All right.

Welcome to the February 28th meeting of the Sharon School Committee.

This meeting will be conducted remotely over Zoom. Attendance by board and 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 elect to enable your webcam, your image and background, maybe broadcast with or without sound. As always, we'll begin our meeting with public comments.

I ask that everybody limit their comments to two minutes.

Comments can be about any and all things.

There will be the budget hearing later in which comments will be specifically about the budget. That doesn't mean that these comments can't be about the budget. Just want to make sure I give people a heads up where their opportunity to speak will be. There will be two opportunities to speak tonight.

Without further ado, does anybody want to keep time? Julie, thank you. I see Judy Crosby's hand. I'm hitting ask on mute.

I feel like you did this last time too.

Is anybody else able to try? I'm hitting ask on mute. I'm hitting ask on mute.

I just tried.

Didn't work, right?

I see Judy's still muted.

I'm readmitting her.

Okay.

That might help. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you.

Thank you. I'm sorry.

I had to admit twice because it's not letting me show my video or unmute on my iPad.

So I don't know if something is going to be a little bit more.

I don't know if I'm going to be a little bit more. I don't know if anything happened there. I apologize.

I'll leave on my iPad and try and come back in on it, but probably leave my phone on as well. So I had a couple comments.

One, I wanted to ask the chair, the way the agenda is set up. It has the public hearing happening before the discussion of fees. And I really strongly believe that a discussion of fees and the revolving account is fully part of a discussion of the budget, particularly as the line item budget that was sent out has references to, you know, increasing user fees in some of the line item explanations for both the bus and for athletics.

So my request is that the chair use his discretion and move the budget hearing to after the budget discussion and after the fee presentation and discussion so that the public has the ability to have all the information and comment on all the budget information.

I also wanted to note that the link on your agenda is not working for a lot of people.

So, you know, folks have to enter their, the member ID and password.

It's not easy to find.

I've had three people reach out and tell me they can't get into the meeting.

So you might consider whether you want to allow a second open forum or a second chance at it a little bit deeper into the meeting because I think you have people who are trying to get in and are unsuccessful.

Um, my third point was, um, I did send an email to the school committee.

I'm disappointed that I've not seen a meaningful response from the school committee.

And I discussed this privately with the chair on February 15th. There's a lot of vitriol in this town right now about our new families living in the shelter system and they're being referred to in very unfortunate ways. And I think the fact that our superintendent and business manager, assistant superintendent.

Excuse me, Ms. Crosby, you're like 15 seconds over.

Ms. Crosby, you're over your time limit.

That's fine. I know it's an inconvenient truth, Julie, the one you're xenophobic.

I get it.

Please do better.

You have a DEI goal.

Attempt to meet it.

That's quite enough. Thank you. Um, I will, I will take Ms. Crosby's, um, suggestion that we rearrange the agenda so as to allow the public to weigh in after the fee discussion and after the budget proposal.

Um, thank you. I see Carol Bratt.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Great. Um, my name is Carol Bratt and I'm a proud first grade teacher at Heights Elementary, as well as a member of the SD negotiating team this past year.

A process that was full of collaboration and respect on both sides of the table.

I just feel like I need to respond to some comments that were made at the last meeting, um, that were truly insulting to, um, the elementary teachers of, um, of this community.

Um, specifically to Ms. Crosby, it is clear that you are disturbed by how we use the extra 20 minutes of work each day that was negotiated in our latest contract.

Um, you could have reached out and asked instead of making your own assumptions.

One of the things that you may not know is that our teachers filled out a survey with results stating that we were already using these extra 20 minutes towards prepping for our classes.

Remember that in elementary school, we teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, as well as SEL. We took some time after 3.30, of course, to bring to light just a few of the things that we do besides, you know, just picking up a good book to hang out and just read as you stated at the last meeting.

Um, we make parent calls and send emails.

Um, we hold additional parent conferences past the conferences that we are contractually obligated to do.

Um, we make win groups.

We prepare those win materials.

Photocopying, meeting with our administrators.

Bus, walk, or car pickup duty. This is a job that we do that has taken us past a contractual time for the whole 28 years that I've been with the Sharon Public Schools.

We correct papers.

We reflect on those corrections to make sure that we are meeting the needs of all students.

We have consults between education and education teachers that needs to consistently happen. We are exploring the library and consulting with the librarian on books needed for specific curriculum topics, or more importantly, in the love of reading at an early age.

Organizing and recharging technology.

Learning about new technology.

Reviewing online content.

Hanging student hallways or in the classroom.

Collaborating with our grade level and special area teams about curriculum and student needs. Um, teachers are preparing art, music, library, physical education, and technology lessons and materials.

20 minutes.

And Ms. Crosby, we know that your response is what you said, is that some might do it, but all might not.

My feeling is that you do not get to degrade our life's work and reputation to the Sharon community in one of your rants on these meetings.

You just don't.

Thank you, everyone.

Thanks, Mrs. Brown.

Lauren Grasso.

Hi there.

Lauren Grasso. I just wanted to take a moment and say that despite ongoing budget concerns, I really appreciate that there's been, you know, there's updating to literacy materials in elementary and the middle and high school math curriculum.

I'm just really happy to see that's a priority. And I look forward to hearing what programs were chosen.

But I am wondering what role teachers and leaders are going to have in reviewing and piloting these materials.

I just think that's very important. And with that, I hope there's effective professional development and strong oversight around its use because a program really is only as good as the training that's provided and the level of commitment around accountability.

So that's it. Thanks.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. Thank you. Casey McLaughlin.

Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Hi. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. Hi.

Thank you. I would say, I would say right off the bat that we need to get rid of the free kindergarten program. That's an easy one. We all had to pay before and it's not needs based, so I think we can get rid of it. While it's great that the union negotiated a contract that guaranteed them a raise every year, the vast majority of us civilian taxpayers have not had an increase or a raise. We're being asked to underwrite the poor budgeting and mismanagement of school funds. I don't want to cut any teacher positions or funding for academic programs whatsoever, but I do believe that these coordinator positions have got to go. When I was teaching in Easton, which spends far less per pupil, by the way, there were no coordinators.

There were department heads who taught three classes instead of five per day, but those department heads did the coordinating and received a stipend on top of their salary, not a whole new position.

Next, we need to examine these administrative positions more closely.

I think there is some serious redundancy, especially in the virtue signaling department.

What exactly does an assistant superintendent of equity and engagement do that a new DEI director doesn't?

Why have we spent 70,000 on an outside consultant named Katie Novak who single handedly ruined Barrington Public Schools by destroying their honors program?

Lastly, we need to examine every single student who is not connected to a tax paying resident and make some tough decisions.

Yes, I'm touching the third rail, the METCO program.

According to the Boston Globe article posted in November of 23, the METCO program reimburses $8,300 per pupil.

We spend 19,350 per pupil.

That's a balance of $11,000 per kid. Multiply that by the 62 METCO kids we had last year, and that's a shortfall of $685,000.

So maybe I'm wrong that we're getting all of that money, but according to the Boston Globe, we're not. And somehow we needed an entire FTE to coordinate the program at a cost of $90,000.

That is total insanity for another administrator.

That's a high price for families who are living check to check and seniors on fixed incomes to have to subsidize in order to virtue signal that we're woke. And don't get me started on the non-citizens because I know there is no one in this entire district who has backbone enough to put this on our little- Ms. McLaughlin, you're over time. Georgia and Lewis.

Hi, thanks.

So a couple of just questions.

I know you might cover it when you get to the budget, so just maybe in the back of everyone's head. You did a line item.

I had mentioned this last meeting on per-people cost comparing us to other towns that I know we aspire to keep up with as far as our academic standing.

But when you looked at the numbers you presented for the state, we fall pretty solid in our per-people cost across the state in that chart and as well as in our North Rock County, Hockamock area. So, a little explanation around where we feel like we're falling short there would be helpful for me. Kindergarten is a big question.

What's the status of that? I didn't see that anywhere, but I may have missed it. My apologies if I did. And then I just wanted to comment, I mean, for myself as an educator and for other people in the community I have talked to, I think people are very happy that, I mean, personally I am. I'm an educator and I just ratified a contract in a neighboring town. We want, that's the union's job, to get their teachers paid. And again, I commend you. Adding 20 minutes to the end of the day, I don't, I mean, I haven't read your specific language, but I know I'm the same thing. I'm in an hour, an hour and a half before school starts and same afterwards.

That's my choice.

It's not a contractual expectation.

And I'm just wondering if that was the point that was trying to be clarified.

Is it that 20 minutes you're expected to work or we just choose to because we're in education and we don't have a choice. That's what we have to do. We have to make copies. We have to plan. I mean, it's kind of what we sign up for. And I think everybody respects, I hope the fact that we do that for their children.

I know I respect the teachers in this town that do it for mine. So I think for me, the question there is, is it a contractual obligation that 20 minutes or is it just something that's already being done? So it was added in. I don't think it was a point of contention to disparage the teachers. At least I didn't take it that way. I can't speak for the rest of the public. Yes, I heard you.

That's time. I got you, Julie. Have a nice night. Good night.

Is that obvious?

Is that me?

I think I've is muted, but then I think you're good to go.

Okay.

Thank you. No worries.

Thank you. I just want to say I agree with a lot of what what Ms. McLaughlin said, especially regarding the administration redundancy.

I think that's a point of contention.

We clearly have a lot of challenges in the school districts, as many others do. But like with my family and any family, we have to live within our means. And that results in prioritizing needs over wants. And I feel like too often this district doesn't do that. This is an opportunity to correct that. And as a family, we don't prioritize vacations over the mortgage.

And as a district, we need to make sure that we're prioritizing the correct things.

You know, it's 2024 and connectivity is more important than ever. So when I heard that the network administrator position, assuming correctly that that's what this position is, with the connectivity, the Wi-Fi and everything, making sure that all of that runs smoothly within all the schools, was potentially one of the first items in the chopping block. I said, there has to be somewhere else that we can cut, you know, to save what will continue to be, you know, a very important position moving forward. And I honestly think that the place to cut this first is from DEI. A lot of people might disagree, but we should be removing all references to and positions dedicated to DEI. This would include the $70,000 a year coordinator position and all future training.

These cuts would at least pay for the much needed network administrator position, more so than the DEI coordinator, and also potentially provide additional funds that are going to be a lot of the most important. And we need to do a better job of prioritizing the actual needs of this district over the wants. And once we do that, we'll be on a path to a more balanced budget that actually addresses the needs of the district.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor Belenke.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Hi. Sorry, I forgot the camera.

Can you guys hear me? Thanks.

Yes.

Fantastic.

So I wasn't expecting to speak this early in the meeting, but I was really touched by what Mrs. Bratz said. I actually had the fortune of sharing an apartment with a teacher earlier on in my life. And every day she came home from work, took out her grading book and got to work. So I think we really do need to prioritize our teachers.

We need to respect the time that they do give to our students.

And part of that is we need to keep our classroom size small. And as we make these difficult decisions, keep the teachers and focus on where else can we make cuts. Ask ourselves what positions are new to the district, which maybe didn't exist six years ago, you know, while the district kept on working.

So I do think we need to cut anyone involved in curriculum decisions.

Anytime, which is being we're paying people to cut honors classes.

I think that we need to look and maybe cut those positions.

I think also we need to start looking at student population.

We do have new students.

And as an immigrant, I really feel we need to emphasize ESL for the new students we have staying at those hotels.

But that does mean to beg the question with those new students, with the proposed redistricting for multifamily housing.

We need to think of do we need to be accepting students from out of district?

Is that still sustainable?

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Wendy MacArthur.

I just wanted to speak on behalf of the budget.

You know, one thing that I'm noticing is that there's a lot of talk about what is necessary in schools and what is not necessary in schools. And all of these are by people who have never worked in a school or by the select committee, except Shauna, who aren't in the schools every day. They don't know how they're managed. And sometimes you need to listen to the administrators.

You need to listen to the teachers. You need to listen to what they're saying and what they need on how to give the best stuff that our students need. Because you don't see everything that goes on behind the scenes. You don't see, you know, we need a DII director.

Because the amount of emails I'm getting just at the middle school about what's happening in the middle school and the anti-Semitism that is happening and the things being drawn on bathroom walls. You need somebody there who is helping us. I just think you need to listen to the people who are on the ground in the schools doing the work. Thank you. Thank you.

Matt Goyette.

Matt Goyette.

Matt Goyette.

Yeah.

Hey, I'll be quick. I, I want to express my disappointment and frustration at the school committee's ludicrous budgetary proposal.

it seems to be a reoccurring theme here.

Clarification.

The school committee hasn't made a budget proposal yet.

Just a clarification.

Administration has.

Go ahead. This comes down to your inability to prioritize requirements.

You can only distinguish between a need to have and a nice to have, which is a very basic financial skill.

I was curious if you honestly propose of this, or if you think that this would go over well. And if you did, it's obvious just how out of touch you really are.

I yield my time.

All right, Mrs. Frost.

Hi, I just want to say that several years ago, I advocated for FLESS, the language program.

Language is the gateway to diversity.

That was $65,000.

And yet we went from FLESS in the elementary schools three days a week to just one day a week. We keep taking away from our families.

If we're interested in diversity, equity, inclusion, let's focus on providing our children with the resources to learn languages so that they can bridge the gap between cultures.

Also, I'm aware that the DEI positions, they're not to help the families who experience diversity issues in the schools.

They're really to buffer the schools from liability.

And a lot of families don't understand that.

They think that the intention of those positions are to help families.

And they are not. They just help the district.

It makes me also wonder about the liability expense that we're not seeing, that I did not see in the budget. How much are we spending on attorneys?

Because I am aware that attorneys are being hired for a lot of things.

Thank you.

Lori Beeler.

Hi.

I wasn't planning on talking today, but I just wanted to say I'm really shocked at how many people are against diversity, equity, and inclusion.

And the diversity, equity, and inclusion position is to support our students.

It's not about placating political...

I don't know.

It's to support our students.

And our students need it. And I'm just shocked that so many people have been calling for the position to be cut. So anyway, just wanted to put a different voice out there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Donna Correspondence, Julie Rowe.

Okay.

Where did I put it?

The school committee received eight pieces of correspondence between February 14th, 2024, at 9 a.m.

and February 28th, 2024, at 9 a.m.

We received several updates from MECO, including Millie's MECO Monday newsletter celebrating Black History Month, as well as information on a professional development opportunity for school committee members.

Community members wrote to express their concerns regarding the recommended fiscal year 25 operating budget. They questioned the priorities reflected in the budget and acknowledged that the district is faced with difficult choices.

Congressman Jake Alkencloss sent an invitation to attend a roundtable, a virtual roundtable, that was held on February 23rd.

School committee members were asked to participate in a survey conducted by a doctoral student at the University of Toulouse, which focused on civic education in public schools in the United States.

A community member wrote to express concern regarding the language used by the district when referring to new students who are being housed in the state's shelter system.

A student wrote to express their support for adding the Muslim Eid holiday to the district calendar.

The president of Sharon Travel Basketball wrote to express their concerns with the fees charged to nonprofits for gym time at the Sharon public schools.

And that's it. Thanks, Julie.

Do we have a student rep update?

Just go raise your hand.

All right. Seeing no hand, I will move it to the superintendent for his general updates.

I think we have a hand.

Oh, there we go. Awesome.

All right. I'll throw it over to our student rep.

Mr. Shahir.

Yeah. Hello.

My name is Newt. I'm part of the student advisory committee for the Fresh Air High School.

And I'm just going to give a quick update of what's going on at the high school.

You know, we got AP exams coming up. We got prom.

Following February break, we started this new, like, program to limit the phone usage in the classroom.

So, you know, a lot of new things happening in the high school. But in regards to the budget, there are, like, some issues with clubs and transportation that we kind of have.

You know, some kids at the high school, students at the high school have been facing trouble paying for transportation, for the events that they've been working on for the entire year, or even just for certain clubs.

So if the budget is willing to, you know, to support that, to help fund for larger clubs and transportation for these clubs, that would be great.

But other than that, me or any other student representatives that are here, we'll try and give our update if we have any issues with the budget.

But other than that, we'll just be in the background listening.

If you have our input, then, yeah.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Newt. That was great advocacy.

Appreciate you.

All right.

Now I'll throw it over to the superintendent for his general updates.

Great.

Thank you very much.

I'm going to try to keep this relatively short because we have a big budget presentation ahead.

But we do have tons of great academic, artistic, and athletic achievements going on, you know, throughout the districts with our students, to name a few. You know, students participating in the Allstate and Semispa musical festivals.

Athletics in winter have been up and running and people are getting into those end-of-the-year competitions and really making us, showing their hard work and making us proud.

We've got some theater performances with Middletown and SpongeBob the Musical, as well as a polar plunge for Special Olympics coming up at Cottage. So tons of stuff going on.

Again, we'll be going over the FY25 budget this week with an initial vote by school committee next week on March 6th.

And then also continuing to work on the school year calendar and consider the addition of additional days for next year. The school committee will be discussing whether or not they would elect to submit a statement of interest for a possible elementary school building project with the MSBA.

This does not commit the district to a project and typically, SOIs are submitted for several years prior to the MSBA extending an invitation, in which case they would then come up with their suggestions as far as renovation, you know, expansions or new buildings based upon the needs of the district.

And then we also have completed an updated draft of the bullying intervention and prevention plan and that will come in front of the school committee soon, but also you should watch out for your district-wide emails because it will be shared for a two-week period for public comment with the community.

And then Student Opportunity Act will be bringing that forth in March before the school committee and this really focuses on our goals as well as disparities in learning experiences and outcomes for student groups across.

We have a new three-year plan submission cycle so we need to submit that to the state for approval for this year.

And then also we will be bringing forth information around school choice so that the committee can make a decision on whether or not to participate in school choice this year as we do every year by statute.

So we'll bring that in April instead of later in the year as we have in the past. All right.

Are there any questions from the table?

All right. Seeing none, let's move it along.

I think next up we've got the FY25 operating budget superintendent's revised budget submission. Javi, I wonder if you want to go with the fees first just because it is both related but the budget presentation is so meaty it might be better to have that fresh right before the budgetary.

Absolutely.

I'll follow your lead there.

Yep.

All right. So next up, fees.

Okay.

So we have, you know, numerous funding sources for the schools, the operating budget, grant funding, revolving account and capital budget. I'm going to really get a focus on revolving account.

These are very specific uses and rules associated with them and they're focused on user fees that are charged to students and their families in the area of athletics, transportation, early childhood.

So some of the revenue history with respect to our revolving account, you know, the FY21 year was still a hybrid year so those numbers are expectedly a little bit different than the other ones but other than that been fairly steady with revenue being brought in in athletics, transportation, ECC over the last, you know, couple of years.

With respect to athletics, we, you know, currently have the current fees of $375 for one season, $300 for a second season and $200 for a third season with a family max of $1,250.

We also have qualifications through free and reduced lunch for a 50% reduction as well as some additional scholarships based upon need.

These fees are, you know, tend to be competitive and a bit on the higher side relative to our neighbors so that's something that we certainly consider as we're trying to, you know, bring in money to support the athletic program.

Certainly, the bulk of the athletic program is supported through the operating budget but the fees really help a lot. So, the fees cover approximately 30% of the athletic program.

Boosters, you know, really can help contribute some supplemental funding as well. We eliminated mandatory fundraising.

However, boosters can still fundraise to support our athletic programs as long as it's not done in a way that's, you know, a mandatory part of athletes' responsibilities.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: So, our operating budget costs are right around, you know, $690,000 last year, a little bit less currently for this year and then expected about similarly next year.

And then there's also some miscellaneous income through gate receipts and things like that.

As far as transportation, we are mandated to transport all students grade K through 6 outside of a 2-mile radius.

And we also mandated to transport all free and reduced lunch students in K through 12 as well.

We have a competitive big contract with Connelly Bus.

A new three-year contract was going into effect on July 2024.

We have 14 yellow buses that we currently contract out for with three tier bus routes, elementary, middle, and high school. And we have about 200 in 2023 pay-to-ride students.

Oh, in 2023, we had 884 pay-to-ride students, and in 2024, 920.

So our pay-to-ride is $600 per student.

And we have a late bus a couple days a week for no additional charge.

and this helps to offset the operating budget costs that are shown below as well.

Our recommendation for transportation as well as athletics is to not change the fees this year.

Both of these, as much as we'd like to bring in additional revenue, the fees are on the higher side.

There had been some question about if we had reduced the fees, might we bring in more riders?

That might be the case, though we would have to add additional busing in order to accommodate those riders so the offset would really not result in significant increases in funding.

And then our early childhood, we have program fees for students who are not mandated to be there through their IEPs.

Our peer model students pay for 4,133 for half days or 8,975 for full days.

And we reduce tuition for students who are qualified for free and reduced lunch or if their IEP calls for a half day and they're attending for a full day they pay for the second half of the day.

And the fees cover a lot of things including salaries of early childhood center, director, administrative assistance and several IEPs.

So the operating budget along with the 262 grant money for early childhood and, you know, supports the remainder of the cost for early childhood center.

the year. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay.

And we're recommending a 5% increase in our fees for next year.

This would support some additional expenses including salaries and supplies associated with new ECC classrooms.

You know, we want to try to bring in some additional fund while still maintaining a competitive, you know, fee when we look at other public programs but also some of our private programs in the, in Sharon in the very close region.

So this would result in our full day rate going from 8,975 to 9,423 at our half day rate going up to 4,361.

And then we have these half day twin rate or free and reduced rates. At those numbers as well. So for a 5% increase.

So again, in summary, we're looking to, we're recommending a 5% increase in early childhood and in, for transportation athletics, keeping our fees at our current rates.

We certainly would love to bring in more early childhood kids, but you know, right now space limitations does not allow to do so. So we'll just be maxing out those classrooms first starting off with students who are mandated through their IEPs to get services and then their model peers who work alongside.

It's definitely a very popular program for folks in town to be able to have their preschool in the district instead of in private preschool.

Can't hear you, Avi.

Adam.

Thank you, Dr. Patello, for reviewing that.

I had a question about the transportation.

I know we have later in the agenda a new contract that is proposed with Connolly.

And for next year, I forget the exact increase, but there's roughly a $76,000 increase over this year.

And so I guess I'm curious why we want to maintain fees given the shortage in the operating budget that we're dealing with.

That feels like that $76,000 could be utilized elsewhere or maybe offset by increasing fees.

I guess the reason we're not proposing the increase in fees is just because of the state of our current fee is a pretty significant one and is pretty high relative to other districts.

So we're just, that's the rationale. now.

Certainly you could consider raising fees above that. But if they were on the modest, the medium to low side, we certainly would propose an increase in fees. But since they are currently quite high, that's the rationale. the current contract we have, we've SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: been paying a SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: fuel escalation charge, which has driven up the cost of the contract. to the new transportation contract.

The current contract we have, we've been paying a fuel escalation charge, which has driven up the cost of the contract to, we have budgeted for FY24 between the revolving, the fees taken in, as well as the operating account, $1,206,970.

So when we look at what next year would cost, factoring in that we have taken in more fees in the last couple of years, I was actually able to keep things pretty, actually reduce what the operating budget contribution will be, again, because of the fuel escalation costs that we've been paying and the additional revenue we've been taking in in fees.

Thank you, Ellen. So if I'm playing that back, it sounds like we can maintain, we will be paying fees where they are and it won't have an impact to the operating budget.

Correct.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. We're actually going to see, when I went back and was looking at the budget, you'll actually see a reduction in the transportation line.

Awesome.

Thank you.

All right.

Great question, Adam. Thank you, Ellen.

On to when.

I think, and you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like athletic fees is the only one that has a family cap at it.

So 1250 is the family cap. If we, if someone has three or four kids in the high school and they all play three sports, 1250 is still the cap for that family.

Why?

Okay. Well, I think we should. I think that's, that's it. Yeah. That's been the, the current, current fee structure for, for quite some time. And I certainly understand something that the, that the committee can, can discuss in question.

Yeah. I mean, I certainly understand giving a discount for every additional sport and also every additional child who, and a student who plays sports, but I, I think I'd like to revisit that cap. All right.

Julie. Thank you, Avi.

I just, I had two comments and this is for some people who are new, but I, I guess, can you confirm that the same thing happened with transportation that I did in the previous contract, which is we put out the RFP and we only got one bid because there's kind of a cartel.

Is that kind of what was happening?

Like we, we weren't, we just didn't get any extra bids. Is that, that was the last time. Is that still what happened this time?

So the invitation for bids did go out.

It was posted about a week longer than it typically is posted in some cases. And it, we did only receive one bid.

I can tell you from my previous experiences that this is typical.

You know, it's for me getting a second bid would have been, would have been unusual.

That this is, you know, out in central mass up on the North shore, they tend to be pretty consistent.

Thank you.

And then the second was just a comment on the athletic fees. So a couple of the 2022, I actually looked up some of the other schools that, you know, we consider peer schools. And I would say that pretty much all of them have a family cap of something.

And I would say a lot of them are around our 1250 family cap.

And the fee structure is a, it's a little high for 375 for the first, but since we declined, there's some that are just 300, like no matter how many sports you play and, and so forth.

So I just wanted, and then other towns will like say, okay, if you're playing, you know, this sport, it costs a little more.

If you're playing this sport, it's a little bit less. So I think that those fees are pretty thought, we, we thought about them when we established them a while ago. So that's, that's kind of all I wanted to say.

Thanks, Julie.

Shauna.

Thank you.

So I have to say, my question is regarding the EEC fees.

I know as a family who, we were a private daycare family in town.

We regularly had a 5% increase.

And so while that does seem like a steep increase for one year, like I'm wondering if we can leverage a higher increase than that, because the fee is still so much less than some of our neighboring districts.

And given all that we offer to our families.

So I'm just wondering if, if we can look at that as a means of another revenue source.

Absolutely.

I'll put together some additional information. Thank you.

Thanks, Shauna.

Adam?

Thank you. Just a quick piggyback off of Wen's question.

When we're looking at the fees in the family cap, if we could just pull the number of families who are actually at that cap, I think that would also be informative.

Thanks, Adam.

I mean, I just, first of all, I appreciate, Dr. Vitello, you putting the fees or asking them to move the fees up. I do always feel like the fees are a part of the budget process and are something that we should be weighing in ways that I just heard my fellow committee members mention.

You know, seeing the presentation, which I thought was solid, it's very clear.

And I think it's important to the public to understand just as I think we're understanding that these fees do not cover the entire expense.

they offset it. So in saying that, it does, there is a seesaw between the fees and the operating budget that has to be balanced.

So to that point, I would say, you know, I think Shana makes a good point about looking at the market value of EEC.

I also think that, you know, to Wen's point, for me, look, I don't like fees. I don't think anybody here likes fees.

I don't like paying them. I don't like the other people paying them. Transportation, it feels like, you know, in a perfect world, we would provide for free.

We can't afford a lot of things that we'd like to provide for free.

Athletics is something I'd hate to think a single kid misses out on sports.

So I do think we need to always make sure that we're that we're always being really clear and proactive about the needs-based stuff in this district.

But what I will say about the athletic fees is, A, to Wen's point, the cap, it does feel like there's a little inequity in it, in the sense that, A, it's very reasonable to think that there are parents in this district that have four children who are riding bus, for example, and we don't cap that. That would be $2,400 a year to ride the bus.

It's also possible that folks in town have, say, let's just say three kids, for example, that are spaced out such that they never hit the cap, right? So they pay in full for those kids to play their sports, whereas if those kids happen to be at the high school at the same time, they hit the cap.

So I would hate to see athletic fees raised in general, although I would make the argument that in today's day and age, there's a lot of folks playing a lot of private third-party sports, and those, to Shauna's point about the market value of EC, private sports are much more expensive than our district charges. Again, it's public education.

I don't want to see that raised. I do think the cap is something we could discuss because, again, for me, it is, I'm not sure where I lean on it, but I hear a point, and I do think there's an argument to be made that the cap could lift.

Go ahead, Shauna.

Oh, sorry.

It's all good.

You're good.

All right. If there's nothing more on this, we'll move to the budget presentation.

All right, Dr.

Patel?

Yep.

Okay.

Okay. There's, again, the context for our budget, the context and approach for budget development as a part of this presentation, as well as looking at the priorities that were reflected, the budget financial summary, and then the calendar.

Including in that financial summary this time is also how we would go about reaching the 3.127%

target that's been set by the priorities committee.

You know, when we're looking at our budget, we certainly look at our district plan and our priorities around district and school culture, educational excellence, and how we infuse more innovative student-centered learning experiences, and how we do that in a way that meets the needs for all students and make sure that all students have a feeling of belonging and inclusion in our district.

Part of our context is certainly this budget here in Sharon, as well as throughout the region is a very, very tight budget year.

We focus on maintaining level service to begin with in order to provide a quality education and service for our kids.

This starts off with the core of this is contractual obligations, then contractual increases for non-personnel- related expenses, such as transportations and facilities, the funding of mandated requirements, an effort to look at enrollment and maintain appropriate class sizes, as well as the continuing support of critical initiatives, including MTSS, our curriculum review, and infusing more challenging student-centered learning experiences for kids.

Our process included consulting with school and district leaders to identify needs, calculating the cost, our set costs, with respect to contractual obligations, as well as analyzing enrollment and class sizes, looking at opportunities to restructure, shift, and reduce as possible.

We've really looked over the last couple of years, looking at every place that we could shift around money to have it meet the needs of the district while trimming any fad in areas that has existed.

Working collaboratively with the town during the process, looking at risky places where we need to prepare, including projected out-of-district tuitions, as well as utility costs, and identify reduction areas for discussion.

That's part of what we're doing in this process tonight. So we look at our budget, the core, core part of our budget, 85% of it is salaries, and this is very similar in other districts as well.

It was perhaps identical when we were looking at Westwood's budget presentation earlier this week, and then we have areas of special education and transportation, all of the non-salaries utilities in other areas, athletics.

When we look at the salary part of the pie, 75% of that is going to teachers, almost 9% to IAs, 6% to others.

So that includes, you know, tutors as well as instructional, as well as building substitutes, as well as some people who are on separate contracts, some central office support staff, people like that. Then we have building level admin, district admin, and maintenance staff and custodians.

So those portions really are the biggest driver, the contractual salary obligations that we have for our staff.

They drive the budget.

They are really driving our increases. The other places that really have caused the increases that we've seen this year and over the last couple of years are special education costs, whether it's tuition or salaries for special education services within our district.

You know, we've added salary positions in special education here in order to rent, first serve kids based upon their IEP needs.

These are legally mandated needs and needs that the kids have in order to really be successful and have a free and appropriate education, which is part of the law and part of what we want to do for kids.

But it's also a way to make sure that we keep kids in district and don't pay even more exorbitant costs through tuitions out of district placements.

Our current increase is for a level service budget was a 5.97% increase over FY24.