September 2025 Joint Meeting: BR School Committee, Raynham Select Board, Bridgewater Town Council

The Bridgewater-Raynham School Committee hosts a critical joint meeting with the Bridgewater Town Council and Raynham Select Board to address budget shortfalls and their dramatic impact on students and staff following a failed override vote.

• School district has eliminated 47 staff positions including 21 at the high school
• Class sizes have increased dramatically with some middle school classes reaching 35 students
• District has lost 236 students as families seek alternatives due to large class sizes and reduced opportunities
• High school electives and business department have been particularly hard hit by staffing cuts
• Families now face $600 sports fees and $450 dual enrollment costs for courses that were previously included
• Town officials acknowledge competing budget demands but express support for finding collaborative solutions
• Discussion focuses on potential operational review to build public trust before future override attempts
• Group agrees earlier public education about budget needs is essential for any future funding request
• Towns considering proportional funding of an operational audit to demonstrate fiscal responsibility
• Leaders recognize need for long-term revenue solutions beyond short-term override funding

Our next joint meeting will be scheduled for January to review the preliminary budget before formal presentation. We commit to working collaboratively with both towns to build trust, improve communication, and find sustainable funding solutions for our students.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Introduction and Purpose
• 5:20 School Enrollment and Staffing Updates
• 17:26 Impact of Staff Reductions
• 30:50 Town Leadership Perspectives
• 42:23 Building Trust and Budget Challenges
• 56:40 Operational Review Discussion
• 1:08:56 Revenue Challenges and Long-Term Solutions
• 1:16:45 Next Steps and Meeting Plans

Transcript

SPEAKER_06: 0:05

I'm going to open the first quarter Brainhand Regional School District school meeting on Wednesday, September 7th at 7 p.m. This is rather directly.

SPEAKER_00: 0:20

So I think we're going to call to order a meeting of the Rainhand Select Board, and we are here to know the Rainhand Select Board with approval from the Attorney General of our change to Rainhand Select Board and thank our Rainhand Girl Scouts because they were the inspiration for sending that change. We do have a quorum with Mr. Chico, Mr. Collins, and myself here we can officially call the age board. Thank you. And Mr. Hart, please.

SPEAKER_17: 0:45

Johnny Laretti, President of the Bridgewater Town Council. I will call this meeting of the Bridgewater Town Council to order. We do not have the full council here, but we do have a quorum. Mr. Kennedy here, Mr. Sturgel, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Lindy, Mr. Hunt, and is anybody else here? All right.

unknown: 1:03

Perfect.

SPEAKER_06: 1:05

It is not on the agenda, but I would like to, if everyone can rise and we'll say of the United States of America.

SPEAKER_18: 1:22

Okay, I'm going to call it with a liberty and justice are all.

SPEAKER_06: 1:34

Again, thank you for everyone being here tonight. I know scheduling, this was really difficult, and to see the majority of the Bridgewater Town Council, the Rainham Select Board here, and my Bridgewater and Rainham School Committee, we really appreciate it. Just to level set, I really want to have these fairly regularly this year. Last year we did have the failed override and were facing a lot of budget implications because of that this year. A huge thing that came out of that was the community, the town council, the select board, and the Bridgewater May Council Committee. We realized we really need to work better together. We are three separate entities, but we all rely on each other. So we really need to work more collaboratively and all of us be on the same page as we go forward with the next budget cycle. And going through this budget cycle so you know what we're dealing with, what our issues and concerns are, because that will affect the following year's budget cycle for fiscal year 27. I know there was a lot of miscommunication or not everyone being on the same page. There's a lot of us here, and there's a few missing. So that's a lot of people to keep apprised of everything. So I know it's we it's very wieldy if we do this too often, but I feel like maybe if we do it quarterly and then work with our smaller group more regularly, at least as we go through it, everyone can know what's happening, share updates. Um we'll all get to know each other. We're all working towards a common goal. You're running your towns, and we rely on you, but we're your school system for your town. So I think it's important that we all work together. Um I just want to open up to Mr. Loretti and Mrs. Um Rhinele. Would you like to say anything before we kind of start?

SPEAKER_00: 3:25

No, just appreciate the school district getting the school committee getting us together. I totally agree that we need to work together, obviously, to support our towns and our billets for school children. So definitely appreciate being here.

SPEAKER_17: 3:41

Yeah, I'll echo a lot of your sentiments uh and this rallies as well. I'm glad that we're doing this now. We didn't we're continuing those conversations that we had uh last year, and we're all here uh again, and we're moving forward and looking forward to um FY27 all already because we all know that uh the schools are in dire need of a lot of collaboration from everybody. So I think that this is a good start, and hopefully this uh we'll continue to these efforts moving forward.

SPEAKER_02: 4:06

Madam Chair, if I may. I just ask everyone at the table. We are a long way away from the camera and the microphone. So if I'm not yelling at anyone, I'm trying to raise my voice so that the camera can hear me. And um, I know our chair and the chair of the Rainham Select Board are very soft-spoken people. I understand that, but I'm sure people at home would like to hear what you have to say, so if you could project.

SPEAKER_06: 4:36

Thank you. Just asking. No, good fair point, Mr. Fitzgivens, thank you. Um yes.

SPEAKER_08: 4:43

I'd like to suggest that when we do these meetings going forward, we consider a place that has multi-cameras and magnification. Okay.

SPEAKER_06: 4:52

No, and we put this together and I was trying to work through how what the format would be. Um we definitely need to figure out if we're gonna do this with all of us, which I think is the best format, um, definitely microphones, camera angle, figure that out. So I appreciate that. So I think this setup is good. I know everyone, I kind of I try to mix everyone up so we're kind of all together, um, and not town against town against committee. Um, so I think I hope this works, and then we'll try and figure out cameras and and microphones.

SPEAKER_08: 5:27

Yeah, covering try and figure a location.

SPEAKER_06: 5:32

Okay. No, that's a good suggestion. Um, I'd like to open it up to Mr. Powers and kind of give us um the budget was approved, kind of how school opening is going, um, how is that looking for staff, for students? Um, sure.

SPEAKER_16: 5:46

Thank you, uh Mrs. King. Good evening, everybody. Nice to see you. Um, and I do appreciate the opportunity that we're all here to be able to work with you. Um, as I've shared, uh you know that working closely with Mr. Barnes last year and at the time uh like Robinson, we did meet monthly, uh, beginning at the end of the summer and through the fall, and even throughout the school year. Uh, but I think it's a good idea, as Ms. King and Mr. Loretti and Miss Riley said, to expand those those working groups to include all of us at times. Uh certainly we uh you know plan to continue our collaboration and working individually together, but I think our greater boards and committees, uh it's it is important that we're all here together. Um so I did want to just uh go over what you have in front of you. I did put together a few documents for you just to provide a quick snapshot of the opening of school. Um the first page that you have it's titled Total Enrollment. Uh you can obviously uh you know see the labels. So this does go back to 2014, 2015, and then uh jumps ahead uh to the last uh you know few years. Um you can see that uh as I've shared in the past, our trends have been that we are adding about 100 students every year over the last few years. You'll notice for 2526, and let me just back up, the enrollment numbers prior to 2526 are our October 1 numbers that are certified by the state. Obviously, our number for 2526 is reflective of our opening of school. So this number will change over the next month as we you know continue to process enrollments, withdrawals, and such. But you can see we currently have opened school to 5,446 students. Uh I did provide just two quick notes down the bottom that is approximately 236 students less than last year. Now, obviously, uh we know every year we have a set number of students that leave the district, whether it be through going, you know, school choice or going to uh private school or one of our vocational partners. Uh this does not factor, uh this number is on top of that. So those students, uh anybody leaving for BoTech, private high school, they have already been factored into this. So this is 236 more students that have left the district. However, you will see that we do have 73 new pending registrations, uh, and that uh number continues to grow. That is a trend that we have seen over the last few years from the opening of school through October 1 and even throughout the fall, uh, we have uh continued to grow, and that trend is obviously continuing now. I do think I was asked a question not too long ago. Um, you know, were we on the same pace to be plus 100, you know, if you really factor in those 236 students that left plus the 73 new registrations, we would approximately be back to that trend of adding uh you know approximately another 100 students over last year. Uh you know, one of the trends that we've seen and heard from parents, obviously they have sought uh other alternatives to education within the district, whether it be through private school, we've seen an increase in the number of homeschool students as well. Uh and you know, just uh again what we're hearing from parents is that um you know they're concerned about high class highs, uh the uh less opportunities for our middle school and high school students, and that uh they are seeking other alternatives. Uh you know, this is uh 236 obviously is you know completely against the trend, and you have those numbers in front of you so you can see uh we have grown significantly over the last uh you know five years, and uh you know to to drop certainly is helping our situation, uh but I don't think it's truly reflective of the situation because I I do think in in many cases we can anticipate some of those students to move back into the district, and also in some cases, just based on trends, our enrollment will continue to increase even throughout the school year. So I just wanted to provide that quick overview. Uh, what you have on the next page is a breakdown of staff lost from last year and the corresponding impact on class size. Obviously, these are class size averages, so we know that you know any given class could be you know slightly higher, slightly lower, but overall, we've taken the total enrollment for that grade level and dividing it by the number of teachers gave us this class size average. I I did try to include some notes for you, uh, but happy to walk through that and explain it to you. Again, this information is as of last Friday. Uh, we are seeing this information change on a daily basis. Again, I shared with you we have those pending registrations down at the in the registration office today, working through uh this with Meg. Uh, they have already started to see an increase. They've already delivered some of those new registrations to schools, so these numbers will obviously change as those students are going through the registration process. Their registrations are complete and then they're actually assigned to school. So these numbers will go up. But you can see at the top of the chart, we start with Bridgewater K through eight, go to Rainham K to eight, down to the high school and then district-wide, uh, just so you can see how the layout of the document is. What we really tried to do K to eight is try to minimize the impact where possible, uh, especially at the primary grades, the lower grade levels. Uh however, you know, those numbers I don't think anybody at this table would say are acceptable, so we know they're high. Uh, we did have to make some difficult decisions to try to provide some equitable numbers across the district. We didn't want to have uh you know class size of 20 on one side of the district and 28 on the other. Uh so we did uh internally transfer staff around. We did have some additional positions that were open that we chose not to fill to try to bring some balance to those numbers across the district. Um, you know, starting with the Mitchell School, uh the Mitchell did not lose any positions, although they had staff that were not brought back. We did do some internal transfers and we used some grant funding to try to maintain the Mitchell Elementary School. Again, those numbers are not great. Uh, so certainly when I say maintain, maintain what you would already consider to be high class size, but made no improvements. Uh the Williams lost two positions due to retirements. Again, we did some internal shifting there as well to try to help with the enrollment bubble going through the Williams. Uh the O'Donahue Middle School did lose three positions, uh, one due to retirement and two due to layoffs. Again, uh we were able to minimize the impact at OMS by moving some high school staff down to the middle school. We did that at OMS and at RMS. So the number of uh you know layoffs that actually occurred were greater than the three, but because we were able to shift staff, they really are only down three positions from the prior year. So five altogether on the on the Bridgewater side, and then getting down to Rainham. You can see that we lost two kindergarten positions, uh, one due to retirement, one due to layoff. Um La Liberty lost two positions. We did one internal transfer over to the Mitchell school, and then one due to layoff, and then at the Rainham Middle School here, we're down five, two due to retirements and three due to layoffs. And again, you can see uh for the most part, there is balance between the class size averages, K to eight. Uh in some cases, we found that if we uh you know moved a teacher from one side of the district to the other to try to make improvements, it only just flipped the problem. Uh so we really weren't solving an issue, uh, we were just creating another one. And so we made transfers where we could, uh, and then unfortunately, uh, you know, the numbers are high, especially here at Rainham Middle School. Uh, you know, having 35 uh students in a class uh is not ideal, uh, nor is it something that again I know anyone at this table would support. Um, the high school, uh, you can see uh you know the significant impact uh to the high school. We looked at the core classes for class size averages, only because you know the electives, the enrollment does fluctuate there, so it was it was more difficult to try to get you a true class size average across all the electives. But you can see the number of staff lost there, uh three in ELA, three in math, four in social studies, three in science, two in world language, four in the business department, one unified arts, and then one guidance counselor. And you can see five of those positions were due to retirements, five were due to transfers, as I mentioned already, and eleven due to layoffs. So they're down 21 positions. I did also uh this document has been posted to our website, but there is also a link there to the list of electives lost, which you do have in your packet. That is the last page that you have in your packet, so you can see. Uh, and then district-wide positions lost, uh, facilities position, uh, four secretary positions, uh facilities had already been reduced the prior year, so we didn't feel as though that we can make too many more significant changes there. Uh secretary, the secretaries are down four, uh support position proctors are down four, administrative central office, uh, three. Uh we actually have one pending, so we will be down four for a total position of loss of 12 again with you know the 13th coming. Um, some of the key roles that we have lost, um, you know, transportation assistant, it has had a negative impact on the opening of school, having that ongoing communication with Lucini as open as they have been to hearing from us and reaching out to us, you know, eliminating that position really has created challenges. Um, you know, we obviously have a lot of parents that reach out at the beginning of the year with concerns about bus stops or their you know bus times and not having that conduit between the bus company and and us is you know create a burden. So obviously, those responsibilities have had to be absorbed by other staff members. Um we are down, our coordinator family and student uh services supports that position was responsible for uh being our bikini vento, our homeless liaison, our liaison to the courts, uh foster care liaison also handled our truancy and attendance as well. Uh so again, those responsibilities are now being absorbed by others. Um we're down a position in human resources. Um, as you know, uh we did some internal shifts where we did not fill the La Liberty Elementary Principal position. We moved one of our coordinators of teaching and learning over to La Liberty to help that, and we have another pending uh coordinator of teaching and learning position that um will loot. So unfortunately, uh you know, we'll be down two positions in teaching and learning, which we do have you know concerns about that. Uh but we also want to be mindful of these positions and you know where we absolutely need to fill. I and I would make the argument that we need to fill all of these, but ones that we can fill right now and ones that we can look towards the future of possibly filling or bringing back. Uh but you know, with the variable and the unknowns of move-ins and that we may need additional positions in other areas, we are for the short term keeping those positions open right now. Um, some of the you know variables that I've I did mention, not just student move-ins, but also the other variable that we have, as you can imagine, as we've uh reduced our staff, our unemployment costs uh have risen and risen significantly over the course of the summer. Uh, we did anticipate uh high unemployment costs, but just to share some concrete numbers. So towards the end of school year, uh going into June, our unemployment bill, uh Miss Healy and Miss Babalola, you know, just make sure my numbers are accurate, we're about$18,000 for for the month of June. Um that did jump up for to about$43,000 for the month of July. And then for the month of August, uh it's approximately$92,000. Uh why a significant jump? Obviously, we did have several staff members wait in anticipation of either being recalled or starting to look for other positions when they weren't able to secure those positions. Uh they then applied for unemployment, and you know, obviously going back to the the date of their layoff uh unemployment has uh moved their benefits back. So we've seen a significant jump. Uh, we do hope to see some relief there, uh, only because uh many of the individuals that were able to collect over the summer, we do know have uh started employment in other districts, uh, so hopefully they well they will be coming off for September. Um so once we get our report at the end of the month, we'll know better and be able to you know reconcile those. But uh that is you know some cautiously optimistic good news in terms of that number coming down. Uh, but you know, some other significant impacts that we've seen, you know, that you you wouldn't necessarily see in a class size. Uh the school committee and and with supports from the towns were able to add some additional unified arts positions over the last few years, uh, specifically in the area of music and uh specifically band and course. And so we were able to expand our band and course program here at the middle schools. Each middle school had their own band and course position in addition to general music. Uh, we were not able to continue that model this year, so we now are back to a one band and course position for both middle schools. So, again, seeing those negative impacts. I've obviously spoken to you about you know the reduction in secretarial positions and our transportation assistant. That has had a negative impact on our central registration office. Um, obviously, those positions were not just helping there, but they were also helping, especially this time of year and the end of summer, with registrations. So we have run into several situations where you know Meg and her team are working as fast as they can, but we have had delayed registrations and delayed processing and students starting late, and we we've heard some feedback around that. Uh, but they are working as fast as they can given the fact that they're really down two other additional positions that that would normally help. Uh and then you know, I I spoke about transportation uh as well. I think you know, obviously the positions at central office that we lost, uh we are all taking um, you know, absorbing those responsibilities. Certainly Mrs. Barry has uh shouldered a lot of those. I tried to take on what I can, um, and you know, others across the organization uh have done the same. Um so you know if you were to add up uh you know the number of positions lost going into this year, where uh at 47 uh we do have a few open positions right now, so that number you know could slightly change in terms of well, those are the number of positions laid off, but we we may be able to add a couple positions. We just brought on a part-time nurse just due to student need, uh we uh potentially have another special education position coming on, hence why we're not filling some of these other positions because we know as new students roll in they have uh you know uh certain needs that we need to make sure we're meeting, whether it be health and wellness, medical, uh, or through special education or English language supports, and we want to make sure we have some flexibility there. But that is a you know quick overview, and again, as I stated the last page is the courses not running currently at the high school that have run in the past. Uh, you can see I obviously I mentioned we're down four positions in our business department. Essentially, uh, our entire business department were all uh non-professional teaching status positions, and they were uh unfortunately uh let go through reduction in force. And so you can see a lot of the courses here being offered would fall under that. And then obviously, you can look and see the other significant impacts across the content areas of why we may not be able to add or offer some of these electives. Uh, we did try to address this uh with a with our partnership through Bridgewater State. Um, they have created some dual enrollment courses for our high school students specific to Bridgewater Rainham. Obviously, our high school students have always participated in dual enrollment, uh, but you know, they're in that class with other students from either other high schools or actually from students uh at Bridgewater State. These dual enrollment courses, and specifically in the the business area, personal finance marketing, uh, are they created specifically for Bridgewater Rainham students? And we've had a good turnout of students sign up for that and enrolled, those classes actually started this week, and they're looking to do that again in the springtime. It's certainly not making up um for you know this significant list, uh, but it is able uh to provide at least some opportunities to our students if we'll look to continue to expand that.

SPEAKER_04: 22:21

Mr. Thank you. Uh one of the biggest glaring things that I feel like this chart is missing is special ed. And I feel that it would be really good if we had some raw, concrete special education numbers, because that seemed to be a trending bit of feedback that we were getting about the large-scale classes that the especially the teachers were dealing with. So any update as far as the special education. Just uh which chart, just so I know you're referring to just any of the numbers per class size of the sure.

SPEAKER_16: 22:57

So for like case load the caseload numbers for our special educators, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 23:00

And also, um Ms. D'Angelo did recently start, was it July 1st she came on? Um, the new special education director. She is coming to our September uh meeting next week and is going to give an update. So we can also see if she can prepare that. But if you are able to attend that meeting or if it's live streamed, if you want to watch that, she's gonna give an update of what she's done kind of after she onboarded. Um kind of an update since she's been here for a couple of a couple of minutes or a couple of months now.

SPEAKER_04: 23:28

That'd be a great update to have, only based on the feedback that we've gotten from residents of that being a major concern of whether they were in compliance or not in compliance and wanted to kind of balance these scales.

SPEAKER_16: 23:41

Happy to get that information. And I can say that you know, this is where again we had to make some of those difficult decisions, and I spoke about this throughout the process. You know, our main focus was to preserve all of those student services positions. Um, one, because it's you know, we have compliance issues, uh, but also we wanted to make sure that we were providing you know our students the supports and the education that they deserve and need. So a lot of these positions lost uh were to make sure that we were preserving that. Uh so we did not eliminate any of our student services positions. We were able to bring all the ones back, even though we had had to lay some of them off through the process, we were able to recall all those positions. And as I stated, even looking at right now, trying to add uh if we can. But I can get some additional information.

SPEAKER_06: 24:24

Thank you. And I mean we are very cognizant of that just for a matter of making sure that we're in compliance and they have those services that they need, but it's also a budget impact to us because every time we're not a compliant, that increases our data. Like that's been exponentially increasing because we have to think once we're not a compliance, it's a way to compile it. So it's in our best interest to address that, and I know this has been something that we're gonna talk to Jack about C D'Angelo about trying to make sure what do we need to have to work, and then like he said, those requisitions we called back because we have to and we need those requisitions, but at the cost of the rest of the students, especially especially at the high school. Um the class sizes came to rate not good, they're very high. But those classes and the staff missing at the high school means, I mean, I have kids, I have a daughter at the high school, it means almost all the students in I through 12 have one or two studies now, but they're missing classes that they should be taking. Um a lot of the teachers have expressed concerns about safety because that's a lot of kids to keep track of. The studies are between 60 and 100 kids in there at a time. So the high school specifically has to be addressed.

SPEAKER_05: 25:40

Yeah, one thing I just wanted on paper, but I guess I'm just thinking what you're saying, and your power is kind of some of the impact that you don't see on paper. Some of the staff that we laid off were some of our brightest and newest energized teachers because they did not have status, they were laid off. I know for my own kids at the high school, some of their favorite teachers last year were cut. Um, and they're the our young teachers, our future teachers were the ones that lost their positions. Um, and the other two, I will say, is I know this is lots of high school work really hard onto enrollment. I think that was gonna take one. I just want to say is it's costing families, if you can afford it, 450. Yeah. So that's really a class.

SPEAKER_16: 26:24

Right, it's not free. It's not free.

SPEAKER_05: 26:26

As a parent, you are making that choice to pay that amount of money for your kid to take that class. And it's 800, it is not live. It is done during your study hall or on your week time, which there's pros and cons of that, depending on how you learn as a student. Um, and the other thing that's not on paper too, which I'm sure people are hearing, and for us that have kids at the high school that participate in sports, we're all paying$600 now for it. So depending on the number of kids, the number of sports your kid plays, it potentially could be a significant amount of money for families. Again, some of the sum of people are waiver, but it is still uh significant amount of money that families now are paying at the high school dual enrollment on top of club and on top of sports. Yeah, and Mr.

SPEAKER_06: 27:12

Powers reported now at budget the other day on sports are down enrollment, which we anticipated. Um we're down to the case.

SPEAKER_16: 27:20

There's uh about 50 athletes for uh fall between the fall, which is a budgetary impact.

SPEAKER_06: 27:25

It's an impact to the kids who are not participating in that um and rely on that. Um middle school sports have been definitely affected. I also have a middle school daughter playing soccer, no girls' soccer team in Rainham middle school because they can't they couldn't get a coach when they did, and now we're into the season, they can't get enough uh students. So middle school impacted and high school district.

SPEAKER_02: 27:51

I just if I might make a suggestion, you you run the meeting the way you'd like Ms. King, but I think to hear from Mr. Barnes and from Mr. Casno Davis on the town side, we heard from the school district, and to hear from each of them on the town side of you guys don't have any challenges, right? You don't have any funding challenges. You do you get money coming out of everywhere, and you know, you you you get more police than you need, etc. I'm sure. But if you'd if if if you wouldn't mind letting them speak and we don't monopolize the conversation as it's collaborative.

SPEAKER_06: 28:32

Uh Mr. Barnes, did you want to speak or Mr. Casanova Davis?

SPEAKER_10: 28:37

Uh you know, as is mentioned, uh there are many competing demands with with uh our fiscal resources. We're certainly aware of the uh school issues and uh uh the need for uh to try to find more monies to support the schools. Uh it was uh extremely difficult this year given uh uh uh the fact uh not just uh uh revenue versus expenditure, but uh you know the time frame we were dealing with uh to the degree we're starting these conversations earlier that may help us uh uh for for uh fiscal year uh 27.

SPEAKER_01: 29:28

I would largely echo what Greg has said. I think uh all the parties here at the table understand the fiscal climate that we are in and the challenges that we face. I know for the town it's been well communicated. We've had some reduction in staff, police, fire, as well as our non union staff. Uh those were decisions we had to make to balance our budget and make sure we supported the schools. Um but I do echo what Greg has said, and obviously what uh Mr. Powers has said. You know, we're working collaboratively with the school. We start we already had a meeting last week with our finance team and their finance team. So we're trying to collaborate possible and also find ways that we can help us.

SPEAKER_02: 30:22

Oh, this left order. No, no, I think it was delayed.

SPEAKER_17: 30:29

Yeah, no, I'm just interested to hear more from the school side. But as um as our tenant manager has said we made some significant uh cuts on our on our side, we made some hard decisions. We had to pull from employee stabilization to support the schools up until this at this point. It's not something that we wanted to do, and it's not something that's prudent to do on an ongoing basis, but we didn't do that uh this year in anticipation of uh you know a longer term and more sustainable plan uh going forward. Um yeah, just to kind of echo what Justin's already said.

SPEAKER_06: 31:07

Select board members, questions.

SPEAKER_02: 31:16

Or not everyone else.

SPEAKER_11: 31:21

I think she's so many acts for her career. I think one of the, I mean all this information is wonderful, but I think the override failed, and it failed in both towns. And I think we're gonna start early, we need to start to educate the public, which is difficult. We need to prove to the public that everything is above board, that we're spending wisely, that we've looked at health care costs, that we've looked at every single thing we could, because I think that, even if we could give you, you know, two, two and a half percent above last year, you're still gonna be in a hole. So I think if we're gonna say override, it needs to start sooner. People didn't believe that it was needed, and I think that's gonna be a difficult sell for the school committee. And we all here understand that it's a problem, but it's out there that we need to get the money. Um, and I don't I know the audit thing has been tossed around, and I think for people's competence, that may be something that needs to be talked about somehow, some way to convince the taxpayer that everybody's doing what we should do.

SPEAKER_06: 32:53

No, and I get it, and I know we still already had it in the town. Um this is Riley on behalf of both towns that had sent that letter talking about the operational audit review, which to be clear for everyone, we do an audit every year. We just recorded out on it last month. Um, but this would be something different to do we want to kind of get into what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_17: 33:15

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_06: 33:16

Um essentially the the regular audit that we all.

SPEAKER_17: 33:19

Yeah, and um you all can correct me if I'm wrong on how your audit is done. Um, because I did it at the end of the presentation. Thank you for inviting us. It's it's more so a review and a uh verification that the funds are going where they where they said that they're going. Uh, then there's kind of a general uh overview of any sort of malfeasance if it does exist, but they're not particularly looking for that. They're not hired to do that. It's more of just a verification of following the dollars. Um speaking for myself and the uh the council did vote uh to to approve the letter. Um what we would be looking for is more of a review of budgeting and procedures and forecasting accuracy. Um just reading from the letter just because I don't remember exactly what we put in there, but um staffing structure and personal cost trends, uh especially in education service delivery, and particularly out-of-the district placements, and to see where we could potentially improve efficiencies there. Um is there an opportunity to make investments in what I would call special uh education infrastructure so we can keep more students in the district. Obviously, that requires dollars, but is there a long-term benefit of spending dollars just by keeping students in the system and not sending them out of the system? Um and then just a general um oversight uh of use of revolving funds and grant funding, um, and then opportunities to align expenditures with long-term sustainability of budget practices. So I know that you were you've engaged with the Calls Um Center, and I know that you were going to update on that. Um to me, how I review it, I review it as a kind of a budget presentation document, at least from what my understanding is. And what we were asking for, and speaking for myself, is a uh review of um how the finances are uh are actually operating. Um so I call it an independent financial operation review, uh not an audience. Sorry, if you want to get the words right.

SPEAKER_06: 35:18

Mr. Carlisle, do you have any update on what the status of the college?

SPEAKER_16: 35:22

So we continue to engage with the Collins Center to work through our agreement. Um I think, you know, and I don't want to share this, but just to kind of review. Obviously, we engaged the Colin Center before there was any type of request made by either town for uh uh financial review or audit. Um and so you know much of what has been sent to the school committee uh for requests was not necessarily included in that. Um they are looking at our financial uh documents, our practices, our procedures, our uh budget development process, uh, but in terms of uh you know looking at staffing strategies, uh special education strategies, those things are not inclusive of that. So again, if those are items that uh you know all agreed upon, uh those would have to be in addition to uh the scope of work that's already there. Um if I may.

SPEAKER_06: 36:20

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_02: 36:22

Um I I just like to say, you know, I think Mr. Loretti Bridgewater Town Council ran him select board. It's gonna take me a while to get used to saying that, so forgive me. Forgive me if I slip every now and then. Um but um I I think we're on the right track, but actually I challenge all three of our groups. We're in only one group, but we'll call it three groups because we have three chairs, presidents, whatever we want to call ourselves, um to do something even further. To do something even further than just making sure all the money's going where it's supposed to go, etc. But rather, let's have an independent organization look at each town and the school district and say, what's best practices? What should be done, and how far are we away from best practices? I can tell you, I've talked to Chief Del Mazzi for years about where we should be in Bridgewater for police officers, and we're nowhere near best practices in that. So what should it be? And I think there, then to Dr. Brumanowski's point, we can show what the gap is between where we are and where we ought to be, okay? I mean, the the the numbers on the state Messi website are very clear. We're 281st out of 290 cool districts or something. We're nowhere near even the top 50% in per view. So, I mean, if if you can run an efficient organization at that level, that's awesome. You know what we should do? We should model it and export it to every town in the Commonwealth and every city in the Commonwealth and say, here's how you do it the right way. And that's what that's what you know I'd suggest and challenge all of us to do that and say what's best practices in our domains so that we know.

SPEAKER_06: 38:40

Yeah, I mean, that's a good point. It's I've I've heard, you know, I'm out and about in town in Rainham or in Bridgewater, and I I have heard that. People want to know, well, you're just mismanaging or tightening your belt. But we have certain services that we have to give, and special education increases and increases. Um, and we barely make those services with the staffing we have. In the past, we've tried to build up that special education department and keep those students in-house so we're not transporting them out, but those costs get higher and higher, and then we lose staff. We're bare bones right now. Um so if to Dr. Krumanelski's point, if we need some sort of operational review or audit, if we need to go down that route, we're gonna need an overlap. Like what we have for money our per pupil spending is so low, our staff is bare bones. We keep we have lost students this year, but we keep increasing our students and decreasing our staff. Like that's that's not a formula that's gonna work, you know.

unknown: 39:44

Mrs.

SPEAKER_05: 39:45

King, I would just like to say, um, and Mr. Loch and Mr. Powers have probably backed me up, is some of the work I do nationally is the increase in special, we've seen an increase here in special education students over the years, that is happening nationally. Um, this is not something that is specific to PR. Um, and more and more states and districts across the United States are struggling with how to fund and support and to recruit teachers, staff. Um, so it's not just a big over issue. Um, so I don't know what our percentage increase in special ed kids is, but I know it's increased, but it's increasing nationally everywhere right now, particularly. I think it's increased higher now coming off COVID. Um, and there's entitlements to those kids, there's services they are entitled to under IDA 504.

SPEAKER_13: 40:37

Right. The root cause of that is class size. Right. Because when you're not able to meet children's needs, they don't make progress, they go through evaluation, and they end up on services. When you are able to meet their needs, you don't have to necessarily go to that point when you have a decent ratio. But when you look at a seventh grade classroom with 35 kids in it, whose needs are you really meeting? You're a figurehead in front of the room and you're doing the best you can up there. But you're lucky if you can literally keep track of how many kids you have in the classroom all at once. Never mind trying to modify and accommodate for the special edge children in your room. You're probably lucky if you had a co-teacher in there, a portion of the day.

SPEAKER_06: 41:23

Yeah. I mean, I spoke to a fifth-grade teacher last week. You know, how is your beginning of school year? You know, how is it going? And she's an amazing teacher, she's been here, she's experienced, and she said, every day, my focus is to just not lose them and to keep track of them because I have 36. So if you're just focused on keeping track of them, you're not doing curriculum, you're not making connections, you're not making sure, do you have what you need? Do you have what you need? You're just making sure are are all of you people here? Do I lose one? Is one in the hallway? Like that's you're not making games with your curriculum and teaching.

SPEAKER_05: 42:02

So I would say this thing, I think we all at this table probably support that, right? And so, how does the community understand that? And I understand that wanting a fiscal review or whatever, but I guess where I struggle as a school committee member and my kind of kids, it's really hard for me to think about whether that's$50,000,$60,000,$70,000 on whatever this review is cost, and that money can be spent on a teacher and classroom supporting kids. And so, where does that money come from for us to do that? And then that takes away from kids and classroom. And I know one short-term versus long-term gain, but it's really hard to kind of justify some of that. Yes. And we're really just plugging holes right now.

SPEAKER_17: 42:47

Um, to kind of echo some of the comments, I think we could all agree that we need to reduce class size, we need to allocate more resources to the students, but what we need to do is to convince the voters out there that that's the case if we all decide that that is the right route to go. Um, I think we need to do our duty and our diligence to do everything we can on our end and to educate the people that we have exhausted every option available. That we've, again, if we are going to go with the operational review, that we've done that because people are asking for it. They don't trust government right now. They don't trust that we're spending their dollars appropriately. And that goes for, I think, on a on a national level, um, and that that goes for not only our community, but everywhere. The voters do not trust that their elected officials are doing a good job of their money. And I think that this financial review, no matter what it costs, you know, probably to the tune of our$50,000 or so, if that's the price to uh afford us an override, which could be in the millions of dollars for our students, it is well worth the investment.

SPEAKER_02: 43:59

Uh maybe still already as the goalposts that aren't moved. If that's the goalpost, we can kick for it. If we move if we move the goalpost ten yards further back, we can't do that, right? So that's if that's the goalpost, I understand that. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, and that was pretty much all that I said. And I'm I'm sorry, Miss King, it's your meeting. Or it's it's you it's you'll get to joint meeting all of our meetings. No, but but I'm I'm just saying I'd like to hear from other Brigham Sleckman and Bridgewater town council members or something like that.

SPEAKER_00: 44:36

If I could just add to, I just think we need to keep in mind too is that I the people that I heard from as far as why they didn't vote for the override was not so much that they didn't trust, that they couldn't afford it. I think we have to keep in mind that um we're not a wealthy community. So I think justifying that we're spending the money as effectively and efficiently as we can can help convince maybe those people that maybe they need to make priorities or whatever. Because I do feel for those, especially people that are on a limited income, that you know they they say they're paying enough in taxes right now, they can't afford more. So I think also if we look into ways, and I think this is where I would agree with Mr. Brady, not necessarily an independent review, but maybe our on our own. And I know, Mr. Powers, you've said that you're looking into health insurance, which is a huge cost. If there's ways that we can reduce costs there and then say to the voters that you know we've made these cuts, we've done what we can. I know on our town level we're doing that all the time. Mr. Barnes is our own in-house um uh examiner of trying to always find ways to do things more economically and more efficiently. We eliminated our custodian at town hall recently and went for custodial services because we can save some money there. So I think, and obviously you mentioned that Mr. Cosmetic hasn't over David's also. I think it's something that we need to, you know, be just be looking at and and keep in mind that maybe the ideal is wonderful, but maybe we can't afford the ideal. We need to keep in mind what our community can afford as well.

SPEAKER_06: 46:14

Yeah. And think about ways that we can get this, like we said, we're in this education bubble. Everyone here in the audience, everyone at the table, we care. We have kids or we're invested in the kids, we invested in communities, but it's everyone else that didn't vote or voted no, like how do we get that information that you you need to vote yes for something like this and get that information out? And I hope at health insurance has been a huge issue. We know that that was an unreal increase last year. Mr. Paris, do you want to give an update like what we've done?

SPEAKER_16: 46:48

Sure. Uh so as you know, we were originally um quoted a 20% increase uh through the efforts of our HR department and business department, we were able to get that down to uh a 15% increase. We did have to change over dental and such, uh, but it's obviously worth it. We did form um or or reform the PEC group. Uh we had a meeting, I believe it was last week at this point. I've kind of lost track of time, um, where we brought together our individual collective bargaining units uh as well as some of our retirees to talk about uh you know current in current state of affairs in terms of health insurance and you know looking at the plans being offered, the uh percentages that employees in the district uh contributing. So that's something that uh we have re-engaged that group and we'll look to see if there's any potential savings there. Uh we did change our insurance advisor as well. Um we felt that it was it was the right time to do that given the climate and the challenges that we were having. Uh I feel uh our new advisor, Gallagher, has been very responsive and very proactive in giving us um you know real suggestions. I was actually kind of caught off guard and I know others were there when he talked about our 15% increase actually being below average. Um I thought that would be above average, but he said when he looked at statewide trends, that 15% was actually slightly below average. Statewide, he was seeing um about 17-18 percent. So I I guess in some way there is some positive news there, although that 15% certainly uh did hurt. Um so we'll meeting uh in October, we'll have another meeting again, and continue to look either at our options, whether it be GIC, whether it be you know changing our current plans, our current contribution rates, uh, could we get it to some type of you know municipal purchasing group? Uh those are all options that are on the table that our insurance advisor uh is gonna be providing information to.

SPEAKER_08: 48:48

Um I want to ask a direct question. Have you gotten closer to getting into work on those plans like for the county plan? Because the town increase was, I think it was like 6.9 or something like that. Next year's not going to get better. Right now they're projecting insurance increases that'll exceed the 50%. I really worry about next year. I think we also have a huge revenue problem, not just override revenue, but you know, and I'm not suggesting how we do this, but our tax rate is pretty flat. It's been that way for years. In Bridgewater, we have one tax rate. Businesses and residents. We have, I don't think we have as much of a spending problem because I'm a teacher. I voted for the override, but I didn't have a job when I voted for the overright. Only because I was educated. The education has to come with the trust problem. Okay? And I don't think anyone's doing anything wrong or bad. I don't think there's any malfeasance whatsoever. I just don't think the voters think that. We didn't have enough time. The window for the override that we had was too short to properly educate people, and I don't think it was going to work.

SPEAKER_15: 50:14

Just to add a comment to that, I think it would be helpful if we could look at this twofold. One, ways in which we can be more, I guess, strict with our spending, uh, whether that be an operational audit, well, whatever we want to call it. But at the same time, and this is the important part, at the same time, we have to all understand we're not going to find$10 million through any of these processes. So the end game is still going to be the same. The dollar amount could be different, but the end game is still going to be the same. And I think folks have already spoken that last year it was too short of a window, it wasn't enough time to educate folks. So can we do this both at the same time? Can we start that education now, but also still continue down the path of looking at how we're spending? Because what I don't want to happen is we go through the process of these reviews, that takes three, four months, and then we're sitting here again in March saying, oh, shoot, what do we do? How do we get that funding in a month? So I would just ask folks to think of it that way if we could start thinking about how we educate and let's do that sooner rather than later.

SPEAKER_06: 51:20

Yeah, no, I agree because it needs to be multi-pronged. We need to build trust and confidence, but also get the word out somehow between the select board, the town council, the school committee, all the same message to all the different groups. And I mean, I only have my certain school group, but like how do we reach seniors or other people in the town that are not connected to the school in any way?

SPEAKER_08: 51:42

So if you actually reach seniors, seniors don't have cable. They do, they haven't cut the cord and watch it. And we have two channels that we can utilize more effectively than we do. We can do our own television show and educate people. Some towns, I had spoken to Justin when he was a physician. He did use TV. Former town managers use Facebook a lot. Let's use the media channels we have. Not everybody has it, but like BTV, they put this stuff on Facebook and on the internet. And younger people use it, they have an Instagram page where younger people go. We need the voter, generally older people my age, okay, to get the senior centers, but probably to be more than the school center.

SPEAKER_00: 52:34

Just about no, that's a good idea. Also, H2 meetings we could invite our state representatives to attend because I think a lot of the problem is we're not getting the funding we should be getting from the state, and they don't have the right priorities, obviously. I mean, when they can pay tuition for junior colleges, but not provide the funding that they need for prior to that for pre-K 12, and that's that's a common. I know.

SPEAKER_06: 53:02

No, and I mean I will say they've been great partners to us. I know specifically Senator Dohner. She's been to many events, she's been in contact with us, um, that's Gallagher. Um, but yeah, it can't just be during budget season, which last year they had met with us and said start way sooner, start in the fall, like before we get priorities like hammered out. So, yes, start now.

SPEAKER_02: 53:25

And we can we can go to them at this point and say we've had a meeting with everybody, and here's what we're thinking, here's what we need from you guys, and bring that up to Beacon Hill, or vacant hill as some people call it. Um, but again, I'd just reiterate, Ms. King, if we could hear from either Mr. Pachico, Mr. Collins, or any other town counselor, um, you know, it would be great to get all the opinions and thoughts and ideas out on the board so we have a full, you know, idea of where we need to go to get everybody comfortable.

SPEAKER_09: 54:01

I'd be happy to throw in Mike since I unfortunately don't have the answer, right? I wish I did. Um, I obviously was in favor of the override. Um last year I was not in favor of the audit. I still am not, but I'm certainly willing to do it. It helps build confidence. But my concern is, like I think you were referring to it earlier, if we do some type of review, regardless of how elaborate it is, and it comes back, and let's just say hypothetically, they find$700,000 that we've been misspending. Okay, we're still we haven't fixed the problem, we're still way short.

unknown: 54:37

And and look, we're going to the other way.

SPEAKER_09: 54:39

We do it, we do a review and they say, you guys are on a lean budget. I don't know how you've been doing it. Like, we we can't find anything. You think people all of a sudden are just gonna say, okay, we'll give you more money? I don't think it's gonna change people's minds. Unfortunately, I don't I don't say that to be negative. I just I don't know that doing a review is gonna convince people. I think it's it's we're better off just being up front and honest having these open collaborative meetings and showing, like just come to us with questions and let us answer it. I don't know that we have to hire an outside agency. Again, if that's what it takes, let's do it, but I don't think that's gonna change people's minds.

SPEAKER_06: 55:19

Yeah, I mean, in my mind, best case scenario, they'll be like, oh, your the procedures for X, Y, and Z really should be doing this or these buy-ins, but they're not gonna find$10 million that we're we should allocate differently.

SPEAKER_04: 55:33

Personally, I feel like those would already have been found. The towns both do audits and the school committee does audits. So if there was anything, any impropriety that was happening, I do feel like it would be identical.

SPEAKER_09: 55:46

Everybody at this table would be looking into it. If somebody brought something up and said, I think Mr. Powers is wasting money doing this, we would all look into it.

SPEAKER_05: 55:54

That's just not the case. One Mrs. King is the Collins group or Institute or Senator, they're gonna be helping crafting some materials around budget thinking. I just wonder, like exactly, I don't know if you know Mr. Powers is because some of that material may be really helpful, this right, and some of the education material and understanding and breaking down again some of the budget into kind of plain language and very simplified for people to understand, is is do you have an understanding of kind of what some of the materials are what they're gathering and what they're being able to do for us?

SPEAKER_16: 56:27

So, yes, so they're really trying to to that point, uh, Ms. Carmel to is to make it understandable by the general public, right? We we all, because of our our our positions and roles, um, understand uh town and government finances and budgets, um, and to no fault of anyone's in the general public, uh, if we probably didn't serve in these positions, we wouldn't know either. So uh but uh so yes, they're gonna help us with that education piece to try to make it plain language, um, to make it more user-friendly, to make it more uh visually appealing, um, so that it is easily understand and understandable and digestible to the general public.

SPEAKER_05: 57:07

What's that time right now?

SPEAKER_16: 57:08

They're they're trying to align um to our time to our budget timeline. Um I shared with them a draft. Obviously, we talked at Budget Sub about a draft uh timeline for the year I know is coming up next week at school committee for approval, uh so I didn't share that draft. They're trying to align the process to ours so that you know if we are going to give a presentation at the end of January, uh you know, beginning of February, and then public hearing in March as we typically have done, that is their goal. That is that's when they're ready to have all of that information so that we can say, you know, not just our PowerPoint presentation that we do, not just in the meeting format, but we can actually share a resource and say, Here it all is, it should answer all of your questions. Uh but obviously, you know, there still may be some, and we'll be fully prepared to answer those like we we always do.

SPEAKER_14: 57:57

Thank you. Um just uh a couple things. I had been intentionally Mr. Pittsgibbons quiet because I was trying to absorb stuff, and I might be in the minority, but I I think we're doing a disservice to ourselves if we don't recognize, and I want to amplify what Miss Riley said, there are folks who just could not afford it. That is a reality of the situation. I've talked to individuals who a third of their income goes to property taxes because they're retired. That is a structural problem in and of itself. And so that's not going to be fixed at this table here. And anybody who says it's simply about a short timeline or lack of education, it's disrespectful to the voters. Let's call it what it is. There are people who cannot afford it. And we cannot turn a blind eye to that. What's the solution? Part of it is the state, right? Miss Riley again talked about um free community college. We also have free public transit now. You see a gastrobus has maybe two and a half people on it. The priorities at the state level need to be adjusted. Um, and I also want to amplify what Council Loretti said. To me, we're not looking for malfeasance or misspending. We're looking for efficiency. And we have those conversations routinely in reign here. And whether or not$1,000 or$700,000 is going to care the issues we're facing, the fact of the matter is we all legally have a fiduci responsibility to manage public funds. We just have a conversation about what our deposit rates are with our banks. These operational and efficiency audits can tell us what are our cash management practices. Do you have checks coming in and they're not being deposited for a month? What are your interest rates on your deposit accounts on your E and D accounts? Does any member of the school committee know what that interest rate is? I can tell you what all uraniums are. We need to be looking at these things and making decisions that are in part based on that. None of these are the end all be all, none of these are the panacea, but you have to be tackling the structural issue from every angle, not just one angle.

SPEAKER_13: 1:00:12

Mr. Lush. For at least the past 15 years, people have pointed out the fact that the state does not fund education appropriately, then there's been zero changes. So, and I I hear what everybody's saying, I can I agree with you completely. But if we're going to be dependent on the state, or we're dependent on our reps to advocate and get this to change, honestly, has anybody seen this happen in the last 15 years when it's been the same message over and over again? It's not happening. And we've seen their priorities actually go in the opposite direction. Right? I completely agree with Ms. Ryan. Like, how are we getting to kids to college if you're not actually forming the formative years to get there? Right? I I don't know why it has gone in this direction or what that may be, but we also need to focus on what we can actually control. We can't control the state. We can go and advocate as much as we want, we can invite our state reps here, but that's not actually gonna bring change to this process. And I undoubtedly feel for the people who you know feel this impact and they're not gonna be able to afford it. But I also have three kids in this district who honestly, uh, if you tell me my child's gonna be in class at 35, like I'm gonna have to put him somewhere else. And I really don't want to do that. I'm a public educator. Uh I went through public education, I am an extremely strong believer in it, but I also have to make sure he gets his needs met. And this isn't acceptable. This is shameful. Absolutely shameful of what is going on here right now. We've lost three educators this week in the last two weeks. Is that right, Ryan? And you can guarantee it is due to the outcomes of the lack of passing this override and getting change to move in the right direction. So I hear a lot of good points being made here tonight, but we also need to leave here with next steps of what is gonna happen in the process, and I haven't heard any of that. So, are we gonna move forward with looking at some sort of independent review to look at efficiencies or do cost comparisons, or what is it gonna mean if we don't decrease class size for things like special ed? I can tell you right now that at a district rate is gonna go up. But do we need someone to come in here and do that to actually tell people that? What are gonna be the next steps of this meeting, future meetings, and how are we gonna make things move forward? Because we leave here tonight and that's not in place. We we came here just to hear each other talk.

SPEAKER_06: 1:02:35

No, we definitely this is good that everyone is being on the same page, but we do need what how are we gonna make a difference? What are we gonna change? Um I need the town of Bridgewater, your town council, and I need the town of Brigham and our school committee to talk and make a decision. Are we gonna go forward with this financial review if we think it's gonna be beneficial to we're not gonna change the voters that can't afford it, but we may change the voters that were on the fence or that were uneducated, or that we're like, we don't think you're spending it correctly. We can change their votes. Um I need proposals. How are we gonna afford it? Because that's my bottom line. I will do that, and I'm on board with that if it will change people's minds that everyone else be said. But our money comes from you. You gave us a limited amount of money, and we're bare bones educating the kids and giving services to the kids that we have. So I like Mrs. Conrad Laborento, I really don't want to pull from that. So I need proposals from you at your meetings of what is your proposal? Do we split it? Do we prorate it? Do we just do it and it's our school district, we do it because we need to certainly.

SPEAKER_14: 1:03:49

I can only speak for myself, but I have no problem with reading and picking up a portion. My proposal would be proportional based upon school enrollment. So whatever the ratio is just about 65%. Yeah, we have a town meeting coming up where we could vote put this as an article to appropriate because we don't have a discretionary account to cover that, but I would have no issues with that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:04:11

What is the approximate cost? Does anyone know?

SPEAKER_14: 1:04:13

Um according to President Loretti, he quoted I think 50,000. Around 50,000.

SPEAKER_06: 1:04:18

We're kind of going on a reflection did something similar, a similar population. They're not regional, but similar, um, which Mr. Loretti had found, and it cost them about$50,000.

SPEAKER_08: 1:04:29

So maybe more. So I know we're just that up to the happened last year.

SPEAKER_07: 1:04:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_06: 1:04:39

So$50,000 might be more. That's a fall part that we've got.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:42

So it would be roughly$20,000 from Random,$30 from Bridgewater, and then the school district could make up any small difference from that estimate.

SPEAKER_06: 1:04:53

So if you can go to your boards, if this is something you want to discuss and vote on, and it sounds like you think the public would be on board with that, bring that to us then, and we will get that in motion. In addition to all of the other things that we've talked about tonight.

SPEAKER_14: 1:05:08

The only thing I would request, Madam Chair, is that we have input in the design of the scope and the selection of the firm.

SPEAKER_06: 1:05:15

Yeah, which I understand if you're paying for it, we will work, we will discuss it as a I suggest Bridgewater has a 60% voting rate of 40%. We're also going to continue these meetings as well.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:33

But yes. And Rachel, I think we don't need to do just one thing. We can do multiple things. We can do that, we can also try to educate the public. And also, I hear what you're saying, Mr. Lush, about the state, nothing changes. And maybe that's because we're not loud enough. As it's been pointed out, it's not just Bridgewaterranium, it's communities across the state that are dealing with this. So maybe we need to work through our regional school committee uh organization, our mass municipal association, our mass association of school committees, and get communities together and have a louder voice to tell the state they're not doing their job at the school level to support our kids.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:09

And if I go ahead, Mr. Oh no, Mr. Captain.

SPEAKER_12: 1:06:14

I would let Mr. Lorettier. Mr.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:17

Caprance.

SPEAKER_12: 1:06:19

No, that's okay. Thank you. I would I would challenge Red Roman, bring the most aggressive audit that you can bring, or operational review, and I will pledge to support whoever, whatever firm and outline that you put forth because I think it's important that we give the public confidence. But ultimately, one of the additional problems is as we start to hint at the pot's only this big. And we can make it as efficient as possible. But the pot, and not just for Bridgewater Rainum, but I hear, right? Bridgewater and Rainham, how efficient we have to be, other roles and things that we've gone without, at some point the pot has to grow. And I don't want anyone to say that that the Anguthar, the school committee member is advocating for more taxes. That is not what I'm saying. But we also have to look at what we can do as towns to generate more revenue. And whether that's challenging our planning boards to get more creative, whether it's getting, and maybe we all agree that we have to make an investment in some type of a you know economic development director to bring in revenue generating businesses to our town. We have to come up with some type of a plan that will bring in additional revenue without negatively impacting the character of our community, because I don't think anybody wants that. Some might argue that with all of the building that's been taking place, that that is being negatively impacted. You know, for once I'd like to log into the Gazette or that enterprise or on the Facebook and have people complaining about there's a big new business development that's coming to our towns, but it's always residential developments, and we know there's oiling so much revenue that every time one of those gets built, people are important. We want to welcome people to our community. We're instantly kind of in the hole in terms of police, fire, infrastructure, schools, right? Residential tactic does not cover all of those things. We have to figure out a long-term plan to in in that involves people other than me. And but I think that's paramount because the other unspoken part is we can start educating now about the override. You know, the the quiet part that people haven't said, I heard from many, many families with young students, with junior high students, with high school students that said, I'm not going to vote to support this override. Because what about next year? And what about the year after? It's a one-year band-aid, and until I see some type of a long-term structural change from the schools and the towns and to solve this problem, you know, we can we can slap a band-aid on it for one year, but we're gonna now get into this unhealthy cycle of override after override after override without actually addressing you know opportunities to again, we're never gonna solve the problem. This has been a problem as old as time.

unknown: 1:08:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12: 1:08:57

But how can we slow the rising tide a little bit? Um so I appreciate everyone's efforts. I think this has been great, great conversation. Um, you know, I think we're all kind of in the same boat, and um, you know, I I would just say that the override is the short-term band-aid until right we can actually get that longer-term plan in place, until we can actually get the infrastructure in our towns, whatever that is, in place so that we can actually grow that pot.

SPEAKER_06: 1:09:23

Yeah. No, that's true because the override is pulling from our taxpayers, which nobody likes that. But we need to also increase revenue money coming into the town from other sources. So belong-to-like the planning boards on all the towns, we need to figure out a different way.

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:39

I think at some point our voices are gonna have to really get loud, but that's what happened in the cities. Brackets would come from Massachusetts, change the education fighting for which was last time in 1994. But someone mentioned, you know, NESC and mass association, school superintendents, and stuff like that. We have to tell the state loud clear at some point that we're being ready to fight. That costs a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:14

But at some point, uh, I'd I'd just like to follow up on Mr. Loja's comment about next steps. So uh if I could make a motion at our school committee meeting to authorize the chair to consult with the town council president and the select board chair on these next steps as needed and continue to bring updates in between continuing these meetings. I don't think anything can get done meeting once every couple months doing this. I mean it's great that everyone gets on the same page, but let's move the full process forward a lot. So I'm making that the form of a motion.

SPEAKER_06: 1:11:02

Motion made by Mr. Fitzgiven, second by Mr. Staff report. Um all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Um we will work on that. I would like proposals then from your boards about the fee, um, how we're gonna cover the cost of an audit. So if we start that process, we start a process of being on board with each other, and then other ideas that we had tonight using the television stations on both sides, trying to get the word out, educating people in the world.

SPEAKER_04: 1:11:35

And probably knowing one of the uh we I mean that's that's all that's an asset. And we also have our vice president, she's not here, but she hosts a podcast. So we have two entities that we should be utilizing on a regular basis to discuss this once we have a plan in place. And we'll see if the feedback is different. But can't wait for the state to save us. Myself and Councillor Murphy went up and testified at Beacon Hill on behalf of everyone that's at this table and every student in the district, and it didn't move the needle at all. So that should tell you a whole lot about who's coming to save us and when. And if we just wait and wait and wait and wait, we're stuck on a hamster wheel, and our kids don't deserve that. So we as the adults need to do something.

SPEAKER_06: 1:12:26

Um I'd like to have another joint meeting maybe after the holidays in January. Does that sound good? I don't think we need to do that sooner. After that, Mr. around at the end of January, Mr. Powers will be presenting his um budget. Um we'll be in touch in the middle.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:45

I I think it would be good to have a pre a preview of the presentation of the budget at that time before our school committee meeting where he does his preliminary budget so that everyone everyone hears it and you know can ask questions before him so he's ready to, and perhaps even can adjust his presentation to be like, oh, okay. So does that timing?

SPEAKER_06: 1:13:06

Like we'll meet as a smaller group and kind of go over this, and Mr. Powers, Mr. Barnes, and Mr. Cassinov agents will be in touch. Um, and then we'll meet as a larger group in January and go over the preliminary budget presentation so everyone can hear it, offer some feedback, talk about it. Um if you all have any ideas in the interim, please email us. Um Mr. Powers, other than the January presentation, any other major timelines in between now and then?

SPEAKER_16: 1:13:36

Uh no, just the three of us are going to continue to meet on a regular basis to not just begin to develop that by 27, but to keep the collaboration going between the three lines.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:46

And if I can if I can just say something to Mr. Powers, Mr. Barnes, and Mr. Casanova Davis, certainly appreciate all the collaboration you guys have been doing. I know it's all behind the scenes, it's not on camera, it's not glamorous or glorious, but you're doing the hard work getting stuff done, and I certainly appreciate it, I'm sure everybody at this table does as well.

SPEAKER_08: 1:14:10

Thank you. Is the working group also gonna be meeting before that quarterly meeting?

SPEAKER_06: 1:14:16

Yeah, so that one's gonna send out an email, that smaller group, and try and meet next month or November, October, November, try and before that so we can kind of have ideas and like a preliminary look at what that fiscal 27 is.

SPEAKER_04: 1:14:34

Okay. I would just say in the small group that we have working, maybe we structure it so that the Branham Select Board and the Virgin War Town Council can bring their own versions of how we're going to handle this operational review prior to that, and we're able to maybe start the facilitation process of getting that going so that by the time we get to the budgetary process, we're actually utilizing the money and the funds that were appropriated for this to act in a best practice type of way. So utilizing the working group maybe in that regard.

SPEAKER_05: 1:15:32

20 other things. Um I would just say I can turn on the timing, honestly, because if we don't have this operational review thing, like I feel like that needs to start yesterday. And so the working group, the small working group not coming until November, I think is going to be. I think it needs to happen again, depending on the window towns, because that needs to happen ASAP to be able to have the materials to really start the education about it.

SPEAKER_14: 1:15:58

We wouldn't be able to appropriate money before November because we have to go to town meetings, so there's no way around that.

SPEAKER_04: 1:16:05

When is your November town meeting?

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:08

Mr. Bajico, did you never observe Bridgewater town selectment and how they called special town meetings every time they needed to do one little thing?

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:21

I just I think it's something to think about the timing. Um that's fine if you can't appropriate it till the 7th of November, but what is then lined up to go right after that, right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:31

Because I think the timing You can put out an RFP and you can put out.

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:38

I think the timing is going to be really important because we don't want to be behind the eighth all again similar to what we were, we're gonna need to move quick. Because how long does it take someone to actually do the review? That's does it that doesn't happen quickly either.

SPEAKER_13: 1:16:51

Do we know what the duration of requirement took? Actually took them to conduct.

SPEAKER_17: 1:16:55

I'm going off memory, but I want to say it was somewhere between like six and ten weeks. But I'll I'll get some definitive answers on that.

SPEAKER_04: 1:17:03

So if we met on the 20th after your town meeting to start the process, that would probably that would take us to January.

SPEAKER_14: 1:17:12

Well, as Mr. Because Gibbon said you could start the RFP and develop the scope, you just and it would be subject to appropriation, which happens routinely. Yeah, we could have this all packaged and ready to go before your town meeting, right?

SPEAKER_04: 1:17:24

That might actually help. I actually think that that might be.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:39

If we do, then it's on.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:41

Just a recommendation because the town of Bridgewater actually we talked about this last evening. We're doing an organizational review uh outlining some of the reasons we said we need to go to the voters, tell them that we're working efficiently completely our services on our side. Uh the timeline, speaking with the cost of next year, knowing that I was going to proceed if I got to go ahead from the council, it's going to be until February to do an operational review until that final product is up there. I think what these groups can do is determine the scope of what you want. Is it an operational review? Is it a financial audit? I think you need to outline that scope because those are two separate things that an operational review would take a significantly longer time, depending on what group you work with. Versus a firing rod that brookline did specifically, they pitcoined specific area that they wanted to take a look at, and it was a very finite, limited scope. So that could be a short duration of time. So I really think that's what your help would help us, at least the our manager side of things, understanding that having that scope would be helpful in determining what direction we're going to. Because if you're waiting until appropriation in November, and it's an organizational review, it won't be in time for the market. Because for us, it's probably looking at a February time and we're going to start that process with our reach done.

SPEAKER_07: 1:19:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:08

I think we're all assuming that we're not going to find the funds needed so that comes to an override again. And we're talking about not having enough time to get it through and educate the public last year. How are we going to do that this year if our timeline is January presentation? Was from the superintendent. It seems like we're on the same timeline on that front. Just wondering what can be going on at the same time to help. What are we going to do differently this time? I mean not asking you specifically.

SPEAKER_06: 1:19:37

No, I know, but we're, I mean, next fiscal year our expenses will go up, however much they're going to be going up, but it's going to be the same budget pretty much. It's going to be the same issue, the same budget, the same revenue. Um, I feel like if we get this information out to the public now and say, listen, we're we're doing an audit, we're doing this, um, this is our projection of what our our budget looks like for next year. We're gonna need an override because this is not gonna be enough money if we start that now, even if we're presenting our budget, we tentatively know what that's gonna be anyway. I mean, we're not gonna present another$150 million budget because that's as much as we would love that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:18

And I think this year we held back until we had such an exact number. I was at the town council meetings that not delayed, it was deliberate because it needed to be handled, but that fear of putting out projections really was like they don't know what they're doing, so we want to like lift that cloud off of us and just this is what we're facing. Here's the ballpark number, that's what we're working with. I think we need to get that out there sooner.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20:42

And is Canada just like say I think some of what happened? There's distrust from folks in government right now, right? And so, and I know not everybody's in agreement about this, but I think as much as we can communicate about the messaging and the language, because it does make an impact when we are all fighting with each other around some of this, and people see that, and so I just think it's something that we need to think about moving forward and what that looks like.

SPEAKER_06: 1:21:13

Yeah, I agree. I mean, everyone has their own personal opinions, but if the majority of your board is on is on the side of this or your communities, and it's for the best of your community, we all need to know that the same information, the correct information out. Which is not not your opinion on it, it's just this is the information, these are our ink, this is our revenue, these are our expenses, this is what our budget is going to look like, this is why, this is what our expenses are increasing by, and this is why. And this this is how we're trying to handle it, this is the different avenues that we're taking to decrease expenses or to kind of curb those expenses, which definitely people need to know about health insurance, special education, etc. So um, is there anyone else that hasn't spoken that has questions, comments? Alright. Um we will all be in touch.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:08

I will schedule who is adjourned the school commitment.

SPEAKER_06: 1:22:12

Thank you. Motion made by Mr. Gibbons, second by Mr. Loche. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:19

Would you like to have a motion and a second adjourned meeting of the committee select that?

SPEAKER_17: 1:22:27

Uh for adjournment. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

SPEAKER_07: 1:22:34

Thank you so much for everyone being here. I really appreciate it.