This program is brought to you by Cable Franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you So seeing a presence of a quorum, I'm going to call to order this meeting of the regional school committee on Tuesday, February 9th 2021 at 632 p.m. And we'll start with a roll call attendance Mr. Demling Deming present Mr. Harrington Harrington present Miss Kenny Kenny present Ms. Lord Ms. Sieger Sieger Sieger present Miss Spitzer Spitzer present Ms. Stanser Stanser present McDonald present and I'll check one more time if Ms. Lord Lord present Thank you and As we get started at we are being live streamed and recorded live stream Thank you to Amherst media on Amherst media's website as well as on channel 15 in Amherst And I also want to welcome Miss Gribcoe our student representative and we also have Dr. Slaughter and Dr. Morris and Miss Charcus Turning us this evening. Our first item is approving minutes The we actually don't have any minutes to approve the minutes that were in our packet We reviewed and approved at our last regional school committee meeting Our next item is public comment And all of the public comment that we received today was Related to the budget hearing so we'll Come back to that when we get to the budget hearing item on our agenda And next up we have committee announcements. Are there any announcements from any committee members? Mr. Harrington Yeah, so it's posted on the ARPS website, but I just wanted to point out that there will be a JLM SC Meeting on Friday and that the topic of discussion will be vaccinations and vaccination clinics and such so Just wanted to put that out there. Okay. Thank you Any other announcements from the committee seeing none and we'll move on To the superintendent's updates. I'll turn it over to you. Dr. Morris. Sure I always say I'm gonna try to be brief today. I think I'll be actually successful So I've got seven points, but they're all pretty pretty narrow. First, it's just a neat one Ask Katie Richardson our yellow coordinator today. How many languages spoken in the district and Every time I've asked in the past, so I don't have a historical record that goes back 30 years, but It's usually like, you know, 38 44 and this year we're at 50 languages spoken by students in our district So, you know, I think that's actually notable It's a nice round number. It's the largest number I've ever heard and I think it shows the linguistic diversity of our students and you know, just kind of excited to get me jazzed on a snowy day Was it, you know, super fun with jazzy stuff? But but you know, thanks for miss Richardson for finding that out And I think it's just a good celebration and sometimes there's ways to talk about diversity that are Less tangible and you know, this is a really tangible way to talk about the linguistic diversity of our students And what they can offer and what they bring and just what makes us all happy to be working here in this community So thanks Katie for finding that out. I want to share that March 17th. Oh is a curriculum day and just as a heads up we show this with staff today Or to there yesterday, but the keynote is Kimmy Carlos who is the founder of Urban Mental Health Alliance Advocating for healthy minds in urban communities and all staff will be with her from 8 to 10 in the morning and And then there's facilitated groups across the schools of discipline focused on anti-racism and diversity and equity topics And again, just it's for all district staff Not just for teaching staff because it's you know, we really all means all And if we're going to move forward as an organization as we're doing then that that's what we all choose to do Or we all will be doing Third thing congratulations to high school student Helen Dalton. She was awarded the best in category award for editorial cartoon in Massachusetts by the Herb Block Foundation Cartoon was completed as an assignment on Black Lives Matter for her remote learning arts of comics class Her work was judged to be the best in the state after receiving a gold key from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards In addition to a $200 cash prize the editorial cartoon would be advanced for national recognition As the message is its entry in the national Herb Block award You know, just want to thank miss Dalton her staff her teachers her parents her family For all the work but particularly for her for being so creative and if you haven't seen it's on our social media networks and our websites, you know Very very professional looking in my light opinion But it is not what I think I saw a lot when I was in high school. I'll put it that way Good news in the pool testing, you know, we are accepted in the state order where our first order was Submitted today and it's being shipped to us and we'll be able to have a weekly testing We have days of the week and courier service worked out. So thanks to fabrity and robin super not for working on the pool testing Today was a lot final day for During cunningham and I we through our msand network We're involved in equity and leadership professional development by dr. Dornisa amante jackson It's just fantastic and highly recommend her and just even I mentioned to the chair today You know, we may reach out to her even just for some training for us You know, uh, folks who attend school committee meetings because we found her her ability to talk about dei topics diversity equity inclusion topics and and leadership and and really how they connect I think would be Both the ring and I were pretty blown away and we wanted to perhaps figure out a way to share it with the school committee So more on that soon, but uh, you know, it was really outstanding for miss cunningham and myself Second last, um our distance learning center at the high school remains open But um the amish recreation distance learning center will have to close for the next few days as many of their staff are umas students as you may know, uh, umas students are on some level of Quarantine ish. I don't have the right language in front of me, but they're they're not It's supposed to leave where they're living unless for certain reasons and one of the reasons does not um work with children so That that program be closed and hopefully open up after the break and you know break starts next week So for the next three days anyway, that'll be closed. There was one student teacher working in our distance learning center at the high school And and similarly that student teacher won't be coming in person for the next couple days Uh, I want to thank the um town of amers who's been really fabulous at communicating with the school district about this. Um You know, particularly paul bakerman. It's been given me multiple updates. Um Throughout the weekend and at the beginning of this week and that's been really helpful So, you know, thanks paul and thanks to the town And my last one is just I know I'll have this in the agenda next week, but for um late start time Uh, I had some really good sessions. I've been at four of the seven schools. I think Five in the seven school something like that. Um, so having great conversations with staff I was able to thanks to cpaq. Um, attend a cpaq meeting and talk about uh start time topics with that group With the pgo leadership across the district also really helpful conversation tonight Unfortunately for me is the bpaq meeting. So katie and I think tim she and are going to cover that and get feedback from That focus group. We have over 1600 responses On the survey. Um, and I also want to thank dr. Marta govara because she um at the family center staff organized Individual conversations with families. They work A high amount with you know, and I have a A really nice write up For me of the feedback we receive from those families. So we're getting feedback from all corners, which is what the goal was And we'll have more on that survey closes. I think tomorrow I believe it's tomorrow. Um, and so, uh, you know in the next couple meetings, I'll be sharing that feedback With you and that is actually a relatively brief update tonight So we'll see if there's questions, but at least the first part of it was brief I think that's a record actually a nice job um Any comments or questions from any folks in the committees? I'm miss kenny and then miss seeker um, I just wanted to Second your thinking of that 50 languages spoken in our district is awesome. I think that Says great things about who we are as a community and how we value diversity and I am really excited about that. I wish I knew more languages miss seeker Yeah, I want to comment on that too. One of the things I was wondering. Um I've worked in academic libraries for a few years now and we often catalyze the languages that staff speak Have you done that and i'm curious if you have like how many languages does that represent? Yeah, so, you know, I think by staff I'd be thinking about non Translator tutors, you know, um, in other words people whose job isn't exclusively to Support students who are acquiring, uh, English. Uh, we haven't done that. That's a really good idea. I'll bring back to miss richardson Um, I it's definitely less than 50. Um You know, I think one of the one of the wonderful parts and the challenges that miss richardson the department works So hard at is if you're talking about 50 languages, it means you've got some relatively low incidence languages in there, right? So not span. I mean our spanish is the largest non-english first language And then you've got chinese, korean, portuguese and krillu, you know being connected Um, and then, you know, because I've seen this I haven't seen it this year But last year miss richardson put it together with me and it's fascinating When you see not just a list of languages, but the incidents Among, you know, what percentage of the el Of our el students speak spanish as their first language. What percentage? Um, and so you get to the bottom of 50 languages and you know, and we're in western massachusetts. We're not in an urban center Uh, and you know, that that's that's the wonderful challenge that we have is how to support students linguistically Uh, given their language the you know variety of language backgrounds, but that's a great idea. So thank you for that bethany Mr. Gemling You teed me up perfectly doctor morris. So I was going to ask you about that So I would imagine that the services we provide and and how we engage to support students When they come into our district with a low incident language Um, it's going to be a little different than if they come in with a language with higher higher incidents and yet You know, every student matters. We want to you know, meet their needs as much as any other student Regardless of how small the subset of the population is so how Um, like what is that look you don't have to go through everything But like what does it look like you're a family and you speak a rare language and your student comes in and we want to meet Their needs like what do we what does our engagement process look like what kind of supports do they have? Yeah, so one of the things is trying to match translators or tutors, uh, particularly with the low incidence languages Where to mr. Seeger's point, we don't have staff necessarily Who are able to speak that and and in massachusetts, you know The primary language of instruction by law is intended to be english for the most part with us some some other exceptions So a lot of it's not just linguistically a lot of it and our staff is fabulous that this is learning about the cultures So tradition so even if there's not the ability to communicate in student's home language Some of it's not just about oral communication. Some of it's about what's the comfort level How do we as adults who may not be experienced with um separate from linguistically the cultural Benefits and advantages that students come in with wherever they're from in the world And how do we provide a safe comforting environment for students who may not be yet be able to speak Or knowledgeable to english and we may not have the staff to speak fluent in this language So it's a lot of research. It's a lot of homework for our staff and they do it, you know, incredibly well Any other questions or comments or ads miss spitzer um, just a comment about the survey about um changing the start time and I was wondering if there's any I Plans to maybe just resend it to remind families that um the deadlines approaching just because we are It sounds like you're getting a great response for you, but it would be great to just send a reminder up Yep, yep No, we usually have that out on the like Debbie sets it up. So it forward dates it So it always goes out on the last day of the survey. So I imagine she has that all confirmed that Any other questions not seeing any last chance Um, and um, according to our oh no, so next is uh my update chair's update. Um, and I I do have just one brief Update tonight seems to be the theme is brevity um On Thursday evening, um the amherst school committee hosted a public meeting um with with residents it was pursuant to the Petition that was filed under the amherst town charter Um, that was a robust discussion. Um, I think at one point we had a close to a hundred and seventy attendees and Lots and lots of comment and questions that recording is available. Thanks to amherst media for Streaming and recording that for us. It is available on the amherst media youtube channel for any Anybody who would like to view the comments that we received from the amherst resident meeting I'm now going to Move on. Oh, sorry. There were also questions that we may not have gotten to and we will be Well grabbing those questions from the question file from the zoom meeting and Providing responses to those that we didn't get to during the meeting. Um, dr. Morris I just wanted to note because because I think you're right. It was well attended and there was a hundred You know 60 what some odd people on there, but I think You know someone gave me feedback that a lot of people also were watching on the live stream Um, so, you know, I think there were a lot more than that number of people Who are channel 15? I think that's what I heard a lot of so I think there may have been even more people attending that weren't interested in Uh, having their name on like, you know being a quote unquote zoom attendee, but they were definitely watching it So, you know, I just want to to note that, you know, I think people who Got the word out about the meeting were successful in having a widely attended meeting, you know And I think in these virtual meetings, it's you can attend multiple ways So it's really hard to get to the bottom of exactly how many people are are looking But, you know, just the feedback I heard just anecdotally was it was even it was quite a bit more than that Yeah, yeah, thank you for reminding me that. Um Yeah, so um for folks that weren't able to attend or Or had trouble attending the entire thing it is available for viewing And so now our next item is Again, school committee announcements. So if there were if we if there are any additional comments or announcements that um school committee members have that's And I'm not seeing any so, uh, we will move on and we are making uh record time Primarily because we move the public comment To the budget hearing so our new uh and continuing business is um Is our budget hearing and sort of before we go in there. I do want to Sort of tee this up a little bit. Um this, uh Sorry Rearranging my screen. Um, so tonight's uh budget discussion is a budget discussion and a hearing Um, and for folks that are just tuning in This is the first real opportunity that the regional school committee has had to discuss the proposed budget for fiscal year 22 and to provide feedback to the superintendent on the proposed cuts So as a little bit of background We met first in early december with the four member towns at a four town meeting on a saturday morning And that was an early look at possible total funding and cuts at that time At that time we were looking at a potential total of 1.4 to 1.7 million dollars in cuts to current services or otherwise known as level services In order to meet the guidance that we had received from some of our member towns for level funding or Zero increases in spending Soon after that meeting the regional school committee met And approved a motion that committed the district to working with member towns to find a way to cut less than a million dollars To level services and I emphasize that less than a million dollars because there's been reporting in the press That um that I think has led to some misunderstandings of what the school committee Um decided or voted on at that time So developing and approving a budget for a regional school district is an often complex process that requires Collaboration and sometimes compromise between the district and the independent towns Each of which faces its own fiscal constraints and challenges So the current proposed budget that was first shared on friday in advance of saturday's four town meetings represents an attempt to balance the school committee Commitment to more than to no more than a million dollars in cuts with the fiscal requests from our member towns Tonight we'll be spending more time reviewing this proposal as well as discussing and providing feedback on the proposed cuts And we'll be hearing from the community in the budget hearing And lastly given the complexities and challenges with this particular budget I will be proposing when we get to future agenda planning that we schedule a second budget hearing for early march So that the public has more opportunity to understand the proposed funding and cuts to services And to weigh in once more before the committee votes on the budget And now i'll turn it over to dr. Morris and dr. Slaughter for the presentation Sure, um, I just wanted to check. I'm fine either way. Were you planning to Share the Comments now or after the presentation? Oh, um, I had thought after the presentation. I'm gonna do that now Oh, no, no, no, I just wanted to make sure it was consistent with what you you know There's a lot going on. I want to make sure it wasn't a forgotten thing But if that that's totally comfortable for me, you know, and that's what we typically do For folks watching at home um, normally when we have a budget hearing we invite the public to comment what we are We've used the same typical public comment Procedure that we've been using for regular public comments. So we have we do have Email comment as well as one voice comment That we will share after the presentation And for folks that want to read ahead the The public the comment document is already posted on the regional school committee agenda page So now it turns over to you Perfect.  So going back we start the budget process generally in October You know, we get some very very early projections And start meeting with principals and directors. Um, as I describe it Try to gather some thoughts about ads cuts but you know invariably the needs are there where mostly people will think of ads until they Are forced to look at budget reality because there's no shortage of things that people would creative ideas to support students Um, as the numbers have gotten, you know, uh more known We had a four town meeting in December And I think it was December 5th if I remember correctly And at that point we we had a lot of variables out there, but we described, you know that there was perhaps Somewhere in the area of 1.5 ish million dollars of cuts that there were um At least going to be considered and then we talked with the four member towns. Uh, Amherst, Leverett, Pellamentsch. It's very Uh, about that situation about assessment methods There as as mrs. McDonald said the school committee passed the motion Of blooming the cuts to not more than a million dollars not at all that you were asking for a million dollars of cuts It was about limiting the potential impact to our programs and so, um Tonight we're at a budget hearing and what that means is that we'll be sharing more specifics, particularly The particular focus of them Will be both the ads cuts list the reasons why we're at a million dollars But also the assessment methods. I think it's important to note that we had a four town meeting on saturday As well and at that four town meeting we received feedback from our member towns And and I think I'm going to queue this up a little bit The dug will go into it later. Certainly when we get to the slide with the assessment methods We left the meeting without consensus from the four towns About an assessment method and for us the works in regional schools That means we left without consensus on a budget And so that's the situation we find ourselves in I say that at the beginning because I think it actually offers a context Of everything else we're going to say tonight The last thing I'll say before we get into the details and Doug you can certainly queue up the slides if you'd like is we met with um Doug hung out in the middle school room, which I got to the to the end and then I was with Talbin Dave at the high school and summer academy So the ads cuts list was shared with staff on friday afternoon before it became a public document And any individual staff members whose role in the district might be at risk was spoken to individually before that meeting On friday afternoon knowing that things can change and we're really clear about that But we really value that staff are able to see documents like this that affect them so much Um before it becomes a public discussion point as mrs. McDowell noted this was prepared in same slides from from saturday Um, but there wasn't discussion on the ads cuts particularly because that wasn't really the purpose of the four town meeting but the members the elected officials beyond the school committee in the four towns asked to see what potential cuts would look like so at the Prior town meeting four town meeting. So we brought that forward All that ado i'll uh pass it over to dr. Slaughter. He's going to roll through some slides Again, for those of you watch the four town meeting in the public This is going to be there's no changes from that I will be talking about the ads cuts and really it's just cuts this year in much more detail Given the different context of tonight's meeting But the actual slides are are identical to what was shared on saturday, but i'll turn it over to dr. Slaughter Okay, thank you Can everyone see the the presentation slide fairly fairly well. Okay, that's good to hear If you see me staring up in the like i'm staring at the ceiling. It's just because my monitor is above my camera And so that's why um, so again, we're using the same slide deck as we used on saturday I will try to be quick but not rushed to borrow a phrase from uh, john wood and the basketball coach So i'll try not to the labor points that are Familiar to you all and and yet still be clear about it for those that haven't seen this before So This was our agenda on saturday, but it also lays out the order which will take things through I'll talk about our revenue sources other than That we have coming to us separate from the assessment And the changes since december the expense projections we have And and note those things that are are more solidly known since our our conversation in december and therefore Was part of of saturday's discussion I'll get into the assessment methods to some extent And then at the very end we can talk about capital as well and and We'll have an opportunity to talk about that a little more detail Before we get into the assessment methods is when when dr. Morris will go into more detail about the the cuts we're going to need in order to uh to uh Put our budget together and meet the meet the needs of our four communities So starting with revenue, uh, just as a reminder the color coding that we use green for favorable yellow for neutral and red for unfavorable As far as the general sense of how those different areas are are Playing out in this year's budget So since we met in december chapter 70 We got a much better sense of that the governor released his budget on on just uh, January 27th And you know, there was not a tremendous increase, but yet a little bit of an increase which is always positive news We included that in in this presentation regional transportation aid we we Are able by being a regional school district to Ask the district ask the state for some reimbursement for our travel as we go and pick up kids in a broader geographic area Unfortunately that projection from the from the governor's budget is is a decrease and so We went back and and refined our number for what we're projecting in reimbursement to our transportation expenses So that's going to actually negatively impact our budget Our charter tuition reimbursement we we pay Chartered tuition and for new students who are going into charter schools From our district. There is some support from the state to help Ease our transition into paying that tuition. And so they give us a reimbursement the The short story is is that the number students we have out in in In charter schools is is decreasing a little bit. So our reimbursement is going to go down But simultaneously our tuition is also going to go down. So those kind of offset each other So the amount that the charter tuition reimbursement is going down is about the same as as what the tuition will drop as well Indy which is is excess and efficiency. If you're familiar with town Finance it's it's known as free cash. We have an upper limit on how much of that we can hold If we go above that limit, we have to give the money back to the community so that they can use it for other purposes in there in their in their towns But given the the way the end of last year played out It's it's looking as though the amount of of e and d we have available for use in the budget for the coming year We'll be a little less and so we're staying with them or that that I have project projected in in december Which is a four hundred thousand dollar support to the budget that is Quite a bit less than what we've used in recent years And then another source of income we have is medicaid We perform services that are eligible for reimbursement through medicaid And we're just not doing the same level of service we've done in the past and again We produce that number it hasn't changed since our december projections But nonetheless it does impact our our ability to fund our schools I'll move on to the expenses In our payroll accounts, uh, you know payroll is about you know our staff and their benefits are about 80 percent of our budget I've got that as a sort of Not unfavorable, but not favorable You know, we have expected uh step increases and and we've projected for a cola We we do have negotiations this year And so we'll have those conversations with the union is as we progress through the spring But we have put in a placeholder to to identify to identify those steps and and and cola That we might negotiate And so that that increases included in in the expenses of our budget Um regular education tuition. So our charter assessment as I was mentioning before It's probably going to go down a little bit relative to to where we originally projected to be that's going to be offset with the Charter reimbursement But our choice and vocational tuitions will probably be slightly higher next year We're expecting about $35,000 more in expense in that area um special education is in is in a More positive frame than than the current year. It's it's based on our student needs and so is our population changes So does our need for for supports for special education? So that's looking like it's going to be a little less than it has been in recent years And then under risk and benefits, this is where our insurance is carried It's where our our pension obligations are carried pension obligations are fixed our obligations to hampshire county for our staff that pay into that retirement system have been identified and Included in the budget. Likewise, uh about a week ago We got the firm numbers from our our insurer as to what the increase for the coming year will be And that was a 1.11 percent increase And that has been included in this in this budget as well So i'll pause there in case anyone has any questions I know that this group is pretty much all seen this but i'll i'll take a moment in case anyone wanted to ask Any questions about those two sort of broad categories before we go into the next section Any questions? Not seeing any Okay, so i'll keep on moving on so some people whoops. Shout ahead too far So a couple of key points number one, uh, is that and and this played into saturday's conversation with more for communities But but nonetheless it's important for this group as well And that is that the fiscal 21 budget only recently got adopted and as a result the actual, uh You know chapter 70 allocations But more importantly for our purposes of planning is the minimum contributions Which are component in the What's called the statutory method of assessment? Uh, we're only recently set and so those we had used what we had for best numbers in our previous calculations But certainly with those most recently finalized numbers We were able to to utilize those those new numbers for for minimum contribution And that does change the balance of of how much people pay not 10 or 20 but a small amount But it does make a difference as we play out those different assessment methods as to the burden that each town will bear Um, I think two other points i'll talk about relative to the current circumstances We're in and the coming circumstances we face is that there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty We had a tremendous drop in in students. We had a little shy of a five percent drop in the number of students We've had in our schools this year statewide There's more than 30 000 students down in in public schools in massachusetts As i was on a call recently they said that's like 10 years worth of change in one year That typically only a few thousand move in or out of of public schools in massachusetts and this year There's a very very large drop and no one's sure how many of those students will return next year as As the circumstance around the pandemic play out and and improve And so I think with with that uncertainty and how many uh kids we will have It makes it difficult to plan and especially when our budgets are as tight as they are It makes it difficult for us to to to plan well and to absorb Changes that we need to to factor in as as we understand what our enrollments are going to be Come fall The other thing is you know, we we followed the instruction that you all gave relative to to To the sort of million dollar level of of reductions and and have applied that to this and as a result what we have Before each night is an is the budget It's 32,009,777 dollars and so that's the total amount of of Of budget for the the coming year and as we predict at this point and and that's the the total expense side of of things And uh, so slide ahead to the next slide Yeah, and so I'll give a little bit of history here on on what that means and what that means is that Our budget this year will actually if we hold it 32 million and change Will be slightly smaller than it was last year and that budget was slightly smaller than the year before and so we we see a A couple of years in a row of you know, the sort of raw expense budget being less than The previous year and that has a that has a distinct and and Noticeable effect on our budget and and the kinds of things and programs we can offer Um And nonetheless, we also note on this slide is that we've had different assessment methods the last two years As a matter of fact on a subsequent slide, you'll see that we've had different assessment methods over the last several years As we've had an ongoing and understandable A day debate amongst the communities as to how we fund and how each town Uh affords to fund our regional school district and so Uh, we'll continue to have those those conversations and we'll hopefully be able to reach a uh a reasonable compromise that That allows our schools to continue to function and perform the way we expect them to and have the programming that we want to have So this this slide takes us through, um, Dr. Slaughter, I think Did miss seco did you have a question? Sorry Yeah, my question is actually on something two slides ago Um, it's about the line that says the fact that we don't know maybe how many students are returning next year The second bullet the uncertainty in the enrollment for next year Um, I understand how that affects chapter 70. In fact, they the reporting from october how that plays forward into the next year Could you talk a little bit about what what will be affected? So If my understanding is correct, we We did have a significant drop in students this year um I don't recall hearing about a significant drop in staffing Because of that. So what what is it about? What could change next year? um with this What what does the uncertainty like look like if If you're in the budget if you're in the weeds of it. Where does the uncertainty play out? Well, I think there's a couple of things. Um, I think you know First and foremost is that if we have a number of students return and I I don't know that all of them will But let's say we have a significant number of the return You know, we're planning on a staffing level of class sizes and you know Based on sort of what we have and what we anticipate will be in in in our buildings next year. And so You know as if we get a significant increase, you know, it starts to make the the scheduling a much more difficult circumstance and and the The difficulty that all schools are are are dealing with is the fact that almost everyone's enrollment Probably two-thirds to more than two-thirds of the school districts across the state have a much lower enrollment this fall That enrollment from october says chapter is part and parcel of the calculation for chapter 70. The state is anticipating That there'll be many districts that will have uh, you know an uptick In in the fall and hopefully, uh, you know, there'll be some supports for us if if it is a You know an unusually large uptick in in students but I think the difficulty in in some respects and is that Uh, you know, if we have a certain plan of action in place and there's a significant change in the that enrollment, uh, you know the the amount of Flexibility we'll have to adapt to that will be, uh Be somewhat limited because we'll just not have the financial resources to apply in that circumstance and so Um, and I think that the the other thing, you know as as mentioned in the slide is, you know There may be some students that want to stay remote How much of that we can do how much can we accommodate in addition to in-person school? And how we accomplish that and how well we can accomplish that will all be Factor factors in the in the in the budget as we roll through the the new year Mr. Demlin It's a real quick comment to fall upon on Doug's point is, you know The other financial impact of unknown enrollment that I That I think is challenging for us is that depending on where those students go It could impact the budget differently this year or next year because some of this stuff Lags right so if if we have People who move away or they homeschool they go to private schools That's like medium level pain because we lose the chapter 70 Funding and and our ability to leverage the economy of scales reduced If they go to school choice programs, then that's $5,000 a year that we pay out To any of our neighbors and as we all know all of our neighbors have had more in person than we have had So this is that risk So it's like high pain and then of course the highest pain of all is the charter schools where not only do we lose them Chapter 70 all that but we you know, um, it's it's more than $20,000 a year every year For these students and so not not knowing where any of those buckets buckets Will land Um with with 10 times the volatility as Doug mentioned this year and next year. Um, I think that that's That's the thing I it's not really a question, but it's it's really because that's the where I focus my my financial anxiety on At tomorrow's Uh and not to add to your financial anxiety, but um, I would say that a number of uh, superintendents Uh in local areas have contacted me in the last week For whatever reason last week to suggest to let me know that they're getting lots and lots of school choice calls from Amherst families, uh, which makes my financial anxiety go up as well Um, so that's not hard data like I but you know, these are people I talk to all the time And they made a point and two of them made a point to call me directly and just be like, hey just fyi I'm getting lots and lots of school choice calls from from your community. So it is a point of concern. Um, You know, I did talk loosely to our administrative team that You know, are we are we being conservative enough in our budget estimating because that that cost could add up significantly? so, uh, I don't want to Dwell on that point, but I just wanted to suggest Um, that I think the anxiety you're feeling is certainly consistent with the anxiety we're feeling on that topic I think we're good to move on Okay, so I'll bring this slide up again, which is a sort of historical, you know and part of this slide was was for the purposes of the of the four towns being just to uh educate those that were new to the meeting but also just to remind folks that have been to those meetings over several years the the sort of uh history we've gone through and and and The different methods we've applied over time to try to find a compromise in in Funding for each of the communities that that sort of met some needs so just to Orient you to this a little bit at the top It's is the actual operating budget. So we had in the very tip top of that talks about the different methods that we've used We mentioned statutory method the state offers minimum contributions that were required to me and if we were to use a fully statutory method that the Calculation changes every year. We tend to use a five-year average to sort of mitigate the spikes that you might see within that in those numbers Which was the original idea we had with our our regional agreement method, which is a five-year rolling average of of student Of students and and when we do the five-year rolling average of students We're using all students that were financially responsible for so What we have in that count and you see that at the bottom Is all students that are charter and choice and vocational school are all included in that count? as far as Apportioning the the cost to each of the communities One thing also I will say is that any costs that are above the minimum contribution are still going to be a portion by virtue of that regional agreement method so if if You know we have a roughly 32 million dollar budget if there is and I'm just going to use round numbers for the sake of explanation if there's You know if the If the minimum contributions add up for the four degrees to be 12 million dollars the other 20 million Is is covered and assessed by The regional agreement method and so when we use percentages we're using A fraction of that minimum contribution method and then the remainder is is applied Through the the regional agreement method so even even if we were to be in a circumstance with a hundred percent statutory method We'd still be Utilizing that five-year rolling average as part and parcel of the calculation The other thing I'll point out on this slide is that at the very bottom and you may not Be able to see it very well But the very very bottom number is the desi october enrollment numbers which are used in chapter 70 calculations And it's what is on the state website. So when people look up. Oh, how many students does ever spell map? You know regional schools have they'll see that sort of number and the way to think about that number is that's It's basically kids that are in the building And so what you see in looking at that compared to the number just above it Which is showing the the five-year rolling average Of all students that were responsible for is that while our our enrollment with the exception of this year has stayed fairly flat it's decreased a little bit Our overall enrollment which includes all the charter and choice and and vocational students Has decreased more significantly more on the two percent per year range as opposed to the Less than one percent one percent range that we've typically declined And so what that means is that we're retaining more students fewer of making choices of charter and choice as their options Which helps our district on a from a financial standpoint, but it also Helps us with a steady or more steady enrollment to to maintain the programs That we want to offer in our in our schools And so I'll slide on to the next slide and so this is the the various assessment methods that we had Quick before the poor towns on on saturday The 45 percent statutory method which is in the beige column, which is the left the first on the left in color That's the current method that we're using this year. We have a 55 65 75 percent Use of the statutory method and getting using a five-year average of those minimum contributions Then the modified 100 method which we and then the the the peach color Which is next to last on the right is the is the purely statutory method As defined by the state And then on the far right in the green is is our regional group. I think which uses a A five-year rolling average of the student population And so part of why we've had those choices there is we you know, we were looking to to meet the The instruction from our member towns as to what they could afford And what they could meet and sort of display the different options available to them for for The assessments that they they can Provide us and so We were hoping to have a consensus about one of those and we got A variety of opinions about those. I I guess the best way to describe it. So I think we're we're still Likely to be you mean to have continuing conversations about what what methodology we're going to use If we don't reach agreement We'll revert in the short term into the statutory method What happens just to play that out a little bit is that if we failed to have a budget in place by july 1 The state puts us on a 1 12th budget. So they they basically And and they use the statutory method for the assessment of of of To the towns And what they really do is they give you about six months to get something figured out before they completely You know tell you how to live your life and and and take full control of of that That budget for the year, but they give you a little bit of time as you go into the Into the new fiscal year and they they basically You know dictate the the terms as it were Of of the budget as as we go through that. So it's it's not I mean they do it There are some school districts that have had struggles more severe I think quite frankly than ours and and so they they do And are familiar with the process and and you know, we'll we'll take us through but they definitely will be Exerting their pressure on us to get a budget figured out as soon as we can if we don't have one in place At the end of june If I could jump in if it's okay with the chair I just wanted a I just wanted to clarify a couple things trying to be very direct about this The guidance received from the staff in the town of amherst Was to not exceed a 1.5 percent increase in the assessment The guidance received from the town of pelham Was to maintain strong schools and work effectively with them knowing that this year was going to be a bump year for them The guidance received from the town of leverett was to same as amherst Not to exceed 1.5 percent increase in assessment and the guidance received from the town of shootsbury was to make movement towards The statutory method So as a reminder on the slide before Doug showed this year, we're on the 30 45 method. We were at 30 percent the prior year um, so I know that got um I just want to be really clear about that. I think the other thing I want to be really clear about and this is really the crux of the discussion is that for towns who want to have the regional agreement method that really equalizes The amount that each town the every town pays the same amount per pupil The flip of that is that and there's some there's a belief of fairness around that the flip of that is a statutory method Which is state set up takes into account a number of things that are intended to include the ability to pay and so That doesn't equalize the per pupil expenses in that scenario And I just want to make sure this is really clear because I think it wasn't clear or there were comments made by no one on this call that Didn't say this, but leverage in this situation would have the highest per pupil cost You know, and I think you know just things were reported in the paper. I want to be really clear that shootsberry is is Amherst, Pelham and leverage All are pretty darn close in terms of per pupil cost in this it shootsberry because of a variety of financial factors that under the statutory method Their pupil per pupil cost is lower than the other three towns by by a more significant margin But I just wanted to clarify those points because I think they're they're a little murky in the public And the more we can do to clarify them. I think the better off we all are Um, I think at this point I would suggest that we pause and see if there's questions for the committee I know we have ad cuts to get to uh as well as capital, but there's a lot here on this one. So I just figured um That the chair's permission if we pause here and open it up for for dialogue I don't know how you want to structure it, but we're we're here to answer questions If I can have one other thing before that starts if I could um If you were to take the regional agreement method and and you know divide the student population You know the sort of student headcount and you know five-year average into that you won't get exactly the same And the reason for that is that there are components of our operating budget that involve capital expense And capital expense is a portion to this in a slightly different way. There's a slightly different Assessment method for that. So it shifts it a little bit So if if we had no capital expense in our budget at all then that Regional agreement method would have every single towns per pupil expenditure the same But because we do have some capital expense we buy some computers and things like that through our operating budget It does a portion it does shift it a little bit So that's just a sort of artifact of the math that I wanted to make sure people were clear on And so before we go to questions, I just in terms of procedure for this evening is we'll we'll continue to focus on questions right now throughout this presentation and then We'll pause and hear the public hearing comment At that point and then we can segue into each of the committee members comments We're further clarification questions at that point So, um, I saw a couple hands up for questions. I think mr. Deming Seeger and I seem to stand sir. So we'll go in that order Uh, yeah, so in the spirit of just questions not comments. I'll hold on the comments Um, so dr. Morrison dr. Slaughter if you could summarize if you recall I mean, I wrote it down myself, but if you have it then great Um at the end of the four towns meeting Um, there was a spokesperson for each town And they indicated which of these assessment methods they preferred and which ones they would be willing to go to um And the four towns obviously have different responses and it's it's true that there was disagreement and I don't know if if you want to take a crack at um Summarizing what they said or whether that's you feel too dangerous to to quote people like that. Um But it's when we decide about what assessment method we want to Uh settle on you know recommending eventually it's it's helpful information. I think Doug do you want me to take a take a shot at it? I was I don't have a notes uh here, but uh, what I recall, uh, I can do palms really well And so margaret and sarah best you can correct me, but uh, what we heard from pelham is an interest in maintaining the strength of the region um, and Some flexibility between the blue, you know the beige blue terracotta and perhaps even purple bands. Um And then we went to the town of I think it was levered and my understanding was Leverett was preferring to stay as close to 45 percent as possible. I'm looking at miss seager Um, does that line up? I think maybe miss seager could jump in and describe that That's okay. Yeah, that that lines up with what what I believe Julie said on saturday. I just want to add to what you said that What I also heard was that leverett would like to get back to the regional agreement. So going further to Into the blue terracotta and purple is not in our best interest Thank you. Yeah, I always love when people from the towns can summarize what the towns say, but I'll I'll I can then go to shootsbury and mr. Selvin. I think it's on the roads probably clearing them right now so, um, I think I'll I'll have to describe shootsbury and What we heard from shootsbury was An interest of going as quickly as possible To the purple and eventually to the modified statutory method Based on their belief that the statutory method is to Includes the ability to pay And they believe that to be more fair And mr. Demlings and sure from amherst, I think I'll let you describe amherst if that's okay Sure, I mean so I'll note that this video is available So if you know, you don't have to rely on my power phrase, but from what I recall Amherst expressed a A strong preference for the 45 And was did not would prefer not to consider other options Yeah, that's what I recall this well, um, mr. Seeger. Did you have a question? No, not anymore miss dancer I believe you're muted I'm sorry Sorry My question goes back To previous slide dr. Slaughter when you said the state set the minimum contribution You you said it changed a little bit and maybe it doesn't really make much of an impact But you didn't say whether it went up or down So it it depended on which town you were in um, so for pelham So the minimum contribution, uh, I believe for amherst it went up a little bit For pelham it stayed the same I want to say lever it stayed the same shoot very I'm not recalling it changed a little bit But what that does is it changes the proportion that each town carries and so amherst actually carries a bit of bigger proportion now because that minimum contribution went up Um, so the towns went down a bit so it shifted costs in their direction a little bit Okay, thank you Any other questions at this point miss kenny So my question is actually just quickly so the modified statutory method is that another regional creation or is that the state Like this the statutory method is every year and then every year depending on if Family moves into town or moves out of town then it goes up and down every single year and the region came up with the five-year rolling average for that and then separately, there's the regional agreement method That's correct. I just want to make sure you understand Our regional agreement from I want to say the late 80s I was scanning through it But is is the five-year rolling average of students and and the purpose of that regional agreement method was again because a given school can have a A big uptick or down tick in the number of students The five-year average tries to mitigate those spikes from year to year The state's statutory method is a single year. So each year minimum contributions are identified and then those are applied in that year so basically, you know when when the budget gets set at the at the beginning of july when the The minimum contributions are calculated for the essentially for the coming year And that's what's interesting this year is because those didn't really get known until a few weeks ago and again it can have you know significant spikes in in in Those minimum contributions as well Probably not quite as severe as can happen with student enrollment on a year-to-year basis, but nonetheless still It can change by you know several percentage points And so using a five-year average helps to soften those those peaks and valleys a little bit And so that's again. Yes, you're correct. The modified statutory method is is an invention of of My predecessor and and several folks from the four towns that worked on this over the recent past Okay, so the regional agreement is a four-year-old How we did it for a long time the statutory method. I just want to make sure I'm understanding it correctly The statutory method is a massachusetts thing that happens Every year so if a family of 10 moves into palom big spike if they move out big spike down and then the modified statutory method is a newer arps creation That's right. And so the other thing I would sort of the statutory method is that It it takes into account, you know some factors that have to do with the value of the properties in the community so and the wealth and the income of Not just individuals, but also businesses. So any income in the community is also factored in so if you have a number of people that move in with Fairly large salaries. They're fairly high income people that can shift your minimum contribution As well Or if you have, you know, a couple of new buildings go into your community that boosts up your your overall property values significantly That also can can impact it as well Um, so those are other factors that play into that statutory method Okay, thank you so much And dr. Morris For before people make more comments. I also just had a it's not a written statement or a prepared statement but just a couple things I want to say so Um for those who haven't been on the committee that that long or people who are watching in the public This has been a constant challenge For before I was in this role. So this is my fifth year It's been challenged before that we've had multiple two or three working groups over that time period Paying consultants to come in come up with to miss. Kenny's point with different methods to Try to work on this and so this isn't a new problem. However it We keep on inching by year by year We've had years where like two years ago in town meeting in shootsbury It was very narrowly the budget very narrowly passed and that was with the support of elected officials um, so, you know I think one of the challenges long term is that this is the second year in a row. We're under this budget Our budget's actually gone down So we're slated to spend less money next year than we're spending this year We're spending less money this year in our budget than we sent last year And this isn't sustainable Right and that's not anyone's fault. I'm not casting blame. I'm not interested in in any of that Uh, but as someone whose job it is to advocate for kids There aren't many districts around Whose budgets and real dollars not not even talking about inflation are literally going down And so it's a real challenge for us We're doing the best we can over the last couple years and I said this on saturday Last four years. We've averaged six hundred fifty thousand dollars of cuts to our level services budget every year for the last four years Um, and so I'm deeply concerned I was deeply concerned that we seem to not make progress with the four communities if anything I felt like we were in A less advantageous place at the end of the meeting than we were at the beginning We'll do ads cuts after we have questions on this the ads cuts because it's the four town meeting I went through them rather briefly. I'll go through them much more detail tonight They are going to impact our operations. They are going to impact our district And most importantly, they are going to impact kids, you know, our students And so sometimes I can understand why that gets lost in a discussion. That's complicated between regional districts In between towns and regional districts But I do want to you know Share a mild amount of frustration, which I rarely do in these meetings That year after year. We're in the same discussion about What method do you use we keep out coming up with so you can see, you know, Mr. Dr. Slaughter is very creative chart of all the different options and The color coding is lovely at the bottom with the, you know, so we can all talk about the same things But even at the state level they don't love that we're Year to year have different, you know, they want us to have a consistent method Uh, and we are an outlier for regional schools. Most regional districts more or less settle on a method Uh, that's not where we are. So the stakes are really high when we're talking about impact on students and It is Challenging to think about the level of cuts have a two years in a row with negative budgets, which is even in pandemic times You look at other districts around Most districts are not facing this. Um And uh, and I'm not suggesting we're poorly funded districts. Certainly, you know, that's the that's not true But it is when we have the the things that people value end up on On a table to be reduced. It makes it very challenging and I worry about a row of staff Uh, I worry about, um How students feel if they see feel like every year it's being chipped away and the explanation in some ways that Our towns can't agree on assessment method is like wildly unsatisfying to the public Right and that's not a critique of the towns, but I have a hard time Describing what dr. Slaughter just described and we've been working on for the last half hour to the average person in the community um, and so that there is It's not just I mean the ads cuts are where, you know, most of my attention goes but um, this is a yearly ritual, uh, as you've experienced it and Um, it it takes a lot of attention time away from our core work with kids Um, it's not that it's not worth the time and effort But just we can bank on having a month or two each winter Where this is this is what we do And I don't have a solution how to get out of it if I did I would be you know There'd be more slides in the stack But I just did want to express from the staff point of view the family point of view and the student point of view What they're mostly concerned is what's going to happen to their programs or courses that they're going to be able to take And what supports can we provide from students and and that sometimes gets lost and you look at even a very nicely color coded chart The dr. Slaughter put together That these have real implications uh for the core mission of the district So I'll get off my you know soapbox here, but I did feel like that needed to be stated Uh, I chose not to state that the end of the four town meeting because I didn't think the meeting needed to end when it ended and um, but you know for the committee, um, I did feel like I needed to report back on the impact of this Every single year So I'll I'll stop talking um About this, but I just I couldn't I can't not say the thing that is on when we met with staff on everyone's minds I I will mention one more thing So, you know, there was a question in one of the staff meetings I was in about the budget Is this a one-year problem that's only pandemic related or is this an ongoing challenge? And I was really honest about it. It's an ongoing challenge Like I someone asks is it going to be better next year and I said You know the pendent like hopefully yes, and that'll hopefully help finances, but the larger issue Um, I I there's no evidence that A year from now, we're not going to be having a similar conversation With similar disagreements. Um, and it was deflating for staff to hear that but I wasn't going to you know be dishonest Uh with staff about it. So um, I'll defer to the chair I know that people probably want to jump in with their own comments, but I did feel a need to say that well, I I think What would be helpful to clarify is how much of this is due to Disagreement on the assessment methods and how much of it is um Driven by some other cuts like because You know if everybody agreed that this would you know The assessment method aside, you know, I'm just looking at this chart So the 45% method is identical to What we had this year. So that would be sort of the best-case scenario that we don't have to renegotiate assessment method every single year and yet The revenue not from um from the towns is is declined by What over, you know 300,000 350 thousand dollars um Flat in terms of chapter 70. So we even even still We probably I guess the question is is like even in a in a best-case scenario where we have a fixed assessment method every single year we'd Likely still be looking at significant cuts this year. Is that right? No, it is so here's uh, I'll start to be more Sinked about it. Um, because I think I'm glad you asked that it's a really important point So the challenge of regional districts in general as compared to town departments is that There is no good way to balance this the assessments required That fits with especially when you're talking about a four-town region With four really different towns and one much larger than the other three with a very different commercial base and everything like that To balance it. So, you know, just compared to the Amherst public schools, we're not at that meeting but I I'm going to just state that That, you know, for them to get 1.5% they got to get the same guidance from staff We can guarantee that Our budget can go up 1.5% Right at a regional level because you're balancing and there's a proportional equation There's no good way to do that. So some of this is inherent in the way regional school districts are funded um, and some of it's about You know, so if you look at some of the numbers, uh under some of the methods Um oftentimes the numbers look pretty reasonable except for one town and then everybody's got to go down Because it's a proportional relationship in the budget whereas when you're talking about municipal government Um, the number is the number and whether it's a good number or bad number the number is the number But like, you know for this year to make it work for Pelham, let's say You have to then adjust everybody else. You can't be like, well, Pelham's really high We'll knock down Pelham a little bit because that we're we're unhappy that how high that is And and when you knock down Pelham Pelham is is I don't know what percent of the budget is but less than 10 Uh, and then you're knocking down Amherst, which is 79 of the budget and then all of a sudden your budget gets a lot worse. So um, I think in communities in regional districts from what I understand elsewhere that are able to Work more work collaboratively together not comparative. Just work collaboratively together. They're able to work through some of these challenges um In our in our situation right now, we have some fundamentally and very legitimate differences of opinion on the relation Of each town to the assessment method. I really understand no one's unreasonable I completely understand the point of view of people are saying Regional assessment method makes sense. It's predictable. It's reliable and everyone pays the amount per kid There's good logic to that I also understand the statutory method folks who are advocating for it because they're saying well If you're not taking account of wealth, there's an equity argument Uh, and it's not fair for towns that have less capacity to pay However, we define that That they're paying the same amount as towns who um have more capacity to pay So I think fundamentally the disagreement is is is in very understandable logical Kind of an arena where everyone has legitimate points, but the end of the day We've not been able to successfully move towards a method. That's reluctant Predictable and reliable in the district. We haven't had the same method year, you know two years in a row Doug could tell me but it's got to be five or six years. Um Yeah, and so that that's a real challenge, you know, and I think it's just as much of a challenge for the towns As it is for the district, right that the towns don't have predictability Uh and what happens, but you know, um, again, I want to let the committee members comment I want to get to ads and cuts. I have a lot to say about that But I did want to voice, you know on behalf of the staff that this has major implications year after year for it and you know, uh, you know, I think it's getting to the point where people are sort of The fatigue is setting in You know of this is going to be an annual ritual of not being sure if we have a budget and going not being sure Till we go to town meetings and we don't really know what's going to happen And and I think cumulatively that has a a significant impact on the district, right? It's no one's fault, but the reality is it does and I think my my obligation is to share that with y'all Are there other questions? I think I saw some hands, but I can't remember who's Are we ready to move on to I think Is it ads cuts next I'll speak to this one. This one kind of just sets the stage for it. So 15.9 FTE is full-time equivalent reduction in staffing And that includes reductions, and I'm not reading the slide But just for people who can't see it in the district office administration professional staff teaching staff power educator staff We tried to tie it as much as possible To student enrollment, you know some good helpful feedback from a shootsbury Representative on saturday that you know, it's hard. You can't really it's not as as as neat as saying these cuts are reduced Or these reductions are based on enrollment These ones are actual cuts because everything gets a little gray But but I think in general that point was spot on that we tried to look At student enrollments that have been declining And make those but you know, there will be likely increases in class size fewer electing offerings And a reduction in programming from these reductions. These are not pain-free cuts just to be really really clear about it Um, we tried as best we could to not fill vacancies for as many current staff members You know, there's a and so looks like about 1.6 rift notices and that's three people sometimes their powerful rift is reduction in force notices um, and and there's multiple reasons why we did that one is that uh Just very uh pragmatically we've had a goal of diversifying the teacher workforce and the educator workforce We've been pretty successful in my estimation at doing that dude. Thanks to the work of dureen cunningham and the principals Um, we've increased it 50 in five years And when you do that and then you start making lots of cuts you risk reversing the trends that you've had Pragmatically it also makes sense to Rift as few people as possible financially because you know once you start going down that road You may not realize the budget cuts you want because you're paying unemployment You know other things like that so both kind of ethically consistent with the district You know values and frankly, we like the people we've hired. We've had great great Teachers joined our district in the last couple years regardless of whether they're you know, their race ethnicity or background We want to retain as many of them as possible So we can flip to next slide dug Okay, so I know this is kind of small, but I'll walk through them So, um, the first set is about district administration. So we have a vacant position Which is a family center outreach position who worked on youth leadership Uh at the secondary schools ran groups particularly for students who are underserved in our districts This is a painful reduction, but it is a it is a vacancy and um, so that is The list this is not in a particular order by the way in terms of like top Most important to less important. This is just organized by where it is in the organization We're looking at about half time just a shade under point five reduction In administration at the high school, which will involve a challenging shift in roles and responsibilities Producing $10,000 uh interpreters at the secondary level that was based on the ELL program report. We had last spring which noted that At the secondary level, we want to be careful about how long we're Our entry plan is for students to have interpreters because at some point, especially with the content that's there We don't want them teaching students. We want them, you know, getting them acclimated and so We're able to make that reduction but not without Real cost to kids So information systems There's $50,000 of reduction because we bought a number of many many Chromebooks this year with CARES Act funds So we don't need to replenish those. Um, so that's a relatively painless cut In the facilities, we have a number of positions that we've been unable to fill and through the creative work of our facilities department We've been able to get the work done. So, um It's not reducing anyone's position, but it's uh, kind of continuing the work we've been doing To to still get things done in facilities. Um, With some different staffing models We had a food service assistant, um position That's vacant that we're not feeling that's and many of these are split with the AMR So, you know, the FDs the full-time equivalents look a little funny bilingual psychologists we posted we weren't able to identify someone for that So we're going to continue to contract for evaluations as needed. So when we have students who are bilingual Uh, who are being evaluated, uh, we'll find somebody do those instead of a more integrated program that we'd hope for We don't anticipate a lot of foot traffic At central office next year because of covet. So we're reducing a reception position in the district offices Uh, we anticipate a staff turnover savings. We cut about 16 positions. You save some on health insurance costs and others And uh, in our special ed department, this has already happened this year the current year. So it's Just pushing it forward that we do have um, our intensive needs coordinator Uh, is now k to 12 instead of it used to be a 712 position That's actually worked really well It's connected our intensive needs programs In ways that wasn't done before so there is it's an offset because there will be an ad to amherst to cover that cost In high school, um We have 1.8 positions in core academic the core academic areas at the high school our world language social studies science english and math The specifics of those reductions will be will be known what students enroll for classes Um, and so that will potentially have an increase on class size. We'll do as best we can based on enrollments To not have it have a huge impact on class sizes, but I can't promise that there won't be any Uh, power reduction. This is just fewer students. So in terms of the Students of special needs at the high school, we looked at the their grids and based on students graduating and students We anticipate coming We feel comfortable with that There's an americor position that worked in the academic support center that's vacant and we'll have to change revise our model of academic support without that position It's a dean. Uh, so we're going from 2d institute to 1 dean, which will be a significant challenge. It'll um Yeah, there'll be a significant challenge, but it's a vacant position. Um Uh reduction in special ed staff again, this one is purely due to declining enrollments. Some of our some of our programs there Um, so that's a 0.5 reduction And reducing a clerical position. There's a vacant position next year at the high school. So reorganizing clerical responsibilities I figure I'll just go through all these and then take questions on them at summit academy This is vacant para position and we have some students coming in from other districts So that's actually generating funds if if that can be understood As opposed to an actual cut At the middle school it's reducing. Uh, we have a half team and we have for for quite a few years and so reducing that half team Will have an increase in class size for next year. Um The middle school the team model there's no way to do partial fte's the same way there is at the high school As it relates to core instruction We'll have a vacant position next year in art. Um So we're going essentially from two years ago We had two teachers to our teachers the next year. We'll have only one art teacher at the middle school Likewise at the school adjustment counselor is a vacant position 0.6 and We will not fail that Under this proposal and finally, uh, there's a dance. Um, this would be reducing 50 of the dance elective offerings that we have at the middle school and high school Um, again, none of these cuts do I feel good about? Trying to be as neutral as I can talking about them, which is a challenge Uh, and finally reducing the pe and health program. We'll have to revise the model at the middle school and high school All of these courses and all these impacts we know are really important to students, you know, I do not want to be Reducing the budget by a million dollars. I do not want to be recommending 15.9 fte and reduction But that's that's the deck of cards I have right now Uh, and as part as this is I really want to complement our team, you know principals assistant principals Directors for coming up with a million dollars of cuts in the way that we feel like we'll have the lowest impact on students And please note that I'm not saying no impact on students It's the lowest possible impact on students. Um, and we may not have got it right, you know, that's why we have public comment That's why we were hearing that's why we'll continue to receive feedback But it was a very challenging thing to do three of the last four years. We've had significant reductions at the regional level and Any, you know the things we've done that are structural like moving summer to the high school, right that saves a hundred thousand dollars a year, which is great Um, but then that gets woven into the operating budget. So we have become as efficient. I think as we can become that way Um, and that's where we end up with with a significant amount of FTE cuts that you see in front of you and I'll stop talking and see if there's comments or questions from the committee Um, so just as a reminder, what we'll do now is Have any questions from the committee for um for dr. Morris or dr. Slaughter On specifically these cuts to make sure that we're all understanding these These proposals then we'll shift to the public comment the hearing portion And then we'll come back to Comments from the committee Feel like, you know Hearing the public comment will will enable a richer discussion when we when we get to sort of our own comments So if we can try to limit ourselves to Clarifying questions and in building understanding of what's being proposed here Um, and then and then hold comments, um for later I miss spitzer Thank you for sharing these. I'm similarly I don't know it's just hard. Um, so I'm gonna I have a comment for later, but I I guess um Going back somewhat to the town four times meaning I think one of the things we heard from some members not everybody, but was this thought that Compared to other folks Other districts in the state of massachusetts, we are spending More per pupil that we're not necessarily being efficient with our dollars. Um And that was hard to hear after going through rounds of cuts, you know, like knowing the history of what we've been doing over the past Few years in terms of taking reductions. So I'm just curious I think I know the answer, but I think just for the record I'd be curious about your reaction to this idea that maybe there are things we could be doing More efficiently right now with the funds that we have available because Um, just just as the leader of our district. I'm curious. Yeah. So I think a couple things first. I think, um And this played out a couple years ago. We made budget cuts. Um Trying to say this The way I want to say um there is And this isn't an amber's thing or amber's regional thing. This is everywhere everyone loves the idea of being lean Until but no one likes the cuts that get you there Right. So a couple years ago in mr. Sullivan's here he'd comment on it We we cut our culinary program.  I think there's been a lot of benefits for some of being in the high school You know some drawbacks, but definitely some benefits um But some of the same people who are demanding that we reduce our budget were also people Who were really upset with me about the cuts that we made? and so You know, I think That's the hard thing. This is a community that really wants so much for its children It's also a community that is and I think committee And district if you look at the vision mission statement that's committed to social justice That's committed to working and supporting underserved Children and children and families who are underserved in our community. I'm not talking just about the schools Like families that are underserved living in amherst living in pelham living in shootsbury living in leverett and so That costs money Right and so does every district have a family center which we're making a significant reduction to this year Um who does incredible work? I mean I was in the phone with dr. Gavara or texting with her earlier tonight About the, you know, trying to problem solve what we're going to do for families without a distance learning center operating for the next three days and No criticism about other communities That's not that's not a challenge other communities have and it's not a challenge that some communities want to look at and actually do something about Not every community has 50 languages spoken And dedicates and in those reductions there too, right in terms of translators not every not every district Um tries to do Tries the things that we try to do for for our students that way and then on the flip side not every Community wants to have a restorative justice program Not every community wants to have an elective program that looks like a liberal arts college sometimes because we don't believe we want kids Just waiting till their senior year to actually choose a course That's not uncommon in schools school district and schools across the country as well as in our area And so there's a value on expression. There's a value on student choice as a value and that's not efficient So if we had like a very traditional model where 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade Just went through the core sequence and there was no choice and no electives. There might be some efficiency Um, however, I don't think that just finds our community so You know, I can understand people suggesting that um that we want to be more efficient and we want to reduce services Um And you know, I mean I could keep going on special ed, but I'm aware it's almost eight o'clock and I've done a lot of talking already Um, but you know, so my reaction is if we want to be a really different school district We can absolutely do that. We can absolutely reduce cost Uh, we would really have to review our mission statement and vision statement I think it would have to shift And we really want to communicate that we're making a very traditional school system Um, and in the past any inkling of that in my 20 years in the districts has not gone well Um, you know, it's not been what many people want. I mean many of you are on subcommittees Or have been to subcommittee meetings who are who are no one is advocating for less At least, you know, when you're in cpac or sc tf Or bpac, um, that's not what we hear Uh, you know, and I think it makes our community better Our community demands things of our schools that perhaps not everyone in every community demands And our schools are better because they demand that it makes your job hard. It makes my job hard for sure But you know, we try to do what we can to to work with the great ideas we get from our community So, you know, I'm all for being more efficient. You know, we had a per pupil study done You know, I wasn't in this role It goes in my former role here in the district And what it found is that we have more teachers on average more para educators on average We spend more energy on, you know, special education Smaller class size and electives than your typical district Nothing in the terms of cost centers really changed So I know there's some people advocating and someone talked to me about that after the four town meeting And that's fine if people want to spend money to have a, you know, to do a study If there's things to be learned, there's things to be learned that I'm not I'm not anxious about that But the same trends are going to be true as they were six seven years ago when that study was done And, you know, if someone wants to kind of find that same information again And maybe there's something in there we could look at absolutely But, you know, so someone a while ago said when I was going to this role like just remember you're not you're not trying to change Amherst You're trying to make the district the best district it could be And I feel like if I was trying to make Amherst regional public schools A really traditional district without electives without some of the pieces around social justice and equity First of all, it's not what I believe in but I think on a larger scale I don't think it would actually conform to what the community has told us they want for their children Long-winded my apologies. I'm going to be I started so well tonight with the superintendent update too You've all taken me on a bad train No, but in all seriousness, thanks for the question. I'm sorry for my long-winded answer Um other questions Mr. Demley All right, I'm really just going to try to keep this an informational context comment. Feel free to cut me off I'll try not to inject my opinion, but I feel like given what dr. Morse just stated, you know So this this this general question of municipalities asking school districts Hey, we we're giving you the same funding level even increasing it by inflation sometimes Why do you keep eating more of our pie and a big unstated thing is that over time, especially the last 10 plus years The state of massachusetts has slowly reduced the percentage Of the budget that they fund and has slowly shifted the burden to municipalities. It's you know, know your enemy, right and Select boards and finance boards and town councils and school committees are you and regional school districts are united on this Our enemy is the state That's you know, and it's a state that's been driven by a certain policy agenda That I won't get into in the last six years plus That has that has led to this and we are also Because the type of districts that we are especially hurt by some of the the policy Adjustments, you know the unfunded mandates that I won't go through we particularly rely on those and the charter school Formula which which the state has resisted Updating even though everybody knows that it's broken and unfair Really hurts us. I know I always harp on that but um, but those are factors that are out of our control on they're out of Uh select board control and out of a town council's control that are really putting the pressure On on local school committees. And so it's you know, we still have to deal with it We still have to set this budget We're not going to change what's happened the last 10 years and the state overnight You know, I know representative doleman play and senator comforter doing their best and they understand all this But that really is a big part of what is turning the screws on this You know and and and makes us fight And and creates a level of conflict that should not be there It's because the state is failing to support public schools. I'll stop my opinion Um I I did have one sort of clarifying question just to help. Um, I think I know the answer But maybe for folks watching at home, um, it'll be helpful to explain Just as a as an example, um in the middle school You have two two vacant positions and yet each of those adds up to just Point point six of a full-time Um equivalent. So can you explain? Um, sort of how those those numbers are arrived at when you're saying that you're eliminating a vacant currently vacant position But it only gets us half of a person Yep, so the school adjustment counselor is is literally the it's not a full-time position. So it's um It's a sixth sense of position and Sometimes when it's vacant it could be vacant for a number of reasons either the person who is in the role Is moving to a different place or isn't returning for whatever reason or sometimes it's vacant next year because Someone may be taking a leave of absence. Um, so not every position that we have in our district is a full-time position And that's particularly true at the regional level At the elementary level the vast majority of positions are full-time. There's there's a much higher incidence of Part-time positions at the secondary level Thank you Any um further questions Miss kenny So kind of following along on that same line. So there's a few that say vacant position for f y 22 Is that mean in f y 23? They will no longer be vacant that position is being eliminated. How does how does that work? So, um, I'm going to be very careful on how to respond because sometimes these are easily identified. No, no No, no, no, no, it's not an apology thing, but just these are pretty identifiable Uh positions and not everyone who's in the position or was in the position or would be in the position has shared Their piece. So, uh, I think the short story is that um, there's a number of reasons why it would be vacant It might be a retirement It might be that someone's taking a leave next year and that a year from now We will have to revisit Whether it remains vacant indefinitely. I know your point was not to go down that road But I just wanted to explain why I was going to be a little big and answering It's just more protection for staff members who are identifiable on the sheet Yeah, it was more a matter of Does that Like is that Never mind We'll have a challenge in f y 23, you know, if we're not able to store any of these positions. Absolutely Okay, thank you. Sorry There's no further questions we'll move now to um, the the public hearing part of our of this discussion and then we'll come back to um, the two committee comments We have one um voice Recording so I will play that while I pull up the written comments Oh, my name is Amanda Lewis and I am a holy aggressor after a professional ID or HS I work in the academic achievement center of place where we provide academic 12th graders I'm honored to get to work with incredibly young people every day Students are doing their best to survive the pandemic will also doing school care work working learning how to drive trying to make sense of the world navigating relationships, etc Many of the students I work with were struggling academically before the pandemic and continue to struggle academically during remote instruction As we review the proposed regional budget cuts I am extremely concerned about the impact of my students my colleague, particularly fellow paraprofessional colleagues and myself I return to state and engaging in person learning in the coming months will bring its own set of logistical social and emotional challenges for students That and family challenges. We do not yet know how to anticipate We are all dealing with significant ongoing trauma from the pandemic and the compounding effects on existing social inequity in our community For students at the high school, some of the proposed cuts may look like fewer paraprofessionals to provide valuable support Reduction of the being position and to some of the elected classes that students look forward to most All of these reductions will immediately impact students access to support and connection during a time where we need more support and resources Not less I urge the town to get created and make sure our budget reflects our community values For instance community members and organizations have great ideas about how to look holistically at our town's budget To ensure that we put resources towards education and other services that increase equity and access in our community by looking critically at cuts in places like policing This is the key moment to come together to invest resources and align this with our values as a community Whether you are in favor of a flip return to in-person learning or believe it's not safe yet I hope that we can all agree that funding our schools must be an urgent priority And commit to advocating and funding accordingly If we care about equity and access in our community for all of our young people, we need to commit to funding our schools Thank you for your work our folks seeing Seeing this comment, okay And I will remind folks that this is um posted on the regional school committee agendas page And i'm going to go Somewhat quickly through this because you'll you'll start to see that these are um Uh very similar similarly worded letters But I will Pause and and do my best to enable legibility Sorry and lost my mouse um So before we move on to the school committee come on I I do want to Acknowledge that a lot of that comment was um Was directed and and and mentioned The funding for the schools in relation to other town services And for those that are watching at home Those we appreciate and thank you for sharing those comments with us as they relate to cuts to the school budget and Another outlet would be to Share those same comments with your town The town officials whether if it's an Amherst the town council Or the select board or town managers and in in our other member towns Um, though that is where those decisions are being made In terms of weighing the funding for the schools versus other town services With that what we're going to do now is move on to school committee comment And as I described and shared with with the committee beforehand, I'm going to Take a slightly different approach. I want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to speak before Before others have opportunity or second comment If I want to make sure that everybody Who would like to speak has that opportunity? And so I'm going to Ask for forgiveness for the first person that I'm going to call on I'm going to just go around my screen and once each of us has had an opportunity to speak Then we'll go back for any follow-up comments that folks might have as we continue this discussion So like I said, I'm going to apologize for the whore soul who is going to be I'm going to um tag first But that as I'm going to start with um miss seager I was afraid of that. Um So I'll see if I can get my thoughts organized um I think for first and foremost I'm sad and disappointed by this budget that that we're here again in a second year in a row making this Incredibly drastic cut that we're that we're entertaining this Um, I heard loud and clear from the comments that people are asking us to reject this budget um I don't feel like we have space to which is the unfortunate part I don't I don't feel like we have a lot of control here because of the way we have four different towns with four different ideas of how things work and And lo and behold we could end up at the statutory method this year which would really um Adversely affect two of the four towns. So it feels like we have it feels like to me that I have no good Good choice in this. Um, I am afraid of our school district Decline just declining and what what can be offered And the effect that overall that's going to have on our all four of our towns if we lose families people don't look to Um Amherst anymore as the place to send their children to school because that's why I moved here You know, I live in Leverett, but It's because the school's good in Leverett. It is because the school in Amherst is great It's that's why I'm here and I hear from so many families. It's that's why we move to these towns All four of them and we've actually lived in two of the four towns um So I'm worried about that that's going to have a long-term effect on our housing prices um It's you know, hopefully we don't keep doing this year after year um, one of the things with the specific cuts is You know getting into a specific thing is I don't know sort of the whole budget and what we spend money on so I look at these cuts and I'm deeply appreciative of that that you're able to um Find these areas dr. Morris and dr. Slaughter Um, I don't know what other possibilities there are but I do notice that that art and dance is getting trimmed back And I'm concerned because I don't know how much money is spent on things like sports So I just want to make sure that there's a balance in what is cut this year And that we're not leaning in one direction and kids lose maybe valuable after school things because the teachers aren't there as a resource anymore um I I think uh I don't know what else to say that's that's as organized as I was able to get but I have a very hard time supporting this budget Um, I know a lot of the comments are asking us to reject this budget I don't know what the comment but what what you do if you reject this because ultimately, um, we vote on a budget and it's up at the towns Didn't the towns vote on the budgets and if if the towns reject the budgets You know, we're kind of it would be good to submit to the towns of budget that we think will generally be supported um But it is really hard to support this budget Thank you um Miss dancer okay So I may be going to read some of my thoughts. Um First thing I want to say is that I don't personally think this is the time to be cutting education I think if anything we should be increasing education funding um However, I think that we're faced with a really stark reality um We've heard it all Just what miss seager said and other things. Um And I think that the pandemic this year has just exacerbated what's been happening with education funding for a number of years um In massachusetts cities and towns are paying more because the state pays less to support education I've been I looked through About seven or eight years worth of school budgets And you can see it just gradually going down down down what the state is willing to pay In massachusetts, um, is mr. Demling stated we have Legislated mandates that for things that we're supposed to do But the state has not fully funded the things that they've legislated So they're not giving us enough money to do the things that they've told us we have to do That's pretty hard um I also think nationally, you know, this whole thing about lean and tax cutting You know, I come from california where they originally passed proposition 13 Which in a lot of ways was the beginning of this whole attitude about let's cut taxes There's a fat in everything and so we're going to make people be more efficient We're going to cut the fat out. Well, we just keep cutting and I mean I can't Well, I just um and I so I think what's happened is that um People now have dissociated from the fact that we pay taxes to get services All they say is I I mean, I I don't know if this is true or not But it's how I feel that people say well, let's cut taxes. I don't want to have to pay those taxes But then you just can't have the services if you don't pay the taxes And I think somehow that has just gotten divided in a lot of people's minds So I guess what I would say is I think You know, we're really up against A very difficult thing and I I agree. I think with miss seager I I I think we have Well, I don't think we have to do it, but I Think we have to vote on on the budget because I don't know that statutory is going to be good for anybody um and also Um I think if we Were to cut I mean, this is bad enough a million dollars. We're really starting to eat into what we can do But it also becomes a value judgment for our communities What kind of schools do we want to have? You know, we're decreasing offerings of all kinds. We're decreasing special ed. We're decreasing language English language learners. We're decreasing what we can do on equity issues Um, we're decreasing electives and honors courses options for students. I mean, it's everything And if we were to go any deeper than this, I mean This is already cutting into that any deeper than this would would be really Change that Is dr. Morris said I don't think this is what our communities want So there you have my opinion or opinions or thoughts Thank you Um, mr. Harrington Yeah, so this is tough, right? So When we look at when you look at budgets, right? It's a moral document. This is like a statement of values basically, right? And so I think for me the part I can't Kind of get past is like the human factor, right? Minimally, let's take it take a second and think about there are three people who will not Have employment going forward, right? Reduction enforce Letters going out. So that that's that's tough to deal with but like the kind of like Looking at looking at the cuts that we have to make And I hate to say that like I I don't Want to cut a single thing from our from from our budget in regards to education. That's why I'm here That's why like like my family's in Connecticut. My support system is in Connecticut I remain here with my son because of the quality of education And and so like I mean thinking about like our district's mission statement, right? You know, we value equity we value multiculturalism and And we can't afford And that's that's the reality of it, right? We can't afford to have the a family center outreach coordinator, right? So we're taxing those folks, right? They they have to work a little bit harder Not even a little bit harder. I don't I don't want to diminish that at all. They have to work a lot harder to to Reach out to our community to actually communicate with our community and they've they've been you know a conduit between the The school district and the community throughout this whole kind of pandemic and then um Then I think about like I don't know if it's a shock to anyone that that infrastructure is that that's that's where my mind goes immediately to and we're looking at, um We're looking at not filling vacancies with specialists, right? One of those specialist positions is an HVAC position, right and clearly that's that's been The the bulk of work that's been done and also in an electrician in the long-term effects of of not having these folks Is that it's going to cost more to maintain the things that we can't maintain, right? And I think you know when you look at it that it's it's echoed throughout This right things that we can't maintain that are going to cost more in the long run, right? You know people who are going to have to work that much harder and so I mean If then if anyone out there is Is able to communicate to us a better way to do it in an actual better way to do it than to have these cuts here I'm I am more than open and willing to hear but I I flat out don't see a better option and I also see that we could have cut a lot more And and we're probably going to have to continue to cut in the years to come if certain trends continue The the other thing that I would ask for the public to do is is to kind of If you believe that that we should fund the police department or other town services less and give us that money Advocate to the town council. That's them. But more more so than that We need to be advocating to the state and to our representatives To have them push put pressure on the state to fund education, right? This is our future. We're talking about it's not This isn't like a frivolous Expenditure here, right? This is this is our children's future And and I mean I we're not the only people feeling the pain, but Right now in this moment. I mean, I'm definitely feeling it and I I don't see anyone here who isn't Feeling it equally. I don't see a happy face on this screen, right? So That's about where I'm at is the that is kind of the realization of how Tough this is right now Thank you And miss spitzer thanks, um I was hard and by all the students who who wrote in and and actually brought me back to You know when I was a college student, I remember my grandfather forwarded me And I went to emerson high school and noticed that we were cutting german from the class offer offerings and so I typed an email and Said, you know, let's not cut german And while I wish we still offered german like to me that seems like a really like When did that be great if there were things that were such low hanging fruit to cut because I think when I look at the things that We're being proposed and not just in any year, but in a year where all of us Have suffered through this pandemic and and I'm really worried about when we return to in-person learning And there are fewer adjustment counselors where our family center has less staff Where we have fewer teachers and larger class sizes But all of our students needs have got increased and we know from data that these The burden of this pandemic has not been evenly distributed. Um across our community that The most vulnerable members of our Community, you know, the the pandemic has Hit them harder and I guess, you know, I don't know what to do because I know our our town is facing um Is facing challenges fiscally So it's not to say that these these cuts or anything that um, I think our our town leaders would want to make. Um But it's just it's just really really hard in a year where I think our students are actually going to need more to be able to give them less and if the facilities is is a great point It like it's not just in terms of like adjustment counselors. It's everything is going to I think be to be different and to I have to return to the buildings in a year where we're where we have less to meet more needs is just really Really frustrating. Um, so I I want to echo the request for folks to advocate for um the school budgets at all at the levels. Um You know, I think all of us were kind of hoping with 2021 was, you know Going to be this great new year We have new federal leadership, but I don't think anybody's, you know, writing in on a white horse and is gonna, you know Suddenly have buckets of money that will be able to to support our schools I am hoping that maybe we will get some federal funds that might ease some of this burden And I just want to recognize like I'm very grateful that we have At least, you know, we're not facing those 1.4 to 1.7 million cuts. I think it's worth, you know, recognizing at least that's A little bit better than what we were facing before so, um I guess I would be just curious about if we do fail to pass the budget what what, um What would the one 12th budget option? um Look like if if something like that were to happen. Um, it's something I'd like to understand better Not necessarily tonight. It's getting late, but those are my comments. Thank you very much Um, miss Kenny, okay. Um, so Let's see I think I have I have a lot of feelings about the budget and I can see My colleagues here. I think everybody else does also and I um, so I'm going to apologize in advance because when I have feelings about things. I am not necessarily particularly linear in my thought process um, so My family, you know, we moved to the area in when I was going into the summer spirit and we moved For the school system I went through the middle school and high school same with my brothers. I moved my own family to the Amherst and Pellum So my children could go through the school system um because the value uh The core value of the district right with The social justice and multiculturalism and the things that we hold dear And the high value we put on those things were what Not just drew my family, but withdraws lots of families to our area and these are our children we're talking about right and The best thing we can do for Anything is to invest in your future right and our children are our future and giving them the best education we can which includes languages and dance and health and All of the great things we've been able to provide for our children in the past That is what is able to give them great futures so I agree that I I feel like my hands are tied I feel like we are stuck between a rock and a hard place and I'm not sure What to do about the budget I am so impressed that this Is what Dr. Slaughter you've come up with and all the people you work with to have it be Not that this isn't detrimental to everybody, but it is it feels like I Least harm I guess And So I I'm I'm not sure I'm not sure what to do I haven't been on regional school committee for long enough or any school committee Honestly to know what happens if you don't approve the budget So I guess I have questions about what happens if you go that way. Um, so Those are my thoughts for now, I guess And There's a few of us left, but I because two members have asked the kind of the same question I don't know Dr. Slaughter or Dr. Morris if you Be willing to sort of respond to that Yeah, I can I can do that. So the first question the two things I'd written down were athletics There was a comment about and we did make reductions to athletics a few years ago um, we reduced the number of games and and You know What we looked at is The next step on athletics would be um You know when we looked at a couple years ago was, you know, do you eliminate some sports, but then It really comes up with equity issues because the sports that generally Would quote unquote save the most money They save that because the students who are playing are often, you know, receiving subsidized support and the sports that Are not losing money would, you know, so we had a hard time So we did already make a reduction athletics a couple years ago, and I think it was before you were on the committee Um, uh miss seager. So, you know what we looked at it like that next set doesn't seem like You know something we could do because we've already made a reduction in in athletics. Um Uh, but you know, it's certainly open to feedback, but I just you know, again just giving the history I think hopefully is important um in terms of a budget so, uh You all do need to pass a budget. So just to be really clear like process-wise like, um, you know, That does need to be the school committee does need to vote a budget I think the question was if the budget isn't supported by all the member communities um So I can send there's a memo from desi and dug if you can't pull it up I can probably pull it up that we we can send to the committee that describes the process but the short story is um You go on a one-twelfth budget, which means that um the state will determine The appropriate budget amount it'll take into account what budget the school committee passed whether there was an increase And then they um We'll divide that by 12 and they will give you the funds and Increments at a month and then if it goes beyond I think it's november december And I can't remember exactly which month Then then there's a little bit of a different process if you still don't have a budget passed But the short story is the state determines the budget it does What they told us two years ago when this came up it does the fault to their methodology, which would be the statutory method Um, and they determine the assessment amounts and as well as the total amount. So there's a couple districts Rehoboth, what's it? It's another regional district. They have not passed the budget. I believe in two years. So, um, we can try to Is it Dudley Rehoboth? I can't remember Uh, I can't remember. I'm sorry. I'm not so good. I've lived here my whole adult life and I I still can't get the Towns right, um, but there there are a couple examples of what's happened But in general what I've seen um, the state is generally as long as the increase is pretty reasonable from the school committee The state has supported the school committee's position, but it often changes the assessments between the towns and that situation So we can get a like there is information on the state website and dug if I could ask you to try to pull that up Uh and share it with Sasha by the committee or directed at the committee I think it describes it better than I can very briefly because I think it goes into much more detail Is seager is it a clarifying question on that topic? Or is it for okay, go ahead You're muted Okay, thank you. Um, I just wanted to point out dr. Morse that I was thinking If the four towns if one of them refused the budget and we had to go back to the table That means that I believe all four towns and especially affecting Pelham Shootsbury and Leverett have to have another town meeting Which in a pandemic year has been really hard to start with so I can't imagine Going into another year where hopefully we will be out of this by then but you know, that's It wouldn't be simple. Um providing a town refuse a budget. I mean, it's yeah Yeah, and actually if I could clarify this for the committee as well as the community because this is something that always gets confused so um, if you're if districts regional districts are not using the statutory method Then they need agreement of all four towns on the whatever method they choose. That's not the statutory method Um, so at all the town meetings then now with Amherst town council, there's actually two votes in the budget One is the assessment method Which anything other than the statutory requires a unanimous vote of the communities And then there's the budget which requires three out of four But the budget's like the second vote right if you if the four towns don't agree on the statutory method The budget vote is moved because you you can't actually assess the towns that so that that's where it gets a little confusing Um is the assessment method if there's not agreement Um, then you just keep on circling back to that and that's to your point of the town meetings where things could get very Complicated because the town meetings don't happen all in the same day So it could be the case that everyone's passed the budget and the last town to go whether that's Amherst town council Or one of the town meetings doesn't pass it and then the towns that have already had their town meeting can't just redo their Like they can't casually get back together again to solve this problem. Um, so I think that's a really important point. Thanks miss seager um, and I believe we have um Miss lord mr. Demling and myself left to comment, so I'll start with uh you miss lord Thank you I want to first mention that the fact that the way we fund Public schools is a racist and classes system It's widely unfair and problematic But at the end of the day, I also acknowledge that the Amherst district Amherst district is not underserved. We have many resources that other school districts do not And yet They have us fighting over what we perceive to be limited resources in the star city model And I I want to reject that model if this country every ever prioritized our children As a priority of national security Over the perceived need for walls or weapons. I believe we would be better off at the end of the day. I always Say that in terms of our national security Our biggest and our best investment involves our children To me, they are surely the most important Intervention investment that we could ever make Their mental health their civil engagement Their access to educational advancement is truly where we as citizens And this country is about and where the majority of I I would hope our tax dollars should be engaged They are truly The investment in our future and how we in support support our youth and as engagement in the future Is a longer conversation When we need to fight on the state and our national level I want to thank this administration for keeping their commitment to the restorative justice position As the sc tf chair It was really important and to see that that was not one of the cuts I thank you for that position can cover possibly and un Regrettably some of the other positions that have been cut By our Intended proposed cuts Sorry, I'm wrestling here I heard a few town counselors engaged in the discussion around staff salaries On saturday and for a moment I engaged I engaged in this as well But sadly I came to the conclusion that my work As a black woman with two master's degrees has been undervalued In these institutions that have systemic racism at their root in their dna Teachers and peras work They work way and well beyond whatever we pay them. So I hope that we um pull back from criticizing whatever step increases or salary increases that they might have They are invaluable And under sir underpaid undervalued in our our country So I just have to put that out there that yeah, maybe we could save some if we freeze everything, but no They're hands-on front line with our kids um Thank you to all who interact with our children um I also acknowledge that this model has been set up in opposition the scarcity property Model which we're not going to change tonight With homeowners who would like have no children but prioritize the dog park because they have dogs and they want to Hey, let's have a dog park or let's fix the potholes It's not a good system. We're stuck in it for now We've worked to change it But here's where we're at I um Admit that I at the end of the day. I approach this budget more with the heart than with like adherence to budgetary demands or fiduciary obligations But I offer no apologies I believe we need more heart to triumph in this world district and town Um, I do not want this million dollar budget cut It hurts me deeply to think about What some of our youth needs may be lost In the cut or it will be lost In the cut and the financial restraints um Yeah so I just wanted to put that out there I don't know if that makes any more sense to any of y'all, but it's where I'm coming from What I value what I believe I I just wish we had a different model For funding our public education because our youth I will say again is our best investment in national security They are our future. They are our blessings. They are Wildly important to me Thank you Thank you Mr. Demling Um, thank you. Ms. Lore for those comments. Um, so um, I'll have to say here I'll try to pack it in. Um, so first all the young people who advocated tonight Please keep it up. Um, it was awesome to hear. Uh, so keep keep your input for your schools your towns Stay involved and demanding and I practically speaking think that you can be a force to influence things This year So, you know, there's not a lot of time left in this budget season, but we do have a month or so Please so please keep it up. I appreciate that Um as as to the assessment method, um You know, I come up two two minds for this one is what's the most practical compromise for this year's budget? And to me, it's pretty obvious that it's it's the 55 method That's the one that from what I heard was was in the consideration scope of all but amourst and for amourst It would be 17 000 more than the 45 And it still would be within the 1.5 guidance we got so I actually don't understand why they weren't willing to do the 55 so so for practical terms that seems to be The the short term of this year solution for the long-term solution, which you know I consider more after hearing dr. Morris talk about the chronic problem we have Um, I would almost say let's not take off the table the modified statutory the 100 the pink column there Um, and I'll just be blunt. I think amourst can afford that It's less than a hundred thousand dollar increase from the 45 And it gets us to a method that we could say this is now the method going forward where I at statutory And the increases are are are manageable enough. I think Maybe with some special assistance for pelham That that we could get there. I don't know if politically the towns would would go for that But if you if we're just talking about long term that then that could be a solution um as to the the budget level, I mean I echo all of my colleagues comments and um I'm not okay with this level of cuts our public schools have become a comprehensive social service organization for the community that so many of our residents rely on for way more than the academic um Education of their children and we shouldn't lose 16 staff positions at exactly the time that we need to increase the increase At this point has been made by others. Um, and these are forever cuts Right, this this isn't just they're they're on the shelf and they come back Unless we think we're getting a 6 to 10 future budget increase these things are gone And we all like to say people move to amourst for the schools that will come to an end if we keep doing this Uh, and I agree it is primarily the nation's fault and the state's fault for not being the humanitarian social service Uh, uh organization that it isn't um, but here we are and we have to make a choice So I will say that I think the school should be prioritized Prioritized municipal service over other municipal services during this educational crisis Because of the educational crisis and I would encourage any members of the public Um, who feel like this budget level this cut level is not what you want Contact your town council contact your select boards. Let them know because we we do have to propose A value that we think can be approved. Um As to that level and what it should be I want to respond to a request from um, an amourst town councilor and some comments That were made at the four towns meeting. Um Uh where a councilor said quote, I don't see what we are getting for the extra money spent You could say we're overfunding our schools Um, and then uh councilor followed up with an email Quote, please be willing to talk about whether our community values regarding education Versus other functional areas of town services have changed And further quote, maybe our collective community values have shifted away from many of the extra Non-state mandated programs being offered to small subsets of student populations The cost potentially large amounts of money So, okay, so let's talk about that. Let's talk about our budget values. Um in in that way and I I start from our mission statement Um and and just to briefly quote from it that our mission of our schools is to provide all students With a high quality education and that we seek to create an environment That achieves equity for all students and ensure ensures that each student is a successful learner And so when I applied that to the budget process, I go back to this guiding principle I think was to Harrington mentioned about being a moral document that a budget is a moral document We fund what we value So when we consider our array of services that we currently fund that aren't state mandated that serve small subsets of students What are we getting for this money? Is it worth it? Do we value it when we talk about our students with disabilities and specialized in district programs? So they don't have to be bust out of town the co-teachers that foster inclusion in the regular classroom The paraprofessionals we heard about in public comment The what provide one-to-one support for our students so they can participate with their typically developing peers in chorus the high school play Sledding down the wildwood hill. I mean none of this is state mandated And their small subsets of students is do we value that experience for these for these students true pay For the family center that helps students overcome income inequality For direct outreach and academic and social supports felt to level the playing field again Not state mandated do we value that to support our one in three students who are low income Our how about our participation in the minority student achievement network? So this is an organization. They call themselves a national coalition Of multiracial school districts that come together to understand and eliminate opportunity Gaps that persist in their schools. I mean that is right down main street of our of our mission, right? And so we send students to these conferences and they come back with action plans Student directed action plans to make our schools more equitable not required small subset. Should we do we value this? Um, you know, and you this is not a comprehensive list I haven't even talked about restorative justice or the bright program or the district wide anti-racism training or the the new PD professional development for trauma informed classrooms for young children or the array Of of ways in which we approach academics for for those that are on a very high performing track Or those who are on a vocational track or those who really engage in a thriving performance arts program Where so many other schools don't even have arts programs anymore We don't have to do any of it So if if students come to our schools and they don't have the same level of need They have a higher level of need because of their physical disability their cognitive ability From systemic racism from the economic inequality of our of our society from personal trauma Or or they simply come to us with a you know, like a beautiful diversity of of language and culture Should we fully meet their needs if it's not state mandated? And so I put that question to the public to please tell us and tell the leaders of our towns Our budget is a moral document. What should we value and that will determine what our budget level should be Thank you Clicking the wrong buttons there um, so I guess the The disadvantage of going last is the impatience of sort of building up, but the advantage is that um I hear All of the voices of all of my colleagues on the in the committee and I don't need to add it as much um other than I Share I think miss kenny you talked about the your your volume of feelings and it makes it difficult to speak and I I share that and when I think I Share the sentiment and perspective that all of you have already shared um And in particular we talk about it a lot and I've heard it so many times already just this evening from each of you About our budget being a moral statement and a statement of our values and like what I've heard from many of you I'm not comfortable that this budget really does reflect our district values. I'm sorry. I'm getting emotional um We pride ourselves on the rich and varied programming that meets every student's needs Even those, you know the small groups About population We have curriculums and offerings for high achieving college-bound students that are rigorous and as dr. Morris mentioned rivaled out of many private schools And liberal arts schools and we heard from some of our speakers tonight how valuable that was for their um, their trajectory We have this specialized programming and support for special needs students That's inclusive and sets them up for rich lives after graduation We've arrived arrived for an amazing electives available even for ninth graders that engage every student's level of learning beyond their core academics Which is particularly helpful for those for whom core academics doesn't really energize them and engage their level of learning Outreach support and programming to help all families feel welcomed and included in our school community Incredible teachers and staff who continually go the extra mile for our students and build Relationships that make impressions on our kids the last a lifetime and we heard we heard that again from the alumni that spoke tonight And the professional development to ensure that our teachers para educators and staff are continually learning and growing and are Engaged in our community of learning The voices we heard tonight from this former students are such inspiring evidence of this that I don't even need to go in and describe it more I think um, you know the varied stories that they told of their experiences in our school system And what they what they see for their futures just is loud enough um We've made significant cuts over the last two to three years and our district has squeezed as much as it can While minimizing as much as possible the direct impact on our students And I'm sure there's always inefficiencies that could be found if we look hard enough that might save a few dollars You're there Any inefficiencies and our current budgets will not add up to a million dollars in cuts and we heard that tonight with that list of cuts Cuts of this size that we're looking at will permanently reshape the nature and character of our public secondary schools and I would argue Do not match the values of our community and I again will list all the things that each of you have described as being evidence um or fits Spending that we are making investments that we are making in our schools, whether it's the family center The bright program restorative justice um professional development all of those are things that that reflect our values and we want to maintain those as much as possible um, so I think as Um, uh, Ms. Seager and Ms. Dancer started started us out. It's really hard to support this budget um and I share the the belief that That each of you has shared also that this is as much A reflection of our state and federal um priorities and values And in the current year there isn't a lot that we can do that's going to impact FY 22 So it sucks. Um, but this is these are the choices that we have to make and that it's it is a zero sum game For each of our member towns and then within our own school district budget Um, so it's a it's a both and I think you know the advocacy on the state and federal level to sort of get that full funding You know now more than ever Need to raise our voices in support of that and What do we do for this particular because that's not going to change that for us? Um Uh, yeah, I don't have a solution I do think um, one of the things that we we should as a as a committee have a conversation on um is with all things considered were we to You know a the first question is do we want to accept a million dollars in cuts? Do we want to ask the district to look for fewer cuts? If we are accepting the million dollars in cuts Are these the right cuts um that we want to be making? Um, and I think that's sort of where I'd like to see us sort of wrestle with that a little bit. Um and and sort of come with some sort of direction or at least um In the next steps to guide dr. Slaughter and dr. Dr. Morris in their next um round of a budget work here um, so Yeah, dr. Morris.  I just had uh two things to say but certainly No, go ahead. Okay. So one is just if miss grip co wanted to speak. I know we go around the room and sometimes She doesn't necessarily jump in as much which I if I was her age I'd be like hiding under you know something I wouldn't have agreed to do this So kudos to you for being part of this. Uh, I think on the other part I they want to say with budget is we you know, we're doing we're doing having this hearing Um, about a month before we'd actually vote the budget So I d