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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-01-07-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, January 7, 2025 Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:09 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Eileen Jay, Chairperson Sara Cuthbertson, Clerk Kathleen Lenihan Larry Freeman Deepika Sawhney, Vice -Chair, attended the virtual meeting on Zoom. SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. The School Committee convened at the School Committee Meeting Room at Central Office and remotely. Members of the public can view and participate in person or in the meeting webinar from their computer or tablet by clicking on the link provided with the meeting agenda. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees are participating by video conference. This evening's meeting is being broadcast live and also taped by LexMedia for future on -demand viewing. All supporting materials that have been provided to members of this body are available on the Town's website unless otherwise noted. [due] L1 M4 0 11 r_<<I4►107_1 Ms. Sawhney read the following consent agenda items: • Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. December 27, 2024 - Payroll in the amount of $5,091,431.79 b. January 3, 2025 - AP Warrants in the amount of $2,745,942.46 Ms. Lenihan the following consent agenda items: • Minutes a. November 26, 2024 b. December 3, 2024 Mr. Freeman made a motion to approve the entire consent agenda, Ms. Lenihan seconded. Ms. Jay took a roll call vote, Passed, 5-0. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS Ms. Lenihan wished everyone a Happy 2025. Ms. Cuthbertson announced that the MILK Day of Service is coming up on January 20th. Mr. Freeman is looking forward to the Lunar New Year Celebrations that will be starting soon. Ms. Sawhney expressed gratitude to the DPW department for their clean-up work over the holidays. She also requested a moment of silence for President Jimmy Carter and the ex -prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, who both just passed. There was a moment of silence. Ms. Jay announced the Lex Lux event that will take place on Saturday, January 11, 2025. This is a night filled with lights and illuminations for the Lex250 celebration. Ms. Jay also announced that this year, there will be four Lunar New Year events, and CAAL will have two separate events. The first CAAL event will be a performance on January 18th, and the other CAL event will be a food festival on January 29th. CALex is having its Lunar New Year event on Saturday, January 26th. COMMUNITY SPEAK Archana Nigalye - 11 Marshall Rd (in person): "First of all, let me wish everyone best wishes for the Happy New Year. I'm a physician scientist and mom of a fifth grader, and I'm here for some concerns that she has faced. Our child has faced racism at preschool previously, and remains very sensitive to any form of discrimination. We moved to Lexington's inclusive public school system last year. Our daughter was very disturbed seeing the Ganesha image from the middle school curriculum, and with her emotional disturbance at the depiction and description, she shared her frustration with her school teachers, Mr. Cole and Miss Jane Hundley. They were all very kind, arranging a meeting with us and very graciously updated us on recent years' efforts last month. Another instance happened, and we sense the burden even young community children are carrying to defend their culture, the distress in the minds of community children was emphasized more once again when attending in Indian language and culture school Shishu Bharati, which takes place at LPS and our daughter over her older school, Children from Hindu community are talking amongst themselves; "Oh, I cannot believe our parents teach us wrong things at home than at school which we are told differently", referring to LPS curriculum about Hinduism and our culture. Does the chosen curriculum, even with declaration of associated bias in the references My teaching is causing cultural rift and cognitive dissonance in the minds of our children. We learned about multiple statements embedded in the school curriculum being contradictory to our scriptures. Scriptures form basis of our cultural traditions, including our devotional music and dance forms that our children learn. You would agree that misrepresenting scriptural knowledge would not be available as part of the educational curriculum, any reference used to state contradictory information just emphasize remaining. Thank you of misinterpretation and misrepresentation, I come here to put forth the fact that unintended damage is no more potential, and we are seeing the damage happening even to younger children who are yet to learn the curriculum in the school system accurately. We, as community members, are willing to help in all ways that the LPS might need and are happy to provide the right resources and experts on our scriptures to help make the educational experience equitable and non-discriminatory to all children, including ours. And thank you very much again for the opportunity to voice my concerns. Robin Strizhak - President of the LEA (in person): "Currently, our paraprofessionals are in negotiations for a new contract. What they are asking for is appropriate training, prospectus, educators, and, most significantly, a living wage. Many of our unity educators must work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. They receive very few benefits. In contrast with unit A teachers, I have a unity colleague who's a new parent, does not have enough hours to qualify for FMLA and is in danger of losing his house, and is unconscionable. These are people who work one-on-one with some of our most vulnerable students. These are the people who are how we are able to keep our kids in the district. These are the people who help teachers run their classrooms more smoothly. Often, these are the people who are waved aside, not noticed, and not understood to be essential to the day-to-day running of a school. Getting solid, qualified para -educators is difficult. Retaining them is even harder right now, the majority of our professionals are paid on the lower end of the pay scale, very few continuing their role beyond the second year. Our paras love what they do. They're often priced out of the job and forced to go elsewhere just to make ends meet, but we are currently asking our Unit C staff do a difficult professional job, and it requires the full attention and dedication our students deserve, but when the time comes to compensate them, unfortunately, they are paid as if they are disposable, part-time staff, and we end up losing them because of that. One job should be enough. Clearly the budget freeze and its inevitable impact contradict what I am asking for, and I need you, the community, to know you cannot purchase staples for the copy machines. Cannot purchase pencils, any other office supplies right now. We are limited as to how many support staff we can have, even if those support staff are being vital for the class to function. It's hard for schools to budget, and we don't know how many kids may move in and what those kids will need. We do spend more on special education because we have a population of students who need that support, and we will do everything within our power to keep students in their town schools. Our requests are not exorbitant. The job of educating is not the same as it was for many reasons, and we need to acknowledge that and readjust accordingly. Kids simply need more these days, diagnosed or undiagnosed in a program or not, neurotypical or not. All kids need more. I'm asking you, the School Committee, to advocate for the students, faculty, and staff of LPS. We know you value education in our schools. People move to Lexington because of this. We all know the property values are only as good as town schools are. And I know, I know a new LHS is looming, but the people in the trenches right now, students and educators, should not be punished for that fact. And frankly, many of our educators will move on. The building is deemed more important than the human beings that rattle around inside of it. There was a recent story in NPR about a 1975 failed bill that would have extended the IDEAS bill. It didn't go anywhere, but I'm asking you, community members, in Lexington, to write your legislators to advocate for your public schools who help us need more help than it's getting currently. We need you to support us because we are not asking this so we can buy caviar and champagne. We are asking for more money to support our kids and their educators, who desperately need it. Thank you" Alan Seferian - 10 Augustus Rd. (on Zoom): "I had a question, or I'm interested in the subject of you committee members who are not permitted to vote on the high school project because of being abutters to the property. I'm told that there's at least one of you, that there's at least one of you that fall into that category, is that true?" Ms. Jay responded, "Yes, that is correct. We typically don't answer questions during community speech. Why don't you proceed?" Mr. Seferian; "What I'd like then is to know what the circumstances are, what the guidance is on that, and maybe it can be emailed to me or something. I assume there was a letter or some sort of guidance document received on the topic, and I was hoping that could be shared." Olga Guttag - 273 Emerson Rd (on Zoom): "Happy New Year to everyone. Now that you're working on the budget for next year, all town meeting members need to pay attention, ask questions, and make their comments while you can do anything about changes in the budget. Since I'm one of the candidates for town meeting seat in precinct six, I'd like to ask about the org chart for which I have been asking for since last March. Please ask Dr. Hackett to present the following information about employment of all our personnel in Lexington Public Schools, which I understand is close to 80% of the budget. And the org chart should consist of the following information: the position holders' names, number of such positions, salary and benefit costs showing the total cost of each position, description of responsibilities including the percent contact of direct instruction in the classroom,so some people, teachers spend 100%, superintendent probably spend 0% as she should; to whom that person, each person reports, and how is the performance measured for each of these employees. Are there any specific guidelines so that people know what they're responsible for and how they show that they're actually doing their job and get opportunities for both improvement and promotions? What I would like to understand is if we have the right balance between supervisors and people delivering services directly to students, the only way to understand this is to examine such an org chart that I have been asking for. I hope that this will be published as part of the budget by the next School Committee meeting. Thank you for acting upon my request." Dr. Hackett followed up by saying, "I was just teeing up people chart email to Ms. Guttag, just so you know. We have one, and every year I think we've said this before, it's published in our budget documents, so I will send it along in its current form. Might not be exactly what she is hoping for, but the information is contained within the budget document itself, the budget book. I will get that right out." SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Hackett reviewed her Superintendent's Report with the School Committee. The highlights from her report include: 1. Welcome Back to the U.S., Greg Vredenburgh o Mr. Vredenburgh just served a year in Baghdad, Iraq. He will return to the High School to teach in March. He also welcomed a baby boy—congrats! 2. CAAL Volunteer Awards o Mr. Freeman and Dr. Hackett attended; Hua Wang and Leeying Wu earned Lifetime Achievement Awards. 3. 40th Annual METCO Directors' Conference o The theme of the conference was "Still Worth the Ride: METCO in Retrospect, the State of Educational Outcomes for Black and Brown Students." 4. Fullbright Hays Scholarship Award o Beckie Rankin, LHS foreign language teacher, was one of fourteen educators selected to go to France. 5. Karate Black Belt o Congrats to Diamond seventh -grader Cooper Cuthbertson, who earned his Karate Black Belt! 6. Celebrating Exemplary History Teaching o In November, five of our LHS History teachers presented at high-profile nationwide conferences about their innovative curriculum; "How One Family Letter Can Help Students Connect Lessons of the Holocaust to Today" 7. Highline: A Student -Created Video Broadcast Program o This is a student -led club that was developed under the guidance of teacher Rachel Tadeu. 8. BioArt: Where Science and Art Coverage o Led by teacher Paul Belenkey through the Art & Design Department. 9. High School Project Updates o The Student -School Building Committee (S -SBC) met. Students discussed 1) being more inclusive by increasing outreach to elementary and middle school students and 2) being responsive to all community concerns o A new infographic was created by a talented S -SBC member, Avia Liao. 10. Home Alone Safety: Empowering Kids with Confidence and Key Skills o On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, the Lexington Police Department will partner with Lexington Community Education to offer a session on home safety preparation for kids. 11. 30th Anniversary of MLK o Organizers from the Lexington Human Rights Committee (LHRC) updated Dr. Hackett on events that will take place on January 20, 2025. 12. We All Belong o Dr. Hackett: "I followed up on the concerns that were expressed at the Boston meeting about our approach to teaching Hinduism at LHS. And there is an update in the report that gives you the perspective of the teachers on this particular concern, and I want to thank Dr. Kerry Dunne and others who were able to collaborate after to get clarification." o LHS-LCP Partnership: We have a new cohort of high school students visiting our youngest learners monthly to conduct read-alouds. o High School Leadership Conference; Ariana Akram, a METCO social worker chaperoned six of our high school students at the Ideas High School Student Leadership Conference at Lincoln Sudbury High School. They explored understanding in the many aspects of identity, recognizing and challenging stereotypes, and empowering our students to advocate and be allies for others. o Upcoming Holidays & Observances: Today is Greek Orthodox Christmas! 13. New LPS Website o Tom Martellone, Director of Innovation and Instructional Technology, shared his screen to show the new website's features. He explained that this new Squarespace site is more accessible and has a more open look and feel. School Committee Questions/Comments: Mr. Freeman loves the site and asked if it's gone live yet. Mr. Martellone answered that it went live yesterday with just a few hiccups. Ms. Lenihan asked about school calendars. Mr. Martellone showed her where they are located. She also asked for the name to be changed from Project Overview to LHS Building Project Overview. It took Ms. Jay a while to find the staff directory. She asked if there was any way that it could be brought up to the top. Mr. Martellone replied that he could move it under the "About" section. Ms. Cuthbertson asked if there's a repository for feedback on the website. Mr. Martellone responded that he is working on this, and maybe it'll be a Google Form at the bottom. Ms. Sawhney mentioned that when she was in design school, the biggest "no -no" was white text on a yellow background. She states that this makes it hard to read. She also asked if we want all educators' information out there in terms of security. Mr. Martellone will check in with principals about that, he also added that we did have a directory on the old site and no emails listed. Ms. Sawhney also brought up that she found Dr. Czajkowski's (previous Superintendent) contract, evaluations and other information on the site. She claims that the way the website currently stands, there is no evidence that the School Committee supervises the Superintendent. Ms. Sawhney asked her colleagues if "we want to put that information out there", "how do we want to put that information out there" and "will it be worth it." Ms. Jay responded that she has reached out to Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) about requirements for posting Superintendent evaluations. MASC said that evaluations need to be accessible to the public and that having them accessible through the agenda satisfies the requirement. Ms. Sawhney asked if the same is true for the Superintendent's contract. Ms. Jay did not ask but she thinks so. Ms. Sawhney finally brought up that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) has requirements for information such as contacts to be sent to them. Right now, Dr. Czajkowski's contract is what is posted as the most current contract. She asked if "we want to keep Dr. C's contract up there as the discoverable contract, or do we want to give something which is more recent?" Mr. Martellone explained how old information got uploaded from a previous Technology Director, he is working to fix this. SUPERINTENDENT'S RECOMMENDED FY 2026 BUDGET FY 2026 Budget Presentation Dave Coelho, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, and Dr. Hackett presented the slideshow. Dr. Hackett stated that this is a presentation and not yet a recommendation, "What we're going to be asking of School Committee members is to help give us a sense of direction about how you want to solve the budgetary gap" • Updated FY26 Budget Timeline (slide 3) o January 7, 2025: As we await our FY26 allocation percentage increase, review data and discuss how to close the $2M gap. o January 21, 2025: Superintendent's Recommended Budget to be presented. o January 28, 2025: Morning (8 a.m.) and evening (6 p.m.) public hearings on the FY26 LPS Budget. o February 4, 2025: School Committee votes FY26 LPS Budget ■ The School Committee should have an electronic version of the FY26 budget by January 10th and then a hard copy by January 14th. ■ Ms. Sawhney would like a copy of last year's end -of -year quarter report before next year's budget is printed out. • FY 2025 Spending Freeze (slide 4) o Dr. Hackett states that these are challenges that we can overcome and that it's more of a budget slowdown. She made it clear that "we are still addressing student needs with the budget, and maintaining jobs is a priority for us" o In summary, the causes for the freeze are a high number of "move -in" students with high needs and disabilities (causing an addition of 25 full-time equivalents this year), displaced students at the state level, and the funding drying up for transportation costs. It's getting more and more expensive post -pandemic to have the same sort of goods and services we've had in the past. o Ms. Sawhney discussed the McKinney Vento Act and displaced students. She also brought up the foundation budget and how the amount that we get from the state is dependent on how many children are high -needs. Dr. Hackett added, "The policy shifts at the state level have changed the way that we're receiving children" Mr. Coelho also said, "The Foundation budget is going to be based on the students that we have in place as of October 1. So, whatever changes happen after that will not impact that calculation." o The end -of -year process with families of out-of-town children was also discussed. We also have a Homeless Educator Liaison, Deirdre Kinnane, who gets a stipend that has increased based on the hours needed to assist families. Dr. Hackett said that we also had to add a position at the elementary level for student intake. We are noticing that not a lot of students have had prior school experience. • The Town's FY 2026 Revenue Allocation Model (slide 5) o Total Revenue is approximately $311M. o The Town then backs out annual costs and expenses. o Lexington's Revenue Allocation Model is 74% for schools and 26% for the Town. • FY26 - FY30: LPS 5 -Year Budget Projections (slide 6) o 4.98% total increase for FY26 • FY 2026 Budget Assumptions (slide 7) o COLA (2.5%) o Circuit Breaker reimbursement rate remains at 75% o Turnbacks are unlikely • A Growing FY 2026 Funding Gap (slide 8) o Special education tuition increases o We requested a minimum 4.98% increase, if we got that we would still be $2 million short. o Theoretically, there area few ways to bridge the gap ■ Increase revenues (very little we can do here; we are not a business) ■ Further reduce expenses ■ Town increases allocation ■ Reconsider the use of the special education stabilization and reserve accounts • A Menu of Options for Closing the $2M+ Gap (slide 9) o What we have already done: Reduced the high-risk placeholders by the amount equal to the Special Ed Stabilization Fund (1.2 million), we have funded primarily legal or contractual mandates, we have made significant reductions already to professional learning for $200,000 and we have assumed reductions through attrition. o What else can be done: Cut "high risk" list by over a $1.8M for FY26 (30% reduction), decrease 12 unallocated positions at $945K, we could increase dependency on circuit breaker funds (which would free up about 1.2 million), a 15% across the board reduction in supplies (which would give us about $800,000), and we are also looking at class sizes and the consolidation of classrooms that are smaller. • FY26 Budget Requests (slide 10) o List of legal and contractual mandates that we are able to fund. o List of budgetary requests that we were not able to fund: Salar& Ex enses. • FY 2026 Budgetary Drivers & Data (slide 11) o Special Education ■ Preliminary out -placements (still lower than pre -pandemic) ■ Continued increase in more intensive student needs (resident students) ■ Transportation challenges ■ Unanticipated new students with higher needs o Contract Negotiations o Displaced Student Impacts o High School Enrollment • Supplemental Positions and Staffing FTE Count FY16 to FY25 (slide 12) o Dr. Hackett, "This is intended to show you what has happened from 2016 to the present. We start with a base budget that's our number of full time equivalents. And see, in 2016, it was 989, and in 2025 it's 1,241. And then what we've done is we've broken out 1, 2, 3, 4 ways that we add full-time equivalents to the budget" • 1—Budget Adds/Del, 2—Unallocated, 3—LEA Contract Adds and 4—Post Annual Town Meeting (ATM) Supplementals o Dr. Hackett; "The message to underscore here is you will not be able to predict staffing based on the number of students" • FY24 Budgetary Drivers: Special Education Enrollment (slide 13) o Shows that we have fewer students and our Special Education identification rates are going up slightly to 14.7% from 14.1% in 2018. o Dr. Hackett; "The message here is that the outplacement costs are not the costs that are driving the challenges with the budget." • "Move -In" Students with Existing IEPs (side 14) o Number of students with IEPs by grade span. • Primary Disability Type: In -District & Out -of -District Special Education (slide 15) o Dr. Hackett, "Slide 15 is a very important slide, because what we were trying to determine is, where are the costs coming from? How are the costs being generated? So we know we have children moving in, that's existed in the past, but somehow we're seeing that we have higher costs. So we wanted to do an analysis of how children are identified, and the top ways that they're identified in the system, historically, is through communication disorders, specific learning disabilities, health and autism, those are the four most common Special Education designations." o Our autism numbers are almost doubling, and autism diagnoses typically come with additional support, which is putting pressure on the budget because of staffing needs. • Level of Need: In -District Special Education (slide 16) o This slide shows how much service students are getting per week in more detail. o The amount of high needs has come close to doubling since 2014. • Enrollment Overview (slide 17) o Enrollment is stable: 57 students compared to the previous year. o Large decline in K-5 elementary enrollment (-128). o Middle school enrollment is flat (+/-13). o Substantial increase in high school enrollment (+101), but down from previous projections. • The next few slides (18-21) review enrollment history. School Committee Questions/Comments: • Slide 7: o Mr. Freeman asked, "Since we typically turn back money and you're saying that we may not be able to do that, how is that going to impact the town or the budget process with the town, knowing they won't be getting that million, $2 million back? Is it going to impact what we're given initially?" Mr. Coelho responded, "Not from the tax levy, necessarily, but it's going to impact the items that they use, the free cash, if you will, to fund. So cash capital for some of our capital projects that they don't want to necessarily bond because it doesn't make sense, or some of the other set -asides that they put into. So as the free cash shrinks, you have less money in order to do those same things, and you may have to add tax levy. So that would impact us, but it's hard to say what that amounts to." o Ms. Jay asked, "Have there been a number of years where circuit breaker reimbursements were lower than 75%, and what is the risk here?" Mr. Coelho replied, "Not in the past six or so years. When we first started out, it was 43% and went to 60, 50. It bounced around, but it's become very solidified and very predictable with the amount of money they expect because it's just been a constant line item that they've always paid attention to" Dr. Hackett added, "The worry is that if Special Ed costs are increasing everywhere and circuit breakers increasing, that's more pressure". o Ms. Sawhney asked how much money we get from Federal sources and if that amount should be added to the assumption section, Mr. Coelho responded, "It's probably maybe $3 million overall between the special aid grants and then the title grants." Mr. Coelho added, "I think it's worth noting that those accounts and those grants traditionally don't keep pace with what we experience for our increases" and "You have to be very careful about what you spend that money on." Ms. Sawhney would like the School Committee to look at Town turn -backs as a safety margin, she is concerned that we are reducing our safety buffer. • Slide 8: o Ms. Sawhney spoke about Prop 2.5 and how it somewhat controls the annual increase in the real estate tax levy: " We usually, in Lexington, gather more than just 2.5% every year because our real estate base increases in value as new development happens" She asked the School Committee to look closer at the requested 4.98% and at the boundary conditions. • Slide 9: o Mr. Freeman asked if the 12 unallocated positions are student -facing or support/admin. Mr. Coelho responded that they are student -facing positions. Mr. Freeman then asked about non -student -facing positions, and Mr. Coelho answered, "We don't usually hold unallocated positions for that" Mr. Freeman spoke about technology increasing and wondered if we've seen a decrease in the need for administrative staff. Dr. Hackett replied, "No. In fact, I think what people would tell you is, given the technological demands, it increases FTE, not decreases, because there's more tasks related to the work that you did before" o Ms. Cuthbertson feels uneasy about cutting the High -Risk List and leans more toward accessing the reserve fund. o Ms. Jay wonders if there is some synergy between the last two bullets: "Decrease 12 unallocated positions $945K" and "Consolidate FTE where possible in elem & middle schools $750K." Dr. Hackett responded, "Yes, there is a relationship between the decreasing of the 12 unallocated and the consolidation of the eight to nine, ten positions. My preference would be to keep the unallocated because we're in the position we're in because we had a very conservative amount. So I'm not comfortable with a budget that continues at eight FTE when we've been seeing 25 FTE." Ms. Jay also would like to look into consolidating at all levels, and in non -student -facing roles. She also asked if there's an overlap with the two bullets under the High -Risk List, 10 Placeholders—Reduce High Risk "placeholders" by amount equal to SpEd Stabilization Fund $1.2M and Names on the List—Cut "high risk" list by over a $1.8M for FY26 (30% reduction). Ms. Jay stated, "It looks like the first one is tied to a specific amount, which is the amount of the stabilization fund as being the backstop. And the second one looks like it's talking about cutting numbers in the same high risk list, but the amount there is based more on a percentage of reduction." Mr. Coelho replied "They are attached to the same basic cohort of placements. The first one is really specifically for those unallocated student placements. So there's kids that don't have names in the placement, student 1, 2, 3, so that is approximately $1.5 million so we would move 1.2 of that so eight of those students, or nine of those students would essentially be removed from the List" and "There are names on the list, and then there are placeholders on the list. Placeholders are the 1.2M and the names are part of the 1.8M." Mr. Freeman asked how students get off of the high risk list (not by age but in that we don't anticipating their need increasing and they are stable). Mr. Coelho explained that students matriculate and the list is constantly updated. Dr. Hackett added, "We have multiple safety nets for special education. One is the special ed stabilization, another special education reserve, and another is the high risk list. So if we cut the High Risk List by 1.8 million, we are taking away one of three safety nets that we have" o Ms. Lenihan asked if the high risk list is cut, does it have to be by the amount proposed. Her thought is to do "a little bit of this, a little bit of that"; Reduce supplies by 10%, do some reductions with the High Risk list and consolidation to get to the amount needed. Dr. Hackett replied by saying that yes, that's why we are calling it a "menu", it can be modified. o Ms. Sawhney asked for clarification on the "What's already been done" list. Dr. Hackett explained that 360K that is added up in the column has already been taken out, we still need to find 2-2.5 million. Ms. Sawhney asked if whatever the School Committee picks out of the "What else could be done" column will be applied before 2026, Dr. Hackett answered yes. Ms. Sawhney also asked if we are still going to keep a large bucket of supplementary positions if we decrease 12 unallocated positions. Dr. Hackett explained that the School Committee would have to change their budget guidelines to say to us that we shouldn't meet legal and contractual mandates in that case. Ms. Sawhney requested from Administration and the finance department a rank ordering of what options they like. She also announced that she wrote an email stating that she wishes there were additional options of things that could be reduced without student impact. o Dr. Hackett, "So just as a reminder to people who may be listening and to Committee members in the room, we worked really hard, and our department leaders worked really hard last year to identify in the budget narratives all of the things that have been requested and not gotten, and we certainly make a strong effort to be responsible in our budget. And that will continue." And "I would recommend doing is to reduce the High Risk List by some amount. And I do think that Ms. Lenihans point about some fraction of the amount is good. So let's say a million, and throw it out there. I think that we should for now, avoid the use of increased circuit breaker funding. Let's see whether that percentage decreases on the town side, and then we may have to go to that as another alternative. I think that we should reduce the supplies across the board by some amount. I think 10% is fine, 15% is fine. And then I think we should have some emergency funding in case there's something that is missed, that something related to curricular materials that we need. I think we should not touch the 12 unallocated positions. And I want to emphasize the point that if we have an IEP that says we have an FTE, is that it's needed. It's not a choice for us, like we can't decide to not fill that position." She also suggested making class sizes a bit larger, while still thinking of student needs. o Ms. Lenihan; "I had written down 10% reduction in supplies, consolidation of the FTEs, and some reduction of in the ... of the High Risk List" o Mr. Freeman; "Special education students deserve to get every thing, every hour, every minute that they need. I don't want to risk trying to balance a budget and a child ends up not getting a support that they need, that we can provide here in our district" and "We just need to always keep that in mind when we talk about a budget, that these are human beings that we're really talking about, and you said it in the beginning, and I just want to make sure that we still keep that in mind, that these are people. So that's all I have to say. But I sort of like Dr Hackett's recommendations, taking a little bit here and here and here here" of the FTEs, and some reduction of in the ... of the High Risk List". o Ms. Cuthbertson, "A little bit of everything, with the understanding that our everyone will continue to work just as hard as they have to minimize the impacts on students." o Ms. Sawhney would like to go back and talk to Department Heads some more about what could be changed. She also added that she sees the items on the right column (what else could be done) as one time savings only and is thinking about the future. o Ms. Jay spoke about the two funds, Special Education Stabilization Fund and the reserve fund. "When this was discussed in Summit and then brought to town meeting, I did not take it as this is for one time expenses like buying equipment or you just purchase something and you're done. I think, I think my interpretation was, people's understanding was, these were for unexpected times where suddenly there's a big unexpected expense." She is worried about the ability to replenish the funds if they are used and she would not take away the 10 placeholders. She finished up by saying, "I think my bottom line is the same three things that everybody else picked out." NEW BUSINESS Spending Freeze Memo • Dr. Hackett stated that these have been covered, "The only thing I would say about the spending freeze memo that you should know is that when it first went out from Dave, it went to budget managers, we didn't send it out to all, and we got feedback at our elementary meeting that would have been helpful to give it out to all. So we'll definitely think about that moving forward." FY 25 First Quarter Report • Mr. Coelho presented the report, the end of quarter one is September 30th. He announced that he assumes that all the expense accounts will be fully exhausted, and as of right now, we are running approximately $900,000 in deficit in salary line items. He also said that for the expense accounts, we had approximately $60,000 surplus. He pointed out that these numbers are going to change and "the second quarter will give us a better handle as to where those numbers are". • We have added approximately 25.7 supplemental positions. • Our vacancies are at about 14.5. School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Sawhney questioned the Behaviorial Subs - per diem line in Table 3 of the report, "you have as a budgeted amount, zero, but then you have an encumbrance." Mr. Coelho responded that that line item is directly related to the vacancies that we experience with the Unit C classroom aid numbers." He added that we don't have a Unit C sub line item, "This is where we've traditionally used it in that fashion ." Ms. Sawhney also brought up Table 5, High Risk, "I equate high risk as to more resources needed. So we should talk about other cohorts that have possible more resources needed." Finally Ms. Sawhney compared last year's first quarter report to this year's and she noticed that we have not increased the McKinney-Vento allocation or the special education transportation allocation." COMMUNITY SPEAK Sarah Carter - 5 Spencer St (in person): "I am speaking behind behalf of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council today. I want to echo the idea that has been mentioned in this discussion to ensure that we are allocating a budget that will provide the appropriate level of staffing for the needs of our students with disabilities. As a community, we value the education of all our students, and need to ensure that we are working to provide that. We also need to make sure that we are not being penny wise and pound foolish. Cutting services for those most in need can result in more demand and costly service as they move on through the education system. Families of students with special needs also want to highlight our concerns about moving more students into out -of -district placements. We must look at the reality of out \-of-district placements that can be challenging to find and challenging to get our students into these programs, and that can ultimately result in students not being in a classroom for weeks or even months on end, and we want to ensure that our actions reflect the values of our community. Ultimately, these numbers represent students and families, often who have the most severe disabilities. Additionally, many families move here for education, and we are continuing to see about 15% of our students receiving SPED services. And we should consider the message we are sending to our community and not imply that our SPED students are causing the budget gap." Jennipher Burgess (on Zoom): "I work at Hastings as a Unit C Specialized Instructional Assistant (SIA) in a Gen Ed inclusive setting. And I just want to make sure that we are all very aware that while I am listening to this, I'm like, wow, I'm really glad that Dr. Hackett is kind of, like, speaking up and saying, like, this is what we need, and being very practical about it. And Dave, like I appreciate all of that. I do want to make sure that we are all under understanding that when we're talking about the budget cuts and looking at 12 FTEs, that most Unit C members, we have about 246, I'm also the Unit C representative to the Lexington Education Association, we have a lot of Unit C members who work much less than a 1.0, there are only eight Unit C members, I believe that are at a 1.0 FTE. So when we're talking about FTEs, I want you to understand that work, particularly, point eight three something. So I'm not a full time member, even though I'm considered a full time worker. And I want to say also, if we were to get rid of 14 FTEs across the board, that could result in 20 to 50 Unit C members who support students in inclusion settings. I work in a program that's a little bit different from a lot. It's not sub -separate, it is full inclusion. And in our particular building, we move around a lot. I think that one of the things we need to do is look at what the journal for Applied Behavior Analysis talks about best practices when it comes to working with students. We're seeing a rise in students, it's not just unidentified students coming into our district. We have a lot of kids who have been Gen Ed who are having a difficult time. And we would like to help support them, but often we are not in the same place all the time, whereas, like other folks are and don't have the amount of attention to give them. So the last thing I want to say is it's not going away. It's already here. These kids are coming, and we need to think about our priorities. These kids maybe didn't have any issues last year, and now they have extreme issues. I want to think very clearly that, like, the support that we provide is essential, especially if classrooms are going to get bigger, we are a huge part of that. We can be part of that community. We can help with that community, and we should really think about how we choose to do that. If that makes sense, I hope that makes sense." Lana Panasyuk - 28 Saddle Club Rd (on Zoom): "So what I wanted to share with and maybe remind you guys at the School Committee of the Code of Ethics and responsibility to follow the agenda, because I understand that the subject is very important, but respect for time and personal time and the kids, like we are all about kids and families, but we can't afford to drag the meeting for more than half like it's it's supposed to end it 30 minutes ago, and we are not even through the half of the agenda. It does sound, and again, it just does sound like attrition war against the stakeholders who are the families. Very important subjects, we need to pay attention and give enough time to discuss it. The second point I wanted to make is I want to agree with Deepika who mentioned in Slide eight, and I'm not going to ask you to bring the slide eight now, but the money which come to the schools come from the citizens. And by Massachusetts law, you all know that taxes cannot be increased by more than two and a half percent, so why do School Committee plan for increase in budget for by 5%? It doesn't make sense to me. The money doesn't grow on the trees, and you know that if the people provide us with two and a half increase in the budget, then we should follow the two and a half and whatever is on top, like a new construction on whatever, it's up to the stakeholders, and it's up to the citizens to decide where to spend the money. So I think our appetite is twice as what is allowed by the by the breadwinner, you know, the citizens are bread winners for us. So we need to find on the where is the bottleneck in the budget. And let's work on that and maybe do some homework so we don't put so much work into the final hour at 10 o'clock. I thought in America, 10pm was like sleep time. And the important issues we should resolve either as a homework and just finish them earlier. That's what I want to share with you, thank you". Olga Guttag 273 Emerson Rd (on Zoom): "I would like to thank Dr. Hackett for her lightning response to my request about the org chart. Unfortunately, the org chart and the budget book that she sent me does not have all the information that I believe is necessary for people to really understand the budget. And I sent her a private email about that. But my question is the in her response, she sent me pointed to the 2025 budget book, and since you are now discussing '26 budget and in town meeting, in couple of months, we will be voting on '26 budget. And every town meeting member should be paying attention to the '26 budget. When will the '26 budget be available? It is not good enough to get these presentations. We, at least, I would like to see the full 200 plus pages that the budget book contains. Thank you." UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Policies • Third Reading and Vote on Policy EFCC - Student Meal Modification Policies and Procedures Ms. Cuthbertson moved to approve Policy EFCC - Student Meal Modification Policies and Procedures, Mr. Freeman seconded. Ms. Jay took a roll call vote, passed 5-0 (Ms. Sawhney and Ms. Lenihan are now remote). • Third Reading and Vote on Policy EFCG - Child Nutrition Program Civil Rights Polio and Procedures Ms. Cuthbertson moved to approve Policy EFCG - Child Nutrition Program Civil Rights Policy and Procedures, Mr. Freeman seconded. Ms. Jay took a roll call vote, passed 5-0. • Review of Policy BBA - School Committee Powers and Duties CBI - School Committee Evaluation of Superintendent MASC Guide: Evaluating the Superintendent Ms. Jay explained that this policy states that the Superintendent's performance will be evaluated each February by the entire School Committee. "I don't think we were aware that this was written in our policy. Probably was written quite some time ago because it does not conform to our current practice of doing superintendent evaluations at the end of the school year." If the School Committee would like to modify this policy, it should be done before February as to not violate the policy as it's written. The rest of the items left on the agenda will be put on the next meeting's agenda due to the need for discussion and the current time. POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS Items added during this meeting: • No items were added. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Cuthbertson made a motion to adjourn at 10:07 PM, Ms. Lenihan seconded. Ms. Jay took a roll call vote, passed 5-0.