001We are out of executive session at 7:43 p.m. No votes or action was taken. We will move to discussion and possible action regarding the superintendent's recommendation for the 2025 2026 budget agenda item to Dr. Sinich. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh as superintendent I accept all the responsibilities that come with the role. Uh one of the most difficult one is when I have to make decisions um to rectify budget shortfalls especially when those decisions have impact on the livelihood of our employees. Uh but as the board is aware, we received $1 million from the city um for next year's budget. That leaves us a shortfall of 1,282,278 in contractual obligations. um for us to operate as a school system um under the current conditions of where we are, we would have to cut that 1,282,278. Um
002that of course is going to have some effects uh on the operations of our school system. Um but a necessity to meet the contractual obligations um to keep our school system whole. The first things that I do go about uh when making some mitigations to the budget is to look at the retirements and the resignations that have happened in the school year. Um that is the least impactful on our employment because these individuals have chosen to leave the school system whether that's in retirement resignations um for whatever reason. And it's allows us to um take the whole salary that was provided for that individual and put it towards that deficit without impacting individuals. Um taking those retirements and resignations in in play. Um still a us to our 1 point actually $1.3 million of contractual
003shortfalls. So then we can't uh eliminate all retirements and resignations um that are made because we still need to function as a school system. there are positions that are obl we are obligated to continue forward with um so there are measures and steps that we will take moving forward with um step hiring freezes to try to mitigate the difference between the employee that left and the implanted employee that we have even with those measures taken in place um we still unfortunately would have to do a reduction in force of our current staff to meet the almost 1.3 million uh with that said I would like to present to the board um by mitigated budget. You don't mind. Jackie, do you need a copy of this? Thank you. Okay. I'm going to Thank you, sir. [Music]
004Well, if I could just walk through this particular piece. So, three retired positions that we had. Um, we we have the ability to eliminate those positions all together. Uh, one is a maintenance worker. Um, one is in the counseling area and one is support staff. There were four resations that we had within our school system that are going to force us to do some reorganizations, but it would be a whole cost without affecting the employment of anyone. One is administrative position, one is a high school teacher, one is a special ed teacher, and then one is an elementary teacher. Uh the elementary teacher is the easier out of all of them because we have some adjustments due to enrollment. As as the board is aware, we're always looking at the enrollment numbers and when there
005are adjustments to enrollment where we can contract staff, we're going to go to that. And as I said, the next bullet point, the bullet point talks about um doing a step freeze for the remaining retirements or resignations that we have um to try to recoup costs. That leads us to the 12 positions that need to be eliminated as a reduction in force. Four of those positions will be certified staff. Five of those positions will be tutors, one will be a non-certified staff, and there'll be two custodians. Um, some of these costs obviously also come into effect by only getting the million dollars. Um, we also put in with the city to cover cost in the lost title money that we received. Some of these positions were covered with title money, so we can no longer
006keep these positions. Um, as well as we had some requests for obligations that we need in our system, um, such as the prek, the expansion of the prek program. So, how to factor that line item back into the $1.3 million to help make sure that we can cover those costs. Even though um, we are going to make some reductions to some instructional line items. Our instructional line item cost is going to be reduced by $100,000. there will be less instructional line items that we have and we will be making reductions to part- timerrs work hours. Some of our part- timerrs work a full 29.5 which is the maximum amount of hours that they can work under part-time. We're going to have to reduce that to save costs. Um the total reductions to the school system
00719 staffing positions will be eliminated in our district um with to make this budget. As I said earlier, there's going to be a reduction to our our supply line items and there'll be a reduction to part-time work. Um, which of course is going to be somewhat impactful on on our management of the workday. Um although we don't take lightly uh any type of reduction in force, the the one thing that I will say out of the 19 positions that will be eliminated, it it will only um render uh a total of five layoffs in the school system. So out of 19 positions, five individuals will be laid off in the school system. So if the board reflect um I provided in this packet the two walks uh the first walk is the one that we
008submitted as part of our budget. Uh you're familiar with the budget workshop and what we submitted to the city as our request. The second one reflects how the reductions are seen within the walk itself. Um as you can see there's a new column that says reductions eliminations renewals. Um, you will see where those factors are with certified, non-certified staff, employee benefits because obviously we have to factor in the employee benefits, um, professional services, instructional material to get to the 1, uh, 282278. You know, we factored in the million dollars that we received from the city. Um, this would give us a total increase to our budget of 1.25%. Um, but it will give us an operational budget as of July 1st. Uh the other cost just because it was asked of of the board. Um
009the last part we because I double backed all the pages is just a cost comparison of of what we have done and how the city has covered our cost for overages and healthcare. Um this is a 4-year trends. We only went to four years. We of course can go beyond four years if needed, but it does show that does show the city uh it just just shows the board um what we've done in the past in terms of expenditures with healthcare and and how that that deficit was covered under the city. With that, I will entertain any questions if there are any questions from the board or we can forward it to a motion. Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion for the purposes of discussion that we move forward with the proposed superintendent's
010budget uh that we do have to put in 80,89,827 uh as a motion for approval. I'll second um discussion. Now we could have um I guess I could start. I just want to point out that, you know, looking at the financial walk, there are many things that still were eliminated obviously to get to where we were. Um, you know, the student transportation, the mayor requested 200,000 obviously that cannot be done. I just want to point out some things that we wanted that obviously is not happening as a reminder um to you know that we just focused here it looks like just on contract obligations. So, we obviously didn't make any cuts for transportation, tuition increases, building equipment and supplies, administrative expenses, professional services. Like, there was a lot of things that um were left out
011of things that felt that we obviously needed school. Mhm. Um I I wanted to make a point of that, but I would like to know from Kristen. I mean, I'm not sure what you feel, but what instructional materials are you looking at? I don't know if you know that yet, or are you just like combining subscriptions? Like, could you give any a little insight on what you think? I don't want to put you on the spot completely to the hundred,000. So, you're speaking to the $100,000 reduction. Like, is you know, are we combining things? you know, I don't want to put you on I apologize for spot. We we have been looking very closely this year doing a deep dive of the um assessments and the instructional programs like software programs that we are using
012and we are looking we looking to um we looked at a lot of usage reports and things like that and we're looking at um trying to streamline what we're using with our students. So, um it's less is more. So, with that said, um at through that process and working with Dr. Sarinich and Jackie, um one of my goals has been to see how I could maybe shave some things down so that um everybody wins in the end. We're being fiscally responsible in one end and on the other end we're utilizing uh programming that is, you know, more implemented with more fidelity rather than having three reading programs online work shifting now to one. Okay. Um and things like that. So that's going to help have somewhat of a cost savings. Um, I don't have the
013final number yet, but because I'm getting the quotes right now for the July 1 budget, but in talking with Dr. Sarinich and and Jackie, um, that there will be um there will be a cost savings there where that I believe that that's reflected in that number. And can I just add to that? Um, I I want to commend Miss Santelli for for doing this. We we came to her and cutting $100,000 from instructional supplies is not ideal. I mean, the the situation here is we as as I've said since day one when I took this position, we have to work within our means. This is what was allocated to us by the city. Um but cutting the $100,000 from instructional supplies um does allow us to preserve at least two and a half positions in
014our district. So, they're less staffing cuts that we have to do. I I just wanted to make sure that we're not like we have enough for obviously wit and wisdom to continue, you know, and I'm sure you've done none of that is even being touched and and over the past so many years now, we've h you have done a great job with streamlining teaching and learning in general. So, I knew you would do a good job. I was just wanted to hear your thought process on where you were going with your and and I want to say for the record, none of the the curriculum that our teachers have and what we, you know, use will be compromised in any way, shape, or form with this. Okay. I mean, I guess that's really my priority
015in the end, the minimal impact on the kids. Okay. Um I just want to comment that any cuts we have any position tragic and that we have to keep doing it year after year whether it's by not replacing or in this case some reduction tragic happening over and over again and I think it's one of the hardest things we all have to do to his board of ed me members is to have to cut teachers and hurt children like that. I think for the public to understand as we very well know um we have no choice. We are so the public clearly understands we do not have the power of taxation. Uh we are given a we try to put our best foot forward. Give a our best budget based on what we see based
016on past experience as well as a crystal ball predict predicting enrollment or special education and then at that time we put forth the best budget we think that's there. Um and unfortunately as I said we don't have a choice. We have we're given a number from the city of what they feel that is appropriate on their side of the table and we have to make some tough decisions sometimes and this is one of those years where we're making some very tough decisions. Uh and 19 positions is not a small amount not by any stretch of the imagination. Um and unfortunately it's put us in a tough position but I want the public to understand we have no choice in this matter. Uh it's a matter the number we get is what we have to work
017with. Thank you, Madam Chair. [Music] I'd like to say that since I've been on this board uh for six years, um we have done a lot of cuts and it's year after year after year and I don't know how many school districts have as many cuts as we've had to do. We run on bare bones and and this is hard, very hard. I'd like to mention that u since I've been here um Dr. I mean have you've been pretty creative on things you've done. Everyone else has been in the mix Christian as well. Um everything's been uh create very creative thinking and uh definitely uh definitely put the children at thought first teachers and uh I think it's great what you came up with and again just creative thinking I'm just waiting to the end
018to speak. So, well, I I still wanted to I'll still finish my discussion um in my comments before we vote. Uh I obviously we went through this tonight and um again, contract obligations will be met. These are the positions and then I highlighted the areas that obviously we just couldn't fund at all unless we want to make further cuts. Um Ken did mention that he did hand out what the city has paid for us on insurance. So, I just wanted to touch on that um because obviously we uh the as we all know um for the past several years the city has funded our overages in healthcare and I did have a conversation with the mayor and and I know that everybody some people went to the meetings some people didn't but he has stated
019in his meetings that he doesn't feel that we need the reserve accounts anymore. He has changed the plan. We now have a new provider. He feels that healthcare is coming down. um and that's where the trend is going. So that is his decision to not fund um the reserve accounts. Excuse me. I did speak to him about it. I asked him how he feels about it. He said that he was very busy. He hasn't had much time to think about it, but obviously they have not, you know, they have not um you know filled that account and says that he's spoken to his broker and he feels pretty good. I've also spoken to John Anglace, John Anglace. They're all seem to be trusting the broker. So at this point in time, we have to, you
020know, we are obviously in this budget following past practice of saying we are making our cuts. We are covering contract obligations with this and we are going to reiterate right back to the city to say, okay, well, past practice, you've been covering our healthcare because we only have $8 million in our budget. They don't want to fund the reserve account. that is their duty. It's their policy. It's their it's it's it's them. This is not our policy. So, the bills come to them and as far as I'm concerned, this is the way that they want to run it. That's fine. Um and and and and we've been working with them for the past four years. I think it even might be past four years. We know Jackie only went to 2022. It could even be
021further back. I believe it. So um I just wanted to like reiterate that that we are obviously remember that that is how we are going to be running healthcare you know again and we're going to finish you know doing that because we are all not going to necessarily be here next year and that so new members that come on are going to start asking what happens with healthcare well this is past practice and this is what we've been doing and maybe one day in the future when we're going to come to the one-year cycle of this new plan which will be maybe October you know did we see savings. I'm not sure. We'll we'll see then. And eventually, we're just going to have to keep whoever is on this board is going to have to
022keep beating up the city really to say what are we doing with healthcare? Are we going to fund the line item? Are we not going to fund the line item? Because I know it brings so much uncertainty to everyone every single year. And I understand that uncertainty. But at the same time, this is the way that the city wants to do it. and we just have to trust the process and stick together as a team and say, "Okay, and we've done that and we have to move forward." And we're obviously moving forward with that position if we vote on that budget tonight. Um, I do I would like to say something and I don't really care that I'm going to say it, but when I spoke to the mayor today, um, when I spoke to
023him about healthcare, I was extremely upset about things that he said because I'm concerned about our budget. I'm concerned about what we're going to do. I'm concerned about healthcare as we have been. And he said the most important question to him at the time was wanting to know when I was going to be resigning from the board of education. So in my eyes, he didn't care about healthcare. He didn't care about our budget. He didn't care anything. He wanted to know when I was going to resign. And that is the response he gave to me. Please put that in the meeting minutes, okay? Because that is sad. He has a duty to run this city properly. He has a fiduciary duty. Those aldermen have a fiduciary duty. And except for Ben Perry and John A.
024Grace for doing what they did. The rest of them, I am sorry, failed us. Okay. So now we are in this situation that once again we are making cuts and all the mayor wants to know is when I'm resigning. And my response was, I'm sorry. It is my duty as chairman to get through this budget to give Ken his review tonight. So, as far as I'm concerned, I am staying on in November through November. I've told everyone. I've told the paper. And so, I'm sorry that it is sad that he feels that way, but if you want me to resign right now, sure, I'll resign. Somebody else could put this budget through tonight, but where is that going to get us? And I told him that this is my job. This is my duty and
025I want to leave this board as whole as I possibly can come November because we have tried to build relationships with this city for the past so many years and I don't want to destroy that. But sadly, that was his comment to me and that's sad. But I'm sharing that with you tonight because it is upsetting and I know that we've all worked together good as a team and we need to So that was awesome. And um so yep, and that's where it stands. But I'm we're going to continue moving forward and do what's best for the kids. And tonight, like I said, we have our fiduciary duty to fund the school properly and make our attempts to act in good faith to further the educational interests of the state. And tonight, I feel that
026this budget properly does that. So, I want to thank Ken and Jackie and of course all your board of education members and administrative staff for all your hard hard work over the past few weeks. So, let's take a roll call vote, please. [Music] Hi. Patricia Moonen. Yes. Kate Coutach. Regretfully, yes. Loren Rosner, yes. with regret. Amy Romano, yes. James Orizetti, Jim Fen, hi. Anthony Smearagino, yes. Jason Nevs, yes. Okay, vote passes. Budget is set. Now the hard Dr. Sarah hard work obviously now terrible for everybody that job and I pray for all of them. Now we will move on to review of the superintendent's evaluation that may be conducted in executive session. Can I get a motion to move into executive session please? Madam chairman like to make a motion to move in executive session
027with uh superintendent uh Serinage as well as members of the board of education. Is there anyone else requested to be in? I believe no. No. No. I'll make that motion. Okay. We'll move into executive session at 8:07 p.m. There'll be second. I'll second that motion. Oh, sorry. Second by All right. Motion made by Jim P and second by Jason Nes. All in favor? I and we will enter an executive session.