001ready. Okay. >> The regular meeting of the South County Board of Education is called to order. Roll call. Mr. Blakeley is excused. Mr. Casey. Stephanie Kogan here. Vincent Fenzo. Rose Giggleello, >> Jennifer Hulahan, Michael Keane here, >> David Keel here, Christopher Larabe here, >> Robert Mek. >> Please stand for the pledge. >> I pledge algiance 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. Agenda item number three. This is the approval of the minutes. This is for the regular meeting of February 24th, 2026. Are there any questions, comments, edits? Hearing none, I will take a motion. Mr. Mix seconded by Mr. Keane. On the motion of Mr. Misik seconded by Mr. Keane that the minutes of
002the regular meeting of February 24th, 2026 be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to zero. Agenda item number four, superintendent update. Dr. Perry. >> Yes. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh just a reminder, uh Line of Q's got their production for Mama Mia starting on Thursday night, uh 7 o'clock opening night, Friday 7:00. Saturday they are 1:00 and 7 o'clock. So please uh get your tickets. Great performances. Looking forward to that. Um today I had an opportunity to go over to S Creek um for the Bears Books and Blankets initiative we've done throughout the district. This is in support of a a young boy who uh lost his life before he became a South County student. But uh his family is deeply connected to our our schools. Uh Ed Sim, our former
003uh board member, it was his grandson and uh Brian Sim, our transportation director, was his nephew, Will. Um so they've had this initiative. This is the 10th anniversary of Bears's Book and Blankets. So, our elementary and middle uh schools have participated um donating uh these items and uh went over to S Creek today for one of their events. San Creek took it to the next level as many of our schools do when we have donations. They did a penny war and raised uh about $1,200 in collecting coins and pennies. I don't know where they got them because the banks can't find pennies, but somehow these kids and staff came up with all all the uh the pennies. They then went um as a team that the home room that uh raised the most went to
004Target to do some shopping for the bears books and blankets. So they went over and purchased the items. So today was the donation. Uh it was just really uh valuable to see and kudos to uh San Creek Miss Fazi who was here today um and and the staff there. Uh the seventh grade uh gold team was the the uh group involved, but we had some really good collaboration through all of our buildings. a thank you on behalf of uh Mr. Sim and his family and uh just another great uh thing that goes on in our schools sometimes gets overlooked. These bears books and blankets are then donated to hospitals out in Boston to help families in need as well. So really appreciative of that. Great job, San Creek. And really, they again, not only the
005the efforts to do things for others, but to learn about empathy and learn about giving back and then speaking in front of the family and things like that was really uh well done today. So, um I'll leave it with that. Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you very much. >> Agenda item number five, new business. Mr. Casey, >> thank you. I'm sure we've all um have seen recently on the news in the paper about the conflict over the Middle East. Right now I can tell you I have five young men that were in my scout troop who are on the list to be deployed. All five of them are former students in this district. So I would ask that if you all could whatever your beliefs are to uh say a prayer if they go
006get deployed. I will let the board know through the president and the superintendent if in fact they are deployed. I know one is definitely deployed. I think he leaves next week and the others are on the list. So I ask that you just keep that in your prayers and let's hope this thing ends rather quickly. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kase. >> Anyone else? I was just going to uh commend the Shaker Road community for the wonderful year of the horse parade, the uh New Year parade that uh culminated the several we had this uh this particular year. So it was it was great as those kids marched around the building and uh and the other kids saw what they were doing as they they often do. So that was greatly appreciated. >> Yes,
007I was also there as as was Mr. Larabby the fire horse and then we stayed for the assembly and that was terrific. Uh also took uh pardon as I as several of the administrators in Roselville's uh ReadAcross America that Miss Colleen Leech was able to coordinate. I myself was uh able to read to Mrs. Lebr's second grade class and Miss Chandler and Mrs. Rston's first grade class. It was it was a blast. That was just terrific. And today I was able to get over to Forest Park to uh the Ramadan celebration. They had actually doubled their goal in uh collecting food for our local community. So that was just terrific, too. And Dr. Perry was also there. >> Wonderfully done. >> Yeah, it was terrific. Anything else? Anyone else? All right. >> Um Oh, >>
008actually because I think I'd be remiss. Um we had a number of young men, young young ladies, um >> win or place in state finals. Yes. >> Track, wrestling, um gymnastics, um you know, we've kind of hit a a gambit of of different things. >> Basketball. >> Yep. Basketball made the >> uh sectional finals. So, congrats to all of them on their success. >> Mr. Ke, we're going to come on the 14th to be recognized in front of the board. Just let >> Oh, terrific. Terrific. All right. Thank you very much. Agenda item number six. If anybody came to speak to the board or are there any public online communications? No. >> All right. Thank you very much. Agenda item number seven, board committee reports. First up is communications. That is you, Mr. Key. >>
009That is me. Minutes are there. Um, I'd like to thank Dr. Perry and our communications team member item that we uh discussed was having some linkage in the uh last two uh so folks can access our um at least the highlights of of our meetings. And two days after we had the meeting, it was the blast. So definitely appreciate that. And then certainly kudos to Cara and Dana on the different initiatives. You know, the information is there. The the signage initiative I think is a nice touch and just adds to making us a little bit more modernized in our um in our appearance. >> Any other questions for Mr. Kane? All right. Thank you very much. Agenda item number eight, reports for information. This brings us to the 2026 2027 budget discussion. That's for you,
010Mrs. Mallister. >> Would you like to come out and sit out here? >> Yes. Board, you can relocate. It's much easier to see. I think we should. >> Oh, >> really dark. Look, you can't even see me. Perfect. >> Uh, Mr. Kadoran is going to help with the presentation as well as we get to some of the instructional items. So, I'll start off with our um presentation for tonight, which is want to hit on our areas of focus, which um really dovetail around our four pillars. Um you know, we really want to make sure that we're hitting our academics, our requests for additional staffing, are helping to expand our student pathways and are based upon rooted needs rooted in data, not motion. Um our wellness, our expansion of ENL school psychology support is designed to
011provide um emotionally safe schools for our ELLL population. We have our character um staff recruitment and selections designed to hire and best available best available talent. And then we have our community which is increased quality of partnerships with higher education and community based organizations business partners. So our four pillars really focuses on what we do and why we're doing it. Um our financial trends revenues. So, as we look to this year's um financial trends, we have our revenue side, which is our state aid, federal aid, and our tax levy are the three main portions of our revenues. So, as we look at state aid, we are seeing a positive growth in our uh foundation aid. We are seeing um not many changes in federal aid, which we thought were going to be coming, but we
012looks like we're going to get our grants, which doesn't affect general fund. just allows us to sustain those grants that we have um like our idea grants. Um and then we have our tax cap which while um I'll go into a little bit more detail about our tax cap but our um our tax revenue we're looking at another increase on our um capital project and that was voted on in 2022. Um so on our expense side we have inflation which is about 2.63 officially 2.7 uh or 2.6 something uh 2.7 from November was the 2025 um >> the consumer price index and that goes into our tax cut but also it it drives our expenses. So you know we have inflation on supplies materials um as well as service contracts and um we have our
013health insurance growth we are looking at a composite rate with our RX with our prescription and with our um our major medical about 9 to 12%. So, we're doing okay there compared to many districts, but still a hit on the budget. So, our salary trends are 3.5%. Our contracts are all current and we are looking to replace all of our retirements. It does give us some breakage, but also we're always continuing that healthcare into the future. So, it gives us, you know, kind of a wash there. Uh pension contributions, we have um ERS is going um up down a little, but it's full. Um ECR is our employment contribution rate. So, uh salaries go up, the percent goes down uh for our employer contribution rate for next year, the estimated, but our salaries are growing.
014So, the line item grows. Um and then employee retirement system, that's our non-eing staff, is um 17.6% up from 16.5% up from this year. So, we're looking at a growth there as we grow in salaries. Um our tax cap, so we have our 2% which goes into where the 2% C tax cap comes from. we have our allowable that's our allowable levy growth factor. So our 2% while um you know um while inflation is 2.7 we are limited to that 2%. So I have history on the next slide of all the inflation factors that we've had over the years but uh this year we're still stuck at 2%. Shocker um tax base uh growth factor is 1.0031 1.0 is no growth we have seen a little growth 1.0 0 is also average for the the
015state. So, we're about average, but you can see in the past we've gone up down a little bit, but this year is a little bit slower growth. That limits our um levying ability. So, that limits our tax cap a little bit. And our capital exclusion is the largest portion of our tax cap factor, and that is where we get to take our uh net expense less our aid equals our exclusion. So, that allows us to levy for capital work. So that allows us to levy that additional 1% that we need to in order to pay for the debt that we're using to do all this wonderful work. Um the history of our um inflation and our tax cap. So you can see the trend on the left is where we've seen you know up from
016you know we've seen you know 1.0's to 8% and it's always 2%. That's where you get the 2% tax cap trend uh that we're or the law that we have. So then for us we are looking at another year of 3.49. This year the tax cap that we have so um estimated and submitted to the state is 3.5128. Yes, it goes to four decimals. Um and we're estimating that we're going to hit with this budget proposal is 3.49 and that includes our 1% for our cap um for our capital work. So when we do that, the program the programmatic and um trend is the 2.5 which we hit last year as well and it's consistent with the history that we've done over the past um you know 5 10 years. So we're we're looking at
017a consistent tax growth um on our tax levy and I'm going to pass it off to Mr. Catadorian to give us some instructional requests. >> All right. Thank you very much. Good evening everyone. Um so just going through a few slides just to give us a scope of what we're looking at and considering for our budget proposal for this year. High school just a short five years ago we'll say the we had uh reintroduction of our business department. We have now grown to 1.5 of our business department and we continue to steadily grow. Mr. Burl can attest to it with his signups at the high school. Uh we have enough capacity to be able to uh give students experiences all the way with 2.0 know FT for next year and it's a varied and diverse
018experience that we're putting in front of our student population and certainly something that they want um based on our signups and uh the things that they are electing to to want to take business certainly is at the forefront of their area of interest counselor in conjunction with that we have six counselors currently at the high school and then a seventh that's dedicated solely to the college and career planning center um the workload that they are going through and experiencing especially as we look at what we're doing with our CIP and what we're doing uh within that college and career experience, we could probably afford uh to have some of that counselor dedicated or a new counselor dedicated to some initiatives that we have coming around via the the portrait of a graduate more CIP growth
019and specifically targeting some of our students with special needs and making sure that we are cultivating for them high quality experiences that would lead into um something that integrates them into the workforce as well. So some some imagination and some vision that we're putting forward at the high school which could potentially constitute the need for a 1.0 counselor. And then we are looking at a 0.5 to 1.0 potential um for a special education teacher. As we continue to sift through the data, look at the consultant teacher model, look how that could have a direct impact on our 10th and 11th and 12th grade experiences and to see what we can do internally as outside of potentially needing to hire. We want to make sure that the structure is in place for students to successfully be
020able to transition from eth to 9th, 9th to 10th and so on and even more looking to to kind of cultivate that experience for them to be independent, move on into life after high school. So that consideration remains in place as I as I said we look through the data. Middle school levels, we have a literacy interventionist um that we're moving to San Creek as we know if we compare the two buildings which is something that we shouldn't do but we always end up doing for consistency sake. There's just greater need because of the higher population that exists at Sand Creek and the call from Mrs. Judge to have a literacy intervention has come into play there is certainly needed as we look at the students that require and could benefit from more intervention services.
021Even more particular as we look at what that role is, we are involving more writing component um because we do want our students to be proficient in the all areas of literacy. So that is targeting our seventh and eighth grade population with that addition too. uh math lab. We do have dire need and I'm sure Miss Buddy would be able to speak to that across uh the grades, but in particular, Mr. Barup is asking for us to consider a split between Lisha Hill and Sand Creek. Yes, it is again more of that seventh and eighth grade model getting ready for state testing, but we're still trying to close some gaps that exist from our COVID experience. Our math seems to continue to do better and if we look at the data on a whole, our
022students are making the gains that they need to. Uh but this ask would work in even greater benefit for those results to continue to trend in a positive manner. Elementary schools, we always look at uh what are our class sizes across our elementary schools. We're keeping consistent, Mr. Ke, I know you always love to know what our data is in in that regard. So, we're looking next year at 86 sections consistent with what we have this year. Uh we roughly have 1,717 kids expected to metriculate roughly. Um, and we'll see if that changes at all, but that breaks itself out into around 19.96 students per section, which is pretty good at where we sit. So, if we're 20 or below starting the school year, that gives us capacity to grow. Um, but we reserve that
023in case we do have particular need. There's two principles that have been conversation with uh in regard to sections that might have a bit of a bubble. So, we'll keep an eye on that as we do. And then potential for a current reduction and that has to do with Governor Hokll's um proposition that is going through and we'll time will tell as Jackan always references as to whether or not that'll become a reality. We hope in this case that it does because it'll uh directly address what our gap deficit is roughly >> $800,000 that we need to try and make up. This would significantly put a dent in that if things come to pass there. We'll keep monitoring that as well. U administrative there is uh certainly a need for an individual that we have
024in IT that's been around for decades and has a wealth of historical knowledge and just a wealth of working capacity and for that individual it's all of a sudden depart without a strategic plan of being able to support uh a transition coming into play there would be a little bit nearsided for us. So we are looking at how we are going to integrate that changeover. Uh in addition to that, we're also considering with a lot of changes that for the most part are happening in literacy across the board with uh K through six and then some other changes that are coming as a residual impact of that. Uh the consideration of director of elementary curriculum is one that we've uh involved in discussion and at this point is up for consideration for next year. Got
025it. >> You're in sync. >> Okay. Back one. >> Our program shifts. Uh we are looking to uh reinvigorate a 612 program at Sand Creek which was closed this this year um due to lack of population need. Um at this point we certainly are anticipating the bubble pushing through. We're going to need to open up that program and we also are looking to open up an additional 61 program that's going to be at for forest park again to address student need and to fill the capacity there. Uh co-e section of eater again the need is growing the student interest uh certainly as far as us wanting to accommodate services and needs for that student population uh is going to be uh something of consideration which is why it's in the budget and strategically as I
026work with Mr. for our Daryl the placement of where it goes and uh how we identify the appropriate students is the next conversation. Increased services or placements always something that we have to continue to monitor and uh we are increasing in our external placements for our student population in need of extraordinary services that we can't provide necessarily in house. So as that um number goes up of students that get placed so does the financial implications of it. uh new staffing as we know that our ENL uh population continues to be on the rise throughout the district uh which is always a great thing as we continue to integrate those voices into our population. We have to make sure that we have the right supports that are in place. The growth seems to be pretty significant
027at high school that is requiring us to take a look at 6 of that FTE to land there and then in addition to that Forest Park would uh receive the point4 of that full 1.0 FTE to provide the continued support that we're looking to do. 2.0 support staff goes with the increase in programming that comes from our 61 conversation 0.5 school psychologist five already existed in this previous budget we weren't able to fill that so if we turn that into a 1.0 I know we feel we'd have a greater likelihood. Really, this hire is meant to service specifically with that psych in our ENL population to try and provide greater support for those students as they transition um through learn learning their language and their culture and just assimilating to colony in general. 5 behavior
028specialist has kind of stemmed out of conversations I've been able to have through our elementary um folks always were looking at how do we better support and how do we better integrate and just in in general the gross motor skills the deficiencies with uh a lot of our students uh the executive functioning with a lot of our students is putting them a little bit on uh a behind trajectory when they enter into our school district whether or not they're receiving prek services. We want to make sure that we have interventions in place that not only support directly what those needs are, but continue to coach our teachers and try and provide them with the best strategies possible. A behavior school u behavior specialist might be best suited to at least in the beginning to kind
029of feel out what that role can be and we can better understand how we can um greater implement their skills and services to our uh our teaching contingent that seems to struggle with some of these emerging behaviors. and then the end our consultant teacher at the high school. That's just something that we want to make sure as uh we consider the growth and the conversation on the previous slide if we need to accommodate for greater need or FTE due to the restructuring of what that could be over the course of 10th 11th and 12th grade we have the capacity to build that into um what we're looking at in the budget. >> All right. And I'll speak for Mr. Romer, but feel free and chime in here. Um, probably 10 years ago, you wouldn't hear
030me saying this, but I find peel hockey to be one of the most uh increasingly entertaining sports that I've ever been able to watch. After 10 years of me watching it, I still have no idea what the rules are, but it is a very interesting sport that has come to Colin and certainly has grabbed the attention of our young ladies. And this is would be year three of rolling out that program with the introduction of uh varsity coming to us soon. And then working down to that into the intramural sections of that and accommodating for it and the coaches that we would want to support the program overall. Flight football also is uh a new spring sport that seems to have garnered a lot of curiosity and involvement from our student population. So we want
031to make sure that we continue to to meet that growth where we uh can grow the program and make sure we expand to involve as many kids as possible. Uh coaches as you can see there all meant to continue with the complement of existing program structures and as the numbers grow so does the need or capacity for us to make sure that we have adequate coaching and positive experiences for our student population that want to be involved in intercolastic athletics. And in the end, we've had a couple of line items that Bill never really uh had opportunity to be able to spend from a specific line item that Jacine is now dedicating um exclusive to those two programs or that one program being unified sports and then the new programs aligned with what I previously
032talked about with field hockey and flag football. >> All right, Bill, anything to add? >> Thank you. Uh and in honor of Mr. whose birthday is tonight. You can tune a piano, but you can't. >> Thank you very much. >> We also didn't mention paper clips post. >> Um, so with this first draft budget, we have assumptions that we discussed. Um, we presented this to the board last week. Um but for our revenues, this is a little small for everybody in the back, but our aid projections are from the executive proposal and estimates from our fiscal adviserss for our uh state aid 3.49 tax levy increase is a 2.9% increase in our tax levy. It's about 83 million right now. It would go up a little bit from there. Um no change in appropriated fund
033balance from 2526. That's 3.785 million. um that is where we could have um some possibility to to close the gap here or if we wanted to decrease that it would be um reducing other additions. So expenditures this rover includes all positions and contractual salaries. It includes breakage of retirements and additional positions. So all the things that you saw on the previous slides is included in this budget in this first draft budget. Um capital expenditures and debt projections increases are also included in this first draft budget. Um it does not include any adjustments to UPK grant increase which u Mr. Kadorian mentioned earlier. Um and we are still reviewing all of our Boseie services. So that is a large line item of ours but as we look at um we just got the service requests from
034Bosei so I can see what everything looks like uh for the costs for next year. So as we review those those will update and I will have those for you for a second draft um when we look at those. And also if we wanted to um include the career ready program that would be an additional cost in here as well also additional revenue. So we would need to look at that. Um but those are what is included in this first draft. It is a little bit scary. Um and our current budget cap is about you know about 799 um,917. So it's about $800,000. Looking at an overall change of our revenue of 4.99 and our expenditures of 5.51. That includes our 7% of foundation aid increase. Some additional aid incre foundation aid includes our building
035aid increase of the completed projects that we completed which helps us offset the cost of some of our debt. Um and then the expenditures is a little bit more which we need to have those equal to have a balanced budget. Um as we go through and we work with the board and cabinet we will go through and um go through some budget gap um measures. So that is there are four things that we could do. Um increase the tax levy. We only have a 0.1% that we could go up. So we're at the cap. Um so that is not an option right now, but we're already at the cap. We could assign additional fund balance. Currently we're at 3.785. Um that's just a sustainability issue if we wanted to look at in the future. Um
036strategically select additions. So as we prioritize and strategically recommend additions, we did include a lot in this budget. um all of those cannot make it into the final with the gap that we have. So we have to look at those what are our priorities, what is sustainable and what is in the best interest of our um whole population. So um that would be a combination of all of these and that's where we would our fourth um budget gap closure me measure would be the combination and I think that that's where we'll head um and we'll work on that for a second draft working with um our team. Um, a capital project update. We would like to add um an additional vote to our May 2026 uh ballot on May 19th. So, the district added cooling
037um for classroom renovated spaces for stage one and stage two. And this was an additional scope that we did not plan for in our original vote in 2022. So, while we've added that, it's added an extra cost. Um we currently have 4.7 million in capital reserve to offset that cost. Now, we also get building aid. So, we would like to use the um building aid to leverage our 4.7 million to get an additional 9 million or 8 million to be able to um for free as building aid. Um but we do still need voter approval to use our capital reserve. So, we would like to ask the community to support us in doing a $13 million capital um vote so that we can get leverage the state aid in using our 4.7 million that we
038already have in reserves as our local share. So, there would be no tax impact to the community with this additional proposal. It will allow us to offset the cost for the cooling that we have done already um in the project and plan to do in the completed rooms that we are we're working on. Um, so this would be a zero taxpayer impact. It would be a $13 million vote uh or proposition with 4.7 of reserves. Sounds a little confusing. It's a little reverse math. Um, but that's that's the plan and that's the goal. Um, so as we get to our May vote, we also have our bus proposition. The buses are um six 66 passenger buses, two 24 passenger with wheelchair, one 16 passenger and one um six passenger minivan suburban. These based on what
039we have so far and um the plans to redo our and rebuild our transportation center at the old CTE site, we would do only gas diesel purchase this year and that is a 1.683. It's about the same as last year. It is funded over five years and aided over five years. So we have a building we have an aid ratio of 30 63.5% of our transportation aid um that's a very minimal if nothing um tax impact. So our propositions for May 19th are one our annual operating budget in addition to our wonderful board member election. Um we have our annual operating budget bus purpose purchase a capital project and then with while we're using capital reserve we need to refund that capital reserve. So, we need to plan for the future, continue funding. When we
040set up a capital reserve, we're only allowed to set an aggregate amount. So, we have to set an amount and we can only use up to that amount. If we take and remove and add to that, it's only get up to the cap. So, we set up a $10 million um about five, six years ago, we would need to reestablish because we have used that amount. So, we would on our fourth proposition would be to establish a new 10 million capital reserve. It's not saying we're going to add 10 million right away or use 10 million. It's allowing us to add 10 million over 10 years as a 10-year reserve that we are allowed to set up, but per um New York State laws, we have to go to vote to establish a new capital
041reserve. So, there will be four propositions for this May in addition to our board election. And um then we have so what's next? We have a lot of work to do because we have a budget gap, but we also have this meeting. Um we have a budget workshop tenative if we need to for the board um March 31st. Then we have our second draft which is April 14th. We have a little bit of time between now and then to figure this all out and do our community budget forum at Shaker Road. So we'll be the other side of the district, very similar room um for our Shaker Road April 14th meeting. Then we have we'll have our final presentation to the board on April 21st. And then we'll be back here for a public hearing.
042And then May 19th at our two middle schools, we'll have our annual board election and budget vote and all those other propositions that I added. And then we'll certify on May 26th. And that's all I have. No more clicking. That's it. Any questions from the board? I think we presented a lot tonight. Thank you, Mrs. French. Fair. Thank you, Jacqueline. Thank you, Tom. Very much appreciated. Any questions? Anyone? All right. Hearing none. >> Any questions? Miss Hulahan. Um I'd love to hear a little bit more about the administrative proposal. Um I know that um most of you know I've long been a proponent of academic administrators. Um but I'd like to hear a little bit more about we added you know we have correct me if I'm wrong. We have K12 humanities supervisor of curriculum
043and instruction. We have a K8 math with some additional >> steam. Steam >> steam. We have 712 science. >> Right. >> Correct. >> And so how would the director of curriculum fit in that construct? it would really be focusing on the K6 environment where we've got a lot of work to do uh supplementing uh what our supervisors are are already planning to do and our building principles but working to align that curriculum uh from preK up through sixth grade would really be the goal of that position. Work closely with Mr. Catch Durian on those initiatives. We've got a number of initiatives uh in terms of bringing in um new uh resources for for teachers and making sure we're using those uh consistently and with fidelity. Um one of the things we have in a larger
044district is a lot lot of resources, but you also have inconsistencies because of the uh sheer volume and uh number of individuals. Um like Tommy quoted, how many sections we had was >> 86 sections. It's 86 individuals. you want to make sure that we're aligned throughout each grade level. So that would really be the the focus of that position. >> So what would that look like in implementation? When I think about how to ensure you have written curriculum and you have implemented curriculum, what does that look like at the practitioner level from a teacher perspective to have that work? >> It it would be working along with our grade level teachers, our building principles. Uh uh we've got a request for some um instructional coaches. So, it would be in collaboration with an instructional coach
045if we have those or it would be uh trying to >> we don't currently full-time. We have uh folks that have stipens for assistance um in many of those areas, literacy coaches and math instructional coaches, uh facilitators more than than full-time coaches. So, when you look at those titles, those roles are different in our district than they may be in another district. So they're usually teachers that are full-time in a content area, a grade level area who have an additional stipen to take on responsibilities, collaborating with them, making sure that we're in alignment, uh helping to support, uh new new teachers in the classroom. Uh oftent times, uh we do a lot of training on the front end in our pre-ervice, uh orientation, and there's need for additional support in year two and year three
046as our teachers are continuing to grow. So those are the some of the the ideas with that. um overseeing the MTSS process is certainly one that uh needs collaboration right now. Um you know that is under direction of building principles. It's under the direction of uh Mrs. uh Judge as well as um Mr. Kadurian but trying to get that uh aligned. >> The other one the IT >> it uh currently Tim Wright has been here uh over 35 years. He is our chief information officer um and uh helps with uh all things data submission. If you've uh spent any time in in uh the um civil rights data collection component that in of itself is a full-time job. Uh for the federal level, you have a lot of similar stuff going on with the state.
047That's just a component of of his role. It's uh supporting the the uh district uh principles and supervisors in uh coding the master schedules, coding things for the business office. Um it's quite involved. It's cyclical in in nature. Oftentimes people think the summer is a quiet time for it. It's really the busy time for them. though this individual's institutional knowledge because he's been around for uh since computers were were uh implemented in the district um is really something that you you just can't turn the light switch on and expect somebody new in the position to take over. So the request is for somebody for up to a year. We're not going to be able to meet that request. Uh but we do have to have consideration in a transition plan. We expect a retirement within
048the next uh uh 12 plus months. I guess two questions kind of one based off of that and based off of the the other role. How do we determine the the hierarchy of where these positions are falling? So like chief information officer to me is someone that should be sitting at the table because that's um you know that's a board typically a cabinet level position. >> Well in the in the IT world it it may not be. So in most cases uh that that CIO is uh more on the data side of the house uh more than the instructional side. So Mr. Love it who oversees that department is overseeing the data side of the house but is predominantly the instructional leader in in that realm. So is dovetailing those two things. Um data um
049submission data collection data output has changed over the years. We used to do a lot of mailings. We used to do a lot of um you know coding of of programming. Now uh we've adjusted to online format. So everything that is going on between uh the website between uh programs like Envision for the business office are all done through the IT department. U so this CIO role is really the data submission for uh state warehousing of of our student uh data for testing purposes. Um the state requires data submissions on a monthly basis uploaded new new entrance making sure students are coded in there. Um as well as the federal government requires that. So that's that's predominantly what this job's role is is like. Um and then uh obviously Aspen is another large component of
050it, helping to support um the back end of Aspen when there are um you know any updates to the program, any challenges of the program and working with those vendors to help support make sure it runs in the district. And then in the same vein, how did we determine a director level rather than you know we had multiple >> the director level would be it would really be consolidating that into the the supervisory role whether it's supervisor of director it was really looking at somebody who was uh identifying what's going on. So it could be supervisor curriculum uh I put it down as director because I looked at it as somebody who's really directing the instructional component at that level. >> Right. And I think part of the challenge when you look at the two
051roles is when you benchmark th those rates, those titles will will change the value of of the position. >> They they may they're still administrative roles. So it's going to be based upon uh whether it's a 11month or 12-month position and obviously the experience. I would look at uh salary wise in terms of the principal or supervisory role. It's not an entry level position. Um but it's not a cabinet level position if that answers your question. So again, some of the things that are up here in this first draft, uh I want to be clear, not everything in this first draft will make the second draft or the final adoption of the budget. Uh that's where we have the gap in play. We wanted to present it because there were topics of conversation that have
052come up through a variety of requests from uh building levels, from community members, from from uh cabinet and and at times from the board. Um so as we work through from first draft to second draft, some things are not going to make that. There are a lot of unknowns right now on the revenue side. Uh we're making assumptions with the state aid um percentage that has come out from the governor in in November and again in February. Uh until that budget is uh finally approved in some point in time in April, um we won't have a a solid number. We have something to to work off of. some of the proposals in the the governor's budget um related to UBK. We we have a significant uh in-house percentage of funds that go towards our UBK
053programs. It's wonderful that it helps our our our students and our uh get off and transition to school well, but that comes with a significant investment that our community has invested. So, if the state is increasing the reimbursement for each each child, right now it's at 5,400 per five hour slot or full day slot, if you will. um it's half of that for a half day slot. If the proposal to increase that to 10,000 instead of 5,400 that significantly increases our revenue. We can back off to some extent um our expenditures or we look to expand UBK which is something that we certainly want to do. We've made a point of doing that the last three or four budget cycles. Uh for this budget cycle we may you know absorb that and look what 2728
054year looks a year from now. So, um, but part of the UPK aotment that is proposed comes with some requirements to add a slot for every single eligible child. Right now, we serve about half the eligible children in South County. It's pretty good compared to some of our our neighbors, but it's not 100%. So, we have to be able to build out that capacity, not only in-house, but working with our community based partners. So, that could be more sections in South County. It could be more uh collaborations with some of the uh uh community based organizations like we have child time this year. We have 18 students attending child time. So those are all things that are still in flux. >> Question to ask Mr. Mallister that the $10 million number on the capital reserve
055is that an arbitrary number? Could we set another number if we wanted to? >> We absolutely could. it just seems like a very reasonable number that we could attain and then we could I think that our goal is to get to five million before we do another capital project um in the future. So looking at that that would get us two projects possibly into the future probably 10 years. I don't think that we would get too much more be able to add much more to that. So 10 million seems like a safe number. Um it was recommended from our um from fiscal adviserss as well from our um financial adviserss to use that number. It's something we've used in the past as well. >> Great. >> Yeah. Ju just one thing with that. When it's
056established, it will not be established with $10 million in in the account. >> Agreed. >> Established at zero with the ability to go up to 10 million and you add it add to it over the years. >> I just want to comment on there was a slide that talked about our priorities and one of them said something to the effect of making driven decisions versus emotional decisions. I just want to add on to that caveat around mandated programming. >> Sure. >> Consultant teacher is mandated programming K12 that we are not currently fulfilling. And so as a board member, my expectation is that we reach some capacity of consultant teacher not putting the, you know, the annual reviews come first, right? And we build program around child need, not make recommendations of the annual review to
057fit program. Um, so I just want to sort of emphasize All right. So, um, uh, but, um, I just really want to emphasize that part about mandate. Um, that that is a lot of those things are nice to have. Um, so I really want to see a strengthened commitment to consultant teaching um, K12 before we start talking about adding nice to house. >> Understandable. >> Is it possible? Can we the revenue and expenditures page. >> Can we get a and it may be somewhere that I'm just like a fiveyear look back just to watch how that number has evolved over time. >> I don't have it. >> No, no, that's fine. >> Yeah, I can get that to you very quickly. >> One thing with the uh expenditures and and revenue the last couple years,
058Jacqueline had mentioned the program uh component of this budget, although we're looking at a 3.49 49 tax levy increase the program is about 2.5. So as we go back several years that that two to 2.5 has been where we've been with the program. Um and the additional 1% is really for the the capital reser uh capital expenditures >> has been the last two years >> last year and this year moving forward. Um the other thing is that we have looked at the use of fund balance in in some difficult fiscal years. the board had used fund balance and reserves up to $5 million. When you do that, you don't necessarily have the ability to sustain $5 million year after year after year. So, went through some difficult economic times where we were cutting positions. Um,
059and it was due to a lack of revenue more so than expenditures, but uh we were in difficult situations where you had nothing left to cut. So we want to be mindful that although right now the uh revenue coming in is is pretty solid, we have to be mindful future years the sustainability. So that's why the recommendation for the uh use of fund balance is to stay the same amount. Even though our budget's going up, the percentage of fund balance would actually go down a little bit in terms of usage, but that's something we feel we can sustain year-over-year moving forward. um versus adding 800,000 just from fund balance will make things look great in 2627 2027 28 then you have a even larger gap to make up that additional fund balance year after year.
060So that was something fiscal advisers had talked to us about something we've strategically tried to cut back um without hurting programs over the last four or five years and we've been able to do that but at the same point in time we're we're using fund balance to balance the budget. So we're fortunate we have some some fund balance to do that. Uh sometimes you hear in in area community members they don't have the the reserves available uh to to do that and that's where these large cuts come into play. So we're trying to make sure sustain programs add strategically where we can the same point in time have it fiscally responsible for our community members. >> Right. because you know I I was at an event this morning um and you know I know there
061was the meeting or the rally on Sunday and it's an election year. We're hearing a lot of everyone's getting getting their wants and you know my concern is the sustainability when no one's up for reelection and now they make those negative decisions that we start having to cut. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Like this year we're looking at replacing all of our retirees. We're able to do that. Uh sometimes you you can't do that, but then you have to decide of those retirees where do you need the most? And so class sizes or things that are impacted in the future, other programs, uh sometimes it's the the extras. So things we know are good for kids sometimes are the ones that are the first things that are having to decide on on reduction. We're trying to avoid
062having largecale swings in in budget and reduction. Um, we've been able to sustain some growth in programming for like the business department as an example. We don't want to go backwards and have to say you added a half business teacher and next year we're cutting that. So try to make sure we're able to sustain that throughout the course of a student's career in in the schools. Can you talk to us a little bit about the data that supports.5 behavior specialists over say, you know, a.5 instructional coach or some, you know, like where, you know, tier one instruction is the best way to >> and so that's things that we're going to have to continue to vet out. Uh the request for the behavioral specialists has come in because we've had a number of uh buildings
063that are asking for students to either uh change programs, change potentially to a more restrictive environment um or to add programming. So we're looking at this as a model of saying how can students be better served within the programs within their home buildings. Um again that that is small percentage of kids in each building, but when you look at it districtwide, it's certainly adding to that. Um whether that's more valuable than an instructional coach is really a decision that we have to kind of look and balance. How can we make up the instructional coach component where we can't make up the the behavioral specialist component or maybe we can that may work through um the tier one instruction within the classroom some of the things we're doing with MTSS but our teachers every single day
064are tasked with a lot more than just the ABCs of learning. there are those social emotional uh supports and we need to provide some additional um tools to the toolkit beyond the classroom support. So this is an opportunity. It's it's something that uh we feel may benefit our kids and allow them to stay in in school in our our district rather than being uh forced to go into a more restrictive setting or or an outside placement potentially. Don't that answered your question in terms of the data, but it is it's trying to identify where those needs and the impact for the most most kids. So, anything else? >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Yes. Agenda item n number nine, reports and recommendations for action. This goes from letter A through letter F. On
065to the next page. Special note, letter F, the donation of a flute by Mr. Carl M. Bear. Thank you very much. Anything else of note, Dr. Perry? >> No, just the the capital outlay. We we have a uh $100,000 capital outlay project that you get aid back. Um we were looking at uh bathrooms and some of the buildings. They were coming back $250,000 to to redo bathrooms. So we shifted gears and looked at uh refinishing the gyms, something we do each year. You can only do a capital outlay within a individual building. So we're going to look at S Creek uh their their two gyms to refinish the flooring. Uh this is a company that's on one of the uh bid processes uh through the state source well contract. Um and uh that's where that
066came about. Any questions? Hearing none. I'll take a motion. Miss Giggleello. Second. Mr. Keane. On the motion made by Miss Giggleello, seconded by Mr. Keane that the above stated reports and recommendations be approved. Um all in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to zero. Thank you. Agenda item number 10, personnel instructions. This is on pages seven and eight. Mr. Rabalotti. >> Um something of of interest that jumps out. It's very business like Thank you very much. Any questions? Hearing none, I'll take a motion. Mr. Casey, Mr. Larabby. On the motion made by Mr. Casey, seconded by Mr. Larby, that the instruction personnel changes listed on the attached sheets dated March 10th, 2026 be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to zero. Agenda item number 11, personnel support, Mr. Robotti. >> I just
067would like to acknowledge Mr. Camp in his retirement. Mr. Hellcamp had a full career before he joined us high school 10 years ago and he's certainly been an asset for myself, Tom, and Bill kind of stabilizing the security component of entering the high school. He's been a fixture in that spot for about 10 years. And he does have a very unique skill set that's been advantageous to the high school setting. So, we will certainly miss Jeff, but two well-deserved retirements in his lifetime. >> He has. Yes. So noted. Thank you very much. May I have a motion? Mr. Misk. Second, Mr. Casey. On the motion made by Mr. Mis, seconded by Mr. Casey, that the support personnel changes listed on the attached sheet dated March 10th, 2026 be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion
068carries 8 to zero. Agenda item number 12, resolutions. National Autism Awareness Month, April, National School Library Month, April. Mr. Catchadorian, would you like to comment on either? >> Yeah, take a look at what I was able to share with everyone. a lot of fun initiatives that are certainly coming out of the schools. Particular, I like how we uh blended both of the uh month celebrations and have some specific things that are going on that's listed there and we would have hyperlinks to the reads that are um coinciding with autism awareness and just reading in general. A lot of good things. Certainly, we got to be part of that for those of us who were able to join um Sith Leech and the Rosel group last Monday. So, that was an awful lot of fun. But
069feel free, enjoy, and certainly we have all the folks here that are creating these initiatives and making them happen. If you have any questions for them too, feel free. >> Very good. Thank you. May I have a motion, Miss Gigglyello? Second, Mr. Keane. On the motion made by Miss Giggleello, excuse me, seconded by Mr. Keane, that the above stated resolutions be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 to zero. Agenda item number 13, future meetings, takes us all the way through June. Yes. >> I would just like to say to the audience and to anybody listening, the the uh athletic hall of fame will be meeting soon to vote on uh inductees into our athletic hall of fame. The portal is open on the website to uh uh nominate others for both the
070sports and as as well as the academic hall of fame. So please think about your former students or your your former teachers or whatever that might well be deserved deserving of being inducted into our halls of fame. They don't have to be they they typically are graduates of colony. Yes. But we also have the ability to use the uh concept of a contributor to add people to our halls as well. So if you would please think about that. We've got plenty we know we got some wonderful people out there who should be honored that uh we would like you to consider nominating. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I think the athletic actually may have closed off. I think it was listed for the sixth. >> Yeah. Yeah. But it's it should open for the
071next cycle again academic week. >> Academic. >> Very good. >> All right. Is there any other regular business before the board? All right. Hearing nothing. We are going to be entering the executive session this time. I will need a motion. Miss Hulahan, seconded by Mr. Larabe to enter the executive uh session at this time to discuss an employment matter. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 820 time 7:28. Evidently the meeting is