School Committee: October 24, 2024

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.

0:02 and it looks like from my screen over here this is updating here so hopefully momentarily will be full scale it’s it’s just starting to upload the recording system so I just wanna um I’m gonna put my self unmute for a second John can you unmute yourself so it picks up Mary or I can just repeat whatever it is you’re saying so that the public can hear too

0:35 okay so in person we have a comment from Mary mccarriston I will repeat it so that the public can hear

0:50 it Channel because every time there’s a meeting there’s always a problem Zoom so that people when they get home from work and come home push the button and watch what’s going on in this time you know I feel about meetings should be open if you want the money you need to engage theity and I’m still waiting for that that I sent to the school committe about why in detail that may illegal to have open meetings conc

1:29 cont okay Miss McCarron’s concerns were um oh were you to um oh perfect actually our her concerns were that we should be having our meetings um recorded by mhtv because the zoom was not working um I’m currently sorry I’m not looking at the screen right now um currently signing into the zoom our Tech director was able to um get us up and running uh it’s important to note our meeting is being recorded live streamed and we’ve given full access to mhtv to use any of our live stream to put on their um Channel and they’ve done that in the past um as they see fit so um there also was a question about um Miss mccarrison had emailed with some questions about um advice from our legal council

2:16 and would like an answer on that um it is that’s protected under client confidentiality obviously and and we don’t um our attorney doesn’t doesn’t counsil the public um all right so here we go let’s see if we should be live on this in a second

3:37 should aw all right should be good okay perfect sorry about those tech technology errors um so we’re going to open up the meeting with an FY 24 year end close review um the year end closed on June 30th for people who don’t quite um keep track of when the fiscal year starts and ends um and Mike’s just going to give us an update on that do you want I don’t need to unmute any because you’re muted in your off um and would you like shoot screen shareing capability uh not at the moment no um so I will say that we closed the fiscal year I’m still waiting to work at the town on where some of the revolving accounts ended so I’m little not I’m just not caught up on that yet um we did submit our FY 24 end of year report uh

4:23 it was it was submitted on October 8th I believe uh it was signed by the superintendent and um CFO of the Town Alicia Benjamin uh so that’s all in um we are started uh one of the I on to 25 yet but 24 we did close uh I don’t have the exact numbers on how we Clos we we were under budget uh we did prepay some tuitions okay um but we I I don’t have the exact on how much was back to the town yet well just to note on those prepayments because again I think there’s a lot of um confusion and misinformation out there in the public um there’s been some articles and some statements about how we transferred from the salary lines uh a significant amount into the expense lines that was always

5:09 the plan um as we worked through the fiscal process we were asked to we had we had had some positions unfilled at the beginning of the year um we had budgeted for some unemployment for the layoffs and things like that that didn’t come to fruition because people were able to find jobs and such um so what we had done is and this was asked of us from fincom we had were very transparent about it in all of our budget subcommittee meetings our budget hearing everything in order to save jobs um this is really how we didn’t have to lay off what we had projected to lay off last year we were able to prepay tuitions and tuitions is an expense so our special education when when we say we Transit transferred from staff lines to an

5:54 expense line our special education tuition is an expense so that’s where that transfer was so this wasn’t an under the dark of night Alec we had talked about this all along that what our projected Surplus at the end of the year was was going to be used to prepay out of District tuitions in onetime expenses as is allowable from the law and then we were going to take that savings and frontload it to this year to save some jobs and that’s how and also by doing that as well as increasing our um user fees in Reliance on on the revolving funds that was another way we were really able to find some money and really bridge that Gap it was a it was truly a collaborative effort you know we

6:40 heard a lot from fincom from Alec from Molly um from Pat that they wanted us to dig into those revolving funds we gave much more information on that than we’ve ever had before and we really were able to work together to come up with some ways to quite frankly save some staff positions would you agree so um that’s what that is it it was not um yeah so moving things so I agree last year was the best year I’ve had um I mean with any Department the the information we were able to work through with the school committee and Michelle um to be able to see the full picture of the schools not only the the assign or the allotted uh general fund budget but also the you know grants and revolving funds and how those work and

7:27 rooll and and the more we understand the better um I think it was a collabor ative effort um when we first met Mike I shared some documents um it was just a way that I presented kind of the 23 budget to actual before um encumbrances and then the encumbrances um at some point we’d love to review that for 24 as well not asking for it today um but you know simply lining up like the item by item budget from the general fund what was actually expended by 630 what the difference was Surplus it sounds like a bit and then you know understand the prepayment of of special education out of District tuitions of volatile line item the schools are allowed legally to do that the schools are allowed to move

8:15 line items within their own budget by law right as compared to other other Town departments we have to actually review if the police want to use an over budgeted salary line and spend it on you know training or something we actually have to approve that but the schools are different by the way I just my point was it was a very transparent transfer um we talked about it at most we knew that yeah you were trending towards having some Surplus on the salaries and wages lines because of some unfilled positions and the plan was to prepay those special life costs we we will do that at any point in time because special tuitions Are Always On The Rise and last year specially was coming off to 14% that was not planned for by anybody

9:00 so it’s a very complicated a lot of different funding sources and challenges from my perspective as I continue to learn more um it’s also a very large budget we’re approaching you know we’re not there yet but few years we might be at $50 million right so you know to me if there’s a little bit of a surplus in any given year that’s probably not a bad thing just so people understand my stance on it um when you have a $50 million budget if you’re off by $500,000 to a million dollar that seems like a fairly insignificant amount of a Miss um if you have a surplus of 10 million that’s that’s a little bit different um um and Alec you may know this number um also you know there’s some numbers floating around about what portion of

9:47 the budget the schools are yeah and I think we’ve talked about this in the past the Hope was for FY 24 we were going to have the information to bring the um health insurance and stuff those the revenue stream for that as well as the cost for that over to the schools so that we were seeing a clear picture of what it cost to run our schools um the way our town does it which I think a lot of municipalities do I think most do it the way that it’s historically been done here yeah where the town pays all the the insurances and it stays on their side but when we do our reporting to desie right um that that number is part of the rep yeah your net School spending is much higher than than this what I’m yes so you know some folks take the number of what our allocation at town meeting is divided by our students and

10:32 say this is what we’re really spending but that’s not how School spending happens at the Desi level they take the Allin value and when we’re Allin I think it’s about 61% of the town’s Revenue goes to school funding correct yeah so what I had done was I I just ran a bunch of analytics on all the all the budgets and when we remove um the you know water and sewer and harbor the Enterprise funds and then we leave Insurance where it is that’s where it’s about a 50/50 split yeah if you were to you know pull out the insurance attributable to School Employees and move it back then you’re closer to that 60 plus split I age I don’t know if it’s

11:18 61 exactly but I think my numbers were somewhere between 60 and might have even been closer to 65 than I did so um that being said we’re working um not to jump around but we’re working on a much more more detailed forecast with Alicia when I say we Alicia is working on it fincom is facilitating it having liaison meetings we met with Mike um about this recently and we’re collecting data as best as we can to put together hopefully is the goal the best financial three-year forecast that Marblehead has ever had and be able to apply different assumptions for various ways to forecast that um obviously that then can get lined up against the forecasted revenue for 3 years that’s probably a little bit

12:04 easier to forecast the revenue because we’re kind of fixed under proposition two and a half our largest revenue Source property taxes um but the goal would be that that exercise is done by early December and presented independently to both fincom and uh the select board which allows fincom to understand what’s going on and ask questions and you know challenge certain things um it also allows the select board to be educated on what the financial condition of our town is based on various assumption levels um as they enter their state of the town in January and then ultimately the more deeper budget season between January and town

12:49 meeting to figure out what’s going on in the warrant I think everybody understands what I say about that so yeah so we I want to make sure we’re staying to the agenda so I don’t I have a lot of questions but I’m going to hold those till we get to the y 26 planning yeah agenda item um so we will we’ll have another meeting where we get more granular on the FY 24 um in in the reporting um we’ll put that in the next agenda item now when we talk about FY 25 where we are right now um I’ll kick this back to Mike to give us you know an idea one of the things I’d like to hear is my sense is our out of District placement may be growing a little bit quicker than they

13:35 have in the past or maybe not maybe I’m wrong I don’t think it’s any quicker I think it’s just continuing to Trend in that direction for a multitude of reasons and that’s stuff that I’m working on with uh you know the student service yeah there I just want to give the caveat so much work has been done in student services to address What’s Happening Here in District but also to address you know our out placements and I’ve been here longer than anybody else in this room and I am incredibly impressed with what I have seen um to to get in line with the kids need that was the first priority but also to be um fiscally you know responsible and it’s it’s a lot of work that yeah and I appreciate you saying that out loud especially in the public forum they’ve been doing a ton of work not to get too far off the agenda either it’s there’s a

14:21 lot of work yet to be done um there’s a lot of programming we’re looking at there’s a lot you know that have fiscal ramifications but more importantly uh to make sure we have program short up um so that kids are getting what they need um with the resources that they need in the programming that’s uh need to solidify a little bit so that comes with some you know looking at Staffing efficiencies looking at programing efficiencies looking at uh kiddos that are out of district and who and when are they potentially ready to come back IND those are all conversations that happen all the time um but we have a lot of work to get to that to that point where we can start making better assumptions and better um projections about those things uh it’s going to take a little bit of time because there’s a lot of stuff we have to unpack I feel like I’ve seen a Year’s worth of growth in the work that’s been

15:07 done in in a couple months and I think and and I appreciate that I think um I think what folks need to understand it’s probably going to be you know a year and a half plus to get kind of a baseline to be honest with with how with some of the stuff we’ve uncovered but that’s you’re not blameful it’s just it is what it is and I think there there’s a lot of things we’re going to look at that are going to um end up in some efficiencies I think we’ll realize over the next you know year so okay so I’ll kick it so in terms in terms of fiscal 25 funding you’re working to make changes to implement the the you know the programs that you’re trying to implement you’re still restrained with existing budget correct

15:52 so um that those kinds of things are what we’re kind of we’re interested in we’re not trying to you know we don’t we don’t know how to run a school system we’re we’re just trying to understand the the financial side so that you know we’re all on the same page and I think it makes sense so you know I mean we have our salaries that we know that are in place and then tuitions that we know that are in place but like at any given moment this this is the conversation I’ve had for my last 25 years in in education is at any given moment you could have a child that moves into district and out District placement cost a couple hundred thousand or a kiddo who would’ve been you know struggling with um providing an education for could all just require that extra level of care um after we try all the different Avenues and that could

16:38 result in a substantial increase in tuition so you know I think typically what happens in any school district if you get one or two of those giant like you know residential type placements that can cost you know you know quarter million half million dollars um those are conversations sometimes you have to go back to the town and say this is so far out of our budget that we have to have a different conversation we’re not there um yeah we talked last year the the full Financial picture we call it the p&l it’s probably not a great way to describe it it’s not a business but um that’s an accounting term but um like we talked about seeing the full special education picture and I thought we saw it way better than I’ve ever seen it before right we we have the

17:23 circuit breaker carries 100% of the previous year’s funding there’s other lines I I don’t I have it in front of me but uh there’s other special education lines and I think one of the things we’ll work on this year is there’s prepayments that’s part of the so I think one of the things I can work on this year to be part of the budget book is a lot of the language we talk about in our presentations and our meetings that the general public might not you know circuit breaker this and that maybe having a definition page in here because when we talk about um tuition revolving fund people are like what do you mean to so I think it will be helpful because um you know for Mike and and John who come from J sare this might not have been like a hot meeting that people attend we

18:10 get a lot of people that attend and we get a lot of people that follow this which is good they want to know what’s going on but then when they take what we’re saying and maybe don’t we didn’t take the time to to explain our lingo if you will I think that will be help and Mike I know you’re great at the the spreadsheets your I attached also it’s called the full p&l we have to call it that if we don’t want but it’s it’s a summary of everything so it might be helpful for you as you build the role of both the revolving and grants and um you know this year I think we’re asking that we look at the schools as um I mentioned this to you both when I met you like all of the expenses and all of the funding sources and how do we do it not just hey this is what we’re getting from the general fund these are

18:55 general fund expenses and we’re not I think I think that’s we want I just want to make sure we’re acknowledging too Alison is joining us remotely so I think it’s sometimes hard okay oh yeah you can’t see that my hand is up I’ll literally raise my hand it’s popped up on my screen but only because I’m the host it’s it’s in like a glare on your screen I know I I can I can tell it’s a it’s fine I it’s not it’s not rush um I just wanted to add in so I’m on the school committee goals subcommittee team as well with with Brian and so John and I think Mike you might be aware of a little bit of this um we have our draft goals and one of those goals that we actually talked about is having more of a glossery and an outline of the budgeting process to even and I couldn’t agree more and

19:40 I’ve said this countless times in public meetings because I think it’s important for everybody to hear the data that we have now for everything budget related for the schools is is insane and all of the special education work that Lis Marie has done I can’t be more grateful for that and I know it’s only going to get better and these are some of the things that the public for years asked us for instead of having you know a big giant binder that they had to go down to widger Road and flip through if they wanted to see it um so I think that distinction is really important to be made and I think it it sometimes gets lost in the shuffle um but the school committee goals part of that is improving what improving how we explain or the documentation that we can provide so that the public can understand how

20:27 this budget process works it’s not the five people on the school committee saying we think 10 million is okay let’s do that you know that just even going back to that level of granularity because there seems to be or what I’ve heard is a lot of confusion in the community about it so um I’m excited to hear this discussion because I think that’s in line with what we have for one of our school committee goals that we’ll we’ll talk about um at a school committee meeting at our next one I think and I think it’s all and I appreciate you saying that also I think and it’s also important that when we have those discussions and and not just clarifying or or making sure folks understand it establishing a budget packet that is yes clear concise and understandable in in L layman’s terms so to speak so you know I look at a 100 page budget book you know joq Public’s

21:13 not reading through that and they’re not going to understand any better you explain it how do we streamline that process get all the information in there that’s pertinent and that people want to know without for a lack of better term all any fluff that doesn’t really be in there so that those kind of think about when we bu absolutely I think and I think Brian added like something from our last meeting like a like a couple of one pagers for different pieces of it too because I feel like when there’s a one-pager particularly if it’s more of a diagram than you know a page of actual writing people tend to ingest and kind of you know take that in more so um I’m I’m game for whatever we can do to make that process better okay continue to

21:58 make that process better I should say Mike are you able to kind of zero in on the out of districts and let us know I know in our budget planning we usually carry a couple placeholders have we used up those placeholders um are we essentially On Target do you think we’re a little bit over do we still have some room including any likelies so um just from a 24 standpoint if we can just back up just a stab I I’ll cover that so when I arrived soft is not an ideal system for any we’re going to have we hate soft right shirts printed and that’s fine uh it does not allow us to encumber payroll so when 80% of your budget is salaries it’s very difficult to know where you stand with salaries when it won’t encumber um the

22:43 second biggest expense is out of District right I mean that’s it’s just it’s a known thing you granted circuit breaker covers a lot of it on the back end but that’s always a as a reimbursement so from my from when I arrived here I rebuilt the FY 24 fy2 budget into a spreadsheet format that I was familiar with who that well nobody else was familiar with it so you may love it but it makes sense you can report but I well I can report on on what’s budgeted I know where where things are supposed to be um expended to so when somebody calls me says hey where can I charge this I can quickly go to my spreadsheet 20 tabs in it and say this is where it’s going to be charged to and um that was that was my first undertaking got that I think pretty pretty well under control it also has all the salaries in there every employee

23:30 where where they’re aligned to where the accounts are aligned to so that we can match up and I’ve met now twice with each principal to say hey I want to make sure I’ve got a everybody in the right spot well I met with them all once this week I started meeting with them for the second time um so that’s the salary because it’s such a big part of our budget um I felt like it was important to do that what I also started doing this week was encumbering salaries now I just said soft R doesn’t do it so we have to do a little work around so U my intention is to open up eight purchase orders one for each month starting with the mon month of November and then right through the end of the year I’ve got everybody in a spreadsheet how they’re paid weekly bi-weekly when their longevities are due when their um when their stiens are due everything into a spreadsheet by pay period and yesterday

24:16 I put in the month of November I got a PO in for the month of November for everybody’s salaries for the month of November and at the end of November I will close that PO I will in essence delete it delete that PO and that will kind of give us a tracking of how we’re doing on month over month you know are are our salaries exceeding our budget are they under our budget um I could also look at it line by line but but as a whole this is like a nice barometer to say you know it’s going to take us three months to get there to see how that barometer is working so by sometime in January or February we should be able to say hey we’re tracking in a good way with salaries or we’re not tracking in a good way with salaries when should we be transitioned to napon units I know Mary’s still working on that for the schools in town

25:02 um to be able to functionally use a program that’s designed for all this without all that extra work on your end technically um payroll doesn’t kick in until January 26 on unus so we’re a full year and two months from even the point where we could start doing those things but hopefully as soon as we start then it will quickly flow into a line that I’ll be able to encumber encumber salaries so um so right now this week en covering salaries has been my focus once I get that out of the way the other thing I’ve been looking at is is a of District tuitions obviously those are our two biggest things salary is huge from a percentage of our budget and the second largest thing is is the a district tuitions so that’s my next Focus um I did take a peek at them earlier this week There’s I have some some work to do on

25:48 how things are being charged to what accounts we have four accounts plus circuit breaker we’ve got um collaborative account which is our collaborative school team um nor Shore education collaborative those those tuitions have to go into a special account just for reporting purposes it’s still a tuition account um then we have our private day one do you guys have questions of why collaborative is different I know why it’s different it’s like the tuition structure correct no just how I paid just how I report them on my end year report if if we don’t charge them off to the right accounts now it makes me doing that end year report okay uh a much larger task I’ll keep a professional yeah but it makes it a much larger task um so we have to report on that that what what’s what they call public day

26:34 which is a collaborative School M we have to report private day which is a private um special education placements it’s not run by any you know it’s run by a private private institution uh and then we have private residential so we have to report those three things the fourth one is really not a special education one but it’s recovery and it’s for our students who are seeking um you know assistance to overcome some some um um addictions so those are the four tuition lines that we need to worry about and then we have circuit breaker um I’ve seen circuit breaker done a couple of different ways we just charge everything off to the LDA at the end of the year we just do a a line Adam transfer to get all the money back to Circle breaker through Circle breaker um I to me that’s not the best way to do it so I have been working with special

27:20 education to say okay all of our private day we’re going to pay out of circuit breaker and then um the residential and the seam will come out of this we’ll we’ll make everything flush out in the end um but I think that they are they’ve done such a great job identifying students and where they are and what their tuitions are just getting them onto a PO has been the next step in their process so we’re still working on that so once we get them onto a PO we have all of our salaries on POS um what’s really left is your day-to-day purchasing your utilities sorry utilities is the next one but then your day-to-day purchasing your supplies your textbooks uh your contracted services and um I’ve stressed with with everybody who frequents in these areas is that we should be getting the M purchase orders

28:05 early so if we know that we spend x amount of dollars with um I was going to say National Grid but mobel headlight Department we should have a purchase order in for mobel headl department for our entire year and then we can watch how that’s trending every month up or down what we pay the bills are we trending the right you know we know last year we spent $200,000 on on electricity how we TR you know we open up here for 200,000 as we get 6 months into of the year we’re going to see are we high or low and the same thing with natural gas with our national good are you able to give us the breakdown of the four right now what we are budgeted what what we’re budgeted for and what we’re carrying at this point for collab private day private residential and rehab and where if there’s a Delta is it specific to

28:51 certain areas we’re seeing it more so uh I can tell you what was budgeted for each of those okay uh collabor tuitions was budgeted at $713,000

29:07 private day was 426 and I and I think what’s important there is is private day is much higher than 426 but we use a circuit breaker to offset that okay so so part of the expenses going up to 426,000 will go to the local budget and the balance will go towards circuit breaker okay uh and then uh residential tuitions is 1.2 million and what do we budget for Rehab um I do not have that in this I have a line for it I do not have a number on it okay and then do you know although I thought it was 48,000 so what do we have right now placed in those as of right now we’ve expended nothing yet to date on private day on um I’m sorry um recovery high

29:52 school that’s good to hear doesn’t mean the bill hasn’t come in yet we’re only no I wasn’t talking from a financial standpoint I was just saying good to hear yes yeah absolutely no doubt but collab but for collaborative private day and private residential what are we caring for cost 2344 million uh was the budget and I I think what we’re still trying to get a grasp on is what the actual known the kids that we know are out of District right now what their what their costs are okay again I’m working closely with Lisa muray and her team it’s just one of the it’s one of the things on the list yeah yeah so I guess like when we take a step back and if we can at our next meeting see like the fiscal year 24 detailed budget the expended by 6:30 and

30:38 then the detail on encumbrances SL prepaid tuitions and whatnot along with the the data I shared on the revolving accounts and um grants that rolled this was what was carried into 24 so then you’d be starting there and then rolling it what came into 25 that’s all good data as we build 20 six to say okay where like as we get deeper and deeper into the the year here like what are we forecasting that we might be able to prepay in special ed tuition um what are what’s our circuit breaker look like now does it still make sense to keep it in 100 I think that’s the goal of the school committee um is there anything else we can revisit and whatnot so I guess um at our next meeting I’d like to

31:23 do these I can get to the 24 I think the 24 is it’s easier to do I I think what what we going have to to give you as a side note is um the prepaid tuitions because when I show you when I give you 24 it’s going to show that 900,000 we prepaid it’s actually going to show as an expense in 24 so there is no separate line for that it was paid out in 24 it is a 24 yes but if possible to see how last year we had like 23 budget expended by 630 and then that is your kind of surplus or deficit before incumbrances it we’re not saying that it’s wrong to prepay special I think that’s a good strategy given the volatile line item pre special is going to be in this column if you could anything that was on

32:09 a PO after June 30th B week home c carryovers yeah if you can break it out it doesn’t have to be perfect no I can give you exactly this or you could put it in multiple columns but I’m going to give you a little note that said we pray prepaid $900,000 yeah exactly but it’s already and that that was true when we did this too I believe because you can see right here that if we can’t prepay this $900,000 that’s so but you can see right here the when we did this in 23 you know the salaries were over we had budget over what was actually spent by 630 but you can see like collaborative tuition there was 474 th000 spent by 630 above what was budgeted I’m guessing some of that was prepayment just like you’re saying do you know what I mean and the other part of this is where’s your circuit breaker offset so did it looked like we overpaid but we we didn’t take the circuit breaker is not in this

32:56 yeah so I mean that’s so what is good to have with the spreadsheet is and is what kind of we would get in the past is we’d get a spreadsheet but then we’d get like a onepage narrative with some bulleted highlights ear end close we turned this over to the town we prepaid this much to special education we spent this on onetime expenditures that were allowable in addition to the prepayments kind of just a short one pager with some bulleted for the year end close that’s a little bit higher level and then the other piece um we’ve been working on for the last couple years and have we were doing it then we stopped doing it and we started doing G was we had a tracking sheet for our out of districts we obviously before someone

33:43 emails me we obviously redacted the students of course um there was no student information shared but it it would list the school it would list the cost of the placements and then we’d have placeholders at the bottom and then there was this other um um area at the bottom that were ones that were likely not we haven’t had we didn’t have documentation on yet we hadn’t signed agreements yet but for fiscal purposes potentials um and we in what in a graduation year and what year they were coming off for because we use this as a tool for projections we have to be very careful on how much information we put in that that’s not reacted your graduation really identifies some students so we’ve yep we’ve gone around

34:29 around the mberry bush on this one multiple times we have had two different firms weigh in on it um so yes but we’ve gotten it to a point where it was allowable and and usable um what it was really helpful for is when you take that and you compare three years of that Trend you can start to get a three-year trend of where how where are we growing each year which is helpful to our special education department for targeting any potential growth or interventions but it was helpful from a fiscal standpoint for if we’re if if special education is growing at a rate that is different than salaries or other expenses we know that and we can use that in our Pro projections as a growth rate but you really need like the three

35:15 years or three to five years to kind of see a trend in that growth rate if you will so because I don’t disagree having Trends is great I think special education through a wrench at us last year when Desi allowed a 14% increase abs just went absolutely we can only do what we can do you know what I mean we can do what we can do and these anomalies happen and you need I think I think I you know I’ll look at I like I like to look at that you document you were just talking about just to make sure because whether we put it through lawyers and stuff or not or gone through the vending system I still I I’m huge on student confidentiality and I’ve been in situations where we didn’t think it was going to be able to um with all that and find out that it’s identified with a kid and then you get a parent saying like that’s clearly my kid and that’s not

36:03 cool so I’m just I just I absolutely absolutely want to make sure confidentiality is very very important but it’s also very important for us to be able to know the trends are we losing a lot in language base are we losing a lot in this because then we can advocate for increasing funding to fix the program because the number one thing is it’s better for students always more important than money I know these two might be like oh Sarah’s asking for money again but it’s the best thing is we want to make sure our students can get what they need here so you can fix those programs but then also it’s better fiscal management to to proactively work on what we need stop the outflow and you

36:50 know invest in our system here so we we want to help students and be fiscally responsible um and the projections are helpful so I can certainly I’m certainly provide a one pager on the fy2 24 close out um you know I think one of the things that that will stick out on that is that this column over here that you have is is what we carry forward under contract on posos certainly ex it’s encumbrances at the end of the year um that number can only get better meaning maybe we encumbered something that we actually didn’t receive the services for or or whatever else so there may be money that comes back to town at the end if we can’t spend everything um yeah no it’s just it’s helpful to understand the

37:35 full picture um it’s not to call anybody out or anything it’s just I I just want to see the numbers There’s No Agenda other than when I understand how something’s working better then we can build this year’s budget better so that’s I can certainly get the 24 um for 25 you know my my hope is my plan say I hope my plan is that by the end of November Che by the end of October everything will be encumbered but by the end of November we’ll actually be able to report some usable data I’ll be able to give some reports before that one month worth of actuals basically exactly see how we’re trending with the p with the encumbering of of the salaries and making sure that all the all the um special education like I alluded to earlier we’re we’re going through this

38:21 forecasting exercise which Mike has been involved with with the school side of it and we started with fiscal year 25 like a effectively another version of what you all were trying last year with like Staffing accountability like Beyond just titles and numbers to budgeted amounts like individual by individual who’s actually working what are funded positions that are not filled right now um and what what I got from Mike was there’s a fair amount of still vacant positions that were budgeted for 25 so um I’m interested in as we move along here like that would indicate that like there would likely be another Surplus on the SS and we just and I want to give a caveat cuz again and I apologize for all the the Side Stories here but we’re up

39:08 against a bit of a you know some misinformation we’ll put it that way we have some vacancies yeah this is not that people are unwilling to work in Marblehead for the positions we have put out and tried to fill you have been successful in getting people to be very happy to work here John has done a great job with his team about finding some inefficiencies and rectifying those some positions that may have been put up that may not actually be needed and those are the ones that are still quote unquote unfilled correct me if I’m wrong that’s where I’m kind of going with I mean when we met I mentioned you guys clean slate here you’re the professionals this is the budget you

39:55 guys are presenting this data to us as we tackle special education out of District tuition challenges and whatnot we look to you all to make these decisions if there’s a funded position that doesn’t need to be filled that’s not up to fincom but we do want to see the quite frankly I mean those things will become clearer and clearer as we go through the school year right now like I I’m not going to tell you there’s you know x amount of positions that we’re definitely not going to fil right there’s positions that were we’re looking to fill because they need to be filled positions that trying to fill that are being be becoming difficult to fill because there certain areas where this tough time a year to fill you know World Language positions positions you know the highend positions are hard to fill at any given

40:40 time so um but Sarah’s Point yes we’re we’re looking at those efficiencies and all we ask is that we look at the big picture and say you know if if there’s an opportunity to restructure the budget in any way you can to make it work as best for the schools and the children of Marblehead then you know we advocate every day and that’s exactly our point about it’s your it’s your job to figure out how to run the school system and especially with the flexibility of the bottom line budget right and so the the scrubbing that you’re doing that’s and not only is it a good message for you guys to for us to hear from fincom but the town is going to want to hear this because um there there could

41:26 be some you know I think you’ve got an opportunity be here

41:34 to to put some positive um positive Viewpoint out that may not have always been the case so and also a lot of these Vegas I’m looking at the report right now I like lunch pars they work two hours a day it’s not going to give us a huge Surplus yeah there are there are other position but when I told them all up it was pretty significant and a lot of them have been filled I mean there was there were two custodian positions in I think like August when you did oh yeah know this this uh you can look on you know the opening position I think like yeah I think Molly’s going to reach out to get this refreshed maybe and as you go through working this for fiscal 25 this is why that this is important for projecting to the Future for for

42:22 26 so we did we lose Alice no she’s still here I just wanted I wanted to check my hand was up and I don’t know why sorry you still had your hand up before okay I just didn’t want you to not be one thing that John has been really great at working at for us because you know we hear it in the community we hear it from you guys justifiably is you know when we look at the data on our dark communities on our peer communities on desie the state average is n or is 11.9 for stat to student raising and ours is 10.3 um the lowest on the NorthShore with the lowest sta to student ratios on the North

43:07 Shore why and it’s fair for people to ask that you know why and there could be great answers there could be answers that need a little bit more teasing out so John’s doing a lot of work on that right now I think you’re going to be really happy with the document he’s building it’s it’s in process yeah it’s taking a little while yeah but um he’s early this is this is is early budget but he’s taking it all the way to the level for instance that will say this teacher teaches the third grade and has 22 students this teacher teaches this at the high school has five sections and their average class size is 13 I wish I was making that number up I’m not um so this is information this is really helpful information it will

43:53 highlight areas that we may be understa areas that we may be overstaffed I don’t know what we are that’s not for me to to decide our the really important thing is is that um our administrators are working on getting real data to drive what we’re Staffing rather than just saying we had this last year we’ll roll this roll this over this year because we’ve heard we’ve heard from the public loud and clear our enrollment is decreasing our headcount for Staffing did not decrease um at anywhere near that rate if at all I think it actually grew a little why and the why is important um it will talk about our special education programs some of our programs delivering presumably delivering Services now is different from 10 years ago yeah so there are some

44:39 programs that need a higher ratio it’s so that the students can learn appropriate that everybody’s safe the work’s getting done and so I just wanted to let you know in case we touch on that that’s exactly what when all a couple months back it was a great meeting just you look at this fresh and do the right thing with the amount of resources you have to do so trying to yeah and it sounds like you know I hope my spreadsheet that I shared will help you but I know you’re capable of putting it all in this in your own way to show the same to collaborate on so as we move into the FY 26 planning um I know I’m going to tun our own horn a little bit last year you guys used two

45:25 years you used us as the example to the town of what you want the reporting to be um as far as we how well we were reporting at the granula level you gave us a lot of praise and I was really happy with that um each year we’ve done a little better what are the areas that we want to work on this year obviously we won’t give you less than what we’ve given you in the past but are there any areas that you are asking us to produce um well I mean aside from what I already went over I kind of summarized we got data last year in a number of ways and then we I summarized it the way that it made sense to me so replicating that in your own way is fine um

46:10 additional data Beyond kind of the most recent years uh budgeted to actual encumbrances um a roll forward of all your grants and your revolving accounts um and then a discussion I think that was like we talked for two hours last year we went through every revolving account and grants just like a general fund budget like is there a flexibility to use this on certain items in the general fund um so again that’s not an addition to last year but you know a lot of that work I kind of summarized myself before that I will tell you I think you got a chance to see this Alec joined us for some of the bargaining we’re getting a lot of push back for some of the um last year townwide it wasn’t only the schools townwide there was a push to use some of our other revenue streams our

46:55 revolving accounts um things like that anything we could fees to really offset the structural deficit and we did that um for our our Sports and really made them self-funded we got a lot of push back and in fact um the part a big part of negotiations is they want no fees and I think there needs to be an understanding that those fees are what are paying salaries right now and if we take away the fees currently in the funding structure we have we don’t have another Revenue stream I think it’s clear important to say those fees are covering salaries of programs that would not run right we’re not we’re not paying our everyday teachers with fees the fees

47:41 to play football are playing for coaches and a trainer that exercise also we were able to realize that there was somebody um you know the director of Food Services could now be paid out of the school lunch revolving account like that’s a big number right like for to be able to shift it and frees up more money for you to spend on other things within by the way is we were able to because we figured out during the during the FY 24 we were able to slide it for FY 24 into that revolving fund that year which produced more of surplus that we’re we’re not advocating for for spending revolving accounts in ways that they shouldn’t be but we’re also not advocating for building revolving accounts for no reason no exactly exactly but this we’re in we’re in a

48:27 tight Revenue situation here in the town of mad that the tax levy is what it is without an override overrides are not guaranteed the schools are going to be allocated a certain amount from that Revenue based on two and a half plus new growth and New Growth is very limited so to me looking at the full picture of all expenses and all revenue sources and making it work as best as you can before you consider if you need additional funding through an override like that’s that’s where you start and then go forward so it was a very fiscally responsible decision and again worked really well with all Town departments to do this um but again it’s our meetings aren’t just for us to exchange information it’s really The public’s chance to see why this is happening how the business is happening so I think

49:14 it’s important for people to understand these fees are are funding these programs and allowing us to keep them versus making unfortunate cuts that would harm our students so I think that’s important I want to touch really quick and again this is going to feel really dumb per perhaps um to some the people in this room but I I think again we get used to our language and it’s something that we really need to talk about there is a structural deficit in our funding townwide then there’s potentially operational quote unquote deficits as we as we settle contracts they’re two different things and I think that’s hard for people understand the structural deficit is how much of our Revenue stream

50:00 is relyant on non- guaranteed non-renewable resources like free cash for years we were increasing our Reliance on free cash by about what about $2 million each year yeah I think we also were diminishing any sort of um reserves that were left within the general budget yeah so there was a lot of not best fiscal practices happening and there’s been a very concerted effort for multiple years now townwide um since you took over to address how we’re using our free cash and to try to address this idea of a um the the structural deficit so when you hear in town the talk about we may be seeing an override for a structural

50:46 deficit that will not increase each pot of money that each each individual Department necessarily is getting what that will do is fix our overreliance on free cash which is not a renewable resource per se I guess it it gets recertified every year and fix that issue so when we talk about just ask for more money and we talk about the the contracts that we potentially um hly are settling soon the new money that would be needed to settle any potential contracts is an addition to fixing the structural deficit so those are two different inter connected issues but

51:32 both would require overrides to fix them so I think that’s a big piece that’s out there in town that people don’t understand that if there is a townwide override for to fix a structural def deficit that’s not raising our our bottom line of what we have to spend it’s just actually allowing us to have the money um I didn’t describe that probably in the best way so if someone wants to correct that so I guess what we’re saying is if contracts stayed where they were and they’re not going to they’re going to be settled at some point but if they stayed where they were under the current contract and the same Cola adjustments I agree that it would be difficult townwide to just fund what we already have right soing no no

52:18 increases right that being said I think looking at the big picture and revisiting the cost structuring of a school or or whatever other you the fire department the police department is also part of that like do we have certain funded positions that we don’t need to be like that’s part of it as well um but yes there is a structural challenge as I prer to it deficit is a the better term for it um regardless of whether the the contracts get settled at a higher amount above where they we still don’t have enough money D yes but that being said I think they do interact the two and we need to be considering contracts that are being considered as well as um revisiting the cost structure of everything as we move forward um you know what I mean like the schools in

53:05 fiscal year 23 if I look at the salaries and wages line it was $2.5 million less than what was budgeted so I also hear you know this is why we’re in this situation and it it to me it doesn’t feel like the schools have been underfunded from the town to the to the general fund these last two years the data um that being said like the contract being negotiated is a totally different thing from that right because if the if the contract gets settled at a much higher amount then there might be we that Surplus would exist that sense yeah Alison just texted so she have to jump on the call okay you L cor

53:51 um we I cannot deliberate or take a vote which none more on the agenda I I cannot deliberate on anything so I cannot share my opinion on anything um we can continue I can ask questions um I’m just telling you now the meeting LW things that that are po up I can ask questions maybe what would make sense is if we can at least attack the budget calendar talk the calendar and we can talk about fact this has been really helpful to kick things off and and I agree like we didn’t expect you to come and present anything El today Mike um but we can talk we already talked about a few things and then let’s talk about the calendar and I kind of alluded to I was trying to articulate what the townwide is doing right now so that we

54:38 can try to align with that because that would be helpful yeah so um this forecasting exercise which is kind of like I’ll call it like out of scope of what we’ve generally done on the fincom that now that’s not to say Alicia and teams prior to her didn’t forecast every year it’s just we’ve taken more of a um a collaborative effort to meet with individual departments and Alicia to really dig into the forecast of the next few years um and better understand what’s going on earlier in the process so the goal right now is that that presentation from Alicia and Thatcher will be involved in that too to select board in fincom will be in early December so that and that is ahead of it usually gets delivered at state of the

55:25 town in like late January right which it still will February but it’s going to get presented to them first not just a revenue forecast but a revenue for 3 years plus an expenditure forecast you’re going to have to apply some assumptions to that certainly if contracts aren’t signed by them right um so you might have to run when when I say you I mean Alicia and and us helping her get there you might have to run multiple exp like you know this is a forecast assuming these assumptions this is a forecast assuming these and this is a forecast assuming these like I said the revenue shouldn’t be that hard to forecast with the documented assumptions but it’s the expenses without contracts signed on the school or the town side that is very hard you have to apply some sort of methodology to it so that’ll be

56:11 presented in early December that gives fincom time to really digest and understand even ahead of state of the Town what what they’re what we’re entering as we enter you know budget review season Once your budget is actually drafted and presented to us in all the town departments um it also from my persp perspective allows the select board to think about their messaging um when we get to State of the town so this isn’t like hey you know state of the Town here’s where we’re at we have a lot of work to do over the next three months we’re hoping to accelerate it given the you know uncertainty and this challenges that we’ve seen over the past few years so that the forecasted presentation goes to them and Us in December and then state of the town is more they should have a general idea of where things are headed at that point when stay in the

56:58 town usually it’s usually in like middle but it’s been as as late as like the 31st before so even or February I’m not I’m not in a rush to is free cash then said to be certified yet uh I haven’t asked that question um it should be certified generally in the fall in certainly before December 31st I know it wasn’t last year so but there’s been a lot of turnover in and again so that can easily be an assumption based on our best you know are with information that’s available so it’s as El said there’s I you all if you all need Revenue projections prior to December like I could probably give it to you right now I you know last year’s Levy

57:44 was 73.2 Million 2 and a half% of that is 1.8 million the new growth is going to be an estimate based on recent Trends so I put somewhere between 3 and 400,000 for that so that’s about 2.2 million in increased property taxes right um we talk about splitting that last year 50/50 when health insurance stays on the town side it’s about a 50-50 split we also put some of that into free cash last year so if you recall that the schools only were allocated 750 of that originally last year because they put 500 of it or so into free cash schools did end up getting 250 at the buzzer which yeah again less than a 2% increase in the general fund budget is is tough right so this isn’t a lot for you all to

58:29 work with for such a large budget but that’s the reality of the property taxes we’re hoping that we get some better data on those new um receipts the local receipts that were voted in at town meeting schools will get 50% of any projections of that as well the increase um that was built in last year though at a conservative rate right so that was built in I think 400,000 so you got 200 of that in this mathematical exercise last year you know maybe year-to dat Trends on that you know based on what was articulated to me it might be higher than 400 so that any dollar counts at this point um I think State funding and things like that usually they are pretty conservative and if they don’t know what it is yet they’ll probably keep it similar to the prior

59:18 year so I would this isn’t up to me but um we’ll see how it all goes but without any override without any um any unforeseen um funding that comes out of thin air like I would I would model out somewhere between 800,000 and 1.2 is what you can rely on somewhere in there I know that’s sort of a wi I just want to ask a clarifying question which I’m allowed to do even though we’re not um that 800 to 1.2 would be to cover increases in expenses to include utilities and the increase in out of District placements any increase in salaries it it would cover your all your budget except for health insurance unless we move move that over in which case your budget would go up to cover the cost over and

1:00:04 that’s what we would like to see is going forward is to have all Associated benefits you know identified in the school so yeah um so I just for for your for your preliminary planning purposes I don’t want it to be like we’re waiting till December like if I was running this for the schools I would say you know let me plug in I would be conservative I’d plug in like 900,000 or something and say all right let me see what I can do with that anything we get on top of that would be great right can I um one of the things we talked about was I’m going to SC share my screen and just show you where you can find some of the data you may be looking for about the possible

1:00:50 projections of where we are with offers on where that will be projected for this current because we have to remember we budgeted for this current fiscal year and then we’re also at the same time we’ entered the fiscal year so I’m going to just show you where you can find this data do you mean the bargaining well yeah and and the proposals we put forth as far as the salary line so that all of our salary information is available um so

1:01:24 there okay so you can see up here if you go to Marblehead Head School go to Marblehead School.org um there are two landing pages um.org um there are two landing pages um that we’ll rotate through here um of course it’s on the budget one right now so Marblehead School set are right when you get to the landing page um you’ll see school committee negotiations with the mea if you click on here um gear some information that talks about we talk about the levy in here um I’m not going to go through everything because you guys can do this in your own time I’m just showing you where to find it um some some of what the cost of the current proposals are you can see um the increase over four years this will be

1:02:09 really important for Budget um though what they’re what the cost um the cost of their current proposals are Mike has costed that out um this is the cost of our what we’re doing currently um again you can go back and kind of so we talk about our tax levy the rate of our growth um compared these are um the dark communities that desie has assigned us um you can see that the total Levy is on the left there and then the rate of or the tax levy per resident you can see over here um and then here’s the new growth the rate at which new stuff’s coming in is here we

1:02:55 can we’re the red one so or small one we talk about um um our funding sources because you guys you know have been really successful in getting us to talk about everything all in Grants fees donations town meeting Appropriations and so you’ll see that um we talk about the simple math of you know how this all works and then um what this would mean for a tax

1:03:22 override and then the process of a proposition two and a half um what the Avenues for getting that are and then some questions here where do we go from here but this is where I think you guys are really oh this um you’re going to really like the these are the proposed wage tables the granular information that’s available um this is the top one is our current year are year one year two all by unit so then you can you know for the next projected for projected and these are these are what we have on the table right now and then and then it breaks it down here kind of you know for

1:04:09 people to see in real life what that what that what does that mean um so I know you guys are always kind of looking for projections in what this means for our budget so that we can be fiscally responsible so I just wanted to let you know that all of that is up there you can go back and and dig in so the wage table for everything will be there and then um for instance you know yeah that’s that’s helpful certainly me what does it mean in real life um so again it’s just if you go to Marblehead schools.org right to the landing page look for the two hands and then there’s a lot of different documents we’re trying to update it every week with accurate information Mike has been really good about turn humoring us and turning stuff around in a dime pretty

1:04:56 much humoring that’s a good word we’re like Mike you know that’s hours of work I don’t get to laugh that often humorous about it yes well but you no but it’s hours of work to produce these numbers and then you know something gets changed and we’re like Mike can you do those hours of work again and I know it’s been two days but can you update us but it’s really important that we know that um how this works into the fiscal reality what would this mean as far as um what we have budgeted what would this mean for an override yeah what would this mean if we can’t get an override as far as reductions in staff and increases in class size or loss of programs so all this information is here for you guys to look at and if I don’t answer a question

1:05:42 you have email us and for we’ll I won’t even wait till our next meeting I’ll make sure we get you that prior yeah no that’s helpful um okay certainly to know what’s been offered from the school committee right now um is a good thing to plug into a a draft one of one these different forecasts have to put together so it I think it’s a good forecasting tool yeah um okay so our budget

1:06:15 books um I know that you had brought and showed one from previous right come yep would you mind if I know I would like to at least look at it and see I’ve heard that it’s even more Det DET than what we have but to see if there’s any areas just before you produce something that we were going to have that we may have a question on to make sure that we’re addressing it um my previous no no like I just want to make sure that you if we want you to present something you kind of an what Town’s calendar is we usually start reviewing in depth like draft budgets no I’m trying to think how for fisc year 26 we’re talking about a lot there is that step of like

1:07:04 we so we start that at the end of the but like start the

1:07:13 that’s that’s Department we usually have you got get the numbers right have your budget approved by full last like the last of these nights that we approve the budgets it’s usually like a before the warrant and the warrant usually like the second week so then I’d have to get the budget to the school committee by early February then yeah yeah a draft budget for us to actually review in the liaison meetings and then I’m telling him like the budget gets approved like we meet as the liaison group maybe three times in the spring or late winter early spring we actually usually approve your budget um like right at the end of March like March 31st we we push you to the last because we know it’s the hardest bu

1:08:00 um so for time wise historically we have done a budget workshop with the school committee with all the directors and principles that come and present each of their sub budgets to us we ask questions it’s um I can get you the video on it so you can see kind of how it works and we typically do that um mid to end January um I think the latest the latest did it one year was the um febru first week in February I think I mentioned it to John um there’s a lot of and you know this has happened the last few years there’s a lot of talk about the long-term planning and like that’s all great but I try to you know

1:08:46 the the uh blocking and tackling of fincom like we have to produce a balanced budget for fisal year 26 right so like that process has to happen on that year alone we can talk about the rest of it all but we also like we need a balanced budget so that’s kind of no I I would rather Focus for you for you is focus on what’s our what’s our proposed budget for FY 26 yeah because the other because there are other exercises where you’re doing a threee projection so going to give that information we’re trying to get Alicia to do that for all department for the select board’s you know purposes as well so they can make the decisions because try to remind everybody that fincom is a reviewer and an advisor and an approver

1:09:32 we do not make the decisions about putting an override for example onto the warrants we can Advocate and and recommend one but it’s not up to us but typically in in Marblehead Head ises like typically in in Marblehead ises like once once we go to th come you guys you know hear the budget you see hear the budget after we’ve had all these conversations and then at the back end of that um how many folks in your board uh nine nine so in the in the town War does say fincom approved you know 8 to One 9 to Z every warrant article that has financial implications well actually we have a fincom um book that goes out for town meeting report and it’ll say recommendation and like sometimes we’ll say no recommendation because there’s no financial ocations and then if we have a

1:10:18 recommendation and then we try to add comments where necessary to explain a few things and then I get up at town meeting and and speak so I’ll have a good idea before we go to town meeting you so they take so we it used to be up until two years ago fincom voted our budget before we voted our budget okay I like that one that was my like reaction so um we changed that we vote our budget yeah we have our budget Workshop we do more work on it we do a lot more iterations then we have our budget hearing then we vote our budget fincom meets we present our budget to them budget hearing there’s like three of these where it’s like you know Cemetery might go the first Monday

1:11:04 in March yeah that’s so we then we do a budget hearing um where the subcommittee comes and presents to them and their Liaisons give a little bit of a pitch to say you know we’ve been working these the questions we’ve asked this is what the iterations we sh not by the way with the fincom pr and then the people who don’t who mainly it’s the people who aren’t our because our Le have had access we’ll ask them questions we answer them they vote to approve or not approve our budget and then recommend or not recommend yeah because we we don’t need approval um and then it goes that goes go to the warrant budget

1:11:49 so then we have a warrant hearing like April 10th it’s always on my birthday and uh we uh we we vote um budget always online we vote on the full budget article 30 it was two years ago it’s probably 30 something else last year but um that all of the pieces of that budget had already been recommended at these budget hearings so 30 has everything inside yeah so that’s very similar and then they’ll probably be a placeholder there always has been for um a an override sponsored by the town which half the years most the years I’ve been has actually just been in nobody brought one forward and then there’s usually one for the schools the last years we placed um so you that in

1:12:35 there in January and then you know you have until a certain date to officially put it on because they closed the warrant the end of January they can reopen it yeah they don’t they end um and we we’ve always placed Place multiple placeholders we usually Place one for Capital we usually Place one for umer two and a half and out of the last six years because we placed one every year we’ve used um the Capital One once and we’ve used the prop two and a half twice well you used your school only prop two and a half once and then two years ago there was an override on the town side that would

1:13:21 would both failed unfortunately yes so um so before we get to town meeting we’ve had our budget hearing they’ve voted we’ve also gotten a second vote at the warrant hearing and then you’re at town meeting yes that’s that’s so that’s that’s pretty much the same process I had yeah I’m interested if other towns are do no because I was I was just saying that when when she said fincom voted first I’m like what no the school committee votes for but usually yeah presented the school committee in one meeting oh they always voted first public until two years ago next and then so yeah it’s pretty much there’s a couple extra meetings in there but that’s fine you guys are at the end of the process which is great you need to start I need to start at the beginning of the process I need some and I don’t know that we can actually discuss this because you don’t have a quorum anymore but I kind of need to know what I have

1:14:06 to build a level service budget that’s always my first step level service what is it going to cost us to do the same exact thing next year as we’re doing this year uh in order to do that I need 80% of our budget of salaries should I be

1:14:20 using what the school committee’s current proposal is for this year to get a starting salary and for next year to get a projected salary or is there some of the number I should be using we’re going to need to book another meeting because I can’t answer the question you asked but what I can tell you is what we did last year and last year we presented a level service and then we presented a needs based I understand that but from your level service standpoint you you know what the contract was for the teachers no they didn’t because they went into a year that was unsettled also this so they were coming into this year I know what they did last year because I can see it in the budget

1:15:07 but I don’t know if I would use your current your current draft what’s that I would use your current offer as the best for now right that’s what I’m saying is our current offer going to be the level for the one year yeah no it’s going to be two CU I have to figure out this year we’re still we’re we’re not settled this year so I have to get to this year’s number yeah but there was there was line items for contract negotiations in there last year and there our current offers have exceeded what they put in the budget for this year okay yeah I’m just not by much but but still we have a meeting at four today yeah oh yes oh so there’s you you talk about level Services that’s what you available revenues I’ll call it based yeah which is technically

1:15:52 potentially A reduced Services budget because the town revenues are project because the expenditures potentially are so level Services doing the same exact thing and and yes it’s going to be above what the town has available for we we already know that right we are we we’ve all said there’s a deficit structural or or operational whatever it is we have to build that budget just to show to do the same exact thing next year yeah you have to build the budget of last year plus whatever you’re being allocated that whatever you want to call it that’s the available that’s a structural challenge as as Alec likes to say saying here the town is not in a doesn’t have a structural deficit because we passed a existing

1:16:40 budget that is within that that equals the available Revenue so technically wa that’s why deficit is a tough term to but a certainly a challenge in going forward without yeah I would call it this is our available Revenue budget and yeah your question is how do you build the details of that perent Sal and W my expectation is we’re going to build a level service budget this is what’s going to cost us to do the same exact thing next year as it good this year I need the placeholders for what what and I agree we probably use our best offer right now um and then I mean I’m assuming John and I are going to have to sit down when we know what the actual number is and say what are the services that are going to

1:17:25 have to get cut and obviously sharing with school committee that’s where we get to your number of what the town has available yeah but well it’s the town’s yeah well we have to do the exercises so this is this is we go around so Alec gave us kind of a ballpark figure to use and we’re going to use that figure and say can we get to where we think we’re going to be with that number and standpoint right not how far off yeah best estimate how far off are we and then that that’s the number we’re going to work with so yeah and we’re interested in understanding to answer your question maybe a better way if you have to cut certain things to get to that balanced budget then yeah we want to talk about that right can we talk about when we can schedule our next meeting because unfortunately we lost a member um I

1:18:12 think the question you just asked is very times sensitive for you to get answered but I think it comes from the school community enough incom yeah yes you but you need the budget subcommittee to talk to about that yeah um so we need to book another meeting so the budget subcommittee though can Canon does or doesn’t have to involve these guys yeah for when it’s operational stuff and then we can I just I just want be my yeah and I’ll send them I’ll send an email after this on some dates and stuff just because it’s easier to let’s do that put I don’t want to hold you guys up because the work is happening now or needs to happen now well I mean we’re juggling a couple of different scales so you want close out of 24 which to me is great information to but maybe not my top priority cuz I want to make

1:18:59 sure we’re sitting 20 I know we close 24 without a deficit so that’s a that’s a positive yeah we’ll just say like we’ll try to schedule our next meeting of this and like you’ll have until then to show us the close of the 24 my next focus is to make sure we’re not blowing the budget in 25 I mean that would be good for you guys to know before December probably right everybody in the room and I I don’t think we are so I’m very confident but I’d like to have solid numbers and data to back it up uh but I also need to start building fiscal year 26 yeah and and that’s that’s what everybody’s reading here today’s focus is fiscal 26 but I’m still trying to get through 25 yeah yeah but the information you’re going to need for to that’s firmer than our estimate we it’s pry estimate but we won’t you’ll get that from police when we ultimately see your

1:19:47 draft 26 we want to see it lined up against 24 actual and 25 budgeted 26 even if you have multiple versions of 26 yeah um and what I just want to explain again I’m just here this is just this is a fact so again allowed to say it the fact is what Mike’s asking about

1:20:13 is where we’ll settle raises in in contracts will be at a a number X because we’re legally required to come in at a balanced budget there will be the balance budget which is what we have plus 800,000 to 1.2 is the best estimate right now the numbers we’re looking at our larger number by far than than fit in 800 to 1.2 so because we’re legally required to bring forth balanced budget even if there’s an override article the way it gets voted at town meeting is you vote the balance budget everything on this side of it is a cut

1:20:59 all those cuts or whatever the school committee has deemed to be ones we don’t want to happen go into the override request the only thing that’s guaranteed is the stuff on this side the stuff that is in the balance budget this stuff we leave town meeting is still a cut you don’t know till six weeks later when the ballot happens if this extra stuff is a cut or not because the way the Lines line up with the contract of needing to notify people by certain days those dates of notification are prior to the ballot so reduction notices of reductions AKA pink slips will happen for everything on this side everything that’s not in the balance

1:21:45 balance balance budget if if an override were to pass then rehire letters or however we address that can go out but this whole pot over here that’s override depend if you need to send pick ups I don’t think you have had to do that much in the past few years right the contracts we’re looking at yeah I’m just saying if you need to I agree with it if you need yeah if the Delta is more than we have to balance our budget those people because of the legal guidelines and the dates get pin slipped before the ballot even happens because the date in which we have to do it so so this is just the P the line of no no one’s saying we want to lay anybody off we are legally required to get a balanced

1:22:33 budget in May 100% like if there’s no alternative option I think there’s been questions about like you know what if the school committee votes one number we have an obligation by law to present a balanced budget so we’re going to have to recommend a balanced budget so if you vote something over the top of what balances um after you know we go through the whole process and figure out how the revenues are allocated which I think Thatcher is more in charge of that but we can certainly weigh in on it um then yeah we’re going to vote a balanced budget it’s it’s it has Bal and the balanced budget we want the balanced budget to be something that you present as a Balan budget it’s not because because that and that’s where to the

1:23:19 other side of I could remember how you described it like the other side of the equation what’s what’s above Bal what’s above what’s above that but but to us we expect that we will get a budget from you that’s B yeah that is balanced if you build with you know fiscal year 24 was this and then you get your answer from here and then your next column is over what is going to balance then yeah you could have that’s how we’ve done it in the past we’ve had level Services we called it and then you know available revenues areed red Services however you we’ve called it reduced services in the past but we’ll find whatever term is appropriate but if you want to build those two colums it’s

1:24:05 up to you we’re we’re open to looking at that I think it’s that’s what we look at with all departments if there needs to be budget reductions yeah I yeah we see how where we land on the that’s been the case with almost but we’re we’re not going to vote the one that doesn’t balance right I you that makes sense but no I’m just I was just explaining that that you know again there’s a lot of questions and I can just say what the law mandate is there’s no whole me line

1:24:40 here it’s B yeah um okay do you want to adjourn you guys no your time yeah we’re adour um 11:34 all right and then we’ll get another meeting on the books cuz