School Committee - Grafton Public Schools - Regular Meeting

Good evening, Grafton, and welcome to the January 6th, 2026, I said it right, school committee meeting. Um, and I call the meeting to order. Uh, we're going to start with public comment. We have any public comment this today? All right, seeing none, I'm going to move uh into general business. Uh the special education update is actually going to take place at our next meeting on the 20th. Uh so we'll start with the calendar. All right.

All right. It feels like the 10th time I'm bringing this to you, but um before [music] break at least once or twice uh we put this very draft [music] before you. I haven't made any changes as I said back in December. It was about as a straightforward a year as I can remember. um Tuesday the 3, that's when we're going to uh have the the parent conferences and it's largely that day because that's an election day and we were requested to not have full um school in terms of student parking etc on that day. But I haven't made any changes. I didn't hear from anybody um about any concerns or what have you. But it's very very straightforward. Mr. Chair.

Yes. I'd like to mo make a motion to approve the Grafton public schools 2026 2027 calendar as presented. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any questions, comments, discussion? Yeah. Dr. Cummings, how happy are you that that uh Halloween does not fall during the That is great. I wish that was every single How thrilled is that a Saturday any day but a school day? Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good thing. No questions. All right, let's take it to a vote. All in favor? I. Great. Motion carries. Um, it's fiscal year 27 town budget and fiveyear [music] forecast.

Yep. So, as you know, we had expected, you might have mentioned this at the beginning, but we had invited Evan Versard, the town administrator, to come and go through his slides, the same slide that he shared with Fincom and the select board. uh his assistant William has the flu so he's unable to leave his meeting to come up here and I'd let I let him know that uh based on your feedback we could reschedule or not or however you want to move forward. Okay. Did he provide any materials for us to review? [music] He broke a promise. He said he was going to uh send his slides and he he

and he just wasn't able to if I get those I can share. Uh yeah, I think we should reschedule that and we can figure out offline or we can talk. If he can do the 20, great. But if we need to figure it out offline, we [music] can. I just think it's an important conversation. Okay, sounds good. Um or it may be covered next week when we meet jointly. So we'll see how that goes. Okay, great. Thank you. So then we go into your goals.

Yeah, I don't have much, but I do want to just give a brief update. Uh, so I had that herculean goal of getting into a thousand [music] classes over the course of the school year. I'm up to 278 classrooms as of 1526. Uh, had a really good month in there. It seems like forever ago, but maybe October. [music] Um, once HR stuff and budget stuff hit in December, uh, my climbing up Mount Everest has, uh, slowed significantly, but I will, uh, stick with it. I probably won't hit a thousand, but that's okay. Um, there's a goal and I've been

thinking about it every day. That's the best part of the day, bar none. Uh it's getting out and doing it and doing it in a purposeful way where you're not just walking around looking at your phone kind of half doing other work and half there. So uh chipping away at that street interview. So yeah I that ties into communication again not killing it but for old-timer Cummings I'm doing all right. Uh created an in an Instagram [music] account. I don't use it particularly well. I don't really use it. I have been kind of

um the student assistant group we we're in [music] the process. They I think I explained at some point that we've got some high school juniors and seniors and maybe a sophomore in there um helping me with communication. The initial thought of them like going around the district to make make up stories or not make up stories but to cover stories uh all sounded good when we talked about it at the very beginning of the year. The hard part is the majority don't have licenses. [music] They don't have that time in their schedule to go out and you know do the the work. They spent like a month just piecing together a really good report on the [music] need for a a high school roof. I'm sorry middle school roof. Um, and they've got photos and videos and they've interviewed different people. It's great, but it took them like a month. So, we're going to now shift to having them focus on the people, the students and the staff that make the district so great. That's a little more doable. They can walk over to the middle school. Obviously, they're at the high school. Once in a while, they could get down the other elementary schools. Um, and all of them went through our system, so they know a lot of individuals. So, you can look for that. But I I think I'm doing okay with both goals.

Great. Anyone have any questions, comments? All right. What's next? One for the record books. No. Uh staff attendance.

Staff attendance. I put this on the agenda uh for two reasons. One is to own an error as the HR director is 100% on me. So I want to own that. And then I wanted to share the corresponding change in the data uh once we fixed my my errors. Um so for years, I don't know how long, but as long as I can remember, the state has always collected at the end of the school year, they [music] collect all the the staff attendance data. They've historically never done anything publicly with that. Um since COVID, we've talked about attendance of students and staff since COVID. uh nationally and certainly statewide. It's it has never bounced back. Is that

Yeah, they're I was thinking I was echoing. It was driving me crazy in the control. Yeah, I think they're just training someone. No, maybe with the megaphone. I think it's definitely uh like a echo chamber in there. Yeah, I think something. Yeah, they don't know that we can hear, but now they do. Quiet coyote. I just never Thank you, Delaneie. Got it. If not, I get it. Delaney. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much, Christie. Thanks, Christie. Thanks, Christie. Um, staff attendants, they had never made it public before. That's where we were.

Yes, they had never made it public. They published it. Uh, their [music] first time doing it. um anytime that they've collected data and shared the data, I'm not blaming them. It's typically year one is a bit of a mess. Unlike say MCCAST where everybody's taking the same test, using the same tool, putting the data in and you get the results, there are so many there are probably over 50 different software systems that districts use to collect [music] and process their data. We use one called Ready Sub. Um, it's it's been fine. It's affordable. It's been fine. Uh, but this isn't the Cadillac of [snorts] of systems. It's just not. [music] Um, and in the past, it's really been okay. It's met our needs. Um, so with that, we take our all the ready subreport from the end of the year, send the same report to the state. um they basically publish that on the desi website and different media sites report on it etc. Um so the report is really broken down into [music] three groups administration teachers and um support staff and all staff. Um, so the report on that when I looked at it, the one that stood [music] out to me as in a negative way was the teacher data. And I know like our entire staff, administration included, there's plenty of room for growth with attendance. It was like 98th percentile, like near the bottom. And I knew that just it just didn't seem right. Um, so I went to our tech department, met with them. Jamie Cardinal, uh, really takes the lead on all things data. But, uh, Jamie and Moren Mallaloy, our tech coordinator, spent over a week just grinding through the data. I had them go through every

single individual. Um, and what we found out that pertained to the teacher unit in particular were two things. Um, professional development was being counted as an absence. So if someone a fourth grade teacher went to work and spent that day in either in district or out of district professional development that we asked them to participate in that was being recorded by the state through our system as an absence. So that was one thing. The other thing was any split staff. So that's somebody that goes between two buildings. Most of our ELLL staff, for example, go might work at Milbury Street and then go over to North Street. If they were out any given day, it was recorded as two absences. So, we made that correction. I'm showing it to you here. I put it in that [snorts] attendance memo that I shared, but we go from that 98th percentile to like the 67th percentile. Um, with and you'll see the range that I'm showing here. Uh, the range is fairly tight. Uh, 92.9% [music] in Westboro up and this is the area districts of course to 97.7. I put Sutton in yellow like our data was erroneous on the negative side. It wasn't a [music] huge change, but it was a change. It made us more positive. Sutton definitely does not have an average of 6 absences a year. They just don't. There were a few cities reported as zero absences. That obviously wasn't the case. So, I do expect over time that the state's going to either they're going to get better at I think districts are going to be better. I mean, we're going to go through every single individual before we put it in next year. I also won't be

shocked if at some point they have some kind of uniform software system that everybody's using. Uh, so it's the same. So, I I'm owning the error in apologizing to our teacher staff in particular. Um, I've been working with the, uh, union leadership on just different ideas for boosting attendance, uh, looking at best practices. I'd love to tell you that some district in Mass or anywhere else has is just killing it and they've done X, Y, and Z, and wow, they have like perfect attendance, but that just hasn't been the case. So, uh, we're working on it. I expect in the spring to report back on on some of those efforts. Any questions on attendance?

Anyone have anything? Okay. Great. All right. All right. Thank you. Uh, and I would like to think in the future when or if we do have an HR director, it won't come to this. It's going to get caught by a better HR director than me. Well, it's just it is what it is.

I I just I'm feel like I'm channeling Rebecca. She's not here. I have so many thoughts about this and I'm not going to go into it, but it's on the agenda. Number one, I think it's really strange that the [music] state decided to make all this data public and I didn't see it done on any other profession. Um, I didn't see a police or anything else. I think it's odd. Number one,

I think of course we, you know, better attendance is better for our students. All things [music] we want that. Yes, of course. And also that's part of the package that we were giving for years was days off and sick [music] days and we can't have the same conversation that people are throwing at us about the budget that we you have to do something. So I I just I this kind of frustrates me. I I think that and like you throwing you know thank you for owning a mistake. it was a mistake and it got so much press and people feel the need to comment on it and I'd rather we just spend our attention [music] and trying to you know hopefully make people healthy and our school, you know, and able to come to school. So that's that's all I'm going to say. But just it's really kind of bugging me. Not you, just the thing.

If it's me, it's not you. No, you had nothing to do with it. But like yep, there was a mistake made. Okay. like are you know like can we cut people some slack? It is a weird thing. It's weird. It's weird. Well, people have lives there is and it's up to the principles to deal like it's like why is the I just Anyway, okay. Sorry. Thank you for representing Rebecca. I feel like [laughter] I don't know. Poor Rebecca probably probably disagrees with me, but you know, I feel like she would make a statement. I'm making a statement. Fair. Great. Anyone else want to respond to Laura? [laughter]

Great job, Laura. [laughter] Bugs me. Well, and I value my own personal city. So, [laughter] I like supporting our teachers for sure. Right. I mean, [music] well, and yes, we want I mean, there's multiple things, but it's just weird like everybody has to have an opinion. and I don't see it done. And I'm sure it's because it's, you know, there's child care issues. It's a majority fe. I'm gonna stop. Let's move forward. Thank you. Thank you for all the work you've done on this. Okay. We're going to move. Sorry.

Another passion topic. So before we get into it, [laughter] I just want to kind of set some ground rules for discussion around the budget and the potential um reduction budget. Um, this is a hot button topic. We all feel very passionately about it. I'm going to ask a couple of things. One, that we ask questions, not make, you know, sort of incendiary pronouncements or, um, you know, demean the work that has been done to date by the professionals who have been working on the budget. Um, and that we assume good intent amongst ourselves and that we are kind and respectful to each other and staff because we get heated. me especially. So, um I'm just going to set those ground rules. Take it away, Jay. Nobody likes this discussion.

Thank you. Yeah. Um patriarchy. I want to start by saying this is I want to stress the preliminary piece. This will be the earliest in 15 years that we've talked about reductions.

Um on the municipal side, I've met a number of times in the past few days with the town administrator. uh he's planning on talking about he's going to get more direction from his um committee tonight, the select board uh about reductions, but we're we've been a little bit ahead of them in terms of budget development, in terms of pacing. So, he's I'm expecting that on the 20th of January, sometime in January, he will have start to have this discussion um publicly. So with that, just another reminder is January 6th. We've got this is my best thinking as of January 6th. That's hopefully going to get just improved and refined as we move forward. Um and as always, just I totally fine with being interrupted as we go. So to kind of set the stage and look at this in a big picture sense, I want to start by talking about the preliminary appropriation. So that's the total ask, if you will. And we've been talking about a level service budget of $50.5 million. Okay, that's what we've been talking about the past few months right now. And it would have been nice if Evan had been able to make it, but we he would have gone through his spreadsheets and basically got to that he anticipates the schools being appropriated somewhere be around 49.3 to 49.5 million um for the coming year. That's what based on what we have for revenue as a town he thinks he can appropriate to the schools. So there's an obvious delta or difference between those two.

Dr. Sorry, may how is he coming up? I don't I So the question I guess becomes in the past we've been allocated 59% of the the town budget. The the 49 million is no longer at 59%. It's at Sorry, just give me a second. Um It's 53%. So so that is a so

so the question then becomes I guess in addition to that which I was hoping to have asked Evan this evening and I don't want this to become a talking point but the direction so far [music] is very unclear with the town whether it's almost um stated as a school override or a town override because if it were a town override, which is what I personally believe it should be, it would be the same amount deducted for every area. And so when we're [music] looking at a pre preliminary reduction budget, if we took 59% of what the deficit is of the 1.4

[music] 4 million. Our school department should be hit with withund $843,000. And so it's very difficult given that Evan is not here to talk about a reduction when this is a big difference. Yep. In numbers that we're looking at. And nobody has so far been able to answer me this question. It's not for lack of asking um as to what what we would be hit with. So I can tell you I asked you yesterday what we'd be hit with.

Yeah. With the eight versus the 60%. Do you know what I'm saying? Yes. So the if so I think you said last year we were 59%. So we've been booied by a few things. We had the two overrides right

after that. excess levy was exhausted. We then had a we've had two years since then. So one year we filled it with over a million dollars in revolving accounts. So that just kept us afloat. And then the year after that we spent out circuit breaker. So we are we have nothing left to keep us afloat and neither does the town if you will. So that number is going to be less. It's going to be I think 53. That doesn't surprise me in the least. We're saying to get to 59, I'm going to guess it's about 1.4 million in total. Okay. And and what was the second?

So, it's a definitive that the the schools are 1.2 out of the 1.4. That's what you'reating.

Yeah. somewhere in that range very comfortable with the [music] one thing to remember is a big and I'm certainly not Evan but a big chunk of that additional cost above and beyond the school appropriation um is healthcare costs as you know that's a huge driver we about 78% of all town employees are school employees so we if if you just think about just equity I I do fully expect us to take 78% or roughly that of that giant cost.

So I think it's going to end up like in it's January 6th, but in my discussion after we met yesterday, it feels like a week ago. Um I think the schools will be about $1 million. This is without and we can talk about um unemployment, but that aside, I think the schools will be looking at about 1 million and about 400,000 on the municipal or town side. Okay. I'm very confident with that today. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the answer because as of this morning, it it seemed very Well, I I talked to him yesterday afternoon and I hadn't No, I know. I talked with Captain. Yeah, I had I know it was just a miscommunication. Okay. Okay.

Can I just This is my first slide. No, I wanted to talk a little bit because I thought Christie brought up good issues and um I think some of it is stuff we have to discuss with the select board next week.

Um the messaging of it, you know, if people are going back to that school versus town, that's a shame. That's something we need to correct and hopefully um you bring people up to speed. It surprises me because and I know I missed our first meeting with them. That's the same board as last year. We have one new person on our board, so it's the same people. It it's it's baffling to me, but yet here we are again. So, that's something we need to work on and and really, you know, help people understand that schools are part of the town, a big part of the town. It's my understanding that I think Evan had asked the select board to come back with a recommendation. They could certainly come back and say, "Hey, we want to fully fund the schools, but that means we're going to have to cut I won't make anything up because that's not my job, but they'll have to cut stuff from the municipal side of things." I doubt they would do that because we want a fully functioning town. So, um, but I think it's our job next week. If if we're hearing that kind of messaging to make sure that we hopefully can get everybody on the on the same page and and if we have to educate again, then we have to educate again because we know there are new viewers just tuning in also. So,

y thanks. Sorry. You know, I'm passionate. Yep. All right. Thank you.

So, that was the the biggest picture. So, if the target is 1 million to 1.2 2 million. Um, we do need to be cognizant of potential additional costs. You may remember from last year when we if we reduce by one full-time equivalency, so a full-time position um through Evan last year, I think it was 18,000 or 18,500 we set aside for unemployment um costs. So, I'm going to speak to that, but that's what that number is. it may not come to fruition. I'll try to wait right now. I know of a couple people retiring. Of course, we'll try to make that correspond if we do have to make reductions. Um just I think there were maybe two out of our 6.5 reductions last year that that filed for unemployment. Um but in talking with Evan, that's rightfully we should plan for that. Do you have a question?

Can you say that again? Two out of the six people filed for unemployment. People just didn't file for unemployment. No, they got jobs. Oh, they got jobs. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] Which sometimes it's really easy, but as you know, sometimes Thank you. Sorry. I So, they just weren't didn't have to file. Correct. But we have to be prepared if they do. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Yeah. That's the That's the idea. So, as we go into this, just know that piece I'm setting aside is an additional cost. It's like a cost on top of the reductions. Um, Dr. coming of those two that filed for unemployment, do you know how much they collected on? Okay. Are you going to you're going to speak on this unemployment section?

Kind of. I we'll see if it's to the degree to which you'd like me to, but sure. Um so in my initial thinking I ended up at roughly and this is January 6th rough of 1 almost $1.1 million in reductions. Um that there is no question in my mind that zero that it what's going to be impacted is class size and program. So any additional services Dr. coming. Are you are you done with your unemployment section? Can I ask you a question on that? Yes.

Okay. The question is and it was a question that I posed to you and to Kathleen and it it's seems difficult. The benefits for our employees are covered through the municipal side. Yes. Correct. One of those benefits is unemployment insurance. We do not carry a line in our budget for unemployment. Yes. Wouldn't the municipality side cover our unemployment? No. Why?

They have they do have some money set aside, but it's certainly not close to being able to cover a wide scale. Let's say this I'm making this number up. Let's say they need to reduce by five individuals and we look at 14 do like that type that's 19 people. Then why wouldn't we be carrying a line in our budget for unemployment just just as we carry a line for retirement? I mean suppose we we could this isn't an annual thing. This is a crisis but I understand that but you have unexpected unemployment come up like a teacher may be laid off for reasons outside of an override.

Sure. Yep. And I think you probably talked to Kathleen about that today. we could have an other account that has a million dollars in there. That in her and our discussion, it seemed ambiguous as to whether or not the the school and it seemed ambiguous with you as well yesterday, the school is actually covering that unemployment or if it's coming from the town. Just as if we do not pay back the town on health insurance claims, they cover It's not our night for audio. No.

So that might be a good These are questions right for about Evan. So, okay, class size programming. Uh, taking a look back, the reductions we're going to make are on top of the reductions that we made last year. So, non-personnel, 162,000 for supplies, curriculum, materials, tech, software. It's not a uh area that we were flush in. So, the 162 made things even tighter. And then we had the six and a half FD for personnel reductions. Um

Dr. Cummings, looking back though, we also received another 278,000 after that reduction that you didn't account for. And that was through circuit breaker. Correct. So So our total reduction from the original budget was 331, not 609. Um I I guess you could look at that look at it that way. That 278 for circuit breaker adjustment was gobbled up by August 1st. It was gone because of three moveins all collaboratives in July and the very beginning of August. Okay. I'm just so that's just gone. So we So just No, but when we were looking at the numbers, yeah, I guess that's one way of looking at it. The other way is did we bring any of these positions back? No, you didn't.

Zero. So I just want to be clear like these aren't things that we said we were going to reduce, didn't reduce, and are bringing back. I'd love to. But in addition to that, we also had costs that were not budgeted for. Yes, we're always going to have costs that were not budgeted for. Every almost every day there's something that comes up that has a cost that it was it would be like

in a magnified by a million but or millions your home budget. You could come up with the greatest plan for next year, but every week something's going to go south on you. It just is. And we deal with that because we're exceptionally tight on top of everything else. Uh literally almost every day, right? But I mean, we gave all the principles increases in salaries that were not accounted that you did not budget for last year in the budget. Those we wait till the budget's approved and then make any increases typically um in line with the any teacher increase of in terms of colon.

Okay. All right. So, this is a slide I actually used with the leadership team. Um, not changed at all. So, I don't when we start thinking about reductions, we don't put any paras on with one exception that I'll speak to because almost 100% of our paras are tied directly to IEPs and students. One to one, one to two, what have you. Um, it's like the oldest [music] principal trick in the world. You say, "Oh, I'm going to like four paras." And you don't really have a plan. We haven't even had IEP meetings. And then the year starts and you have to you say, "Oh, I've got IEPs and [music] I need paras." And we suddenly have to make reductions. And uh so we're not doing that. The only exception is we used to have paras um one parah with each kindergarten classroom and over the years we pulled back from that. So we have four uh two at each school. Um, so I wouldn't want to pull that, but if we make that decision going forward, obviously the FTE would increase because those salaries are a little lower. Um, we reduce what we say that we're going to reduce. Whatever we come [music] up for a plan in 15 years, you won't find an example of me doing otherwise. Um, I tried to keep this vague enough because this obviously isn't a big morale booster in any way, shape, or form, never mind in January. Um, but I want to be upfront. I both Evan and I want to present or it's fundamentally what we're having is a discussion about level of services. If the town wants on municipal and school side this level of service that [music] is provided, if we don't pay for it, we're going to have an impact. This it's just it's not particularly tricky, unfortunately. And then finally, we try to keep the sister schools linked in terms of impact. So, we don't want a class size of 28 at Milbury Street in grade five and a class size of 19 at North Street in grade five. It's not

always going to be perfect, but we really strive, you know, you wouldn't want to have band at one school and then the other school that's not offered, that type of thing. So my first take over the break was a reduction of I titled them instructional staff being purposefully that could be a parah it could be a curriculum coordinator it could be a teacher um almost all we don't have we have we're down to really three curriculum people um so that pot is not incredibly deep uh the great majority of reductions that we make are going to be from the teaching staff there's there's no way around that. Um so at the secondary level right now um in my plan would be seven FTE instructional staff and the same at the elementary level. Um I'm certainly not going to share positions or specifics, but I know a lot of the numbers [music] of course. So that 571 at the secondary level I think is an accurate representation um of what those reductions would be if we were that's 14 individuals if we were to reduce by 14 and if it's 20,000 uh to be set aside or or reserved at least in thought for unemployment that would total 280. Um, that's an additional cost. It doesn't go towards the million-doll reduction. Any questions on this?

Dr. Cummings? Yeah. Um, so as you know, I've been speaking with you and Kathleen and members of the board in regards to our original budget and we're going and I guess this is can I speak on this madam chair to talk of because of how we're going to be doing the original budget is now going to you you may have differentiated budgeting amounts. It's very difficult at this point to even I believe talk about a preliminary budget when a preliminary reduction budget when our first budget that you presented has not even been accurately reviewed by the entire committee or board and is currently going to be revamped

and and do you think there's a scenario where we would we being the committee would ask for more than that initial ask of 50.5 million.

I'm thinking that there could be a chance where you're not going to be asking to cut one point maybe six 1.06 even if it's 40 grand, 50 grand, 70 grand, 100 grand, 200 like there could be a differentiated. So I just feel like this is a little I I can appreciate you saying that I want to cut 1.2 million. I cannot appreciate at this point in time stating of the reductions that you're stating especially given the fact that in administrative salaries uh contracts it states that 3% increases cola increases would not be given if not financially able to yet in our budget currently we're still showing those. So those would be like one of my first things I would be talking about cutting before I start talking about cutting people.

Okay. And and that's a lovely discussion to have. That's really in the grand scheme of things. That's the minutia. Like you talked to up to 200,000. That's 0.00395 [music] 395,000th of our budget. It is so but of your of your reduction budget. It's not right. Right. And I'm saying it's preliminary and it maybe instead of in seven seven let's just go with you and say it's six and six and administration doesn't get paid or something lovely. I didn't say but the ideation doesn't get paid the idea is certainly we're we're going to be it's going to be close.

It is okay. There's no way around that. Like, and I think in the spirit of what I think Eban and the committees are trying to do is have these discussions not late like they did last year, but have them early. They're not going to be exact because it's January 6 as I've said 18,000 times, but it's going to be pretty close. I'm super confident in that. And then down the road, we can have arguments or whatever. Like, people do need to be paid. We don't pay exceptionally well. We don't pay anyone exceptionally well. And I can speak to that all day long. We don't Dr. Cummings, I'm sorry. I think that you're under the misinterpretation that I said not to pay administrators. That's not at all what I said. Just not an increase.

Not an increase if we cannot afford one as stated in their contract. But since we just gave contract increases, but I'm not going to get into that at this point with you. But I think in the grand scheme of things, I think that's small potatoes to be quite honest.

Okay. Any other questions on on this one? I don't know how many more I have. Compounding issues. Uh blocked this out. Um as this is going, this is jumping ahead a little bit, but this is a reality. Like I think part of my job is to give my best thinking around the reality. And if people like it, don't like it, I don't really care. But I've been doing this a long time. This the visual, if you can see it with the limited funding and dysfunctional that goes back to about 12 years ago with our first override and it basically lays out how when districts fall apart, how it plays out and this still holds true today. It won't be in the exact order but you get the idea. increased class sizes, reduced electives, reduction of maintenance, custodial, art, music, PE, then class sizes, you try to preserve pre-K through four, but event that that's next and it just keeps going. Um, you can look at area districts, there are a number that you know off the top of your head. If you ask, call them and ask them, they will say this is exactly how it plays out. Two big things for us though is as this plays out, and it won't be overnight, but it won't take long, is a loss of school choice funding. That's brought in millions, like eight plus million over the past uh decade. Um kids are coming to us largely North Bridge, Worcester. They're not coming from high performing districts and they just, you know, have to drive to Grafton for some reason. They're escaping some and Grafton's got a great reputation. That's super proud of that. Um, but they're driving to and from every single

day to be part of our our community. That brings in again that revenue doesn't just go into like a rainy day fund. We're using using it. Um, and it build us out two, you know, two years ago. Um, but that's going to decrease. There's no question about it. Why would somebody drive from Northbridge to have equal class sizes if not bigger in Grafton? It just makes no sense. Um so that that's a big factor. Um probably equally if not more significant financial impact will be an increase in our out of district placements. Uh we keep a lot of kids in district because of the programming that we've built up over the past decade. um takes a lot of work. Uh our staff does a fantastic job at it, but we have under 1% of students out of district from Grafton. That's that's terrific. We're tuitioning in kids from other towns. Um once class sizes again get larger, programming decreases, there is 0% chance that trend doesn't reverse. Um so financially those are two big things. The third thing is relatively new in that the first two we've been talking about for a decade. Growing enrollment um that's something that we've talked about for the past few years. It's it's definitely concerning. What I have before you'll read a little bit of it is from NASDAQ. That's the group that focuses on uh school enrollment. So they'll if you contract with them, they come in, they work with um the town side, they look at census numbers, birth rates, um all of the building going on in any given town, and they give you a full report. Uh typically districts do it every 5 years. We had them come in in 24. We'd already, it's just like two years into our fiveyear cycle and said, because of all

the development going on, can you give us an update? And they did that. So, this is from April of 2024. The approved housing projects may generate an additional 252 to 328 students in grades K through five. That's a lot of kids right there. Um 72 to 93 students in grades I can't read it. Six. Sorry, this thing's in my way. Gosh. Six to eight. Hold on. Give me a second. Oh, six to eight. Thanks, God. [snorts] [laughter] It's over. We ruined it by being Oh, you guys can still see it. I can't see. Yeah, we can see it. Yeah. Six to eight. We're good. You can't. Maybe it's a you thing. Dr. Come.

Yeah, it's a you thing. It's stuck. What's stuck? The slide stuck. Um, everything. Everything is stuck. Oh my gosh. This is not our tech night share. It's turning it on and off again. I plugged in. Bummer. [snorts] Oh, one second. There you go. Will you do that? We'll talk. Here we go.

Uh 6 through 8 and 36 to 46 kids uh students in grades 9 through 12 over the next two to five years. Obviously, that was in 24. So, we're on the precipice of all of that coming into play. you've certainly driven around town and you see all the construction taking place and it's not small construction. So that's on the brink of happening out of purely curiosity. I really hadn't been I knew we've we always have kids coming in but we always have kids leaving too. I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to it. Um okay here we go. This is new stu new student enrollment from December 15th. So from actually from July 1st to to December 15th. That's a lot of kids guys. And that's largely not the new developments because they're still in development. Um so we've had 168 students move in and only 35 move out in that time frame. So that plus 133 is significant. Um, all this simply ties to the struggle and when I think ahead and lay out future class sizes, a 27 isn't going to be a 27. I can't guarantee it's going to be a 29. Um, I'd love to tell you obviously that I could wave a magic wand and have all the kids that come in, I could sprinkle them evenly. It just obviously doesn't work like that. um like our middle school in particular, that jump of two grades um went up 28 kids in a matter of months. That's that's significant. So

Jay, yes. Can I pause here just for 100%. Um I have a couple questions. Do I I don't want you to have to go back, but so that that NASDAQ information, I do feel like that is that's new information for us. The last time we talked about this, we were not I'm okay. Yeah. No, not I'm not saying this is like the first, but I mean when we talked about it as a committee, I am fairly certain we have never only because I remember online conversations that members were having about how the new development wasn't going to impact like impact the schools, right? No, Laura is correct.

I mean, I might be, but not because of this. So, I feel like this is kind of a bigger thing that things really did shift because I think we've told people in the past that this wasn't an issue. Not that anybody ever comes to school committee before development happens or anything that we have anything to do with that, but I I do want to note that this I think to me was a surprise when I heard it for the first time and it might be a surprise. Now, you're looking at me, but I Yeah, it was actually from the school committee. It was a school committee that I worked for um that a school committee like I was definitely given direction by somebody to have NEZ come back sure this is that last time they were here though that was not their projection. No but that's why we had them come back. No, correct. And

okay, to be clear, it's over that next two to five years where again, if you were to be able to sprinkle that out by grade over five years evenly, you can be like, okay, it's not right. No, I I'm totally on. I'm just saying I think for the public like I don't think we've gone through I don't feel like we've totally discussed this private. We've talked about it but very much like Jay said in that you know it'll be such that we can absorb it in our current scenario we cannot absorb it. Thank you. I think a lot of it does I I don't know if I put Yeah.

I can make sure I I put that memo. It was like a three-page like me. put it in because it also it's somewhat speculative no matter what because a lot of times people put in for I want to do this development and they decide not to do it. Yeah. No, you guys drive around town. It's it's happening. Um

I want to be clear that I don't think you like I'm not to me or any No. I'm just saying in the past when we've talked about this in a large group to the town, we have had different we had different information. Now this is newer information. I'm not shocked like you you informed us you've done everything right.

I think this information might be new to other people when we're thinking long term and in the larger purposes when everybody in this town acts as a silo. Number one. Number two, my question, and I should know this, and I do kind of know this, but I want to know what you think. When we get new enrollment, how much does that translate into funding from the state? I know not a lot, but sometimes people like I know when we lose enrollment, we lose money. So, is there any money coming? So per student it's typically from $30 up in a year 30 between 30 and a hundred generally

per I mean not enough. So that's when we talk about that, that's that money when we talk about, oh, we're going to get $100 per student. That's what we're thinking. It's not additional money for new growth, right? No. No. Thank you. Okay. And then I got you. I'm going to state the obvious, but in a normal year, if you will, with Yeah. stable, pretty good class sizes, we can handle I mean, we've had an increase this year. We're not saying, "Oh my gosh." But if we're reducing by 14 staff or 12 staff or whatever it is, driving up class sizes already, right, that's something that needs to be and it doesn't get encumbered by the new people coming in with their homes paying extra taxes. It just doesn't work that way.

Correct. Thank you. Now, if you're working for another school committee, do you like them better? I thought you were saying like this. [laughter] You've never heard of this. No, no. I'm I'm sorry. I miscommunicated. No, I probably on the same page now. sure he does like them better. [laughter] We we obviously talked about if you remember [laughter] I guess Dr. question um so based on the new enrollment does that change the the funding projection that we would receive since they're so [snorts] it's like because we're a minimal aid district and get every year we'll get an additional $30 to $100 per kid. It

it doesn't impact us really at all. It's like under 100,000. And then I remember you talking about like the per pupil spend that we do. Yep. Want me to talk about that? Yeah, that would I even have some backup slides. I love when it works out like this. So I took the most updated DESIE uh information about per pupil expenditures and what the state does is actually an annual report. Make it bigger. I can't [laughter] I can't you're [snorts] going to going to crash.

It's it's small. Um I'll I'll tell you the the things to look for. Um there are 318 districts in the state of Massachusetts. Okay. And per pupil is the one apples to apples comparison where they take all of the expenditures that a district has and divide it by their number of students. Okay? So we can be compared to well Welssley wherever um and that includes no matter how it's handled insurance. So health insurance like the town the municipal side handles health insurance for us. some other districts. I don't know. I'm making this I don't know what Shootsbury does, but let's pretend that the school staff [snorts] handles health insurance there. It doesn't matter. It gets lumped in. Um, and it's all in the year-end report and that's where the auditors come every summer and go through your year-end report. Um, so it's the best applesto apples comparison of where you stand. So, I took the most updated data. It's always trailing. Um, and I put page numbers. There are 15 pages. So, as I go through this, you what you're going to first look for is the state average in yellow. Oh, it's this is great. Pay attention.

Can't see anything. What am I paying attention [laughter] to? Well, it doesn't matter. You can just There's about 25. It starts with Province Town. That's always the most expensive because of travel stuff. Martha's Vineyards up there, Truro. But we're talking like $48,000 per kid. All right, we're in page two. So, you're getting comfortable, but you're looking for the state average where performance-wise we aim to be at or above with everything we do. All right, we're on the third page. Each page again has about 25. Um, there's Conway, NSET, Denim's up there, Metapoet. Oh, page four.

It's like a bedtime story. Holy Oak. Oh, wealthy Holy Oak, which is luxurious. Harvard. Keep going. We're on page five. Still, you don't see the state average yet. Amesberry, Sherburn. That's really nice. Uh, page six, Wearham. I've been to Wearham. Um, you know, Brockton, [laughter] Wayland. Okay. Oh, here we are. Page seven, the state average. Okay. Um, so you'll note that not one area district because that's the next thing you're going to look for in green. The area district state average is 21,885. Again, adding everything up, divide by the number of students. So, we're now under the state average. Page eight, still nothing. Now, you're looking for regional districts. Those are in green, like our neighbors. Fall River, Hatfield. Oh, here we go. Page nine, we've got Westboro, $20,421.83 per students, followed not too far behind by Milbury. That's a big move. most I can talk to it, but there's very little actual movement in these year after year. Um, and then Mendon Upton all on page nine at 19,986. Page 10, we just keep on going. Then we've got Sutton showing up at uh 223 out of 318 at 19,100. And then nothing. We've got Blackstone, Milville, Oxford on this page. Um, here we go to Shrewsbury page 13. I think they're probably like if I aspired I'd love to have Truro's money or something, but Shrewsbury kills it in terms of performance and efficiency. Not as well by desperation that we do, but that that that's always

impressed me there. 17,838 per kid. Page 14, we get to Northbridge. Famously struggling. North Bridge used to be fantastic and has been struggling ever since. The majority of our school choice are coming from North Bridge. Um they're at 17,465. Finally. Oh, there we are. We're 12th from the bottom at $16,585 per student. Um I don't know the dis too much about the districts underneath us. I know Frank McBride went Frank Rothell went to a Kushnet. Um they're dead last. I don't know how they they do it. I would bet my last sense that we're outperforming in every way every district that's around us on this chart, but we are solidly in the basement. Um, so that's why I struggle with when people say I have no issue if somebody doesn't think that let's say I as superintendent a lot money to the wrong places but the thought that we as a district comparatively overspend is the most ridiculous thing ever. To give a little context, Cella, if we if we received the state average for funding, every year we'd have a check for $16.4 million every year. I mean, it blows your mind. If we I won't bore you with all of them, but if you go down to Northbridge, which is struggling mightily, it would be an additional $2.7 million every single year. like we are so far behind and there's no way we're not catching up. There's I won't even say in my lifetime in your lifetime even in

your lifetimes um to move even to get to a north bridge we need not only to have level service but annually an additional over 2.7 million. That's never going to happen. any real movement that we see if we're 12 or 13 if we've been dead last some years is we really move up when other districts move down like we'll move if we don't have an override we are going to move down um can't move down too much further but we will um unless others you know also move down with us um so it's depressing but is there anything that I missed that you want me to cover.

Nope. I just need refresher. Okay, good refresher for all. Thank you, Stella. Anyone have anything else? Oh, wait. Dr. Cummings, this that you gave us today, is this the up this what you just presented on? Yes. You had the 25,000 on here. You didn't have it on there. In regards to the principal, did you take that off? Nope. It's just 25,000 out of No, keep going back. One point. No, because you changed the bottom line total too to one.

Oh, because that's what I'm putting before you. I don't to make everything add up. But yeah, we'll probably end up putting that. We're going to find small

efficiencies and add them. Obviously, we don't we don't want obviously we don't want to reduce any staff, but we can you see how low we are. We can make the mistake and probably already have of cutting. We have no margin and we're really good at cutting that margin more and then hoping it all works out. like we are as as of December we are essentially out of money for roof and HVAC which might not sound like that big of a deal but our roofs are terrible and we spend an or inordinate amount of time chasing leaks and who wants that in any way for comfort health um we're going to I mean if something happens we're going to have to make it work but we don't have school choice funds to go to we don't have. We just we're we're out. Um [snorts] HVAC, that's a big deal. We have a unit on the high school roof in the discussion that uh that ties to one of the computer labs. Do we move the computer lab? We don't have money to fix it. We don't have a quote yet, but it's going to be over 100, though. We don't We definitely don't have the money to fix it. Okay, now what? and maybe we move the class, but we don't have extra classes either, you know, empty classes. We've got to somehow share classroom space or something. And it's December, it's not December, it's January 6th. Um, so cutting things, whether it's the SEAL, whoever does the SEAL responsibilities, maybe we just don't do SEAL oversight. um

that is level I mean that's a reduction I mean we don't have a lot of things I know you guys know that we don't have an assistant superintendent that in a district this size you don't see that um we don't have an HR director that's borderline insanity I know it was my idea and I'm making it work kind of um we've got two curriculum people we don't have enough supports for staff everybody's doing their very best but stretched super thin Um, so the just the thought that we're overspending is just so ridiculous to me.

And I think that's where, you know, at least for me going, this is my third time for this. Um, and I have a lot of faith in the work that's been done over the years. I've watched you go through two overrides, a pandemic, working with multiple finance directors, and um I have a lot of confidence in what you've brought to us. I think for me and I know I've heard it there's always that group of people like when you said that slide like if we had the additional whatever to whatever million it would be like we never get to have that conversation not even 200,000 forget

to ask what you know we once upon a time we were we did some things we've every time we add we have to kind of take them back like over the years like we've been able to grow we do tremendous work the ROI is which you didn't even mention that's So amazing said like our staff couldn't do a better

and that's it. But the I think sometimes when we hear because I think people are like you know why why don't we ask for more it's because we always seem to have to start with the you guys are overspending argument and then by the time we get to the over we're just trying to get to level service and it is frustrating because I think we all would love to see we don't get that opportunity on this committee to really talk about a a budget right we get to give you a number but we don't get to debate hey what if we could say ask for an extra five million and add you know whatever we would get to do with that

bilingual program or something or what you know all those things so I don't remember I had a real good point but I think the point is it's just it's coming it's coming Christy I know something brilliant the brilliant thing is I would like to skip ahead I would like to skip past the because this is this is the same conversation we had last year the reductions people know what they are because we put them out last year. Like nothing is really Except it'll be worse.

It'll be worse. It'll be [snorts] worse. Thank you. Thank you for that. Um, so I hope to skip ahead. I'd like to skip this and and get to the part where people and I know that's hard. I know it's a lot to ask, especially in this world right now to ask people to pay more. That's that's not something I ever take for granted. I would love us to be able to go into that as hey we've and we have now for two years done everything we can. We have done and that was a poor decision right we made two years ago we're like we're going to spend down our revol our revolvers that's not what you should do right that's not the best budgeting skills even I know that so we've done a lot of things already and I just want to get and I know you're giving me but I want to get to the place I guess I'm talking to our committee where we start with we've done this work.

Yeah. You know, and here's this is what we need. And we're again only coming for level service. And my kid, my youngest is graduating this year. We're asking for the same services that he got when he was in kindergarten. For kids now, the world is completely different since my son was in kindergarten. Their challenges are way more than what my son faced. And we're still just asking, let's do it again for level service. But to add to that, I would say we're still killing it. We're meeting or exceeding the state average in every metric.

Our kids do well. Our kids get good jobs after school or go to good colleges or, you know, have opportunities. We're still managing to really outperform yes, what we spend, but how Yeah. But we're not able when then you're, you know, reducing now teachers are bringing on more. Now we're talking about, you know, we're going to have to cut the meager, you know, possible raises that our admin get when they're now dealing with upset teach, you know, it's it compounds. There's only so much you can ask and we ask so much already. And this will be my annual thank you to everybody. Um, so I just wow I don't know. I'm sorry if I violated your rules.

No, you didn't. I mean, you assume good intent. You weren't you didn't demean any over the work that's been done. You're not inflaming anyone. No, but we're passionate about it and I, you know, I appreciate the work that's been done to date. As you said, 18 times or more, Jay, this is January 6th. I'm just thankful we're talking about these things way earlier than we were last time. Um because I think it's important that people know all right the details are going to change

but the big picture is you know without a source of additional income which in our case is an override because of the limits on you know the tax levy. It will be catastrophic. This this district doesn't look the same. It certainly doesn't get better. Doesn't continue to improve. It's catastrophic. And I think of services definitely decreases significant. It's important for people to understand that now and pay attention. So, thank you for doing this work to date knowing it's a living document. Yeah, [clears throat] definitely

grateful to our friends downstairs because I know they're also talking about it and I know they're also you know they were asked to come up with a recommendation and you know if their recommendation is no we don't want you know we want that's going to be a conversation then we'll have you know so we need to wait and hear and hopeful they'll you know and then we're going to have to advocate and do our best to educate and make people pay attention because there's a lot going on. Yes. I suppose downstairs they could decide to just fully fund us, but they could. I don't know how. Oh my gosh. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But wow, that would be great. Dare to dream,

right? But Grafton's not a flush. Okay. Sorry. So anyway, Madam Chair, yeah, I would just like to inform the committee as I had like briefly gone over just a second ago, just so that everybody is on the same page and is aware um like because of whatever, I'm going to be meeting with Kathleen per Dr. Cummings recommendation on a probably a weekly basis as this budget is being developed um in accordance to basically how Evan had stated it would be developed. So, I just wanted to let everybody have the same knowledge. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Jay. Anything else? Nope.

All right. I don't even know how we continue a meeting after that. I have a question. Yeah. Yeah. Next week. So, we are Is this an appropriate time to ask about? So, we're meeting next week. Do you with with the select board? Just the two of us or just the two boards? Yes. Um I would like to mention [laughter] just just and I nobody else can come. No, it's just me and just me and Matt. [laughter] We're gonna be um No, I'm sorry. I'm like just the two groups. Um

what are we are do we know what the agenda is yet? Like what are we prepared? Are we bringing something? Are we listening? Are we discussing? Do we know? Yes. Yes. Uh, it's still to be determined, but you're still working out. Yeah, I'm working it out with Mr. Jefferson. Um, you know, I think given that Evan wasn't able to join us at this meeting, I think a part of the meeting is going to have to be him sharing. Ask though, was he going to share anything different with us than he shared with the finance committee? Do we know? I don't know. I don't know.

I can't. you might want to ask cuz we could do our we could we could do our due d we could do our d I mean it would be good for our board to be able to ask him questions right Thursday right yeah no I know we could ask question our own board to meet with him yeah um no that's fine um I guess my other question just from experience is just a lot of times then we get the look right so make sure that Jay is prepared what look to get the look from like okay schools oh Absolut. Oh, absolutely. No, we're not going to just show up and be like, "Hey, we're here. Prepared. Nothing." We're always prepared. [laughter] Always prepared. But just um Yes. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. I'm God. I don't know. It's okay.

It's January 6th. I know it is January. Everybody's circling back. It's a couple of birthdays today, though. Laura's daughter's birthday. Shout out to Aliyah Gladstone. [laughter] I love that. Um Okay. All right, student reps. I hate to turn the mic over to you after that depressing discussion, but um make us happy with cool happenings. Yeah, we don't have many updates as we just got back from our winter break, but this Thursday, Graph and Deco will be competing at districts at Nichols College and student council had a very successful winter clothing drive donating over a thousand items to local charities in Massachusetts. Awesome. Great much.

Well, and you can follow um the new Grafton Public Schools Facebook page to find out all other great that are happening throughout all the schools. Like I learned we have like an active firefighter. That is awesome. It is really awesome. Amazing. And so cool. So plug. Well, thank you both. Be careful. I don't know if it's Yeah. I don't know what the weather. It sounded so loud. Just a second ago. Hear it out. So drive just slow, slow, slow. All right. Thanks. Do you want to stay? [clears throat] All right, guys. Drive carefully. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

All right. Calendar, future calendar. We made some changes on the fly here. Um, agenda. I don't think there's anything other than moving uh in Nicole 20th. Yeah. That's it. So on the sorry while we're talking about calendars on the 27th are we meeting with the select board as well is that what I'm kind of if we need that meeting yes if block it off hold it. Yes. Okay. When is the special education coming? The 20th. 20th. Okay. Yep. Cact. Yes. Okay.

Do you want to reach out to them as the liaison? [laughter] I forgot it was your le your liazison. So yeah, just make sure they're available and yeah, one year when we came in it was nice to be back to back. Yes, I think it makes a lot of sense actually. Okay. You know what I wish and it's not on here and it's never been presented before but a PTO PTG presentation like a joint one to tell us like all that they're doing for the Oh, that's interesting. We did use took it off. Yeah. Yeah. Well, was when they did the school report, they would come with the with North or um Milbury, but I would just think on their own like we're doing all X, Y, and Z. Yeah. I mean, they a date and I'll

like a joint. Yeah. Yeah. They do a lot of great work and they would be recognized on the school committee, especially in a um override year when people ask. It would be nice to have them how much work they've done. Yeah. I wonder if on the on February 24th when we have the NGES and SGES updates maybe we can have them join us then too the two presidents from each. Yeah, I think that's great. Want me to work on that? Yeah, please. Okay. Do you guys want to hear a funny antidote about when I had to come and do that? Yeah, go. Okay. So, um, many many many years ago, I came before the school committee and one of the members asked us like about Pi Day

and I just like completely like looked like completely blank because of course it was math and I was like Pi Day like what the hell are you talking about? like March 14th and I'm like, you know, they do do things and it was like and to this day like the my former co-chair, shout out Cindy Brown, we still she still makes fun of me like Laura, it's Pi Day. Like it was like a I was like, [laughter] did you think today we're talking about like pie you eat? Well, and it is, but I just had no idea what she was talking about. That's funny. I'm going to ask about Pi Day. Laura, you would might be shocked to hear this, but I make a pie on Pi Day and the crust is the numbers of pie out of the top of That does not shock me at all. [laughter] I will let you pie. All the numbers around it like the crust

3.14 we keep going out of the crust. I know. I can't even make a crust. Is there no end to your [laughter] She doesn't sleep. That is the end. She just bakes things and does math. I wouldn't make a nice pie. No, not yet. No, we just we we just have gotten way off. I get in on the pie conversation. Yes, you got in on it. I get it. We to that too, huh? Ever heard of Pi Alley in Boston? Yes. PI. Yeah. You know what it stands for? You know why it's called that? Why? Don't throw these hard pi questions at us.

Oh, I lived there. So, all the publishing was right near I guess it's called pie and I guess it was super reusable and they would just pour out the windows into the [laughter] pie. That's amazing. Wow. I remember that one from a long time ago. That is very cool. Thank you. [laughter] The meeting is still going. Everybody is [clears throat] learning. I want to keep it, you know, kind, you know, kind of logical and all that. No, it's okay to rear off a little bit. Right. Yes. I am like nothing is not flexible. All right. Approval of minutes. We do have minutes to approve and I will take a motion.

Madam Chair, I'd like to approve the minutes dated December 9th, 2025. As second. Motion made and seconded. Any questions, comments, discussion? All right, seeing none, all in favor? Uh, did anyone have any questions on the warrants for this week? Okay, great. Um, there is no need for do you guys have policy? No. No. The only thing is Dr. Cummings, it's still like that the at some point the next time you send a newsletter to to include members. Laura, you don't want to do it. Ask him. Yeah. Oh, ask me again. You're going to put in the newsletter that the policies updated and pro, but you haven't sent out. You didn't do a general newsletter. Okay.

Maybe you could do a Facebook post. Oh, I do that, too. Definitely. I'll do that. Oh, do Oh, right. I was going to take all the pieces and put them together. Yeah. But you have No, but he is on board with that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I did ask him. I don't want I didn't ask. I did. All right. We have no correspondence. Um, but we do need executive session. So, I will take a motion for that. I'm going to have to ask somebody else to make I don't have my Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session and adjourn this meeting. Uh make a motion to adjourn the meeting. I don't know. What am I supposed to do? Share the purpose. All right. Oh, I don't know what the I don't have it open. All right. Never mind. Um I guess I'll make a motion.

Yeah, you make the motion. I don't have it open. to uh adjourn the meeting and go uh to go into executive session um to investigate charges of criminal misconduct or to consider the filing of criminal complaints. Perfect. Thank you. Motion made and seconded. Uh and good night. Oh yeah, we have to do a roll call vote. Sorry. Stella. Stella's eye. Christy Kajjinski. I Laura Alton I. Leora Braum. I Good night Grafton. Good night. Thank you.