001Okay. Um, board of education meeting the minutes of the March 16, 2026 board of education meeting. Motion by Sarah, second by Win. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Stay carries. Motion to accept the CSC, CPSC, and 514 report. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second by Chris. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Stain carries. Okay, we do have some agenda changes. Um so we will add budget presentation to a presentation of letter C and we will add um to our items for discussion and our action. Letter R will be a motion to accept the resignation of Zard as a teaching assistant effective May 4, 2026. And then we'll add to our motions um or items under discussion motion to amend the salary adjustment date and superintendent contract from May 1st 26
002to May 11th. So I you guys should have gotten our updates about those have not been added to the agenda. And that's it. Right? Um Next we have financials. We have the general fund expenditure of school lunch expenditure, the lunch report for March and extracurricular reports that we will were able to review in our packet this week. Um were there any questions? Stephanie, was there anything you wanted to point out to us? Okay. Um next we have visitor comments. Okay. Um, presentation. So, we have the use of government, Mr. Wells. >> Uh, my name is Mel. I am the secondary social studies teacher here and also the government advisor. here. Um, and uh, so this is my 18th year as you government advisor and this year we brought 21 students down to Albany. Um, many
003of you I know are really familiar with the program. Many of your children been participants in the program. Um, but just to sort of give an overall uh, synopsis of what we do on a yearly basis. Uh we start the program in late September, early October with the goal of being ready for the state conference in the middle to the end of March. And um you know, we usually start with decent amount of kids and kind of boils down a little bit, but we've got about we've had 20 we had 21 this year and we're right around that number for the past couple years, which is a really great number for us. At one point our numbers have dipped down into the single digit 7 89 but uh the interest has rekindled and one of
004the things that is really great about it is word of mouth. I can say how great it is but this is really it'll be him doing school stuff. I don't know about that. But when these guys come back and they have the enthusiasm for the program, that's what really gets the younger kids involved. And then from there, it just kind of does its thing. And I just sort of sit back and let the program do the talking. And it uh it's a really amazing program. I was participant as a student, so I'm pretty passionate about it and I'm thrilled to see so many uh Johnsburg students um interested in it and um trying to keep those um numbers going. So it's got a number of about students here that are uh participants. I invited three
005of them to come and and talk to you uh today and I'll give you an opportunity in a moment to ask some questions about their experience. So the program is a mocker program where students from all across New York State uh meet in Albany, New York in um the end of March. Uh we stay at a hotel down there for the weekend. We do get to use the capital building on Saturday, which is really cool. Kids get to sit in the uh seat of the actual legislators, the assembly people, uh, and debate bills. Um, in the last two years, we've had the ability to use the Albany County Courthouse, which is just across the street. And it's such a such a cool facility. And the attorneys and justices get to argue mock court cases in
006those chambers. And I think just sitting in the seats of the professionals and the elected representatives is a cool thing in itself, but to meet with like-minded people all across New York State is really cool, too. This is the largest the program has been in its history. This is the 90th year of the New York State Youth and Government. We have the oldest Youth and Government program in the country. And there were about 900 students from across um all of New York State. and it's grown exponentially uh from precoid to a bit of a dip and it's this is many students as the program has ever had which has led to some logistical issues um the need to spill over to a second hotel and so unfortunately we were relegated to the the second the
007second hotel this year just about two miles down the road um and and hopefully that will be sort of a rotating basis if those numbers stay high we'll again um in future years. Um so there are three main components to the program. There are bill sponsors. The majority of our students are bill sponsors, meaning they create a bill uh which is something they would like to see as New York State law. So a couple of the students here are bill sponsors. I'm sure they'd love to tell you a little bit about the bills that they sponsored and what they're hoping to achieve in New York State. Um there is press uh we have had a few press core members and those people um they create uh slideshows for the program. They write articles about the
008program um and they do the social media for the program during the weekend and they're kind of bouncing all around interviewing people. Um and then finally we have our judicial program. Most students start as attorneys where they're given a mock case and a side of that case to argue and court cases to help support their argument and they create briefs and then they argue against another team from another school throughout New York State and one of them is declared a winner and then there are justices. So, uh, Lily has been an exemplary attorney for a couple years and has been nominated to be a justice. So, she gets to be the person on the bench asking questions of the attorneys um ultimately making rulings about which team won and writing up those um writing up
009those court decisions. Um so Lily got went down on Thursday a day earlier than most of the students um to make sure that she was all prepared and many some of the students do go down for that. So enough talking. I'd love to invite Walter and Colin Lily and Rowan's a member. Uh you can ask him too. Um come on up and uh introduce yourselves. tell of the board a little bit about your role in the program and uh we'd love to open it up to any questions that you all have me or students. So go ahead guys. I am personally starting this year. I've been doing program this is my third year now. I've been doing legislative for all three years. It's a new bill every single year. Um never had it pass unfortunately.
010This year, you know, for example, this year was I was actually in a group with Walter Rowan. Um, we were pushing to allow skiers to ski on resort property but outside of designated trails, smart trails, you know. So, it was a fun weekend. It was fun leading up to it being up a lot like study halls and stuff to work on our bills. Um, and yeah, we got a lot of work done. did a lot of research on it. Unfortunately, when I actually came to going down there, didn't pass, but it was still a great experience. >> Was that just >> No, no, we had full choice to come up with ourselves. >> I just want to interject for a quick second. I'm sorry. Sorry to interrupt. Um the process to get to Albany, we
011uh meet with local schools um twice uh in Silver Bay. So uh schools in the local area that are participants newcome Bolton Queensberry um Manurva and we meet there and run through preliminary questions and things like that to get to colleges. >> That was my question is how often do you meet throughout the school year? Does that seem like a lot of >> Yeah. Um I would say about from when did you say our first meeting? Like November, December >> or actually yeah probably from the end of October we start having meetings. I believe it was bi-weekly leading up to um we went to the Silver Bay twice. Once in December, once I late January or early February, but yeah, five weekly meetings we went to twice the actual I'm Lily and um I was
012my fourth year of the program started eighth grade and I'm the community and until this year I was human justice and I think it's all great opportunities like IS Walter I'm the vice president for youth government and I in a group with Colin and it's a great opportunity. It helps a lot of students work on their public speaking skills and getting out of their comfort zone and doing things around justice. How many cases did you see? >> There's three cases and each courtroom there's four courtrooms each about nine cases and the cases are based on like difficulty. like the hardest and put together. >> Yeah. >> And did you see any actual officials there? No, I don't believe so. I don't recall. >> I didn't see any of this. >> Sometimes there are some at
013an opening ceremony to give a a statement and some of the students that went down on Thursday had the opportunity to go to the the cap and they recognized the 90th anniversary of youth and government. But no, not on you're right now, Mr. J. Not on the weekend. So, does this at all impact what you want to do after high school? >> I would say for me personally, it hasn't. It's definitely I've definitely thought about it, but it's helped with several just life skills overall. Public speaking for sure being one. You know, I realize like by far one of the most important things if you want your bill to pass or you want to kind of have influence people that you're talking to is to sound confident. really act like you know what you're talking
014about whether or not you do. So, it's definitely helped a lot with that and they're very good about having social activities and things to do when people aren't presenting their bills or working on their cases. So, it's definitely helped a lot with social skills and that sort of stuff for me person like like those are probably last a lot of friends that I really >> I'd say similar for me too. It hasn't really changed exactly what I want to do, but it still meeting people. >> Yeah, pretty much the same. I mean, it was just a fun thing. Uh, yeah, I've been doing it for three years as well. Just a cool opportunity that we're lucky enough to have here. >> Um, and anything about the program you guys. I appreciate the time. Um, the
015neat thing about the program is people can be as involved as they want to be. They can be at a kind of minimal level where they're a bill or they're arguing a case and that's where they can try to become part of the program at a higher level running for elected office, things like that. I remember when I was a student, uh the youth governor was Lee Zelden, um who was a representative from Long Island and is now the uh EPA, the director of the EPA at the national level. So, um for some people, it really does inspire them to go on and do things in the future and it's neat when you see a bill that was presented in youth and government and a couple years later the actual legislator is passing a similar
016bill. So, um I think it's a really great program and we really appreciate the the support that you all given it over the years and that will make one quick comment please for you. Yes, >> people should say um it's aside from the um the people skills, it's also seems like a deeper maybe understanding of how the process legislative process works um that can directly indirectly help in the future. But it just seems like that's valuable piece of it too >> without question see the legislative process in action. I mean, you can talk about it. You can put the charts up on the board and but the for these students seeing the process happen um seeing uh what happens when a bill passes it go they don't do the double chamber passes just because that
017would take too much time. But um it does go to the governor that the youth governor and the governor get choice to sign or veto and if there's time on Sundays um they do some veto overrides. So they learn about that process as well. So you're absolutely correct in that. >> Thank you guys. Thank you. >> Okay. Now we have a presentation for the space trip and >> Yeah. So um I'm Brent Davis teacher and in March we took a field trip to Spain. Um got 13 kids. Two of them are here too. Yeah. two. We got two of them here. And um so we went for a week and just a brief uh explanation of where we've been and what we did. Um so uh we you know flew with British Airways to London,
018had a very brief layover there and went to Madrid and um from Madrid we went um to the region where I actually used to live and work, region called Aragon. And that's where we spend basically the entire trip there. And um the city where we mostly stayed uh called Farota. It's a city of about 700,000 people. And it's got a really rich long history. It's been you know making history for 2,000 years. So everywhere you go there's, you know, ruins from the Romans and then all the the middle ages all the way up through the present day. And we went to a lot of right actually outside of our hotel was the old city wall that was built by the Romans where like you could actually see like wow this was built by Caesar, you
019know, and there was actually statue there which is really cool to see. Um, so everywhere we went, we're just bumping into, you know, like this is an actual awesome place to see and just just by walking around the place, you actually absorb a whole lot of history and just learn a lot just by existing there. So, we went to two different cathedrals and I think every everybody who walked in was just blown away with how awesome it was. And um when I was there first went into uh both those cathedrals um the first thing that I thought was this must how did they build this in such a short time frame and I heard a couple a couple of the kids say the exact same thing because you you go in look up and it's
020you're just overwhelmed by like the detail of the architecture just how how skill that each and every person who worked on that had to have been. So that was that was pretty interesting to to to hear echoed from from the kids. A lot of the things that I had thought, you know, every time I've been there. So I went to cathedrals there. We went to a medieval palace that was actually the um one of where the the kings and the queens of that region used to live. And you know the same thing same thing except with you know not a religious aspect but more of a you know a governing aspect with the medieval history. Um we went to an aquarium which is nice and the uh the thing with that aquarium differing from most
021other aquariums that you go to not not saltwater you know exhibits but um all rivers river from um most of the continents. They had the local a river. They had the the Amazon River with piranas and everything. So, it was really interesting just to see a bit of you know mostly local life there. Um and um and each each time we went out to eat which which was a bunch and and there's I think I can speak for most people where it was pretty tasty. And we we went went out of our way to just go to like the places that serve to cater to like this is local food. This is this is the real this is the real deal. This is real stuff. This is what people here have been eating again for
022couple of thousand years and I enjoyed it and a lot of lot of other people enjoyed it as well. So that was where we spent most of our time and we took a little side trip for about a day and a half to the actual town where I used to live. Spent a year there. Uh called it home for a year and we went to a school there. So like an actual public school um and we went to a couple of classes that school actually um you know he gave us a little schedule to follow. Um there was art history class, a uh philosophy class I think. >> Yeah. Yeah. philosophy class and a couple of English classes where we all did a whole bunch of different activities. Um, and you know, it was from
023my end it was really nice like see a whole bunch of people that I worked with and that I that had been meaning to see them for a long time but we just never connected. And it was uh good for the the kids to like actually see what is it like to be a kid in Spain. Um, and did that whole thing in that town. I think they got a really good snapshot of what what is it like to actually live in that place where where I used to live for a year. Um >> in that town where it's uh again history is all over the place. There's the town was built around a castle which was built about the year 900. So it's you know kind of old and um just everywhere you go
024it's you get a different view of it and it's just really awesome to see. Um and then the Last place that we went was Madrid. So capital of the city, very large city, couple million people. I actually don't know Madrid that well. So our for exchange student here, her parents actually were tour guides for us and they showed us all the, you know, the best different places for us. Um, and they're so knowledgeable, just about the nicest people in the world. So that was, you know, from beginning to end an awesome trip. I had I had a lot of fun and I kept hearing from you know a bunch of the kids that you know this is a beautiful country or you know this place is awesome or one kid said I want to throw
025my passport in the river so that I don't have to go home. So things like that were just um reinforcement that we basically all had a great time and just to see see everybody like use what they learned in class for couple of for the last couple of years to order food, talk to somebody or you know buying in a supermarket. Real basic things about life that you just need to you you need to know. you need to know Spanish in order to to do that. Um, so we got two kids here. Um, and I'll guess I'll close out with them. Uh, if you could respond to any or all these questions. What were a couple of highlights that really especially we're about six weeks out from the trip. What what's what has stayed with
026you? What sticks out in your mind is like that was that was really cool. That was really interesting. Um, and then another thing that you could talk about Um, what about the food because the food was all over the place and I love food. Um, what were some of your favorites and was food in Spain what you were expecting? Was it different? What's uh what was your favorites? And one more thing just talk about if we had another week there, what would you have liked to have done and or where would you have liked to have gone? Starting off first thing my favorite part about was going to school for a day. Seeing how kids in Spain did it. It was very different type of schedule in here. They had two recesses. Uh seeing all
027the kids out there playing soccer and stuff. Me and Colin played some table tennis with some kids from Spain. So that was probably the most fun part that I had. Were you able to communicate >> it was nice Spanish and English that was actually pretty cool as well. It's just kids there were so funny and everything over there. It's just very nice seeing how they do things over there. It's totally different. The two recesses the whole day is so much shorter. The classes seem to be similar in style to see all the differences everything. The food overall was incredible. Um I said we're all size we all the trip different foods particularly things that we wouldn't have over here you know she intestines and most of us octopus legs evil A lot of people, >>
028how'd you feel about the meat market? >> It was really cool. Um, a lot of people like me so much that they await Was that a little bit of a culture shock? >> A little bit. Yeah. >> So, the food over there, I was one of those people who tried octopus. If you put it in front of me over here, I would not have eaten it. No way. But because this was an opportunity that Not a lot of people get and that will only get a couple times maybe. I thought that you know go out of the way try a bunch of different things. The food there was great. I mean coming back after eating the food here wasn't >> wasn't as good but >> Oh my head it sounded bad like it sounded like
029I wouldn't like it but then once I actually ate it was pretty good. I heard there was a lot of differences with the actual school building itself. Did you feel that that was or the classrooms >> you feel they were different or very similar? >> Very different from our school. School we went to had a giant like courtyard area where kids were playing and sliding playing soccer on concrete which was interesting. Uh it was split up into two buildings or just >> three buildings. >> So >> you had to walk through the area to get to the other building. The the whole structure of school is weird. It's not very long. It's much shorter. It's from >> 8:30 to 220. >> Yeah. So it was way way shorter. But overall >> uh the two English
030classes we got we got to you know some of the Spanish kids get to try to talk in English, which some of it was pretty good and some of it was about as low as you'd expect. Uh, I took a history class there, which the history teacher spoke very fast and I didn't understand much of it. So, it's very interesting to see how they did it over there. They got through a lot of information, not a lot of time. >> I was just saying, how long have you been your classes? >> Not very long. Definitely short. They have 50 minutes. >> 50. >> What's when do they have the bull fighting season? >> Right now. Do you guys get to go or? >> Um, no. They only do bull fights during um uh during like
031like each city or town's like uh patron saint festivals. So, we were actually just before the start of last season. >> Crazy. Yeah. >> What was your the third question? What was what part would you say to get another week? I think that was question. I really liked uh so we were in the big big city which was really nice very nice city uh very clean city then we went to the smaller town I really like going off to that smaller town seeing a different part of the country a lot of different things if I had to go back I probably want to go to some more smaller towns maybe more than just the one because I thought that was really cool part going to see you know how people from the United Madrid basically
032for our last day there's parents around seem like such a great place very good energy from everybody there so I wish if we had more time Every person we met there was super nice. It seemed like everyone in the whole country just loved us. I don't know. >> Well, as a board member, I want to thank you for upholding your standard reputation. I guess there were no students that that I very proud of students for doing that and as a parent of course I want to thank for taking such good care of them getting everybody on time and the door we lost anything we didn't lose any passport that is achievement It's >> trips like that are invaluable education because it's easy to get caught up in the dayto day what need to qualify for
033what they need to do to get there experience and education. I thought it was really interesting because speaking in class, speaking in Spanish in class is I mean compared to actually speaking it in front of real people is much different over there. It was you know you kind of had to speak Spanish. So you actually got to like use more of those Spanish skills. So that was interesting too. >> Do you feel like your skills are better right now? >> I would say because There's a lot of words that you don't necessarily think about saying more so like you don't buy things like normal conversations just focus on there >> kids have any slang they talk to that we don't >> a lot of them are using English so But know that you know we
034make up our own words. >> Oh yeah. >> Okay. Excellent. Any other questions? Thank you guys very much. Okay. So, tonight we're just going to go through our proposed budget for 267 school. >> Um, this is just what we're going to cover tonight. Um, the budget broken down into different cost centers. Then I broke it down to different components. um do some comparisons and then as far as our revenues and then I'll show you what the balance looks like for this year. These are the cost. So each of these pieces make up our overall 13,468,329,000 proposed budget for 2627. Um the biggest areas um of costs are teaching uh employee benefits and social services. um break this down. You saw me. Uh so the budget New York State requires us to break it down into
035three components. Um the administrative component, um the program component, and then our capital component. And those will get broken down for you. So before we start with this, I'm just going to give you a little bit of context. Um, every year, not every year, I haven't done this twice, but um, we do a comparison to the year prior to now. Um, this year, some of the amounts look a little bit funky. Um, it's because I spent a lot of time this year going line by line in the budget and moving costs around into different areas that will use better state aid or are just more descriptive of what that act is. Um so board of education is you all uh district clerk costs uh meeting supplies like that. Central administration is our superintendent's office for
036uh personnel uh different conference uh costs supplies things like that. Finance is my office. Um my business assistant, our tax collector that collects all the taxes in the fall. Um auditors both uh claims auditors internally and our external audit every year. Um business the staff um and then uh districtwide postage is also on this line. legal and publication costs. Um legal services are urban and plaza are legal council um currently. So that cost um publication costs when we need to publicize the vote um job things like that. And then our school security which is a contract with Warren County Sheriff's Office. Central services includes um mostly fees from Boseies. We contract out with them to do printing, different mass mailings and then data processing for uh data data warehouse uh special items. This is mostly
037insuranceances on the property and liability insuranceances and then admin costs that they every year just go over that first line. Um why again that the discrepies why >> so this is just different things being moved around so that's why you're seeing this increase here um there was I want to say school security maybe was in a different place so I moved it to here so that it better align with the SD and it geted properly so it's not necessarily a $40,000 increase we are just moving things from one area to another administrative moment continues with instructional administration. So this is a principal's office. Um that personnel in that office any trainings um supplies of that office and then some testing materials some testing materials come from the principal's office and then some come from the
038guidance office. Um and then the big component um in most all these components are employee benefits. So this is workers comp, uh, retirement, health insurance, uh, FICO costs and social security costs. Um, and this includes this light item is all our administrative and that is both active employees and retirees. So their share, home insurance, things like that in this line as well. >> I don't think >> this is another area that is just the the employ position was maybe in a program before or administrative end got moved around their benefits moved around as well. >> You see at the end when she's showing last year's to this year we are very close program component um definitely the largest component of the budget. This includes uh regular teaching prek through 12th grade. Um regular uh school
039TAs and then your kids learning cost that we pay to Boseies um for our distance learning lab. Uh special programs include special ed um teacher aids and assistance for that. Um any placements we have for um our handicap children and mostly occupational education students. Um lastly on this side is teaching special schools. So this is um continuing education classes and our active here at the district. Uh instructional media is a library uh the teacher assistant that is assigned to the high school library. Books, supplies, internet for the entire building. Um Chromebooks, Chromebook service through Boseies. Um and then we pay Boseies for all of our land internet costs. Uh this also does include the library program for Boseies. Uh personnel pupil services um includes a guidance counselor, psychologist, school nurse, social worker and then all
040our athletic and extracurricular costs are in this um again. Yes. put put things in their place. Um transportation. So this uh line includes all our bus drivers, the mechanical for the garage, all the fuel for buses, all heating costs, um supplies to the bus garage, and this year this does include a smaller 35 passenger bus and seven factor van. Um that was the rotation schedule for replacement um that tread gave us. So that's what we're going with this year. Um, community services. This went down because it was allocated in a different area. This employee benefits is probably the biggest part of the budget. This is all of our program employees that events health insurance, retirement, FICA, all that for all teachers and TAS, retirement. >> And a significant amount of that cost is our 5%
041increase in insurance health insurance. This year was a 5% increase. capital component um is central services. So this is custodians um all our materials and supplies for inside and outside the building um as well as all our utilities uh electricity, gas, fuel oil um for the main building. The bus garage is on that line for their um undistributed. It's not really distributed but that's the state calls it. Um this is amount we pay to fund the school lunch program and to pay our debt service on our capital projects for next year >> and the reason that is so significant has went down um this year we are starting a new capital project so the prior one has gone off so we don't owe as much debt on it will be quite different so this is
042bunch comparison year to year we do a sixyear average. Um but this year our budget is going to go out at 13,468,329 um dollars. That's a 248,431 increase which amounts to a 1.88 increase over rolling average. We're looking about a 2.81 over the last six years. So this uh slide just I wanted to break down some state aid um Disclaimer, these are all estimated numbers because New York State has not come to a budget decision yet. Um, but these are estimated for next year based on the information we have right now. Um, so our foundation aid is looking like a 2% increase over last year. Um, Bosey's aid is getting a little bit of a bump because um, they have approved 80 more Bose salaries for next year. um their software textbook aid um is
043down a little bit, but it's based that line is based entirely on the number of enrollments and probably um we'll probably go down a little bit more even for uh prek uh the state standardized $10,000 reimbursement for each pre prek student for next year. We're at we're looking at about 12. So that will be reimbursement for that. Um and then everything else is about the same. Building a is going down a little bit because we aren't paying debt on the program or project. So that will um increase again the volume once more that is. So overall we're looking about 23ish,000 difference over last year. Uh everyone's here for tax le. So this year our proposed uh tax levy will be 7,88,989. It is a $160,844 increase, which is a 2.32% over last year. Um, disclaimer,
044uh, a lots of people are under the impression that there is a 2% tax cap. And you see that number, I say 2.32, that's not true. In New York State, 2% tax cap doesn't really mean 2%. Um, 2% is the amount over last year's allowable levy. Then you have to add back an exclusions beyond any pilot programs. We do have a new pilot program this year. So that's affecting our um our percentage. So this 2.32 this 7 million8,000 is within the tax cap. So we are going at the cap. There's no need for an override or anything like that. >> Uh just a quick summary. So if you think back slides ago, I said we're we're making money in state aid and this is showing we're not. Um every might do this presentation. 2627 is
045a guess because um nothing's really finalized yet. The 2526 is actual data. So that is what we have actually or anticipated to earn. Um so that's our state number. The tax levy miscellaneous revenue includes things like our federal aid programs. Um any interest we're making. Um we're currently trying to be very robust with our investing of any money the district has. um goes into a high yield um investment account with NYS which is the the New York City's investment um firm and we are making significant interest so we're we're looking at a little bit of an increase there for next year but that that is something that we hadn't done consistently over the past years um and Stephanie has been very diligent about every time we have some money to put it in there to
046earn that um high yield interest So because of that, we are earning much more money than we had in the past. Just trying to be as fiscally responsible with with everyone's money as possible. Um other things of that we get um Medicaid reimbursements, things like that are that and then that is a level of our balance for that from this year into next year to pay also loss. And then we end with the balance. So this year we are asking um the towns of Johnson and Thurman to approve our budget of 13,468,329. Tonight it's really people's decision to approve it. Um and then uh the budget will be on May 19th 128 here at the district. seats. >> Yes, those um all the board seats information will be coming in the budget pamphlet that gets
047mailed out um to everyone probably next week. Yes. >> Questions. So our birth I forward discussion andor act on his motion to accept the 2026 district school budget of 13 million468,349 >> motion by second by Chris. Um any discussion discussion? Um all in favor? I. Any opposed? Stain carries. Motion to accept the 2026 2027 property tax report card that was in your packet. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second by Irwin. Any discussion on that? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Stain carries. All right. It's a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding between Warren County Board of Elections and Johnsburg Central School. >> Motion by Chris, second by Sarah. Any discussion? >> This is for the >> So is that are we still getting paper or do we have to electrify this? >> Okay. discussion
048of that. >> So New York State um has come up with some new laws regarding New York State voting budget this year falls under it. Um New York State um rolled this out in a rather typical fashion of they rolled it out without actually having all the information ready for us. Um, so Cindy basically is going through um a lot to make sure that we are staying compliant. Um, we're working with a company that is also helping us digitize um all of our information and um it has to happen very quickly. So this is a bit of a I say stressful. It's going all right, but it's a lot in a very short amount of time. And is that why we're approving this? >> Yes. >> Okay. I thought it looked it. >> Yes. >>
049Okay. Any other discussion on that? Does this mean that it'll be counted on that? >> Yeah. Well, I believe >> there are there are a lot of questions. I have no development and we could attend an online even in the training the people from New York State um versus the people from New York State education system and their voting goals have not quite met and have everything um but I I have two more to go to I have a feeling that >> we might answers more. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion to approve the 2026 2027's board election ballot. Motion by Sarah. Second by Ken. Any discussion? So this is supposed to announce people. >> Yes. So they are Michael Ericson, David from Waterford and Steven. So those are three there's three
050seats and um three candidates. No, I just want to switch this for the next one. So, are you going to do it? How are you going to do this? All in favor of Michael Ericson. All in favor of David and all in favor of Steven Mhler. >> It was unanimous for all 30. So I will put that down and you all >> Thank you. >> I don't need this, right? >> Well, you need the second part. >> Yes, that is that motion. Okay. Okay. All right. So, let's see. That is we voted. Uh, we're approving it. Um, all in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Stay cars. >> And I'm sorry. Can we go back? Who was the first? Who was the second? >> Sarah and Kim. >> Sarah. >> Okay. So, a motion to approve
051the 2026 2027 Bosey's administrative budget vote. And So that is 8,835,15 by Chris >> second by Sarah. All in favor. Okay. Okay. So, moving on to F. Thank you. Motion to approve Melissa Parker as an advisor for the drama club at appropriated rate of $195 as per the JCSTA contract from 2025 to 26 school year motion by Sarah second by Chris. Discussion. Uh so this used to be in our contract for whatever reason it was recently taken out negotiated. Um but Melissa Parker uh got some interest from students and she has somewhere between 10 to 15 students already interested next year is um our play year. So she was hoping to kind of explore kind of for that and then also um somehow facilitate that club and working toward life. So it's kind of a
052twofold part for her. Um she was very passionate about drama. You remember she stepped in and helped out last year for the play. She acted in it. Um so this is something that she really truly loves and has some interesting students. >> So have they already met or are they planning to do it? >> They haven't really truly officially yet. They are. >> So this is for this year and she um she intends to do it again next year. to them July. >> Okay. >> But she wants to do speeches and do little performances confidence like that. Okay. Any other discussion on that? Okay. All in favor? Any opposed? Staying carries. Motion to appoint Shannon Bway as a volunteer assistant coach for modified softball for the 2025 2026. Motion by Sarah, >> second by any
053discussion. Shannon is a parent of one of the students. >> And our numbers are still fairly high. Not as high as they originally had started. But it's still a good number. Last I checked it was around 19. Um all in favor I any opposed? Motion to accept the following resolution for the 2025 capital project. We've had time to read it. Um it is a capital improvement project start tech services for $62,000 $62,14 and it authorizes the superintendent or district president um to execute contact with the district. We have a motion motion by Irwin, second by Chris. Any discussion? >> Um, this is already planned and put forth in our original budget. It's not an additional cost. Uh, we just did not have the contract at that time ready. So, this is us approving that final
054piece for all in favor. Any opposed? Stay carries. Motion to appoint Cindy Homer, Mary Cooper, and Cassie Null as budget vote workers on May 19th, 2026 from 11:30 to 8:30. Their present hourly wage for the budget vote 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Motion by Sarah. Second by Kim. Any discussion? So I think I know but since we're digitizing things will there still be a place for budget workers >> still the identification checked signatures all that is still in basically Mary Cooper leads people to the place they're voting right >> the We'll have a chat. >> I don't know what I'll be doing here, >> but you're so and and I'm assuming you're still going to sign the affidavit saying we live in this district for 30 days. >> Um so that will um but yeah,
055>> is that required? The three required by the state? >> I don't think so. Okay. >> I think this is a John thing that we did many years ago. >> You remember when? >> Oh, you've had it for a while. I know. >> Yeah, it was during a time that >> Okay. So, >> yes. Yes. When we had a lot of second homes. So, >> um basically it's saying you can get your star here. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Any other discussion on that? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Staying carries. Motion to approve the 2026 2027 board single school central school and North Warren Central School. >> Motion motion by Sarah. Second by Chris. Any discussion? So you might be asking well don't doesn't North the answer is yes this would be a full
056merger where we would then split the cost between and John so up until this point north would just send students and basically we put the bill now all share the cost in expense um which is great and beneficial So logistically everything should be the same because it's already been >> correct. Yep. >> Are they getting need to purchase new uniforms? So in fact um the rotation does look like more would be up anyways for new uniforms and North Warren uh because they had not contributed as actually volunteered to pay for our brand new uniforms. They have not been contributing in the past. So, this is like happy news for for our business department. >> And Nordic is a fairly expensive. >> Yes. Yes. And I feel like every year I get wax is unbelievably expensive.
057So, it's good to split it three ways. >> This is going to be very helpful. >> Yes. And and they listen if you followed along at all. student 10th grader Sawyer um he's been very very active and very good in in the program. So they have a student that really excels >> and then we also have had several and we have a very young student first couple years first year um Jameson Mary has really done well too. So um great it's in our backyard this is really wonderful and now we get to share the cost. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Carries. Motion to approve the 2026 2027 mergers with Manurva Central School and North Warren Central School for the girls soccer and cross country. Motion by Kim, >> second by Sarah. Any discussion? >>
058So girls soccer because it will both this year varsity and modified. Last year we started with varsity. Um and our numbers are now also needing some modified players. Although we do have that one cohorts in the junior high that is a little bit high. The numbers coming up behind it are not. So we might have the year where we do have quite a bit of players that is going to fizzle out very quickly. So, I know last year was our first year with this and I'm sure there were kinks because in a first year program anywhere is going to have kinks. >> Overall, in general, was it a positive experience? I'm assuming if you're putting it forward, it was a positive experience. >> Yeah, I mean, we definitely had some bugs in the fall. Um,
059I think you even talked about it a couple meetings. Um but the overall was the the skills and the working together we were more successful this year because of our city team and we had been in a while. So the you know the hope in what you're projecting is we are going to continue to get better. Um as far as pigs bumps yeah there was this year was our first year um with North um they actually North has given um a bus to transport practices. So that helped with our transportation issues. Although still not seamless, um it was very helpful that they sent a bus. We did not have to figure out that it they will do that at this point. They believe they will still be able to provide that same um agreement of
060transport practices. But of course, there were always bumps that were, you know, we're taking notes with working on and to just improve. >> Okay. Um all in favor I any opposed same carries. Okay. So motion to approve the 2026 2027 mergers with central school motion by Sarah. >> second by Ken. Discussion. questions you approved with symptoms that just left off. So our boys does not only the girls have >> we have to we also have to apply to New York state every year and that merger has to be >> in July we have to approve the merger >> so we have to there are dates for each season so we have to approve them before is going up for this month for their mergers. So there are different times of year if we can just
061kind of get some of it done and over now they can do their paperwork more efficiently catching up. >> Yeah. Okay. Um all in favor? Any opposed? Stay carries. Um motion to allow John Central School student athletes to participate with North the 2026 2027 school year transportation is the responsibility of the student athletes. Motion by Sarah, >> second by discussion. Our students because we have that mer with soccer has allowed us to also merge participate in their golf. We had some students who did both golf and soccer. Um but it is transportation. And this has happened for several years. >> Was last year. >> Okay. Um all in favor. Any opposed? Carries. Motion to appoint Shannon Orley, Ashley Lawrence, Mary Omki as scoreboard or scoreke keepers for spring sports for the 20125 2026 school year
062as per the JCSTA contract. Motion by Sarah, second by any discussion with the soft and all in favor. Any opposed? Stay carries. Motion to accept Brook Thistle's letter of resignation as a modified girls softball to 2025 2026 school year. Motion by Sarah. >> Uh second by Kim. Any discussion? Um all in favor? Any opposed? carries. Motion to approve Clark Griffin of Manurva as a varsity baseball team's manager for the 2025 2026 school year. Motion by Sarah, second by Irwin. Any discussion? This is not first or first year. Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Carries. Motion to approve the appointment of Justin Mitchell as head of building and grounds at step 34, which is $295 per hour as stated in a CSEA contract effective May 4th, 2026. Motion by Sarah, >> second by Chris. Any
063discussion? Um, so Justin went through a little rigorous um rounds of um interviews He managed to our building with Paul. Uh he has worked and lived as a caretaker at Mbrook for about eight or nine years there. So he has a lot of experience with facilities in understanding all the compliance and regulations that schools have to adhere to because run by Syracuse University. So um although not a New York State school, they we have stricter guidelines than just a hotel facility. Um and before that he had worked in carpentry for four or five years. So he has a lot of good experience behind him. Um and he was very excited. Um and he took the um the job without any hesitation. He was like nope I don't need time to think I'm ready. So we're
064excited to have him on board. >> He will. So Paul has agreed to as long as we need them up until that June 30th. Um so we'll have to meet and decide how to go on actually necessary but yeah actually have a notebook which is really greatly something all in favor motion to accept the resation of Bernard as a teaching assistant effective May 4th, 2026. >> Motion by Chris, second by Pim. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion to amend the salary adjustment date in a superintendent's contract from May 1st, 2026 to May 11th, 2026. Motion by Sarah, >> second by Chris. Um, any discussion? >> I'm just going to ask the reason for >> So, what the reason? Um so in the the new contract it was to be negotiated by this
065board meeting and then approved by >> May but we have to submit paper by the 15th and quite frankly budget talk that's the Yeah. >> Okay. Um let's see. So all in >> favors. Okay. Visitor comments. Uh update reports. We are in the state testing season and report that we're off the start. Fingers crossed that will continue. 12 is on display at midnight display. And we did have one student um from became a finalist in the high during art show. >> Um our state report card is on our website. There were a few areas that were identified in areas of needing growth um which we already identified and are preparing and working on with both seats to improve those areas. So, you know, we're trying to be proactive there. Um, and we'll update you probably
066next fall as to exactly what has recommended. They're still in the gathering information, working on what we can do for food for the fall. So, we'll have a little more information. So, um, I I I guess I I felt good that the areas that show them the park are the area that we've already taken action for areas that we do well on are connecting with our students our school climate those are the best sports and um you know if if we can work together to use those strengths of connecting with students to improve those other areas I think we'll find in the future um that you know um working with the students um to make sure that when we take our test for these new state testing, it's not intended to be stressful. These tests
067do not impact the students report card. It doesn't impact the student need for the classroom. So, you know, encouraging them to do their best but not stressing and having anxiety over these tests are actually helps us to figure out what areas we need to improve when we have low participation. rates like we do right now, our scores aren't necessarily valid in the aspect of we don't know who was taking them or not taking them in the report card. So, you know, we need to kind of improve that piece of it. However, I do know the areas that were identified and areas of need are areas that we need to work. So even though it's not completely valid, it's a snapshot. It's one or two days of that student's life um you know just that encouraging
068these are not high stakes for the students. This is a this is where we kind of need to look at so that when they get to high school um they have those skills. With that being said, our high school um rates in our areas are actually um proved to be quite good in comparison to our elementary. And I think that's because we have a lot of students not taking them. So it's not a true reflection, but um it does appear in the high school some of our regent which is what they really look at um mostly we're actually doing well. So just encouraging students that these tests are not stressful. They're not a reflection on their grade for the year. It actually is us as a district a place to start to look and how
069can we improve I think that's a good explanation. I know that there's a big push for opting out and >> I understand why and there's been an argument for that side, but they I don't think there's been a good explanation of why it's so important to us, right? Why it's necessary. So it helps us evaluate where we need to work. >> Um okay. Um reports the finance met tonight. We have the presentation. >> I should say presentation. Well, let's assume that >> um I know that the policy committee met working on the um policy book or >> we have some visions to work on. So this kind of gets back >> Oh, negotiations. >> Sorry. >> The CSA5 negotiation dates have now been set. Um so those will begin no minerals have established any other
070>> um basically we we talked about hiring of That was a big topic. The other thing that we talked about is um our goal is to get a list of priorities of areas that need attention in our building. Um I know it seems crazy, but we really need to start our next building project paper and looking into it next year at this time. So really looking and diving in what areas do we need to start looking at? What are some of our >> Why is that that we need to start next year? What what is our timeline? >> Um, >> okay. Because I know that we had a timeline for this project because it was falling off the same 1.7 falling off next year >> in planning next year. So again, it seems silly and
071we haven't even started really truly anything on this one. We need to start identifying all of that engineering work that goes behind. It just takes a while. So that was our goal is to start working on prioritizing and climate and community. Um, so we talked about Heather's working with the town to schedule the town cleanup and the replacement of flags in the local cemeteries. Um, we also discussed involving the student board members to learn how we can get them to attend like committee meetings and get their input. Um, we also are having school administrators and staff checking in on students and providing this support to make sure that they are seen and heard and to create connection. Um, and then we are working um while others are doing Facebook postings to recognize our students achievements
072and accomplishments and give them a highlight. And along with that, we're working to finalize a plan to recognize our seniors in their respective sports. event and report. So my memory um we took a good look at our master schedule that Mrs. Bruce has created for next year for 712 and kind of talked about how it looks and why it was the way it looks. Um we talked about um budget program will be purchased for May six for next school year and then um the hope is that the following school year probably math program and then we just continue the discussion about um science is the only area where we currently don't have a college level So down the road, not next year's schedule. We had a few years. We haven't really had sensibility there for
073the college course, but won't be able to get that. >> Okay. So did I read in our um newspaper about um tell me if you can't answer that that that New York State was going to do some adjustment with college credits in high school or um let me that Let me find where I found that. Um, so they're going to tighten up on some things, but let me Okay. Um I mean so I can speak to a little bit about what's going on in so we as a district all of our movements are trying to work with um our local colleges to offer um more available pathways is what they call them for our students like there's also PE which is more campus um with both series being in one place in the very up
074and coming not so distant future we might be able to um offer some opportunities for students to do those pathways as far as more credits. I'm just not sure what you're thinking districts are really working with sitting on an event to see if we can offer um our students more since we'll be in a more centralized location putting together with a subcommittee um to see how we can better serve our students which would be great for our right now bus to Sunni and those are Sanford street students, um, prospect, all of those things. We just don't have the time and essential education, we might be able to work with other districts because we'll be meeting them there and they can actually bust from there. So, that part is up and coming, but we'll have to
075work into the >> So, I've been kind of been a part of a little bit of the PEK and the CACA and they're excellent programs. If we could offer those to our students, I think it would be more Saratoga. So hopefully with the transportation that is accessible sitting on it seems like we should be able to. It's the timing the start time of those start time of those programs. It just does not work. >> So maybe they could help align. >> Correct. And that is what I'm looking at at this last board or my last cso. They actually put up the timing up to see what schools could get work. So it's definitely a concern and hopefully for more schools it will be not sist. >> Uh well I already talked about the Houston government
076and the Spanish trip which I was >> um lucky to have these opportunities to the school as a whole lot of people to have. So I think kids at this school pretty lucky to have those opportunities from from Spanish trip everyone who went seem to have a great time. You think government everyone went they seem to have a great time. So >> So will you and Tristan kind of um and I think you maybe are doing that this with the stone um advising, right? Okay. So, kind of brainstorm on how things that need to improve with your position for next year, things that you would like to see done better, kind of give us by by June, why our last meeting in June, kind of give us some of your thoughts on how we can
077improve um your position and your involvement with us. >> Yeah. Shall we have some >> You have to answer some of that. We've done some of that. Um or uh the speaker council is how elected this year. So we've been talking about that like >> how we think we should be elected next time. >> Obviously I won't be here but a big thing would be stone and me. Uh kind of thought that maybe the junior who's elected serve a two-year term. So that has been a big thing that we talked about. So then by the time that the other person is elected, they have someone who already been on the board for the year, which would have been helped me to tell them kind of what to do, how stuff works. >> So is Tristan
078going to stay on for next year? If that >> if it works for the board then that is what >> and then it would be a junior unless of course there was no upcoming juniors who wanted to do it. >> I know reported that um the climate committee is also having those discussions on how to include how to improve um communication and We were thinking about inviting them to at least one of the days of the retreat so that we can do that. But if somebody like >> Okay, good. Good. I think that's something we need to >> because this is a new endeavor for us. Okay. Um, is that all you have? >> Make sure. All right. Other business I did get a letter from Mark Mika just thanking the Ford for the his
079retirement party. He was um mentioned that it was beyond expectations and just how he was very thankful for um that um event that night. So I just wanted to share that with you. And I also got a letter um and anybody is welcome to read it. It's from an anonymous um sender. Um main concern was the change in sports practice schedules and um how it impacts where to be and when to be there um for for sports um scene. So I just want to let you know and acknowledge that. And I know that Kathy and I had a conversation that with some of our sports marine at um North Warren the girls that is new and yes there were some hiccups and we're always working to improve those. The main concern here was that it
080because of the changes were we excluding some kids that wanted to play they can't play. That was the main concern here. Um so I think that we are all cognizant of that wanting all of our students to be um involved as much as we can and I think that um spring although it has been good this spring a lot of times the weather is not cooperative but this seems to be quite a better spring right so we're always looking to make sure that we're being consistent in our communication consistent in our um transportation that there will always be hiccups >> and and parent square I think has helped a bit as that is such a fast communication tool. Um the unfortunate part is sports there are changes and and we do happen sometimes rather late
081sometimes beyond our control and and sometimes it's it is partly due because of things that are happening here with us. So you know we are always looking to try to improve and do the best that we can. It is unfortunate sometimes we do have some cancellations or we have to move towards something and now instead of John um we don't like those. It's not easy for us to district either because now we're also scrambling. So I can imagine as a parent that is also a hardship. So I do acknowledge that that is very unfortunate and very frustrating. Um it is something that we don't like and we do try to prevent as much as possible. >> I do think one of our focuses is communication between schools and ads and so we are working on
082it >> and there's a lot of moving parts between three schools. There are five ads we have two has two has one. So there is a constant communication between five and typically the administration whether it's over or can someone else move in so it's not lost you know fall between the cracks but there are unfortunate incidents but we will continue we will we will keep working and you know taking notes of the things that fall apart and trying to make that and letter if any of you want to read it. I just got it this afternoon. Um, community topics, we have no community topics from the last um board meeting. Upcoming dates, April 22nd is our New York State ELA testing grade 78. April 25th is prom at Fort William Henry. April 30th through May
0833rd is travel club for Boston. May 5th pop singers and stage band concert at 700 p.m. May 6th and 7th is New York State math testing. May 9th and 10th is our music trip to Hershey, PA. May 11th is our budget presentation at 5 p.m. and then following will be our board of education meeting at 6 pm. Um we do have a executive session after for contract disc uh contract discussion and I have a motion for that motion by second by Ken. All in favor I postain I will let you know. just shut you down. Is it you?