Departments

Transcript (~1 h 27 min @ 1:35:00)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 1:34:42 Ryan Williams: Alright, next up is the, uh, budget discussion appropriation 2024 dash 25, the fiscal 2025 operating budget in the amount of $104,140,412. Tonight we have, uh, a number of departments, and I'll just start with 4 51, the Council on Aging.

▶ 1:35:10 Speaker 4: Good evening counselors. Thank you, uh, for your time as always. Um, the Council on Aging had a busy fiscal year 24. Um, we were able to stabilize our department after a number of transitions in September. Um, Uh, participation at the, uh, Milano Center averaged about 74 different check-ins, uh, every day. Um, so we have a high volume of people coming through, um, every day. Uh, we were able to increase our, uh, registered number of participants to just over, uh, 3,600. So we average about 23 new members per month. Um, so we're, we're happy to see those trends. Um, transportation, as always, is a, uh, well utilized service, um, in our department. Um, we were able to provide, uh, just over 1600 rides, um, in and out of Melrose, um, as well as 600 rides as part of our day trips program. Um, our social services team, uh, was very active. Um, since we, uh, um,

▶ 1:36:21 Speaker 4: since we got some new software, uh, in November, we were able to start tracking more closely, um, the work that that team does. So, um, since November we've had a total of 139 different services, um, completed for, uh, residents in Melrose, um, to 64 unique individuals, um, 31 of those services being, uh, part of the Melrose Emergency Fund. So, um, just some notable accon accomplishments in, in 24, um, we were able to finish and complete our outdoor pavilion. Um, so we had our grand opening ceremony last week. Um, folks had a blast. And, uh, it was nice to be able to show off, um, you know, all the great work. Um, so we have a, a nice accessible outdoor space for our participants to use, as well as, um, rentals for, um, the community at large. Um, we were also able to, uh, complete our community needs assessment, um, through UMass Boston. So we do have the final report for that. And our, we staff and our, our board are working to, um, review that data and, um, create our strategic plan going forward. Um, we were also able to test out, um, an increased, uh, availability for our transportation program. We added two shifts to our, um, busier days, um, which was well, well received and well utilized. Um, and we also rejuvenated, um, some of our shopping trips by adding, uh, a greater variety of destinations to those. So, um, happy to do that. Um, some of our goals for fiscal year 25 will be to, uh, make steps towards, um, the state certification of age friendly, dementia friendly, um, for the city of Melrose. So, um, looking forward to really digging my teeth into that project. Um, as well as, uh, so using the needs assessment data will, will help with that process. Um, and like I said, we're, we're also gonna review that to, uh, inform, uh, best steps for, for our team and the citizens of Melrose.

▶ 1:38:30 Speaker 2: Thank you. Any questions from counselors?

▶ 1:38:33 Ryan Williams: Counselor?

▶ 1:38:35 Manjula Karamcheti: Hi. Thank you so much for being here. I actually don't have a question, but it is an opportunity, so I'm gonna take a quick liberty to say thank you to you and the work that you all do. I've had quite a few constituents over the past few months in particular mention that they're sort of adults who are in the middle of raising children and supporting their older parents. And they have found just the work that you do, the Milano Center, to be such like a helpful, beautiful place for their parents who often are starting to feel a little depressed, a little disconnected. They've really found connection there. So I just wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. I know you do it on not a grand scale budget, but what you're providing is really important and essential to the community. Thank you. So thank

▶ 1:39:22 Speaker 4: You. Appreciate it. Thank you.

▶ 1:39:25 Ryan Williams: Councillor Stewart? Oh, I'm sorry. Um, Councillor Vandiver. Oh,

▶ 1:39:29 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Uh, it, thank you for being here. It sounds like, uh, you are making a, a large number of really active adjustments to the programming and, and really looking at what are the needs and opportunities, which is, which is wonderful. I was wondering if there's anything that you would like to be doing that's not funded or that is sort of outside of your scope, but in the council scope that you see as a need among the senior population. A program that we don't offer it could offer anything like that, that, um, you'd like to mention to us. Sure. Um, uh, I would say

▶ 1:40:02 Speaker 4: that the transportation program can always be expanded. Um, that's something that, um, we track really closely. Um, most, uh, most councils on aging aren't able to provide transportation very far outside of their own, um, city. Um, we go to the surrounding communities. I'd love to expand that program if we can. Um, there's a lot of, um, demand for medical appointments in like the Burlington area, um, Woburn, um, things like that. Um, the other thing that I think would benefit the community, um, um, it's something called a memory cafe. So, um, folks who struggle with dementia and their families can, um, visit and have time in a safe space where, um, you know, caregivers can relax a little bit and, um, enjoy some enrichment for, um, their loved ones. So, um, if I had a funding request, it would be to kind of create that program in Melrose. Great. Thank you. Councillor Stewart.

▶ 1:41:06 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Mr. Brown. You mentioned that, um, one of the oldest vehicles is 10 years old and it's going to need to be replaced. What's the approximate cost to one of those vehicles?

▶ 1:41:20 Speaker 4: Um, it depends on the type of vehicle that we, um, wanna purchase. I, if we wanna, um, match the two existing vehicles that we use, um, it would be upwards of $150,000 probably. Um, I'm leaning more towards, um, a smaller option. Our, um, regular rides for transportation. Um, generally we don't have more than one or two passengers on the, on the van at any one time. Um, so I've been exploring the option of, um, a wheelchair accessible minivan. Um, the drivers would love to be able to have a smaller vehicle to, um, go around Melrose in. Um, and I think it would serve our needs. So I, I haven't quite looked into the cost of, it's, it's difficult to get an estimate because it would be a customized kind of vehicle, um, but it would be much less than the 12 passenger vans that we drive.

▶ 1:42:16 Robb Stewart: Good. Great. And then you, you also mentioned about the Milana Center rentals. Um, is that just an idea or is that actually moving forward?

▶ 1:42:25 Speaker 4: So we do have a rental agreement, um, that the city solicitor helped us, um, draft, um, during, before Covid, I think rentals were pretty popular at the Milano Center. Um, and, you know, during that period, um, things obviously slowed down. We weren't able to have folks in, and then I think after that people kind of either forgot that that was an option or, um, you know, we weren't ready to, to continue with that. So I, I'm happy that we do have the agreement. We have been, um, renting out the Milano Center, um, the last few months. Um, now that, um, James Conforti's on the team, he's kind of spearheading that, um, coming from hospitality and event management. So, um, he's been great at, uh, getting things running on that front.

▶ 1:43:08 Robb Stewart: If you can generate $150,000. Right. Thank you.

▶ 1:43:12 Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. Mark. Thank you.

▶ 1:43:20 Speaker 2: Okay. Councillor Gepe Motion, move

▶ 1:43:21 Speaker 7: The bottom line Second.

▶ 1:43:23 Ryan Williams: Okay. We have a motion to move the bottom line on 5 4 1 by Councillor Repe. Seconded by Councillor Occhio,

▶ 1:43:31 Speaker 7: Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Repe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty. Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor naca? Yes. And President Elli? Yes. That motion passes unanimously.

▶ 1:43:49 Ryan Williams: Okay. Thank you. And also for you, we have, uh, the Council on Aging revolving account number 2 8 1 1. Yes. Do you have any additional information you'd like to pass on about that?

▶ 1:43:58 Speaker 4: Uh, just that we use the revolving account, uh, mostly for, um, fee-based, uh, programs at the Milano. Our fitness programs are a small fee. Um, so, uh, you know, we'll take fees from participants and then use that to, uh, you know, pay the instructors for those classes. Um, some of our day trips utilize that program where, you know, we'll purchase tickets up front, um, for a show or, um, an event, and then, uh, you know, pay the vendor through, through that account. So,

▶ 1:44:26 Ryan Williams: Okay. Thank you. And that fund has a $35,000 annual cap. Any questions from counselors on the fund?

▶ 1:44:37 Speaker 2: Entertain a motion to motion to

▶ 1:44:38 Speaker 6: Move the bottom line to

▶ 1:44:41 Ryan Williams: Approve on account revolving account. 2 8 1 account

▶ 1:44:44 Speaker 6: To approve. Yeah.

▶ 1:44:45 Ryan Williams: 2 8 1 1 To approve, yeah. To approve the full counsel. Uh, 2 8 1. One second. Second. My by Counselor Chetty seconded by Councillor Stewart. Roll call please.

▶ 1:44:58 Speaker 7: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councilor gpe? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councillor Brosky? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Vandiver? Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor for Nicaro? Yes. And President Elli? Yes. That motion carries unanimously.

▶ 1:45:15 Speaker 2: Thank you for coming. Thank You. Have

▶ 1:45:16 Ryan Williams: A great night. Thank for all you do. Next up, we have Department 3 0 0 Melrose Public Schools.

▶ 1:45:25 Ryan Williams: And joining us tonight, we have Chair of the School committee, Ms. Margaret Driscoll. Hello.

▶ 1:45:36 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Good evening everyone. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to address you all this evening. Uh, first I'd like to acknowledge, uh, the challenges in our school community. This week, the committee appreciates the collaboration between and among interim Superintendent Ro Mary Greg, and incoming Superintendent de Lady to keep our community appropriately informed. We're also grateful for collective grace and patience as we navigate challenging waters and look forward as a committee to gaining greater understanding of district needs that fall under our purview, including working to ensure that our oversight is focused on inviting the community voice to the table, setting vision, mission, and strategy, assessing policy, targeting resources to where they are needed most, and holding the superintendent accountable that work must support consistent sustainable improvements within our ability to fund them. Tonight, the Melrose School Committee puts before the City Council a budget that we know you understand bears a degree of loss and disappointment for our students. It can provide an education that is the best we can do with the money that's available, providing for limited but essential priorities. We are proud to share that the information documentation and video provided by the school department and the city have been fully transparent, explaining our revenues and expenses clearly articulately and in depth, and that our recent audit was outstanding. But we are facing tremendous increases in the cost of special education tuitions for special schools that can meet students' unique needs, along with the transportation provided to get them from home to school and back safely. Middle school learners and staff who have much need, particularly as a worldwide pandemic, is barely in our rear view mirror. And the effects of that much as we'd wish it don't just go away. Oftentimes, the kids are not all right. They need our help. The need for learning materials that support the way that education is delivered now with viable Chromebooks and high quality software subscriptions and the kind of professional development and coaching that helps good teachers get better. Just as any golfer or pianist or students, uh, student needs to go from pretty good to very good or from very good to outstanding. The school committee knows that this city council understands and appreciates that the district has complex and comprehensive needs. And this budget is the best we can provide without an infusion of revenue as soon as possible that would keep class sizes more reasonable, provide targeted staffing to help students, and many more critical services, which the community can learn more about. On the budget portion of the Melrose Public School's website, and that we urge everyone to read

▶ 1:48:31 Speaker 6: with somewhat heavy hearts, we ask

▶ 1:48:33 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: that you move the current FY 25 Melrose Public School's budget for passage to the full council. And with that, I will yield the floor to Superintendent ero and Director of Finance and Administrative Affairs. Ken Kelly.

▶ 1:49:00 Speaker 1: Thank you, Madam Chair of School Committee. Uh, thank you chair of the appropriations committee. We're just setting up because we'd like to do a possible just a few slides to, um, present to you tonight in regards to where we're at in the current budget.

▶ 1:49:34 Speaker 1: So I'm gonna turn it over to Mr. Kelly to just walk us through these slides for now, and then we will, um, I'll either jump in or we'll be ready for questions after. Good evening. Thanks for having Us, us. Um, just before we start, I would like to say too that, um, uh, the, the schools were very, um, pleased and happy to hear of, uh, the potential appointment of Assistant City auditor. Uh, Carrie Golden. Carrie has been a tremendous resource for the schools for the past couple years since I've been there. Um, and, uh, the school department is, is, uh, uh, delighted employee supports, um, uh, assistance assistant city auditor, uh, Golden's appointment. Um, thank you for having us tonight. Um, we do have some information we'd like to share about the budget, um, some of the things that, uh, part of the development process, what the priorities were for the budget. Um, talk a little bit about the collaboration we've had with the city, which I think has been pretty extraordinary. And then talk about the impacts moving forward. Um, chair Driscoll highlighted a few of those. Um, this budget is, uh, a kind of a tale of two budgets. It does accomplish some things that have been needed, um, thanks to Superintendent Eros guidance. Um, but it does leave some questions, um, unanswered as to, uh, how we move forward. Um, so we, um, we do have a, a resource. We have a website that we've developed, um, uh, over the past year. Um, it has a lot of information on it. Uh, it's at our, um, uh, merrill schools.com website. And it does have, um, sort of the, um, the, it has the same timeline that we followed, uh, school committee approved. It has the different messages that have come out from, uh, collaboration with the mayor's office and the superintendent. And it does have our line item budgets, which is a, some, a new process we've been using, um, uh, this year. Um, we have focused on trying to make things accessible, build trusts, uh, put out things, um, as they develop from school committee. And, um, for those that are not able to attend or watch school committee meetings, make information available so that people can, uh, stay informed on, on the, the, the school's budget as it is such a large part of the city's budget. Uh, in January, we shared a budget book, um, with the, uh, school committee that's available online that, um, the priorities in that book really haven't changed. Uh, there's been a consistent focus on our, our middle school and VMMS has, um, uh, the past few years been, um, understaffed straight up. It is, um, something that we need to correct. Um, there is a, a population increase there, a enrollment increase. And, um, it had not kept pace, uh, with staffing. Um, they're currently, uh, experiencing some challenges. Um, I think that are, are probably attributable in some ways to, uh, the staffing, uh, levels. And so, uh, there's been some diligent work over the past year to, uh, put strategies in place. Um, and again, that comes at a little bit of a cost where, uh, we've had to, um, pull back on some revenue, um, which is the right thing to do as far as, uh, financial health. Um, but that means to solve that problem we've had to, uh, reallocate and move different resources from other places in the district to the middle school. Um, that's one of our priorities. Special education programming, we'll talk about that in a bit. Um, we've tried to expand a little bit of that. Um, and then, um, uh, we did install a new line item budget. Uh, we've used that for, we, we published FY 24 and FY 25. Um, this is a document that's on that website, and it's just a great resource to show all the different cost centers for the district. It has the schools, it has the different departments, um, summarized here on this page, uh, with, um, all the different costs, both salary and non-salary, uh, for districtwide showing how we get to our, our number, um, our overall budget number.

▶ 1:53:29 Speaker 1: So, as I said, I think there's been pretty high levels of collaboration between the city and the schools. Um, I think that's been a real strength of our superintendent, um, uh, under his guidance. And then, uh, our, our new incoming mayor, um, has been constant collaboration, constant, um, trying to understand, um, both financial realities as well as needs on the schools. Um, and I, I know that, uh, everyone's aware that, uh, this coming, uh, Tuesday the 18th, a week from tomorrow, we do have, um, special election proposition two and a half override, uh, votes scheduled. Um, and, uh, this budget that you're hearing about tonight, um, is, um, does not include any additional revenue that might be provided, uh, from a potential override vote. So this is a budget that stands on its own. Um, uh, um, it is not dependent on, um, next, uh, Tuesday's vote. And, and lastly, we'll talk about some of the impacts with regard to, um, uh, what this budget, uh, does and does not.

▶ 1:54:32 Speaker 1: So, as I said, this budget did prioritize, uh, the middle school. Um, there has been an increase in staff there, there still are some unmet positions that would be very helpful. But we have reallocated a lot of resources. And this goal has not changed since that January budget book was published at the, um, special education department. We are attempting to start a language based learning program starting at the elementary level. Um, this is a long-term resource for the district. Um, this budget also attempts to close a, uh, a gap between revenue that we've, um, had to close with, uh, one-time free cash requests that have been graciously answered by, um, by the city council. And the much appreciated. Um, that's not a sustainable way, uh, to run the budget. That gap will just continue to grow, um, using one-time sources. Uh, we're aware of that, and that's one of the things we've been collaborating with the mayor's office on is, is how to close that gap. Um, and this budget does that. There would not be a need to, um, barring a a, a major unanticipated emergency. There would not be a need to come to City Council for, uh, a free cash request of, of millions of dollars, which is a good thing that, uh, health-wise for the city finances. Um, so this budget does do that. Um, the, the, um, the auditor's office, the mayor's office, um, they have, um, designed the city budget. So that about 6.46% of an increase, um, has been allocated for the schools. That's, uh, 79% of any new growth for the city is now dedicated to the teaching and learning budget that we have. Um, and our one time requests have been prioritized. We do have some, um, uh, critical capital needs that, um, uh, are, uh, are our partners at DPW, um, are helping us with. We've had roofing issue with the Franklin. That's, that's a critical need. Um, and then additional revenue allocated to our stabilization funds. So the, the, the city is definitely, um, prioritizing, uh, the school system. Um, so while we're committed to the middle school, we're committed to some special education programming, trying to expand some literacy initiatives. Um, there are pullbacks and reductions across the district as far as staffing goes. We'll talk about that in a second. Um, and, uh, some, you know, Melrose is a multi-tiered systems of support district. This budget is, uh, eliminating instructional coaches and some interventionists. Those are some of our, um, our, our, our tiered supports that would no longer be available. And here's where we landed. We proposed a little over $50 million in January for our school committee to consider, um, working with city partners. Um, we've, uh, established there'd be about $41 million available as a combination of city resources and chapter 70, um, appropriation, uh, the city, uh, excuse me, the school system has, um, uh, I would say, uh, leaned very heavily on our offset projections to come up with an additional $6 million. And we land, uh, just over $47 million for our, um, our operating budget for next year. And that was approved by our school committee on April 25.

▶ 1:57:45 Speaker 1: So, just a little more information about the middle school. What this does, we are expanding, um, grade seven and eight to 14 sections. This allows us to maintain the team-based model, which, uh, research-based practices is, um, critical for, uh, that, uh, that age population. Um, and it does expand cross team specialist offerings for general music, art, and world language. It also increases special education supports. We are still seeing, uh, post pandemic, some escalated behaviors from students. And special education is often one of our first stops, uh, to, as they are learning experts to, um, uh, best determine how to support students. Um, so, uh, the middle school has been addressed.

▶ 1:58:28 Speaker 1: We are expanding, um, the learning program where that will be starting at the Hoover School, uh, with one teacher and two paraprofessionals. Um, if you're not aware, that's one reason that a student may, um, to meet their needs, their learning needs make it sent out of district. So this is a chance to expand programming within district, allow students to have their needs met, uh, uh, needs met here in the district, stay with their peers. Um, and obviously student need is, is the priority. But then that also comes with a cost savings as well, of being able to keep students in. Um, and we've expanded reading positions just a little bit more about that language program. This is a slide that Assistant Superintendent Berman has created. Um, and you can see that on the left side is, uh, if we were able to, um, start this program, um, we are looking at about a, uh, for five to eight students, about $140,000. The other side is what it costs to send students out a district. And even just sending two students out, a district for a language-based learning, uh, support, um, is already about $40,000 more than that entire program. So these are the things that we are trying to accomplish at the same time as staying within, um, uh, financial means, um, as one department within the city.

▶ 1:59:47 Speaker 1: So this budget, um, in one ways can be thought of a level funded budget with increasing costs, like increases in salaries, fixed costs, um, increases in tuitions and transportation. Um, a level funded budget means that there's just not enough resources to maintain consistent programming so that we have to have, uh, reductions. So these are the three key areas, um, that, uh, are impacted personnel. We have had, um, we've had to reduce, um, some positions and in some cases not fill positions. Um, we did have to redo the eliminate the instructional coaches, um, and some of our directors and administrators, um, positions were eliminated. And, and if I may just add that the per contract that had to happen before June 1st, and so we have already, uh, completed that process.

▶ 2:00:38 Speaker 1: Technology and materials, um, some things being considered, uh, to not renew would be our, our, uh, i-Ready platform. If you're not familiar, i-Ready is a diagnostic tool we use, um, per, predominantly at the elementary level. Um, this helps provide real time data on students. Um, very specific strengths and weaknesses with early literacy. Um, that's something that may not be available to our teachers. Combined with the loss of the instructional coaches is, is a very big hit to our multi-tiered systems of support. I Excel is a math based program. And then our, some of our AP courses at the high school, um, would, would, um, not have some, uh, updated materials. Um, and then professional development. Um, chair Driscoll mentioned that, um, in Massachusetts, in case you're not aware, DESI requires districts to provide, uh, an induction program for credentialed educators. Um, and Melrose has had a tradition of offering a very robust professional development program, um, that would be drastically different next year. Um, and, uh, um, to the point where we'd, we'd pretty much be able to offer a new induction program, um, just to meet, uh, a compliance, which is, you know, that's, that's never the way to approach something. We want something to be, uh, when we have new teachers arrive to Melrose, we wanna train them in, in the way Melrose wants to educate students and then support them in that.

▶ 2:01:56 Speaker 1: This is just a recap of some of the staffing changes that was shared with school committee in April. Um, uh, in again prioritizing, uh, the, the goals that we set forth in January, while at the same time moving away from the one-time funding, um, required reductions, uh, overall about 58 positions were impacted, whether they were reduced, transferred, or a position that was not filled. And this is just, uh, back from April with what we shared with school committee. Um, a re a percent reduction in a refinement for, uh, each school and cost center. Um, that's part of our teaching and learning budget.

▶ 2:02:37 Speaker 1: And so takeaways for the budget, um, we did work diligently to prioritize, uh, schools move away from one-time funding City has dedicated significant resources to the schools. We're very appreciative of that. Um, and, uh, we have also tried to increase our, our, uh, offsets school committee just recently, uh, approved, um, to a, a further increase to some of our offset fees, um, as a, a direct support to try to generate more revenue. Um, and we are projecting now too to probably, uh, have to access our special ed stabilization fund, um, at the end of next year. Um, knowing that that was also contributed to this year is a help. Um, our goals have stayed consistent. Uh, we did address critical needs. Um, but this does, uh, necessitate hard decisions on things that, uh, we will have to move away from moving forward into FY 25. Um, and we've been asked pretty consistently, if the override does pass, uh, would the some programming staffing be restored? And the answer to that is yes. And we would always start with classroom teachers. That's our number one resource for our students and our families. Um, so yes, the, um, a passing of an override would restore, uh, significant services to the district. And this is just the list of schools and, um, departments, um, total costs. And then, um, in case you're not aware, school committee, um, has categories that they vote, um, the budget to be separated into it, allow for transfer funds between. And so those two totals, there're the same amount. It just shows the, um, the breakdown by, um, uh, schools and then by school committee category. And, uh, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have about the FY 25 budget at this time.

▶ 2:04:20 Speaker 2: Thank you, president mre.

▶ 2:04:23 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, thank you both for being here. I just wanted to set some context and say thank you, Mr. Kelly. I don't offer excessive praise lightly but I think the quality content, um, in depth nature of the information you have shared over the past year, just for my colleagues who haven't been a part of these budgets in the past, like is, has dramatically improved. Um, I, you know, it's easy to find the fact that it's on the NPS website. Um, so I think that speaks to the, you know, public commentary or, you know, commentary around this horseshoe in past years about having that kind of transparent, easy to find, um, information. And for someone who, like me, who tends to look into the numbers a lot and is like looking at my own, like these all map map out. So I just, I really appreciate it. You came in at a very challenging time. You have done a lot with that. You've been responsive to commentary from, from this council, the public, um, school committee. And so I really appreciate, um, that, that effort. And just to clarify again, although you've said it a million times, the budget that the school committee, um, approved you are presenting here is a budget with cuts. It is living within the means of the revenue that we have projected. Um, and we are, that's, that's, you know, what you've able, you've been able to do. I appreciate the, um, the thoughtfulness in taking a look at the middle school being an area, um, to focus on, given some of the challenges that have been there lately. And, um, you know, also, uh, I think Chair Driscoll mentioned, you know, it's coming with a heavy heart because this is not really giving our students the best because of the revenue constraints that we have. Um, so I, I may have questions later, but just wanted to start off and say thank you. Sure.

▶ 2:06:12 Speaker 1: Appreciate that feedback. Thanks. It's helpful to us, and I'm just one of a team of many people, so thank you for that. Appreciate that very much.

▶ 2:06:23 Speaker 2: Ler ro thank you.

▶ 2:06:27 Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you for being here tonight. Um, I'm actually really interested in that language based learning program. Um, my one question is just really sort of how it's gonna be set up. So it's gonna be at the Hoover Mm-Hmm. Um, but if children are identified at other elementary schools, will they be transferred to Hoover? Yes.

▶ 2:06:46 Speaker 1: So does that, can you just talk about it a little bit? So what would happen is in the process of your, the IEP team, when they would meet, if that was the diagnosis, that that was the recommendation that this student within those grades needed to go to a language-based program. Well, currently right now, we don't have any programs, so therefore it would be an automatic outplacement here. We now have a program, so therefore we could provide our own transportation if they're not, you know, to that program at Hoover. And it's a third, fourth, and fifth grade. And it gives our, our students that opportunity to have that in, uh, district, uh, training. And as that program grows, we do have such some a, a program at the middle school level. So it's, it's building those bridges to get us to that level so that students can then continue on within the district.

▶ 2:07:43 Speaker 6: Yeah, I just think it's really important, and I love that it's here, um, just because there's so many kids that are leaving our district, um, because we just can't support them. And I mean, those numbers obviously speak for themselves. Those savings are kind of crazy, you know, those numbers.

▶ 2:08:02 Speaker 1: There, there, there, if I may, there's another program too that we've added at the kindergarten level, which is a development learning center program, which we currently have those programs either at Lincoln or at Roosevelt. But what we've done this year through the guidance of Ms. Rosso, who we're gonna miss greatly mm-Hmm. When she leaves. Um, but we have, that program has established so that we can have students who are kindergarten age, however, still need much more supports. And in this particular case, we were seeing that those students may have to go out of district, but now we have a program there as well that is going to enable us to give them that support that's gonna help. So that, that builds that bridge to go to then the Roosevelt or the Lincoln program.

▶ 2:08:51 Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, it solves the two things, obviously costs for the, the district, but also, you know, I, I've seen, I've witnessed kids having to leave their classmates and go to out a district to a different special school, and it's really hard. So I think this is just a, it'll be really great to get this implemented and going. Um, so thank you for that. The other question I had was, um, you talk about the 14 sections. I don't understand that for the seventh and eighth graders,

▶ 2:09:20 Speaker 1: Is that Yes. So, so the seventh and eighth graders, instead of having 12 sections, so what that was was three teams of four. Um, so now there's 14 sections, which means that there is, believe it or not, the way they divided over the seventh and eighth grade would teach two groups, two sections of seventh grade and two sections of eighth grade, which would make up that particular, um, team when it comes to classes. Those students that are in the seventh grade that might be part of those teachers would still be part of another team. So that just, it, it takes the class sizes and breaks them it over 14 sections as opposed to 12 sections. Okay.

▶ 2:10:04 Speaker 2: Makes sense. Thanks. Uh, Councillor Stewart? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Er.

▶ 2:10:09 Robb Stewart: Um, I like the innovation. It's, it's good. It's what we need. Thank you. Um, I just, I wanted to go and I'm looking at the offset funding, right? And it's over 6 million, 6.2 million. Um, just a little bit confidence that you have that those, those funds are gonna meet what you have forecast here.

▶ 2:10:30 Speaker 1: So as um said prior, The school committee has increased fees, um, in anticipation of those amounts increasing. Uh, we, this year we're on track for our offsets, and so these are, are a little more aggressive, but I think that they are, um, like I said, part of that is access to the, the special ed stabilization fund. I think that's something that we are going to have to seriously consider as part of next year, um, to help meet, make this budget work. Um, but I think, you know, at this point, based on our projections, those numbers are, are realistic. Um, but they're overreliance. In other words, we, we want to build up small reserves over time that would max out and, and use pretty much any reserve we

▶ 2:11:13 Robb Stewart: Had. Yeah. I look at it, it's like 12, 15% of your budget, right? So, I mean, you really need to keep a close eye on that, I would say for sure.

▶ 2:11:20 Speaker 1: Yeah. And we do have a report we share with school committee every month that shows the tracking towards that. So that's something we would rely on as well. But you're, you're correct.

▶ 2:11:26 Robb Stewart: Yeah. This is the risk that I see. I Would agree with that. Okay. Okay. Um,

▶ 2:11:34 Speaker 8: and, um,

▶ 2:11:41 Robb Stewart: so can you, I didn't, I didn't quite get this on the Franklin, the tuition offset. Could you explain that to me? Sure thing.

▶ 2:11:47 Speaker 1: I understand. So Franklin Franklin tuition based program does two things. Um, it supports the salary component of teachers and paraprofessionals, and then on top of that, we use the remaining amount as an offset amount to the budget. So that's, it's a, it's a two-prong. We use it to pay the salaries of the, the staff that are there, part of the, the preschool tuition program. And then we also use the remaining funds to offset, um, the budget.

▶ 2:12:17 Speaker 2: Okay. And that's,

▶ 2:12:18 Speaker 1: That's part of that 6 million that you were referencing.

▶ 2:12:21 Robb Stewart: Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Now it makes sense. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

▶ 2:12:26 Ryan Williams: Thank you. Uh, up next I have Councilor Kim Shady.

▶ 2:12:31 Manjula Karamcheti: Um, thank you so much for being here. Um, and I wanna echo councilor M's. Our chair M's. Comments about the exponential increase in transparency and information and data. It has been so helpful, not only to us, but also for us to be able to have conversations with our constituents about the current state of the Melrose Public Schools and our hopes and our vision for where we would like to go. So I really appreciate it. Um, so what I would like to ask about is, Chad Driscoll commented that this has been a difficult few weeks, and it has been related to the budget, but it also has been, um, a difficult time for a lot of students and families, um, who also have a heavy heart regarding, um, cases in our school district dealing with race and potentially the lack of response, um, related to issues of race that families have felt were significant. And so I think what I'm really interested in, and I haven't been able to really find myself explicitly related to the current budget that's being presented, where is the work related to diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, particularly when we're speaking of professional development, anti-bias work. Um, there have been groups for years prior to this budget cycle, friends of Melrose Meco, uh, the Racial Justice Community Coalition, fighting for Black lives in our neighborhood, which consistently have gone to school committee, have consistently gone to the city to talk about the need for this work on behalf of students and families. And so, just looking for you to voice over where that is in our budget, so where it might be in the future.

▶ 2:14:24 Speaker 1: So thank you. We do have that. Currently it's in our professional development. We offer, um, what they call an IDEAS program through we partnership with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and those programs, we pay for that, those programs. And we offer any staff member, it's training in the diversity and equity, and we work really hard to make sure that we have staff that participate and go, um, as we look forward, as we move towards next year, we will still have those resources that we will be working on in that program. And it's more than ever that, you know, I, and as I would say to folks this year, when I came on board, and I I continue to say this, that the marching orders that I saw and witnessed here was we needed to get our budget, we needed to get our house in order when it came to the funds. And I think we've done that as we've moved forward, as we've continued to go through this year, I've also seen other things that we need to get our house in order on as we continue to move forward in those areas. And so we have talked about those, and that is an area of, of deep concern that we need to make sure that our staff is well trained. We also need the support of our, to be able to offer those opportunities for our community that can learn and understand how important it is. And so that is an area that I would say to you is as we move forward, as as important as it was for us to fund the middle school moving forward next year. And we knew that that was going to reduce other areas within our district. What you are discussing and we are talking about now is just as important and that needs to remain funding. And if that means, as we progress with this budget that we have, uh, that we have to reallocate other funds because we need to keep those funds available to, to stress in those areas, then we will do that. And that's the recommendation as we move forward,

▶ 2:16:32 Manjula Karamcheti: Uh, with the IDEAS program. I'm familiar with it. I was a facilitator. My cousin is still a facilitator. My understanding of that is that it's volunteer. And so only educators who are interested in doing that work are those who participated. So I'm curious about sort of professional development that all faculty and staff K to 12, uh, might participate in re related

▶ 2:16:58 Speaker 1: To this. So we, I didn't mean to cut you off, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. So we, we, I have been working with the incoming superintendent on our first two days of professional development. We are starting to have those discussions of what is needed and the word, you are correct. Those other areas are voluntary. Unless we turn around and say, you know what, we can't make those voluntary. And I would tell you if I was staying here, those would not be voluntary in some of our areas as we move forward. And I believe that the incoming superintendent feels the same exact way. I don't wanna speak for him, but I do know that that's an area of concern. And we want to just make sure the, that not only are we training, but are our, because I will say this to you, what I have been informed of is that we've had a lot of training in Melrose Public Schools. There has been a lot of staff who have taken courses and all that, but are they utilizing it correctly? And so that's a question that we have to go in and we have to really take a look at. And so that's the other part of it, just like we did this year when we had to get to the root cause of are we spending our money correctly? How are we doing that? So those, those are steps that we have to take and move forward. And I have full confidence that this district is going to do that and to, uh, move forward with that.

▶ 2:18:24 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you. I, I guess the comment I would make is that budgets show our values, and I think as you've stated, it isn't really in there right now. Um, in terms of explicitly this is something that we wanna move forward in the current budget and in future budgets. So my hope is, is that we get explicit about that too, and not just have it be, oh yeah, we're gonna do that too. We're gonna focus a on that and actually say we're gonna do the work pay to do the work and put it in our budget.

▶ 2:19:06 Speaker 1: I would say that it is in the budget. We have had it in the budget. So to say that we don't have it or, or that we lack our values, I would disagree on that. I think that Melrose Public Schools does have it in the budget. It has been in the budget. We need to ensure that people are properly trained. We need to make sure that they're taking that training with them as they move forward. That's where I see that, that that has to happen. As they, as we continue to do that, we have, you know, we have also been sharing with sea, you know, A DEI coordinator, and that's good to share. But I will tell you another priority that I've been taking a look at is, I think it's time for Melrose to have its own full-time, DEI coordinator. And those are one of the things that we will be talking about before I leave, you know, with the new superintendent, how we get that expense, you know, how we pay for that. You, you know, and add that that's something that we will have to determine how we go. But I definitely think that that is an area that we need to grow on.

▶ 2:20:11 Manjula Karamcheti: Yeah, that makes sense. 'cause I think the current position with the same collaborative is shared with six

▶ 2:20:15 Speaker 1: Districts. 6, 6, 6 districts. And so when you get into a point of, you know, let's, let's be transparent about it, you get into a reactionary mode Mm-Hmm. We need to be in a proactive mode. And I think having our own person for that amount of time allows us to be proactive because it also helps us monitor ourselves of are we doing what we should be doing? And as to your point saying we're doing, and so that way we can do it.

▶ 2:20:47 Manjula Karamcheti: Yeah. I think what you're saying makes sense to me in terms of thinking about, again, the budget Mm-Hmm. And it isn't just professional development, but then it's coaching Correct. And coaching in classrooms, coaching at the leadership level. So it is embedded in how we do work and not considered an add-on extra thing that we just did for two hours of professional development.

▶ 2:21:09 Speaker 1: And I would say that's the part that we're missing right now, that needs to get implemented more.

▶ 2:21:15 Speaker 6: Thank you. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

▶ 2:21:20 Speaker 2: Councillor Reky, my questions were answered. Thank you. Fantastic. Councillor Vandiver,

▶ 2:21:27 Speaker 4: Thank you. Um,

▶ 2:21:29 Kimberly Vandiver: this has been touched on briefly, but, uh, in regards to the offset fees and, and that, you know, this budget is heavily relying on them around six, $7 million outta the budget. Um, and you've done that by, by increasing fees that were al already fairly high on families for various activities that they participate in. Um, my first question is, I, can you take us through kind of as they stand now, after the raises, what are those fees that families are experiencing because of this, and what does that look like for a typical family whose student may want to be in several activities?

▶ 2:22:08 Speaker 1: Sure. So the, the, um, athletic fees were increased, um, as well as the cap for family. So the Melrose, in case you're not aware, um, the, the extracurricular fees, 'cause it's not just athletics. There's, there's music programs, things like that, um, drama programs. So those fees were increased. Um, there is a cap so that families don't go above a certain threshold. That was increased as well. Our education stations before and after program, that was increased as well. So, um, and we don't minimize that, that is a, an additional burden on families. Um, and, um, we, we don't, we don't minimize that you are correct. It's definitely an impact on, on their own budgets as well.

▶ 2:22:46 Kimberly Vandiver: Great. Absolutely. And I, I think if, if you even have the numbers to share, I, I think it would be helpful to, you know, and I understand it was a necessity, but to under, for people to understand who may be watching, you know, and not have a, a kid in high school and be experiencing this directly, what, you know, how much of the cost are they picking up right now? Sure.

▶ 2:23:05 Speaker 1: Um, as far as like what were the actual increases, I'd have to get those to you. I don't have those in front of me right now, but I can get, I can share those with you. Sure.

▶ 2:23:12 Kimberly Vandiver: Great. Uh, and the second, um, question, you, you had two slides about those, the staff positions were cut, but I also think that'd be helpful if you could read kind of in the specifics, you know, by school, how many positions were either unfunded removed, you know, so that people can really, uh, see that

▶ 2:23:35 Speaker 1: Clearly. What I can tell you is that we do have it, the elementary levels, we have sections of some of our, in, in some particular schools, we have sections of grades that are decreasing. So for example, at the winter of elementary, you're going from a four kindergarten section to a three first grade section, which is putting your students now from a 21, 22 to a 27 amount. Um, that changes if Tuesday goes in a direction that says yes, um, that puts that back. When you take a look at Lincoln, Lincoln was another school in a section of third grade where you went from, now you went from four third grades to three second grades, and it's very tight. Hoovers the same thing. We're going from three fourth grades into two fifth grades, and our fifth grades now are looking at 26, uh, or 27. So tho that's an i an immediate impact as you're seeing it. Um, as you move through the, the very, you know, the various schools, you start to take a look at what other impacts are happening. So we are, we are missing, um, you know, we're having to take coaches, so coaches who, and people may not understand well, what is the purpose of the coach? But the coach is somebody that, as we just talked about here, right? Having somebody that's gonna coach you in monitoring and helping and guiding you, make you better. We have two elementary coaches now that now are going in and taking out, they're going back into classrooms. And so that part for a teacher at the elementary level is losing that piece of, of support system that they duly need as they move forward, uh, at the high school level. And I would say even at the middle school level. But even though we're adding positions, we're still not adding enough positions. I think that that's, that's important as well. The area of, one of the areas that we've seen very much of a concern when it comes to academics at our middle school level is that support of English language learning and math. We're seeing those scores not come to the, the pre covid days yet. It makes sense because, you know, when you think about it, and, and many people say this to me all the time, they'll say, oh, you know, COVID, yeah, but Covid, let's, okay, we we're past Covid, but we're not past covid when it comes to children because children that are in our school right now missed a year and a half of school. Let's, I mean, they were out for about a quarter of the year doing home, and then when they came back in, they were hybrid and then eventually got back in and all of that. And what that, that has a drastic effect. And so tonight when I was watching fifth grade students move on and listening to their stories, they were talking about what it was like to be in the first grade and all of a sudden lose their teacher and talk to their teacher online and in the second grade. So it made me start to think that we are about two years away from having all our elementary schools back into what you would call a normal process. Right? They're going back in. But we are a long way from that. When you look at those students that are at middle school going into high school, they still have a long way to go and they're still catching up and recuperating. So those are areas that we've been trying to fund that we want to get in though those extra support of an ELA person of math person supports persons on those areas. Reading, reading is critical. Now we are funding a reading position at the middle school and funding a reading position at the high school, but at the high school, that's it. That's all we're able to incorporate in. And so we're losing out on other areas. So your math, social studies and science are losing sections. English is losing, the high school is losing another support coach because we had to lose a section there and put somebody in there. So there is multiple areas and ripple effects that are happening across the district, and we could go on and on and on and talk about 'em. But that's, those are the effects that you're seeing. And what's hard is that this is the time these kids don't need this. They need to have that support. And, and you know what? They need the support more than we ever needed the support when we were in school.

▶ 2:28:12 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. I I appreciate you going through that and I know it's not fun and not what you want to be presenting about the budget, but I, I really appreciate that you've, I've taken a very close look at it and, and made some tough decisions and, and are able to share both the highlights and also, you know, as I'm sure you've said a thousand times to people at this point, you know, share the, the negatives so that people can really understand what's not in there as well and what, what you're hoping to be able to change if the override does pass. Thank you. Um, and, uh, yeah, really appreciate the, all of the hard work that the whole team and the school committee has been putting in all year to get to this point.

▶ 2:28:51 Speaker 4: And I think you've done a great job.

▶ 2:28:55 Ryan Williams: Okay. Thank you. Uh, a motion by unanimous consent to suspend Rule 21 C for my own questions. Um, Councillor Repe, can I get to you right after I Thank you. Um, is the presentation part of the I QM two packet that we're showing right now? No, I, okay. Um, motion to add the by unanimous consent to add the presentation shown on the screen to the I QM two packet after the meeting. No objections. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Um, uh, ED stations, if you have a kid under a certain age, it's all you've been talking about for the last couple of days. Um, my only question on this is have you ever thought about putting ed stations operations into a stabilization, I'm sorry, an enterprise fund, uh, to maybe more clearly identify the costs and the revenue contributions that its stations makes to the, uh, school department?

▶ 2:29:44 Speaker 1: Um, not recently. There was talk of that a couple years ago, but I can, I can certainly revisit that. I do know that it was a program that was, um, outsourced for, um, a while and now it it is in-house. So that's, that's certainly something we can, we can, um, talk and get a little more information on.

▶ 2:29:59 Ryan Williams: Sure. Appreciate that. I think of it as like one of the other big rate payers supported, you know, um, service models that we have in the city. Um, okay. That's the only question I had. Councilor gpe,

▶ 2:30:10 Speaker 1: Thank you. Um, thank you for being here. Hopefully this is your last walk and maybe you're hoping it's your last meeting with us. Um, and thank you Mr. Kelly for all your, all your support and answering all my questions. Um, just one, how we, how we ended up this year. Um, are we gonna be balanced or are we in the red or for FY 24 FY 24? Is that you? Correct. Correct. Yep. So we're, you know, we, um, I check those numbers weekly, if not daily. Um, we are right now on track to, to balance at the end of the year. Um, we just, like you say, um, like we were chatting about earlier, we've had some pretty big payrolls the past two weeks. Um, so I'm hoping to look at those encumbrance reports tomorrow and just make sure everything still looks good. But yes. Um, our, um, as I mentioned earlier, our offsets from our report that we publish are, are projected to meet there, um, their budgeted amounts. So knock on wood, FY 24 seems to be in a good place right now. And this is probably more of a, a, a comment. Um, and we, we've talked about this, uh, with the way the budget as a whole for the city has been set up and we're using, we created, uh, we're using less receipts, um, or more receipts I should say, in the budget, which helped eliminate the, the 2.3, um, deficit right around the 2.3 deficit. It's just encourage, it's, it's, it's extremely important over the next year to really make sure we manage within, within that budget. 'cause we're not gonna have, in theory, we're not gonna have the same amount of free cash as we've had. 'cause now that's shifted to a continuous budget item, that 2.3 million. So that's just more of a, more of a statement, I guess. Sure. Thank you. I May I comment on your statement because I will say that, um, yesterday I got an email from a principal and I said, oops, they're learning. I love it because they asked me questions very similar to that, which means they're starting to understand their budget and they're starting to be part of that process. And I think the more they do that, the more they're going to be able to understand staying within their means and moving forward. So Thank you. Thanks for everything you do.

▶ 2:32:25 Speaker 2: Councillor Hamilton, thank You.

▶ 2:32:28 Ward Hamilton: Through the chair. Thank you for being here this evening. Um, I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't comment, um, in my time on the council the last several months, I've had an opportunity to meet with both of you and, uh, you were able to answer all of my questions and I thank Mr. Miro for his leadership. He'll be missed. Uh, but we have a new superintendent coming in that, uh, we're looking forward to working with. And also, uh, I thank the mayor for her leadership since coming into office. I think it's, um, I don't want to say restore, uh, confidence, but it's done much to build confidence. And so I thank you for that. And if it's appropriate for me to do so, I make a motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 2:33:10 Ryan Williams: Second. Okay. Motion to move to the bottom line by Councilor Hamilton. Seconded by President Elli on discussion. Excuse me. On discussion. Seeing none. Roll call please.

▶ 2:33:22 Speaker 7: Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Repe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Chetty. Yes. Councillor Bruski. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President gui? Yes. Uh, motion passes unanimously.

▶ 2:33:41 Speaker 2: Cool. Thank you. Thank you gentlemen.

▶ 2:33:52 Ryan Williams: Next up we have line 3 99, which is the northeast metropolitan regional vocational high school. Uh, we are still operating under suspension of the rules. Um, and we're going to have before us Mr. James Picone and, uh, Mr. David Debar.

▶ 2:34:12 Ryan Williams: You wanna go first? Okay. Okay. Councilor Hamilton.

▶ 2:34:15 Ward Hamilton: Thank you. Thank you Chair. Uh, Williams, I need to, uh, make a statement, uh, a disclosure statement that of my relationship as the official elected from Melrose to serve on the school committee at Northeast. Um, and this evening we have, as you indicated, the superintendent, Mr. DeBerry, the assistant superintendent, Tracy O'Brien, our finance director, Jay Picone. And, um, at the conclusion, I will abstain.

▶ 2:34:44 Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you. Thank You for that statement. Okay, folks, floor, yours.

▶ 2:34:49 Speaker 9: Great. Good evening council, and thanks for having us here tonight. Thanks for the introduction, Mr. Hamilton. Um, this is my 11th year coming here. Um, prior to superintendent for seven years, I was the principal and I would come along for the ride. And, um, it was always a, a great welcome. And as Ward mentioned, this is our new assistant superintendent. So this is her first introduction here to the committee, Tracy O'Brien. And as you know, Jay Picone, her former Melrose, um, employee. So before Jay presents, I just wanted to give a couple updates with, historically that's what we've done, because you want to know not just what it's gonna cost you, but what we've done in the past year with, with the money. Um, but before I even start that, we had a fabulous graduation at the, um, Melrose football field. And I, I did want to thank the city for the use of the field this Friday night. Um, except for a little bit of rain. Uh, I think everything was perfect. Um, so I wanted to thank the mayor. I think she, she had to step out, but also Ward and the DPW was phenomenal to work with. They really were on it. If they didn't hear from us for a couple days, they would give us a call to make sure that we had everything ready. And, um, superintendent ero, I've worked within two other districts, and, um, I'm sure you're getting a great new superintendent. Um, but definitely it must have been, um, a real fine to have him for at least a short period of time. Um, so our new building, which is something that we've discussed the past couple times we've come, is due to be completed in Spring 2026, which, um, sounds like it's a long ways away. However, it's been nine years in the making, and it's actually coming really quick. Um, last time I was here, I was able to talk about how much MSBA reimbursement we received. We received almost 80% through, uh, legislation to increase our, our portion. Happy to announce today, if you haven't already heard, I did send some letters out earlier in the year that with the help of representative Kate Lipper, Garabedian and Senator Lewis, we were able to give back $23 million to the districts, to the 12 cities and towns. So legislation was put in place because of the increases during COVID, the, um, insane escalation costs that we saw the legislation with the help of, um, happy to say a team from Northeast was able to get that passed. Um, Jay was able to readjust the bond, and so your payments will be much lower going forward. In addition to that, the reason we were able to give all of our money back and not just a portion, and actually some schools kept the whole 23 million and did not change the bond, is because we worked hard to secure $7 million in, in grants in the past year. And we were able to use those grants to offset things like equipment and supplies, which then was able to offset some of the escalation. So I'm here to say that we worked hard because your, your every dollar counts and we know your taxpayers, um, like all of us are struggling with inflation, and also that we're not done. And that I still have a goal of coming in, um, significantly under budget. And that's my goal, and I hope to get there, but I can guarantee we will not be over budget under any circumstances. So a few of the fun things we were able to do with Melrose, I don't know if anyone got a chance to see the fire station. So our students were able to help, um, refurbish the second floor of the fire station. And it was a great partnership. Our kids learned a lot. They felt such great pride giving back to the communities. I think, um, being around the fight of the men and, and the chief really was a great experience. They were great role models for our students. So we hope to do more building projects, uh, like that currently our design and visual, um, programmer designing new signage and new logos for some of the DPW trucks. So I know they did some, and they were here this week actually look, looking at some of the sanitation trucks to have some new logos. The other trucks were, I believe, the plows. So they came up with a neat little logo and the students came over with five or six different designs and it was really, again, a great experience. And then lastly, um, we were able to present the new meal with a, a podium a few months back. And again, it meant a lot to the kids in the mirror was great talking to our students about, about their experiences and about where they see themselves. So I, I think we've, we've been great partners. I always enjoy coming to Melrose. I don't always have such a great experience with some of the other cities and towns, but Melrose has always been like a, like a second, second high school and a second town to us. And I did ask, um, Ms. O'Brien if she could talk a little bit about where we are with enrollment with Melrose students.

▶ 2:40:13 Speaker 6: Thanks. Um, so good evening. I know it's been a long evening, so be quick. Um, currently we have 67 Melrose students enrolled at Northeast Metro Tech, um, including 17 who graduated Friday night right here in Melrose, which was wonderful for them. Um, applications to Northeast Rise every year. Um, this year we have over 1200 applications for the incoming freshman class. Um, and that includes students from Melrose. They're, um, all cities and towns, with the exception of one, have a wait list. Um, so that's the unhappy part of my job. Um, but fortunately as Mr. DeBerry said, the, uh, new building, larger building, increased enrollment is on track. Um, the foundation's almost is almost complete and the steel is set to be delivered in July. So it gives us great hope with that on the horizon. Um, so again, as he said, we appreciate your partnership and look forward to working together. And I've been there 17 years as in different roles, but this is my first year as assistant superintendent. So Jay.

▶ 2:41:19 Speaker 7: Great, thank you.

▶ 2:41:21 Speaker 2: I'm Jay Picone, I'm finance director for Northeast. Um, as, um, as said Deb Barry mentioned I used to be, uh, in Melrose Public School. So Melrose is near and dear to my heart, so, um, it's great to be back. But, um, I'm just gonna talk to you about the fun part of the presentation, which is the, uh, the budget. So, so the goal of our budgets that we set out to produce every year, uh, we always have two goals in mind. First of all, we wanna minimize the financial impact to our member communities, and we understand that, um, our member communities under significant financial constraints, um, under the restrictions of prop two and a half, how much money you can raise via taxation. I know Falwell that, um, Melrose is a 96% residential tax base. Um, so any, uh, large assessment increase would be very problematic, uh, for, for Melrose to handle. So we always keep that in mind. You also have other departments need to fund fully and adequately on an annual basis. And, um, we're very cognizant when it, when we're developing the, uh, the operating budget. But secondly, we wanna provide an adequate level of funding to support student learning and foster educational excellence. As the superintendent just mentioned, we consider, uh, ourselves, um, Melrose, Melrose's other school. You know, we, we want to be that excellent education that Melrose, um, citizens are happy to send their kids to, uh, albeit in a vocational pathway.

▶ 2:42:47 Speaker 2: So regionalization exists by definition, uh, to re to offer services at a reduced cost to the member communities. We always try to keep our operational assessment at or below a 3% increase. Um, I will say this year we were unable to do so. And there are a couple factors that I'm gonna talk to, um, in the next couple minutes that can really, uh, point to why we were unable to, um, to meet that goal.

▶ 2:43:17 Speaker 2: Um, so we have a challenging predicament in FY 25, and I think this challenging predicament, uh, I know it does, affects most of the, um, districts around the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Um, the chapter 70 funding was to put it bluntly, woefully underfunded. Um, given the fact that, um, the inflation factor that was used was 1.039%, um, doesn't even come close to the actual inflation in in Massachusetts. Um, at the, to put it, um, you know, if, if you look at last year's, uh, inflation factor, they used a a 4%, um, inflation factor. So the chapter 70 funding last year was a lot more adequate. Um, so also what happened is the required net school spending increased, um, in our case we went up $2.1 million, uh, and then the required net school spending, which is the amount that cities and towns have to chip in in order to fund that also increased. So those are two sides of the coin. So you have the, the required net school spending that we're required to meet, um, required, um, uh, district contribution and then the state aid. So those, those two a, those two areas fill in, um, to meet net school spending because net, uh, the, the chapter 70 formula was so low that put more of the onus on the, the cities and towns in order to meet that obligation. Um, so our $2.1 million we thought when we were originally, um, calculating chapter 70 based on if we used last year's inflationary factor. And why wouldn't we, because inflation has not decreased. Uh, we were projecting we were gonna receive about $2 million and the rest of it would be passed to the cities and towns. Unfortunately, that did not happen. We, we only received $1.1 million in chapter 70. And so that means the, uh, the increase of required minimum contribution went up about $980,000 to our member communities. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can, we could do because it's where that's the required minimum. Nothing we can do to, to lower that.

▶ 2:45:30 Speaker 2: And then the second piece, this was a known problem, um, well, a known factor I should say. Uh, and FY 25. Um, our second tranche of bonds, uh, representing $60 million in borrowing, uh, was scheduled to occur. And we've been talking about this for six years with, uh, with our bond schedule. Um, in FY 23, we borrowed our first 1 million, a 62 200, um, I'm sorry, it's the 30 million, but that's the, um, the 1 million a 62 200 was the projected, uh, principle and interest payment. So we borrowed our, our first 30 million in FY 24. We were able to reduce that a little bit because we, we borrowed at a lower than projected 4% rate. Um, however, in Ffy 25, we need to, we need to borrow the, well, we did borrow the 60 million. The principal interest payment is due, um, in FY 25. So that's why that cost increased. And this is just a verbal

▶ 2:46:30 Speaker 2: representation of what I just explained. Um, so I'm gonna skip that. So all told, if you look at our, the minimum contribution increase in the debt service increase, our total assessment can be tied directly to those two numbers. Um, again, minimum contribution, again, required debt service increase is also required. Um, we did as much as we could to reduce the member assessments. And I'm, I'm gonna go through, um, what we did, uh, in the next few slides. So here's our historical assessment analysis. As I mentioned, we always try to keep your assessments low. Um, you can see FY 19 FY 22. We're very good about keeping below that 3% FY 23 and FY 25 are the, are the, um, outliers because again, the first bonding requirement and then the FY 25, the second bonding requirement of an additional 60 million. And again, this is, uh, just a graphical representation of the same data. Um, so we were able, we did receive a little bit more chapter 70 funding than last year. Like I said, $1.1 million more than our previous amount. Um, as a regional, we, we actually also receive regional transportation reimbursement and we're projected to receive around $1.3 million in that factor.

▶ 2:47:54 Speaker 2: Um, so we're gonna use the $1.3 million in transportation revenue in FY 24. So basically we know what our, our receipts are in Ffy 24. So we don't have to, um, project 'cause sometimes because of nine C cuts, um, the state will cut the that funding. Um, we know going into the year in f uh, FY 25 what our revenue sources are gonna be because we bank them in FY 24 to use an F FFY 25. Additionally, we intend to use 400,000 of our excess in deficiency funds to further reduce the, the assessment costs. In total, we plan to use $1.7 million of other funds to reduce our member assessments.

▶ 2:48:33 Speaker 2: So FY 25 cents of following fiscal challenges. We need funding for regular contractual salary OB obligations, including our steps in lanes funding for our new educators, administrators based on student needs and increased enrollment and key subjects. Um, mainly, uh, coming from the school building project, we need to have, uh, additional positions there. Added funding for new transportation contract and funding for a new technology positions to support student learning. So all told our total budget, uh, with the debt services going up 16.01%, uh, without it would be 6%.

▶ 2:49:16 Speaker 2: And that's, so that's our operating budget. So if you take the total operating budget and reduce it by the total revenue that we're applying to the budget, that results in the total requested assessment, which is 22 million 391 82. It's an increase of 4,440,000, $10. That's not melrose's assessment. Don't worry about it. Um, I'm gonna get to that in the next couple slides. Um, so here is the total assessment summary, which includes your debt service. Um, it shows that Melrose is increasing by, uh, six students and the increase is 348,292. And here is how, um, the mayor and, um, city officials like to see it broken out. The operating assessment, debt service, and then total assessment. Uh, and then this information has been provided, um, to the city officials. Um, so they, they, they're fully aware of these numbers. So, um, so Melrose is operating assessment is 1 million 3 40 0 58 with the debt surface it's 2 7 8 9 72. Total assessment, 1 million 6 1 9 0 3.

▶ 2:50:32 Speaker 2: That concludes my presentation. If anybody has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Okay, counselor Reky. Uh, so you, did you say you had 1200 applicants? What you had? Yeah. How many, but you, so

▶ 2:50:46 Speaker 9: You 330 spots. So we sadly had to turn away that many kids.

▶ 2:50:52 Speaker 2: So can they opt into another vocational or is that up to the town? That's up to the town, right,

▶ 2:50:58 Speaker 9: Right. If the town wanted to pay, if there was very few vocational schools have openings, so it'd be very challenging to even find one. I think the Essex tech wait list is even longer than ours is. Um, so it's definitely a, a concern. So I, I think I've discussed some of our, our programs in the past that we've come up with. We now have a Saturday program, so students, um, who weren't accepted have a priority. They can come up on Saturday mornings for free of charge and that they can go through our exploratory programs. And many apply our sophomores when we lose students for different reasons. Um, if they really want to come, they can get in. We also have just piloted a program. Revere has our biggest wait list. So what we did this past year was we actually opened up a plumbing program at Revere High School. They had some extra space. So our plumbing teachers go to Revere High School for half of the day. Right. And this year we're expanding as well to electrical. Um, so they'll have two programs. We've, again, it was a pilot that we didn't wanna jump into with 12 cities and towns. So we did reach out next to Chelsea. Um, they weren't interested in it even though they have the second highest waiting list. So we're probably going to move on to our third, which would probably be mauling and see if they would like some support. So rather than us being the school where you get vocational education, we wanna become the resource for the district in all different manners to try to get every opportunity to students.

▶ 2:52:36 Speaker 2: Do you know if the state has plans to increase oc, like I know they're build we're building over there, but are they gonna increase the number of vocational schools in the state? No, there's

▶ 2:52:46 Speaker 9: No, there's no plan, sadly. No.

▶ 2:52:49 Speaker 2: Alright. Thank you.

▶ 2:52:55 Speaker 2: Councillor gpe. Yeah.

▶ 2:52:56 Mark Garipay: How many, um, we have 60, what, 66, 67 kids in now and next year? I think it was 72. Is that what I saw? Um,

▶ 2:53:06 Speaker 6: Yeah, The number isn't set yet for next year, um, because admissions is ongoing as we speak, but, um, the, um, 50, it would be, I would anticipate, uh, somewhere in the 70 low seventies.

▶ 2:53:25 Speaker 9: Yep. And to put that in perspective, the first year I came over, I think there were maybe 14 Melrose students.

▶ 2:53:33 Mark Garipay: Yeah, it's, it seems like it's increased considerably the last few years. Uh, what, um, with the new school, when it comes online, will our percentage go up? Do we know what those numbers will be or?

▶ 2:53:46 Speaker 9: So the school will increase approximately 20 to 25%. So if you took you 20 to 25% of the current allotment, that's probably where you would be closer up into the nineties.

▶ 2:53:59 Speaker 1: And, um, how, I don't know, how long is our wait list for Melrose? Do, do you happen to know that information?

▶ 2:54:08 Speaker 6: Um, off the top of my head, probably about 25.

▶ 2:54:13 Mark Garipay: 25. And is that mostly, uh, like you come in a freshman year, you don't have any transfers coming in sophomore, junior year, I'm assuming? Right. Oh,

▶ 2:54:21 Speaker 6: We, we take sophomore applicant, uh, ninth to 10th grade applicants for, we typically have a small number of openings anywhere between, typically about 10 seats, maybe 15, with students who move out of district, decide at the end of the year. It wa you know, it wasn't for them. So, um, we decide on those student applications at the end of the school year, early summer. Um, once we know which programs we have space available. So there are, are, um, Melrose applicants in there as well.

▶ 2:54:56 Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you

▶ 2:55:00 Speaker 2: Councilor Kim Chaney,

▶ 2:55:01 Manjula Karamcheti: Uh, thank you for being here. Love the work that you're doing. This is just a quick comment. I know we're further down on the wait list than some of those other communities, but I do get really excited in terms of thinking about like, partnership between Melrose Public Schools and, and the vocational school. Especially thinking about like student engagement, thinking about project-based learning. I think vocational schools do it best and I think traditional public schools have a lot to learn about how we can engage students in a variety of ways. Um, so just get excited about the idea. I know we're not there yet, but,

▶ 2:55:40 Speaker 9: Well, you know, having obviously Mr. Hamilton on the board and keeping that communication openings going to be crucial. Ironically, I can say that one of the partnerships we are looking to make, and we can discuss this further, is with our early college program. So despite us being a vocational school, a lot of our students decide to go on to technical colleges and sometimes liberal arts colleges as well. So they have that choice. So, um, the Department of Ed this year has really, um, put some grants out to try to get high schools to connect earlier than ninth grade. So that also includes us, even though we're one high school district. So we are looking, um, for districts to partner with where we would come into the middle schools and work with the middle schools. So that's something we can absolutely discuss and see if it fits at some point.

▶ 2:56:37 Ryan Williams: Councillor Stewart? Thank you Mr. Chair. I'll make a motion to move this to the bottom line. Second Councillor Stewart Motion to move Item 3, 9 9 to the bottom line. Seconded by Counselor Romanul. Um, as a point of order item, I'm sorry, line 3, 9 9 also includes Essex agricultural. So we have here, uh, Ms. Carrie Golden and if you have anything to add about Essex Agricultural

▶ 2:57:03 Speaker 5: Yeah, Sue. Um,

▶ 2:57:04 Ryan Williams: then we can move the bottom line on both items at the same time. 'cause they're all in the same budget.

▶ 2:57:11 Speaker 4: Um, as far as thanks Jay. Um, as far as the budget for Essex Agricultural, we are budgeting for eight students for the 24 25 school year, um, for the 23 24 4 school year. We had eight students there as well. So, um, yeah.

▶ 2:57:27 Ryan Williams: Cool. So while we're on discussion, if any counselors have questions on Essex Ag now's the time seeing nothing, please proceed with the roll call vote.

▶ 2:57:36 Speaker 7: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Garbe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Car Chetty? Yes. Councillor Bruski? Yes. Um, Councilor Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yep. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And I understand that, uh, councilor Hamilton upstanding? Yes. Okay. Okay. No motion passes unanimously. Great.

▶ 2:58:03 Ryan Williams: Thank you much. Thank you very much for coming much. Thank You. Thank you. You, Except we have, uh, line 1 35, uh, sorry. Budget 1 35, which is the auditor's office. Mr.

▶ 2:58:12 Speaker 2: Kerry Golden, calm down.

▶ 2:58:20 Speaker 4: So there's not a lot going on in our budget this year, aside from transition. Um, so the request for our FY 25 budget is minimal. Um, we're looking to increase the budget by, uh, $2,277. Um, and this is, um, a result of staff savings with changeover, um, both in the CFO role, the auditor role, and, um, the payroll role. Um, as far as our budget, the expenses that are included in the budget is our annual audit, um, and our OPEP valuation. Um, so this is an OA full opep valuation year, um, and a little bit of professional development. So, um, nothing really too exciting going on here.

▶ 2:59:15 Speaker 2: Councilor Carpe,

▶ 2:59:16 Mark Garipay: Thank you, uh, Ms. Golan for being here on long night. Um, and I'll make a motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 2:59:22 Ryan Williams: Second, second. Motion by Councilor Carpe to move the bottom line. Seconded by Councillor Stewart on discussion.

▶ 2:59:27 Speaker 2: Seeing none. Okay. Please call the roll

▶ 2:59:30 Speaker 7: Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Repe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Carcetti. Yes. Councillor Bruski. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vanderberg? Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councilor for Naro? Yes. And President Elli? Yes. That motion carries.

▶ 2:59:50 Ryan Williams: Okay, one more item, uh, line, sorry. Budget 9 4 2 stabilization OPED funds Dad?

▶ 2:59:57 Speaker 4: Sure. Um, so this budget request is level funded, uh, per the city charter. Uh, it has us make a $50,000 contribution to the, um, city stabilization fund annually. Um, currently the balance of that stabilization fund is, uh, just under $4.2 million. Uh, the second piece of that is Opep other post-employment benefits. So, uh, we have a valuation done every year, and they give you, uh, this liability for, uh, current and, uh, past employees for post-employment benefits, which is your health insurance and, uh, life insurance and all of those things. That liability runs about $170 million. So what we try to do is just try to make some contribution towards, um, that fund every year. Um, and so currently the balance for that is, um, just under $1.4 million.

▶ 3:01:00 Speaker 2: So, Questions for council councilor, uh, Hamilton,

▶ 3:01:04 Speaker 7: Make a motion to move the bottom line. Second.

▶ 3:01:08 Ryan Williams: Motion to move the bottom line by Councillor Hamilton. Seconded by Councillor Karen Chaney on discussion. Seeing none, who's call the roll

▶ 3:01:15 Speaker 7: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councilor Repe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Carcetti? Yes. Councillor Brisky. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor DeCaro? Yes. President and President Elli? Yes. Motion carries.

▶ 3:01:32 Speaker 2: Okay. Very good. Councillor Repe.