School Committee: June 29, 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.

1:07 so welcome all we have a full room on zoom in a full room in person this is very exciting uh

1:17 the first order of business is the committee organization so I will ask for nominations for the role of chair

1:36 second second all in favor

1:44 um I will add some nomination for the role of Vice chair I would like to make a nomination to foreign

1:58 opportunity to serve with her um on various committees and really impressed by her organizational

2:18 and Sierra I will ask for nominations whether that be self or otherwise for secretary um

2:27 I know when I was secretary I’d like to keep doing it it was something I liked to do I also know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea so I won’t force that upon you Allison it’s something you would like to continue to do to do that but also happy to be free I’m fine I’m not self-nominated I’ll nominate Alex um Jen chapter will nominate and I will second that all in favor all opposed motion carries towards zero um that brings us to commendations I would like to make accommodation for Sarah Golds who served on committee for five years the amount of time and commitment it takes for anybody to sit

3:13 in these seats is it’s a tremendous amount of time um that particularly from our families and our professional lives anybody that sits in these shares and does that Sarah Sarah any other recommendations um I would just like to commend Health elementary schools and their ptos and all the teachers there they’re such a wonderful end of the year celebration moving on ceremonies um

3:44 um it was just it was so fun I think the kids had a wonderful time it was great entertainment I know the pto’s put in a lot of time effort and energy on that and I know with the principles do as well um we are a round family but I have heard from numerous people about Glover as well and that was my school growing up so I I just want to thank you for that I think it’s a lovely tradition that we continue doing um and I know that the kids

4:11 any other communication I I just want to commend anybody that went out also for any committee uh perform an election perspective having gone through it myself last year I know what it takes and I know the toll that it can take also um it takes a lot to put yourself out there it takes a lot to kind of go through all of that rigor um it’s a little bit claimless at times and I just wanted you to know that you’re recognized and seen and appreciate it and that brings us to public comment um if anybody in the zoom would like to read certain we can call on you and if that anybody in the room would like to make public comments just you normally have a list but um

5:03 if you’d like to not please know your name and address for the record

5:22 try and get through this quickly uh good evening firstly I’d like to come on we’re actually Mr Odin this is safe now are they elected for this community secondly I’d like to express my gratitude and admiration is terrible for her five years of it dedication commitment during those five years Sarah dealt with all that legal payments

5:48 to the sanction of support that Independent by two members of others so I was also from the center checking Bill big hockey includes superintendent during time waiting under Sarah’s leadership big hobby together with young parallel education Financial expertise Michelle Russell study the description for us to attract fresh young Dynamic and fully invested citizens I’ve lived in town since 2004 and I cannot remember any sequence having fortitude to live in this town yet that is hard question hard question your doctor did likewise leading his

6:34 administration and faculty from the front never shaking his responsibilities or making it hard necessary

6:43 fast forward to this school year 23 24 about it but requests 2013 worked diligently transparently line by line to produce a big up budget playing concise to the Green Arts let’s make it crystal clear but repercussions the overrides failed superintendent has initiated those starts nobody wanted to be able to support you

7:09 however if the 23 clinical committee since the second guess those agreed upon Cuts Etc president undermining work all those are selected please be confident with each passing year potentially without radar prices and the Optics of finding additional Monies

7:29 if you are indeed intended voting the reverse sun over all parts power and vision can you possibly decide who should be great seated professionals

7:45 are you as a committee to have to sit in person with each individual you let go explain to them why they are being less valuable or important for our children than another this position has been saved if this is your intent can you not added superintendent should be the ones to deliver that news this is shaking campaign on the importance of honesty transparency two-way conversations so I’d like to take this opportunities plus a chair like school committee position committee assignments it starts to both of the fun tonight

8:19 and believe I’m correctly saying that another member said last week the disappointments not to wait until all five members are present now I’d like to address the two uh I should say the gorillas in the fridge Mr Otto having been elected to serve our schools will you now drop your wrongful dismissal complaint against history excuse me I cannot allow the senior but you just made it’s in violation okay um in that case can I respectfully ask that if you’re not can you um please accuse yourself of more budget studies please don’t continue on yeah

9:21 or and I sincerely hope not the failure please know that these questions soon not from being a sore loser I still hold it with each passport but from a hopefulness at least attempts to fulfill their campaign promises and practice that and she agrees thank you so much all of you if you’re willing to sell that stores

9:49 and that brings us no I didn’t see it again um that brings us to our consent action agenda items in our packet we have to schedule a bill so I would ask for a motion to the identified scheduled bills totally 602 846.57

10:11 by Allison Taylor you have a second thank you all in favor follow post motion carries board zero um that brings us to the superintendent report and District deputies thanks sir we had a great end uh to the Academic Year each of the building principles set um goals for literacy and math as far as their evaluation process and then every instance they were able to cite significant progress and in most instances they met or exceeded the goals uh in I ready so it’s really promising for future academic results and I just can’t understand underscore strongly enough um

10:57 the work that the administrators did this year I would disagree with the white house this week when they said schools have the resources that they need um 50-year low in academic results among 13 year olds in literacy and math and while I’m proud of the work that we have done this year I’m not satisfied that we are where we need to be but I am satisfied by the work that the principles have done to address learning loss this summer first two days of summer vacation Educators have been in working with what Julie is going to talk to you about the leadership team met with Whit and wisdom on Monday so superintendent of the assistant superintendent um all of our team chairs the building principles to get training

11:49 we will have literacy coaches or literacy support people or with wisdom who have math support um and so um

12:06 can you provide those out to the committee um so you can see the growth at the district level but also at each granular level um I think the data this year will be very helpful if you

12:31 thank you Chad first assistant say hello I’m Julia Carrera and Community Assistance group connect teaching learning so thank you for allowing me the chance to be here and to present about the stem I’ll start with a um the why so we selected written wisdom because it offers A reduced research-based curriculum uh it’s comprehensive you like curriculum each module of City June of study uh consists of Rich engaging texts for our students it supports knowledge building and standards and line integration instructions where students read and respond to stories poetry non-fiction texts to build knowledge on a variety of topics in the presentation what we this slide particularly the job

14:06 so the slide that I’m going to be showing you that we also we went to all of our elementary PTO meetings so we met with families and um it was really great so John me and Michelle and I were at all of the Year PTO meetings so they got to learn about the curriculum as well families were involved right away um so the next slide when um threw in a couple of pictures so it was important for me to share the work of how our implementation is rolling out of what in wisdom um so we know that with a successful lot to what wisdom it’s going to take strong leadership to make sure that we have every um all of our resources aligned to support this I’ll take a quick

14:53 so this may be part of this but um if if you you know Rochelle can just talk about how are we or are we planning to study

15:02 to be able to get that training ahead of time I know we’re jumping around all right so I’ll show you I’ll share the power of what we’re rolling out within yourself and then we have our slides back all right good to go where I’ve written with some offers right so that was the slide that we shared with all the families great there’s also a video that um the company great minds put out about the wisdom

15:49 yes no um the wind wisdom along with the epd who’s going to prepare over the summer the beginning of school year is all being done by our talent included a substantial amount of money for us earlier this year and we’re funding it to right and how um is all of our staff being siphoned teacher leaders who will have the training before they come back everybody will be okay yes we’ve already started that work on month uh actually it was on June 14. and that was voluntary participation

16:27 volunteer to come again all right so on the next slide

16:42 thank you so we um started this so um all of our k-3 teachers and then our ELA teachers grades four through six for train um

16:55 trainer to launched them into that I had time with the trainer here’s a picture of that perfect um of our teachers working with the witnessing trainer um that was really important for us for all teachers to have that training we’re going into summer um

17:15 as John mentioned on Monday all the leadership team uh Team chairs uh school principals we were there at the training um they really emphasize the need for strong leadership to make sure that there’s a really thorough process for how this will be implemented mentally excited about the time we put into that so on the next slide you can see we are exciting literacy leaders at each grade level in the schools and they went through their training on Wednesday and they are working really closely with our instructional support Specialists those are instructional coaches who are just really phenomenal in helping with this process so they were LED through and witnessed the training with the coaches on Wednesday and we have a full day training for our

18:01 teachers when they return in August so they will have six additional hours and then throughout the school year they will continue to work with their school leaders and literacy leaders to ensure

18:13 so we’ll be in those those contracted days preceding the star of students it’s not because I know in the past correct me the wrong um you guys may know this genre hold up some new curriculums didn’t we stipend teachers to actually come in with someone who’s learned some of that we took care of that day as well so that’s not a requirement though yeah

18:39 our elementary leaders were really great thank you so a month or so ago we’ve started that planning process for them excellent there’s

18:52 um um just is this at all phonics based or that’s a great question so what investment we will use the phonics program called foundations which we’ve been using and we’ll expand and enrich that great so they recommend that okay so that will be our final story so Geo to ask the students are very robotic practice that with real text and those are public so when we purchase

19:25 does this program speak to some of our other programs um like The Language basic and things like that or or would they would students that are requiring those additional supports we need to still stay on those paths that makes sense so I think that the rule of thumb is that these students that would be in the classroom for literacy instruction would still be in that classroom instructions um Allison Gray Foundation

20:01 all right to clarify it was recommended by the schools that we collaborated with throughout the process okay so um

20:18 all right so much are there are there modules at all included here for any of our uh Advanced Learners at all just working we’ll really engage our Advanced Learners absolutely so the whole idea is that what students are reading these knowledge based attacks are going to be engaged and when they’re holding their knowledge they’re able to have more to talk about more write about it’s really great does this move us from I know previously it was kind of understood that K through three is learning to read and then round four on it becomes reading to learn does this bring that reading to learn into a younger format you know these are knowledge-based texts

21:04 so as the students are learning for example about something in history in younger groups right they the texts will fill that knowledge and then they can write about that as well so it’s basically there’s some science nonfiction text texts so I think that all the grade levels are different and it aligns with our other curriculum Frameworks in some of the areas um

21:42 that brings us to school committed communication discussion items we have on here fy24 budget discussion I think given where we are um with the unfortunate failure this item for any for any concerns comments or questions

22:12 I’ll jump in so um I actually have a lot of questions about this I have in the packet there’s a document that lists a whole bunch of I guess I don’t know what this is stats and subtracts to to the budget to reach I guess balanced budget right so we talk about that there was one slide during the you know during the budget season that you had a number of you know cuts on it but there’s all sort of pluses and minuses so I guess I’m trying to just understand today so I’m just trying to understand this okay let me let me just explain what that document is so initially when our

22:59 budget requests put together um and they were distributed to the committee members in January of 2023 earlier this year um we basically started with the instruction of what do you need to make your school breaks um so all the principals and directors put the budget together and that is what’s in your budget for this time um through the budget process it’s very you know a lot of iterations of the budget we kept cutting and finally when we were working very closely with town we were working with either a level Services budget or reduced Services budget to reduce services

23:38 so that document that’s in front of you is actually what we so basically we threw out just about all of our requests that we initially spent all of our time putting together that are in that binder um and then we took the FY 23 budget that we are operating on up through tomorrow because tomorrow’s the end of the first of the year and we made changes to that budget to come up with the 800 855 thousand dollars so that that line item sheet of what you have all that change is every single change that occurred from the fy23 current budget to what has been currently

24:23 there’s a whole bunch of positions that are being eliminated yeah like it looks like writing Adam probably I don’t know can we eliminate will we repurpose some but most of them are cuts of 33 positions in total due to the failure so okay so all of these positions

24:50 so I think um so were some I guess I’m trying to understand like what we’re filled what weren’t with you know with some of these unfilled positions some of them were unfilled positions some of the retirements and some of them were filled the time that we distributed the list and made it public and a lot of them actually had resigned since that time okay and then a couple of them were actually you know layoffs and some of them were non-renewables okay so yes it’s a whole commemoration so how does this then equal

25:27 July night I mean not the the um this must get condensed down into 33 positions yes okay there’s a listing of the 33 and there is that that is on the website right so I can certainly get you a copy of that yeah I just I mean I just I feel strongly that we need to we look at student-facing positions um versus non-student basically six line items um so I that’s how I feel so I don’t know how we want it one thing I I would like to as you said at the end of the fiscal year is tomorrow as we know you know once we rolled out this this budget we mentioned some

26:13 meetings we’ve had resignations since then which many of those will have to be built but that also recoups money if they resigned in April or May there’s some money that’s recouped because that position is budgeted to be held to the end of the fiscal year so we didn’t carry that money over

26:41 so we have a legal opportunity within the confines of national law that whatever money is left in our budget at the end of the fiscal year that we may Pre-K special education tuitions in some format not in every format but is it the collaboratives so if we use some of our Surplus that we have or I would argue I would like to use all of our Surplus because why would it be to pre-k those tuitions that frees up some money in next year’s budget that we could then charge our administrators with coming back to us with a list very quickly about what is what could be prioritized to come back into our budget it’s not that we’re going

27:27 that’s what I would say because do you recommend that I don’t recommend it very hesitant to do that because Sarah had asked me to do that to go and look at the list of 33 and to prioritize it took it to the leadership team we sat down the conversation was a bit awkward then it turned uncomfortable because they’re like we have been saying if the override is unsuccessful we will be eliminating these positions and programs so how do we justify safety at the Glover school and not bring back the secretary in the main office how do we not have a paraprofessional in the science lab at the high school where they have fewer lab Lab Safety to be

28:15 impacted the same way that you made that list of 33. I’m trying to understand why like actual line items aside for ending up with a surplus yes so I would be not I am going through it because I am going to repay some tuitions that is without fail I I do not recommend reducing the special education tuition budget because those costs are going to be following the next year so therefore you’ll be using one-time revenues yes absolutely to offset the fy24 budget which are going to be the current costs into 25 so I do understand that but we have student-facing

29:00 presented to us it feels to say well you didn’t listen to us so we have money but we’re not I really don’t have the money because it’s one-time Revenue what is the Surplus that we ended the year I haven’t closed in here yet literally I’ve had to estimate in the hundred thousands

29:21 I am hoping to repay about about 500 000 but that is we have been pre-kaying in the past three years since I’ve been here and I do not want to rely on that Revenue I do not feel like it’s physically responsible to count on that every year Okay so so you’re not recommending to end of service no I do not want to end in a surplus I want to pre-k some special education situations but I do not want to use that offset next year’s budget okay and then are you um what is the time period between when the fiscal year ends and you have the time to prepay those bills with 10 by 23. I have two weeks to figure that out okay so you’ve got a couple of times yes today so I think I mean I don’t know I mean I

30:29 um talk about this over the last couple of months I feel um very strongly that freshman Sports need to be reinstated as an item um I think that it was it’s a very in a 43 million dollar budget it’s a very small amount of money it’s a very um it felt Curative frankly um to do that and I feel strong with that so we’re going to ask the other community members what we feel about that

30:59 one thing I would like to look at with that is have we run the calculations on if we adjusted user fees so it’s a self-funded light line item that we’re not we’re not taking from something else because the money you can’t get blood from stuff it’s not like but how what would be the adjustment needed in user fees to bring that back

31:33 so you have transportation officials so I think the numbers

31:40 so so because it was I mean it was said in the presentation said it was sixteen thousand dollars so if it’s really forty thousand this additional piece of transportation that we would have had to increase the budget as well um and we also have another piece for teenagers

32:04 okay I I put my thoughts out there I’d be curious what the others right well I think Russians over Sports at this point for instance we’re losing Library Middle School we absolutely need Librarians today because they’re not just libraries

32:38 they the administration should revisit for and I understand that it was already done this isn’t me saying I know any better than anybody else I don’t like that narrative I don’t like that assumption being placed upon us at all we are now in a position we are trying to do as much due diligence as we possibly can to get the most out of that situation we are all in this together I think that we should be revisiting for all portions of the budget to see if there are absolutely any other non-student-facing operational items extra contracts Etc that could get back any of these things whether it’s a librarian whether it’s fresh from Sports I understand

33:24 I understand I understand I agree with the concept that freshman Sports being added in there was probably there’s probably other thoughts there that we could go into but that’s not what this discussion is about personal Sports is important for a group of children who have had to deal with so much loss during this pandemic and not having that mental health outbreak I’m not saying that the librarian isn’t any more of a release for some students absolutely but I think if we could drill down and see if we can find any additional costs for non-operational or non-student-facing operational type things it needs to happen um and I think that while I understand

34:10 there’s additional costs Above and Beyond The Sixteen thousand dollars certainly they need reps and they need Transportation I think probably that should have been outlined more clearly we probably should outline that more clearly and I think getting that detail would be a nice to have because we’re not do we have a whole extra bus for freshmen or do the freshmen go I went on a bus with Varsity when I was did freshman committed JB whatever but we went on the same bus so it wasn’t like its own boss with its own router with its own gas which I realize is another cost but you have to pick up with the Transportation uh particularly with diesel so those are just some things that I really on it’s an unfortunate situation that we are in

34:57 you know casting stones and aspersions about this is what we said and that’s it seems vindictive as well or punitive and it’s harder for me doesn’t understand that because we put so much effort into this I think personally we hung about 200 door hangers handheld signs everywhere for it and I understand the nature of your actions and consequences I have a young child but I also understand me in some cases have to rise above that and go on and do the additional due diligence and I think we’re capable for sure I think the bigger piece is preparing for future budgets and we can say that it’s not punitive and putting

35:43 freshman Sports on the list seemed like a punitive Choice every administrator had difficult decisions with people in their programs I think we feed a narrative in the community that oh it was Scare Tactics all along they will find the money they have hidden accounts in the school department and for us to come back and undermine the superintendent and undermine the leadership team asking them to go back and look as if they had not is a mistake I I just I

36:23 abundantly clear to everybody in this room everybody on zoom and everybody reading about this tomorrow or next

36:33 match General law in the state of Massachusetts gives the sole Authority for this budget to the elected officials at this team it is not us not trusting the people we work with it is not us playing games it is us doing our job which we were elected in sworn in to do and an assertion to anything but that is simply an unawareness so I will set backstory and I will continue this conversation under the understanding that these Cuts whatever they end up being or have been have been tremendously hard for every administrator and every person that has

37:20 sat at this table or is sitting at this table and we’re not downloading one thing over another what we are valuing in this discussion if students and trying to lessen the impact on students because at the end of the day it was adults that voted and I for one am done with students paying the price of adults so um um the reason why I’m specifically bringing up freshman Sports because I do feel there’s a sense of urgency in regards to that school years ended and school December students start to do campus practices and it’s it is a sort of imminent issue um and that’s directly to students and that’s why I am suggesting that we

38:07 um we look at that just that one item while we have time over the next two weeks um or or more to find out you know exactly what the bottom line is and we can make many decisions as a committee how we feel uh balancing you know I respect and show your your um fiscal you know produce in how you want to manage but uh we you know I feel that I need to balance that with you know we are in um a situation where we have numerous numerous student facing positions being eliminating and you know to to turn our backs on that for the sake of fiscal rubies that’s a good word but

38:53 you know you know trying to you know you’re one or two years into this trying to pre-fund all of the out of different places I understand that and that’s absolutely no goal they might be fighting this for years um but I think that we have some opportunities here to talk about that this one particular item is very very small part of this budget and it is um timing on this is right now and that’s why I speaking to special education well I I have always been grateful for your guidance in in budget items we have not touched the special EduCare fund which is 250 000 since it’s been three evening and that is a

39:38 testament to how we’ve been managing our books if we are pre-paying and freeing up some cash but then we can lessen the impact on our students and we have to then diminish that Reserve fund which is there for unknown out of this replacement and it would only be used for unknown our district placements then we have done our job with Fidelity and we know that we still have that there I do think that if we have a surplus this year and we are not using that somehow to bring back some of these cups these puts as we’ve said all along our catastrophic is just to some of our student body this this is not without paying for our

40:24 students and if we can bring back and lessen that pain on our students that is what we are here to do that is what everyone’s prior to do what we were elected to do and that’s what we need to do now I for one am not going to do not feel I’m in a position to make that prioritized list that is for the the Educators I believe to come back and say this is the list of what what just like you gave us the list of what should become you give us a list of what should come back if you have extra money there are also some items in here I as we can figure on clothes who like some more information at because there may be some little room here for instance I see from FY 22 we started at 52 000.

41:10 but we our actual ascendants up to 2000 for our vehicle and it jumps to a hundred and fifteen thousand that’s like 60 some five percent increase I would like to know what our actual spend of these Grand close if we’re not justifying that you’ve already spent more yes so but I would like to know what that is is one of that we know there was a big chunk that went to went to an investigation that was like Trump success Village we had that concerning point it was that that is unforeseen you certainly should not be budgeting speak to me that type of Investigations um what I want to say is let’s dig into that and see if some of those line items can come closer to where the actual

41:57 spent has been passed because they’re if we can lessen some of these you know something else I want to just put out there because I think the public is spending on this and Michelle can you confirm that in on page 10 of the central Administration budget we have um 25 000 for a Communications contract that has been removed it is listed here because these were our aspirational asks that is not actually being funded correct there’s 25 000 because it’s been reduced by 20. yes it was reduced by 20 overall and there were some increases to other Lines within the contracted Services there like you picked up please communication

43:18 that is justifiable our whole request I would like to push harder to get that cover to that five I’ve been preaching about our questions I think I took my first seat so and everybody knows that I would certainly recommend that we revisit a lot of these are all requests and I would also strongly recommend and I feel that the town spoke um with this election for both celebrity and the select board and I think that it would be wise to revisit that work group to revisit how it works to revisit the additional rules that were imposed upon Marblehead arba funds that are not required for airport funds in general

44:05 and also to make it a bit of a more public experience since these are funds that were given to our town to our district I don’t think it’s a big ask to want to understand more about that to want to hear those discussions these are elected officials having these discussions and the public should know what these discussions how these discussions come about what people’s thoughts are on them I have a lot of frustration over arpa so I’m going to try not both there but I and this is not to say that we haven’t tried as the school district to get more article funds I think the entire process how we are doing it here in Marblehead immediately needs to be reviewed and

44:51 updated and improved and I think under those you know with that guy I think that we then could obtain more arpa funds to assist with our budgeting some of our budgeting issues not all of it I’m not looking for a miracle nobody’s through our handout but this is our Marblehead money the school district is 75 of what the total town is and we deserve more than in my opinion the pittance that we’ve done and for anybody because I don’t know anybody can disagree with that that’s how it’s been done widely and just do it differently here to add additional rules on how things can be used or not this seems counterintuitive to the whole point of the r above funds and in addition I feel like we are now and what I’m hearing

45:37 anyways my understanding is because we have not dispersed all of those funds there are other issues that are happening in other monies that we’ll be getting and so I just I don’t know so I mean I think that that that’s a really good point I think we need to certainly need to pursue that and maybe there is but we’re still dealing with what we’ve been appropriated at town meeting what we have for a surplus at the end of the year and what we want to do as a community you know I don’t know that we’re you know we’re going to pass this out tonight because there’s a lot of minutia here um

46:15 soon because soon because um actually I will ask for a motion for um to revisit the line item budget and to see if we can expand on student Focus

46:44 suddenly start looking for extra money somewhere still some of these reasons it’s going to lose our credibility guys um

46:57 because I’m going to push back and say that’s our job

47:05 and from town meeting to now is when we closed our books at town meeting we had no awareness of what Surplus we would be ending with the town I’m not saying you know do other I I’m asking the lion because they’re saying there’s a lot of misinformation out there but what is it is not being bonded I’m trying to clear that up my question is if we have a surplus at the end of the year we owe it that money was allocated for the purpose of educating students we owe it to our students to maximize that impact on student achievement and if we can use that through legal like through a legal channel to pre-buy one-time pops paper computers whatever

47:51 the tech lead whatever it is because these are this is a legal mechanism and if you buying tuition then I believe we are doing right and we have to explain to them but I believe we’re doing right by the public then I think for us to say we have the potential to save some of these Cuts with this money but you told we told them we’d do this we need to do it when we have the end of the year close to show us that we’ve had some extra money with retirements with reservations with quickly I think some people left out of the fear of what these budget cuts would they didn’t say okay I’ll stick around and see if I’m chatting like we left which recouped two to three months of their salary in some

48:37 cases I think four um I want to maximize every one of those dollars for our students and I mean the other option is right we literally give thanks to the town yeah you know that that’s the only other legal options okay but the last time we were faced with this well the last time I think it was during covet when there were significance and that decision definitely was to create some of the tuition bills and then there was money that was given because that was given back again so it just you know it I I think we owe it to ourselves and to you know our students that we at least look at what our options are because it is certainly

49:25 you know Michelle’s planning to prevent um and that does then potentially free up um you know line items for next for fy24 might not be a recommendation I understand what you know I understand what you’re trying to do right like I said we have done this every year since I’ve been here which is a wonderful you know mechanism that we can do legally pay out of surplus you prepay out and you budgeted no I never bought it okay so Budget on a surplus all of our Surplus I should also add is on our salary site our expense site is blown through on the water completely gone but the bottom line is we have certain we do have a circles my concern is going into next year if we use some of that Surplus in a

50:12 in a roundabout way to offset recurring costs next year you’re going into next year with unbalanced budget essentially because you’re funding it one time well yeah so we’re hurting kids now because we said we would or we’re gonna I heard them in a year where at this point we’re gonna like oh we’re gonna cut them again they’re not going to believe it and then literally we live in a very educated Town who digs in probably more than most towns on employers and other information if they know we had this money and we didn’t use it for students they’re not going to care that we stuck by our guns they’re still going to not be happy we did not advocate for students with this Surplus so I’ll say again as we go into fy25

51:05 in technology upgrades maintenance that will lead Julia will be coming with probably a quarter of a million dollars worth of uh curriculum that we’ve been able to fund up to this point through Esser that were our book and so I think Michelle’s approach is proven I don’t think anyone is being punitive and I think the administrator is sitting here watching this want to see that their hard work is valued and not seen as being human digital I I don’t think that they’re being punitive I think I’m pretty sure none of you knew you’re sitting on a few hundred extra thousand dollars so we are we should use that for students the only way we can really use that is special ed tuitions which we will be yeah you can’t

51:52 legally use it next year for students no I understand I set the clock I understand that because in free play and that there’s Santa but then we’re reducing our special education budget which is going to then roll forward the following year

52:08 no because we are we build that from zero B so we tell them every now please

52:19 extremely difficult so um

52:32 simplify this I want it I want the end of your films I want to know what we’re ending with a surplus what were we buying what were people pre-kay and what that frees up next year if we’re buying paperwork yeah

52:49 um and then I think depending on what is freed up out of next year if we can bring back sad positions that are student-facing I support so I would ask for a motion to revisit pending um some reports from Michelle okay that’s gonna be impossible I mean literally my three payments are going to be winning a prayer of the last minute before the town for July 14th so um are you that you’re asking potentially for information

53:37 we look at the fy24 budget tracking changes yes

53:51 I think the timing of it we will work with Michelle just have to do it I think we have um sometime you know we have all summer but we have some time to do this so you know if we close the books and then we need to we have a meeting in July

54:13 it has to be you know sort of a working you know session we were prepared um and we can throw up in the books and have a conversation it will also say whatever can be done to work in conjunction with the select board on the public requests from the airport committee on all of that it is a different board than it was two weeks ago and the town knows that they’re the ones that elected these people the child knows why they elected and I feel that could make a significant I know that would make a significant difference also you may not in the terms no but but that’s something that we that is a path yeah learning loss continues to be a problem we will

54:59 um into the future and U.S treasury has now designated any loss as a significant use of our funding however the formula Marblehead uses it’s not factored in two um I would ask Dr Bucky work with Dr um to advocate for and you have that continue to advocate for them changing their formula to be more in line with the formula report by the U.S treasury so that learning loss is valued into the sensation

55:31 so I will call for both all in favor all those all those and she carries for zero um so can I just look forward to this I just I just I’m gonna sort of dig in here on this freshman towards because I do feel that it is an urgent situation um and I feel very strongly about it you know because we’re looking at this you know I’m confident that we’re going to be able to find funds um to be able to to support that um which is something the students are doing now so I’m making a motion that we need to stay fresh

56:25 um I actually had some questions about this um when is the if if person sports are coming back

56:37 when is the date you need to know that God sure

56:48 oh you can turn them off I think we’re just moving hot air around do I feel sweat or do you want to hear it we’ll talk louder actually I’m usually not accusative

56:59 I understand all right so Greg when is the I know as soon as possible is always the preferred time in for anything in this situation

57:17 I think also you know a question is maybe you can share with us how freshman Sports work from in the summertime sure so can you meet

57:32 yep yep so the first day of the season is that’s when football cheerleading golf starts the other sports started the 21st ones our gauge won’t start until the very beginning of September um I would like to let our opponents know who we play against the question level teams I’ll just assuming the better so

57:59 that’s kind of I also think for you know that’s sort of the pragmatic right the the Staffing side of it from a family and student side of it you know I think families with you know if students would like to know um if they’re going to be able to participate in the fall or not sure so those nine programs that are impacted by this decision um they’re like most of them they’re girls soccer boys soccer field hockey football volleyball boys and girls basketball baseball those night programs have pressure coach Cycles so those teams or those programs would go from three Teen Titans suppression we’re still able to try out for those teams there’s just one less team for our supervised in which one of those are fall we’re not asleep sorry it’s okay

58:46 um girls soccer boys soccer field hockey football and volleyball are all season both basketballs are the winter and then baseball softball Springs sorry um I would like the information from Michelle of what if we were to offset this user fees the cost of it what that that dollar amount would be because I would I I have a hard time

59:13 saying I will put anything non-academic ahead of academics um and so I see the value I see the mental health value I see the social value the help all of it I see the value but I I have a hard time putting it above academics however if it can self-fund itself through what the user fee could possibly be I would like to know what the adjustment in user bees would be so I’m just looking for more and you might not have that information right now but could also be a combination um and I think that you know given this conversation tonight we do have a surplus of several hundred thousand dollars I am confident that we’re going to be able to work through this and that the Freshman sports are

1:00:00 really de minimis in this entire budget that there’s no visa and given the timing involved that we can’t you know that we can’t approve this you know with confidence uh that the work want to do will be Monday probably of July um to really again sharpen the pencil and really look at this that we will not fight but we will certainly be able to find it here and we look at many of the academic facing line items so last year’s versus contest for you last year we had 129 question of anything uh that’s in those mindfulness 129. so which is more than half the glass right yeah

1:00:45 yeah yeah you can have some of the place boys soccer Sports basketball and baseball that’s only one year

1:00:55 um if for me I’d like to have the numbers I am hoping spoiler alert to book a meeting um uh for next Thursday because we have so much work to do um I would like to to have all the data I would I

1:01:17 would ask to amend I would ask for a motion to table the motion until we have all the information next week

1:01:25 I am in the motion to to table it until next week

1:01:33 for a second on that the amended motion will get voted first all in favor opposed

1:01:51 again I think that you know at this point first of all this point there’s no actual outline other than letting the this fall coaches know um right because we’re not actually paying the statements till till fall um in the other seasons and that with this Surplus it is it is hard to imagine that we’re not going to be able to to find that with other potentially other not because I think there are a number of non-student-facing items that are funded that we can look at that are administrators no and I think that are do so much so we are prioritizing freshman Sports at this moment Hi and then I asked

1:02:37 this question right now through the committee because there’s just because there’s there is a motion on the table um and if anybody has questions for Dr Bucky please do ask Stephen yeah sorry um I will

1:02:57 I will say I think the ideal here because I have a hard time to get the first thing I bring back be non-academic Beast I would like to know that this could be self-funded because I think that is the idea um I am not comfortable in voting this at this time without knowing what this financial impact would be on the increasing user fees if you can do it that way so I but I’m also perfectly happy to see um so I will without further further what is the current user fee sorry so that would be a higher user fee for depression I guess no for splitting it across what would it to embed that in sport user fees what would that change our user fees by the number of users we have essentially um or somewhere

1:03:45 yeah well or or a difference and it may also be that we come back when we meet next week and once we’ve started going through this and looking at the Surplus that we realized with the Surplus we do have this much money to bring back and the recommendations are this order and and sports are still in there but until we start bringing back other things academic base I can’t say the only one I’m willing to approve right now is is sports because I am confident we can bring back through these prepayments in the Surplus and again this is a surplus because we didn’t pay our employees enough to even want to apply to work here in many incidents um it’s not that we didn’t need these positions

1:04:30 but they were vacant nonetheless it created a surplus nonetheless and if we can use that to better students one more year that’s where I am so but until we start going through that whole process I I’m not prepared to do Sports as a one often um what what is the current user fee it’s just last meeting the user fee was set at 483 dollars for high school sports with a family maximum for 623 so I need to figure out how much for the most seconds so if you’re a one season athlete you pay that amount of money

1:05:11 or you’re in the band or you’re in the orchestra well there were lesser fees there but there’s a family cap of 620 so I need to we need to figure out how many people we have at Family caps and how many people are paying the sports feeds the revenue is coming from other source because the cap is for all and maybe the cap oops again because if this is a demographic that really needs this which I understand then perhaps that’s that’s self-month so again you know again I keep going back to it’s a timing issue you know would you if we gave you this vote tonight versus next Thursday when we have the Fourth of July holiday in between is that going to move the needle tremendously for you

1:06:00 um all right so what are we going to have now what else are we going to have next week I want to be respectful of how you said you know you’ll be done on you know July 13th at 2 A.M um

1:06:16 yes 100 understands that and I understand the why that has nothing to do with you Michelle um what’s uh my question is what else are we expecting to have next Thursday that would change anybody’s mind I guess that’s my question correct

1:06:41 have you made any prepayments today the only thing we’ve prepaid is complicated okay but I mean which is a substantial amount but I do have

1:06:55 I do hesitate not used significantly but you’re using a one-time Surplus to offset next year’s budget which is creating an unbalanced budget for next year which is not I I physically cannot recommend freshman Sports it might be a one-time thing like tutors say okay and they’re going to be like oh you said that last year I know but I’m not gonna not let there be you know science labs because we chose not to use the money for sign collect tutor like it’s just if these cups were significant and they were deep I understand them I come and they were very thoughtful unfortunately I get that but I’m not if we have money I’m not just gonna hand it back and not use it so it can only be used to repay

1:07:41 for special ed tuitions and there’s a reasonable loss states that and one time popsicle well where are we stopping yet but so to speak yes um all right so emotion has been made I just again I just want to be clear what are we going to have how much more than what you just shared right now you’re going to happen and I’m not I’m not trying to think about it please no that’s I just want to be realistic because right typically you guys don’t even get my year in close figures until October because that’s how delayed the town is in closing their books and whatnot right so my prepayments are going to be last second right before the July 14th we’ll know that because you have to do it yes exactly so we’ll know but that’s all I will know so we’re not going to know anything by the sixth

1:08:27 we will know the only thing I can work with Greg on the user fees if that’s the desire of the community yeah

1:08:39 I mean I could stand by if it was self-funded and user base I could absolutely but I can’t say if I don’t know educational items are coming back that I can prioritize them I just I I personally um all right so any other further discussion before I call for hope all right I will follow her vote on a motion to immediately reinstate no I’m just still trying to understand what is going to be different when are we having when are we saying to postpone it can tell like what I I know your quest is your question which I know we already voted off yeah but I still like that I was hoping to table it I’m still her next meeting I know but I’m still suggesting that I don’t I don’t know what else we would have

1:09:25 well I don’t know if user fees will go to a level that are are digestible by families and and able to sell fund it because I think that is for me to be the ideal it’s so funded

1:09:43 um all right so I will call for a vote all in favor of the motion to reinstate freshmen Sports effective immediately

1:09:52 all right opposed emotional and we can certainly hear the motion again next week um YouTube can work on the user base

1:10:07 and I and it I very well with that information would be like in support of them um all right so any further FY 24 budget discussion so

1:10:25 I guess we’re gonna have another meeting we’re gonna need to have another meeting sorry um you did put in our Dropbox the article request for the last round of our favorite requests over 50 of them were denied even though they were all fit in the buckets of um one-time fees which on costs could be attributed to learning on combating learning loss so I would ask that those be um reintroduced to the town with some urgency to see if they can now

1:10:59 how often does it need the committee so it’s not like a monthly meeting no that’s another issue

1:11:08 I’m sorry I don’t know the navigation system the Opera so the requests procedurally have to go through the art of committee to then get to the cycle so you can’t appeal directly well yeah that’s yeah I think that’s a really big distinction we need to make there are Marblehead imposed rules additional rules on to how our arpa funds would be distributed determined which by their letter of the law according to the U.S treasury any member of the select board can make a motion to allocate funding to the schools and if it’s seconded and voted it happens and it does not have to go through

1:11:54 you know respectfully they have a procedure yes so you know maybe at this next meeting we have this discussion maybe that is something you know we can we can talk about I mean it doesn’t you know it’s I’m hesitant to kind of not go by you know what their procedure is you know Thatcher it is an option I guess if we wanted to say yeah just this in the you know Spirit of timing if there’s not in at this point is there there’s nothing scheduled at this point there’s no so you know you put a requests on or we could say you know we’re going through this um you’ll be looking at this FY 24 budget in line of surplus in light of the you know the extreme pressures were

1:12:39 obviously in light of the fact that overwritis and therefore we are um escalating our our timing of our requests and we’ll appeal directly to the support

1:12:56 committee right I do know that you have often requested meetings but yeah so I mean I know you stop asking but can you get on the board with him tomorrow and ask that um I mean we have to give on there Richard I mean it’s not you know it’s yeah arpa kind of meets with just ad hoc so if that’s a call one of those meetings and there is a I mean they have a sense of urgency to think that’s either so you know all sides have sort of a sense of urgency to um you know to to try to access these funds I am at a loss as to why there isn’t a sense of urgency um but I guess I will be I won’t know

1:13:46 yes but I would say that Latin American BC is definitely not a school side I mean we’re missing consistent please for participation um um so that brings us through the end of the fy24 budget discussion um school committee summer Retreat discussion so um we we typically have one to two days of a retreat um I think given our where we are right now and the work that we need to do to kind of be ready for the fiscal year um 25 ask we have a lot of work to do so I would ask everyone to kind of commit some extra time this summer to that and

1:14:31 I would refer to it more in a retreat setting because whether we’re working it as a workshop or not but I think it’s really you know roll up our sleeves and get a lot of work done to get ourselves where we need to be um I would like to start that sooner rather than later given the ICS of urgency I was hoping to get together next Thursday the sixth if that works for everybody if not we can cross off our schedules and try to get together

1:15:07 um we’ve always been pretty flexible I selfishly like um uh on the sixth yeah I would you know I don’t mind your earlier start so we can really get some work done just like four to eight for people maybe it will take less time but we for these Workshop Retreat times

1:15:31 the six to six yeah Thursday the six does that work all right all right somewhere in that four to eight window will kind of flesh out um how long we think if people would like to note specific things they would like put on that agenda in address we typically do our release on positions at um our Retreat I’m happy to kick those off for another meeting yeah the subcommittee of Liaisons I’m also happy to have that discussion then go through um any suggestions of changes for operating protocols and then they’ll um we need to run this way back into yep yep and then um if we’re starting earlier I would

1:16:16 hope she would be able to zoom in earlier too that was starting at four there’s any potential time changes

1:16:26 um but happy to have you to work with her and make sure she try to attend that yeah um and then you’ll have some information for us at these are for you so we can revisit that and you won’t have your year-end clothes but if you there’s any movement between now and then update you know that we need to make sure that yeah no I will I can reach out to tonight um with a placeholder of the six yeah um do we want to have a backup um the next two weeks I’m happy to attend via Zoom but the next two weeks I would be on soon yeah I think we have I mean yeah which I’m perfectly happy to make that work um so we I guess we’ll start with that date and see if it works for her and then if not uh

1:17:17 so is this um are you thinking of this also like the you know the typical school committee retreat with the you know sort of goal setting Place planning you know so we’ll want to start talking about whole setting then um my one Pavia is I would like to work the professor to kind of um give us some professional development if you will they typically come the masc typically comes she is not available in that date that being said Glenn Kutcher who’s the executive director of MISD is it’s also a great resource so I can double check once I confirm with Megan I mean that’s a lot in one meeting look what I would like to do there is is to move goal setting potentially to the following

1:18:03 um a week or two weeks because I think to me the most pressing thing that we need to do is identify our liaison committees that confirm our protocols and tackle anything you know this budget

1:18:22 so to iterate yeah and then the second meeting would be more focused on professional development with nasc do you want to set a 10 application I’m sure if anybody wants to throw a deed out there I I mean that would be the week of the 24th yeah um um foreign

1:19:00 just keeping with Thursdays just the 20 July 27th for the placeholder July 27th I can’t okay are there other days that week that work for you right yeah Monday Tuesday or five um I could be due Monday I can’t do Tuesday so Monday the 24th potentially um and I again want to make sure I confirm these with Megan and same thing you want to do it in the afternoon that’s a um yes

1:19:41 so I’ll run the sixth and the 24th by Megan and then I will confirm scheduling with everybody yeah if there’s a conflict yep yep no problems ever um all right to the mass Association of school committee’s annual conference it is booked for November 8th through the 10th um we get a discount for pre-registering I think we always

1:20:08 um so just wondering who would be interested Brian else I know you joined last year it’s something you’d like to go back to yeah I would like to do about this again okay um so at least three spots and I will confirm with Megan if she would like to spot as well so we can help you register those um

1:20:34 and then and then that brings us to new business um um so I I think after all of this budget session and you know you mentioned the 26th thousand dollars from one of the foyer requests I know the foyer request list was shared uh in one of our previous meetings and subsequently we received an email with even more data around one particular situation I think for me um not having the full breath of the information um I need to have that I don’t know if we require an executive session for that so when you can call that at some point that would be great but I would like for the full Committee of

1:21:19 course not just to have access um to see all of that information and documentation and communication around that particular situation um

1:21:33 yes sorry I was I did I did believe that yeah I think also there are some outstanding legal items which also came up I think at the same meeting that I think we all should probably be briefed on which also would uh require an executive okay um so

1:22:11 once we send a copy to whoever’s requesting them just because Marblehead is Marblehead and things often come back to us with questions that I personally like to have that information as well so with members of the public reach out to me or or the Press reaches out to me for a statement after a slide’s going up I feel educated in that um because essentially if we’re giving it out to the public we should have that information as well and then particularly where this situation um exists I would like I agree um can we disseminate the reports requested by this day to the committee and if not I’m happy to work

1:22:58 okay so are you able to give us those that information for June okay um I guess whether we get it um as a public record or we get it uh in um executive session I believe we as the school committee have the right to that information but more importantly my biggest concern that came out of that portfolio slide in the following email from this day was that the Secretary of State weighed in and gave a direct order after the initial request was made in the Secretary of State Fair it was said we will not be giving forth that information secretary of state issued a reply ordering the district to release

1:23:44 the information and my understanding is a second reply went out to this day saying the information would not be given again I want to make sure that at all times we are operating along the lines of public records requests and especially if the Secretary of State’s coming back and saying nope we’ll give this information that we are absolutely doing it in a timely manner so I think it would be really good to have Colby or whoever the representative from Chandler and Miller come and talk to us and I’ll ask whether it’s appropriate for executive session or Open Session and explain to us the mechanism in which we are not we were not giving that information out because if that was under her advice then she really needs to make us understand why the secretary of state is coming back and saying her advice wasn’t the right

1:24:30 advice and if it wasn’t under her advice we need to know that too so I will reach out to her and ask if that discussion with us needs to have an open session or executive session I don’t actually know that piece um so I think we can confirm that but make sure we will have that information I think the for the purposes of discussion outstanding separate outstanding legal items those actors do necessitated yeah yeah I am asking for that yep um would if I’m able to and Megan’s able to attend NSX would you like me to make that part of that sure okay um I don’t think outstanding legality um I will ask them

1:25:16 yes she does she does she’s nice um I will ask her with the caveat of it is July 4th week and that she’d hang yeah yeah she may not be able to but if not I’ll ask her which can we meet in executive session um yes and it has to be in a separate world and there’s a technical right here no no I mean like if we all be set like only yes yes we’ve done it so that may be yeah

1:25:58 all right is that the only new business item um thank you correspondence

1:26:22 just kind of driven from some of that correspondence and I’m only just thinking of it now because you mentioned it around coffin and if we yes if you could just share so that people understand how that process works so we’ve gotten some trips just from people one oh what is good is a lot of members of our community have been very interested in how they can help get some funding back so we’ve gotten multiple questions a couple people have asked the question of coffin can you sell the school you sell coffin can you sell Apple and use that money on the budget this year short answers no there’s only one mechanism the mechanism is that we through town we take a vote as a committee to say we no longer require

1:27:07 the use of a property you can create a warrant article we put it on the next town meetings warrant the town then has to vote to take coffin back under the control and custody of the town government rather than the school pay at that point if the vote carries and it becomes Town property it is to the sole discretion of the Town what happens next they sell it like they sold Gary I think Gary sold for about 800 000. that money went to the general fund the school obviously gets money from the general fund but that money does not at any point come directly to the schools we have no authority to sell any of our assets for the profits only of the schools so we absolutely have these properties we absolutely it will be something we’ve been dealing with this

1:27:53 year we’ll have larger more robust conversations around that later in in the school year but it it’s not as easy as we can’t just sell the property give the money and fund the schools because we don’t actually have the authority to do that um yeah so thank you for bringing that up um any other items if not I will join us