SOUTH COUNTRY CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD MEETING 06/09/2026 PART 1

001It's now 6:23. I'm calling the business meeting budget hearing for June 9th back into order. We've completed executive session with nothing to report from that. We'll start this portion the public portion of this meeting by doing the pledge of allegiance. Please join me. I >> pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please make note of the exits, the door in the back, the one to the side, and in case of an emergency, leave in an orderly fashion, as quickly as possible to the outside. This is a smokefree and vape free school district. Smoking and vaping are not permitted in the building or anywhere on school grounds. It's also a hatefree and bullyfree

002school district. Our agenda tonight is primarily a budget hearing, but it will be followed by public commentary um where the public will be able to um to speak and I'll go over the rules for that a little more later. But if anybody wants to ask a question or make a comment, um, please get a card from our district clerk and and we'll compile those. So, we can go right into our budget presentation. Mr. Susan, >> thank you, Madam President. Ladies and gentlemen, before I introduce uh the team that's going to make the presentation tonight, let's be clear. The controllers's office and auditors have been loud and clear. Poor decisions, poor communication have led to mismanagement and the fiscal crisis that we're working through right now. The team to my left and the board of education

003have worked hard to put an internal plan in place to ensure decision making and communications do not occur in silos. We are must be more open and transparent moving forward. You will see in the coming months and years the fruits of those labors, but it will take time. We know how you feel as a community. Your frustration, your anger, your disappointment. It's time for us to turn the page and work hard to reearn your trust and make good decisions and communicate clearly. as we together rebuild the South Country School District. Tonight, you're going to see two pathways to recovery and proper fiscal oversight. We must have oversight to ensure a strong return to our fiscal health. The first plan you'll see for the average homeowner will cost approximately $18.50 a month. And we believe if

004we follow that plan with fidelity and work with the board and the community, next year will be a stabilization year. And the second year we be we will begin to build back. The second choice if we go to contingency and you will see a stark difference tonight. We will, it'll take three to five years to rebuild and we will be at the mercy of guidelines from New York State. We feel that we are beginning to and I can't talk about executive session, but I witnessed a conversation in executive session tonight that I thought was healthy and productive and the beginning of a pathway for we know how you feel. We want to change how you feel. And even though I've been here a short time, Mr. Belmont has only been here several months. We take

005this very personally because we have to look into your eyes every day, the employees and the community that have been here for so long. It's time, folks. It's time to put this behind us, but never forget. It's time to put this behind us, but keep it on the shelf close by. It's time for us to pass the baton to the next leadership team and ensure that they promise to never forget and pass it to the team after them. With that, I'm going to hand it over to Mr. John Belmont, Mrs. and uh wait introduce Jackie and Jason. >> Yes, >> the kids. >> Yes. Um we're going to do a little bit of a different presentation than we normally do. Uh it's going to be a little bit of what I call a dog and

006fun show. So when we get to certain parts of the presentation, I'm going to ask Miss O'Hagen to come up with um Jason Huntman and they're going to go through the specifics of the program. We're going to give you a lot of information tonight as to some of the decisions that went into um what we provided in the framework at the last meeting and hopefully uh when it comes to the budget vote on June 16th, everyone can make a informed decision as to which way they would like to go. Um and as the superintendent mentioned, we will also be as we go through this presentation also talking about what items uh may come out of the budget if we are faced with. So with that um I click it doesn't work. Must have been a

007budget code. Oh, okay. Have to turn it on. Okay. Thank you. So, this one. Okay. Anyone have any questions? wasn't. So anyway, as we um I'll just for a little bit, but um as we uh develop this particular budget, um it is a budget that is at the tax cap. We know that. Okay. and always looking to come up with a uh almost like a catchy phrase as to where we are and why. So the the phrase that I put with this is that basically this is a balanced and responsible death. We've been through an awful lot. Uh we've been through an awful lot of budget reductions. We looked at programs. We looked at the reasons why we got here and we're making decisions to fix it and to make it right. But more importantly,

008whatever that decision is, it needs to be sustainable going forward. These are just notes one shot deals that we put in place that with the next administrative team, we go back to the way we were. It's really going to get complicated. Okay, there we go. So there you see it's a balanced path forward. uh we know that uh the difficulties that we had um ca came to uh to ensure the fiscal stability and going forward and the budget this budget was built on district's actual operating cost and current staffing levels and staffing levels that were that's mandated and educational priorities. And it's safe to say that unlike other budgets, prior budgets, this one that we presented 2627 is grounded in uh fiscal reality and designed to be sustainable as I mentioned going forward. So that's

009just some important uh things on the backdrop of what we're presenting. So we basically know that we resolved two years of um fiscal structural deficits with the special act legislation and the advance of our general aid. And more importantly, we also talked about how this should not happen again and the things that we put in place to ensure it doesn't happen again. And one of the things that is key with this is the fact that for the next 30 years on a quarterly basis at the end of every quarter the district has to report to the state state education department and controllers's office the house ways and means committee the senate finance committee and um tremendous amount of oversight and that reporting has to be done 60 days at the close of every quarter. So

010that's to ensure that the district is being monitored during the time that the loans and the uh proceeds are out and that the district has to follow all the financial guidelines. God bless you. All the financial guidelines and protocols that need to be kept in place. So the budget that we presented, oops, go back. Okay. So the budget that we're presenting, we know that it is at the cap. We've been talking about that over and over again and that we implemented significant reductions to the organization. We all know that these choices were very difficult and every effort was made to protect the core instructional and support programs. And as we get further into the presentation, when we get into the detail, we'll have a better understanding as to what that means. The revised budget reflects

011a $5.6 million reduction from where we were in May when the first budget failed. Um, But these were reductions that were necessary to bring us to the cap. Okay. In order to preserve the core instructional framework going forward. So as the superintendent mentioned, the bottom line of this at this particular point is $18.50 a month. But more importantly, where we are, we maintain control of how we could rebuild our budget. If you move to a contingency budget, all bets are off because you're going to a baseline of the current year tax. And that's going to require another $4 million in budget reductions. We know that the revised budget we preserve the core instructional programs uh pieces of athletics both varsity and middle school athletics remain uh essential transportation services. Uh we are not at the

012state limit for our basic transportation. We did make reductions in some areas of transportation but more more importantly also key support student services were kept in place. We know that uh we may have changed some class sizes and increased on a very minimal basis and we made some decisions um that would enable us to really secure the financial structure of the district going forward. And um again to get to a contingency another $4 million in reduction was would need to be removed. from the budget. So, um, we I I I have down here the board believes, but it's really we believe that the revised proposal represents the most responsible balance between educational quality and taxpayer impact and the long-term fiscal recovery efforts. Because if this budget passes, we have just fixed three years of issues

013that needed to be corrected in a very short period of time. So with that, uh, we all have the background. I just like to make a comment, some comments on the revenue side of the budget. Nothing really has changed from the original budget. On the revenue side, uh the only thing different is we do the state does have a budget in place and um I can say with a great confidence that it did not affect our state aid and you will see a slide a little bit later showing that. Um getting down to the other half of the other source revenues, we are recommending to apply $2.6 $6 million from our reserves to fund a portion of the budget going forward. Just look forward look to the column next to it. The 9.5 million that

014was what was put um on the table last year at this time when the bud 2526 budget was presented. So you can see the amount that the district was looking to use from fund balance and reserves and unfortunately those monies no longer exist. So part of the issue what we're trying to do going forward to be fiscally responsible you're going to have to balance your expenditures with your available revenues. you have little or no reserves monies to fill that gap anymore. So that's why this process is somewhat painful, if you will. The other thing that I just like to point out is that again on the yellow line you'll see the property taxes and you'll see the current year at 71.4 million and the uh proposed year if the budget passes would be 75.4. So

015that in and of itself, if we end up on contingency, think about what we've been saying, that $4 million, that $3.9 million increase on the tax levy has to go back to the 2526 level. So we have to back in to a tax levy of 71.4 million. That's where another 4 million must be cut from the budget to get there. Okay? because there's no other revenues that are coming in to change that prediction question. >> The other thing when we look at the numbers on the bottom, the 147 million is the total vote approved budget and that's for the current school year. Look at where we are in this proposed budget after the significant reductions that we have taken down. We're at 144.8 million. Now we all know that for 2526 we had a structural

016deficit. We know it was about 8.7 million in that year alone. We know we had to borrow 11 million. And part of the problem was that the 25 26th year was underestimated. And it's underestimated. We say that with confidence because we had a structural deficit that had to be funded from the state. Okay. So with that, when you're comparing the numbers, think about from my perspective, from a fiscal perspective, that $147 million to me is not real because it's underestimated and it never reflected the district's correct program cost. That's part of the correction that we are making now going forward. State aid um as I indicated earlier what you have this is the state aid print out that we get from the state based on the executive budget. On the left hand side you see

0172526 and on the right hand side 2627. Um, I don't expect anybody to be able to read that from there because I can't read it from here. Um, but we do have this on the website. The thing to note is that that yellow line on the right hand side shows the difference in the aid from year to year. And on that report, it shows that we're down $564,000 in state aid. Okay. So again, thinking about what we've been talking about, everything that we're that's being impacted is on the expenditure side of the budget. Why? Because we have no new revenues and we've been spending down our fund balance and reserves. So, just one other point for the community and the board to understand when they're looking at this and comparing it to the revenue sheet

018is that you'll see a line that says universal prek. for purposes of what we show in the on the general fund and what we saw on the revenue statement, you need to back that out of the totals because that number for universal prek is not part of the general fund. So, I just mentioned that maybe it's a little too technical, but if somebody's trying to look at what the number is for 2627 and compare it to that top number there that says um state aid. Okay, that's what you need to do. That universal prek number has to be backed out. Okay, this is a good one. What is a school district budget? Um, it's actually a our fiscal spending plan. It's not a static document written in concrete and I've gotten a lot of feedback

019from people in the community um fixated on line by line. Okay, you have to everyone needs to understand what a budget is and what it does. Throughout the year, the district and administration and the board continually monitor evaluate the revenues, expenditures, enrollment and staffing and student needs and that gets adjusted as necessary when the educational priorities and the operational requirements change. That's why your budget is a plan. It's not fixed. It's not saying that once the once the community approves this, that's it. This the only thing that we can spend it on. Things change. You have flexibility. The only flexibility you really don't have is that the one fundamental requirement that you must operate within the voter approved budget and within the financial meanings while meeting the educational obligations. So basically when the new year

020begins and the educational priorities here change because we have impacted them greatly. Okay, things within the budget will change. Things will shift. It will shift from different codes. It could be for staffing. It could be for other things that the district may need for the continuity of the educational program. The importance of that is to ensure that you stay within the box. You have to stay within your budget. You can shake that box and make it do anything you want to do. So that's your key takeaway from this slide. It's a plan. It's a breathing document. It can be flexible. Every month the board approves budget transfers. We do it on a monthly basis. It's normal operating procedure for school district. It's nothing unusual and it's nothing unique to South Country. Okay. mentioned earlier that

021um the budget was based on actual cost and uh from this perspective that a lot of questions that I received based on the budget document it appears that people have gotten increases when they looked at salary goals. Okay. So I'm going to address that. We put out a Q&A and I think we addressed that as well. Again, we go back that what was budgeted in the prior budgets was not always accurate and reflected the true cost of staffing and operations. We recognize that. How do we know that? We have a structural deficit. You had to get special ed legislation. Okay. So, we know that we're looking at 25 26. To me, they're not real numbers, but we are required by law to show budget to budget. And that's when we show budget to budget, you're

022looking at those variances. So, the big takeaway in this discussion is when you're looking at 26 27, it's built on actual costs. It's built on reality. Okay? going forward. It's built on the people and our program where it is at this point in time. Okay, this is the um little bit of the three-part budget and as we've talked about in the past, administrative program and capital. The one thing another question that we've been addressing is people have seen just the administrative total in the past and they don't necessarily recognize what goes in it. So if you look there on the left hand side, the administrative section of the budget that's broken down in accordance with the state's guidelines includes the curriculum development, staff development, inservice, personnel, district audits, central printing, and district votes. So when

023you see the word administrative, it's not just administrators. It's not just people. There's other things that are in those line items within the budget. And when you look at the capital expenses, the majority are your facility costs, your debt service, your operations and maintenance, your supplies, utilities, and the personnel that work within those areas. And your program expenses are basically your largest over 70 almost 73%. And basically those are your teachers and your program cost to run the school district. And that's the breakdown. Again, I caution people. 2627 is reality. 25 26 not so much. Again, we are required to show budget to budget. Now, we're going to get into some of the meat and potatoes, as I like to call it. So, we're going to go through the administrative program and component budget. This

024is similar to the framework that we presented uh at the last meeting, but however, you'll see that there's a column that gives us the rationale as to why we made those decisions administratively and as a district and what the implications would be on contingency for the column next to it. So the first thing we have is the reduction of security staff and we have a total of 530,000. And the rationale here is that we're looking to align the staffing and overtime with essential operation needs while continuing to maintain school safety. And I say that the key word here is essential. When you are cutting back the budget to this magnitude, we have to only look at what is essential. And I can tell you that from the past two years when we looked at the

025security budget, there is a tremendous amount of overtime. So one thing the district has to look at, number one, do we need all those that overtime? Do we need as many people at various events? So, that's something from a district management standpoint that we're going to be very in tune to uh going forward. And if we end up on contingency, that will go further. And at that particular point, when you're on contingency, you'll see when we get to the buildings itself, there'll be no use of facilities. There'll be no after school activities. So a lot basically you're not going to need a significant amount of the security staff. So we would look to make further reductions in that area. Keep in the back of your mind is that that contingency column comes with a price

026tag of $4 million. Whether we like it or not, we don't have a choice. It's $4 million. The next uh line in the administrative section, we had um conference and travel in a couple of codes. We basically removed all of that and we reduced those codes to zero. Okay? And that was a reduction of $25,000. Um under contingency, since everything was taken out, there's nothing else to take down in that category. Um postage, uh postage, we reduced only $10,000. Uh we're going to be looking at the increase of electronic communications and digital distributions. This is something that hopefully will bring our posted cost down. And then again, if we end up on contingency, we would look at that further as well. Um reduction of clerical substitutes. Uh we do have a provision for clerical substitutes.

027That's something when we're cutting the u the budget down that we would look at closely and we would have to utilize the existing staff and scheduling efficiencies to cover short-term absences. Okay, that may mean that things don't get done as quickly as they should, but nonetheless, this is where we're tightening our our belts. Um on contingency, um additional reductions may be necessary in all probability. uh additional clerical staff would probably be reduced across the board and reduction of clerical overtime. The same thing, uh we're going to look at only essential overtime and uh we're going to limit it only on a case-by case basis as needed and as essential to the operations. Um, and once you're on contingencies, probably no overtime unless it's an emergency situation. Very different operational structure from where we are now

028with this proposal to contingency. So that's what that's what part of the takeaway is going to be. You're going to see right now we have some flexibility to start to rebuild. When you get to contingency, you're starting at the bottom. you're rebuilding from the bottom. Just quickly go through the capital component. We've made a recommendation to uh reduce 270,000 in this area um and use of facilities and buildings and grounds. We recommended maintenance and improvements. We we did miscellaneous repairs and um districtwide custodial maintenance overtime. Uh some of the feedback that I have gotten is why didn't you reduce custodial staff? Well over the years our custodial staff has been reduced and we have a very limited number of individuals. We also made a very conscious decision that when you look at maintaining facilities that

029we can probably get a bigger bang for our buck with our custodian and maintenance staff. for the simple reason is that having to cut back on contractors through maintenance and improvements and also maintenance repair costs and have our custodians and staff perform those things that they can we can save money and also keep the staff in place going forward. Um the key also here is that when you defer non-essential maintenance projects and facility improvements, which we would under this particular budget, okay? Um the monies were really only going to be spent for code compliance and health and safety needs. And if you end up on contingency at that point, we will probably go and reduce custodial staffing as well. Again, no choice of hours, but we need to get to a formula number. Okay. So,

030we're going to start looking at the program component, and that's where I'm going to take a little break. and uh Mr. O'Hagen and Mr. Huntsman will join me. But I just want to start out by talking about the reality of contingency. Um again, we keep saying it that we built this budget to preserve as many instructional opportunities and student programs and support services as possible while getting to the 5.52 tax levy cap. Okay. And we do know that under a contingent additional reductions are required um in all the areas. And I think to one of the points that the superintendent made that's extremely important to take away is that the impact of a contingency will extend beyond a single year and restoring programs and opportunities eliminated on the contingency would require years of sustained financial

031recovery and reinvestment. That is not fear-mongering, ladies and gentlemen. That is reality. And those districts that have been on contingency. You can check with them and you can see what their plate was to get back involved. It takes several years to do that. Okay, with that we're going going to get into the um program component. Uh I'm going to take the first couple of items because in the program piece is transportation. Uh the community is aware that on uh May 19th we had a referendum approved for reducing private school transportation from 25 miles to 15. The district was able to reduce its cost by $900,000. Okay. And um if the district ends up on contingency, we will continue to look at route efficiencies as we did mid year this year and consolidation to see if

032there's possibly other budgetary savings that we could achieve. Uh we already have made substantial reductions both midyear and with this particular referendum in the area of transportation, but nonetheless, we will continue that practice. Um so as everyone is aware that we eliminated uh all the late buses uh from the 230 buses to the other late buses. So with this particular budget that's proposed there will be no uh additional late buses after the school day. So with that I'll turn it over to my colleagues to pick up the um other instructional pieces. Um so the next piece is is the technology part of it. As we know it's really important that our students do have Chromebooks. they use them um a lot in class and in terms of them being uh digitally uh competent in using

033these Chromebooks, it's really important. Uh typically we have our sixth graders who um get replacement of Chromebooks and our ninth graders who get replacement of Chromebooks. So if the budget uh does pass, we will be able to support our ninth graders uh getting a replacement of Chromebooks. It's really important um that they use these Chromebooks in terms of testing uh AP courses um you know benchmark exams they're doing midterms finals and so forth. Um unfortunately under contingency we would have to remove and this would be detrimental in terms of replacements for all Chromebooks. Uh so it would be a big problem. Okay. Um so that is in terms of technology. Uh second part is co-curricular. Um, as of now, we have to eliminate all uh district-wide intram murals. Uh, we want to, with the budget

034passing, preserve the plate production while reducing non-essential activities. Um, however, with contingency, we would have to remove all again detrimental. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present here this evening. Um this is a very difficult time for our community. We we all know that. Um and we're here tonight to talk about two options as Mr. Belmont and also Mr. Dolan um noted. We are talking about what a proposed budget successful budget would look like and trying to give people an idea of what it would look like if we were on contingency. So, as I continue to u kind of continue that that narrative, let's talk a little bit about our administrative team in terms of our director positions. So, in the proposed budget, uh we are eliminating both the director of guidance position

035as well as the director of technology position. Um in the proposed budget, we do continue to have our director of special education and our athletic director. And obviously the school district must meet extensive federal mandates and state special education obligations under ID IDEIDA and the commissioner's regulations. So um those positions are really vital for us moving forward under contingency. What we would anticipate at this point is that our director of special education would remain in place to oversee uh the the p the pieces I just annotated. Um, we would anticipate that our director of athletics would remain and we would look to maybe utilize him in a little bit of a different capacity to further support the the broader K12 program that we have. I do want to highlight that during this budget process, we

036have reduced 10 administrative positions. 10 is a number that doesn't necessarily look as big compared to some of the other units. However, as a former sixth grade math teacher, it's important to look at numbers in different ways. 10 out of 23 represents 43% of our administrative team not being here as part of the 26 27th school year. So, I just think it's important. Obviously numbers are important in terms of actual people and positions, but also when you look at these pieces as well as we've gone through all these conversations, it is really important to also identify the fact that 43% of our administrative uh team is no longer going to be in place for next year. And so that's why if we were to be on to contingency, we're not looking to reduce any any

037further positions because even at this point, we we do have some reservations in terms of just being able to meet some of the mandates that we have in place for for 26 27. All right. As we continue on looking at athletics, um, in the in the proposed budget, we are not including, uh, JB athletics. So, we are eliminating the JB athletic program. However, it's important to note that we still are looking to offer our middle school and varsity sport program. And there's a reason for that. And the reason for that is that it was important for us to include all of those pieces, but as we made these difficult decisions, we wanted to make sure that our our seniors and upper classmen had the opportunity to participate in in varsity athletics. Um, and it also

038was important for us to continue to create a feeder program for our high school program. And that's why we went with the decision of having our middle school athletic program. Um, if we were to go into contingency, it's very simple when it comes to athletics. We will not have middle school athletics, we will not have junior varsity athletics, and we will not have varsity athletics. Um, so those would be reductions that would be included in the contingency budget. um along with with the the coaches and all the fees for for um for referees and things. It's also would include a reduction of of transportation of uniforms of all those other pieces that would go. But I just want to reiterate again, the proposed budget that we're putting out there does continue to have athletics. It

039has middle school athletic program and the varsity program. Okay? Um it's important for us to to know that and and to understand what's at stake. Again, all of these lines are so significant. This is I mean these these are decisions that are very significant for our community. These are very difficult decisions. Um each one of these budget lines that we talked about here tonight because they're not budget lines. They're they're programs for our kids. They're they're jobs for our people in our community. They're people that invested their time and their career with us. So all of these pieces are important. Um, as we continue looking in terms of our u music program in the proposed budget, we do have reduction of four staff members uh and four positions. And what that would look like is

040we would look to eliminate the band, chorus, and orchestra from Frank P. Long. And we would also have uh a modification to our middle school and high school music program. So again, what we're looking to do, as we've talked about throughout, is looking to maintain our program as best as we possibly can. And so at the middle school, what we would be looking to do is we would be looking to uh combine our seventh and eighth grade orchestra, band, and chorus. So there would be one orchestra for seventh and eighth grade, one orchestra uh together combined, one for chorus, and one for orchestra as well. The way that would look would be we would look to have our students take that as an every other day class. Okay? And what that would mean uh in

041order to to meet the needs of all the numbers of students in that program. Um but that would mean that we would have those students would have a study hall potentially in the opposite side of that schedule. Uh for our seventh and eighth graders that are involved in band or orchestra course at the high school. Uh what we would look to do again through the lens of trying to offer as much program as we can um we would look to combine orchestra 9 with string orchestra. So we would now have one 9 through 12 orchestra as opposed to breaking out our freshmen. And we would also look to do a similar path for our band program. Currently we have a symphonic band nine and then a symphonic band um for 10 through 12. So, we

042would look to have one symphonic band for grades 9 through through 12. If we were on contingency, um we would have to at least consider further reductions um to make sure that we're at at the state minimums. For example, uh at the middle school, the requirement from uh from from state head is that students in seventh and eighth grade have to have a minimum of one half credit um during their seventh and eighth grade uh middle school experience. And so, uh again, under the lens of all this is a is a is a our budget is a plan a spending plan. We would have to continue to look at that to see if that's something that that we would able to to move forward with under contingency. But again, um, under the proposed budget, our,

043uh, K3 music program is still going to continue to have general music for five, they would continue to have general music, and we still be able to offer our performing arts, uh, although in a different way, both the middle school and at the high school. Uh, in terms of art, in our proposed budget, uh, we are looking to remove, um, the majority of our elective courses at, uh, at the high school. U explicitly. So what that would look like is we would look to maintain our courses required for graduation uh courses such as studio art, creative class, crafts and media arts. The one piece I do want to highlight is that currently in our proposed budget plan, our proposed spending plan, uh we do anticipate being able to offer to our students drawing and painting

044two, which is obviously the continuation of drawing and painting one. The reason why that's looking we're looking to offer that is we would look to marry that with AP art. And what we would do with that is we would call it's called co- seeding is when you have two sections of of of courses where the numbers aren't as as big as something. You put them together and you have one class where one teacher teaches both of those classes. But it's an opportunity again for us to maintain um our pathway for AP art and also an additional elective for um most likely some of our upper classmen in terms of uh taking drawing and painting too. Family and consumer science in the proposed budget we have a reduction of uh one one position. Um at the

045middle school we would maintain what we have because we are at the state minimum in terms of our middle school offerings. at the high school. What we would look to do is we would continue to offer the same exact courses. We would simply offer less sections of them. It's obviously our family consumer science program is a very popular program at our high school. Um so we would still look to offer that program. Um but we would have some students that wouldn't be able to take it because there wouldn't be enough room in some of those sections. Um obviously then we would prioritize uh based on graduation requirements and our upper classmen to be able to take take those courses. I get Miss O'Hagen up here back in a minute, but just in terms of of

046our elementary uh plan currently in our in our current year in 2526, we currently have um six math interventionists. And I know there was a bit of confusion last time um when we were talking about the math interventionist. We we clearly know that those are elementary teaching positions. Okay, just to define that they're elementary tenured um tenure area teachers that happen to be math specialists. So we currently have six. We would be looking to uh reduce four of those positions in the proposed budget while keeping two. And that would give us some flexibility with to be able to look at our needs across the district and be able to provide those services as best we possibly can. uh under a contingency budget those are man non-mandated services uh in terms of doing those as in

047the model of which we provide them and so under a contingency budget those would be two positions that that would be removed um in terms of our literacy coordinators at this point um in our current proposed budget we would be looking to maintain our four literacy coordinator conditions uh no reductions in that in that facet that capacity under contingency uh we would unfortunately have to remove those four literacy uh coordinator stiphens and have those teachers pushed back into the classrooms. Those those all happen to be reading teachers. They would all push back into the classroom. Uh at this time, I just want to pause for a moment, give Miss OG an opportunity to talk a little bit more about the two positions I just mentioned. >> Every role and every teaching role is so important

048here. Um and to think about our math interventionists and our literacy coordinators. Uh they work very very closely with building administration with teachers and they have worked very very hard to raise student achievement for South Country School District. Um and looking at these roles and thinking of a possibly contingency budget without them is just detrimental to the school district and the amount of work that they have done. Um, so I just want to point out how important that these roles are. All of all roles are so important. Um, we did keep the four literacy coordinators. Um, and two, if the budget passes because our literacy curriculum needs work, it needs to be aligned with the science of reading. We still have a lot of work to do with literacy across all content areas. But know

049that, please know that both of these roles are instrumental in delivering the school district. uh in terms of our elementary class section. So I just want to kind of clarify here or talk about it here and talking about sections is the number of sections that we offer in each in each grade level. So in terms of our proposed budget, the number of elementary class sections is not being reduced at all. It is the same number that I presented back in March. It's the same number that we put forth uh during the May 2026 uh budget that went out went out to the community. So in again in the proposed budget there are no reduction of elementary class sections and further in the presentation we will provide some additional information in terms of class size um

050that will provide a little more clarity in terms of that. If we were to be on contingency at this point I would anticipate uh the reduction of seven additional elementary sections which obviously would impact seven additional elementary school teachers. looking at at sixth grade. Now, I don't know if everybody knows this, but sixth grade is actually part of the elementary model. Years ago, it got pushed into the middle school. It's part of the middle school philosophy now. But technically, our sixth grade teachers are elementary school teachers. They're part of the elementary tenure area. So, under our proposed budget, again, we're not making any structural changes or any staffing changes to our sixth grade program. However, if we were to be on contingency, I would anticipate two additional reductions in terms of FTE and that would

051come in uh two two pieces. Number one is we would look to increase class size um from about 27 to about 32 on the sixth grade level. And on top of that, we would also look to remove our uh WIN program. WIN stands for what I need. It's a wonderful program for our sixth grade students. Transitioning to middle school is always a very difficult time in in any student's life. So, um, it's a wonderful program to provide our students with support and transition into the middle school program. If we were a contingency, that program would would not would no longer be in place. As a result of that, our sixth graders would have an alternate day study hall as well. So, I just want to be able to articulate exactly what that impact is. So,

052if you look at at elementary across the board in terms of our elementary teaching staff and you put all these pieces together, um you're looking at a reduction of 11 elementary positions between um between our two sixth grade positions, the seven sections, and also the two uh math interventions positions that will be there. The reason why reading is on this towards the bottom is because that's actually connected to our literacy coordinators. Our literacy coordinators are reading teachers. So the way it's structured is they're half time or.5 literacy coordinator and half time five reading teachers. So if we pulled all of them out and pushed them back to the classroom, even though there's four of them, they each are half our reading teachers that would get pushed back into the classroom. So that would reduce our

053reading uh week by u by two two additional positions. So that's why there would be a reduction of two reading teachers that comes connected to the uh literacy coordinators. As we look at our high school program, again through the lens of what's in the in the proposed budget compared to what's in contingency budget, in the proposed budget, in terms of of English, what we would look to do that we do have a reduction of one position in English between the middle school and high school, we would look to increase our class size in seventh and eighth grade in English classes would uh look like at this point would be around around 30. Um, and at the high school, we would look to increase our class sizes in our AP classes, specifically AP language and AP

054seminar. U those would be at around 32 uh 32 students in each one of those classes. But again, neither one of those um decisions impacts the actual course offerings that we have, but it does increase class size. Uh if we were on contingency, uh that additional 1.0 reduction at the additional position uh would come with increased class size at both the middle school and the high school. Again, uh the middle school would look to be on average would be around 32 and the high school would be around 34. Again, I have an entire slide talking about class size, which we'll kind of dig into in a few minutes here. uh when we look at our our math positions and math and I put business because some of our math teachers happen to teach within our

055business program. Uh what we would look to do under the proposed budget is we have a reduction of of one position. And one of the things that we did was we looked at our middle school math 7 uh course and we have two courses. You have accelerated math and then you have math 7. So what we did was we looked to incorporate and invite more students into our accelerated program. And by doing that you are providing a wonderful pathway for students to take accelerated math as well as it gives us the ability to um be able to rebalance our classes between the math 7 and the math 7 accelerated. Um additionally we would look to increase our class size at the high school and some of our I'm sorry at the middle school and some

056of our support AIS classes. Again we're not removing those support classes but we would look to increase the class size in those classes. Uh the impact in the high school would be um we would be uh removing one of our uh business electives principles of marketing uh would no longer run in our current proposed plan. Um but nothing else would be touched at the high school in terms of our in terms of our math department in the proposed budget. Again, under contingency, you're looking at another reduction of 1.0 between the middle school and high school. Um and that would come most likely at the cost of an increased class size. Again, we would still look to maintain our our our courses, but you'll see what the class sizes look like here in a few minutes.

057U in terms of our social studies piece in the proposed budget, um we would be looking to increase class size at the at the middle school currently with approximately about 30 students in each in each class of the middle school. Uh we also in the proposed budget, we also would not be uh running an elective which is intro to law and we would look to combine our active citizen course. We offer that in two different ways. We would look to again continue to run the program, but be able to pull those two things together um to be able to uh be more efficient with how we how we offer it. If we were on contingency with the additional FTE reduction, we had some significant increases to class size, which we'll go over here in a

058few minutes. Looking at science, I know science was um definitely a hot button topic when we when we talked about this at the last meeting. Um, so when we were talking about the elimination of AP Chem, AP physics, and AP environmental, um, one of the things that I I want to kind of go back to is what Mr. Belman talked about about the budget being a spending plan. And I think it's important for us to understand that we need to have flexibility as we build our plan when it comes to our offerings. So what I would say at this point is with the current reduction of uh one science teacher, what we would look to do is we would look to be able to be as responsive as we could to our students in those

059science classes and to make the decisions that minimally impact our students in the best possible way. So when we're looking at AP CAM and AP physics, I know one of the things we talked about was could students self-study and then would still offer the course. So those are things that we could potentially look at. We could potentially look at uh running potentially AP Chem and maybe not AP physics, right? Because uh more of our kids that are going into the medical field, there's more kids that that need that that AP chem class. The bigger the bigger piece I want to communicate is that under our proposed spending plan, we have options. We have the ability to make our decisions based on our student needs. Under our plan of contingency, those things are off the table

060and we're in a position where we're really not going to be able to offer any of those courses and we're really going to be limited with what we're able to offer. Um, and that would also come with increased class sizes as well, which I will get to here in a minute. I just want to add about the AP. >> Oh yeah, please, please. >> Um, so just talking about AP courses, we were just featured in Newsuesday for earning silver status from the AP college board honor role, which is an incredible achievement that we went from bronze to silver. And I say that as the former director of humanities, current assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction, working with high school administration, our director of guidance, the director of STEM, and providing open access for courses. And that

061is how we achieve that and ensuring that our students have open access to these courses. And thinking about amazing programs like AP Capstone, that's one of our staple programs in this district, right? We have to ensure that we still have that. And if we go to contingency and we have to look at cutting more AP courses, that could have the impact of our status changing that we worked so hard to earn silver status. So I just wanted to add that in. >> So will Capstone remain if the budget passes this time around? >> Yes, because capstone is an ELA credit, right? So uh that would remain. Um but we would have to look at additional AP course offerings if they go agencies. >> And what about generation citizen and cadet core? >> Generation citizen would

062remain untouched. That's part of our seal of civic readiness. That is not budget related at all. So >> that will stay. >> I can jump in on cadet core if you want. >> Yeah. With cadet core what uh we anticipate in the current um anticipated budget would be we used to offer it as two separate courses. the the first version of it and the second version of it. What we would look to do is to co-see it as we talked about with the AP. So you'd still be able to offer it and you differentiate within the program um to be able to still have have that program. It would look a little bit different but we' still be able to have that program. >> Thank you. >> Sure. Thank you for your question. Um last

063piece on on this on this slide just looks at at world language. Um the impact of our in our current proposed budget is we would be looking to offer all of our uh same courses that we would be looking to that we are currently with the exception of um we would have to eliminate our discovering world language program which is of course for our middle school six is our sixth graders. Um it would be an every other day course and so our sixth graders would have a study well in that in that time period. Um when we look at um the college Spanish, college French, and college Italian, I'm going to I'm going to connect that back to what we talked about with science um that we have some flexibility in the in the proposed

064budget to be able to offer some some pathway of those courses. But again, when you look at the contingency budget, it it really significantly reduces our ability to even look at those things as as options. The font keeps getting smaller. Sorry. >> All right. So, just in terms of uh technology in the proposed budget, we have removed the uh technology electives at the high school. We are currently at the state minimums at the middle school. And so, um if we were on contingency, it wouldn't change anything because there's no more uh reductions at the high school and we are already at state minimums at our middle school. When we look at our school counselors, uh, in the proposed budget, we do have a reduction of of two school counselors and, um, what we have now

065is a is a wonderful program that we support our students with, and that includes having school counselors in K3. Uh, the state mandate requires us to have a uh, counseling program in K3, but not necessarily the counselor. So, we would be at the state mandate in terms of grades uh, K through three. if we were on contingency. >> Excuse me. Go >> ahead. I'm sorry. >> So, how does that work? You have to have a program, but you can't have counselors. >> It can be it could be um it can be implemented by perhaps a social worker. It could be something that classroom teacher run. So, there's there's still there's still a program, meaning a curriculum that's that's facilitated there, but it doesn't necessarily have to be implemented by a school counselor. >> Seems like

066an oxymoron. >> I don't disagree, but uh that's that's what that's what that regulation is. So, um, so that's that's what we would look to do under the, um, proposed proposed budget under contingency. Uh, I do again anticipate we would have to do a reduction at Bellport High School of one C school counseling position. And, you know, as we all know, school counselors play a vital role just like so many of our other people in terms of supporting our students during during the school year during their 9th through 12th grade, but also in helping our students to transition either into the workforce, college, or into the military. So that that would definitely be a significant hit as as all these pieces are and all these people are. Uh it's very very difficult. Um in terms

067of library, uh we would look to be at the the state minimum. So we would not have in our proposed budget not have library in terms of K5. We would continue to have library uh library media specialists at both the middle school and high school. And since we would be at minimums already, there's no further reductions that we would be able to consider in terms of contingency. Um, special education, another kind of hot button topic. I I do just want to clarify something in terms of special education, special education services. Um, in the proposed budget, we we are not looking to impact the current level of special education services in in any capacity, right? And I know that was something that was kind of put out there in a couple different ways. So I just

068want to clarify that one piece. >> What what I would say is under contingency, one of the things that we h would have to explore would be the possibility of going from a full day ICT or inclusion model at the elementary to a a hybrid or split model. It be the split model. Let me explain our current model. Our current model is we have a a special education teacher and general education teacher that works together throughout the duration of a day in a hybrid model. Typically the way uh districts put it together is you have a special education teacher that pushes in during half of the day and on the other half the day you have the support of a TA in a classroom and those two people then then alternate between two different classrooms.

069So again at this point I just I just want to I I need to put it out there with everything that we're talking about in terms of contingency. It's something we would have to look to to continue to explore. Um but it's not something that we're taking action on right now. Again, in our current plan, we're not reducing services for any special education programs. It's not happen. We have reduced the number of special education teachers. However, we are are not uh looking to reduce the the special education offerings that we have. >> I'll bring M. So, you back up. >> Um, so I just want to talk about our dual language program and go over the mandate for dual language, which is part 54. Um, if a school has 20 or more English language learners

070of the same grade level assigned to a school and they share the same non-English home language, the district must provide those students with a bilingual education program. Therefore, um, if the budget passes, we are going to continue our dual language uh, regardless of contingency or not. Um we will look at uh different models but right now we have our sidebyside model and dual language will remain as is. >> Thank you. Uh the last the last facet on this on this slide is our uh general education ETAs. In the proposed budget, um we are looking to reduce the number of general NTAs by by 10 and that's happening through attrition and also so through some accessing as well. Unfortunately, um under contingency at this point, we would have to continue to evaluate that piece. Obviously, again,

071our our TAs are another people that play a really vital role in keeping our organization moving. So we really need to look closely and see if that's another area that we would have the capacity to be able to reduce if we were to be on contingency. Okay. So I said earlier that I I would talk specifically about class size. So I I I just want to take a few minutes here, put this up on the screen to look at our class size. This is specifically looking at our elementary class size. Um, I still didn't put kindergarten up there because it just it'll only it'll only mix things up because we still have we still have an open enrollment and we also have with the dual language program we have students that that go in across

072different buildings. So that that number is not going to be valid um at this point. So we're looking at grades one through uh grades one through five here. Um what what I want to point out on the left hand side that represents our proposed budget as I mentioned earlier. That chart represents the same chart that we presented back in March and that we put out to the vote in in May. And in the proposed budget, there are no changes to the number of elementary sections that we are looking to offer compared to what we presented back in March. And if you look at the class size compared to what we presented back in March and what we looked at in May, then our class size average is plus or minus one. So it's it has

073stayed pretty static. Again, that's representative. Sometimes you have people move in and out. Uh I want to just take again a moment to look at our class size numbers under the proposed budget at the elementary level. You have average class size. Again, there's average. I know there's always anomalous, but average class size ranges from 18 to 25 in the proposed budget from 18 to 25. If people are looking for a reason to vote there, there's a reason right there. We still are offering very competitive class size at the elementary level under the proposed budget. Part of that is because some of those changes that we look at here in the contingency budget, it really ramps up what class size would look like. And that puts us in a situation that we don't want to have

074to be in. But if we have to be if we're on contingency and we have to be in that position, this is what those class numbers would look like. So on the right hand side, that shows a reduction under a contingency budget, a reduction of seven elementary sections. um spread across Brook Haven, Kramer, Critz, and also Frank P. Um and it does come with a significant class size increase. So again, when you look at the average on the proposed budget, you're between 18 and 25. When you look at a contingency budget, your numbers range from 24 to 30. That's significant. But part of tonight is to be as detailed as we can to show the board and our community what it is that's at stake here. All these pieces are significant, but in terms of

075of of this piece, um you can see where it goes from again from 18 to 25 to on contingency, you would be between 24 and and 30. As we look at our middle school and high school, uh what I did was I continued to look at um our math, science, English, and social studies. So the top two boxes represent Bport Middle School and the bottom two represent the high school. On the left hand side is the proposed budget. On the right hand side is the contingency budget. And I did two things. Number one, I did average class size within within those content areas. And if you look at Bellport Middle School, again, if you look at the average class size, you're between 26 and 30 amongst those four departments. And then if you look at

076under contingency, it's between 29 up to 35 in social studies. The other thing that I wanted to highlight because sometimes again going back to my sixth grade math roots uh how you organize numbers and information changes the perception of it. So it's important to look at the average but it's also to look important to look at the at the higher end range. So when you're looking at uh Bport Middle School what we would anticipate currently being our our highest level sections in those areas would be between 28 and 31. When you look at Bellport uh middle school in a contingency, the h the higher end range would be between 31 and 35. And when you look at sixth grade, then we have 27 students under the proposed budget. And if we were to be on

077contingency, that's the reduction of one uh one staff member. That's where we get we go from 27 uh average to uh to 32. Looking down at the bottom portion of it, that's the high school. Again, I I organized it the same way. The top portion there represents the average. So, the average of the high school is ranged between 25 and 27 under the proposed budget with that range being between 30 and 32, what we would anticipate some of those higher courses uh enrolling at. And then when you look at contingency at the high school, our average class size is between 2830. But where you really see it is some of the some of the range, the higher end of the range. So you'd be looking at some classes that would be upwards of of 35

078students in in math, science, English, and social studies. So all of this, all of these pieces again comes back down to the program that we can offer for our kids, right? The impact of class size. At the end of the day, it all comes down to our the impact on our staff. So what I want to do is show in our proposed budget, this is the breakdown of our staffing reductions. So under the proposed budget, we have a total of 94.5 positions. It's 95 people. 95 people. Again, not all of those are um people that are losing their jobs. Some of those are people are retiring. Some of those are people that are moving on to other opportunities. But regardless, it still represents a change and it still represents 95 94.5 positions and 95 people.

079And again, that that 10 for the SEAA, that's 10 out of 23. That's 43% of our administrative team. When you look at our current uh percentage for our teaching staff, it's at 16% of our teaching staff in a proposed budget. These are these these are significant numbers. These are significant numbers. And if we were to be on on contingency in addition to the proposed budget, we would be looking at again under the idea that it's a spending plan, but we would be at what I would anticipate being at is a reduction of an additional 22 teaching positions. Another at least two CSEA positions. I said that when you look at BTAA, right, the impact of those general MTAs, five guard positions for a total of 29 positions. So when you put it all together under

080contingency, you're looking at a reduction of 123.5 positions, 124 people. There's no easy way to make that statement. Significant no matter how you say. And In closing, what I would say is there's been a lot of conversation in terms of how we've gotten here. At the end of the day, we're here and we have a choice as a community. We have a choice between what I consider to be the best possible pathway forward in a very difficult situation. And I believe that represents what our proposed budget looks like. The other option is contingency. And the word that I used when I met with our administrative team was catastrophic. It's catastrophic either way. But the proposed budget represents the best possible scenario in a very difficult situation. So with that, uh, I'll either turn it back

081to Mr. Vermonte can answer questions at the end questions. >> Thank you. Before we go back to him, could I just ask a couple of questions? It's on the program component. You're talking about co-curricular >> um eliminating the district-wide inter murals but remaining keeping the play production. What about clubs at the high school and honor societies? >> Again, at this point, I'll go back to Mr. Bill. learn about being being a spending plan, but the amount of money that's allocated at this point would basically be enough to cover our plays in the way that we normally do them. Now, with that being said, there's always flexibility. Do you look to offer a reduced play to be able to take some of those uh funds to be able to allocate it towards honor societies? Um, but

082at this point, I don't know if you want to add anything to that, but that's my understanding of >> um yes, that's that's basically where we are. Um, we have a provision. It's roughly around $45,000 that remains in the co-curricular line. Um when we working under this type of constraint, we would look at the number of people and um positions that it would take to put that together. And if you do have other funds available, certainly they can be reallocated for other purposes. But, you know, keep in mind that in putting a budget together of this magnitude and reducing $5.6 million, you always look at the non-mandated items first rather than diving into the core um instructional programs. So, that's some of the challenges, but as we as we talked about, I think the key

083takeaway, it's a spending plan that's flexible. It's not the best case scenario. It's significant. This is, you know, o over my career, I've worked on reducing budgets, maybe if you're looking at a couple hundred,000 to a million dollars. Going back to what it took to get to draft one that we presented to the community at 13.45%. We took down almost 9 million to get to that point. And now we have another 5.6 million. That is significant. But you'll you you saw tonight that even where we are with this proposed budget, you still have a good portion of your core instructional program in place contingency. You will know and there's there's no other way to say it. And it's just the nature of the numbers having to take down another $4 million to get to where

084we need to be. Can I add to that question? Sure. >> With regard to the ensembles at the high school like jazz band, flute choir has been taken off the board. >> Okay. unfortunately. So, as you can see, we have a lot of meaningful information that we presented this evening, and we're hopeful that um we were able to connect some of the dots of what the implication is to the number of staffing reductions that we have made to get to this point. Um, but more importantly, when you look at and reflect on those class size charts and you connect the dots and you think about where we are with this budget and those class sizes, they're probably right in line with what a normal district would have across the board and some of our neighboring

085districts. And I know some of our neighboring districts may even have higher class size. So what that tells me from the analysis that we have done is that with our decreasing enrollment, we were over staff and we were making the corrections to write the district and put us on a fiscally responsible recovery plan. So with that, the other thing that will greatly affect the district going forward is the district's bond rating. And I want to talk about this because I spent many days uh working with standin and bors in getting a credit rating for the school district in relation to our special act legislation. And um as people may know, we had a double A stable rating going into this whole process. Because of the fiscal p uh process, the standard and pause knocked us

086down two notches to an A+. Okay. And that took two days worth of conversation with them, not only myself, but also with blind counsel and with fiscal advisor as well. and they were concerned about the path of the district, but more importantly, they embraced the recovery plan that was put in place and the short time that the recovery plan, we were able to correct the 24 and the 25 school year with the special act legislation and the uh advanced general aid. So they only kicked us down A+ and that from my perspective was absolutely fantastic because when we sold those deficit bands because of that we received an interest rate of 4.03%. which um considering the fiscal stress and challenges that we face, I welcome that because there were other um municipal institutions that I

087don't think their fiscal wos were as deep as ours and they were upwards on recent sales anywhere between five and 7%. So, we did very well. However, they did put a little caveat on it and that's the little piece on the right that says credit watch negative. And what that means is they said you guys put together a really good recovery plan. You implement it. We see some of the fruits that have materialized at this particular point. However, we still want to see the the school district be able to approve a budget because that credit watch negative means they have 90 days to kick the district's credit rating down. And when they kick the credit rating down, it means for the district that we get higher interest rates, we have higher annual debt service cost,

088fewer interested investors. So this is what actually happened the morning after the budget failed. We were on the phone. We were ready to sell bond anticipation notes and fiscal advisor told me because of the information that went out. Several buyers backed out. They didn't want anything to do with South Country. Through extended conversation with bond council and fiscal advisors, we went back on the street. We were able to get a buyer in place through uh Roosevelt Lacrosse to basically which is a very large investment firm if you will and we were able to get a buyer that took our bonds anticipation notes at a very favorable rate. I was doing a happy dance that morning when that information came back. However, after the budget fell, I think we have an opportunity that um we'll show

089standard and pause from a credit rating if the budget passes. But I can guarantee you one thing. If the budget does go down and we do end up on contingency, that credit rating will be kicked out. is probably going to be kicked down to a B or someplace in that area because of the district's inability to raise additional revenues through a tax levy based on program needs. That's reality from a fiscal perspective. That will add additional burden on top of the budgets for the school district going forward. Okay. Um so adding an additional credit rating downgrade will increase the cost of borrowing as we mentioned and will reduce the financial flexibility. Okay. And u that's something that the district needs to watch very carefully. The last thing we we need is when that bond anticipate

090that band, that note comes due in one year, we're going to have to sell a bond. And that bond's going to come at a cost. And depending at where we are, if we have significant interest costs, we're going to have no choice. And it's going to take up what I call um budget capacity. We're going to have higher interest costs in the budget which means we can use we cannot use it the space in the budget for other things as a trust program. So I hope that makes sense. Um it's the reality of where we are and again the recovery plan that we have in place at this point is a very good successful start because in a period of 7 8 months we took three years that was essentially upside down and we put

091it back together. So we do have a responsible and balanced path going forward. So now it's just going to be up to the community how they feel uh going forward on the 16th. Okay. So uh this is something that you saw before. We know the budget the annual increase we talked about about $18.50 a month. We did did prepare the chart on the other side for those homeowners that may have a different assessed valuation than what we use as the average of $2,600. Again, if you want to see where you fall in this for your homes and your property, if you take out your tax bill, you need to go to the school line, the school tax line, because there's a lot of other pieces on there. you can't just go to the total of

092the tax bill. So, uh that's there for your information as well. And then in closing, um everyone knows this is very obvious. What we propose is very significant. This is not the norm. Okay? And we do know and what we showed you today going to contingency it we go even deeper. Okay? So at this particular point, we believe that what is put together um is a budget that provides the student the opportunities to go forward and for the district to to rebuild. Being on contingency, know that you will have years of recovery and reinvestment to restore. It doesn't appear that the district or any district for that matter across New York State is going to be seeing any huge increases in state aid. Okay. I think with the uh state aid formulas and the save

093harmless and the limit on foundation aid, I think that it's going to be up to school districts to really figure out how they're going to be able to bring more revenues in off offset some of these increasing budgetary costs. Uh so with that, after this meeting tonight, we're going to uh send home the um six day budget notice. This is a little preview of what it's going to look like. On the right hand side, you do have the contingency budget. Uh I'm not going to really spend a lot of time with that. Uh again, just summarizing where we are. You saw this chart before. Um we're basically in the middle of it right now. We're on that third line, if you will. Um, we're providing the budget. Again, we're at the cap. It's $144.8 million.

094It brings a tax levy of 75.4 million at a reduction of 1.54% uh 1.57% in spending at the cap and all it requires a 50% majority contingency. The numbers are underneath it. Um, we bring down another four million. we end up with $140 million budget and you can see the tax levy goes down 4 point um the budget budget 4.26%. So uh at that you see what the cost is to get there and the impact to the district's programs going forward. So this is the big grand finale. There you go. June 16th 7 to 9 by2% 18% of $18 a month. Okay. And by doing this together and we mean this sincerely because everyone has worked so hard on this together is that we define the road ahead and that's the choice. Preserving the opportunities

095today is going to bring build a stronger district for tomorrow. And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Question from the board. We can go on to our I have I have just a few. >> Thank you. >> Last question. >> Let's hear good to hear the board talk. >> Okay. Thank you very much and thank you to the to our assistant superintendent for the u the tag team presentation. >> I tell you what, it was great giving me a breath. I I would uh I would imagine so. It was nice to see the team effort. Um uh I don't know where to begin. Um the um band music the music program at Frank P. Long. Do you do you have the the cost for that program off the top of your head? >> Uh

096not off the top of my head. Shall we >> would would would you provide that for me? >> I just have ideas in my head going forward. Thank you. Um uh the the Frank P. Long staying with Frank P. Long for a moment. Uh the two the uh administration's uh rationale for going uh for eliminating the assistant principal there and going from two administrators to one. What is administration administration's rationale for eliminating the second um administrator there. Do do we have a rationale with with a with a I'm just concerned about the amount of students. I believe it's 500 at that school. >> Are we certain that's a responsible thing to do >> in in terms of our administrative structure? Yeah. I mean, we're faced between a rock and a hard place a little bit.

097Um, you know, when you look at other other communities, again, I'm not trying to compare us to anybody else, but typically an elementary school, an intermediate school of 500 students very often has just a principal. >> Um, historically, that was something years ago that most of them had a principal and an AP. Um, but yeah, I mean, it it's going to be it's going to be a challenge. It's going to be it's going to be a challenge having just the principal there. But, you know, u I have faith in that that that person will be able to to move forward. It has nothing to do with faith in the in the principal. I have faith in her too. I just don't want to overburden her, but I just didn't know if there was any other

098anything else going on. >> Just to just to follow up on that, I would say, you know, I have as I think we've all kind of annotated through this process have reservations with all these reductions and certainly when you reduce your administrative structure by 43%. It it's going to create some some concern across the board. Um, >> yeah, it's it's it's a difficult spot to be in. >> The uh yet the position is still in the budget. When is the proper time to take it out of the budget? It's still funded in the budget. The the assistant principal is still in there. When when will we see that come out of the budget? >> Those positions were taken out. >> I thought I saw it still in there. All right. Well, just we'll we'll look

099at that another time. I believe it's still in the budget. It could be various reasons why monies are still in a budget code. >> Got to keep in mind there are contractual obligations that the district has when people are either excessed or let go. So we make a provision in the budget to cover that as well. Um again a lot of those things would be contractual. >> Contractable. Okay. We we need >> but as far as the positions go the positions have been eliminated. >> Okay. All right. Um the and I there is a lot of confusion with contractual obligations. The community um has questions about some of the items that are in the budget that are contractual >> um that that have to be there. So some of the questions that were posed to

100me from the from the community as well um are contractual issues that uh that were raised. Um so I understand what you're saying about about that. Um uh let me just get some of the other issues that were um that were that were um raised to me. Um one if anybody has questions in the meantime go and I'll just go through my list and I'll you can come back to me. >> Go ahead. >> Sorry. I do have a question about world language in 12th grade. I know there were certain classes such as cadet core and there was another one that you were talking about co- seeding. Mhm. >> Um I know the seal um is it the seal of by the bilingual >> um that several of our seniors have gotten over the last

101couple years? That was something that we implemented that we were very proud of. >> Is there an idea of co-seing the 11th and 12th grade language classes as we're doing with some of the other classes >> instead of just eliminating the 12 across the board? >> Yeah. Well, that's why I had said um in terms of of those in particular to talk about college Spanish, college French, college um in my previous experience, I have seen those classes postseed. >> Um and so that's where again the budget is is a spending plan. So that we'll do everything we can to if that's something that we can put together. Um, one of the challenge one one of the challenges with that just from a very practical standpoint when you're talking about French Italian those are singletons and

102you put two singletons together meaning um Italian for and then the college Italian it just it becomes very difficult to match different grade level students to that singleton class singleton meaning it's only offered one time throughout the course of the day. But certainly those are all the things that we would absolutely consider. Um, again, once we understand, once we get the the approved budget, we can kind of dig in our heels to see where else we can, you know, continue to provide other opportunities back to me. >> Um, can I just follow up? >> Yes. >> What you were getting at, >> um, and it's on top of what you were asking also, I think, about um, the administrator positions. This is the proposal for next year. If it turns out that things are so

103tight and there are more than major difficulties within the administr administrator positions whether it's AP not AP but uh assistant principal or the assistant to the special ed department. Is there a possibility of building those back in in the following year? >> Absolutely. U without a doubt. Um you would always consider that and as we talked about even this budget being a a flexible spending plan when you get into the school year and you are faced with those particular challenges, you may have to look at other options within the current budget. But keep in mind that we're not only going to be looking within the current budget, but there's also a whole host of other resources within grant funding that could possibly be a possibility as well. We still have to maintain those things under

104the federal and state grants that support our instructional program going forward, but nonetheless, there could be flexibility in there as well. So when we say uh when we said earlier that we're looking at everything, we're looking at not only what's in the general fund, but also those other sources of revenue that may be outside of the general fund. And with that and having said that also exploring other grant opportunities that you may be able to get uh additional monies to come in for the district for those particular purposes for those uh specific uh specific instructional plans. So, and is it true also then that even though some of the things are out of the budget for the coming year, uh, like the ensembles and the jazz band and flute choir and all of that that

105could come back in the following year if >> things stabilize and you're able to rebuild better. >> Absolutely. the the district with an approved budget on the 16th is going to have a much easier time in building 2728 than you would if you were on contingency because think about what's happening. If the budget passes, we're starting at a realistic tax levy. Right now, we are not at a realistic tax levy. So stepping off into a new budget process in 2728, we are ahead of the game just by having those additional revenues. And keep in mind what happens with the tax tax levy as well when we do the tax cap calculation. We start out with the current tax level. So, would you rather start out with where we are now at the proposed budget or

106would you rather start out $4 million lower at the current tax level? So, that will affect your tax cap going forward for 2027 28 as well. So, it's all those things. There's a lot of spokes to the wheel that we need to consider to make sure the district stays on the path forward. >> Thank you. Back to Cheryl. Thank you, Madam President. Um the mentor mentoring program, mentoring new teachers, um with the expectation that we'll have less teachers, shouldn't that uh that line item have gone down instead of increased? >> I our teacher mentoring program is is part of the state program and we have to go off of that. Um I do agree. I would anticipate having less less staff in in that meeting that program. Um but continue to offer. >> You know,

107definitely you know what what we try to keep in the budget. Keep in mind that we can be as flexible as possible and um again under contingency all of those type of things will be readressed, >> but it but it it increased in in this particular budget. So it's it just doesn't >> but the result of that would be wouldn't it that there's money in the budget that could then be freed up for other things if it's not necessarily needed for >> Absolutely. It could be it could, as we explained in the Q&A, it could be used for other areas within the budget if not spent. And the one thing I think we're not talking about, keep in mind where our unappropriated fund balance and reserves are. At what point is the district going to

108start restoring that? We finished last year with a negative 1.8 million in unappropriated fund dollars. That was one of the reasons why we also went with the special act legislation. So at best when the special act legislation kicks in maybe we'll be at zero but nonetheless you still use a significant amount of your fund balance and reserves and at some point we need to start rebuilding that as well. Well, I I just think there's some concern that, you know, perhaps it was overfunded where, you know, perhaps it it could have been rebudgeted to save some other jobs. So, just a concern >> that has to be looked at. >> Um there's also some concern that um uh monitors for cafeteria duty that the smaller buildings have a greater budget for monitors than than larger buildings

109do. Um for example, Kramer versus uh Vern Critz. So there's some concern with those budget lines. Um membership and and conferences, people should be uh concerned that there there's going to be virtually no conferences. So So people who raised that those questions to me. Um I think we have asurances that we're going to be limiting conferences except what's absolutely necessary. So those uh those those issues shouldn't be of a concern. contracted services for arts um is repeated um throughout the budget on different budget lines, but I I guess that's per building and per if it's whether it's for art or music. >> Yes. And they probably have location codes that >> Okay. Probably. Yeah. I guess >> building locations. >> Yeah. This one is district Well, actually, the ones that were cited to me were

110districtwide. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Um anyway um Boseies do do we avail ourselves to um is it more advantageous to use Bosei services for certain items for certain services than to do inhouse? >> Have we evaluated what we can avail ourselves to with Boseies? Yeah, if you recall when we addressed the midyear state aid reductions, um I did a deep dive into every single Bosey's coaster that we have and when we contracted going forward for this year, uh we were able to bring down our Boseies cost, I recall it was over $161,000. Okay. And um and that's because of services that we were able to cut back on, services that we're able to maybe do inhouse. To answer your question, >> I'm actually suggesting the reverse. Do do are there more

111services we could use of Boseies instead of inhouse? >> Um I think the biggest user of that would be special ed services. Okay. and those are mandated services because we don't necessarily have the in-depth type of program in house to provide those services. So I would say that that's our biggest ticket with Boseies and the other the other biggest ticket is I'll get we probably have about 99 uh students that currently attend. I mean like reporting mechanisms. Have we really looked at at our reporting needs to see if we have uh services >> through when you think about what we do um in the business office with envision we contract that through Boseies. Um when we do the the staffing and the subservices through um personnel we sub we subcontract that through boseis because those

112are services that we cannot necessarily perform inhouse and the advantage to us with that is that if it's eligible for boseis aid we also end up getting bosis aid on the revenue side. >> Okay. So that's revenue producing. >> Yes it is. >> Okay. Um okay. All right. Um the salary for our district-wide um psychologist um appears in the budget that the cost for that has increased almost double. Can you speak to that? Um yeah, when it's again when it's compared to 2526, I can say with great certainty that the number was probably not budgeted um or underbudgeted if you will or people were budgeted in other areas. >> Oh, so we just didn't budgeting properly. >> Yeah. So keep in mind how we built the budget and that's what makes this so difficult when

113you're looking at these cost increases. When we built this budget, we built it person by person in the area that they're currently working. And that may not have been the case prior. The board recalls, remember the huge budget uh pay herald transfer that we took to the board. We were realigning people >> and putting them in their right spot, putting them in the right seat on the bus, if you will. >> So the college psychologist need to be charged. the psychologists if as far as the instructional codes that have buildings people would just they would charge in the wrong building codes. So when you make those adjustments you're correcting people. So that's why we're saying 2627 we believe that's a real budget based on people where they're currently working and I cannot well I can

114say with certainty that did not happen in prior years. >> Mr. Belmont Monty. >> So I can only work with what we built. >> Mr. Belmonty, just to follow up that because Cheryl brings up Trusty Feliz brings up those points to explain to people that the 2526 budget which was ultimately deficient and underfunded. We had several issues with that. and that when you're making your comparisons, when we see the comparisons today to the budget that you developed for next year using real numbers to understand that the 25 26 numbers you can't change or touch. So whatever was approved and sent to the state, if there was an error on that side, you can't go up and go, uh, it was a mistake, let me correct that to show you what was done in 26. We're

115stuck with that number that was in 25 and 26. Correct. >> That's correct. As I as I mentioned, we are required to show budget to budget, >> right? And you can't change that prior year's budget that was submitted. So, people should understand that this is one of those elements that is not an accurate description for what we're doing from last year to this year because this year you used real numbers. when we present the budget next year and you see percentage changes, those will accurately reflect where things have changed. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> So that the flaws and things that existed last year, the mathematics in it are kind of still messing with our heads that what we see on those numbers really isn't reflective of the changes in the programs,

116the people or the monies associated therein. That is absolutely correct. >> Thank you. >> Last question. Superintendent hearings. Should the superintendent perform a superintendent hearing and we should not hire an outside person for those hearings? >> Would the superintendent like to answer that? >> If he would love if he would be so. This has been uh been very interesting to see because we do still have people showing up here to work every day and doing giving their best shot. Um the superintendent during the superintendent's hearings can cause a problem because the superintendent becomes the court last resort if there's an appeal to that before you folks. But our administrators uh we've just started over the last I spoke to them and they've been working on something that would be more than happy to share but

117let's see how the next couple of weeks go but I'm of the mind that the building administration takes care of the kids every day. Uh and they've been working on a program where the building administration be before it comes to the superintendent hearing can say to the parents, we know we we know you, we know your child. Yes, your child made a mistake. Um we need to take some action, but if we sit here at the table and work out a plan, um and then the building becomes part of immediately once you suspend a child, you got to start working on a re-entry plan. um the superintendent when they put their hands where they don't belong can only cause problems. So yeah, those hearings not a big fan of them. Um and I'm very proud

118of the building, you know, administrators who have taken the initiative and are um I think doing what's what's better for kids, better for families, better for the building, and saving us money. So I'll have I'll next the next meeting we can talk a little bit more about it. But thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you both. >> Do you have a question? >> I have a question. >> You guys, do you >> Oh, I think you were next. >> Is it true that by having the appropriate level of staffing and adjusting the staffing as we move forward from year to year, the appropriate letter of staffing will provide there be money to start to rebuild appropriately, whether it's the res, you know, the reserves. Um we're not pay when we're paying we're not paying people

119that we don't necessarily need that can only work to you. >> Absolutely 100% and right now we've made those tough decisions and corrections. That's where we are. So we have we are at a good place to start to rebuild some of the things that we have taken down. I have a couple couple comments or questions. I can say we both be in the same area. Um I know what it took to get to where we are today. Obviously I know the catastrophic I guess component of what contingency brings. Uh what I would challenge you know the administration and I know this is only extended plan. Uh so two things that came up quite a lot of conversation was one being summer school. I know a lot of it will be determined on uh enrollment and

120other things as well. While I would challenge the administration to look at alternatives, you know, whether it's a credit recovery option andor a cycle course option uh as a more fiscal responsible way to look at summer school, not just for this summer, but also for the future as well. I think it's something that we can probably look at. Um I know it wasn't part of this presentation. Um and it is enrollment based. Um but I do think that's one thing. Um the other thing is I you know there was a lot of mention of special ed. Um, and I understand that everything is going to be pinned to one against the other in a different component comparison. Um, and I understand that we did not go below or lose anything that we had on the

121special level, which I appreciate, but there was a lot of areas that were obviously hit hard during this time. Uh, one thing I would say and I would challenge again and I know this probably a bigger conversation for the future. uh again in this suspended plan only would be you know you mentioned the ICT model being something that is uh robust in this district. Um you know there is things that I think that we can do as an administration if we look into the mention of a 44 split scenario and things like that. So I would challenge the administration again to look at some of the special ed components to see if there's additional ways that we can be more efficient in the future um in those capacities. Um, I know that's not part of

122this presentation as as well. Uh, but those are just some challenges and things that I think we're going to have to face in the future as well that although not part of the 5.52 uh could become part of the contingency, hopefully you don't have to go that route. Uh, but those are things that I personally would like to see kind of looked at in the future. Uh, maybe during the spending plan and we there's some conversations had. Um the last one and I know it was something small but it was a topic that was brought up um in previous discussions and presentations and I was going to say something about it at this point but then the conversation was brought up about introals and the $45,000 that was allocated for the high school um clubs

123and activities as well uh for play production and stuff like that. Um you know again a spending plan is a spending plan so there is some flexibility once this or the potential this hopefully uh you know going to where the 5.52 may be. Uh you know we're looking at opportunities for the children. Uh driver's ed has been something that's been talked about in previous slides and previous discussions and what the necessity of that was and we're looking at a $60,000 scenario for driver's ed and we heard only 45,000 is being dedicated towards extracurriculars. I would challenge again the administration to look at that funding and say maybe there is some areas where honor society andor uh student government or some of the other programs that are probably more widely spread out throughout the senior cohort

124that you know the older students uh that could be part of that resume building for college compared to something that can be offset somewhere else you know such as driver's ed. So those are just some things that I would say part of the spending plan as things may shift and adjust just keep those things in mind if there is some flexibility. Uh those are some things that I think that are still available to be kind of tweaked and worked with. Um just personal suggestions and ideas that kind of came up in conversations over the last couple weeks that I think are things that could uh definitely help shift and hopefully service a few more kids. Thank you. >> Okay, now we're to the public commentary portion of our meeting. Um, this is where we have

125an opportunity for the public to ask questions, make comments. Um, each person will have three minutes and you have some cards that are already filled out and do you want to send them down or bring them here? Um, >> so okay. All right. Our first our first speaker would be Dr. Mary Pettit. >> Before I start, am I microphoneless? >> Do I have a microphone or no? >> Um I I appreciate it only because I'm I'm battling a little langitis from the tournament. We'll have our expert. >> Thank you. I don't think he's getting a microphone. >> Um, do you have you have a mic a microphone that she could use? >> You're in the ceiling. >> Oh, okay. >> There's no mics here anymore. >> Okay. Um, good evening. My name is Dr. Mary

126Pettit. While I am not a resident of the South Country community, I am a 28-year veteran teacher in the district, and I truly sincerely consider this my second home. Over the past several months, I have watched this community become increasingly divided. Parents, taxpayers, teachers, administrators, and even board members. We all have different perspectives. We all have different concerns, and we all have different priorities. But one thing that we teach our students every day is that two things can be true at the same time. A parent can fight for opportunities for their child while understanding that some families cannot afford a higher tax burden. A taxpayer can be frustrated and concerned about finances while recognizing the impact that these decisions have on the children and the staff. A teacher can be devastated by the loss of

127a position while understanding the difficult financial realities facing our district. Two things can be true at the same time. What concerns me tonight, though, is not simply the decisions that were made, but how the people affected by those decisions were treated. And as much as we all want to move on a path forward and put all of this behind us, as Mr. Dolan stated, some things just really need to be said. On the very day teachers learned that staffing cuts would be publicly discussed, they continued teaching. They showed up for their students, they remained professional despite not knowing whether their jobs would even exist the next year. However, the same professionalism was not always shown to them. Careers spanning decades were literally reduced to a 10-minute meeting. Teachers learned lifechanging information through agendas and public

128Facebook discussions before receiving clear answers for themselves. Questions about the impact of accessing decisions were raised publicly. Yet, it appeared there was not a full understanding of how those decisions would affect the very people whose careers were on the line. Insert adlib. Mrs. Feliz brought up in the last uh board of education meeting. She posed a very specific question about how the four uh math specialists would impact the elementary teachers. Four other people got up to a community member twice in the same meeting to ask that very specific question. And if it was clear, as Mr. her husband stated, which I'm not implying that it wasn't clear to you, but it was definitely not clear to us. And those four people who lives were forever altered that night had no idea when they put their

129head on their pillow that night. If it was that clear, it should have been stated that night. One thing is definitely for sure, leadership is tested most during difficult times. Anyone can lead when things are going well, but true leadership is demonstrated by transparency, communication, preparation, and respect when people are facing uncertainty. Throughout this process, we have repeatedly been told that transparency has been a priority. But transparency is not measured by statements. It's measured by actions. And when employees learn life-changing information through agendas, public meetings, rumors, and speculation before receiving clear answers themselves, it becomes difficult to reconcile those experiences with the transparency we have been promised. And just like our students, parents, and community members deserve better, the teachers of this district deserve better, too. They deserve transparency before their livelihoods became agenda items.

130They deserve decision makers who fully understood the consequences of those decisions before announcing them publicly. And most importantly, they deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect they show the children of this district every single day. So tonight, I leave you with three simple questions. If this process affected your career, your family, your livelihood, would you be satisfied with how it was handled? Would you be comfortable learning about your future through agendas, rumors, and public discussions on Facebook before receiving clear answers yourself? Would you feel respected if years, sometimes decades of service were reduced to a 10-minute meeting? Because that is the reality that our employees in this district have lived through the past several months. The financial challenges in this district are real. Difficult decisions may have been unavoidable, but treating people

131with dignity is always a choice. As you move forward, I urge you to ask yourselves not only whether the decisions are necessary, but whether the process reflected the values this district claims to teach. Respect, integrity, transparency, and empathy. Because when our students look back at this moment, they're not going to remember budget lines or percentages. What they will remember are how the adults treated one another when things got hard. And right now, that lesson is still being written. And I urge you to write a better ending. Do better for this community. Do better for the children whose futures depend on your decisions. And do better for the teachers who have faithfully carried this district on their backs through every challenge, every change, and every crisis. Because we deserve nothing less. Our next speaker is Carrie

132Pilo. Hi, my name is Carrie Pillo. I am in my 12th year as a literacy coordinator at Frank Pong. And I want to begin by acknowledging several members of the board and administration who have taken the time to meet with me and listen to my ideas regarding ways to save our teachers. I am sincerely grateful for those conversations and for your willingness to listen. Still, I felt an urgency to speak tonight. There are many aspects of the situation that I could address, but the theme that keeps rising to the surface for me is the value of the classroom teacher. Every employee in this district contributes to student success, but classroom teachers are the people who spend the greatest amount of direct instructional time with our children each day. My husband, Nick Pelo, has been an

133elementary classroom teacher in this district for 16 years and has been excess along with several colleagues who share similar years of his experience and commitment to our district. Um, if you're wondering where he is, he's home with our three kids moving to bed and that's why he can't be here. Uh, just last year he received the honorary educator certificate of achievement, an award given to educators recognized by students as having the most influential and significant impact on their educational journey. Many of the teachers on the excess list have received the same distinction. Now, the proposed contingency budget includes a reduction of an additional 11 elementary general education teaching positions. If the budget does not pass, classroom teachers with over 18 years of experience and service in this district will face the same uncertainty, fear, and

134stress that my husband and I have been living with for months. So, I keep coming back to one question. Why do classroom teachers so often bear the greatest impact of budget decisions despite their central role that they play in educating our children? I deeply value the work of every professional in this district. But as a literacy coordinator and a former classroom teacher, I have seen firsthand the extraordinary demands teachers face every day. It's not just the everchanging curriculum, ongoing professional development, and continual evaluations. It is knowing the standards for reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. It's differentiating instruction for every single child in the room because every child does learn differently. In a typical fifth grade classroom, academic levels can range from below kindergarten expectations to well beyond middle school. A classroom teacher must

135be an expert in behavior management and skilled in engaging students in meaningful learning. They are required to adapt continuously, no matter how long they've been teaching. A classroom teacher is also teaching executive functioning on a daily basis. Students need continual help following directions, organizing and maintaining their materials, and walking properly in the hallways to name a few. Classroom teachers are also emotional support systems for their students. They are mother figures, father figures, adults that can be trusted. These are just a few examples of what makes classroom teachers so special. So what is being lost in this conversation about their value? Because if our mission is educating children, aren't classroom teachers at the very center of that mission? You mentioned that we were overstaffed and our s teachers weren't part of that overstaffing. They were hired

13616, 17, 18 years ago. Once these beloved teachers who have made their careers here are accessed, they face an uphill battle seeking new employment. On Long Island, experienced teachers do not simply move from another district and continue where they left off. They start over at the bottom of a new seniority list, must earn tenure again, must attend new teacher trainings again, and are frequently viewed as less desirable candidates than less experienced applicants who can be hired at a lower cost. I am not arguing that these teachers should be recalled simply because finding another job may be difficult. I'm arguing that educators with this level experience, commitment, and service should have never become expendable in the first place. You said the spending plan is flexible, and I have looked at the budget line by line. There

137are a lot of ways to move funding around, but how do we ensure that that money goes to saving teachers? So I am asking rather begging you anyone who will listen to get creative think about restructuring our systems listen to the suggestions and do anything and everything you can to save our teachers. >> THANK YOU Kareem Dhan. >> Can I ask a question? Is this clock stopped or how does it work? Because I have questions for this budget hearing. Um, that's a good question. >> Take your time. >> So, >> how many questions do you have? >> Three minutes of questions. >> So, when he speaks, I put the timer. When you respond, I pause it. >> That sounds fair. Sound good? >> Yeah. >> Okay. And the questions? Um, so you're you have a

138list of questions. Go ahead. >> Um, President Hayes, why did you disband the budget advisory committee? >> There's an assumption in your question that's inaccurate. >> I did not disband. >> Who disbanded it? Why didn't any >> Well, first of all, you're also characterizing it as disbanded and it was not. So I asked when are the meetings? I never got a response. So you you kicked me out of the budget meetings. >> No. >> So what we did did we meet? Because I talked to Victor, your friend who was also on the budget advisory committee. He never got meeting notices after >> every meeting >> that was held. He had notice and you had notice >> and there have been no meetings since December. Let me just back up a minute because the purpose of

139you asking questions >> I'll get there is to get information. >> I'm trying to get information that I've emailed that I've asked >> and if you if you will stop for a minute. >> The budget advisory committee was a startup this year and it was done with all best intentions. You I placed you on that committee. I placed >> and you refused to answer emails afterwards. Do you want to argue with me or do you want an extra? >> Go on. Go on. Go on. I've been waiting four or five months >> again. Your argumentative time is going to go against your three minutes. If you want to go for it. >> So the it was a set it was um a startup committee. The intention was to get advice from the community about what

140was important in the budget process in terms of what programs were important to keep. We knew we had budget problems. We knew it was going to be tight and we wanted input from the community about what would be priorities in terms of programs and opportunities that were maintained. What ended up happening is we had Mr. Belmonte who was literally a one-man show trying to get the business office functioning as a business office should function. And on top of that, he's having to deal with the um various uh issues like with regard to having the controllers's office come in and do their um evaluation and do their audit. He also had to do this plan for how to get us out of the deficit situation and get the deficit dealt with. He basically created a miracle

141plan that fell into place and worked. He simply did not have the time to be present at the various meetings. This was probably the worst time to try to do a startup committee. And in retrospect, in retrospect, >> um, the timing of doing it was not the right time and I look forward to having it in the future. Do you have another question? >> We have a lot more. Um, so you know, it's strange that we emitted class size from this in kindergarten from the uh presentation that Mr. Huntsman did because that was shared actually in November of existing classes and things like you know creamer kindergarten had 16 kids 16 kids 15 kids whereas dual language in where half the kids are English language learners in Brook Haven had 24 kids 24 kids so

142it's just interesting that it's like acceptable for one class to have 24 kids of kindergarteners half of which are English language learners and that we run three sections where you could have split one of those sections onto two other classes and still had less students than the kindergarten classes at at Brook Haven. Um, you know, so I you know, it's and so I think it's interesting that these aren't presented now. And the reason I'm asking that is part of the charge the discussion six months ago in the first meetings of the the budget advisory committee was talking about reorganizing some of these kindergartens and being able to to uh equalize across buildings. So it's just interesting that that we're not sharing that now that this conversation that was started and never pursued is not a

143public. I also wanted to just say that it's very interesting that we talked about the 43% of uh administrators that were cut and there's a lot of sympathy that was given for them but there's I have never heard this board talk about the teachers that have been cut to the same degree. Uh you know even uh Mr. Dolan I asked you you know how many teachers have we lost in the last 13 months and you said 16%. That's in this year. You know, we've lost 22.5% of our teachers in the last 13 months. All right. Enrollment, we talk about over staffing. Enrollment went down over 10 years. >> Mr. Mr. Can you can um just pause this time for a minute. There is no teacher. There is no person in this district and it's it

144has been said by others that anybody was happy with firing as you're suggesting. >> No one's saying they're happy. Don't put don't twist my >> I'm not asking question from that and that's but that see you just made my point. There are people that want to ask questions. You are wholly entitled to your opinion and to your considerations or your thoughts. >> The period now is for asking questions. >> So he's not ma'am. He you're you're telling us that it's strange for this. You're asking and reciting to other things. So I'm not saying you're not entitled to them and I'm not saying you're you're Hold on. I'm not saying you're wrong, but please ask the question. >> Don't worry about it, Chris. Even you know. >> No, I do worry about it. I want you

145to ask the question. Want an answer? Ask a question. >> Can you hold my time, please? This is not related to my questions, but after the last cut round of cuts last May, not this past May, but the one before. You guys sat here. You didn't even know. Our board president didn't even know how many teaching positions were cut. Okay, so that's actually important information to talk about. If we want to pass this budget, we can't say that, oh, we're over staffed. That's disaster. If this budget passes, it's in face of what this administration is doing. We need to talk about how we cut 22.5% of teachers in 13 months while 40% of our kids can't pass basic math and English exams. They don't meet New York State standards. That's what we have to talk

146about. What the board is doing is sabotaging. I'm ask why do you keep sabotaging our chance of passing this budget? All right, that's one question. The other question is uh you know Mr. Del Monte you had mentioned that if that uh proposition bus proposition passes seven to nine teachers jobs would be saved. So I'm asking which which seven to nine teachers jobs were saved. >> Mr. Ocom I have addressed that question six ways from Sunday. >> No you can let me finish. Well there's no need for me to speak. Okay. It made it very clear last time in the context of that discussion that if we did not have that transportation referendum to reduce the budget by 900,000 we would have to reduce additional teachers probably to the extent of 7 to9. That was the

147contents of the explanation. >> So I don't understand this. So you're going to so we reduce no can you please give me respect for this? We lo we decreased taxes by $900,000 and you decreased expenses by $900,000. Forget about the state aid that we lose the half a million dollar. >> If you do both, how did you save 7 to9 teachers jobs? >> That's not what I just said. >> That's what you said. >> That's not what I said. >> I HAVE NO, I HAVE THE TRANSCRIPT OF what you said. >> Okay. >> Do you want me to read it? I have it right here. >> You could look Look. This is This is actually quite important. Okay. uh teacher asked, "Are teachers saved if this proposition goes through?" You said the answer would be

148yes because we're able to offset some of those reductions by this reduction. How many teachers jobs would be saved? Mr. Trusty Feliz asked the question. How many jobs would be saved if this proposition goes through? You said it would be anywhere between eight, seven to nine teachers assuming 100k per teacher. If you cut taxes by 900,000 and you cut expenses by 900,000, how are you saving nine teachers jobs? Forget the half a million that we lose the next year in state eight. >> If we did not cut I I'll try this one more time. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Listen carefully. >> I'm listening. >> If we did not cut the 900,000 the transportation >> and the 900 revenue. >> If we did not cut the 900,000 and reduce our expenses, we would have had to

149cut another seven to nine teachers. It's as simple as that. Just reduce the revenue. Where does that money come from to save 7 to9 teachers jobs? You >> hold on a minute. You're way beyond your three minutes of question. >> So, we're going to need to >> So, what about what about the Brook Haven Elementary class size discussion? >> You know, why haven't we equalized kindergarten class sizes across buildings? >> Because we have regional, Mr. We have the schools divided the way they are. >> Yeah. But I'm saying even within the school you have three sections. You could reduce reduce it to two and still have less students than in the dual language. >> Mr. Belmonte. >> Okay. We have talked about different ideas and studies that the district will embark on. And that's one

150of them that we talked about. Not at this particular time. It's not going to happen for 20 26 27 but going forward the district is going to look at a grade reconfiguration plan to better utilize our buildings with the possible closing and in that plan those type of things would be addressed. >> Why do you have to close a building to to say that instead of three sections you have two to have 24 students in 120. If it's good enough for Brook even elementary it's good enough for Creamer. >> I'm not going to argue the merits of the decision >> anyway. Doesn't seem >> Your three minutes are up. Please, please. >> I have more questions. >> Please yield >> to our next speaker, Maria Babia. Ask me. I'm not prepared. I was home listening

151and I just want to come. I have a few questions. I will tell you I'm a lifelong resident. I'm a graduate. My daughter's 26 years old. She is a graduate. She is went to Quinnipic College. She is happy that she went to school here. She said she would have never want to go somewhere else. just like the diversity and what the district brings. I it is not without intention that I'm raising my children here um because I want them in the district. I have a sixth and eighth grader. My children are both dual language students. I love the dual language program. Um my kids are both excelling. I believe that I do not believe the test scores are an accurate indication of what a district can be because I do believe as a parent I

152am a partner and I think that we don't have every parent being a partner in education and so like that is why things are the way they are and actually my kids my one is not a great test taker and the other one doesn't love taking tests and they're both high on rural students but they've recently since a couple years ago started asking about for tests and I'm let them. Um, I grew my mom's a teacher. I was a teacher. I worked for a curriculum company. So, I am immersed in education. I've not educated in the ways of education. And my mom taught in Amville for many years. That was where she taught and did a ton of stuff and I used to help her all the time. Um, that being said, I did email

153the entire board and nobody even sent me a thank you, but okay. Um, I'm sure you get a lot of emails, but one of my questions that I have, so I don't know if you can pause, is I do love the dual language program. I understand maybe it is statemandated in some form. My oldest son, the eighth grader, is the second year of it, so he's not the side by side. I do understand the value of the side by side, but um it is my understanding that someone told me that the busing for dual language because it is offered through the whole district is a high cost. So, um, my question is, can somebody tell me what the cost is of that busing? Can you pause me if someone can answer that? Um, and if

154that is mandated to be offered to the entire district because I'm guessing that it's not just because I know in the first couple years it wasn't. And it was like a leap of faith for me to like join that program, but it's been phenomenal. You know, >> I apologize. We cannot answer that question at this point. I mean, I don't have the breakdown. We can certainly look at it. >> Okay. >> But we I wasn't prepared to isolate that cost. >> Okay. I did send an email about it. So, >> you did >> um you know, but I do think that the cost of that is high. Somebody told me it is like not a small cost, but like an $800,000 cost, which is is that feels high, you know. So I I mean, >>

155you know, and I don't think it's an equity issue because honestly, like I think you're getting a great education no matter what. Um, so it I I don't know. Anyway, um, and the other question I have, and this is why I'm here, and it really doesn't have to do specifically with the budget, but kind of, and it has to do with um, JB Sports and then the clubs. And I just wonder is there a world where fundraising is an option um for those >> if the district ends up on contingency that is there are fundraising restrictions. It has to be done on an equitable basis. You can't just fund raise for one particular sport or activity without the others. >> So my the my concern are things like National Honor Society that you can't get

156unless a school hosts it. So, if a nonprofit such as like >> the education foundation, >> South Country Education Foundation or someone like that maybe could help us. I know like there's a way that we can run a fundraiser where um funds would go to specific um clubs, sports, etc. So, is that something like can we say to the board like, "Okay, here's money for National Junior Honor Society of the High School. couple things. First of all, I can't speak to what I didn't see and what I wasn't here, but the hardest thing for me is to watch people, good people who care, go through something like this. And I and I've seen examples of everybody at the table, the tables agonize over anyone who is losing their job. >> And it's been tough. And

157myself, you know, you don't know people real well. Sometimes you don't know what to say. All right, but we're going to get through this together. As far as the fundraising, just a cautionary tale. Mr. Belmont alluded to it. If and let's let's get the information out of the public speak next Tuesday because what's going to happen on Wednesday is we're going to pull the team together. We're going to go in we'll be in this room and we'll start to come up with a plan on what we're going to do. Um, if there has to be fundraising, we need to all take a deep breath and it's got to be equitable, not just in the sports arena, but across the board because if we have the arts fundraising against music against the sports, we'll be having

158fundraisers right and left and they'll crisscross and it will not be effective. There's this targeted fundraiser that costs nothing that you can fund raise as a nonprofit. It's surveys. We've done it with uh baseball with Balper Blue Claus. We raised thousands of dollars, but people raised tens of thousands of dollars. So, and you could have people would go on and pick what they're no cost. before we before we jump off to that area. Let's get there next Tuesday if that's something that we're going to do, we'll we'll try to get, you know, we'll pull people together so that we do it one for all and all for one and we'll figure out a way to know and I think the foundation already um but there are again having raised three boys myself going through the

159fundraising for the various things. Um we like I We just we don't want to put one group ahead of another and we want to have some order to it. So >> I think like we need to get ahead of it because we are losing families in the district because we do not have those programs. >> You understand what I'm saying? So if you if you start in June in even in one week more can be done to start things going and to have that conversation because in reality people need to know where they're going to school next year. whether it's our district, whether they're selling their house, what are they doing? You know what? Like, so that's an issue because people are leaving our district and they're pulling their kids because of these things that

160aren't happening. So, I know that like that is something that can be done, but it it can't be done tomorrow. It needs to be done now. I I literally was home watching this and I'm like, I need to get there now. This needs to start this week. And we listen appreciate the enthusiasm and those people that look people are going to make the choices but if we run headlong into something and we we could run into more trouble and again uh by this time next week the polls will be closing in a week by by Wednesday afternoon we're going to have ideas of where we have to go and what we have to do. And again sometimes you know the old expression be quick but don't hurry. Um and and think about the devastation that's

161been across this district for the last couple of years. Um we still have to we still have to take care of the kids to school, button up the school year, finish up the year. Um if it comes down to fundraising, we would much rather have us all work together to fund raise as one. And again, all we're asking for is about seven or eight more days because we'll know exactly where we're going in. >> Okay. And I have one more question and it is in regard to sports. And I know there's no JB sports, but is there an opportunity for those students to be practicing as like a practice type thing with the varsity? And will there be an option like for scrimmages? Maybe you could get volunteers in like is that something that the

162district can do? I don't know what I'm asking, but >> because I think there are enough people in the community like my husband volunteered for middle school baseball this year, you know, just to be there. So like there are people that would be willing to volunteer. I think across the board. I mean, like Rich Brown gives a ton of his time for basketball when he doesn't have to. And I mean, I know he's like the coach, but he also does so much more. So, like you have those people in the district. >> Um, like can they use the field? Like what would be the >> We We can't even answer that yet cuz depending what happens next Tuesday. >> Everything is Tuesday. >> Everything Well, everything depends on Everything's riding on next Tuesday. >> Great.

163>> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Are there um that completes the public commentary portion? Um >> I have more questions >> where um where we've completed the public commentary portion. Is there a motion to adjurnn trustee second trustee? All in favor unanimously approve the meeting is the journ.