All right, we will get started here.

Welcome to the October 11th meeting of the Sharon School Committee.

This meeting will be conducted remotely over Zoom.

Attendance by Board or Commission members will be remote and remote attendance shall count towards a quorum. The meeting will be broadcast live and recorded by Sharon TV.

If you would like to enable your webcam, your image and background to be broadcast with or without sound.

As is our custom here, we will be going to public comments first as part of our community update section of our agenda.

I will remind folks that we ask that their first and last name be visible.

I will call on folks whose first and last names are not showing, but I would just ask that you lead off with your first and last name if that is the case.

It is a two-minute.

We do have a two-minute time limit that I ask everybody to plead be respectful of. And I am willing to keep time here, guys.

So I will start off with Jay O'Brien, whose hand I see raised first.

All right.

Hold on, Jay. Not on the clock yet until you unmute.

There you go, Jay.

Thank you, Jay O'Brien.

Thank you. Some people on the school committee have replaced disagreement with accusation and used false compassion to manipulate parents into compliance.

This is the same school committee who, at my very first school committee meeting several years ago, when I spoke, immediately shut down the Zoom chat feature so I could not correspond with other parents who were also opposed to masking kids. During the last meeting, after I had spoke most recently, in the August meeting, someone else then used words like undertones, transphobia, and homophobia.

First, gay people have as much in common with trans people as straight people do.

Secondly, I will not sit by and let someone besmirch my family's good name or the names of other parents in town who oppose radical gender theory in public schools.

I should not have to say this, for it goes without saying, and it cuts into my two minutes of time, but we've always perceived trans people as valuable members of society worthy of respect and human rights.

Another horrible comment was made by a non-committee citizen who said, parents who oppose the gender cult ideology are afraid of our kids becoming trans.

What a disgusting thing to say.

These comments can't go unanswered.

Do you think someone can give you trans like it's the China virus? We're talking about poisoning young, impressionable minds.

The people are trying to rule through emotional blackmail to impose a political agenda on the rest of us. If we dissent, we're branded as bigots and accused of lacking empathy.

The people pushing this use antagonism, emotional manipulation, and an accusatory tone that has become the staple with the gender theory and mask pushers.

The goal of this is not to arrive at answers, but to browbeat parents like me and make me feel bad for denying left-wing orthodoxy.

Dr. Patel, we have to have new leadership.

We have to have a new leadership class that says no. It's the most important word in the English language.

We don't say it enough.

We have to reestablish limits on behavior and reestablish authority.

Thank you. That was exactly two minutes, so I appreciate your brevity.

On to Tobin Asklar.

Sorry, Tobin, I was distracted for a second, not forgetting who you were.

Go ahead, Tobin. I will start your time now.

Hi, my name is Tobin Asklar.

I use they, them pronouns. I'm speaking as a parent of three children in the Sharon Public Schools and for myself. First, I'm holding in my heart the Sharon Jewish population and Israeli friends and strangers who bore the horrific and murderous terrorist massacre on Saturday and their aftermath.

I denounce the attacks and the continued acts of anti-Semitism that have erupted worldwide and even locally in response to brutal killing, torture, and hostage-taking of Jewish people in Israel. These howering events and now the resulting war bring not only the pain of civilian devastation and killing, but more anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic rhetoric in the United States.

On a personal note, I want to thank the Sharon Public Schools and Temple Sinai's Hebrew School for teaching my children and keeping them safe.

Thank you to the Sharon Police Department for looking out for everyone's safety, but especially for protecting our temples and houses of worship.

Second, today is National Coming Out Day.

I am a gender, queer, non-binary, lesbian mom. To the LGBTQ plus kids who are already out and those still in the closet, I hope the world brings you joy and happiness, belonging and love.

I hope you are free to be your true selves.

May your classrooms and libraries be filled with books that present positive representations of your lives and the lives of your classmates and the beautiful diversity of America.

May your teachers and adults see you for all that you are and all that you can be. May you have good and loving friends who hold you up and who you can equally support.

Shalom.

Salaam.

Let us stand together and support one another.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tobin.

Next up, I see Judy Crosby.

Hold on.

Wait.

Got you on mute. All right. Go ahead. Thank you. First, Tobin, thank you so much for those words.

I have family missing at the moment.

And I really needed to hear that.

So thank you.

I'm going to speak tonight about a vote that appears later on this agenda, which is for this school committee to vote to approve retroactively three and a half months into the new fiscal year. Are transfers that occurred from cost centers into 24 overspent cost centers during the fiscal year 23 budget.

there's clear state law as well as clear interpretation of that state law by the department of revenue that the failure of this school committee and this administration to vote those transfers one by one as they were needed last year is fully in violation why does that matter well dr patello you lied to me you stood in the auditorium of sharon high school the brand new sharon high school before the town meeting when i said hey i have questions on this part of article 16 i want to know what does level budget mean are there going to be cuts you cut things from 23 to 22 and you said no level budget no problem everything's good except for what i didn't know at that time as a member of the public because you and your business manager and this school committee deprived me of the knowledge was that over a third of our supply materials budget had been redirected more than half of our professional development budget had been redirected we were six hundred thousand dollars over on a sped transit line item and the list goes on and on and on the reason for that state law and that department of revenue interpretation is to ensure that value judgments about where we redirect money from are made by those who hold the policy handle i see nadia ahmad nadia i'm just going to start your time now thank you hi everyone my name is nadia ahmad i'm here to voice my concerns over forcing kids to listen to sex ed and lgbtq content um that has penetrated the general curriculum i sympathize with those who are truly struggling with gender identity but sympathizing with one minority should not come at the expense of another some would say that some would say that lgbtq members are at high risk of attempting suicide therefore our kids should be forced to learn about their identities a study at stanford university concluded that american muslims have twice the rate of suicide attempts compared to others based upon that should we force kids at fps to start thinking about converting to islam should we force them to start praying like muslims that would be ridiculous to ask there is a clear difference between raising awareness about something and and then forcing it to on forcing it on people this forceful attitude is making muslims and all concerned parents feel helpless about the situation all we are asking is to give us the option to opt out wherever there's a discussion around sex ed and lgbtq please do not make us feel helpless a simple option to for parents to exempt their kids out of this curriculum or out of this discussion won't hurt the lgbtq members at all but not having any option is hurting a lot of us the decision is yours to make thank you thank you so much uh john mail oh john hang on okay start the clock okay start the clock hi abhi um nice to see you so um i just real quick i saw that you've agended a conversation around the program of studies uh this evening and um i sent a letter to you dr botello and some other people um last week just about something that i have um been talking about for a couple years now which is bringing back uh curricular theater at the high school level um i'm just mentioning this now just to make the community aware that this is something that i've brought up and if any interested community members would like to connect with me about this proposal or um discuss you know the possibilities of this i'm well you know i'm happy to hear anyone who has an opinion about this i think that um as we consider like ways to use the beautiful new facility we have including the multi-million dollar black box theater i think that bringing in curricular theater would be a very worthy discussion to have possibly not tonight but just in the future so as we continue to go through the program studies discussion i um i strongly believe we should talk about curricular theater and i have proposed to help uh develop that at the high school level um have a good night way under two minutes thanks for your brevity john all right next up casey mclaughlin hold on casey i will can can you we can hear you i think can you talk yes all right i will start your talk now thanks last week uh last meeting there was a lot of gasping and wide-eyed pearl clutching around how such hateful people in sharing could dare speak out against non-academic highly problematic gender ideology being promoted in classrooms so i did some research are trans people really victimized let's put it into context given the recent horrors endured by actual victims did you know that there are 36 national holidays dedicated to lgbtq plus in october alone there is intersex awareness day lesbian day was sunday pronouns day spirit day and today is national coming out day guess what else we have ace week for asexuals gender fluid visibility week and this entire month is lgbt history month and that's just october i've never seen such an oppressed group be so nationally celebrated so it is a lie that trans people are under attack or my favorite hyperbole being genocided according to the human rights campaign there were 40 reported cases four zero of trans individuals losing their lives to violent incidents in 2022 to put this in perspective this constitutes 0.000025

of the 1.6 million trans identified people in 2022 these statistics suggest that trans people may be among these safest demographic groups when it comes to violent deaths in the united states so there is a big difference between tolerance which is what it used to be and forced celebration that some members of this board and this community really need to differentiate between i will end with this normal adults do not get angry that they can't talk to children about sex predators and perverts do remember that richard kramer richard kramer i'm hitting ask to unmute hit it again there there we go can you hear me now there you go all right okay thanks i did hit it but it didn't take a look at the the first time okay go ahead i'm ready to start go ahead i'm ready to start okay you go ahead sharon sharon probably proclaims itself in lawn signs all over town uh that it's no place for hate and of course i completely agree with that that's why i feel compelled to call out the hateful intolerant disgusting comments at the last school committee meeting i'm appalled i was nauseated i won't name names you you know who you are the hateful name calling was directed at families with traditional values and complaining that a small minority of parents are somehow dominating the situation first of all it's not true in my experience it's not a minority of parents it's a minority of parents that aren't afraid to be called names the majority of parents are afraid to even speak out because of this hateful name calling these are vicious attacks by school committee members it's it's embarrassing to the town those people should be ashamed moreover we live in a country with a constitution that's been designed to protect minority rights we don't believe in the in in the tyranny of the majority nor did our founders i think apologies are in order i think the people who did this should be ashamed in my opinion i believe they should resign there's no place at the school committee table for people who engage in those kind of hateful comments another member of the committee disclosed proudly that there are confidential discussions ongoing with an attorney to figure out ways to bypass opt-out so that we could get rid of opt-out you know attorneys don't work for free i don't recall when the school committee voted to authorize spending on an attorney for secret negotiated secret discussions to devise novel legal theories to eliminate opt-out i do agree that opt-out needs to go it doesn't work it's not being done in good shape all right mirror balinky hi uh members of the school committee um i just want to say that we moved to sharon because we love our children and sharon is a great place to raise children i love the narrow town we have families from so many different backgrounds who are all united in the love of their children and who are dedicated to education who value education and i was very sad to hear that at the last meeting you said or some members of the committee said that you felt that some families in sharon had the wrong values and that you were looking for legal loopholes to try to change those values that all that the parents who are coming to these school committees want is to raise our own children according to our own values thank you thank you for your brevity uh judith wieter thanks um so first off i wanted to thank tobin for what they said it's it's been a rough few days for everybody so i i appreciate all of your comments um second i would like to say i personally am celebrating um national coming out day i'm queer i'm i'm not afraid to say it and i'm proud of my queer brothers and sisters so i would like to read a couple of things first i would like to read a statement which avi i apologize i joined the meeting like one minute late so you may have already said this but at the base of every web page that we have on the sharon public schools at the bottom of the agenda for this very meeting it says that sharon public schools does not discriminate on the basis of age color disability gender identity homelessness national origin race religion sex or sexual orientation the voices of hate that have been speaking up and yes that's exactly what they are people can teach their children whatever they want in their own houses but when you are in a public space you must adhere to the public rules and the public rules do not say that hate speech is protected speech i would also like to point out that the trevor project has found that lgbtq youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers and they estimate that more than 1.8 million lgbtq youth ages 13 to 24 seriously consider suicide each year in the u.s and at least one attempt suicide every 45 seconds so when we talk about ncod when we have holidays when we have these sorts of things they are to make sure that people don't kill themselves over something that they don't control and that other people voices of hate tell them that they are wrong simply for being themselves and i just want to tell all the kids that might possibly be listening to this you are loved you can be yourself we are proud of you at least those of us that don't preach hate are proud of you thank you thanks judith right on time uh appreciate it uh i see khalid isa i apologize if i miss if i mispronounced that no that's okay thank you so much uh i would like to thank the school committee members for allowing me the chance to talk i would like to thank you all for your efforts we are a muslim family we live in sharon since 2017 we moved to sharon for its diverse inclusive community and excellent school system we were hoping to practice our religious freedom and pass our faith religion and principles to our children matters related to sex and gender in particular are surrounded with clear morals and guidance in our faith as we requested to have the right to opt out of such education um which contradicts our faith during the last school committee meeting we were labeled as homophobic transphobic and people of hate by school committee members and members of the public as well uh i would i would like to clarify that this has nothing to do with hate this comes out of sincere belief in our faith and a sincere desire to raise our children on certain values sharing schools do not discriminate based on religion it was mentioned multiple times in this meeting that we want every child to feel welcomed and i would like the same for my kids as well we request to respect our values and provide an option to adopt thank you so much for giving me the chance thank you all right next up i see boris cheslowski hello thank you school committee for the opportunity to speak and like some other people voiced i was a bit hurt by some comments from the last school committee by the last school committee disparaging comments equating opting out from lgbt and sex subjects to rejecting learning about other cultures and religions such as islam and judaism remember those were mentioned and equating the lgbt lifestyle which is pretty much a recent emergence in the world culture to ancient traditions is a it's kind of foolish and it was disparaging to hear them call us like hate monk like various names which people already mentioned that's all thank you for your time and thank you for your brevity charlotte hogan hi thank you for um letting me speak i wasn't going to speak about this tonight but i changed my mind after listening to everyone else um i have two quick points to make one at least at the high school level parents can opt out of any sex education um that they wish that they don't wish their child to attend um so there's that and the other thing i wanted to say was um the climate at the high school right now is so fantastic i have been working with miss keenan miss andrews as a pto member and um for those of you who don't know my fourth child is now a sophomore at sharon high and the vibe the climate the teachers are happy the kids are happy uh their administration has come in and i just feel really positive and i'm really happy that we chose her as our principal um going forward and um that's it i just felt like i wanted to throw a little positivity in there um before you start meeting and i'm very grateful that miss keenan is on board and i see great things ahead for sharon high so thank you that's all i have to say thank you for your brevity and your positivity and credit to miss keenan um i i see uh kristen is on this call and uh we appreciate the work at the high school so thank you i see next ahmad muhammad yeah hi uh we are a muslim family living sharon since 2017 and we came here because of the diversity and we people respect the different background different culture different religion and we respect all culture and ever all religion but we also expect people to respect ours and uh we really wanna uh express uh our dissatisfaction of uh uh that the district is trying to uh like teaching kids about lgbtq and uh like you know different things that's not even related to their age they're very young kids and uh we actually this is uh has the values they're trying to teach them actually um disagree with our values and we want to be able to raise our kids the way we wanted to raise them and we expect everybody to do that to respect that and we don't want to impose our values to anybody else on anybody else but also we expect the same from others thank you all right thank you for your brevity all right seeing no more hands i will um look to julie rowe for correspondence is that right julie do i have it right as a matter of fact uh that is correct the school committee received 34 pieces of correspondence between september 6 2023 at 9 a.m and october 11 2023 at 9 a.m a couple of parents wrote to the school committee to express their concerns regarding the survey that was distributed to students at sharon middle school at the beginning of the school year a parent wrote to suggest that the schools should never reinstitute a masking policy a parent wrote to the school committee to express their belief that the district was not listening to parents who did not want their children exposed to lgbtq topics and suggested that parents be provided with an opt-out option several parents community members and students wrote to the school committee to share their thoughts on the lack of an appointment of a sharon high school theater director and the impact on the students in the planned fall production schedule a parent wrote to offer their praise as easy and stress-free for the new drop-off process and traffic flow at sharon high school thank you for the praise a couple of parents wrote to suggest that to ensure student safety the district provide a crossing guard for the area between the lake lot and the high school a community member wrote to inquire about plans for migrant students who may attend sharon public schools a parent wrote to suggest that sharon high school begin to hold an annual career day a parent wrote to the committee to object to the disclaimer that the chair shared during the opening of the previous meeting the school committee received several letters written that expressed their strong support for the district to continue to uphold the values of diversity equity and inclusion and to create a school environment where a sense of belonging is fostered throughout our classrooms and school spaces a parent wrote to the school committee to suggest that specific analysis be completed with regards to mcast scores and to include a comparative analysis of districts that have both been consistently been doing better than sharon and that have recently started performing better than sharon the school committee received an impact an invitation to cpac's assistive technology services fair on sunday october 22nd 2023 from 11 a.m to 2 p.m at the shs cafeteria a parent wrote to inquire about the composition of the dei director search committee and wondered why the district's assistant and superintendent of equity engagement is not included on the committee a community member wrote to inquire as to well whether a school committee member would be willing to assist with a boy scout merit badge requirement this requirement asks the scout to get feedback from a branch of local government that deals with an issue facing the community a community member wrote to share their concerns about the lack of community engagement at school committee meetings several community members wrote regarding flag displays and wanted assurances that the only flags to be flown are u.s and massachusetts state flag several community members wrote to express concerns that as of monday morning october 9th the district had not sent out any communication regarding the horrific events that occurred in israel over the weekend a community member wrote to express concerns about the district budget and to ask if there would be any clarification provided from the district or the school committee about the budget status we received several editions of millie's metco monday newsletter which included the following highlights metco participating school districts identified as top high schools in massachusetts massachusetts school superintendents association learning opportunities in racial equity diversity diversity and inclusion lexington support for diversity curriculum new school leaders and dei directors for 2023-24 including sharon's own justin wilson and best practices spotlights on the districts of arlington and fox foxborough and that concludes it thanks julie um i know we have a school rep here i believe uh brendan um do i see brendan anywhere um brendan if you can raise your hand oh i see brendan there you go all right brendan welcome thank you brendan thank you so much for the space um again i am the student advisory committee representative for tonight's meeting um just a few updates for the past few days um we had a club fair on the 22nd of september that was a success uh we had a senior sunrise on the 29th of september that was also successful um we've had a lot of club activity going on um a lot of service projects that have been ongoing um and we have picture day which is tomorrow um so if there are any high school students watching just make sure to get that smile going thank you thank you so much brendan um i will now throw it over to dr botello for general updates from our superintendent great thank you um okay um jane can you make sure uh those the slides after this are included as well i'm not sure if they uh were but um but before i start i just wanted to um prior to this meeting um i want to thank abhi shem tov and adam shane and i saw julie rowe there as well but there was a a really um wonderful gathering um in support of israel and and a show just the the great community that we have here um it was you know certainly members of our jewish community were out um with with passion but also various members of our interfaith community uh throughout the the community and it just showed you know some of the very best that we have here um you know we we um were horrified by hearing the news and and and you know as a department condemned the attacks on israel by hamas our hearts are really going on out to all of our community members impacted as well as uh those that we know in israel um we're really trying hard as a district to support the kids and i think you know just showing that we're there to support them giving them some sense of normalcy but also giving them a place to go uh when they need additional assistance is incredibly important we also have made sure in addition to our um jewish and israeli um kids really show support to all kids including our our palestinian and muslim families who we know reject the uh vicious attacks by hamas this past weekend and are fearful for their family members in the region so i just wanted to pass without recognizing that we have also been uh in touch with um uh uh chief coffee at the uh sharon police department we work really closely with them and is indicated that on friday we will have some additional presence just to promote promote a you know feeling of safety and security for all of our kids and staff on friday um getting to some other uh general updates um enrollments continue to come in in the early fall a little bit more certainly than than typical uh new elementary enrollments have been uh generally restricted to cottage and heights in order to maintain some class size consistency across the three schools and so if you look at the enrollment in your package you'll see that actually those numbers across even where in grades where perhaps say easter cottage was a little bit lower than heights they're now uh getting to be quite equal across the schools we knew that we would uh expect some additional enrollment um though certainly we're welcoming some new families into the community uh with open arms uh as this fall comes about um as far as uh our di director uh process uh we went through a rigorous process where um we've identified a finalist uh the finals will be visiting on the district on friday um and we'll continue to uh alert the committee and the community about that process um we uh we're pretty much fully staffed except for we do have a handful of instructional assistant positions across the schools that we're looking to fill mcast results will be sent home uh to families early next week um it's a reminder that mcast is a one important data point but only one data point you use this in collaboration with um the the materials and grades and assessments that you get in the schools and and really um you know engage with your uh children's teachers about the progress of your kids we'll also be doing a presentation in um late november or december about mcast and other assessments as well some upcoming events um november 9th we have early release in all buildings november 14th as well and then 16th will be elementary and ecc early release and then no school on veterans day and then we'll have thanksgiving recess coming up it's amazing how quickly this year is already going by and this is an upcoming school committee items uh school improvement plans um we'll be reviewing on october 25th we'll also give a preliminary update on the elementary master plan um that should be fairly complete uh by uh flansberg um associates that have been working on it um and then we'll also on on october 25th review our fy24 that's our current budget we'll look at realignment as well as a quarter one report um uh despite some of the um kind of rumblings in the community the fy24 budget looks um sound and we'll be able to give you some of the details of that uh on um october 25th and then um november to november we'll have superintendent goals and evaluation process and then also um vote to approve the capital budget submission to town in late november we have some preliminary uh information on that today dr patello i did unshare the those other slides but it didn't take in the presentation so give me if you want to give me a minute to refresh sure yeah that'd be great yeah we just have a couple more um about our um calendar subcommittee that has been working um uh that they include julie roe uh when tiano and shana blenke um we're looking to evaluate the calendar uh especially around observances of cultural and religious holidays um looking to propose a calendar um that adequately reflects the diversity and sharing um the next steps was to conduct a survey of the community regarding cultural and religious observances this will include uh family members teachers and administrators and also meet to evaluate the survey and create a proposal for the school committee um so this is a chart um that was put together by uh julie roe and the uh committee that kind of looks at what how um others have tried to balance uh observing our various uh holidays especially religious holidays um within their communities just for reference and this will be included in your packet as well and then the survey will send out in the weekly dispatch and the link will be promoted to get as wide a view as possible so please please we encourage you to take that survey and encourage your friends as well so we can get as much community input as possible so next we're going to go to our fiscal year 2023 so that's last year a fiscal year um and ellen windermore is going to review um report just move on to their kind of just ask the committee are there any questions or comments on the general updates doesn't look like there are all right moving on all righty i'm having some uh technical issues with my video this evening so i apologize this evening's presentation is on the fy 23 financial report for the fiscal 23 budget which went from july 1st 2022 through june 30th 2023 next slide the fy 23 budget um was appropriated at springtime meeting in 2022 of 49 million 520 thousand 966 dollars we received a reserve fund transfer at the may 17th 2023 finance committee for a legal settlement revised fy 23 appropriated budget which totaled 49 million 695 966 included the appropriated budget plus the reserve fund transfer the district expended from july 1st 2022 to june 30th 2023 the district had 159 445 thousand 445 thousand dollars encumbered in purchase orders that remained opened and were carried into fy 24. the school department returned zero dollars to the town upon closing as the entire local budget was appropriated and fully expended and committed for fy 23 next slide please the fy 23 year end fiscal review will include the general expenditure report through june 30th 2023 it will include the year-to-date budget report from unis which includes the appropriated budget the revised budget which is the sum of the original appropriation plus additional any transfers year-to-date expended which is the actual expenditures posted in the financial system as of june 30th 2023 and encumbrances which posted to the financial system as of june 30th 2023 the available budget would be the total remaining funds available as of june 30th 2023 next slide please the fiscal review by location for each of our major areas the each of these elementary schools as well as secondary elementary and early childhood it shows that we were appropriated the 49 million 520 966 there was the adjustment of the 175 000 which was the reserve fund transfer for a rise budget of 49 million 695 966 we expended through june 30th 49 million 536 521 and carried it forward 159 445 dollars in open purchase orders into fiscal year 24 and then the next slide please important finance um dates for us the town distributed on september 19th the capital project forms and instructions i'm giving providing the update to school committee this evening on the fy 23 year-end close there will be a preliminary review this evening of capital project requests requests on october 18th um and actually that meeting was cancelled i apologize on october 25th the school committee update and realignment for in quarter one update will take place on october 26th the school department initial fy 25 to fy 2030 capital project will be submitted to the town and we will be providing the finance committee with an update on the fy 23 year-end fy 24 budget realignment and quarter one update there will also be the joint meeting of the select board finance committee and school committee to review financial condition and long-range needs that tri-board meeting date is still to be determined and then the additional pages in the presentation that is in your packet includes the fiscal year to date review by departments and that's just the remainder of the slides if you could just flip forward thank you and that concludes the presentation on the fy 23 fiscal review by department for the local appropriated budget thanks ellen um dr martello appropriate time to take questions from the table i see julie's hands up all right go ahead julie um thanks avi and thank you ellen um so there were some accusations that were on facebook and uh we received uh one letter asking us to clarify um my feeling is that since these accusations did not have any calculations behind them that it's very very difficult to determine where the numbers were coming from so i can't even ask you about about them since there's no analysis there but i do have a couple of questions that i think it would be great if you could explain to you know for the good of the order so um for one thing could you talk about using a zero-based budget versus a um level service budget i feel like we always use a level service budget um i i don't recall anyone using zero-based budgeting but i could be wrong um the uh uh second question i have is could you discuss about um the staff and transportation questions um and could you discuss some of the transfers like that were that were done um and i appreciate if you just sort of could address some of those questions that um you know people had um certainly so for the fy 23 budget um we did have um sign we did have overages in the area of special education transportation um part of that was due to um unanticipated transportation needs for um students requiring specialized transportation we also were unable to obtain um minivans for special education we had special education, we had several order, and the orders were either canceled or did not come to fruition, or we could just not get them. We have recently, within the last week, been able to procure six minivans.

And Fran Derry is working very hard to hire additional drivers.

And that will hopefully mitigate some of the issues from this past year. In terms of budget process, level service versus a zero-based budget, my experiences here, as well as in other districts, have been level service, especially in times where we are, you know, we did have a significant budget increase this past year for full-day kindergarten, as well as the COLAs and STEPS, you know, that are associated with personnel, which is a major driver for the school department budget. We also did receive an additional appropriation to offset costs for special education out-of-district tuitions.

And we plan this for FY25.

I do plan to do a line-by-line three-year look back on all of our expenditure lines to make sure that they are all in good order.

Thank you. Can I follow up, Avi? Thank you. Okay.

Thank you, Ellen.

So I was wondering if you could address the supplies and material budget and also the professional development budget?

What specific questions do you have, to me? Well, I mean, I believe that there was an accusation, I don't know, that there seemed to be a problem with using certain budgets that were supplies and material that were being spent on other things, not supplies and material.

And I think also there was the same question with professional development.

So do you like those?

I'm not sure specifically, again, because the original accuser did not provide any detailed information.

So I'm just reading off of what I got on Facebook.

And I was just wondering if you could maybe try and figure out what's being said.

Ellen, I could speak to that, Ellen. Sure. Thank you, Dr. Patel. Over the last several years, we've been trying to identify areas within the budget that have been historically not fully utilized and have been historically used in different areas.

And so, you know, we definitely use our supplies and our professional developments to meet our needs. We also know that in times of unexpected costs, whether it's special education, transportation, or other things, we need to find ways in order to help fund those.

And those can include numerous areas, but including, you know, our supplies and professional development.

But certainly, we're committed to making sure that kids have the supplies that they need. And we're certainly, and work very closely with the STA around making sure that professional development will be starting a professional development committee with our STA counterparts coming out of the last contract to really make sure that we continue to grow and improve in that area.

So you're saying that the professional development is being worked out with the STA? And I, have there been any complaints or, you know, like overall problems with this that are an issue?

There have not. And I, the other thing that I'm saying is that we're continuing to, you know, each year realign our budget in a way that more accurately meets our needs. Because historically, there again, have been some areas that, you know, have not been completely aligned to needs and been used in other areas, not just this past year, but in past years as well. And I think the school committee and administration and the STA are very excited about that professional development committee.

So I was wondering if you could address the issue of the nutrition account, $50,000.

Could you, could you describe that? Sure.

So the district is permitted to charge indirect costs to grants as well as food service accounts.

In FY22, the prior finance director did calculate indirect costs for food service.

It was found during the audit of this, in the spring of April of 2023, when DESE came on and audited the FY22 food service program, that the indirect costs were not calculated correctly.

And there were issues with, with the indirect costs.

There was a finding on the corrective action plan that DESE had issued to the district to be completed, that the indirect costs for FY22 did need to be reimbursed to the food service department.

Because of the lateness in the fiscal year, it was, I want to say it was right around April, May, when we were going back and forth with them regarding the corrective action plan. I did ask if we would be permitted to do so in FY24. And they said that that would be fine, knowing that we would be able to offset the charges going back to food service for the indirect costs for FY22 with additional indirect costs collected in FY24.

Thank you, Ellen. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.

Oh, can I, I'm so sorry, Shauna and Adam, I just want one more question, which is, could you talk a little bit about the issue of the transfers?

So the transfers, for the end of the year, we do, we do a final budget cleanup over the summer, after all of the expenditures and purchase orders are finalized.

And that usually takes place the end of July through August. And moving forward, those transfers will be brought to school committee for school committee to review and approve prior to transfers being made.

So a final question that is, Ellen, we sat in six months of negotiations together, were you, were you hiding any information from us that, that, you know, prevented us from making the best decision possible when we negotiated with the union?

No.

Okay.

Peter, were you lying to the public during the, the last town meeting?

No.

Okay.

Could you elaborate on the question that was asked before about like the, the, I guess, I guess I'm a little confused because I don't, I don't, I don't think that I saw a lie. Um, but you know, there's a person running rampant on Facebook making accusations that aren't described.

And I think that that's, you know, Dr. Patel, can I, can I take this for one second, Julia? Yeah. I, I appreciate you talking. I, I understand where you're coming from and I appreciate your interest in transparency here. I think like, sometimes it's tough, like, you know, when we entertain social media comments on this, like, look at the end of the day, it's not a secret that the, albeit extremely briefly, former chair, uh, I mean, extremely briefly, former chair, um, seems to have a lack of an understanding of our budget. And in fairness, if you talk to, if you talk to the folks that came into the admin after that disastrous school committee, they will tell you that like, I mean, this, the public saw that we brought in an outside consultant to recreate a budget because it was so, so poorly done.