[0:00:05] I think we'll have you open this at the public hearing. We'll just do a brief presentation, then you'll close that and then go into your regular board meeting. OK. And that's the way it was advertised, public hearing at special court. OK, great. Thank you. Good evening. Welcome to the October 26 special meeting of the Concord Board of Education. Ms. Bushe, will you take the roll? Ms. Campbell? Here. Mr. Dubois? Here. Ms. Hastings? Here. Higgins here miss meeker here miss Minow here miss sadowski here miss Walsh here and I am here we have a quorum we are here to discuss finalizing the 26-27 budget anything we do tonight will require seven votes why don't we start with public testimony Do you have a presentation?
[0:01:01] We'll do a presentation real quick just about what happened the other night. So at a very high level, what happened the other night based on what the finance committee discussed that did not make a recommendation. This would account for the 14 EAs and some of the other adjustments that the superintendent will go through again momentarily. But this is what the expenditure adjustment is. If you remember, this also includes the finalizing the memorial field out of the trust fund, the bleachers, and all the various items in that handout that needed to be adjusted for this budget. On the revenue side, you see the local change of the 1.3 million.
[0:01:59] State there's some additional aid in state compared to the March budget. And then on the federal no change and then the other which is money coming out of the transfer out of the trust fund that shows what that difference is and then we'll get into the special ed positions so I'll undo this and give this to you.
[0:02:52] Thank you. I'm not sure if second screen is good to start presentation. It's working. It's working. Yeah, but just do that and then make it big. So this is some adjustments after our presentation. Previously, the request of the board was that we go back and continue to look at a few things. And Jack will share one of the things the request of the board is one, to continue to look at other line items that we could reduce, not reduce,
[0:03:52] but reallocate into special ed. We focus predominantly on special education lines of either unfilled positions, services we no longer needed to provide because a student may have aged out, transportation services, contracted services. So we looked at all these lines where we had surplus remaining and we didn't spend what we needed and we reallocated it to positions. The things that we were trying to satisfy here, this is 0.8 BGS occupational therapists. We had 0.6 in the budget already. We were requesting to add a 0.2 to this position and this is because we did have somebody hired, but they resigned stating that it was not possible to do the job in three days a week that they needed a minimum four days a week to do it.
[0:04:51] I thought that would be more appropriate. Originally when we came, we asked for a charter school special educator and private school for that matter because of equitable services as well as our obligation to students who are in charter schools within the city of Concord or in charter schools and there are students with IEPs who are required to provide services. Originally, we were requesting a .75. Later on tonight, I'll share some information with you. Again, identifying students in charter schools that were never attended a Concord High School or a Concord, or Runlet Middle School for that matter, left up to elementary in charter school and are identified and now requiring services. So I'll bring that forward that we raised this from a .75 believing at this point in time, we do need a 1.0 FTE for general special educator to service students in charter and private schools.
[0:05:49] Education assistance originally was 23, we reallocated three positions from the SAU to drop it down to 20 total FTEs at approximately 840,000. And assistance, they are servicing students in the classroom providing academic and social emotional support, behavioral support. They are a service provider written into students' IEPs. This is the breakdown of the need, oh, this is the breakdown of the need across the various schools. Millbook School is requesting nine ed assistants, ADS, four ed assistants, BGS, five, CMS, two, one at RMS, one at CHS, and we do have one due to a foster placement that is in a school outside of our district, but we are required to provide the services for them. Beaver Meadow is okay? Beaver Meadow is okay at this point in time. In fact, Mrs. Allen was sharing with me today
[0:06:49] after a personnel wreck, she believes she is fully staffed. Here is the breakdown. Again, the board instructed us to continue to look and see if there were other areas we could reduce. Perhaps programs we did not come to the cost that we expected or subscriptions that we didn't need as many licenses to renew, but working with Jack, working with Kaylee, taking a look across student services and other general budget line items, we have reallocated these resources are from various buckets. Some of this is due to out of dis-replacement and other resources within student services, the bulk of it related to students aging out and no longer needing transportation or the services and out of dis-replacement. Some of this over here is due to reallocation of positions that we had again at the district level that we reallocated to student services
[0:07:47] so that they would be able to afford additional EAs. And between these two, we were able to make up the cost of six additional EAs. Over here, this is a cost of covering the charter school, special education teacher we are requesting That is running at a factory and a master's five of $127,000. Again, taking various part-time positions, meshing them together to come up with a CEA equivalent of 127 master's plus five position. After reducing to the pro-rated, given the time span we are in the year, we are almost a quarter away through the year. By the time we hire individuals, fill these positions. We see a rough cost to fulfill this, these positions after reallocating these funds from various line items to offset the cost
[0:08:42] going from $860,876 down to $477,876.
[0:08:57] And just in summary, what we request the board consider is adding a .2 FTE to the BGS occupational therapist, adding 1.0 FTE for charter school special educator and the cost of a 14 educational assistance. So that's above what we already have allocated? That is above what we budgeted last year. Ms. Binker and then Ms. Minow. Yep, I just had had a question in finance about the floating nurse FTE. Yeah, you're looking at about $57,000 add. So it's not part of this presentation? It is not in there, no. I think you asked for that number. Ms. Van Allen, it was hazing. I thought in the previous slide we just said we were able to find internal funds reallocated to cover that charter school special educator.
[0:09:52] So is that request that was on the final slide additional funding? No, no. That's just giving me the go ahead to move a substantial number of funds. You understanding what I'm doing? And just that's not necessarily a vote that you need to take. I just need to nod like yes, we want to give you that direction to go on that. That they would I do need the vote on would be the final cost of the 477,000 because that would be in addition to the tax rate. The final slide said 14 EAs. It is 14. We went from 23 to 20 to 14. 14 is additional net. I guess I'm a little confused about what... So we took 23 and we reallocated three district positions right out of the gate that were for instructional assistance at the district level, reassigned the buildings to knock that down to 20. And then through reallocation of funds
[0:10:49] for various out of district costs, contracted services, we no longer need transportation services, we no longer need, came up with the cost of an additional four EAs. So that knocked it from 20 down to 16. And then in addition to that, we started looking into other buckets through subscriptions and things we no longer need Students aged out, moved out, families left the district, so we didn't have to pay for certain things. We allocated those funds into a bucket of about $85,000 and that allowed us to reduce the EA demand down to 14 EAs. And then what we did is budgeted a master's five for the general special educator, found again, looking at going through all those parts I just discussed plus some outside of student services as was directed by the board to make up a full FT of a master's five CEA position because that's what a special educator would come in
[0:11:47] and we were able to find those costs. So the funds for that through other unallocated funds due to whether it was an unfilled position, somebody left, resigned and we still had a vacancy and reallocated it. What we couldn't come up with was the fund for the additional 14 educational assistance. And the number seems a little low, but it is prorated for being a quarter of the year through this school year. Understood. I just wanted to make it clear that we are covering all 23 needs. We are. But the additional request is for the 14 remaining to cover.
[0:12:28] Am I correct in understanding that all of these positions and all of these costs are student services costs for special education? Yes. And what is our plan in the event? I mean, these are new positions from August to October. Are we suddenly capped? We don't let any more kids in? I mean, what's gonna happen for the rest of the year? We'll be, I don't have a simple answer for that, but ultimately we'll have to look at reductions in the year if we have to be coming compliance with IUPs and where those reductions come from, we will have to do some serious digging into the budget and consider some very tough cuts in the middle of a tight budget to begin with. Other questions? Just a heavy sigh. Heavy sigh, yes. Thank you.
[0:13:25] I appreciate every little bit of help, So your work on only giving the funds that we need for the rest of the year, I think, is important, even though we will probably have to ease into those costs next year as well. OK. So you can debate that when you go into your regular meeting. Just as far as the summary, I just wanted to say what the valuation had come in. And based on the valuation coming in, I want to stress that until the Department of Revenue finalizes it, this is just what we anticipated to be. Usually, this is right, but it's a different kind of year with a major reassessment. So the budget that you approved in March,
[0:14:22] what with this budget, if you approve what was presented tonight, you're going to go from last year's rate, which was the 1481 for the local, that will go down to 1101, or $3.80, or a 25% decrease in the local rate. And again, this includes the adjustments. And then the state is going from $1.58 to $1.09, and you have no control over that, but it is part of the education tax. So you will see instead of 1639 last year, it's 1210 this year, or a $4.29 decrease. The local valuation was through 7.325 billion, and I think that's up from 4.6 billion. And then the state rate without utilities is 6.9 billion. So, okay. Questions?
[0:15:22] I have a question now. We, the additional net increase due to special education costs was 477, 876. But in one of the earlier slides, the increase in local was 1.3 million. Am I getting that right? I'm trying to understand what additional funds we are authorizing if there's anything other than the special education costs. So the net add that is to the taxes is a million fifty-five. Right, thank you. Eight eighty six sixty-five. So that also includes the paraprofessionals, but the workers comp adjustment and memorial field, right? Yep, memorial field for appropriation. I mean, that's the net of what's hitting the taxes.
[0:16:21] That whole $2 million has to do with the $600 million for the memorial field, the $200,000 for the- But those are- The $682 million are coming out of reserves. That's correct. Not local taxes. Correct. I mean, the reserves came out of local taxes. Once upon a time. Yeah. Once upon a time, yeah. I think I did this early on. Just free and reduced funds, state legislation, we'll see where that goes. The adequacy, obviously, that impacted this year. Because just to reiterate, you got hit with $3.4 million in March and then another $720,000 just recently. Reduction. Reduction. And state it. So 4.1 million of this money, approximately before this valuation, about 6% of your original tax rate
[0:17:16] was because of loss of revenue from the state. And then in 28, as we're already starting to think about that and create that, you'll see the New Hampshire retirement rates are being adjusted. Fortunately, they're going down a little bit. So that's a good thing. State by annual budget will be happening. and then obviously the free and reduced applications. Health insurance, the average increase for health insurance was 16.7. We will get our rate November 13th. So hopefully we do better than that. And I think that is not for now. Right. Is anyone here to testify? OK, then please come up and sign in.
[0:18:10] You can just leave it there and you'll sit. Okay, I really didn't plan the speech, so I'm not going to say much. I was just going to listen. So I'm just trying to learn. Hi again, I'm Jessie Maruncy. I am an advocate for our special education community, as well as a mother of a special education student. As I just said, I didn't prepare to speak tonight at all, but after sitting through this special hearing,
[0:19:05] I just felt like I really just wanted to say something because the words special education have come up in this conversation so many times tonight, dozens of times actually. I started to count because I started to get a little bit maybe shameful and maybe embarrassed and frustrated that my daughter is part of what feels like a problem in this room tonight. And I feel sorry that it feels like she's part of what's creating such a big frustration and issues. And I don't want to feel that way, right? And that's what I talked about at our last school board meeting was letting our love be bigger and letting our love for the education system and why we're all sitting in this room and why I just showed up as a mom just to learn just because maybe one day I want to sit at this table and do this.
[0:20:01] And it's just remember everybody at this table when we're speaking in our community and when we're speaking at these meetings, when we're talking about our special education community and when we're talking about cutting and making hard decisions, let's remember to empower those individuals too to know that we're making those hard cuts to make sure that they feel valued at school and they feel like they are worthy of those cuts. And not that our atypical learners are not, because they absolutely are, but everyone deserves the same chances. And so just as a mom and someone that really, really cares, I really want to thank everyone in this room for making those decisions and sitting at this table and spending this time. And yeah, that's all. So see you guys next week. Thank you. And you know, it is a hard conversation because this is where costs are growing. But I think it's important for you know, This board has continued to recognize
[0:21:00] that we have both a legal and a moral responsibility to make sure all of our students have the support that they need, which is why we're having this discussion. But also we want the broader community to understand that we have this obligation and we're gonna meet it and it's, but it is also going to cost money and people should call their legislators. We can do it and we can choose our heart and we are so capable. So I'm excited to see what we can do and what you guys decide. And yeah, I don't get out there and vote. Thank you. Your child is not the problem. Yeah. Thank you. I hope she's not. She's the reason. She's the best. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Anyone else? I'm going to close the public hearing.
[0:21:50] I know you have a proposed motion. Could you tell me what the final number, we have this sheet from the finance got
[0:22:04] on Wednesday last Wednesday.
[0:22:49] So on the longer front side, the only adjustment there, if you look at the very last line, It says fund balance to reduce taxes. Remember I had projected 1.7 million. It was actually $1,707,302.16. We'll take every penny. That goes back. So that's why the revenue is a little higher because of that. So that you're in even 1.7 now. And then on the flip side, you see the only adjustment there was the power professionals, that 476-800, that's the 14. And that's based on the adjustments made by recommendations from the committee. So my math, it feels like it's not math thing.
[0:23:41] I feel like the sum should be $1,190 as opposed to $1,555,000. So the $1,190 sum, the reason for the $130,000 difference is because we prorated those positions. No, no, no. I feel like it should be lower than it came. So we had, the number we had last week was $1,193,563. And then we subtracted $193,373. So it feels like we have $55,000 too much in here. Somebody check my math because I'm like scratching as I go. Like if you just subtracted the difference between 669 and 476. Yeah.
[0:24:40] No, I'm not sure. So I'm looking at the older sheet. I can relook at it. I know the numbers have... So finance. And here's the thing. I think that we had a combined finance and instructional meeting. Almost everybody was there. So a lot of us got the preliminary numbers. but I think that it would help everyone for context to have had this in our folders to look at ahead of time to see the adjustments, to also inform those who weren't at that joint meeting a better picture of what this means because now we're over here trying to do that as fast as we can. So I have all that to say maybe give us a beat and also let us find the issues. superintendent contingency is a new line that was not on the finance line. Correct. Where is that? 62,000 seconds on the bottom. 62,000 seconds on the bottom. Other side.
[0:25:39] Sorry, other side. Oh, penny differential. Okay. So, it must have been an adjustment they made because of the tax rate. That's- I don't understand that explanation. So what happens is if you don't hit the certain piece in the tax rate, the penny rounding. It either, so say you need a hundred, two hundred dollars and it comes to a hundred and eighty dollars, that twenty dollars go somewhere. You're raising it, okay? Somewhere. It's going to go in the city or it's coming to you. So you're proposing putting another 62,000 as superintendent's contingency with that differential. Because if you don't then it goes somewhere else. I suppose that wouldn't be an answer to Brenda's earlier question, what do we do if additional things come up? 62 is the number one. Net assistant, maybe two. Especially if we go on as the year gets.
[0:26:39] But. Or we can cut the other way. It's fine. It's up to you. We'd have to cut $62,000. We would take that, we'd take that 62 out and then figure out what the difference is to get down to the next time. I mean, I probably do need a contingency at this point, but we can talk about that. But now the numbers add up again, so thank you. Because of the 62. Yeah. Because of a new adjustment. A new adjustment. That we haven't seen yet, but we're seeing tonight because of the penny differential. Other questions? I am so grateful that there are so many financial results. No, I'm not following anything you just said. We're just smiling. But also, I think that speaks to the need for consistent explanation from finance
[0:27:38] to the general board. Because to the person's testimony, it felt like it was very student services heavy. But there are actually other line items in these adjustments that we need to be discussing. So that presentation was a continuation of a conversation that we've been having. How are we going to meet these needs? It's important that we're all informed of that, so thank you. But in terms of like the big picture of what we're doing tonight, it seems that there are other line items in addition to student services that are being adjusted that you are asking us to vote on to adjust the tax rate overall. That has an impact on the tax rate overall. Is that? Yep. Would you agree with that? Yep. over from the 21st yes. Miss Hastings continuing that because just to help me understand the facility contingency that looks like we revised it by 125,000 just
[0:28:34] a hundred. It says current 125 oh we're decreasing it by a no it's going up 100 going up 100 and then and that was that for that's more than bleachers beaver Yeah, that's going to be for Beaver Meadow. And are we going after, are we going to request that we get reimbursed from, is that from the mold? Yeah. And are we requesting the company that installed it? It was not the company's fault. I guess I haven't heard that. It just was done. Have we done something incorrect? Yes. And we can... Discuss that. There was a, settings were adjusted to accommodate some of the up and down weather we were having during the summer and the setting should have been reset when it got humid and stuff again and they were not and that led to the mold growing.
[0:29:33] I can share a little bit more with the board later about the follow up that came out as a result of that. Okay. Yeah, because that's the first time hearing of this. I don't know about other people. about other people. Can you just walk through the items on here? I don't know if you can put it up on the screen.
[0:30:06] I know you can't see anything yet because I'm just trying to get there. Okay, I think the first one we've talked about was the increase in the investments. 50,000 based on, we're earning like 3.3% on our money right now. Which sheet are you on? Oh, I'm sorry. I just did it again and I thought I'd put a duplicate. Oh, is this not going? And do you sometimes have to unplug it for the back end? Yeah, let me do that. I'm sorry.
[0:30:49] I'll point to it. I'm on the investment line where it says the hundred increase of 50 to 150. So that's because of what we're earning on that money. We're in about 3.3 percent. Last year I think we were in anemic like 1 percent. So we moved that money when we don't have payroll weeks and then out of what's called New Hampshire PDIP, which gives us increased exposure and money. So if I move down to the next line, which I'm highlighting, decrease in rentals, we don't
[0:31:47] see the rentals as being as much, number one and number two. Eastman is no longer occupied, so that impacted. This is the Pittsfield contract, the income from that. If you remember, that was not, that may have come up as a discussion as a possibility, but we were nowhere near any discussion. I think that RFP was released February 11th, and I don't think we really had any conversation with you folks about that until probably April when it looked like this might be something. So we're accounting for that revenue now coming in. The P card, nope, nothing in the P card. So there's the other big one I mentioned earlier, which was state adequacy. Again, down 3.4 million in March. This is an additional 720 that we were told about September 1st that it's going down. Jack, can we pause for a minute? I'm so sorry.
[0:32:47] Can we go back to the investment line? Yeah. So we are getting that through Citizens, or are we doing that through another venue? We do it both. We do it through Citizens, and we do the New Hampshire Investment Risk Pool. Okay, and citizens is giving us the 3% or the- 3.3, yeah. Okay. And then my last, and I'm sorry, I know this may be minor, but every little penny will count. I still haven't seen, I'd like to know our earnings credit and we're paying as far as fees. Like I'm sure our earnings credit is covering the cost of our payroll, all of that, like those ancillary fees, but there may be some- You're talking about the fees that the bank charges? Yeah, I can share. What they do is they charge and then it's all zeroed out because the amount of money we have with them. Right, but sometimes that eats into actual interest that could be earned. So I'm just curious to see, yeah, even though it's zeroed out, sometimes they make that higher. So you feel like you're not paying fees, but you're getting less interest elsewhere. Thank you. Sorry, go ahead. She knows all the bankers' tricks.
[0:33:45] Oh, I don't know. I couldn't do the math. I know bank fees. So this is a line we don't know, the other unrestricted aid. So you see the additional $73,457. That is money that comes from the state. Usually that has to be due with special education services provided to charter schools. We submit for those. And we don't typically know what we're gonna get till they tell us. So we've accounted for that. The catastrophic aid. That is a number that the state has given us when we had called them. So we had projected 700 due to the work that Tiffany, who is the new person, we have all new people in the student services there, did. We had 333 lines that they had to go to after we submitted
[0:34:44] for additional clarification and she went through and did that, working with some other staff. So we're comfortable with that's the number that ultimately we'll get. And then you have the little increase from the state capital fee that the state gives for the CRTC, but that is money that comes in and goes right out because that goes into the trust fund that's set up for making improvements. So it's just an in and out for whatever the same amount is. And then if I go down to the open enrollment, so if you remember that discussion before you you passed your policy about being able to budget for that. We've changed that to a dollar because we never took out the original 50 some thousand. We did 20, I think we did 20 some for regular ed and 30 some thousand just based on state averages for the special ed side.
[0:35:42] So we've corrected that because it's not real revenue. But we have something in there budgeted in the event you do have a tuition. And right now the only one that I'm aware of is the one that's a parent pay. And then Deerfield, we expect a little bit of a decrease based on what we're projecting now. The big thing with the Deerfield contract is it's not locked in until after the second semester, at the end of the first semester, then those slots are earned regardless of whether the child stays.
[0:36:16] The 12,400 is additional revenue we anticipate from preschool based on the new model that's been set up this year. And I think you heard about that at another committee meeting. Again, that was the special ed tuition, moving that to a dollar as open enrollment. Based on what they've looked at with IEPs with Deerfield, they expect that to go down, that revenue. And then also a decrease in project search tuition. That is a program that's ran up at that. at the hospital. The program's been around since 2010, 2011. And then the vote tuition, there's additional revenue there. And that's mostly, we budgeted it based on the state formula, but what the state pays is not the formula, they usually pay less. So under the law, you can bill the sending district the differential.
[0:37:15] So that's why it might look like you're getting all this extra money. It's just, they just downshifted it from the state area to the local. So that's what we're collecting from the local. And there is the local capital fee that we can charge to the 3% differential and we put that into the trust fund for CRTC. There's a little bit increase in the state vote gate and then you get into the 83,000 which is the amount that's being, that we're anticipating. I got from both Kearsarge and BioHydro,
[0:37:58] the amount that they anticipate we're gonna get net metering, if you remember that conversation about a year and a half ago. Well, the BioHydro, that's where we worked with the city and trying to offset some of their stuff because they were adding the solar piece with Kearsarge over on the dump. So all that's been worked out, I think next month, December is when the solar will go active. So they sent me a number and BioHydro sent me a number on what they anticipate we would get between now and June 30. So that revenue comes in. On the expense side, you see it go right out into the energy risk reserve. That's just our proposal. And then you have the money coming out of the transfer for the renovation trust fund for the Memorial Field. And then 82,000 coming out of the facilities and purchasing renovation trust fund to buy the bleachers. And we did that to give you the most flexibility on what happens with those bleachers,
[0:38:57] whether they get rid of them or do they end up at Rundler. And then finally, the $7,302, that's just the amount that was over and above the 1.7. On the Deerfield Special Education reimbursement, Is there a comparable reduction in costs? I know it's one to one, but did we take $100,000 in savings somewhere else in the budget if we don't think we're gonna provide those services? We did not, we did not. And I can't answer to whether I absolutely could. I don't know that. And then can we just flip over to the other side? Yeah. Walk through that quickly. Yeah, so there's the transfer out of the vote and then the power professionals, there's the 150 we talked about that's coming from the,
[0:39:56] to take care of people that are going to get paid for doing the Pittsfield work. So the difference that 110,000 is being used to offset the tax rate. There is the 600 that you have coming out of your trust fund, there's the expense side of it, there's the workers comp that we need to raise because that was not budgeted. And then the bleachers, the 82 that's coming out of the trust fund, there's the expense side of it. Again, the increase of 100,000 into the facility contingency based on an issue we had at Beaver Meadow. And then again, there's that expenditure side to transfer to the energy risk reserve for the same amount coming in on the income side. And then the superintendent contingency, we figure with that penny differential, put it into there, I'm sure it will probably be needed.
[0:40:53] And then the Raptor software that we talked about on the 21st, being able to manage the visitors. Questions?
[0:41:03] Do you have a sample motion for us? I do. Can I bring up an additional issue? Thank you. During the budget, we cut 3.17 positions at CMS. All of those were the three specials positions and we were told at the time that that would have no effect on the offerings at CMS. I brought up concerns to the superintendent this fall about the instrument lessons and that those might be affected. And if you'll remember, we added back in a whole half positions at another elementary school to make sure that those would not be negatively affected. We've received a letter today, and I can say just from having had a fourth grader three years ago at CMS and having one this year, they don't seem to be getting the same amount of strings instruction. The positions that we cut saved between $14,000 and $22,000.
[0:42:03] I don't know. I was looking at the public document, one this is, but that seems like very little money for something that I think is affecting what we're offering equally between our elementary schools for equal opportunity. And I can respect that. We do have that price though. I do want to point out though every cut you made impacted every school in the district and opportunities for students different, are different and have changed as a result of those cuts. for or against but I just want to point that out because people listening to other employees who no longer here in the district I don't want them to think that their job did not impact students. That's not an all-time event. We made a lot of cuts and I understand a lot of those cuts are having some very serious effects. What you're saying is we tried to make sure that we had an equal
[0:43:02] opportunity for music lessons at all of the schools we sort of tried really hard on that adding back to position at Broken Ground but that has not been the effect. I guess the question I don't know the answer to is like do we know that Abbot Downing is getting the same. So I have talked with after Madeline brought this up I believe it might have been in September meeting. I have talked with Lindsay Nye about this. I'm announced that letter was coming to the I had talked to Lindsay and I about this and the impact it has. So what I will say is yes, the instruction, the numbers of students in the class and the ability to provide instruction the way it was before has been, it is greatly different than what it was before. Do I think they have the same opportunity they had before? No. No, they do. I think my question is, is there a disparate impact between?
[0:44:01] Between our schools. Between our schools. Like, are there fewer kids or fewer lessons happening at Christa McAuliffe than at Broken Ground and Abbott Downing? I think that's the thing we've met up for. I knew I was forgetting one. So I know that change from before to now at CMS, but I don't know if all the other. So the lessons used to be weekly. I can tell you that. And now they are not. They are further spaced apart. I don't know if all the other elementary schools have weekly lessons. That's what I can say is with the other elementary schools have not come forward to advocate for this. Lindsey was the... Well, we made adjustments at Broken Ground. Yep, we did. To put it back in position to avoid this. We did. But I haven't heard anything from Beaver Metal or ADS either. I think it's also important to recognize that the different schools have different enrollments.
[0:44:58] Students, CMS traditionally has had much higher enrollments And when you have more students, you have more classes within the entire school. And so you have fewer people available to teach those classes when teachers need their planning time. So one school that's maybe 280 students that need music,
[0:45:22] it's a much different problem than CMS that has about 25, 330 students. Ms. Mika. I will say I am wary of at this point, at this juncture, modifying FTE that hasn't been recommended by the district. I think that it's difficult to get emails that say, I need this. This isn't working. We've been hearing it from our other partners and friends and teachers that there's a big adjustment that happened this year with the loss of FTE across the board. And I think I worry about making any adjustments that at this point are not just absolutely required. I mean, I would like the floating nurse FTE back in. It sounds like it's not being recommended by the district and
[0:46:21] so I'm not going to push it because we're mid-year, we're only a couple months away from rebudged all over again. And so I would say, you know, my perspective is I'm hoping to lead on the district and trust what they're asking us to do. We do have the price points for the .17. FT, because it was a RIF, it would be first right of refusal would go to the individual who was RIFted. From the .17 they're still employing the district to my understanding. and they may want to pick that back up. So we do have the price point of that. We do have the price point of the cost of the special education nurse. What we did, what Jack has presented are the absolute, as we see, necessary in order to fill our requirements for the fate for students as well as obligations of the district workers comp, et cetera, things we have to do.
[0:47:19] We do have the price point for these other positions and we, Jack would be able to share that with the board as well. So you know what the impact would be, the rate of change would be on the final dollar amount, and you'd be able to make an informed decision on that. For me, it's, and I would agree, it has impacted the music program at CMS. There's no way it couldn't. But it goes, I'm trying to balance the, so many different things, anybody could come to me and say, Tim, we should bring this back, we should bring this back, which is my priority. And I get about the equal access, and that's why it's here. Talking with Lindsay, she did a great job explaining the impact it has had. It is, I don't know if it's necessarily two weeks apart, but it is further apart than it was in the past. It is a different schedule from what it is over at Broken Ground. It is currently a different schedule from what it is at ADS.
[0:48:16] And ADS isn't the same as Broken Ground either, So it does seem to have a nuance based on the school, as Chris shared. So I'm just, for me, I just wanna stress, everybody's coming to us saying right now, these cuts are hurting, and they aren't. We're living it and we're going through it. So I just, that's all I wanted to point out. But we do have those price points for you. Well, what's the price point? So we have it. Well, you want for the .17? Yeah. Typically, if you bet $20,000. think we factored to be some ways are in the tune of $19,700 and some on dollars. And then you said $57,000 for the nurse position? Para-rated him. That's our guesstimate. Well, why don't we move the current motion, and then if folks want to make an amendment, we could do that.
[0:49:15] Miss Campbell? Excuse me. I just had a question before you talked, though, before we go on. Yeah, oh yes, Dolly. Can I just understand, is there, how do we fund workman's comp again? Can we just get a refresher? How do we, we usually raise it through, but what we've done is use superintendent's contingency to cover what we had to do up until now, and by raising this, we cover the remainder of it, is my understanding. Does that answer your question? But we typically budget for it in our general budget during the budget. There was a budget mistake. There was a budget mistake. Yes, yes, I understand. to make sure that I understand how this is, I mean, because it's just, yeah. No, go ahead. The number got dropped in the budget, yeah. No, I don't understand. I just, in light of Ms. Morrissey's point about, you know, the way we frame publicly about special, the student service being such a driver of cost. I mean, Workman's Conference, I think it's comparable in the amount of money. Yeah, 400,000 plus, yep. It goes by without a whisper, and those kids are perceived to be budget drivers. That is fair.
[0:50:12] We have a multitude of budget drivers. many constraints in this economic climate. And you all do. Yeah. Sorry. Great. Thank you. OK. I move that the board recommend approval of the 2026-2027 fiscal year budget with all funds totaling $126,030,888 with a general fund budget of $117,252,369, raising the amounts in local education taxes of $80,651,000. and $7,617,387 in state education taxes inclusive of the following deposits and withdrawals to existing funds or expendable trust funds.
[0:51:04] Deposits, vocational capital reserve fund for an amount up to $281,724. and renovation trust fund for an amount up to $219,814.35, food service fund for an amount up to $390,982, energy risk reserve for an amount up to $83,066, and also inclusive of the following withdrawals from expendable trust funds to fund appropriations, instructional Trust for an amount up to $1,015,358, CRTC Capital Reserve for an amount up to $175,000, School Building Maintenance Trust Fund for an amount up to $600,000, Facilities and Renovation Trust Fund for an amount up to $82,000. In addition, the Board authorizes the administration to adjust the budget to reflect the intent of the Board vote on the budget. The administration
[0:52:04] will update this motion language. The board understands that the final amount raised in taxes is ultimately finalized by the Department of Revenue. May I have a second? Second. Moved by Ms. Campbell, second by Ms. Meeker. The motion is open for discussion and amendment. I don't think I have the votes, so I don't think it's worth making the motion. You can make a motion. Someone's awesome. Someone's awesome. I mean, for discussion purposes, I would move that we reduce the superintendent contingency to replace the point 17 music teacher at CMS only if, after investigation, the superintendent finds that students at CMS are getting fewer music lessons than students at other elementary
[0:53:03] schools. that the sections are significantly larger. I'm not accepting that as a friendly amendment. I can only do so much. I think, I mean the equity of having access to lessons, so would anyone like to say? I second that. Thank you. Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion? Any abstentions? Motion passes. Any other further amendments or discussion? If you could report back to us at our next board meeting about what you've learned. Next Monday. Next Monday, yes. Yes. Yes. It's a real good one. Any further discussion? We've had a lot. This is a roll call vote. Ms. Boucher would call the roll then. Ms. Campbell. Yes. Mr. Dubois. Yes. Ms. Hastings. Yes.
[0:54:02] Ms. Higgins. Yes. Miss Meeker? Yes. Miss Minow? Yes. Miss Sadowski? Yes. Miss Walsh? Yes. And I'm a yes. Yes. Motion passes, nine to nothing. We have a form we need to sign. We have some non-public items tonight, so I'll take a motion to go. I will move that we go into non-public. I have two questions. Sure. And I don't mean this to sound flippant, and it's going to sound flippant. Have we ever thought about sending bills to the state. Like an invoice? I think we have to. I think we have to. I think we have to. I was just gonna say before. It rolls around in my head. I mean just not that we would ever expect them to pay. But they need to know and if every school district did this, they might get an idea of what they're costing people. We've had three legal decisions, three court decisions where the state is under-offending public ed. And these conversations tonight are the result of those
[0:55:01] policies, of the legislature. and they still haven't. Exactly. What they do is they change the law. Now they're trying to change the court. So they can't. They're trying to overrule the precedent. And it would probably require a lot more work on somebody's behalf. And I don't mean to add anybody else's work. But I just think it wouldn't hurt them to be bombarded with bills from school districts showing them what they're not doing, not meeting their obligations. Duly noted, friend. I move on to deliver that. No, I don't. I might support that on. I am going to move that we go into non-public to discuss under RSA 9183 to discuss personnel issue and uh... B and C B and C Does that include negotiations? There's hiring and personnel Uh, negotiations is not subject to bargaining Uh no, contract, potential contracts Oh, potential contract, yeah, it's a D D
[0:56:00] Okay Uh, is there a second? Second by me, second by Ms. Boucher. This is a roll call vote. Ms. Campbell? Yes. Mr. Dubois? Yes. Ms. Hastings? Yes. Ms. Higgins? She's in the bathroom. Ms. Meeker? Yep. Ms. Minow? Yes. Ms. Sadowsky? Yes. Ms. Walsh? Yes. And I'm a yes. Thank you. For Concord TV's purposes we are just going to come back to adjourn. So we'll let them go home. Thank you.