Meeting transcript
Special BOE Meeting 6.25.26
June 25, 2026 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
Shannon Loudon. It is 07:02PM, and I will call the Andover Board of Education's special meeting to order. Can we all please whatever we're going to do, I'm not gonna rise or else you'll just see my abdomen, but do whatever to, do the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance the flag of United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all justice for all. And there I see a wonderful chair. Who won't take over? Hi.
Unless you want me to do it. If you can, because I'm trying to help my kid make macaroni to feed himself dinner, and we gotta talk to her about So Okay.
Our our second order of business is communications. I don't have any opening statement unless you do, Kate.
No. Just that this meeting, is really just specifically about the budget and not anything else. Yep. Okay. Communications. Do we have any, doctor Bruno? Pertaining to this meeting? No. K.
So, as everybody saw on the agenda, the item for discussion, this evening is the 2026, 2027, budget finalization. What that means is, as far as I'm concerned, taking into account what was passed by the budget referendum and our considerations of how that is going to affect the budget that doctor Bruno proposed and that we had passed. Do you wanna take it from here, doctor Bruno?
Sure. Before you guys start then, Taylor, can actually, give me one second before you put that up. So at the last meeting, we had a a very long list that we discussed at our regular meeting of, what our team could come up with, as possibilities, for you guys to think about, consider. And then I did meet with the team. So the team within the school in trying to figure out what would be in the best interest of children would be Taylor as the principal, special ed, Jody. We did also call in Terry who, was there working on the last of the audit. And so we also spoke with, special ed teachers because we do have a significant change this year to the needs of some of our students, and the programming will be slightly different for them. So we kind of took all of that information together and spoke with members of the union, the teachers union as well,
and put together to the best of our ability what we currently, with what we know, feel would be what we would like the board to consider, as that 6%. And so, Taylor, if you put that up on the screen, I can show you where we have redlined the budget proposed budget for 2627 back to the 6%, which would be about a $225,000 for the cut. So you'll see the red there, and this is so, obviously so I know the board members received this, via email, but I wanna make sure that those members of the audience are also looking at what it is we're discussing. So that top line would be affected, the, zero zero two one zero one line, and that would be a revision to the teacher's line item, to reflect a change where we would have a reduction. We would not go outside of the school to hire a sixth grade teacher. We would utilize the current staff that we have. And in utilizing the current staff that we have, we would be taking out the planned new sixth grade teacher. We would be taking out, the Spanish from the teacher's line item. We would be utilizing you'll notice the fourth line down. We would be utilizing Melissa Lateska as the sixth grade teacher, so that we could manage with what we had within the building, which would mean that library would cease to exist this year unless there were other changes between now and the end of the year.
So you'll see a reduction from sixteen seventy nine three sixty six to sixteen fifty seven eighty one with the fourth line down zeroed out. If somebody's not not on mute, if you could do that, please. Thank you. It would also be the one zero two line item that would be reduced to 95,442, which would reflect $56,000.654 as a loss in salary to two paraeducator positions within the school. On the same page go ahead, Taylor. You can move it up just a little bit. Thank you. You will notice as we go further down, there would be a reduction in the two ten, two twenty, two thirty line there. That reduction would reflect the, FICA and Medicare, numbers, that go along with payroll, for the loss of salary there. And, there would be a loss of $10,858 in the pension line item, because paraeducators, as town employees as well are part of the MRF, which is the retirement package there. And so there would be a savings of $10,858 in that line.
Al, I'm sorry to interrupt you. You skipped over when we went down the page, the, loss of the coaching and clubs. Oh, got you. Sorry. Thank you, Shannon.
That line there is the $31.50. That line is the sorry. My voice, I'm losing today. That is a loss of, the activities that are part of the teachers union where per their contract, there are certain things that are offered, like yearbook stipend comes out of here, you know, the stipend for the parade that that Julie does, anything that's by contract already is a part of that line item. And over the years, we would reduce it. We had reduced it from $6,100, the year before $61.50 because there were a couple of them that had been included in the after school grant. So if the teachers had agreed to do it as part of the after school grant, then we were able to reduce those activities. By zeroing it down, that is the teachers union agreeing that those wouldn't be offered this year unless they were offered with the after school grant. But for the board, I would like to remind you to have an understanding, for the fact that those are union, and the after school grant is only guaranteed for this next school year. So that would have to be put back the following year. It wouldn't be a luxury item. It would be a requirement for us to put that back in. Val, can I ask a question about that specifically? Sure.
You mentioned the parade. I'm assuming you mean Memorial Day. Is that Yes. Covered by the after school grant?
It would mean that Julie it would mean that Julie would have to do all of her planning Yeah. At after school time so that it could be covered by after school. Okay.
So, you know, it's like yearbook. You know, the person that does the yearbook, when they get a stipend, normally, they can work on the yearbook anytime they want for the small stipends that they get. It would mean that this person would be working on the yearbook in the after school time so that it would be covered. They would have to, you know, utilize the students after school. So it is a sacrifice for them. I'm not gonna pretend it's not. And I see it's only $31.50, but it got us to the finish line. Otherwise, that thirty one fifth 50 would be coming from another line. Okay. So if you go down to the next page, then the next one is under benefits. The change of benefits there wait. My eyes aren't that's okay. The change of benefits there down to the, to the eight thirty, eight forty eight rather, includes the loss that we, would have in the loss of, an employee, and any of the other changes that we have there, not the the new sixth grade teacher not coming in. There was a placeholder for that person for a benefit, because we wouldn't have known who that person coming in was. So, there was a median number that's placed there as a salary and a median number that's placed there as, benefits, and so both of them are now gone. Next one.
The next one would be with the world language supplies. That would be zeroed out because world language wouldn't exist in this, particular proposal. So that gets zeroed down as does library supplies. So and I think if you keep going, yeah, that brings us to the bottom. So the team feels as though, and I agree wholeheartedly, that the loss of the staff, the benefits, the two paras, the library, point two, the Spanish, and that sixth grade pushing over, would be the least restrictive, approach when it comes to, losses for the students, and that would bring us to the 6%. Now this is the best plan that we have right now. Questions from the board members?
Is there something that you guys would do on the classroom teacher level to make up for not having the library classroom?
So that that would be something that Taylor would have to work on in her scheduling with the classroom teachers. There are a couple of options there, and that would be a principal level decision in terms of does she look for volunteers when she sets up the schedule? Does she look to do it during instructional time with each of the teachers? The library obviously would be open physically. The books would be available, but it would be up to Taylor to figure out how she still works that in. She just would not have an employee, that works in the library to do those things. She would also have to work with the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teaching staff to figure out how they, make sure that they still have access to what it is that Melissa does, which is research, which is working with the kids on the curriculum associated with the library. As a library media specialist, she's that expert. So that would be up to, the teachers union in Taylor to figure out how to work that into the schedule.
I I had a question too. I guess the same question as it relates to world languages. Is there somehow that that can be incorporated into the classroom level or, maybe after school? I'm thinking that that might be something. It's not the same as, you know, in the classroom, but it's something, I guess, to get us through because my assumption is the hope is that will come back. It's only a year. Yes.
Sharon, that is absolutely the hope for it to come back. Unfortunately, that isn't a class that we can do by volunteers, because the only certified person to teach Spanish is Anna. So, I will be speaking with her. I've already, spoken with Taylor about the, idea of offering that first and foremost, obviously, after school, if that's something that can even fit her schedule. I would understand if it wasn't. We're asking a person to, you know, work in hours that they wouldn't normally work. It would be my hope, obviously, that, you know, I would try to see out there if there are other grants available during the course of the year. We know they're very slim to none, but that would be a goal of mine, would be to try to, work with other districts and say, hey. Does anybody have any idea of where we could apply for such a grant to see if we could bring that back? But that certainly would be, something that we would be looking to try to do, before, sooner rather than later.
So my concern is that if we do not do any language this for a year, there's a lot there's a lot that the kids could lose. I mean, had we did you consider going, you know, going back, you know, to her, you know, half time?
So then we would have to cut from someplace else, Marcy.
Yeah. There's a lot of places. I wish I was part of this process because, I saw I see a lot of places that we could cut that don't that wouldn't affect the teaching. I'm just frankly, I'm I'm just floored. I just feel like there are so many, there's so many places that we could
that we could go, you know, without affecting You can share suggestions by all means. Are they? Yeah. By all means. Yeah. Well,
there's a lot of places that we over budgeted for. Diesel for one. We, you know, didn't spend $10,000
with the diesel. And why is it still We actually haven't we actually haven't received the bill yet from the town on diesel, and that number was based on the diesel number from the last three years. So we haven't received our final bill from them yet for this calendar year. So, the number that was budgeted for was based on the the last three years of budgeting, for diesel. So we we don't know if there will be a savings this year or not.
Well, we also have electricity that we're gonna have an energy audit, and, we're paying you know, we should be saving money on electricity for that. So
when when we do the budget for next year, we have to go on the numbers that we already know, which is this year, last year, and the year before. We had talked about this when we built this budget. We are not guaranteed until it happens, knowing exactly how much electricity will or won't be saved. So do we anticipate the following year's budget, being lower based on the fact that solar panels just went in? Of course, we do. But we don't know what that number's gonna be, so we wouldn't even begin to know what number to take out.
There's a lot of, you know, supplies that we didn't purchase that, you know, we could reduce supplies. Which line item for supplies? I
didn't write the exact line item, the, books, ELA books, and then there was a 7,000 in supplies. Where which line are you looking at, Marcy?
I didn't write down the exact line. I'm just I had, you know, I had written it down, and, you know, there was, the computer contract. There's a lot of stuff in there that, you know, we we could look at the contracts. We didn't spend it all, you know, in as of June 3. And I know there's not a lot that we spend in June because the kids you know? It's just, I just feel like there's a lot here. Why are we stabbing at the, you know, the language? I I hate losing that for a year. I mean, the kids would like to I I feel like they would lose a lot of steam. Even just a little bit would be better than nothing. What about the the library? The, math specialist, perhaps a math specialist could go to the library
part time. She's she's not a library media specialist, and the math specialist has a full schedule.
Let let me ask about if just going along, I certainly would love the kids to have Spanish and all the other things we're gonna lose. Let's give an example. So the Spanish teacher is now a point two. Is that correct or has been? Point four? She was point two and went to point four.
So if we made her well, if we if we totally do away with Spanish, what's the cost of the benefits, the pension, the salary? There's no pension. There's no pension for teachers.
Okay. I I didn't mean that. I meant excuse me. So let's just what is the cost that we're trying to make up by that we would have to make up by doing away with other things just to get along the lines of what, Marcy is is getting at? So in other words, if we would just get it back in Every one day of Spanish, every point two of Spanish is $18,000. Excuse me? $18,000.
Okay. So we have to find 18,000. And if we're doing point four, is it just double that? Yes. Okay. Thank you. So, Marcy, you would have to come up with $18,000 of savings for one day of Spanish. What happens? Is the library specialist the same or different?
This, almost the same. Like k. 19 something. It's under $20,000.
Okay. And what about, you know, using a para for in sixth grade rather than moving the library specialist over there? Amazing. A para can't teach the class Well, by she doesn't need to teach a class. Just keep them all in one class and have the para in with the other sixth grader sixth grade teacher. No. But teacher has to teach the class. No. The sixth grade teacher.
She said she has say not have her kids class too. So, Marcy and I be I don't know. Like, from the last conversation or the last meeting, I think, you know, it was discussed that based on the the pension program that paras are on, the in theory, that is not like, adding a para just to add a para is not cost effective. It actually can cost more than a brand new teacher. So if we had to hire back a para to cover sixth grade, that that's $60,000.
Yeah. That's not what Valerie sent over about we have two paras that their salaries for two of them is $56,000. And their salary only. Yep. And their They're paying pension. We pay pension for we pay pension for Paris, though, too. Right. And then you you wrote in their pension and their benefits were 15,000 for two teachers. So that comes out to, that's about 75 72,000 for two teachers, 36,000 for one para for benefits and the salary. That that's not more than a teacher.
To have a para who has their pension, if they were hypothetically to have insurance, is $60,000 for that one employee.
Well, I mean, I don't understand. If you're taking two paras out of the budget, how come it's only taken 72,000? Now you're saying to add one in as 60?
You're you're looking at the the salary line item versus the benefits versus the I'm looking at the pension. Email that Valerie sent over. Plus the benefits.
Sorry? Plus the benefits, the whole package the whole package deal for the two paras that were reduced is what you have to take into consideration, and that was $90,000 almost with the other benefit that we pulled out with the sixth grade teacher. So that's so that's about 45,000
a para. So you're not really gaining a lot by by making that swizzle.
So where are how much are the benefits for the for a pair?
It it the the benefit, it it depends on if somebody's a single, a double, a family. I mean, we're getting off the track here with that.
I mean, that that could be as safe as a $10,000 if you put a para in the class rather than split them up and have another teacher. Can I can I just ask so you're talking about making a teaching decision,
but Val, who's the superintendent along with the special ed teachers, the principal of the school, they're they're all telling us, like, this is what they do for a living in terms of education, that the the thing that's going to affect the students in the school the least is to have two sixth grade teachers and not have a library teacher and not have a Spanish teacher? So so why would we try to do something different than what the people that we've hired as a board and as a town to educate our children are telling us is the most appropriate thing to do given the situation?
I think it's important to have these conversations. You know, I understand, you know, Valerie's professional and, you know, she talked to all the professionals and the teachers are all professionals. But I'm on a board of education. We're all we're all in charge of, you know, a budget. So I don't see anything wrong in having this discussion. I think it's important that we have these discussions. You know, there's I have people telling me, you know, that all kinds of places, you know, that why do we have two custodians when you have less than 200 kids? You know? What What about preschool? You know, if you if you move those high expensive benefits over to preschool and then you increase the tuition for preschool, boom.
You have your budget. But, Marcy, none of that is anything that we're talking about tonight, and none of that is in the budget. Your preschool isn't in this budget. Stop turning this discussion back into talking about preschool. It it that has no bearing on what we're talking about in this given process. Has everything to do with this.
You know, there there's there's benefits that the preschool teachers have that's on the general fund. Right? Potentially, yes. Potentially. Are there any other questions? Have questions?
There's a what about there's tuition that was in the budget as an expense that wasn't spent last year. It's $30,000. What do you mean tuition that wasn't spent?
On the expenditure report, there's tuition. Which line is it? Which expenditure report are we looking at, Marce? 2026 dated June 3.
So you're talking about our, our expense of tuition in that line? Yes. So Jody would have to go back to June's expense report as well in paying the final tuition payment before we know exactly what that amount is. We do have tuition that is paid for students. Mhmm. Yep. So and it you can't cut that. That is for students that we pay for that do not attend Andover Elementary School.
Right. But if we have a budget of 92,000 and in June 3, there's a a remaining balance of 31,000, that sounds like there's extra
that wasn't spent. So the one thing I would say on this, because as a parent who is frustrated by this budget process and looked into magnet schools, there are parents who still may be on the wait list, and we could be on the hook for paying for more magnet schools, especially with the conversations we've had in town. While I personally didn't make that decision, I started an application, Marcy, because this frustrated me. And so there are probably other parents who've done the same and may be on a wait list and are ready to pull their kids out because of these conversations. So, no, I don't think we should remove that tuition because if we get hit with it in the fall because of these conversations, we'll be blindsided.
I understand that. Wait. Wait. But the budget for next year, if you look at that line, the magnet school's line is 15,000. Yeah. It is less already.
That is the number of students that are currently enrolled enrolled from Andover. There is no extra money in there. That is the anticipated tuition for the students that are currently attending magnet schools. The 74,350 is one student that attends another outplacement facility. So the $89,350, that is for tuition that we already know we're going to have to pay. It's there's there isn't any extra money in there. We know what students, and we have names attached to that money already. There is no way to cut those two lines. That money is already attached to Andover resident students that attend other facilities.
I you know, there's there's a lot of things that we didn't talk about. I mean, even even just as as a leader, Valerie, you know, I said this before and I really think it's something to consider is that you might wanna consider reducing your salary increase because that would show the community that you cared about the children.
And I know you do Caitlin, can I ask that that Yeah? That conversation please please don't insinuate I don't care about the children because I accept a paycheck. That's insulting, and I'm gonna ask the chair and the vice chair, please, to bring us back to order. Because to say I don't care about children because I receive a paycheck is not fair. So, Caitlin, I'm gonna give it back to you. Yeah.
We're gonna move on from that topic. Her salary was negotiated, and if if anything, it's less than fair, and that has nothing to do with how we affect the rest of the budget. That's contractual just like the teacher's contracts are contractual. So does anyone else that hasn't spoken yet have any questions specifically about what they've recommended in terms of reducing the budget?
I like to object to the statement that was put out there questioning the superintendent's leadership. I think our superintendent shows great leadership in this district, and I object to that that statement, that comment. That's insulting and it's hurtful.
I'm not trying to be hurtful. I didn't say that she doesn't care about children. I'm just saying that this is an option. It's on tape. Hey, guys. Everything's on the table. Oh, oh. Everything should be on the table. Right?
It's not an option. Stop. It's not an option. About our attorney line? Need to spend $20,000 on an attorney?
Marcy, I didn't understand what I didn't hear what you just said because we were overtalking one another. What I'm saying to you is is we have a contractual obligation just like we have a contractual obligation to our teachers and our noncertified staff. So everybody with the contract has we have the out obligation to meet those contractual obligations. It's not something that's that's subject to negotiation right now. I did have a question, and that is, and it just in general. So we passed this budget. We take into consideration all of everybody's recommendations. And what happens this coming year if, you know, by any chance, we could bring any of these things back. We see some savings somewhere, all that kind of stuff. Is there a way that that's even a possibility
just to address my personal concerns about what we're losing?
Shannon, I will do what I always do, which, as you know, I fill out 10 to 15 applications a year for grants. I look for ways to try to consolidate. I you know, you've known me going on seven years now, and I will continue to do that. And Taylor knows that we've worked on a couple of them together, so we will continue to do that. And nobody wants to cut anything, and we will continue to try our best to see. And if there's anything that happens, if there's changes that occur during the year, you guys will be the first to know.
About $5,000 in the lunch program that we don't use. There's $5,000.
The lunch the lunch program, that line used to be $20,000. And the way that that works, it you don't know from one year to the next if we have money in that or if we have to pay more money. Am I correct in saying that, Val? Yes. Yes.
And that comes in, Caitlin, usually at the end of the year because any of our losses at the end of the year are given to us the end of June. That's when Coventry Foodservice says, hey. It's the end of the year. This is how much we collected. These were all your expenses, and, oh, by the way, you still owe us this.
It's a a So we've we've they've cut that line item specifically down year after year for the past few years.
Yes. Yep. So we had a library stat library salary of $56,000 this past year. Right? There was a grant as well.
There was hold on. I think she's looking at two different years. Yes. So if you look at the library, yes, there was part of the library in '25 that was paid out of there, which is why it was $55,007.60. And then that last day went into because we had gone from years ago, when you look back at the last five years, that one at some point was reduced and reduced when there were a 170 kids, and then it went back up. And so once that grant was gone to do that in the recommended, it's the $78.04 12. Every time over the years since I've been here, I can't speak to prior to me. When something was grant funded, we took it out just like with the psychologist. We took it out of the budget budget completely. We didn't leave it in there as a placeholder to have extra money. When it was grant funded, it came out.
Can we change that for next year and put all the grants in the budget as a revenue source? So They're not revenue sources. Well Grants that come in big banks. It's a different word. Okay? It would just be a lot nicer and cleaner to see on the budget actually how much is spent and then with the, you know, with the grant below.
So we we I have talked to Robert about that. Honestly, the way that our budget is written is modeled after the way that the town writes theirs. So to change that, like, we would want both sides to change and do it the same. I agree with you, Marcy. I think it would look a lot cleaner and make a lot more sense to people that, like, oh, there's a grant that cover that that applies to this that we know we're getting. And then then when that goes away, like the school psychologist, it would be very apparent that it isn't there instead of making it look like it cost more money, but it it has not been the way that it has been done.
Right. I could tell you that the reason why many municipalities don't do it that way, that's a town side decision. Because if our expenditures were in fact, you know, our budget was in fact not 5,000,000, it was 6,000,000, that becomes your MBR. And so that's why that's why a lot of towns don't do that because they don't want your budget itself to be that much higher because then your MBR says minimum budget requirement for the next year at 0% increase is that. And that actually is the reason why most towns don't do it that way. They do offset it when they're presenting a budget, like Caitlin said, where they'd say, hey. We're not asking for this much money, but these are our real expenses minus the grant that we got, and then this is what we're asking for. So it's not actually presented often in the budget itself. It's presented at the budget.
Yeah. But, Marcy, I mean, I agree with Caitlin and you. I mean, I think it it would be a great idea, but I think that it's probably, like, a tri board meeting conversation and not a meeting for tonight because we have a very specific goal. And so I think that we absolutely should take it next time we can get everybody together and and agree that if that's how we wanna proceed, we all do it together.
Yeah. Does anyone have other questions specifically about the recommended, cuts to the budget to get to 6% before we look at approving this?
No. I wish that we could, you know, do something, find $10,000 so we could at least keep the language in there. I I think it's you know, we're gonna lose so much steam, those poor kids. You know, the sixth graders, they're gonna go into junior high school, and they're gonna have to choose a language. And if they don't have language in sixth grade, they're gonna be behind all the other kids. So just just so that you know, and I say this as a middle school parent,
when they get to sixth grade to seventh grade, they're allowed to choose I think on other teams on inquiry, it's only Spanish and French. On the other teams, I think they might also have a choice of Latin, but I'm not a 100% sure on that. They start at zero. So, like, my kid chose to take French, and they start from the very beginning. So in terms of, like, getting to the middle school and being behind, they're not actually behind in terms of where they start from there. I know when we were talking about this, the last meeting, Taylor did check with Hebron and Marlboro, and they both do have Spanish programs, I believe. So we definitely would be behind in regards to that. But in terms of where the middle school learning starts, it definitely starts at zero. Like, they assume kids are taking it that have never taken the language before.
We have 5,000 in our contingency, and we also have the 2%. Is that is that in addition to it? Is the contingency different than the 2%? No. 22% is our contingency. That's the same thing.
And and with the number of of needs that we have with our special education students, at this point, I would strongly suggest that we not consider that until we see what potential needs moving forward are with our special education students and the potential need for additional resources.
We have a lot of money in for our lawyer. We could
try not to use a lawyer so much. I would love to not use a lawyer so much. That would be a great thing to look forward to not having to do. So
And if we need it, we could put that and use that as a, emergency. Right?
At the end of the year. Budgeted for the lawyer right now?
We had last year reduced that, and this year let's see. Jody, are you finding that? I've
I'm looking. It's under board services or something. 10,000. 10,000. And I believe this year, we're at least at 20,000 with lawyer bills.
Yep. At least. And that's been pretty, pretty regular, unfortunately, for the last couple years. So budgeting 10,000 is very much on the low side.
Yeah. At least at least for the past few years, it has been. Yes. Correct. What are admin technology professional services?
Anything that's in here just I wanna be very clear. Anything that's in here in creating these lines, there is no contingency built in to those lines. So when we built that, we go back through the licenses, for example, and we see what licenses are we currently using, what licenses are required for curriculum, what and that is what's built into that line. So there is nothing extra those lines where we say this is a just in case. I I I just I need to put that out there. There is no just in case, just like with the tuition line. Those are attached to students' names. We don't have money in there in case someone last minute decides they wanna go to a magnet school. The only money in there are the students that we already know attend magnet school. The only money that's in the licenses and fees and the tech line is what we already know exists in the budget. There is no contingency built into those lines.
I was watching last year's, budget meeting after the budget was passed, and you actually said that for the, lunch program. You said we need to keep that in just in case.
The lunch program is different because that's not dependent on us. That's dependent on whether or not families decide to buy lunch. If they don't buy lunch or they don't qualify for free and reduced lunch for that money to come in, that affects everything. So that we have to go on a trend data for. And as Caitlin pointed out, we've been reducing that every year. Once we can add another year of trend data and say, ah, okay. Another year that we haven't quite spent what it could have been six years ago, and we reduced that. And we have done that with those lines every year that are not dependent on us. That line is dependent on who decides if nobody in the school buys lunch, lunch, then our food service costs
for food, for staff, for everything kitchen related still have to get paid. And so it is dependent on whether or not people utilize the cafeteria. And you're right that that one was reduced every year simply because as we had one more year of trend data that said it didn't have to quite be that much, we would reduce a couple of thousand dollars from there. And a lot of that changed after COVID, like the Yes. The COVID years, we had extra. Yeah. Right. We got more of a reimbursement during COVID. Because it was that because all the kids
brought their food? Or Nope. The federal government in The US. Right. Now, you get $2.50 as a reimbursement for a child who receives free or reduced lunch. During COVID, from twenty twenty one, twenty two, it went up to $4 and change. So there was more money coming in. So we waited one more year in twenty three to '24 to see how much would come in, and then we reduced it.
So you didn't answer the question. So $3.40 the line 34242580, admin technology professional services. What is that? Joanie, you have to tell answer that.
I well, we went over that in our budget meetings, and I I had every you know, PrimePay is this line item, Frontline is this item. I don't have that in front of me, but what I can tell you is every line item is accounts for something. So I can tell you that that line item is either, frontline, or our,
I don't that one's not primary, but it's We use PowerSchool. We use frontline. We use admins. We use these are our software systems. Yes. So it's just a lot
I'm just hearing a lot of you know, we gotta keep it in just in case.
No. Not just in case. Don't yeah. I don't think it's just in case. I think it's based on what we it it is based on what we've been spending and what the forecasted is for next year. And on that note, I'd like to make a motion to approve and accept the red lined revisions in this budget for the twenty six to twenty seven budget year. Second.
Hi. Would we like to call a vote? Hi. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Alicia is the Zoom user just so everybody knows.
Who is the Zoom user? Alicia Lee. Yeah. Sorry. My phone wouldn't update.
You're Sorry. I just muted you. I didn't mean to mute you. I apologize. Oh, okay. Anyone opposed? I'm opposed. Okay. And anyone abstaining? Okay. Are you taking back over, madam chair? I
don't have to now. You can No. No. No. I was just looking forward to calling all the names, but you go right ahead.
Would you like to call names one by one? No. You go right ahead, ma'am. K. So in favor, Jerry, you voted in favor. Yes? Yes. I did. K. Shannon? Yes. Yeah. Sharon? Yes. Brie? Yes. Alicia? Yes.
K. I voted in favor, and then Mercy is voting opposed. Okay. We'll move on, to comments from the public. The Taylor, do you have them all on the big screen at all or no? Or maybe I can do that. I have them on two screens, Caitlin, if you want me to try it. Yeah. If you can because there's a lot of people on here. Okay. First on my screen is Scott Soyette.
I wanna thank you guys for the hard work. That's a terrible thing to have to be doing. And I gotta tell you, missus Hatch was the librarian in my elementary school, and I don't know. Would have survived for that first. So I'm really, really sorry to see library gone, but I know you had to do it. Thank you. Thanks, Scott. Julie Gordet? No comment. Sorry.
That's okay. Thanks, Julianne Child. Diane Greiner? I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. Thank you, Diane. Jessica Wayne? I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you. Katie Dixon?
Thank you guys for everything that you've done, but that's it. Thank you.
Thank you, Katie. Ana Giardos? I probably didn't pronounce that right. Ana Giardos, d z I a d o s z. Okay. We'll come back to Anna. Jen Magoldrick?
I also just wanna thank you all for, your commitment to the budget, and I do wanna thank Val because she is very committed to our school. So thank you for everything you've done. Thanks, Jen. Doctor Kelly?
Yes. Thank you for your presentation. I have a couple questions, because I watched last time too, and I'm not clear on the, what the need for two custodians and additional hours. And I wasn't sure, does the custodial service cover the after school program, the preschool program, outside and outside programs at the school, and, how come that was not looked at? Also, I had a question on I wasn't clear on how on the savings regarding the elementary para versus hiring one para. I'm not clear why the library books and periodicals are being left in at, $700 if we're not gonna have a library. I am concerned about losing library and Spanish. I agree that, those are two places. I think people think library is just to take out books,
but, as you said, oftentimes, librarians do a lot of research. I also would love to have the board or Valerie, I guess that would be you, set up what would be the priorities if money did come in. How would you bring back certain services? Like, would library come back first? Would Spanish come back first? Or would whatever else come back first? I also wanna know if there was any, thought about pairing with the town so that maybe, there could be a part time librarian at the school sponsored by the town, or is there some way I mean, we have a great library in the town. Has there been any coordination with that with the town? And if there's been any thought about coordinating with the town around the lawyer. Is it possible that the lawyer I don't know. Maybe it is already the same person. And, would there be a savings there? And, also, is there anything around pairing with the town around custodial services, especially if I know, Valerie, you said last time there was a day custodian, a night custodian, and then I don't know if you said four additional hours or five additional hours. Well, can something be done with the town so that that could be reduced a reduced cost? So other than that, that's all the comments I have. Thank you very much. Thank you for ideas, doctor Kelly.
Jenny Morell?
Thank you to everyone for all the hard work you've done with this budget. We appreciate it. Thanks, Jenny. Liz Loquatch?
Hi. I wanna say it's been a really rough budget season, frankly. Glad it's over. I know you guys have been through a lot as well. I do appreciate all of Marcy's out of the box thinking, so I did wanna recognize her. I also wanted to ask the question, I noticed, I think it was in May, you guys talked about taking 97,500 out of the 2% nonlapsing to make up for your deficit. And I think in the last board of ed meeting, you suggested you weren't gonna need that money, so you were sending it back. And my question is, how did you handle the transfers that you had already done with that money that you that night it was close to close to 97, and maybe it was 92,000 transferred to other areas you expected to be short at. I was just wondering what how you planned on
handling those transfer untransferring or whatever. If you could just maybe address the, 2% that you took. Thanks for your question, Liz. Kimberly Persaud? Conducting right now. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Joanne Hebert.
Hi there. I think that these were thoughtful cuts that were made to the budget tonight, and I liked hearing about them. I know that our town is very emotional where the school's, you know, invested, and and I get that. You know? I mean, I listened to all the meetings, but, I think they did a great job with suggestions of, you know, redeploying staff, you know, to the best they could. I mean, I know you're not answering questions now, but I know, you know, in the future, I'd love to hear how many specialists there are in the school because I know that the school that I work in has 800 students, and we have two library personnel. One's a tech integration specialist, and one's the library media specialist. So I didn't know if perhaps some of the things could be shared back there at all. I mean, I know they all have different roles, just at a smaller size. And then, you know, it saddens me, and I'd love our town to get a little uplifted.
This is a great school. There's nothing to feel sorry about. You know, parents are a big part of the education. It's a, you know, it's a combination of a partnership between home and families. So, you know, the parents in this town do a wonderful job, you know, preparing their students and making sure they do all the work. So I think they're gonna do okay. It was, you know, painful to cut the budget, but it was necessary, you know, because the townspeople had spoken. And then the last thing I wanted to say, you know, unfortunate with the with the language. But working in a middle school, most students come to school, you know, starting learning a language in middle school. So that was a bonus for our little elementary students, but, you know, maybe it'll come back in the future. Maybe some parents can volunteer. Maybe there'd be other ways to introduce clubs and, you know, the Spanish language. I would have loved it in elementary. That's all. I just wanna kinda uplift it. It always seems so I I know everybody's so invested, but, I think Andover's gonna be okay. I think, you know, hearing that parents would want to take their students out and possibly go to a magnet, you know, having worked in other districts, it's just I I can't even believe that statement, but I hope that doesn't happen because they're very blessed and lucky with the staff and people that are in Andover already. So good luck. Thanks, Joanne. Melissa Lefeska.
I'm just gonna reiterate what everyone else has been saying. Thank you to Val and to the board. I know these decisions weren't easy, and I know that there was probably a lot of time and discussion and many, many hours went into what was presented in front of us today. So thank you.
Thanks, Melissa. Jamie Weber? I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you, Jamie. Before I leave the screen, Anna Dziedosz, d z I a d o s z. Okay. I'll move to the next screen.
Sorry about that. I couldn't unmute myself. No no comments. I just was listening in this evening. Thank you. Okay. Thanks a lot, Anna. You know, I see.
Well, now you need to mute. There we go. Jessica Wayne. Did I already do you, Jessica? Yes. I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you, Jessica.
Whoever is HARP? And I know I'm pretty You're all set. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Christina Fraser.
Just wanna thank the board for all of their hard work and particularly thank Val for her continued commitment to always putting our children first.
Thanks, Christina. Did I miss anyone? Okay. I think I've covered it, madam chair. If you wanna take it back over.
Thank you. So our next upcoming meetings, we have our regular board meeting on July 8, and then we have our special board meeting and retreat, on August 4. That one's at 4PM. I know a couple people are going to miss the July meeting if I remember correctly. But just look out, for an email. I will send you guys an email soon in terms of questions, for our board review as well as the superintendent's review so that we can be prepared to discuss those in person. And I will be sending you guys updates on the demo and the bathroom project, which is definitely coming along. So Great. That's all we have. Motion to adjourn. Okay. Second. I can Thank you, Jerry. It is 758.
Okay? Have a good night. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Bye.