thank you all for coming i would like to call the special town meeting for the town of belmont on october nineteenth two thousand and sixteen to order we'll begin forty years and they had richards who was first elected in two thousand and nine and died on timely in july so i'd like to  recognize both of them for their work and their lives with a moment of silence and we'll make sure there are no problems with electronic voting all right any problems ok thank you one word if you are leaving early  night don't forget to turn in your voting device when you leave the preliminaries we have the normal limits of the halls town meeting members here and in front the far right the center and in the middle on the left i will admit to the floor the town administrator an assistant the town accountant department heads town council warrant committee school committee superintendent of schools you omitted seeing non just remind you of the the rules that we have each speaker is limited to five minutes and  questions one question then a follow up so two questions and i'd ask you to ask the questions through the moderator so that we can maintain as much order as possible rather than a simple back and copy of the warrant on the town clerk's official bulletin board at town hall and at least five other places in town fourteen days prior to the date of this meeting in accordance with chapter thirty nine section ten of the general laws and section thirty dash one one zero eight of the general bylaws of the town of belmont furthermore i do hereby certify that i gave notice of this special town meeting of october nineteenth two thousand and sixteen by causing a copy of the warrant to be sent to the town meeting members at least fourteen days before the date of this meeting and by causing copies of the warrant to be made available at the public library in the town clerk's office all in accordance with section thirty dash one one zero b of the general bylaws of the town of belmont and thank you ellen now worried about the the process after misapply reads the motion and of course we have only one article tonight and then i get the votes of the four committees will then begin the present asians in a before presentations limited to no more than ten minutes and i have let the presenters know in advance that i will let them know when or at the ten minute mark following that we will then get a brief explanation from each of the committees that our room have voted and consider this question they will of announced their votes earlier  but three minute limits here are for the chairs of the respective committees to briefly explain the rationale for the vote and then we will then at that point open up discussion to town meeting members with a limit of five minutes to questions on issues on schedule i will rule out of order beyond the scope any discussion about vocational education the value of vocational education in general i think we all understand the value but that's not the debate tonight the issue is does belmont stay in minute man or not so obviously it's appropriate to discuss what kind of vocational education where but not the value of vocational education in general secondly for those of you here or here who were here or saw the discussion on monday night there was some confusion about a special head and vocal and it was clear that that was not helping the discussion and it became clarified at the end that special ed was not related in the what we're voting on tonight is not related in any way to special education so that will be any discussion of special education p p on the scope as well because whatever the wherever the students and up in the future for their vocational education there will be under state law a special education requirement finally i want to thank len castro for all his work and  putting all of this together and the town clerk's office and then a reminder let's keep our comments focused as we've done in the last i think several town meetings and remember this  discourse even if that's not true in the presidential level let's at least stick to the fine democratic tradition of civil discourse here in this meeting so thank you mr leave and i guess right so we're excited about that we received as part of the closing today one million three hundred thirty five thousand dollars for the sale of the parking lot which included some extension payments so we certainly will put that to good my colleague as former chair of the planning board was live this for a number of years of course the current members of the board judge jim williams as well so it's finally over and we look forward to working with toll brothers over the next  couple of years with this exciting development for about a month so  committee town meeting member precinct one i'm not really up stein they work committee recommends favorable action aka to leave minuteman by a vote of eleven to to chair epstein's memo went out to the town meeting members a few days ago regarding the work committee's rationale so i won't repeat it here he will be here later this evening however if people wish to live presentation thank you and capital budget committee anne marie mahoney chairman of the capital budget committee town meeting member precinct one the capital budget committee unanimously recommends favorable action in the school committee missed your school committee votes favorable action a vote of four to one would you like any commentary yours well a little later after the presentations thank you mr polo thank you mr moderator my next two slices talks about why two thousand and sixteen to approve the ballot question authorizing the issuance of under forty one hundred forty four point nine million dollars for the new minute medication high school we as a town community rejected this bal question by a vote of seventy two to twenty percent margin which was in fact two hundred thirty two thousand three hundred twenty seven to two hundred one which was a ninety percent turnout that being said the ballot question passed within the debt they're deciding not of course the document so therefore they will be out of the district next july we as a town or district voted against the ballot question so if we so do so  responsible if we in fact this legislative body votes that which wrong for the share of the debt service attributed to this new debt even if that communities which are all from the district is not approved by a majority of the member communities or even if the redraw of such a community disapproved by the commissioner of the partment elementary and secondary education acts like a notice a withdrawal must be initiated by two thirds vote of this legislative body of the member community which is our community which must occur at no less than three years prior to the desired july first which are old date the municipal clerk of the community seeking to withdraw must notify the regional school committee in writing within seven days of the vote if in fact it's approved if we do not approve by two thirds vote this evening ladies and gentlemen to withdraw our we were maine in the district as every other remaining nine member is in fact be subject to the debt within seven failure of the legislative body of a member community to vote disapproval of our request to withdraw within sixty days of this notice been submitted to the regional school agreement will constitute approval so the other member communities which are fifteen currently it's by the facto approval so in fact if we're granted and the commissioner of department of elementary and secondary education has to approve which as well so there's two hurdles in order for us to which are during the three year notice period that the party member if in fact we are grant that we draw we will be continued we will continue so we'll still be a member of the district for three years we work  n therefore be able to stay in that students for three years as a member we will continue to be responsible for payment of our share or its share of operating costs we will be responsible for payment of our share of capital cost except no apportionment for withdrawing member we made for a share of the debt that was disapproved by the voters of said which you are a member of similarly no apportionment for withdraw remember we may for share of any debt incurred after the member has given a notice represented by its member on the minuteman school committee before voting authority until the date of final which will that's it we'll talk to you later thank you thank you  superintendent of the minuteman what i'm going to talk to you just briefly about about minuteman i want to talk to you about our distinctive educational model some financial perceptions and also some of the issues that i hope you're considering as as a departing member one of the things about men and i think that's unique even among vocational technical schools is that we provide an education with a clear purpose we understand that students come to us with a variety of understandings of variety of levels we do very well with our students why this tree is sort of an illustration of why we do well if you look at the the roots of the tree and i know it's hard to see here but there are four components of the roots of that tree one of them is certainly high rigorous academics which is provided by all schools around the commonwealth especially in schools such as belmont high school in addition we provide professional skills those are skills that are in high demand by college admissions offices as well as employers these represent things like showing up on time having the right attitude working on a team in addition we provide  what i would call competencies within vocational technical areas and these are reflected through a variety of different measures including industry recognized credentials in addition we provide something that i think a lot of high school students need when they come out of high school and that is passion and that passion is created by answering two simple questions what do i love to do and what do i do well and we help students understand that about themselves through the selection of their career major as students go through minuteman you'll see there's three sections of the leaves above their as they graduate and go into that first section they can enter a number of different jobs technical entry level jobs with some additional training they can move into technical careers and with a four year degree they can move on into professional careers but we provide them with a solid base of skills passion and understanding of what they want to do as well as academics and when you consider that forty seven percent of our students are nave p but yet we graduate ninety eight percent of them sixty two to sixty five percent go on to post secondary education one of the ways that we explain what happens at minuteman is by looking at the brain certainly in a diet addict in a in a situation like this where you're listening to someone talk using the front of the your brain when you start to use your hands and start to experience learning in more ways and different learning styles or exercise  different part of your brain more in the parietal lobe area and we find that students who start to experience minute man in a in a deep way academics start to make sense to them for the first time the geometry classes make sense to the carpentry students because they're applying that information in a way they never have before and they're using their entire brain this learning tree is something that we've have posted in every part of minute man and it helps describe the model in a very sustained way in addition we provide a well rounded educational experience and as belmont is looking at different vocational options i want you to be aware of some of the things that are offered at minuteman we have sports of course no fees no cut policy we also have over thirty student clubs and activities we have a full music program we have a full art program we offer a p classes where the only vocational school that offers three languages including latin and we are a level one school even when sixty eight percent of our students were considered high needs students when they took the m cast last year one hundred percent of them passed english language arts on the first try one hundred percent passed chemistry biology on the first try ninety seven percent passed mathematics on the first try we have coming before us a new high school the new high school will be built part of that new high school is and is a very exciting educational program plan that's focused around an academy model with two academies you see here the life sciences and services academy and the engineering construction and trades academy and my academic teachers are already assigned themselves to the academy of their choice excuse me we no longer will have an english department a math department a social studies a science department they are now beginning to embed themselves in these academies so that we can provide those roots of that tree in even more exciting and more effective ways for all students the academy model is really being driven by teachers i have eighteen teachers and academy development team that we've gone and studied other models we've created click common planning time that's in effect this year one of the fundamental components of a well of a professional learning community is its common planning time and they achieve that our educational model that minuteman has done a number of things with with certain projects and priorities that we've had one of them is stem education particularly women in stem in our girls in stem program has won a national award two years in a row for mentoring where my girls in engineering robotics automation biotechnology environmental science they're being mentored by women in the field as well as professors at some of the leading universities in our area we have free stem camps for middle school students that are available free from member districts and over the last two years we've had over one hundred young girls come through our stem camps that are offered in the summer february break and april break i'm in addition our students do community service we've worked a lot around our member towns with habitat for humanity in belmont we spent a particularly a large amount of time over the last three years at burbank elementary this  you may know this was the burbank elementary area before our landscaping order culture environmental students got involved and they've created a wonderful garden they're working closely with the p t o it's been a win win situation with the minuteman students offering their skills and talents to our member towns why stay as nonmember students some of the things that would be lost to you and to your students would be would not have priority access to admissions the law states that we must act upon all member town admissions prior to acting upon non enroll nonmember students students may not have the choice of their program in other words there  policies in place in other schools that limit the choices that nonmembers students have we will be looking at that minuteman as well we have a very up and coming program even though it's been around for about twelve  thirteen years minuteman in the morning right now it's filled with lexington high school students who come to minuteman for the vocational program only and they go back to their home high school in the afternoon and they graduate with a degree from lexington high school as minutemen members students if there are room in our girl's stem camp will have to pay a tuition and one of the things we haven't talked about much in any of the meetings that i've been to is my doing this so fast this is a very good pointer our postgraduate program nonmember students pay twice as much for tuition as a nonmember student some critical perceptions and facts about our financial model does our financial model need work absolutely it needs work when i came to minuteman ten years ago i saw that our costs were high we've taken a slow and pant planful broach the budgeting over the last ten years if you look at our increases in budgets for other vocational technical schools you'll see s a bit valley is up about twenty eight percent in the show but tech is up about forty nine percent over this ten year period minute man's budget has gone up about seventeen point eight percent over the same period of time and when you look at what our members cesspits of average has been about a one percent increase when you project this out you see our trend is definitely in the right direction to bring our costs in line with other vocational schools and with what i believe is a an effective discussed extensively is enrollment we are very confident that our role met will increase because we see increases throughout the country we believe the return on investment in career vocational technical education is being clearly seen we've ramped up our efforts we had a increase of forty one percent in our member town applications this year it only translated to about a fifteen percent increase so we see we have work to do there there's a larger pool of applicants as well and our counselors have seen a growing increase in the need for vocational education and finally my last slide mr moderator is when you look at the other new vocational schools that have opened in the last ten years and there's only been fo that have opened all of them have opened with lading waiting lists and we anticipate the same in minuteman i hope belmont stays and i'm here to answer your questions thank you mr moderator thank you superintendent well  and here's the headline on a financial basis the case is clear and compelling that belmont should withdraw from the district over the next thirty years we will save between five and fifteen million or more by withdrawing from the districts and we get the same outcomes for our students that's money that we will not have to raise in taxes from our citizens or cut from budgets that we all care about six of the sixteen towns in the district have already voted to withdraw the question before us is will we be the seven so what is this votes that we're making not about this vote is not as the moderator said not a referendum on vocational education i'm not sure there is anyone in this room that does not believe that vocational education is worthy and incredibly important for us to provide to our students it will not impact as polo said whether the school we built it will be built and it will not impact the ability for belmont students to attend minuteman for at least the next three years as they go and then for those that enter as freshman for another four years for so for seven years belmont students will be guaranteed to participate that minuteman all right so here's here's sort of the core problem and i've talked about this before if those of you may have heard it in one hundred seventy seven ninety seven percent of the students at the minuteman came from member towns that number is now a little less a little more than half of the students are from member towns and member town in rome and overall in roman and number ten in roman has been declining for of a long time this is a fundamental problem because the member towns pay more meaningfully more than the nonmember towns and i'll get into the detail on that and that's fundamentally unfair we as a community have worked very hard with other member towns to try to address this problem to try to fix what is effectively a broken model and to get other end to end make the district actually work for the member towns that has not been successful and so as a result it makes sense for belmont to withdraw if you look on the right hand side you can see that it's a little bit almost off the chart but there are five hundred eighty six students right now at the minutemen in total that's the second lowest enrollment in the history of the school in the green number on the bottom three hundred thirty five students from member towns so roughly half of the students are from member towns the member towns we have to add two hundred ninety three students to fill the school and have it be fully utilized and block or access now what's been happening and with belmont students don't want to enroll minute minuteman has been either declining or roughly flat over the last since one thousand and seven which is the further data that i can go back to in comparison belmont's and roman over the last ten years has been thousand percent so i think many of us have heard that we have a significant enrollment growth challenge here in belmont and over that period of time and roman and minutemen has been flat ok part of the challenge as well as that minuteman is twice as sorry minuteman is the most expensive occasional technical school in massachusetts it's the red bar the top twenty six thousand on average and the challenge here is that minute man is intending to essentially almost double the cost on a per student basis and if you double the cost on a per student basis and you expect the demand of students to go to the school to go up basic economics tells you that when you double the price generally demand does not increase this it's highly improbable that you're going to see the school be completely filled with members with member town students blocking our access at double the price now here's just a snapshot of what is happening right now in fiscal two thousand and seventeen these are the actual numbers for fiscal two thousand and seventeen right belmont pay is in this budget we have right now seven hundred ninety five thousand five hundred  fifty four dollars to as our assessment from a man if you look at the average number of students over the last four years that's twenty nine students that's twenty seven thousand four hundred thirty six dollars on average now watertown sends twice the number of students that belmont does watertown as a nonmember town watertown pays sixteen thousand four hundred sixty four dollars in tuition and they pay a stipend for special education and some and a little under twelve hundred dollars for transportation cost per student so watertown pays nineteen thousand nine hundred per student and we pay twenty seven thousand four hundred sixty five thirty six dollars that is fundamentally unfair this problem does not go away and we should not continue to do it now just to be clear the numbers are even worse last year that we are paying even more last year on a per student basis now the capital cost is still somewhat uncertain and on the show i'll show you some numbers that forecast the future that shows us on the in these assumptions paying the full capital cost it is not clear whether belmont or anyone nonmember town will pay the full capital cost under every scenario belmont will pay no more in capital than a nonmember town and so that means that we would have the risk if we remain of paying more than nonmember towns and we get no benefit no reward for that risk right the minute men school committee still has to decide what the capital fee will be the department of elementary and secondary education is allowed to a capital charge of up to the full rates which would be roughly ten thousand dollars but if minuteman school committee a ten thousand dollars per student capital charge on all non member towns the question is will they pay it will they be willing to pay it will they negotiate a lower price or will they send their students or at least some of their students elsewhere when you raise the price by ten thousand dollars per student logic tells you people will push back and people will defect now if the school is not full it does not have six hundred twenty eight students in it currently has five hundred eighty six if it is not full the member towns will be responsible for making up the difference on that capital they may try to impose that cost and raise the number more than ten thousand dollars a nonmember towns that will only exacerbate the negotiations lower and the defections ok so i showed you what the snapshot was of fiscal two thousand and seventeen the actual facts of what we pay versus what watertown pays this is a model that roy epstein has shared at the information i've been sent around everybody that shows what would happen in two thousand and twenty one based on his estimates so what you see here is that the assessment has grown to thirty eight thousand five hundred sixty seven it's the blue bar on the left hand side all right and you can see a roughly ten thousand dollars ten thousand  dollars tuition or sorry capital charges being imposed so this means that the member towns are paying that full capital charge and it means that that the cost per student has gone up to near almost fifty thousand dollars per student now just to put that in perspective we spend in belmont if you take the entire school budget and divide it by the number of students we spend on average eleven thousand six hundred fifty dollars for each belmont student in the instruction and that includes special instruction so it's regular and special eleven point eleven thousand six hundred dollars on average this is nearly fifty thousand dollars per student now if we were a nonmember town you see the middle this is soon is that we're paying the full capital charge of the the orange bar assume is the same for the middle bar here versus the one that's on the left hand side personally i do not believe that that's likely to happen i believe that that price will be negotiated down and in fact the cost difference of fifteen thousand dollars for being a non believe is actually going to be larger but let's just assume there's a fifteen thousand dollars difference that's over four hundred thousand for over four hundred thirty thousand dollars per year that belmont will be paying more if you're a member town versus  we simply don't have to pay we get the exact same cop same benefit of we get the exact same education for our students and we have to pay for over fourteen thousand dollars more now again to put this in perspective if you look at cambridge cambridge as current tuition is eleven thousand three hundred sixty six if you grow that number by three percent which is what roy did for growing the machine on the on the minuteman side you see that cambridge is cost when you layer in special ed costs and transportation cambridge costs would be seventeen thousand seven hundred that malaysians excuse me at the nine minute mark thank you that means that if five students for example out of a twenty nine were to go to cambridge that be an additional four hundred fifty thousand dollars savings so i believe the case for withdrawal is compelling the district is broken weekend we are being asked to basically sign up for another forty years of participation in the districts and it is far cheaper to rent seats than to buy them you have to believe a lot of things that is unprecedented in roman growth a full capital charge and nonmembers willing to pay it in order for it to make sense when you have lots of risk you're better off actually being and having the option to join later if need be there is a better plan and that is to withdraw there is clear consensus among belmont leadership as my last line but one has already voted in a landslide basis to reject this thirty year debt seventy two twenty eight there is consensus among the leadership in belmont the  thousand dollars per year by withdrawing over thirty years that is between five and fifteen million dollars that we do not have to actually tax our citizens or cut from other budgets this is a very substantial decision for this body i in my ten years perhaps never seen a more consequential decision that this body will make about saving very very significant money for the town i would encourage you to think about it carefully thank you the final presenter is john failon superintendent of belmont public schools mr fail thank you my name is john field superintendent of the belmore public schools as a superintendent i represent all of our community students which include the over forty four hundred students that attend the belmont public schools in the twenty nine students who attend minutemen regional there's been much that much discussion over the past few months about minuteman the new school building the finances  belmont's potential withdrawal i have been asked to night to present on the question of what will be the process and the potential options for belmont students who seek a chapter seventy four vocational education if th what draws from the minuteman agreement or provided town meeting with a memo that i have given to and presented to school committee along with the flow chart to try to represent that information in a visual manner and i have provided tonight a list of local school districts within a reasonable distance from belmont in a list of regional school districts in or in a reasonable distance from belmont as a resource with the programs that they provide it each one of those schools you have behind me is the exact one that was sent out that's how meeting in a basically breaks down the timeline that we have if in fact the vote tonight is to a draw are for how we can put together a task force to come up with a research d in ally's plan for what our options can be for a student's the reason why i broke it up into two different sides along with the timeline down the middle is on the on your left hand side you see that for the next three school years this school that those who want to attend will attend as member students at that point in time the decision will be made whether or not we would like to continue to engage with minutemen as nonmembers students and right now we have the right to do so on the right hand side of that chart what i want to represent through the timeline over the next eighteen months is that we will have options to explore on behalf of our students and families who see vocational education that through local districts and potentially some other regional districts which programs they offer do they have capacity do they see do they welcome outside out of district students and what are some of those options that we can present to students and families the belmont public schools has enjoyed a very good relationship with the minutemen vocational school that's why i say our first option as we look through the post three years is to stay as nonmembers as mike lee bids and has pointed out and others have pointed out it gives about eighteen months to also get the program of studies analyzed the programs that each of the local school districts find out if they have seats look at the cost benefit analysis and provide other options for us didn't says well my goal will be to do so in eighteen months that will give the town the school committee the board of selectmen two years to then plan fiscally through our budgeting process and in our work with our school connections of our guidance staff a chattery middle school who are introducing eighth graders to this new program or this new option of programs in order to make that transition as smooth as possible some folks asked can you tell me a little bit about whether or not those local districts have access to they have seats and what kind of programs that they do they provide when we look locally we can a ten minute man as a nonmember do they take is it approved yes as a take out of district students at this time yes do they have open seats at this time yes and i left a number of tuition out because i know that that's a debatable point and i did not want to bring financial aspects of this into this powerpoint slide i'm behalf of the minuteman discussion other folks have  better ideas of what that number would look like over time and i think you've seen that already tonight at cambridge and some of the in waltham they all have approved d e s c programs and in medford some of them do take out a district students and some of them who we've contact are willing to do so in the future waltham is actually building a new school and will introduce eight additional programs of study to their vocational offerings and they are willing to talk and have exclusive agreements with belmont if we choose to do so do they have open seats yes they do in cambridge yes they do in some of oh yes they do in medford and it is left to be seen in waltham if they do again that's an open discussion in the current tuition prices that have been mentioned earlier tonight and in previous presentations currently cambridge is approximately eleven thousand five hundred some of all estimated fifteen thousand per student waltham did not have a number at this point in time and medford currently charges approximately twelve thousand dollars i give you this as a sample based on some of the questions that were asked of the last few weeks about capacity and the ability to take outside students and do we really have options i think this introduces that information to this body to let you know that a superintendent that i will commission this task force to explore these options around quality or distance around what's good for us students if in fact we decide to withdraw tonight the last slide just provides the other regional districts in the area i do not know if they have capacity i do not know if they take outside students i know that is information for us to garner as a group and we take this information and start to analyze it i ask that the town give us those eighteen months to gather this information form a team thoughtfully approach this work if in fact we do it through our there were school systems that didn't want to really have deeper conversations until we were officially withdrawn and looking for vocational services so i appreciate the town meeting time to present i look forward to this work if we have to engage in it if the vote does come out spoken to you about before wanting to improve the governance from that very point in time i believe that much should not be a doctor in town and did not want to leave the district i don't think we should leave the district at that point in time  with whatever towns one of three main perhaps can also convince other communities like water wall him and others to join the district and then reconvene on the on the capital project not disagreeing that there's a need clearly there's a need the building was built in  different than her high school absolutely is in need but at the time in today ladies and gentlemen i believe it's a flawed project and but i did not want to be a doctor when tom subsequent to the revised regional agreement passing we did convene a meeting june twentieth in arlington with other members of boards in fact all sixteen communities were there and it became apparently very clear i went to the me thinking that we would discuss the path forward meaning the pa forward as a revised district under the revised just reach an agreement and discuss a new capital plan it became very apparent at that meeting that fifteen communities including the six that we've been through this before we're ready to move forward with this building project and what i said at that mean is that you give belmont no choice at least from my point of view but to withdraw we want to remain we want to work with you we wanted to determine what in fact we needed to do from a cap a point of view once we understood what the revised district looked like and once we understood whether other towns could join us why are we building a school that's twice nearly twice the size of the need with this such a significant cost and frankly legend german i do not believe the enrollment figures that have been proposed in terms of the district members are roman has been flat in fact gone down it's demographics we need to convince other communities to join so i try to keep up the dialogue with other member towns in fact we had a mean this past monday hosted graciously by the tunnel lexington and by the way elation german all the other members of boards and other communities have been nothing but gracious with belmont and we've had very civil discussions about this matter we went to the meeting thinking that perhaps there was a change of heart and maybe we can move forward a different way nothing really has changed there hoping to commits belmont to stay i saw nothing in that meeting or heard nothing in that mean lation german that would convince me the bum would stay what i did say to them and i'll say to you if we were standing here today to the folks that were in that room on monday and were sitting here today and we were saying we were talking about the fact that it was clear to us that we would have six hundred twenty eight member students number ten students or close to that then i have at least would be standing shoulder to shoulder with you and say let's move forward and let's remain in the district but that is not the case it clearly isn't the case mr pell of at the family have for i'm recommending favorable action on this motion to withdraw thank you of the school committee miss fiore all right thank you everybody i'm happy to be here today i just wanted to start by saying it's really difficult for people to sit with uncertainty and when i saw the slide with the image of the brain i was thinking about the portion there's a little almond shaped portion the amidala that many of you may be familiar with and it's closely linked to our emotions and also fear and i feel like a lot of the emotion linked to this discussion should be honored and just to recognize that for all of us so it's difficult for everyone to sit with uncertainty there are fiscal uncertainties there are some curricular uncertainties related to programming and in the absence of certainty and a crystal ball that would  the anxiety that we're currently feeling and we need to look to what we know and the evidence that we have before us so there have been several votes already discussed in our recent history leading up to this moment in time when the will of the community has been made quite clear and i want to underscore again the vote tonight is not a vote about whether we like minuteman high school or whether we support folk tech education what we know to be true is that the town of belmont has a very rich history of educational success and this continues to bring families to the community our neural net numbers continue to grow and are projected to grow steadily and we know this quite clearly because of the work we're currently undertaking for the new belmont high school project our school department is committed as you just heard from superintendent failand to a process that will be inclusive and evolve over the next three years should the vote be to withdraw this evening students will have access to minuteman high school for the next three years and if they enter  freshman in their third year they will have access for the following four years or three years to complete their four years at minuteman so as a school committee we are responsible to the town and all of the children who are citizens residing in belmont and seeking educational opportunity as such it would be fiscally irresponsible for us to remain in district minuteman district at this time and we therefore recommend favorable action on the article before you and so we can begin the process should the vote go that way and we are confident that we can continue to provide students in our community with a high quality education thank you recapitulated the vote was eleven to two but within that vote there was a pretty broad range of feeling i think it's fair to say where on one end i would say that mike we've been sent in some others feel that this is a slam dunk decision to withdraw would place myself closer to the middle and you may know that i wrote letters recommending that we remain and it's only recently that i crossed the line to the withdraw group but collectively there is a majority in the war committee that feels withdrawal is the best course right now there are in a perfect world we would go to minutemen and the cost would be totally acceptable and we would continue doing what we're doing the problem is that the cost the minuteman really do seem out of line and this is really the only opportunity belmont will have to conduct what i would view as an experiment to see of for belmont's needs a a different solution can be and there is the opportunity to we join minim in the future assuming that the risp a support for additional member students in three years which does seem likely so on that basis we'll all i think the eleven who voted in the majority had a range of reasons for voting that way but on balance this is an experiment which is not totally risk free but one which is considered to be prudent and that is the recommendation of the one committee but there are the two minority members who i'm sure will speak during the evening also thank you position the capital budget committee with six of our seven members present voted unanimously to support the article to withdraw for a minute man i would note that four of our seven members are present or past members of the belmont school committee and therefore have demonstrated their commitment to quality education for all belmont students after a lengthy debate which included members expressed concerns about uninterrupted access to quality vocational technical programs for belmont students it was agreed that minuteman will very likely continue to have many open seats for us the committee therefore voted unanimously to withdraw for the following reasons we do not wish to assume the financial burden of the capital costs of an oversized building we believe there are less expensive options in other districts or as non members at minuteman including cheaper transportation options we see wider vocational technical options for our students because as nonmembers our students could return to minuteman but would no longer be tied to minuteman and therefore could access other programs in other schools delmon high school has increased while the number of belmont students opting to attend minuteman has remained steady or declined seemingly negating the argument for growing interest in minuteman additionally we believe the changing demographics in belmont since the minuteman district was formed in the one nine hundred seventy s suggest a continued declining interest in minuteman thank you  will now open discussion let me make one comment i don't know of course how we're going to vote tonight but what i am struck by is the amount of work that has gone into this effort on behalf of the school on behalf of the students who have gone the minuteman will either continue to or not but the bodies in this town and other individuals have put an enormous amount of work into this effort so whatever the outcome is i want to recognize that because it is really i recognize mr gammell he's a member of the warrant committee and he asked to come to the front to present and he has a few slides he will have as all town meeting members have for discussion up to five minutes mr gammell thank you very much this is this is something that i followed very very closely for the past four four years i started open to all possibilities in including leaving the district but now with a state funded building project and a new regional greenman in place i strongly fit favor staying in the minuteman school the minute man school district and i i would and i'd like to share my reasons why as most of you know by now i've spent a lot of time digging into the financial workings of minutemen yes in the short run there will be extra costs if we stay but my bottom line take is is that we can handle and manage the financial responsibilities of membership which are which are of the same size as other issues that pop up from time to time your vote should be focused on the pros and cons of staying shaped by your views on enrollment this is the key assumption do you think minuteman can fill its six hundred twenty eight seat school you and i cannot afford to get this wrong if we stay in and the new school has years of empty seats the member towns will face real financial pressures but if the school quickly fills it cedes while while belmont is a nonmember belmont students will lose access to the sought after ed educational it educational option i clearly believe that the new school will be filled thanks to belmont's years of opposition to new school is as small as as it can be and still receive state funding also there is growing support for the educational model that minuteman offers and with jack help it is restructured its academic programs for the twenty first sent send the for me full enroll meant is likely and i want us to lock in this guaranteed access tonight for those of you on the fence let me quickly raise three or two considerations that add value to staying in staying in a minute man and i'll skip the sped one and go secondly all of the enrollment projections are showing a large cohort of students in grades k through eight full access to an alternative high high high school provides a buffer that may keep us from buying one or more module classes classrooms down down the road third there's a huge change from twenty years ago and that is the positive relationship between the superintendent attendance of of the two schools is easy it is easy it is easy to imagine a future with many creative collaboration between minuteman and belmont a vote about money is really a vote about values my vote to stay with minuteman reflects my values parents from all parts of town have passionately told me about their positive x experiences with minute man i value what we have given those those kids and and and and i have i have you know i have a four kids myself and each one is i'm different you you you really can't control your child's learning style and it's a big mistake to think that belmont no longer needs a minute man regardless of who is moving into town these days second i value the rights and responsibilities of membership as someone said no one ever washed a rented car i valued skin in the game and to care in an easy enough to force minuteman to do the right thing third i value belmont as a good regional partner leaving is not a clean clinical action it is  that the start of a messy divorce from a forty year partnership that will have its own consequences perhaps most critically if we leave we get our in incentives all mixed up as nonmembers it would be in our in in interest for minute man to fail or or at least to struggle because only then can we be sure that they will have seats for us when we need them i don't want to root for that i want to work with our long term partners to loughlin to all of you here at town town town meeting if we vote tonight to stick with minute man i pledge that this will be a top can concern for me there are financial and political problems to work out but i'm confident that we can do it and that future town meetings will be glad we stuck with it and saw it through i will do all i can please join me in voting no tonight to keep this valuable choice for belmont  meeting member precinct one and belmont's representative on the minuteman school committee i have lived with this minuteman building issue for the six years that i have been on the school thank you that was not an applause line but i have been neck deep in this and i struggled with this decision i have changed my mind about where i come out on this i can only imagine how difficult it is for all of you now to take just a few seconds to share some of my journey your struggle not to kind of focus on the confusion but to kind of share with you where i'm thinking first off i firmly believe that the school is oversized minute man's projections are that four hundred fifty eight students in this school will come from member towns and one hundred seventy will come from non member towns that includes belmont in the membership if those numbers if belmont is not a member there will be over two hundred seats for nonmembers assuming a forty percent growth in member town in rome and when you look at the chart that michael evens and put up there before the decline in enrollment happened way before the facility started to deteriorate i do not believe the build it in they will come excuse me the build it and they will come argument for filling those seats if minuteman does not get that in rome and and belmont leaves over three hundred of those six hundred twenty eight students seats will be available for nonmembers however the train on school sizing left the proverbial station about a year ago and about a year ago at a meeting of the beach street center i advocated that we support the school my reasoning at the time was i thought although there was a small probability if we continue to wage war on schools sizing we might win the battle but lose the war and end up building a smaller school for a bigger higher price so i said let's approve it in the may town meeting  i gave lukewarm in tepid support for minuteman and approving the project largely because i was uncomfortable with what the alternatives were but my focus at that time was on the building project not on the potential for leaving the district that wasn't something that i was contemplating at the time that vote at the town meeting member precipitated the public election what f me happened or at least i observed when we went to the district wide election is that the debate in belmont shifted from a focus on the building to an egg opening up the pandora's box if you will about the quantock subsidization that member towns provide to nonmember towns and a focus on the totality of the cost of attending minuteman or being a member of the minuteman district and i think there were at least for me four arguments that came out that drove the vote one is the school size people believed that we could continue to send students back to minuteman amongst other options given the size of the school to was there was an overwhelmingly and frankly for many of a surprising level of support amongst the rest of the minuteman district but that ensured that the new school will get built regardless of what we decide three was we were anticipating that the subsidization of the operating costs would in fact be exacerbated by a capital fee that the state would approve that would have nonmembers paying significantly less than members and for was an understanding that by voting no belmont had the option that we have before us tonight to leave the district and not have to pay the debt clearly seventy two percent of the voters who came out that way my thinking about that vote was that to me the risk was of leaving the district was and is preferred accessed two seats at minimum but if you if you had the same skepticism that i do about minute man's ability to fill those seats that seems to me to be a low probability risk the risk of staying is paying more for the same education as a member versus what you pay as a nonmember to me before the public vote that seemed virtually a certainty so i honestly knowing that this town meeting was going to take place thought that this town meeting would last half a season asli about ninety seconds i thought the argument was going to be a town meeting voted by almost two thirds of majority in may they don't want the debt the public voted by almost a three quarters majority that they don't want the debt the only way not to incur the debt is to leave the district and for many of you that may be where tonight's discussion begins and ends it's a fair place to come out i actually struggled a little bit coming out of that vote because of two issues both the last minute communications from dessie the first was on the building capital charge where they basically said we're going to allow a formula that allows minute man to charge nonmembers the exact same on average as members so that undercut the financial argument for being a nonmember as it related to capital the second communication from for me that was that a factor for me many of you haven't even heard it just came out via email on friday thanks to use jim gamble's reaching out to dessie what dessie said is we have always believed that the non resident tuition rate uncertain there's a little bit more uncertainty now than when we took the public vote about the cost of being a the cost advantages of being a nonmember but it's no worse than being a member and as roy epps scuse me as mike leave incident said earlier tonight in a situation where we are faced with uncertainty the better path to choose is the one that leaves  options open we have options if we vote to leave the district if we do not vote to leave the district we get locked into night to that thirty year debt and whatever the extra costs are for being a member so i am personally going to be voting tonight to withdraw the district as unbelievable from me as that seems from where i was five months ago thank you ms bass thank you sue bass precinct three that was very persuasive i wanted to first of all i wanted to thank the people who came out to the warrant briefing monday night which meant that they could ask questions and i could watch in my pajamas and this after a long drive from out of state one person said to me tonight that she fel committed to vote the way our towns voted in the referendum and i don't think we have to be committed to that so obviously influenced by it because i think that was an issue at least it was for the voters science and so i sent out a big e mail urging urging a no vote on on that because i thought that the financial situation was so unfair but what i was asking people to do dan was to vote no so that town meetings could meet tonight and consider whether jesse's latest promises held water what changes there might be so i don't think we have to be committed to i do think i think mike lee vinson is wrong when he said that we haven't made  belmont's many efforts haven't made any progress i think they have made some progress just not as much as we would like to have them make but anyhow i have three questions  first what happens if we vote to stay but the town doesn't vote the debt override his her fellow will take these in order thank you thought it was a little obscure the other night when you yeah you have one other question to other questions actually well why i need to have want to pick one missed past police ok as long as we stay a member  quality belmont students currently are allowed to go to any vocational school that offers a program that minute man does not offer so if the no vote is tonight for the next three years they would still have the option to go to another vocational school if the programs got offered by minuteman a follow up mr moderator but suppose the program is offered by minuteman but they just think that the cambridge or somerville or waltham program is better or that's closer or  i think you're next and then mr paulson yes ma'am tara donner precinct six town meeting member have just a couple of observations i'd like to make i'm a public school teacher i have been for fifteen years current the last thirteen of those have been in winchester so fairly similar districts to belmont and there's a couple things i heard that as a teacher i wanted to say something about i've heard both in some of the literature we've been handed and also on the screen tonight some comments about minute man being an efficient provider of special education services and the cost of minute man's tuition being compared to the cost of outplacement for special education students and i think that's really of false comparison a false assumption because there are many students who require special education service whose needs are met within the belmont public schools belmont high school in fact i would venture to say most of the special education students needs are met in belmont without any additional tuitions costs so to compare the price of outplacement which is admittedly very high in the fifty to sixty thousand dollar and i think on average not really what we should be comparing to because most students can still be educated at belmont high school as opposed to being out placed the second observation i wanted to make and i say this as a person fully committed to educating students as a teacher it's my life's work having in the subset of students that go to minuteman whether it's twenty nine or thirty three however many it is per year i mean our town budget be kind of backed into a corner by depending on whose figures you believe a million dollars a year or however many dollars a year it is but that chunk we have no say over that if we're part of the member district that's it we have to pay it and then that leaves us you know every year coming for town meeting in the spring in may in june most years best case scenario is a level funded budget for the rest of our forty four hundred students and level funded budget doesn't mean no cuts with increasing costs year to year really level funded budget cuts almost every year unless we pass an override so whether you think th savings depending on whose numbers you believe are two hundred thousand dollars a year or four hundred thousand dollars a year that's a lot of teacher salaries and that's every year the difference between making cuts and not for the other forty four hundred students it seems like from what we've been presented there are many choices that we can make if we are not part of the member district where we can educate students appropriately according to their needs with vocational education at a lower you should make a decision about minuteman based not only on the finances but also listen to testimony of speakers who have had experience with folk and programs and i'm familiar with both good programs in nearby communities which might be the fallback if minuteman is no longer an option for the town in the future i would also remind the tom meeting members that the vote tonight is not simply a repeat of the district wide popular vote held on september twentieth vote that it is a new matter so town meeting members should approach the situation as independent of that vote and decide tonight's question based on the needs of and opportunities of our students now and in the future as well as the financial implications of this vote and take into account the considerable new information and i have four bits of new information the first is that after the new schools been constructed cost to members and nonmembers will become comparable the education commissioner has recently authorized the district once the school is built to charge nonmembers a capital construction increment based on the debt service by members secondly it brought been brought to the attention of the school in town leaders that the belmont amendment in the revised regional agreement will allow the district to negotiate with nonmembers a tuition rate equal or greater than the cost paid by members this does not require commissioner approval but will take work and good negotiations furred we have heard from superintendent failon about all options open to students is minute man is not available they he list the schools the cameras some will some of the waltham in newton as alternatives the minuteman but as this will be explained by speakers tonight these programs are small and do not offer the career tracks and technology and industry that are most innovative and available at minute man nor does belmont have any role in governing these programs these are all by other towns it is prudent to vote to leave minute man with no known future option and last we've learned over the years of planning a new school that has capacity and that's been all the time been reduced from twelve hundred to eight hundred to six twenty eight that's very clear that a you need a building size of that number for school programs to be comprehensive a smaller building would surely reduce the cost offerings and we know it would deny any state aid for the construction the key point discussed and not included at all in the flyer mailed to tom meeting members this past weekend is that belmont children seeking a book creational technical program should have an education of the same and an education best suited to their learning needs now there's also been the point made that well belmont can always rejoin the minuteman district but i think that it's not easy first when they want to join after the three year period they'll be competition from other towns who view the new building with a great amount of enthusiasm and also for any request by belmont to be readmitted the minuteman school committee must approve through an amendment to the agreement voted by least three quarters of all members of the regional school committee without regard for the weight of the votes and the acceptance by all existing member town meetings and approval by the commissioner i attended a meeting of the selectmen from the member towns this past monday and they are all united they faced a choice move ahead with a new school or dissolved minuteman all the other towns except belmont decided to work together a group of talents to set only one or two students to minuteman decided to withdraw now belmont seems to want out and of course the other members are concerned don't want worked with the other members to rewrite the regional agreement and belmont signed the agreement we are proud of the region and leaving minimum aside there are many issues that pertain to our region we share borders of lexington and island in our leaders have talked about regionalisation of services for many years what is our reputation going to be with these other communities and will they be interested in working together on issues of common ground in the future the vote tonight is important on many levels it's awful mr allison screamy we're at the five minute mark  just wanted to continue briefly your vote will determine whether or not we value the quality of education for of teachers for our vocab students it will determine whether or not we believe it is worth the cost to provide that education and if we believe we have some obligation to our neighbors i urge the town meeting to vote no on the motion to withdraw from the minutemen and they have by remain a member of the minuteman district then look to the future and say and work to make minuteman stronger and benefit all member communities including belmont thank you and just from my own experience my son went there and he had a real studying environmental science which is by the way not offered at any of these other options that have been provided here tonight and he had a real advantage being admitted to college he was an ip he managed very well admin in men it was two years at belmont high school he didn't do well at belmont high school minutemen can provide a much better education then down one high school force a certain type of students the second thing i want to talk to is the number of students that are likely to go to new minutemen school there's been three vocational technical schools rebuilt over the last few years one is putnam in springfield one is school and was was to technical high or something one is in essex also three schools changed the best choice for our students and these alternatives that are given to us have not been researched and i'm appalled that we are asked to vote on this far reaching basement of the high school that are like having maybe three of five different educational directions locational trades they offer like seven hundred hours of occasional training compared to twenty t hundred hours of minutemen and extremely limited and then the other thing is the cost associated with our students go to different schools we have to provide transportation for them there was one example that i read about where town a student wanted to study every culture and was school and he had to be bused there at a cost of sixty thousand dollars a year for one student with minuteman we have one bus goings in the morning  back in the afternoon if we have several different schools our school students have to to go the transportation costs my balloon so several arguments where i feel like yeah three hundred thousand dollars or three hundred fifty thousand dollars a year difference if if these if with the current scenario was with billeted to control the capital charges have to be paid by all the other member towns too so the cost difference is really becoming very small and one kid going to special education my had already eliminated cost difference so so i urge everyone to stay in the district i mean meets their quality expectation and we want to withdraw or at least risk that we're going to be excluded from from the admin and then school in the future icing it's a high risk that we're taking on here i don't believe  assurances that we will be able to continue i don't believe the member towns are going to be fair both to us to rejoin the district because we are we're skirting our responsibility for this new building and the capital cost we want to let the other you chris doyle precinct one so first i think tonight is the night for parent student conferences at belmont high school so i don't know if that's affecting attendance or not i just would know  are three things i think this discussion isn't about and then i have to move to a problem i have with the state in all this and then i think that this i think that withdrawing from the district is a win win win for reasons i'll describe and in staying in is a lose lose lose and i'll describe that as well the things it's not about in my mind is it's not about our commitment to vocational education i think that we've proven over the years that we are committed to it and i think that what the superintendent has proposed as far as a research group that will look into alternatives also demonstrates our commitment and i think that that is not what the discussion is about today nor is it about comparing quality which is what the group would look into so it's not i don't think it's useful to sort of throw around comments about some schools program me being in the basement when in fact none of us actually has proper information about the alternatives so the other thing it's not about is it's not about special education which we have a legal obligation to provide a proper special education for all students regardless of where they go to school so it's not about that either and it's also i would submit that a vote on both sides of this would reflect good values so a comment was made that good values would mean voting against this and i think that's not true i think that all of us could sit comfortably that we have good values on education on both sides of th vote i would say that i'm very annoyed with the role of the state in this process because i think feel like the state of massachusetts abandon the district by not taking a proper role in the element of the regional agreement what should have happened is the state who holds the strings and all the money for building this building or the vast majority of it should have forced an agreement that made the nonmember towns become part of the district that's the fundamental issue fundamental problem and it's fine fred pointed out that your community members and are worked together but actually that's not the case there are multiple towns that send their children to this district and they did not work together they could have stepped up and joined the regional agreement and not a single one of them has stepped up to the plate to join the agreement so the state is the only one that could have had that happen and they failed us so i just have to i'm very annoyed by that so i'm that's not the what we're going for but i needed to say that why i say this is a win win win to withdraw is that students who want to occasional education will have more choices they can choose to attend minuteman which sounds like an extremely high quality program and that's not a debate for me and probably not for many other people here students will be able to choose that they will also be able to potentially choose other programs that would be under consideration so there would be more choice for students who want vocational education if we go out in addition  there would be the option to rejoin and someone pointed to a thought that it would be difficult to rejoin with the huge debt load that's coming on the q if we wanted to rejoin the member communities would welcome us with open arms to run back in and absorb part of the cost of that that they would not they would they couldn't call their town meetings soon enough in order to help us rejoin the other reason it's a win as it's because it's a win for the belmont school department and the town of belmont someone pointed out i think asked a question about the debt that is that if we put up a debt exclusion it will fail we saw that the vote failed seventy two percent i was actually shocked by the level of the lack of community commitment to the district i was shocked by the seventy two percent but that proves to us that a debt exclusion will fail that means that the the money needed to cover the debt for this has to be absorbed in our budget it has to be come out of the school department budget and it has to come out of the town of belmont budget and what we really need is a slide appear that shows us the difficult choices that will need to be made to remove things out of our current budget from the belmont school department and from the town and that slide is missing in this discussion and really it's the it's the elephant in the room how do we pay for it from our budget since we know and a debt exclusion will fail the other thing the reason that it's a lost for us to stay in the district is that i think students will lose the choices that i described about who want vocational education and it's a loss to the school department and to the town for what i just described the the costs that we will have to absorb the other thing that hasn't been mentioned at all is that we have a unique opportunity right now to leave the district and be permitted to leave in the future and that's because six towns that have already voted to leave through the technicality of timing they're still in the district until next summer they will permit us to leave those six towns they will not block or exit once they leave we will not we will not be allowed to leave in the future because you know that the other communities that vote that are left will not vote to allow us to leave and to to not have it once we move once we stay at this point so we have a unique opportunity right now because of the both for the students who want vocational education as well as all the students in the district as well as the town with regard to how we would how this will play out thank you yes ma'am holly muse on town meeting member precinct one so for me some of the uncertainty in this issue comes as i think some five years down the road if we are  nonmembers and so misrata rater i have a couple of questions that maybe somebody superintendent failon or somebody else can address to help explain to me does the choice of the school that any student attends whether it's a vocational school or answers their needs does that choice rest with the parents with the families or with our school mr  moment under current statute the parents make an application to the school of their where the program exists if you're a member of minutemen you have to enter you have to explore that first but if you want to apply to a program that's not in minute man it's up to you as a parent so if five years down the road and we were no longer members of minuteman it would be it and i felt that my child would be well served by a vocational education it would be my responsibility to identify that school and make the application that's not something the belmont high school and i think development will work well you know make that choice but it would be up to you landed my other question is do we know form for students from belmont what an average per student cost to attend an out of district program you know including  ring as well that the parent will have that choice we asked watertown what happens in watertown right now when students want to go out of districts the majority of them go to meet him in but do they have a choice the answer is yes so that was part of i think you form a question and and part there was another gentleman who cited a cost of about sixty thousand dollars because of transportation and i don't and i don't find that to be an accurate number i can't give you the exact number of what transportation would be in tuition these are rough numbers that we're looking at and i believe michael even sin had a slide that showed d n c is a painted transportation costs he tried to equalize it across the different scenarios but there will be transportation costs i think in remotely spoke to that from the capital committee as well we will have to see how that bears out with the options that are provided to our families mr pickwell just briefly the exorbitant tuition and transportation costs that you have referenced have been a problem across the commonwealth for every community where a student wants to access an agricultural high school there are only four agricultural high schools in the state that offer animal science and other things and that's and their tuition rate is not capped and othe tuitions rate is twenty five twenty six thousand and the transportation from any part of the state could be as high as sixty thousand dollars right thank you yes ma'am on my left thank you mr moderator kathleen baskin precinct eight i rise in opposition of withdrawal from minutemen and i want to tell you about one of the programs that is that risk if we withdraw and that's the environmental technology program i sit on the advisory board of the program and this is the second stint that i've had on the program so about twenty years ago it was formed at minimum and i was with the teachers developing the curriculum today so then i left for a little while and came back on two years ago and i want to tell you a little bit about this so you know what's at risk and you know we're we value  belmont our children's education this is a really important opportunity for our students nine percent of the students that minuteman are in the environmental technology program the types of things that they learn include science on biology chemistry geology they're learning about climate change they're measuring dune and beach erosion they're touring hydroelectric plants and fish ladders they're measuring stream water quality they're learning about ground water they're learning about photo voltaic cells and green chemistry they are learning about biodiversity they are entering contests where there we have had for first place winners in a skills u state competition on environmental skills and four of the minuteman students ranked first place but something else that you really ought to know about this program is that fares are very high population that go on to college two thirds go to a four year college the other nearly one third go to a two year college except for one student last year who went straight to work and that leads me to my last point and going to work is a big deal because this program leads kids through seven certification programs that are highly i environmental professional for thirty years and there are at least three or four of these certifications that are in very high demand so there are two osha certifications including a forty year a forty hour hazardous waste certification there's a wastewater treatment plant operator certification and a water treatment plant operator certification and that you know you may not know much about the field but there's actually a shortage in the industry for water and wastewater operators and so there are a lot of jobs out there for these graduates in addition they're getting training on first aid confined right i'm just telling you about the program that is not in any other cheek program there is no other school that's in the booklet that we received that offers this character she's talking about  specific program offered by minute man and so that is a reasonable argument whether one agrees with it or not is part of the discussion i think you are nearing the five minute mark that's fine and i'll wrap up and this is the only school in the booklet that we received tonight that offers the environmental technology program so thank you very much are nonmembers in seem like they're sort of they're not paying their fair share and i get that i really appreciate that point but my concern is if we leave we're doing the same thing ethically speaking about some ethical points we were raising about whether we should or not leave i find it difficult to just square the rationale between the concern for others not paying their fair share and we feel like we're not going to the fair share for being a member versus the concern that we would then become a nonmember and do exactly the thing that we're saying we don't like and it seems like what happened to the other towns who we may have to negotiate with over other things say well belmont is the town it's a deadbeat town they're not going to pay their fair share and ethically i feel like it's a concern i think that i would like to be addressed but i appreciate that common i really do and i think it was i stated we did not want to be a doctor in town the deck or in towns at the meetings that i tended said we're going to be a detriment town and then i asked them when they were going to send their students what we have some right back to  minutemen and so i certainly had a concern about that as well and said well then we're going to be a doctor in town but i never really wanted to leave the district for me it's never been the operating cost either understand that there is a difference in operating costs remember versus nonmember for me is the building project and i understand your point in concern i've wrestled with that but from my point of view we've been painted in the corner they've given us no choice we've tried to work with them notwithstanding some of the comments were made earlier we've tried to work with  everywhere one of the things that concerned me is that throughout this discussion which started on the size of the school and has gone way beyond that is that people are making judgments as facts you know they're assuming and through a lot of work but making decisions and statements as if they're facts we assume that we can go back to minute man after we leave we assume they'll be space we assume that they will have the same outcomes by going to some other program somewhere else and we're going to do a study of the options after we voted to withdraw everything is all backwards and it's destinies fault because they send out messages the eve of a vote and no one has a chance to even know what those messages are if in fact the payments are equalise member nonmember and if in fact they have a charge of capital charge and the tuition is the same then why leave we have fantastic programs available and i don't think that wall family or any of these other schools even with the new building can produce what minuteman is producing one of my concerns and i think it's very ironic that we're all about a school that is actually forty two students short of being full whether they're member or nonmember it's forty two students we in belmont are sort of committed to building schools that are too small we've had to expand everyone we have and where we have modules all over the place i say it large you can always fill the space and if necessary you can rent space to social services or who knows what but i think that building will be full it will also be cheaper to run because it will be way more efficient than a huge rambling leaking building so i hope that we will stay in the district that dessie will come up with some fair conclusions and we'll all be happier ever after thank you we're talking about all these numbers numbers there the only i'm interested in is what's the best for these for our children now so you understand my position i don't have any children the school system i don't have any grandchildren school system and i never will they are in different communities so one of things i looked at a lot of these schools that was given to us and several of the schools don't have the subjects that many men does engineering technology programming robotics and even plumbing does not have it in four out of those five schools those four subjects are not available and four out of those five schools are considered next to us and the other thing that you worry want to look at is that don't forget sixty told us sixty eight percent is sold on go on to callers so they have to have some solid subjects to be able to be an admitted and mentor to the college when the other thing that you don't realize that was not brought up if we get out of the district we're going to be competing with forty six towns for that space there's sixteen of them that a member towns today and there's thirty that go there that are not may only send one to two students but there's thirty towns now if those towns after the building is built each town sends just one more students that's forty six more students i think than the town school and maybe different may do better than this so think of all forty six towns you have to compete with if you know it in the district it seems to me that you know we have plenty of money for our swimming pool to do over belmont sound the senior center in the c p a but we don't have enough money to run the school for our children and i think our children should come first if that's what we're going to talk about education in our children come for us i think we ought to stay in the olson precinct five i've been sort of silent on this subject however many of you know that it's not it's not because i'm actually opposed to leaving so i'll start with that my eldest son who went to minuteman recently got married and so that was just took my mind away however i've been staying in touch i think that jim gamble has said it's very well i think fred paulson has said whatever i could possibly say and i was very interested in cathy baskins stuff my eldest son of four went to minuteman my second son went to malden catholic my third went to catholic memorial and my daughter because we had a little more money and too many kids and in college went to windsor i am a former reading specialist i am very committed to education i would say that the experience at minuteman what far exceeded any other experience at malden catholic or a catholic memorial and compared very favorably with the academics that were demanded at windsor now i am also perceived i believe in this community as a fiscal conservative but i want to spend my money on education because i believe that really the best gift we can give our children so i hope you'll join me in voting no tonight th thousand thirty thousand foot view of what i think this vote means to the town and i'll stop by my father i said many many times to me is bobby don't confuse you needs with your  wants do i want a nation any new school which will liberate any possibility that we might be friends in order to be nice but if it's going to cost two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand dollars what are the tradeoffs i sit on the one committee we don't have enough money for all our wants everything we put into that budget is a tradeoff what goes in something doesn't it isn't able to be there and it has to come out it's prioritizing to the five hundred thousand dollars i asked superintendent failon what would you do if we gave you an extra five hundred thousand dollars with the budget for the high school where we have twelve hundred students how many a p classes could happen we have a police station which is an embarrassment i recently met with the feasibility committee and the new director of the library they've got their act together the library is coming i would yield to floyd but i suspect somewhere between two hundred thousand and five hundred thousand would cover the debt service for a brand new library that's the type of thing that we're trading off when people say well we can afford it wouldn't be nice when to be nice when you help the level of homes we've got to help belmont that doesn't have enough money now is another issue coming we have a high school coming down the pike which is going to be like one hundred fifty million dollars and after m s b is going to be something north of one hundred million dollars and that's going to have to be a dead people everyone who left their house knew exactly which way they were going to vote and they only get up and out of their housing went and vote because they were knowledge beyond the usual and seventy two percent said no there's going to be a no campaign against the override for the high school when are we going to give them just soundbite does the town meeting think they know better than we do with putting that all in jeopardy and there's one other constituency i want to speak to it's the elderly residents of belmont that i happen to be a member of i have been on twelve reunion committees from the town of belmont i graduated many years ago figured out five times twelve class  fifty five the thing there is amaze me in every one of those committees people don't leave belmont but it's changing the people who thought they had a nice nest egg and now fine because the attraction for the two family houses is having him sold a million a million five in assessors right behind him they can afford to stay and we have to speak have to have some recognition of our obligation to them we just don't have and the demographics have changed it's going to be an empty school don't lock us in for another forty to sixty years in this this broken district lead to seize the opportunity tonight  to withdraw thank you you were you were in line first mr crowley for crowley town meeting member of precinct eight and a recent appointee to the warren committee i just like to emphasize i did not vote with the majority of the war committee in favor of exiting minute and if you're feeling a bit of fatigue over the whole minuteman issue i have to say that you know i'm kind of with you  have spent i have spent months all over this issue looking at the numbers looking at the options looking at at the scenarios and frankly there's just so much that we don't know and it's difficult to come to a meeting tonight and be asked to make such a momentous decision that affects our kids now as well as the next generation of kids without having all the facts all the hard facts about options alternative scots and savings and on the savings i have to say that that i think some of the numbers that we've seen tonight represent fairly unlikely scenarios but let me just say this you know if we vote to exit tonight w be a member for three years but after that we've got a big fat question mark will there be continue to room for us at minuteman if we want to continue it minuteman i think there's reason to doubt that when we find alternatives of the same caliber and quality as minuteman well minuteman is sort of the top of the pack here so i think it's extremely unlikely that we'll do that when we find ourselves stuck in a few years facing high costs and no good alternatives because we've walked away from this district that's a distinct possibility why why are we even considering an exit from minuteman i know that's a deep question for me the whole issue about the size of the school the size of the school is just right you know there was an original proposal to build something almost twice of what the current proposal is and maybe that didn't make sense but minuteman currently has about six hundred students and that's about the size that the new school is going to meet and that's exactly the right size you know you get it minuteman has done projections and you know set aside the issue of member town versus nonmember town  projections you know if you look at the korea issue the core demographics the core projections you know it's an absolute solid bet that we will have six hundred twenty eight students to fill that school come two thousand and twenty when that school opens you know if if we're concerned about footing an excess cost associated with this new building you know we already won on this desi has set a formula that a sure is that both members and nonmembers alike of the district are going to pay fairly comparable amounts for the building cost so we won you know there are some other wins here minuteman has definitely heard that we're concerned about cost they have definitely heard that we're concerned about expanding options for our kids making new uses of that school for our kids to expand the the pool of opportunities available to belmont students they've heard and they're going to work with us but they're the only work with us in for a member of that district they're not going to work with us if we're but let's just talk for a quick moment about about savings i think this is an issue that that's been dramatically overplayed it's fairly certain that we're facing under all likely scenarios a cost of about twenty thousand a year which would be our cost i'm sorry not twenty thousand two hundred thousand a year big difference which would be our cost are likely cost for helping to finance that school building and we'll pay that cost if we vote to remain with the district if we vote to exit will have that avoided cost for the next three years but after that three years again it's a big fat question mark we don't know what we're facing you know we transition to a nonmember town it minute man you look at any reasonable enrollment projections and very modest growth assumptions on the part of member towns and nonmember towns begin to get squeezed out they they will it may not happen completely in two thousand and twenty but you know a few years after that under reasonable growth projections we're getting squeezed out mr crowley excuse me we're at the five minute mark could you wind up i just would urge you to consider the quality of the education that the program offers and correct a misconception i believe i've heard in some of the forms of the last couple of weeks that the state is definitely allowing a capital charge to the nonmember towns and it's not fifteen twenty sixteen memo to minuteman which i have here which was right before the september twentieth election the commissioner dessie shall establish to ition for these vocational schools in may not shall but may establish a capital fee then it goes on and says that this capital increment can be added it just goes on and explains how this would work it doesn't say they're going to do it if we were to do it this is how it would work it then goes on and says that this is just one possible tool and then it goes on and says the part that's a little more shocking to me which is that there are circumstances when it would make sense for a career technical program to serve a larger geographic area than just the cities and towns comprising its membership if we that's dessie if we decide it's in the public interest to build a larger school to accommodate a significant number of nonresident students a decision as to be ratified by minutemen district the m s b a and that and se then the capital construction increment provides a mechanism for that and then it goes on says it's only relevant in cases where the district undergoes a new building construction and highlighted significant number of nonresident students we need to do what's best for belmont i think if the state wants to pay once us to cover the whole region of nonmember students then they should pay for it or the nonmember school should pay for it  goes on and says if you did this calculation it would be this however these type base do schools pay one hundred percent the type b students don't pay one hundred percent and that which is not fair and then it goes on says i money able to definitively say what the increment will be for your project readers caution that the final calculation will likely vary from this estimate after the project is completed so i got this before the election and i'm like well this doesn't really tell me anything because other than the fact that they're finally admitting which has been denied for years here that the schools too big for the occasional education my nephew is studying welding it's a great program and i've got no problem minute man i've given i once gave a talk at minimum and the building is terrible the school is great however if the playing field were fair for members and nonmembers i would support stating the fact is the system in the statutory structure incentivizes withdraw and six other member other towns have left already based on that calculus for some towns like arlington which send about four times the number of students we do  then staying makes sense for them for belmont staying simply does not member precinct one earlier one of the one of the main arguments for getting out a minuteman is the idea that the school won't fill up and that may happen really the bottom line is everything we're talking about is all speculation i don't have a crystal ball for i've got presentations i've heard the capital cost will be equalized for the wishing will be equalised i fear that it won't be i really don't know how it's going to turn out but on the observation that watertown will be trying to push its kids not to go to minuteman because it's more expensive than some alternatives that may well be as far as the watertown school committee is concerned on the town council in watertown but as i understand it maybe i've been misinformed it's the parents and the kids in watertown who decide if they want to go to minuteman the same in belmont it's a unique situation w person who's choosing the service doesn't have to pay for the services they choose you know i get the hood brand of milk i pay more than the star market brand but you know this is someone who set sizes shiny new school at minute nance appealing to them in the one thousand programs robotics environment technology biotechnology not available the other alternatives if they decide they want to go there they can go there even if it cost watertown or belmont more money so you know my my crystal ball tells me the school will fill up i could be wrong my crystal ball tells me with a capital  equalise i could be wrong but that's kind of the point here if i can get a better deal of my life insurance policy do it in a minute but i'm not going to get drop my current policy until i know whether the new policy will give me the covers i need for my kids and my wife and will and till i have it in place and as of tonight we don't have the alternative to minuteman in place that's going to give us exactly what many many offers now now we may all work out we make find a great alternative while they may build a high school and may make half the sky high school a vocational and career technical education place with twenty eight programs and that would be great but they may not happen or it may happen but they may fill up and then they'll tell well you can't come here because this is while and i'm a school committee member waltham and i get elected by people often not by people in belmont it's all speculation and if we if it doesn't work out then our children are going to pay the price and everything i'm saying is against the interest of my kids my fifth grader brandon and their greater joe will never be at a vocational school if they have any traits of mine and they'd be better off probably if this if we leave the district if some of the folks talking here been right about the numbers but not willing  has moved the question to terminate debate it's not debatable it requires a two thirds vote i'll take an electronic vote so all those supporting terminating debate i'm moving the question  one is yes to no right glenn you want to display the vote seventy seven percent to twenty three more than two thirds debaters terminated the motion is approved at this point then we have the vote on the name motion to withdraw from the district or not this requires a two thirds majority so open that if you are supportive of the motion to withdraw vote yes if you are a poll one if you're opposed vote no t as i said this requires a two thirds vote motion is approved let's see absolute number one seventy two to sixty six that's more than the two thirds required for the motion is adopted thank you all very much