APPRO-2024-13 : An Appropriation of Free Cash in the amount of $2,350,000 to the School Department Operating budget, transfer in account 0111-491003.

Transcript (~47 min @ 1:15:56)

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▶ 1:15:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Next in app appropriation, uh, we have appropriation 2024 dash 13 in appropriation of pre-cash in the amount of, uh, 2 350, uh, thousand to the school department. Uh, operating budget transfer in account 0 1 1 1 4 9 1 0 0 3.

▶ 1:16:22 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Madam Chair. Brought the whole team together. Um, and I'm, you know, it's very intentional that we're all up here because I, we really have, since January been trying to operate as a team and sharing information across the school and, um, cityside as we work to, you know, collectively make sure we're funding all of the services for our community. So I wanna thank Superintendent ERO and business manager Ken Kelly for being up here tonight. You'll obviously hear more from them. Um, again, as I just said, this is here before you because we need to get this done. I know none of us are pleased that this is how we're funding our schools. Um, but this is where we are for this year. I think it was a well-known, um, reality for everyone given the conversation that occurred last year, um, at this, starting at this time when we realized that there was a shortfall. And I think the school department has worked really hard to make sure we are minimizing the costs that are being put on this free cash request. And I'm very appreciative of to them for that. Um, we wanted to do this tonight because the reality is we need to know sooner rather than later if we are gonna be able to end this year in the black, if we're not, that's gonna be decisions that need to be made. Um, they're gonna be broad ranging in their impact, and they're gonna need to be executed very quickly. So we wanted to bring this here. Now that we are confident that this is the number, this will be one and done. We are not anticipating coming back before you all for additional, um, revenue. That's something the superintendent and I talk regularly about. Um, but we need to make sure that we are ensuring that the schools are able to pay their bills, um, as we get to the final quarter of the year. And that we know on both the school and city side, whether or not we're gonna be, um, operating in the budget that we have been, you know, under the impression is the budget we have for this fiscal year. So I'll turn it over to the superintendent, but that's sort of the framework for why, why tonight.

▶ 1:18:07 Speaker 3: Thank you, mayor. I just wanted to add too to the mayor's comments. First of all, thank you for having us here tonight. Um, you know, last year when, when, I can't believe we're already into almost April and it'll be about almost a year that I was appointed to come on as the interim superintendent. And I do want you to know that the moment that I became, that I did sign on, it wasn't until July that I started working. I actually started working on melrose's issues probably sometime in mid-May when we started to hire people that we were moving in, uh, to these roles. I do recall a couple of times having conversations with the superintendent and Mr. Kelly about, well, can we put that person in that position for that amount? Or this person wants that. And I remember Mr. Kelly saying, no, this is what we have allocated moving forward. And I said, then no, then we move on that. So it was a known factor from that moment that we were going to work on making sure that we were going to take everything into effect and do our best to come forward to you later, a year later to this point, to ask for the free cash that we needed to, um, solve the budget issue for this, you know, to balance the budget as we move forward. Um, as I stated to you before, I've never walked into a situation like this where I've been in, where I've started a year or where I would, I knew from the city that the budget was going to be balanced later. Uh, that we were going to start off the year knowing that we would end with the deficit. And how would that happen? So what we were told at that time was, and I was told we were at between 2.4 to 2.7 anywhere. That was the projection of it. I will tell you, it was my goal, and I am, I feel that we have pushed Mr. Kelly and I and the whole school department, I have to give a lot of credit to our principals, to our people that handle to our special ed, uh, assistant superintendent of special education, our assistant superintendent of, of, um, curriculum and instruction to know that we needed to be very conservative and make sure that we did, when we walked in, we, we balance, we froze that budget that first day of July. We sent a memo out to the entire staff of the schools. We probably put some people in a panic by doing that right off the bat. But we did it for a reason, because we wanted to make sure that every aspect of what people were coming forward is something that they needed to have. Not just, oh, well, this is what we have for a budget, so let's just spend that. So we really walked through that process. We really worked hard to make that happen. Um, tonight we are here, of course, uh, we are fully confident that we believe that 2.35 is what we need to conclude this year to balance the budget. I know there've been multiple questions about how does, how did we come to that numbers where we're at? Uh, Mr. Kelly is here to talk about that, but that number includes getting us to the end of the year of June 30th, that 2.35. Um, and so that's, that's where we are. We are, um, I don't know, Mr. Kelly, if you want to add some points and then we're happy to Madam Chair to answer any questions.

▶ 1:21:45 Speaker 12: Thank you for having us this evening. I do have a, just a few slides. I don't know if I, if I can plug in there. I don't wanna interrupt what's going on now with any kind of live stream either, so I can certainly just talk it through.

▶ 1:22:48 Speaker 12: So again, thanks again for having us tonight.

▶ 1:22:52 Speaker 13: Um, this slide, sort of just as a recap, snapshot of, um, where we were last spring, last May, um,

▶ 1:22:57 Speaker 12: our school committee, uh, voted to approve a, a budget

▶ 1:23:01 Speaker 13: of over 47 million, uh, as assistant auditor. Um, golden was talking about the city appropriates funding for the schools. So we were appropriated about 38 and a half million dollars. That was, uh, city resources plus the chapter 70 from the state.

▶ 1:23:17 Speaker 12: We as, uh, the school district bring in, um,

▶ 1:23:21 Speaker 13: about $4.75 million in offset revenues.

▶ 1:23:25 Speaker 12: We have several grants that also provide revenue to the district. And so that provided funding for us for about 44, uh, million 300,000. That created a, a, a gap of about $3.2 million. And the city was able to, um, generously also at the end of,

▶ 1:23:42 Speaker 13: uh, FY 23, appropriate another $500,000 in onetime funding, which was very helpful for, um, several specific items within our budget, which brought

▶ 1:23:50 Speaker 12: that gap down to $2.78 million, which is where everybody's sort of been talking about that 2.3, 2.5, $2.7 million number. And as Superintendent Macero has said, we've worked pretty diligently, um, over the course of this year to really stay within bounds with that. We do understand we are one department in, in, in a, a big city with a lot of needs. And so we've tried to work, uh, we've been very, um, fortunate. We've had high levels of collaboration with our, our city team with assistant auditor, golden, uh, retired CFO, uh, LaRusso, um, the interim CFO Donahue and the mayor. Um, there's been high levels of collaboration and communication, so we've tried to make sure that we are, there's no surprises as superintendent Ms. Sarah has said, we really, um, you know, there's been plenty of surprise surprises the past couple years. Um, so we're trying to really kind of eliminate that, have everyone in the know and, uh, be able to move forward.

▶ 1:24:46 Maya Jamaleddine: Mr. Kelly, can you zoom in so that everyone is able to see it?

▶ 1:24:58 Speaker 4: Thank you.

▶ 1:25:02 Speaker 13: I dunno if that helps. I dunno if that's zoomed or not, but

▶ 1:25:04 Maya Jamaleddine: It's okay. We'll, we'll attach it to the Sure. Um,

▶ 1:25:13 Speaker 12: Just a couple things that we've done to try to, um, uh, build in some, uh, um, information for, you know, the, the, the community, the greater community. Um, we started a new, um, line item budget that shows pretty comprehensively the cost of the district. We've made that available online so that anyone can look at it and access it. And, and it's a resource for anyone that wants to engage in, in the budget discussion, which is an important one. So as assistant auditor Golden said, the, the, uh, city is appropriated funds, um, the city appropriates funds to the schools. So, um, in that Munich report that was referenced earlier, this is the amount of money that the school is appropriated in uni. And this comes from two places.

▶ 1:25:55 Speaker 13: This $43 million comes from the 38

▶ 1:25:58 Speaker 12: and a half million plus the, the 4.7 in offset revenue

▶ 1:26:01 Speaker 13: that the district is bringing in. So that's the, the, the available resources we have right now in the Muni system is for our operating budget.

▶ 1:26:10 Speaker 12: The school system's budget is, is, um, over a little over 92 90 3% fixed costs, things like salaries, um, tuition's, transportation for special education. These are fixed costs. So we only have about 7%.

▶ 1:26:22 Speaker 13: That's discretionary. Um, the entire, um, supply materials line for all eight schools is, is just under half a million dollars. So, um, we've, we've got, um, pretty extensive fixed costs within the school budget.

▶ 1:26:43 Speaker 12: So we just recently gave our mid-year update to school committee. So this was, uh, as of the beginning of March at the, uh, I'll backtrack for one second. At the, um, Beginning of each year, um, the school committee votes to, uh, have different categories within our budget. So this year we have six categories. We've got our, our early childhood center, we have our elementary school systems, we have our middle and our high school special education. And then, um, district-wide admin, uh, administrative expenses. So you'll see that far left column,

▶ 1:27:15 Speaker 13: that's the appropriation down to the 43 million that we, um, we have in our muni system right now

▶ 1:27:20 Speaker 12: for our operating budget, what we spent to date, what we have encumbered. And right now we are one point a little over between 1.1 and 1.2 million into that, that gap

▶ 1:27:30 Speaker 13: that we've all been talking about.

▶ 1:27:35 Speaker 12: And so for the rest of the year, the team at the business office has worked very hard to try to come up with an accurate

▶ 1:27:40 Speaker 13: projection of where we think we'll land. We have fixed costs that we know will come up. We have had some, um, an increase in the number

▶ 1:27:46 Speaker 12: of leave of absences this year. We just have our contractual obligations

▶ 1:27:50 Speaker 13: that we have, uh, every year. We have longevity, retirement payouts, um, teacher leadership stipends. We have our springtime athletics coaches, uh, extracurricular activities, uh, legal and consulting fees. Um, and so, uh, these are costs that we project within those different, um, school committee categories. Um, and for this year is a little unique.

▶ 1:28:15 Speaker 12: Uh, we are really trying to dedicate every available resource towards minimizing

▶ 1:28:18 Speaker 13: that gap, knowing that, that the one-time funding with the city, um, is also used for other departments and other very important things throughout the city.

▶ 1:28:29 Speaker 12: So here's where we got our number so that the, the existing, you know, 1.1, 1.2 deficit on, on, uh, the operating budget now, plus an additional about 1.1 million. We project between now

▶ 1:28:41 Speaker 13: and the end of the year, Kim comes in about a little over

▶ 1:28:43 Speaker 12: 2.275 million. And we did at respectfully, uh, request that the mayor, um,

▶ 1:28:51 Speaker 13: uh, send a request for 2.35 to build in a little bit of a buffer, uh, for any unanticipated costs.

▶ 1:28:57 Speaker 12: So if you take the 2.35 million in addition to the, the 43 that's in the operating budget, we would commit about 45 million, uh, $45.6 million.

▶ 1:29:08 Speaker 13: And that number, again, is the, what's the resources allocated by the city, and also our offset, uh, um, revolving funds that the city operates, which I'll, I'll talk about in just a second.

▶ 1:29:22 Speaker 12: So this would be the difference between what was appropriated, uh, for FY 24 at the beginning. And if the supplemental budget request is considered

▶ 1:29:30 Speaker 13: and approved, we would end up with that 45.6 million number. And that's the, the, the different school committee categories.

▶ 1:29:37 Speaker 12: So these are the revolving, um, these are the offsets that we, um, generate revenue for. And this is anything from, uh, you know, school-based fees. Um, our education stations before and after school program. Our, uh, the Medicaid program, which is also another request on, on tonight's agenda. Um, our, uh, Franklin School tuition, um, program.

▶ 1:30:00 Speaker 13: So, and our circuit breaker for special education reimbursement.

▶ 1:30:03 Speaker 12: So at the beginning of the year, we budget amounts that we think are realistic for, um, revenue to come in. We've changed these over the past two years.

▶ 1:30:11 Speaker 13: Like for, um, for a long time the athletics revolving was, was 3 25, 3 50. That was just a mark we consistently didn't hit. So we've, we've reduced that facility rentals too as well.

▶ 1:30:23 Speaker 13: Um, and our education stations and ECC revenues, we have, uh, uh, incrementally increased those as well. And we did see an increase last year in our, uh, Medicaid reimbursement, which has translated to this year as well. So, um, the far right is just the variance as to how far or how close we're getting. I would say the, the biggest concern would be our ECC line right now. Um, when I started the ECC was running a deficit. The program itself, uh, will not run a deficit. I'm just a little concerned about meeting the actual budgeted offset amount at this time.

▶ 1:30:56 Speaker 12: So just some points to consider. Um, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. Um, this is a projection, you know, a budget is a best guess. Um, this is where we think we're

▶ 1:31:04 Speaker 13: gonna land through the end of the year. And as the superintendent and, um, the mayor have, have said, and I would, I would reiterate, uh, we really are trying to come one time saying, this is what we had anticipated last spring. This is what we think will close the year. And, uh, um, to try to just one time say, this is what we would need to, to close the year, uh, balanced.

▶ 1:31:24 Speaker 12: Um, we do understand we are just one department in, in the city. Um, we're, we're the biggest department, but we are, uh, one department of many that have many needs. This year. We have been running things lean to, to keep that, that number as small as possible. Um, as Superintendent ERO said,

▶ 1:31:39 Speaker 13: we froze the budget on July 5th. Um, we had talked about, you know, considering, you know, throughout the year if we would, uh, be able to lift that. We've, we've visited that many times and just decided we have not been able to lift that freeze. Uh, knowing the current financial climate, we did generously receive the 500,000 one-time money last spring. Um, we developed our line item in budget. Um, there have been some positions that we just did not fill. Um, no, west public schools is not overstaffed. Uh, you know, when someone is not filled, that creates a need on, on some other,

▶ 1:32:11 Speaker 12: uh, positions within the district. We've had some paraprofessional positions that we have not filled. And the middle school is understaffed based on enrollment, based on programming.

▶ 1:32:21 Speaker 13: That is something that will need to be addressed in FY 25. Um, I just sent a memo out to the, to the district that said, as of April 1st, there will be no more purchasing. Everything will have to come through our office. Um, sub coverage has been very challenging.

▶ 1:32:33 Speaker 12: Each building is assigned, um, one to two substitutes. Um, that's, that's not adequate. We could have more than that. We have not filled, we have not, um, uh, increased our sub coverage at the building level. And we haven't replaced, um, any real technology this year. The students are all working on Chromebooks for things like i-Ready Diagnostics and MCAS testing. And we are, um, our ID department is dynamic. They're working to repair any broken, um, technology so that students have what they need, but we haven't purchased any student replacement technology this year. So, um, these are some of the things that we've tried to either hold off or defer on, knowing that we're trying

▶ 1:33:10 Speaker 13: to, um, uh, minimize the, the request at this time.

▶ 1:33:16 Speaker 12: Um, and the one thing I'll say is, uh, I'll backtrack for one second. So the, the budget that came in,

▶ 1:33:27 Speaker 13: go back to this slide for one second.

▶ 1:33:34 Speaker 12: So, when we had the gap, when we load the budget into Munis, we're only allowed to, um, book in the revenue that we know we have.

▶ 1:33:41 Speaker 13: So the, the gap actually was in the special education line. It wasn't because it was an overrun, it wasn't because it was a, um, uh, something that wasn't budgeted. Superintendent Berman does a very nice job with her budget.

▶ 1:33:53 Speaker 12: Um, that was the line that could support that, this kind of a gap. So we are not allowed to reduce salaries. Things, um, that are, we're just not allowed

▶ 1:33:59 Speaker 13: to reduce in the budget. Uh, the special education line is not an overrun, but that is the line that could currently hold the gap, knowing that we would be requesting the money, um, to, um, uh, increase the budget by the, that, that gap. And I would be happy to answer any questions that you have at this time.

▶ 1:34:19 Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. Kelly.

▶ 1:34:22 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, anyone else would like to add anything before we open questions? Thank you all. Um, any questions from my colleagues? Um, counselor,

▶ 1:34:37 Speaker 2: Thank you.

▶ 1:34:41 Ward Hamilton: Thank you, Mr. Kelly and Mr. ero especially. Um, since you appeared before this body on January 29th, we've had the opportunity to meet in person to exchange emails and communicate. And, uh, I appreciate your responsiveness and it's, it's helped me to be able to frame this, this picture and put things in context. Um, certainly I'm cognizant of the challenges that the district faces and, um, as one of the four counselors, uh, who was not serving when the last council approved this budget, you know, I may have a couple more questions than, uh, some of my colleagues, but last fall when I was a candidate, I was asked by several people when this moment came, what would I do? And the answer is, I'm gonna give the schools money because we need to. And, um, I've been asked that question so many times and, um, I feel bad, frankly. I mean, I, I support the schools and, and wanna support you, but I, and I will. And, uh, I do have some questions because a couple of items are confusing. Mm-Hmm. Uh, to me, as the lay person, the 4.75 million in offsets is a little more than 10% right. Of the budget. And so it's important that those numbers are on, uh, anything less than that adds to the deficit. Um, one thing that's confusing when I look at the, um, the table that we shared with us is each month we see what the balance was in that particular account. But it's hard to understand like, uh, what are the total, what would the total receipts be for this fiscal year? Is that something that we track?

▶ 1:36:29 Speaker 12: So that's what this report does track. This is a report that we generate each month, just like you said, and we submit that to school committee

▶ 1:36:33 Speaker 13: as part of our monthly budget report.

▶ 1:36:36 Speaker 12: So a lot of these lines are, are multipurpose, they're revolving accounts.

▶ 1:36:40 Speaker 13: So there, there's money coming in and there's money going out, right?

▶ 1:36:43 Speaker 12: So at the end of each month, the business office, uh, goes in and reconciles the encumbrances based on, on, um, you know, revenue brought in. And so that is the balance that existed at the end of each month. So at the end of March, excuse me, we'll go through the calculations again and, um, post out to the, the report as to what the balances are.

▶ 1:37:05 Ward Hamilton: Alright. So I guess just to pull one item out of here, um, our ECC revenue line, we budgeted 525,000. We're in the red 613. Um, when we've met and talked actual, uh, revenue from tuition this year, we're anticipating between 1.7 and 1.8 million. Help me understand.

▶ 1:37:31 Speaker 12: Sure thing. So the, that, um, the ECC tuition revenue is dual purpose. It's, it also, it pays salaries for the, um, you know, the, um, the credentialed educators that work at the ECC and then also above that we use it as a budget offset. Now we've, you know, at last spring, um, school department was trying to do its part, so we did increase that offset. Um, that is probably my, my biggest concern right now. I don't think the, the ECC itself, the tuition, the, um, the salary line will run a a deficit. We, we are projected to be able to pay all those salaries from the tuition revenue. Okay. The offset amount is what I would be concerned about making.

▶ 1:38:13 Ward Hamilton: Okay. Um, I think finally in closing, uh, you, in your presentation, you answered my question as far as how did you arrive at that 2.35 number, and I understand, um, from speaking to Mr. Ro and, uh, mayor Greg, is, um, the interest to come once or the intent to come just one time, um, with a full quarter still ahead of us, we must be pretty confident that this number is on.

▶ 1:38:43 Speaker 13: Yeah, I think one of the things that we did this year is

▶ 1:38:45 Speaker 12: we tried to encumber everything we knew was going to be a cost.

▶ 1:38:46 Speaker 13: We've encumbered all of our salaries. And that's true also why you see that red for the e CCC line, right? And at the end of November and the beginning of December, we encumbered all the salaries there. So obviously not having raised that revenue yet sure that that's what turned out. And then now as you can see that as the months go by, it's starting to get closer and closer to being back in the black.

▶ 1:39:04 Speaker 12: And then, so, you know, we've got salaries encumbered and, and like I mentioned in the other slide, there are still some things outstanding.

▶ 1:39:10 Speaker 13: We do have some contractual obligations that will have to be paid at the end of the year. Right. Um, we did just have another recent retirement that will have a little bit of a financial impact. So, um, you know, those are things that we try to plan for. Um, and, uh, so we've, we've made a pretty best guess effort what we think, we'll, we'll close the year, but I agree with you. We, we were just trying to come one time. Okay.

▶ 1:39:30 Ward Hamilton: And, and finally, um, after you shared the Munis report Friday morning, I, uh, printed it and highlighted every line that had available budget, and that totals almost $3.1 million more. How much of that 3.1 million more do you think we'll spend between now and July? All of it.

▶ 1:39:51 Speaker 12: Yeah. So right now, that bottom line, that negative 1.12, 1.11 million includes that, that three. So, okay. That column totals out to that bottom.

▶ 1:40:02 Ward Hamilton: So those two numbers together, 4.345 million is,

▶ 1:40:09 Speaker 12: So that wouldn't be $4 million. That would be the, the, the total of the available combined with what is all the lines that are overrun is, is what we knew was going to happen. That was something we knew would happen. We was gonna happen on July 1st. That, um, that has come into the negative now. Okay.

▶ 1:40:25 Speaker 2: Alright. Again, thank you for, um, spending extra time

▶ 1:40:29 Ward Hamilton: with me and in my emails and answering my questions. I appreciate it and it's been very helpful. Anytime.

▶ 1:40:34 Speaker 3: Thank you.

▶ 1:40:36 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Anyone else? Um, I'd like to ask questions, counselor. Gar, and then we have Councilor Kara,

▶ 1:40:45 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Thank you for being here. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to touch base. Um, but I don't think my questions are, are that difficult. It's, I I do, do wanna follow up on, on on some of the offsets, um, like athletic revolving, is it safe to say that's, we're just getting into the spring season, so we're not, we haven't experienced the user fees.

▶ 1:41:05 Speaker 13: That's correct. Yep, that's correct.

▶ 1:41:06 Speaker 12: We do collect the fees by season. Okay.

▶ 1:41:12 Speaker 12: Um, I will just say the spring is our lightest season,

▶ 1:41:13 Speaker 13: so that would be our, our lowest revenue coming in. Mm-Hmm.

▶ 1:41:17 Speaker 2: Less equipment, less cost, I'm sorry, less equipment, less cost. True. Um, the ECC revenue,

▶ 1:41:24 Mark Garipay: just following up, um, the e CCC C revenue is, that's the tuition based program. Right. Um, and when we had talked just earlier, so we are basing 525,000 in

▶ 1:41:42 Mark Garipay: tuition that we're gonna cover the salaries.

▶ 1:41:45 Speaker 12: So the 1.3 million from the budget, that, that is the salaries, and this is an addition. So it's about 1.8 total that we were anticipating to commit.

▶ 1:41:52 Speaker 13: Now I will say enrollment's a little lower than

▶ 1:41:55 Speaker 12: what we had projected back in last

▶ 1:41:56 Speaker 13: April when we were looking at this. So that's why I was saying I'm a little concerned about that line because the enrollment's a little lower than we had used when we were projecting that out.

▶ 1:42:05 Mark Garipay: And I'm not saying that this program, this is the valuable program, but if it comes in, if, if the tuitions do not cover the expenses, where does that money come from? Within the budget.

▶ 1:42:19 Speaker 12: So they'll cover the expenses. I, I, I fully anticipate it would cover the expenses. The, the offset amount is probably something that we would,

▶ 1:42:24 Speaker 13: we would need to look at alternative funding. And I, I, you know, this year I think our circuit break coming in a little higher than we had thought. So that's possible avenue. Um, and we would have to look at other, you know, like it's possible the ED stations could come in a little bit higher, that has historically come in a little higher. Um, so those are things that we could use to, um, balance off a, a lower ECC number.

▶ 1:42:45 Mark Garipay: And I don't want this to get taken the wrong way. What my concern is that we have tuition based programs that do not cover their costs and we're taking revenue from required services to DSI for the other, for the rest of the school district. Right.

▶ 1:43:00 Speaker 13: Um, I guess maybe just clarification on, I'm not

▶ 1:43:04 Mark Garipay: Understanding the question. Well, if there's certain services, if we can't cover the costs, it has to come from somewhere within the school budget, right? Mm-Hmm. So if it's within the school budget, the, um, all all that, if we're moving it from somewhere else, those are services that would be provided that, that are required by DSI for a K through K through 12. Right? Sure.

▶ 1:43:21 Speaker 13: We wouldn't move operating funds to do that. We would try to do that through other offsets. Offsets. Okay. And, you know, OO obviously a long range goal is to build these up, just like assistant auditor Golden was saying, for some of the stabilization funds, you want a little bit of of stability. So if there is, you know, something that comes outta bounds, you're able to absorb that within the budget. So we, our long range goal is to build up some modest balances in these revolving funds

▶ 1:43:43 Speaker 12: that could, you know, take care of unanticipated costs. Mm-Hmm.

▶ 1:43:47 Speaker 3: Going, I think it's important to just point out though, that the ECC, the revenue that's coming in is paying for the ECC. The issue here is that are we receiving what we projected as, you know, a more for the offset to help with the overall of what we wanted to add in there? And at that point, what Mr. Kelly is saying is that we may not reach that area, but we may reach it in other offsets that are gonna count for it. Um, so I think that that's important that to, to make that clarification that currently the ECC is not running in a deficit, it's bringing in the revenue that we need to cover the staffing of the program that we're doing there. It's where we're looking at is, is it bringing in what we've projected as a revenue source on the other end to help us with the offset?

▶ 1:44:41 Mark Garipay: I, I, I understand that. I appreciate that. But we also have to realize that the benefits for all for those employees are anticipated on the city side. And we've had this discussion understood. If we want to, if we want to really look at it as a program, it's a whole then we, we, I'd like to see the benefits moved in. I'm not saying that the tuition would cover that, but, um, or even if it would be feasible. Mm-Hmm. But it's something I'd be curious to take, take, take a look at. Um, and same with education stations as you met, some of these offsets are a way to, in, in a tough economy, I mean, tough financial situation for our, for our city education stations. My son did it. It is a really great value. Um, and I think it's, it's a way to, you know, we have, we have enterprise funds, we have, it's a way to generate some additional revenue. Um, not saying continue to do 10% increases, but I think I saw one of the Motion it was 60 cents or something.

▶ 1:45:45 Mark Garipay: Yep. I mean, um, I think, uh, it's a good service. Um, and I think, um, we should really, uh, take another, take another look at that. Um, I do applaud you. Um, I think, what would we say, three, 3.28 million is what we thought the anticipated deficit was gonna be. And we're down to 2, 2, 3 5, um, right now. Um, I, I applaud your, uh, your work on that and getting that down. I really, when we talked a few months ago, I thought we were gonna be three eight. So, um, is, do you, if we continue the way we're going, I know it's, do you think we're gonna peck away at this deficit? We're at three, 3.3 0.28, now we're at two three. You think if we continue down this path over the next year, we can peck away at the, uh, the deficit and get it, get below two next year? It won't be, won't be you, unfortunately. But

▶ 1:46:44 Speaker 3: We are doing a lot of work towards next year as we work at the end of this year. You know, we're, we're, we're trying to structure and work on that, and that's, information will come out later as we keep going. But, um, you know, we, we are doing our best here to make sure that any expenses has to be a necessity at this point from, from July 1st on to this. It, it has to be a necessity of what we're spending our money on and what we're doing. Um, and we will continue, you know, to, to drive that. And then as we plan for next year, we're, we're doing the same thing. Okay.

▶ 1:47:21 Mark Garipay: Um, and last year when you, when, um, the school department was in front of us looking for the free cash allocation, I was a big advocate to, to really delay it a little bit or give a portion of it so we didn't, so we kind of knew what the final number was. Um, we ended up, um, proving it and then came back for another additional 500,000. And I know you've said it, but it's, I'm, I'm in the back of my mind. I'm still nervous. Yeah. I Don't blame you. I mean, you really feel confident that you're not gonna have to come other than potentially, uh, stable, uh, special ed stabilization or something along that line.

▶ 1:48:05 Mark Garipay: Yes. Okay. All right. I appreciate you both. Thank you. Thank you for all your hard work. Thank you,

▶ 1:48:10 Speaker 4: Councilor.

▶ 1:48:11 Manjula Karamcheti: Thanks. Thank you all for being here. And I also just wanna appreciate the communication, the presentation, just giving us as much information as possible to help us understand the why behind all of this. Um, the communication and transparency has increased since where we were last year, and I know that's something we were really hoping for. And so I appreciate the city side and the school side for trying to come together and figure that out. Um, I will say I am all for paying the bills and understand why this free cash request is coming now and the timing. Um, and none of us who were here last year are surprised. Right. We knew this was gonna come. Um, so what I'm really interested in, and hope you can shed maybe a little light on this now, but I more as a prelude to what I hope can be discussed more in the 20 24, 20 25 budget. Um, I've heard from a lot of constituents over the past, over this past year, more than I have in the, in the past in some ways, um, from constituents, families, community organizations, really, again, being concerned about special education, wanting to stay in Melrose and not feeling like that is an opportunity for them. Um, and also historically marginalized populations in Melrose as well. Um, and just, you know, we've had families report the increase of the n word in our schools at all levels. We've had an anti-Semitic acts as well, mental health issues among our students and not being able to really provide them the supports that they need and equities among our athletic teams, um, our out of district placements, sort of all those things. So I think what I'm interested in, while we are wanting to pay our bills and settle out this year, how have, how, what has planning looked like this year to anticipate how we might spend funds, um, over the course of 24 25? Um, what Im, what work is being done in the district to, to pro to promote systems and trust structural transformation like around instructional vision, around multi-tiered systems of support. And so to figure out what funds we need for next year, like, what does the work look like this year? So I'm just curious if you could shed any light on that. And then, you know, all of it takes money and I get that. Um, but also, you know, what work has been done with the strategic plan with supervision and evaluation, sort of some of those structures that already exist in the district.

▶ 1:50:56 Speaker 3: So what I will say is that we've talked quite a bit of this, of these items at our school committee Motion. So if you, if you, and I don't mean to deflect it on there, there's a lot that we are, 'cause this what you've asked, there's a lot of information and I could go on for hours for it Yeah, yeah. To go into all of that. And so I would advise folks to watch the school committees. We did a whole thing on strategic planning. We've done quite a bit of what we're talking about as far as the budget as we're moving forward to next year. But one of the things that I will just kind of sum up and then ask any of my colleagues here, if they would like to, is that the thing that I've noticed the most that I have really come through from the Covid era into now we're trying to, we, we would say we're into the second year of what we would go back into that of a normal C school year type of thing. However, that still doesn't take care of all of the past issues that our kids have gone through that, you know, being secluded for so long, dealing with different types of things, it just doesn't click away overnight that says, oh, okay, now we're back to normal. They know how to work into that type of environment. Are we seeing behavioral issues? Are we seeing different types of problems that go on? Yes. How do we resolve those? How are we looking at that? What is, what is the strategic planning as we're moving forward? Part of what I'm really prioritizing is that our most vulnerable kids that we have right now, I believe, are our middle school students who are not getting all of the services and structures that they need because we are understaffed in that building. So regardless of where we are going next year, and regardless of how that budget is, the number one priority that Melrose Public Schools has to do is fix that issue, that problem at the middle school by making sure that we have the right amount of staff that give the opportunity for our kids that are in pain or crying out that need support to know that they have that support. So that's one of the things that we are taking a look, we are looking at more restorative justice. We are looking at more restorative practices that we need to bring into the, through the district, through our professional development, with our staff, through our professional development on, on all fronts. So there's quite a bit that I could keep unpacking. And what I would suggest is over the next, tomorrow night is gonna be a big meeting on the middle school and the high school, and how we're going to be taking a look at the program of studies and what the schedules look like and how the schedule now we're gonna reshape and how we're gonna take those into effect. And then as you get into the April Motion, we're gonna really be talking about the budget needs and how, how are we going to be, how are we gonna make sure that what the priorities are get done as we move forward? And then, you know, how do we bring our kids together and our staff?

▶ 1:54:11 Jen Grigoraitis: So I don't know if you, it's Not as elegant as what you said. No, I, I was just gonna say thank you for providing an opportunity to highlight that tomorrow night. And I want to acknowledge my two school committee co colleagues who are in the audience, um, chair, just scroll and member mc, Andrew. We do have our public hearing on the budget and the school committee. And so for those constituents, I think that's a great opportunity to come and tell the school committee in that role what it is that they wanna see. Um, you know, I know you all know this, especially those of you who have been sitting in these seats for a bit, the budget process is messy and imperfect. The school committee began in January. A lot of us are new. The state is not obligated to pass a budget by July one. We are, um, so a lot of this is trying to figure out how we get all of the puzzle pieces to fit together when we don't have everything that we need all at once. Um, and so I think it's really the more we can hear from folks, um, you know, whether it's coming to the school committee or coming to all of you, the help. More helpful that is for all of us as we're trying to balance all these pieces. So tune in tomorrow night if you wanna come back to this room.

▶ 1:55:10 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you Madam Mayor, and thank you, uh, superintendent. I appreciate you giving us, um, you know, a highlight on what is the plan for next year. And I would like to invite all of us to focus on 2024, uh, fiscal year 2024, so we can, um, have really an extended, um, understanding of where we are currently. I have next, um, counselor Romanul.

▶ 1:55:36 Devin Romanul: Uh, thank you so much. Um, I'll be very quick. Uh, I just wanna say, first of all, thank you so much for the presentations, plural and, uh, your incredible efforts at lowering this number. Um, I'm deeply appreciative and, uh, I'll just say, uh, for my piece, really excited to, uh, I mean, I'm acknowledging those efforts and also want to, uh, express my excitement to reorient the conversation around how do we run the best school district and how do we create a, uh, high functioning, nurturing environment, you know, uh, to create the best outcomes and all sorts of issues for our kids. So anyway, um, I'm not saying that's not what's happening, but, um, I, uh, would really love to say like, what, what do we need to do as a city, as a community to, to aim for that? So anyway, um, just three very quick questions. Um, and maybe I'll just give 'em to you and then you can respond as you'd like. The three things that I was interested in are, number one, um, that percentage of discretionary dollars that is comparatively really low. I'm wondering how that compares to surrounding communities, if that's sort of right in line. Um, uh, the second was I was asking for your, I wanted to ask your opinion for what might account for the ECC shortfall, um, saying as someone who's loved that program and, uh, really excited for my kids to attend or my youngest anyway. And, um, and number three, I'm obviously, uh, incredible effort. Went into deferring a ton of costs as you outlined. I'm guessing that at some point we gotta pay the piper and what does that look like for FY 25, you know, ballpark, and how can we do some longitudinal planning to ameliorate, you know, deferring too many times year over year? Thank you so much.

▶ 1:57:14 Speaker 13: Sure thing. So the, um,

▶ 1:57:16 Speaker 12: the discretionary, yeah, I'd say that's typical. Um, prior, um, this is my second year in Melrose that those discretionary lines that the schools would be typical nowadays, um, there is,

▶ 1:57:23 Speaker 13: uh, not a lot of room for discretionary spending. They do get an, you know, there are materials, you know, schools need paper and toner. Those are our biggest needs. Um,

▶ 1:57:31 Speaker 12: and then things like, um, uh, Chromebooks,

▶ 1:57:35 Speaker 13: like those are technology that's a, you know, something we are going to have to really look at. Um, we should have a formal cycle of replacement or, um, each year. Um, so that is something we are talking about, uh, if it's feasible for the FY 25 budget. Um, and as far as the, the ECC, um,

▶ 1:57:49 Speaker 12: it's enrollment is lower than we

▶ 1:57:52 Speaker 13: had looked at and projected. Um, you know, that's a, um, that's kind of rolling, uh, admission. So if students exit, um, there's no, I don't believe there's a current waiting list right now. So, um, it would be just, uh, that enrollment is a little lower than we had anticipated it being.

▶ 1:58:08 Maya Jamaleddine: Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank You. Next I have, uh, counselor Reky.

▶ 1:58:12 Speaker 6: Just a, a question regarding the comments on the middle school. Just, um, so if we were to look at this year's budget, I know we have a $2 million deficit, but if we were to go back and look at this year's budget, and you were to really staff that school in the manner that you thinks appropriate, what's a dollar figure that you would put in an increase in a budget for the middle school?

▶ 1:58:36 Speaker 3: It's about 1,000,035, about, you know, 1.3, About 1 million, 35,000, 1 million, about 14 positions,

▶ 1:58:45 Speaker 6: 14 positions. Mm-Hmm. Thank you.

▶ 1:58:49 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Next, um, councilor Vandiver,

▶ 1:58:52 Kimberly Vandiver: Um, thank you for the presentations. Uh, I I just wanted to ask if I can restate my understanding of the ECC revenue line since it's come up several times and make sure that it's accurate. Um, so if we're looking at these offset projections we see in July, August, September, October, November, we see positive numbers indicating that at that time we were paying salaries and we were accepting tuition, and we were running positively. And then we see in December, we suddenly jump extremely negative. And as you said, that's because at that time we put in all of the anticipated salary payments for the rest of the year. That's correct. Um, and now we see month over month jumping up by about 200,000 a month as we accept payments, but we do not pay additional salaries because those have already been taken care of for the rest of the year. Um, and so we see the budgeted amount was about 500,000. And so when we're showing this negative 600,000, that's, that's 600,000, meaning at this moment we are minus 88,000 on top of a budgeted surplus of 500,000. Correct. Given the amount we're jumping up month over month, we will almost certainly have a surplus in that line. It's just a question of how much and what, how it compares to the 500,000 number.

▶ 2:00:08 Speaker 13: Yep. That's a great question. And that's, yes. Excellent summary. That's exactly it. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, sure. We, we still have a few months to go of collecting revenue.

▶ 2:00:18 Speaker 4: Awesome. Anyone else?

▶ 2:00:24 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. Um, for the second time, uh, counselor ante?

▶ 2:00:27 Mark Garipay: Yes, thank you. Hey, um, sorry. Sorry. Thank you.

▶ 2:00:32 Mark Garipay: Sorry. No long, long couple days for me. Um, I lost

▶ 2:00:38 Mark Garipay: my train of thought transportation. Um, last year when you were in front of us, uh, the, the vendors were, seems like they were fluctuating the invoicing, right? They were all over the board. Um, all of a sudden we're getting out really something low for two or three months and we'd get hit with a big one. I see here that we spent 1.5 million for, I guess, are they doing a better job at that this year?

▶ 2:01:00 Speaker 13: No. Special education. Transportation

▶ 2:01:03 Speaker 12: is a very volatile market, right?

▶ 2:01:04 Speaker 13: It remains. Um, you know, it, it's, um, we have some vendors that we work very closely with that have, we have good relationships with. And we have some vendors that, um, you know, we strictly need them for a specific purpose 'cause they go on a separate, a specific route. Um, and so, um, it's a very fluid, very volatile market. That's probably another one of our biggest concerns going into FY 25 is, is transportation.

▶ 2:01:27 Speaker 12: We, that was another, like we, um, we own five vans that we use for special education, transportation. We could have replaced those last year. Dodge doesn't make the caravan anymore. That's the gold standard of student transportation right now.

▶ 2:01:38 Speaker 13: So, um, that means buying a Kia, that means buying something else, and those are more expensive. Um, so we opted to re-up our leases with, um, some, uh, some of our used vans. And that's a total credit to Rick D'Angelo, our transportation coordinator. He's meticulous with maintenance on the vans.

▶ 2:01:54 Speaker 12: They're in really good shape. So it was, it was easy

▶ 2:01:56 Speaker 13: to re-up the leases on those, um, knowing they're reliable and avoiding the costs. Um, but to your point, we at some point we'll need to replace the vans.

▶ 2:02:04 Mark Garipay: So that's the reason for the, uh, fluctuation. We are at 1.5 million, um, nine months into the year. And we, we still have 1.1 encumbered, so we still like to Okay. Thank you.

▶ 2:02:14 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Next, uh, vice chair William,

▶ 2:02:17 Speaker 5: I make a motion to recommend this to the full council.

▶ 2:02:21 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion to recommend, uh, to the full council made by vice Chair William seconded. Second by, um, councilor Stewart.

▶ 2:02:31 Speaker 4: Um, council clerk,

▶ 2:02:32 Speaker 2: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Repe. Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Che. Yes. Councillor Brisky. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Ulari? Yes. And Chair All? Yes. That's unanimous with 11. Yes.

▶ 2:02:56 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. And I would like to, um, make a motion to, um, attach your slides, Mr. Kelly, uh, to the, uh, minutes of this item. Um, Thank you. Motion

▶ 2:03:11 Speaker 6: to attach the slides to the presentation. Second.

▶ 2:03:14 Maya Jamaleddine: So we have a motion, uh, to attach the slides, uh, made by, uh, president Ali, seconded by Councilor Stewart. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you.