School Committee: October 25, 2023

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

0:04 all right so it’s the live stream’s going

0:09 [Music] [Music] up [Music]

0:20 um I can’t I can’t do the live stream because it’s gonna

1:28 turn I’m call us to order at 208

1:34 [Music] [Music] um that’s fine so um Michelle we’re gonna start off with an FY um or if there’s any public comment just raise your hand in the chat Bo or in the participant window I don’t see anyone and then Michelle if you can just give us the

1:57 update um if we can just start with the FY 23 close out and then we’ll go go to the um

2:06 24 so thank you yes we have report shows the fy3 CL our budget was 43,98221 ific number of Staffing vacancies that carried throughout the most year and they they fluctuated it wasn’t the same exact staff that was vac the entire year it was kind of like a revolving door um so certainly made it a challenge in year but with those identified positions it also resulted and identifi funds that were available so going into the fourth

2:52 quarter um we made a decision to put some of those funds to good use into onetime items that um primarily they were were Capital Security student issues for the most part U not necessarily student issues but security issues um so we replaced the outdated caving systems we replaced some security cameras we did door swipe access upgrades for all four schools um security intercom Replacements um our intercom systems were on borrowed time and we did purchase some furniture replaced it throughout the district um so that total was 15,000 which was part of that 13 million and then just to get ahead of

3:38 any concerns out there these all look like one-time expenditures and we do have the legal authority to issue onetime expenditures within that given fisal year we didn’t carry over anything from one FY to another correct okay um I

4:00 and we all of our reps as

4:09 addera yes can I ask couple questions I don’t know if everybody can hear me or not anyway um so these revolving funds look like many of them have balances left over so that’s allowable so you can carry forward in the devolving yes and our goal is to typically um or or what my goal has been for the past four years is to keep one of Revenue Reserve so when we’re anticip when we’re working on the budget the following year we already have those funds on hand that we applying to the next year’s budget um during Co we ran into that situation where we were planning on revenues coming in in fy21 um we did not have foreign exchange Revenue that we had planned on we did not have kindergarten tuition Revenue coming in and we had planned on those for the budget so therefore we found

4:57 that by having or anticipating use of funds that we don’t already have we’re going to some Financial issues so we change that practice we make sure we have the funds in our hand before we actually apply into the next year’s budget and that’s all yes yeah it’s all allowable there are just a couple of state grants that are not allowed to be carried over such as the Metro Grant unless there’s a specific exception they have had an exception the past couple years um very restrict restricted in terms of what we could carry over um other than that the federal grants run for 27 months so we are able to carry them up to the 27 month and all of our so can you just also explain the difference because the descriptives are the same between the Medco Grant and medical pack the medal pack Grant was a

5:43 carryover of the previous year okay so that was the first time they allowed us to carryover and it looks like we’ve expended that yes thank you question um just to speak to larger outliers um as we as we’re go into another um agenda item where we start talking about filling our budget um Glover IEP chair salaries was exp overex expended by a little over 50% so my guess is it’s a coding um item but just I this more so is for you know a lot of the public gets these documents and they kind of want to know what’s going on so right yeah that would have been a quoting issue I believe

6:50 begin okay and then when you go through I notice a lot of themes in here um for instance our tutoring lines um our um peras in our substitute lines have been pretty extremely under spent um is this can you speak to I’m assuming this is a lack of ability to fill these positions primarily yes um just due to the entire nature of Staffing these days any position is challenging however um The Marblehead Head rates are signicantly lower Marblehead rates are signicantly lower okay for exle

7:35 of minimum wage yeah is all I want to that by La not not very practi um so we have had some issues in trying to fill our par our tutors our cafer

7:55 okay yeah yeah um so the need didn’t dry up it was we okay um and then the items I’m seeing overexpanded you know 230% 200% um these things the most volatile ones seem to be um consumables like paper and things like that which is what I think everyone’s seeing when they go to the stores at home too so will you be allocating differently this year in the Budget moving forward yes we will be I the consum cost

8:26 Skyrocket go back down to increase the cost of paper I don’t know the

8:38 exact 40 or 50%

8:45 okay that’s just not sustainable when you’re you’re talking thousands and thousands of dollars of paper we’re not increasing our expenditure budgets and then all of a sudden you know the use of paper the requirements of what we have for paper doesn’t increase so um those costs what we did this year is we tried to make sure that our reserves were not depleted in terms of people certain student supplies that need to this year so while our

9:23 might okay um it Hardware was overextended by a th% yes that was really to take advantage of some of the staff and salaries some of the staff so the dollars are living in the budget lines where the salaries were

9:41 however okay however okay um and then transportation is constantly a volatile market for us but you know I’m seeing Transportation was sitting out for out of districts 200% yes um last year I

10:01 believe there but we did we budgeted 290 we expended 591 so it’s Delta 301 so our transportation cost for district tuition distri students we split between operating budget

10:26 split of the amount is with Grant last year we budgeted a total between those two fun sources

10:40 okay yeah because our IND District in our athletic Transportation was overspent as well um and it’s interesting because it’s not the gas mods it’s a separate line um so our out of District placements also as as always I don’t know that we’ve ever since I’ve been pay attention not over not been over in what comes to fruition versus what is budgeted so have are we have we come up with the number in the percentage Delta that is tracked for the last three to five years so that when we’re making projections we can base it on historical Trends yes I don’t have that I just want to make sure when we go to

11:27 next next and shows

11:38 that’s great that’s really great yeah yes yeah I think that will be if you have it before our next meeting if not we’ll do as a Caro okay so we’ll add that as an agenda item um so those are big our most like areas of this so we’ll just want to we’ll want to cheack those can I just ask a bit of a logistical question also my on on serving so do you over the course of the year vote um

12:22 cost only cost only do when it is impacting budget amount that is going from expenses or vice ver Sal other we don’t just want to goord for what it is is probably not about this was the subject of [Music] in [Music]

13:18 which looks like was probably inapproiate like this is is this practice

14:21 yes as I remember going through the process what came back um20 was that they want to see the trend of where the expenditure is because if we reallocate in these reports what comes out was budgeted the budgeted line would then keep moving and we wouldn’t have yeah no I’m just trying to some historical perspective because abut this is the antithesis of what was discussed for months in the past and with finance committee and in just I

15:07 just want this to this standard practi it’s actually best practice it’s it’s good and I mean I do bring it okay no and I mean it’s perfectly acceptable like I said I don’t like to see the negatives um when I see I actually when we get to 24 I’ve noticed a couple of negatives so I will be on those those schools to make sure we get budget

15:57 absolutely distri not absolutely correct right but when it crosses those two lines salaries to expenses or we’re hiring someone with with expense money absolutely has to go which we did we did one transfer a couple years ago yeah but typically like even when we’re looking at things for this year some of our surpluses and some of our unanticipated costs um we’re only drawing from Sal

16:29 salaries okay thank you um so year to date

16:36 234 234 um so we talk about in your memo here I see last year

16:51 10.9 we have had a little bit we’ve been a little more successful in um attracting teachers this year how far the year are to um this was say of September 30th so one month into the school year or three months into the fiscal year so it depends if you’re looking at a district line or if you’re looking at a

17:15 sta so that’s where it’s tricky because certain lines are are 25% in certain lines are only 10% so because we have full year employees and that some employees only get paid don’t get paid correct the majority of our employees don’t get PA right so yeah so that’s where we should be um certainly I can give you a more definitive percentage that we aim to be each each month going forward maybe that would be helpful um but yeah so this year we did not struggle with filling Staffing positions as much as we did last year can’t say that we are completely fully staffed by any means is part of that we eliminated position I was gonna say that might be part of it we did quite a

18:09 few right or there were people who so left that will drive that data so that um substitutes we continue having a significant number of teaching absences which then creates a further need for substitutes um we do have in this year we using some of our Sesser funds to pay for permanent building Subs um that’s a onee onee funding source for those but we’re still struggling to get these positions filled so one question about that is I remember 19 because Ken recommended it um that we left Kelly and brought it in house because we were paying the

18:56 upart do you feel that we would get a better response with Subs in our buildings going back to Kelly no I do not um I was actually with Kelly Services prior to joining Marblehead so um I have quite a bit of experience with them they were having the same types of issues um at that time frame okay in my previous District so it doesn’t seem to be the method in which we’re filling the positions or or having the Staffing apply to be an employee whether it’s Marblehead Head schools or Kelly Services it Marblehead schools or Kelly Services it it’s really just the lack of Staffing um we did raise our substitute rate a couple years ago we probably need to take a look at that again um and just you know keep up with the

19:50 trend yeah so it is we were actually one of the first to raise our rate in the area but now everyone else has has followed along and it seems like they’re paying 110 115 20 um yeah because we’re not even into the thick of you know cold and flu season and we’ve already had multiple days where we

20:13 couldn’t and it’s unfortunate when I mean we still have coid around when you’re out with coid it’s usually five days so it’s not a short-term absence and that’s at the end of that’s right it really is one thing I see here special ed um it’s

20:35 56% sum summer program no it won’t happen again this summer um I did expect to em about that this morning and I also talked to Paula we did change up the program this year so we shortened the program it used to be a six week program now I believe it’s like four five week okay last

20:59 year4 um cheing out from that that’s a PA is doing right now tracking outcomes from that um maybe a parent survey and we also did we found that we were providing a lot of services that really weren’t necessarily um recommended or with the grids or whatnot so we’re we’re trying to get back to the basics a little bit um because honestly we were burning our staff up we’re using our same staff during the school year that we’re also using dur so um by eliminating a of the summer program staff was much more willing to work that shorter time frame so we did end up saving money so at one point we had asked for projections on some of the salary lines and Staffing lines that we would be drawing from to

21:47 fund um are changes in our central office this that 65,000 wasn’t even part of that so that’s another so we’re correct absolutely correct clear and fine finan right so yes so all of the Staffing changes that have occurred at Central admin essentially will be funded through the unemployment line we raised that budget this year to I believe it was $420,000 um and certainly we did not have the number of layoffs anticipated due to all the cut up positions so we budgeted or you budgeted the school committee budgeted $4,000 for fy4 so all of those 33 layoffs the town asked us to unemployment

22:34 insurance but many of those the way announc but how wasting laid offy away okay a

22:50 bud and it and it wasn’t a one for one honestly if we planned on every single one of those cuts getting unemployment I think our employment budget would have been close to 800,000 plan for

23:03 about about yeah absolutely so we do have a little wiggle room this year and um in terms of out of District tuition costs we haven’t done the analysis yet on our transportation cost for this year um but our tuition cost so far actually a separate report that Emma put together um um okay so basically we budgeted 3.7 million in out of District tuitions um as of today we have funding sources of 4.4 million so we do have a Delta of 689 th000 that’s available un accounted for right yet that does

23:49 include six um unassigned placements that we included in the budget last year so we did add I believe we added seven stud gradu

24:08 right so we still have six placeholders um which placeholders are roughly 310,000 so of that 689 that’s still available um the 31,000 a place go ahead I just one of of I

24:51 don’t at some point doesn’t me be right away um Can someone either you guys or apologist give a little know our after kind what is this because I mean District placement parent placement unal I don’t I would like to understand how we get to these different it doesn’t need to be I even if it’s a 10 conversation just well I just find we have we have

25:20 parents placing their kids and then they’re coming to

25:30 us we either try a lot of times we don’t agree and a lot of times we lose so do we go to hearings when we pay when we go to a hearing we pay their yes as well so so that’s why a lot of them are are parent placements and some of them we choose to go hearing and some of them we choose not to so I would just like to understand that yeah absolutely and that’s why I kind of thought that information was very beneficial is I mean some of these parent placements are you know 68,000 how do we get there gu that’s a separate question that’s a separate whole discussion yes and as we talk about buding also um it would be helpful to know how many of these are in the type of program that if we do an investment

26:16 in building that program in house we won’t see an immediate return on our investment first year we will Canal for our students students if if you know there’s a one off here or there for these Tye items it doesn’t it doesn’t wouldn’t drive invest the

26:40 program program would Des [Music] speciest I mean I think that’s a huge question but also our audit well that’s what I was gonna say because we’re supposedly doing a special education audit and that’s where that is a very big to back very small program yes it’s a big undertaking yeah but where it might be budgetate no I know to my point what I mean is when we do the special education is there something that it’s like use language most people understand what

27:25 language based is if we show that a large percentage of these are language it would be to

27:36 ask okay where are we on that um Paula is finishing writing the specs on it we gonna be putting it up to bit in the next week or so but even to ask for specs like I’m sure

27:58 know know FOC those well there’s also um when we met with one of the particular vendors that we were talking to about the audit they recommend part of the review also extend beyond just special education and go into um tier one and tier two instruction as well so exactly so it’s going to be a little bit bigger than just special education yes um the other piece weed to

28:37 is the ones that we know negotiations not formalized but know there are two that are currently listed as pending new placement or assigned pending placement which are the two students that the business office is currently aware of that the um student services team has packets out faring for placements and so we have attached them to a assign what we believe is a prated number of dollars for the type of program that they would be so okay to the best of our knowledge they are in maybe not their budget mounts are in italic okay which is maybe not the best way tolight those we can definitely do something else to break them a little oh now that

29:24 you say the and then and on top of that you have six onid spots yes yes okay yeah so we’re in decent shape in terms of tuition this year really and I also do want to mention that we were finally able to reach our goal of having a full year of circuit breaker in the bank in reserves um our Revenue that came in was 1.2 million um we were able to carry forward a full 1.2 million that has been a goal of mine since I arrived here um because in 2018 when you had the budget crisis with the special education tuitions every single po of funds was used up essentially so since then we’ve been able to build that up and now we’re going to continue with that assuming we do not have anyal crises we will continue that practice

30:15 so it will be um yeah would be in the yeah it’s in both it’s rolled over and then also on distri report under the proed funding sources that’s why that number is higher um yes than what was originally because we were able toet that goal and we can only carry forward one so we have to yeah that’s the maximum great so um we do have I mean this includes obviously a line item detail like I said a couple adjustments that I I noticed that we’ll need to make we’ll do that for the next quarter um also do the Grant and revolving piece as well do want to mention there are some other expenses that keep popping up um

31:02 given the number of foyer requests we’ve received this year it’s something that I am toying with if the level and the complexity continues with what I’ve seen for the first three months we may need to look at hiring someone unfortunately to deal with these um so far I looked earlier this week we had received 44 foyer request so far this year last year the entire year we received 28 most of them were simple this year have not been simple um in addition to my time and any clerical time this is also racking up our legal list um because most of the foyers are difficult they’re complex um they involve lots of documents and we can

31:49 only charge $25 an hour for a foer as a maximum and certainly that is much less than my hourly rate or the lawyer’s hourly rate as well so who is the you were the public records officer right now I am the public records officer just due to the number and the complexity I strongly felt that a school administrator had that role um and in my previous District I did that as well so um but I never literally I had a handful of I’ve never seen anything like

32:36 given given inity our rec officers officers are well vered in in and I think

33:10 it’s that we have officers to do that and cut

33:25 requirements we also want to make sure we’re not send

33:32 right right absolutely absolutely it’s an area that none of us are experts in and we need to are these requests a lot of one-offs is there a significant my understanding is there is a significant like you know almost 40% from one um most of them are media related unfortunately um we do do have a handful of just these organizational groups throughout the state um handful of just you know couple of not not saying a handful of residents you know couple residents asking for certain particular matters um it’s it’s the widespread request that we’re getting from the

34:22 media in regards to um just any complaint that’s filed within the past four months so the scope is just enormous and I don’t even know how to start on the current one we received um no pun intendant um was would involve us going through every single document that is passed through the hands of this district and email a text uh it says emails text in any documentation with anyone in our system and they list teachers administers coaches tutors parents ET so that would be T of thousands not morec well

35:08 clearly they need to absolutely I’m working with the attorneys to how how to work to all of this but that’s exactly it’s in the attorney’s hands right now which is half dollars and what’s interesting to me is the attorney’s fees we are paying to manage these my understanding have

35:39 exceeding because I haven’t I haven’t seen the latest legal pill yeah so I mean that is that’s

35:51 signicant so you’ll let us know ask I mean at this point I’m just thinking I am hoping with a new transition in central Administration brand new superintendent coming on board um we can just put a lot of this controversy to bed a lot of this just questions we just need to move forward we need to educate students we need to support students we need to stop doing things that we are not experts in doing and we just need to answer to the families well yes we have to but we should beend um scope are just insane so so yes I’ll be watching um the

36:38 legal line going forward as of this report it was not unusual um even though it was you know we did we did have a number of of legal bills over the summer um was not too crazy is that

36:56 inclusive we put extra in because of colle we increased it a little bit yes but um but I anticipate we will go over our year our legal line pretty over last year surprising because there wasn’t there was a

37:22 summer um all right so that brings us to um fy2 budget planning I printed out um provided by Ella um which is the chair of had a really great relationship last year with him it was very pleasant working experience this is an outline or to what he has um given I did

37:53 talk that that’s more for the individual Town Department who then give it to their Finance director and then they do their work we we have our own Finance so yeah no so I I did speak to the town finance director about that um really they’re looking for the November 13th deadline um for to determine what their stud of town address is going to look like so I did say that we would um assuming a consistent Cola and whatnot we would put together a roll forward um with a small increase because really we’ve got two two um marching orders to create two budgets one level services and one level

38:40 funding so in terms of level Services I said we get a rough estimate of what our role forward would be for Mid November so we’re going to do that and then I also committed that we will do our best to have our capital budget items submitted by mid November okay can yes I was G to say um so in regards to funding budget that’s what it is right it’s just same money we had last year buet exactly

39:22 nothing budget we have this year any contractual inrees that we have yeah we we take a look at the individual placements and all that

39:50 yeah the past few years it it it’s been a combination um they really haven’t asked us that they said do what you want but then come in but then after the fact when we put a huge budget together and these principles spend hours and hours and tons of resources and they go to their sa’s and all that and they come back and they’re like oh no we need a level funding budget so it has

40:18 almost in terms of of payroll yes the payroll side of it yes the expense side of it

40:26 princip well we don’t we’re gonna have to do estimates though because we’re colletive bargaining yes absolutely so

40:38 one the piece of this I have TR trouble with there’s lots of pieces I have trouble with on this one but the main one is neither of those budgets addresses the needs of our students it’s keeping level and keeping um Min zero growth but none of them saying what do you need we’ve been saying we want exercise and maybe that number is higher maybe we won’t know until we do the exercise what is the exercise of what it takes to educate the students appropriately Mar I know we have a lot going on right now but we H I do think we have to do that extracise to account for Jen’s been saying it’s not it’s the only budget I will vote for I’ll tell you that right now I will not vote for a budget if I don’t have that to account for what what

41:26 every staff member is doing what all these expenses are doing callil yes because you know people like the zero balance but the true definition zero balance budget is not achievable with the structure that we have um but you know I I Al I call it a cost accountability budget although I will push back and say I don’t I don’t think a cost accountability budget that says saying primarily it’s on the staff side we’re not going to to it’s you know it’s primarily the staff St we

42:05 have to account for every buing Anda bu and will

42:21 us us forward forward exact same budget we had same St

42:47 number I will I’m thinking of it as a different way I’m thinking it as doing the exercise you’re doing but starting with the students we have and their needs and then assigning staff that meets those needs and then that is our list just because we have this list now doesn’t mean we’re going to back into this with our student needs I want to start with our student needs and then produce the list I don’t I’m gonna may have to talk anding these conversations because you’re talk

43:23 about well that’s what I’m saying every that but but what you’re saying I think we’re saying the same thing but I want the end result of what we need I don’t want to just say we have 500 staff and this is what they’re all doing I want to know our 500 sta needed our 400 St 600 sta I want to know what is the staff needed to meet the needs

43:54 okay I am done no like well I think get back to the numers that’s good right this not what I do for business but um I think there’s there’s a lot of work a lot of detailed work in doing a students in the building heads all build that next G right

44:32 yeah I just that is the end result but but the other thing is like the first round of this pretty straightforward deits and credits asking a lot qual and

44:54 I I guess that’s the question you know some sort of are your major gaps yeah like we firm like I’ll take one Department let say special education we should know what our current IEPs are we should know the delivery of services and their grids and the number of hours we have you a staff delivering and some of those hours is overlap some of those hours you know say speech you may be able to service with your three kids at once you may do doing this but just one or whatever it may be I would like I not I

45:33 know and it no I don’t think it’s it’s not exing it’s just it’s gonna but I want to you start with that grid and then you say okay then your end result is school we need this many uh because we’re in this exercise special education we need this many of this type of special educator this many of this or this this one might be match somewhere else I yeah I think it’s important to have because we get Hamed every year that we don’t and I don’t think we are ever going to be successful at getting a a budget that truly reflects what it cost to educate our students if we don’t do

46:18 this well and then I think the other Next Step would be if begin building administ then youve got your Cal super say okay let’s goate where are their potential do we Mo we

46:42 combine oh combine oh absolutely it’s a bigger discussion that that are because although that is not the ideal we are looking at the hardest budget that I I witnessed us have image and I’ve never seen the the orders of zero and and just so you know everybody I know people understand but we always other people listening by law we have to vote the budget that has bed anything beyond balance our Rue is has to go like by law that is a different PA that is over I’m

47:31 do over don’t over byw anything that does not our is

47:41 over we also have declining moment so let’s I mean that’s why this is an exercise that is way over absolutely that’s me unfortunately the the focus of our budget for the past few years has been on the expense side of things which really is such a minuscal piece of our budget so it is that’s saying we need to focus on the stff oh yeah because I mean some of our presentations presentations exactly it’s soim it’s unfortunately but it’s it’s that so do you have some thoughts

48:25 on not 100% I’ve been talking with administrators have been talking with principles um we think we can use Aspen for a little bit of it um it’s not necessarily practice well at the lower levels because the teacher schedules aren’t necessarily in Aspen to the detail level that they are at the middle school high school yeah but you’ve also I was gonna say so it’s it should be a lot easier so it won’t be able to be used consistently in the same manner but I think we can we can easily get all that information exactly do Paul special education director does she have any

49:15 kind I don’t know I would assume if the nasp as well I would think so I’m not positive yes yeah and that’s what I’ve been talking is it more user friendly than like software that’s true

49:35 well right yeah the teachers yeah oh absolutely but we need to dive into it it’s overdue doing this year abely abely right exactly and then the ultimate we may not get accomplish this St but the ultimate goal is then to use the special education audit as a piece of information too because we can’t keep on trajectory on that’s a longer yeah that’s why I said year but once we have this piece built it’s all the found pieces we have

50:27 to did Jennifer I guess Jennifer we boring to I don’t think people can hear well I just because we’re

51:01 [Music] [Music] not terms

51:14 of yeah and I and I do think um the more Community Information we can put out and bring the community into these discussions um the more support we’ll have for whatever I’m just

51:33 very right you know want to be we want to be transparent govern don’t want right [Music]

51:51 panic but um so that’s all of this works into meeting that first deadline a budget obviously right I mean well your level fund level your level Services you have I’m gonna have a good I mean I told her I’m not gonna have my final number till January and by the way s we end level all of this other exercise like you may end up with a

52:24 level well we know we know without a shadow of a doubt we are we do have a there’s no new Revenue production that’s going to commit so we’ll just need to planify what that looks like so I just want penc to our whole committee Our rough IDE

52:43 iic budget presentation June or January 2 but I would like to out you know be the beginning of January whatever you think is reasonable can so can I ask a question do you think coming nober 6 is um I mean have your budget documents out your princi yet they ask first week in November okay they’re gonna be due first second week in December and then we need three to four weeks to put together so we’ll have a few roughly January first where does this where before you get your books in January so those five weeks they the in the five weeks the principes have it will you be going through exercises with them so that’s what you’re doing

53:52 yes high yes high level that

54:12 building the other piece of this that I find the last few years to be somewhat counterproductive is as you said we ask everybody to do this five six weeks of work and then it’s presented to us and one of two things happens we either great thanks check move on which is not or we then start asking questions that really come out as budget directives which In fairness to the people that just SP six weeks they’re kind of like why didn’t I know this before I did this exercise right so I would think to be productive we have a a budget workshop at the start of this so everyone knows our directives and concerns and then when they’re building their budget and presentation

54:59 it’s targeted to the you’re going to be asking about otherwi it seems it doesn’t

55:13 seem we tried to do budget last year there was different um there

55:23 was really wanted to do it this way the rest of them not to

55:45 year well this exercise should be the dir right well that’s what I mean I just gonna say like what else is gonna be our directives because I don’t know if we can add anything no but that’s that’s it that’s your dir yeah in the building what are they doing what do they need and’s in the building for employes what they you account have you worked in a district that does it in different way well I guess budg is there a format in our budget book that tell that’s no it’s it’s interesting because what I’ve used in the past is is what I was planning on doing last year you kind of got derailed a little bit um with our whole budget process so budget book that you guys have seen and I think Jeff has

56:31 seen um is really the budget packets that the schools and directors put together really what you need to do at that point is you need to roll that up into a more concise document that is that really tells a story it has a lot of narrative has a lot of information has a lot we also need that book the way it was oh yeah no you’ll have that as well absolutely will have your binder with your packets but you need to have more of the story out there um and that’s what my goal was for last year we we were not able to do that within the time frame um I have not given up on that goal for this year I actually want to start building that template in the next couple weeks myself um and I I do have a good template from my last District that I used um and I think it’s pretty similar to actually what had been used

57:17 here many many years ago when I was cleaning up files I found some good ones which is very helpful um so yeah so I think it’s going to be more of a story tell what we do what we need um and it’s more for public it’s really to for people to have an understanding of what we do and so that that’s my goal is to have it so I mean obviously the budget books it’s numbers it’s facts it’s hard hard raw data but it gets rolled into another format of a

57:54 book yes agreed I can put on next week’s agenda as a committee is that yeah I can do that in next week’s agenda so like we my dist presented budg priorities and then got feedb from

58:23 school right school right yeah um because it would be yeah I mean awkward to have committe say here’s all these dires without we don’t have a well not only [Music] [Music] that

59:11 [Music] [Music] right I still think we need priorities to a certain extent I mean we did do that in the past and that’s usually that one page full of the list of priorities we have which does from our planet success document um I mean I

59:35 guess understand guess understand principle here’s your bucket right so within that

59:57 suppes guess do they understand Z I don’t think

1:00:05 so yeah those are discussions that have started but they will

1:00:32 what important excise and not aspir what are students whether it’s en where we at and Thena that [Music] [Music] the yeah yeah and like for me one one thing I would I’m going to look at a lens on this budget or is does this maintain differentiated Lear because when you have major budget cuts the down the dirty quickest way to do it is be like all right we’re getting rid of all these levels and we can put more kids in one class and I’m gonna want to know how we still address the

1:01:19 address the address the differenti yeah yeah that’s because from

1:01:36 or well or to to hit those so um so the directive would come usually from the school committee that’s how or together with the

1:01:48 superintendent in the past I mean the superintendent put it together with principles and then it was shared the school committee yeah we but I was gonna say but I think we need to have some school committee involvement in in regards to sending the message out like these are our expectations this is what we’re looking for this year I mean we need to have this partnership um so that we are

1:02:23 successful successful right but I mean the packets are supposed to go out the first week in November anyway so I mean Teresa will be here in a couple weeks I don’t know if she’s going to change what I have for cabinet meetings but we meet every Tuesday morning with all the principes so maybe her first Tuesday morning we have that discussion I mean there’s gonna be a lot of things to discuss that week but I mean we could certainly do that and then maybe we touch Bas of school committee you know the week after because that’s the week of the conference as well so yeah do that regardless they’re already thinking I mean you know it’s it’s really kind of formalizing the process formalizing really what the priorities and

1:03:31 so for a big picture I’m GNA generally CL second week of January for Budget work CHS um I’m sticking to the directive of last year and I will be imov this that we will not vote our after

1:03:54 that well except let’s the latest that they do if Miss first really Cooperative if we need to work with him on things um last year we were the first Department ready um so and we could be and we may be so I I don’t I actually don’t have concerns about that watched how

1:04:42 will so we might be shooting for like you know early to mid March I would say mid March to

1:04:53 V yeah now don’t forget we’ve got bargaining [Music] that’s a really hard piece to this because they are waiting on the health

1:05:07 insurance when is that

1:05:17 any is that because they’re waiting for their what their Premium cost yes see what the town says the Prem what does that have to do with

1:05:36 by what’s the formal process for for communicating with bargy is it our attorney their

1:05:47 attorne and they haven’t done that yet okay so all right so then um I will continue to ask for time

1:05:58 because we can also once we get that we can say let’s begin yeah and see if they’ll come yeah so I just want to it’s everyone’s best interest for us to have real num yeah I don’t understand what the medical has to do with any

1:06:19 honestly that may be but conceptu I don’t understand what that’s it’s an employee benefit and if if the town is ucing

1:06:28 their vice their vice versa they want to at the end there’s no reason to not

1:06:42 start well there is a point usually I I have not been through bargaining here um there is a point where either side can no longer put forward any additional asks so I know we don’t want to get to that point before the PC obviously settles because the union would not be able to bring any other asks to us and

1:07:11 then we’re working on that we haven’t heard anything in terms of actual Trends or enrollments when I talk to Alex because we asked for three to five year trends of um what was budgeted to line and then the individual breakdown of town versus school what was expended again along those same lines on indirect costs yes so what was budgeted what the breakdown was the bud the whole was was expended and then can see the

1:08:07 I have not heard that will Factor administor budget well that will that will factor in but the town is supposed to also give us the corresponding Revenue piece to support those costs um the the challenging piece goes actually above and beyond so they’re also going to give us um funding for the energy reserve and the water Reserve so those combined are $400,000 that they should be adding to our budget and then the other piece correct will not have access to the reserve but we will have that 400,000 we’ve been relying on that 400,000 which is essentially we

1:08:52 set our budget we then plan to go to that 400,000 anything above that comes back to our budget so it really was not a proper proper mechanism um the one area which we’ve just started discussions Emma and I met with um town finance last week is regarding the new Financial software costs um it is roughly going to I believe run if you remember correctly $200,000 a

1:09:21 year for our cost no the the total cost total cost are they giving us 50% that was the conversation the No No so I will die in this I am not laying off a teacher to pay for final Financial software when they are sitting on almost a million dollar that is acceptable use of our except it’s every year well yeah no they they’re gonna pay for the first year which would be this year because they’re planning on going live really soon soon the the 185 or whatever is an anual cost and they’re not giving us Revenue not my understanding and discuss that was an to

1:10:14 the we’ve never paid fin yes

1:10:25 yes but this this is a any coming with it even significantly less not for my understanding but the discussion needs to be continued and Alicia is out of the office this week so yes we will be

1:10:41 discussions I mean if this was not a zero grow year then we could start’s TR you know I mean of better but I’m not willing to lay people off I’m not lay

1:10:55 off off did you get any input on I I know we all like mun but did were were you ask for your

1:11:08 input but munus is the answer years but okay yeah that’s just an ongoing discussion that I didn’t want to surprise you with later on and what about

1:11:25 any yes that another annual cost actually in discussions with two vendors right now um don’t even have cost quotes on those that’s another annual recr cost so so and didn’t have that before correct correct yesing

1:11:50 out they have some significant network issues and by operating payroll through soft right they are opening their servers to be hacked basically oh because their technology isn’t up to

1:12:12 because we can it’s going to take a year or two to transition to that if the time goes in that direction are there any saves in terms of or anything the only save is going to be the filing feal taxes which happens in the treaser office so the town sees the savings they won’t necessarily see savings they going see a savings in their

1:12:43 absolutely absolutely doesn’t we are just one Department

1:12:50 top um our other departments like his health department carrying their share is that’s all that’s all it’s not yes Health Department VES are on budget budget

1:13:09 Department not that I understand but like we brought this up the first time last week okay don’t

1:13:21 have we have 60% more yes the