 We're going to start the county finance committee meeting of March 1st. I am here to see Deschmark. We have with us. Dr Dawson and representing them. Technical high school presentation. But before we get to that. Let's do the minutes. I want to log out. I think you just need to turn the volume up on your computer. Yes. Looking at the minutes. So if anyone hasn't seen the minutes yet, please look at them. Yeah, I'm just going to share my screen. I see where I think there are two numbers. Okay. I think we approve. The salary line of 983. 996. 93396. Okay. 983. That's not going to be that outcome. I was checking it. Does anyone have any other corrections to the minutes? Is everyone else? 983. The salary. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. So any, any other corrections? Is there a vote? Charlie. Check. In other words, the number that we reported at the meeting was correct. Doesn't have to be changed. The direct, the letter directing fund, or the number directing funding, the $15 million number. No, the bottom line number taxation number. That I gave in the report. Correct. There's some question about that. Okay. I actually don't. What was the number you had? 1413375. Okay. So we got. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? Wait a second. Second. All in favor. Can you post? Okay. All right. Since you are here. Why don't we. Turn it over to you. Great. Good evening, everyone. My name is Kathleen Dawson. And I'm the proud new superintendent. And your school committee representative will be with us shortly. He's on his way. And, you know, work. But he'll be joining us shortly. And with me today is our business manager. And we are here. We do have a presentation. I'm going to try to share that. Okay. Just happens all the time. Only been three years. But while we're waiting to do that, I just want to say, just share how excited I am to be able to actually be here in person. And to meet all of you. And to share this information and to be able to have dialogue about what we've been doing in the past. And we'll get started. I don't know if you want to ask questions along the way. And you can do that if you'd like. What we've been doing is presenting the whole thing. And then questions at the end so that it's there. If we covered. We might cover something to answer your question in advance. And so that's, he's been able to do that. And. So what, why don't you go ahead and give your presentation. And I think everyone has seen the materials too. So I'll go quickly. So that we can have more time for. That sounds good. Yeah. And so yeah, so please know that I'm. We'll be going quickly because I know you've already read the material. But you know, we spent a lot of time, so thank you for listening to the presentation. All right. Good evening. My name is Kathleen Dawson. And tonight we are here to present our fiscal year 2024 budget recommendation for Minuteman regional vocational technical school district. And we hope to be able to answer all of your questions at the end of the presentation. So tonight we present to you a budget that's focused on supporting our students and our staff. The budget supports our purpose of ensuring our students have access to their best self. And what we've really seen, especially after the pandemic is that the social emotional and mental health needs of our students have grown even more so than before. So, you know, we just wanted to start with our why, right? That our budget does reflect our values and our priorities, and those are our goals. And I think that we're going to be able to do that. And I think we're going to be able to do that. And I think we're going to be able to do that. And I think that we're going to be able to do that. And I think that we're going to be able to do that. And I think that we're going to be able to do that. And I think we're going to be able to do that. And I think we're going to be able to do that. So we need to do that. So we have our values and our priorities, and those are our students and our staff. So just a quick reminder. Our school, I go to this year and our budget is grounded and improving teaching and learning for all of our students. And these are our. To support us in accomplishing these goals. Our district budget objectives follow along with our school priorities and goals. The top three objectives are the safety of our students and staff, the quality of our education, and the professional development of our staff. Some additional objectives includes increasing access to what Minuteman has to offer by extending the enrollment capacity of the facility making sure that we're maximizing that with the facilities that we currently have. Capitalizing on the potential use and expansion of the athletic fields for the benefit of our students and communities, thus also increasing potential revenue. Lastly, successfully closing out our current MSDA school building project. So some of the major drivers in our budget for FY24 includes the future contract negotiations that we're currently undertaking right now. And with the increase in enrollment, we all are in need of three new full-time teachers and Minuteman's participation in a health trust with four other regional vocational schools. They have not set their final rates yet for FY24, but they are recommending that we carry a 10% increase at this point in our budgeting. And the impact of inflation on the prices of supplies and materials needed mainly for our CTE instruction required to meet industry standards. So some of our additional drivers, we have an increase in costs for transportation and the building utilities and heating, et cetera. Some of that due to inflation. The increase of the OPEC contribution based on the recommendation of our OPEC study committee, the continued funding of our capital stabilization fund, which will support some of the strategies for supporting our capital needs. Just to break out the FY24 a little bit more, our operating expenses are up about 6.18%. And our operating capital, which includes our ESCO lease payment, our athletic field lighting debt, and the capital stabilization funding is fairly consistent at 0.21%. The ESCO lease payment the last year will be FY25. Minuteman's capital building project debt is slightly lower in FY24 than 23, and this is an important breakout as seven of our nine member towns voted a debt exclusion on the school building project. So the total preliminary assessment for Arlington, including the building project debt service that is excluded from prop 2.5 is approximately $8.9 million. And the preliminary assessment for Arlington without the building project debt is approximately $7 million. Now, a major factor impacting the operating budget is our enrollment. With the plans for the new school building came the plan for increasing in district student enrollment that was a major driver for the new building. And as noted here, we are successfully meeting that objective. Enrollment from our member towns are increasing as the enrollment from the non member towns they are matriculating out with each graduating class and we're very proud to say this year was our first freshman class that came all from our member towns. As enrollment shifts, Minuteman's out of district revenue is decreasing both from tuition and capital fee, which is set by the state. And as a result, our member towns are having to pick up that responsibility for the cost. And soon it will be all of the cost with operating capital budget through their assessment. In the next few slides here we'd like to show you the comparison of changes in enrollment to the changes in revenue. This first purple line across the top is our school designed enrollment of 628 at 85% capacity. And when we add the tri-colored bar graph, which includes the total, the member and non-member enrollment compared to the 85% school capacity indicated by the purple line, you'll see as the graph shows we are over our 85% capacity. And here we're showing with the yellow line, which represents the non-member tuition and the light blue line, which represents the capital fee revenue available to reduce member assessment. As you can see, these are trending in the opposite direction of our increasing enrollment. Here we show the percent change in our four-year rolling average of enrollment, which is the blue column, with the percent change in assessment if it's red for all of our member towns. And most of our member towns correspond and track together closely as spelled out in our regional agreement. It is important to note that the four-year rolling average will eventually even out for the next few years as enrollment becomes over the next few years, sorry, as enrollment becomes more typical of full freshman classes of member town students. So, as you can see here, in Arlington, you will see that there was a 60% increase in four-year rolling average, but a 12% increase in total assessment. You can see year over year here the comparison of our assessments. And as seen in the graph on the prior slide, Arlington's four-year rolling average has increased by 15.7% compared to the total assessment increasing by 12.4%. Operating assessment, the per-people assessment remains relatively consistent over the past five years. And just a little more information about current Arlington student breakdown. In grade nine, we have 66 students, grade 10, 60 students, grade 11, 55, and grade 12, 34 students. So, as you see over the years, that increase, and then when you have that outlier of 34, that's kind of skewing your four-year rolling average. So, once we get a little bit more closer numbers, that average will even out. So, as presented, it is a shift in enrollment that are increasing the assessments for each member town, and the increase is paying for more. Arlington students have access to a choice in the type of quality of career technical education. And as I attended parent town hall meetings in each town, I had a great showing in Arlington and thank you to all the parents who did show up. You know, one of the common themes that came across all of the town, how appreciative your families are, our families are, that you are supporting them having this choice. They're seeing that, you know, what had they gone to a different type of school, they would not be thriving as they are at Minuteman, and they are really appreciating that choice. So, on behalf of them and from Minuteman, we thank you for that support. This next slide here just giving you the assessments, the FY24 assessments, all of our member towns, so you can kind of see how that compares. And then, where are we now for next year, this is really exciting, our enrollment trends are continuing and going strong. Our eighth graders have completed their applications for next fall. And as of February 15, we had 329 applications from our member towns for only 180 seats. And 83 applications actually from nonmember towns, because there are nonmember towns, and the towns, the families and students who are still interested in trying to get into Minuteman. The only way that we would even consider a nonmember town student is if they're all of our member town students, there's no wait list. And if we have a program with an opening, only then will we consider taking it out of town nonmember town students. So as of February, let's kind of look where are we with Arlington students. February 15, we closed the application window, your families did receive offer letters. And Arlington is slotted for, well you had 82, we had 82 qualified applicants from Arlington. The slot allocation for Arlington is 42 students, and 66 were offered admission, which as of right now leaves 16 on the waiting list, and families have to wait until March 8 to either accept or decline the offer. And so even though we have 16 on the wait list, that's not the final wait list. And historically, you know, we've been able to try to get more and more students off the wait list before the start of the school year, but as interest has grown, and we're getting higher numbers also from our other towns who would normally have lower rates, we're getting some higher numbers. So we'll have to see how many students will be able to take off the wait list. So the increase in enrollment is referring three additional full-time teachers and being cautious of our budget and assessment impact on our member town. Minuteman is not requesting funding for all of the positions and the needs that we have in order to provide the level of service of excellence to our students. There's still quite a bit of need for Minuteman. And as you can see, there are no more positions and other roles. But however, we will do what we've been doing. Everyone picks up a little more and we all, you know, do go above and beyond to try to make sure that all these other needs are covered some of it. It is hard, right? Especially after coming out of a pandemic, people are, you see it nationally, like teachers are burned out, they're tired, our staff are tired. But they also know that, you know, there's a level of burden on everyone in all of our towns. And this is why we're only coming to you asking for the bare minimum that we need. That's the three teaching positions to support the increase in enrollment. And just so you know, we don't solely rely on our member towns to fund all of the districts. We're always working diligently to apply for grants and we've been very fortunate to receive a number of them recently. And as you can see here, without these grants, it would have required an additional $3 million with FY23 budget. And in essence, that saved us 10% for this current year. The district uses these grants to fund positions. We're careful to do that because as we know, the grants end those positions then. So we are very careful how we do that. To support new curricula, CTE programming, student programming, it's really helped out our major purchases for CTE programs because these equipment are not cheap. Grant funding is starting to support our Minuteman Technical Institute, which is our post secondary program almost in its entirety now, and it will not rely on our member town funding to operate next year. One of the reasons why we were able to actually lower our request for FY24 to 4.5% was the last minute like $500,000 grant we did get right towards the end. So we were able to modify our request. It was the capital skills grant, and that $500,000 is helping to grow our animal science program, which we're going into its third year next year. So we're really excited about that. This doesn't include all of the grants. You know, we know that there's some extra dollars that we have received that that we're continuing to support some of the other needs that we have. Some of them are positions, but again, being careful with that. Right now we're using some extra dollars to also support our after school extra support for our students meeting that academic support, especially as MCAS testing engineering. So, you know, that's an example of how we're using extra dollars. At the beginning, we did use extra dollars to ensure, you know, just that continued support of the devices that our students needed being all remote and because we are a one to one district. And this year, you know, we've had to make sure that all of our incoming freshmen have their devices. So that was a huge support. And a large amount of the effort for supporting block. Um, so the next slide here. Building enrollment beyond the design capacity of 628. So with no requests to our towns for additional funding, no new debt. And as previously shared, our enrollment has exceeded the capacity and the plan is to meet this growth and look to expand and as much as our facilities will allow without any additional debt. And some of our strategies strategy. Number one is to continue contributing a portion of the budget to the capital stabilization account. Now I do want to be clear that we are not the plan and not to use the capital civilization fund for any like new building, but we may need that to make renovations in our existing or. You know, right, like right now we're having to find additional space for our animal science program as it continues to grow. So if there are walls that we have to put up or, you know. Those types of renovations we would be using the capital stabilization fund. And of course for emergencies that come up right with the needs. Um, this will allow us to support the current new project. We do have a current project in progress right now and that's our north metal fab shop. And that was, it's not a part of the new building, but it started towards the end of puts in progress right now. That will allow us to move some of the heavier equipment from our welding and manufacturing area that out to create a little bit more space for them that will allow a few more students to be able to join that program. Our second strategy is to continue to leverage our strategic partnerships and grants to put buildings that we're not currently using to use. For example, in our campus building. So when you're driving up the main gate right before the athletic fields, there's a road and there's a building there that has been used for various different types of programs in the past, but currently it's not being used. So we're taking a look at what can we do to with that building so that we can create more classroom space because we are full at our main building, but it may also allow us to create a few more classrooms that if it is possible for us to increase our enrollment try to provide more students access. That is an option we are looking at. The capital stabilization account just to provide a little more context back in 2016 the school committee did establish this account to be prepared for any capital needs that may come up and the balance is under $2.5 million and this that is basically to the strategic plan of setting $500,000 each year. How we spend that money, the school committee will always review and either approve or not. So it's not like I go and with our team, hey, we have all this money, let's see what we can do with it. We will do that, but then we'll say hey school committee, do we have your permission and do you support this. So you'll see in our budget that we're requesting the $500,000 to continue toward that fund. And as the capital stabilization account is one of the major drivers so is our school committee's responsibility for maintaining the funding for open. And this does require a long term strategy recommended by the open advisory subcommittee. Currently we're slightly over 500,000 but as you can see, we need to drastically increase that contribution if we are to meet the liability amount of over $20 million. So how will we do that. The increase in future years is reasonable and we feel that we can accomplish that due to our school be sending in FY 25. So, once that payment stops, we will then allocate that to the OPEC fund. And this total is broken out between the active retiree health insurance and the OPEC contribution. Also, it's recommended that as we bring on any new FTE positions that we set aside $10,000 to go towards this fund so that we may make sure that we keep that up per new employee. So as we start to bring this budget presentation to a close. This is a summary of our operating capital budget and the breakouts with the total operating capital budget request increase of only 4.5%. There, these are the components of the assessments that will be included in our budget book. And lastly, our overall budget request in comparison to FY 23 is less than the prior years requests in all categories. So as in closing, we return to our values. Those are our students and their learning. And we recommend the FY 24 budget that will support the needs of our students and their teachers. And thank you. Thank you very much for all of your support on behalf of our students, our staff and our families. It does make a world of difference. So with that, if there are any questions. I just want to make sure that your, the amount you're looking for is 8,932,916. All right. So my first question is you talked about how to qualify applicants from our. But is that a total applicants or were there some applicants who sort of are not qualified and so why I want to say. I know that. Oh, sure. Yeah. We're 98 student applications in E2 qualified applications. Thank you for that. We're not qualified, we're not qualified because. That's a good question. Because they're not wondering if they're usually most often if they're not qualified. It's because they missed the deadline. So they're not considered right now. Usually that's about the only, you know, reason why they're not and that's what I recall having conversation. Part of our application process. Another like reason for disqualification. Because of the nature of our program and our kids having to go out and public, you know, with co-ops and working with companies. There are certain types of like suspensions and expulsions that would disqualify for that qualify them, but these are like major. Major ones, you know, not if they were just suspended for the major ones would be like the 37H, 37, like. You know, like things that. Like that extreme, but outside of that, having discipline history outside of that does not disqualify. So. The only other thing I'll chime in on is if someone started an application but didn't finish it, they wouldn't be a qualified applicant. That's a very basic example of some of that. Yeah, just on the whole issue of qualified versus not qualified. There's a debate going on at the state level now about vocational education and how students are accepted. And that is, you know, grades, attendance. Yeah, the new one says though that that excludes students who might be the might find that vocational education is the most valuable for boy and they suggest using a watery. Your thoughts. So, our team actually was, I believe, proactive and had reviewed our admissions policy. Last year or two, like recently, and in that assessment, we actually did make some changes to ensure that more students have access. So, when we think about like grades, we changed it. So, because it was on a point system. So any student that gets anywhere between an A to a C, they get the full five points. So those kind of criteria we expanded to include more students. The only time, you know, like D would get two points and effort gets zero points attendance. And so the grades are overall 20, 20% attendance is another 20%, but only unexcused absences are counted. And again, if they have zero to five absences, they get 20 points. If they have six to 10 absences, they still get 15 points. If it's 11 to five. So we really try to expand the criteria to really be able to be more inclusive conduct again 20%. But again, it's that higher level of violations. And. Yeah. So again, it was either you get the full 20 points or get zero points. And if you're getting zero points because you have the 37 extreme, right? Otherwise, you're getting so in essence, we're not really using discipline against you. Right. There is a recommendation form completed by a non related adult. And then there's an interview and scores are from 15 to 20. You can't score lower than 15 points. Right. And especially the interview, it's not to weed out. It's just to make sure that they know what it is and that this is really what they want. And if they have any questions, you know, and it's pretty much a blind process in the sense that we don't know if they're a student on an IP, but we don't know anything more than this. And that is what's also happened because of that blind process. We have a much higher percentage of students on IPs than most other schools. We have, I know the last I had checked, we had 44%. It had gone down 37%. And if you see our per people expenditure, it is a bit higher than some of our other regional vocational school districts because of our higher number of students on IPs because that requires more services. And especially now, what we're seeing is that the types of needs that our students have, we need more social workers counselors. So the last set of data that I looked at, we had about 22% there in the lower social economic status, we had about 37% students on IPs and overall when adding up all of the different criteria that the state uses to determine high needs where over 52% of our students are on high needs. So when we think about, you know, are we providing access, we do feel that at this point, our students are having access. And one thing that I did look at was our racial breakdown. And when I took a look at that. It is fairly proportional to our racial demographic of our Sunday pounds. And it's hard to have, you know, more, a larger number of students from underrepresented groups, racially, when the towns don't have a higher, you know, but when you take a look at, if Arlington has, you know, 5%, 5% of our students, you know, so it's proportional. And I think we're one of those districts that can say, you know, a lottery may be more damaging than not, because a lottery could actually prevent, you know, because it's all lottery so we could do a lottery and we could have 15% of our students that are on IPs actually get in. You know, so, but it is, it is a blind process that we use. Thank you. I have a question for you. Well, to Chris, actually, other other questions. Rebecca. I had two questions that. Oh, no, Annie already asked my question. Sorry. I had a question about enrollment and hopefully and this to you ahead of time, but I was curious about transfers, because I know that we base our enrollment number based on October 1. So the kids there on October 1, they count. So I have a question about how many kids transfer specifically from Minuteman back to Arlington High School after the first and whether you accept transfers the other way to compensate like if we take for the slot, but you lose a kid. Can we send another kid in their spot. And I didn't have that one. But I will get you that number. We actually, our attrition rate is about 5%. So that's why when we end up with our final number of accepted students, it's around 189 because 5%, you know, we have about nine students that will transfer out over the four years for that cohort of students. When we take a look at it's grade nine or 10, that we will accept students if there's an opening, either from our waitlist, right, and if there's no one on our waitlist, then from the non-member town to around, because it's almost like we have two wait lists, right? We have those that are our member towns and then our non-member towns. But I shouldn't say that, like, it's not like we have two separate, but we, you know, we get that. But after that, because of our scope and sequence of our career tech pathway, the only time that we would consider grade 11 or 12 is if they're looking to transfer from another career tech program. We don't necessarily say, okay, a student left from Arlington, so we let us do this in from Arlington. We do who's next on the line, you know, on the wait list, and is it the program that they want? And if that's, and then if, you know, we'll say, okay, look, we, you may want this program, there's no openings, but we do have an opening here, you're the next on our wait list, are you interested? And oftentimes they say yes, because they just want to be admitted. But, you know, if they don't want that program, then they go to the next one. But I will get you the actual, you know, we should have that count. And I think, I mean, to me, philosophically, if we're paying for the slot, I feel like we should, Arlington should get that slot. And it depends whether we're talking about a couple kids or, you know, how many days to jump, how big a deal it is. Thank you. Another question. Other questions. Jordan. My question was just regarding staffing additions. You said that I believe that this budget reflects the addition of three full-time equivalent employees. And then you mentioned that there were going to be, there were eight additional FTE positions that were needed. So this budget only reflects the three additional correct. So for the eight additional positions that you, it seems like you really do need, is there a plan for integrating those into a budget at a future time, or I just wanted to know what your, what your plan was for those positions that it seems like you need. Yeah. And, you know, when you, especially the position will continue to review, right, like what exactly because why do we really need those are students because so many of them are on IDPs. They get the accommodations and that during their core content. But when they go to their CTE programs, they that support doesn't always get there. And so we are going to have to take a look at how can we provide that support. And in long term. Budget is that something we're going to have to request funding for. And now again, is there other ways like if they're grant funding, could we take out student teachers, what are different ways and cover those needs without having to add those positions to the budget. But in all reality, you know, based on again how many students are coming in, we may have an influx of students on IDPs that are going to be in our freshman class. We may have to come and incorporate those into our budget request for the next fiscal year. Right. That's just, it's just hard to say yes or no, because we do try to be very creative in finding ways to cover as much as we can. Yeah. So the reality is, we may. Thank you for your explanation. I just wanted to know what your thought process was and what the reasoning was behind, you know, letting us know what positions may be coming in the future. So thank you for the explanation. Our questions. Yeah, I have a couple. So you mentioned that you had 42 slots for our like. Student class and then you made 66 offers. So, obviously, that's more than 42. So how did you arrive at 66. Yeah, so we take a look at our historical trend of know what percentage of our students that are offered actually end up accepting. And based on that data over time, we felt safe in offering that number over. Knowing that, you know, there will be a number students who will be. The yield is about 60%. You mentioned capacity of the school expanding it. I guess design capacity, which is 85% of 628, which we make around 740. And you wanted to add, I think 32. And then maybe more. How big, how big do you think you can get the school like I said, without getting more, more capital. Yeah. So, if you extrapolate out that 628 is at 85% 100% with the 720. But as you can see, next year, we're already at 734 right. What we're thinking, and this is just needing very transparent that with the East campus building, if we get that either renovated or a new building there that we could probably at best add for additional classrooms. And if we were to say, on average, 20 students per class that we could potentially increase our moment 800. But first and foremost, we took a look at if we did that, what would that do to the integrity of what we offer. And so I do want to let you know and I'll be sending out invitations very soon. The school committee. Knowing where we're at for seeing some things in the future, like there are other towns like our building the schools that may detract. The shiny new man, you know, and they might go to the next shiny new. And then ahead, we are taking a look at what would entail to add a new member town or two. And so the team has been working diligently to do some financial modeling to see their notifications of that. And so we will be coming to you to say, okay, here's what we've been looking at. Here's some possibilities, something that the towns would be interested in considering. With that, we're looking at around 800 probably that we could, as far as building out not again. I'd have to go and work to find strategic partners, find other types of funding sources to see what's best is it better to just knock that building down and build a brand new one which is I think what we're thinking would be the most effective in the long run. And then if that's if that is the way that we need to go how much, and then what is it that we'll have to do to make those ones, but we will not be coming to towns. Okay. And I guess part of why I'm asking about is getting to what would our link us. You know, high water enrollment be potentially. I know you just I wasn't thinking more member towns but even right now we're like to 15 years, you know, you have a 34 senior class. You're offering, we have 42 slots. So it's like 222 23 rather. So just getting a sense of where our students, you know, at some point. Because even if everyone comes to buildings full. And you have to allocate slots per five member towns up fairly late. What do you see as our intense sort of peak enrollment capacity. Yeah, I'm playing the power point that we shared earlier. We didn't calculate like what, because I think as things shift, we have to take a look at how are we doing seed allocation. And will that percentage breakdown say the same, or will that shift, you know, with increasing numbers. And it'll be different if there was a member town added. Maybe it's maybe it's two towns like it's added, you know, and what we're going to be bringing to our towns I hear the different scenarios, and that on assessments, if we did impact on that and like all of those types of things is what we're looking to bring to share with the towns. Towards the end of the month. Yeah, it would be interesting to see the projections. I'll add to that the director of teaching learning and admissions. The annual minimum spot allocation is based on the weighted voting formula. So there's a portion that's 50% share and then there's a 50% portion that's the average four year rolling enrollment so it will somewhat vary but if you if you if your four year rolling average ends up being more consistent you could get a good baseline of where you're going to end up. And then one other question. That's any of that our money. And sort of as a corollary. Are they renewable grants, you have 10% of your budget coming from grants. They could. For those years. Yeah, so there are. I don't think we've listed the. Yeah, so we just listed the FY 23 grants most of the Esther and COVID funding was FY 22 or FY 21. I will say that there is a lot of competitive grants that we've applied for this year in particular. We also mentioned the capital skills grants, a lot of grant money surrounding post secondary and our program. I'd say prior to COVID, we had about $600 $700,000 we got almost annually between our title grants are Perkins funding are 240 grants. But as you can see, the team has been working very hard on the competitive side to make sure that you know all of our CTE needs are being met, especially with the new animal science programs and some of the growing programs to help the budget we have now. So, under bigger political leadership. We've gotten a lot from those grants. We're currently in the midst of applying for another one of those. We will see, you know, what's a new administration, but level of support and what resources will be available. It seems it seems positive, you know. So again, we don't know about those ones, but the ones that are more consistent like our idea for our idea and what, you know, what we've also what, you know, like the grant that we have for our SEL and mental health needs, knowing that. And so we just got that $140,000, you know, just like a month or so ago, that'll help. And so we're always looking, we're always looking for grants. And trying to, like, I know I'm getting ready to submit a response to an RFG that was submitted to try to expand on some of the programs that were being, you know, I could say that more solidly referring to the title, the title plans. Yeah. Yes, thank you. Can you just give me a sense of the campus so we have the new building we have this north building and east building are either those the old building or the old buildings still there or. Just have a bigger sense of and if you haven't been to our building, please let me know I would love to have your comments get a tour but so I miss the tour when we did. Yeah, but you're always welcome. I always say that is our school is your school, you know, so I want to say that East, the East campus was there previously and is still there. Okay. But as far as everything else, it's new. There are three homes, but the district does own right behind the school. I live in one of them. So I'm, I'm there all the time. So, but yes, so those are, I think the only still standing on buildings and everything else is new. I do want to say I think there had been mentioned should we sell those houses. I remember there was mentioned selling something and capital costs would go down. Yeah, and I would say that this time we're not interested in selling. I think what we are looking to do is how can we use those properties to increase revenue and to create revenue sources. I know that a neighbor actually came to us and would be interested in buying their house along that street. And I say if we had the money of course we would but we don't, you know, but because I think there are opportunities for us to make revenue with the existing those homes, rather to homes and then East campus that they will support our programming. Okay. And then so it can actually just so the capital costs are going down because that was a plan all along because we got very favorable bond rates what why is that. Yeah, it just based on the. Yeah. But yeah, no, it's just the payments we've been making. And you're not going out for new bonds right you're done. So we do need to close up the MSBA project. We currently have a $2.8 million ban because MSBA is withholding their final 5% payment until we close up the project. So we're expecting it to be between two to $2.2 million that we'll be getting back. So at that time there may be a very small amount of money we'd have to make up but besides that that's the project is closed. It's closed. It's there. It's there. It's getting there. And then I just have one kind of question. So you have some estimates for things like capital 70 funding where and those estimates are just looked at the governor's budget numbers. Are those based on the numbers came out a couple days ago or those previous estimates that need to be updated. Yeah. So, unfortunately, in some aspects this year, our regional agreement requires us to have a school committee voted budget 45 days before the first town town meeting. So that required us to have our budget past the very end of January. So we have some estimates at this point. We have looked at the cherry sheet and it's something that we'll be looking at as an administration and with our school committee to determine might you come in and adjust the numbers that when you finally get to back to our own time. I think, you know, they seem pretty, the numbers seem pretty good. Yeah, right. Yeah, we've noticed that, but we're also mindful to that that's a proposed budget. And there are a number of visions that will have to happen so. But what we can say is this at the end of the day, I think that if there is any, you know, additional dollars that are coming back to us because of our estimate and our estimate modifies I think that we will definitely be having a conversation with the school committee to say, you know, what is in the best interest of how we amend our budget, you know, based on what the actual numbers end up being. One thing that I do know is we cannot increase our budget request. But if there's anything that we can do to decrease it. That's the only way we can go. Right. So if it's possible, I cannot see why we wouldn't do that. We just don't want to commit to anything yet, just because those numbers, even though they look at their stuff. Jones and then Charlie and then D. I just wanted to, if you could comment a little bit more about the MTI program. Is it growing shrinking financially that positive that negative is there room for growth. Um, so with the post secondary right now, but they, I think MTI actually has benefited greatly from the skills capital grants. We actually have a number of grants that we're using up, which is allowing us to be totally self sufficient. So it's growing. What we're trying to do, though, is trying to create programs in such a way that it will sustain itself once the grant dollars are gone. So we're using these grant dollars to really help set up our programs. I mean, like build it in such a way that because your grants are just back grants, right? So how can we create programs that when we can, you can charge for classes and we do have a few of those. You know, so we're looking to continue to grow that. But I think, you know, There's a potential for it to be a revenue source. Um, I don't want to say that yet. Yeah. Yeah. And we're also, you know, taking a look at what types of programs we're offering. How are we offering it. Who are we partnering with to offer services? So for instance, you know, if we're helping in industries to upscale their employees, that we know is a revenue source, right? So these are the types of things where how are we, who are our partners? How are we partnering with higher ed institutions? How are we connecting and partnering with industry? So these are the types of things that are under works right now, again, to create programs that so that I will be able to continue to sustain itself once the grant dollars. If we don't continue to get grant dollars, it needs to sustain itself, but also create revenue. The trades are really hard and skilled workforce. It seems like there's potential there if it's a net positive. Thank you. So, thank you very much for your presentation. Very interesting. I have, I have two question question areas, Madam Chairman. One is about operating budget and the others about the athletic fields. So I can just talk about the budget first. There's a slide here that says that the operating assessment increased by 27%. So when you mentioned the operating drivers, it didn't seem to me that any of them that you mentioned would be large enough to put an average increase in operating budget. I'm talking about a slide. I don't have a number of the slides. I think that's just how the, the breakout of our operating budget is seen. It's broken out into different categories. So the minimum required contribution is set by the state. And it has increased slightly transportation is separate and then the remainder is the operating budget. So you'll. I think the percent in this category is somewhat skewed. If you looked at in total, that's why. You know, overall, your, you know, assessment, because the debt is so is skews it down. There are, there are operating expenses in the minimum required contribution is that what you're saying. Yes, yep. If you add those three columns together, the minimum required contribution, the transportation and operating that your total operating. Another question is on the chart that shows the increase in four year rolling average. Roman versus increase in assessments. I'll just give you one example. Arlington. Arlington's change in an average enrollment was 16% and the budget increase was 12%. So that ratio changes basically 75%. On the other hand, if you look at Dover, the same ratio of change is only 65%. And I didn't do it for all of the different categories. But wouldn't it, what, why would there be a different assessment based on changes in enrollment for different towns. Dover in particular has a very small amount of students. And average three to four students. So there, you pick the town that percentage wise it is going to, you know, one change in a student ends up being very drastic. Our operating budget calculation is separate from our debt calculation. So our debt calculation is based 50% on enrollment. We have a 1% on the, the yield, the towns and yield and then a 1% or 10, 9% total, 1% from each member town. So, in particular for Dover, because they don't have many students that kind of 1% that they get charged for the debt kind of skews their percentage. Because they're responsible for 1% of the debt, which makes their assessment. Can you say then unequivocally that the operating budget scales directly with the number of students distribution of the operating costs. Yeah, with a four year rolling average. Okay, so that's so if you increase your, if your number of students, average number of students increased 20% then your operating assessment would increase. For the most part, besides the, you know, if the minimum required contribution or the transportation, but yes, on a whole, they corresponded track very, very strongly together just in particular for operating whereas the capital is a slightly different calculation. Thank you. So, if I may ask a question about the athletic field. So in 2020. Minuteman came to Arlington with a request support. I'll just summarize this. An additional $1.9 million loan to do some additional work on the field was six or $7 million capital expense. We were assured that this was all going to be covered with the exception of the first year's $77,000 and debts service. The future costs, we're going to be covered by revenues from the fields. What's happened with that program and are the debts service requirements for that project in our assessment or are they being covered by revenues. So, and I'll let you take some of that, but I think what happened was that yes, the revenue from the rentals. And this is me that coming in as a new superintendent. My understanding is the revenue from the rentals would be put into an account where we would be preparing for the care of the fields replacement of the turf when it comes because it's expensive, right? So we'd be putting funneling money in preparation for that in the future. So, because I did, I did receive them. Thank you for that because that was the first time that I had seen them. So I'm not familiar with. I had not heard until I saw this, the revenue from the rentals going toward the cost of building phase one. That was the first that I had heard that. And the cost of phase one is I want to say included. It is in this assessment. The entire cost. The entire cost of phase one of the six minutes. Yes. So, including the $1.9 million that wasn't covered before. The 1.9 million dollars was is debt. It's a 20 year note in the portion for Arlington and all the towns are within this debt slash operating line, not the MSBA line. Yes. So, so contrary to what the man told us, we're paying for that in our assessment. Yes. Are you going to fix that? I can't fix that. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I think it's fair to say that I would not be able to fix that. But what I can say is, there's a second phase to the athletic complex. We put out an RFP for a partner to come in and actually paid for the rest of the build out of the athletic facilities, which would include the stadium seating concession stand the locker rooms, six tennis courts. That was the second phase. And in paying for building that out. We would also go into a lease agreement with the bidder for them to rent at a nominal fee, the athletic facilities. And it would be for first term, 10 years, and with the option for two additional five year increments until they got their return back, their return on investment for building updates to I'm going to have to say that the expected revenue from facility athletic facility rental will be nominal until at least between 10 to 20 years. And then at that point, we should see much higher athletic feel athletic complex rental fees. We are, and that will go toward, again, the upkeep of the athletic fields, the equipment space, all of that. And we will continue to prioritize a minute man, of course, first. We are, you know, renting to other organizations, but the priority will be to our minute man and then to the bitter. So we will not be seeing the kind of revenues that maybe was shared with you for a while. And according to the current revenues that are coming in. We will not be going toward that is not going toward often. Yes, that's just meeting transparent. So I appreciate your transparency. And I have to say it's very disappointing. I would like to formally make a request is I strongly supported that's that position. Money that you bring this up with the committee and see if there's not a way to, you know, get that somehow eliminated from the debt service that the town's carrying their incentive. And maybe renegotiate the contract with the bidders, you know, with the outside parties, there are always solutions to these things. We provided a solution when the school needed it. So I think it's critical that men and men live up to its obligations. And I realize that, you know, your first year on the job, probably some of you didn't give you the right grip sheet, but nonetheless, I think it's an important issue. Sure. So, I realized when I went through the correspondence about this because it was a minimum rep in between me and now who wasn't involved in the conversation, but I realize that in going through all of our documentation about it. The one thing we didn't ask for from your predecessor was a signed agreement. And I just want to say that I personally feel like that was a mistake on my part at the time. And it's not a mistake that I would repeat. So future requests of this kind, when you are part for participation like this will require signed documentation that we can refer back to and say, well, you have an obligation. So I had a question and a comment, but then Charlie asked my question right before I got a chance and that questions out. So I guess I'll just make a comment. So welcome. You know, one of the, one of the many things I had learned about your predecessors, he was passionate as he told me one day when we were doing the regional vote. But since I'm the effect of, you know, he felt his job was to provide vocational education to every child who wanted it. Right. I don't believe that. Okay. I believe I care about I think a lot of people in this room and I think a lot of people in this town care about children. Vocational education. Right. So I'm happy that you're thinking about all these big ideas, but I want to caution you. The man district has always been the happy go lucky place it is today. Right. I don't care. And I'm telling you most of coming in will not have water ton and Bell want to not have viable vocational education programs. I don't need that decision. I don't care what happens in Waltham with their new high school and their programs. I just don't. And there's not a majority of town meeting. There's probably not a majority of people in this room. You feel that they're far nicer than me. You won't say it out loud that care at all. Right. Like we care about children from our town who want is the largest member of this town who want to go to that school to get into that school. Like, like, and that's some of the bottom line. Right. Like, and it's going to be hard to hear because I think some of these, like, when you go to when we broke up with those other five towns many years ago, I think some of them are having like remorse over it. I mean, I know at least two of them. One of them had a pretty, I've just tried twice to get back in. We don't, I don't think there's even an appetite for letting them like under any circus back in the day. And I just kind of want to point out, like, I guess I'm just sort of giving you my, my, you know, in between all this, like goodwill that you have cheer here that, you know, it hasn't always been a cheery, happy district. Right. And I think we're very comfortable and happy as a town where it is today. But we don't want to go back there. Like, we don't want to go back to some like wacky, crazy United Nations, one town, one boat, like we're not touching a regional agreement. Like, probably have some problems with certain people if they wanted to come back. I'd like to just add one. You mentioned during your, I have to say, very relevant presentations. You appreciate it, but you were talking about expanding the school and maybe having another or another town in history. And, you know, if we can't solve this problem of $1.9 million and adjusting capital to cover that commitment. How are we going to come up with a formula when a new town comes in to equalize the $150 million that we pay from school. That's a much more complex equalization to take place. And so I think that's something that you should be cautious about. And those are, those are all of the different financial models and everything that we've been doing research into in preparation. And again, it is the towns on nine member towns decision how they want to perceive what the school committee and we want to do is to do our part in making sure that our towns know what options that they have. Why that we were, we are presenting these options for, you know, now and thinking about the future, and it'll be up to our town. You know, we're just trying to, to think about the future and making sure that our towns are aware and have the choice to make and trying to give you the best information the best scenarios. And it'll be up to you. I do hope that we are more than the worst mistakes we've ever made, and that we can have given options to to grow and do better, and that. But I, I have heard some of the information and I understand where some of that comes from. And, you know, what our school committee and, you know, thank you. I know I told them you were caught up with work so I'm glad you were able to make it. You know, and you have a strong advocate here for Arlington and for Arlington students, very strong. And that's one thing that I really appreciate. And one of the deciding factors of me even applying from Hitman was the calendar of the school committee members. And I think that's an interjection of those who may not know. This is Mike Rudimentary is Arlington's representative on the school committee. First time in my three years, presently, being a member of the school committee representing Arlington at Minimand that I've had the, had the pleasure of meeting you face to face. So it's a pleasure to get over here. The question of admitting another town to the Minimand district as I'm sure has already been mentioned, would have to be, would have to be, you know, you unanimously agree to buy all of the current member towns, any discussions with any town that's sent over a soft inquiry, you know, just sort of, you know, what if or could we, it's always accompanied in the next sentence with, well you understand there would be a cost, because you don't get to come in and become a member of a school district that's just built an expensive new building, and it's fabulously popular with the kids and the teachers. You don't get that just for raising your hand and saying I'd like to be a member to your have to pay a portion of what that new building cost and as the years go on, that number goes up. So currently we've had, like I said, some, some soft inquiries from from some towns, generally around, you know, in our general area, but there's nothing being hammered out at the moment, and I was just telling them Mr room towards the end of the month that we will be reaching out to the towns to share with them. It's actually been, I don't know how many months we've been working on, because it is not a simple calculation right so we've been team more so than myself have been just scouring through all of the different scenarios just come to triangulation of what about this about this and. And so we're hearing a point where we're ready to bring that to the town. And so we will be doing that. And it's because of the school committee, trying to be forward thinking and understanding that yes, while things are all rosy right now, you can't, you know, rest on those laurels and think it's going to be like that forever that, you know, there's a pursuit and attendance in towns with new buildings it's not just Arlington get you know we've got a number of our member towns as well as non number towns that are building new schools and what's also happening across the state is there's a push because of the need for career tech ed. There is a push to also increase the offerings and just regular comprehensive high schools. So the competition, while it may be good now, there is a very likelihood that it may not be as competitive because there was more offering. So we're just trying to look ahead and plan ahead and give our towns that information, and then the towns can decide in what way that they would like to go. But we, I hear the request to bring this because I agree with you to have an agreement. I just can't promise you that we can do this, but I will definitely be bringing it to the school committee. And with also with the understanding that moving forward. With any type of agreement like this. I usually always have signed documents because I want to cover the need to write. Um, so definitely and and I will report back either through Mr. Ruderman or, you know, And I just want to put a number on that for everyone. It, it was an official $1.79 million bond in April of 21. What that adds to the budget is around $112,000 in a row. It's about 110 year for 20 years. That just give just to give you a little bit more idea of what actually impact it's having on the budget. Obviously that's divided out by the member towns but just to give you some additional details on that. But we'll definitely listen to it. Any. So I still have a couple of questions in the email that I sent you know just want to get to see if you have an answer to that. One of those questions was about health care you're saying you're playing for a 10% increase. And my question is, are you and your other schools are able to participate in the GAC is an alternative. And have you looked at it. Well, we are part of the mass Bay health trust with with four other regional schools. I don't know at the moment if they have but I can certainly ask them are assistant superintendent, but actually both assistant superintendents are members on the board. So the next meeting they can bring that up just to check that question out. Because it's not it is if the GIC is a less expensive option and if you are able to participate I know cities and towns can cities and towns can do so, and they can show that it's a cheaper alternative they don't have to bargain. They're bargaining units that would apply. So the first question is, are you able to participate in that way school districts or do you have to be municipality. And then the other question that folks asked that is a particular interest to us if you have some numbers now working forward them to us is the percentage of so students from a minute man that go on to four year two year and trade schools. Because we're just interested in how that where students go to after school. Oh, and I have to take my glasses off to see close. So our postgraduate data. We have one or point so less than 1% that went on to a two year private college 7% that went on to a two year public college 16% that went on to a four year private college 25% that went on to a four year public about 16 private 25% to four year public college 17% of our students continue to go on to apprenticeships. And then we had about 17 students or 13% that did other things like travel with families there. And then other post secondary such trade schools we had a little shy of 4% but continue to do that. And then we had 21 students which was about 16%. And that we had like unknown they had unknown plans. So that's for our 22. Roundup is about 32% of our kids go from graduation to work, trade school, military, something else other than a formerly matriculated education program either two years or four years. So there's about a two to one divide and that's been fairly consistent for a number of years. And that's a substantial minority like about it going on to four year colleges and one kind. I think two thirds, two thirds of our kids. Part of that is from men and men's teaching model, and that from from the beginning of students career at Minuteman, they're educated about not only what it is that they've chosen that they think they want to go on and do more. But what it would require of them after high school, are their employment opportunities immediately available. What happens if you want to do more than just what you can get with a high school degree. So it's something that's in front of the kids at least from their sophomore years. They're thinking about this and they're acting on that information by the time they get to graduation. And I think we should be mindful of the shifts that's happening on a national level right and probably even international. More industries are saying four year college degrees are not necessary and if anything, because they're so on. They're so short right of employees, they're saying you know what instead of doing the four year let's get them just straight. Now there are different thoughts on that. I know I've seen some data in my previous district. When recession of 2008, the group that was least impacted by that recession were those with four year degrees. So, but again that's 2008 we're now 2023, and things have changed. And so I say that to say like our industry partners are pushing for our young people to see this option that hey, you don't have to go for your colleges to get high paying jobs in these high demand industries we will train you, you know, but what we always say, even if you go down that route, always continue your education, no matter where that is in your path, always continue your education, and preferably how do industry partners pay for you to continue. And then they will, you know they will I know that, you know, in my former district, the hospital system there, they were like, look, you get them in our system, we will pay for them, all the way up to them becoming a doctor. And so I'm like, you start entry level, we're going to get you this degree, you know, an associate degree, get in there. And you know, these were pathways you were creating with the hospital to try to say mom, parent, whoever, help, save and kids. That's the option, but everywhere in any opportunity that we did was always trying to get as much paid for with the kids and the family, but always continue, don't stop, because you don't know where things will go. And so, you know, but I think our numbers could increase that there's going to be higher percentages going to apprenticeships, just because that's the trend right now in our economy and our society. I got a bunch of smaller questions and one big comment. First of all, we would really appreciate it. If the 10% increase in insurance doesn't come about. And hopefully you did better with the governor's budget today on your local aid in looking considering reducing our assessments. Assessments have been very high. And there's no comparative data here. Obviously we can go on the DOE website and get that that we're paying $31,000 a student for operating. So when you factor in the capital, we're up close to $50,000 per student. And I'd like to see how that compares to some of the other schools where there's a showbook, a machine, okay, that'd be great to have. But anything you could do to modify the costs for paying. We're going out periodically for overrides every five years. And it's really starting to call it is costing our taxpayers a lot of money. Comment. I have a couple of questions. Sort of what percentage of the students now are sort of in the traditional trades. Carpentry, plumbing, electricity, hairdresser, you know, sort of that whole range. It sounds like it's becoming a small minority. Actually, at our school, it would not be. They are actually some of our more popular programs. And they're all full. If we, you know, those are not, we have maybe a couple that aren't at its max, but for us, those have been strong programs. And so I don't have an actual percentage of, you know, a number of students that are in those programs compared to like our other economy, which is more of our health and human services. But for us, they're all full. They're, they're actually the ones that are of higher interest than some of the other programs, but I can get you actual numbers. And are you looking at your, are you doing a regular survey of your programs to weed out obsolete occupations. I'll give you an example of my son once a minute. He graduated with a certificate drafting. There were no jobs. He has a useless certificate in his closet. It should have been overnated years before. So, what are you doing to constantly review a few courses for programs, which are simply obsolete. Yeah. So part of the requirement of CTE programs is that we have an industry based advisory board that continues to review our curriculum programs continues to keep us connected with industry. The types of certifications that the kids should be getting the types of programs they should be, you know, the curriculum that they should be taught. So that's one way for us to stay connected with industry. I know that as the new superintendent coming in, we will be taking a look at that as I start developing our strategic plan with the team will also be coming to all of you for input on the strategic planning. So please know that's coming. But part of that I think this is a nice opportunity for us to say, okay, you know, how relevant are our programs and are there programs that we do need to adjust and modify to ensure that they're connected to the, you know, emerging labor market. And so that's, I know that our team does that on a regular basis, and me, new superintendent coming in, that would be something that will be undertaking within the next probably next year. I just didn't want to do that this year because right now I'm listening observing and learning. One of the most recent programs we retired a few years ago was was telecommunications, which telecommunications, the telecom shop was was devoted to preparing students to go into what was then the emerging and burgeoning field of establishing and and and setting infrastructure for wireless communication. That seems to have become a mature industry and it wasn't presenting the job opportunities and your tired. We still teach, we still teach electrical, we still teach other other higher tech shops but that was one that we just let go because it didn't seem to have the industry prospects. Okay, the short answer is these are under under yearly review. Thank you. With the difficulty that comes along with with trying to shift faculty or sadly sometimes you have to, you know, lose a faculty member who's who's expert in that but it's just not what we need to present as an option to kids. We don't have to wrap up. Yes. Thank you. Following up on the comments I just wanted to clarify something here. You know, the, the statement was made that the operating budget request assessment is going up by 6.0 something percent. But I think we have to remember that between fiscal 23 and fiscal 24 we go from 195 to 215 students. So the, the actual increase in the operating costs per student is, is about 4.7%, 4.8%. So it's, you know, two thirds lower. In addition, if you take the total cost, we're not quite at $50,000 per student yet we're at in in fiscal 23 we were at 40,758. But in fiscal 24, we're at 41,548. So that increases because of the increase in the number of students is only 1.9% on a student basis. It's actually not a bad deal. Think about it. Thank you, Dr. Dawson. Thank you for your team. Thank you. Mr. Court, I did have one comment. I wanted to clarify applicants that submit an online application or applicants qualified applicant completes the full admissions process records, accommodation. Just to get your full. Thank you. To clarify for everybody because we're all. Every other student wants to go. Absolutely. That's from our director of admissions. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. No, and this is why we appreciate the prep for this and we, you know, we appreciate the candor in our discussion and. As to me. Yeah. Yeah. This address rehearsal for town. Okay. Thank you. So if they're always nice and kind of you, then we should be okay. That's all right. No, we have more things to do. Okay. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. That's fine. So on Monday night. I'm sorry. Oh, the eight is Wednesday. Yes. So they are still not sure. I am. Yes, they need some more time. So I have been told I will be your back next week, but I have reminded them that we need materials in advance. This is all right. Yes, they said that they do have a plan for an additional presentation to be sent. Right. They said they cannot come one day. Yeah. No, right. Just arts and culture again at this point. So on Wednesday, Darrell, we have capital plan, right? Okay. So capital planning committee is accident prone and. Yes, several members are not very mobile. So I am going to have, I decided we're going to go remote for that meeting because it accommodates all of the injured parties. What were they skiing? I don't know if it's there. Edie Cody is going in for foot surgery. That's, that's it so far, but another week. Okay. So Wednesday, the eight to be remote and Tara will send out the, the invite. Get the meeting out right now. We're planning to do capital planning on the next Wednesday. And Carolyn should have reclass and human resources ready. So right now we have is arts and culture on Monday, maybe some budgets. And then water bodies on the 13. That is the schedule so far. Darrell will do what he did. If you have any questions for capital planning. Please get them to Darrell so that they can be prepared to address those questions. All right, so that's scheduling so let's talk about the minute and budget. Discussion. You want me to make a motion or discuss first. We'll have a second and then we can have a discussion. So I move that we approve the minute man budget as requested. Second. Second. Second. Article set. Oh, good question. 44. The total is presented in the presentation. $8,932. $8,932. 916. 893 to 916. Why do I have 8 that 8,940,897. That's what was in the time. Oh, okay. Okay. 893 to 916. We have a motion to second it. Any discussion. So I think that there were some questions that any. I think we might. I'm still sort of upset about the way they handle that. $2 million note. I guess it turned out to be at the end of the day. And we ought to. Get some response from the committee. We should. Get some response. Get some response from the committee. In other words. No, it's. Shouldn't let it. Give him a, give him a all pass on this. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I mean, would we just, would we just. Able about this until we hear from that. Yeah. That's what I would recommend. I mean, it's the committee's decision, but I think. We went through. A lot of trouble to bring that to select board to get that signed off. I think, you know, Andy had at least three meetings at the time as I recall. And then it sort of disappeared. And clearly didn't get handed off from one superintendent to the other. I just want to. Suggest the logistical problems here. One is that we don't know when they're in a school committee. So. I might reach out to Michael and ask him when they're, because that sounds like she's got to go to the school committee with this issue. And see whether or not there's a way that they'll adjust. It's going to be March 14th. March 14th. Yes. March 14th. And then I'll work with Michael to just make sure that it gets on their agenda. It's not already on the agenda to discuss this. And then he has a copy of the memo and presents that. Do we have a copy of that? I haven't even know what I can forward it to you and Tara to get into that. Yeah. Well, if I forward it to the chair, can we have a presentation from. I can actually just load it into. I don't have the presentation. Charlie. I will. I'll get that. Yeah. And what I would do is put it in the. 20% fall 2020. Yeah. So if you put it in F by 24 budget, F by 25 budgets, and then that's the folder everybody will be looking for. And I'm going to put that. November 18th. Rebecca. I just had a question about the tabling. So. If I understood her correctly, she was implying that her hands were tied. That there wasn't. She wasn't sure that what she could do. But so if you could explain to you what. What the. Maybe do that. I just don't understand. I personally wasn't satisfied with the answer. She's a new. Superintendent. It wasn't. No, no, it'd be a little bit more. I read. But I. So. We should get an answer from the school committee. You know, let them know that way. So basically. Just. Turn it to them. It's very, they could just reduce the budget by the, reduce our assessment by that. That works. Dean. And then now. So. I support an agreement with Charlie. Is saying. And from my own perspective. I think. So. We should get an answer from the school committee. You know, let them know that we're not happy with that. So basically just turn it to them. It's very. They could just reduce the budget by the, reduce our assessment by that. And for my own perspective. I think. It's. It's not about the money. For me, it's not. Right. I managed whatever it's only huge amounts, not a bunch of questions that they did it, right. But. It's about. Making sure we have. A functional district. Right. This was the first time they showed up under the new regional agreement to ask to borrow money. And they came up with a plan and they went to the member towns. And then they said they were going to do something. And then they didn't do it. And so. We kind of have two choices, right? We can sort of actually kick and scream right now. We're going to put your polite way and make them figure it out. And maybe they can fix it this year, but they can fix the following year and the year after year after we have a way to go. Or. You can pass the budget. And we can sort of let this. And then they show up with a barring request for the phase two project. And then you pitch a fit and say, no. And I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think that's the viable answer is to wait and let it fester and build on us. It's sort of like, okay. We have a new path forward. This is the first time you told us we were going to. Borrow money using this mechanism. You didn't do it the way you said you would. And now we're going to, we're going to work it out in the front end before it's a big one. But it came down the road. And we are telling a superintendent or school. We have no confidence in what they say. I agree with Charlie. I think we got it. Yeah. Did you make a motion to table? No, I just raised the question. Okay. I'll make a motion to table. Until we get a response on this issue. Second. And for the discussion. I have a question. Who was that agreement with? Was it with the superintendent? Or was it with the school board? The agreement mentioned in that memo. Yeah. I would describe it as a verbal agreement with the superintendent. So did we know that the school committee even. No, we don't know. Which is what I think we should ask our representative. To figure out. To find out. You could have that discussion with him. Yeah. And just say. Okay. Who was that agreement with? Was it with the superintendent or was it with the school board? The agreement mentioned in that memo. Yeah. I would describe it as a verbal agreement with the superintendent. And just say, Hey, we have this memo. There was this agreement. There was communications about this. Finance committee to go to support this. And now we're being told that. You're happy. Minimums have to burn us off. And. You know, As I said, it's a pretend a little bit personally embarrassed. Not only I get things and writing. Or apparently didn't get an actual document. That's who comes to us. Superintendents. So in my mind, this feels connected to the discussion about selling the. Selling parts of the property, right? Because. When the sort of the whole building into future campaign happened, and we're looking to the town for money. There was sort of a private discussion about how the capital costs were really high, but they thought they could lower them in the future, but they couldn't say that publicly because of MSGA process and funding. But there was sort of like a, you know, Wink Wink will be fine. Because we'll sell these things. Which will either fund the field or lower your capital costs. But of course that wasn't been running either. And seems to have been forgotten. So it feels, it feels sort of part, feels like part of a pattern at this point. It didn't really a pattern with the previous. With the previous. Absolutely. I think they're going to be home to the school committee. Yeah. Currents. Yeah. You can't operate like this in the future. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm not sure. There are other people's point. What we can get this year. Given the timing and the structure. Yeah. I'm in favor of that. Yeah. Yeah. Couple of comments. One. Well, the superintendent. The school committee. So. People said that's. Part of the. And the other is, well, we may not be able to fix it this year. You know, hearing while 10. To 10. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think they should be able. Well, they may not be able to completely do it this year. Although. Charlie's suggestion that they just lower our assessment by not amount. Nice. But you know, they should be able to come up with some way. To address this. Short time frame. I would say a small amount of years. John. Thank you. So just to maybe put a number on and I think she tried to put a number on it. In the middle of the meeting. But if I'm looking at the list of the. The bonds, there's a 1.79 million dollar bond. And the current debt service on it is 115 K. So then if you divide it by all the member towns, while these would be biggest for me. $30,000 would be the amount we're talking about this year. So I'm just thinking like it seems like on. An eight million dollar assessment that they could. Take. Lord by 20 K without breaking their budget. Except that. The capital cost service should have been weighted. Okay. And so I'm not sure that it's. We would have 34% about 150,000. So. So they also have to. Deal with the other. Yeah. They would have to deal with us. Got it. I just wanted to put some numbers just to make sure I understood it. Thank you. Is this the first year that it's a problem where it was done in the past? And then it just fell off this year. I don't. So if they borrowed the money in April. We knew they were not going to have the fields done in time. We agreed to pay the first year. Yeah. And so we did. So this is the first year. Yeah. Any further discussion? I don't. So if they borrowed the money in April. We knew they were not going to have the fields done in time to make rental income in the first year. Barrowing. This would really be the first. Made last year. We would apply to. We agreed to pay the first year. Yeah. We would apply to pay the first year. Yeah. Any further discussion? Can you do you want to withdraw your motion? I will withdraw my motion to fold the budget. And we will. We want to pass them. So we have a motion. I'm a drawing. I have a motion to table the vote. Until. Sometime afterwards. Yeah. After the 14th. Schedule. I don't want to put a certain on it, but I would say we're going to, at least until our meeting on the 20th. We had motion to table. So at least after the 14th. And since I can get any further discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed. Yeah. I'm a spoke to table. Anybody any budgets. Darrell and you in the mood to have any questions. We have a couple of plans right now. The name one might. Throw it away. We have any. Questions on the corporate plan. We're going to throw it down this way right now. Do we need to pull it up? No one has any. John. I have a few questions. Thank you. One is do we have. So, so I know that. You know, we've been a lot of playgrounds in the last few years. Is there a sense of how long the playground lasts? We have, you know, is there an expectation playgrounds last 20 years or 25 years? I'm just curious. Our local playground is getting redone on the schedule. I just wonder if it was because of time coming up or something. Yeah. Give you a concrete example. Yeah. Yeah. I think our local playground will, it would be 20 years. Yeah. I think some of the suffrage. That. That ramp. At the Robin's playground. Yeah. Totally trash. I think it really depends on whether. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. But more use playground would be different. Yeah. Steps are they totally awesome. You know, the odyssey for years and years, the odyssey steps were on make up to a question. They're not on here anymore. But. Is one of them. The steps at autism. So the autism is a huge issue. Yeah. Yeah. I think the focus is on. Yeah. Critical repairs that need to be done. And so. You get some space to go to high schools down until the TVW building down. We got a little breathing room. There were a lot of. Several. Yeah. But we've pushed off any of the. Critical to keep in the building. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think so for now, I'll look through it again. Well, again. If you have any questions. We'll be meeting. Here. On Monday the 6th, but we will be meeting remotely on the 8th. All right. All right. Unless. The budget. Oh, okay. All right. We have a budget. Real little budget. Yeah. The reserve fund on page. 56. The amount is. In the book is 1,000,000. 782 dollars. Finance committee for many years has taken a position. I'm using 1% of revenues. I went through with Julie way on the formula, but I think it's just as easy to use the amount recommended. Of 1,000,000. 782. So. If we don't use it, obviously it just goes back to the free cash. The end of the year. So that's my recommendation. Second. I think it's just as easy to use the amount recommended. Of 1,000,000. 782. So. If we don't use it. Obviously just goes back to the free cash. The end of the year. So that's my recommendation. Second. And now do you want to explain to the people what that was, what reserve fund is in colleges? How is the reserve fund used to tell. Oh, for the new people. Well, it's basically used for our. For China. The finance committee. Has control of the reserve funds. Within the jurisdiction. And so. We can transfer items from the reserve fund to basically any budget or use of the town. If it, if it needs extraordinary or unforeseen circumstances. Some people think it says emergency, but it doesn't. It's extraordinary or unforeseen. There's certain things that, that are just sort of not done. But we don't transfer it for raises that the town meeting has voted against. You know, we don't do anything that would overturn a town meeting. Decision that they made. I suppose, unless it's an emergency. And what we've usually done. Sometimes during the year we've gotten transfer requests. But more and more. We got all the transfer requested one time in June. And we have a meeting in June that just basically. We have a meeting that focuses on election of officers and. Reserve funds transfer requests. Quite often it's. So nice. So several years ago. Well, over the last 20 years, the 10, the finance committee has been bumping up snow and ice. From 350,000 20 years ago. To, what is it now? Eight or 900,000. More than that. Yeah. So we pumped it up consistently. And then we put money in the reserve fund because we used to actually have to have a section where we. Cover last year's deficit this year. Or we would recover this deficit in the next year. And so the finance committee didn't like the deficit financing. So we did two things. We pumped up the snow and ice fund. And we put more money in the reserve fund. So we don't have snow and ice deficits anymore. Sometimes there'll be a large. A lot of money that we have to give for police or fire for over time or things like that. Fortunately, we have the last few years we haven't had to do that. Well, any kind of damage fire to a building would be things that we use it for. And sometimes we don't use very much because sometimes the manager can cover it by transferring amounts of money that's left over from one budget to another budget, which we could also do, which we also do with Jim. So most of all, a lot of this would just go back to the general fund. So there's been a motion with the seconded. I second that. Any further discussion? Just one comment. It's the service on the exact that not the entire. So in other words, it's the revenues minus what we take out of the stabilization fund by service on the exam that not all. Times one. Anything else. All right. So let's take a vote on. All in favor. Any other small. All right. Is there a motion to adjourn? All favor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.