School Committee: February 26, 2026

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.

0:33 at 6:03 p.m. on Thursday, February 26th, 2026. Uh, I just want to also let people know this meeting is being recorded. Uh, let’s start with the pledge of allegiance, please.

0:49 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. » Okay, » Okay, anyone have commendations?

1:10 Anyone? Um, I’ll go if no one else does. Um, again, I want to commend our custodial maintenance staff. Um, obviously we had another major snowstorm and uh they’ve worked tirelessly uh to to create a safe environment for our schools. I think did a great job in the parking lots and the sidewalks. We’re working in collaborating with the town to try to get the sidewalks in the town and streets cleared out a little bit better or more. But I just want to commend all hard work of our custodial and maintenance staff. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Superintendent. Anybody else? » Okay. Well, what do we have for us tonight?

1:58 » Um, I have a good bit. Uh, hello everyone. After two well- enjoyed snow days, the high school is back on schedule. Um, working our way through the third quarter and what most would call the most difficult time of year. Um, all this month students and faculty have been sharing stories for Black History Month over the last speaker in the morning. The announcements focus on people or events significant to black history. These uh have been great contributions. So, thank you Cali Curtis my ver and the rest of the morning announcement crew. Tomorrow, the MHS drama club will be presenting the Mender, a play created by Miss Skington, an English teacher and drama director here at the high school. Uh, the play explores themes of identity and conflict in a Vietnam era United States. Please stop by MHS theater tomorrow at 7:00. General admissions $10. Uh I would like to shout out the MHS

2:43 food and cafeteria service uh this whole year, but in the week or so before break especially. The food has been among the best I can remember uh in my time at high school at the high school. So thank you firsthand to whoever’s in charge of that. It’s certainly been noticed by students um and shouldn’t go on. Thanks. Uh most sports have concluded but uh but good luck to the girls and boys basketball teams who have playoff matches tomorrow and today as well as the individual athletes from track, wrestling, and swimming. Still competing in state competitions uh in championships in the coming week. One of my sisters who’s a sophomore here will be wrestling at the All States Championship and she’s the first girl from Marblehead to do so. So I’m very proud for her. Um » uh and tomorrow’s stepup day. Eighth graders from the Veterans Middle School um will be coming up to the high school

3:30 throughout the day to take a tour, meet teachers, um experience classes, and get a feel for the high school. My stepup day was cancelled for CO reasons, but I know opportunities like this are super important. So, I’m really excited to introduce the incoming students, including my other sister, to the high school. Thank you.

3:51 Um, so I’m now I’m going to ask for a motion so that we close our open regularly scheduled meeting. So I’ll start with that and then we’ll have a subsequent motion around starting the public hearing and bled. » I’ll make a motion to close the open meeting. Second. » Okay. Uh motion made by Kate, seconded by Melissa. Any discussion? All right. Since we have uh virtual folks, we have to do a roll call. Um so Melissa » in favor. » Kate » in favor. » Jen » in favor. » Henry » in favor. » Okay. The motion passes five to zero. I’d now like to uh request a motion so

4:36 that we can open the public hearing on our 20 2027 speed school budget. » I’ll make a motion to open the FY27 budget public hearing. I’ll second. » Okay. Uh any the motion has made been made by Kate, seconded by Melissa. Is there any discussion? » Okay. Uh we’ll go to a roll call vote. Uh Melissa in » favor. Kate » in favor. » Jen » in favor. » And Henry » in favor. » Al Williams in favor. The motion passes 5-0. Just for the notes, I’m not sure I have registered my vote on the closing of the last meeting. So, we would just make that correction, please.

5:23 Okay. We are now we are now in the uh the hearing around our our budget. Frank, do you have a presentation you could put up for us, please? A second. Okay, just want to give a little background on the process we’ll be using tonight. So, um we’ll have we’ll start with statements and supporting information to be presented by the superintendent um and his administration potentially. Um we’re going to ask people to sign in. There’s sheets in the back. People

6:09 online can raise their hands. The reason we decided to do that is just so that we could make sure that everyone who wants to be heard is heard. And so, please sign up. Um, you know, you must be signed in and recognized by the chair, myself in order to speak. Uh, I ask that all comments uh must be pertinent to the topic at hand. Um, similar to to our um how we typically get input, we’ll uh limit to folks to three minutes. Uh, we will allow a rebuttal of a minute. And the reason we’re doing this again is to ensure that everybody who wishes to speak will have an opportunity. people have a second question or a third question, uh, time permitting, we will allow that as long as everyone who wanted to speak has had

6:55 a chance to do so. Um, you know, people may want to, uh, let us know about longer comments and, you know, as as always, you can send that to the school committee at marbleheadschools.org.

7:16 So John will provide a lot of this detail but I just want to make sure people understand this is a levelfunded appropriation right which the town has asked us for and this means we the spending is the same doesn’t mean it’s not level services where we provide the same amount of services uh in the in the subsequent year. Um there may be changes to this budget. Um and if there is um we will work with the town and uh you know moving forward to what that process may be. Okay. Um and if we are asked to significantly change things, we would then have a subsequent public hearing where we want to be fair and transparent. So if things change, we’ll have another hearing like this to review

8:01 what those changes might have been. Okay. All right. Uh, John, turn it over to you.

8:13 » Thank you. » All right. So, I’m just going to do a little recap. Last last meeting we did the full proposed budget. This is just a shorter presentation just kind of highlight the uh the main uh portions of the proposed budget. So, this first slide is again it’s a budget hearing for the FY27 superintendent’s proposed budget. Today is February 26. Almond and administrative team that worked on this includes myself, Michael Piling, our assistant superintendent of finance operations, Julia Ferrer, our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, and Lisa Maria Belo, our assistant superintendent of student services, along with all of our principles and attended staff. So, I just want to thank them once again for that hard work. Um, as I did last time, I just want to kind of make sure we highlight our educational priorities, uh, which are to meet the academic, social, emotional needs of all students. uh we need to

8:59 continue to cultivate a sense of belonging and allowance for student, staff, parent and community input into educational practices. We utilize multi-ter system of supports, also known as MTSS to promote student success. We align goals and strategies with the new district improvement plan that’s in process right now and the school improvement plans. Uh again, I shared last time we’re in process of creating a new district improvement plan, a strategic plan, and our student plan for success ends this year. So we’re going to kind of dovetail and that’s a lot of the work that’s being done. Um and that’s uh has to do with a lot of our priorities around education around curriculum around fiscal responsibility etc. Uh we want to ensure that the database decision-m is aligned to meet the students needs. We want to challenge students with rigorous instruction safe

9:45 learning environments to enhance student success. We want to enhance and reimagine our special education programming and service delivery to meet students individual needs. And we want to provide meaningful professional development and programming. Those are our main educational priorities here at Marblehead. Thank you. Uh as as uh chairman Williams stated, we are doing a proposed um level funded budget. So with input from our administrative team, the district has proposed a level funded budget of $49,120,285. Um this is the same amount as our current year budget. Um and again level funded is that level services would be that plus um you know any additional services um salary increases without having to make cuts um would be a level

10:31 service budget. We’ve been asked to do a level funded budget. So as we go through the presentation tonight and as we did with our last presentation I will talk about some of the ways we have to um get down to that level funded number of 49 million12085. Um, so this requires a decrease in staffing and services and no funding increase over our current approved budget. I just want to make that abundantly clear. I think it’s clear at this point. Um, we’ve been asked to do that. I believe the town side has also been asked to do that. And I’m hoping between the two between everybody, we can get to where we need to. Thank you. Next slide. Uh, goals and challenges. Our overarching goal is to ensure that our school budget allows the district to provide appropriate level of s support resources and programming for staff and students in order to achieve academic

11:18 excellence across all grades and all abilities. Some of our challenges are implementing a level funded budget when salary increases have already been negotiated and continuing to provide excellent educational program program and utilizing the same funding as the current fiscal year while minimizing the impacts to classroom environments. Those are the two main challenges. There’s clearly a lot more than that, but those are the two main ones that we have to outline. Thank you. Um, and just some of the budgetary constraints over uh next fiscal year and the following. So based upon our negotiated contracts, there’s a 3% increase to salaries for FY27, which is, you know, level services included that um level funded includes that, but it it uh creates a situation where we need to really look at efficiencies and staffing programming um cuts to be able

12:05 to um make up for that 3% increase, if that makes sense. And then the following year, it’s been negotiated a 3.5% increase for Fine 28. I share that because it’s important because as we’re being planful and planning um forward, we need to keep that in mind as we’re getting through this year’s f fiscal um budget planning and start planning for next year now so we you know we can make sure we’re doing what we need to do to offer student success and make sure that our staff has the resources they need to provide educational services to our students. Uh the other uh driver big driver obviously is special education, tuition and transportation. Uh the increase from FY26 our current budget budgeted amount is 6,12273 and to an FY27 anticipated amount of 6,627627.

12:53 Um that equates to an 8.25% increase. Um that is a moving target. I want to say that often and say that clearly. Um that’s budgeted amount for this year which likely will end up being the 612273 for a multitude of reasons that have kids kind of going in back into district out of district. Kids move into district kids need more services maybe some kids needs less services. So that number vacasillates and this is just really in um in regard to tuition and transportation. And same thing for 27. We anticipate the amount to be that 6 million and change. um that could vacasillate as well. So I I share that. Um but we’re anticipating approximately an 8.25% increase in special ed uh tuition and

13:40 transportation. So with no increase in funding, further staff reductions will be required. Highly qualif quality educational services for our students will be impacted. Um I say that frequently as well. So don’t get indulging. Uh so efficiencies and reductions. This is this is a slide we had last uh last last time I added uh some information at the bottom right. Um so we kind of went through a three-pronged approach. We did some efficiencies. We looked at how we can offset the budget using utilizing METCO and IDEA grants uh utilization of circuit breaker our prek and K special education um you know tuitions educious which is uh the money that we receive from students who come from other countries to come here to the high school um building rental and revolving accounts. those that are involving

14:25 accounts that we’re utilizing to help offset the budget. We always do some of that. This year, we’re doing a little bit more of that to to be able to get to the level of funded um budget that we’re talking about. We’re level funding all of our supplies across the board. So, that’s all school supplies, uh technology supplies, um supplies, anything that you touch, feel is all level funded. So, all the same amount of money that we have this year. Similarly with PD and just technology in general. There’s some things that we need to upgrade in our techn upgrade in our technology realm. Um and we’re working closely with Stephen Quietch and his team to prioritize what you know what we can do with the level uh funded budget. Um and obviously if there’s any major issues that we would need to address, we

15:10 would just be able to reallocate if we need to which is the case for all the other areas as well. Um we reduce the cost for copy leases and utility savings. We already did the um copier. Um we already started that which is going to be a pretty good reduction each year in our leases plus the uh ability to track the paper that we use and uh we have paper which means that um people print to the printer and it goes into cash and you have to go in and and release it. Um and that’ll help with confidentiality, help with you know usage of the of the paper and I think it’ll be a lot more efficient. So we’ll see that you know um help out in our budget not in small ways but in over time but it’s still still a savings. Um then our initial uh reductions was you we turned it around once we looked at

15:56 some things that we could um kind of you know initially look at. So we had summer technology position. It was a a small position funded around $7 or $8,000 I think. So we we said we can we can kind of work and figure out how to um not fill that position. our HR assistant position. Um we used to have a manager and an assistant. We’ve decided not to fill the um HR position this year and moving forward um in unless it becomes a situation where we need to reook at that but for now we’re going to forego that. We had a teacher in charge stipen at Glover that was a Glover school has no assistant principal. It’s the only school that does not have an assistant principal. We talked about a nominal um stipen to perhaps um provide to a teacher or a staff member who’s willing to kind of step up and and kind of step

16:42 in if you know Frank Wowski is out of the building for you know conference or meeting or he’s sick or whatever. Um and he you know we we talked to Frank and he kind of walked us through and he said we he can continue to do what he’s doing with his awesome staff and and we can move move away from needing to put that in place. uh 1.75 FTES and EL teachers um or at village that’s basically um due to the census um right now. So that’s a reduction of 1.75 teacher FTDs one FD math intervention vets and then we had a a full-time art teacher that we reduced to a8 um that was a um an amendable discussion but it’s something we put in place now and we’re going to carry into the future um so that instead of 1.0 you know, went to a point. Eating and then

17:27 we got to kind of the meat and potatoes of okay, at that point we still had about 800,000 or so that we had to um look at to be able to need to get to the level funded number. And that um those those are the uh positions you see on the right. So, we’re looking at a full-time equivalent of an elementary teacher, one FTE of teacher at veterans, three FTEEs at the high school, a point 4 FTE EL teacher at Glover, uh 1.0 agenda in elementary IIA elementary schools a point4 FTE of speech and language one FTE of an ABA coordinator which is more of a leadership position that we decided not to um move forward with at this at this juncture and an FTE special

18:13 education village teacher and one FTE or maintenance staff and those reductions equate to I I’m only doing the FT the teacher FTEES but it’s um minus 9.75 teacher FTEES will be reduced from this budget to get us to um as part of a plan to get us to a level from the budget. And then there’s been a lot of discussion about enrollment full-time equivalents um etc. So we you know we kind of look we’ve been looking at the desi data and and operating off the October one number. So what we did was October one um this is this there’s been this narrative or dialogue conversation about a 10-year look back over 10 years. We’ve lost x amount of students. There’s been different numbers thrown around. This is the actual number from October 1, 2016, we had 3,144

18:59 enrolled students at Marblehead Public Schools. February 2nd, which was the Monday before I did the the initial presentation, we had um 2435 enrolled students, which is an reduction enrollment of 709 students over that 10-year period. that increased to a 23% return in that same 10-year period plus our proposed so 11 year because we’re looking at where we would be next year in the uh FY27 26 27 school year in 201617 we had a 263.9 teacher FTEES and with this proposed level funded budget with the com the conversations about reductions I just talked about in 2627 it would be reduced to 215.4 four teacher FTEES and that’s a reduction of

19:45 48.5 teacher FTEES over the same period which is a 19% reduction. So the conversation about we’ve lost you know there’s been a bunch of different numbers out there,000 students 800 students whatever it’s 709 students as of February 2nd um 23% reduction in in student enrollment 19% reduction of teacher FTES over that same period. So realistically we’re in the right um trajectory. uh I I contend that um going in the opposite direction that teacher FDE reduction that percentage higher that’s when we start seeing the impact the classroom. So that’s how that equates. I know that’s been a conversation in the question and I thought it was um worth having a further explanation today and there is a source link there um from where we got the data. Um the data on that the February

20:31 2nd is our internal data but that’s that’s reported you know um current enrollment but the rest is straight from me. Um so just to wrap it up the district is being asked to operate with the same funding as the current year. This places constraints on our ability to provide a high quality rigorous education to our students. As is the case across Massachusetts, there’s been a decline in student enrollment. I sat on a webinar today. The enrollment across the district um since 2021 was almost 15,000 students across the state level district, sorry, across the state. It was uh finding overall enrollment of almost 15,000 students. So, this is not unique to Marblehead by any means. And I want to make sure folks understand that this is not due enrollment decline is not due to um one factor. It’s due to

21:16 multiple factors. We have low birth rate. We have overall declining enrollment across the state. And then there’s obviously charter, private schools that our kids do go to. And all of those together um we 79 students that we’ve we’ve lost over that 10 year period. Um so I just want to share that. Um but and I as I mentioned the reduction in teaches is very similar. Our ability to enhance teaching and learning, increase academic redigger rigor, sorry, and provide appropriate support to students and staff is being compromised. Um, and with reduced funding, competing with other Northshore districts becomes increasingly difficult. And the goal of providing high quality education to our students is much more challenging. Um, and that’s where I end my first here, Mr. Chairman. Happy to entertain questions from the committee.

22:02 » Big question from the committee. Does the budget subcommittee want to make any comments? No, I mean I’ll just underscore some of the points that John made. So, we’ve seen 23 24% decline in student enrollment over the last 10 years. We’ve decreased the number of teachers um kind of proportionately and and actually have been on the front foot of trying to getting rid of our um combining into the Brown school, getting rid of our three schools, combining into the Brown school, trying to be proactive from a budget front. Um I just think the you didn’t specifically touch on it but we did in the last meeting. It’s also important to understand the makeup of the student population is much more complex higher needs which we also see in the data. Um so while the system

22:47 itself I think a lot of people can ask the question of like enrollment is down 24%. Why is the budget not coming down 24%. the system while smaller is much more complex, much more highly regulated and I think that that’s an important point for folks to understand. Thank you. » So before we begin, I I should have uh made this more clear. So this is different than public comment, right? Public comment is one way. Um this is a hearing. So this is conducive to two-way. So questions can be asked and answered by the appropriate folks. I just want to make sure that’s obvious to everyone. Um, Sally, I want to know how many Yeah. How many folks are signed up? I only only have

23:35 one person on this sheet so far. » Three more.

23:44 Would the uh since so it sounds like we may only have five people would the committee be open to maybe extending to five minutes people making a comment just because the three minutes can go very quick and we obviously want to welcome input as much as possible. » Yeah. » Al, do you want to pull the people who are attending virtually to see how many people might have comment online? One second. There’s four. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mike. Um, » the only comment I would make, Al, is that in the past we have not limited people to three minutes during public hearings. Um, typically it’s a pretty sort of um looser form. So, folks have an opportunity to really either, you know, state their opinion, ask

24:30 questions. Um, you know, obviously we need to be cognizant of the time. Um, but, um, we haven’t limited people in the past. The other thing I want to make mention of uh which I was going to wait till the end but I think I should bring it to your attention. We you called for a vote earlier to close the open meeting which probably shouldn’t have been done because that means our open meeting is closed after you called it to order. So normally we don’t close the meeting. We just open the public portion and close that. So I think we need to be a little bit cognizant um about whether we’re going to go back into our regular agenda because it’s a potential open meeting violation. » All right. Uh, Jen, do you want to make a motion then that we reopen? » We can’t do that. Once you close it, you close it. Once you’ve adjourned, you’ve effectively adjourned the open meeting.

25:18 So, I’m just I’m just pointing out Robert’s rules and how that works. So you as chair can make the decision how you want to go forward. But I’m I’m bringing that up now because um you know depending on what happens you know we may have plenty of time to hear folks and I wouldn’t want anyone to feel that they didn’t have » time to be heard or or and or time to get their questions answered. No, un understood and I was expecting more input and that’s really was just to allow individuals to we can certainly have people um come up a second or third time if we feel that you know the time limit is really constraining some input that we’d like to receive.

25:59 » Um and around the open meeting, Jen, we I talked with council about this and this is how I was instructed to do this. So » you were instructed to take a vote to close the public meeting. I don’t » Yes, I was. So, um, and that’s the reason it was done. So, um, all right. Um, let’s start with Sarah Batuza. I apologize if I’m not saying that name correctly. » Thank you. » Hello everybody. My name is Sarah Matusa. Uh with nearly 20 years of teaching here in Marblehead, I share your passion and commitment to providing a fine education for our children. I want to thank you John Rodo for speaking so eloquently about really the

26:47 challenges that we are facing with this uh proposed budget. Uh the level funding budget is putting us in quite a pickle uh with the growth in teacher salaries. I know we have to cut positions. Um, as a teacher who I’d like to think I’m a valuable member of our teaching community here. Um, I would argue that every member of our faculty at at vets and I’m sure all the other schools are valuable kind of inexpendable people. You know, we pack a punch every day. We really do the best we can. Uh, we are all essential. We are professional. We are effective. uh recent data, we got the Desi report card recently. We are one of the higher

27:34 performing schools in the state, much higher than the Massachusetts average. Our spending is right even with the Massachusetts average. So, we are accomplishing much more with each dollar, I think, than than many other districts in the state. And it’s something to be proud of. Our expert student surveys, which I know were shared uh recently, showed strong connections from students to teachers, showing that they really appreciated our teacher connections. They felt supported by our teachers. Um, and then we’ve got data from EXL and I Ready showing uh all of the strengths and weaknesses of our students and helping us to kind of parse out where we can provide enrichment for students and where we can provide RTI or response to intervention.

28:21 My concern is that we’re spending a lot of time frequently, multiple times a month, multiple times a year to talk about all the data and decide from there how to pivot, how to provide data driven in instruction, provide enrichment where it’s needed, and provide response to intervention where it’s needed. my concern by cutting positions such as the math interventionist at BETS, which I know wasn’t filled this year, and potentially any other positions this year that would those would be probably the positions that provide those responses to intervention. Okay. So, our students who are just on the cusp of meeting expectations, who aren’t necessarily on a special ed plan, but

29:06 would receive services from an RTI teacher. Those are the students I’m most worried about kind of slipping through the cracks, right? And we don’t want any of our students to slip through the cracks. Every child is important. They’re all someone’s son or daughter child and and we we don’t want to let them go. So, I’m afraid that students will slip through the cracks and that’ll it’ll just weigh heavy on our shoulders. I’m getting too excited. Okay. So, um teachers who provide the math interventionist positions, academic support, um interventions we offer also in terms of response to intervention would be homework club after school. So, kids can opt to stay after school if that’s available in their schedule. We offer curriculum support for special education

29:52 students. Um, but when we find that’s not all working, we think, okay, what else can we do outside of our scheduled day, outside of the class we teach, if we can’t pull them for extra services, we often say, well, let’s maybe try a sped referral and see, do we need a TAT process? And we end up adopting more students into the special education system, which isn’t necessarily the only thing that can be done. I think many of their needs, especially if they’re right on that edge, we could make the difference we need to make with an interventionist, with a math literacy class, with, you know, 3 days a week, 20 minutes before a lunch. Let’s fill in those gaps that you need to learn. Uh, and my concern is that with fewer bodies

30:38 in the building, we won’t have the opportunity to provide those services. Um, so really, I agree with everything you said, John. Thank you so much. Um I really hear a potential decline eventually in testing performance, increased fed referrals, higher enrollment in private schools. Um whether it’s for for uh more enrichment or for special ed services. Um and I really just worry about those few kids on the cusp who might slip through the cracks. We don’t want to let anyone go. Uh so we will always do our best. We’re we’re going to put one foot fair on the other and do our absolute best for every child every day. I know we make a difference. We’ll continue to do so, but I don’t want to stand back and say I’m okay with someone losing their job when

31:24 I know that what they do is so important. Um so I I will do anything I can to just fight for. Thanks. » Thank you.

31:51 » Good evening. Rosado, three Martin Ferris. Um, I am here to ask for a fully funded budget so our students receive the education that they deserve. As a school committee, it is your legal duty to pass a budget you believe is necessary to operate our schools appropriately under the guidance of our fearless leader, Superintendent. The last time we level funded the MPS budget was fiscal year 24. We all know what followed serious consequences and our schools are still recovering. While working in the schools, I learned the term job creep when staff are asked to do more with less. There’s also budget creep when the budget is expected to cover more and more without the increases required to sustain it. And when things fall apart, staff is left to

32:37 take the blame. Since 2006, Marblehead has not approved a Proposition 2 and a half override. Even when NPS receives a 2 and 12% annual increase, it rarely keeps up with actual costs. This year, a 0% increase. I’ve heard some residents say they’ll support debt exclusions like the Marblehead High School roof, but not an override. But only a Proposition 2 and a half override can fund salaries and recurring expenses. Buildings don’t educate the children people do. So right now, based on public information, we have vacancy vacancies for three special education IAS, five special education teachers, multiple lunch and recess staff, and a Medco bus monitor. Are these positions necessary? absolutely that I don’t see any job postings for

33:22 most of them. So, over the past few years, we’ve made cuts, but we don’t call them cuts. These are some of them. Asking residents to fund raise for outdoor facilities because maintenance isn’t in the budget. Pulling instructional assistance from students to supervise lunch and asking community staff to cover lunch and recess. Raising user fees and shifting costs onto families. Increasing kindergarten tuition to fund special education administration. using savings from unfilled positions to prepay special education tuition. Reducing special ed IIA hours from 32 and a half to 30. Limiting training and collaboration. Adding administrators without proportionate budget increases. Expanding technology and security. Hiring staff to manage it without

34:07 sustainable funding. And I’m not against any of this. I’m for it. I’m just pointing out some things that have changed. Who’s losing in all this? The children. And they’re our children. So, the police and fire departments are underst staffed. Their chiefs have said that they can get by. But is getting by the standard we want for our Marblehead public schools? Our students deserve more than that. Please consider proposing a budget that restores some of the painful cuts and maintain services. If not, you are denying this community the opportunity to debate and decide for themselves. So, this is what I ask. Why do we consistently end the year with surplus funds? And where does that money come from? Is this truly the budget you believe best supports our students? I’m sorry if I missed that part because I

34:52 was a few minutes late. Uh why did the previous school committee say an override was absolutely necessary after contracts were settled, but now none is being proposed? And can the superintendent and school committee please recommend an override? Our children deserve a school system that is supported, not one that is simply surviving. Thank you. issues. issues. » Yeah. Do you want to address the the few questions there at the end? You want to address those? » Thank you very much. » So, it was about um

35:29 » Yeah, I’m sorry. I was » I was surpluses at the end of the year. » Oh, surplus at the end of the year. So yeah, I mean surplus at the end of the year like like for instance if there’s positions that are funded and you know either someone leaves early or um we don’t fill it or you know sometimes there’s uh you know someone retires we hire someone lower and sometimes that creates um some surplus some surpluses and you know if we have if we budget for certain uh you know uh utilities etc it comes in lower so that maybe money there. Um, what else would what else am I missing? Lighting. » Yeah, I mean I can’t speak. » Can Can I just interrupt for one second and maybe ask Mike could talk for a couple minutes about just the general concept of a surplus? Um, because I think that would be helpful. It is new

36:16 to this district over the last few years, but it is, as you know, we’ve been we’ve talked about um the hallmark of a um wellrun and well financed um municipality. So I maybe you could also just address just the concept of how surpluses work, Mike. » Absolutely. Um so I have a lot of respect for my predecessor. I think she does a she did a fantastic job here in the other communities she’s been in. Um obviously every school business administrator, finance listening superintendent, whatever you want to call them. Uh they have a different style in building a budget and and Michelle and I certainly have a different style. Um, I walked into what she had built for 24 and I think she probably built it long before it got to this point. I think she left right around this point in time of the year

37:02 when uh her budget was presented and I think she did part of the district right around that time. Um, she did an amazing job. We just have a different philosophy. Um, she also was working in Softright which is not in not a budgeting software. It is a an accounting software. We are now in Munis which is a budgeting software although we are only eight months into that we are using that to better understand our budgets double check our numbers because I did everything in the old way of spreadsheets and now I’m importing it into um Munis and identifying little little pockets of areas where I I might have had a mathematical error or whatnot. Um when we get to the end of the year thank you very much for your comments. um when we get to the end of the year,

37:48 we have built um because of a a special education out of district problem five or six years ago, I think it was 2019, so probably seven years ago now. Um they became a practice at the end of every year if there was a surplus to prepay tuitions. Um and that’s the only thing you’re allowed to do by the state uh from a school department budget is to prepay. The only prepaid you’re allowed is is out of district tuitions. uh that began that practice and and every year they’ve had a little bit more surplus. So, they’ve prepaid a little bit more. We’ve gotten to the point we’re at about a million dollars that we’re prepaying and I think that’s probably the cap we want to be at. I don’t think we want to get any higher than that. Uh so, we’ve gotten to that million dollar mark. Um, so at the end of every year, provided there’s not an explosion in out of district placements

38:34 or an explosion somewhere else, we should have a a surplus at the end of every year of a million dollars just because we we budget for what we know. We prepay at the end of the year. So, we’re budgeting now in February and between now and June, something could go ary and we may not have that full million dollars to. So, but we anticipate prepaying a million dollars every year. Then you add on to that what the superintendent talked about utilities coming in lower uh than anticipated. Uh and I got to say that when we before I arrived in um I think at the end of the last administration’s um process they always underbudgeted utilities and that was a practice here because the

39:19 town had a um some type of a fund. I don’t know what it was, but it was a utilities fund that all the departments could draw off of when they spent down their budgeted utilities. So, uh, they they the town then said at one point, “Please budget accurately. We’re not going to have this fund anymore.” And I see Pat and Molly shaking their heads because this is what I’ve heard. I wasn’t here for it. Um, so we’re now budgeting for our own utilities. We took, as we said, three schools offline, put one new one online, and I know it’s been a few years now, but that takes a while to flush through. um a more efficient building, but a building that also uses electricity in the summer because it is or you know late spring, early fall the summer because it does have full air conditioning throughout the building. So there there’s trade-offs. So we I think we’ve got a better handle now on where our utilities

40:06 need to be. Um we also did just sign a new gas contract. Uh our gas is broken up into two pieces. We have the supply which is handled by um a company called NRG. May have heard of them. And we have the delivery which is handled by a company called National Grid and I’m sure we’ve all heard of them. Um we were we we cannot negotiate or get a better price on the delivery. National Grid sets the prices. I believe that’s set by the by the state. Um but on the supply side we can actually negotiate a little bit and we were able to lock in a lower rate for next year or for sorry for the next three years. Five years. I think it was three years. » I think it was three uh next three years at a lower rate than we were locked in before. So, we’re going to see some utility savings and we’ve captured some of that in our budget. That’s one of the areas that we’re able to save. But there

40:52 are so many factors involved and I think the biggest one is that um you know we have historically had an issue filling vacant positions and if you budget a position um Miss um » Matusa mentioned it the math intervention position went vacant all year. Well, that was probably budgeted I’m just top of my head probably at $75,000. So, if that was vacant all year, at the end of the year, I should have a $75,000 surplus from that one position. I had an assistant HR person position that’s been vacant all year that we’ve cut from the next year’s budget that we didn’t fill this year. So, that’s probably another 65 to $70,000. The crumbs start adding up and at the end of the year, you end up with a $600,000 surplus on top of the million of the prepaid that you had from the

41:39 year before, you could end the year with a $1.6 $6 million surplus of which we’re going to prepay another million special tuitions and it’s still going to leave us with a $600,000 surplus. The risk we have is we have to budget for those positions. We have to budget that they’re going to be filled because our goal is always to fill those positions. It’s not to leave vacant positions so that we can have a surplus at the end of the year. That’s never our intention. So that’s why we have surplus at the end of the year. It’s I I would say a little bit utilities, a little bit here, a little bit, you know, that we budgeted for a conference that somebody didn’t go to. Those are the the really small crumbs, but the bigger crumbs are the the bigger pieces of the cake or the pie or if you want to whatever dessert I want to I haven’t had dinner yet, by the way. Um the bigger pieces are the really what quickly adds up to that $600

42:26 700,000 surplus. Um the only thing that I wrote down that you that you mentioned and I need to go back and check. You said we level funded in FY24. Not sure that I thought the budget went up. » That’s not true. We’ve I just I was going to mention that later on. We’ve always had an increase to our budget in the 20 plus years I’ve been in or around school committee. Um but I think you know perhaps what um » I think what happened » saying is that we didn’t get the full amount. We always got an increase but we didn’t um always get level services means enough additional funding to cover every single » without » um contractual uh obligation and that we did not get. So we always had an increase. Um this is the first year that

43:12 I’m aware of in you know sort of my generational um participation with school committee that we have been um uh asked to uh come forward to to town meeting with a level funded budget with no increase at all. And you know, as we can see, um, that in order to do that has necessitated that we we cut I might correct me if I’m wrong, two$2 and a half million dollars out of what we would have needed. » Fine in other areas, right? Um, so I think what what and I don’t mean to put words in your mouth, we didn’t get level services in 24, but we also we were somewhere between level funded and level services. No, and I just I just No, » because we did there was an override and it failed. So, » right. And I think we raised user fees that year or going into the next year,

44:00 we voted to to we I wasn’t here. Um it was voted to raise user fees of those. » Mike, I’m going to put let everyone know we the town appropriated a higher a greater amount in FY24 than they did in FY23. So we did have an increase to our budget, not just from user fees from the town appropriation. » And it’s also one of those things, you know, right now we’re talking about the FY27 budget, right? » Well, we just started 20. So sometimes if when we start talking years, it’s confusing that what what year you’re actually in as far as what what how much the money went up from one year to the next. But you great comments. Thank you so much. » That answer all your questions, Sam. » Um is this truly the budget you believe best supports our students? » Um I think that to answer that question,

44:45 I I c we drafted a budget created a budget that um met the expectations of the town at this point. » Okay. That’s the best way I can answer that question. » And maybe you can’t answer it now, but I’m hopeful that maybe the superintendent can make your direct amendment.

45:07 » I’ll do better at answer. » All right. Uh Mary, » hi » hi I want to thank everybody at this table for all the effort you’re putting in, plus all the great teachers that are behind me. I’m in a unique position as a senior citizen and a mother of a 13year-old and I’ve come here every year to say that somehow and your your article in the paper was awesome. Now, that should be sent home to every single parent or family in town. It really should because

45:54 it breaks it down. And it’s great that we do have a newspaper, but does everybody read that? And being a senior citizen, but um a lot of them uh what’s the percentage over 65 roughly? Yeah, that’s I have it right here. » 50 something. » Um, it increased by it’s now 23% of our population. So, we have about 1,100 more marble have residents over 65 than we did 10 years ago, » right? And a lot of them are on a fixed budget. Now, I go and talk to my neighbors who are all senior citizens and I sat down with them and I said, “We need a 2 and 1/2 override. We haven’t

46:42 had one since 2005.” So I’ve been before here and years ago when my boys were in Swanson Scott, we had a problem. We had these excellent teachers. It was a mass exodus and then finally the parents had were going door to door because we didn’t have social media back then and um we didn’t have cell phones. There wasn’t as much um mental health problems. We have anxiety. Um, I learned a lot by um, walking with the teachers at the strike last year. I really did. And I’ll tell you, by the end of this vacation, if I heard my name one more time, so I can just imagine what these teachers have to go from

47:27 their vacation with their kids and go into school and then you would have 22 kids saying, “Mrs. And so, Mr. So and so.” Okay, I was happy and and it’s tough. And I’ve been lucky that I’ve actually had experience in the Glover School, the Brown School, Village, and now vets. Again, I was very lucky to be able to volunteer in all those schools. And I see what these kids need. We have like up the bets, we only have, let’s see, one therapist for seventh grade and counselor and a counsel for the eighth grade. They really only need two of each with the

48:13 with the kids and and these teachers work so hard and and I just I admire them. Now I was a um permanent sub in the city of Glenn with the alternative school so I know how hard it is. We didn’t have We had a padded room from the ceiling down and we were able to put the children in there to calm them down. I’ve seen a couple of kids go off in my years of being in Marblehead schools. And your first reaction is to make sure that child is safe, but also yourself. because if you’re not safe, you’re not going to be able to help that child or

48:58 any other children that become in there. It’s a tough job. And you know, I think you said we having a a problem filling in um what was it the math? Um, yeah. And I had my son had a grandm seizure when he was 5 and a half and I fought to keep him in the Swampspot school system, but it got to the point we needed an override and they were cutting teachers. So, and then the mass exodus, I pulled my kids. One went to St. John’s Prep. The other one went to the learning prep school down in West Newton and Swapsburg had to pay that extra money where I

49:44 would rather have him staying in town. This is what’s going to happen. And if we don’t get the override, we’re going to be losing teachers, which we need because there are kids that do fall through the cracks, might need a little extra help in the math, doesn’t qualify for IEP, and not maybe a 504, but still struggling. And I’ve seen how important those teachers are because I’ve seen kids go up and say, “Oh, Miss M Miss so and so, I need a can you can you explain this to me?” And it’s it’s really frustrating to see that a town like Marblehead won’t give

50:29 the two and a half override to give what our schools need. » So, 15 seconds. » Okay. So, here’s my advice. get your article out to all the families and then put your article on social media so that it can be shared with the senior citizens. And then if you don’t get the senior citizens, you’re going to be in really tough place and it’s a shame because you know we have some really great teachers and I really appreciate this. One last thing, I went to our neighbors and asked them, “Why did you pull your kids from the school?” They said, “Because of what happened last year.” And they didn’t want to see happen again. So t two kids went to tower, one went to Charta. The

51:17 girls that ended up leaving last year, uh, because what happened, you know, Malden Catholic, this one, because the parents didn’t want to take a chance that it was going to happen again. So thank you. » Thank you Mary

51:46 » I came prepared for a typical um here what we’ve always done is a hearing format where I have multiple questions um on different topics. So just cut me off at three minutes and then I’ll find increased to five. So let » but I’ll gonna go over. So um because I just I thought this was going to be a typical hearing. Um all right. So first of all, just as far as we talk about things like the energy reserve fund and things like that so people understand the history is that was um schools have line item autonomy unique in the town government. No other department has line item autonomy. You guys can move money around at will within your own budget. It doesn’t take a vote of income. doesn’t take a vote of town meeting. Because of that, when the original stabilization funds were were created,

52:33 it was to lessen the amount for energy. Um, at that time it was energy, those other ones in our actual budget. So, if there was a surplus, the school committee couldn’t just move it around that the town had control. So once it hit a certain amount, it went over the town basically to stabilize where that money was going. That was getting really dedicated to what it was supposed to be, not used. We have a really warm year to fund something else. Um, agree with it or not, that’s how it was established. Once we got to a regular period of always expending that that stabilization amount and then it would come back to our budget. Once we had several consecutive years to that, there was a decision for FY25 that it would move back into our budget because it wasn’t like we were sitting on a surplus that

53:19 we were then going to expend to another line item. It really was an insurance policy to make sure money allocated to schools was being spent as is appropriate, which you know is what we were doing. So, just to explain that um the prepayment in the past, you guys have changed how you did that this year, which is a little concerning. We worked really hard. We all know what happened in 2019 with with once the year prior circuit breaker came well maybe we don’t actually I shouldn’t say we all know I don’t I think actually many of us don’t know um when circuit breaker came in as low as it did that really destabilized our special education payments luckily through Michelle Cresta and then Mike has has brought this on we started carrying over as is legally allowed up to one full year of circuit breaker

54:06 accounts that really is a good stabilization technique. That’s why this the seat allows you to do that. Marblehead had not been doing that that prior to 2019. So in 2019 when we hit that crisis and everything happened that it did and years prior to that too, people who have historical knowledge of that will remember we were freezing budgets. October, November, you couldn’t get paper. I can remember people saying, “Can you believe those high school teachers are saying to tell kids to print things at home? There’s no paper.” And I go, “No, no, there really is no paper.” Like that that is what our school budget had had come to. There was a tremendous amount of work done to properly document and and to work towards the point where we were not

54:52 freezing budgets. That’s the alternative to a surplus, folks. Nobody in municipal government or in any government even privatized to the tune of $49 million ends at zero. We don’t have the ability to borrow or do something midyear. So, if you’re not ending the year with a little bit or somewhat of a surplus, and why a little bit, it’s a marginal and a 49 or $50 million budget. A million dollar surplus means you were within 2%. In the budgeting world, that’s pretty darn good. So, so people need I think there needs to be a general education of how we got there and what these words mean because I think people it’s nice to feel like you’re ending on zero, but if you’re ending on zero, you were darn close to freezing that budget. Um, so we

55:38 really worked hard to not freeze budgets. When we the first year we used the surplus was FY20 20. We were all doing Zoom meetings. Uh, uh, new super intern superintendent Mccal. Yeah. And it was actually my idea for better or for worse. You know, we were in we were at the beginning of our fiscal cliff. And at that point, we didn’t have enough money to balance the budget. We were going to have to cut because when we put it back, the alternative to a surplus prepayment is it goes back in free cash to the town. We used to certify free cash in October, November. Last year we went into turn town meetings still hadn’t certified it. If it’s not certified, you can’t use it. So when I suggested that first year using that 200,000, it was to save free

56:24 teachers jobs. And the reason we do that is if you prepay with a surplus, you have that money right available right away to stabilize your budget versus waiting till it’s certified. So as we moved forward, we worked very closely with Fincom who was very collaborative and what we got to was the point where we were accounting for that because the public needs to know what a public education a marble head costs and so we would note all what our total out of district placements are. Below that, we would have a deduct line. And the deduct line would show what are we prepaying so that the public knows we have currently own 4.1 million on district placements. We’re prepaying 1 million. We’re going to deduct that and we’re going to put

57:09 3.1 million. Your current budget doesn’t show a deduct line. Now, after the second round, you put 200 in it for a deduct line, but you’re still carrying it. That’s what that is in opposition to the policy that was developed in conjunction. Can I just finish this one thought within to accurately show what that deduct is. If you’re prepaying a million dollars, which is what you’re estimating to do, if you show that full deduct of a million, that means that frees up another 800,000. And so all I’m on this topic, we’ll go back to other topics. I’m asking you go back to the PRA best practice that was established with FINCOM to show that deduct to account for what you truly are pay prepaying so that the public knows this is what it cost to educate our out

57:55 of district placements this is how we pay for it partially they see both things in conjunction not just part of the story it’s about transparency » let me know » thank you sir can I respond to summits yes whilst still in the room » I know you’re probably running out Um, first off, I guess we’ll stop where you ended on the deduct. Um, if we were to do it that way and we would deduct a million off of our $5 million out of district tuition, that means we would be going into next year with a $4 million out of district budget and we would be absolutely dead in the water for FY28 because now you need to make up that million by the next year. So there’s with all due respect, I would not support going in that direction

58:41 whatsoever. Um, but thank you and and I appreciate having the history and the knowledge because I don’t always have all that information. Um, I would like to see the policy that was developed in between the school committee and the fincom because I’m not sure that a policy » I can send you videos. » Oh, you said policy. I just didn’t know if there was a policy that I’m supposed to be. » Oh, okay. I just wanted to make sure this wasn’t a policy I was supposed to be following. All right, good. as sitting in all of our eventual meetings, it we’ve been doing it consistently. It’s, you know, maybe it was it was presented differently, but the process has been the same. » Yeah. But not this year. » No, it is has the same. » Oh, my conscience. » No, it’s but the policy you’re referring to in the way that we’ve done it in the past, we have done it. We have laid it out with every source the same way that we did in previous years. So I

59:26 think maybe some of the language is different but sitting in those meetings from last year to this year like you know we’ve both been there. » So the budget was if we prepaid a million the budget asked so we look at all sources of out of district tuition and transportation we look at all the sources and then what needs to be funded by the general fund the full picture. We did that last year but we did this year. » But you’re saying two different things Mike’s saying you’re saying you did it the same way as last year. So you were the general fund request has been reduced by the prepayment amount. » No, because and can I can I just sorry and Molly, thank you so much for your comments on this. » If in February or actually January when we when we finalized this budget in

1:00:12 January, presented it early in February, if I deducted a million dollars and something blows up between January and June, what do we do then? Well, you have north of 2 million in circuit breaker, right? » We have safety nets in place. Correct. And intentionally built safety nets because of 2019 circuit breaker special education tuition stabilization which requires a town meeting vote which we can’t get till May or June. By that time it’s too too late to do anything and we have the prepaid. So those are our three safety nets. Um I’m happy that we have all three. Um, that’s why I said I don’t think we need to go any higher than a million on prepaids just because we’ve got the other two safety nets there and to get to the sped stabilization something would I mean there would have to be a government

1:00:59 » and I mean something something drastic devastating um but I I don’t feel I would not feel comfortable in January taking a negative million dollars out of the budget not knowing what’s going to happen between February and June. I mean, I say nothing. No, we have a good idea. I mean, at least Mary’s got a really good handle handle on what’s going on. » Um, but also, I’m going to take that $5 million budget and reduce it down to 4 million. I’m never getting that back in fiscal 28, especially if an override doesn’t happen. If an override doesn’t happen, and I and I use all that reserve now, we are a million dollars. We’re already we’re already probably about $3 million behind for fiscal 28. Now, you’re going to put us $4 million behind. And and I that Do you know how many positions that that would be? We’re

1:01:45 80% salary in our in our budget. How many positions it would take to fund $4 million shortfall? That’s that’s just too much. » Can I continue on stop? » Yeah. Just is it is it » varies? So last year on the um on the circuit breaker, you guys convinced me I I was a holder. You know this. I was the one I resigned. I wanted to carry over 100% circuit breaker. I felt that was the safe thing to do. You guys convinced me 80% was safe. Oh, we carried 100%. We carried a full year circuit breaker last year. » I’m going to call a couple meetings because I know that you guys were very happy that you we said we can go get by with Amy. We’re totally safe. It’s okay. You may have carried over, wound up ultimately getting to carry over, but the plan when we presented in those meetings was 80%. » And and you’ll have to pull the notes. I

1:02:34 I can tell I can never imagine myself saying that I felt safe with 80%. When they allow you to carry 100%. Every district I’ve been in, we’ve gotten it to 100% and that is our benchmark. We do not go below 100%. So, so, so we’re in agreement. I don’t We’re in agreement. I just don’t believe that I Yeah. » Can I just chime in just just on the circuit breaker piece? What folks need to understand if you don’t is circuit breaker is a reimbursement mechanism. Just so folks know that that money we have to pay upfront and then we get it back. And the money that we get back is not. So if it’s a $100,000 tuition and circuit breakers funded at $75,000, we’re not getting $75,000. We’re getting 75% of over the threshold that set state, which I believe is 61,000 I think right now. Somewhere in that ballpark.

1:03:21 So it’s 58 somewhere in there. » Somewhere somewhere somewhere in that they keep changing. OSD just came out with rates, so I I might have the number wrong, but it’s somewhere between like 56 61. like 75% of the overage of like what’s the difference between the threshold if it’s 56,000 and 100 we’re getting a reimbursement on that 75% of that not 75% of the whole. So, it’s it’s a little when we talk about fully funding circuit breaker, it’s it’s fully funded if the if the state funds it that the 75% they’re supposed to, but it’s 75% of the money that’s over the threshold that they they So, it’s not you’re not getting 75% of a full tuition. » So, it’s um it’s four times the average of the state per pupil spending, which is about 15,000. So, four times that is

1:04:08 60,000. So, we’re right in that range. the district is on the hook for the first four times that. So that’s district is on the hook for the first 60,000. Anything between 60 and and above anything above 60 the delta. So let’s just say using your 100,000 that $40,000 delta they’ll reimburse us 75% of that. So we’re still on the hook for the next 10,000 that and the state will reimburse us 30,000. So for $100,000 tuition truly we pay 60,000 70,000 and the state reimbures us 30,000. So it’s not it’s not as they’re not reimbursing us at 100%. » So I don’t want to flock to dead horse here. I just want to make sure that people understood what we were talking about there and said I believe we have someone hand raised

1:04:54 online David Patton. » David can you hear us? » I think you may need to give him All right. Hold on a second. Baby,

1:05:20 » Sarah Matusa. Well, he’s Are there any questions I didn’t answer for you? I think you were just making nice slowly. » I just want to make sure I probably All right, David, if you can hear me. I think we can hear you now. » I just unmuted now. Can you hear me? » Yes, we can hear you. » Great. Thank you very much. So, I am not a school committee member. I haven’t paid a lot of attention to to I don’t have a child in the school system, but I do pay taxes in this town and I have watched my property taxes go up significantly as have all the residents in this town and I pay close attention

1:06:08 to the budget and I attend every town meeting and I listen to it and I appreciate a lot of conversation that’s been going on here as a way to make this presentation more understandable maybe to people who don’t really follow this as closely. But some of the numbers that I’ve been following are the numbers in the uh that that have been described in the in the newspaper of our actual student enrollment. And I saw the slide that you put out in this presentation that said we’re down 23% over 10 years and that the budget then is or the I guess full-time equivalent for students

1:06:53 uh for teachers is down 19%. And so that’s kind of a relative similarity in your mind. Um, but I believe I also saw data that said that this particular year you’re down 8 and a half% from last year. And the other question I have is you talk about what it’s going to be for the 2627 budget and you showed us a number as to how many students are enrolled on February 2nd of 26, but you don’t tell us how many students are going to be enrolled in September of 26, which is the coming year for which you are budgeting. So, I would like to know what you think that number is going to be because every time I’ve read any articles about what your forecasted

1:07:39 student counts are, you typically estimate that there will be an increase in students and yet year after year after year, there has been a decline of students. So, I would like to know what your actual forecasted student enrollment is going to be for September. I would also like to know what the staff to student ratio is going to be. I think I read in a newspaper article some weeks ago that it’s currently down around 11 to1. And if that’s the number, gee, that sounds pretty low. And I guess I’d like to know apart from special education classes because I know special education classes require a higher student toteer

1:08:26 ratio. I’d like to know what the class size is and the student teacher ratio is in the uh the general education classes. So those are my questions. Projected students in September, staff to student ratio um and uh and you know how many how many students there will be in in um in in those classes. And I guess I’m kind of one of those guys who are saying if you lost 8 12% of your student body this year and you’re going to lose some more next year, then all of these cuts seem perfectly reasonable to me and maybe should be greater. » All right. Thank you.

1:09:11 » Thank you, Mr. M. Was it Mr. Patton? Um, » yes. So the projection for the fall currently is uh roughly 2,349 students based upon some of the enrollment numbers come in. That’s a moving target. Um any given day it goes up and down. Desi the department of education looks at the October one number. So that’s kind of where we do the comparison. But for the for the start of the school year we are anticipating somewhere in the ballpark of 2349 to answer that first question. The second question, um the staff to student ratio, I believe that 11 to1 is is fairly accurate and that’s in line um with uh state averages right right around there. Um so that we feel pretty comfortable with that number. Um that allows staff um staff to address student

1:09:58 needs in the classroom. Um and as as Melissa Clucas had mentioned earlier, our staffing our staffing is such that um we need to make sure that our student needs that are much greater than they they had been previously are addressed. So 11 to1 ratio is uh I feel like I feel comfortable with that. And then the third number was I forgot I didn’t I didn’t catch the question was » I guess I’m interested in the uh staff to student ratio the class size in the nonsp special education rooms. So we sit we sit around sorry I » just add up I think it’s an important clarification. So the 11 that you’re describing does not imply that there is 11 students in a classroom. A studenttoteer ratio is all licensed teachers that support the students. So

1:10:44 special ed reading specialists interventionist library librarians. So I think it’s I don’t want the I just don’t want to be misunderstood that our class sizes are that small. smaller class sizes are much closer to 20 25 depending on kind of what you’re looking at. So I just want to make sure that that point is kind of underscored I think. » Yeah. » Well, let me let me make a a comment there. Um Melissa, so yeah, the student uh to or teacher or teacher to student ratio is definitely inclusive of all um of all staff. So, no, we don’t have classes with 11 students, but it is indic, you know, it’s indicative of, you know, in general what your what your staffing is. And the important thing is

1:11:30 to compare us to statewide averages. I mean, that’s that’s really the, you know, the important thing. Um, and you know, our um class averages for the elementary schools vary widely, particularly between the two elementary schools. We have some as low as 16 per students per class and up as high as maybe I think it’s 20 20 21. Um, we’re not at the 20, you know, five level at at this point. Um, or I haven’t seen any, although I have been trying to get those reports um, John, those class- size reports, but for some reason those reports have stopped coming. So, um, but I think the important thing is that you want to look at where we are um, compared to the statewide averages. » Okay. Okay. And that, forgive me, that 2349 number you gave me for the start of the coming school year is compared to how many as of February 2nd?

1:12:20 » 2435. Okay. So that’s basically down almost another 100 students. That’s your projection. » Yeah. » Okay. Well, I » I’m sorry. The the other question you asked is the so to six our average student classroom size is 19.7 right now. » Well, just that he’s in a class with 24 people. » That average that that doesn’t mean that the classes are 19.7. It means that some classes may have maybe special education classes that have you know fewer students and some classrooms are larger. Um but that’s the average K to six. It’s um like as well pointed out it it varies. It varies at vets in the high school, you know. alone but that that

1:13:06 number is probably um similar you know to well » I just looked through the Google classroom um I’m in classes with 23 24 and 22 students » y so » also if you look at all the the data from desi on every single public school in Massachusetts and what that ratio looks like for teacher to student we’re like squarely right in the middle we’re squarely average we’re not we’re not above we’re not below we’re kind of middle of the packs when we’re thinking about benchmarking ourselves and are we overstaffed, understaffed. I’d say we’re we’re right right at the average. » And I think, you know, when we talk about staff and we talk about there’s just so many factors. It’s not it’s not black and white. It’s not really easy to paint the actual picture. You know, when we met with like Fingham, we talked

1:13:52 numbers. It’s, you know, it’s easy to say numbers. You know, this many students should equal this many staff, and it’s not that simple. Um, so we’re working with our administrators and our and our staff and and just looking at what what’s what is needed for certain groups of students and how do we staff that, how do we staff that appropriately. Uh, we we’re trying working really hard to, you know, uh, increase our special ed programming across the district so we can educate our students within the district by the like age peers and that takes staffing, that takes resources, that takes that takes energy, and it takes money to to make that happen. And you know, um, that’s just part of the equation. You know, going back to the 11:1 ratio, I appreciate you saying that, Melissa. You know, as an educator, I talk this talk about time, so I don’t always think, oh, I should explain that better. So, I

1:14:37 appreciate, you know, kind of explaining where that 11:1 ratio is. Um, but again, you know, we, as Sarah Tus said earlier, like we are um achie our students achieve really well here in Marblehead. So, we’re doing a lot with realistically a a little like when you when you start talking about our funding, our our expenditure, our our ratios, and our students are still achieving it, that that speaks volumes to the staffing that’s in the classrooms. That speaks volumes to the caliber of educators that we have and and the and the parent involvement and the collaboration between the schools and the community. And that’s honestly, it sounds corny, but that’s what makes Marblehead Ed so cool. I mean, I’ve been in other districts and we don’t have this level of collaboration with the community, with

1:15:22 the parents, between the parents and the teachers, and between the teachers and the administrators and the support of the school committee. That’s all the factors that make this work. And we can have all the discussions in the world about we shouldn’t, you know, we shouldn’t cut that or we need to fill that. And that’s all good conversation, but it’s all conversation that we’re having in a consistent way. None of these decisions about cuts, reductions have been made lightly, have been made in a vacuum, have not been made without thinking about what are the further ramifications. We are in the business of teaching students and we have to make sure that we keep that at the forefront of our discussions when we talk about how we budget whether we need an override or not what that override looks like how will that be funded how you know who’s going to go for it who’s not going to vote for it the percentages of

1:16:08 uh the elderly versus the percentage of of parents that have kids in the classroom and I mean in the in the schools and the percentage of parents that don’t have any stake in the game it’s all those things are factors so um I think these discussions are great I think you know we We are doing what we’ve been asked to do from the town, but we’re also doing it very thoughtfully, playfully, and collaboratively. Mike’s doing a phenomenal job working with the the town side, working with FinCom, working with, you know, everybody to say what is it like? How do we get in here? How do we get to where we need to get to in a in a way that’s not schools versus town, isn’t um, you know, us versus them. It’s how do we do this collaboratively? And I just I have to keep saying that this is this is a process that I’ve actually as much as I never want to cut anybody or

1:16:55 look at reductions, the process so far has been I think more collaborative than I could imagine. And it’s and that’s that’s what help that’s what’s helping us get to where we need to get to. So I just have to continue to share that. It’s it’s important. It’s important information. Uh » John, I think it’s also important to share that I think things have changed a lot in special education from even when I was in school. It’s not really as clear-cut as this is our general education classes and this is our special education classes. We you know there’s it’s an integrated approach and so we can’t really break those numbers down into this is how many we have per class for special education and this is how many we have for gened. » Yeah. And and I I appreciate that Henry and I think you know we had this conversation last time too and it’s you

1:17:42 know if we look at a classroom of say 21 students right let’s just use that at the elementary level that that classroom may have you know a prepoundonderance of the kids might be on an IEP so it might be a co- talk classroom might be a gened teacher with a special ed teacher and two instructional assistants that have to come in and and do that and it might eb and flow within and out of the classroom so it’s not as easy as saying hey there’s 21 kids in that classroom and there’s two teachers it’s not it may be two teachers for this 20 minute block and then two teachers for 20-minute block later and one teacher and I need the rest of the time. And so it’s it’s all it’s a moving target. Um it’s not the old days of we’re just stick everybody in the classroom, face forward, have 25 kids, five kids to a row, teachers teaching at students that that’s the 70s. We we don’t live in that world anymore. And you know, we have to

1:18:28 include our students in the classrooms. And that inclusion means that we have to staff it properly. So I I’ll get off my soap box, but I think it’s important to still continue to have a found solutions. » All right. So I think everyone who has wanted to » I didn’t put my name down, but can I ask a quick question? » Sure. » As I prepare Lee Blander, Westport Lane, also the Marblehead Head current. So there also the Marblehead current. So there are definitely people who are listening tonight like Mr. patent it seems who are comfortable with the proposed level funded budget and then there are a lot of people who are listening also who may say no that I don’t want those kind of cuts and we should definitely push for an override what happens now we all have seen the same level funded budget we know that we’re 10 weeks away from town

1:19:13 meeting um what do you say to folks who who don’t want to see those cuts and who who some of whom spoken tonight what’s what what happens for for people who are new and paying attention new you know fresh what what do they do now or or is what’s what’s the avenue for folks who are interested in in seeing um fully funded but I forget what was the phrase you used or maybe no it was Samantha Rosado who said like a fully funded budget » level service level » level service I think she went beyond level service though and I think » she did say fully funded in her in her comment I » Yeah, » Yeah, » it might be somewhere in between

1:19:58 » somewhere between level and and green. Um what what’s the what’s the process in the next 10 months 10 10 weeks? » You want to speak? » I can but like um » okay » can I just make one comment John? I want to hear what you have to say but the question that is a question for this committee. » Correct. That’s what I was just going to say is I can start it, but I think I should need to turn it over to school committee. So, » um I was I was just going to say we’re we’re discussing level fund and budget tonight, right? And then we’re slated to vote for this budget at the next meeting. Um and then this conversations um we hated off to happen with the town and that’s is my segue over to the rest of the committee because that’s that’s the appropriate deadline. » Okay. So the school committee votes at its next meeting on this level funded

1:20:43 budget and the school committee is required to bring a level funded budget to the town meeting. » So what happens? » So Lee, we are not required to vote next week. We have to vote sometime before town meeting. » Right. » Yeah. It’s slated. » We may vote it next week. We we may not. Um we aren’t require we aren’t required to do anything when it comes to town meeting other than present a budget that this committee believes is what is necessary for the students of Marblehead. Um okay the town meeting is required to pass a balanced budget. » Right. So town meeting cannot um wouldn’t be certified to pass a budget that is knowingly unbalanced based on projected revenues.

1:21:29 » Right. So the process um of you know making the sausage is that you know we work with the other areas of town um based on the projected revenues that were laid out at basically at the state of the town meeting about a month or so ago. Um and we are we work with the finance committee to come forward with a budget that together with the town side will be balanced right because town meeting has to pass a balanced budget. Now if there is a desire on the part of the town to have a budget that is um higher than that with higher revenues than are projected then the town would need to find additional ways to generate that revenue. » Right.

1:22:16 » Yeah. Thank you. So if if people were interested in protecting those positions or and seeing that cuts weren’t going to happen, what’s the next step? I think I mean I would just answer that the next step is that the committee this what we have right now is the superintendent’s proposed budget. The committee itself hasn’t deliberated or voted the budget. And so that’s really the next step is for the committee to deliberate whether this is a budget that we you know will bring forward. Um, and then as Jen referenced, mixed in that you have the work that’s being done still on the town side and with Vincomecom that may or may not change what we are asked to do. Um, and so

1:23:04 it’s really just an evolving situation over the next 10 months. » Override coming into the conversation if at all. That’s what everyone’s talking about, right? is are we going to have an override on town side on the school side. So at what point does that does that come into your conversation at this table? » I would think it comes in as we start to deliberate the budget. » Okay. » Just one point of clarification. You said we were required to do a level funed budget. That’s not accurate. We were requested to present a level fun budget. We are not required. Tom cannot tell us » how what to present for a budget. But obviously we have a relationship with them and we are trying our best to play nice with the sandbox. » Right. » Okay. Well, thank you. » Um, somebody does have their hand up.

1:23:50 Al, I don’t know if you saw that. » Yeah. Thank you, Jen. » Um, Mary Jordan first. Amarie, you should be we should be able to hear you now. » Can you hear me? » Yes. Thank you. » My name’s Amarie Jordan. Um I live at 8 Broaden Road. Um I have had two children who are adults now who went through the um Marblehead public schools. I’m also a retired teacher and school administrator. I just wanted well first I wanted to thank you for all of your work, but I also uh that and and doing this very challenging process which I

1:24:38 know is very difficult. Um, I did want to just possibly not for the school committee or school administration, but to the community at large, and this goes to um Lee Blanders’s um question about what happens next. My children were um in elementary school when the last general override was passed. And I just wanted to share with the community at large that one of the reasons that it did pass was because there was a very big concerted effort um from community groups and family groups, PTO’s to really have a big um um kind of a a public service campaign to be able to

1:25:23 really put very complex information that is a school budget into very readable and understandable um uh presentations that really did um convey what was going to happen if an override didn’t get passed. So, I just want to encourage people to think about that and to gather and to collaborate so that and start early if there is an eventual override that is presented to the town to be able to canvas the community so that people really do understand in um in a very basic way what will happen which I know is challenging in and of itself because as I said earlier school budgets are very complex but that I I think in my my

1:26:10 memory from that time was really what helped P uh move the needle um so that the general override was passed. So thank you. » Great. Thank you. Um next up is uh Cindy Tower Lohan. Can you hear us? » Thank you. Thank you. I wasn’t planning on speaking but um there’s just a couple things here. is as you as everything got shared today in terms of what John had to present, okay, or was asked to present. My question to the school committee is there anyone on the school committee

1:26:56 right now that does not believe that we should have more funding for the schools? And I asked that because it’s been what 20 years since an override and every year this comes up in terms of the budget. There are times when the school committee clearly clearly knows that we need an override. But in playing in the sandbox, as I think it was Mike who said, you know, it ends up, school committee does not go and ask for an override. And so

1:27:44 I find it very disturbing and I continue to find this topic disturbing. For 20 plus years, my kids went through the schools. I am obviously one of the older folks in this group now and I personally think that as a town, as a community that we need to step it up in terms of an appropriate budget for the schools versus level budget versus however we want to term it right now. Okay. Um, you know, what I’d like to see is that John comes to the table with what he really believes should be um the best in terms

1:28:30 of the education for our students and that the school committee gets behind that as well as the town. And obviously this is a picture perfect scenario and I know it isn’t but you know like even when the comment in terms of you know what the enrollment was going to be in September okay so it’s a hundred less well that could be because the graduating class is higher than the some of the classes coming up okay so you know like just saying oh we have a 100 less students does not mean that a 100 students um you know have just decided to pull out of Marblehead HUD and you know

1:29:16 in ter like the state all across the state there are budget discussions as well as um decrease in enrollment is another thing it is not necessarily indicative of what our education system is here um but it ends up being equated to that. And so I do want to ask the school committee if um any any of the members believe that you know we should not be raising and asking for two and a half or even something in between versus what John has presented tonight because I honestly believe that um bringing it to what John

1:30:04 has had to do is not appropriate for the education and the best um situation for our students here. And this is a parent as a parent of kids are not even in the school system anymore. And so yes, I would be um having to pay more taxes, but you know, I value education. Doesn’t mean that just because I’m older and my kids aren’t in the school that I am not going to um agree to do that. So, any um feedback with what I’ve said? I’d appreciate it. » I’ll answer that. Um I absolutely think we should give more money to our schools. I think that’s a no-brainer. For me, it’s more about

1:30:50 collectively getting the community to understand the facts of the situation that we’re in, where we’ve been, where we are right now, so that we can’t have misinformation brewing within the community and people understand where we are to be able to have an honest conversation about, okay, we’re properly staffed. What does that actually look like? Yes, I I’m fully supportive of giving our schools more money. My focus as a new committee member has been around level setting the facts and the honest conversation around that within our community because I do not feel that an override would be successful with misinformation in the community ahead of that override. So » yes, more money for our schools

1:31:37 » with factual information as the basis of that conversation. Um, I would just agree with pretty much everything Melissa just said. I don’t think people get themselves onto a school committee because they don’t want to fund the schools appropriately. Um, I do think we have to find a way to walk this line of understanding the demographics of our community, the financial situation our community is in and balance that against what the needs are in our schools and working to fund those and working to be successful when that request is made. So, it’s, you know, somewhat what the needs are and somewhat what the timing is, but, you know, I absolutely,

1:32:23 you know, agree with Lawson. » Yeah, I agree. I think I think if we did decide that an override was important, I I don’t think there’s anybody on the committee who wouldn’t throw their full support behind it. I know or I I don’t want to speak for anyone. I would certainly throw my full support behind it and and work with the community to get the message out there and and to you know convince people that this is the right thing to do. I think we do have to have a specific plan though. Of course » yeah I think we have » 10 10 weeks. Is that right? » Yeah. The only thing I I’ll try to be additive because I agree with what people said before, but um you know there’s also areas that I think

1:33:09 that go beyond level services that may make sense for our district, right? I think one very obvious one is tuition for kindergarten, right? We’re having our taxes should be paying for K through 12, full daycare, you know, full kindergarten. So, I’m not sure when the right time to introduce that might be, but I do think maybe there are three different types, right? The level funded budget, the level services budget, and then I think as people have talked here is a fully funded, right, would more the the ideal that we would like to see. Now that being said, I think we should have that data, but then we have to also work with many other people to um see how that eventually works out.

1:33:54 » Jen, did you have any any comments before? » Again, to quote you, I don’t want to be um add want to be additive. Um uh El, you know, for sure. And all really really good points that were were raised um in terms of, you know, what it is that we want this school district to be. what do we who do we aspire to in terms of, you know, other model districts? Um, and what what kind of programming and and funding that they have in in those communities. Um, but I think to Melissa’s point, again, no one’s on this committee, myself included, that doesn’t believe that we should be properly and fully funding our schools to give the best education we possibly can um to all of the students in Marblehead. you know, I would love to have every single student aged child in Marblehead coming

1:34:41 to our schools. Um, which we which we don’t have right now. Um, but to to Melissa’s point, um, we have to, you know, I guess balance that is if that’s the right word or or make a judgment in terms of our ability to get something to get an increase in revenue um, you know, through the through the ballot in the town. And that’s um, that’s not taken very lightly. And I I don’t know who made the comment earlier, someone one of the commenters said, you know, that we haven’t asked for an override and that’s simply not true. We’ve had multiple failed overrides um in the early, you know, 2020s um up to 2023, I think, was the last failed override. Um, so it’s important and it’s something that we need to um, you know, to

1:35:28 consider and work towards, but it is a large hill to, you know, to climb here in this town. Um, and it’s important um, and I know, you know, Kate, looking back at some, you know, um, comments la this time last year, you were very vocal about the, uh, need to fully fund our schools. um you were you know you were very very clear about that out in the public and in the press um and I agree with that um but you you know now on the committee can see that um it you know it’s a very very large task um and so far this committee hasn’t given um you know the message to either the superintendent or the subcommittee to go forward with that um we can u but we need to get through this first round because like I said we you know we have

1:36:14 to pass a budget or we have to present a budget at town meeting um that will get approved at town meeting that will cause you know give us the best possible scenario in the event that we are not able to get an override to fund our schools.

1:36:32 » Thank you everyone. » Okay, I did say we don’t we allow a second round. I know there’s at least one person that would like to take advantage of that. Oh, » I can ask question. Um, Melissa Theod, I live at 180 West Shore Drive. I’m currently a special ed student who’s at Veterans Middle School and a Brown Elementary and second grade student um parent. I was a former educator of middle school students for 10 years. Um, big promoter of public education and I really enjoyed your article. Um my question comes from a couple of those viewpoints. Both as a teacher, a former teacher, a parent, someone who lives in the town, someone who’s paying taxes in town. Um is there any discussion

1:37:19 any discussion any discussion in the budget about recapturing enrollment of students who have moved out of district? Something like brought about you were talking about uh funding kindergarten. when funding kindergarten increase our enrollment and allow those bodies to come back into the district and by increasing enrollment. Aren’t you also increasing retention of positions for all of those well well educated teachers that are in our district because we have excellent teachers. My students both of my students get uh a proper and um well well-rounded education in Marblehead. Um I just wanted to see is there any

1:38:04 discussion about recapturing enrollment retention of good teachers and then what is I don’t know it um only live in town for 8 years um what is the policies maybe within the district on um just are do we have student teachers and and people who come into the district who are educ being educated to become a teacher like does that are we I guess are we actively seeing seeking people who want to be in education to come to our district to look at what we’re doing here and to be part of it when they graduate. Are we trying to bring new teachers up? I guess is the other question. Sorry if that’s complicated. » No, John. I think that’s best for the superintendent and others to potentially answer. Yeah, I think um I think a lot

1:38:50 of that is happening and things that we talk about all the time like how do we the student teacher one for instance like um I’m a huge proponent of getting student teachers in to to not only just to help out in the classroom you know as as student teachers but to grow them and to help them and and say hey maybe there’s a place for you Marblehead um you we run into you know it’s tough we have Salem state and we have and you know so the the feeder systems for us aren’t as robust as I would love um that I’ve seen in other districts, but we do try to capture that when we can. Um, and then, um, as far as, um, yeah. Um, but I’ll let » I just also want to add, it’s been really nice in my time here to see um, returning students become now uh, counselors, teachers. So, we have such a great product, they want to return home

1:39:36 and be part of our system. We do has have a partnership with Salem State. Um, Indicott has a different kind of graduate level program that’s a little bit different. It’s like a fellowship program. Um but we » correct » in the cot in Beverly. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Um but we do have that and this year we we hired one of our um Salem state um that he did you know some hours with us and found the home care. So we we are working on that. It’s um logistically with our » correct me if I’m wrong. That’s part of our cuts for this level funded budget. » Just no we we decided not to fund the fellowship. That’s that’s a little from the student teacher » but yeah. Um and then the other piece that I think you talked about kindergarten, you know, um how Al’s Al’s discussion about you know fully funding kindergarten. Does that increase

1:40:23 enrollment potentially? I think um it it could it’s also um you know it’s a good thing, right? We we should be providing kindergarten. I think the problem with the kindergarten of prek is is our birth rates are low and low. So the incoming numbers aren’t aren’t what they what they have been. So that that definitely has a trickle up effect. Um but we’re having convers a lot of the internal conversation right it doesn’t help right now in the conversation we’re having but we’re talking about how do we u make transitions between the schools a little bit more robust how do we have um the high school present more to the middle school students so that they’re not more enamored with going elsewhere and they say hey there’s some really cool things happening in mobile high school so how do we retain students which then also helps retain teachers um

1:41:08 and um Julia and the office of teaching learning and And the PD committee is working really hard about how do we create and and um and provide PD in districts so that um you know teachers are getting the resources and the and the things that they need and the training they need so they and in in a robust way so they want to stay volunte. So there’s all those things that are happening. It’s it’s it’s not as easy to quantify. Um but there are there are all those conversations happening. Um I wish I had the magic wand. I don’t. Um but but I think your points are really well taken and those are the those kind of some of the intangibles that are hard to kind of say like what are you doing too? And I think um we’ve been have you know

1:41:57 we’re all kind user newer. Um so we’re we’re having those conversations. It just it takes a little bit of time to to get those that culture ingrained and we move forward. But I think I think we’re doing good work. » Yeah. » Well, the other thing too um the other thing too to keep in mind is we you know working with Lisa Marie Epelo is we are you know trying to work to bring back out of district placement students um hopefully back into district that we can provide the appropriate education um for them and also to build robust programs um you know as importantly that will will preclude students from going out of district. Now, obviously, there’s always going to be some that will need to. We can’t meet their needs, but that work also takes an investment, and that takes, you know, more dollars in our

1:42:42 budget um than a level funded budget allows. Um so, these are the kind of, you know, pressures that we we have to deal with. » Yeah, I don’t think I I heard this, but like a couple of meetings ago, a couple of months ago now maybe, um what I heard from you to which I really liked was we’re also trying to get as much data as to why. Right. So when when students leave or whatever it may be teachers, we try to have other formerly call them exit interviews but you know we try to work with those individuals because I think the best way to figure out what we need to do is to understand the why right the data behind that and I think that’s an important component » and again yeah it’s hard I think all these things off off the cuff but yeah absolutely and and I just Julie I just asked Julie to share a little bit more about the enrollment piece. So what M was speaking about, we presented um the

1:43:29 team presented in December on enrollment and looking at the historical perspective and through the research and the deep dive into that, it really we had some very um like productive conversations as administrative team and we’ve actually shifted our strategy. So we’ve been more strategic in um the points that John identified as that we we think that we could maybe hopefully recapture or gain more enrollment and that is kindergarten. So, we just launched enrollment. Perhaps you got the flyer that we created. For the first time, we added a data point that we are very proud of that the students that start in kindergarten in Marblehead public schools tend to outperform students that enroll later. So, we’ve never done that before. So, we’re adding more. We’ve also » you did » and we and we thank you so much for

1:44:14 reminding me. We also launched everything a lot earlier. So, as the superintendent mentioned to the the previous speaker, enrollment is a moving target, but we have opportunities and we felt that if we move things a little bit earlier, that would be an opportunity to hopefully get some more. Um, and then we had a phenomenal open house last night at the high school for the 8th to 9th grade transition. So, we’re definitely being more strategic, I would say, ever in the last few years that I can recall. uh because we do see that as we know we are up against lower birth rates and competition but we have a phenomenal product and we want to make sure that we are very strategic and very uh public and and as much as we can sharing and and you’ve heard from teachers tonight we they work incredibly hard we have phenomenal parent support we have a great product and we’re very proud of that so I think that all the things that we can do collectively and that’s why

1:45:00 it’s important to bring these things up when people are here and listening this is really important for us to to shed positive light on that as well » and even just the the night last night that Julie just talked about. We already talked about, hey, next year we need to do that earlier so that like we have kids that haven’t already committed to, you know, X, Y, and Z going somewhere else. So, let’s do that earlier. Let’s really celebrate all the great things that we have to offer at Mad High School and do it early. And we talked about not just targeting the eighth graders, we should start targeting the seventh graders. So, there’s all those discussions happening and it’s just born out of like, hey, what can we do better? What can we do different? What can we do for all the things you just said? And you know, I’m I’m excited about it. It’s again, it takes a little bit of time, but you know, yeah, those things are happen. Lisa Marie wants to add some

1:45:46 » Yes. And so, um, prek, um, talking about enrollment. So, uh, we actually have a wait list. Um, the application closed February 13th. We did a lottery yesterday. Brown is full. We have a wait list. Uh, and Glover, we have one, uh, peer partner opening left. Um, and so, you know, this is I’m a year and a half in. Um but what we did hear as um Superintendent Ferrero was saying that parents wanted earlier admission, right? And um so we did open it up earlier. We’re going to be doing our screening and so again we’re very proud of our prek team and everything that we have to offer within this community and I think having that solid base for our 3 to 5 year olds um and then building up into the kindergarten is a is a wonderful thing for all public schools. That’s

1:46:32 really good to hear that there’s a growth program initiative to pull the enrollment early to support those students that are being you know more successful than others and that we take some pride in that. Um it’s good to see the students taking pride in wanting to talk to those younger grades saying these things are so great. Uh like I said public school educated public school teacher for a long time. Um just uh really love Marblehead Schools. Uh I’ve been here since both of my children were in kindergarten. So we paid for tuition and and did the kindergartening uh interview process and all of that. Um so we are hoping that you will bring forward a budget that will encourage retention of

1:47:20 teachers enrollment and keeping that enrollment from year to year. not just new people through district but everybody who’s you know already here staying in and holding on to what makes our land so great. » Thank you so

1:47:39 » okay um you love uh Shelly you should be uh can you hear us? Yes, I can. Hi, Al. Um, » I have a I hopped on a little bit late, so I’m not sure if you guys had brought up the topic of Essex Tech yet. Have you or no? Has anyone asked a question on that? » No. » Okay. So, I understand how the money works with charter when people leave the district and go there, but how does the money work with Essex Tech? I know our slots rose this year from I think they tripled. I think they were like in the they were up to like almost like 39 and it was significantly less last year. So does that mean obviously we’re losing seats or heads if they all

1:48:25 go there and get up to the our full aotment, but does that mean all how does that money work? Um is it one? Yeah, I guess that’s just the question. How’s the money work with Essex Tech and the increase of people going there? How’s that going to impact our bottom line? » So Mike, may I take that one? The number is 37 just so you know um that they the number is 37 that they will um » that they’ll c the cap it at. Um so anyway » 37 Marblehead head students potentially they » 37 Marblehead students potentially they potentially taken 37 Marblehead students. I don’t know what the final column was but I think it was less a little bit less than that but more than last year 27 » but isn’t it significantly is it significantly more than last year? Like I thought it was » Yes. Yes. I I believe it’s 27 is is where they landed right now. um which is

1:49:13 which is more than doubled. Yes. » But Mike’s gonna Mike’s gonna explain though how the money follows the GA. » Okay. » So um the vocational school as well as charter school are not built into the school department’s budget. They are built into the town’s budget. So to answer your question, if the cost to educate a vocational student is 20,000 per year, called tuition, and 10 additional kids go to vocational school that were not there last year, the town would be on the hook for an additional 200,000. Just using rough numbers. I’m not sure exactly what the tuition is. That does not come out of the school department’s budget, but the town does need to find money to fund that. Uh same thing with charter school students. If charter school students uh

1:49:59 the parents send their kids to charter school, the town does have to fund that. So it’s not in our budget. It’s not something we keep from a finance side. I don’t keep a close eye on it. Obviously from teaching and learning and superintendent’s perspective, we want to retain as many kids here as possible. But we also want to make sure that if a student is geared towards vocational school that they get the opportunity to go to vac vocational school. Um so it is on the town to fund it. It’s not in the school department’s budget, so it might be a better question for a joint school committee select board conversation. » Well, I think the thing to keep in mind, correct me if I’m wrong, Mike, too, is that we also get state aid from the state to the town of Marblehead for

1:50:45 schools called chapter 70 money. And it’s a, you know, in Marblehead, I think it’s around up to around $70 million. It’s a it’s a formula that comes through the state budget. So, ostensively there’s funding you know that comes to the town you know for that as well. But you’ve kind of got uh you know a sort of a double whammy where you’re getting now potentially um almost two or more two and a half times more students go you know going out to the the voke as well as the same student number of students we have going to the charter school and our declining enrollment. you know, more and more of that is going to affect the chapter 70 money and that balance and that is factored into what is appropriated to us and how we work with fin. But unlike most towns in

1:51:32 Marblehead, that chapter 70 money goes to the town side and it doesn’t directly come over to us, right, to your point. So, we don’t actually see that, but it is part of the entire, you know, recipe of the funding for the town. So I think chapter 70 I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole right now but just a really briefly the state does give us money for education it’s called chapter 70 and the amount of money you get per pupil is dependent on the commu there’s so many there’s so much involved in the in the formula that you have to be a a mathematician statistician historian to understand it all but the bottom line is the higher your town’s ability to pay meaning the wealth factor of your town the less money the state gives you for education. So, Marblehead

1:52:18 is at the floor, which I believe is either 16.5% or 17.5%. So, if the cost to educate a student is $20,000 per student, Chapter 70 comes in at 16.5% of that number per pupil that we have. Take a community that’s uh does not have the ability to pay. And it’s just because I I dealt with in my former district. Lawrence is a 100% funded by chapter 70. They get 100% of that state money because they don’t have the ability to pay. Marblehead has the ability to pay in in the eyes of the Commonwealth. They don’t know that we haven’t passed an override in 25 years, but they say we have the ability to pay, so we get less. To Al’s point earlier, sorry, Mr. Williams Alison fan.

1:53:05 » Um, on the kindergarten side, this is something that we should explore if we were in a community like somebody that gets 50%. Somebody that’s at the 50% level and you’re charging for kindergarten tuition, you’re only getting so you you’re educating that student for half a day at state dollars because you’re only charging tuition for the second half of the day. the state reimbures us for the half day, not the full day. So when we drop tuition to zero and we no longer charge tuition, the state will fund that child at 100% of our 17% 16 and 12%. So there will be more chapter 70 money comes in when we stop charging tuition. The problem is because Marblehead has the

1:53:50 ability to pay. We’re at that 17 and 16 and 12 17 and 12% range. If I was at a 50% range, they’d be a no-brainer. we’re going to stop charging tuition and and the state’s actually going to probably pay us more than we were actually collecting in in tuition money. But truthfold, we charge a fair amount fair amount for kindergarten tuition. Some may disagree with that. I’m just going to be neutral on that. Um because we’re charging with 7,000 plus for kindergarten. No, I’m sorry. » I’m sorry. 40 confusing with special education um sorry prek,000 » just over $4,000. We’re not going to we’re not getting 8,000 per pupil. So we’re not going to get 4,000 back from

1:54:37 the state as the other half in the day. So some point we have to bite the bullet and I built it into the 27 budget a year ago. I built in kindergarten because because it was the leadership team talked about how important and we heard from the committee how important kindergarten full day kindergarten was for our families for our students learning and for them to get that jump and that head start plays under the enrollment also we I I did a factor and I I factored in what it would cost to do full day kindergarten and we talked about fin with a fincom in the poor selectman and the other piece that we we also talked about funding was technology within our own school department so we didn’t have to go to capital for And those are two things that we built into the budget. And those were the first two things that we had to take out immediately as soon as the town told us that the the funds just weren’t going to

1:55:24 be there for fiscal 27. So we I mean we got models, we know what the numbers are, we know how it’s going to work. It’s we don’t have the funding on the other side and 2 and a half% when inflation in the early 2000s 2020s was 67 at the 80%. I can’t remember the three years but there was one year was 6%, one year was 7%, one year was 8%. So everybody out there was spending more money. The only thing that didn’t go up by more than 2 and a half% were taxes. But inflation goes up because people got raises, right? People made more money, so they spent more money. So they made more money, but they didn’t want to fund more taxes. I don’t want to get into a philosophical question here. Our cost went up on utilities by seven, eight, n%. Our cost went up on special education out of district tuitions by

1:56:10 14% one year. our costs went up on supplies and paper and and gasoline for our our vehicles and and everything that we have in the district by six, seven or eight%, but we were still locked down at 2.5%. There’s no way that we can keep our heads above water with those numbers. Now, if inflation was 2 and a half% and and the tax override was 2 and 1 half%, great. We’re even. We’re make we’re making ends with do with what we have. I think our teachers were clear about that last year when they made their statement, leave it at that, that they were stuck at six, seven, 8% increases in their inflationary rate also, but their salaries weren’t keeping up with that and they couldn’t afford to do the same things they were. I’ll just leave it at that. Sorry.

1:56:58 that. Sorry. that. Sorry. » Well, I will say just from, you know, let’s be factual here. For many of those years, our budgets were going up more than two and a half percent. I mean, they were they they really were. I mean, our we were usually I mean, that’s part of why we are where we are is we were looking at, you know, five, six, six and a half, even some years 7% increase in our school budget. And that was driven a lot by the cost that you’re talking about, Mike. But, so while the town levy might have gone up by two and a half, the school budgets were going have been going up more than that. And I think the town funded that using the free cash reserves, correct? » Yes. Yes. » That that’s kind of why we don’t have the free cash reserve. » That is correct. » All right. Um,

1:57:44 » I just want to be really quick because I have to go put kids to bed. But, um, in the spirit of um, mis or misinformation, sorry, Maggie Pelin, seven. Um, also I work in the district, but I have a uh, I have a second grader. He is in he’s at Glover. He’s in second grade. He is in a class of 22. Um it’s I think one of the biggest classes in the district. Um and so this is also speaking to Mr. Patton’s question about um special ed ratios versus general ed ratios. And I just want in Henry did clarify that that’s not

1:58:29 really how it works. But so in my child’s class there’s there is special ed kids, there’s gen edits. It’s not a general ed. It’s a gen ed class, but it’s not. It’s And I My point, I guess, that I’m trying to make is that there’s really no such thing as a special education classroom. I I mean, there are, but most of our classes are a mix of kids. And it’s difficult to ask what the rate what the ratio is of gend versus spatula because we we put them together and that’s where they belong, right? Um, and then I there’s also been

1:59:15 I want to clarify also there I’ve seen people suggest that we use Eve school as a special education school and I I want to say that that’s like and Lisa Marie correct me if I’m wrong but that’s just not really something that can happen and I hope that and I want like because everybody is together and that’s how it should But so just quick comment before » yeah Jess Desessie doesn’t to your point Megan Desi doesn’t allow you to create a separate » right uh school for special unless you’re approved by the state to do that right so like that’s why we have collaborives that’s why I have private special educations um schools public

2:00:00 schools have to have their uh special education programming and classrooms in with the general population um integrated when can subset classrooms have to they can’t be off in another building, another wing of that. They have to be in the mix. So that’s that’s part of the regulations. It’s also good for kids. So » and I think the conversation around um Eveith was about a transition program. What » this is something I know what you’re this was something I’ve seen in years past. people anecdotally saying like why don’t we just use epilepsy reverse to get kids back into district and that’s not something » not legal. » Yeah. » Thank you. » Well, we’ve also um talked about it in

2:00:45 the you know facility subcommittee meetings this year about a potential early education center » um » and that you know is different but that would you know that would be also a potential use for that building. Um, and that goes to I didn’t catch the woman’s name who said who spoke before. Um, but talking about trying to um, you know, have less students leave district and retain students and attract students if you know I thought if we you know we can start early and we start in prek um we can capture these kids and have them probably not the right word but you know attract these kids and and um students and keep them through through graduation in 12th grade. Good. Good.

2:01:32 » Thank you. Any other first- timers? » All right, sir. » First of all, I owe Mike an apology. It was FY25 with Mary Dai and I I’ll send you the videos tomorrow um for the for that. Um I just want to start off by talking about the way we talk about our students. It has troubled me for years to divor children. We talk about I we just heard um nurse Ken say special education students, general education students. We have children and I have children. The whole town knows there about a million of them. And some of my children get special education service services.

2:02:18 They’re not my special education kids. And my other kids are general education kids. When we start talking about our kids and this quote unquote special education problem we have, we put our fiscal problems on the backs of children and that is not okay. These are children. Some of them need individualized education plans. Some learn in different ways. It is our job legally and morally to talk about them in a way that is respectful to that. So I really just hope we can start to to that end Melissa, you spoke a little bit about 20 um the stats in 2016 versus now in our student demographic about high need students and them requiring Yes. Are

2:03:06 certain students do do require lower student toteer ratios to say are their high needs. You really have to understand what the high needs is. Desi over the years has changed that rubric of what is factored into high needs. All students that DESIE qualifies as high needs do not need specialized instruction. So to it almost further adds into that stigmatization. If you’re high needs, you must be a kid that needs to learn with mult that is not the way Desi classifies it. It it’s it’s on a multitude of things. Lisa Marie can really explain that. And I encourage anybody that doesn’t understand to sit down with Lisa Marie. She’s very giving up her time. and my experience as both a parent of a special education student and um as a a former school committee member to really make

2:03:52 you understand because if you’re in charge of educating our students, it’s really important you understand the nuances and also you know how we how we speak about our kids matters. So right there I just want I want to speak on that. Um, in regards to the budget, well, I have a question and the presentation this year, you talked about bringing some of the salaries into reserve funds as a way to stabilize, which you know, kudos for for teasing that out. » Revolving revolving, I’m sorry. Yes, revolving. » We don’t have reserve but we do not have reserve funds in the school department. » Well, we do have a townwide one, but anyway. » Yes, but not in the school department. the revolving fund. We have multiple revolving funds. » Correct.

2:04:37 » Last year’s or maybe two years ago, we brought the director of of » food service into his revolving funds. Um, you’re bringing Could you could you talk about what additional positions you’re bringing in this year and if it’s partial salary or full salary? » So, um, previously we had charged off in our kindergarten revolving fund. So, kindergarten revolving is tuition money we bring in because we charge tuition. We were charging off about half of our teachers sorry we were charging off half of our kindergarten teachers salaries to the revol in the proposed budget we are charging off half of the teachers and the kindergarten aid because there is kindergarten uh instructional assistant power professional ESP

2:05:24 whatever we’re joining so the proposal is to tap that revolving account more heavily » in addition Our pre our kindergarten and prek revolving account is one account. They are not separated. So we we had not previously taken prek teachers out of that account. So we are taking half of the teachers from prek also. So we are tapping that very heavily next year. Okay. » We could probably do that for 3 years before we need to tamp it back down. » So it’s you know if Susie May is a teacher you’re not taking 50% of her salary. You might be she might be one of the teachers. She’s taking 100% of her salary out of involvement. » No, I’m going to take if she’s a kindergarten teacher, I’m taking 50% out of the revolving fund, 50% out of the local budget because » Okay.

2:06:09 » The because and the reasoning is is because they get half day included from the town. Okay. » They’re paying half day for the other half. » Are you taking half of their benefits out of the development fund? » Um we are not. » Okay. Because the right now the chapter 63 um paragraph B1 in the bylaw says the department or agency head, board, committee or office are made for liabilities against spend monies from a revolving fund established and authorized by this bylaw without appropriation subject to the following limitations. Bridge benefits of full-time employees whose salaries or lees are paid from the fund shall be paid uh from the fund. to their insurance. So I from from the bylaw it looks like 50% of anybody whatever percentage you’re paying from

2:06:56 the revolving fund that percentage of infringed benefit » I think this is where our relationship with the town comes in huge because if they want us to pay 50% of the benefits out of the revolving fund then I’m going to be able to charge less salary to the revolving fund meaning there’s a bigger burden on the town to fund the local so it’s a » so right now » and I’m I don’t want to say this disrespectfully but it’s it’s like the moving I want to call it the shell game, but it’s not because we’re not hiding anything. But if it’s under this shell right now, I can’t also have it under this shell. So I can only have it in one place. So if it’s in one bucket, let’s call them buckets. If I have money in one bucket, it only goes to so many I can only spend so much money out of that bucket. So it’s either going to go to their salary or it’s going to go to their benefits or combination of both. At some point, there’s only so much money in that bucket. So while yes, I

2:07:42 can take French out of there, that means I can pay less salary out of there. So to answer your first question, kindergarten, there is a special education tuition revolving fund for kids that we tuition into our programs. If we have a specialized program, we did for a few years and we had a little bit of a a buildup in that revolving account. We are taking um four 25,000 out of four different people’s salaries and they are OTP type salaries, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language. um 25,000 to four different people out of that fund next year. So 100,000. Uh in addition, we also um fund part of the assistant director and part of the um special education uh secretary out of that fund.

2:08:30 So uh there are six people which portion of their salaries coming out of there. and educious. We are tapping that for two salaries I believe next year out of educacious uh which is our for lack of a better term foreign language program uh but it’s not not foreign language uh foreign exchange » foreign exchange program not called foreign exchange anymore but it’s where students pay to come here uh for their senior year of high school and uh they get a a diploma if they meet all the criteria. um that fund had grown a little bit to the point that we felt like we could take two salaries out of there for probably 2 to 3 years. So again, we’re we’re everything we’re doing is getting us two to three years. There’s nothing that’s going to solve the problems of of the the future of

2:09:15 Marbleheads Public Schools budget concerns more than two to three years. » We’re in a structural deficit. I don’t think anybody can argue. I need to » We’re in agreement. Structural deficit. » We’re in agreement. Um my my question is like what you know what can we do about that knowing full well that next year we have the it the contract was purposely sent to give us some runway so that we knew we would ease up to the point where we know we need an override and next year and the following year or when the bigger increases incur. So if people are worried now, they should really be worried looking ahead. Um has there been a discussion between the

2:10:01 town, any of you administrators, any school committee members about the benefits, the cost of benefits either in full or partial for health insurance being for school employees being charged to the district? I can’t I haven’t had specific conversations, but I have heard rumblings that somebody says, “Why doesn’t the school pick up their benefit costs?” And and I think the simple answer is if you’re going to make us pick up the benefit costs, you need to move the money over with it. I mean, we can’t just say, “Okay, here’s your $49 million budget. Now, we want you to pick up $8 million in benefit costs within that $49 million.” So, there’s conversations, and I I think those are conversations that are going to continue to happen. um specifically had those conversations

2:10:47 myself? No. To answer your question? Nor. No, not specific. » Have any school committee members had that with any member of the town leadership or or committee members? » I have had conversations with members of town leadership about where the town budget stands, what they might be looking to the school committee for. I would not say that there have been conversations about specifically charging benefits as opposed to looking at the total cost of the district including the cost of health insurance benefits when trying to figure out how to manage to bring a balanced budget to

2:11:32 town meeting in May. Well, so okay, so that’s interesting because correct me if I’m wrong, Melissa, on the budget subcommittee, we have not had those conversations. Um, so those must have been some offline conversations that have taken place. » Yes. » Because Okay. Because what is that’s a big step for that to take place for this coming fiscal year. Where was that money? Where do you propose that money comes from? Because you’re already saying you’re level funded. » And if you’re having discussions of of going I’m just curious where is that money and Kate in your offline conversations where would did you suggest or where did others suggest that

2:12:18 money would come from? I don’t want to characterize this as any kind of decision having been made by anyone, but more of a general conversations that are happening about how we’re going to move forward through the budget process. I have not made any representations about whether I agree with that idea, where the m, you know, where the money would come from, whether the rest of the school committee would agree with that approach, but more just sort of a the school committee has done what we were asked to do. We have prepared a levelfunded budget. We are now waiting to see whether that is going to be something that can work in a balanced budget context or whether you know we

2:13:03 would be asked to make additional changes. » Are some of you considering » about 20 seconds? » You’re Are some of you considering reducing the budget more pending conversations like that? Pete, » that’s not my decision to make. you know, well, every individual has a vote. You’re you appear to be the only one having the conversation. Everyone else has said they haven’t had a conversation. Would you have had in your conversations have you had conversations about reducing the the school budget more if asked by any individual on the town side? But I mean that’s » I’m asking you if you’ve had conversations with town officials where

2:13:49 you have you have been asked to and you’ve told them you will consider bringing reducing the current number that was on that screen to a lower number. » I have had conversations where I have said that there is a whole context to this that we are going to have to consider. » I’ll take that as a yes. » All right. Thank you, sir.

2:14:36 Okay, David, you can go ahead. » Thanks very much. Just uh one click quick clarification. So when I talked about the difference between general and special education students, I was thinking in my mind about the kinds of students who can’t be in a classroom with um with large numbers of students and actually need more assistance or more support in that way. Um I am aware that large percentages of the student population have 504s and IEPs. My daughter had that and we went through that process and it was a great um extensive process which was very difficult to get in the school system that we raised our daughter in. We

2:15:23 finally achieved it. It helped her and she was in the class with everybody and she has become a very successful person through her education. So, I just want to make that clarification. And I don’t know what the numbers are in the Marblehead school system relative to the number of students who who can’t be in the class at all if there are any. » I’m not sure. Yeah. Was that a Can you restate if that was a question, please? His question was, are there any people » with I will just describe them as such significant disabilities of some measure that therefore they’re still in the public school system, but they’re not

2:16:11 actually in the general classrooms with all the other students.

2:16:18 » Yes. So, we have subsparate programming um within all of our school buildings um for students who have those severe needs. But they are some of those students are also integrated, it’s called inclusion, into our general ed uh classrooms um as much as possible because we’re try we’re providing a least restrictive environment for those students. Did that answer the question? » Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I don’t know how many of those students there are and how many classrooms there are with just those students in them and therefore that would affect the student teacher ratio and the class size and all those kinds of things. Um, and apparently you’re

2:17:03 you’re not going to tell me what that number is and you know that’s the way it is. I’m just thinking I guess if I’m confused about what the student how the student population breaks out, I’m there may be other people in town who might be confused about that too and your process of getting this budget um approved and uh and and the town supporting it, you might find a way to help to explain that to people who don’t understand. Thank you. I I can I can speak a little bit to I mean I you know I’m not going to go down the rabbit hole of how many students do we have in in a in a subsearate classroom. That just that’s not really appropriate for the conversation. However, I will say in Marblehead public schools, as is the case in most public

2:17:50 schools, you have layers of support for students that require those layers of support. They may need zero support. They may need some support through a 504 or some intervention. They may require a little bit more support because they have an IEP and they have uh some um needs in different areas or they may need a lot of support because they have more needs in more areas and or they might have to have an out of district placement because their needs are so great that we can’t appropriately educate them within within the district and you have a whole plethora of that. So the number piece of it is less important than I think if we go back to what Miss Fox was saying earlier is they’re all of our students. And educating all of our students means that kids need different things for different

2:18:35 reasons in different classrooms and with different supports and different resources. And all of that puts together is why we have the budget that we have and the resources and the teachers and the staff to be able to meet the needs of all students whether they require a lot more resources or less resources throughout the day. So that probably doesn’t answer your question specifically, but that’s the general that’s the generality. » That’s okay. Could you could do you have a number off the top of your head as to what percentage of your student body have either 504s or IEPs? Yeah, we’re around um 19 to 21% of students um receiving special education. Uh 504 is that is a moving that one is a kind of more moving target and that’s

2:19:22 general education. So sometimes people um view 504s as part of the special ed process and it’s not. 504s um are for students who have disabilities but are um only require accommodations, not modifications within the classroom. » I’m very familiar with the difference. We had to go through that with our daughter in in the early grades as well.

2:19:49 » That’s kudos to you all because that number’s down 4% in about five years. four year five years Bill McAuliff um had done a statistic run the statistics and at that time we were one of the highest special education percentage districts in the state at 24% at that time that would meant for FY20 so from FY20 at 24% to now we reduced the number of students we have on special education so that’s a kudos that you guys should take » it’s it’s kudos to it’s a kudos to a lot of people I think you know when we talk about the MTSS and all the supports we do for all students with within the classrooms and the sub tiered systems supports so that the students are getting what they need. Um those interventions are are there so that we can minimize the need for the you know

2:20:34 for for the specialized services because um that’s just that’s just what we do right. So the percentage is we we are right within where the state is one we are right actually he’s um kind of on the lower end of of our area for for a lot of the um special ed had a this is not in desi or anywhere else we had a conversation with our superintendents in the northshore round table and there was uh one of the superintendent was asking for information about how many IA they have and compared to how many special ed students and we were like I was like I think you know I don’t know where we fall with everybody else and we felt like right right there like right exactly where everybody else was. So again, I feel good. I feel good about where we are. I feel good that we provide the services that we need to for the students and that we have the resources available. So

2:21:26 » I’m going to ask for a motion. » Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see your hand. Sorry. » Just real quick. Um Molly T 388 Ocean. Um I’m a uh vice chair of the finance committee and also um I work on the school as a school leazison and I just I wanted to say just a couple quick things. Um what I I this is my fourth budget season um I attend living in Marblehead by far the most difficult that we’ve ever faced. It it is um there will be very difficult decisions that are are coming forward. Um, in my time on this committee, I’ve attended um, several meetings looking at how other towns run and best practices across all towns in Massachusetts. One thing that I have seen is that the bestrun towns have

2:22:12 a collaborative relationship between the schools and the town and they work together. They look long-term, right? It is a long-term collaborative effort planning forward because budgeting is really hard. And so to the extent that there is collaboration and a relationship working together, I think that is an excellent thing. And so I just want to make that clear. Since I’ve been on the finance committee, I’ve worked very hard to help establish that. And it has there has been the relationship that the town and schools had when I first started was not very good. Quite frankly, there was a lot of stress. there was a lot of um it just created a budget that I think um maybe could have been improved the process certainly and so the fact that we’re moving toward a more collaborative effort I think is something that should be

2:22:59 be be » all right thank you » so I before we close this I just want to make a couple comments um Al because I think I guess we’re going to move on or not I don’t I don’t know after » yeah we are going to move on and and there’s only one vote consent agenda vote if and I’ll confer with council. If we have to redo that, we can do it next week, but we will continue on with the rest of the meeting. » Well, I met in regards to the to the budget because I think I mean there’s just a couple comments I’ll make before we close this out. And that is I mean going back to this point about I guess Kate having conversations with other folks in town. I think we need to kind of button up our process a little bit on on how we’re doing that. But what I what I will say and what I’ve been thinking about this whole time coming into this meeting tonight and hearing you know

2:23:45 from several folks here regard in regards to level funded versus fully funded versus you know level services. Well, you know, the elephant in the room we haven’t necessarily talked about as well is that, you know, this whole process and to Molly’s point predicated on us working with FINCOM is that we’ve had this sort of, you know, practice that the schools and the town have really looked at the revenue from a 50-50 standpoint. So 50% of the revenue has generally been appropriated to the schools, 50% to the to the town side, um, including the sal the budget, the insurance and benefits on the town side. Um but what we heard last month um and are maybe going to get an update in the next week or so, but what we heard last month was a pretty significant reduction

2:24:32 in the projected revenue that we were basing on. So what what has been clear in the you know public square to to me is that if that revenue number is actually less than 40 49.1 million as 50% of it we may very well be looking at or be um sort of the reality is for a level budget based on revenue to actually have to cut additional funding out of our budget which would be the first time in my experience that we’ve ever actually cut and had less of an appropriation in a given fiscal year than the previous fiscal year, which is a very very concerning situation. Um, and may very well be the reality. So, you know, I think we we also need to, you know, sort

2:25:17 of talk about that, you know, process because I think in the spirit of transparency that, you know, a couple folks, you know, felt strongly about in in the last year or so and ran on that, we need to be open with, you know, what the what the reality is that we’re facing as well. Um, and no one has, you know, talked about that. I don’t know, you know, what conversations any you’ve had about that, Kate, but, um, I, you know, I, that was what I was my takea away from the state of the town that we were making an assumption that may not have been accurate. » Is that it, Jen? » Um, yeah. I did want to make just a couple of other points just for some

2:26:05 clarification. Um that we we do have a place mark maker um on the warrant for a general override. So I think someone asked the question earlier about you know is this school committee going to ask for an override. We do have a placemaker. usually put it there every year. And if that is how this process um works out over the course of the next number of weeks, um we do have that in place um to to be able to um go forward with that if that is the will of the committee. » All right. Um yeah, just just to conclude it, you know, this meeting we’re talking about that you know, people seem to be implying something unourred happened. Uh, I was asked as the chair to attend a meeting, right?

2:26:50 Um, I wasn’t available, so I asked Kate to represent us, but there was no authority to work on a different budget or anything of that sort. And Jen, what I said to you at our last meeting is whenever we’re doing our next steps around a different budget, it will absolutely go through our budget subcommittee first. » Well, I don’t know that I necessarily agree with that. I mean, in other words, you’re having offline conversations and I this is what I said at the last meeting. It probably at this point should be a full committee discussion. » Yeah. When there’s some and and that’s as chair, it’s my prerogative to figure out if we’re at that point or not. And we aren’t at that point at this moment. And as we continue to work with the town, um you know, we will work appropriately with the budget subcommittee and the rest of the school

2:27:35 committee and obviously the administration. So, I’m looking for a motion to close this budget hearing and to uh reopen our regularly scheduled meeting. » So, moved. I’ll second. » Okay. The motion has been made by Kate, seconded by Melissa. We’ll do a roll call vote. Uh Melissa » in favor. » Kate » in favor. » Uh Henry » in favor. Jen, » I’m going to vote no because I don’t think we’re in a position to reopen our public meeting. Okay, » notice how uh in favor the motion passes four to one.

2:28:18 » All right, so that uh superintendent district updates back. » Hang on. Sorry for the wheel there. It’s my last

2:28:35 consent action first. » Yeah. Would you mind? I have no budget stuff separately, please. » All right. Under the consent agenda, I’m looking for a motion. If you approve the following the identified schedule of bills totaling 1,413,6172 and also the meeting minutes from our February 5th, 2026 meeting. » So moved. Second. » Okay. A motion has been made by Kate and seconded by Melissa. Uh we’ll do a roll call. Uh Melissa » in favor. Kate » in favor. Henry » in favor. » Jen, » I’m going to abstain. » Okay. Al, uh, in favor. The motion

2:29:22 passes. Uh, four affirmative. One abstension. » Okay, we ready? » Sorry. Yes, I’m ready now. Thank you, Superintendent. Long day. Um, good evening. Oh, where did my audience go? » I’m still here. Thank you. » Uh since we’re coming off the February break and a couple of snow days, we are just trying to get back into the swing of things. I don’t have a huge amount of things to talk about and share, but I will share um that our next school committee meeting will we will start having our first school spotlights um highlighting student voice, which we’re really excited about. Uh we’ll have Glover and veterans come next week. We’re actually supposed to have Glover tonight. Uh I my bad. I apologize. I I messed up the nights. Um so we’ve asked them to come next week, so hopefully that works out. Um and so Glover and

2:30:09 Veterans will bring um students to share um see great things are happening in their schools and I don’t want to um ruin the surprise so I won’t let you know what it is because it’ll be it’ be nice for them to share with you. Um we have our AP research fair tomorrow here at the high school hosted um Robin Fines where 16 of our student researchers will share their college level investigations. If it’s anything like last week last year it’s definitely worth worth coming. is a great tree and they set up over there and u I’m dumbfounded by the the level of uh research that they’ve done. In fact, I’m going to see if I can find one of the students to do my bowl of my uh dissertation um before I submit it. Um speaking of treats, Max Kane has been announced as one of the international yes international winners of Coming of Age

2:30:56 in the Age of Ia film contest. This was a global contest with more than two 2,500 entries. Um, so he’s one of the winners. Um, we also had Georgio Batari was a runner up and Avery Sheridan honorable mention. Super proud of these achievements by our students and thanks to Jen Billings for sharing um the accolades and doing all the great work um so that I could share them with you. Uh I mean 2500 global entries. We had three from Marblehead and the warehouse winner, runner up and honorable mention. That’s just phenomenal. » Yeah. » Very cool. So, um, I’ll see if I can send a link out so you guys can check out the videos. Um, we’re really excited about our last full PD day coming up on March 13th. This will be held at the high school for all of our educators. There will be many sessions created and presented by our teachers and educators.

2:31:43 This approach uh to PD is great because it demonstrates areas of interest and expertise that are shared amongst our staff in a planful and meaningful way. the office of teaching and learning and the PD committee have done a lot of work preparing and planning and I’m confident that it’ll be a fantastic day for our staff. Um there’s many different ways to do PD when you have teacherun PD for the teachers. It’s generally really well received. It’s really cool cuz people get excited about sharing their their passions and um it’s usually really well received by the teachers and the educators because it’s not just someone from the outside coming in and speaking at them. It’s really you know people that they work with. So it’s valuable. And finally, uh, we had a great trip planned to Spain and Morocco that by all accounts has been a great experience for the students despite being stuck in Paris for the a few extra days due to

2:32:30 the storm. Dan Richards and all the chaperons will work tirelessly to ensure that our students are safe and have been well taken care of despite the huge shift in planes. They will be returning tomorrow. It is my understanding that the tour company has absorbed the cost of the extra hotel stay, the change in flights, and have provided breakfast and dinner for the extra days. So, the unplanned costs have been fairly minimal, including having to buy lunch and the entrance to the Lou, which is a well worth ice mission if you ask me. Been there, it’s awesome. Um, I’m hugely appreciative of the staff, students, and families who have had to endure this unexpected shift in plans. I’ve spoken to Dr. Carlson in the absence of it will be absolved given the extraordinary circumstances. Um, one thing to add to that is um, we did have one student who

2:33:16 misplaced their passport. So, the students are coming back with their chaprons. Uh, Dan Richards is working with that student’s parents and the student. Um, they have a meeting at the embassy in the morning. Okay. All the paperwork’s been gone over. It’s all ready to go. just meeting with embassy so that you can get the emergency passport and they’ll be on flight subsequent that flight but everyone should be home tomorrow. That’s the plan. So that’s the update to the Spain Morocco trip. I know I’ve been asked a few questions about that. Um so that’s that’s where the things stand. And just one extra thing that um popped in after I did my district update was that um Mechco directors association had rec recognized our MECO um director Katie Johnson. And there was a post and I know um uh current shared it out and the post reads, “Meet Kinja Johnson, Marblehead

2:34:03 MECO director. KJ Johnson serves as the MECO director for Marblehead Public Schools where she is committed to advocating for students, partnering with families, and strengthening collaboration across the district. Through intentional leadership and strong relationship building, KJ works closely with the school and district teams to ensure Mechco students are supported academically and socially while fostering a school community centered on belonging, access, and opportunity. We are pleased to recognize Kasia and our continued contributions to the Mechco community. So, that was really cool. I thought that was awesome. like CJ is working really hard and I know a lot of times um you know we don’t celebrate what we do with the um in the medical program and with all the great things that are happening um but uh Kate is working tirelessly with our students with the families she’s coordinating with other districts for looking at

2:34:49 transportation maybe looking a little bit differently with some collaboration with Swam’s bit so all sorts of really cool things happening um but I received that this afternoon I want to share that with the committee as well um that’s all I have next next time, you know, get more shout outs or anything on superintendent. That’s all I have to do. » All right. Thank you, superintendent. Our next item is our school committee communication discussion items. Uh and I’m looking for subcommittee and andor lays on items or updates. » Can I just uh make one have one question before we go into that going back to this issue with the students in um in the international trip. So, um I heard about this from a um parent um actually

2:35:35 a couple folks in the community. Um so I was a little concerned because that it, you know, having students, you know, sort of stranded abroad for multiple days is what I would call a little out of the ordinary. Um I did ask the superintendent about it. He did he did give me a briefing on it, but I really, you know, don’t trying to understand why that wasn’t communicated to the to the rest of the committee. and maybe it was and I was the one that was not communicated to. But that is something that I think we’ve talked about this one of our protocols is no surprises. Um I heard this again from a couple of folks in the um you know from the community and I just want to try to understand that you know Al as chair I understand you were briefed on it that

2:36:20 um have you given a directive to the superintendent that you know that extraordinary items should not be communicated to either me or other school committee members because that’s my » no what I have it okay » Jen to me let me finish you asked a Um to me it didn’t rise to an emergency, right? Um an emergency definitely would be communicated to all school committee members as quickly as possible and again it’s prerogative chair and you can have a difference opinion and that’s fine but I did not feel that it it needed uh the involvement of the full school committee um because it did not meet the criteria that of an emergency and that’s why it was not communicated to the rest of the committee.

2:37:06 » Okay. So again, I’m not um so I I’m going to push back and say I think you’ve overstepped in your role as chair because that is not the role of the chair um to be withholding information and one of our protocols is no surprises, right? So it your definition of an emergency may be somebody else’s you know definition of an emergency and the idea that there’s information that the public you know when the public comes to us that is you know I thought we had sort of moved on from that because that that was how things were a number of years ago when with information was withheld and you know you don’t know what’s going on. I was not telling John or you know anything to do with other than just trying to get information so I understood what the what the situation was and my concern completely from the beginning was the

2:37:52 safety and security of our students and while it might not have been an emergency I would define that as something extraordinary to have I don’t know whether it was John wasn’t sure the number but 30 some odd students um you know stranded for over you know » you want to add extraordinary to a policy and put a definition behind that I’m open to that but I hope I don’t have to any of our » matter within what’s the prerogative of the chairperson. » This might be a disagree item. I know you don’t suggest that we consider doing another training around the role of the chair just that that’s going to be my suggestion. You can take that or the committee can take it but as they will but I I it is not the prerogative of the chair to make judgment calls like that

2:38:38 when it comes to school committee members not having information about what’s going on in the district. » Okay. Even even if it’s operational, Jen, you stand by that statement. » It’s not operate. It’s nothing to do with operations. It’s a fact about an extraordinary situation with our with a group of students. » Again, we’re back to the the word extraordinary. Um noted. Uh thank you for your input. Uh let’s move on to the subcommittee and lays on updates, please.

2:39:09 » Um I can start. Uh I did meet with CPAC since our last meeting. Um mostly talking about the budget. I I think one of the big questions they had um and and it was sort of repeated here again tonight was you know what what are we coalescing around? Are we coalesing around supporting this the um the proposed budget? are we looking to support um an increased budget? So, I think again that we heard that tonight and and we’ll just have to make that decision and report back to them. But, um it was good to see them as always. Um we had a meeting of

2:39:54 the communications subcommittee that was focused on getting the newsletter out which we which we published and and again, we’ve gotten some good feedback on that. We’re we’re working really hard to increase our circulation, which again, we heard a comment about that, trying to get messages out to people who are not engaged, you know, they’re not on the on the district’s list. So, um that’s a big goal of ours. And then we met uh the facility subcommittee met as well. We discussed the um high school roof. Um, we discussed the the um vets, the middle school roof projects, which the middle school roof is sort of on hold

2:40:41 with the weather. Um, and we’ve scheduled some walkthroughs for the buildings. Um, and sort of looking at Mike’s list of of tasks that he’s accomplished and what’s yet to come.

2:40:59 » Okay. Thank you, honey. Anybody else? » Um the policy subcommittee was supposed to meet this week and that meeting was canceled. So we’re looking to reschedu that. Um and then the goals subcommittee met right before February break. Um the big agenda item at that meeting was uh I thought it was a very helpful discussion with Alicia Malin from NASC about the role of the school committee in strategic planning and particularly um talking about where we are in the juncture of like preparing to approve the DIP. Um and I thought she had some she had a slide deck that she was going to send to us and we haven’t gotten and I’m hoping we’ll get it and we can pass it out. But um really characterizing this as you know in a district

2:41:46 improvement plan the school committee should be saying like this is where we want to go and the superintendent says this is how we are going to get there. and she had some good thoughts on looking at year three in the new dip that we are preparing for and thinking about timing and what’s being reported out to the school committee at that point and how we’re measuring it in order to set us up for the next round of the DEP and for school committee to really whoever is sitting in these seats at that time to really be able to say okay here’s where we’ve gotten to and here’s where we we need to go next. So, um I’m happy to share that information out with the committee um when we get those slides from her. And then, you know, personally, I’m planning to sort

2:42:33 of look at the draft dip like through that lens. Um and then we as a as a subcommittee then discussed a few things relative to the DIP. One was, you know, hoping to put it on an agenda in March to get an update on where things stand and the kind of feedback John has gotten um thus far. and also making sure that committee members have reviewed it and have had an opportunity to give John, you know, sort of if you have really substantive structural type feedback so that that can be addressed before we get any further along in the process. Um, and then the other thing we talked about was it was the consensus of the subcommittee that it would be helpful to have a summary of the district improvement plan that could be shared

2:43:19 with the public um whether as part of the feedback gathering process or just sort of as an educational document. It’s a pretty dense document and so if we can summarize it in a way I think that’ be beneficial. Um and the subcommittee sort of wanted to come back to the full school committee about whether this is something that the full committee agrees would be useful and then if so whether that’s something that the goals subcommittee should work on or the communication subcommittee. So I think maybe given that it’s 8:45 at night maybe this is something that we can put on the the agenda when John updates us on the DIP we can also talk about that piece of things. So,

2:44:06 » okay. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Are there any under closing business? Anything under correspondence?

2:44:17 Okay. I’m looking for a motion and vote to meet in executive session for the following reasons. Purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to and with preparation for collective bargaining with the model at education association. Occupational therapists, physical therapists, board certified behavior analysts and occupational therapist assistants, physical therapists assistants, certified nurse assistants because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of school committee and the chair so declares without intent to retain open session. Also, executive session pursuant to chapter 30A, section 21A3, purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to potential litigation. J. Bucky as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the school committee and the

2:45:03 chair so declares without intent to return to work session. » So moved. » Second. » All right. The motion has been made by Kate and seconded by Melissa. Um we’ll vote on this. Roll call. Melissa in » favor. Kate » in favor. » Henry » in favor. » Jen » in favor. Do you have a separate dial in or are we just staying on this? » No, we have a separate dial in. » Can you send that? I I don’t have it either. Al, » yeah, I’ll send it right away. Um, and so the motion p uh Al votes in favor. The motion passes 5 to zero. So we will enter into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to and preparation for collective bargaining

2:45:50 with the Marblehead Education Association, occupational therapists, physical therapists, board certified behavior analysts, occupational therapist assistants, physical therapist assistants, certified nurse assistants because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the school committee and their open players without intent to return to open session. Also pursuant to chapter A, excuse me, chapter 30A section 21 A3 purpose 3 to discuss strategy with respect to potential litigation, J. Bucky as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating decision of the school committee and the chair so declares without intent to return to open session. Okay, we are now in executive session and I’ll send that that link uh momentarily. » Thank you.