them i've read the executive summary that they would put together yesterday that we very well done i think were there i don't know whether there's any reports or outstanding we have spent time as you all know it all of the meetings leading up to today going through each of the individual reports on the report out by the working group share as other respective on the respective reports and today what we will do is  david has prepared from the executor somebody a powerpoint presentation that will go through that will summarize the findings and the recommendations of the working groups so we're nearing the end of our i suppose initial work and i say initial because a many of you have commented before i believe that this task force will continue its work in some regard certainly the working working group and the financial money so we're not going to i would not recommend to the board selection that this task force be disbanded so the plan is to go through the findings and recommendations today you've seen them before i'd like to think there were at a point we could vote on them today but if folks are uncomfortable doing that we can certainly defer we can do for a week for all you to sort of consider the recommendations that we w  and what we've said to my colleagues that we're simply coming to you at this point of view to hear you know the findings in recommendations of the task i've been keeping them informed of our work i certainly haven't  been telling him per se you know or finding recommendations although i think david has shared with them i know he has some of the reports to give them an opportunity to read through some of the reports that you've all put together by the way great efforts on the reports very well written so thank you very much we really have an incredibly talented group of folks here that have given their time over the past year towards this effort so i appreciate those as efforts subsequent to the meeting on monday  you know my thoughts are that the board perhaps would discuss again those findings on the second vote on them or they may decide to defer i know we have a joint meeting with the school committee on the ninth right is that correct is that there is a right yes so they would have been talking about this would it be best to for the board to more fully understand the what the available revenue budgets will reflect for both the school department and the general government on the night before they consider you know the fine if the recommendations of the task force to be determine  some of that will come out of money perhaps maybe on the second bottom line if you like the same business is within the next two weeks i believe that the force like it needs to take a vote on the recommendations as we move forward to  a potential override on the april ballot that's where i am i know it's a short window for everyone but we need to spend the time and we have spent the time over the past year working working hard spending time in working group means dozens of hours have been spent formulating our findings or recommendations could we have spent more time absolutely we can always spend more time on issues but at some point time we need to just say this is where we are and that's why i suggested before that i think some of these working groups will continue to look at the issues that we are considering debating any comments or questions before we dive into the  presentation ok but certain the best format to go through i think what we can do and i think the chairs are going to do their respective sections is that correct so let's you know we can i vote on it completely i'm not certain that's the right approach in fact i would suggest that we have to go through when we go through each working groups findings and recommendations and then if p our client to vote to  again ok thank you in the interest of time again i think where putting this together for a general audience in addition to the financial task force solved this breeze through the first couple sites that talk structure and opportunities for structural change and then a financial modeling group that basically took the recommendations in the suggestions of the groups a b and c and basically incorporate them generally for those of you who may not have been following the task force deliberations other goals of the task force were to produce a multi year financial plan which would illustrate the ability of the town to generated findings and recommendations which will be of use in a few moments i would doubt i would like to have the superintendent pick up the ball here and go through the findings of the education working modeling groups were souring compensation special education and roman operations and maintenance and structural modeling and innovation supplement the revenue sources student life and instructional technology as a leadership team as well as  period in the summer we came up with the role of being a very large pressure point in the district as i think we all know and have been talking about the fall as well as not the emotional learning on behalf of our students the leadership t m felt strongly that if we were able to relieve some of those pressure points through different types of programming or supports in staff and personnel that would really go a long way in maintaining the high level of quality that we offer  which is the highest it's occasion and we applaud the community the staff the children the parents for all the hard work so the leadership came up with a three year plan to maintain those high quality services address continue to be a logic of folks coming in our roman trench show that we now have three hundred fifty seven students in kindergarten despite the fact that our training through the years who we work with says we should only have about three hundred twenty five we are marking about thirty students over the next that trend and so that is a trend that we're trying to keep an eye on an index but we do it dissipate another large kindergarten class coming into our schools next year would like to support an additional teacher to reduce class size from twenty five students for kindergarten to more like a twenty two per student class which we think is more educationally sound to support our current kindergarten students who are in classes of twenty in aid when they all move forward to first grade next year they'll just have a teacher and we think by adding a first grade teacher to that pool we'll be able to reduce our class size in first grade as well first grade is the most important rate of the student's life and who are not engaged during the day our high school model and schedule is set up such that students have what they call freeze free periods during the day of free market during the day i think that model has had a ratios in engaging them during the school day that they should in a way in which they should be engaged in a town or school system like the more public schools as you see in here too in year three it's an extension of that five teachers per year to again address similar needs as we extend out through this three year plan and we believe that we have to work in a minimal thoughtful way to solve some of these problems and we also are keeping an eye on our role and so we  believe that the years two and three will will have a little asterisk next to them as to where the needs are we will place these teachers but we obviously see a need in year two for a second grade teacher to serve that life the world will be the second bridge two years and we  group recommend it not withstanding whether there's additional resources to pay for them and not even on the available revenue by did you indicate to me that you need to add at least a two english language teachers that's mandated right in what it was to a four to six a cushy village we've talked about this in you know if in fact the uplands developing was forward in a state again this this this board is doing everything it can to to see whether that can be stopped it's unclear are to move forward at some point clearly we need to move forward and we do get favorable results from them this p s a in our state of interest is there expansion opportunities there to take that into consideration for the great gr that these are some of our major life pati document because there are a lot of different fees both based on statutory and departmental processes but having that is not a small cost that the major effort and again a lot of cities and towns don't necessarily annual capital budget which we refer to as his go and the list of understanding buildings or building projects here for capital projects that need to be addressed as well i our to say we need to look back at where we've been meaning to understand where we are and only then when we look forward and know where we need to be going so if you look back over the last ten to fifteen years as a town we actually have been very because we get funding from in this v a but it's unclear we submit our state of interest every year and we're either it's either and we don't know what the result of that would be and i'm always surprised there were denied and i've said this to david that invest in both ways both in operating budget in also in our capital budget unfortunately we have to do our best to understand how we can do that so that we don't you know kill people from the perspective from increasing taxes for medically  is constructed in fact they were in one one of sixteen towns within that district we can't get out if you will not that we want to get out what's going to be brought to bear on this community as a member unified and supported with data center kids the conclusion on that we're going to be faced with a major capital needs to roofs needs to be replaced or religious things of that nature of these other safety issues we've asked minuteman when this as a community because we get thirty percent thirty five percent reimbursement and not completely convinced that our cost is less to over here than it was a year or so but it's in the financial it's absolutely something along with our  it's not funny we think that there's a strong possibility to do that in a public private way we've explored that we've got a significant dialogue around that and they had to we answers as well they're struggling with the same issues that we are maybe a little bit different from a capital respect goodbye in terms of some of the other of the cost issues they're dealing with as well but we think we need to continue to have dialogue with them  reach out to them form a working group if you will we can on with those communities we want to clue came because they're flush with cash with to some of the communities that are struggling as we are and you know within their working group and maybe outside of i look for additional ways to collaborate visualizations a great buzzword they have task force at the state level it doesn't work unless we think legislation at the state level is passed to allow us to regionalize we kiss is a really challenging thing to consider regionaliz fire services or police now one thinks of that nature it's a real difficult process that go through the sort of get to a point of being able to do that but that being said we continue we need to continue sort of keep our minds open about that possibility surely on the model but also take the recommendations from the various working groups and incorporate them into the law which is to go through in the moment i think we've had a lot of collaboration with development of the model you know before a committee also has participated individually in members so i think i think we try to not offering a vacuum but to try to solicit as much information as we could and try to be prudent in what we were projecting and  estimate for expenditures at the same time take the information that was collected from the working groups as well as from the current year experiences because i think what you'll find at the end is is we're finding in fiscal fifteen that we have some serious budget challenges especially at the school site so just in terms of background it's belmont eighty percent of its budgets funded from property taxes and that's frankly  because we're a residential community and basically there is not up to for other kinds of nonprofit tax revenue we do have some of those things but primarily our budgets funded from property taxes nine percent of our budgets funded from sta so when you hear the new governor talk about that shortfall in the current fiscal year being three quarters of a billion dollars you stories say what is that need for fiscal sixteen and and does that mean we're going to have less state aid because the state has less revenues or has to deal with shortfalls in it as its level and because that's such a large piece of the puzzle fluctuations in state a reduction is have a severe impact on our ability to fund our programs because it is a large component of our funding in addition to that over the last five years we've we've had had increases in our non property tax revenues which in the course of this model we have projected very close to actual again one of the things that folks need to be aware of is is when we set the tax rate one of the things that the department of revenue does it takes a look at what you actually collected from non property taxes or local receipts and compares that to what you're budgeting for the current fiscal year before they set the tax rate and you have to demonstrate that basically what you're going to raise and local receipts is a fair estimate in an accurate estimate and one of the tension points is that what you get what did you collect the previous year and if there's significant changes you have to explain what those changes are and why so again i think the challenges is to be finding that tend to balance on local receipts of of budgeting  to what you think you're realistically going to get making sure that you don't over budget so that you end up not collecting what you said you're going to do in addition to that we have it's mark said some very skilled department heads who manage your budget wel well manage their budgets well and basically try to find creative ways to basically be within their budget or slightly below that our budget so over the last five years we actually have had actual receipts a little bit better than what we say it's experience or estimated and we've had a expenses a little bit below budget which again is good because that's one of the ways you replenish your free cash and free cash is basically the town savings account and basically we use our savings account or free cash to balance our budget so the way you replenish your savings account is to have revenues slightly above what you budget and have expenditures if you can again assuming all things go right a little savings and you know that we've been very successful that because of our scale department heads a couple findings i think you've heard throughout the presentation today this is the second year where the school budget is has a deficit last year the school department budget required a reserve fund transfer it also required to have a freeze on salary non salary expenditures the same is true this year and the superintendent can elaborate but right now we're projecting that f y fifteen budget for the schools to be in deficit by five hundred thousand dollars and i might add the schools has implemented a set of savings measures but what we're we've seen through the second quarter is all those savings measures which have generated approximately two hundred  forty five thousand dollars with the savings have not gone to reducing the deficit all they have done is to fund additional expenditures primarily in the special education areas so again the school department has put on freezes but has not had an to that again i think that we've been fortunate again on the school side to have skilled managers have been able to use reserves with regard that with this this time does receive green burst for a portion of its special ed services which is called circuit breaker the goal is to basically try to use your circuit breaker to supplement your operating cost in the general fund and if you're able to not fully expend it you can carry over those those circuit breaker revenues from year in year out while over the last two years basically any any current year circuit breaker in any prior year unexpended circuit breaker funds have been fully exhausted i think the balance under five thousand dollars at this point so we will get it and you will circuit breaker allocation from the state to fund our special ed services but that basically just funny what art total cost are in on the general fund side we don't have enough resources to cover a portion  again we also receive we belong to the lab collaborative which is lexington arlington belmont burlington what's the last isn't that bad for we belong to a club that provides special ed services at a lower cost because of the collaborative and again we also that collaborative also receive students from out of district and so every year if there is a positive cash flow the member collaborative district members get a rebate check if you will or a refund check or a royalty check we use our royalty check of two hundred seventy six thousand dollars to balance the fifteen budget so going into the sixteen budget right of the get go for a special ed budget we were to seventy six in the hole because we'd use that in this year in terms of the revenue source to balance the fifteen budget but the takeaway here is basically any any carry over circuit breaker funds any collaborative credits from our lab  any of the revolving fund balances that we have have all been used between fifteen fourteen and fifteen to make our budget balance and so there are no magic bullets left to basically bridge the gap of our five hundred thousand dollar shortfall in the current fiscal year which will require more than likely a transfer from the sped stabilization fund that was established a few years back and a reserve fund transfer assuming there are reserve funds available to transfer from the war committee so again take away here is that way sic we've had two years where basically our budgets allocations were not sufficient to meet our actual cost  terms of other issues that the superintendent has mentioned in last three years of school moments of increased by over three hundred students it's projected over the next three years that are student moment will increase by another three hundred and that generates a conversation about space it generates a conversation about teaching it generates the conversation about support services current average elementary class sizes superintendents is twenty four in addition to that in our current fiscal year as i said we have issues with regard to our special ed tuitions our special ed contracted services and the related special ed transferred patients which have generated a five hundred thousand dollars shortfall that at this point  in terms of enrollments are special ed to a shout students have increased by fourteen students since two thousand and thirteen and for the members of the public fourteen doesn't sound like a huge number however  when you two wishing out students where the cost of a twitch and out placement and tony help me out here may be anywhere from twenty to fifty thousand dollars it is a significant amount of students who you are placing outside the district based upon individual education plan to provide special education services so just because a number of students doesn't seem large the cost impact can be quite extensive and get again the superintendent talk about the fact that we have students who require english language services and that number has increased by one hundred five since two thousand and thirteen and again these are intensive services with small groupings that basically require intensive  services as i mentioned before we've taken the recommendations of the individual working groups and basically trying to incorporate them the model at the end of the day where we're out again making assumptions and again these are estimates but by the end  in the fiscal sixteen budget we're projecting a shortfall of two point nine million dollars if you carry that out to the next fiscal year seventeen that increases to four million four hundred forty thousand and that's accounting for adjustments to our vailable revenues again we've gone through and we've looked at our to our local receipts with the help of the assessors we've looked at our new growth for various projects that have not yet materialize actually but basically have factored in new growth factors in addition to the four hundred seventy five that has been a predictable number so at the end of the day where route is longer term we have a seven million dollars q the shortfall over the next two fiscal years we have a four point five million dollars shortfall here david i mean just in truth the financial projections because they were to spend dozens of hours and then a wonderful job one which phillis and consult jim conway on this we've got  in there frankly and i've spent years looking at these budgets and you go through the revenue go through the expenditures there is it's places to find dollars to close a two point eight billion dollar deficit i'd be happy to listen to someone that has that sort of stuff suggestions and you know if something someone says new growth is said to be in for seventy five needs to be six hundred ok great we'll call it that hundred twenty five thousand against two point eight so but we texaco's up another can wonderful so the point being in iraq criticizing the comments received is they've been very helpful there wasn't any multi million dollar issue that been identified in the modeling that's been done and i've gone through the numbers as you well magic but it's fun to poke at david has extensive experience working on a much larger budget than ours in cambridge so yeah and so so where we're out at the end of the day is basically increasing what makes what makes up the model findings in terms of impacts so as you mentioned as we mentioned in the capital budget the model includes five hundred thousand dollars for the edition of three hundred thousand dollars for one great improvements and two hundred thousand dollars for sidewalk repairs it includes the debt service in fiscal sixteen of a one hundred twenty thousand dollars to cover five hundred thousand dollars bond issue for five years in addition in seventeen there's an additional amount of money included to cover that for the second year in addition in the model for fiscal sixteen there is the temp superintendent talked about which totals tied up six hundred fifty thousand dollars and then there are five positions in the out years at sixty five thousand dollars each which totals three twenty five i for seventeen eighteen and nineteen so again those are the three recommendations that we heard directly from the individual groups that that deals with enrollment that deals with capital on the next finding again for the sixteen budget if you take into account the fact that we're losing our lab credits which i talked about a few moments ago of two seventy six which we used to balance the fifteen budget which will not be available in th sixteen budget and then you take a look at what the shortfall is for the current fiscal year we need six hundred forty two thousand dollars basically in the increase in the special ed tuitions now budget to basically make sure we have enough money to pay our bills for fiscal sixteen and that what that means is that we've increased our current year budget of one point three million one twenty three by six hundred forty two thousand dollars two hundred five thousand has been added to the model for fiscal sixteen to take into account our current year transportation costs which are under budget and basically allow us to budget an amount that can cover  bills for fiscal sixteen based upon our fiscal fifteen experiences and where we are currently four hundred twenty five thousand dollars again contracted services for students who are in i e p plans that basically are tuition dollars but basically are required to receive tutoring services specialized services again based upon where we are for fiscal fifteen zero and what is generally the shortfall we need four hundred twenty five thousand dollars additional in fiscal sixteen to basically allow us to have it a budget about that will allow us to budget correctly for what we expect our cost to be in sixteen based upon our experience in fifteen and then one hundred twenty seven thousand dollars in temporary start this is budget that the superintendent talked about which there is a collection of different kinds of services that are provided whether it's summer tutoring or tutoring for students who are out of school because of injuries over time substitute teachers or staff development basically there's a shortfall that budget account this year and we need additional one twenty seven and sixteen basically to match what our fiscal fifteen projection is to budget that adequately so that we don't have a shortfall in these accounts in fiscal sixteen again clearly if we don't budget adequately for these items this special ed to wish him out the transportation for sped or the contracted services all that means is you can budget less it just means you know more than likely you have a significant shortfall in fiscal sixteen that you'll have to deal with and again i don't and again i think that that is the takeaway in terms of how we're trying to deal with the current year shortfall in terms of revenues again where at the prop two and a half limit so we've increased the property taxes levied by two and a half percent as  normal we even included some major increases in motor vehicle excise by two hundred thousand dollars and sixteen and project increases there after we've increased our building permit fees to eight hundred thousand dollars based upon our prior experiences and again these are projections we've had good experience because the economy has been good with regard to all building permit face what you're trying to do is find a balance where basically you can budget them out that's sustainable because it doesn't do any good to budget amount that is not going to be sustainable because if you can't budget the same revenue mountain in out years it means reductions in services because you don't have the revenue to balance your budget  the revenue opportunities group made recommendations to the board of selectmen with regard to increasing our park or our parking lot meter fees from sixty cents to a dollar so those increases have been incorporated and then increasing our business permit fees from sixty dollars a month to ninety dollars a month and then instituting a dedicated parking for commuters primarily in front of the lions club and at the behind the at the belmont center parking lot to designate spots pacifically for commuters so that we basically can generate some additional revenues all day past all day parking fees of increase from three to five dollars so that is generated those kinds of monies for fifty thousand and then working with the board of assessors they did a great job of trying to predict all in the out years what potential new growth would be for specific projects such as cushing village in the uplands and the personal property event that will permit and start with the construction of the new substation again to twenty one is the first year where we will see increase in new growth over and above the current estimate of four seventy five assuming that those two projects proceed if they don't proceed and clay the two twenty one of additional new growth property tax revenue won't be realized and then in the out years it's three twenty eight and four thirty  departments and school administration utilize this projection model as a framework to do future budget planning and make adjustments on an annual basis because again this isn't a projection that is going to be  stagnant and it's going to change it changes every ten minutes to be honest do you know in the course of last week when we got the second quarter home adjustments from the school department based on fifteen we had to make adjustments to model if  growth realisations don't happen or if building permits are actual eyes for what we think they'll have to be adjustments to the revenue and i might add there will be adjustments to the expenditures also as we get actual experiences but again as is folks need to understand we're working on the budget now for fiscal sixteen and basically what you're trying to do is predict where you're going to be eighteen months from now you think about it so things change quickly  on the revenue capped opportunities group the second right recommendation is that that those opportunity group recommendations for revenue to be considered and implemented after review and again i think if some of the recommendations can be implemented it may be able to contribute some additional revenues to our budget for fiscal eighteen but again those all need to be worked through and some of them are great recommendations but will acquire a lot of coordination a of communication between school and town departments i guess the other thing is that we the financial working group understood that a seven point seven million dollar working groups and in the overall task force i think that what that the overarching view was as to how to come up with a balanced recommendation in a way that could address our capital needs in a way to address our current structural shortfalls in a way that would be sensitive to our taxpayers and at the same token understand that in the future there will be some major capital projects such as the high school of public works facility the police station library which will fire dead exclusion and dead exclusion in whole or in part which will have to come out of people's pocketbooks so i think we understood the the issue in terms of what we think our projected shuffle would be to nineteen i think where we came out was is to try to come up with a plan that could address the roads and sidewalks to address the capital to address to a moment in a way that tries to deal with that over the next two years fiscal sixteen and seventeen to provide some budgets to pillage it so that basically that and hopefully if things break the right way maybe allow us within a fusion of four point five million dollars to basically try to have a in roads and sidewalks funding to deal with capital to deal with enrollment four point five million dollars increase in our revenues is the amount that has been allocated and requested as part of the report and put into the model so that basically we can accomplish those things for the recommendation would be to the board is to ask for a four point five million dollars override again to give us budget stability and the other pay our seven to eight million dollars over right and then come back to them into residence in two years and has for a debt exclusion of seven repriced for i think the four point five million frankly is as much as we could probably go to and just gets us through eighteen by with the hope that stated look we we're not going to build up in the state mike whitman has made it clear to me that others we can look to the state for some external force to come in and bail out the community we're considered an affluent community there are other towns in this state that are probably in the more difficult shape than we are so we're blessed to live in government you know that but that being said from that perspective this is fact based discussions  fact based discussion perspective we are in a definite it clearly we're in a deficit in fifty on the school to the part of the side and in in william sixteen seventeen eighteen if we don't address those resources in general government which i'd like to consider the public safety other to consider it if you give us well perhaps we have some wiggle room to do that in sixteen and seventeen years there are budgets we would spend on the for the for four point five we would put it in  stabilization fund for seventy and and as hopefully things might improve from the state perspective we get a little bit more state aid the nonprofit tax revenues are not going to bella so it's almost like having a market change would just like to say one thing that i've noticed pete like being a member of this group is for those of us around the school committee and certainly families know how much input and contributions we get from  from the private sector in terms of you know family singing and right boxes of tissue paper and pencils and pens and p t o s and p t a s raising needed funds but it became also much more evident to me how much support the general side of the government gets in terms of supporting major bills and i think julie's park is certainly a good way to example but then you get into the point where we can't be just getting having privatization o they have and it's wonderful and they do raise funds and they've done a number of wonderful things within our schools and i love going to that and getting tickets and things of that nature it's not going to bounce look at the deficit twenty dollars we spend again and we see it you know even i think we can't lose sight of the need to continue to have public private you know partnerships if you will for other sort of things in your community for other things to do to help but there's nothing that i can see and again i've spent six years in  other other questions in the modeling i'm i'm prepared there for them to change you know motions to support endorse the recommendations of each of the working groups a list folks one of the i didn't go i don't little ambivalent and my ambivalence might be a little unique in that i almost feel an obligation to go back to the capital budget maybe i realize that these are recommendations you know for them committee so you're making recommendations to the bourse like when you can really say that this is something that you know we we were absolutely make a presentation to the world to me so that's clearly we need their support we need a couple budget committee support we need school symptom mideast support this representation from all those bodies here today i've never been one to do anything that you went away by i think collaboration is only way so we need to ensure that all of those substantive committees have an opportunity to listen to the findings that will be presented to the board selected on monday and then for the deliberated by them to weigh in as well i think as the capital person and i think you've alluded to this that this recommendation for an override for an operating override we've definitely made the case but there also has to be the caution as we go forward that we we not use up the good will of the voter before the voter is presented with an opportunity to vote on debt exclusions for these other capital needs so it's a it's a very valid good balancing act and i just want everybody to be aware that will be simply listening and asking questions will be no debate deliberation and i'm going to talk to our my colleagues about when in fact they're ready to vote on this it could be on the second it could be subsequent to the media in the ninety's as we get a clearer picture available revenue budget and we want to wait until then i'm fine with that but i think you can't leave your past that i also think that you know the board needs to seriously consider and i don't think it i don't think was to the tre to them to decide when to put on the ballot that they just recommend that so i think the board is discussed when the appropriate time to put it all right on the ballot i strongly in favor of the election i think that we have the most participation in this community from all political you