we have met almost weekly since february and have tried to address the the problem that's been devil belmont for many many years project because they so often had to be the force in an ideal world all four of these projects could be done and the time would have formed priscilla these the difficulty is that that would be to make progress the d p w and the police station in a short time frame but at the same time live within the realities of over the spring and summer converged on the following strategy which is to identify the most pressing needs of the p w and the police and get to work on those useful for at least another ten years and then i had that time which possibly would be on the order of twenty twenty seven or without being very precise about it the town hopefully at that point will have dealt with the coming of the high school and the library and put start to think about it a more comprehensive   not just for amenities but making the actual work area the challenge was after making that list of requirements as being really top priority  was finding a way to do them that did not trigger eighty eight requirements in a wholesale way and there's a threshold it's complicated basically to do wor that's worth more than about thirty percent of the value of the building you trigger all sorts of code requirements that come into compliance with what the building would be built new and these particular buildings are close to ninety years old so that really puts a limit on the on the amount of work you can do for you because if you trigger the a b a requirements in full you suddenly have to spend so much that it's really not worth it last week that our minutes from june had me saying i believed at that point that we'd be able to do for around five million dollars and lo and  behold those numbers have yet to be finalized but that is the ballpark we're talking about to my mind at least spending that kind of money to get another ten years out of these buildings money very well s but in the in the end my understanding is that this project assuming it goes forward will be will satisfy whatever requirements are legally actually start by invite being angry mahoney them to the table i didn't know she was coming tonight but she is actually the chairperson of the major capital projects working group and while i'm having to describe some of the nuts and bolts of the scope of work and marie has as the latest information i want to be budget that will be asking time leading to approve those numbers are not finalized but that is something that will be the basis of a warrant article short order and we will there's no there's no warrant article to vote on tonight there will be one very soon and we will meet again later in the month go to recommendation  is that right i mean is that how it doesn't hit the operating budget in a significant way is that because that will still be the whole financing plan still being worked on but a large part of it is you so i suspect you're not going to like them but to say is as a suggestion right but i would encourage you to think about it ok and that is that you talk about spending five million dollars on these things which are clearly needy no one disagrees i don't think there's anybody that thinks this isn't a good idea at zero percent interest are going to pay five hundred thousand dollars a year in operating money to pay down the five million dollars of the debt over ten years at zero percent or so clearly it's going to more than that right we don't have five hundred thousand dollars of free space in the operating budget we already know the operating budget incredibly tight we're going to do it at a solution in november of two thousand and eighteen for the high school you could very logically realize it might make you wait five months or six months but you could logically bundle a high school that i think that if people are oh my you would have a very decent very good likelihood of actually getting the money because people are going to vote for the new high school i believe meaningful extent many people are going to believe that we should fix the w believe it is fix the police station you'll have people mentally saying we need to bite the bullet to do the right thing for the capital needs of the town and going to do it all at one time and you won't encourage five hundred thousand dollar cost on the operating budget which the town can't really afford going to probably need to do it over at some point anyway the override is much less likely in my opinion to succeed then a debt of solution well even if you did three separate overrides for this or three separate that is lucian's as a yes yes yes kind of so i would encourage you to think about that i think you will you will not have as much strain on the operating budget will likely get them all passed and you only have to wait a few months so again don't have to respond now you can might not like it but i would encourage you to think about i think every financ or i get confused about what's left over from what but we had some plans that were in various places that were tenshi going to be used for modelers or could potentially be used for these capital improvements also and so it would be helpful for us to know what exactly there is you know  in different pockets or maybe it's just that one pocket that could be used or whether we plan to finance the modulars also which we had talked about doing because we didn't finance the last module as we took it out of free cash we also have free cash available so i think you know that's not the conversation tonight the conversation is what's going to be on on the november special town meeting warrant but i think it would be helpful for us to not need to discuss it now but helpful for us to have hundred thousand in total out of the three million it's available the kind of so i just to be really clear i've very grateful for the work the hard work being done by the group i think that's fantastic it sounds like a really creative solutions i don't know exactly what they are but it sounds really really fantastic so thank you and my sense is that the use of three hundred thousand dollars or five hundred thousand dollars for those types of things from the candle fund makes an enormous amount of sense whether it's replenished or not i are questions that could come up or policy issues or or funding questions that could come up i think in fairness it would be good to have that put on the agenda for a future meeting broke forth go going through the sub since you know these are that the school that the school will be coming before town meeting with the two point six million dollars re quest for funds in there you know that there's just a month i think and i think it really makes sense to sort of but the facts out there just so just so we we we all have that to work with as we think through the possible possible consequences i i brought some glory slap as of now the new chair and and and what i've pulled together here are just numbers that all come from the school from you know from the from the school financials as we've talked about and in other you know in the end it will warrant committee chapters the school of the school district is a complex complex thing there is you know in this year's budget it's about sixty million dollars of which about fifty three million dollars is coming from the general fund and the other seven is coming from grants grants or grants or user fees and there's a lot of going back and forth on the other thing that i've got  that i've gained a real appreciation for is that the state law grants the super super tentative school a lot of flexibility about how to run the department of the schools that the school committee can set policy they can't they will vote on a budget but when you when you manage something you know that i'm nuts and bolts when it comes down to paying for bills the school district has the choice about whether they charge a bill to the general fund or to one of these other of their other sources there and so and so this is this is trying to sort of take a take a pic look at that the four big takeaways really sort of focus on the true two years since the successful two thousand and fifteen two thousand and fifteen two thousand two thousand and fifteen and over right in those two years the school district has has spent basically what the annual town meeting has voted in terms in terms of in terms of in general funds in both of those years when they came to the end of the fiscal year they  they were able to restock their supplies and actually buy some capital he quit in the closing weeks there they they've built up their balance in terms of all the revolving funds that are basically funded from from not from from user fees to about seven hundred thousand dollars to two point two billion and so that's grown by one point five million over those two years and that the circuit breaker and account balance has grown budgeting and the spending from the general fund for those four for four years when and what i focus here is is the actual vote that town meeting took in so you can because you know what's town meeting votes to appropriate and appropriated to the schools and fiscal years fourteen and fifteen those were the two years where where we as a wartime committee voted extra money to help pay for cost that mostly in the special ed field because because the number of students rose faster than than what we had and just before so you see that when you when you look at what was actually spent through the general fund in those two years versus what was what was voted the previous spring there were deficits of about two hundred thousand dollars and about five hundred thirty thousand dollars and in that case there were subsequent ways sort of a match that after after the override the the the budget and the spending basically on the basis matched you know and so and so they were able to able to keep within their budget but they and indeed they spent all virtually all of the money that was appropriated appropriate appropriated by the town also put that that that column that says dollar see that that the percent of the general fund budget went up less before the overwrite and since since since then we we as the town have been able to provide larger and in increases in the funding budget on a page too i just sort of talk about how you sort of see what this end of year spending pattern is that when when we get the financial reports from from the school there's a column to show the money that they voted for that they've set aside to pay for things that they haven't actually bought by the end of the school year that is called them in and in in in and in come brings in fiscal year fourteen and fifteen the the totals were hundred twenty four thousand and one hundred sixty seven thousand and they were mostly in the special ed  special ed on counts which makes sense because that was where the that was where the you know that the current crisis was and that was where i mean why why we voted more money there in the last two years that the that that this end of year spending which has been two hundred five thousand and four hundred forty two thousand dollars has has come in different different categories and this is this is where they've said ok we're that we're going to be able to make it through this year we have we have some room in the journal for journal for a general fund budget let's make sure that we restock supplies that we have that we have and i think and i think  this past year there were there were nine new photos on nine nine nine new photo and photocopiers and so and so there's and it's just a good way of sort of saying what what life was like before the override and then in following it on page three this is where all of all of the improve alving funds are listed here what i've done is i've taken the last two years  and some time in just so you can see what has happened from the start of this post you know from the start of june two thousand and fift fifth fifteenth through june of june of june of i'm just this a year and there has been i mean virtually all of these accounts have have grown some of that is the full day in kindergarten and the bus the bus funds i think that they're just collecting more money before june on june thirtieth in something like the food service they are hoping that that the food service will be able to pay for capital on capital couple going on going forward and so that balance is it's there there are some other balances there that you know that are just i think less tied to if future spending needs and are just there but i think it's a i think it's fair topic topic for for the committee to take a closer look at on the fourth page we talked a lot about special education out of district tuitions last year even especially because we were talking about circuit breaker mccown and whether it was timely for the school committee to vote in amount to go into the new special a reserve fund the issue there was i mean right i was saying that we had that we had we had we had sufficient information and it should be acted on as part of the budget process the superintendent then it was saying you know he wanted to wait until this fall in till the numbers are are in and so and so we sort of waited until until till the the the the fall the fall the numbers are in this is this is really the clearest case where if if the school has a bill for and out of district tuition it has the program we have a positive credit balance there and it and it's possible to charge tuition against that and so this table on page four shows how what was put what was given to us in in the budget for the past three years and what was spent in i'm in in those three in those four kinds of counts for those three from three years in fiscal year fifteen clearly the the total sped out of district wishes were eight hundred fifty five thousand dollars higher than what the budget was and then all four of those categories had to take take up take up some of some of that  deficit in fiscal year six sixteen the actual the budget was over by six hundred twenty three thousand but in this case the that deficit was more than made up by the general funds and the federal grant whereas the circuit breaker account was charged one hundred twenty thousand dollars less than what what they had put in side the budget for that year and then and then this past year  the the actual special education out of district tuition's were one hundred ninety five thousand dollars less than what was in the budget and but at the same time that they charged two hundred thirty seven thousand dollars more to the general fund then what their budget was and they under a circuit breaker account by five hundred eight thousand dollars and so and so that that was able to of district tuitions you know really we're taking a look at the bottom line some across all all four categories and from fiscal year fifteen to sixteen the growth was three point nine percent and from sixteen to seventeen it was five point one percent and i also sort of know that the number that was actually spent in this past year was about seventy four thousand dollars less than what we had put in the ward and warning committee report last year and so that was about a one percent one percent i'm different and i just sort of point out that it's you know by the spring time you really can sort of understand and project with confidence what the total spending spending will will will will be i'm going to just finish the last page because it's it's a tight in there and in the last pages on the circuit breaker  what we see in the budget is what they're planning on spending but in the circuit breaker world you get money from the state and so that's a revenue and then you actually spend it and so and so this last page sort of takes that budgeted number and then shows how much was how much was collected and how much was spent and then the past three years the the amount collected was higher than what the budget was  in the last two years the amount spent was lower than what the budget what's and so in so when you take both of those facts that's how we went from a ending balance of twenty nine thousand dollars to ending balance mean years here there have been i mean we have needed every everything every dollar possible so it was not possible back to back in fifty or thirteen fourteen and fifteen area that and so and so the superintendent will say that this is just sort of bringing us up to the practice that many other towns what is new and what the conversation we had last year was the state legislator leecher created a new kind of fund in two thousand and sixteen that's called the sped reserve fund that involves the board of selectmen in the school and the school in committee and it is a more segregated fund for future selectmen involvement so i was in the conversation we're having last year was whether some of this growing balance which was clear last year should be transferred over to the spec reserve fund  why what because you i mean this is this is my own my own view i mean so and so we're leaving the factual world my own my own view is  that it is that it provides segregation and protections and so you know that money that gets in there will be spent and that will be publicly documented  on an anticipated sped sped tuition needs whereas you know if it's in the circuit breaker fund it's it's it's it's a totally up to however however they want to close the books that they you know i mean if that if i had been superintendent this this past year i would have charged fewer sped tuitions to the module presentation it has the two point six million but it also says that the funding for technology in structural instructional materials and furniture will be supported by the school there are some number beyond that but we haven't we haven't seen it yet and i think it's it's a question about you know you know are there i mean are there funds building a rental fund is sort of there to be used for sort of a wide variety of purposes and so maybe you know i mean i don't want to speculate because because because it really is the school the thrust of the question and a slightly different way and i just want to make sure your comment about connecting the dots you've presented this as information without specific conclusions and i just want to make sure that the embedded conclusion here isn't that the school committee in the school department is awash in cash and that there should be you  know there's all this cash sloshing around that could be used for different purposes or it could impact next year's budget because i think there's ways that one could look at these data points and draw different conclusions and i want to make sure that you're not saying that the conclusion is know i'm nuts i'm not saying that but i'm not saying what i think the point you were making and and and and and i really just have to ask that we don't sort of jump to drawing drawing me and that there were more you know pointed pointed common sense because it has to because it was in the context you know that david kill first presented a five point three point three million dollar re request for the school school school committee when we sort of took a look at that and he said it was due it was based on the financial taskforce model when i looked at the financial taskforce model i came up with fifty two point three three million so i did say where is that million dollars and why is that million dollars over the financial past on the model model needed i didn't get a direct answer from from from david about about the difference between the fifty three point three in the fifty two point three but we did get the school budget cut by three hundred thirty four thousand dollars you'll hear the school  superintendent talk about how that was giving back three hundred thirty four thousand dollars to help to help to help the town i i sort of start with more with the point of view that it was a million dollars more than i thought and it got shrunk down to  four hundred thousand dollars was spent on things that weren't budgeted that's different then if the school committee saved all its big purchases till the end of the year to make sure that there wasn't going to be any other demand on those dollars so the incumbrance to me doesn't necessarily can lead to a conclusion about the order of magnitude of the spending and i think on the as it comes to the user fees  there's been a lot of nks about the level of user fees that belmont charged by i guess it wouldn't necessarily draw the conclusion that we have lots of extra money making the user fees are too high so again i'm not trying to draw conclusions i'm just saying that the data here can lead you in different paths depending on perspective so you take one more one more in data point i mean we excess i think that you know over the last several years is probably not a single person has done more work than jim has to look at our overall town budget and to look at our education  for that i am very grateful for all the work you've done i do want to make a process comment and that is i don't think it's actually appropriate to do what we're doing right now i think that going through a numbers that are you know clearly the result of a great deal of work but have not been vetted by the education subcommittee to the best of my knowledge of not been vetted with tony the whole gero or the school committee to present them here in this forum on television without a process that actually has them you know we have conclusions and we discuss those conclusions as a subcommittee and then talk about them as a group i think is just not good process as one of the clear so i you know i think it's for you roy as the chair to decide how to manage that i think it's the it's for each subcommittee to decide how to manage this process but i would just say individually i don't believe despite again all the hard work that's done here i don't believe that this is how this group should do its work i think that if there is work of an make that comment publicly despite the fact that i do appreciate the enormous amount of work that you do jim and again you know i don't quibble with the data but i think it requires some degree of discussion about how does how typical is this in the revolving funds or the