3.3.2025 Fall River School Committee

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I'd like to call to order the March 3rd Special meeting of the Fara school committee um Deb would you please call the role Mr ago Mr Bailey Mr Das here Mr Cory here miss larav here miss Pereira Mary Coogan here salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United St States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for

all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible uh citizens input we have one speaker tonight uh Rachel Martin Oak Street

Swansea uh three minutes please Rachel thank you good evening members of the school committee decision makers and members of the community my name is Rachel Martin and I am here representing the special education prek teachers power professionals and service providers who have been working at The Early Learning Centers located at 300 nor Eastern Avenue and Bishop Conley as you consider

the budget tonight we hope that it includes adequate funding for Early Childhood programming we urge you to remember that early childhood education is not just an expense it's an investment in the future success of the city's children the first 5 years of life are the most critical for brain development 90% of brain development happens in those first 5 years children's earliest experiences shape

their ability to learn solve problems and build relationships when young children have access to highquality Early Learning they enter kindergarten ready to learn ready to succeed and on track for academic achievement the research is clear students who attend highquality early childhood education programs are more likely to meet grade level expectations graduate from high school and pursue higher education

children who attend quality prek programs are more than twice as likely to be ready for kindergarten than those who are not students with a strong Early Education Foundation are 29% more likely to graduate from high school and students who attended highquality Early Childhood programs score higher in reading and math by third grade than their peers who did did not early childhood education creates confident

capable Learners it Fosters curiosity critical thinking and social emotional skills that help children navigate challenges by investing in strong Early Learning programs we are building the foundation for a generation of students who are prepared for school ready to graduate and equipped for lifelong success but highquality education requires a high quality space just as we built the new dery high school as a

symbol of Excellence let's give our youngest Learners a facility that our city can be proud of a state-of-the-art Early Childhood building that includes safe accessible classrooms outdoor play areas that are accessible for all students with varying physical abilities sensory friendly spaces including a dedicated sensory hallway or room to provide students with needed breaks separate therapy spaces free from

distractions where speech physical and occupational therapy can be provided and Facilities designed for our messiest Little Learners baby wipes are expensive for teachers to supply and they are not efficient or sufficient we need classroom syns for good hygiene and cleanup you have been talking about building this facil facility for a few years now please make the commitment today to fully fund early childhood

education and build a facility that sets the standard for excellence the future of Fall River and its next generation of dery graduates depends on it thank you for your time and consideration thank you item number Mr agar can we just get a response to some of those comments from the super liant in terms of the the current budget for sure well because it's a budget meeting so the comments had to be

related to the budget so I'm just she brings valid questions I think we all know but if we can give an update I would appreciate it so um I will say that in relation to the um that the Capital Improvements necessary um the planned Capital Improvements for the pay center are not um that is not built into this fall of public schools budget for the coming year so I'm not sure if

there's I I think people are aware of the fact that we are moving or we're looking to move our program out of the Early Learning Center that is um at the Eastern Avenue site um so that we can have so that for one year we will be able to um house all of those programs at one site over at Conley um and then moving forward from that looking to plan

ahead for um An Early Learning Center um at the Pace Building but it's not scheduled for this this coming year Mr chairman respon to that so uh I've long advocated for something different I advocated for the pay center I think what happened is and just to be fully transparent with the public we will promise things in March at the Spencer Barden school subcommittee on early childhood that we were going to be able

to move into the pay center September of 2025 subsequent to that all those plans got thrown out because in order to do that we had to do certain things and work with the city to fix the roof and to do the fire suppression at the auditorium because those things didn't happen and I there's a lot of blame to go around but those things didn't happen we therefore one we couldn't do it

because we didn't have the time to subsequent to uh a different meeting that we had we spent the money that was supposed to be for the pay center on other things including an overage of $700,000 for a playground so basically the the answer to the question is no we're not going to move in in September as we were promised we're going to postpone that for a full year but we

still this is a budget meeting we still need budget money in this particular budget in order to do that job for next September because this is the budget that starts July 1 so I want you to everybody to hear it clearly that the superintendent just stated we do not have the money in the current budget which is why we're here to build the pay center in September that to me is quite

Troublesome and the current one at noreas Avenue is losing $600,000 every year that we have it we've already gone over that too so I agree with the superintendent we need to move out of there because it's clearly losing money but I'm disheartened to hear superintendent say that there's no money in this particular budget for what this young lady just mentioned we we got to get real folks in my opinion I I yield Mr

Corey Rachel in in in in response to your comments I just want to let you know that we have a strong sense of direction for Early Childhood the entire school board has a deep support in that direction sometimes things get jumbled up in the uh facilities and in the operation of our school department and certain things come up that you don't plan for but I could assure you that the

greater development for Early Childhood is definitely in our near future it and if it was It was supposed to try to be opened up by September and even though we're going to have a delay I just want to assure you and the public that our direction is moving completely in that direction and some of the improvements made to the pay center uh are very very uh they're really wonderful to see so

that alone is proof that we're moving strongly in that direction so I'm asking you and your staff and everybody that's really pluging for this you know to try to be patient and work with us we're not losing sight of the goal ahead of us with that yield Mr Mr Das thank you um so a few things U one M Martin um as the legislative Lea on of the committee I'm

trying to um for our next meeting next week I'm attempting to have some bills um that have been introduced in the state legislature um before this committee so this committee can potentially endorse them and one of them is um an msba bill um for prek um to build for expenditures like building expenditures for prek which would hopefully help with um some of the concerns we're bringing up today

and hopefully with this committee's endorsement and um you know we being a strong Advocates something we could push for um going to um piggy back off Mr agar's questions the PACE Center how much is um how much is that to fix the roof do we have a number on that the roof's already fixed roof's done so it just remind me what's the issue again of moving in to the PACE Center PACE Center uh needs

fire suppression that that proposal should be going out to bid within the next week or two we'll do that first and then um we'll um start looking at the plans to subdivide that one big Wing into classrooms um it got delayed for a number of reasons but we're going in the right direction and I'm sure we'll get it done hopefully to start classes over there we did extend with uh Conley for a year so

no kids are going to be losing their spots and uh as just as we did with 251 South Main Street it might seem like it moves quickly but I'm confident we'll get it done okay so it's the administrations that's where I got confused so it's the administration's plan to eventually move all just the prek into the pce not all not all no sorry not all not all col okay um and

just last question how much do we pay conly per year for the lease I'll have to un call you back to that sorry I I'm not positive oh I mean I can ask Mr um it's 110,000 for 10 months a year yes um so and it's a threeyear lease am I we had one to one yeah okay how you Mr chairman Mr AGA just a comment on what uh was just stated so I haven't seen

anything and maybe other committee members have may I just said that we we reup with connley for twice the space haven't heard that yet um what I'm sorry didn't here you had just mentioned that we up with Conley for additional space to get him out of the other room no no no we we we reup with Conley for an additional year next year we're going to be in Conley again right but we don't

have I don't believe we've seen anything on any of that that's coming before the committee um because fac is subcommittee before it comes to committee true I'm just saying I haven't heard that yet no it's just a plan the piece of moving from uh wherever to Connelly I think is its second best the best plan was the one that we created back in March and at that time it was time sensitive to make

sure that the roof was done and then fire suppression was done so that would give us time to do it but I can't stress enough that there's multiple pieces to the failure here it wasn't just that that wasn't done sure they should have we should have on the school side advocated with the city to make sure it was done on time that's one the second one though which is a budget issue was

we overspent the budget and we don't have the money and in order to do it so if somebody can tell me where in this budget in the FY 26 budget where the actual money is going to come from to do that project please do so or at least be ready to do it when it comes time because if we said we the young lady who was courageous came up and said things I

think I agree with but what she asked you was to try to say where's the money we need all these things and we don't have it in the budget so if somebody if I'm Miss speaking please let me know or just during the budget process come up with uh how are we going to fund it um I just heard the mayor say that we don't even have fire suppression out to bid

yet yeah it's in case anybody is wondering it's already March that was promised to us that it was going to be done in September so just keep your eyes open and try to ask some questions it's not just that we support early childhood and things happen as some colleagues want to say it's more it's complicated than that so let's focus on it and and let's not just be rah rah everything's

wonderful in this particular situation it wasn't wonderful it was mishandled and it shouldn't have happened thank you I okay next item up on the agenda is a 3.1 presentation discussion for the proposed fiscal year 2026 annual budget of the for of schools is presented by Dr Tracy Curley superintendent schools we're going to go down to the front row because is's an audio visual present

quick question on that so we're going to be able to ask questions afterwards up on stage it's presentation discussion right so yeah we'll come back up here okay

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started okay so um this evening we're just we're going to offer an overview um of our budget um including kind of these unequal um parts of um discussing the budget process the funding formula and then what the local planning and proposed budget um consist of so we are going to start with um the budget process itself and specifically the local and state budget process timelines um so this slide just

offers an overview of the budget process timelines um here um in Fall Rover as well as at the state level so um along the bottom you can see that we started um you know following stakeholder surveys uh we put together a um our priorities for um approval um over December January we met with our school and departmental leads over the course of a couple months um we're here tonight with the proposed

budget presentation and discussion and then we'll be holding sub subsequent meetings including that public Hearing in April and um a submission to uh the a school Comm committee adopted budget to the mayor um which will go before city council with approval um in June and then running parallel to that you can see along the top is the um State timeline process beginning with the governor's budget um

that became available in January so I share this slide here um a budget is not just a collection of numbers but an expression of our values and aspirations um because it's really the statement to which we Aspire throughout the entire process and I also um wanted to share it because I think it speaks to uh where we are in terms of our planning um we talk about the annual

budget um you know in terms of it being a representation beyond the numbers beyond the spreadsheets that are in the that are in the budget binder um as you all um and we will all experience um the budget isn't just the spreadsheet with figures and while the approved budget will be posted in a static PDF form on our website um we know that the budget in practice truly is a living document it's a planning

tool that provides a road map for resource allocation it's a complement to District planning and goal setting and while it guides us the budget is also expected to be fluid um in its requirement to adapt to changes in the district over the course of the year so as enrollment changes as funding streams are altered we may need to make adjustments along the way um even in terms of the the An approved budget so

as we consider the value of transparency with our stakeholders um we want to you know state that the budget is also a communication vehicle um and it makes public our available resources and how we're spend how our spending aligns with District priorities and then finally the budget our budget uses really a look back approach so that we can acknowledge the work ahead um we account for

expected challenges while we're planning um and as we move forward and um we fund those anticipated needs accordingly so a approved back um I think maybe the first read December approved in January are the school year 26 budget priorities um and you know they're listed here with some bulleted items um relating to each of those but just wanted to highlight the human resources our core instruction student

support special education multilingual education our facilities and operations instructional technology and College and Career um are a focus for are all you know equally not equal but um they're all focal points for us and um you'll see them in terms of all of our um budgeted items so Kevin um alme our CFO is going to offer some insight into the funding formula by which we arrive at the foundation

budget so the student Opportunity Act uh came into law in 2019 and it provides a major infusion of money into the Commonwealth of Massachusetts uh it updates the law that was established in that reform in 1993 which codifies uh the minimum level of spending for each school district and specifically the SOA addresses the low-income students the special ed students English language Learners and providing things

like seal services and employee health insurance costs and what the SOA did was just update the figures for prior funding that was not in place previously and it infused the money over a six-year cycle and this year we're in we're actually we're in Year we're in year five next year will be year six and the last year of the SOA funding cycle so net School spending required net School spending is uh often referred

to as the foundation budget it's the dollar amount that's set by the state that is the minimum amount that's spent uh on a for a district to towards education um that along Chapter 70 along with the required local contribution is what makes up net School spending or the foundation budget uh 100% of legally required net School spending is the minimum level that must be spent per Chapter 70 Master General

law actual net School spending is what is actually reported when the end of the year report is filed the end of the year report is filed in the uh fall into winter of the year and the state will typically um they'll certify the report typically right before February vacation and in actual net School spending it's it's the actual amount of what's happened and so often times what does

happen is the amount that's spent is typically either more or less depending on what happens with the other costs that sit outside our budget and those costs specifically are in the indirect cost agreement and their costs such as insurance retirement and the administrative cost and the in net School spending it includes the operating expenditures in our budget so our foundation budget guiding

principles so every school dist every school district should have an adequate level of school funding based on the size and the needs of the students Lo local communities should contribute to their schools according to the to their ability to raise tax revenue based upon local property values and income levels and the state should provide enough funding to fill the gap between an adequate Baseline funding level the

foundation budget and the ability for the local community to contribute towards it so this essentially is the uh breakdown of the state aid and local contribution across the state so it's actually a 5941 split when the Statewide budget is determined it's 59% local contribution 41% state aid and this is Statewide so this is not specific to us but the total Statewide Foundation budget is 15.3 billion of which the

split is 9 billion for the local contribution and 7 billion for state aid um so these are the components of the budget

so aligned with the guiding principles that uh Mr alme referenced um this slide really captures in a formulaic way um those guiding principles um number one that the state determines a minimum amount to be spent on education that's the foundation budget the city contributes what it can as determined by the state that's the required local contribution and then the state aid makes up the difference so they're just

making um making up what's left over so it's really important to recognize that the state aid figure that chapter 7 money is a resulting figure it's the result of finding the difference between what's required and what the city can afford to pay um and there are six factors that actually contribute to what ultimately um means um that chapter 78 um impacting the foundation budget our

enrollment uh the wage adjustment factor and inflation and then impacting that required local contribution are things like property values income and Municipal Revenue growth factor so as part of the presentation we're really going to focus quite a bit on the enrollment um because it really is the Cornerstone of the funding um for us um it's a base Factor U there's a base factor for all students and then there

are some incremental adjustments that are made for for some student groups and so we're going to take a look at the impact of enrollment um on that Foundation bud budget so this first piece here around base funding um it's really Baseline funding that's attached to every student in the district and you can see that there are going to be differing amounts um assigned to elementary students our middle school

students and then high school students um and then also in terms of Base funding on the next slide um are the different amounts that are assigned for students who are enrolled in vocational programs in our preschool and then in our kindergarten um full day programs the incremental funding above the base is impactful in terms of the um our English learner enrollment our low income um enrollment and then we'll see

on some um of the following slides our special ed enrollment so um if you take a look if you move to the next slide yep so this for special education um we work off figures on an assumed enrollment um and so there is a 1% assumed enrollment for students who are tuition out of a district so that's kind of over and above our um per pupil amount there's a um 3.97% assumed enrollment in a district

that and that's not in count um Counting the vocational or preschool numbers but then we also um there we also consider or they also consider a 4.97 assumed enrollment um of in the district's vocational program in terms of special education

so specifically here we want to highlight the low income so when the student Opportunity Act was enacted it went back to the 185% of the federal poverty level up from the 133% threshold that they had in place um Statewide enrollment for low income at this moment in FY 26 is about 420,000 students compared to last year of 416,000 students so 4,000 growth and these uh in below you'll see where and how the

students are identified and the varying methods and how they're identified so here are the foundation uh bit these are the base rates so um these are the different categories for low income and so a student that is low income with the base with the base rates that we talked about previously averages about 8,685 in category 12 for which that is where we are categorized right now um as you can see the differences here

in all the categories so these here these are the components to the foundation the foundation formula each component has an assigned value to each one of them as you can see the base the base rates the base for the base formulas are the top ones through uh The Vocational programming and then the incremental rates that we just discussed go down from the special ed in District down through the low income category to 12

and so when we were talking about the 18,000 on this slide that takes into account low income category 12 which is about just under $10,000 a student with an average of the base rates at the top which would a would average around nine about 9,000 or so so that's what was referenced previously this here is the found our foundation categories which I'll show you the foundation budg you I'll show

you the whole the whole thing in the next slide this shows you how the enrollment has changed over the three years in each one of the categories and so you can see essentially in every category we've pretty much increased uh with with the enrollment in each category this here is our foundation budget so these are all the categories that we just discussed there are 13 categories as you can see across the top

the base rates sit from 1 through seven on the top there from preschool to vocational which were the rates we showed previously and then the incremental costs above and beyond from 8 to 13 on the top and then with all these components our foundation budget is just under 274 million 273 966 514 um and the average per pupil is $2,994 per student this is the actual five-year trend for The Last 5 Years uh the bottom

portion is the required local contribution the difference or what makes up the rest the rest of the blue is the state aid and then the top figure from the 179 million over to the 273 million is the foundation budget and what it's been for the past five years you can see the growth through the student Opportunity Act and what's happened so this so this here is this me

you that be made fine um so this is our foundation enrollment and net School spending these are this is a comparison of the last two years um as you can see our enrollment has increased uh by 673 students now our enrollment is just over 400 here in the fall of public schools uh but if you remember uh the foundation enrollment is made up of the charter schools as well so we're just the pass

through that goes through the charter schools so that's so that's the the rest of the 673 the so as you can see here net School spending has gone from 243 million this past year to 273 Mill almost 274 million this year uh a 133% increase from one year to the next this is house one so chapter 78 is 230 milon 788 276 an increase of about 28 A5 million over last year the city contribution

is 43. nearly 2 million an increase of just under $2.5 million and it's increased in one year the appro uh the Chapter 70 plus the city city contribution is almost 274 million nearly a 31 million dollar increase over the previous year so here's our proposed budget so our current fy2 spending level when you bring in all the costs from the city and the school are just done in fy2 are about $247

million the budget being presented to you tonight is the is what net School spending is which is the 273 mil n66 514 the Delta between the two numbers is about $27 million and we are right at net School spending so the indirect costs or the shared cost agreement that we have it outlines the costs that are charged off to the schools on the city side and it essent essentially outlines just the

method and all the and everything we do here and what costs get charged off and it's referred to as the schedule 19 charges and so the SC and so the charges that are essentially outlined in the agreement uh that sit outside the sit outside our budget are costs associated with insurance costs associated with um the retirement the F of a retirement system the cost associated with the charter

schools and school choice and the administrative cost with the city so those are the those so all those those costs are outlined in the indirect cost agreement and are referred to as indirect costs to the school

department um so this is our um Foundation budget it is the number that represents 100% of net School spending for um the next school year um and we thought certainly that this figure um in its enormity is really um worthy of its own slide right um the weight of the number really is not lost on me or anyone on my team um and we feel that we're bringing forth a budget today that acknowledges our responsibility in

spending in a way that's reflective of the needs of our students so um you know just in terms of recalling the priorities um as I said earlier in the presentation um and as we you know finish it up here um this evening and you're going to look you're going to peruse over the documents over the next couple of weeks in preparation for some of our discussions um I feel confident

that you'll see that the result um it's it's really is the result of a process that um acknowledges and and really celebrates all of our priorities um you will definitely see that alignment so um we're going to take a look now at the um what our local planning process looked like in the budget that we are proposing so um following the establishment of the priorities um in late winter um the

principles and departmental leads were given some parameters um for building their budgets it wasn't an exercise andar zerob based budgeting um but it was a framework that we used for developing um either the school or um departmental budget rationals um we were asked them to offer a rationale EX examine the individual you know school or departmental context um reflect on what progress um or impact the existing

structures has has had had had had to date um and then finally take a look at some strategic plans for strategic allocation or reallocation um of resources either you know within a current framework um or structure or in terms of building new structures so um in the end we landed here um with a proposed operator budget that's reflective of um of multiple um elements multiple categories in the budget um you can see

that the salaries and benefits making up um 77% of the budget um it looks you know we're at 163 million um plus additionally contractual services at 39 million 39.5 million um nearly 5 million in materials and supplies 3 and A5 million um for insurance other for um the total of

because of the um conversions that took place to um get at the other nine every year we have to take a look at um some considerations some things that might um that we know could potentially alter some plans moving forward or just some things that we have to take into consideration as we're planning um certainly for us we have um the pending contract negotiations um also student enrollment that we've

spoken about transportation uh out of District tuitions that um you know we think we think we know but you know we get new students um and that's something that we have to consider health insurance cost utilities and then of course um the capital infrastructure so um you know first these we're g I'm just going to highlight a few of them one of them being the pending negotiations we are

still negotiating with um multiple bargaining units and that is certainly going to have an impact um on our Budget moving forward um oh no that's okay no that's good that's fine um and then here um you know I put Transportation here um because I think it's worth um a conversation that that needs to be had um you know immediately I would say um just in terms of the transportation total um is going

to if we maintain just to maintain our current um transportation you know the way we're doing business in in terms of what the routes look like um the way they were staggering schedules the um the distances we use in terms of qualifying for transportation we are looking at a significant increase over um over last year and it's something that we just that that we need to keep um in in conversation um even though

it's not part of our um budget it is a concern moving forward um that there will be a a substantial increase from one year to the next if we don't rethink some of the way that we're doing business um right now um mostly because I think it could impact um the city's ability to meet net School spending um one of the things that Mr almea talked about um in terms of the enrollment was that difference between

the foundation enrollment um where we saw 600 plus increase in students but I wanted to highlight here another element of our considerations is the in District enrollment the students who are in our seats and from October 1 to October 1 we did see a 435 student increase over last year and so that remains um a consideration for us as well um we're we're taking a look right now at the

patterns um this year compared to last year just numbers that were shared just today show that we might not see as much of an influx um this the the enrollment numbers um over the last month look a lot different than they did just a year ago in terms of the the student inout numbers and so that that's something that we need to um take a look at over the course of um the next few months as

well um so in years past we've come to the meeting um with a bottom line of what we were proposing in terms of a budget but coming out of um and coming out of this year's uh budget meetings we did find ourselves in the position once again of not having um enough money um despite the large you know amount in our foundation budget not having enough money to say yes to all of the proposals

that were brought um forward by principles and department heads and so we did make some difficult decisions um in the additions that we highlighted earlier the 16 positions seven you know net increase when we considered the conversions um but there are additional positions that we were still mulling over late last week um looking at the numbers and consider considering rationals and projecting what what might

be happening over the next few months uh and then an idea was presented um late last week that really did just make sense um and so tonight um as part of our presentation um what we're we're presenting to the committee a budget that not only includes an unfunded wish list but also $500,000 that has yet to be assigned so in presenting the budget in this way um we really feel like we're

leaving the door open for more collaboration um with our departmental and school leaders um as well as the school committee because I think over the next couple of weeks there's an opportunity to have some discussions with the full committee there there is always that opportunity for our principals um when they're asked to discuss what their um what their rationals are and I think very often or

you know nearly always we're at meetings where even when principles are asked to you know talk about what the needs are at that schools if there's been a you know a quote unquote decision by the administration not to fund something and not to include in the budget it's difficult to have that that discussion and so we leaving $500,000 un assigned in this school budget so that we can

have um more collaborative discussions moving forward and so the last piece here is really just thanking people um certainly the entire central Office Team and our principal and then as well as the support staff in all of our offices as well as the committee so thank you

I was like what is that horrible noise that's s like looking around the table for something

is um I do I do want to thank um Dr Curley and her whole team that was a very comprehensive presentation um a lot of wakeup calls a lot of good stuff and uh we'll keep the district moving forward at a rapid speed but uh our enrollment numbers are increasing which in drives everything costs up so I'm sure this budget will take a I mean I'm sure this committee will take a good

look at the budget and make the best decision for the residen a Fall River and all of our kids with that anybody have any questions at this time Mr Das thank you so I have a few questions so I'll start with how much money in this budget is um set aside for overtime for overtime yes um I will get that to you I don't have it right in front but I'll

get it to you okay and how many how much money is set aside for um positions currently that aren't staffed like in the district that aren filled that aren filled thank you there's quite a bit do you have a like a number something I if you would have asked I could I would could have put it together but I don't have that at the moment he'll have it for the budget meetings but I will I'll

have it in two weeks okay um and last question actually I I'll you for now sure anybody have any further questions I know we're going to go at this hot if I could just if I could just comment Mr almeer I'm sorry go ahead um we are going to make the budget available the presentation will be on the website tomorrow uh in addition the the binder will be the binder itself that you have that you all

get tonight in front of you will be available as a PDF uh on the website tomorrow as well so nice job Mr almea you got a question yeah well just a question on our procedure what are we doing so we're going to go review right we have these until when what is our next bu meeting is um what's the date remind 18th 18th and 19th so we have two at least two weeks to look at

the budg one more piece Sor that I missed that I should have mentioned uh I'm I'm hoping by tomorrow at the end of the day to send all the principles uh and the principles put together as as requested by the superintendent uh for each one of the meetings came very prepared with their own presentations uh of what of their budget and their schools and we will be sharing those out with you electronically by the end of

the day tomorrow um M lar Dr Curley well I mean once we start reviewing our binders and we have questions do you um think it's appropriate maybe to put an hour a week away just keep you keep yourself open to questions and and concerns from us just reach out to us shoot us an email on on what works for you instead of you getting bombarded with a million emails

from all of us and all of us and questions if you could just provide maybe an hour maybe a week in the next couple weeks where we could maybe know we can contact you million things we can absolutely do that and I do think that as um I know I understand too that questions will come up as people are reading through you know whether it's a how much of this is for overtime what is

it what is the UNF I I would like to be able to um push that information out to the committee you know prior to so yeah if um I do think that I can ab absolutely set aside an hour to meet with each person um and then I'd also like to just set up some opportunity so that as people have questions they can I can hear the questions and and and get

them out even if it's in just like the next two Friday memos I think that would be um a good way to deal with um some of the questions as they come thank you I yield um Mr Das Mr D and Mr ago thank you I I remember remembered my question so um so if we so for the last few years we've always just been we broke even with net School spending from the city

Side there never gone above um even we're actually above this year projected projected it's not the year is not over yet but we're above this year how much about just over two million actually just so 2 million over the um percent so was that like 2% so that's 100 it's less than a percent it's less than a percentage M okay so if we added a millon if we asked the city for a

million more to add to net School spending I'm assuming that would be a great help especially since we have I think I counted six or seven um contracts that absolutely all right so IID like to make a motion that this school committee forly asked the city of Fall River for a million dollars extra to go towards net School spending I make that in the form of a motion

second I I I have to comment on that are you done are you done Mr Das I I you for now yes okay so as you can see from the presentation Transportation going up a couple couple million um the city's assessments going up a couple million um we're we're in a pos position where we cannot afford another million right now um we also have Diamond Coming on board which educates our Vocational Technical

kids um that would be extremely Reckless to try to put us up over 100% um by adding another million to the budget at this time it's poorly thought out it's just a uh a political stunt that does not go very well I think we should definitely spend our time looking at the budget seeing where the best cost of money is obviously if there's money going to be sent it's going to be spent on what Mr Agia

brought up the pay center um that's going to be a joint project with the schools and the city again so at this time asking the city for another million dollars is uh very short thinking and it doesn't do anything I mean it's not going to it's not going to help us at this point as a city anybody have any further oh before the vote go ahead Mr D thank you um Mr Mayor

I believe you went on the record stating that the city is going to have a $20 million surplus so I used that information making the motion I just made and it's not a political stunt whatsoever I mean as you can see we have um six to seven contracts from many different labor unions across this District that aren't filled there's plenty of ways that we can save on the

money uh we as as as Mr am just said we've gone above net School spending just for this year this fiscal year I'm just asking that this continues going to the next fiscal year just a million more that would go again to helping the students of the city and the educators of the city I you I I I just I know that Mr Das does like doing these political

stunts I give him credit for it but at the same time we have no idea I watched that whole presentation and I did not see the word Federal govern and what they're going to do with the Department of Education or funding going forward um I don't know where that's going to end up I don't hear good things but I have no inside knowledge of it and for him to make a motion to hit taxpayers in the

city of Fall River for another million dollars at this time is totally irresponsible let's do the budget first see where the money shakes out we do have a lot more work to do at the pay center we have transportation increasing and trying to hit the city for a million dollars right now is totally fisc Ally irresponsible he hasn't even looked through the book yet and he's asking for more money that's not how this works

anything further before we vote Mr Rago Mr alme did I hear you say I was I just couldn't hear that the city's over by 2 million what was the like when the dust settles for this year you think that's where it's going to land yes and that's based on increased Healthcare or something like what it's based on retirement the retirement cost is increased so the retirement cost increased so the city had to pay more

Yep that we didn't anticipate or something that's what you're anticipating yes if healthcare costs come in that's going to perfect so I seconded Mr das's motion and it's quite ironic that um on page of one two three four on page five of this document that we just got the superintendent read a comment and it says this budget the budget is not just a collection of numbers but an expression of our values and our

aspirations I seconded this motion because we should be aspiring to give more than 100% of net School spending so I seconded a motion based on I think a pretty uh valid quote I like the quote it's something that we value and we aspire to I aspire to serve on the committee one day where the administration in a city gives more than 100% of net School spending now the mayor makes valid points that he's got

concerns or whatever but this is just a vote of asking for it the mayor can then therefore say you know when he does his budget you can't do it to the point about the federal funding and the cuts that are going to come down I think it's even more important that this committee take a stand and say we aspire to have the city give us more money because we know that the government is going to

fund and going to cut some other things so when the when the federal government Cuts $2 million from Title One and title two and all those things where are we going to get the money to pay the teachers the staff and all the support staff that we pay for with that so I Aspire as I think Mr Das does and by this quote indicates to ask the city for

more money and at at the end of the day if they can't do it they can't do it the May can reduce down anything we ask for so that's the reason why I voted for a second I got plenty of other questions but I yield on this thank you I I just have to stress that probably 10 minutes into a discussion about the budget U Mr Das wants to ask taxpayers in Fall River to

send the $273 million budget more money from the taxpayers for his whatever he want want suspend it on all I'm telling the committee to do is vote no on this motion let's do the budget and see how these numbers shake out and decide the best course of action not receive a book watch a PowerPoint and say add a million dollars uh I don't know why he obviously has something against the taxpayers but

at this point I think $273 million is a substantial okay we got to make a point of board here Mr Mayor you're you're engaging in unprofessional behavior and it's Unbecoming of your position I know you're uncomfortable I have the Flor unom Mr uh please don't be rude I don't interrupt you when you're talking away doing nothing unprofessional I'm just stating the facts if it's your position

you want to hit him I don't favor that I think we vote no we do a timely thoughtful examination of the budget and we go forward from there at this point it's so early in the process uh I don't see any point to hitting the far of a taxpayers for another million dollars for Mr Das um Shelly then Bobby um I have to agree on two points first of all we just received this today

we've barely had time to ask a question I have zero problem in asking for more money when necessary I believe last year uh the mayor wanted us wanted us to have less money in trans and I looked at him and said what no figure it out you're not taking money from you know I have no problem asking for money however when you just start a process and you're asking for money it's like going to your

parents and saying can I have $1,000 I don't know what I'm going to spend it on yet but I I know I'm going to I'm going to need something I just think it's it's not fair to the taxpayers right now we're building a high school we have sewer rates may be going up we have a train coming in which is wonderful for some people but difficult for others that's rents are going to

Skyrocket okay we have a community that economically is suffering so yes I will ask for more money if we look at this budget and say hey we need the money to hire these teachers or we need the money to do this or we're not able to do something necessary no problem I'll be the first one up here to make that motion and ask but I just open this up we have a long this is a long

process right maybe new for some some have been here since you know well for long much longer than others um so there's different levels of experience up here but what I can say is that we're going to have several meetings it's a transparent situation we're gonna have the ability to ask all kinds of questions and at the end we can ask for whatever money we want and you know probably not going to get it but

I'll be happy to ask for it okay but I don't feel comfortable doing that and I also would just love it if uh you know that's all I have to say I'd love to vote on this and move on to the next question Mr Bailey so I just I just want to say I agree with both points but for me it's far too early in the budget um process to make that decision now if

it's needed our job is to advocate for the schools right so this has nothing to do with the city side or anything else it has to do with our jobs as school committee members to advocate for the schools now with that being said if we got to the point in the budget um process and you made this motion I would be completely on board with that but we did just receive these binders um if

it's more money we need or there Cuts or anything like that I have no problem um agreeing with Mr Das um but I agree with the mayor at this point where it's way too early um but I just want to reiterate um as we go back and forth our job is to advocate for the schools all right and that's just where I stand well go ahead Mr AG so um Dr kill I just had

a pointed question for you as the superintendent and CFO CEO of this department do you aspire to have the city spend above net School spending for Education Aspire so like yeah so VI so what I aspire to do is meet the needs of our students through our budget if we get to a point in our discussions where it becomes apparent that we're not able to based on like 100% of net School spending then

I would then I'm clearly would not be opposed to spending more than 100% of net School spending but right now I'm not prepared to ask for more than that y so thank you so when I looked at the slides which just for the edification of the public this school committee received this binder and these slides we didn't vote yet just now at 5:30 yeah we say this I say this every year we just got

this at 5:30 today but when you look at it as a whole I try to pick out what slides are really pressing to me right now my first night night of looking at this the slide that I look at is the slide that indicates that $1.3 million of positions were recommended by the folks that are sitting out there principles directors and the like that we cannot Fund in this budget that's the

slide that first comes to my head so I haven't gone through this with a fine tooth comb but I will that's the slide that gets me so when I seconded Mr das's motion it's with that type of thing in place so if you knew going in that you had an extra million dollars in the available budget you would have been able to agree to some of those positions if you had that money ahead of time so

that that's the only reason why I'm suggesting it I do understand fully the needs of the city and the like but the money if we did do this is not coming out of the taxpayers pocket as the mayor is indicated as Mr D stated the city has $20 million in stabilization SL free cash that stabilization money is not in anyx taxpayers budget in their wallet in their bank account that's money in the

city's bank account that they say you know we got 20 million we got1 18 million we got 20 million we got1 18 million so what Mr Das is asking is if we did this motion you could put that money the increase of 2.4 million Mr almea because I know you worked for the city the increase of 2.4 million in net in the spending that the city has to if the city took that money from their free

cash is that coming out of any taxpayer's pocket no no so they have 18 or 20 million if the city if the city wants to pay the increases that they are by law obligated to do it's not coming out of any taxpayer it's going to come out of free cash now granted there's other expenses and I'm not trying to get into that but at the end of the day I think it's irresponsible for anybody on

the school committee not to at least say we aspire to it because this has been gone on for 30 years in this District of whether we have 100% or not it's a matter of uh a budgets what your values what are your judgments what do you what do you want to do if we aspire to just be at the bail minimum then vote no if you aspire to be above that in net

School spending and have that conversation in the future then I would encourage everyone to vote Yes I'm solidly voting yes and I have plenty of other questions I yield Mr Das thank you and um this will be my final comments and I I do appreciate um my both my colleagues to my right they make great points but um to Mr aar's point I think it's better that we have this conversation now then have it during

budget season so if we do get a yes vote the Administration has time to prepare going into the um budget cycle next week so and this so the community understands at home um as Mr pointed out my my motion would not raise taxes or wouldn't charge the taxpayer what does charge the taxpayer are property taxes water rates SE rates and there's only one person on the stage who has um increased that number astronomically

on the tax I don't know why we're discussing this if you want him not to call you politic wait wait wait Mr Mr Das we're going to vote on the motion we're talking about the budget we had a discussion on on property R motion to move the question no wait wait wait wait wait wait wait let's Mr D you have anything further to add yes what you said was inaccurate you should apologize

well I'm going to make can I are you done do you and the only individual who make makes political stunts is you Mr Mayor you should be honest to the facts I yield I will be honest and I don't know what the point of this is I am under the impression that every dollar in the stabilization fund is taxpayers money am I wrong there Mr Al well originally that's where that's where it

gener generated from so if I take a million dollars out of the stabilization fund and I do want to put it back in for trash for policemen for diamond for any cost associated it's going to come from the taxpayers isn't it so state or loal but it's money that's been made available over the years that but it's taxpayers money that's all I said Mr Das what you want to do is hit them for more money that's

all I said let's vote this question please Mr Agia please can we vote the question I just have a question from Mr Alita based on what he just said go ahead so uh Mr almea the um Medicaid reimbursement amount that the city gets what is that total roughly it it's varied over the years we got it up to almost 2 million at one point uh one year but it's I believe it's around 1.3

to $1.4 million right now so part of the reason why I think this is a fruitful discussion is that the members of the committee need to understand what that means so what that means is the expenses for those Services come out of this budget M and the city gets $1.3 million increased into their budget in into their bank account and the school department gets how much of that none

zero so that's 1.3 million that the city gets to the good and the schools get zero now granted that the city has to put in their 100% but like in any other budget and I've recommended this for many years to the legislature is that they need to when they say that this city has to put in a certain amount they should be looking at that funding and you reduce it so that now there there'll

be 1.3 million below 100% of net School spending if you took the cash that they're getting reimbursed so let's look at it this is a valid question and I think we should have this conversation in the future as well I thank you can we vote on this one now uh Mr G please call the rooll um on the million dollars from for this from the city Mr yes Mr Bailey

no at the moment Mr di yes Mr Cory no Mr ly no M Pereira no mayor cougan no further questions Mr Das thank you Mr Al um so the debt exclusion for for this High School we're currently in how much does that currently cost the city I the debt exclusion for that's is that is that on the city side or is that on school department side that's that's on

the city Side I'm not sure what that is for you okay I think it's about five million this year Mr Das thank you and that's something that goes to the property um the taxpayers of the city that was the uh that was the tax that the property owners voted for yes that you advocated for most people up here advocated for that yeah I wasn't I wasn't that election um so going back to to this

right now um so what what and this is actually more of a question for the superintendent so what this budget process when we work with the city um do we work with the who we work with on the city Side to put together this budget I Emily the mayor and the CFO do we work with the city administrator not this year not not this year who who is the city administrator

currently I'm just curious well oh this we're talking about the school budget Please Mr Das the city administrator has never been involved with the school budget not as long as I've been there okay City how you Mr Agia yeah just a a few questions but the um Mr das's question about the debt exclusion for dery high school I advocated for that as well yeah as the mayor mayor and I held signs on the

corner at some point for that as well so I don't take that back what I am concerned and I have been concerned and this either predates or right around the time when the mayor took office was when we went to the public for that we advocated for how much money was going to cost the taxpayers over the course of all the years and there's charts and graphs that were submitted they were

public they were at meetings the answer was $3.6 Million which that was going to cost the taxpayers for s or eight years seven or eight years only and then it was going to go to zero if anybody wants to check it go back and read review it that's what we told the taxpayers before we got them to vote Yes seven or eight years at 3.6 million for the last three

years and more it's been over 5 million and it's going to continue for 30 years so do the math yourself if you're out there watching it it's a different what we advocated for was a little different so I don't take back advocating but what we advocated for and what reality is just to totally different things but relative to this particular budget uh Dr Curley my question is on what was and

you know this we've had the conversation before um what guidance was given to the principles or directors relative to uh what this document is and role of the school committee because I think that's really important for us all to understand that as we go forth if this is truly a transparent process that's fluid I'm I'm curious what they all think is in here and what the school committee's role in potentially changing

anything within it so uh when I met with principles on Friday um to review with them where we where we landed in terms of requested positions conversions and things like that I explained to them um you know a kind of newer element to the budget in terms of having some um you you know a line item the $500,000 that we were leaving you know not open indefinitely but this idea that

it would offer principes more of an opportunity during these meetings to advocate for some of their um the things that had not been funded yet um and also allow for some time for you know some of the stuff that um came into this budget unfunded is really um it's a it's a function of numbers right enrollment looking to see how things shake out um from year to year we sometimes you know we're in January

February March trying to anticipate numbers wondering if you know can we fund a position that we may not need in September or um or you know things along those lines and um this you know I explained that this would offer some time for you know some of those pieces to shake out but also so that when they were invited to the podium to talk about something for which they' advocated

something that was on the wish list that would feel you know empowered um knowing that the discussion was still ongoing that it wasn't just sitting out there on a wish list as a a maybe someday next year if we find that we have some extra money because of unfilled positions we'll convert something kind of thing so in essence um that we can change anything we want within this budget so they're not and

they haven't been told guarantee everything that's in here is done because if the school committee next two weeks or whatever something happens and we say you know we got to change these four positions from this to that it's the prerogative of this committee to be able to change those things so I did talk to the um principls on Friday about the fact that I know that in the past um there have been you know certainly

people who've come up to the podium um who maybe feel like they are put on the spot um that they're not you know allowed or whatever it is to talk about um something that they wanted that wasn't funded um I I will say that there are some things that are on the unfunded wish list um I'd prefer not to discuss them today but um that I they're there because like I legitimately don't think

they're necessary you know we've discussed it with our team I've talked to principles about it to say I I don't think you you really need that position it would be a nice to have kind of thing um and so I don't don't I don't I don't know how I don't necessarily think that any of us want to be in a position where literally every um decision that's been made um in terms

of what shows up in the budget and what doesn't is just completely up for um discussion mostly because there has been a lot of time um put in by our principles by the central office team in making some of these decisions and there's an element to that piece of it being disrespectful um if based on some you know public discussions not that I'm not not that I won't have them publicly

but um that decisions made by the administration in consultation with principles would just be like unceremoniously overturned so I so I the short answer is no I did not say to principals um hey the school committee can do whatever they want with this budget and some of your stuff might get cut um and Heck if you have some conver ation with people maybe some things can get added I did

not have that conversation with people so I I guess you know I've said this almost every year that we've been here that this process is a little backwards uh we have a budget that just gets presented today nobody on this committee's had a discussion with any members of the um principal's departments or leadership it puts us in a bind to look at it and I do appreciate the $500,000 flexibility because that at

least says we're not going to totally waste our time over the next several weeks listening to people but at the same time this process is not a good one for collaboration and to have us all working together to try to get a budget that takes everybody's thoughts into consideration I always say and it use the term winners and losers that you know over the years it's like well if I

can get the superintendent and her team to agree to put a position or something in here then I'm a winner and then those that didn't get it and they didn't make it those were the losers you know I'm not calling them winners and losers but you get the idea so that to me is not a good process in my mind and then when we get it so now what do we do do we just

say we're going to meet here for five six seven8 hours listen to people for a rubber stamp and I don't want to waste my time or anybody else's time on being a rubber stamp I want to be able to articulate some of the concerns ask a lot of questions so that we can try to get to the better part but I I do think that it's the role of the committee to

do that and if we took a history lesson back to the last time we had to make cuts and anybody that served on this committee or other committees and that have to make cuts when we have to cut the budget guess what we do as school committee we sit here and pick up every single line item and if anybody's been here long enough you know that you say no we're going to pick it so when it's

time to make the tough decisions and the cuts we take it line by line and say this is how we do it but when it's time to create the budget we don't have that same flexibility and that's something that I think needs to be overhauled in the future um one of the line items that I'm looking for Mr almea is is the um when you look at uh investigations outside investigations what line item in this

budget would that fall under Legal Services can you point that to me or in what tab um I believe it's in my department I believe under Finance okay I will yield and I'll look for it and then I'll come back after thank you I just want to correct one thing before I go to Mr Corey uh Mr agie uh the first year we folded the entire der debt into the regular budget uh no override charge

to the taxpayers the next two years we reduce the debt by a half so the taxpayers got a 50% break on the cost of dery so you were right um they weren't paying what was said but we were able to help them by reducing it three years in a row I think this year was the first year they got the full one and of course next year we're looking to see if

there's a way to help them by reducing it again yeah know it was Co money and thankfully we had it no not the first uh year we didn't have Co money for that second year Mr Cory Mr chairman uh again this meeting was an initial discussion on the budget and we're going to have time to distill the proposals as well as the numbers and to make some recommendations like I heard across the table today are

very premature I see all our principls sitting out here in the audience I see our Central staff sitting in the audience I see my Chief Financial Officer at the podium who I have inherent trust in because he's been doing this year after year after year he's guided our on the money in our school department so well that's not to say that we cannot question it we will question it and we should question it but we should

question it with a sense of dignity and respect toward the people that we have running our school department rather than with a tone of disrespect and distrust which I really loathe I really loathe I I'm up here as a school board member to support and advocate for our school department and so that our principls can get adequate funding for the programs that they propose and I look forward to the next two weeks when

we sit down with both the primary and the secondary level principles to hear their needs before we make any final decisions on final numbers for our budget and to support our CFO and our school superintendent in their final chapters of trying to give this budget a go for the future I know that numbers change our enrollment is changing I'm incredibly concerned about our cost for transportation and I would like us all

to examine those numbers closely but I'm very proud because every year that I've been up here as a school board member I know that with as we Wrangle back and forth with numbers and ideas I know that by the end of this process we will get it done and it should be done with dignity and respect thank you I yield Mr Das thank you um just two things to the

superintendent one um I agree with Mr I I do want to thank you for including that $500,000 line item so we again the committee does have some wiggle room it also appears that I this is my my first go around at a budget cycle I would love to see and it looks like you're looks like you're you're encouraging that like fostering that environment for the department heads and all the principles

could speak openly to us so we can hear their concerns and here why they're you know either defending supporting some items on the budget if I could just make one request for next week if we can find out specifically that how much we spend for outside legal especially the Mr um Michael Joyce and that firm as well I think that's one area that we can look to potentially R in some of the funding

and use it somewhere elsewhere so I like just to potentially have that just for next week I that was Mr Ria's question Mr M did you have that for what's that the illegal costs where it was located the budget sits in the finance dep Department okay and what we've spent the last what we've spent the last several years is in the front in the budget detail so the last five years the

last five years is there but if hand up I'll ask the question after but if you're looking specifically for Michael Joyce costs I that's something that I have in my files but that I can I can make available Mr Bailey no I was just um it's just more of a comment more than anything else um I just wanted to kind of as we're going through this process because since I've been on this

committee I do hear Mr agar say there's winners and losers in this and and I know he doesn't mean it like that but I'm just trying to gain a sense of what that what that means and I know you know we keep throwing it around where we're talking about transparency and trust and you know Kev I said it in the last meeting um I trust you and I know that

you you've done a good job and you're going to do a good job in this but just want to see the full scope on on how that looks and and what we're talking about because I know everyone on this stage is passionate um you know about getting a budget pass making sure we um you know we we support the superintendent we support the principles in this process but I do also it is a

budget I want to make sure that we're in a position to fund the things that we need to and have real conversations when we can't um you know fund something um because it's no secret right we we we keep talking about the budget and things we can fund and we're not I just don't want to turn around and it's it's the end of March in this things that are unsaid um on my

end I'll deal with that so I can I can tell you because I've been here I've been here a long time you know specifically over the last you know like the winners and losers I I I get the I get the comment I understand how that work you know how how it goes but the decisions that we've made over the last several years with the addition of all the positions has been specific to you

know student needs and enrollment and what the things look like at the schools and it's also been we the additions have been made to benefit you know benefit the schools and to provide and give them more resources for the student so many and nearly most of of the decisions that have been made have been specific to a ratio that we've got in place and we're trying to make sure that every school

that it looks uniform across the board if you look at the FTE charts that we have in the front you'll see that you know based on school size and everything they pretty much align you know there's a couple one-offs here and there but it's all based on student needs student enrollment and everything else that happens in the schools um Mr a then M so the line for Legal Services the 5304 so it's

$300,000 so and you're saying that's based on the what we currently spend but the reason for my question is because I've asked now for at least three months or four months to the mayor to Dr Curley s Assad everybody to ask for any complaints that came in against any school Committee Member over the years that we not haven't investigated it has to be investigated by an outside attorney which we're doing that currently

what I've been asking for is I want this on an agenda on March 10 agenda and I followed all of the protocols relative to that but this has to be an amount that's listed on the that 534 legal services for outside investigations that is an increase over the current so if we're using it as a what we've spent in the past that's not a good number because I'm telling you

that I've asked over and over for months to ask for the outside investigation that we keep on talking about and so that number I think has to be looked at needs to be on the agenda so we can talk about it in the appropriate time has to be on in executive session but I don't know why we keep on doing it but I I I'm concerned that this isn't going to be

increased do you understand what I'm talking about I got you so if somehow you can figure that out break it down I agree with Mr Das I don't think that Michael Joyce's pay comes out of this line it comes out it comes out it comes out of the sp sp right so I think there's when we say 300,000 I think getting Legal Services kind of in general all like all the grants anywhere

else that comes from because I think we need to take a hard look at it okay he needs when you make $250,000 $300,000 a year as an attorney on an outside councel I think we should be looking for somebody that we can have a a contingency that you know you're working on a retainer not just as you need it because everyone keeps calling them and he's needed I'm not suggesting that it's

not needed in the school Dr Curley miss obenchain everybody needs to have that service but when are we going to reain it in ever since Matt Malone's been here the the number has skyrocketed because Matt Malone would go and ask him for opinions instead of asking our own attorney who is on retainer attorney aside Works 80 hours one week he gets paid the same as he's going to get no matter what Michael J makes Works 80

hours can you imagine that you better get a mortgage so I think that we just got to look at it some of the other questions I have briefly is on the contract so we passed the contract the teacher contract retroactive and I sent an email earlier today relative to this issue so this shouldn't be news to anybody but I'm just looking for a feedback on the email I sent relative to

are the pieces of the contract that we did retroactive are they in place are they getting paid and are they built in here they're they're built in uh they're all the retroactive pieces are scheduled to be paid out um for the 14th coming up so in the curring year yes but in this budget the pieces of no step you know everybody's going to start off at a highest step all those good things are

built into the I haven't got in to see all the They what would the roughly what is the first step now if we get rid of the first step is it 53,000 yes something like that instead of 51 so I think that's an important piece to know that we made a good contract and we're also paying people for their that are new so if you're a new teacher and you're coming out here at that rate

you're going to get more than any of the ones locally for that first year of teacher and I want to make sure that that gets implemented and the other pieces in my email I'd like to highlight uh at some point with a return email to the full committee to um the leads how many leads we have when are they come going on all that stuff so I just think

that we need to F focus on that um Dr kill you made a question about the transportation and net School spending can you just clarify what that means because we haven't been privy to any conversations related to the transportation but that's a clear uh concern so so we're estimating um that if we maintain our um current Transportation structure that it will the incre there's going to be like a

more than $2 million increase in transportation costs for next year and that's B by the city MH yes so I don't understand I and that's not counted towards the net School spending no so um what I said was that the concern always with something like transportation is that it there's there's a potential like that there that the the city could potentially have some difficulty meeting net School

spending because there's you know a finite amount of money and if Transportation costs go up so that that transportation is always this outlier thing out there so if have you had conversations or Mr almea with the city Side to say that if it is whatever you put on that slide that they not going to fund education at 100% no no but I think it's something that just sits out there just like um Mr almea referenced the

fact that there were some increases in costs um and we went over net School spending you know I just I think it's it's it's something that I think we have to keep in mind when there are things that we will go to the city for outside of net School spending I understand I just was trying to clarify what you had mentioned so uh and I'm on the F facility subcommitte so we can talk

about Transportation but if the money is additional that's a city expense so AB we can't really get into whether they're going to fund it or not they have to fund it of course there's no option so that same thing of 1.3 million that's in there for McKinny vento is that a new reimbursement like we went up by that much that's how much it was this this year that we they have received the

reimbursement yes how much was in the budget originally for that a million originally it was a million if they got three and a half 350,000 where did that money go it's sitting in an account it s it sits in this the account the city account y so we're not taking it at all they it's sitting there the uh other question I have uh Dr Curley is you know I've been advocating for a uh districtwide re uh

reconfiguration which went back to March of when we were having the discussion about the pay center and the early childhood and where the kids go MH and you know you and I have had these conversations via email I wanted it on the February agenda and I haven't seen the March agenda but I'm assuming that something's being presented for a redistricting you're talking about we don't have a redistricting plan for

September I mean no we don't that's something that we would have and actually I have said this out loud to you that's something that we would have had to communicate to families by now and we would be looking to get input from families um that's something that we will be doing for The Following fall not for fall of 2025 uh I can't tell you how disappointed I am in that and I want you

and I want your team I want the committee I want anybody that wants to look to go back to the meetings that we had in March April at Spencer bordon relative to what we needed to do the members of the team that decided where we had for prek needs and all that stuff was a district-wide team of all of your key players at those meetings it was said in a public meeting

that we need to redistrict for a number of reasons elll Services Transportation so all the things we're hearing now are budget Busters and problems space we don't have any space we got 600 new kids we got no space was said March and April that we were going to do it we were going to look at it and we had to look at the entire thing so we had plenty of

time to do we did a plan that we paid money for to talk about uh uh how many kids were moving up we did nothing with it in this this department so now we come what are we going to do we're at a crisis on class size we don't have the prek happening we not redistricting anyone we're complaining that the transportation's going to go up for $2 million well no kidding when we got kids

that go to school here get transported over there because there's no room and then they get transported over there your own people your your own people have sat at the table with the subcommittee and has said this we need a redistricting plan across the entire city because we have things that don't make sense now we're short money for here we're short money for there so I encourage you to go back to get your

team look at it and say what are we going to do because the time is going by and once again we'll do it next year just like the pay center we'll do it next year the facts are there that we should have done it we dropped the ball we dropped the ball your team dropped the ball and any body that was at those subcommittee meetings dropped the ball because we should have been looking to

do some of this work and now we have extra Transportation money no kidding we have class size issues no kidding so go back to the emails if you can I ask you to put it on the agenda then I want would like to have it on the agenda for March 10th where we can discuss what are we doing for the redistricting period you said you were having a redistri and team if I recall

back in January set up what does y so we have met with we have met internally on three occasions I think to talk about the numbers across schools look at some potential plans it is a much larger project than anything we could get off the ground for fall ask to the mayor I've asked you to have your team present at a March 10th meeting where we can ask questions to

try to figure out what we can do in the short term as well as a long term cuz that's present the data I'm completely open to suggestions thank you and I think that's what we asked for back in March and I think that's where we need to go uh you know moving forward the um last question from Mr almea when I look at the budget where each salary is are those exactly you is there any money

that's not spent here other than the 500,000 no so if I went through every line item here the only thing that we have is 500,000 total that I am that I am aware of right now yes Y and uh the title one/ grants how does that impact what's in here or not in here has there been any consideration for because we've shifted money you know you know the what I'm

talking about so as of right now you know I there there's not much I know you know I'll be honest with you there's not much there hasn't been much communication as far as what the plans are moving forward we have not heard specifically we have not had specifics on what the fun the federal funds are going to look like uh but we've been told to plan for some short some Some

Cuts we just don't know what that is yet so what is the Assumption in this budget I guess is the more pointed question for for Title One let's say that's the biggest one so I so right now I'm I'm I'm going off of like a 5% assumption 5% reduction from what we from what we have currently yes so anything above that we would I will have to reassess reassess what we're doing yes thank you very much

I yield Mr DUS thank you just um few questions um so I'll start with Transportation just going someone just Mr alme can you just um basically break down real quickly how that's funded again that's it's like some of it's funded through the city and some of it's funded through trans transportation is a city expense and as part as part of it being a city expense um the only re the reimbursement there's a reimbursement

piece to transportation that the city receives they receive money they receive money for mckin vento and they receive money for foster care it's a federal man special education however is is funded through the schools it's it no no it's transportation is a city expense no Transportation sit out sits outside of net School spending so it's a cost that the city has to Bear you know given the

students that we have um but the the component that Miss I was talking about before was the piece on the reimbursement and so depending on how much money is spent specific to the mckin vento students and the foster care students we get a percentage reimbursement of the total that we spend so those bills that we sign off on every other week um for special education does come out of a city um account it comes

out of the account it lies in our budget but it's a but it's a city expense they fund the the account thank you um so just real quickly on so Michael the Michael Joyce you said that comes out of special education it does yes I don't believe all of his um legal action has been special education I know some of it is but I don't think um all of it is if

we can get an answer on that not today however um that's something we should look into as well and just a quick comment in general I wish we had again the Union negoti on the agenda tonight so we could have some more discussions on where some of these funds can go to especially the 500,000 I'm not going to go into detail obviously however it would have been nice if the school committee leadership would have included

that on the agenda last question if the city for whatever reason doesn't meet net School spending I don't know if you can answer this or this would be a superintendent attorney of side question what options do we have as a city to um enjoying the city to assuring that they pay their legal amount if the city for whatever reason doesn't want to um follow the law believe that is a question for our

CFO so the city is obligated to to spend to the minimum minimum requirement which is the 100% which in this case in in FY 26 is the 274 million and if for whatever reason when we file the end of the year report and the city does not meet the requirement once everything's been paid and everything's been paid out City hasn't met it then the state will send their notification to us indicating

that we haven't met it once I've filed the ends of the air report and then at that point in time we'll work with the city to recoup the additional funds that were not met when was the last time this happened last year they did not meet nut School spending last year when we filed the report they did not they did not meet it but then we worked with them immediately to get the money back and we

got the money back we did they worked with okay thank you I you anything further Mr I just a a comment on the um the list of positions that were asked for asked for that is not funded one that has stuck with me for a long time is that we have a need here for recruiting teachers par professionals the like just staff in general so this committee approved in 2018 a human resource audit 2018 since

2018 we have received over being easy $120 million extra it's still not here according to what I'm seeing so they recruit they ask for we ask for an outside person to come in and look we don't recruit the people that we need to in order to work in the schools it's a competitive market out there why is it that we still don't have and this is not the first time I'm bringing this

up this has been brought up for months and years why is it that we still don't have a position that they recommended in the human resource audit in this budget when we have $30 million this year alone somebody please try to Enlighten the committee on why and how I haven't heard it free if you want to read it they just emailed it to us okay it's a 2018 human resource audit

paid for by a consultant feel free to read it in the end it says this district is highly in need of a human resource recruiter that's what it says it's not Kevin's opinion it's the opinion of the person who we hired as a professional and since then I kept asking over and over to HR directors superintendents Finance people anybody that wants to listen and it's still not here and we get $30 million

more I don't have a good answer I I I don't know if there is an answer do you have anything does anybody is the human resource guy here yeah I mean I can't speak to why position wasn't added back in 2018 um but I know that position was added to the um human resource department in the last couple of years human resource coordinator that has been somewhat unfilled um for a time and we

actually are bringing someone on board um now just signed off on it today and part of that person's position is around um Recruitment and so I think it's been I would say that in the past couple of years um or at least I'll say in the last year it's been difficult to know what is needed not needed because the department hasn't really been fully staffed um and now that we are fully

staffed I think we'd be we could better assess um what the need is and whether it's called a recruiter or a coordinator or whatever it is we understand the need for that that function um coming out of the department but we haven't been staffed in that way since I've been on board so I'd like to see what feeling that position can do for us all I'd ask is that when the human resource

department comes up that you look at the audit and we have that discussion public session thank you are yok anything further Mr oh I'm sorry I'm sorry M lar M go ahead Mr D I skipped her no no no go ahead go ahead goe I ski I'll promise to be brief just um just I'm Mr point because I was the one who requested to see that audit and and I the superintendent just mentioned that we

added a position like that what's the position what's the name human resource coordinator I believe is the name of the position and if we can just get an answer within this week cuz I did put it in under the form I don't know if you saw it yet that we can find out um what we've done with that with that audit with that or review whatever it was because you know I don't feel like we

should be spending money on reviews an outside of opinion from an expert and not doing anything with it I understand it was from 2018 and there was nothing done with it then but maybe we can take a second look at it now and just you know hear your opinion as to whether it's you know some things are in are good some things that we disagree with um yeah I think that

would be great um and I had another question but I'll let miss Larry go first no go ahead finish up finish up you got the floor um last question question that I regarding facilities and operations I understand there was a reor done last year um do we have a cost on how much that added to the budget how much the reorg added to the budget yes it's it's all in here but um the re the

reor the amount the reor cost in this no the plan budget for each one of the Departments are in there I guess I was looking for is how much the increase from before the re it's something I would have to calculate you're asking it you know off the top off the top but something that I could I could do for it thank you I guess the reason I was asking is if we're looking

for ways to um you know look for um ways that we can reduce the budget that's one that could be considered not not necessar supporting it right now but I think it's worth a discussion down the road I but if I can but if I can ask uh if there are specific questions and things you want me to put together if you could just let me know in advance

and I'll make sure that I have it for you thank you um just quickly so on the 18th uh Dr Curley what is the expectation for us that night I know there was some conversations uh a while back a couple months ago I I believe Mr Agia brought up and I think we all agreed that we were just going to give you the the uh the leeway to meet with the the

department heads and the principes and then uh come back to us what are we expecting to do on the 18th so actually I was going to pose that question before we cled out tonight because I um I feel like we left earlier discussions around it saying that we would not have principes do individual principles and department heads do um individual presentations this year they would be available for questions um based on how

we were um scheduling things so I just wanted to get some clarification tonight because you know we have since CH you know made that adjustment in terms of the um unallocated budget line there and so um I don't know if it's the will of the committee to change um how we go about business on for those next couple of meetings and because I want to make sure the principles were prepared for

that right I I wasn't really bringing up to change anything because that's what I vaguely remember is we were going to take that route um but I I my opinion as one member if they're all here and they're um willing to answer some questions if we have it if it's something you can't answer I'm I'm fine with that um protocol but I'll leave it to the committee to to weigh in yeah anybody anybody anybody got an

opinion so I think we make them available if they're here and uh if they if we get to the green school and uh Mr Corey's got a question for Dr Dunn we'll bring him up but if not um I can see from what um the superintendent said by giving us the hour prior to the meeting and if we want to email her specific questions I mean maybe we can uh have

some some of them answered before the meeting on the 18th if not we bring them up that night whatever is easier for the committee Mr Das thank you I was just going to ask um since I've never gone through the process what's been the precedent that's something we usually do we used to bring up the principles for each school and they would make a short presentation but I believe it was Mr

agar said listen a lot of this is is uh over and over if we can Target where we want to make the changes up or down in the budget it's it's probably a little more specific and we can do it that way it would help but if they're here and they're available we can do that too so why don't we plan on that and go through the schools on the 18th and go from

there and if there's are questions that we all come up with when we're looking through the Schools email them to Dr Curley and we can try to get some answers that we can announc that night at the meeting anybody have anything further Mr AG yes so I I'm consistent with what I said before I do think we should do it differently but given the fact that it

is what it is I I just think we need to articulate for us so that we are prepared what is going to happen on the first day so if the first day is all schools so be it just make sure that everyone knows and myself included so that I'm not studying something for the next night you know I think transparently we should get that uh done there is going to be some questions we

and we just got this so I had some questions today but I will have more you know questions related to the budget but things that we've said today if they spur you all to get together and say you know somebody made a point why is this and things change out just like you're asking us to respond to you I'm asking you to take some of the feedback respond to us so that over the next two weeks

we're not just sitting here waiting right cuz I I for one I'm not going to be a happy camper when if I've asked for five different things and on the 18th comes I just get radio silence because it doesn't want to be addressed that's not going to be a great conversation so all I'm asking is that it's a two-way street if we have to tell you please let

us know as we bring things up so that we can collaboratively go back and forth the contract for instance is one I raised some concerns about that today so I would expect that between now and the next couple days we're going to get a response to all those questions thank you I yield anything further to come tonight quick question Mr D has one more question um so we if so I'm going I'm

going to go through this budget tonight and if I have questions should I just submit it through the form yes I think that works um Mr um dis just asked if he could submit questions through the form I think that makes sense in my mind I was thinking oh maybe I'll create something but we do have a mechanism already and I think that works thank you and it's a great form I like I

glad we implemented the idea I you motion to adjourn second anybody anything further to come before the committee Deb call the rooll please M drag yeah yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes M larv yes m Carrera yes Mayan yes adjourned