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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-02-13 Finance Committee Minutes r � F. in alb`.' '( '.)MMAI/it e 7 �p � I r � � �•'�"�r I u.��� IIIlwwwi 25, Ir lys i :YU I IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'i I'li ii h ( ullYs gllllll�l Present: Chair Denevan O'Connell, Vice Chair Christine Allen, Brianna Stetson, Keith Chaney, Dustin Silk, Eva Pastor, Nancy Sarro, and Jeanne Irwin Not Present: Regina Kean Mr. O'Connell called the meeting to order at 6:OOPM. The open session meeting took place in the North Andover High School on 430 Osgood Street North Andover. TRI-BOARD MEETING between Select Board, Finance Committee and School Committee Mr. Roache explained the purpose of this meeting and the goals aimed to be achieved. Mr. DiSalvo explained his role during this meeting and the purpose of him being present. NEW BUSINESS Discuss Budget with Select Board and School Committee Town Manager Melissa Murphy-Rodrigues and Superintendent Pamela Lathrop presented the budget process and how they have reached the point they are at today. Ms. Lathrop stated the goal here tonight is to leave the auditorium with a collective understanding of how they can move forward to Town Meeting with their FY26 budget. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed a chart that demonstrates how the budget process works. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the process begins around the October timeframe with the Revenue & Fixed Cost Committee. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the Revenue & Fixed Cost Committee issues guidance to the Town Manager. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated guidance is passed on to the schools and the town departments to create their budgets. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated those budgets are then sent to the Town Manager around the first to second week of February. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated she then compiles those budgets and sends them to the Finance Committee and Select Board. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the final vote is at Town Meeting. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated between February 10th to March 26th is when they do all of the final review. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the Finance Committee will have their vote around March 26th. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated around April 12th is when they have to have the warrant completely finalized to be voted on, on May 13th at Town Meeting. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the FY26 revenues. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the revenues for the FY26 budget total $132 million. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the four major revenue sources are property taxes, local receipts, state aid, and transfers, which is money transferred from the enterprise funds for water and sewer. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated of the $102 million in tax levy about 84% of that is residential taxes. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the levy and how new growth works. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the levy is the amount of revenue raised through real and personal property taxes. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated there is a law in place, Proposition 2 1/2 dictates that they can only increase the tax levy by 2.5% a year plus new growth. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the levy is calculated annually by the state. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated new growth is new tax levy that is gained through developments. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed historical new growth. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated in FY23, FY24, and FY25 there were new growth spikes due to Amazon. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the difference between overrides and exclusions. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated overrides and exclusions are the only ways to increase the tax levy outside of Proposition 2 �/2. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the levy capacity. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated this is when a town sets its levy below the levy limit. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues presented a tax case study of 400 Great Pond Road. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the town through town meeting purchased this property to protect the watershed and removed it from the tax rolls due to municipal exemption. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the tax levy did not decrease instead the burden for the portion of the levy was spread to other taxpayers. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed what the impacts would be if they choose to budget to the levy limit. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated it would have an impact on average single family homes and on Facilities Master Plan II. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed Amazon's property taxes. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the resident impact of using capacity. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the estimated impact of Town Meeting spending on FY26 tax bills. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the impact of using the Amazon levy on Facilities Master Plan II. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the compounding impact on taxpayers by utilizing an average single family home on Salem Street as an example of how their taxes would increase if the town spends capacity. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated based on the guidance received from the Revenue & Fixed Cost Committee as well as the Tri-Board, she has forecasted revenues which allowed for town departments to increase by 2.75% max, fixed cost of 6.69%, and an education budget of 2.75% plus Medicaid and the middle school teacher reserve for total of 4.4%. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed free cash. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated this year they generated about 5.5% of the budget in free cash, carried over$2.4 million and generated $7.2 million. Ms. Lathrop discussed the budget deficit history in the school department. Ms. Lathrop stated in FY24 they ended the year with a $4.5 million deficit. Ms. Lathrop stated the Town offset through the use of one time reserves, ARPA, and town budget reduction through spending and a hiring freeze. Ms. Lathrop stated this year they are estimating the school budget to have about a $3.5 million deficit. Ms. Lathrop stated the town is helping to offset that through Finance Committee reserves and free cash transfer. Ms. Lathrop stated in FY26 they predict a $3.5 million deficit plus $2.5 million in negotiated COLAs and Steps. Ms. Lathrop stated in FY27 there is an additional 4.5% of COLA plus steps, which is about$2.9 million. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the FY26 proposed within capacity within the guidance budget. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the FY26 Town budget pressures and changes. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated employee benefits are seeing a 7% increase, liability insurance is increasing by 9%, and vocational education is increasing; Greater Lawrence is increasing by 59%from last year's budget and Essex North Shore is increasing by 18%. Ms. Lathrop stated the School Committee voted to transmit four budgets to the Town Manager for review. Ms. Lathrop discussed those four budgets. The Tri-Board will begin their discussion of the budget. Mr. O'Connell asked the School Committee when they might choose one of the budgets. Ms. Koenig stated they have set a date of February 25th to hold a meeting to select which budget to move forward. Mr. Hicks stated the School Committee transmitted four budgets not to defer their obligations but to gain the support of the Select Board and Finance Committee so they can all reach their ultimate goal. Mr. Hicks stated the guidance budget would be disastrous to the community's ability to educate the kids in a proper way. Mr. Hicks stated his first goal in having this conversation is to get rid of the guidance budget and to move towards one of the other ones. Mr. Brown stated his goal tonight is to become more educated about the ramifications of each of these budgets. Mr. Brown stated he was not in favor of putting one budget forward because he wanted to fully understand the perspective of the Select Board and the Finance Committee. Mr. O'Connell asked Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues to walk the Tri-Board through the ramifications of each proposed budget. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if they choose to go with the purple budget or the level service budget then they will have to use the entire levy limit. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated they would need to raise taxes by 7.56%, and they would have increased debt capacity, increased debt usage for Facilities Master Plan II. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if they decided to raise for a level service, they would be talking about having an override for another$2 million so instead of the taxes increasing by$500 it would be $700. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated it would be $700 on top of the 2.5%. Ms. Koenig asked if that was under the assumption that debt exclusion would pass by a vote at the next Town Meeting. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated yes. Ms. Allen asked if they spend to the levy limit how does that affect Facilities Master Plan II. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if they go to the levy limit and spend the entire $5 million, they would still have the $24 million in the capacity to do $24 million worth of debt. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated they would need an additional $10 million in debt exclusions so the impact would be $267 per year for 25 years for the average single family versus $170 under the current plan. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated there would be a tax increase as well which would be $737 a year. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if you are thinking about Kittredge, and they stay with the current funding plan, it costs the average single family home over 25 years $4,250. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues if they use the levy capacity, and they go to the new funding plan, it costs the average family home over 25 years $6,675. Mr. Roache stated a good chunk of Facilities Master Plan II are school facilities. Mr. Roache asked the School Committee if the priorities with regard to the Facilities Master Plan II from the school perspective changed. Mr. Hicks asked when the Atkinson and Franklin projects were slated to happen. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated Franklin School design is in FY33 and construction in FY35. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated Atkinson School design is in FY26 and construction in FY28. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated they tried to design a program that had the least amount of impact on residents. Ms. Koenig stated for the School Committee one of the biggest concerns is that if they do not get the debt exclusion for Kittredge the ability to ever reopen that building is concerning. Ms. Koenig stated it is a priority for the School Committee to be able to make sure that building does come back online with the funding that they need to be able to do that. Ms. Cormier stated another big part that was mentioned is declining enrollment. Ms. Cormier stated it is certainly something that needs to be looked at whether or not enrollment is going to keep declining. Ms. Irwin stated she looked at the enrollment for the next several years and what it will do to the middle school and high school. Ms. Irwin stated currently the middle school has 1,023 students but by FY28 it will be 971. Ms. Irwin stated daycares are currently flooded due to COVID babies so it is going to balloon. Ms. Phillips asked if they needed to keep Kittredge online in order to accommodate children if enrollment is going down. Ms. Lathrop stated there are bubble years, and those usually work themselves out. Ms. Lathrop stated they are trending downward in enrollment. Ms. Lathrop stated that the blue budget moves the current Kittredge students into the Sargent School, and the purple budget moves them into three schools: Franklin School, Sargent School, and Atkinson School. Ms. Lathrop stated they can accommodate the current students in those schools. Ms. Lathrop stated regarding Facilities Master Plan II, they need to collect more data. Ms. Lathrop stated when Facilities Master Plan II was created they were working on different data and some things have changed. Ms. Lathrop stated this is a time to collect the new data and determine if they need to move forward with what is in Facilities Master Plan II. Ms. Stetson asked how the children's needs have changed over the last five years. Ms. Lathrop stated children's needs have changed greatly and some have been the same. Ms. Lathrop stated since COVID they have seen an uptick in mental health, and children having to learn to reengage with each other. Ms. Lathrop stated the district is aware about the way they are educating their primary students. Ms. Lathrop stated they had to change their literacy curriculum. Ms. Lathrop stated the needs of children changed in that way, and they are already responding to those needs. Ms. Stetson stated she is concerned about shutting down a school building when the needs of the children have changed and increasing class sizes will not necessarily help the students with the needs right now. Ms. Lathrop stated most of the other schools in the district have larger class sizes, and this gives the ability to afford a consistent grade level size to all of the schools and be able to support them in that way. Mr. Moscovitch stated the Superintendent and the Deputy Superintendent have begun an initiative to improve instruction. Mr. Moscovitch stated reducing classes as a way of improving can be expensive. Mr. Hicks asked if the School Committee supports something higher than $64 million will the other board support them in doing that, and if they could all agree to say no to the red budget. Ms. Allen stated yes and would like the School Committee to do an informal poll to drop the red budget. Ms. Allen would like to discuss the level services budget, and to see if this budget is what they are leaning towards. Mr. Brown stated it would be useful to understand what the educational ramifications are for each of these budgets. Ms. Allen stated while the Finance Committee and Select Board review the budget sent to them, it is up to the School Committee to consider the educational ramifications rather than all of the Boards. Ms. Pastor stated she does not agree with the level service budget and is leaning more towards the blue or the purple budget but agrees that this is for the School Committee to decide. Ms. Cormier stated finding a balance between the blue and purple budget would be the right thing to do for the district. Ms. Koenig stated her concern with the level services budget is whether it will be sustainable. Ms. Koenig stated she does not see the level service budget as being sustainable for the students to be able to provide them in the long term with everything they will need. Mr. O'Connell asked if the Superintendent and Town Manager could talk about the level services budget, and if they went with that this year, what impact does that have on FY27 and FY28, and how does it impact the taxpayers. Ms. Stetson stated it would also be helpful to see the impact monthly for taxpayers as well. Ms. Sarro stated the other consideration when speaking about the level services budget is the appetite for the town for an override. Ms. Lathrop stated the exercise in finding the level service budget was valuable to the School Committee, herself, and the school department. Ms. Lathrop stated they did not have a clear understanding of the amount of money they were spending for their schools. Ms. Lathrop stated they learned through the CLA report that there was not a lot of historical data therefore, they did not know what they were spending. Ms. Lathrop stated the level services budget gives an opportunity to understand what they are spending money on currently, and what it will continue to cost if they continue to spend money on those things. Ms. Lathrop explained the work they are doing in their school houses. Ms. Lathrop stated the purple budget can continue to improve instruction because it does not take away the work they are doing in their school houses or the curriculum work they are doing. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated concerns about sustainability are legitimate. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if you look at the 4% COLA plus the steps for next year, they are talking about$2.9 million for education salaries. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated FY25 budget is $62 million, the 4.4% brought the budget to$64 million which would not even cover that. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated it is important to think about how to create a sustainable plan. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated it is not the smartest long term solution to use the level service budget, which uses all the levity capacity and goes for an override. Mr. O'Connell asked Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues to speak about the issues they will face next year if they went with the orange budget. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated they would be facing the same as what they are facing this year. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if they continue to see the increase of fixed costs that means there is less for operational. Mr. Brown asked why a lesser budget would be more sustainable than a level service budget. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated there would still be Amazon levy capacity available. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if they move forward with the $71 million budget or the $69 million budget, they will run into a situation where they do not have additional capacity to go for next year. Mr. Roache stated a more measured approach is more sustainable. Mr. Roache asked does the committee want to take that chance that a larger debt exclusion passes or are they changing the likelihood that they will achieve that debt exclusion at the next Town Meeting. Mr. Moscovitch stated they should think about this in a two or three year period. Mr. Roache asked since they have collectively thrown out the red budget, does it still need to come in as part of Town Meeting. Mr. DiSalvo stated no, at Town Meeting there will be a representation of the Select Board approving a very specific budget. Mr. DiSalvo stated there will be a recommendation from the School Committee for their budget. Mr. DiSalvo stated the motion that will be heard will be the recommendation of the Finance Committee. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the red budget will be removed from the proposed budget book if they decide collectively today the red budget is no longer what the Tri-Board wants. Mr. Brown stated it requires approval to use the levy capacity in either the blue or purple budget. Mr. Brown asked if that approval does not come then what happens. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated a budget could be voted at any amount up to the levy capacity, and as long as they are under the levy capacity that budget would pass and that budget would rule. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if a budget is not passed at Town Meeting then they have to move to a month to month budget based on the budget from the year before. Mr. Brown asked if there is an option to propose a sequence of Articles to cover that. Mr. DiSalvo stated Town Meeting does not control whether or not the Department of Revenue will approve what has happened; they will be forced to come back to another Town Meeting where there is a properly formed motion and a direction from Town Meeting itself. Mr. DiSalvo stated yes that it could be done. Ms. Sarro asked if there could be a summary of the differences between the purple and blue budget. Ms. Lathrop discussed the impacts to staffing at the elementary schools. Ms. Lathrop discussed class sizes. Ms. Lathrop discussed the impact on staffing within the Middle School. Ms. Lathrop discussed the impact on staffing within the High School. Ms. Lathrop discussed the systemwide impacts. Ms. Sarro asked if the blue budget meets the class sizes that the School Committee has set. Ms. Lathrop stated it does with the parameters that in the directives the School Committee still had a desire for the class sizes to be between 18 and 25 but changed it in the budget directives to being willing to go to 27 if necessary. Ms. Sarro asked what Ms. Lathrop's views were on student outcomes. Ms. Lathrop stated 27 students is a lot of students to have in a classroom. Ms. Lathrop stated 25 students is more manageable. Ms. Stetson asked if there has been a risk analysis done for some of these impacts. Ms. Lathrop stated she met with building and curriculum leaders and determined they are able to meet the needs of their students with the reductions shown in the budgets. Ms. Bates discussed the positive impacts a new Kittredge School will have on the students. Ms. Allen stated due to the low enrollment this year and in previous years, North Andover does not necessarily need 5 elementary schools at this time. Mr. Roache stated they are not talking about cutting a budget, they are talking about investing back into the community. Mr. Roache asked if there has been a look at a broader redistricting of the elementary schools, and has there been an assessment as to how much of that is an actual layoff versus churning. Ms. Lathrop stated they have not looked at a redistricting plan yet, and they are in the beginning stages of looking at layoffs. Ms. Smedile stated a piece of land was purchased several years ago for a school, the land is now a field and suggested building a school there or selling the land. Ms. Smedile stated it is important to reach out to the citizens to see what they think is important. QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC Stephanie Fraizer of 208 Empire Drive asked if the Middle School does not have programs such as STEM or robotics, with these budget cuts, how are they going to come up with getting the kids these kinds of needs going into the future. Ms. Lathrop stated she has had conversations with building leadership at the Middle School. Ms. Lathrop stated these programs are something that will be part of their long term plan. Erin Harris of 135 Stevens Street asked what percentage of free cash can you live with the schools using. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated in her opinion, free cash should never be used to offset operating costs. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated that is how they ended up in the situation they are in right now. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated salaries were paid with COVID grants, which was advised not to do, therefore the grant money was used, and it ran out. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated over the last two years, one time revenue sources, that have now been depleted, were used to continue to offset that. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated if they used free cash to offset the budget this year, all they would be doing is creating a bigger hole for next year. Mr. Roache stated they set these prudent financial policies in good times so they are able to adhere to them when times get tough. Andy Tarsy of 88 Johnson Street asked if the model has been benchmarked against another district or another part of the country. Ms. Lathrop stated it is work that has to be done within the district, and work the School Committee and Town have to do. Ms. Lathrop stated they need to revisit their strategic plan to decide what the priorities are. Andrew Devore of 75 Forest Street asked why are they only discussing cuts to the schools and not looking at the entire town budget to address townwide priorities. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the town budgets were only able to increase by 1.98%, and the town cut$1.3 million in order to do that. Mr. Devore asked if the School Committee only transmits the level services budget does that force the Tri-Board to look at all of the other budgets and not put the entire burden on the schools. Mr. O'Connell stated if they transmitted a level services budget, the Finance Committee would examine that budget and how it would impact the town moving forward. Mr. Roache explained that cuts and how tightly the town budget is run does not necessarily get the same amount of attention as they may otherwise. Mark Rodgers of 19 Trinity Court stated they have recurring revenues that are probably close to $2 million that are not being put into the general fund. Mr. Rodgers asked why they are not doing that. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues reviewed the free cash numbers. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated they have used this free cash to offset the capital however, they are not generating more free cash than they should be generating annually. Nadia Chincilla Marto of 64 White Birch Lane asked what the reasoning is to why they are taxing under the levy limit when they knew that inflation was significantly higher. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues discussed the excess level capacity over the years. Rebecca Cesarski of 498 Osgood Street asked are they evaluating what the future spend is for out of district placements due to the larger class sizes and less teacher assistants. Ms. Lathrop stated yes they are evaluating the out of district costs. Ms. Lathrop stated class sizes may be larger than what Kittredge School is used to, they will not necessarily be larger than what the general collective district has had. Ms. Lathrop stated they are evaluating the district programs and the needs of the students. Ms. Irwin asked if the Kittredge School is closed, is there any way that you would see that your actual resources available might increase. Ms. Lathrop stated yes, those support staff services are not going to be reduced or cut. Lauren Mersereau of 200 Brentwood Circle asked for the social and emotional wellbeing of the students, why can Kittredge School not be kept online for one more year to create a thoughtful plan to transition students. Ms. Lathrop stated there was a counselor at one of the meetings who spoke about the transition of Kittredge School students to the Sargent School. Ms. Lathrop discussed what they have done to invest and help meet the mental health needs of the district. Ms. Lathrop stated she has not proposed Kittredge stay online for one more year because it is a financial savings, and they have a financial issue they need to correct. Ali Roberts of 31 Bridges Lane asked how can they assure them that the class sizes that are already large will not grow. Ms. Lathrop stated the blue and purple budgets are looking to have class sizes between 28-29 students. Ms. Roberts stated that that was already the class size, is that going to grow. Mr. DiSalvo stated no. Brandi Baldock of 521 Salem Street asked when parents become aware of more of these situations with even larger class sizes containing more students on IEPs, how is that going to affect the special district budget in terms of out of district services. Ms. Lathrop stated they are not proposing cutting anything in special education. Ms. Lathrop stated in the purple budget classes are 25 and below. Ms. Lathrop stated they are going to take a closer look at the needs of the school houses and realign the staff members if they have to. Juliette Darman of 32 Clarendon Street asked why the committee agreed to something that might have a consequence of cuts when the School Committee negotiated with the Union along with the Town Manager for these contracts. Mr. Brown stated they were aware when they negotiated the 4-year agreement that the 4th year(FY27)was going to be a definite challenge. Mr. Brown stated at the time of negotiations they were not aware of any budget deficit. Debbie Raffalli of 58 Palomino Drive asked how the teachers and teaching assistants were part of the cause for the budget deficit. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated they do not intend to state that anyone is at fault for negotiating a contract. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated the point she was trying to make in the FAQs is that she did raise an alarm and shared with both the teachers union and the teacher assistants that the budget would only be able to increase by 3.5% in the future. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated she mentioned that they would require cuts in FY26. Parker Dubman of 497 Wood Lane asked how the proposed budget cuts would affect retention of teachers and families who are considering leaving the North Andover School system. Ms. Lathrop stated as working individuals, they have the right to decide to look for employment elsewhere, and it is difficult to determine how many teachers or families will leave. Ms. Lathrop stated she hopes they do not leave, but there are potential cuts with the proposed budgets, and it is their intention to work closely with the North Andover Teachers Associations. Serafina Cronan of 1312 Salem Street asked how would larger class sizes affect participation and engagement in classes and does this have the potential to make students uncomfortable participating. Ms. Lathrop stated if participation is an issue that is something they would make the staff aware of. Ms Lathrop stated they would plan to address those concerns. Ms. Lathrop stated in professional development, teachers learn ways that they can connect with their students. Ms. Lathrop stated students are going to help the schools discover some of the potential concerns that they do not necessarily see and how they might be able to address those concerns. Madden Kelly of 28 Berkeley Road asked how will the education of these students be ensured if there are less teachers that could be teaching subjects they are not specialized in. Ms. Lathrop stated they would ensure all teachers have the proper certifications for the subjects they are teaching. Juliette Bene of 7 Olympic Lane asked do you think increasing the numbers in AP and honors classes and cutting certain electives is in the best interest of students. Mr. Hicks stated ideally they would not have to reduce courses. Mr. Hicks stated they have to ensure the budget that they pass is able to sustain itself but also has the least amount of impact on students. Devlin Hentz of 864 Chickering Road asked what would you cut if cutting freshman athletics and teachers was not an option. Ms. Lathrop stated freshman athletics have never been something they have proposed to cut. Ms. Lathrop stated if they could not cut teachers, they might have to cut a service on the town side. Mr. Hicks stated they did advise the Superintendent not to cut whole programs but to reduce them. Elsie Geiselman of 167 Quarterfield Road asked how will you keep classes in the Middle School to 24-26 when the class sizes are already 26. Ms. Lathrop stated from the work that they have done and speaking with building leaders, they are able to make those reductions in teachers (core teachers and related arts teachers) and be able to keep the class sized between 24 and 26. Shannon Gately of 40 Phillips Court asked the Board to explain where the logic is in making cuts to something that is already underperforming, how is that making it better, and why are we not hearing ways to try and bring in revenue for students and the town. Ms. Allen stated they had an opportunity to raise revenue for the town through the redevelopment of Royal Crest. Ms. Allen stated if the town had passed that they would not be in these circumstances. Ms. Bates stated North Andover is not a commercial base, and 80% comes from the residents. Ms. Bates stated when opportunities arise the town needs to be cognizant. Hadley Dowd of 88 Sawmill Road asked how do they plan to regain these opportunities with the plan to make cuts. Mr. Hicks stated the barrier they are facing is that there is not enough money and the only way to get more money is an impossible task. Mr. Hicks stated they have reached a point where they need to make difficult choices, but choices that will have the least amount of impact on students. Ms. Lathrop stated if they have to make cuts they want to know what is important to students to maintain those things that are important to them. Nathan Wilmot of 144 Granville Lane asked in regard to the summer IT program, what are the plans and expectations for the future to keep these facilities running properly. Ms. Lathrop stated the IT summer help position is only cut in the blue budget. Ms. Lathrop stated collectively as a community they need to talk about how they respect technology in the school district. Ms. Lathrop stated if they do not have the IT help it is going to take longer. Ms. Lathrop stated when the technicians come on board they will need to either collect Chromebooks at the end of the school year or they will have to start working on them at the beginning of the school year and not pass them out as early as they do. Dorrie Cossingham of 307 Rea Street asked in regard to selling land, what are they holding that land for and are there other assets they are holding that they do not need. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated they can explore selling Town owned land however, it is not a long term solution. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated when they sell town property, they reserve that for future capital because it is not a recurring revenue source. Adam Bagni of 92 Colonial Ave asked what does the data show in regard to class sizes within the blue and purple budget; how much worse or not do they expect the students to perform in those budgets versus the level service budget. Mr. Bagni also asked how students outside of Kittredge School benefit from its closure. Mr. Moscovitch stated data shows that smaller classes are better than larger classes, but the curve is not linear, it is more or less flat between 18 to 25. Mr. Moscovitch stated the big gains come when there are class sizes below 15. Mr. Moscovitch stated the big cost in regard to performance starts somewhere between 24 and 25. Mr. Moscovitch stated class size is only one method of improving performance, and it happens to be expensive. Ms. Lathrop stated other schools in the district would be gaining reallocation of staffing, and they would not experience larger class sizes. Ms. Koenig stated another gain would be consolidating all those resources to ensure students have access to equitable resources. Juliette Darman of 32 Clarendon Street asked what kind of training will be provided and when will that training for the teachers be to accommodate those students. Ms. Lathrop stated the training is consistent with training they are already doing in professional development. Ms. Lathrop stated they will continue to work with the professional development council and teachers association to meet the needs of the teachers. Tri-Board returned for further discussion amongst themselves. Ms. Murphy-Rodrigues stated with the red budget gone, do the Boards wait until the School Committee meets on February 25th and then reconvene conversations or do they talk now about wants and needs. Ms. Allen suggested a poll on the level service budget. Mr. Hick stated he supported that as the Finance Committee and Select Board have a role in the level service budget. Ms. Allen asked who is in favor of keeping the level services budget on the table. Mr. Moscovitch asked who is in favor of it in the abstract or who is in favor of it given the odds on its success on an override. Ms. Allen stated this is either they keep it in or they eliminate it; this is not a binding poll, the School Committee still has the opportunity to put forth whatever budget they feel they have to put forward. Mr. Hicks stated he leans towards the blue or purple budget. Mr. Hicks stated he sees the level service budget as a one year solution, and it jeopardizes the ability to make good choices for the district in the future. Ms. Koenig stated her concern about the discussion is that ultimately it is up to the School Committee, and they are missing the opportunity for the School Committee to have this discussion. Ms. Allen stated the Finance Committee and the Select Board can conduct an informal poll, and that might influence the School Committee's discussion going forward. Mr. Brown stated it would be valuable to him to hear its likelihood of success. Mr. Roache stated now that they have narrowed down the extremes, he would not like to take anymore of that debate away from the School Committee. ADJOURNMENT- Finance Committee MOTION: Ms. Pastor made a MOTION, seconded by Mr. Silk to adjourn the Finance Committee meeting at 9:OOPM. Motion approved 8-0 Respectfully submitted. Nicole Civitarese Executive Assistant Documents used at meeting Presentation Town Manager's Proposed Budget