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These meeting notes are AI-generated and unofficial. They are provided for convenience and are not official Town records or approved municipal minutes. Verify all details using the source video and official Town documents.
The meeting addressed several critical municipal matters, beginning with the formal acknowledgment of Casella's Host Community Agreement documents and a comprehensive presentation on the Quabbin Regional School District's challenging FY25 budget, highlighting funding shortfalls and strategic cuts. A significant decision was made to award the Gilbertville Wastewater Treatment Facility project to WM Schultz Construction, contingent on approvals, to address compliance issues. The Board also discussed and deferred final decisions on the Elizabeth Morse Scholarship Fund's award process and amounts. Key appointments were made for Highway Laborer 2 and a part-time Mart Driver, and the Complete Streets Policy was formally adopted to secure future infrastructure funding. The meeting concluded with routine approvals and an an update on community center renovations and a failed zoning variance request.
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On the 25th of March I have a I'm G to make a an explanation here about why we're zooming we have a fair amount of business tonight and last
Thursday uh people that work for cassella dropped off a a draft host Community agreement and some other documentation uh and this was the fastest way to get it out into the public so I haven't looked at it Kelly hasn't nobody's looked at it uh We're
Not gonna have an argument or an agreement or a discussion about it because we don't know what we're dealing with yet but I wanted to get it out into the public it is digitized and it will be on the website as soon as we call a
Meeting and the Selectmen vote to do that but that's the reason that we're zooming I figured there'd be too many people here and we just have to cancel the meeting and reschedule so that was my thinking okay um I would like to call
For a motion to acknowledge receipt of the Cassel proposed documents draft host Community agreement draft agreement for the provision of Lee Treatment Services termination and reconfiguration of patol Hollow
Road I'm recusing myself Robert are you there yeah I'm trying to get my camera on before I do this hold on well that would be good enough um I
So move thank you I second it all in favor I Robert hi okay so everything that we have now will be in the public domain you'll have to go to the town website to see it and
We'll deal with it at some point in the future thank you okay uh we also have the qrsd budget discussion with superintendent mucha joint meeting with the finance committee uh several of whom are in the
Room with me um I would turn it over to you Ma'am great thank you so I'm colie muhan the interim superintendent of the Quin Regional School District and Cheryl Duval who is our business administrator is here with me um so I can't see all of
You but thank you for having us we basically have uh we've had four different iterations of our budget so far this year and we just wanted to reach out to each of the towns to kind of tell you where we're at with our process and just see if you have any
Questions for us so we have shared multiple PowerPoints they can all be found on our website under our business administration tab we are actually working to create just a page with all those budget documents for you
And we don't know what folks have maybe that's my dog in the background I'm so sorry um what maybe folks have seen prior to tonight or not so what we did is we just compiled a bit of an outline um of our some slides from
Various presentations that kind of helps tell the story to where we're at with our budget currently since it's been voted on at our public budget meeting so again thank you just for having us and if you have questions as we're going
Along please don't hesitate to ask we want this to be as much of a back and forth as we can have um and Cheryl's gonna kind of take it over um but I just want to start with um we do have a brief presentation Nicole if there's a way
Could you make Sher host and then she could share that presentation on a like a slide deck okay great so as Cheryl's queuing that up you know across the state we know this is not a good budget year for any of us so
We want to sort of acknowledge and recognize that also our Esser funding has ended this was a three-year funding package that we had postco that was to help us address learning loss to help us better support our students with
Their social emotional learning and also health and safety so that is going away that's one of the factors um in our reality and I'm sure you're seeing this in your communities in different ways is that it's just taking us longer than I think anyone had anticipated and I don't
Just mean quab and I just mean education in general um for us to regain the ground on education and academics our our recovering learning loss is just a little bit slower than we had expected and our student social emotional and overall well-being um continues to be a
Challenge on top of that one of the unanticipated outcomes that we've seen since Co covid is this idea of chronic absenteeism so we're seeing our students at high rates uh not attending school for more than 10% of the school year so we go to
School for 180 days our kids are missing 18 days or more of their school year coupled with this idea of learning loss and social emotional learning has caused us to um see a greater need for specialized services in special
Education and counseling and so therefore we have had to um our case loads have been increased for that those particular categories of Staffing and we have been struggling as I'm sure you guys have on the town end as well to fill our positions in a timely manner
And this year we have a lot of retirements that are upcoming uh that we're going to need to fill so those are some of our current challenges um and then I'm sure Cheryl's going to start talking to some of the budget components but any sort of questions about just that intro of of
Where we're at and what we're [Music] seeing okay thanks see anybody when I have my screen open so if you have a question just please interrupt me uh we're going to start talking about declining state aid
That supports our budget currently the house I mean sorry the governor's budget that came out we're seeing $93,000 Less in state a for next year than we had this year just some information for you 68.4% of the districts are only receiving minimum Aid and that is $30 per
Student additionally 64% of Regional School District are now and hold harmless debt for FY 25 the superintendent made mention of the end of our sr3 grant which were a series of pandemic relief grants that we had over the last four years um our decision to reduce or eliminate some
Programs or incorporate approximately $880,000 in cost of the operating budget is something that we're we're challenged with so while we're still addressing academic social and emotional needs of students there are some programs that we're letting go of or at least one program we're letting go of for next
Year in building fy2 we are relying on some more reserves than we ever have in the past we will be increasing our use of school choice Revenue uh to continue some of that programming that was funded by sr3 we're also seeing just as you are historic inflation costs and supplies and materials and Contract Services
Specifically software licensing and special education services additionally we had a transportation contract that's ending at the end of June and our contract came in at 18.2 n% we only had two biders we just got our electric contract bid for
November of 2024 that's a 23% increase I think we've all seen increases in our own home electric costs additionally we will be dealing with some school building infrastructure needs specifically air circulation Improvement at our middle school and some floor replacement
Projects um Colleen do you want to take the the priorities so um these are our four Focus areas on our strategic plan aligned with our mission and vision so you heard me talk at the start that we're really uh trying to put put some
Things into place to address chronic absenteeism to improve attendance longterm because we know that will result in Greater academic achievement for our students we have provided credit recovery and summer programming we actually have a Saturday session ongoing right now for our Middle High School
Students we're working hard to support the diverse learning needs of our students one thing we didn't talk about was we've even seen an increase in our English language learner so or multilingual Learners um now there are mandates so in these diverse
Learning needs there are mandates from the state that say we have to provide screening for dyslexia we need to address those individual needs we have a new IEP process that is being implemented and uh meeting our speech services based on what students needs so
We're continuing those supports we are also we saw a great increase for Behavioral support for our students and we continue to see that need and this year we've had a greater focus on School Safety and Security so we're really working hard to make sure our school buildings are safe SEC secure clean and
Inviting we've been piloting a new sign in and sign out process where if you come into the school you sign in it automatically prints a badge um and you do it all on an iPad and when you leave if you forget to sign out it messages
You so that we can keep track of who's in our buildings yep I'm sorry I don't mean to interrupt you but can everybody please mute themselves because we're getting feedback as the superintendent is speaking thank you sorry Colleen thank you thanks Kelly no I appreciate it because I'm just rolling them through
Here so um we work really hard to have this welcoming School culture and environment but just want to sort of acknowledge um and I'm sure you've seen it in the news as well that we have to have a focus on school safety so we're piloting some things we had an audit
Done in the fall that made some recommendations um for our district and that's why we're piloting these different things we are going to be seeking grant funding to see if we can Implement some of those things in place and we do meet monthly with your fire and police Chiefs where we're all all
Working on this consistently together so since we had our public hearing back on March 14th some of the unknown costs at that point have now come in um not many to our advantage however our retired teachers health insurance is being reduced by $188,000
In our next round of budget input regular Transportation as I mentioned went up by over 18% uh we just got our FY 24 increase of General business insurance is which went up by 4.3% I don't think I need to make an adjustment to that in the budget for
Next year and as I mentioned our electricity rates increased by 23% some big items that are still unknown at this time is Our Workers Compensation Insurance we filled out all the reports back in the early first week of March I believe but we haven't heard anything about our renewal rate there and Wester
Regional retirement assessment has not yet been received so I think most people that are on online or on the boards at least has seen our appropriation control report in the past this is the format by which our school committee approves a budget and also approves transfers between
Categories you can see the First Column is FY 24 where we currently are and we've had uh preliminary budget number one proposed budget number two and proposed budget number three that is the budget that went to the public hearing back on March 14 if you don't mind I'll skip ahead
Because I have a easier screens to read than this one here but this particular report will show you the difference from the current version we on number three and number two as well as the change from the current proposed budget number three to the current year so right now
Our budget appropriation is 4.1% over the current year we have made significant cuts to positions through the public hearing date of budget and I just have a listing here I've broken them down because you won't see all of the cuts in budget as there are some positions that are in
Other sources there were two requested positions in um the very first and second rounds of the budget but you'll see that there was a teacher requested Nicole I apologize but I'm not very good being the co the host and letting people in um in the first first
Round of budget we had a teacher requested we cut that and and propos number two and made it an intervention tutor and then it's been cut fully so there's a savings there in the budget we also had a par professional requested and that was cut in proposal number
Three the next group of positions are actually reductions in force either by attrition or actual layoffs that will will attain so you'll see that we have 9.3 positions that will be a reduction in force and there were three positions
That were in other sources not the budget there are academic coaches you'll see them out listed on here twice because some of our academic coaches and interventionists are in the budget some of them are in Title One a short a small reduction there and that is the number of days they work some of them worked
Seven days over the teacher schedule some of them worked 10 they will all be working only five days over the teacher schedule and the technology integration specialist that's one of the programs that was put into place for Esser 3 when we needed to go all online learning from home as well as in school and so we've
Decided that that program will no longer continue and you'll see that we've cut 13.4 positions or $874,000 as of this date which may as I have listed on the top lead to increased Unemployment
Needs just a quick overview of where we were in January on the 22nd we had a budget subcommittee meeting at that point our budget was $41.5 million a 7.9% increase before we even brought that to the subcommittee we made some cuts of $666,000 and brought forward a
Budget of 40 million 40.8 million at 6.17% increase over the current year then we went back to the budget subcommittee on February 29th reduced another 79 $6,000 to the 4.1% increase in budget and that's where
We went to public hearing on March 14 so from the first iteration of the budget we've cut over $1.4 million Cheryl maybe we should just pause for any questions up until this point Cheryl
Could you also check the waiting room yeah I'm I'm trying to keep keep that that going there Nicole nobody's there now no questions we'll move on uh just wanted to let everyone know that there are
Other funds that support the district operations and this is just some of them I record the fund what type of account it is and the positions that were there at least in the first round of our budget um I believe all of these that are here remain in the budget at remain outside the budget as of this point 66.5
Fpes totaling over $6.1 million between revolving accounts and grants we wanted to provide for everybody in our public hearing and uh the peral expenditure versus the
State average those numbers had just come up from the state you'll have to know that not all of the district had reported at this point so the state average is not actual for FY 23 but you can see in total uh Quin is 1 Mill $1,119 below the state average but you'll notice the note to the right the
Department of education does not compute a pureal expend expenditure for out of District expenditures because there really no consistent formula to use what I mean by that is for example our director of student services is part of District administration but we do not count his salary based on how many
Students he sees in the district versus how many times he go to goes to out a district meeting so the the state does not calculate that so we did not put anything here but you'll notice there are some places that we are below the state average and other places that we are higher than the state average but in
Total we are less than less than the state average by over ,000 just some notes where we are working off of the revenue sources from the governor's budget uh funds for the fourth year of the student opport Opportunity Act with two was $230
Million increase you'll see that there are I believe 10 10 districts right here that are getting the greatest amount of that new Aid 255 out of 323 nonoperating as well as operating districts are now in hold harmless debt
The quaven district fell further in hold harmless debt by $113,000 with a declining enrollment of 27 resident students cin has the 41st largest hold harmless debt just over $2 million and again 66.4% of all operating districts are receiving only the minimum
Aid of $30 per student these 10 districts listed to the right are receiving 58% of the new increase in chapter 708 this is our cherry sheet put in a to an Excel file so that you can we can see
The differences again only $30 per student or $57,900 for our district to use we are actually actually seeing right at this point a reduction in Regional School transportation reimbursement but I'm sure that that will be increased as the as the go um the house and the Senate
Move through their budget process as most of you that have been on the finance committee or the select board in the past no there are two components to the assessment calculation for Regional School Districts one is the
Required local contribution this is how required local contributions for our five towns changed for FY 25 you'll see that Two Towns had about the same increase Hardwick and new brany had a 1.7% increase and then Barry and oakam over 3% but you notice that hubon had a
Has a 7.5% and that's going to be a huge impact on their assessment the other bear EXC excuse me was me sneezing Sorry God bless you I can't like I said I can't see faces uh the
Other variable in the assessment calculation is resident enrollment four of our five towns had a reduction in Resident enrollment and harb and saw an increase of 20 students so with the required local contribution going up almost twice as much as two of our towns for hubberston and higher enrollment
They're going to see the largest increase in their assessment this is where we stand you saw the top box before at this level of the budget at 4,618 N7 the town of Hardwick would be looking at a 6.84% increase you can see on average
It's 8.35 but they range anywhere from 2 and a half% to nearly 12% I do a history of our budget and assessment increases for the last 10 years and I do that because there's a lot of misconception out there about how our budget has increased and that's
What's pushing putting pressure on the town assessments that's not necessarily so it's more the lack of revenue from the state as you can see the largest increase in our budget was actually for the current year at 6% and to make up for that increase of 6% the school committee put
$750,000 of end as Revenue source for this year I have here our Revenue projections just to point out a few things in each of the area at this point as I said with the governor's budget state aid is down the district revenue from reserves are
At level funding and this is the member Town assessment you'll see the top box is the required local contribution the amount above the required local contribution and it adds together and there's those are the same percent that I showed in the earlier screen member Town assessments are calculated higher than
Desired given that we only had a 4.1% increase in our budget however is not unexpected given the total state aid increase in the governor's budget was almost a half a percent over this current year and 4.47% increase in required local
Contribution our long-term debt assessment also went up that is basically for the towns that decided to borrow for the chiller project that was done last year the long-term debt on the Middle High School Green repair project will conclude on March 15th 20127 and Barry Hardwick and hubson
Chose to borrow for the HVAC repair project that is a five-year ban which means it will go out to bid each year on the anniversary date which is November 27th and will be paid off on 1127 2028 that is the end of our presentation for tonight so we can entertaining
Questions or go back to anything that someone may need um before we take any questions so what I want to tell you is that um at this point being that we cut so many
Positions out of the budget at this point we know that additional cuts are going to be um very impactful to our students so we've decided to hold at this point until we get the House and Senate budgets so when we have those
Numbers um we know these numbers are probably not looking great to you at this point know that we will go back and we've already started kind of working on depending what we get from the House and Senate any decreases that we may need to make but I I want to be really
Honest with you this is of course my first year in this position um this is not the budget I guess I wanted to have for sure um but I hope you see that we try to act early so that we could prepare best prepare um a budget that is
You know manageable and reasonable without really really cutting multiple programs so that's the place we're at and if you guys have any questions about anything specific or in general we're happy to entertain
Those I feel like Jeffrey Smith's screen saver probably says it all there maybe a little bit it sure tries
No thank you foration well thank you very much I guess there aren't any questions yet well don't hesitate to reach out we're happy to come back um all of our materials are on our website and we have
A email that you can direct your questions to as well and I'm sure we'll see you again before town meeting but thanks for your time tonight we do really appreciate it thank you thank you thank you it was just
Us for there meeting okay thank you
Okay the finance committee is leaving least the room and U what's up good so far I'll call for help to we have a bid award for
Gilbertville um seage treatment facility uh I would like to ask for more time at least for us to have a conversation about this face to face we have uh till mid April before we uh turn
Into pumpkins so what's your pleasure I mean I've been following this project all along I go to the Thursday meetings I I call in on the Thursday meetings
I I I would just assume move forward where you know that's just my
Opinion I do have um DPC here if there are any questions well then here I would ask um are any of these Alternatives um possibly
Adjustable before or after we sign this contract yeah so goad no yeah I was gonna say so just big picture you know we've been managing to the town's appropriation and the USDA
Financial package which again was developed back in 2020 early 2020 January 2020 um so really our strategy with Nicole and your team um has been to manage to that budget so the the thought process on each of these projects was we may not get everything that was
Envisioned four or five years ago you know just based on what's happening in the industry you know the the financials were locked in at that point and it's always been focused on how how to get the town out of the administrative orders with EPA and D um you know get the uh facilities back into compliance
Etc so when you mentioned Bas bid and alternates the base bids of all these projects were structured such that the town you know would ensure that they're getting you know essentially the heart and lungs of the facility you know revamped and in Gilbertville you know that's the Iration system um it's some
Better flow distribution for the secondary clarifiers Etc uh replacement of Aging you know infrastructure that has very limited like if it's you know not already passed it um so that's been the strategy all along the alternates that you speak to and the strategy on these USDA projects is to award what you
Can on day one which we feel for Gilbertville would be the base bid and additive alternate number one that would allow the town to maintain still a healthy 10% contingency on both the wheel right and the Gilbertville construction contracts because we're early on so that totals to about 1.7
Million dollar in contingency that is I don't want to use the word unaccounted for but it's it's contingency that's what it's there for for the unforeseen that come up on construction projects but also to strategically bring back in some of those additive alternates that we were not able to accept on you know
Bid day and the subsequent award so we've worked with you know Scott we've gotten his input in terms of you know what is his take on what might be um you know the prioriti list of these alternates to get back into the project and we're pretty confident you know
With that remaining contingency we'll be able to strategically uh get some of these um things back in now with that said um to your question about price so the pricing on bid day you know is is good on bid day and up to 30 days after that if we go back to add these alternates in you know later on with the
Contractors they're usually good about working with us um you know it it's essentially work coming to them as part of the project via change order um but that is to say to answer your question you know it's not guaranteed that their bidday price will remain true you know say several months from now when we go
Back to them you know to ask to have something reincorporated into the project um I guess that's just kind of the the big picture of it just let me know if I didn't answer uh what you were looking for specifically Justin if I could just add yeah you know the 30-day thing is statutory in Massachusetts you
Have 30 days to respond I'll just say right now the sooner the town can act on this the better it is in terms of the contractor being able to lock things in some of the vendors are only able to hold prices for three days it's um it's kind of a crazy world relative to equipment right now so any ability we
Have to work with them I think helps the town on the backside relative to prioritizing remaining contingency um shuffling things around out of priority again we have to order in the order the alternates were listed in the bid but one awarded you can really do anything you want relative to
The contingency so long as the project elements were part of the original plan concept so um you do have a little bit of time based on what we're seeing elsewhere and our direct experience with this we recommend that you consider moving on this this evening if at all
Possible Robert Robert are you there I am here I would uh I'd say let's let's move on it because it's really not going to change anything um the engineers gave us their recommendations it's what we pay them
For so I think we should move it forward and award the bid okay well i' look for a motion I would make a motion to um award the project to WM Schultz Construction
Ction for the total bid base bid and additive alternate number one in the amount of 10, 22,900 contingent upon USDA and town approvals to award and receipt and review of necessary bonds and insurance certificates from WM Schultz
Construction Inc second that okay all in favor I hi okay thank you thanks for your time thanks thanks
Guys okay uh the moris scholarship I don't have anything on this do you do we speak to it do we have a letter in our packet yes bill is here he was here for the
Finance meeting so he didn't have a chance to go home so I told him to just sit in my office and he could um talk to you here he does have a letter but it was um you know he didn't realize it was going to be Zoom so I'm just going to let him sit in my
Chair Bill Le the um so it was last uh last year that we uh we looked at the situation with the Elizabeth moris scholarship fund um handout I have that I'm sure will be forwarded to you I'll
Just remind you that at that time um I reported that the fund had been started in 2002 with $20,000 and was described as a scholarship fund and then quote the income of which is to be used each year
To provide scholarships for college education for male and female high school graduates who reside in Hardwick that's all it just was that brought over the years a few a few Awards of two three $400 were given out up until
2016 while the principal was held in low yielding certificates of deposit then last year when we took a look at this you had voted to move the $20,000 CD from a one quarter of 1% rate to a new
CD that we did and that's earning 4 4.6% that's going to mature in September of this year for the $20,000 plus approximately $920 of interest that is income that is in the category of expendable money for uh you
Know for for awards so right now we have money that wasn't invested in the CD that reflects past interest that was earned that was never awarded that's $1,400 so that amount of money is available and liquid right now should
You choose to consider making an award or two um this year for you know College Bound residents for this fall um and then next year or at the end of this year the $920 and any part of this 1400 that was still available would
Be available for you know for next year's consideration and at the current rate of four or five% for short-term CDs you could expect you know $800 to $1,000 each year so there's no you know there's there's there's
No process really in place for awarding this you did it before I think by advertising to locals through however you did it you know to bring in a few applications and then consider them and made some awards so I'm just wanting to update the numbers and tell you at this time of year like I promised to last
Year this is the case you could begin to make Awards again or you could put it off um until until next season if you chose to but that's the situation well thank you and it would be a good time you know the process will go
On and probably end in the summer and we could make Awards when students are starting to go back to school so that would make sense could you explain again what the original charge
Was right now Betty Morris gave $20,000 um to be used as a scholarship fund and then this is the exact quote it says income of which is to be used each year to provide scholarships for college
Education for male and female high school graduates who reside in Hardwick period you know to me it sounds like it doesn't have to be um a public school student or a Quin student it could be a votex student it could be a homeschooler or even an adult
Going going back to college the way this is written um so that's that's all it says it it didn't say High School something thought about a high school graduate yes Fe male and female high school graduates right okay oh so you
Can't skip high school and and apply for the college scholarship I guess right you have to be a high school graduate but it doesn't say local high school or recent high school or or such but a town resident yes yeah that's all it says I'm not sure I
Can't remember when when you have to have made your decision and have your scholarships lined up and make your first payments towards college but it it it may be I think last July actually we were talking about maybe it was a little bit late to be doing the process yeah so I would I I I was that's what I was
Thinking and I think that if I mean this could be put towards books though and then they wouldn't need it until the fall but I think that if we're gonna set it up it should probably Move Along sooner than later so that you know the student KN knew that they were going to have these funds for the
Fall I think on how much they want to give to each [Music] child we also uh as Nicole suggests we need to decide how much um maybe uh $500
For each scholarship um male and female just a suggestion uh do we want to put some sort of a u what a a reason for asking
But an essay to why they you know maybe provide an essay to why they feel that they should you know be deserving of the scholarship yeah and and nothing you know doesn't have to be a a you know 10 page paper or anything but just a you
Know I don't know how you did it last time but you solicited uh or the board at the time solicited some applications and couple years one was given out and maybe at least one year two were given out you know whether they were two or three or $400 rates were a little lower then there's a little less
Money most of the time but you could do you could do by the way it says each year it suggests that it should be something done each year um I'm not sure how to interpret male and female high school students whether she means one of each or either one is fine or whether whether
It means just one gift is okay or there should there's supposed to be one to each male and female so two I don't know how it says I like the idea that we could possibly give one to you know one male one female student um and I like
The $500 Eric that seems that seems reasonable you could do if you did if you meant 500 each then there'd be a th000 there'd be about $400 left right now and then there' be another 900 earned you could do the same the same thousand total two 500s if you chose to
Next year next year right yeah beyond that you'd probably have to revisit it depending on what interest rates have been the money yeah do we want to do that and have a you know a so many worded you know word essay do by a certain date and then you know we
Can take a working meeting to review review the essays and then make a decision yeah sounds good how do we get the word out I mean I think you know the website maybe you know anything we could so I was thinking if you want I could
Reach out to Quin and maybe reach out to Pathfinder because those are our two major schools and see what the process is that they have and uh you know maybe gauge what how big of an essay they require on other scholarships that they have to give you some ideas and even the
Amounts and maybe you could vote at the next meeting you know how much and and how long the essay should be I think I think that's a great idea just if you want to get some more information or you want to just choose it now I don't don't mind having a having a little more information yeah and do it
At the next meeting meeting and then really put something together then that that that sounds like a good idea give some time to get the word out before they close close up what in May or June I don't know can't remember yeah end of June but yeah I
Would say you know it's if it's March now and what our next meeting is April 8th and if we make a decision then I mean I would say you know we we' want things back within probably a month's time to make a decision
For okay we'll do okay sure here is this one for me all right thank you well I think we're all set with that all um let this person in and get that information for you
Guys okay do we have somebody something happening no I was just I I was letting somebody in okay uh we have a appointment for Richard budney uh Highway labor 2 position an
Appointment yes so Marty interviewed the applicants and uh thought this would be a best uh the best fit and you have it's a labor two position and the pay rate is $940 an hour and that's for a 40-day a 40 Hour Work Week
Starting April 1st also with the new assistant superintendent starting April 1 right we already did that though correct the assistant superintendent yes but I'm just kind of saying that they both be starting the same day if you make this
Appointment I'm fine with this do you want a motion or please I would make a motion um to hire Richard budney for the labor to position based on Mar's recommendation um with a rate pay of 1940 an hour starting April 1st 2024 pending all um preemployment
Checks second that okay thank you further discussion all in favor I I Could you um could we we shut the chat off please Nicole yeah I have to remember
How to do this all right we have uh April Gardner as a part-time Mar driver uh an appointment I assume this came from
Sharon yes it did and she is uh a Sharon is a driver right now because they're down a driver so this person will um you know help obviously
And it's gone through Zoom all I mean I'm sorry I'm trying to do this on zoom and I'm trying to help with the meeting it's gone through Mar already the approvals and that's essentially where they get paid from and uh you know sort of report to anyway so this is this approval has gone through them and now
To you I would make a motion to um approve the hiring of April Garder as a part-time Mark driver at 1551 an hour um pending all pre-employment checks it sounds like that maybe has already been done so I'll second it we all in favor Kelly
I Rob I Eric I thank do we have sewer abatements here no we do not that was just a placeholder that's what I was thinking um Nicole could you talk to the complete streets yes so Marty and I attended a
Session on complete treets and this is the next sorry this is the next step in getting to tier two and this allows us to have um access to funding for roads which is more like um Road
Painting you know I'm not exactly sure Marty could tell it talked about it better um what complete streets is exactly but it's not like the infrastructure or Utilities in the road for streets like we do with chapter 90 this is for um extensions of sidewalks and
Crosswalks and painting so it's it's a little more like surface level but we have to we have to go through these steps to to get to that point so we went to the meeting for a day in West Springfield a session a training session
And then we create the complete streets policy and when this is approved by you and submitted we can go to the next tier and cmrpc is assisting us with this too so this is just a supplement to um you know any our chapter 90 money and any of the other grants we get
Or tip programs from the state or something like that so the policy is in your packet and it's uh it's been approved by cmrpc as well it's sort of boilerplate information that towns adopt and we need
To adopt it yeah yeah you want a motion ER please I would make a motion to approve and adopt the complete Street policy dated March 25th 2024 I'll second it all in favor k i
Eric r i thank you um annual dog warrant I'll sign it tonight it'll be here probably no uh real urgency but the town clerk would like that so if you
Guys could come in and sign that would be good do we need to accept it do we need to vote to accept it ni the dog yes I would make a motion to accept the annual dog
Warrant second that all in favor I hi hi all right moving right along other new business meeting minutes
[Music] approval I could look for a motion to accept March 11 2024 I make a motion to approve March 11 2024 meeting
Minutes second it all in favor k i Eric I I February 26 2024 I would also make a motion to
Accept the meeting minutes of February 26 2024 I'll second it great all in favor Kelly I Eric I old business
Committee reports misscellaneous correspondence Town Administrator report it's in your packet if you have any questions I can just put it up on
The website thank you signatures and approvals select board Round Table zoom in right
Along looking forward to our next meeting face to face for sure Nicole does the complete streets have to be signed as well it does will you leave those in in yep okay I'll try try to stop by tomorrow
Great well that's all I have I make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I thanks guys thank
You
For
[00:00:00] on the 25th of [00:00:05] March I have a I'm G to make a an [00:00:09] explanation here about why we're [00:00:13] zooming we have a fair amount of [00:00:16] business tonight and last [00:00:19] Thursday uh people that work for [00:00:21] cassella dropped off a a draft host [00:00:25] Community agreement and some other [00:00:28] documentation uh and this was the [00:00:30] fastest way to get it out into the [00:00:33] public so I haven't looked at it Kelly [00:00:36] hasn't nobody's looked at it uh We're [00:00:39] not gonna have an argument or an [00:00:42] agreement or a discussion about it [00:00:44] because we don't know what we're dealing [00:00:47] with yet but I wanted to get it out into [00:00:50] the public it is digitized and it will [00:00:53] be on the website as soon as we call a [00:00:58] meeting and um [00:01:00] the Selectmen vote to do that but that's [00:01:03] the reason that we're zooming I figured [00:01:05] there'd be too many people here and we [00:01:08] just have to cancel the meeting and [00:01:10] reschedule so that was my [00:01:13] thinking okay um I would like to call [00:01:17] for a motion to [00:01:20] um acknowledge receipt of the Cassel [00:01:24] proposed documents draft host Community [00:01:27] agreement draft agreement for the [00:01:29] provision of Lee Treatment Services [00:01:32] termination and [00:01:34] reconfiguration of patol Hollow [00:01:40] Road I'm recusing [00:01:44] myself Robert are you [00:01:46] there yeah I'm trying to get my camera [00:01:49] on before I do this hold [00:01:55] on well that would be good enough um I [00:01:58] so move [00:02:01] thank you I second it all in [00:02:05] favor [00:02:06] I Robert [00:02:09] hi okay so everything that we have now [00:02:12] will be in the public domain you'll have [00:02:15] to go to the town website to see it and [00:02:18] we'll deal with it at some point in the [00:02:21] future thank [00:02:23] you okay uh we also have the [00:02:28] qrsd budget discussion [00:02:30] with superintendent [00:02:32] mucha joint meeting with the finance [00:02:35] committee uh several of whom are in the [00:02:38] room with [00:02:40] me um I would turn it over to you [00:02:43] Ma'am great thank you so I'm colie muhan [00:02:47] the interim superintendent of the Quin [00:02:49] Regional School District and Cheryl [00:02:51] Duval who is our business administrator [00:02:54] is here with me um so I can't see all of [00:02:57] you but thank you for having us we [00:03:00] basically have uh we've had four [00:03:03] different iterations of our budget so [00:03:05] far this year and we just wanted to [00:03:08] reach out to each of the towns to kind [00:03:10] of tell you where we're at with our [00:03:13] process and just see if you have any [00:03:15] questions for us so we have shared [00:03:19] multiple PowerPoints they can all be [00:03:21] found on our website under our um [00:03:24] business administration tab we are [00:03:27] actually working to create just a page [00:03:30] with all those budget documents for you [00:03:33] and we don't know what folks have maybe [00:03:35] that's my dog in the background I'm so [00:03:37] sorry um what maybe folks have seen [00:03:41] prior to tonight or not so what we did [00:03:43] is we just compiled a bit of an [00:03:46] outline um of our some slides from [00:03:51] various presentations that kind of helps [00:03:53] tell the story to where we're at with [00:03:56] our budget currently since it's been [00:03:58] voted on at our public budget meeting so [00:04:03] um again thank you just for having us [00:04:07] and if you have questions as we're going [00:04:09] along please don't hesitate to ask we [00:04:12] want this to be as much of a back and [00:04:14] forth as we can have um and Cheryl's [00:04:18] gonna kind of take it over um but I just [00:04:22] want to start with um we do have a brief [00:04:25] presentation Nicole if there's a way [00:04:28] could you make Sher host and then she [00:04:31] could share that presentation on a like [00:04:33] a slide deck okay [00:04:36] great so as Cheryl's queuing that up um [00:04:41] you [00:04:42] know across the state we know this is [00:04:45] not a good budget year for any of us so [00:04:48] we want to sort of acknowledge and [00:04:49] recognize that also our Esser funding [00:04:54] has ended this was a three-year funding [00:04:56] package that we had postco that was um [00:05:01] to help us address learning loss to help [00:05:04] us better support our students with [00:05:06] their social emotional learning and also [00:05:09] um health and safety so that is going [00:05:12] away that's one of the factors um in our [00:05:16] reality and I'm sure you're seeing this [00:05:18] in your communities in different ways is [00:05:20] that it's just taking us longer than I [00:05:23] think anyone had anticipated and I don't [00:05:26] just mean quab and I just mean education [00:05:28] in general um for us to regain the [00:05:31] ground on education and academics our [00:05:35] our recovering learning loss is just a [00:05:37] little bit slower than we had expected [00:05:41] and our student social emotional and [00:05:43] overall well-being um continues to be a [00:05:48] challenge on top of that one of the [00:05:51] unanticipated outcomes that we've seen [00:05:53] since Co covid is this idea of chronic [00:05:56] absenteeism so we're seeing our students [00:05:59] at high [00:06:00] rates uh not attending school for more [00:06:03] than 10% of the school year so we go to [00:06:06] school for 180 days our kids are missing [00:06:09] 18 days or more of their school year [00:06:13] coupled with this idea of learning loss [00:06:17] and social emotional learning has caused [00:06:20] us to um see a greater need for [00:06:23] specialized services in special [00:06:25] education and counseling and so [00:06:27] therefore we have had to um our case [00:06:30] loads have been increased for that those [00:06:33] particular categories of Staffing and we [00:06:37] have been struggling as I'm sure you [00:06:39] guys have on the town end as well to [00:06:41] fill our positions in a timely manner [00:06:44] and this year we have a lot of [00:06:46] retirements that are upcoming uh that [00:06:48] we're going to need to fill so those are [00:06:51] some of our current [00:06:53] challenges um and then I'm sure Cheryl's [00:06:56] going to start talking to some of the [00:06:59] budget components but any sort of [00:07:01] questions about just that intro of of [00:07:04] where we're at and what we're [00:07:05] [Music] [00:07:08] seeing okay [00:07:13] thanks see anybody when I have my screen [00:07:16] open so if you have a question just [00:07:17] please interrupt me uh we're going to [00:07:19] start talking about declining state aid [00:07:22] that supports our budget currently the [00:07:24] house I mean sorry the governor's budget [00:07:26] that came out we're seeing $93,000 Less [00:07:28] in state a for next year than we had [00:07:30] this year just some information for you [00:07:34] 68.4% of the districts are only [00:07:36] receiving minimum Aid and that is $30 [00:07:39] per [00:07:41] student additionally 64% of Regional [00:07:44] School District are now and hold [00:07:46] harmless debt for FY [00:07:48] 25 the superintendent made mention of [00:07:50] the end of our sr3 grant which were a [00:07:53] series of pandemic relief grants that we [00:07:55] had over the last four years um our [00:07:57] decision to reduce or eliminate some [00:07:59] programs or incorporate approximately [00:08:01] $880,000 in cost of the operating budget [00:08:04] is something that we're we're challenged [00:08:06] with so while we're still addressing [00:08:08] academic social and emotional needs of [00:08:10] students there are some programs that [00:08:12] we're letting go of or at least one [00:08:14] program we're letting go of for next [00:08:16] year in building fy2 we are relying on [00:08:20] some more reserves than we ever have in [00:08:22] the past we will be increasing our use [00:08:23] of school choice Revenue uh to continue [00:08:26] some of that programming that was funded [00:08:28] by sr3 [00:08:30] we're also seeing just as you are [00:08:31] historic inflation costs and supplies [00:08:33] and materials and Contract Services [00:08:35] specifically software licensing and [00:08:38] special education [00:08:40] services additionally we had a [00:08:42] transportation contract that's ending at [00:08:44] the end of June and our contract came in [00:08:46] at 18.2 n% we only had two biders we [00:08:51] just got our electric contract bid for [00:08:53] November of [00:08:54] 2024 that's a 23% increase I think we've [00:08:58] all seen increases in our own home [00:08:59] electric costs additionally we will be [00:09:02] dealing with some school building [00:09:04] infrastructure needs specifically air [00:09:06] circulation Improvement at our middle [00:09:07] school and some floor replacement [00:09:11] projects um Colleen do you want to take [00:09:13] the the priorities so um these are our [00:09:18] four Focus areas on our strategic plan [00:09:21] um aligned with our mission and vision [00:09:25] so you heard me talk at the start that [00:09:27] we're really uh trying to put put some [00:09:29] things into place to address chronic [00:09:31] absenteeism to improve attendance [00:09:33] longterm because we know that will [00:09:36] result in Greater academic achievement [00:09:38] for our students we have provided credit [00:09:42] recovery and summer programming we [00:09:44] actually have a Saturday session ongoing [00:09:46] right now for our Middle High School [00:09:48] students we're working hard to support [00:09:50] the diverse learning needs of our [00:09:52] students one thing we didn't talk about [00:09:55] was we've even seen an increase in our [00:09:58] English language learner [00:10:00] so or multilingual Learners um now there [00:10:03] are mandates so in these diverse [00:10:06] learning needs there are mandates from [00:10:08] the state that say we have to provide [00:10:10] screening for dyslexia we need to [00:10:12] address those individual needs we have a [00:10:14] new IEP process that is being um [00:10:18] implemented and uh meeting our speech [00:10:21] services based on what students needs so [00:10:24] we're continuing those supports we are [00:10:28] um also we saw a great increase for [00:10:31] Behavioral support for our students and [00:10:33] we continue to see that need and this [00:10:36] year we've had a greater focus on School [00:10:38] Safety and Security so we're really [00:10:40] working hard to make sure our school [00:10:41] buildings are safe SEC secure clean and [00:10:44] inviting we've been piloting a new sign [00:10:46] in and sign out process where if you [00:10:50] come into the school you sign in it [00:10:53] automatically prints a badge um and you [00:10:57] do it all on an iPad and when you leave [00:10:59] if you forget to sign out it messages [00:11:02] you so that we can keep track of who's [00:11:04] in our [00:11:05] buildings yep I'm sorry I don't mean to [00:11:08] interrupt you but can everybody please [00:11:10] mute themselves because we're getting [00:11:12] feedback as the superintendent is [00:11:14] speaking thank you sorry Colleen thank [00:11:18] you thanks Kelly no I appreciate it [00:11:19] because I'm just rolling them through [00:11:21] here so um we work really hard to have [00:11:25] this welcoming School culture and [00:11:28] environment but just want to sort of [00:11:30] acknowledge um and I'm sure you've seen [00:11:33] it in the news as well that we have to [00:11:35] have a focus on school safety so we're [00:11:37] piloting some things we had an audit [00:11:40] done in the fall that made some [00:11:43] recommendations um for our district and [00:11:47] that's why we're piloting these [00:11:48] different things we are going to be [00:11:50] seeking grant funding to see if we can [00:11:52] Implement some of those things in place [00:11:54] and we do meet monthly with your fire [00:11:57] and police Chiefs where we're all all [00:11:59] working on this consistently [00:12:03] together so since we had our public [00:12:06] hearing back on March 14th some of the [00:12:08] unknown costs at that point have now [00:12:10] come in um not many to our advantage [00:12:14] however our retired teachers health [00:12:16] insurance is being reduced by $188,000 [00:12:18] in our next round of budget input uh [00:12:21] regular Transportation as I mentioned [00:12:23] went up by over [00:12:25] 18% uh we just got our FY 24 increase of [00:12:29] General business insurance is which went [00:12:30] up by [00:12:32] 4.3% I don't think I need to make an [00:12:34] adjustment to that in the budget for [00:12:36] next year and as I mentioned our [00:12:37] electricity rates increased by 23% some [00:12:41] big items that are still unknown at this [00:12:43] time is Our Workers Compensation [00:12:44] Insurance we filled out all the reports [00:12:47] back in the early first week of March I [00:12:49] believe but we haven't heard anything [00:12:51] about our renewal rate there and Wester [00:12:54] Regional retirement assessment has not [00:12:56] yet been [00:12:58] received [00:13:00] so I think most people that are on [00:13:01] online or on the boards at least has [00:13:03] seen our appropriation control report in [00:13:05] the past this is the format by which our [00:13:08] school committee approves a budget and [00:13:11] also approves transfers between [00:13:13] categories you can see the First Column [00:13:15] is FY 24 where we currently are and [00:13:18] we've had uh preliminary budget number [00:13:20] one proposed budget number two and [00:13:23] proposed budget number three that is the [00:13:25] budget that went to the public hearing [00:13:27] back on March 14 [00:13:30] um if you don't mind I'll skip ahead [00:13:31] because I have a easier screens to read [00:13:33] than this one here but this particular [00:13:35] report will show you the difference from [00:13:38] the current version we on number three [00:13:41] and number two as well as the change [00:13:43] from the current proposed budget number [00:13:46] three to the current year so right now [00:13:49] our budget appropriation is 4.1% over [00:13:51] the current [00:13:54] year we have made significant cuts to [00:13:57] positions through the public hearing [00:13:58] date of budget and I just have a listing [00:14:00] here I've broken them down because you [00:14:02] won't see all of the cuts in budget as [00:14:04] there are some positions that are in [00:14:06] other sources there were two requested [00:14:09] positions in um the very first and [00:14:12] second rounds of the budget but you'll [00:14:13] see that there was a teacher [00:14:17] requested Nicole I apologize but I'm not [00:14:20] very good being the co the host and [00:14:22] letting people in um in the first first [00:14:25] round of budget we had a teacher [00:14:27] requested we cut that and and propos [00:14:29] number two and made it an intervention [00:14:31] tutor and then it's been cut fully so [00:14:33] there's a savings there in the budget we [00:14:36] also had a par professional requested [00:14:39] and that was cut in proposal number [00:14:43] three the next group of positions are [00:14:46] actually reductions in force either by [00:14:48] attrition or actual layoffs that will [00:14:51] will attain so you'll see that we have [00:14:53] 9.3 positions that will be a reduction [00:14:56] in force and there were three positions [00:15:01] that were in other sources not the [00:15:02] budget there are academic coaches you'll [00:15:04] see them out listed on here twice [00:15:06] because some of our academic coaches and [00:15:08] interventionists are in the budget some [00:15:10] of them are in Title One a short a small [00:15:13] reduction there and that is the number [00:15:15] of days they work some of them worked [00:15:18] seven days over the teacher schedule [00:15:20] some of them worked 10 they will all be [00:15:22] working only five days over the teacher [00:15:24] schedule and the technology integration [00:15:27] specialist that's one of the programs [00:15:28] that was put into place for Esser 3 when [00:15:32] we needed to go all online learning from [00:15:35] home as well as in school and so we've [00:15:37] decided that that program will no longer [00:15:39] continue and you'll see that we've cut [00:15:41] 13.4 positions or [00:15:45] $874,000 as of this [00:15:48] date which may as I have listed on the [00:15:51] top lead to increased [00:15:52] Unemployment uh [00:15:55] needs just a quick overview of where we [00:15:58] were in January on the 22nd we had a [00:16:01] budget subcommittee meeting at that [00:16:02] point our budget was $41.5 million a [00:16:06] 7.9% increase before we even brought [00:16:09] that to the subcommittee we made some [00:16:11] cuts of $666,000 and brought forward a [00:16:15] budget of 40 million 40.8 million at [00:16:19] 6.17% increase over the current [00:16:21] year then we went back to the budget [00:16:24] subcommittee on February 29th reduced [00:16:27] another 79 $6,000 to the [00:16:31] 4.1% increase in budget and that's where [00:16:33] we went to public hearing on March [00:16:36] 14 so from the first iteration of the [00:16:39] budget we've cut over $1.4 [00:16:43] million Cheryl maybe we should just [00:16:46] pause for any [00:16:49] questions up until this point Cheryl [00:16:52] could you also check the waiting room [00:16:55] yeah I'm I'm trying to keep keep that [00:16:57] that going there Nicole nobody's there [00:17:02] now no [00:17:04] questions we'll move on uh just wanted [00:17:07] to let everyone know that there are [00:17:10] other funds that support the district [00:17:12] operations and this is just some of them [00:17:13] I record the fund what type of account [00:17:16] it is and the positions that were there [00:17:18] at least in the first round of our [00:17:20] budget um I believe all of these that [00:17:22] are here remain in the budget at remain [00:17:25] outside the budget as of this point 66.5 [00:17:29] fpes totaling over $6.1 million between [00:17:32] revolving accounts and [00:17:37] grants we wanted to provide for [00:17:40] everybody in our public hearing [00:17:44] and uh the peral expenditure versus the [00:17:47] state average those numbers had just [00:17:48] come up from the state you'll have to [00:17:50] know that not all of the district had [00:17:52] reported at this point so the state [00:17:53] average is not actual for FY 23 but you [00:17:57] can see in total uh Quin is 1 Mill [00:18:02] $1,119 below the state average but [00:18:04] you'll notice the note to the right the [00:18:07] department of education does not compute [00:18:09] a pureal expend expenditure for out of [00:18:12] District expenditures because there [00:18:14] really no consistent formula to use what [00:18:16] I mean by that is for example our [00:18:20] director of student services is part of [00:18:22] District administration but we do not [00:18:24] count his salary based on how many [00:18:26] students he sees in the district versus [00:18:28] how many times he go to goes to out a [00:18:30] district meeting so the the state does [00:18:33] not calculate that so we did not put [00:18:35] anything here but you'll notice there [00:18:38] are some places that we are below the [00:18:39] state average and other places that we [00:18:41] are higher than the state average but in [00:18:43] total we are less than less than the [00:18:46] state average by over [00:18:51] ,000 just some notes where we are [00:18:53] working off of the revenue sources from [00:18:55] the governor's budget uh funds for the [00:18:57] fourth year of the student opport [00:18:58] Opportunity Act with two was $230 [00:19:01] million increase you'll see that there [00:19:05] are I believe 10 10 districts right here [00:19:08] that are getting the greatest amount of [00:19:10] that new Aid 255 out of [00:19:13] 323 nonoperating as well as operating [00:19:16] districts are now in hold harmless debt [00:19:20] the quaven district fell further in hold [00:19:22] harmless debt by $113,000 with a [00:19:24] declining enrollment of 27 resident [00:19:27] students [00:19:29] cin has the 41st largest hold harmless [00:19:31] debt just over $2 [00:19:33] million and again 66.4% of all operating [00:19:37] districts are receiving only the minimum [00:19:39] Aid of $30 per student these 10 [00:19:42] districts listed to the right are [00:19:44] receiving [00:19:45] 58% of the new increase in chapter [00:19:51] 708 this is our cherry sheet put in a to [00:19:54] an [00:19:55] Excel file so that you can we can see [00:19:57] the differences again only $30 per [00:20:00] student or [00:20:01] $57,900 for our district to use we are [00:20:05] actually actually seeing right at this [00:20:07] point a reduction in Regional School [00:20:10] transportation reimbursement but I'm [00:20:12] sure that that will be increased as the [00:20:14] as the go um the house and the Senate [00:20:16] move through their budget [00:20:23] process as most of you that have been on [00:20:25] the finance committee or the select [00:20:27] board in the past no there are two [00:20:29] components to the assessment calculation [00:20:32] for Regional School Districts one is the [00:20:34] required local contribution this is how [00:20:37] required local contributions for our [00:20:39] five towns changed for FY 25 you'll see [00:20:42] that Two Towns had about the same [00:20:44] increase Hardwick and new brany had a [00:20:46] 1.7% increase and then Barry and oakam [00:20:49] over 3% but you notice that hubon had a [00:20:52] has a [00:20:54] 7.5% and that's going to be a huge [00:20:56] impact on their assessment [00:20:59] the other bear EXC excuse me was me [00:21:04] sneezing Sorry God bless you I can't [00:21:07] like I said I can't see faces uh the [00:21:10] other variable in the assessment [00:21:11] calculation is resident enrollment four [00:21:14] of our five towns had a reduction in [00:21:16] Resident enrollment and harb and saw an [00:21:19] increase of 20 students so with the [00:21:22] required local contribution going up [00:21:24] almost twice as much as two of our towns [00:21:26] for hubberston and higher enrollment [00:21:29] they're going to see the largest [00:21:30] increase in their [00:21:33] assessment this is where we stand you [00:21:35] saw the top box before at this level of [00:21:39] the budget at [00:21:41] 4,618 N7 the town of Hardwick would be [00:21:44] looking at a [00:21:46] 6.84% increase you can see on average [00:21:49] it's [00:21:50] 8.35 but they range anywhere from 2 and [00:21:52] a half% to nearly [00:21:57] 12% I do a history of our budget and [00:22:00] assessment increases for the last 10 [00:22:02] years and I do that because there's a [00:22:04] lot of misconception out there about how [00:22:06] our budget has increased and that's [00:22:08] what's pushing putting pressure on the [00:22:09] town assessments that's not necessarily [00:22:12] so it's more the lack of revenue from [00:22:14] the state as you can see the largest [00:22:16] increase in our budget was actually for [00:22:18] the current year at [00:22:20] 6% and to make up for that increase of [00:22:23] 6% the school committee put [00:22:25] $750,000 of end as Revenue source for [00:22:28] this [00:22:32] year I have here our Revenue projections [00:22:35] just to point out a few things in each [00:22:37] of the area at this point as I said with [00:22:39] the governor's budget state aid is down [00:22:42] the district revenue from reserves are [00:22:44] at level [00:22:46] funding and this is the member Town [00:22:48] assessment you'll see the top box is the [00:22:50] required local contribution the amount [00:22:53] above the required local contribution [00:22:55] and it adds together and there's those [00:22:57] are the same percent that I showed in [00:22:59] the earlier screen member Town [00:23:01] assessments are calculated higher than [00:23:03] desired given that we only had a 4.1% [00:23:05] increase in our budget however is not [00:23:08] unexpected given the total state aid [00:23:10] increase in the governor's budget was [00:23:12] almost a half a percent over this [00:23:14] current year and [00:23:16] 4.47% increase in required local [00:23:21] contribution our long-term debt [00:23:23] assessment also went up that is [00:23:25] basically for the towns that decided to [00:23:28] borrow for the chiller project that was [00:23:30] done last year the long-term debt on the [00:23:32] Middle High School Green repair project [00:23:34] will conclude on March 15th [00:23:36] 20127 and Barry Hardwick and hubson [00:23:39] chose to borrow for the HVAC repair [00:23:41] project that is a five-year ban which [00:23:44] means it will go out to bid each year on [00:23:45] the anniversary date which is November [00:23:47] 27th and will be paid off on 1127 [00:23:53] 2028 that is the end of our presentation [00:23:55] for tonight so we can entertaining [00:23:57] questions or go back to anything that [00:23:59] someone may [00:24:05] need um before we take any questions [00:24:09] so what I want to tell you is that um at [00:24:14] this point being that we cut so many [00:24:17] positions out of the budget at this [00:24:20] point we know that additional cuts are [00:24:23] going to be um very impactful to our [00:24:27] students so we've decided to hold at [00:24:30] this point until we get the House and [00:24:32] Senate budgets so when we have those [00:24:36] numbers um we know these numbers are [00:24:39] probably not looking great to you at [00:24:42] this point know that we will go back and [00:24:45] we've already started kind of working on [00:24:48] um depending what we get from the House [00:24:50] and Senate any decreases that we may [00:24:53] need to make but I I want to be really [00:24:56] um honest with you this is of course my [00:24:59] first year in this position um this is [00:25:02] not the budget I guess I wanted to have [00:25:04] for sure um but I hope you see that we [00:25:09] uh try to act early so that we could [00:25:11] prepare best prepare um a budget that is [00:25:17] um you know manageable and reasonable [00:25:20] without really really cutting multiple [00:25:24] programs so that's the place we're at [00:25:28] and if you guys have any questions about [00:25:30] anything specific or in general we're [00:25:33] happy to entertain [00:25:44] those I feel like Jeffrey Smith's screen [00:25:48] saver probably says it all there maybe a [00:25:51] little [00:25:54] bit it sure [00:25:57] tries [00:26:04] no thank you [00:26:07] foration well thank you very [00:26:10] much I guess there aren't any questions [00:26:15] yet well don't hesitate to reach out [00:26:17] we're happy to come back um all of our [00:26:20] materials are on our website and we have [00:26:23] a email that you can direct your [00:26:25] questions to as well and I'm sure we'll [00:26:28] see you again before town meeting but [00:26:30] thanks for your time tonight we do [00:26:32] really appreciate it thank you thank you [00:26:35] thank [00:26:40] you it was just [00:26:42] us for [00:26:52] there meeting okay thank [00:26:57] you [00:27:02] okay the finance committee is [00:27:04] leaving least the [00:27:07] room and [00:27:10] U what's [00:27:12] up good so far I'll call for help [00:27:18] to we have a bid award for [00:27:22] Gilbertville um seage treatment [00:27:26] facility uh I would like to ask for more [00:27:32] time at least for us to have a [00:27:35] conversation about this face to face we [00:27:38] have uh till mid April before we uh turn [00:27:44] into [00:27:45] pumpkins [00:27:47] um so what's your [00:27:53] pleasure I mean I've been following this [00:27:55] project all along I go to the Thursday [00:27:58] meetings I I call in on the Thursday [00:28:00] meetings [00:28:02] um I [00:28:04] I I would just assume move forward where [00:28:14] um you [00:28:17] know that's just my [00:28:20] opinion I do have um DPC here if there [00:28:24] are any [00:28:27] questions [00:28:31] well then here I would ask um are any of [00:28:34] these [00:28:36] Alternatives um possibly [00:28:39] adjustable before or after we sign this [00:28:46] contract yeah so [00:28:48] goad no yeah I was gonna say so just big [00:28:52] picture you know we've been managing to [00:28:54] the town's appropriation and the USDA [00:28:57] Financial package which again was [00:28:59] developed back in 2020 early 2020 uh [00:29:01] January 2020 um so really our strategy [00:29:05] with Nicole and your team um has been to [00:29:09] manage to that budget so the the thought [00:29:11] process on each of these projects was we [00:29:14] may not get everything that was [00:29:16] envisioned four or five years ago you [00:29:18] know just based on what's happening in [00:29:19] the industry you know the the financials [00:29:22] were locked in at that point and it's [00:29:24] always been focused on how how to get [00:29:26] the town out of the administrative [00:29:27] orders with EPA and D um you know get [00:29:31] the uh facilities back into compliance [00:29:33] Etc so when you mentioned Bas bid and [00:29:36] alternates the base bids of all these [00:29:38] projects were structured such that the [00:29:40] town you know would ensure that they're [00:29:42] getting you know essentially the heart [00:29:44] and lungs of the facility you know [00:29:46] revamped and in Gilbertville you know [00:29:48] that's the Iration system um it's some [00:29:51] better flow distribution for the [00:29:52] secondary clarifiers Etc uh replacement [00:29:55] of Aging you know infrastructure that [00:29:56] has very limited like if it's you know [00:29:59] not already passed it um so that's been [00:30:02] the strategy all along the alternates [00:30:03] that you speak to and the strategy on [00:30:06] these USDA projects is to award what you [00:30:09] can on day one which we feel for [00:30:11] Gilbertville would be the base bid and [00:30:13] additive alternate number one that would [00:30:16] allow the town to maintain still a [00:30:18] healthy 10% contingency on both the [00:30:21] wheel right and the Gilbertville [00:30:23] construction contracts because we're [00:30:24] early on so that totals to about 1.7 [00:30:28] million dollar in contingency that is I [00:30:31] don't want to use the word unaccounted [00:30:32] for but it's it's contingency that's [00:30:34] what it's there for for the unforeseen [00:30:35] that come up on construction projects [00:30:38] but also to strategically bring back in [00:30:41] some of those additive alternates that [00:30:42] we were not able to accept on you know [00:30:45] bid day and the subsequent award so [00:30:48] we've worked with you know Scott we've [00:30:50] gotten his input in terms of you know [00:30:53] what is his take on what might be um you [00:30:57] know the prioriti list of these [00:30:59] alternates to get back into the project [00:31:02] um and we're pretty confident you know [00:31:03] with that remaining contingency we'll be [00:31:05] able to strategically uh get some of [00:31:07] these um things back in now with that [00:31:10] said um to your question about price so [00:31:13] the pricing on bid day you know is is [00:31:15] good on bid day and up to 30 days after [00:31:17] that if we go back to add these [00:31:20] alternates in you know later on with the [00:31:21] contractors they're usually good about [00:31:23] working with us um you know it it's [00:31:25] essentially work coming to them as part [00:31:27] of the project via change order um but [00:31:30] that is to say to answer your question [00:31:31] you know it's not guaranteed that their [00:31:33] bidday price will remain true you know [00:31:36] say several months from now when we go [00:31:37] back to them you know to ask to have [00:31:39] something reincorporated into the [00:31:41] project um I guess that's just kind of [00:31:44] the the big picture of it just let me [00:31:45] know if I didn't answer uh what you were [00:31:47] looking for specifically Justin if I [00:31:49] could just add yeah you know the 30-day [00:31:51] thing is statutory in Massachusetts you [00:31:53] have 30 days to respond I'll just say [00:31:56] right now the sooner the town can act on [00:32:00] this the better it is in terms of the [00:32:01] contractor being able to lock things in [00:32:03] some of the vendors are only able to [00:32:04] hold prices for three days it's um it's [00:32:07] kind of a crazy world relative to uh [00:32:10] equipment right now so any ability we [00:32:13] have to work with them I think helps the [00:32:15] town on the backside relative to [00:32:17] prioritizing remaining [00:32:19] contingency um shuffling things around [00:32:22] out of priority again we have to order [00:32:24] in the order the alternates were listed [00:32:26] in the bid but one awarded you can [00:32:29] really do anything you want relative to [00:32:31] the contingency so long as the project [00:32:34] elements were part of the original plan [00:32:36] concept so um you do have a little bit [00:32:39] of time based on what we're seeing [00:32:41] elsewhere and our direct experience with [00:32:43] this we recommend that you consider [00:32:45] moving on this this evening if at all [00:32:49] possible [00:32:52] Robert Robert are you there I am here I [00:32:56] would uh I'd say let's let's move on it [00:32:58] because it's really not going to change [00:33:01] anything um the engineers gave us their [00:33:05] recommendations it's what we pay them [00:33:08] for so I think we should move it forward [00:33:12] and award the [00:33:17] bid okay well i' look for a [00:33:20] motion I would make a motion to um award [00:33:25] the project to WM Schultz Construction [00:33:27] ction for the total bid base bid and [00:33:31] additive alternate number one in the [00:33:33] amount of 10, [00:33:36] 22,900 contingent upon USDA and town [00:33:38] approvals to award and receipt and [00:33:41] review of necessary bonds and insurance [00:33:42] certificates from WM Schultz [00:33:45] Construction [00:33:47] Inc second [00:33:50] that okay all in favor I [00:33:55] hi okay thank you [00:33:58] thanks for your time thanks thanks [00:34:03] guys okay uh the moris scholarship I [00:34:08] don't have anything on this do [00:34:13] you do we speak to [00:34:16] it do we have a letter in our packet yes [00:34:19] um bill is here he was here for the [00:34:21] finance meeting so he didn't have a [00:34:22] chance to go home so I told him to just [00:34:24] sit in my office and he could um talk to [00:34:27] you here he does have a letter but it [00:34:30] was um you know he didn't realize it was [00:34:32] going to be Zoom so I'm just going to [00:34:33] let him sit in my [00:34:41] chair [00:34:43] Bill Le the um so it was last uh last [00:34:49] year that we uh we looked at the [00:34:52] situation with the Elizabeth moris [00:34:54] scholarship fund um handout I have that [00:34:58] I'm sure will be forwarded to you I'll [00:34:59] just remind you that at that time um I [00:35:04] reported that the fund had been started [00:35:06] in 2002 with [00:35:08] $20,000 and was described as a [00:35:13] scholarship fund and then quote the [00:35:15] income of which is to be used each year [00:35:17] to provide scholarships for college [00:35:19] education for male and female high [00:35:22] school graduates who reside in Hardwick [00:35:25] that's all it just was that brought [00:35:29] over the years a few a few Awards of two [00:35:31] three $400 were given out up until [00:35:35] 2016 while the principal was held in low [00:35:38] yielding certificates of deposit then [00:35:41] last year when we took a look at this um [00:35:46] you had voted to move the $20,000 CD [00:35:50] from a one quarter of 1% rate to a new [00:35:54] CD that we did and that's earning 4 [00:35:58] 4.6% that's going to mature in September [00:36:01] of this year for the [00:36:03] $20,000 plus approximately $920 of [00:36:07] interest that is income that is in the [00:36:10] category of expendable money for uh you [00:36:12] know for for awards so right now we have [00:36:17] um money that wasn't invested in the CD [00:36:19] that reflects past interest that was [00:36:22] earned that was never awarded that's [00:36:25] $1,400 so that amount of money is [00:36:27] available and liquid right now should [00:36:30] you choose to consider making an award [00:36:32] or [00:36:33] two um this year for you know College [00:36:38] Bound residents for this [00:36:41] fall um and then next year or at the end [00:36:44] of this year the $920 and any part of [00:36:46] this 1400 that was still available would [00:36:49] be available for you know for next [00:36:52] year's consideration and at the current [00:36:55] rate of four or five% for short-term CDs [00:36:57] you could expect you know $800 to $1,000 [00:37:00] each [00:37:01] year so there's no [00:37:05] um um you know there's there's there's [00:37:08] no process really in place for awarding [00:37:12] this you did it before I think by [00:37:13] advertising to locals through however [00:37:16] you did it you know to bring in a few [00:37:18] applications and then consider them and [00:37:20] made some awards so I'm just wanting to [00:37:22] update the numbers and tell you at this [00:37:25] time of year like I promised to last [00:37:27] year this is the case you could begin to [00:37:30] make Awards again or you could put it [00:37:32] off um until until next season if you [00:37:35] chose to but that's the [00:37:40] situation well thank you and it would be [00:37:43] a good time you know the process will go [00:37:46] on and probably end in the summer and we [00:37:50] could make Awards when students are [00:37:53] starting to go back to school so that [00:37:56] would make sense [00:37:59] could you explain again what the [00:38:03] original charge [00:38:05] was right now Betty Morris gave [00:38:09] $20,000 um to be used as a scholarship [00:38:15] fund and then this is the exact quote it [00:38:17] says income of which is to be used each [00:38:20] year to provide scholarships for college [00:38:24] education for male and female high [00:38:27] school graduates who reside in Hardwick [00:38:30] period you know to me it sounds like it [00:38:33] doesn't have to [00:38:34] be um a public school student or a Quin [00:38:38] student it could be a votex student it [00:38:40] could be a homeschooler or even an adult [00:38:42] going going back to college the way this [00:38:46] is [00:38:46] written um so that's that's all it [00:38:49] says it it didn't say High School [00:38:52] something thought about a high school [00:38:54] graduate yes Fe male and female high [00:38:57] school graduates right okay oh so you [00:39:00] can't skip high school and and apply for [00:39:02] the college scholarship I guess right [00:39:04] you have to be a high school graduate [00:39:05] but it doesn't say local high school or [00:39:07] recent high school or or [00:39:11] such but a town resident yes [00:39:17] yeah that's all it says I'm not sure I [00:39:19] can't remember when when you have to [00:39:21] have made your decision and have your [00:39:23] scholarships lined up and make your [00:39:24] first payments towards college but it it [00:39:27] it may be I think last July actually we [00:39:30] were talking about maybe it was a little [00:39:31] bit late to be doing the process yeah so [00:39:34] I would I I I was that's what I was [00:39:36] thinking and I think that if I mean this [00:39:39] could be put towards books though and [00:39:40] then they wouldn't need it until the [00:39:42] fall but I think that if we're gonna set [00:39:44] it up it should probably Move Along [00:39:47] sooner than later so that you know the [00:39:50] student KN knew that they were going to [00:39:52] have these funds for the [00:39:54] fall I [00:39:56] think on how much they want to give to [00:39:58] each [00:39:59] [Music] [00:40:02] child we also uh as Nicole suggests we [00:40:06] need to decide how much um maybe uh $500 [00:40:13] for each scholarship um male and female [00:40:17] just a [00:40:18] suggestion uh do we want to put some [00:40:21] sort of a u what a a reason for asking [00:40:28] uh [00:40:31] but an essay to why they you know maybe [00:40:35] provide an essay to why they feel that [00:40:38] they should you know be deserving of the [00:40:41] scholarship yeah and and nothing you [00:40:44] know doesn't have to be a a you know 10 [00:40:48] page paper or anything but just a you [00:40:51] know I don't know how you did it last [00:40:53] time but you solicited uh or the board [00:40:55] at the time solicited some [00:40:58] uh applications and couple years one was [00:41:02] given out and maybe at least one year [00:41:04] two were given out you know whether they [00:41:06] were two or three or $400 rates were a [00:41:08] little lower then there's a little less [00:41:10] money most of the time but you could do [00:41:12] you could [00:41:13] do by the way it says each year it [00:41:16] suggests that it should be something [00:41:18] done each year um I'm not sure how to [00:41:22] interpret male and female high school [00:41:24] students whether she means one of each [00:41:26] or either one is fine or whether whether [00:41:29] it means just one gift is okay or there [00:41:31] should there's supposed to be one to [00:41:33] each male and female so two I don't [00:41:36] know how it says I like the idea that we [00:41:39] could possibly give one to you know one [00:41:43] male one female student um and I like uh [00:41:48] the $500 Eric that [00:41:51] seems that seems [00:41:54] reasonable you could do if you did if [00:41:56] you meant 500 each then there'd be a [00:41:58] th000 there'd be about $400 left right [00:42:00] now and then there' be another 900 [00:42:02] earned you could do the same the same [00:42:05] thousand total two 500s if you chose to [00:42:08] next year next year right yeah beyond [00:42:10] that you'd probably have to revisit it [00:42:11] depending on what interest rates have [00:42:13] been the money [00:42:15] yeah do we want to do that and have a [00:42:19] you know [00:42:20] a so many worded you know word essay do [00:42:24] by a certain date and then you know we [00:42:27] can take a working meeting to review [00:42:29] review the essays and then make a [00:42:32] decision yeah sounds good how do we get [00:42:35] the word [00:42:36] out I mean I think you know the website [00:42:40] um maybe you know anything we could so I [00:42:44] was thinking if you want I could um [00:42:47] reach out to Quin and maybe reach out to [00:42:49] Pathfinder because those are our two [00:42:51] major schools and see what the process [00:42:54] is that they have and uh you know maybe [00:42:57] gauge what how big of an essay they [00:43:01] require on other scholarships that they [00:43:03] have to give you some ideas and even the [00:43:06] amounts and maybe you could vote at the [00:43:07] next meeting you know how much and and [00:43:11] how long the essay should be I think I [00:43:13] think that's a great idea just if you [00:43:15] want to get some more information or you [00:43:16] want to just choose it [00:43:19] now I don't don't mind having a having a [00:43:23] little more information yeah and do it [00:43:26] at the next meeting meeting and then [00:43:28] really put something together then that [00:43:30] that that sounds like a good idea give [00:43:32] some time to get the word out before [00:43:35] they close close up what in May or June [00:43:39] I don't know can't [00:43:42] remember yeah end of June but yeah I [00:43:45] would say you know it's if it's March [00:43:47] now and what our next meeting is April [00:43:50] 8th and if we make a decision [00:43:55] um then [00:43:57] I mean I would say you know we we' want [00:43:59] things back within probably a month's [00:44:01] time to make a decision [00:44:05] for okay we'll do [00:44:09] okay [00:44:11] sure here is this one for [00:44:14] me all right thank you well I think [00:44:16] we're all set with that all um let this [00:44:19] person in [00:44:21] and get that information for you [00:44:25] guys okay do we have somebody something [00:44:29] happening no I was just I I was letting [00:44:32] somebody in okay uh we have a [00:44:35] appointment for Richard [00:44:37] budney uh Highway labor 2 position an [00:44:46] appointment yes so Marty interviewed um [00:44:50] the applicants and uh thought this would [00:44:53] be a best uh the best fit um [00:44:57] and you have it's a labor two position [00:45:00] and the pay rate is $940 an hour and [00:45:03] that's for a 40-day a 40 Hour Work Week [00:45:06] um starting April 1st also with the new [00:45:09] assistant [00:45:11] superintendent starting April 1 right we [00:45:15] already did that though correct the [00:45:17] assistant superintendent yes but I'm [00:45:19] just kind of saying that they both be [00:45:21] starting the same day if you make this [00:45:24] appointment I'm fine with this do you [00:45:26] want a motion or [00:45:27] please I would make a motion um to hire [00:45:31] Richard budney for the labor to position [00:45:34] based on Mar's [00:45:36] recommendation um with a rate pay of [00:45:38] 1940 an hour starting April 1st 2024 [00:45:41] pending all um preemployment [00:45:44] checks second that okay thank you [00:45:48] further [00:45:49] discussion all in [00:45:52] favor I [00:45:54] I Could you um could we we shut the chat [00:45:57] off [00:45:59] please Nicole yeah I have to remember [00:46:03] how to do [00:46:08] this all right we have uh April Gardner [00:46:11] as a part-time Mar [00:46:13] driver uh an [00:46:18] appointment I assume this came from [00:46:25] Sharon [00:46:27] um yes it did and [00:46:29] um she is uh a [00:46:34] uh um Sharon is a driver right now [00:46:37] because they're down a driver so this [00:46:39] person will um you know help obviously [00:46:43] and it's gone through Zoom all I mean [00:46:45] I'm sorry I'm trying to do this on zoom [00:46:47] and I'm trying to help with the meeting [00:46:49] um it's gone through Mar already the [00:46:51] approvals and that's essentially where [00:46:53] they get paid from and uh you know sort [00:46:56] of report to anyway so this is this [00:46:58] approval has gone through them and now [00:46:59] to [00:47:00] you I would make a motion to um approve [00:47:04] the hiring of April Garder as a [00:47:07] part-time Mark driver at [00:47:09] 1551 an hour um pending all [00:47:13] pre-employment checks it sounds like [00:47:14] that maybe has already been done [00:47:16] so I'll second it we all in favor Kelly [00:47:22] I Rob I Eric I thank [00:47:27] do we have sewer abatements here no we [00:47:31] do not that was just a placeholder [00:47:33] that's what I was thinking um Nicole [00:47:37] could you talk to the complete [00:47:39] streets yes so Marty and I attended a [00:47:43] session on complete treets and this is [00:47:47] the next [00:47:49] um sorry this is the next step in [00:47:52] getting to tier two and this allows us [00:47:54] to have um access to funding for um [00:47:58] roads which is more like um Road [00:48:01] painting you know I'm not exactly sure [00:48:03] Marty could tell it talked about it [00:48:05] better um what complete streets is [00:48:07] exactly but it's not like the [00:48:09] infrastructure or Utilities in the road [00:48:12] for streets like we do with chapter 90 [00:48:14] this is for um extensions of sidewalks [00:48:18] and [00:48:20] um crosswalks and painting so it's it's [00:48:24] a little more like surface level [00:48:27] uh but we have to we have to go through [00:48:30] these steps to to get to that point so [00:48:33] we went to the meeting for a day in West [00:48:35] Springfield a session a training session [00:48:38] and then we create the complete streets [00:48:41] policy and when this is approved by you [00:48:43] and submitted we can go to the next tier [00:48:46] and cmrpc is assisting us with this too [00:48:49] so this is just a supplement to um you [00:48:52] know any our chapter 90 money and any of [00:48:55] the other grants we get [00:48:57] or tip programs from the state or [00:48:58] something like [00:49:00] that so the policy is in your packet and [00:49:04] it's uh it's been approved by cmrpc as [00:49:08] well it's sort of boilerplate [00:49:12] information that towns adopt and we need [00:49:16] to adopt it yeah [00:49:19] yeah you want a motion ER please I would [00:49:22] make a motion to approve and adopt the [00:49:25] complete Street policy [00:49:27] dated March 25th [00:49:30] 2024 I'll second it all in favor k i [00:49:37] Eric r [00:49:39] i thank you um annual dog [00:49:43] warrant I'll sign it tonight it'll be [00:49:48] here probably no uh real urgency but the [00:49:53] town clerk would like that so if you [00:49:56] guys could come in and sign that would [00:49:58] be [00:49:59] good do we need to accept [00:50:02] it do we need to vote to accept it ni [00:50:06] the dog [00:50:09] yes I would make a motion to accept the [00:50:13] annual dog [00:50:15] warrant second [00:50:17] that all in favor I hi [00:50:24] hi all right moving right along other [00:50:26] new [00:50:32] business meeting minutes [00:50:34] [Music] [00:50:39] approval I could look for a motion to [00:50:42] accept March 11 [00:50:45] 2024 I make a motion to approve March 11 [00:50:50] 2024 meeting [00:50:52] minutes second [00:50:54] it all in favor [00:50:57] k [00:50:58] i Eric [00:51:01] I [00:51:03] I February 26 [00:51:07] 2024 I would also make a motion to [00:51:10] accept the meeting minutes of February [00:51:12] 26 [00:51:14] 2024 I'll second it great all in favor [00:51:18] Kelly [00:51:19] I Eric [00:51:23] I old business [00:51:29] committee [00:51:33] reports misscellaneous [00:51:40] correspondence Town Administrator [00:51:43] report it's in your packet if you have [00:51:45] any questions I can just put it up on [00:51:48] the [00:51:48] website thank [00:51:52] you signatures and [00:51:55] approvals [00:51:59] select board Round [00:52:05] Table zoom in right [00:52:10] along looking forward to our next [00:52:13] meeting face to face for sure Nicole [00:52:17] does the complete streets have to be [00:52:18] signed as well it does will you leave [00:52:23] those in in yep okay I'll try try to [00:52:26] stop by [00:52:27] tomorrow [00:52:34] great well that's all I [00:52:38] have I make a motion to [00:52:41] adjourn [00:52:42] second all in favor [00:52:46] I thanks guys thank [00:52:55] you [00:53:25] e [00:57:25] for [00:57:55] e