Meeting transcript
Board of Finance- Regular Meeting
May 27, 2026 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Okay, folks. So, this is the regular board of finance meeting May 27th, 2026, 702. We're going to get started. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance.
Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the of the United States of America
nd to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with justice,
liberty and justice for all.
We'll just Yeah. Okay, everybody, welcome.
over we have a Yeah, right. We're gonna We have a lot on our agenda tonight, so we're gonna try to get through it.
obviously the first thing is a round of public speak.
So, I'm going to go around I'm just going to go through the list here of whoever I've got. so first up on my list is Scott Prasan.
I'm good for now, Rob. Thank you.
All right. Very good. he keeps moving on me. Alex is up next.
just here to listen.
Very good. Thank you, Linda. Derek.
Hi. Hi. I'd like to briefly present the outcome of a petition that seven of us voters worked on for the last few days. We have 86 signatures and I'll just read it very quickly. We the undersigned residents of Andover respectfully submit this petition to the board of finance for your consideration regarding the proposed budget for the Andover Elementary School. We urge the board to reconsider the current budget proposal and take the necessary steps to reduce the increase to a maximum of 3.5%. This adjustment is essential to ensure a responsible fiscal balance that reflects the needs and priorities of all of our community. A budget aligned with this percentage not only promotes financial accountability but also supports the overall well-being of all of our residents. So we had 86 good conversations about this issue and the two points that I want to make from that conver those conversations number one that we're talking about the pie the tax pie of and over the overall pie and right now with I know it's still fluxing but with RAM being 30% the school being 37% leaving 32% of all tax monies for the running of the whole rest of the town
does not seem fiscally sound.
So we ask that you consider this and
appreciate your work and hope for the best for you on all of our behalf. Thank you.
Thanks Linda. just everybody can you please make sure you're muted? because I'm hearing a little background noise. I'm not sure where that's coming from. If you're not speaking, I mean
ot speaking. Yeah.
And sorry, just for the last thing, I'm going to scan the petition pages to you all tomorrow. Kate was not in today, so I'll use her scanner tomorrow to get the actual pages to you.
Okay. Up next is Anna.
Good evening. I'm just listening in tonight. I wanted to say thank you to the board of finance before the elections for providing just the line item breakdown of the salaries for the town. I have a follow-up just regarding the maintenance salaries just in general that I'm going to follow up with. And so I'm going to renew my request again for line item breakdown of all the salaries. for the Andover Elementary School budget. and that's that's it for this evening. Thank you
I have nothing right now. Thank you.
All right. Thanks, Kaitlyn.
Hi. I I missed the beginning of the meeting. Sorry, I just got home from work, so I'm not sure exactly what I missed in public comment so far, but just wanted to say I don't envy you guys at all. I know you have a really hard job before you. I do know that whatever you end up cutting from the school budget will directly affect the kids. it will directly affect, you know, the number of classroom teachers that we have or the number of paras that we have. that's the point that we're at in the budget that we will have to make those decisions after you guys tell us what we're allowed to have or not have. and I I I'm obviously don't want to be in your shoes or in your position. it does look like the corrected number of votes, you know, in terms of too high or too low. there were 50 votes less for saying the school budget was too high than there were for the town budget being too high. I I think that's correct on the
corrected numbers. it just seems like a very we're at you guys are at a very narrow margin of stuff. So, thank you.
okay. Sorry. the next person up on the list is Carol Savage. Going once, going twice. Oh,
am I here? I think I'm here, right?
Yes.
Okay. I'm just listening in. I don't really have a lot of input. I just thank you for your work.
Thank you.
Charlie Delastro.
I'm all set. Thank you.
Thanks. Okay. Diane Grineier. I just want to thank the 33% of the voters who came out, took time from their busy day to come out and vote to yesterday. And I hope the other 67% of the voters that did not come out like how we're deciding how to spend their tax dollars. I I wish you guys all the best of luck. I know you have a hard job and thank you very much for all you do.
Thank you, Diane. the next up is listed as Dr. Patricia Kelly.
You need to unmute, Patricia.
Okay, here I am. no, I have no comment. I just want to support the petition that Linda mentioned earlier. Thank you.
Very well. next up is Elizabeth Partridge. Yeah, I just like the board of finance to consider the total cost of each area of the budget regardless of the sources because many of these sources are one-time and can and will disappear in future years. So, we have to have a clear view of what our total expenses are and then what our total sources of income are. Thank you for your work.
Thank you. All right. iPhone 2 which I think we established as Kathy.
No comment. Thank you.
Very good. Joanne,
hello everyone. just a quick comment. I mean we know that Andover is not alone in going through this kind of process. All of our surrounding towns are doing the same thing. You know, I know that it's a hard job like you said. you know and and you'll have to come to some kind of understanding. Unfortunately, I had many ideas in the past, but I know you're limited at what you could go for. So, I'm hoping since you were very kind of frugal and limited and cautious when you did put some of the fund b unallocated or I forget what we call it, the fund balance, the leftover that's already been taxed that we have quite a bit of money in there. you know, we don't have a lot of emergencies. We're going to be getting refunded from the Bunker Hill Bridge project, whether that's been done or not. So, I'd love to
see you guys, whatever you decide tonight on the education budget, and I know that decisions will be made to maybe give the taxpayers another 50 from there. I think going a total of 150 from there would help the overall picture as well, and the taxpayers deserve that, too. Thank you. Thanks Joanne for your thoughts. Julie Godette,
just listening. Thank you.
Very good. Caitlyn Dalby,
I'm all set. Thank you.
Very good. Thanks. Kathy Barrett.
Hi. thanks for the opportunity to to participate. This is my first board of finance meeting. noticing as was just said that this is not just our problem. This is echoed in towns all around including there's a big article in the Hartford Current today about exactly this. I wondered whether we might consider the possibility of doing what some towns have done, and that is to try and decrease the distrust that seems to be very much a part of our current school and town budget negotiations. by reaching out to a qualified wellcredentialed professional who might be able to for a very reasonable expenses or for a very reasonable expenditure. offer a informed
look at the ways in which the school budget in particular, but the town budget in as well could be evaluated for efficiency and recommendations made to support you on the board of finance who I agree with everyone who said you have a very hard job ahead of you. and so I'm hoping that's something that might be considered hiring a specialist to advise. Thank you.
Thank you, Kevin Reagan. Reagan, sorry.
Thank you. given the flyer that went out, it's hard to tell if the results yesterday were the result of critical thinking or the result of some people believing that each of the 15 new kids coming actually costs $80,000. I know that sounds ridiculous, but that's what some people have stated that they were under the impression of. So, I don't know what to think other than there obviously has been swed a lot of mistrust with the school board and I think it would be great if all the books were completely opened and you got to see what they spent on a bottle of Windex. but that's just where I stand. When I saw the results of the Ram election passing by quite a good margin and the Andover elementary budget pass failing by about the same margin, it made me made me realize that there's just a huge amount of distrust with what's going on.
Thank you. Linda Derek,
I just I already talked to you. Remember,
shifting on me. I apologize.
Lisa, hi. Glad you made it. our town treasurer is here. do you have anything to add to our discussion at this time? Just listening as listening as usual.
Very good. I hope you got your spreadsheets ready.
hi. I'm all set. Thank you.
Okay, good to see you. let's see. Scottyette. I'm not here tonight to relitigate the referendum. The vote happened and now this board has to decide what to do next. I'm here to ask you one thing. Please don't read Tuesday's results as a mandate to cut the Endover Elementary budget deeply. I say that because the public conversation about this budget has not matched what the data actually shows. I want to put three facts on the record sourced from state and town records, state and town documents, I guess. First, Andover spends less per pupil than any of the 44 other smalltown elementary only districts in Connecticut. Not less than most, the very least. The source is the state department of education's own edsite portal. The full report is published on my own website, andovert.info, along with other related reports. Second, the Andover preschool program is not a drain on town finances. It is funded by tuition and the state office of early childhood grants. It runs from a separate program account. This is approximately revenue neutral to the town. If we didn't have it, the town would have to cover preschool special education on its own, which cost more than the program does. The net, the preschool saves Andover about $100,000 per year. Third, the superintendent's compensation, including the contractual raise in the new agreement, is in line with and is likely well below the salaries of similar districts. A more rigorous comparison would require collecting individual contracts from peer districts. I'm working on that right now, but I haven't got it done. Those are facts. They were available before the referendum. They will still
be the facts when this board reconvenes to set a revised budget. One more thing on the record. The board of education built this budget through a monthslong public process. Meetings were public, packets were posted, and anyone who wanted to weigh in had months in which to do it. that the budget that emerged reflected real deliberation. A district that already spends less per pupil than every comparable district in the state does not have meaningful facts to cut fat to cut. Oh boy. Cuts at this point come out of the classrooms. We simply don't need classes with more than 25 students. Whatever this board decides, please decide it on the basis of what the school actually costs to operate, not on the basis of public conversation that has diverged sharply from the underlying numbers. Thank you.
Thanks, Scott. Val, would you like to make a public comment?
Sure. So, a couple of things. First of all, I I get very sad for the kids when they have to take the school bus and go by signs that say save and overvote no to AES. They shouldn't have to see the division. They shouldn't have to feel like their school doesn't matter and that they don't matter. And a lot of people who are new to town may think that this is brand new. I arrived in 2020. I can tell you that from 2015 to 2020, the school budget was decreased every single year to the tune of $418,000. And when I got here in 2020, they they told me that I was lucky that year that I got a 0% increase. And the conversation at many board of selectman meetings was not about preschool. It was about how do we close AES and send our kids to Bolton. So the idea of the importance of AES I it's been long-standing that people in the town and I respect that 87 people signed a petition but 343 people voted yes yesterday despite the fact that they knew that it was an increase. so I would request that the board look at history, look at the fact that the taxpayers, all of the taxpayers pay into those fund balances that this is not new. This is a longstanding battle to just show the respect to the elementary school and the fact that the town itself absolutely loves all of the families in town and respects the budgets. And lastly, last year we were cut 160,000 of the ask
and we were very open and honest last year about saying that that would affect this year because they were necessities. And so that is why this year came in higher than we had also hoped. So I would just implore the whole board to keep all of these factors in mind when making a decision. Thank you. smile. Wally, you want to make a public comment on the budget? We'll get to your fire department request in a bit.
No, I'll just wait for that. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, sir. I think you're there twice. So, I think that's everyone. Now, if I missed anyone, please do speak up. As I said, my screen the list kept moving on me. And if I missed someone, I do apologize. Speak now. Okay, given that, the next thing on the agenda is changes, additions. What I'd like to do, folks on the board, is move Wall-E up. He's right now, the fire department request is at 6A. I'd like to move that up and make it 4A and make the, town administrators report. I don't even know, is Matt here tonight? but we can make that 4B if that's okay with everybody on the board. So we can if Wally he wants to take off after that he can. Anybody have an objection to that?
No, I think that's a great idea.
All right. Well, I'll I'll just formally move that we do that. Do I have a second?
I'll second it.
Okay. let's take a quick vote. Bill,
yes.
Okay. Nick,
yes.
Kim,
yes.
Liz,
yes. Louise,
yes.
Heather,
And I'm a yes. Okay. Motion passes 70 to move 6A to 4A. which we will then move to immediately. I'll just open by saying that this proposal came through CIP. We've looked at it. the fire department has a compressor that fills their air tanks. It's getting very long in the tooth and they're having more maintenance problems with it. and Wally went out, the fire department went out and got three quotes. I believe the first two quotes were about 100,000 each in that general vicinity, but the third one came in at 65 and that is the one that is in our packet. C can somebody mute whatever
that is?
Got it. Sorry.
No problem. so I I will turn it over to Wally for a quick explainer. but the request is to authorize the fire department's request to utilize the fire equipment fund to purchase that
piece of equipment. while you want to add anything for us talking about
No, it's again it was purchased in 92. It's again showing its age. Things are starting to fail. We're having trouble getting a mechanic that can work on it because the technology has changed so much in 34 years. And again, it's a high pressure air compressor that purifies breathing air for our self-contained breathing apparatus. The the bid of 6528993 was the lowest of the three. We received one from MEES out of Waterford for 110. Another one from a company in New Jersey that manufactures compressors and that was at 109. And when this came in at 65, it was kind of like there's no real question. And we've spoken to a couple of places that have this type of compressor and they're happy with it. So, we think this is a good move for the town.
Thanks, W. And just a follow-up question on that is that price is still good, right? We haven't
as of right now. Yes.
Okay. So, if we authorize that exact amount, you're good to go.
I would suggest the 66 just to be on the safe side.
Fair enough. I mean, that that's my take. Anybody on the board have questions for Wall-E or or me about this one?
Wally, can you send us the other two estimates just so that we have them for our
Okay. I'll I'll have to dig them up because
I haven't been using them since I went to CIP and they accepted this one. This is really the only one that I've been dealing with. I will dig them up and I will get them in the system for you.
Okay. Thank you.
Anyone else the board have any questions regarding this request? No, I was going to say the same thing as Liz did that we probably should have the three of them.
Sure. We could just we for for the record basically. Yeah,
sure.
But I as Wally said, you know, when we were at CIP when we when we originally discussed it, I think we only had one of the original quotes, you know, was about that 110 figure and that's what we were looking at and then this third one came in and it was kind of huzzah. so what I would say is if do we want to go ahead and anybody want to make a motion to approve the fire department request to take up to $66,000 from the fire equipment fund for this purpose?
How much is in the fire equipment fund?
Fair question. my recollection and I don't have it in front of me because I'd have to dig it up again. Lisa had given us a spreadsheet a while back in PDF form. but there's a there's I think a few hundred thousand in there. And then we load money in there every year to make sure that we're paying for the lease on the firetruck. there should be more than enough in there to cover this. But, one of the things that after we get through this budget cycle, one of the things I really want to tighten up on is having a, some sort of document or some sort of spreadsheet or some sort of rolling formational document that tells us maybe quarterly at least what all our fund balances are. But right now, off the top of my head, I don't have the exact figure.
Lisa, if you do, let me know. Yeah, I do believe I do believe I brought it home.
I didn't find it. Oh, Liz, you have it.
Yeah, so I have that in front of me.
Yeah, that's the one. and it's showing that in QuickBooks, the QuickBooks right now is 200. No, I'm lying. It's $348,54 in that fund.
That sounds correct. Yeah.
and then it says reserve bank balance for $54,786. how that tallies. I'm not really sure. Lisa is the professional on that.
Well, she isn't. She's still working on it.
She's working on it. But
hat's the right order of magnitude though. that that's about right. And I want to tighten this up for sure, but there's enough money in there to cover,
especially with the money we're loading in because the town budget passed, so that goes in to cover both the lease payment on the firetruck and this expenditure.
Thank you.
Yeah, sorry, Heather. I couldn't give you I I would love to have been able to just snap off the the number and going forward, we really need to work on that.
Yep. It's been a
challenging year
time of turn turnover and we're just trying to be patient with the the changes that's all.
Reconciling all this has been a lot
just happened at a bad time. That's all
for sure. And it was certainly a cascade effect. Y
so anyway any further discussion or questions on this one? I would make the motion that we approve the $66,000 to purchase the new air compressor for the fire department backpacks.
Right. And that'll be coming out of the fire equipment fund. Do we have a second?
I'll second that.
Kim got it. Johnny on the spot. All right. We'll go ahead and take a vote. I think we've talked this one through. Excuse me. Heather,
yes.
Nick,
yes.
Louise,
yes.
Liz,
yes.
Kim,
yes.
Bill,
Me, yes. That's 70. Wally, you got your compressor authorization via Dios. If you want to take off, by all means. Otherwise, stick around for the discussion.
I appreciate you moving me up. Yesterday was a very long day for me, so it's nice to get a little sleep. Thank you very much.
Good night, sir.
Thank you,
take care.
Okay, so having made that change to the agenda, 4B was administrator report. I don't know if we have our administrator though, so we might just be moving past that.
I don't see him there. So, I'll have to get in touch with Matt on that. all right. Old business, the main event. so we have the budget referendum discussion. We know the results if memory serves from doing math last night. The AAS budget failed about 50 5644 something along those lines. The my understanding is that the RAM operational budget failed overall. We and over voted in favor, but I believe it failed enough in Hebrin that it knocked it into they'll have to go back and revise yet again. The Ram capital budget passed, the Andover town budget passed. So what we are left with is AAS and whatever the RAM board of ed ultimately does with their ops budget. so let's see the next thing about that. Let me just take a quick look at one more thing. Okay. So, as you guys remember, last time we took a whack at this, we made a
$50,000 cut. That was my idea. It did not suffice. The electorate has spoken. So, what I'd like to do is open up discussion for what do we think will get this done? I certainly don't want to drag this out anymore. I'd want to get this thing through. I want to get it passed. So, thoughts.
I'd like to speak.
Go ahead, Louise.
Okay. I 100% support Linda's effort for that petition at the 3 and 12% increase. we work for the town. Well, we're volunteers for the town and we work for the people in the town. And the people have spoken twice to us stating that the AES budget is too high regardless of the the counts. It's too high. So, we need to do our civic duty and appease our fellow people in our town because they came out to vote and we have a duty to upstand what they they expect from us.
So, I I really like that. three and a half%. I don't know how everyone else feels about it, but the 87 people also decided that that was a very good amount. And again, I thank Linda for all her effort in doing that because that was a lot of work, I'm sure. Thank you, Linda.
So, I have a comment, too. I mean, I'll just I appreciate all the work that she must have gone through. but my concern is more how did we how did we get here? And so I just wanted to talk about how we got here, where we are this year with, you know, the need, the 11% ask that was asked for. And last year the ask was 8.9% and they were hoping to hire 3.1 new FTE. Two were fifth and fourth and fifth grade teachers and one was a math interventionalist, I believe. And after the the budget failed, the board of finance went back and gave them a 5% increase. I rewatched their their the board of eds meeting after that to figure out how they were going to get to that $160 some odd dollar cut and kind of thought there would be discussion about what do we do? We're, you know, we're wanting to hire three new people. How do we make this happen? Is it prudent to hire three new people? But that discussion didn't happen. The discussion that happened was what areas can we basically subtract money for from and knowing that we'll probably be in a deficit, we can fall back on the 2% non-lapsing rainy day fund. And I I personally have a problem with that that take on it. I I think the fact that they did not discuss maybe maybe we can't afford to hire three new teachers this year. Maybe we only hire two. and I understand, you know, class sizes
and whatnot. I know the the fourth grade class is a much larger group. I totally get that.
and then the current fifth grade class is 25, I think. the class moving on to sixth grade is going to be 25 anyway. I don't know how they they manage their classes during during the day. but I would imagine that fourth and or fifth and sixth grade classes don't sit in the same room all day. I'm sure that they're preparing with trading classes and whatnot. But anyway, my point is they totally ignored that and now we're in a position where we need to feel bad if we cut their budget. I just I don't know. I question the prudence of it and I question the legality of passing a going forth with a budget knowing that you're going to be in a deficit. I know there's other options. before I get to that, the other thing that I want to point out is, I sent you all the the board of ed's latest May financial report because we usually get it in our packet and we didn't get it. I tried to get it to Kate so she could upload it, but she's out. She's out today anyway. And as it stands right now, with their current expenditures and incumbrances, as of right now, they have a balance. They would have a balance of about $56,000, which I was kind of surprised. I know they're going to be asking for the
975 from the 2% non-lapsing. but regardless, separate from that, it appears at this point that there's a $56,000 balance. So that combined with the difficulty in response in in getting the data and the information we've asked for, I don't feel like we have a full accounting of really what they have or what they need. And I would support the three and a half percent. that's that's where that's where I'm coming from. And I'll let somebody else chime in.
I'd like to hear how other people feel.
I'll I'll chime in. I agree with a lot of what Liz is saying, like with if the school didn't do anything last year and hired the teachers anyway. and I see that they have a $50,000 balance. That's really good. but I don't I don't think I really agree with the 3.5 because a lot of their increases due to benefits and the 3.5 wouldn't even really cover the increase in benefits and that's not just the school trying that they have to take those that benefit increase. So, I think we need to at least cover that and I don't think we need to appease the town people. We need to work and figure out what we want to do. And I think for going forward the school and the finance like everybody needs to work together
better. Like this was horrible. So
yeah,
you know, it need we need to we need to find a way forward better. We need to have a good school. We need to have transparency. so it's been really hard for the new of us new people on here to figure out what is really needed. I know we're going to need to cut, but I don't support the three and a half because I don't think that even covers their benefit increase this year. And so I think they're going to need more than that, but that's it. C,
can I weigh in a little bit here?
Hi. Hi.
Well, it's it's not public speak.
Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I won't
I ask a clarifying question on the report you sent, Liz. I don't know who the right person to answer this is but we have expended year-to- date this is an account activity as of 6:30 calendar date right until for fiscal year end seven end of June or July
June 30th. the end of the fiscal year, right?
June 30th. Yep.
So, Nick, what are your what are your thoughts on this?
I I I think we're in a hard spot as well. I do know I kind of did some math similar to Heather's. We got a salary increase for all staff. If you take the 5% there, you take the benefits, I mean
3%.
And you take the psychologist, I I'm seeing an increase for the school side with all that of at least I would say 400,000. So, and I'm looking at that's why I asked the clarifying question. I wanted to make sure I had the actual data. I did it from actual I did it from actuals to date and I kind of just did quick math right now on projected and actuals and what the total expense would be. So I I could see how that would be I could see how we would have to go up on a lot of those accounts just from a standpoint of we have actuals in front of us and we have the salaries in front of us and we know what we do about the benefit package and we know what we do about the salaries currently. So, we have to come up with we have to come up with a a number that the taxpayers will accept. And I think this board obviously is not going to accept 3.5. but we certainly we certainly don't want to start from a high point and end up having to come back here because it costs $3,000 every time we do
a
I agree with you.
Absolutely.
Can I Can I
Liz, were you done? Because then by all means Yeah. Go ahead.
Heather, I agree with you. It's been a tough budget season. I'm going to go back to where we started where I said that a lot of taxpayers had contacted me over the course of the last season and said 2 to 4% 2 to 4%. And you guys said let's let the voters decide.
So they did.
And then they did again.
So, as tough as it is, I am more comfortable with the 3.5% to be fair to everyone. And I I know this is tough. It's been very very tough. But I think we need to listen. And I and this is information that I had from a lot of people before I even heard about this petition that our community people did, which thank you for all of you that did that. And I I think for now I'll just end it with that.
So, do we want to make a motion for the 3.5 and see where it goes? Oh, go ahead, Bill. Go ahead, Bill.
So, I think everybody knows, as Heather and Nick just said, the increase in the cost of insurance alone wouldn't be covered by 3.5%. The increase in the teacher salary, mandatory contractoral salary by 3%. the $45,000 for the loss grant for the psychiatrist. These are not fluff icing on the cake madeup things. Okay? So, if you don't cover those increases, you're going to take more away from what they had last year. Whatever they had last year, something has to go away. Not adding new things this year. Things have to go away. So, we offer less of ed education next year than we did this year. Is what you're saying. We're not even going to cover their costs is what Listen, I don't like paying taxes more than anybody else.
But you're talking about slashing our kids' education. And I've heard everybody on this call, everybody on the board of ed, everybody on the board of select men, all we love our kids. We support education. But three and a half% you know that doesn't even come close to covering the cost increases contractual increases. So you're being irresponsible to say three and a half% because you know you're going to slash into the school's ability to function. I mean it's just ridiculous how you can have with a conscious actually I'm still speaking. I don't know how you can have a conscience and say three and a half percent. When you know, I mean, there's people out there in the community, they don't know all the facts. There's all kinds of talk going on this way and that way, but everybody in this board knows that those are real increases that have to be covered. You know that. So, three and a half%. What are you going to tell Val and the board of ed that she has to throw out the window that's there this year?
I'd like to make a comment.
Yeah, go ahead.
Sorry. Go ahead. we don't really know that, Bill, because we don't have all the information. So,
well, come on.
How do you know? Well, how do you know that it's not going to cover? Do you have the the dollar amounts in front of you saying, "Okay, it's this amount and this amount and this amount, and what about all those other things that we requested, and we don't know? We don't know. The transparency isn't there." So, we're guessing.
That's my That's my point on it.
Can I chime into this point? I mean, obviously, I wanted to let everybody have their say. I didn't want to dominate this discussion.
My hope tonight was that we could arrive at a figure as a board. I I I hoped we could find a consensus where maybe we could even all agree on and and take that to the town and and get a budget passed. And I was not hoping that the the start would be at 3.5. I'll admit that. I also recognize, however, that the cut we made last time was insufficient, that it wouldn't, you know, and making another small cut like that won't get it done. I am perfectly willing to be reasonable about that and try to find a way as the last thing I want is to fail at referendum again. So, you know, I have some numbers in my head, but at the end of the day, what it really boils down to is what is the overall number that this town can stomach? Right now, we're just a touch over 5 million for that budget. The ask the increase at this point after we made our last cut, right, is 448 and change. Just about $450,000. If you did 3.5, right, that's an increase of about 160 over last year. If you did 7.5, which at one point this board
recommended, that's an increase of 342 409. So just shy of 350. They're at 450 now. So my thinking going into tonight was that we could make a cut somewhere in the range of 100,000 to 150 off of where they are now. the cut that you're talking about is so drastic that I can't honestly I can't support that even though I really want to get a budget passed and I really want to be responsive to the vote to the referendum results. I I'd like to find a place between where they're at now, plus 450 and what what you're talking about. As I said, the 3.5 is a plus about 160. Somewhere between those two, I'd love to find common ground if we could. And you know, as much as we can get into the weeds about this or that or the other specifics, at the end of the day, what it matters, the topline number is what we're here to talk about. and and try to find a way
that we can compromise on this and then hopefully pass it through. So, and the other thing I'd just like to throw out there and I know this is not the specifically the topic of AES, but as you all know, you know, RAM will have to come back and revise their budget again. So, that's out there. I don't know what they're going to do, but that's a factor as well. and that you know any any decision they make there would change our levy. So so that was sort of my thinking. I absolutely agree that the referendum results barely budged. I think the first time it was 5842 and this time it was 5644. They're basically
you know in line with make another cut. So I'm with you Liz. Go right ahead. I just wanted to touch on something Bill had said that they have contractual contractual increases that it's not even going to cover. Well, that's the school's responsibility. That's the board board of ed's responsibility. Like I said, last year their budget was cut and they completely disregarded that cut and hired those people anyway. So, they locked in those new contracts for three new hires. And now we're having to now we're having to deal with it. And they want to hire a new teacher for sixth grade in this new budget for a class that's going to have 25 kids. A a class of 25 sixth graders that probably don't even all sit in the same class at the same time. I'm sure they move around. so there's got to be some give and take. and for them to just disregard the budget that we gave them and say, "Well, we'll hire these people. We'll figure it out next year." And that's what happened. So, don't get angry when we try to make, you know, have a conversation about maybe a three and a half. And I'm not saying three and a half is going to pass with us. I don't think it will. But you got to think
about these things. They are the ones that are in control. And when I say they, I don't mean that in a derogatory term. I mean the board of ed, they're they're in control of the written contracts as they are and they're in in control of how many people they hire. And if they're sitting there in a board of ed meeting figuring out how they're gonna how they're going to manage their new cut budget and not even have a discussion about how can we manage the human resources that we have here right now to maybe hold off on hiring one or two of these people. That discussion did not happen. And I'm sorry. I think that's irresponsible. So, we have a responsibility to be neutral and try to come up with something that the town will accept and something that they can figure out how they're going to how they're going to manage their budget.
Can I say something? So I agree with Liz like also their first budget came out we proposed seven and a half and it didn't seem like there was any discussion on their end. They just said no keeping
said no.
So
and can I yeah can I can I make one comment?
Yeah I think we do need to be neutral and figure it out but we everyone I don't know I keep coming back to we need to work together better because it just seems all just
I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you too. And and I'd also like to point out the fact that that rejection that we got didn't even go to a full board of ed meeting to discuss and vote on. And I think that's wrong, too.
Can I I'm going to add to your discussion one one thing. No one has discussed tuition for the prek and if that number is appropriate. And I like Rob talking. They are providing a phenomenal service. They have four certified teachers, four paras for for those kids. And there's no discussion that I've heard that how much additional revenue could be raised by charging the parents a better closer to fair market value. I'm not even saying get to fair market value, but if you want to sit there and be able to afford everything that the the board of education wants to do, then you have to look at every lever. And if you're not, then you're going to keep coming back.
I mean, they can't use prek money for K through six.
That was going to be my question. Well, you know, I sit there and I go through the the handbook that I was given this week and I have an early childhood specialist. I would ask you, Rob, how much of the services for the psychologist and the occupational therapist and all of those people are being used for prek? So, all of the things that supposedly Scott Soyette has, all of this data and all this information are all questions I would like to ask. I would like that information provided to the board of finance so that we can sit there and make a reasonable decision. So, you can't tell me that we can't increase our tuition because I'll guarantee you there are ways that you could sit there and offset those expenditures on things that they're already being paid for. So, listen, you guys got hard. This is not easy, but it is going to get harder every year because you guys are going to end up looking at these contracts that have been signed and you have a real problem coming down the road. And it and I said this last year, you know, everybody gets all mad, thinks I've been anti school, this and that. I only got involved last year and I got involved really late and I wasn't loud enough. And what I said to you guys before you passed your budget last year, I said you give it to the board of education, it is never coming back. So when you sit there and say, "Okay, I'm going to give them 7 and a half%." And that's the number that
you allow them to sit there and utilize to sit there and and set their baseline. You're not getting it back. You're not going to be able to claw it back the next year. And so so what I sit there and you have to make the board of education work. So pull every lever that they can for the benefit of the community. Raise tuition, right? You could raise a lot of additional dollars to sit there and offset costs that are happening in that school. And then yeah, they might the board of education might have to make a very difficult decision that nobody here really wants to do, but
they might have to do it. You have you have set up for next year two teachers in every grade. So two preK, two first grade, two second grade, two third grade, two fourth grade, two fifth grade, two sixth grade. They might have to make a hard decision. Never easy. This is not easy. It's not fun. No one likes to do it. But I'm I am telling you, I'm sitting here telling you guys, it's unsustainable moving forward. You have to make them make some some cuts or you'll you're you're you're in a lot of we're in a lot of trouble the town. And listen, I'd like to save the school. I just might be too late. I'm just telling you, you guys might not think about it that way, but that's how I think about it because I I recommend highly that you guys go look at the teachers contract that just went into place this year. Go look. go look and see where you guys are at and see what's going to happen in 10 years when all these young people are all at the top step. How is this town going to afford it? And then take that contract and go look at Hebrin and go look at Marbor and go see all those other contracts and see how it works because we've had a very very poor set of decisions made on behalf of the financial status of this town. So, I'm just telling you there's other levers. You have to ask them to pull them. You cannot just give them everything that they want because it's just not going to work long term for the
top. So, I'm done. Thanks, Jeff. I I actually was going to mention that, too. It's on my It's on my checklist. about increasing tuition. It has It's been $6,000 since going back at least as far as 2019, which I mean,
yeah. everything else has gone up. Why hasn't tuition? But the other thing is we know we we don't know exactly how much it's costing the general fund, but we do know that the salaries and the taxes, etc. are being covered under the general fund. And we're told that it's covered under the general fund because of because we have to cover special ed needs. But we don't know how much that dollar number is. I asked for it and it wasn't given to us. We asked for it. We asked for an aggregate number and it wasn't given to us. We don't know how much that number is. And if they raised tuition, say even $2,000, I mean, if that would help offset the teachers compensation, the teachers benefits, etc. That would be a help as well. anyway,
and just one thing, does anybody on the board of finance before asking the anyone from the board of education, do you guys know how many new children are going to be in between preK and sixth grade next year? Do you know the number? Anybody on this board? How many children are going to be added to the roster next year? The anticipated estimated number? Anybody?
No.
My recollection, you mean K what the K36 number will be next year?
Yeah. Go ahead.
My recollection is we're we were at 192 the beginning of this year.
We got a big class graduating. The the sixth grade class going to RAM is 29 I believe.
so they're off. I think the incoming to kindergarten is is in the mid 20s like 25 26 somewhere like that. The the the question is who moves into town with kids or whatever. I would expect personally and it's a guesstimate that we'd be roughly similar to last year. Maybe even down a kid or twoish.
Okay.
So, you're going to go down children.
I don't know if we're going to go down children. I'm saying
Okay. Let's just say let's just say we're at we're at the same number. So, we're at the same number and our costs are escalating somewhere between four and $500,000. be
I know we're I know we're adding an extra teacher.
It would be about 26,000 a kid. Well, I mean, not if we make this cut. Not going to get added.
Well, that but that's the that's basically the the the that's the ask is I'm going to 5 million 13,000 and I'm adding a sixth grade or a fifth grade teacher. One of those two.
Six. It's six.
Okay. But no increases in children.
Correct.
Right. the the issue was was that the 24 25 26 whatever it is kids in that class they felt educationally they needed two classes instead of one and if we cut them I expect that's going to be on the chopping block.
but you know at a $5 million budget about 190 kids and you're at about 26,000 a kid. That's that's the that's the price.
Well, you know you guys have a very unenviable task. You have to get a budget that will get through the voters of this town. And with
where you're at, you need to sit there and and make it reasonable for the voters because you have you have a group of voters that are there's there's a group of of younger voters that sit there and I I I know what they're doing. I did it when I was in there. I just wanted a budget passed. So, you're going to sit there and you got to make a cut that's that's sizable enough that the voters, the 80 voters that signed that position petition will sit there and come and and vote yes because they're your swing vote. So,
I don't look I know we have to make a cut that's going to get through regardless of actually which group of people is the the swing vote. We need to flip those referendum results. We're at 5644 against. We need to get we need to turn that around. And I for one I I keep saying it. I I am willing to entertain a cut. I think the 3.5% proposal is too drastic. But I am absolutely willing to try and find a way to meet in the middle to try to find a compromised solution so that we can get this passed one last time, one last referendum and then we're done. and then we can move on to a lot of other things that I'd really like to accomplish this year. So, you know, financial
I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion if we want to try to move on. I don't I didn't mean to interrupt you if you were done.
No, no. I You know what? That's fine. I I do want to just stay focused on tasks. So, go right ahead.
Okay. So, I know the three and a half is not going to go anywhere. So, I'm going to make a motion for this might not go anywhere either, but starting point. I'm going to make a motion that we accept an increase for of 4% from the current current year's budget.
I'm just going to do
instead of a 3% instead of three and a half it's four. I got to find my
I'm doing the math on it Liz right now just so we have the number
like 180,000 I think increase. so it would be equals this. God, there we go. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be in that in that range because it was 160 at three and a half. So, I'm just having my spreadsheets fighting me. Sorry.
You said you said how much was it? Heather,
this
I show it at 189.
I show
Yeah. 182
61848 is what I'm getting.
I have 182 627. So close enough.
Wow. Why?
Close enough. Close enough for discussion purposes
for government work, I guess you could say.
Yeah.
I will second that motion.
Did you hear me, Rob?
Yeah, I heard you. That's second by Luis.
Yeah. All right. So, Liz motions 4% Louise seconds discussion on this motion. I'll just say for my part, I don't know that I could to support that number, but I also understand where we're at. I have thoughts, too. I haven't put forward a proposal yet. I wanted to let you guys make one and see how it played out. So, I'll step back. Any other members of the board want to have their say on this one before we take a vote? All right, hearing none.
I think it's a fair I think it's fair. I was just waiting to see if anybody else had anything to say. I think it's a fair compromise. I really do.
I think I think so, too. And again, we have to listen to the public and we are part of the public as well. So, I think it's very fair.
I do. Otherwise, we're back here again.
Well, I certainly agree that we have to make a cut that's sufficient to make sure that we're not back here again.
Right.
We will be back.
It's a question of it's a judgment call as to where exactly that number exists.
Exactly.
What the numbers? Yep.
We have to listen to what people have spoken.
Sure. I agree with that. And I mean, you could interpret the results and the comments.
We're all interpreting that.
Right.
To me, it doesn't say 4%, but it also doesn't say,
you know, make another minor cut and and then get rejected again. You know, I'm I'm I'm listening. I just don't necessarily go in the same place you're going with it.
Does anybody
Bill has a question?
Yep.
Was not a question. It's just a comment that I I'm kind of repeating myself. I still think 4% doesn't even come close to covering the cost increases they had this year. So, I know that we have to cut. I'm not blind to that. I'm just saying, can we be reasonable and at least try and come close to covering some of the cost increases they have. I mean, obviously, they're not going to get a teacher, not going to get a lot of other things that they would like, but I think we have to be responsible as far as covering increases that they have no control of.
Bill,
I think you all know that 4% doesn't do that. I'm not Bill I like to say I'm not quite sure if it does or it doesn't but we don't know.
We don't know.
We know.
So we're going with what we where you have to go with
e motion.
Nick had raised his hand. So I just want to make sure
I'm just curious. I want to make sure I'm tracking my numbers right. We got federal funding for a certain amount. We got our budget increased.
State what? And
you mean the state funding?
Yeah. State.
Sorry. I just wanted to be clarified. I don't mean to interrupt. I apologize. But the 80,000
Yeah, I appreciate that. I just want to see where we stand at a total impact to taxpayers and how much total impact to taxpayers each hypothetical number would be. And I just want to make sure I'm tracking the math correctly. So, I want to make sure we're kind of assessing like hypothetically speaking, what's our current mill rate? What would each of these number impacts be to the mill rate for the town?
So, if my math's right, this is about a two $265,000 cut o the ask, right, to get down from 450 to the 182. If you plug that number into the Miller rate chart and you take off that amount, I suspect we're going to be we're not going to be quite flat, but it's going to be a very small increase. Hang on one moment. All right. So if we plug that in, the mill rate would actually drop. That's not the total amount to be raised by taxation number because that and the mill rate aren't the same because the grand list changes. Just so everybody understands, by my math on my spreadsheet, the total to be raised by taxation, if we went with a 4% increase to AES, the total to be raised by taxation number for the town of Andover this year would be plus.37%.
And that's before RAM that's before RAM does what they do. That's before RAM, which is another $100,000 easily.
Now, and to be to be fully fair and transparent, others have brought this up, so I'll hit the point, too, that there are numbers in this budget for on the revenue side that almost assuredly go away next year. You know, the state aid, the ext the supplemental state aid figure, for instance, you don't expect them to necessarily do that again. and the RAM offset is a one shot. So that's to that's should be we have to consider that holistically,
right? It's really a kind of a separate in in my opinion it's a separate discussion. How we pay for it, how we pay for it, how the taxpayers pay for it is separate from how how much money they're going to get to spend. But I can appreciate you wanting to know.
Focus focus on the expenses.
Okay.
Because the expenses the expenses stay there year after year,
right? They're not going away,
right?
It just helps kind of get me a full picture though because we're going to put this information in front of the community. So I I like to get the full picture. I just got notification too. People are in the waiting room.
Oh, apologies. I keep admitting people and then I don't always see Yep. Hopefully that I just admitted everyone. yeah, I understand focusing on expenditures. I mean to me I look at both sides. you you got to look at that as to budgets don't come down. They are sticky for sure. we have seen them come down but that was in the context of the enrollment decline we had. So yeah, I understand if you have the 258 RAM offset disappear and the 80,000, you know, it was 98, but 80,000 of it was earmarked for education disappear starting out next year. That's an issue. So again, this is a little steep for me, but I understand where you're at. I just wanted to give everybody what the number was. So, you know, especially since Nick asked. So, that's that's the math as I see it. At 4%, you'd be at an AES budget of about 4.75 million. 4,748,000 and change. That's the number that 4% would produce. That produces a mill rate, if my calculations are correct, of 31.4 four and an increase to taxation of, you know, and again including those oneshot revenue items of less than half a percent. So that's what we're talking about. Do we have further comments or should we take a vote on this motion?
Let's take a vote.
I'm good with taking a vote. Should we take a vote on taking a vote?
No,
I don't want to be here until 11:00. Thanks. All in favor of taking a vote.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, let's, you know, let's go ahead. I'll start with Kim.
Yes.
Kim is a yes. Louise,
Is a yes. Liz, it's your motion. I assume you're a yes, but
I'm a yes.
You're a yes. All right.
I'm a yes.
Bill,
Bill is a no. Nick,
no.
No. Heather,
no.
No. And I too am an O. But I do want to keep this discussion going because I think there's a place we could meet in the middle and find a way.
I think I just I think it's really we need to find a number that's going to pass
for some people. No matter what that number is, they're going to vote no.
I think
that's always the case,
right? So we have to come up with a some reasonable number that will we want it to pass. So okay we've talked about 3.5 we've talked about four. I mentioned you know we talked about in the past we've talked about 7.5.
that is what we sent to the board then the is 7.5 was this board's recommendation
that that was the original recommendation obviously a lot of water's gone under the bridge since then I would say just for the edification did I did I tell you guys because I did the math on the 7.5 what that would be did I did I share that
no
I think that's an increase of 342 409 that's what I'm getting
instead of the 448 that they're ate.
So that would be about a, you know, that's that's a little over $100,000 cut from the current ask, which would be a a little over $150,000 cut from the original ask. If that's deemed insufficient, then the question becomes, is there something that we can find between the motion that just failed, you know, and and again, I would just urge everybody to look at referential results as I if it's a true if it's a complete landslide like you have in Hebrin, you know, that was 7525 when they voted Ram down the first time. When we're at 5644, it's a clear no. And we have to do we have to make cuts for sure, but it's it also isn't something that where I want to go all Defcon one on the budget. So in between there somewhere, what can we find? What can we do? And can we maybe get to more than four votes? That would be even better. I'd love it if we could. None of us will be thrilled, right? Because we some of us are starting at 3.5. Some of us are starting with, you know, seven and a half, eight in our heads. Well, Rob, I think I think it's fair to say though that we're not starting there because of what we feel. We're starting there because we work for the taxpayers and that's that's been their general consensus to us. So,
well, I mean, I
you know, it it sounds kind of personal sometimes when those words are thrown out at me. I'm here representing everyone in the town of Andover.
As am I. There's a lot of people that support the education.
I'm not personally attacking
and Bill I support it as well.
I'm not I am not personally attacking you, Kim. And I and I really genuinely don't know where my words went wrong there and I but I'll try and tighten that up. I am not attacking anybody and I'm not saying that anybody here is you know off on their own personal thing that you're we're all trying to respond
so
to the town. So, can I can I ask So, we we sent to the board of ed seven and a half and we just said no to the four. So, are you saying the seven and a half will probably be a no for a lot of people? So, we're trying to get somewhere between seven and a half and four.
I don't know. I mean, I personally would would be okay. I mean, seven and a half represents another $100,000 cut. Like I said, a little bit more. So the question becomes, what is that? We made a $50,000 cut. That wasn't enough. If we add tack another $100,000 cut on top of that, we're at 150 from the original ask. If that if if we don't think that's enough, okay, what is the number? And and this is a judgment call. This is a we don't want everyone to go with 5%. Does that work for us? I'll do the math.
before we do the math, I mean,
Heather, Nick,
well, no, I need to do the math. So,
yeah. I mean, 400 people have voted yes in this budget. Almost 400 people. So, it's not like it's a townwide referendum against the school. I mean, you guys ask the town spoken. Everybody said no. There's 400 people that said yes. There's
I have I have for 105 I have like that's a $4.79 budget.
So, it's 200 269,000 cut from the original.
sorry, I was doing it the other way. I was looking at what the increase would be from last year. I got
228. Yeah. $228,000 increase. Yeah. So that would be a little less than that would be yeah close to half of where we are now because I mean we were at 9.8 right that that the referendum that just failed as was at a 9.8% increase so a 5% increase is roughly speaking cutting down in half. yikes. okay. Let me ask this. Yeah. I mean, gosh, I admit my thoughts on this are unsettled and I'm I'm trying to work my way through it. I'm just doing the math on on what to see what that does. I mean, yeah. Equals 1.06 times that. And then we have equals that minus.
So, yeah, that that'd be an increase of just shy of 274, which yeah, that that would get them to 4.8ish. 4.8 8 4,839,389 is what I get. I don't know why our numbers don't exactly match up.
Are you you referring to the 5%.
No, Bill asked about six. So, I was running the numbers on six.
So,
5%. Sorry. 5% was the number we were talking about earlier, the 228 increase.
228 273.
Yep. So the original ask the original ask was 499. Okay. So 59 $500,000 basically.
Yeah. Basically 500. Yep.
250,000 would be half of that. So that's
and that should be about 5.5, right?
Because it was originally 11%.
Yep.
Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. I was
Oh, no. That's fine. I I would be I would feel successful at five and a half. I would feel successful at six.
Not I wouldn't feel successful at six. I feel that
we could cut
but it's
I got to go to sleep at night and and know that I didn't
otally, you know, just
screw our kids over here. So I I would feel I mean I don't feel good at six, but I know we got to pass something. So that would be my number.
I'm still not gonna sleep tonight. I'm not going to sleep tonight no matter what happens. And again, we have to remember how we got here. We got here
because they didn't listen to the voters last year. And so now the hard discussion has to happen.
That's not our fault. It's not our fault.
No, it's not. But it's not a it's not a we can punish the board and Ed and Val for not doing what you think is the right thing. But the bottom line, the only people that lose are the kids. We have to do what is right for the kids. That's what we have to do. What is the thing for our children?
Y
not I don't think a 5 and a half% I don't think a 5 and a half% increase is going to hurt any children. I really
I agree with that. I agree.
It doesn't cover the
Can I Can I Can I
We don't know that.
I want I want to pull this together here and and because I don't guys we're relitigating stuff like we know where we everybody stands, right? The question is can we can we compromise at six or 5.5 and send this thing to referendum? And I think at at those numbers at that level it's a passable budget. I really do. That's a significant cut from where we are. It's a much more significant cut than we made last time. And again, we're looking at, you know, we need to we need to move some votes for sure. But that is a that is a significant move. Either either one. All
right. I would throw my weight behind the six. you know, I'd love to see if we get to to four, five, six, seven votes to for that. If we can't, we can talk about it some more for sure. But what I don't want to do, guys, is have a bunch of cross talk again about who cares about the kids and who doesn't or who cares about the town and who doesn't. We all care about the town. We are all here.
Absolutely.
Because we do. All right. That's why we spend hours doing this, right? So,
it's just so stipulated, right, that we all care.
I'd like to make a motion.
May I make a motion?
By all means, make a motion. I'd like to make the motion to go 5%. Because that's a compromise from what the town is talking to us and what other people are saying and I think that's very fair. There's a $220,000 cut from the current ask roughly. Just FYIformational.
Informationational.
Okay.
It's not an attack, right? I want everybody to be clear.
Okay. Do we have a second on that motion?
I'll second it.
You'll second it, Kim. Okay. Elise Louise moves for 5%. Kim seconds. yeah, we've been talking about this. You know, I'm I'm a lot more comfortable at six than I am at five. I don't love either number, but I I'll let the chips fall or they may. And I think we should, unless there's anybody else who wants to pipe up. Let's call for a vote on this one.
I don't know if it's I I just wanted to share some of the thought process I was working through. I don't know if now's the appropriate time or not. Sure, it
is. But I just went through the sheet that Liz sent out which has some actuals and expenditures year to date. I kind of did my quick level assessment. It looks like we have a balance of what each one's going to be at the end of the year. It looks like we have total benefits. I did some math just based on this because this is the numbers I have in front of me right now. I it looks to keep it according to my highle assessment what I did is I anticipated $160,000ish increase to the benefits if we take that account and multiply it by 21%. My numbers could be a little off. I'm I'm welcoming input. the psychologist which we lost a grant for is 45,000 and I got another 90,000 in salary increases that brought my total up to a $295,000 increase and that to me would be kind of similar to what and I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff in there but that to me would bring us to what Bill kind of mentioned earlier which is an equivalent thing for our schools.
That's a roughly at the 6% level, by the way. It's
6%'s like a 273 increase. So if you're at 295300, it's a little over six. And that's back of the napkin math, everybody, obviously. But thank you, Nick, for doing that.
Yeah, that's the only way I could do it. And I just wanted to like kind of go through look at it again. I'm probably missing stuff, but this is the information I have in front of me and this is kind of what I was just doing and to help support conversation here.
Thank you, Nick, for that. it's unfortunate that we don't have all the information we need to make a really valid type of decision. I mean, we're just speculating, but thanks for the the math.
All right. so yeah, we have the 5% motion on the floor. thank you, Nick, for that. Do do we have any further thoughts or should I Why don't we go ahead and call for a vote?
All right. Bill,
Bill's a no. Kim,
yes.
Liz,
yes.
Louise,
yes.
Right. Heather,
no.
oh my god, who did I miss?
Nick.
Sorry, you were just talking. I missed you.
No. All right. and it doesn't matter what I do, actually. Well, I either if I vote yes, it passes. But I'm I'm going to go ahead and vote no on that one. But I'm going to follow it by saying let's try the 6% and see if we can get
Is that a motion, Rob?
I'm going to I'm going to follow that. Yeah, I will make that motion. I 6% to be clear. I want to I want to do the math for you guys. Again, by my math using the spreadsheet, the last spreadsheet I had from Lisa. And Lisa, you can correct me if my numbers are off at some point. Please tell me. but at 6% what I get is 273927 as the increase. 6 273 92772. That's keying off last year's number which hopefully is accurate in this spreadsheet. So it's about a $274,000 increase. It is slightly above but just slightly half of the original ask. and as we we've talked about five and a half as well. I understand I'm going to try the six. We'll see where we go. I do think it's a significant increase. I think it is responsive. It is if even if it isn't the you know three and a half four level I think it is serious significant and the board of ed will have to some serious work to do if we pass that through. they'll have to make some significant they'll almost certainly have to make staffing changes. So I don't think that's a minor thing. so that's my proposal. I make that motion. does anyone want to second it?
I'll second it.
Yeah, given it was your idea, that makes sense. further discussion on this. I don't want to shut anything down.
I I don't think it'll pass.
You don't You don't support it at the 6% level.
I I don't know if it'll pass the town. I I think the further we go up from Right. I don't I don't wonder if it'll pass. I think if we stay closer to the five five and a half maybe. but I I just don't know if it the taxpayers will move forward. I mean we won't know until it goes.
I don't want to go above six.
I don't want
Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.
I don't want to go above six.
but I don't think I mean the further a higher we go the less likely it's going to pass the town anyway. So
Oh yeah,
I think six is probably the max that
we could possibly get to pass.
Hang on a second here.
Yeah, that's just my opinion based on
what's the difference between plus six and plus five and a half dollars dollar-wise like 20 something thousand. sorry. I have crowd. I didn't do I did five and I did six. So five is 228ish. Six is 274ish. So you're
very 1% is $50,000.
Yeah. B 40. So last year last year's school budget was 4.5 million and change, right? So every percentage point
is 45,000 and change.
So it's about $25,000 difference between 22827.
Yep.
Sorry, what was that, Lisa?
22827 is the difference between the two.
Thank you.
Yep.
That's the difference between
we're down to we're pretty close here.
We're pretty close here in terms of what we're talking about whether we're at five and a half or at six. and
what is the difference again from f from five and a half to six?
22,827.
That was muffled. I'm sorry I couldn't hear that.
22,827.
the other number I think that might be just helpful for the discussion is what cut does if we passed at six, what does that represent? What cut does that represent from the current ask? You know, in other words, after the prior cut. So, they they're at like 450 right now for for an increase after we made that $50,000 cut last time. This would represent a further cut of about 175. 174261 is what I get. So, just just to be clear, this cut is over triple the cut we made last time. I'm not saying that it's going to satisfy it would satisfy everybody. I and I I'm not making prognostications about vote results, but what I will say is I don't think that can be just viewed as ignoring what happened. it's again it's it's a
$50,000 cut plus $175,000 cut. You know, now we're at having cut them about 225 if we were to pass this, which is I think a significant whack at that budget. And I understand everybody's thoughts on how we got here and where we're going. I do. sorry. So, that just just points of clarification so we understand the numbers and what we're looking at doing. Oh, I'm sorry. I have people in the waiting room again. Goodness gracious, people keep joining. all right. Do we have any further discussion or do we want to take a vote on the six before we move on? I don't I don't want to cut anybody off. Further thoughts? This is a big deal. All right. Then I will call for a vote.
Who Who motioned? Can I
What's Can you remind Can you remind me who motioned? I'm trying to keep track of this stuff.
I made I I I made the motion. Bill second it.
Rob. Okay. Second. Okay.
Apologies for the glare behind me by Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Okay. Sorry. we will around. I'll start with you.
No, don't start with me.
Okay. I won't start with you. I'll I'll start with Bill. How about that? We'll make it easy.
Make it easy. Yep.
Bill is Yes. All right. I will go to Nick. Nick, you're muted.
I have a go back, too.
Give me a minute, please.
Okay, you ponder. Everybody ponder. Put your thinking caps on.
okay. So, we have one yes in Bill.
well, we have you. You're a yes, I'm sure.
Well, I made the motion, so you can pretty much figure what I'm going to do, but I haven't voted yet. But if you want, I'll throw it on the record. I'll vote yes. It's there, too. All right, Louise.
Oh, Louise,
I'll I'll say no.
Okay, Louise is a no. Now, I want I want to ask for volunteers. Who's ready to vote?
I'll say yes.
You'll say yes.
Yep.
So, we're at three. We got one. No.
And we have some people who are really trying to decide. And I I don't want to rush you, but I also want to make a decision. Rob, I'm gonna say no.
Okay.
I think it sets the stage for more problems down the road.
Understood. Understood. We're at three to two.
I think I'm going to say no to I agree. I would be more inclined with 5.5. I'm sorry if that's I'm sorry if that sounds petty, but
we all draw a line somewhere, Liz.
Yeah. My my high point in my mind was like, okay, I'll go to five, but I'm willing to Yeah. 5.5 is like in my brain. So, and I I don't need to poo poo anybody else's point. But
no, we all do that. We all do that. We came I came into this meeting higher, so don't worry.
Who Whose left? I'm sorry.
Me. I shot myself in the foot. I I'm gonna say yes.
All right.
I I think I I thinking it over. I think it's a fair compromise between the two different levels. So,
yeah,
I'm gonna say yes.
Okay. apologies. So, that's that's four to three.
that is everybody.
I would have loved if we could have Yeah. Anyway, so that's four to three. So me, Nick, Bill, and Heather are yeses.
so 6% passes.
Okay.
6% passes. As I understand it, Lisa, you can double check my math on this. As I understand it, that brings their increase down to just shy of 274. 273, 927 is what I get. Can you double check my math on that, please?
She's shaking her head. Yes, but you're muted, Lisa.
Oh, yeah. Sorry. 4839390. Rob, is that what you got?
What? What? Oh, sorry. You're looking at the to You're looking at the total. I apologize. I was looking at the increase.
Yeah,
I got 4,839, 38,972.
Okay. So, I rounded to 390. Yep.
Okay. So, that that is where we are now at. let me look at this. Well, I'm not going to you know what? I'm not going to mess with the spreadsheet for a second. We'll let Lisa change the
Well, I was going to go into the mill rate and see what that
That's the document that Yeah, my version of that is what I've been playing with to get to do all the percentages because it's the easiest document to work with. But yes, by all means, you can let me know what that means in terms of mills and this and that and the other.
All right. So, I have a a total budget of 13358 338412.
You say one more time. 133
8412. Let me double check that.
Rob, can do you have your mill rate calculator?
I have my mill rate chart up, but I I'm I'm working on the AAS line now. checks out at 6% the 4,839,38972 and I just want to make sure that propagates accurately to the total be raised by taxation number because I'm not sure that it is automatically doing that. So just bear with me for a second. Total Yeah, there we go. Minus K33. Yeah, I don't think that. Okay. I don't think it's automatically propagating. What is the total expenditure number you have, Lisa?
13338412.
Okay. So, if I plug that in, I'm getting a total beer raised by taxation increase of 1.28 and a Miller rate of 31.68. Is that what you're getting?
No.
Okay. So something I I must have done something wrong. What? What's Let's find it.
To be raised by taxes.
Well, to be raised by taxes, I'm now getting 10,131759.
Correct. What were the other figures you said? I have 3168 for 31.68 for a mill rate.
So do we. So do I. We're there.
And 3.3%.
Yeah, that's a.3% increase in the mill rate. But I also calculated the increase in total be raised by taxes from last year and that's 1.28. The reason they don't match being the grand list and things like that,
right?
Revenue.
Okay.
So, I mean, just to be clear, you know, from a from the Mill rate standpoint, that's that's a pretty big change. we are well under the motor vehicle cap level. We don't have to worry about that if this were to pass. and bear in mind again everybody, RAM's going to have to have another cut of their ops budget. so that is going to go to referendum. we have more items on our old business to attend to. We have review.
When would that referendum be, Rob? That would be
That is a good question. Two weeks.
June 12th. Thank you, Liz.
When would the town meeting be? No. Is that the town meeting or the referendum vote?
Town meeting would be next Tuesday.
Next Tuesday,
June 2nd.
Excuse me.
Referendum would be the 19th.
I'm sorry. You're right.
Check with Robera. She said two weeks, which would be the 26th.
I don't.
I'm sorry.
Wait a minute. I take it back. I think it's June 16th is the referendum.
June 16th will be the referendum. two weeks after June.
The 16th.
Yeah, I'm sorry. I misspoke.
No worries.
The
It's always on Tuesday.
Before that, the one week before that would be the town referendum.
Town meeting.
No, town meeting will be this following Tuesday.
This coming Tuesday. Okay.
I think it's pretty fast.
Which is the second? Is that true? June 2nd. Okay.
Now then I guess the question
I can confirm the succ of ed meeting
Monday. So we would know
after Monday night going into Tuesday town meeting what you guys do. We have one scheduled for Monday and one for Wednesday. We hope it's not to need the Wednesday one.
All right. Well, here's hoping.
Yeah, you guys reach consensus Monday night.
Yep. Monday is a we have to have a a me a public meeting. Not just a public meeting, but a you know a
hearing
like not is Yeah, it's more like a hearing. We have to have that and then we're going to follow up with a a board meeting and if we can get consensus there from between those two, we'll have a budget for you that night.
Okay, great. Thanks, Scott. All right. sorry, I didn't want to I'm not opening it up to full public comment, but I know he's on the board and I just wanted to get the dates right. So, my hope would be that going into our next town meeting, we might be able to inform the public as to what Ram did, but we don't know that for certain. okay so teacher my brain is full but no we have to go on old business
the
well we have wait I don't see I see review of budget to actual is the next
I'm sorry
ep we do have a packet here I I've been trying to catch up on emails and you know and work and everything like that so I haven't reviewed the budget to actual going into this meeting. I just didn't have time. did any of you have the opportunity to do that?
I I didn't either to tell you the truth. I mean maybe we could look at lines that look like where we're over real quick and just see if it makes sense.
Sure.
unless anybody else has some strong opinions.
No, that sounds good.
That makes sense to me.
so going down the first place where I seen where we're negative is in the community center.
We had a situation with the community center director.
yes.
Yep.
Yes. All right.
So, we're essentially paying two people, right?
We were. Yeah. that's been rectified.
It's not that it's not that we were we had to pay the community center director for the time that she was off,
right?
Yep.
Okay. and then the other one is the town garage and that was we're over by Well, it's 1.23.7%. It looks like we're over computer supplies. We're over in office supplies. And we're over in fuel oil.
Fuel oil.
Now, we usually lock in on fuel oil.
Not to a point you got past using up what you used up and then it goes to market rate.
Oh, I see. So, if we consume too much, we kick off the the the lock in.
Yep. Yep.
I have a gun. So, we're 12,000.
This is a bad time to be buying diesel. So,
Yep.
Ouch. Okay.
So, that is where
and we're already locked in for next year, right? So, that's a set amount as well.
Yes.
I mean, a set amount in terms of gallons.
Yeah. But or no price?
Well, no. what if I'm understanding correctly, it's both that if we utilize too many gallons, we we we use up our lock in which is what we're talking about now. So that would be the same case next year. So,
I hope we adjusted that. but if we didn't, we didn't. but there's an example of we have to make sure that we are locking in for I don't know if they how much leeway we have with the oil company with whatever consortium we use for our amount of lock in if that makes sense.
Well, I could be wrong, but the reason we went over this year is because we use so much for the storms.
Yeah. No, we had we had a we had a tougher snow year than usual, right?
So, that makes sense.
and then everything that's happened in the econ, you know, in the economy, that hasn't helped either.
Well, sure.
We didn't know that. Yeah, we didn't know that. I don't think we knew that when that contract was negotiated.
In fact, I think
No, we have to do our the contract gets negotiated. You know, it's already I think for next year. So,
anyway, I was just I was just asking. All right. So, go on, Liz. I apologize.
Okay. So going down the old firehouse were over but by $4,000 $4,700. Wait,
wait a minute. No, that's total facilities.
The fire
total facilities.
Total facilities.
That's the subtotal down there. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. So overall in that facilities category although the town garage is at 123.7% our total percent of budget is 112%. Right.
Am I reading that right?
Yeah.
Okay.
The total facilities Yeah. is 112. So we are over
but and we knew we were we knew we were over in snow removal.
Yeah. Yeah, I don't see PNZ commission's way up. If if memory serves, that's because there's a dispute. I could be wrong.
Where's that? Are you saying PNZ or you saying town attorney?
I scroll. I scroll. That's up too, but I was scrolling past that. I'm on page six, but
so PNZ is page six. That's over by 6500 plus. And where's the town attorney?
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What am I looking at here? Over budget. Oh, I see. Okay. Yep. Town attorneys. Back up. I'm sorry. You have to back up to page five. Five, I think.
Page four. top middle of the page
totally skinned by that.
Yeah. Under facilities a few lines.
Yeah.
Yep.
I think that's why we raised him up this year because
we knew
it was coming.
That's not for the town attorney. That's there are items in there related to other attorneys that have dealt with issues that we've had to deal with related to
HR and things
other other items. Yeah. HR issues related to community center director
so on
and then you have you have the whole
assessor's legal which is related to legal proceedings that we have to verify if we got our money back.
Got your money back. So the line 107312 5302 assessor legal.
Yeah.
They had some cases where they had to fight for the assessed value that they have. So we have to determine if that's if there's any of that money that is potentially coming back. So, we're way over budget on that because of the legal fights with the assessor and we've just got to look at that line item.
So, if money comes back, does it
I guess if money if money comes back, does it get applied to that or
It would get applied to that account. It might not fall into this fiscal year. Might not get the money back till next fiscal year.
Okay.
But we're going to have to figure out a way of transferring money in to cover that over budget. Okay.
But you also deserve to know the information that caused the death.
Yes.
In detail.
Appreciate. Yep. Thank you. I think we've already discussed these public work increases, right? The temporary salary, that was big. The membership fees, that's big. We already discussed those last time, I think.
Yeah. I sent you an email about those.
Yeah. do we have anything on further on budget actual? Can we move on to check register, guys?
I'm good. Let's move.
All right. So, check register. I just noticed the very first thing on there is a deposit in this looks like the stiff account of $750,000. Lisa, can you just give me a quick explainer on that?
yeah, we had to transfer it in to cover our bills.
Transfer from from what? General fund
from staff. Oh, it's that's sorry that's that's coming.
Yeah, that's step into that, right? Because if you look what's followed right after it because don't forget this is the time of year when we don't have the t the taxes are coming in quarterly.
Yeah.
So, we're having to wait until they come in again the next quarter.
So, you had to pay the two schools. That alone right there is 700 $800,000.
Okay. Yep.
Anything anything you want to highlight for us, Lisa? Is there anything that jumped out at you? No, it's a difficult I'll say it's a difficult time of year because everyone's trying to figure out what they have left. and just trying to keep up. I do have the new assistant treasurer and she's getting right on top of, you know, trying to get everything lined up. It's going to take a little bit, but she's helping a lot with the bills, getting the bills in.
Okay. Lisa, can can you tell me what howerin and sage is on April 14th?
Yeah, she's got that
22,108.
Jeff, do you want to answer to that? Isn't that what you were just talking of?
No, that's that's
How and Sage is the attorney that we have an animal abuse case within the town. Our animal control service is CO NECOG and th those are primarily bills related to the legal proceedings related to the resident. It is something that
otally unforeseen and it is something that is not productive use of our money.
It shouldn't have been spent
but
we have to find a better way to deal with those types of cases. So, in this case, a dog and two frogs were taken from the resident and they're being kept at NECOG. and these are legal fees related to the disposition of those animals.
There was one other one I just saw. Little Oh, okay. Okay, never mind. The memo answered it. Millennium Builders. That's the playground. I assume that's down at
he ball field.
Okay.
Playground. Yeah.
By the way, you should take a look down there. I know the Long Hill Bridge is done, but Scott Persona and Christine Rendazzo have done a great job shephering that project through. It's should be completed within the next 30 days. It looks It looks great. It looks really
down there. It looks really good. Yeah, looks really good.
Yeah, I've seen the progress. I haven't seen the latest in the last week or so, but we can still get through there even though the bridge is out, right? The bridge is after.
Yeah.
Oh, that's good.
Pendy Road and down Long Hill.
Oh, you got to go that way.
Yeah,
it's the only way to go.
Pain.
Oh god, now I feel bad. Now I can relate to the people in Bunker Hill, what they had to deal with.
Yep. Only they had to go all the way up through Coventry and come down like
Yep. Oh, those poor people.
Yeah, that was not an easy detour.
Yeah. How long do you expect Jeeoff, how how long do you expect that that project to last? The bridge.
This is supposed to be completely
supposed to be completed this fall.
Oh, okay.
Not too too bad. I guess it's not years. Do we do we have a another one of those projects coming down the pike at all? In other words, one of these fully reimbursed, but you know, really big project.
Nothing in the future is going to be fully reimbursed,
right? I mean, we got big projects like Bzola,
right? We have town stuff that we get maybe 50% I think is the is the the match. So what I'm what I'm saying is, you know, in terms of the disposition of the money in the in the fund, that's that's what I'm thinking about the the once we've closed the books on that bridge, then we have to decide what to do you know and look at our funds because we have those needs for bridges and culver there's quite a plan on the culverts that have to be done already. So
yeah, I mean I think I think we want to maybe once we get through the budget cycle that we should have a meeting where we mostly go through kind of what's our plan? What's our order of operations here and what's the where are we in terms of do we need to you know transfer some money from one to another to properly account for it and to you know think about how much we can bite off in a given year and prioritize and all that. I know we have I think I know we we for for years now we've been talking about which one goes first but you know looking down the pike more like five years would be good. Does anybody have anything further on the check register?
No.
Nope.
No. Okay.
We are looking at
donation request is still on here. me I'd like to punt on this again. I I just don't think we got too much going on to to deal to talk about that anymore. And once, you know, once Alisa has like 10 minutes of free time, we can revisit that issue and maybe put it to bed. So, I would say let's move on from 5D unless anybody objects. Okay. So, new business 6A, we already moved. So 6B is appointment of auditor required by 53126, which I didn't think I fully realized. we've been using the same auditor for years now. I think we've been pleased. Does anybody have feedback on that? I know in the past we've had trouble even getting other quotes for an auditor to do our books.
my only Yeah. My only feedback is I would like them to come and present to us the audit so we can understand it.
Yeah.
We had a meeting last year on it and we haven't had one yet this year. I don't remember at what point in the year we had it.
so I would like him to come and do that. And my other question is right now it's still in draft. When is it finalized? How does it get finalized?
Right. I thought we were really close but yes, what is that final step? It is final. Didn't I send it to you, Rob? When we
You sent me I know I'm going through my emails. You sent me something. Hold on. I wasn't clear if it was 100% final. Sorry. what would you remember what day what date that email was? Because I'm I'm going through looking for the for the email. I just want to make sure. I thought I had I usually try to
couple weeks ago, I believe, when we were working on one of the the second referendum maybe. Cuz I mean, if I didn't send that around to the board, I apologize to you all. I should have forwarded it. Let me take a look.
I can look in my scent.
Yeah, I'm trying to find I see you know where you sent me charts and revised budget budget charts, but I'm trying to find the the audit. I know you sent it to me, but I'm having trouble finding it.
Yeah, because we it was on a Friday or Saturday or something and I was working on the charts with you,
right? And because we were talking about what the potential 2425 underspend was or not just under spend, we had we had a over we were over on revenue and
May 11th. that would explain why I wasn't finding it. There it is. Thank you. Final. Yep, you are correct. You did send me a final. I'm going to I'm going to email this around to the board. Sorry, guys. I apologize. I should have gotten this to you before. I I don't think I fully caught that it was the true final. So, we do have it. we haven't obviously Mahoney and Sable has been our auditor now for several years actually probably more than several I can't recall the last so we should absolutely have them come in typically in the past I think obviously we had to wait until they were done but they're done now so we could try to tee that up for our next meeting if we could get them to come in I because I completely agree with you Liz I that's standard for them to
come in if we could get them to come in June That'd be great. Oh, although
I'm not sure.
I did mention it to him. He didn't get back to me. I did mention it to Michael a couple of weeks ago back when we were when we had the final.
Liz, if you're going to miss it, you know, if you want to if we want to do it in July, I mean, I wouldn't be against that either.
Let's see. let me look my calendar. The next meeting is our meeting is June 23rd, right? Is that our next board of finance meeting? June 23rd or is it
I have it the 24th. Oh, we're on Wednesdays. Yeah, Wednesdays. Okay. 20. Yeah, I won't be here. I will be
in Alabama.
All right.
Alabama.
So, I will not be here for the next month. So,
what do we do? Do are we always the fourth? We're the on
I think we're the fourth.
So, like July 22nd would be probably the meeting after that. I don't know if we've even set them all the way that far out, but we could see if we could get them for that for July 22nd. Lisa, is that something that like you're in contact with them, right? Was that
I can ask them again? Yeah. Okay.
I won't be here probably July 22nd, but it doesn't matter. I don't I've looked at it millions of times.
Sure. Sure. I mean, I think what it really boils down to, and Liz Liz can speak to this, too, is that
when we sat down to go through the one of the drafts, right? It's easy to get turned around. It's really nice to have the auditor there to answer the
answer. Yeah, that's what I'm used to also. Yeah.
So, let's see if we can set that up.
That's a good That's a good point, Liz. Thank you. we definitely want to go through that and I I do want to have a sense for what is in those funds and how we can better track them and that sort of thing and maybe the auditor might have thoughts on that. That might be a good conversation. So, sorry, appointment of auditor. ever. So, I mean, unless there's an objection, I mean, I think we I can't remember, by the way, and Jeff, chime in here if you can recall the last time that we actually thought about whether we could change auditors or if there's somebody else out there. My my recollection was we were lucky to kind of lucky to have them, but
you're unmuted, by the way.
I I don't think it's something that we look at right now. I think you appoint the auditor for next fiscal year and then if it's something that the board of finance wants to sit there and consider then we go out to quote in in an appropriate timeline because if we do it now we're going to hamstring ourselves.
Right. Fair enough. That's that's very good. I just my general thinking on this just so everybody on the board understands it is I cannot recall the last time we did that and it's probably just good practice to do it every so many years. so that we're not just locking ourselves into to one auditor even though I think we're happy with them. So, but anyway, in in the interest of moving this meeting forward and doing what we need to do, I'll go ahead and make a motion to formally reappoint Mahonian Stable Company LLP as our auditor. And this would be for the next fiscal year. or rather the one we're in now, right? That the audit would be for 2526, correct?
Yep. So that's my motion.
I'll second.
Liz seconds. Very good. Unless there's any discussion, I'll take a vote. Anybody? Anybody? Anybody gone once, gone twice? Anybody discussion? No. Okay. very good. Bill,
yes.
Nick,
yes. Kim,
yes.
Luis,
yes.
Liz,
yes. Heather.
And I'm Yes. 70. Mahoney Sable will be our auditor again. but we can revisit the issue.
And actually that's something I should try to track down is how long we've been using them. I think it's been a while now. Okay. Very good. Lazison reports. I don't have anything. The one item that I had from CIP we already dealt with. the fire department request. Does anybody have anything from any other boards, commissions, etc.?
Okay. Hearing none, we'll move on to agenda item eight, which is, you know, a A through E is various meeting minute approvals.
Can I make a motion we we pass on this for till next month?
I was liter You beat me, too.
Thank you, Liz. It's It's 900 p.m. and I didn't have a chance to look at them. So, yes,
I agree.
So, what I from what I understand, I think we can ask Kate to post them and we can always review them and if we find changes, then we can send her the changes. I think that's
right.
And that way, at least they're up there.
Yeah. I mean, it's getting a little down the pike and you don't want to have it not there for for too long. All right. If that's if that's acceptable procedure, and frankly, I haven't thought about it. I'm I'm not against it.
I'll second the motion.
wait a minute. All right. So, the motion, I guess, is to accept that there's a motion is that we're going to ask Kate to to post them in kind of in draft form as they are now, and that if we find revisions that we'll ask her to make them.
All right. Yes.
We'll go ahead and say that Liz is proposing that and Bill's seconding it. all right. call for vote, Nick. Oh, no. You're drinking. I'll pass on you, Kim.
You're drinking.
He was his water bottle and I'm like,
poor guy sputtering. I'm like, vote. Vote.
He's choking.
Anyway, Kim, I'm sorry I
didn't hear you.
You're a yes. Heather,
yes.
Okay. Bill,
yes.
Nick, you're with us.
Yes. Okay. Yep. Louise.
Yes.
Liz.
yes.
And me. Yes. That sounds like a good plan. are you gonna do you do you want do are you going to reach out to her or do you want me to do it?
It doesn't really matter.
Yeah. I can send her an email.
I got work in the morning. If you don't mind doing it, I'd be thrilled. but I I don't want to I'm a bit I can be scatterrained and I don't want to miss it.
No, you
me
stop.
Never
scatterrained. Come on.
I don't I don't have anything going on, Liz. You know, it's just
I know. I know.
All right. So, anyway, moving on.
so we have board open discussion. I don't know if I think we've talked about a lot, but if anybody has anything else to bring up, now is the time. Otherwise, we'll move on to correspondence and public speak.
Sounds good.
I'd like to bring up that that Nick has a beautiful sunset. I wish I was where he was.
Where is he? Look at that.
That was in San Diego.
In your mind,
Oceanside. I'm sorry. It was a little north of San Diego.
Yeah. Okay.
Anyway.
Let's Yeah.
yes. It's all good. the only correspondent I mean we all get emails. we got a we had a letter from the principal about AES. I think we all saw it. I hope we all saw it. it's a little late to get to that, but it's there. I don't know. We've already made our decisions. I hope we made it with with that in mind. Made those decisions with that in mind. That's what I had for correspondence basically. if anybody else wants to bring anything else forward otherwise I'd like to move on and do a do our round of public speak and ski dattle.
It'd be nice.
Then I got to this weekend I'll have to revise the presentation again. Liz, hang in there. We're almost through. I saw that.
Sorry. I know. Sorry.
It's okay. All right. can we So all right. let's do public speak. Let's go ahead and go around the room here. Lisa, I'm gonna skip you. We've been talking to you all night. All right. so let's see. The first person who's still left on the call is Anna.
thank you for your discussions. I just, no further comment here.
Okay. Thank you. Oh, and by the way, before I end the meeting and before I forget, I want to thank everybody from the public who comes and participates. It's helpful. It's good to hear from you guys. so the next one up is Brienne. Going once, going twice. I'm going to move on to Caitlyn. I'm pretty disappointed as I'm sure you could all imagine. to say devastation would probably be putting it mildly. in terms of what this will mean for how it affects the school directly. don't really know that 100% but there will definitely be staff cuts for sure and it will 100% affect you know how how kids are taught. and to say that you read the letter from the principal and think that what you guys did tonight was keeping in line with
that. It's 100% not. the gains that were made by kids in the school this year were directly related to how they're taught and at what level and what interventions are able to be made. the only other thing publicly as a comment the first selectman did make a comment in regards to how much of certain special education teachers are related to preschool. Just to remind everyone again, I know I'm kind of beating a dead horse, but special education costs for kids over age three until they reach kindergarten are the responsibility of the school system and of our town and of taxpayers regardless
of whether or not we had a preschool, we would still be responsible for those costs. So, it doesn't really actually matter what they are or where they are in the budget or if they're not in the budget and they're under the the preschool, we're still responsible for them. Thank you. going once, going twice. I'm going to move on to Patricia Kelly.
Hi. I'm just not sure how decisions are made when there seems to be a lot of unanswered questions about the schools. I think that if there were more transparency and there were more collaboration between the school and the town that this budget discussion would not be so difficult. I hope that in the future that there can be more collaboration between the school and the town because we are all working toward the same goal. Thank you. Thanks. iPhone 2, aka Kathy.
No comment. Thank you.
Thanks,
yes. first of all, I'd like to thank the board of finance for trying so hard. but watching this as an outsider, it appeared that there was compromise on one side only and that there were board members who spoke about cuts as well as increases such as the prek tuition, but at the end of the day, they would not compromise and that's how it looked like from an outsider point of view. And that's all I wanted to say. Thank you, Hi everyone. I'll keep it quick. I just started off saying that, you know, all towns and school systems are going through this. So, it it is hard. It's so hard, but it's it's you've got to try to keep the emotions out of it. And I'm surprised that I I am able to do that
looking from the outside in. So, a couple suggestions. You know, I won't have any. I would think for the transparency so everyone feels better. Why don't you ask next year what Anna had suggested? you know we don't need any names but like teacher one, teacher two, teacher three, get those salaries, get the total. this insurance that the town has currently I'm just looking for change and for cost savings. This is unsustainable. I'd volunteer to try to get really good policies and call around. I mean, if they want to stay in the self-insured business, but a 21% increase on the staff members for the school and the town is going to kill the town. So, I'm looking at ways that, you know, cost savings can be done with other things that the town can do. and the audit balances, you guys usually had a final report in April and had a meeting that probably could have been helpful in this process overall. So, you could have had that information and known the balances. And lastly, trying to wrap it up really quick. Everybody's exhausted. Yeah.
Kind of pounding home my fund balance thing that I've always said with savings because you guys were able to approve a $68,000 invoice or something like that. I don't have it in front of me now for the fire department simply because you had built up such a high balance there of over $300,000. So, you were able to approve that in a meeting. So, I'm hoping with fairness in the future and and everybody should take a trip to the fire department. It's beautiful. The vehicles, the building, you know, everything we've we've funded that well. So, I'm hoping that in the future maybe some of those fund balances can take a little bit of a cut. Everybody gets upset about any kind of word of cut so that other things can be funded. Thank you.
Thanks, Joanna. Julie,
hi. as somebody who works in the building, I just want to say, you know, I'm preemptively disappointed and upset in how the the cuts are going to affect the students that I see every day. and you know, the stress that it is going to put on the building to try to make do with what what we have been approved. We're grateful for, you know, any increase, but we really needed what we were asking for. And unfortunately, that just wasn't going to happen this year. And I hope that that changes in the future.
I'm all set. Thank you very much. it was a pleasure to watch your process. Thank you.
Thanks, Kevin. Yeah, no comment. Thank you. Have a good night.
Thanks. next member of the public looks like Marcy.
Hi. no thanks. I don't have anything to say other than the fact that I appreciate all your hard work.
Thanks. Scott,
sorry. I've got a few very quick things to say. first of all, like everyone else, I'm very impressed with how hard you guys work at this. This is not fun, not pleasant, and you're doing a great job. comment on three things. One, Joanne, just talk about being able to negotiate insurance. There are professionals involved in this who are negotiating for a much bigger crew place than just Andover. this is the best they could do and it's the same across the nation. Insurance rates are shooting way up. and I know some of the reasons but not worth going into here. so Liz, we talked over and over. that wasn't Liz, I'm sorry. Louise talked over and over about transparency. I found pretty much all of the information that I heard anybody was asking for available in the public. Wasn't always easy to get to, but the stuff from the board was right there on the board packets. I the only thing that you
can't find is something they can't legally give us which is the benefits stuff for the preschool because it's too small a group. It's against HIPPA and it's against Furpa to actually give out that even collective information. and last one was to Jeff Magcguire when we talk about clawing back money and the rate of growth and how terrible it's going to be. It's got to point out this budget has grown far under the rate of inflation and again say we are the lowest per pupil cost according to the state of all the elementary districts in in the state. those there's some weird numbers about preschool but it's still the lowest you just apples to apples the lowest per pup people cost. So balancing trying to balance the budget on the back of the parents of preschoolers doesn't strike me a good idea and probably illegal if you go over the cost of the preschool itself. I know he's trying to oh give a little to this and a little that scary. Anyway, that's it. Thank you guys again. You worked really hard.
hi. I I'll also just echo some of what other folks said that I am really disappointed in the cuts to the school budget. It's I I can't see any other thing to do other than cut staff. That's what's going to happen. And cutting staff is going to mean larger class sizes and larger class sizes beyond what the Department of Education recommends for students. We know what that's going to mean. There's going to be an impact to the kids. they're not going to receive the quality education that they've been getting. And I just hope going forward, I don't know what we need to do to get more support from all the boards in town. because that would certainly help. Every year we have
a hard time passing a budget and a lot of it is because, you know, there's not a lot of support from the leadership across all boards in town. And I hope going forward that we can work together to figure out what we need to change to make that happen cuz our kids deserve better. Thanks.
Valerie,
hello. so a couple of things. first of all, we hear the word transparency a lot. I don't think transparency is the issue. I think it's a double standard. a couple things that were spoken about tonight, insurance, for example, with all the talk about my contract, you know, I've asked over and over again about where are the town contracts, and my answer is always, well, we're not mandated to post those, so we don't. Yours is mandated. I do think if the town wants to be transparent that those contracts should be up for everybody to see because when
we talk about insurance and the 21% there was a huge expenditure in addition to the salaries of $7,000 for employees who don't take the insurance and I think that that needs to be spoken about. it's difficult, very difficult when you know there's a couple of of people on here tonight making difficult cuts. I understand that to say that they would feel successful if it was lower than six and that they didn't think that that would affect children. And I think that between the board of education and myself and the principal and the school, we do know what's right for children. So I know the other part of the conversation was we cut you last year and we told you not to hire two teachers and you did. Well, the board of education and myself and the staff and the principal, we knew that was what we needed. It was what was right for children and we had no choice. We had to do that. And you know what? It worked. They thrived this year and the scores are going to be great. our our our children are need to have an academically sound environment. and and we did that this year. So, I I felt like we were being punished for doing what was right for children in understanding and recognizing that we did need those staff members. And lastly, I I know that there was that mailer that went home and Mr. Magcguire I respectfully you admit that your
wife's in the field of education. I I know that after the number of years that she's been an educator, she got top step in her town. And so for us in the town of Andover to say that teachers that teach there make too much money, their contract should be lower, that kind of says we don't value and appreciate them. And CA on a state level will dictate that teachers contracts need to be fair all around. And if they're not, they take us to mediation. And they do that because they want to make sure that teachers everywhere are getting a fair salary, whether it's where your family works, Mr. Magguire or where our staff works. So I think everybody should know that that there is a standard there and in our town I think we have a double standard and moving forward I would like that not to continue. Thank you.
Okay. And then the last person I see is just a phone number. 860804212.
That's me. This is Shannon. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Great. While I understand the negotiations this evening, I too am very disappointed in the result. I don't believe that the referendum results yesterday mandated such a drastic cut and basically a 0% mill rate increase.
I completely don't think that that was called for. And I'll just echo what everybody else has said. The result is of what you've done tonight makes me very concerned about the effects it's going to have on the students and the teachers, whether we'll be able to keep all of them and ultimately the school. And for anybody who doesn't believe that having a good school is critical to having a thriving town, you need to reconsider because your property values are based on the fact that we have such an excellent school. We are now the lowest per pupil spending of elementary schools amongst all elementary districts. elementary only districts that can't help but have an effect on our school and therefore on our town and therefore on your property values. So please consider that when you're just looking
at the school, its budget and a budget increase. It affects you even if you don't support the school. Thank you. All right, I made it through. I know there was a person or two as I went through that, you know, they didn't respond, so I I skipped them. If any of you who got skipped, speak up now or forever hold your peace. All right, hearing none. Do we have a motion to adjurnn?
I make the motion to adjurnn.
Bill moves to adjurnn. Any second?
I'll second it. Louise got there first.
I hope you feel better, Louise. I'll take a vote on that. we'll just go around. Bill's first on my screen. Bill,
I'm a yes. Nick,
yes.
Liz,
yes.
Heather,
yes.
Kim,
yes.
Luis,
yes.
At seven to zero, we adjourn. like I said everybody, I will work on the presentation for the meeting. Lisa, you'll get the updated spreadsheets up on the website when you can.
Yeah, I'm not.
Thank you.
Yep. In a these two days, but I'll get it to Kate tomorrow.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Yep. Okay.
Thank you everyone. This is a tough one. Good night.
Thank you.
Good night.