 Good evening and welcome to the Ellington school committee. It is Thursday, February 12, 2015. I Would like to welcome the members the superintendent and the administrative staff I would like to welcome and recognize the Ellington education Educators president miss Hansen welcome dr. Ampey will be absent tonight because of personal reasons mr. Thielman and mr. Pierce I delayed because of traffic and I think we all understand that This time I would like to direct your attention to the artwork in the room and we'll begin right here to my right This is fourth grade line drawings Rob Lowe who works under the name Super mundane is an artist illustrator and designer in Great Britain fourth grade students studied his distinctive drawings while learning about line Super mundane refers to the style of drawing as an obsessive doodles Looking at his work students noticed that he created a variety by changing his patterns colors and the amount of space in between lines Students picked up on how darker colors come forward and the lighter colors recede into the background Fourth grade students used sharpies to create their own obsessive doodle line drawings They played with repetition pattern using both organic curvy lines and straight lines as they work They saw that a simple pattern could be repeated into a complex composition And I apologize I need to give credit to the students at both the Stratton and Thompson school and the art teacher is Deborah Campania Moving down on that same wall Still over to my right is kindergarten James Rizzi city scapes kindergarten students looked at their work of James Rizzi Rizzi was a pop artist best known for his brightly colored city scapes Students made a strong connection with his work and his cartoon like style Together we noticed how Rizzi used color shape and line to create his lively cities Students wish they could live in such a colorful place Create their own city scape students first planned by drawing and pencil They added personality to each building by adding facial features Finally students colored the cities they tried hard to fill the whole page with color and to create a city that is full of joy In the back of our room second grade snowman paintings Second grade students were introduced to the value one of the elements of art Students discussed the way artists use value to create an illusion of three-dimensional space After experimenting with mixing tints and shades students used white blue and black paint to create night time paintings of snowmen They use tents and shades of blue to create areas of light and shadow They worked hard at creating the illusion of three-dimensional space and real snowmen as a final step students decorated this snowman with different colors and gave them personalities and to my right Behind mr. Schlichman first grade owl collages First grade students learned about owls in our class looking at photographs of owls students noticed different shapes patents colors and textures on each animal after sharing facts about owls students were Went on creating their own owl collages Cutting shapes is a skill that many first graders are still developing while working on their owls students learned how to cut two shapes at once And they practice cutting circles as a final detail many students drew lines on their owls creating the texture of feathers And our last piece right over here to my right is fifth grade Coru drawings Fifth graders fifth grade students created these drawings based on the work of artist rewin Raven Harris Harris is from New Zealand and her paintings are inspired by the Maori people and the symbol of the Coru plant Coru is a type of fern that grows in the shape of a spiral the Maori people believe that the Spiral symbolizes the unfolding of new life or a new beginning the Coru spiral features Permanently in Harris's work her paintings a dense abstractions of nature After looking at her paintings students began their own Coru designs They include a spiral and then fill their compact compositions with designs that were inspired by nature Again, I would like to thank Debra Campania and all the students at Thompson and Stratton school for their beautiful work that are gracing our room At this time we will have a public participation. Is there any at this time? No, okay We're giggling because there's no one in the audience At superintendents proposed budget will now be open for discussion dr. Bode You know what's way to the this comes down That's a powerpoint this evening That you also have in novice Try you have five and see our To refresh those novice thing worse It's in the regular cover sheet Well, we'll have it up. We'll have up here in just a second So we are at the point tonight for those The listing may not be as entirely aware of the process that we've been living for the last couple of months This process of developing the FY 16 budget, which is the budget for 2015 16 Actually begins in the fall The first part of the process is developing a timeline And we are at the point in the timeline when The administration is called the superintendent's budget is presented to the the school committee for consideration But this is also as I said on the heels of a lot of discussion that's gone on In fact in December as we all know the principles Came and presented what they thought were some of the really high needs and that was called from what other needs that They they also felt but had to prioritize So there's been discussions at the at building levels at department levels and we are at the at the point now of being able to With more sure numbers know exactly how many of these things that we're going to be able to fund in next year so tonight My intent is to just give you an overview of sort of an executive summary of where we are with the budget what the priorities are and in a 30,000-foot view of the numbers for the budget for those that are watching They you can Find the link on the on the website, but I also sent an email to parents earlier This evening with the link To the budget in case they wanted to follow along All right All of you know Diane Diane this Johnson and She has been working very very hard on this over the last many months actually but intensely in the last month as We look to the budget for FY 16. There are a number of budget priorities. I'll just speak to The first is that we are we want to successfully conclude negotiations with the Arlington Educator Educators Association, which is our teachers as well as all of our other Unions all of which have contracts up for renewal this year One of the things that I mentioned in them in the prela the preface to the budget, which is the superintendent's message is that Three years ago when we we had an we had the beginnings of another contract. That was the time when the town went Chose with with the agreement Of all of our unions to enter into the GIC, which is the state health program it was Resulted in quite a lot of savings for the town and and also for teachers with premiums But I think that we would all agree that the great there was a great savings That was realized from doing that and in fact It was those savings with addition chapter 70 money that we realized that we didn't expect as well as money from the kindergarten Being able to not charge tuition anymore for kindergarten that we've been able to extend the life of The plan that we had after the last override, but as part of that decision there was an agreement made to Look at the salaries Among a group of what we now call the town managers 12 and so the town under undertook creating a salary study Across these 12 communities and this was both for union and non-union and The results of that study which is again on the website both the town and I think there's a link also to it on the on the school website that study is is Being used in negotiations in this round Another budget priority is that we want to reduce class sizes at the at the middle school By having a half cluster next year, which means that that would be two teachers as well as Increasing one of our tech teachers to full-time so that we have three Full-time technology engineering teachers at the middle school and it's important to do that because in these classes where they're using Equipment that needs to be students need to be very careful using and needs quite a bit of supervision It is not really acceptable To have 30 students in the class and we do have some classes like that at the middle school. I Will say that we have extraordinary Teachers that are able to manage that but as we go forward next year and also as enrollment increases at Odesson We do need to increase that we also need to add an additional high school teacher and it's not necessarily a teacher but Different FTEs depending upon class sizes and student course selections this spring We're able to maintain five reserve teaching positions in order to respond to enrollment growth As we go through the spring and summer Though I I will say with some caution that last year. We also had five reserve positions and Those positions were quickly Needed as we had the enrollment growth that we saw last summer We also another budget priority is that we had two point five social workers that were Funded through a grant which no longer will be a revenue source next year. And so we're incorporated those two point five teachers Social workers I should say into the budget we also need to increase one psychologist position to full-time and also the addition of a Specialized speech and language assistant to help with caseloads One of the other things that we've talked about this fall is the need to get our teaching assistant salaries In a more competitive range than they had been we began that process the last The last budget cycle and we've been actually trying to work at that quite honestly over the last few years So what we have done in this budget is move the salary to 17,000 which actually represents a three point three percent We had hoped to have it actually higher than that But you'll understand as we look at the numbers why that was not possible and the last priority has to do with maintenance As we've talked about this table before next year We are going to have a New department in the town a facilities department that will consolidate all of the maintenance people and custodians into one department which in the next year will be fully funded as We begin this transition Our role as the school department will be to share the cost with the town for having The new the director salary as well as administrative Support person so our contribution in that is it roughly in the area of about 90,000. So these are the main budget priorities as we look at The proposed budget for FY 16 But let me can you just go back to the slide on maintenance for one second We have talked about this, but I do want to emphasize one a couple of points here and that is That the purpose of besides handling all of the maintenance in the town as we currently do But they're divided in the town and if every Every department has their own people will consolidate all of that for greater efficiency But I think what the what everyone is hoping will happen and are and are planning to make this be successful Is to begin the process having long-range planning for all of our buildings We have built buildings and we we maintain them, but we don't have that kind of planning that has Planning where you actually have a schedule for when you do painting and different kinds of repairs Right now. We're pretty much reacting to the to the emergency of the moment rather than having a Plan now that's not to say that emergencies aren't going to happen, but I think that The work of this department will be to make sure that we have a long-range plan and a maintenance plan all right as we look at The current budget the current budget is about 56 and a half billion dollars of which it comes from three categories Unlike the town we have other sources of revenue for our budget We have the town appropriation which of course is the largest amount of money and some of that money comes from chapter 70 Which is the allocation the state gives for education, but it comes through the general fund of the town We also have grants Some of those are competitive grants most of them are entitlement grants and then also we have Revolving accounts which include the different fees that we we collect So that represents the total the different revenue sources now when we look at FY 16 We're going to see that we're going to be just over 59 million dollars, which gives us a differential of Just around three million dollars just shy of three million dollars now That would seem like it's a lot of money, but let's take a look at actually how that money will be utilized in FY 16 so we have a roughly a net increase in revenue of just under three million dollars, however of that there is the total mandatory increases the total costs are roughly 2.6 million dollars Which is just about $300,000 less Than what the revenues are and so what is in that group of mandatory increases? Well, one is that Everyone that is currently an employee and all of our other expenses that we've had are rolled over to FY 16 and Included in that are all of the adjustments that we will make as a result of our negotiated settlements with our with our employees That will include the colas as well as any equity adjustments that might be made It also represents Increases in in special education costs particularly out of district Out of district tuitions and transportation one of the things that we know is going to happen next year Is that we're going to have a new contract with the collaborative transportation group and very likely? That's going to result in an increase. So we've anticipated that we don't know what the in what the increase will be But we've had to anticipate it in this budget and And as I said the other part of this is that this is increased the base of where we are now gets rolled over But the thing I need to remind the committee and of course, you know this is that last year when we had the Large enrollment growth over the summer we increased our base Quite a bit in order to have teachers in our classrooms and specialists that were needed So that is our mandatory costs Now those budget priorities that I just went through if we were to cost all of those out It would be a roughly about a million dollars Well, that would be seven hundred thousand dollars shy of what we have in terms of revenue So we've actually had to look at what's what other types of reductions we could take which is we called the restructuring and in the The budget book that you have There's a there is a list of all of those reductions that we would make it and we can talk about those later I will also add That in the budget book are the list of the ass that were given this year both by Principles and administrators and you can see that there's a lot of things that we were not be able to fund in this budget now When when Diane talks a little bit later about our multi-year plan We have been thinking about some of the other priorities that we were not able to fund this year and thinking about Whether we can we would fund them in year two and and even then possibly year three So we can go through that at some point, but this is right now just sort of a High-level look at this so but taking those reductions. We were able to put this in proof to our revenue Now it's always nice to have graphics just to see how What it looks like visually in terms of what the revenue is and as you can see that the the vast majority of the income The revenue is from town appropriation. What we don't have right now is the chapter 70 number I know that I think Mr. Slickman would like to know the number we just don't have it yet But it will be a part of the town appropriation and then there's the grants and then the revolving fees in the next graphic You can see where the major categories that are in the budget book how those Relate to each other in terms of the whole and One of the things that you know probably will catch your attention as well is that the There's a little bit of equality here a little bit still a little bit less But the cost for special education still are a little bit less in general education, but they are They still a major major expenditure of the budget and in rough numbers you might look it's a little bit less than a third there but I will say and and Johnson has looked at this as a percentage of the budget is remain fairly constant Throughout the last few years Getting affirmation on that. Yes. Yes. All right, so we are at the point of this presentation I'm gonna turn this over to It's Johnson so that she can talk a little bit more about how all this fits in a multi-year plan and and Just take you to look at some of the subsets of the budget Okay, thank you. I know we've all seen this form before but just to reiterate This is the long-range projection and how the current budget fits into that and there are a couple of things to which I'd like to draw your attention in the bright yellow the enrollment growth factor which in prior iterations was a calculation based on our expected Number changes that number now represents what we're putting forth as a proposal in this budget for new ads As opposed to what we were estimating based on a calculation in prior iterations And the sort of golden rod colored That's the amount of money that we've set aside To to do equity adjustments within the budget as you see in this iteration We're still counting on two percent for everyone. So this would be a salary adjustments on top of that two percent So the two percent carries forward throughout the plan But in FY 16, those are adjustments that we're going to make to salary as a consequence of negotiation If we look into 17 There is also a salary equity adjustment and that might be a bit of a misnomer What that is there are two things that we wanted to do that we think are very important but we just weren't able to fund this year and That is increasing the kindergarten TAs from halftime to full-time and increasing the SLC a The the substantially separate classroom teaching assistants to the BSP level We have chronic and persistent problems with retaining staff in the SLCs in the teaching assistant role And so we want to To make it more competitive by increasing the salary But we just couldn't squeeze it in this year, but it isn't our plan to squeeze it in The out years we're still calculating Enrollment growth factor increases based on a numbers of estimated students And as you know those change from year to year and even though we show a slight deficit in 17 18 and a little bit more in 19 the numbers in the bright yellow Are all numbers that we can work with in future budgets to get to where we need to be based on the number of kids We actually have the revenues of course will shift from the town with the enrollment growth factor That will continue to reflect changes from the prior year and FY 16 right here 530 069 That was based on the number of students. We added over the summer going into this year And so the numbers on that line as we move forward are projections based on the enrollment models that we've been using all along So there's still a lot of room to flex but built into these assumptions here are The salary salary equity adjustments were contemplating in negotiations to be and you can see that We can't afford to carry those forward based on our current thinking We also in this model have not included increases We've actually had to decrease in energy costs because we realize we can take some savings from what we've been budgeting Traditionally now that we know our actual costs on the new Thompson and other areas where we've saved some money and Maintenance, I'm not increasing their base budget going into next year next year We're going to hand off the budget to them and it's going to be theirs forever more So you see in the in the light blue? They come out of the budget We stop increasing them in 16 and they come out of the budget in 17 The salaries come out of the budget in 17 And we also take them out of the revenue base because the portion of the budget That they will take with them will come right off our town appropriation Any questions on this? Just to have a few graphs that are a little easier to look at Yeah, you know Dan one quick question. Should I go back? No Clarification you're talking about maintenance Personnel cost and all our custodians all our maintenance people not non-personnel costs They're gonna remain with us right? No the non-personnel all of it's going all of it's going all of it's going If you look at the five-year comparison, it's a little off kilter this year because Right now we have consolidated all of the contract increases Into one line rather than spreading them out on a person-by-person basis because we have not yet concluded negotiations We don't know what our tables will look like we can't actually guess what anybody's salary is Precisely going to look like and so you know I struggled with this Do I show the 2% do I march on forward in time? But that's not right do what so I opted to show nothing at all and all the money That's how I did it in 13 to all the money is consolidated Under administration for convenience sake, but that yeah, that's not we're not just like doubling down That's everybody's increases. They're just stored there for the time being so when we go back When we settle when we put in the salaries person-by-person for next year It will spread out and we will see the trends in a much better way So looking at it this year at this point in time doesn't show you much Because because of that anomaly and staff is the biggest cost throughout the budget Did you just the administration in FY 16? Yes, you just just address that. Yes. Okay. Thank you Basically all the money we're planning to give people an increases next year is sitting there Because we haven't decided what that's going to look like for each person So we're not looking to increase administration alone just by that. Thank you. That's everybody's increases for the whole Spread out through everybody But in terms of looking at graphs it makes it look very strange Yeah, no it looks terrible million dollars That's not what we're doing. We're just we're just storing the money But the money in a big pot until we decide how it's going to be allocated allocated all excited I just wanted to say one quick word about special education and interventions This is something we've started to track separately in the budgets for a couple of years And I know you're all familiar with it, but it's an important concept to reiterate that we must invest in in Help to students that are struggling Reach the level of need to qualify for an IEP it is good for the kids It is good for the system and most importantly from my perspective as the financial person It's good for our pocketbooks because if we can address children's educational difficulties Before they become special before they reach the need for special education I think everybody served to the best so these are important areas and unfortunately in Budgeting they tend to be areas that get cut quickly math and you know math and reading You know Enhancements and they're low-hanging fruit. They don't affect class size But in terms of the health the educational health of the kids They're really important things and we continue to invest in that and I flag them because they are they live in the gray Area between regular ed and special ed and I didn't want to Not mention them because they're very important to what special ed spending looks like But I didn't want to throw them in a special ed because that's a little disingenuous And I've wanted to be very consistent in how I talk about sped so you can see apples to apples over time The mandatory training that the state is required for us Who teaches English second language learners and stuff like that for the teachers Is that in this part of the budget? No, that would be in professional development. Thank you and I just this is another chart that shows the interventions expense and while they're not Relatively speaking a huge amount of the budget I think they do have a huge impact in terms of the well-being of our students and in the containing of special education costs But mostly they do they do great things for our kids So that's the overview What we're hoping tonight is to have some discussion about these priorities Discussion questions that you might have about anything that you see in this in the budget though I realized you haven't had a lot of time to do that And that's why really the the major part of the discussion will probably occur on February 26 Our timeline is that that will be a major just budget discussion And then on March 12th the committee will vote the budget whatever changes we need to make We already have a date from the finance committee to come and present the budget on the 23rd of March So we also have for people watching if they would like to come and comment on The budget after they had a chance to and sit with it That will opportunity is at the February 26 meeting from 6 30 to 7 30 So we will have a hearing on the budget So tonight maybe the the discussion might not be into the weeds of the budget as much as in terms of some of The big the big bigger picture parts of this and then if there's anything that you want us to take another look at That's where we need to go tonight Anybody want to start So I just want to reiterate that we've only seen the budget for Maybe 31 hours or something. Yeah, which we're spent sleeping and doing other things Driving in the snow selling gross side cookies So one thing that jumps out at me is that we have not decided to increase the elementary school teachers and I know that we have these five reserve positions, but But I worry what Oh, no, sorry about the actual positions number of positions that so we have you know two positions being Added to the middle school one position behind to the high school and Zero to the elementary school as of now, and I know we have these five reserve positions, but we also Probably can assume that we're going to be increasing elementary school Enrollment we have a class leaving that has 423 with 19 positions the Classes down low kindergarten first grade have numbers around hovering around 500 as you know with 23 22 21 positions and I wonder if there's a way if we should Find some way to say to designate two positions at the elementary level We know we're going to need them and keep the reserve positions as truly reserve something Unexpectedly coming up. I mean, I think we can sort of look at it now and say We just know we're going to need them What that's a great point, and I think that from our point of view that We're we're thinking that maybe it might end up being all elementary and not be as readily available to the secondary level Right now when I look at all of the classrooms in the district We don't know what how they're going to change. So right now we're going to have the same number of classrooms as we have it's possible that The inclusion of a couple of more students at one grade level at one school is going to force the need of another classroom We don't know that yet, but you know if the committee would like to make say it's elementary I think it's too is a safe bet that's going to be elementary for sure We also don't know what's going to happen with the high school in terms of thank you In terms of the the choices that the students make as well So we'll have to wait and see how that that plays itself is We already know that of that one position point four of it's going to science So there isn't that much so we probably are going to need some of that reserve as well One question I have is that on page ten and eleven where you've listed out In the beginning I think it says top of the page Okay great So at line Ten We add in the social workers. Yes the general funded social workers and we delete the grant funded social workers at the bottom It's you know It's an it's a wash and it was a choice of either show the wash this way Or don't show them at all and since everybody was very concerned about the social workers I elected to do it this way. It's it's it's in it Understand though it seems to me actually that we're quadrupling the count because we're adding them in as an expense and then We're saying we're taking them as a reduction restructuring them and yeah, that's a reduction Okay, all right, so the reduction the restructuring your cuts Yeah, so we're cutting grant funded social workers and we're adding social workers, so it's a wash And there's there's no way to do it other than to show it in and out or Show it both ways or show it. No ways and I wanted to show I wanted to show it. So this is So far that's it This piece nothing else. Mr. Schlickman not this time. Is that the element? I missed the beginning. Did you get that? Talk about the Metco kindergarten. No, we were gonna get to that. I'm gonna wait and give that news after this Well, I can't talk a little bit about since you're bringing it up. Okay This budget here doesn't reflect some reductions that we have just literally learned about today Today we got the number on the kindergarten grant today, right? It's not incorporated. It's not incorporated there. It's not incorporated in the monthly reports because impact this Absolutely, yeah, we do want to give you the number. It's it's roughly $50,000 one one full-time teacher. That's what it is, okay Which we can absorb. It's well, I'd like to suggest something. Well, you know, I think wait a minute for the sake of the public We needed they didn't know what we're talking about. Okay, so the governor just explain Back in December we know that there's a deficit in the state and and Governor Patrick recommended some 9c reductions To cover the deficit now the governor Baker is here. He has Increased the number increase and extended the number of reductions and the two that affect us the most Are the kindergarten grant the kindergarten grant pays for I think all but I think all but one or two of our halftime kindergarten teaching assistance and some professional development money a Little bit of materials, but not much that that grants been going down every year So that's how we rely on being able to provide teaching assistance. They've now cut it for this year That's what a 9c cut. It's this year $50,000 so we have to figure out to absorb that which will have to obviously come out of one of the Revolving accounts so But we don't know if it's going to be restored next year That's the problem the other big cut and It's much more than governor Patrick had done is that is metco We thought that there was going to be about a 5% reduction back in December for this year and Another another 5% has been suggested just in the last couple days In fact, there was a meeting at State House today on this very topic So that's a 10% reduction, which is quite a bit and again if it goes into next year, what is that going to mean in terms of? You know the support yeah So that's our All right, it's not in there at all and we'll thank you for that update the other thing is they You know in our presentation it says increased but increases desire but not funded for FY 16 I'm looking at page nine It would well look at that It would be good to It might be good. Do we list these anywhere in here? Yeah, they're on page 13 of the superintendent's budget message section What's section section to We captured all of that was discussed The principal's and actually the budget subcommittee and even at this table You're way ahead of me. Oh Voila Okay, good job. You got it done. I asked for it in two minutes. Is that great? Thank you. I have no more questions I'm gonna have a question but going back to the the kindergarten thing And I'm very Simplifying it when we got the chat additional chapter 70 money it came up on an annual basis For the additional kindergarten going from half time to full time several years ago Came to approximately one point four million dollars a year Plus we see nine hundred thousand of it. I'm using rough numbers. Okay, the town has had that extra money I think it's really great if we're gonna know I I guess I'm asking the committee And I'm suggesting the committee suggest to the superintendent to negotiate some talks to the town That if we're just getting cuts and grant money that we look to get a little piece of that extra money back We please because our kindergarten students going full-time Generate approximately four to five hundred dollars additional money that the town would never have got gotten in it That was part of our agreement. We're now being cut in grant money in kindergarten just to ask the town They've been good to us before with the additional students To give us a little bit back to help us offset that I accept the fact that we may be able to find it But when we find it we have to something gets hurt Somewhere along the line and looking at that I would also ask I did it immediately as soon as I found out about these potential cuts from the governor the legislative and they have to I contacted Representative gobbley and Rogers and Senator Donnelly to ask them to please stop this right away We we constantly a very passive and take these hits and we need to go for it I have a question on the current budget going forward our legal expenses 200,000 400,000 have been constant over several years We're finished with the major litigation. I'm not looking to revisit that. I don't we have not expended that kind of money Over the past year. I I think that's an area. We need to look at As a possible savings are reallocating that money in the budget We've consistently put two hundred and four hundred thousand dollars on us over the period We're not even close to that and in fact from what I've seen so far this year We've even spent a little Considerable amount less in several of the years and I think all those people that are involved in that That's again going back to what Dr. Sue said earlier, we've just had a short time to look at this I'm sure you're gonna get a lot more questions in the near future Anyone else? Yes. Yeah, I have one more small question So I don't this is in section one the graph Five-year comparisons The one thing I noticed that went down a little are these early interventions, which I know we value very highly and I was wondering Is that based on particular staff or is it what remember it looks funny because you're not seeing the normal increases? Mm-hmm, and so if there was you know absent the normal increases And if there is potentially any turnover if we had a more experienced reading teacher leave and a less experienced one come in They'd cost less I see so that doesn't necessarily represent shrinkage and services. It could just represent staff turnover Okay, good. It's you know the the absence of the normal progression of salaries makes everything look weird, right? Right. I was also actually wondering given that that other graph that shows the administration cost so high looks, you know Scary or something, but if we could have a better breakdown of and I know it's all estimates and not very you know Of what what's exactly going on there? So for example if a member of the public were to contact us and say what's going on with this graph? It looks bad We could have a explanation a better explanation The explanation is is that all potential contract settlements are sitting in that line right now And I do state so in the narratives at each of these sections, right? So we can't have a breakdown of those correct estimates of what right not yet, okay But once it's all settled It will go from there back to where it belongs and you'll be able to see the salary increases on a person-by-person base Right, and I think at that time will make a public statement that that child has been readjusted I think it's a good point, right? It's just I just want to I mean so many contacts me tomorrow. I'd like to be able to say something more detailed than that general The only thing we can say this time is we're negotiating Mr. Pierce, thank you Half half a cluster for seventh grade is being proposed A full cluster sixth grade this year was made right so why not a full wouldn't there a full one needed to be made for a seventh grade? well Probably that could be an argument. It's it's an issue of two things right now one of course is the budget and Another issue is space We We are we have a plan for next year with space and we we anticipate that we're probably going to have to add Another half cluster if not a whole cluster We'll just see wait and see the following year and then we have a plan for how that will happen and then also Going the years out So we're increasing the numbers I think that when you look at it in In a ratio's you'll find that it's really not that much different than what the sixth grade that they're gonna be a little bit larger classes larger clusters than they had in sixth grade but not Unreasonably so it is the sixth grade for next year going to have the four four. They'll keep the four keep the four Okay, and just a couple follow-ups, which don't pertain to clusters But on page on the on the funding summary under grants I'm wondering whatever happened with American history and Mandarin Where did they went away? They ended they ended but did we did we? Continue the teaching American history was a competitive federal direct federal grant right and we got it It's gone and project success is going away, right? So those are three-year shots basically and then they're done We still teach American history though, but teach but this specific teaching American history grant was for It was for professional development and for the enhancement of the teaching of history wasn't a curriculum for the students per say not not no Okay, well a little bit. We did buy some kids in the elementary with it the For the social studies, but most of it was for professional development and I shared grant with this group of other communities And in that genre Miss Dunn's position and and who's going to be come the next miss done Hopefully someone soon what where do we stand on that and is that in the budget? It is okay. It's fully funded Okay, you know it with the expectation that it'll be filled it filled at a 1.0 That's carried forward in the base the fact that she's not in at the position stills is there Would you like mr. Speaker to speak to that the positions posted? Okay, great We're still soliciting applications, and we are reviewing the applications as they come in and hope to begin maybe soon after the break to Set up interviews and bring people in For interviews Okay, so and we have a committee that we're forming with a representative's member from the different from the department I'm just curious why Involved since it's in a ministry at triple position because under the a a contract for any administrative positions that affects a they have a Seats Just sorry Mandarin that we we stopped getting the Mandarin grant, but we're still offering it right yes Yes, we absorbed we absorb the course into the base. Okay, thanks Several years ago. We started putting in the five reserve positions in anticipation of need last year this current year and last year with We just barely halfway through the year and they're gone, right? Well, I'm pretty close to it Okay, that makes a word The concept of five reserve positions They're not reserve anymore They're they're being absorbed very quickly by population and programs and stuff I can appreciate understanding what the structure of programs in class is going to be at the secondary level, but A lot of these positions get absorbed at the elementary level don't they mostly right of course the The wild card and all this we want to call it that is what's going to happen with kindergarten enrollment Okay, and that process. I'm gonna talk about in superintendent's report begins in March Going along with Dr. Seuss just it perhaps This is something and you can hand me spend that legal money a thousand ways more ways than once But that may need to be a priority our class sizes From my perspective as a teacher are very high They're doable the teachers are functioning, but we're at a breaking point and so I'd like you to Think about that again space again as a premium if we had all the money in the world Where we're gonna put these classes and stuff that becomes another thing. So thank you. We all set to move on Thank you very much Monthly financial report Yes, let me it's so odd As much as I love my iPad they they not flipping to the report is We are Continuing along we are beginning to realize a bit of savings a month ago We were looking prettier for savings, but then snow happened and While we've had many snow days which are actually less less fiscally impactful than Then days when we struggle to get open because we don't have to pay as much over time We can pay them on straight time to come in and work To remove the snow. It's still gonna it's still gonna take a bite I mean we're you know the storm coming in Saturday Sunday We've got to get the building open and and if it's of such a massive quantity that they can't wait until Monday Or Tuesday to come in and work on it, you know, and then more snow again on Wednesday Yeah, it just doesn't quit but as as chairman Hainer pointed out we are tracking very well in the legal line and And so far we're tracking under budget and out of out of district special ed tuition And my hope is if we continue to hold the line We're on at present that we should be able to go to town meeting and ask for some money to be moved back Into the special ed reserve. I think we should really Work to keep out of district tuition sort of a standalone area of the budget so that when we budget it and if we have a Savings that we should move that into that reserve at town hall And so we have it for lean years when we have a bad year like last year So even if we still have to use our reserves to cover the deficit as a whole I'd still like to move that money from special ed back into the reserve So I to clarify it right now We're showing we're 388 283 Over budget yes, and that's gonna be made up by just to so understand it to be made up by going it But how's it gonna be made up again by out of the the reserves that we currently have the reserves that we currently have Unless we can realize for the savings as we go through the year, which is possible. It is possible Yes, because with some positions we haven't been filled correctly. There's positions that haven't been filled We are not Tapping the legal line to an excessive degree. That's all accounted for in here and not complete. No not completely I'm still projecting fairly conservatively that we could in fact spend things that we may not But it's looking at this point in the year like we will not but I'm not ready to call it yet till we get out of this Winter because that could be a right. No, that's a good. That's a real Joker. So Line eight one three one six vacation That is a line I've seen it before maybe it's been there. It's been there all along. It's it's for maintenance and custodial we're trying to track their different types of Their salary is tracked. They're in a different union. No, I understand. I understand that's for the vacation I it's just for them. It's for custodial and maintenance. It's not for anybody else I mean, I'm not trying to tell you your business, but we know how much vacation time they have accrued We are moving into tracking the these expenses in more detail than we did previously And so we haven't quite caught up with getting the budgets to true out with them two lines down teaching moving allowance You budgeted a thousand I can appreciate that we want having difficulty opening it. I'm sorry. It's eight one three one eight Yes Yeah, I never budget that adequately that that's almost 40 teachers Moving yes, we had that many teachers moving classrooms this year. That's almost like it's they You know every time a teacher relocates a classroom, you know every time we have to shift things around even if it's from one room to the next room In the same building correct. Okay. Thank you The longevity of the custodial Now that's something we should be on top of right away knowing exactly right that we just started Splitting out longevity custodial from long. There's another longevity code for maintenance And no, that's I'm sorry. I miss I misspoke its clothing allowance that that the budget is I think I finally consolidated those two lines But you're right. We will be better on top of the longevity I mean, you know who's who's going where and when and It says pensions expense will be moved That is those are grant related little dribs and drabs of pensions that we have to make up when we get a state grant Apart a portion when we have teacher salaries in a state grant a portion of the grant goes directly to MTRS But we have to make up the difference and as you come to the end of a grant there can be little tweaks You know you planned on this teacher and it ended up being that teacher and there's little ups and downs And so we keep this line in here to sort of true out those grants at the end of the year It ends up being fairly small money. Okay, but it's basically just a way to just You want to follow up on that one? Okay, and my last one is a line eight seven six, oh one Again, it says court judgments damage and settlements We've just had a discussion anticipating things are down and you're saying estimating it budget. I'm still estimating Conservatively conservative. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, no, I don't there's nothing in the offing Good I'm just I'm just playing it safe for now. I can we're looking to have that all most of that money back I'm hoping so. Okay. This appears first and then thank you a 304 athletic Services and with with the fees were charging the fact that we're estimating over budget over 50 grand What why why why on that because it costs a lot more to run athletics than we've traditionally budgeted for It's taken some time under the new athletic director to get a handle on exactly how much it really costs to Run our athletic program and it's significantly more than we budgeted for and certainly more than fees cover I Understand it's always more than fees cover, but we always plan accordingly with with the budget No, we really haven't when it comes to athletics because there's been a lot of there's been change in leadership And there's been a lot of confusion. I've had a really hard time understanding what exactly was needed And so we that you know, we've had the new athletic director You know really get in there. Tell us what we really need to do it. Show me what's needed And so what we've seen is that it went significantly over budget last year and it's Slated to you know, she's trying to bring it in for the spring, but it's it was over 52 last year. Oh, yeah Is this something that she can do a presentation for us talk about it in the future? She can but given when she gets it all together So I think this is important with our history of fees and things like this to let the public know exactly what we're doing and how What the fees we have a General idea what the fees we're comfortable with that but to let everybody know we're what each dollar is going for And where it's coming from and things of that nature because I was under the impression that at least this year last year too The gate revenues were up. They are but I mean up gate revenues is at best $10,000 Okay, I mean the cost of athletics is this Yeah, I mean, it's not it's a very expensive proposition. There's many many many staff You know, we're in negotiations about what they're going to be paid You know, there's a there's a lot of stuff there. We need to have a presentation on this. Yeah. Yeah That would be great now just a quick question not athletics, but For HVAC contracted service a 2412, right? We're estimating over probably because of the weather or the Actually, one of the things that's been very interesting is that at the Pierce School We have demoed a new fault detection system It's a software that is able to monitor various systems in the building and see where there's a problem Which is different than an energy management system that says, you know The energy management system says turn the lights on at such and such a time turn them off at this time the fault detection system says Gee whiz this classroom is five degrees above where it should be and it starts running through things and says why And what we're discovering through piloting the software that's been mostly covered by other folks that wanted to test it out in this kind of an environment What we've been allowed to see is that there's dysfunctions in the way systems have been set up And when we discover this at the Pierce where we're doing this We run around and check all the other schools to see and so we've got the HVAC contractor running up and down in town Like a crazy person Fixing all these things that we had no idea for example the chiller we put in at the Pierce When the engineers put it in they set the they set the temperature differential for like a half a degree of swing Which means the darn thing is working constantly, you know That's how you'd set a lab where you know you had medical things that had to be kept at a perfect temperature a school can certainly swing You know five or ten degrees. It's not the end of the world But they didn't set it that way they set it to like that And so the thing is running and running and the fault detection software allowed us to catch that and Now we've reset it and we're saving money. It's not running as hard and we'll get a longer life out of that chiller So every time we find out something at the Pierce through this fault detection we run around and check all the other buildings It's great. It's great for the health of our buildings. It's great for our long-term energy savings But the short short term it's a little expensive with our HVAC guy who's running around doing all this stuff Now that will come out of our budget all that will that's all going away both The the additional expense and the savings right right now We're taking we're reaping the savings of it and that's that's a big chunk of what we're restructuring What we're cutting out of the budget is savings we're taking in the energy line So we're getting hit this year, but the town will hopefully recoup the savings next year well We're getting the savings this year. So we are because yes, okay We're we're taking a big percent next year. We'll get half of it because we're paying half No, I think I think the way it's going to work is that the expenses that are covered in our budget This year will be covered next year and then both the expenses and the money will go off with them I'm worried that this might have already been answered but The power electricity this is eight two one oh three It says expense will be moved. Is this being moved? Yes? We've always budgeted Utilities is paid out of other sources the main other source is the revolving fund for building rental Okay, so it's we're still keeping in our budget And actually my concern is when we put solar panels on I want to realize the savings here Yeah, it's not gonna happen it by the time that happens It's all gonna belong to the maintenance department, but you can rest assured that the savings I was the question okay The savings from those panels will go into making sure that we get painted more often than their buildings They won't directly go right I won't be able to mine it to buy computer equipment, but it will do good for the buildings which will help us to okay, okay? I'll say Hey Statement of interest in the Stratton elementary Has that been written Well, actually it is written, but what's happened is both Diane and I have had several phone calls with the MSBA and It became very clear that This project was not going to be Qualified under accelerated repair When we had the we had the the monies prior to this for Stratton that was under a different program completely It was gone to the green repair Which was entirely independent of anything else you did they were and I don't it's just again It's one of those programs that no longer exists in the accelerated repair program They still it's windows Boilers and roof but Here's the but if you're doing more That's going to be a much bigger project and you're gonna be kicking in sprinkler system or any ADA and the project is bigger what will happen is That they will say you're not really eligible for this program You're eligible for some support, but you have to go into what they call the core program Which is exactly what we're doing for the high school. It's the it's the rebuild renovation But the directors from MSBA this year have been very clear to district districts You have to prioritize your you have to prioritize your your core Submissions, and so we could submit Stratton under the core But I think that we all agree the first priority is the high school So what that would mean is that our first priority? So we'd have to wait to the high school was was admitted into the program Stratton would be years down the road because it would be it would have to be subsequent to the high school So what we've had a lot of discussions at the town of level and We have all come collectively to the decision that it makes much more sense to go forward as How the planning had gone on for funding stratton so that it can be done and The savings would have been Not I mean it would have been wonderful to have some of the the savings which we estimated in the four to six hundred thousand but In terms of the whole cost of project when it would get done the timeliness of it. That's the other piece If you even if you got into it and was your only priority There's a whole process you had to follow the same process. We went through with Thompson. We would not be shovel ready June 16 that's not that wouldn't happen So there were a lot of things we had a lot of discussion about and this was the collective collective decision and we go forward and We will we'll continue to work on the our the early to high school SOI so it's submitted in April So that's where that stands actually Diane wrote the SOI for Stratton, but it's unfortunately When you get the SOI completed prior to submission for the high school would you disseminate it among the staff? I did send it out to I sent it. I think I sent it out to the facilities committee. Yeah Okay Thank you, I'm sorry We're happy. We want more eyes on it take another look at it. We want to see if anything else we have You know some other data we can put in particularly enrollment. That's going to be the key And oh and once excuse me one more thing on that is that We will need to complete us so that we scheduled the votes We have to go through the voting process again board of select when the school committee so That's that's in the works as well Provide us a timeline for that so that we can be prepared for that sounds great. Okay, superintendent's report Okay, actually I have quite a few things I already I already Well the first is the weather this has just been extraordinary I Love the word historic because that's really what it has been like and I have to give so much credit to Mike Wattamacher and the DPW but but our own staff have been amazing as well Mark Miano, Jeremy Brando, who is our head custodian organizing all of our custodians and maintenance people to just stay with the storm Keeping our keeping our parking lots cleared Keep being walkways cleared DPW has been helpful the other day when we were the second the second snow day this week They loaned us one of the front loaders they had I would say that Front-end loaders so that we could even push back the parking lots a little bit more We were losing in all the parking lots through these storms 10 spaces 15 spaces, which is a lot And with the front-end loader we were able to retrieve about half of them But that was a lot of teamwork between our staff and DPW and They really did did well and they're exhausted They've been working around the clock and of course I'm sure they must be just groaning when they hear there's another big storm coming in this weekend We're gonna have a big push on this In terms of the storm because one of the things that it did happen with all these snow events is That a number of athletic events were canceled And we're getting toward the end of the season and even though MIA has pushed back the season deadline a little bit not a lot We have a lot of makeup games and some of them are Monday, so we're really Gonna be pushing to have that high school be a top priority on Monday One of the one of the concerns I know that I've heard from our parents is something that we were we were talking about the beginning of the week actually last week at the state of our roofs and you should know that you know just from Soon as the storms ended we were that was something that was going on Simultaneously to all of this and we've had this week five people Going around to the different roofs shoveling them One of the things that was actually turned out which was beneficial is that with the wind a Lot of the flat roofs to actually don't have much snow in the middle of them They're there's they're more drifts toward the the perimeters against the walls, but those are all being taken Being reduced on a priority basis, so Mark Miano's had a priority in terms of which roofs are the most Possibly vulnerable though we the newer schools are in good shape There I think the concern is course will be in all in schools I know actually it's already existed over town hall and some of the you know that there's leaks You get these these ice dams and then it backs in and that actually has been the the town offices That have had more problems in the schools and last last week so we are do we are working on that and One of the other pieces and you've seen from my notes home and certainly our staff has there's an on-street parking ban and Cars that were parked that are not a mass av or Broadway those are two exceptions will be ticketed and potentially towed Which that what has meant for the school department is that we have to make sure that all of our teachers can park on site which Even with no snow is not always Possible in fact at some schools not Half the teachers will be parking on the streets So with chief Jefferson, we've worked out arrangements how to use some fire lane spaces and double parking In all of the lots and we've been able to be successful So that's that's working out and everybody is trying to remain cheerful They deal with this so that's what that's where we are right now with the weather now if anybody before I go on to any Other part of this. I don't know if anybody has any questions about where we stand right now Let me just mr. Chairman. Yes. Let me just ask how many snow days have we used and what's our projected last day right? We have used six and thank you for mentioning. I should have mentioned that too That puts us at June 25th Which is a Wednesday We've used six days we've gone past our scheduled five What our constraint is is that we can't go past June 30th So We have a couple of more days. We have I knew there was three days. Yes, it's the Thursday. It's 25th. It's the Thursday So we have three days more that we have snow days before we have to consider vacations or Some or Saturdays or something So we'll that's something that will go out a message that will go out We'll just see what happens when we get back from vacation and if see if we have any more snow days when we when we start Having to think about this What I'm going to encourage parents and staff to do is think about trip insurance for the April vacation Like just also consider next year's calendar is even that much further That we would be at the 30th of June right now if we had six days next year It's really really it's that much more next year We might not have any snow days next year. This is an unusual year. No question about it It's you know when you look at the on The weather channels you can see they have all these historic dates. It doesn't happen every year, but I have noticed if you've noticed that list that the Time difference between these major events in terms of major years is narrowing and so I don't know if that's climate change I don't know what it is, but we may we can't say oh, we won't have this again for a few more years That's not necessarily the way it's going to be We'll have a better chance of having a drop in kindergarten enrollment Speaking of kindergarten Segway that was a good segue well done We we've sent letters home to to everyone that has a child registered to us and not registered but and known to us through the census and We've sent those letters out registration begins on March 3rd and all of the dates so pretty much the registrations happen through March There's a snow day March now This is going to be something we may It's gonna be a little more challenging than we perhaps thought about when we put the schedule together because it begins March 2nd the town manager thinks that the the parking ban could be in effect For some time. I mean this is we have another foot this weekend. We are in going to be have some very constrained situation in town for a while so We may have to change the time to do something because the registration occurs here at the high school and There is parking out in Mass Ave. Which is fortunate, but parking will be an issue to this process when we Do you do any other type of communication besides what's on the census as far as newspaper or? Yes, I don't know if you go to the A list or something like that No, I Get a surrogate to do that necessarily but Just so that we can encompass as many people so we don't have those late people coming in in the week before school starts It's gonna happen, but we had an awful lot last year I think this turns out the census is not a good predictor The number of students at all we had a lot of people who were on census that didn't register and we had a lot of people Obviously after that did but yes, we're trying to try to get the information out in as many venues as possible and We probably should get this into the library the children's room there That will be That would be a big effort right after right after vacation Actually on that last year you talked that Mentioned that other towns use a slightly different forecasting model and I was wondering if we were going to explore Alternative modeling perhaps There's a program or something. That's a good question. Actually It's actually Lexington Lexington has done a modeling which looks at Actually who lives in the enrollments I should say the number of students in condos versus single family and It's hard to know whether that model will work for us because one of the things they found in their study is that for 10 years The number of there was virtually no change in the net for single family homes All of their growth was in condos But that hasn't been true in Arlington So we've had a lot of growth in single family and you know rent rentals and So but it's definitely something to look at okay. Yeah, okay Today we sent out a press release and not that I'll read the whole press release But I really want to acknowledge our technology teacher Brandy Whitney at the middle school She with Gary Blanchett first of all as you remember earlier this year were recognized by the recognized mass tech program of the year and So they were they were the best technology program in the state this year at the middle school level and Brandy Whitney has just been recognized nationally And this is the Pasco STEM educator awards from Pasco scientific Which is in partnership with the National Science Teacher Association and in this recognition She's going to go to the conference in Chicago all expenses paid to do that what they stipend So she it's extraordinary And I think it's really important for people to understand the quality of teaching that goes on all our schools But this program in particular is is quite outstanding so congratulations to Whitney and I Also, there's some congratulations for athletics We've actually had an amazing season Our wrestling team has done really well now they they there's there's the league championship in the state through the MIA process, but there also is there's an intro scholastic wrestling coaches association and They run wrestling competitions as well and in fact there's a hundred and fifty teams that entered and Different at different levels just like MIA. There's like a division one division two. So in division division two They were They they became they were they beat the number one and two seats to win the massachusetts inter scholastic championship And right now They're currently rate ranked third in the state in division two. So they're doing really really well Our basketball team has been undefeated now We are going to be having the poor kids boys and girls are gonna have like five in a row, but they're doing they're doing really well and One of our one of our Players miles Robinson is just ten points away from joining the elite 1,000 point club So you can look on the the athletic website if you want to see any of the games if you're really getting Stare-crazy at home this next week with your kids come to some basketball games Because they're gonna be in hockey. We're gonna have a lot of hockey games next week as well Let me actually just break here since you've been hearing me talk so much. Let me ask Dr. Chess, and if you talk a little bit about the technology plan and the forums and where we're going with that sure So we have posted on the website of a draft of the technology plan It is not a significantly different from the technology plan that we have Been working on over the last couple years But we wanted to have an opportunity for the public now that it's become such a driving force in our schools to parents and members of the community to Come in and have a conversation with us about their thoughts about the technology plan If they're unable to attend the two meetings and unfortunately in the meeting last night had to be Rescheduled to the parking and we're actually quite leery of rescheduling it at this point right now We sort of want to wait and see how the parking situation works out Till probably the middle of next week before we look at when it would be the right time to reschedule it However, if I've already gotten response from one member of the community and I would welcome anyone who feels like they Want to comment on it and you know can't wait till we've reschedule or can't make the reschedule date to certainly To email me and we will take those things into consideration when we meet to finalize the plan And we'll be presenting to the committee. I believe at the next school committee meeting Again, it's very similar to what you saw last year, but this year we wanted to take input in we've already had input from teachers We have a technology committee in the district that means we want to take information and feedback from parents We'll get out your presentation to us Early, of course. Thank you All right, I think the last thing that I have is just reminding everyone about The forum discussion actually this discussion is going to occur on Saturday the 28th of February It's called unequal justice the consequences of race in class in our criminal justice system this beginning of discussions around race in class comes out of the vigil that we had for black lives matter and That it has many co-sponsors for this program Arlington public schools being one of them and The Arlington Human Rights Commission, of course and Arlington International Film Festival League of Women Voters of Arlington Mystic Valley Branch of NAACP St. Agnes Parish and the list actually is growing It is Saturday night February 28th from 7 to 9 in the town hall Thank you Right now the consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk so considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion There'll be no separate discussion on these items unless a member of the committee So request which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence approval of warrant number 15097 dated January 22nd 2015 the amount of 774,874 dollars and 77 cents Approval of draft minutes school committee meeting January 22nd 2015 Second second all those in favor Thank you very much With subcommittee liaison Reports and announcements policies and procedure. Thank you, mr. Chair, and if I just may on the consent I just wanted to note one thing. I was looking at the minutes from our last meeting on January 22nd under monthly financial reports It says Miss Johnson reported the budget was on track and the good news was so far. No snow costs Literally on January 22nd Unbelievable she won't say that again So Paul thank you policies and procedures met last night. We discussed with dr. Bode and mr. Spiegel the new Maternity paternity changes in the in the mass law that came in to effect Earlier this year will actually come into effect on April 7th of this year and what? implications for our policies that will have and we are scheduled to speak with our legal counsel just on on that because our Old FM LA policy seems to be a little bit outdated We also discussed Mr. Schlickman brought up the idea of remote participation given Some of the members dr. Ampey for example tonight and for future meetings whether or not we could exercise that option under the new town meeting law We we can and it was voted by the Board of Selectment and was in fact voted by this body in December of 2011 so I don't think we have any any problems with with having to say dr. Ampey come in via telephone As long as a quorum here is present I don't know correct me if I'm wrong I think there has to be some it has to be part of the agenda agenda notification if possible if we know a hand ahead of time Just let the public know that a member would be and it has to be a legitimate reason not just that you decide to stay home You want to watch football game or something like yeah, there are there are specific reasons why it would be exercise Yeah, and that's what we discussed last night. Thank you That's it. Yep Curriculum instruction and assessment accountability dr. Ampey is not here. Is there any for that committee that we haven't met Okay, thank you facilities mr. Tillman. We meet on March 19th Okay, a special study group with superintendent's evaluation I think we would plan on meeting at the end of October January and for some reason we didn't make it Snow we'll blame snow for everything. Okay, so I will be I'll be talking to dr. Bony about that and to the subcommittee will hopefully be we have something to report at our next meeting School Committee Human Rights Commission and join subcommittee snow again Does any member have any announcements they would like to share with Budget I'm sorry budget Community relations Skip it. I apologize community relations. We will be meeting Wednesday, February Wednesday February 25th at 5 30 p.m. This beloved room. Thank you. I apologize. I skip right over both of budget We are attempting to find a meeting time Just so everyone is aware. We do have the budget revenue task force is the Monday after break So that's not this coming Monday, but the next Monday six o'clock in the town hall And I think we also forwarded everyone the fin-com date is basically a month later on March 23rd And that'll be at 745 at the we all get to go into the new police station It'll be at the community, but um, we don't budget does not yet have a meeting set up Kevin, I'm sorry It's a 25th fin-com the presentation Is that what you say? No, it's the 23rd of March. I'm sorry. It's someone else said different date. Okay. Thanks Do we post that ourselves because it is a joint meeting and it does he's been compost We need to post as well. Okay, you think we need to be if we we're meeting as a group as well If we yeah, we're not we're just invited But we but there will be a possibility of a quorum Okay Does any member have any announcements at this time? Anyone else have any Yeah Okay, this time The committee will enter executive session to conduct strategy Strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with union and our non-union personnel or contract negotiations with union and our non-union Which have held an open meeting may have a detrimental effect To discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining Or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares Second Roll call. Yes Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes We will we will exit in executive session only for the purpose of adjournment