Select Board Meeting — February 4, 2026

He said you're all set.

Yes.

That was crazy.

Good evening everyone, welcome to the select board meeting Wednesday, February 4th, 2026, 6 PM in the community meeting room at the Seekonk Senior Center, 540 Arcade Avenue, Seekonk.

Mass General Law Chapter 38, subsection 20F requires any person recording must notify the chair at the beginning of the meeting.

Anybody recording?

Seeing none, all select board meetings are recorded via audio and video and are broadcast live on Seekonk Channel— uh, Kevin, I don't think it's 15 anymore, is it?

96.

96.

96.

Okay, they're broadcast live on Seekonk Channel 96.

Call our regular meeting to order at 6 PM.

Pledge of Allegiance, a moment of silence, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Can somebody read the board and committee openings, please?

All right, Madam Chair, y'all can do it.

Thank you.

All right, board and committee openings.

We have volunteers needed on the Capital Improvement Committee, uh, 4 board of selectmen, 3 moderator appointments.

Commission on Disability, 8 board of selectmen appointments.

Cultural Council, 2 positions.

The Economic Development Committee, 5 board of selectmen appointments.

Energy Committee, 3 board of selectmen.

Finance Committee, 1 moderator.

The Historical Commission, 3 board of selectmen.

Parks and Recreation Uh, one position.

Recycling Committee, one position.

Zoning Board of Appeals, 2 Board of Selectmen, uh, one alternate and one regular.

I'd like to say thank you for everybody who has been putting their talent bank forms.

We have been receiving them.

Uh, thank you very much.

And for anybody who is interested, you can find the, um, application online on the town's website.

Priority matters.

Presentation of the Fire Department Lifesaving Award for lifesaving actions on November 6th, 2025.

Chief, it's a little different without the podium, but I'll get to it.

Madam Chair, select board members, Mr. Gadeem, I come before you this evening, uh, to honor some of our public safety responders.

Um, before I start my presentation with the police and the fire, I'd just like, uh, to acknowledge I'd really be remiss if I didn't, uh, identify that every single one of the responses that we go to, uh, has to activate somewhere.

The 911 calls have to come in, and the public safety telecommunicators are the people that field those phone calls and they put us out to where we need to be.

So although they're not receiving a life-saving award, again, I would like to just acknowledge them that they are part of the team, and they are the ones that initiate and take action before all of us get to actually get out there and deploy in the streets.

So kudos to them and the job they continue to do for our community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

So thank you to them.

So I'll call up the police department, and I have a synopsis of a, uh, of the event from Sergeant James Nelson.

I'll paraphrase.

I know I had given the whole description of the events to the select board, but I'll paraphrase the, uh, 2 from.

Patrolman Dillingham and Schoonmaker were the first arriving officers on scene.

I was third to arrive.

While approaching the scene, I observed the vehicle on fire in the middle of the northbound lanes.

I exited my cruiser and observed Patrolman Dillingham and Schoonmaker providing life-saving measures to a patient who was lying on the sidewalk, sidewalk next to a light pole.

I ran to assist, and I noticed they had already applied a tourniquet to the patient's right leg.

The patient was unresponsive and going in and out of consciousness.

In a later paragraph, he states, it is clear and obvious that due to Patrolman Dillingham and Schoonmaker's quick action in applying a tourniquet and providing high-quality patient care, Solis did not die at that scene.

The 2 officers should be recognized for life-saving measures, and I am proud that they work for the Seekonk Police Department.

I concur, and I brought them here tonight to acknowledge their hard work and effort as part of the team for public safety.

And with that, I'd like to acknowledge them with the Fire Department Lifesaving Award to Officer William Dillingham and Officer Eric Schoonmaker.

Great job.

That's why we— that's why we brought him back.

Yeah.

Madam Chair, I just had to remove myself for a minute.

It was, uh, identified to me that our staff has had interaction with Mr. Sollois post-incident.

I reached out to his mom, um, and he confirmed that he wanted to be in attendance tonight.

So this is the, uh, the individual who's involved in a horrific accident, and he's here before us tonight because of the actions that the staff took, um, when they arrived on scene and provided life-saving efforts.

Oh, that's great.

We're glad you're here.

Yes, I know.

That's great.

Madam Chair, if I could just acknowledge my fire staff.

Go ahead.

You can stay right there.

And again, I'll, I'll read a brief synopsis that was submitted on the behalf of Lieutenant Kevin English about his crew and his actions that he took that evening.

And to paraphrase again, D Group with Life Saving Award— he'd like to offer D Group with a Life Saving Award for their performance on 11/16/2025 on Fall River Avenue during incident number 253882, which included a car versus motorcycle, both of which became engulfed in fire, and then the additional complicating factor of a Level A trauma in the roadway.

The actions taken on scene was swift, aggressive and effective.

The first arriving officer, Car 2, established command and provided next arriving crews with a firm address as well as confirmation of a car and a motorcycle being on fire.

Engine 1 and Rescue 1 arrived just moments later and simultaneously began fire suppression in order to stabilize the incident as well as immediate life-saving care to an unresponsive rider of the motor vehicle— of the motorcycle.

The actions of note came from the men of Rescue 1 and the motor pump operator of Engine 1, who performed without hesitation and to a degree of efficiency in which, my opinion, unequivocally saved the life of the motorcycle rider.

Rescue 1 crew immediately understood the gravity of the situation the patient was in, and after checking the life threat— for life-threatening bleeding and securing his airway, the crew quickly moved into the confines of Rescue to mitigate and to mitigate the threats coming from the fire and other passing motorists.

Inside the rescue, the men found a patient— the man— the men found a patient with a litany of injuries: pelvic fractures, broken long bones in the legs, broken bones in his upper extremities.

The crews dealt with each one of these injuries using issued equipment and also thinking outside of the box, creating a makeshift makeshift pelvic binder from hospital blankets.

The men also began pushing life-saving ALS drugs and changed out their initial airway management devices to a more long-term ALS adjunct, and ALS means advanced life support.

They did all of this while minimizing their time on scene in order to get the patient to a higher level of care in the shortest possible time.

In closing, from the statement from Lieutenant Kevin English, These men undeniably saved the life of a teenager who could have easily perished.

I respectfully and proudly request the following men be issued a Life-Saving Award.

After reading the synopsis, I again concurred, and having further interactions with the Solis family, his mother, the surgeons, and all of the staff in the higher level of care, undeniably recognized that without the life-saving issues— life-saving measures taken on scene, Mr. Solis most likely would have perished.

They acknowledge that the pre-hospital care provided to Mr. Solis was above and beyond and undeniably, again, saved his life.

So I'd like to recognize Lieutenant Kevin English.

5 by Prairie.

Great job.

Thank you.

Good job.

Good job.

Good job.

Good job.

Good job.

Hey, it's all good.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Great job.

Thank you.

Great job.

Again, just because, uh, public first responders did not receive a citation this evening, It doesn't mean that they didn't go unnoticed by my office.

Every single one of the first responding officers to that incident, I've acknowledged my thanks to every single one of them, along with all of my fire crews.

So although he did not receive a citation, every single one of you did an excellent job that afternoon.

And to that credit, Mr. Solis would not be here today if your life-saving actions weren't performed.

I invited him up.

I didn't know if he wanted to say anything.

I have nothing to say, no.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you for your time.

Chief, thank you.

I don't know.

For the sir.

Nick's not here.

Okay, we have— next we have Community Emergency Response Team CERT program in class update.

Good evening again, Madam Chair, select board members, and Mr. Cadime.

I just wanted to brief the select board on the status of the Community Emergency Response Team.

Just about a year and a half ago, we developed the Community Emergency Response Team through grant funding.

And since then, we've actively solicited the community for volunteers to participate in the— on the team.

And since then, through guidance of Lieutenant Kyle LaPrade and Communications Assistant Director Nick Rondo, the team has come a real long way.

They're a vital part of our organization as far as community goes.

They're at every one of our town events assisting with parking.

So with that, I just wanted to let you guys know that we're also going to be advertising for an upcoming class.

We have the availability to take on some more volunteers.

We have that class prepared to be launched in September, so we're just putting it out there to just say we're going to be advertising for additional positions and different volunteers.

So if you have an inclination to help volunteer in your community that has some relevance to public safety and potentially helping the community during a disaster situation, feel free.

Look for our social medias and the town's website.

Hopefully we can advertise for that.

But there will be an application process.

You'll be able to take the class, and then if you want to join the team officially, complete an application.

You can join the team.

So just wanted to give you a brief update.

I did meet with them just before Winter Storm Fern, they were going to play a vital role if we needed to activate warming centers or shelters.

So they're on the ready, they're ready to prepare, they're prepared and ready to respond to our community.

So again, thank you to them publicly, and I just wanted to give you that brief update that we will be putting on class starting sometime in September.

Thank you.

I go to a lot of town events and I see them everywhere, and of course I know a lot of them too.

So they're a vital part of this town.

They sure are.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Consider the appointment of Shane Haleko as a full member of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So I'm just requesting from the board that we move Mr. Haleko from his alternate position, which is set to expire in 2027, to the open position for a full member.

If the board does approve that Uh, his term would be until June of 2026.

So we'll need another vault.

So moved, Madam Chair.

Okay, thanks.

I got a motion.

Second.

Thank you.

I got a motion and a second.

Mr. Sagan and then Mrs. Posey.

Any, any questions?

Anyone?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, unanimous.

Thank you, Mr. Lako.

Is he here?

I don't think he's here.

I didn't see him.

Okay, consider the conditional offer of employment to Nathan Perry for the position of special reserve police officer.

Chief?

Good evening, Madam Chair, board members, Mr. Kadeem.

I'm here tonight to request that the board extend a conditional offer of employment to Nathan Perry.

As you are aware, the Secong Police Department has employed special officers to assist full-time officers for many years.

However, due to requirements of the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, POST, we will be losing at least 3 of the current special police officers.

Having reserve officers on our team is essential as they provide several benefits, including increased staffing during emergencies, the ability to deploy directed patrols, and to fill details.

Nathan was one of many applicants during our recent recruitment drive.

During his interview, Nathan demonstrated the qualities as that we seek in our offices, such as critical thinking, teamwork, and a genuine desire to make a positive impact in the town of Secaucus.

He and his family have strong ties with the town.

Nathan holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Bridgewater University, and it's for these reasons I respectfully request through Mr. Gadeem that Nathan be offered a conditional offer of employment for the position of reserve police officer.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I support the recommendation of the police chief.

Can I get a motion, please?

Move that the Board of Selectmen appoint Nathan Perry to the position of Special Reserve Police Officer for the Police Department, subject to and conditioned upon his successful passage, as determined by the Town Administrator, of the following: completion of a satisfactory background check, physical examination with drug screening, psychological screening, execution of the Recruit Officer Repayment Agreement, MBTC physical fitness test, obtain and maintain a Massachusetts license to carry, Fulfillment of all statutory requirements set forth by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission to become a certified law enforcement officer.

Successful verification of the National Decertification Index.

Successful passage of a civil service physical ability test.

Completion and passage of an MBTC or approved ROC police academy.

Can I get a second?

Second.

Who got the second?

Gary Segal.

I have a motion and a second.

Any questions?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, unanimous.

Thank you.

Good luck.

Congratulations.

Good luck.

You're welcome.

Next we have consider accepting the donation to the police department from William and Karen George in the amount of $50 in the memory of Sergeant Richard Dick Garrett.

So this item and the next item, uh, due to the recent passing of Richard Dick Garrett, Sergeant with the Seacong Police Department, before my time, but I'm sure not before mine, not before yours and other members of the board.

There are some family members here.

Um, after the board accepts, if they would like to say a few words, I'll open up to them.

Um, so in lieu of flowers.

The family asked that donations be made to the Seekonk Police Department, and, uh, you know, we'd like to accept those funds and utilize it for some kind of community engagement purpose.

Okay, let's go through them first.

Okay, can I get a motion to accept the first one, please?

So moved.

Second.

Any other questions?

Comments?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, unanimous.

Next is to consider accepting a donation to the police department from the Seekonk Fire Museum in the amount of $125 in memory of Sergeant Richard Dick Garrett.

So moved.

Second.

Any questions, comments?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, unanimous.

Go ahead, Chief.

Are you done?

Jimmy?

For those of you on the, on the camera that may not know, this is Jimmy Garrett, who was a member of the volunteer fire department for years.

He's been everything in the town of Seekonk.

For those of us who remember your dad, I mentioned him last week because I had heard of his passing.

Yes, and I'm very sorry.

Thank you.

He was quite the guy.

All right, I appreciate it very much, uh, Madam Chair and members of the board and also the police chief.

Uh, my dad put his heart and soul into this town, and, uh, just before he passed, he already told me years ago, if I pass, I'd like to see something go to the men and women of the Seacock Police Um, instead, he didn't want to have no funeral in the wake or nothing.

Um, and that's what, uh, I held it to.

So that's what my dad wanted.

Um, so that's why we went to donations to give to the police department to assist with them with anything they need.

Um, now my father told me just the week before he was in the, uh, Uh, the nursing home for the veterans, which was a very beautiful place he was in.

He told me now that I am now the, the man of the family, the head of the family.

So I am the boss.

And I got my mother, Carolyn Garrett, with me.

And, um, I also want to thank everybody in the town hall that's been so grateful to my mother.

And with her calling in and getting information and what to do, and the Bristol County Retirement and everything that my dad had going, uh, I want to thank you all.

I'm very, very pleased with everything that went on.

I'm going to miss him dearly.

Yeah, he was my heart and soul.

But, uh, and then, you know, both of us put a lot of years into this town.

I did 27 years on called Fire Department with Chief Healy.

And I still— I miss it, but I'm up at Gillette Stadium now working.

And that's going to be tough.

I got good positions up there.

It's very nice.

I got a lot of police chiefs that want me to become a cop, and I don't want to become no police officer.

It's a great profession, Jimmy.

I know it is.

So is the fire department.

I thought about it a couple of years to do it, but My father said, no, no, it's— the job's getting to be different today.

And I'm just like my father, as you guys know.

I am.

I know how to take care of situations and just de-escalate problems.

And that's what they make me do up there.

And I have met some wonderful, wonderful people.

Uh, I met the whole Kraft family, which I'm with a lot, um, and other police officers from other towns and cities, but I just want to thank you all.

It's, it's tough to watch your father go from being a tough guy at 82.

Mom, was that when he stopped riding his motorcycle?

My father had Holleys, and at 82, I finally had to take away the, uh, the keys to the Holley because he was getting a little wobbly with it, and That was his passion— cars, hot rods, and everything else.

And I just want to thank you again for everything that you have done.

And I want to thank the police chief, and I also want to thank, uh, Deputy Chief Jay Lafleur, who I talked to— chief was on vacation at the time— regarding this.

And my father's watching it down with you guys all the time, men and women of Mr. Bob.

I'm sure he's looking over us.

He is.

He's standing here.

He's looking over the whole town.

And Madam Chair, you know how he was.

I know.

You worked with him.

Absolutely.

I want to thank you for everything.

And I couldn't ask for— I couldn't ask for better.

Yeah.

And I'm very proud of the town.

And I'm sure your dad's very proud of you too.

He is.

He's very proud of me.

Just gonna take care of my mom now.

That's right.

That's, that's who I gotta take care of, is my mom.

In my family, right?

And I just want— again, I— you guys were great.

Everybody in this town hall did a great job to help my mother out and me when I had to get it.

So, and I also want to say thank you to you.

Appreciate it.

I appreciate it.

Uh, you've helped me out in the years when I was here too.

If we had things, we talked about.

So that's it.

All right, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming, Mrs. Garrett.

Where am I?

Lost my space.

Okay, community speaks.

Do we have anybody from the community?

Yes.

Hi, community.

Have a seat.

Charles Beacham, 127 Allen Avenue.

Um, I, I came, uh, representing, uh, Habitat for Old Colony, Habitat for Humanity.

We're, we're, we have been interested in, uh, the potential, uh, the zero Burnside property which the town voted to, for you to dispose of, this committee to suppose this, this select board disposed of about 2 years ago.

And recently in the last town meeting, uh, it was voted to dispose of the old fire station at 170 County Street.

And we're interested in both of those, particularly the zero burn side, but, uh, It— in order to, um, transfer the property, you have to do an RFP.

And I, I sent you all an email, uh, about 2 weeks ago, and I— there wasn't an opportunity for enclosure, uh, on the group email, but so I sent the enclosure to, uh, Madam Chairman.

And, uh, and, um, anyway, uh, we're— we would be very interested in, uh, obtaining these properties to build affordable housing.

And, uh, we've gotten indication from the Community Preservation Commission that committee that they, uh, have funding for affordable housing that potentially we could apply for.

And, um, and so one of the things too is our executive director, Kim, Kim Thomas, would like to come talk to the board.

She couldn't be here today, uh, but she can come to the next meeting on the 18th, if you would like to put her on the agenda, and, uh, she could tell you more about Habitat and what we do.

And, um, actually, I can put you on the agenda for February 18th to discuss Habitat for Humanity.

I have to say, I don't remember seeing that email, so I'm sure none of my board members Oh, I didn't give up because I, I didn't see it, but I don't know if anybody remember the town website to submit it.

Oh, I'm sure you did, but I don't remember getting it.

Okay, because I would have passed it on, and, and I have nothing.

Okay, so we need— so before the meeting, see if we can get something.

At least if we get it to their, their sample RFPs, uh, if you put it out for, for general sale, uh, to the community.

We can't compete with, uh, other, other people, uh, but we're— if you— the, the boilerplate that I sent you has words in there to designate it as affordable housing, and that would allow us to heat because very likely anybody— nobody else would apply for affordable housing.

So, Charlie, if you want to just either stop by the office and drop it off or email it to me.

Yeah, yeah, I can drop it off.

We have a house now that was— yeah, there's a house on Good Street, right?

It's about the— it's north of Route 44, about, about the 3rd house, 3rd street in from the town line, state line.

Yes, I'm familiar with it.

And I am also familiar that there's a procedure that has to be done.

But we need that information because I look at all my emails.

I don't remember seeing that.

I would have passed it on.

And obviously I didn't.

Okay.

So if you can get us that— oh, well, if you get it to the town administrator's office, the town administrator will all get Okay, and we'll have it for the next meeting on the 18th.

Okay, and we'll put it on the agenda to be discussed on the 18th.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, that's all I have.

Thanks for coming.

Thank you.

Do we have anybody else from the— this is under Community Speaks.

Okay, okay.

General business, license hearing renewal.

Consider the renewal of the mobile food cart license for Seaconch Grand Prix, 1098 Fall River Avenue.

This, board members, is a renewal.

They weren't quite ready when we did the license renewals last time, and there will not be anybody here.

To, um, to speak on their behalf except for me and Mr. Kadeem.

All the paperwork has been signed, sealed, delivered.

These people have been— I don't know how many years they've been working at the Speedway, but I know they have, and I know they have permission from the owner, or maybe owner, or maybe the general manager.

Now, Jeff, you're talking about A, that's Grand Prix.

Hold on.

Forget that.

Okay, so some of that applies to this.

Nobody from the Seaconch Grand Prix is going to be here tonight.

They were a little bit late in getting all the i's dotted and the t's crossed.

There is nothing that is amiss, and I'll take a motion to renew the mobile food cart license for the Seaconch Grand Prix.

We had gotten this before.

Remember the— on the side?

Yep.

Okay, so moved.

Thank you very much.

Second?

Pam, did you say second?

Yes, second.

Okay, any other questions?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, unanimous.

Went all through that enough.

Talking about someone else.

Consider the request for a change of manager for Bristol County Stadium, doing business as Seekonk Speedway, 1782 River Avenue, David Alburn, to be manager.

Step right up.

Your name, sir?

David Alburn.

Son of a gun.

Good evening, everyone at the board.

Good evening, Town Administrator.

Okay, so this is just a change of manager?

That's correct.

Do I have some questions after?

Yeah, of course.

Can I have a motion, please?

So moved.

Second.

I have questions before.

No, no, go back.

What's that?

Because it might be part of the motion.

Oh well, we can change it.

Okay, I got a motion, a second.

Any questions, statements?

Who is it from, the motion?

Uh, Gary and Pam.

So my question is, alcohol service and food service, it's only saying Friday, Saturdays.

Um, what about the Sunday shows, or if you have rain dates that go into Sunday?

Do we need to put Sunday hours on here to cover that so you're not back before us?

This is just for the change of management.

It's just, yeah, a change of license.

Right, but I know what the paperwork says, but this is just for the change of manager, not for the change of the license.

We can offer that though, right?

Everything the license already had in place would, would be the same.

Yeah, I don't think we have the license here.

I do.

No, this is just for the change of manager from Mr. Vendetti to you.

That's correct.

So I don't— if there's anything amiss with the liquor license, we can always come back.

But it's— no, that's not being changed.

No, that we already applied for that and received it and was told to do this after we applied for the license, had it renewed first.

Oh, the hours of operation.

Yeah, that's right.

It has it here.

Let me have— if the paperwork we have has that, uh, like the Board member was speaking about.

So yeah, any day could— I mean, well, mostly it would be certain shows on Saturdays could go to a Sunday, not everyone.

I just wanted to make sure with the change of manager it would meet your needs.

That's why Newton put those in there, because you don't know if you're going to need them.

But if it does happen, any show you could decide to go to another day to postpone it.

If, uh, if it went on, it could be the Wednesday show too, that could go to a Thursday, right?

So Basically just covering the days that we know we're definitely going to be opening it up for business on those days there.

No problem.

Yeah, I missed that.

I just figured it was easier now to change it, make it all available now.

Well, okay, so right now we'll leave it the same and we'll just change the manager.

If they see something needs to be changed, we can go back.

Any other questions?

No, no, no.

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, unanimous.

Congratulations on your promotion.

Well, thank you.

Do a good job.

I will.

And you tell Mr. Benedetti we said hello.

I will.

Thank you, everyone.

Have a good night.

Thank you.

You too.

No, no, no, please don't change the place.

Okay, next we have a joint meeting with the school committee on the budget.

Yeah, all right.

You want to use this table right here?

Great minds.

You know what that means, right?

I do want to thank the select board for inviting us to have a joint meeting, a special will be a joint meeting today on February 4th at 6:35.

And I would like to call our meeting to order.

In attendance is myself, Chair Robert Girardi, Vice Chair Emily Field, Secretary Lisa Rizzo, Member Kyle Juckett, and Member Alicia McManus.

So now that we are open, how would— would you like us to proceed with our discussions on the budget?

Not yet.

We'd also like to introduce Oh geez, thank you.

Hi, I'm Superintendent Kidwell.

And I'm Randy Geeks.

Thank you.

Administrator.

Our administrative team.

What are you?

School business administrator.

School business.

Don't take lessons from Mr. Orban and talk so fast that we can't hear you, please.

Okay, now, so we're going to discuss the budget.

We're going to have a budget discussion.

So we have this wonderful paper with miniature writing on it.

The other handout has a slightly bigger font.

Thanks.

Okay, yeah, you folks stop.

We'll do the best we can with that.

They're very excited out there.

Yeah, they should be.

And we can't close the doors because there's no worries.

So hey, we'll try to— we are very accustomed to the sounds of children.

No worries on our part.

Okay, there you go.

So we've shared 2 handouts with you.

Uh, the one that's really small is the draft of the cost centers dividing up, uh, how our budget draft to this point is expended.

It also shows you the fiscal year '25 actuals and the fiscal year '26 budget and then the fiscal year '27 draft budget with some explanatory notes to the right.

This is divided up by the cost centers designed in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education chart of accounts.

And we'd be happy to answer questions about that if you have them.

But we had gone over this process last year as this was what we were moving towards in reporting and explaining how we allocate our budget.

The more important part is probably the packet that's actually in a font large enough to read.

I asked at the beginning whether you would like to see a slideshow, was told that the technology is having a moment right now, and that's okay.

So, you've got a copy of the handout.

We're going to talk through it.

If you're watching at home, I'm sorry that you're not seeing slides, and I will try not to talk super fast.

You okay?

3 musts in a presentation.

Yeah.

I'm trying.

All right.

So, for our joint meeting, we're opening by sharing some of our priorities.

For 26-27 school year.

We're hoping for a balanced, sustainable budget plan that prioritizes student learning with high-quality, research-based Tier 1 curriculum materials, using data to determine best next steps in teaching and learning, prioritizing student engagement in learning and family engagement in schools, and sustained maintenance of existing facilities needs while developing a long-term plan for growth.

Some of the considerations in that long-term planning.

As of July 1st, 2026, Seekonk Public Schools will enter the eligibility phase with the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a core program renovation, addition, or new construction of Hurley Middle School, with considerations for grades 5 and 9 through 12 as well.

That was via the invitation we received in December 2025.

Technology needs are being prioritized into a sustainable multi-year plan to reincorporate incorporate them into local funding after the expiration of federal relief and grant funds.

So this is the funding cliff that schools have experienced after COVID, where we were required to buy a lot of new technology quickly, and now we need to figure out how to sustain and replace that technology over time.

And last, we're looking in our long-term planning at capital improvements to facilities like heating, ventilation, air conditioning, paving, roofing, and we've prioritized those and submitted them to the town in a multi-year plan in January.

So who is Seekonk Public Schools?

As of the data that we're able to report here, 2,009 students, 488 at Seekonk High, 504 at Hurley Middle, 582 at Aiken Elementary, and 430 at Martin Elementary.

As of the last data reported to the state, 38% of our students are high needs.

22.3% are students with disabilities.

For 10% of our students, their first language is not English, and 18.9% of our students are low-income.

All of those numbers have gone up since last we saw you.

So we have more high-need students, more students with disabilities, more students whose first language is not English, more low-income students.

But what's also gone up is the percentage of our students completing advanced coursework like AP classes, or college courses while they're still in high school, and the percentage of our students who are going on to higher education has also increased significantly.

Who else is Seekonk Public Schools?

It's over 300 employees.

We fought for a little while with each other about whether or not we could give you an exact number, but because we have subs, because we have people coming in and out, we went with over 300 because we didn't want to accidentally leave anyone out.

We have fewer teachers fewer custodians, fewer admin assistants, less counseling staff, and fewer building administrators than we did at this time last year.

We have increased our instructional aides, but that's not through increased budgeting.

It's simply through filling positions we had in the budget.

So we're grateful to have them on our staff.

They're an important part of our children's education.

The next 2 charts show you SEACONC per pupil funding versus state level per pupil funding.

We're the blue, obviously.

Massachusetts is the gray.

We wanted you to see that SEACONC is spending both for in-district pupils and for pupils overall at a lower rate than the state as a whole, and that we are increasing that funding year over year at a lower rate than the state is increasing that funding.

Do you have any questions before we start really talking about FY27 numbers?

Sure.

Um, you show your last 2 slides, so yeah, show Seekonk and Massachusetts and the difference between them.

Yet what would complete that is what, um, I call what is mandatory by the state of Massachusetts, minimum, the mandatory amount.

You didn't show that.

Yeah, so that would show, as we both know, that even SEACOM pays more than what is mandatory by the state of Massachusetts.

We did do the research with our neighboring towns.

We pay about 150% of the mandatory amount, as do our neighbors.

And, and we're not talking neighbors.

We don't care about the neighbors.

Okay, sorry neighbors, we don't care.

I would encourage us in general to think about our neighbors so that we are in line with the offerings of neighboring towns where residents might be considering real estate and where our students might be competing against for their future opportunities.

So our spending is in line with, at 150%, others in this area.

We actually were just starting to look into our neighboring towns as a trend over time, and we had discovered this afternoon— the committee doesn't even know this yet, I don't usually do this to you all— that our spending has been increasing at the lowest rate of for our neighboring towns since 2018.

So Dartmouth, Attleboro, Somerset, Berkeley— Somerset, Berkeley, because that's— Dighton-Rehoboth, Swansea— they're all increasing at a faster rate than we are for school spending.

And I'm not saying that necessarily means we should speed up our rate.

I'm sharing that with you as evidence of our responsibility, our stewardship, and our buying into fiscal conservatism as a town in general.

But that doesn't mean that we don't need to, to some degree, increase spending as inflation and costs increase over time.

Okay, FY27 budget interview— uh, interview, sorry, overview.

This feels like an interview.

Um, our, uh, advisement from you all— that's— hey, that's not a bad thing.

Our, uh, advisement from the town in October when we had our joint meeting was to aim for a 2.5% increase from our FY26 budget, which would be keeping that increase to $846,412 or less.

We did get some good news with the preliminary governor's numbers.

So the preliminary state funding for education is a net increase for SEACONC, seeing the Chapter 70 allocation increase by about $150,000.

Charter tuition reimbursements increased significantly, and the tuition assessment for students who are attending other districts under charters and choice decreased for us.

That's a positive thing.

This increase in state funding indicates ongoing increases in needs, even as our overall student population may show a slight decrease.

So on to the next slide.

You can see that fixed costs also continue to increase in each category at a rate above 2.5%, and this is a challenge.

So even as we have control over our personnel contracts and we work very hard to negotiate those fairly and keep those in line with what we can afford as a town, We don't have control of other things like energy, transportation costs, and the costs for maintenance materials to keep our facilities up to date.

Level services non-salary costs are the primary driver of these increases.

The current budget projection considering level services and mandatory updates to maintain learning is a 4.61% increase, so about $1.5 million.

I can take you briefly through the cost center increases.

Some of the detail for these is represented on the sheet that's got the lines broken out, but the centers in general, administration is showing a decrease of $200,000 in budget for next year.

This is partially due to reduced administrative positions and partially due to a reallocation of instructional software to where it correctly belongs in per pupil costs under instruction.

Associated instruction is showing just over a $1 million increase related to contractual increases accurately budgeted.

School-based fees— school-based fees is an account that helps us work with dual enrollment.

So we have 3 new programs in dual enrollment for next year with Roger Williams in addition to our existing programs with Rhode Island College.

These are a really affordable way to earn college credits for Roger Williams and Rhode Island College, and we are excited about this.

There are increases in our substitute teacher lines which we are still trying to accurately budget and get under control in the post-COVID workforce, and they include cost increases and purchase reductions in supplies, instructional software properly allocated here, and some instructional hardware.

Our anticipated retirement expenses are down $57,500 due to a reduction in the anticipated number of retirements for next year.

People Services is up about $270,000, primarily driven by increased transportation costs both for the school day and for sports, as well as increased costs of sports officials.

When I asked Miss Mannigan, who is working hard to get our sports budget in line with what we're actually doing, why we had an increased cost for sports officials, the happy answer is the further a team goes in the playoffs, the more we have to pay for.

So we're not excited about a higher cost, but we're kind of excited about playoffs.

Operations and maintenance is up $103,000 for next year due to increases in electric and gas as well as costs of building and maintenance.

We have also increased our use of offsets, which I will get to on the next slide, to try to keep those costs in check as best we can.

Benefits and fixed charges simply covers our traffic constables.

This is accurately budgeted to reflect current staffing levels at $12,800 less than last year.

Programs with other school districts— this is out-of-district tuitions for special education students.

This is up about $218,000, and we are hoping to prepay some of that expense out of the FY26 budget with conservative savings this year to help us for 2027.

The next slide talks about those anticipated revenue offsets that I mentioned, and something I want to share here that is challenging is that $849,652 of our projected dollars here is federal entitlement grants.

If the federal Title I, Title II, Title IV, Title III, IDEA, early childhood— if those grants, whether they're under the Department of Education or the Department of Labor, change substantially, that would make a big difference for us.

Going into fiscal year '26, those grants were already set by the previous administration before some of the upheaval in how the federal government should be organized has occurred.

Those are not set yet for FY '27.

So that's something we need to pay very careful attention to.

When does that happen, more or less?

When will they set that?

I would be remiss to speculate what the federal government is going to do and when they would do it.

That's truly— I wish I could tell you, sir.

But in the past, it would have happened.

We would absolutely already know.

We would absolutely already know.

Yeah.

Okay.

Circuit Breaker is a state program that reimburses us for unexpectedly high costs related to special education, so we're expecting to be able to offset with all almost $2 million through the Circuit Breaker program.

Tuition credit from building rental.

We are presently renegotiating our leases with South Coast Educational Collaborative for the use of the North and Galusha or Pleasant Street schools.

That lease is not settled yet, but we're hoping that we can budget off of this number here.

It would be in line with where we've been in the past and where we expect to progress to.

Transportation fees and fees related to homeless transportation reimbursements from the state.

We have an offset there of about $125,000.

School nutrition, this is allowable indirect cost through the federal and state school lunch program, school breakfast and lunch programs.

Building use, this is when we rent to renters, $78,000.

The athletic revolving account, $20,000 we intend to use from there.

$60,000 from preschool revolving funds, that primarily comes from tuition intake over the years.

The community swim revolving account through pool rental should contribute about $8,000.

In our projections for the coming year.

And as I mentioned earlier, we're hoping to prepay about $250,000.

This is $3.8 million that we have already calculated into our budgetary request that we will be able to offset with other funding streams besides local funding.

The challenge here is that we have cut for several years in a row, and I think you'll remember that last year the cuts were significant and deep to numerous positions in the SEACONG schools.

The remaining strategies for reduction in FY27 include an examination of the programs not mandated by law.

This came up in a prior school committee meeting, and the real answer is there aren't many programs that are mandated by law except that we have to offer grades 1 to 12.

Kindergarten is optional how we approach that.

We do have to offer special education services, but the way that we offer those services could change.

So we don't want to discuss these things, but we are now at the point of talking about things like elimination or reduction of full-day kindergarten, elimination or reduction of electives like music, art, and technology, elimination or reduction of activities like athletics, music clubs, and activities, elimination or reduction of transportation for students in grades 7 through 12, which is not required by law.

We also have an examination of fee offsets like transportation, athletics, parking, or driving.

Preschool or kindergarten tuition.

But we have to tell you, and we can discuss this further and do the math on it to the degree you want, raising those fees does not offset the numbers that we're talking about here.

Charging every senior for a parking pass is not going to be how we balance the budget.

Athletics fees could make a substantial difference, but that has been something this town has never wanted to do.

And philosophically, I absolutely understand why.

There's nothing on this slide that anyone sitting in front of you thinks is a good idea.

We do not want to go in this direction, but we are down to the bottom of the barrel of starting to look at things like this if we have to make significant cuts going into this year.

The last slide just takes you through the next steps in finalizing our FY27 budget.

We have upcoming school committee meetings on February 9th in regular session, and I'm sorry, this says March 9th, but it should be March 2nd in a work session and regular session.

The public hearing on the budget will be March 16th.

The School Committee and Finance Committee normally have a joint session.

We are attempting to schedule that.

The town election on April 6th has one seat for School Committee and 2 select board seats.

We are always awaiting federal education funding and regulation updates and state budget updates through the House and Senate versions and then the conference committee, which is where we find out some final numbers.

And then the final step for us is the appropriations votes at the town meeting, which we're projecting to be May 11th.

But I understand that's later on your agenda.

So you set it for whenever you want to.

We'll be there.

Didn't we set it the last time?

Nope.

May 11th is a great day.

We got you.

You said it.

We will save the date.

We said it.

All right.

We will save the date with you.

Oh, look at that.

Okay, I have some questions.

Yes, we would be happy to answer whatever we can.

Well, let's hope you can answer all of them.

First, on one of the slides you mentioned increase in state funding indicates ongoing increases in needs even as overall population may show a slight decrease.

Yep.

Now, what are you referring to as overall population?

Are you talking about the students in our school?

Right.

Students in the school.

So we had, we had 2,032, I believe, at this time last year.

We have 2,000 9 right now.

But the funding formula under Chapter 70 takes into account the needs of the students.

So we could get— I wasn't sure if we would get an increase in Chapter 70 allocation, and I was worried for us as a town what that might mean if our Chapter 70 funding decreased while we were still trying to keep pace with needs that we've identified.

But the state is also identifying that we have students with increased needs, so our funding is continuing to increase.

That's a good thing.

Okay, so how often does your school population fluctuate?

Does it fluctuate a lot, or is it something that happens at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, and then at the end?

Anytime anyone moves in or out of the district.

I know that, but if you got 1 or 2 students, that to me isn't a big deal, but the difference between last year at this time and this year 16 students.

Yep.

Is that a lot for you?

No.

I'm just asking.

Yeah, no, I know it's not a lot out of 2,000, but— right.

Do you usually fluctuate?

Yes.

That much or that little?

I should— maybe I should say yes.

We are within a norm.

There's nothing alarming here with the numbers.

On a— in a normal month, we might be up 5, down 5, based on when people are moving in or out or choosing to enroll their children in homeschool or hopefully moving here.

So we've been reporting the enrollment figures for each grade in each school at least once a month at school committee meetings.

It's definitely something that we're tracking closely.

The next meeting of our building and facilities subcommittee is next week where we'll be starting to look at the incoming kindergarten enrollment and making sure that we are well prepared for space needs next year.

And to your question I had worked in large districts where you would have a sway of 100 students, you know, a larger number of students, but they were much larger districts too.

So this is really appropriate for the size of our district, this number.

Yeah, but I was just wondering where the most of the fluctuation comes in.

So basically, I mean, except for a few students, the population itself is not fluctuating a lot.

Correct.

I mean, this is last year and this year, but previous years, I'm asking, I'm not telling.

I mean, yeah, we've been around 2,000 for a long time.

And so when I say around 2,000, that could be 1,950 up to 2,100.

And that's a fluctuation to me.

It is, but it's a fluctuation that could have a major impact if it was in a— we're in a particular place.

For example, I think many people in town are aware of a big 5th grade class right now at Aiken.

And a big kindergarten class right now at Aiken based on who lives where and who was born what year.

So that, that can have a major impact.

But, um, 3 or 4 kids leaving the high school doesn't impact anything.

We still have to offer the same classes.

There's just one empty seat in some rooms.

Or, or 3 or 4 kids adding to the high school also may not have a major impact on our, our services that we offer.

Okay, my other, uh, questions are from the remaining strategies for reduction in fiscal year '27?

'Cause you said that these, the listings here are not something that's mandated.

What about pre-K?

You didn't mention pre-K.

So we are required to provide special education services for students age 2.9 and up by law.

So it's just special education?

We are not required to provide preschool for community peers, and the setting in which we provide those preschool services could be coming to their daycare rather than offering preschool in district.

So there's major changes we could make there.

We are not supportive of those changes and do not think those are right for kids.

But that's the level of what we're starting to have to think about if we have to make drastic additional cuts.

Okay, you said elimination or reduction of full-day kindergarten.

Because we used to have half-day kindergarten, correct?

And then if you offer full day, you charge a tuition related to it.

That would also be regressive and not in line with what other, other towns around us are doing at this time.

It was a solid fit in the '90s, but we're way past that now.

So you said the full-day kindergarten, there's a tuition to that?

We could charge a tuition if people— we could.

They do not currently.

They did a few years ago.

If you remember, a lot of parents came out and tried to get in the budget.

They worked for a few years, Madam Chair, if you remember that.

There was a big uproar to try to— quite a few years.

I remember that they wanted it in the budget and the budget, and then they finally put in the budget after a lot of parents went to a lot of committee meetings.

I think those kids are in high school now.

Okay.

I definitely paid tuition in another town on my 16-year-old, and nobody's paying tuition now on their 5-year-old.

I paid tuition.

And I'm old enough to have kids in Seekonk who only had half-day offered.

Got the whole spectrum.

Well, I just had kindergarten too on this half-day and I had to be bused in.

So yeah, it all depends on how old you are.

Right now we're in 2026.

So let's get back to nowadays.

Okay.

What did I not— something else?

Okay, the anticipation revenue offsets, the building use is $78,000, and that has to do with you renting or letting out parts of whatever school to someone else besides our school district people.

And then your community swim revolving, the pool only takes in $8,000.

You have community swim here.

I remember, um, which by the way, do you have that, um, listed somewhere about community swim hours?

Oh, and I'm only asking you this is because somebody new had moved— has moved into town and they were asking on Seacock Shares about the hours of community swim.

And I don't know that because I don't community swim.

So, so one of the challenges is during the school year, we can't open the pool for community swim during the school day while students are in session.

So there has been some before school very early.

We have done community swim in the summer, and we are working on building— Mr.

Wheels offered a couple sessions recently, but we're trying to build that in to be a little more consistent.

And it's hard with like rentals and so forth.

We do bring in more than $8,000.

$8,000 is what we anticipate because some of the other funds help supply chemicals and so forth.

So we're using $8,000 to help offset electric utilities from the pool revolving account.

So it does bring in more, but we use that to maintain the pool.

So clarifying that we're talking about the part of the revolving account that we can use to offset unnecessary low local contribution to the budget.

It doesn't mean that we aren't using other elements of these revolving accounts for their revolving jobs, if that makes sense.

It does bring in more than $8,000, but we are actively trying to build more pool use.

Well, the reason I, I, um, point this out is because in the past I know that the pool has been rented out for competitions and meets and and stuff like that.

And when I think of that, I don't know if you're still doing it.

I'm not in on that yet.

But to me, um, when the pool was originally asked to be redone, we, we heard that it would bring money into the town— well, not into the town, into the school— and help offset any cost or anything related to the pool.

So when I see this community swim revolving $8,000 to me, it's like, not a lot.

We can, you know, next time we see you, which will I hope be next month, we can bring you more data on what has come in from rentals, what are the hours that it could potentially be available, and what we're looking at for summer '26.

Because it is significantly more, it just goes towards the operation of the pool.

So that's why it's not shown here as revenue.

But at least it's offsetting, but it's in the community, it's in the school budget.

The pool is a school budget.

That's whatever piece you have, whatever line, whatever thing it goes in.

So everything you spend on the pool costs whatever, and all the money that comes in over and above what you can use out of your budget, that will offset whatever that amount is.

So am I saying that— but you charge off directly to the revolving account, correct?

So for the pool, so what they're saying is it's a separate check account that they actually charge all their expenses for the pool into that account.

On top of that, they're pulling out from the checking account, putting it into their operational budget to cover additional electrical, right?

Because you're obviously not paying electric bills out of the revolving account.

So they must have identified a percentage for the pool, transfer that over to cover the costs for the overall electric.

Does that make sense?

I think the big expense is the gas to heat it, right?

Yeah, that's not metered separate, but we can bring— it just seems to me to be not a lot of money to, to bring in, and maybe that's because it doesn't.

Maybe.

No, right?

No, that's all.

Yeah, yeah, it's just, it's a little misleading.

So they're just pulling in additional revenue to cover their operating costs, but the pool expenses are being charged directly to that checking account.

So it's 2 separate accounts.

So we didn't include it here.

We— Dr. McGee reported out on revolving account balances to this committee, does that quarterly.

That's not the numbers that are shown here.

These aren't our account balances.

These are the offsets that we're expecting to draw upon to try to get this— the local request number as low as we can reasonably get it without bottoming out those revolving accounts such that they can't do the jobs they're supposed to do.

Were you able to find that unit that the Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee spoke about?

Yes, so that was a question from last October.

We— a question about when— I think it was Mr. Brady.

Yes.

When we had talked about a unit that was installed related to air and chemical purification and doing all the research to back that up.

We were able to find some of the records on that.

It is long enough ago.

I know it feels like yesterday to all of us, and I know I just said we were paying tuition in the '90s and it was okay.

I'm with you, I'm with you, but it was longer ago than we think.

And when we did the research on what that product was supposed to do, it is doing that, and it is not doing anything more than that.

So the needs that we have are still there.

The point being is that was an electronic unit.

Yep.

Which was supposed to eliminate the need for chlorine, right?

But it can't— no, reduce the— not 100% sure, but, but we talked about it, some kind of infrared light system, and the goal was to reduce the chemical buildup or the chlorine gases.

It definitely— it did its job, and there was actually a flood at one point also, and they were able to replace that unit for a more modern unit as well.

So it was the same thing.

It got damaged in the flood and then was replaced also, but it's still in use today.

So it reduces it, doesn't eliminate it.

It definitely does its job and reduces it.

So I don't know the exact specifics, but— but next time we see you, we would love to bring that.

Yeah, go ahead.

Um, I had occasion to have a discussion with a group of your staff just by chance in a restaurant, and this one staff person told me that in their opinion there was at least 10 students in the Martin School that didn't belong there.

So I don't have names or anything, I'm just— what aggressive initiative do you take to make sure that we're only educating Seahawks students?

So they didn't— clarify, they didn't belong because they were not residents?

Correct.

Okay, that's interesting.

Because in the past we had a particular admin person that would actively and aggressively go after— not go after, search out and research students that were in the school that did not live in Seekonk.

Yeah, I remember.

And basically, I think what he wants to know, do you still have that?

Correct.

I remember I worked with Dr. Shukrat, so I knew.

Oh, I wasn't even thinking of him because there's somebody before him.

He was real aggressive.

He was real aggressive.

Yeah, but there was someone before him.

Yeah, too.

So because that relates to to the budget.

Yep.

No, it does.

So, so this is a, this is a really delicate conversation to attempt to have in a public meeting.

So, um, we don't need statistics.

We understand.

No names.

I don't— no, I'm not— no, no, that's not what I mean.

Yeah, I, I truly, uh, think that we, we require families to, um, complete their residency in We require notary steps, landlord steps, show us your utility bill steps.

If someone is acting fraudulently under that, we— and at this point, your residency official team is your front office, which are the same people who are trying to have positive relationships with these families and take care of these children to some degree, even if they're adults or making choices that we think are fraudulent.

And then it's, it's myself and Ms. McNamara.

We had a residency officer that was removed in budget cuts.

We attempted to hire a residency officer.

That gentleman ended up not completing the job, like just didn't do the work.

We didn't pay him, but he didn't do the work.

So I mean, you're looking at who your residency team is, and at the same time, your residency team is everyone who lives here.

If you're choosing to enroll your child and you don't live here, or you're signing and, you know, notarizing something falsely, you're hurting us as a tax base.

At the same time, there are people who under the law have the right to be going to school here based on McKinney-Vento homeless laws.

For example, if we had a family in Seekonk who was enrolled here, their housing situation was unstable, they had to move to a shelter or double up with family member in Attleboro, under the law, they are still allowed to go to school here, and we are reimbursed for the cost of their education and the transportation, and we work with that other school district.

So sometimes people might make a statement like, those kids don't belong here, and that can cross state lines, by the way.

We could have a kid living in Rhode Island who is governed under these homeless laws, and we are getting the reimbursement funds and working with the district where that family is temporarily residing.

So we have to be really careful.

Sometimes people say, oh, I saw blah blah blah, so I know they're breaking the rules, but they're not actually breaking the rules.

Other times they are absolutely breaking the rules, and when we get that information, we do as much research as we can.

And I can promise you that we do send letters saying we are aware that you are not residing here, and you have until this date to leave, and if you continue to behave fraudulently, we will bill you for tuition.

Commission, which is our recourse under the law.

Okay, so anyone out there that thinks or knows that there's a student in any school that is not a resident and is, like, you know, using our tax, what should they do?

Just to put— because anonymous members and I— this one said this— I don't— right, I don't like all that.

That is not helpful to us.

Yeah, if you know somebody, you need tell the name, you need to say who you are.

It's not like we're gonna spread it on the— no, we keep it highly confidential— newspaper and everything.

But yeah, just to put this to rest, what should somebody do?

They can either contact our central office on the main number and we will take the information, do the research, and act accordingly.

Or if they're aware of it at a school where their child is attending, or their grandchild, or their family member is attending, they can contact that school main office directly.

I promise you, we do keep the information confidential, but To your point, we're not super interested in anonymous tips.

We'd really appreciate people saying, this is what I think and this is why I think it, so that we can actually do the research to see if that's the case.

We don't want anyone perpetrating fraud on the taxpayers of SEACOMC.

But you actively research whatever?

We do.

And the last part of that is, are you allowed to tell the person that complained, what happens?

Because, you know, all these laws and everything, like HIPAA laws, I can tell you something but you can't tell anybody else.

Can you?

To some degree, yes, but in other cases, no.

Like, I certainly would never reveal we did the research and that family's homeless.

Like, that's not appropriate.

But we did the research and that student is legally able to attend our school district.

Thank you for your complaint.

Okay.

I just— yeah, because I know there's so many laws and I don't want to put anybody on the spot.

No, you know, and I don't want, you know, people's personal information getting— even people who report it, right?

Say I wouldn't want their personal information, but they may.

I mean, if you file a complaint with anything or any entity or whatever, you usually like to know what the outcome was, but legally sometimes you are not allowed that.

Certainly we are not going to reveal any families' personal information.

There are some things you can relay back, but others— okay.

If I could sprinkle a little in here.

Obviously, obviously we have some budgetary issues with the school department.

You have what?

We have some budgetary issues with the school department, obviously, meaning we're coming forward asking for a 4.6% increase.

There's obviously some numerical issues, and while this is a topic that I can understand.

In the grand scheme of it, it's not really that impactful.

And what I mean by that is there's a lot of misconceptions.

One, we live right next to the border.

For a long time, when I first lived here and I had my kids, my parents lived in Rhode Island.

They'd come help out and pick up the kids after school.

One of the chief complaints I hear occasionally from people in passing when they think somebody doesn't belong here— oh, they were picked up by a car with a Rhode Island tag.

That's an assumption.

It doesn't mean that that person's from Rhode Island.

They might have a family member who's helping them out that live in Rhode Island.

Now, what I would suggest is it could be, if it is a belief that there is a large volume of children in our— because it would need to be a large volume of kids for it to have any actual impact if we're talking about standard public education.

Because again, the per pupil cost is $17,000, but just because you remove one kid, it doesn't take $17,000 off the budget.

The class still exists.

The classroom still exists.

Where you really only ever see that impact is if in a case where a student is receiving, let's say, special education to some degree that may be $250,000.

Okay, now we have something to talk about.

But if it is a concern that is growing and is believed to be something, I would suggest maybe that that's something that the select board, the town, and the school department can maybe combine with and have something.

Because the reality is, is it's taxpayer money That's funding us, right?

So it is in the best interest for the town to make sure that that money is being used appropriately and someone's not misusing it.

So I'm sure that if it is a large interest and a belief that there is a large assortment of kids in our schools, I think it would be a great bridge to maybe have somebody who's— and I don't know the possibilities of this— but somebody who works kind of between both entities.

Because again, the goal is to protect the taxpayer funding and making sure it's appropriately going to the residents.

But at the same time working hand in hand with the school department.

That would be my thoughts on that.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, we work very well between us and the school department, even though we always do not agree on things.

But in the past, this would never have happened.

This talking back and forth and communicating whether we agree or not.

And maybe a couple of students is not, but it has been a subject that's come up.

Yes, it affects the budget, and we got plenty of information on that.

And I realize your point about it, you know, but sometimes a lot of small things make a big deal in the end.

So, okay.

And one final comment, if I may?

Sure, go ahead.

It's not going to affect this budget cycle, but I think there needs to be a big conversation between all of us about looking at merging our maintenance departments because I think there's some efficiencies there.

I see some duplications and other things I see that don't get done.

So going forward, and it'll be a big task if it ever came to fruition, but I think it's definitely, with all the infrastructure we own, budgets and everything, we need to— I think we need to look at that.

Peel that onion back and see if there is anything we can do to make things better.

And you're talking about merging maintenance for all the schools or all the town buildings?

Both.

Well, I don't know about you, but I don't want to tackle that right now.

But— oh, not right now.

I'm not the only person in the room.

Communities have done it and they've realized some cost savings by doing it.

Not on that.

I do like the idea of combining resources.

It's something I've mentioned.

I don't know if you guys have seen it at the school committee meetings, but I think where you might have some ground to maybe work together here and create something— there's always been a lot of talk about a new DPW building.

There's been quite a bit of resistance from the town for that.

We have transportation costs.

The transportation costs are skyrocketing.

At one point in time, Seekonk did have their own transportation services.

I don't know, I see an opportunity, light bulb goes off in my head.

You know, large DPW facility that's storing vehicles, maybe able to store buses, maybe able to work on buses.

It may be an opportunity to have a partnership.

Again, just to— well, as far as the bus situation goes, I've been around a long time.

So the reason that the school separated— they separated the cafeteria out, they separated the school buses out, because it actually saved money in the budget because you're— another entity is doing it.

It saved on not only employee payroll but benefits.

So when it happened, which I can't tell you when, they proved that to the school committee then that it was going to save money.

And that's why it was separated, because the school cafeteria people were all school employees and so were all the bus people, like you said, and we had bus maintenance and all that.

But whenever that happened, it proved to be at that time a big savings to the school not to have that in your budget.

And if it was a big savings then, I can only imagine what the savings is now.

So just to add to that though, to Mr. Juckett's point, we can— we presently have one minibus that we use for our students in the Transition Academy who go out from the high school to work sites.

These are ages 18 to 22 students who go out to, you know, work in the community.

We also, in after hours, are able to use that bus for our smaller clubs and teams when they need to go somewhere.

Like if we have a team that, you know, doesn't need a full-size bus for a transport to an athletic contest, we can use the bus we own.

We have a list of certified drivers that we follow the town's policy for how you're allowed to do that.

With cooperation with the DPW, we could potentially have a few more vehicles like that that could significantly lessen the small vehicle routes that we have to run related to special education transportation, related to athletics and field trips.

So even if it doesn't make sense for us to invest in 11 big yellow buses— and I'm not— Dr. McGee was trying to tell me where in town we could park 11 big yellow buses, and I was not convinced, but he and Mr. Braga were doing some math.

So at minimum, we could potentially move to a hybrid solution that didn't require taking on additional employee benefits but did save us in marginal costs for smaller transportation runs.

And with the contract you have with the bus company, you're allowed to do that?

We are.

So I have to recuse myself from any transportation conversations because I work for a company that has actually sold buses to Z-Con.

So I'm going to talk about contracted services in regards to food services, so that way I'm not violating— you know what I mean?

But I'm saying to myself, so why is he telling us that?

Yeah, yeah, no, so I don't want to be involved in the conversation they just had with you is why I'm saying that.

I'm recusing myself from that.

And, and you're right, contracted services can save money on OPEB employee costs down the road.

But when you look at the contracted service, the cost of it in each individual budget during the, you know, in the years that you're working with, it's usually more expensive to have contracted services than to do it yourself, as long as you run it well.

If you run it well and efficient, you can actually save money over contracted services.

But then you have to factor in OPEB, which does hit the town somewhere down the growth.

And that's where it gets, you know, you can show long-term savings by contracting, but you can show short-term savings in the budget right now that we have to, all of us, balance every year by not contracting services.

So, but that's a mathematical area that I'm sure Dr. McGee loves to play with and share at some point if you're ever interested in that scenario.

Well, actually, it wouldn't be us that's interested in it be something if, if you stop that.

Because I know years ago they said they did it because it saved the town money.

Yeah, if it doesn't save the town money anymore, then maybe, maybe, you know, and I'll only say maybe because you'd have to prove it.

Uh, Dr. McGee and Mr. Braga just completed posting an RFP for our food services vendor because it was the time that we had to go out to bid again.

We're very happy with the service that we're receiving right now.

We hope to continue a positive relationship with whatever vendor responds appropriately to the RFP, but they will be careful in analyzing the responses that we get.

At this time, we believe food services is still something that's appropriate to contract out, but hybrid solutions related to transportation are certainly something we've discussed, especially if we can have combined opportunities with DPW and shared resources.

Back to your point.

It all circles back to the question you had asked, which is that there are some areas where we could share.

Okay.

Does any other member have a question on— that's all right, I'm just cutting you short.

On what we— on the non-slide slides.

Anybody?

Anybody?

Anybody?

Everybody good?

Mr. Gadeen, you good?

I'm good.

Okay, we're gonna have— we're gonna also be studying this too and looking at it because I have the papers that were saved.

I saved from, um, probably the last time we met on the presentation to the Quad Board in October about the fiscal year '27.

So we're not— we town and school are not set on monies anyway because of things out of our control at this point.

We just wanted to make sure we were transparent with you and that you were up to date on where we were in the process so far.

We'd be happy to come back anytime.

Like I said, we'll look to schedule time with FinCom.

You, you know where to find me.

Mr. Kadeem knows where to find me.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Oh, you'll be back here.

You'll be back.

I will be back.

Because it's an ongoing thing.

But we want to make this regular anyway, so that everybody knows this discussion that's going back and forth.

And depending on what happens, where we get our information from, when it finally comes down, it could change— hopefully could change things drastically, not only for school, but for the town.

Watch out.

I know that you said we'll be back here, we'll have continued discussions.

On that last slide where it says we have upcoming meetings, I mean, I know I can speak for myself, not the full committee, but if there are any questions or suggestions to us or feedback that you've heard as we go into those meetings, particularly our work session, next work session, for the budget.

I think that all that would be helpful for us to continue to work through.

And then, you know, we can be more efficient, right, when we come back to you for feedback and, and getting all the information that you're looking for.

So, oh, we'll always come back to you with feedback.

I don't, I don't seem to get a lot of feedback at the— about the school budget until basically the town meeting.

I mean, we meet, we meet, we talk, we discuss back and forth.

That would, to me, would be something that you folks would get more than we would get.

Not that we don't get some, I'm sure we do.

But I don't, but you know, I figured that would be something you guys would get.

But whatever it is, your feedback, whatever you get, whatever we get.

And to expand on what Lisa just shared, we do have a budget subcommittee that meets regularly now.

We post meetings, very transparent.

So if you have anything you want us to discuss, we're happy to do that.

And if you need any information from us at any time, you've heard from our pledge, from all of us, that we want to provide any information we can.

We want to be the most transparent, you know, committee that you've worked with.

And also, I want to thank our administrative team because they really have focused on actual costs.

It's not like the old days where some, you know, another school district's not here, but they would fluff up the budget.

You know, these people are focusing and bringing us the school committee numbers that are actuals to work off of those.

So I want to thank the administrative team, and I just want to thank you for having us and hearing us.

The select board has been very good to work with, so we want to thank you for that.

Of course you can.

We're all— all of us are talking.

You can talk too.

Stand like this.

Okay.

Well, I just really do want to highlight, and I don't know if superintendent made it clear in the, in the presentation, that what Seekonk is doing, being able to like— I know you don't care about our neighbors, but I care about our neighbors, and it's important that we remain competitive.

Like People are looking and we are competing for families, educators, and opportunities.

So it is actually important that we remain competitive with the communities around us.

And what's very impressive, and she won't toot her own horn, and I know it's not just her, it's her whole team, but is that we are managing to do that while spending significantly less than the state average and being— we are above average, right?

In everything.

In everything.

Everything.

I didn't even know that data point when I got up here.

And so I just want that to be noted, that we are being fiscally responsible and what we're doing is pretty great, but the margin is thinning and we are coming to a point where things are about to be very compromised and I think the students are really going to start to feel it.

So I just wanted to thank you guys and thank all of you for having us.

And by the way, Alicia is on the budget subcommittee.

To me, so she's very informed.

But I did say at the last school committee meeting that I got goosebumps when our administrative team shared all the academic accolades.

I also really appreciate many of you who have shared with us that your children— you came to Seekonk for your children and their education.

We all believe in that sentiment, but we don't want the neighboring— we want the neighboring towns to say, yes, Seekonk's got the best schools in the area.

So that's why we feel like we're in competition with them to that point.

Well, if they're the best school, then we're not in competition.

They have to compete.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

So I know that's the town sentiment.

Everybody really values the education here.

We want to keep it going.

And we've all— it's done well by many of us.

Well, we want to keep it going too.

But we got a lot more departments that we have to keep going too.

And we have the money that we have.

And And, you know, we can't— we have to manage to keep everybody going.

And we agree.

It's one pie.

It's got to just be sliced up as best as possible.

I know.

And that's what we're trying.

Your hard part.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you for your time.

So, yeah, you're welcome.

Would you like us to adjourn?

If we're all good.

If we're all good.

I think my board's all good.

So, okay, I'd like a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

All right, I hear 2.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay, I have 2 seconds.

Uh, any, any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

The ayes have it unanimously.

Thank you.

At 7:26 PM.

Thank you.

Bye.

Thank you, Bridget.

Thank you.

Thanks, Bridget.

Just got to acknowledge you, that's all.

As you sit quietly over there in the corner.

Yeah.

Okay, so our next is discussion of the Old Town Hall located at 624 Taunton Avenue, otherwise known as the old police station.

So, uh, one of the members wanted— yeah, um, Madam Chair, I was one who asked to have this put on the agenda.

Um, as we know from the, uh, town meeting.

This was one of the warrant articles, I believe it was Article 15, and, um, the article did fail.

65% of the voters voted to keep this piece of property.

We had discussion at town meeting how it was one of the oldest, or is the oldest building in town, so maybe not declared a historical site, but it is of historical value, at least to the people who live in this town.

And because it was voted to keep, I think we need to make sure that we don't just forget about it and do something to maintain it.

And, you know, we all have the report that was done back in June of 2025.

So we're approaching a year on when this report was done.

At the time, it was given a rating of, fair.

There's 3 ratings: good, fair, and poor.

And I, for one, would like to do something to try and keep it from falling into the poor category.

So voters voted to keep it.

I think we need to do something to maintain it.

What that is, I, you know, based on this report, I don't know if it's— if there's some stuff that can be done now, or if we have to have— and maybe I'm looking to Mr. Cadime, for this advice here, if we need to have some type of a building committee or something formed.

Um, but we also need to decide what we want to do with the building, like what's its purpose going to be.

I know there were some ideas that were thrown out at, at the town meeting.

I, for one, had thrown out the idea of it becoming a Seekonk Historical Museum or a cultural center where it could be used by those of the artists who could put on you know, displays, shows.

It could be used for a meeting hall.

Those are just, you know, some of the ideas I had.

I know Mr. Alves had a whole list of ideas.

So I personally haven't been in the building in probably 30 years, so I don't really remember the structure of the interior of it and what it looks like.

I know there is a handicap ramp available, so you at least get to like one floor floor, right?

I don't know about the other floors, but, um, you know, what would need to be done to make this building usable for, you know, a community-type purpose?

Okay, just to add to that, I have had the displeasure of visiting this— the old police station, as I call it.

I'll call it 624 Town Avenue— just a couple of weeks ago.

And the reason I'll tell you is because I'm on the library committee, and we were thinking that maybe if the— if 624 Totten Avenue was appropriate, that maybe we could temporarily move the library over there.

And, um, once the construction— the renovation occurs at the library, figuring it has a good parking lot, it's our building and everything.

Well, I was sadly disappointed because now that I have toured that building I can tell you that I have changed totally my mind on the thing.

The building is worth absolutely nothing.

It can't be used for anything.

If the town was going to spend money, whether it be us asking the town for money to renovate or asking the CPC money to renovate, it would cost too much money.

As far as I'm concerned, that building now, because of the condition that it's in, is going to end up like the administration building that was on School Street, which is gone.

That building is— the handicap ramp that you said yes, there's been one behind there for years, can no longer be used.

That's outdated.

But looks okay from the outside.

As far as I'm concerned, a bulldozer is the only way to take care of that building.

As far as the property goes, I have said in the past that I thought the communications department would be good to have a building up there all of their own.

And things that I've seen and heard since then is kind of changing my mind, only because of the location.

I still— I know there's renovations at Public Safety right now for communications, and I'll, I'll, uh, hold my definite idea until after I see that, that and see how that all worked out.

But if my idea for having a separate building for communications, um, I've changed my mind as far as the location goes.

And I believe that the location, if and when that is something that the town decides to do, should be closer to the Public Safety Building where it is right now.

And above that, I don't know what else we could use that property for.

So I would be not totally convinced yet we should sell the property, but it's getting there.

Just so you know.

No, well, that— thank you.

But I, I mean, it's unfortunate because the reason the building falls into the state that it is, because we let things go.

We don't maintain the buildings the way we should maintain them.

So it's unfortunate that, that it was presented to the voters that we would keep this building because of its historical significance, and here we are, you know, saying that the building's not worth it.

So when I asked, we not do due diligence of going and taking— I mean, we had the report, we did get that report, but they at the time did not call it a fair condition.

They called it— I mean, they called it fair, not poor.

Poor was demolish it.

Fair is not demolish it.

So I, I mean, in less than a year, just under a year, it's drastically changed that much.

So to that, to the chairperson's point, that's her opinion of the building.

Yeah, right, because she went in.

Sure, that's her opinion of the building.

Um, I had went in that building probably 10 years ago.

Um, the town people voted to keep it.

Um, as everybody knows, I was willing to get rid of it.

Um, that did not happen, which I'm perfectly acceptable with that.

So now that the town voted to keep it, let's keep it.

Let's do something with it.

So before we go crazy all over town looking for a place to put a temporary library If we're going to do that, I think we should look at that building first off.

I think we can use it, we can re-insulate it, we can put up sheetrock.

We don't have to make it a library.

We can just make it a space where people can go read some books, get on a computer.

We can make some changes in it while we also decide what the future use of that is.

I believe a couple years ago there was a subcommittee, ad hoc committee, put together by the chairman of the planning board.

I believe Mr. Alves was on it.

I believe a historical person from the Historical Commission, the person was on there, and they made a presentation to this board about multiple uses in that building.

I think one of them was an art center, a meeting room.

You had things upstairs and downstairs, if I remember correctly.

And I can't speak to the whole thing because I don't have it in front of me, but I do think we should look at that again because the townspeople voted to keep the building.

If we're going to keep it, there's multiple uses for it.

I will not agree to go rent space somewhere to make a temporary library, because there have been other communities that renovated their library and/or made improvements to it and just completely closed them during the renovations.

There was no library.

So if we're going to be looking at keeping the building and making changes, I think if we just went in there and made the walls and insulated and got the heat back on and whatever else needs to be done— I believe the roof's not that old.

Roof's been done within the last 8 years, 2014, 2018.

Yeah, it was.

So it's not that old.

So the roof's still pretty viable.

As far as the handicap accessibility, that would be something that had to be addressed at some point if we're going to use it for any type of a public access building.

But I do think before we go all over the place— and everybody has the right to change their mind, as, as the chairman, she sees the building differently now.

Um, so I already argued that fact.

Now that those people kept it or want to keep it, we should do something with it so it doesn't turn out to be the old school administration building or the old fire station on County Street, because that's where it's headed.

It's been sitting there empty for a lot, and if anybody's been in the building, it is now just a shell.

It's just a shell of a building.

And it's unfortunate that that happened over the years with the different organizations that were supposed to go in there and what happened to that building.

But there was money put into it to preserve it and make it weather-tight, put a new roof on it and take care of some of those those things so that it didn't fall in total disrepair.

Because if we didn't do that 10 years ago, or whenever the roof was done, we'd be tearing it— probably already.

Yeah, we'd probably already be in the poor state.

So, so, you know, I think there's multiple uses for it.

I do think that we should try to find that study again if somebody has it somewhere, or ideas, so we can look at it long term.

Um, no, that's just my 2 cents for that.

Well, my question to Mr. Cadime is like, what would be— what would be the next step as far as what could we go in and do to, as Mr. Healy said, to preserve the building at least to the point where we could get it to survive until we have an actual full decision as to what we are going to do with the property?

So one, I— well, DBW, I guess to answer your question first, DBW has already gone in the building.

So we did put a new roof.

I think it was 2015 through CPC, but I can confirm that it was around that time.

So the roof has, you know, recently been replaced, so it's not that old.

So we've got some weatherization that we need to do.

So DBW has already looked at it.

They're going back, looking at some of the soffits that need to be replaced, some of the windows, things of that nature.

In terms of the building itself, the building is probably in the same shape that Mr. Healey saw it.

It's an open space.

The walls have been knocked down.

I think at the end of the day, what tends to happen, like many of our projects before us, is that we've got so many differing opinions in terms of what we can do with that.

I think once we figure out what we want to do with it, I think we can do something with it.

It ultimately comes down to what do we want to see the use for that building, how much we want to invest in that building in terms of a long-term investment and use for it.

I think if we're talking about what you're mentioning, which I don't disagree with you, for an open space, public space, to have local artists go there, I think it's something that would make sense because you can keep that essentially open.

So there's probably minimum renovations that you would need to do to get it to that, I guess, to that caliber of what it is.

And when you start looking at all the artifacts that we have down in the basement, we've got an old weights and sealant measures cabinet that we're looking at getting refurnished.

Really have nowhere to put it.

We have old election boxes.

So if that's something we want to do, that can almost be somewhat of a museum for historic purposes that we've talked about.

If we're talking about doing something cheaper, I mean, we could do that.

But I think we did discuss potentially having the library temporarily relocate there.

One of my concerns, and I said this to the chairperson, is what I would hate to do is have the library relocate there, make renovations, only to knock down the renovations or change what's being done without knowing what the long-term goal would be.

So, because I think you could almost phase it in, get something completed if it meets the library needs, which it seems like it's smaller than what the library actually needs, but if that's the only location we have, they'll make it work.

I just don't want to go in there, put up sheetrock, fix plumbing, and then all to have that pulled out and changed if the plan is something completely different for the building.

So at the end of the day, I think we just need to all kind of get on the same page and make that determination of what that looks like.

And you got to keep in mind the reason that— one of the biggest reasons about if that's used as a temporary library is the support on the floors.

The building was— the structure was only designed for 50 PSF live load, where a library needs much more than that.

So that would mean that the whole floor of that building would have to be reinforced.

And unfortunately, even according to this, the steel lolly columns which support the floor have visible corrosion at the base, um, the lower portion of the foundation.

Um, the exterior is different, but there's been past water damage in the basement.

Uh, unless I'm proven wrong, this would take a lot of money to put a temporary library there just to renovate it and then not— and either use it or not use it, because the floor would be a big issue.

Um, the thing has been gutted, so it has to be all rebuilt.

And some people say, well, that's easier, but not necessarily when you got plumbing, electricity, handicapped accessibility, uh, floor loads, and that.

Mr. Gadeen, if you were to shut down the library, would Mr. Healey suggested instead of relocating?

What type of savings is that, or what, what is— do we still have to pay for staffing for the whole year, year and a half?

Well, yeah, I think that would be unless we're laying people off, then you're paying unemployment costs and things of that nature.

So I don't think the, the intent is to close the libraries, to relocate, but the library recognizes that they would have to, and that's— that was part of the budget that was for the renovation anyways, was the relocation.

So depending on the space, they'd also have to get a lot of the books, you know, covered in terms of the relocation and stored.

So there's the specific facilities that store library books for climate control and things of that nature.

And then above that, the library in simple terms loses their accreditation, which means they're taken out of the system completely once they close down.

And then it takes a lot of work to get back into where they were before.

The library has standards that it has to keep up to and has to order so many books every— I don't know if it's every month or whatever.

And everybody that has a library card now for Seekonk, that's allowed to go to other libraries once Seekonk loses its— if they close down completely, they'll not be able to do that.

They'll have to get cards from other libraries.

It's, it's not just the employees.

Yes, the employees will be affected.

What we would like to do is try to do something that wouldn't lay any of the employees off, just possibly relocate or not, um, and see how, you know, try to do that the best way we can.

So the kids would still— they wouldn't be affected much because they still have the program at the schools, the sales program.

If I remember about this old town hall, the ADA, to bring it up to any type of compliance, that was the biggest cost factor.

I believe put an elevator or something like that.

Um, Miss Posey had mentioned the handicap ramp, but I believe when they had toured it back right before COVID they said that was a significant undertaking to bring it up to ADA compliant.

We'd still have to be responsible for that, right, to make it somewhat responsible?

Yeah, so we would have— yeah, we would have to bring We would have to bring the building up to code.

So it just depends on what the use is going to be.

So if there's no interest in using the upstairs, which is kind of limited anyways, everything would be on that first floor level.

So it's just gaining access to that main level.

So I think the ADA ramp there is probably not compliant with what we're looking at.

So we would have to fix that.

We probably wouldn't need an elevator though.

No, we're just using that first floor.

Yeah, the second floor, it's tight to get up there, and I think there's only one room.

It's not— it's like one room and then the attic.

It's not really— the main use is going to be that main level, right?

Yep.

And then downstairs, if you want to do something downstairs, but it's more of a basement, it's— it could be used, but it would probably be used for storage.

Yeah.

Mr. Ells, I know you want to say something on this.

He's itching out there.

I know.

It's all right.

I think the discussion amongst you guys is spectacular, and I certainly don't want to interfere with that.

I just want to offer a suggestion that— John Alves, 25 River Street, Madam Chairman.

The town of Barrington— I mentioned this at the town meeting— had a similar building.

It was an old fire barn, I think, on Bay Spring.

And they were gonna tear that down.

And what happened, the community said, no, find some other way we can do this.

Barrington continued to own the building, but they formed a 501 with a group of interested people.

That then helped renovate the building and then used it as a— they were the booking agents, if you will, for various events that go on in the town.

And their email address is [email protected].

Ri.org.

And so, so, so it simply is a— if you're going to continue the discussion, at least investigate what the town of Barrington did, how successful they were with it.

And, uh, and at least it's another opportunity to say, uh, before we do anything drastic by tearing it down.

Please don't.

Investigate that and see if it's useful.

Okay, sounds good.

I don't think I got the whole thing either.

That information, by the way, from the dentist down there at the beginning of the driveway.

Dr. Daff, she was doing something on my teeth and I was talking about things down the hall.

By the way, don't you hate when they talk to you when they're working on your teeth?

Of course.

Any other comments from the board?

No, I'd just like to know what we're gonna do, path forward here.

I know we'll look into this.

Thank you, Mr. Alves.

Mr. Healy asked for the report from the previous new Maybe we can get a copy of that given to the board because I don't think we were all on the board.

I just got to try to find it.

Yeah.

And then maybe we can all review that and regroup at another upcoming meeting to review that as well as go over the information from this site.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah.

It probably won't be in the next meeting.

That's all I've got.

But yes, don't let me forget.

Yep.

Okay.

Establish the date for the Springtown meeting, which we have said is when, May 11th?

Oh, sorry, yes, May 11th would be the second Monday in May.

Right, and that's not a holiday or anything, we all know that, right?

I think— I don't believe so.

No, I don't see that it is either.

So it's May 11th, so we have to consider opening the Springtown meeting warrant.

So moved.

Hold on, what the hell happened?

Okay, so, um, Gary Sagan made a motion to open the Springtown meeting warrant.

Can I get a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Any discussions right now?

Take a deep breath and then don't say anything.

I was waiting for the next one.

Oh, what next one?

The next item.

That's what we're doing right now.

I was waiting for F. To consider opening the Springtown meeting warrant.

We got a motion and a second.

Motion, second.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Does anybody have any— I'm sorry, you took the motion on May 11th?

I'm sorry.

Oh, we did not.

No, that's what I was— yeah, sorry.

So I skipped one.

She did.

Okay, Gary, if you don't mind, I'm going to go back and take a motion on establishing the date for Springtown meeting as May 11th.

So moved.

Thank you.

Second.

Thank you.

That's 6 PM at night, right?

6 PM, yes, we're going to try the 6 PM that was asked.

Okay, at the high school.

Okay, I got a motion and a second.

Any other questions, comments?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, unanimous, thank you.

Consider the opening of the Springtown meeting warrant.

Mr.— whoa, wait.

Mr. Sagan made a motion, you're still making it?

Yes.

And Michael's still second?

Okay, now discussion.

Yeah, so I would just ask that it be open for tonight and then close on March 12th.

Oh, that was gonna be my question.

Okay.

Okay, so, uh, Mr. Sagar, I would ask that you, um, amend your— well, add to your motion not only to open the Springtown meeting warrant but to close it on March 12th.

So added, so amended.

Second.

Still second, Mike.

Uh, any questions from anyone?

Nope.

No.

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, that's unanimous.

So the Springtown meeting warrant is open and it will close on March 12th.

Community speaks.

Anyone else from the community wish to speak?

No one?

Well, that's good.

Uh, do we have any other business less than 24 hours— 48 hours, rather?

I don't have any.

You don't have any, do you?

You didn't know it was for me.

Okay, town administrator's report.

What?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just want to, uh, highlight to the board that the library renovation project, um, bids closed for the owner's project manager, the OPM, today at 10:00 AM.

Uh, we received 7 bids.

I did send that over to the building committee so they have that in advance of their meeting.

Their next scheduled meeting to discuss the bids that came in, uh, will be this coming Monday, February 9th, at 6:00 PM at the town hall.

Um, overall, uh, 7 submissions was good.

We actually had one, uh, that came in after the bid that had to be turned away, so, uh, potentially could have had 8, uh, but they missed the deadline.

So, uh, also I just want to bring up that we're having our annual, uh, Bruins PJ drive.

Um, just like to highlight, our, um, drive is currently underway.

Our goal is to collect 900 pairs of pajamas with drop-off locations at Town Hall, the animal shelter, Human Services, and the library.

The donations will be accepted through March 15th, and we appreciate the community's support.

I know we had a very successful PJ Drive last year.

We're trying to beat it this year.

Do you remember the amount?

I know we did over our required— uh, we did.

Do you, do you remember, Chief?

I think it was like $800 to $900.

I think that's where we Yeah, so I think that's the goal, is the same goal, but I can get that to you.

No, just— I was just curious.

And then I just want to let the board know that we're currently working on completing a comprehensive review of all our administrative policies and those that have been documented and that have been rescinded or replaced.

And then what we'll be doing is making a recommendation to the board with in the next couple of meetings to just review them and then also make the recommendations for any additional ones that may need to be rescinded or replaced.

A lot of our administrative policies were captured either in the employee handbook or the finance— the financial policy.

So we've done that, but we're also tweaking some.

So we've done a significant review.

We've gone back because there were some that weren't on the website.

So we've tracked those down.

We've reviewed some minutes to see if they've been rescinded in the past.

So we've got a little bit more work to do, but the goal is to present something to the board just to review and update.

And that's all I have.

Good.

Thank you.

Board of Selectmen liaison reports, accounts payable.

Madam Chair, Chief has his hand up.

Oh.

880 pairs.

I was going to say— That was last year's 880?

Excellent.

Thank you.

Okay, accounts payable warrant has been signed.

TV9 liaison have anything new?

Nope, nothing at this time.

Oh, except to let people know that it's not on 9 and 15 anymore.

It's on 95 and 96.

They did that to other accounts too.

They never notified anybody.

They just— yeah, I don't think they have to, but it's still quite the shock not to.

That would have been nice.

Yeah, I don't know how I— I must have saw it on social media or something.

So it's now 95 and 96.

I hope a lot of other people know that because I know a lot of people that like to, to watch it.

Bristol County Advisory Board?

Nothing at this time.

Okay.

Madeira's Farm Committee?

The only update, I think I updated the board at the last meeting, our next meeting, because it was postponed due to the snowstorm, they are meeting on February 23rd at 6:00 PM at the town hall to interview the designer services candidates.

Okay.

Comments?

Mr. Sagar, anything?

Um, you know, uh, we got a big football game on Sunday.

Do we?

Yeah, just, you know, you hear a lot of these rumors, statistics, and everything.

One that I thought was quite interesting the other day when the groundhog found the shadow.

Yeah, they said 5 of the 6 Super Bowls we've won when the groundhog found their shadow.

So maybe what we're suffering here with the cold weather and snow is going to be our good luck charm.

So good luck to the Patriots and hope it's a good football game.

Yes.

Is that it?

That's it.

Okay.

Pam?

Also everything tonight.

Okay.

Mr. Zara?

Nothing at this time.

Okay.

Mr. Healy?

Nothing.

Really?

It's a noisy place to have a meeting.

Oh, yeah.

That's Kevin, is that cutting anything out?

Oh no, they must have heard me.

They're vacuuming.

Oh yes, if you didn't hear it, you're— we're good.

We're almost done.

Thank you.

Okay, I just have a couple of things.

Um, I, I, I've heard since our last meeting that, uh, we used to have a director at the library, uh, Peter Fuller, who worked there for 24 years.

He was the assistant library director, and then he was the library director and worked for SEACOM for 24 years.

And he has since passed.

He passed recently.

Like I said, I saw it on social media, and our hearts go out to Mr. Fuller.

He loved this town, and he did a lot for the library and everything to advance it.

And sad to see him go.

He was young.

And it was on social media.

And, and I'm pretty sure that we sent out, um, an arrangement to him for, uh, from the board, which is nice.

I don't think he had— oh, he did have services, but they weren't close.

They weren't close here.

Um, I just found out today because I just saw it in front of the library, they are having a book sale this Saturday, 9 to 3.

Go out and get those first editions which probably aren't there, but I've— on my next to the last book I got in the last book sale.

So I'll be there sometime to see what kind of treasures you can get, 9 to 3 at the library book sale on Saturday.

I'd also like to mention the last snowstorm that we have that some people are in mixed ideas about.

This has got to be the worst snow season snowfall that we've had in a long time.

I know people are frustrated because their streets weren't plowed in time and all that, but I can assure you that, um, I know the plow drivers worked extensive hours to try to get everything done.

Um, there are still some places that could be pushed back, but people have to understand that with this amount of where do you put it?

I mean, I shovel my own driveway most of the time, and I had nowhere to put the snow.

So I don't know where the plow drivers are going to put the snow.

But I think they did a great job for what, what we had.

And I'd like to thank all the residents too, because there are a lot of people that came out and they helped their neighbors with snow blowers and plows, doing this or doing that.

I got help I never got before.

Before, so I was really appreciative of it because that was quite the snowstorm.

So I liked the residents and the strangers that went around and helped.

And even on social media, there were a lot of— I don't know what the age— some of— some people were advertising and said, if you still have a lot of snow, we'll come out and shovel your driveway, which I thought was great.

Thank you to them.

And, um, I know our Um, our sidewalks were a little iffy, but then again, we also— you have to take the snow off the road, which goes on top of the snow that's on the sidewalk, and then you're going to plow through that to open the sidewalks.

And I've seen a lot more sidewalks done, um, I'd say— well, today's Wednesday— since, since the end of last week.

So it was a very difficult snowstorm, and, um, I'd like to thank all of our DPW workers who worked and our vendors.

We have vendors that come out too.

Thank you very much for your hard work.

I know it was, uh, it was a lot.

Are we all good?

Are we all good?

Okay, I'll take a motion to adjourn at 7:58 PM until our next board meeting Wednesday, February 18th, 2026.

Um, maybe at the town hall, I'm not sure, but check for the location.

And we will not be going to executive session, so we will not be coming back into open session.

Gary, so moved.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pam.

Roll call, please.

Gary, say aye.

Chris, aye.

Michael, aye.

Michelle Hines, aye.

Unanimous.

Thank you, Sandra.

See you again.