachers and staff the compensation they deserve and the resources that they have been asking for for years I am committed to continuing the excellent work Beyond this year and looking at our budget

3:01 school by school line by line program by program to see exactly what is needed this work began in Earnest this year and our community has lauded The increased transparency but there is work still to be done the support of the committee and the collaboration of the town are vital in getting us to the collective goal of adequately funding our schools and compensating our Educators for their dedication to the district I just want to end by saying this is all very hard there are no easy decisions I look at our administrators and directors who have struggled to come up with these

3:48 very difficult decisions this requires our continued courageous leadership among all of us and seeing a long game while navigating the challenges in the near term I appreciate your continued support and counsel in the days ahead to close our metco director casual Johnson together we can I invite you questions or feedback

4:22 my understanding what’s the scene in The District

4:27 your statement which I’m very happy to have heard but um I I think I want to listen yeah

4:40 if everybody’s okay with that awesome so we’re just going to go to accommodations first I’m going to jump the gun because I want to commend Yasin our student representative who was announced as the valedictorian where

5:00 um Angie’s here almost every week putting up with all of us so you know that speaks more to speak to him as well um and then downstairs tonight we have Bebop with Aesop which is so exciting because it’s a wonderful production it shows you know what we do with our kids and the fine arts department even at the elementary schedule our level so I’m so grateful for all the staff that worked so hard to make that happen um um I will just put an extra plug in for all the kids in the track program in the swim program that I’m sure you’re going to go through it won’t steal any Thunder um but just to say you know a big huge congratulations to both of those teams in this YouTube as well

5:45 thank you thank you um so I have a couple of updates on March 2nd the uh MHS drama club presented uh Beowulf at the uh veterans Middle School pack and they are moving on to dramafest semi-finals next week the sophomore semi-formal was March 3rd at the current Country Club that was a lot of fun uh last week also students at the high school selected courses for the upcoming school year the weekend of March 11th students in Deca which is a business club we have at the high school competed at the state championships and there were four students moving on to Internationals on March 12th uh MHS courses sang it together in harmony which is a concert with swamp Scott and Salem it was a

6:31 great event had a lot of fun the sophomore and Junior classes are currently busy playing for prom do you try a music Honor Society is holding a coffee house Friday March 24th at 6 30 at the mbms cafeteria MCAS for grade 10 will be March 28th and March 29th and both the sophomore class and the National Honor Society will fundraisers on those days and the National Art Honor Society is holding a community art night on Friday March 31st at the Marblehead High School cafeteria uh for the senior class uh we’re having a bingo night next Friday and they will be selling class March March 22nd through 29th um in terms of sports tryouts for spring

7:18 Sports start next week and uh Sarah mentioned the ski team competed on March 1st they performed very well uh February 18th swimming died competed at their state championships and the girls won team and on March 10th and March 11th six athletes from the MHS indoor track team competed at Nationals in Boston great performances

7:46 um so for the senior class it’s at the house I am not yet sure please

8:00 and it was green like everything was Green

8:18 that brings us to public comment if anybody who is telecoming raise their hand to make sure that you know your name and address for the record Catherine Martin good evening Catherine Martin 29 West Shore Drive I’m making public comment tonight because I’m asking all of you who got rid of your article 32 the other day voted against it to put it back on the table tonight until you have a number for the town um I’m not here pushing a big override I’m here asking you to keep your place holder because we all know that our town cannot be trusted year after year they have screwed over our school district six ways to Sunday and if you think

9:03 that without having that in your back pocket that they are going to level fund you we’ve seen it over and over again they just don’t keep their commitments and Promises to the school department your books have been clean for Years Michelle does a fantastic job and yet the chair of the select board still is going around town slamming the school Department’s finances this is the same person you have to now rely on to level fund you next year and you’ve given up your only card I’m not again saying that we should be going for the uh for the aspirational budget this year because obviously the leadership and committee as a whole doesn’t feel like you can bring it forward and have support which is a problem in itself

9:49 because that speaks to the leadership we’re in the exact same place as we were in 2019 and if you were sitting at that table in 2019 and you’re sitting there tonight and you’re crossing your fingers that tomorrow morning the town gives the school department what they need then maybe tonight you shouldn’t stay for the whole meeting because it’s really really despicable 11 years I’ve been in this district and every year we lose more and more my kids have phenomenal teachers but they do more with less every year I’ve paid for paper I’ve given money to these ptos our enrichment comes from our ptos it does not come from our our

10:35 district yes you had these big influx of cash during the covered years the after money helps stabilize us but I think what it did was put blinders on to how bad our budget situation has been for years my last thing is the Strategic plan planning for success is not a strategic plan and it’s not a document that people in this town are going to get behind to fund our schools if you want to fund our schools do the Strategic plan Nan Murphy When She interviewed in Milton talked about how wonderful their strategic plan was how impressed she was by it maybe have her print out a copy and pass it out because if we had that plan in hand

11:21 this could be a very very difficult different discussion we could be having we could be out asking for money and we would have something to ask for because there would be a timeline there would be goals there would be everything we need there I’m sick of waiting I’ve waited 11 years I’m sick of coming hat in hand to the town every year tomorrow morning they could say they are not going to level fund you or they’re only going to give you your contractual obligations there’s no guarantee that they’re going to fund the second year on your curriculum that you bought over the course of two years there’s no guarantee that they’re going to give you the money for the technology leases that are multiple years so rescind your vote tonight carry your

12:07 warrant if they give you what you need in the morning then vote to get rid of it but have something in your back pocket last year the Thursday before the budget hearing they took a bunch of your Capital asks out of their warrant and and you had to stick them in your override ask and that really hurt you because those were one time asks in a two and a half override but those were things you really needed those were safety things indoors and their excuse was well they’re not bondable items well that was a blatant lie we know that a lot of them were bondable items this town has done this school department no favors protect yourself get that back on the table I don’t care if if you get the money tomorrow if you

12:53 call a meeting Monday and get rid of it great but if you’re relying on them tomorrow I just there are members on that the select board who don’t even know what’s coming up tomorrow so for you to have confidence that they are going to level fund you I I think is naive um so I mean my my feeling is don’t trust them because they haven’t given you a reason to trust them um and you know and thank you to our teachers who continue to do a phenomenal job with less and less every year and you know we could be at the end of the long game if we had done the Strategic plan but we didn’t so here we are just like we were in 2019

13:44. thank you Miss Martin if anybody else. thank you Miss Martin if anybody else has any other comments please please in the chat room sure in the participant window

13:55 I don’t see any other hands um that moves us along to consent action and agenda items

14:04 I’ll ask for an emotion to approve the consent action and agenda items to include the minutes that were closed in our packet schedule bills as well as declaring High School library books so so moved second

14:23 all in favor both well she carries five to zero brings us back to the superintendent report um John would you like me to open it up for discussion to your Steve’s District comment or would you like to start off going to

14:43 you can go back and say okay um does anybody have anything any discussion or comments I’ll just say I thought you did a nice job representing I think you know emotional and difficult conversations you know had earlier this week and it’s a tough spot to be in given the town finances clearly we have you know people in town who are not happy with the you know Decisions by the committee but obviously some of the hardest decisions aren’t popular so I share your son

15:29 spot on spot on um you know leadership isn’t an easy thing um and since it’s most difficult when there are very few choices very good ones um so I just I appreciate the the sentence as well I appreciate your leadership I appreciate you did highlighting all the same things

16:06 a lot of my comments pertain to our budget liaisins meeting that happened earlier today and I think I was following the budget it would be more appropriate for me to share those under the FY 24 budget planning and discussion section so I’ll wait for that um Allison do you have anything you wanted to say no just thank you for for your statement I know um when we met you know earlier today I kind of gave you my thoughts and I like that you did a lot of them so I’m excited for that thank you that brings us to our cyber security update from our technology director Stephen quiet Tech can I just say repeatedly what a value-ad district Stephen biotech school project I would consistently refer to alopec’s uh undertaking in the

16:52 cyber security initiatives I know my previous District was shut down for a period of time because they were hit with a malware issue and just Stephen’s proactive approach to technology in our district

17:08 thank you thank you um kind of going back to last October I had to come inside meeting gave an update and one of the updates I’ve given was that we were moving to a cyber security program that we were going to pay for and that program started in October which kind of done it the last few months at the same time I can apply for a grant with the state to get with the state’s Municipal cyber security awareness training program that they ran last year and for continuing this year just this month we were more Grant so we’re moving from our wet room security assignment awareness ring into the events

17:53 actually just started this week one of our staff is email I’m going to train myself already yes very intuitive that’s a lot of

18:06 great things that will help our staff to try and recognize threats that are coming in before not so far here at school but for their homes as well

18:18 it’s a company that is doing the program for the same soft proof point their cyber security company can do a lot of other things besides this but this is the postings so obviously I think our biggest concern is to make our staff aware of what the threats are the changing all the time we’re always trying to update different things we’ve had updates for our passive Securities or for everybody in the district last month we’ve done additional software upgrades in the last few years we’ve done additional

19:02 firewall cyber security firewall stuff last two years so we’re we’re making progress every year and this is really just the next step to help our staff identify threats up

19:22 I have a question but I think just a statement you know these are the behind the scene things that are so important and I know you know it’s not the recognition that we you know do you normally get but this is what keeps our students and our staff safe you know especially given how much technology District so thank you for just being so proactive

19:49 the grant you secured is the items it’s funding or the programs it’s funding something that are one-time fees or are they reoccurring and does the grant follow that recurring funding so the grant is will this year so it’s going to run this year last year they ran it we didn’t apply for it last year I think the time they have been aware of it at the time I didn’t think that we could apply for it as to see if I can make me some questions about it you know after I secured us the Webroot planning previously you couldn’t find her inside next year next year um

20:39 so we can keep reapplying it’s not we give it to you once you’re done different yes different towns have already applied for last year in the program last year

20:54 thank you great job thank you very much I noticed that none of your emails were on the first round so I had those in today so you should all be speaking don’t change my password

21:12 yesterday so these are modules we need to do yes this was Dan’s fault thank you thank you feel slightly different now

21:26 thank you Stephen that brings us to the high school principal and assistant superintendent Sergeant a busy week on both fronts we held interviews for the high school principal search yesterday um unfortunately one of our candidates was the accident on the way to the interview so we are meeting Monday uh as a committee we have four new applicants we had reopened that search so on Monday to review applicants and decide next steps I’ve seen something that we want to move forward with or we can get removed some of the four in or interviews or there’s a lot of stuff on the table you know that’s still live at search or have you closed today

22:16 and then the assistant superintendent search group met yesterday we had 24 applications um we’re going to bring four forward for uh an initial interview we have two alternates and then we have a second tier of people who received kind of um mixed support in that one and two category one being we absolutely we’ll see them two maybe we want to see them so yes initial interviews for uh people want to bring about the alternates for the secretary in uh we’ll do that and those are scheduled for last Wednesday at 4.

23:05 very exciting very exciting District updates um I’m just gonna tie it into Stevens we had an incident at Village this week so graffiti and tagging and we were able to work with our school resource officer and some of the cameras at Village to bring closure to that can’t really say much more than that but I want to do a community to be aware that that happened first of all and that it is unfortunately are there further steps we can or Todd can take to try to remove more of that off the

23:50 building because my understanding is it’s still visible yes yes it it occurred right before the storm hit us so we got most of it off okay uh we weren’t able to go back in the middle of the storm but we were planning on it today so I’m not sure the status of what happens I just didn’t know if it being worth that was as good no no okay thank you that’s perfect um um that brings us to school committee Communications discussion items review of policies Sarah yes um so I have our lead nurse Megan Calvin in the audience um and um one of our amazing school counselors at the high school Gina Hart is with us on Zoom

24:36 um I believe Gina’s on here okay okay

24:43 um so Gina we’re uh we’re just teeing things up um so this has been a bit of a long process um partly because we didn’t have a policy subcommittee for quite a while um but we have we did meet last week with uh Tom with the full View and shiny policy subcommittee to bring this new kind of sub uh policy to you guys for the second reading so I did include the reference policy jlcd administration of medicines to students in there it does say a bit about the use of naloxone in the storage of naloxone in our schools but Megan had come and

25:30 really felt it was important to to make that a little bit more formalized um so Megan I’ll I’ll kick it to you and you can give whatever information you’d like to yeah sure so I thought we could formalize it a bit at least like basically one sentence it doesn’t really tell you much about what naloxone is what it treats um so I a lot of others um so um so it’s it is the position of the National Association of School nurses and that opioid related emergencies in schools um should be incorporated into emergency preparedness response plans um it’s

26:16 when emergencies happen including drug-related emergency proper management of these incidents is vital for positive outcomes I felt it was really important to put together this policy and a procedure as well so it’s really clear as to what what all your work I think this has been another one of those flavors of love over quite a few years so I’m really glad to be bringing it to the full committee today um Gina I want to give you an opportunity to weigh in too we brought Gina in because she is um one of the counselors in our district who has a license specific to substance use and abuse so uh she’s particularly

27:02 knowledgeable on this subject thank you thank you very much for having me and just to Echo what you said um Megan kelp and our lead nurse did so much work on this so she deserves a lot of credit she did amazing um so Gina Hart I’m a social worker at the high school as Sarah said I specialize in substance use to do a lot of education education and programming work as well as working directly with students that are identified for at risk of substance use or struggling with substance use I’ve had to administer Narcan several times in my career so obviously this is something we’ve been talking about for a long time we’re really happy to get something formalized I’m just here to briefly share a little bit of data and a little bit of information about what we’re seeing um just as somebody that works on the ground level seeing our students struggle with substance use and Marblehead in particular we have students that struggle with opiate use

27:48 and what’s really important is that we don’t ignore it and don’t say well not here or it’s only a small percentage um in what is going on not only in our community but in surrounding communities and the work that we’re doing and working with surrounding communities is we’re seeing no only people struggling with opiate use but also what’s out there is very dangerous right now with so many counterfeit pills things that are very synthetic so many things being laced with fentanyl people that aren’t even known opiate users taking what they think is a benzodiazepine or a stimulant and then they have an adverse reaction go into the emergency room and they get a talk screen and the analog for that substance isn’t even coming up at all and what’s often coming up is just fentanyl or nothing showing that what they thought they were taking was not what they thought they were taking so

28:34 it’s very very dangerous and just to kind of share you know some data part of my job is collecting data the youth risk behavior survey from Fall of 2021 the 2022 data I should have soon and hopefully we’ll be sharing that with you as well but the most recent data point five percent of our students had admitted to using non-prescription opiates 1.1 percent benzodiazepine use like Xanax Ativan or Klonopin one percent cocaine use we included that because those are commonly used substances that are often laced with fentanyl now County data Essex County has the second highest number of overdose death rates in the state behind Middlesex about 2500 in the last decade and Nationwide data from the CDC this year monthly overdose deaths and Adolescence increased 109 from 2019 to 2021

29:20 deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyls increased 182 percent counterfeit pills were present in nearly 25 percent of the deaths and most relevant to this conversation two-thirds of decedents had one or more potential bystanders present but most provided no overdose response likely because they didn’t have it and so Narcan is just a really important thing that if we have in the school we could save a life it can’t hurt anybody and I’m just very much in support of having this in our schools um um this is this is probably a first step within within this policy work particularly for Narcan I know in our current policy the jlcd it does talk about uh further staff District staff being able to be

30:06 trained and so I think that that will take a vote in the school committee and a procedure from the superintendent so um we felt that it was really important to bring this piece forward at this point get it it get it through and and in place and then continue to work to make sure that all of the angles of this are addressed um one question I have if I want confirmation or for you to clarify if I understand incorrectly the guidance or the the laws that have been passed at the state level that essentially Are Good Samaritan laws because the idea was we want anybody to be able to to admit their Narcan that has it with them do not preclude there’s no there’s no caveat in that law that says

30:53 except for in school so while this is our policy God forbid we have a situation if we have anybody a student a teacher that is not a trainer anybody that has Narcan they are able and allowed under the guidelines of the law to administer and should administer Narcan and this policy does not in any way repeat that correct this policy basically allows the nurse working in her profession to get it because in my profession I’m not covered by the Good Samaritan but yes anybody else who has Narcan can and should yeah I just say that because when we talk about having policies that cover our teachers

31:43 literally a student yes could it could and should no one should ever hesitate because we don’t have policies yeah and this kind of formalizes the the storage of it in the in our facilities it formalizes it allows us to procure and have it yeah great thank you as we look at next steps should we be looking at not just having it um in a nurse’s office but that be part of every teacher’s emergency kit living room I think it should be in public areas for sure I don’t know how that will work that’s not for me to decide but I’m just saying yes yes for sure that’s it next step should hope they will be

32:40 thank you for your words so this is the second wave no vote this evening if anybody has any further questions um again has been wonderful and so it’s Gina to work with um so you know we’re happy to to answer any questions that may come up in the next two weeks and we’ll have it back on the agenda in two weeks for a formal very much them that brings us to FY 24 budget planning and discussion um how to pay the Palm liaison’s meeting this morning we are still awaiting the town to close their boats we are awaiting the baited breath um a statement by the select board tomorrow um but what would say this morning you

33:25 know was helpful um I heard loud and clear from the chair of income that you should not make any assumption that the 5.4 or 5.5 whatever the percentage for level funded would automatically be left included in article 31 on the town that um that is a larger number than other departments and that we should expect to have to shave down further if we’re just going in with the town I’m 31. um

34:07 um in addition Michelle shared that she analyzed the electrical rates from what we know will be increased to be and there’s an additional 142 000 increase in in electricity so that will also need to be accounted for in our level Services budget so um John was going to work with principles and directors to come up with that additional 142 plus because out of that 142 we’ll have to cover if it’s if it’s a program then we don’t have to cover um um forgive me what is the word I’m looking for unemployment yes if it’s if it’s further staff we’ll need to increase that number

34:52 to cover the unemployment so essentially we’re going to be able to increase our costs um just for that and then whatever the town gets back to us for who they will not in include I think that 31 will have to also sharpen our pencil perfect um so just to I was a little confused on that so we have the austerity plan that we all know that’s a presumed 800 000 which could go up or down once the books get closed depending on where we are and then article 31 which is level Services we don’t really know what that might be what number that might be but it’s above and beyond what’s already been communicated it’s restoring some Services you know things that we want above and beyond what’s already been communicated as being cut just so

35:40 everyone yeah how much we can do is in question yeah it will not be our version of website um so we’ve we’ve talked about our version of level services so that we’re all clear to be our Union increases or at a district increases our utility increases the map and um I ready to commitments we have that will not be included by the town as level service so we’re going to need to establish I’m not sure that was definitively close yeah he said we don’t we don’t know what’s going to be included

36:25 um he was really anybody can watch it he was really clear that he does not feel that that number was was going to be something that would be in in our 30. in I I clarified with him several times in the meeting so that that was my take um other people may have had a different takeaway but that that pretty clear to me and I saw Michelle shaking her head it was pretty clear to her too it will be pieces of it possibly maybe it was very clear about not giving us any confirmation but yes that’s what I heard too in the summary I always saw the very end of it yeah

37:10 um either way there’s a hope that we’ll have more clarification tomorrow I’m

37:19 I don’t know that he will um so you do have a recommendation on the utility increase given that it’s 142 000 I would recommend us opening all of that I would put forward 22 000 in our above the service budget and then go back to the town for the utility Reserve so this is one thing that I think I’ve asked a few times because you would talk to the town in previous years about increasing the cap on that utility reserve and so I’m just curious that that has actually come up in the comments yes it has it hasn’t been a follow request um I started talking to the town today about the utility Reserve or the energy Reserve there were two different reserves um unfortunately the current Administration doesn’t have a lot of

38:06 familiarity with it so it seems like I have more information than they do so I’m actually meeting with the finance director tomorrow and that would be one of the points of topic of discussion for tomorrow yeah that’s one I definitely think we should give soon the other thing is because this is a warrant article is the special ed Reserve fund and what that is that and again it’s funded through town meeting so what’s the recommendation typically they have kept the special education Reserve fund flat as long as we don’t use it it has about 250 000 in it um and we have not used it since that’s why 21 says and so once we created it and I know I’ve gone back and we’re going in like conversations but when we created it my understanding was that we were going to continue

38:52 continue continue except by that amount and we never really decided on as far as I’m concerned what the cap would the maximum would be on that but I would like that to also be a couple that’s I’ve had that take away from a few people that I’ve talked to um with some of the historical knowledge that have confirmed that um yeah and it was supposed to it wasn’t supposed to grow up like indefinitely yeah forever but um that it was not supposed to stay at 250 meter is that a revolving front of the town it’s our special ed it’s a reserve fund we can’t access it directly it’s actually a vote of the town that would require use does it get defined like a revolving fund where it’s a cabanating

39:37 above and beyond the cap it can be used for other purposes by the town or and maybe there was a question from the the guy on the fincon um like I was named just about uh increasing cash reserves in our revolving funds and how those get used and I just thought maybe you could refresh my memory on that because and maybe everyone because it was I thought it was a great question you know no absolutely it is a great question um so for the past couple of years or since I’ve been here just over three years now um we have been actively trying to increase our Reserve funds and we’re not doing it just to afford funds or or you know be able to create this never-ending

40:23 accounts or reserve for our own use typically in a sound financial practice we keep one year of revenues in the accounts or the revolving accounts that were used for offsetting or operating budget typically our budget processes during the winter we are actually anticipating currently the next year’s revenues against that Year’s budgets um so if the revenues don’t come in we’re an optimal mess so for some Financial practices really we should have one year of revenues into those accounts before we use them to offset the following can you use those cats those monies for something else or are they dedicated to a purpose they’re dedicated to that specific purpose of neglect so if we put in X dollars into a

41:08 special education revolving fund circuit breaker what have you it’s really a stabilization against future expenses that are outside predicted correct so we have three funds that we typically use three revolving funds to offset the operating budget one is the circuit breaker fund which is all special education um reimbursement from the state the second one is our user fee account which is athletic news or fees and the third is the preschool and kindergarten tuition accounts all of those are earmarked for those specific purposes and they are used to offset operating costs such as it’s it’s the user fee and the tuition fee are used primarily for Staffing costs the circuit breaker is used for tuitions and typically the circuit

41:56 breaker process we actually do not even submit our circuit breaker claim until July of the next fiscal year so right now I’m anticipating we’re bringing in 1.3 million next year that number is not going to be confirmed until July so I’m using that so ideally we would have the 1.3 million in that operating I mean in that revolving fund so that we can use it for the following year and the state recommends that and they also allow you to carry up to one year so I was just going to ask you if you had experience in other districts where you work where a revolving fund has kind of Hit the threshold of being truly funded as a stabilization fund and you stop it and it actually reduces the requirement from the tax if you will on

42:41 that line for appropriation I have um it’s not frequent when it happens but I do know the goal is for everyone yeah everyone in my position across the Commonwealth to have the one here in Indiana it’s helpful yes so it would be if we’re talking about current would be fully funded at 1.4 we funded 250 000. you know there’s two different fonts oh okay right we started the year off of approximately 900 000 so we are well on our way to meeting that goal but this year we do have substantial special education out of District costs we may have to eat it to that a little bit so our rollover may not quite be the 900 000 but we have that Safeguard we’re in

43:27 fiscal 19 you did not have that Safeguard yeah so the difference is circuit breaker is a state reimbursement as a percentage of the cost that we we spend on special education it’s not guaranteed money um just for some historical knowledge mostly for the public here in 2018 that this is what tipped off falling off the cliff I remember I was sitting right in that front row and I remember them giving them a report that circuit breaker that year came in significantly below what it it was projected to come in and when it didn’t come in we were already it was January late January we’re already halfway through the year the money had had been

44:12 committed to these institutions and you can’t get blood pressure so that was the Tipping Point because we didn’t have the Safeguard of the revolving son having such a balance because we’ve been relying on it TSI every year so so I know some we’ve had some pushback from whether it be income or the public about the balance that revolving from that is best practice it’s it’s what has been recommended and I’m very proud that we are performing best practices

45:08 um now as far as the stabilization fund the problem with that is that was funded originally through free cash as we all know there’s no protection so there’s no but this there’s no funding mechanism outside funding that through and override um there’s just for a lot of these things these stabilization funds they’ve always been funded through free cash we don’t have it anymore

45:37 yeah so we can ask but there’s no funding um um you know so the other takeaway from today was um you know I asked Alec to confirm because my conversation with him I won’t understand it and he was able to confirm that my understanding was appropriate um that it would be his recommendation moving forward that there not be a town-wide service increase override that anything that would be increasing the level of services would be Emmanuel like if if park and rec needs more services they would have their award if the schools want to increase our

46:24 service level it would be a Warner by the schools it would not be the entire town doing that so I just want to clarify that because often we hear about it would be better to go in with the town there is no promise out there in fact quite the opposite we’ve been clearly told there will not be a point foreseeable right now that anybody is recommending you know there could be an entirely different income an entirely different set Blackboard knows what we have right now there is not a recommendation that the entire town the only one article to Research Services so I just want to make sure that’s clear because you know what what Dr Bucky said here today was you know we are not ready this year because we have collective bargaining next year

47:11 next year next year um so so maybe just to get back to fy24 because I think you’re speaking of something for fy25 but what I heard clearly from that subcommittee today was if there was going to be level Services could contemplated by the town and the schools that that would be contemplated under a singular warrant what definition of level Services was certainly needs to be debated and you brought that up we’re not talking about it again but I think what you’re talking about is general education for the town is just that if we want to do something in fy25 that’s outside of our current level of services that’s going to be on our own and if it’s Parks and Rec they’ll be on their own or whatever just to be clear we’re not talking about fy24

48:00 to this as well I just want to finish what I was saying so what I’m saying is 31 is different that’s level services what I heard was an idea that it we sh I just want to be clear that if there is no expectation that next year we will be doing this all together I just if that’s what were people’s assumption was it’s there’s been no promise there’s been no that’s going to happen so I just that was my report back from that meeting um so we have Michelle Michelle is working on a presentation for Monday we can’t finalize it because we don’t know what her number is John and Michelle who can because

48:52 um but the numbers I mean she’s the one question yes so um we can’t crunch numbers because we don’t have is is the continues to be the problem and I don’t think we’re going to have them before Monday so um we will be free presenting

49:13 all assumptions the theoretical events um which is tough we’re going to be using the guidance provided to us as best we can um um so are there any other I can’t just clarify something because in public comment it was stated that we voted to not move forward on on our place of article but I wasn’t under the impression that we had funded our budget and made that decision but I thought we agreed to in our meeting on Monday was that we were going to present you know the budget we were going to present at the public hearing that’s great we have not voted our budget we have not voted anything about you know any statistics articles that’s correct okay

50:01 that seemed pretty clear was that no one was comfortable going in our own water park that’s not what I understood the conversation to be I understood asking what he needed to present at Wichita hearing which budget and US provided him guidance on what to present at the town here you know sort of engineering because we’re going to hear from the community and our vote is not until that’s how I understood um um yeah we you guys voted on what numbers we would present um yeah no I I voted to that to deny it but um or to say no to it but um

50:49 my understanding also was the idea that we would not go there was much discussion about not going on in our on our own I think what we I the discussion I heard in The Proposal I made which passed was that we would present two budgets uh Administration would present two budgets invite public commentary delivery and then vote a budget on the following Monday to present to the town whatever that number is hopefully we’ll have more guidance from the town that’s uh gives us better Fidelity on what the appropriation may be under their guidance and we can also reflect on comments from the public but at no

51:35 time did this committee deliberate upon removing anything from the one skip

51:46 I don’t think we should until we have terminals right even if we end up voting a number I don’t I do not want 32 to be indefinitely post like I I’m sitting here tonight I’m not for and definitely postponing 30. we don’t think so determination we have information fin Palm will make their recommendation on whether it definitely postpone it or not um pertaining to if we it haven’t if we tell them we have a number to put in my understanding but think about not just because it’s sponsored by the school committee it can still go forward their recommendation would be indefinite but it can still look forward

52:34 it’s like the tree guy the recommended indefinite postponement but what are we trying to get through this discussion I’m just trying to understand what we’re going with this whether or not um well I guess we’re going nowhere uh so that moves us to subcommittee and liaison updates

52:56 um I just have a very quick update from safety um I just wanted everyone to know that we’ve had that brief conversation about Smith Baldwin and pleasant a couple weeks ago and I did bring that up um and there is some stuff going on um to with various 1170das looking at that intersection and then I forget what other state organization is looking at at that intersection um and so the town is hopeful that things will be remedied through that before sort of moving forward on their own so did we did we also mentioned the mohawk right right um

53:41 crosswalk was put in pump out Giants yeah

53:50 it’s bad too okay sometimes don’t do that I want to do the other one it’s like that’s 22. yep a year um that pump out doesn’t help and the post is in the middle if it’s a lot to navigate and there’s a lot of foot trapping there people since um um I can bring that up next time

54:18 does anybody have any other updates uh just a little plug

54:27 um you know what awards the unsung heroes okay

54:36 so where they recognize on our communities and our schools who don’t normally get recognition

54:57 here before the pandemic committee was really a cool event yeah it’s like at the end of the year

55:17 um correspondence um correspondence we did receive an email today that came to myself and Dr Rocky from Jack actridge Our Town moderator that was the heading was um

55:42 the language it would use oh terminology um just you know talking about town meeting coming into terminology we use regarding

55:53 any discussion around the the budget um so I can I’ll have Lisa put that in the Dropbox just just asking us you know essentially to use comment off common terminology because you know using the different terms of austerity keep the lights on their problems Etc it can be confusing to people um and if the the select board can kind of name that budget and then if we could use that he would prefer that um so make sure that’s in the Dropbox or in the pack um

56:29 so nothing about cuss words that’s what you should probably be worried about yeah those results there always are just wait that brings us to a German at 7 56. yeah yeah across the knocking out of the park