SOUTH COUNTRY CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD MEETING 02/25/2026 PT2

001Okay. Please notice the exit signs. Um, and in case of an emergency, leave as quickly and carefully as you can to go through the exit to leave the building. It's a smokefree and vaperee school district. Smoking and vaping is not permitted in the building or anywhere on school grounds. This is also a hatefree and bullyfree school district. So we're now to the first part of our business meeting which is item C, board consent agenda. >> Thank you, President Hayes. The administration recommends the approval of board consent items reflected in schedule C1 and C2. >> Um, can we do that separately because of the um the the treasures report? Um, I wanted to change the language of the resolution a little bit. So, let's do uh the minutes to C1. So, you recommend item C1. The

002administration recommends the approval of board consent items reflected in schedule C1. >> Okay. Is there a motion to approve item C1? Uh, Trustee Felisetta, second by Trustee Ross. Questions or discussion? None. All in favor? C1 is unanimously approved. >> Mr. Pacini didn't vote on it. >> Um, is >> Trusty Pini did not vote. >> Okay. >> Yes. Yes. >> I vote I vote yay. >> Yes. Yes. Okay. then it's unanimously approved. And now item C2. Um you're going to make the recommendation, but the lang the language I think should be um >> Hold on a minute. Here we go. Um the resolution is resolved. The board of education acknowledges that it received and reviewed the treasurer's report for December 2025 at its last business meeting on February 11, 2026. >> I thought it was February

0034th. What? >> February 4th. >> February. Yeah. February 11 >> fourth fourth >> two weeks. Yes. February 4th. Correct. So resolve the board of education acknowledges that it received and reviewed the treasurer's report of December 2025 at its business meeting on February 4th, 2026. So, is there a motion to approve that resolution? Trustee Felisetta. Second, Trustee Calderon. Questions or discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? >> Yes, it's unanimously approved. And now, superintendent's report. All right. Thank you for your patience. Get right to it. All right, welcome to our uh February 25th business meeting. I wanted to start our meeting today by first acknowledging and thanking and showing my sincere appreciation for our custodial maintenance staff. The last couple of days have really been difficult days with regards to the blizzard we just endured. Uh we

004got over two feet of snow in our community. Um, not just that, when you start imagining u the square footage of our property and our parking lots, the amount of snow removal that needed to take place over the course of the last two days, it really was a monumental task. So, I'd be remissed if I didn't acknowledge all of our maintenance crews, our custodial crews who were here working feverishly through the storm. Many of us sort of were snuggling up at home and certainly a lot of kids were enjoying a snow day. I suppose that's not to respond. Thank you. the um but yeah, so I just wanted to acknowledge and talk a little bit about how we sort of make the decisions on closures and delays because this morning was somewhat of a stressful

005morning. Um so I wanted to sort of go over sort of the the process by which we make decisions to either engage in a school closure or a delay. First, decisions are made in isolation. So there we're part of a cohort of superintendent that represent neighboring school districts that extend as far east as West Hampton. Um, obviously we go to the Northshore and we all communicate with each other. First and foremost, our primary objective is to make sure the schools and our campuses are safe for the passage of our buses and that sort of extends to our community. So, you know, this morning was a one of those outlier mornings because typically the forecasts are pretty accurate um if you look at the day before or within 12 hours of the actual uh weather event.

006Um yesterday we all commisserated together and spoke in the afternoon and looking at the forecast at the time it seemed like it called for some mild precipitation uh but no accumulation in the morning and considering that the temperature was going to be above freezing we made the decision to have a delayed opening out of an overabundance of caution because we thought things might not be so predictable. So at the very least let's find some time for our maintenance crews to prep the campuses. Um later in the evening last night, the forecast didn't change very much and so we kind of stuck to our guns. Um some people contemplating an additional closure for the day. Uh but you understand why we sort of hesitant to close schools for the entire day. At that point, the forecast

007had not changed. All that changed this morning. I got a very early correspondence from our facilities director, Fran Pero, who did a fantastic job being on site for the entire duration of the storm. And early this morning, our parking lots were in great shape. And so we decided to proceed with the delayed opening as did our neighboring school districts and sure enough soon as it became time to commute um it got pretty horrendous out there with a couple inches of accumulation. Um so fortunately um as much as uh the morning provided stress for our commuters commuters and our community um we were practically incident free. There was one high school student who was driving to school was involved in a fender bender. student is fine and one of our buses uh got caught in the

008snow and needed to be told out of the snow um not because it slid into an embankment but simply because it lost traction. So um considering the uh inclement weather we just went through I thought that was the best case scenario and certainly the tides turned as the day progressed. The reason that we sort of you know really are contemplative in making these decisions is because our state aid um is sort of attached to instructional time. School districts are required to offer 180 instructional days, which translates actually to hours. It's computed in hours. For secondary schools, that represents 990 minutes of instructional time. For our elementary schools, it's 900 minutes. So, we want to be sure that we hit those benchmarks uh even with snow day uh with closures. And typically, we're able to do

009it, manage it. Uh we do have days in our calendar that are typically uh off for staff and students, but if we exceed a certain number of snow days, then we start using those days to make up that instructional time. So prior to the storm, um we still um had not lost any snow days, as we call them. Um but what happened on Monday was the governor issued uh a waiver to school districts because a state of emergency was declared meaning that school district did not have a choice uh whether to open or not and so that that day would not count against or against our instructional day requirement. What happened subsequent to that correspondence was that there was some sort of uh guidance that was very ambiguous. uh voted said should districts be forced

010to close for additional days, they could apply to wave those additional days individually with consideration of the rest of the school year schedule. So that language is somewhat ambiguous to us. Um so what we've done in terms to update our community and staff is we've already worked with our attorney to submit our application for the waiver for both days. Right now the correspondence from the state indicates that we'll get a determination in August which is too late. So, we're waiting for further guidance from the state to see where we stand in terms of whether or not the uh Friday before the Memorial Day break uh is going to be open for us as school district or remain as a day where students and staff have to fall. So, I'll keep the board and community posted,

011but I thought it was important to kind of talk about sort of the dynamics of school closures and how that can have an impact on school aid. And in order for you to qualify for state aid, you have to hit these benchmark hours of instruction. Having said that, one of the things that we're considering, and I sent the correspondence out to the community, is the idea that we switch over to remote instruction. Um, so what that may look like, and we're going to send another reminder out to the community tomorrow with regards to the uh uh should we go to remote instruction, what can be expected from our instructional program. So, first and foremost, you know, we have a one-toone uh electronic device initiative in our districts. All of our students K to 12 have

012Chromebooks. elementary school kids uh K through five don't take their Chromebooks home. But what we're going to do is in anticipation of any impending uh uh inclement weather is send the Chromebooks home so the kids can access their Google classroom and do some work on this remote day. When school districts engage in remote instruction, we don't lose the instructional hours and counts towards that benchmark that the state prescribes. Um so the mechanisms we use in terms to communicate with kids is going to be Google meet and within Google meet there are different digital platforms kids engage in instruction. The learning focus is not to prevent or provide new instructional concepts but to reinforce concepts that already been taught. So there'll be a lot of review um and it's going to be a combination of synchronous

013and asynchronous instruction. So teachers will check in with their students to provide some input and some guidance with the assignments that will be completed uh daily um digitally um and we'll be following a delayed opening schedule. The reason we decided to go with a delayed opening schedule certainly we won't want our students to be on screens all day. Also buys us some time should community members or staff members need to engage in shoveling or taking care of their respective properties. Once a twohour delayed schedule uh happens, our secondary students will follow the uh delayed schedule and will log into their relative classrooms at the start time of each instructional period. Teachers will have some contact with the parent with the students and then assign some as asynchronous work to follow. Uh for the elementary school

014be something somewhat similar where there'll be designated time for kids to log in and have communication with their teacher um which will be followed with some asynchronous work. In terms of our staff, our staff will be available uh via email throughout the day. That's our support staff and administration. Obviously, we can't be available by phones because we won't be in district at the time. Certainly, we'll be checking our emails regularly to help support our parents. We also have a great mechanism with the adaptation of parent square which allows for uh some pretty uh uh great uh communication. And finally, um, you know, I'm not going to pretend like remote instruction is an ideal sort of, uh, sort of modality for teaching. Uh, but we'll do the best we can. And as we, uh, embark on

015this journey once again. The last time we engage in remote instruction is during the pandemic. We'll reflect, we'll adjust, and we'll keep sort of impro uh, improving our uh, sort of approach to the instruction as time elapses. So only time will tell. But again, I just want to um emphasize that while remote instruction is not ideal, we are prepared to implement it when necessary and are confident in our ability to support students and families as we continue to learn and improve together. In all likelihood, we be faced with another school closure. The likelihood is we will go to remote instruction. My message to the community will indicate that. And again, we'll be sending out resources to parents again tomorrow in anticipation of the weekend because there is some iffy weather predicted for Monday into Tuesday.

016Uh, moving on. Um, President Hayes and I had the pleasure with Mr. Belmont to attend the Eastern Suffuk Bosey's executive briefing. Uh, we had the pleasure of having a presentation made by Briani. He's the executive director of ASBO, which is the assistant president uh, states association for business officials. Um, and he sort of went over the state budget, the state proposed budget. As you know, the governor proposes a budget early on in January and then it's adopted later in April. So, I just wanted to kind of cover some of the major tenants of what we heard. First and foremost, this is no surprise, costs are rising, aid is not. Um, even as expenses like special education, transportation continue to grow, our state aid remains relatively flat. And that's because of the second point I'm making.

017It has to do with a safe harmless provision. It's a provision made by New York State so that school districts always receive some sort of increment u uh based on state aid year after year. The initial idea behind the safe harmless legislation or approach was great because it prohibited the school districts from losing aid but in recent years they've capped it at 1%. and 1% doesn't not come close to really massing the rising cost of various operating expenses such as fridge benefits, health care, transportation, and of course special education needs. So in many respects, our our district like ours who's on safe harmless is receiving again projected 1% this year. We were received 1% last year and 0% the year before because we're safe harmless which puts us in sort of a sort of a

018bind where we sort of have to accommodate and look for reductions in expenditures to make up for the rise in other expenditures that we have no control over. So obviously there's efforts being made to lobby against sort of this provision. I think uh the vast majority of school districts uh in Suffach County are safe harmless districts who sort of are adversely impacted by it. Um there's also limited local options because of the way the state formula in terms of determining the tax levy cap is made. There's very little flexibility to school districts in terms of what could be included or not included and long-term planning is essential. Many school districts have already faced these challenges and looked at the overall structure of the school districts. We've also have declining enrollment which we've spoken about in

019the past. So, we're getting to the point that not just does the uh declining enrollment necessitate our need to look at the organization of our of our school district, but the fact that for all because of the declining requirement, our state aid seems to be that it's going to be pretty static for years to come. I also sat in in the refit board uh executive board meeting this past Monday morning or Tuesday morning, that was yesterday. uh when we talked about um sort of school financing and our lobbying and advocacy effort efforts and the same message was delivered there. Um in short I paraphrase that while our costs continue to rise especially for special educations state aid remains large and flat for South Country making thoughtful planning and advocacy more important than ever. Uh I

020know uh Vice President Dilo and President Hayes will join me at the refit legislative breakfast. So they'll learn more about uh what we're doing to advocate for this a change. But one of the things that struck me the most about this was while you're making some sort of amendments to the state aid formula with regards to the the course or the aid allocated to special education students for example and if you're a safe harmless school district you're not going to be benefit from any of these changes. So we sort of uh you know adversely affected moving on to the school the 2627 school budget process. I just wanted to give a recap. I kind of spoke about these bullet points last board meeting, but just to recap really quickly, uh we've been very working very

021closely with John Belmont. What I wanted to add to that bullet point was the fact that our entire business office practices have been revamped. We've been really maturing up our practices um in collabor collaboration of course with the controllers's office and of course with the expertise Mr. Ponti brings. Again, we expanded the uh scope of our audit. Um, we're developing our three-year fiscal recovery plan and we met with uh I McCracken from the controllers's office on February 3rd uh to initiate our collaboration. This was all covered in our last board meeting to provide the board and committee with the update as to what has transpired since then. Um the state controllers audit team which is comprised of seven members is in our district on a day-to-day basis. We've been working with them. Um, it certainly

022represents a lot of, uh, additional work for our business office, but it's work that's worthwhile because not only does it allow us to, you know, uh, have a second set of eyes and what we're doing, it helps us shore up our practices, as I mentioned in the previous slide. So, we're really excited about the collaboration. We certainly work uh, well with the controllers's office and they will be here for the foreseeable future, which I think will add credibility to our budget process and our business practices. Uh moving forward, um we're also actively looking at asset utilization, including property and facility use. Uh what I mean by that, as I kind of alluded to it before, we do have to look at the overall structure of our school district with our declining enrollment. Um we're waiting

023for our long-term demographic study to be uh formally submitted to us. But it looks like in the next 10 years, we stand to lose about another 300 students. Um the last 10 years, we've lost about 600 students. in all we're looking at about a 900 student decline um in our school district. So obviously we have to respond. So there are everything's on the table in terms of our facilities and properties that we own from buildings like Head Start to our prek center at South Haven even the configuration of our elementary schools need to be considered because of the declining enrollment. Um so that's something that is going to be a part of our three-year recovery plan. We don't foresee any monumental changes obviously for the next uh coming school year because this obviously will take

024some uh a lot of thought uh planning and community input. Um and as part of our ongoing budget work, we are also going to be considering staff reductions which I know is very offputting to a lot of people. Um but we sort of have to write the size of our school district and its organiz organization. again with the declining enrollment um it would be irresponsible not to respond by making the necessary reductions in staff. What I want to emphasize is our mindset going into these reductions is basically first and foremost to maintain our academic programs to the greatest extent possible. What I mean by that is uh if we start putting thresholds for example for elective courses at the high school where if less than 10 students enroll we don't run that particular course that's

025something that will impact our programs but not impact our overall core programs as a whole. That's what we mean by minimal impact. Um last year even given the staffing reductions we engaged in last year there really was no impact on the courses we offer. The other consideration is to maintain our class sizes at manageable levels. Obviously, when we reduce class uh staff, class sizes, it's simple math, may go up. Um, but that hasn't really been the case in terms of our elementary schools just yet. They've gone up by one or two students, which again still puts us in the range of 21 to 22 students on average in our elementary schools, which is still relatively low for Long Island. And this is u something that we're going to discuss at a later board presentation when

026we talk about staffing. We're going to do talk about things a little bit differently. And you'll see from tonight's presentation by Miss Belmont Monty that we're changing the format of our budget presentation because we want them to be a lot more informative and we want to paint a very specific picture so our community and board members really understand what our financial situation is. So we are going to include an analysis of our staff reductions and the impact those staff reductions had in the prior year meaning of this year and impact study on the impact will have in the subsequent year that's 2627 and that will be done by myself Mr. Huntsman and we'll also talk a little bit about student achievement and the growth we've seen in spite of the staffing reductions and finally um

027you know we're really in the advanced phase of budget development like I said it's taken a lot of hours and I want to thank Mr. Bontik for walking all through the weekend even on Sunday when it was snowing to really put this presentation together. uh we just want to make sure that our information is thoroughly reviewed not just by us by the board but by the controllers's office was here and at which point we are planning a sort of town hall community meeting for April 29th. Um that date may seem late in the budget process, but we wanted to do it prior to the budget hearing, which is the subsequent week or two weeks after that. And we wanted to make sure that we were far enough along in the process where we can offer

028uh solid responses, vetted data to our community who may still have questions about the budget process. But I do want to encourage anyone who's watching, people who are here to attend our board meetings. Our board meetings have been very informative. Again, we're going to uh communicate everything we know, the good, the bad, and the ugly, with regards to our budget process as we uh continue down this line, the ultimate culmination of our budget vote in May. And finally, just update on our special pursuit of special act legislation. Uh the administration met with Senator Murray on Friday, February 6 to seek out his endorsement and assistant with the process of seeking out the special active legislation. that our motive is really to get this uh legislation embedded in the governness budget. So, it's voted on on

029April and we can proceed with the uh deficit financing. And again, I want to emphasize that what the board approved is just the ability to engage in deficit financing, not the financing itself. That'll be a later uh resolution and vote by the board. Um subsequent to that meeting went well and I want to thank Senator Murray for his assistance. Uh Mr. Belmont also fashion Batista which is actually this morning. He is the associate commissioner for state aid and this took place like I said today um about his office is uh is supportive of our legislative ask meaning that our elected officials have already reached out to state ed department and they're also working on helping us with the special act legislation which is good news and additionally u we met with NYT um specifically with

030NIST president Melinda Pearson and her team as well as Mr. Brady. Um on Monday, February 23rd, despite our snow day, we arranged for a Zoom meeting in the meeting. Um I just want to appreciate the support uh offered by NISK in terms of helping us get through these financial challenges. One of the things that we're looking at as an additional strategy above and beyond special act legislation is the uh use of lottery aid. School district receives about $6 million a year in lottery aid. and school districts again through special act legislation can opt to have an advance on that aid that is paid back interest free over the long term. So Mr. Mazi is talking with nice financial sort of specialist to see if that's something that we really want to pursue and definitely weigh

031the pros and cons of this approach above and beyond the special act legislation. I want to emphasize that even if we pursue the advance on our lottery aid, that would not supplant our need to engage in special act legislation. And finally, um on Thursday, we'll be meeting with Talia. She is a Suffach County regional representative for the governor's office. Uh we were supposed to meet on Monday, um but she was dealing with some snow emergencies, so was unable to meet uh even via Zoom. So, we're just going to bring uh someone who's closer to the governor up with our pursuit of special act legislation. length of petitions have already done that process for us, but this is a all hands- on deck approach. I do want to thank uh Miss Elia for making herself availability

032available and for her support of our school district. That's basically the update with special legislation. And now I'd like to get into something a little bit more fun. Um during uh February 6, I had the pleasure of attending our high school music musical Pippen uh which was fantastic. I think uh the performances were incredible. our cast which I took a picture with. Um I'm always impressed by the the talent of our our students and our staff that put on these wonderful productions. I don't know how these students managed to learn these lines, choreography and practice while maintaining uh their academics but they did a fantastic job. Uh the show the first time I saw it was magical and basically the premise was you know we all question our work in life and we want to

033live this magical and adventurous life but sometimes what we have is magical enough. So it's I love the message behind the play. So, a big shout out to all the staff members that were involved in that wonderful uh production. And we started some Black History Month celebrations and observances in the uh school district. Obviously, there's a lot of things happening within our classrooms, but I did have the pleasure of attending uh very uh an assembly program for our high school students. Um I honor John Conquest. John Conquest was an administrator, coach, and mentor here in South Country who was very impactful to many of our community members for years. Um the uh the social studies department ho hosted the assembly like I said um that panel uh speak uh panel speakers um that panel included

034um retired high school teachers Margaret Bulock, Deian Pulos and Leroy Still, our former athletic director and retired teacher John Frankie uh 1987 alumni Matthew Lucas and current teachers Steven Swiki and Teriah Williams who are students uh one time conquest who's an administrator and of course our assistant princip uh principal Bell who worked closely with John Conquest. Really well done pop panel discussion. What was amazing to me is really see the historical context someone who uh Mr. Conquest who grew up really in poverty uh here in the community but really rose up and really dedicated himself to the betterment of our community. So big shout out to Mr. Conquest. And I also had the pleasure of attending the assembly program at Milport Middle School which was um hosted and orchestrated by Mr. Ry Williams. It featured

035art, music, um some uh skits. Um so really uh amazing event, informative event and really the message was empower students to be proud of their heritage regardless of what it is. Um we also had the pleasure of having Sheriff Tulon in attendance, which was really nice. I want to give a shout out to Miss Williams, Mr. Sherlock, who actually impressed us with his beatboxing skills. I haven't heard that since the 80s. Um and all the staff members who were uh present. Um really was a great event. And of course, please, there's a lot of great things happening in South Country. Please follow us on our various social media handles. All these handles are available on our um website. And again, I want to emphasize if you go to our website, you click on the menu,

036click on the district, and then click on financial information and updates. Um there are all of our budget presentations are posted there. Our financial statements are posted there. We have a FAQ uh that's also posted there and that's updated regularly. There's also an opportunity for community members to submit questions. Um, that concludes my superintendent report. Thank the board for the continued support. Back to the attendant. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, next is trustee and advisory committee reports. And I'm going to start with our student exeicio member. >> Thank you. I hope everyone stayed safe the past few days. The weather was crazy. At the high school, we celebrated PS I Love You Day on February 14th. It's a cause that means a lot to me and the day overall was just beautiful. Um, the

037student council hung banners, students got to write on them inspirational quotes. We cut out hearts and students got to write on them. We handed out purple Lays in the morning. We sold all the shirts we needed to sell and it was just just great. And this weekend, the student council exec board will be going up to DC for our leadership conference. We'll be staying from Friday to Sunday, and I'll report back with all my findings from the conference. I'm very excited. Thank you. >> Thank you. I hope you have a great time at the conference and look forward to hearing the results of that and how it applies to what we're doing here in South Country. >> Thank you, >> Trusty Palis. >> Uh, so I want to make sure I say it the right

038way, but I went to the Brook Haven Elementary PTA Loveird painting, I think it was, or art night if I say it if I get it correct. Um, people that did it. It was a really neat little opportunity for the kids to do an art night and painted. I think it was right around um >> it was the Thursday before, I believe. >> Yeah. So, it was uh you know, it was a great job as always over there. Um I'm upset that I was not able to attend uh just for Conflict Wizer, the Mr. Conquest. Um Coach Conquest to me um Black History Month event. I you know, just on a personal note, he was probably one of the closest mentors I had throughout my time at Belport High School and even before and after

039that. So, uh, to see that he was being recognized and spoken about, I'm sure there could have been another 20, 30 people up on that stage speaking about him and what he meant to them. So, it was really nice to see that. I saw a lot of comments throughout um, that were very positive about who he was and what he meant to this district. So, just felt I should add that as well. >> Trustee Ross, >> have nothing to add tonight. >> Okay. How about the the two um, Trustee Feliz? Trusty Pheliz or Trusty Pacini, do you have anything? Trusty Phelis. >> Nothing for me. >> No, thanks. >> Nothing for either one. >> Trusty Dilla. >> Pretty quick. Um I attended both the finance and facilities and health and safety committee meetings over the

040last couple weeks. Um just wanted to update some of the facilities um things. Uh we are finalizing the security upgrades including the door access and cameras. um the security vestibule at South Haven and the high school auditorium. It's just a couple punch items that just need to be finalized. Um the windows at Vern Critz are installed and are beautiful. Um we are just awaiting the we uh window treatments to come for installation and then that project should be wrapped up. Um and the high school track and bleachers have been approved um by the state and are moving forward in the process. So hopefully we'll be able to see something um shortly, some renderings or something on those. Um today I attended the middle school student of the month ceremony. Congratulations to all the students that

041were nominated by the teachers and thank you to the teachers for taking the time to nominate the students and uh give them their certificates and little goodie bag today after school. It's just it's nice to hear that the students who are honored in that ceremony are not honored because they are the smartest kids in class. They're honored because they are the kindest kids in class. So, I think that says a lot um about our students. Um one of the advantages of being at the middle school after school today was I got a sneak peek at Moana Jr. and it looks absolutely fantastic. Um so, cast is very excited. The the uh teachers who are working on it are very excited. Can't wait to see it in a few weeks. >> That's it for me. >>

042Okay. >> I just wanted to add one more thing before you provide the report. Yeah. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank our teaching staff and our staff for coming in today and braving the elements. I know it was not easy. I certainly was driving around the campus this morning before the start of school. Um and like I said, it was uh nerve-wracking to say the least. So, I just want to thank our BTA, our BTAA, our CSEA, and all of our units who came in and really pushed through the elements to be here for our kids. What reminded me is um you know, you attending that event after school. So, it's uh yeah, I just want to extend that gratitude uh above and beyond our maintenance and custodial. You know, our teachers and our

043staff have kids, they have to commute, they have their own properties to take care of. So, I really do appreciate that. Thank you. So, I'm not gonna going to add everything I've done has already been mentioned between going to Pippen, the Longwood Legislative Breakfast, the John Conquest um program at the high school, the presentation at Riverhead Boseies, the uh middle school Black History Month celebration with Sheriff Tulin, and the dance and music and um the program that was that it was just amazing what the students and their teachers had had accomplished there. I also did go to the girls wrestling event in the afternoon at Bport High School on Saturday the um 15th I believe the 14th. Saturday the 14th, an amazing event and they they were in it to to win it and I

044think that they they prevailed very well and um maybe there could be a followup about what happened on Sunday when they went to Stony April. >> Yeah. So um they are our county champions, the girls wrestling team. So they're going to be traveling up to states to compete at the state level. Um I'll be providing a winter sports update at our next uh board meeting. uh our boys wrestling team I believe finished fourth in the county which is still a huge accomplishment because their uh division is super competitive. A handful of our boys wrestlers are also going to be competing at states and our girls uh track team the relay runners are going up to states for the state championships as well. So we have um our athletic director Mr. So, telly is actually um

045it'll be still on the road but driving up to uh Albany uh for the uh state competitions that are happening uh at the end of the week and I'll provide an update to the community and the board at our next board meeting. >> Okay. And then I do plan to go to the high school Black History Celebration event on Friday. And then on Saturday evening at Bport Middle School, um there's an ac cappella competition and our high school ac cappella group is performing. So um it's open to the public, I believe. Um so I'm looking forward to that one. Um, and I'll make one comment about the legislative breakfast that I thought was particularly interesting. They had some students there who um commented about their participation in some of the uh I think it was

046Bosey's programs but there was one one student who was in the cosmetology program but she tied it in with what her real interest is which was like in the field of social work or counseling and some manner and she just pointed out that there's an a connection between what she does in cosmetology along with where where she wanted to go and I you know I thought about Miss Trustee Felicetta and his interest in CTE programs and uh that's just it was an added dimension to what the CTE programs do >> that that student is my student Sophia she is an amazing student and >> her whole story very inspiring. So, >> okay, she was. So, all right. Any nothing else? We're going to go on to public commentary. And before I call people up, this

047is an opportunity for the board to listen to what members of the public have to say. If anybody wants to speak, uh please fill out a yellow card and give it to our our uh clerk. Um each speaker is limited to three minutes and the content of that three minutes cannot be discussion of individuals whether employees or students or anybody else. So, um, please keep that in mind. And our our district clerk is our timekeeper. So, if you hear the bell go off, finish the sentence and that would be the end of the time. Um, we're taking comments now for agenda items. Non-aggenda items are generally held later in the agenda and uh neither the board nor the superintendent will generally entertain any um well certainly will not entertain comments related to personnel matters or

048individual students and these matters are protected by law. Um so if you have an issue with regard to that please contact the superintendent of schools. So um the total time available is 30 minutes. So I think I've got 10 cards here. So please be respectful of your time so that you don't need in to anybody else who wanted to speak. First speaker, uh, Michael Kermate. All right. Try to keep this within the time limit. So, I understand the current financial difficulty that the district is going through. Um, but I'm here to respectfully oppose the proposed reduction in the private school transportation from 25 miles to 15 miles. some background on myself and my family. We've lived in this district since 2011. Um both my wife and I went to public school. Um I we spent

049most of our lives on Long Island. Uh my mother taught in this district here for 20 years. Um and I'm a board member of the uh South Country Education Foundation. So none of this is here to come in and be negative about what the district is facing. Um this is just here to kind of state the case of what's going on. So our children attend a private Catholic school. Uh that was our choice to do so. And in coming into the district, the fact that the busing was available certainly was something that we felt uh influenced their decision to move here. Um, we were looking at the presentation that was made about the proposed cut for the transportation and uh, one thing that I I felt was a little bit uh, frustrating was it was

050it was presented as $897,000 in annual savings when the real amount is $44,000 because of the aid that's lost due to the reduction in busing. Um, and that number was stated several times without bringing up the the fact that it's actually 44,000 multiple times. Um, so I just wanted to state that I I I would urge the board to be a little bit more transparent about that because I feel like that's um I don't know that just didn't feel right that that was how it was being presented. Um, it says that only 121 students lose the busing, but that's the majority. It's a majority of the students that are losing the busing. It's 63% of the students uh that require private school busing. Um I think that removing the busing as an option is um

051unfair for middle-income families where the busing is a key factor that allows them to exercise their choice in school that they want to send their kids to. Um because there really aren't that many schools that fall within that 15 mile radius. Um, and certainly that applies to us, uh, with our daughter going to St. Anony's next year, um, and our son going to St. Mary's and, uh, Icelip. Um, this has been a thing that's been supported by the district for decades now. The voters support voted to support this. Um, and that's why this 25 mile uh, radius has been in place. Um, and if you look at the overall budget of what this actually cost the district, uh, it's 0.5% of the total budget. So, and and it also, you know, I understand that it's

052being looked at as a way of, you know, potentially reinvesting into the district. Uh, I'd like for uh the the board to be a little bit more clear about what that is since it was a pretty vague statement about where that money was going to go. Uh, that's going to be impact all these families. So, >> thank you. I heard the bell. Thank you. >> Okay, >> John Halding. >> Hello. >> Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak um in attempt to be the time. I'm just going to read this straight off. So, uh my kids are two of the students whose transportation could be eliminated. And I'm asking the board tonight not to authorize a referendum because I believe the information presented is currently incomplete. Point one, I don't believe

053the numbers are entirely clear. The headline savings figure of 897K is gross, and your own footnote confirms net savings after transportation aid loss is only 404,000, which is less than half. Yet, page five then restates 897 as the savings figure with no qualification. And that's an internal contradiction in your own document. And it's still not clear whether the $371,000 gap is also gross. If it is, the real gap could be as low as 167K. The community should know which numbers are real before any referendum is authorized. Point two, human impact is unquantified. So, as we just heard from my friend back there, the impacted families made housing, schooling, caregiving decisions partly based on current policy. The district knows the dollar figure to the penny, but has shared no analysis at this point of how many

054families have no viable alternative. For some of us, there is none. That assessment must come first. Point three, share the alternatives. This presentation evaluated one cost-saving option. As a matter of good governance, I'd suggest showing the community the full menu of budget areas considered and explain why children's transportation was prioritized for cuts. So, in closing, I don't believe you can I don't believe you can responsibly authorize a referendum on incomplete information. I'm asking the board to table this decision. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker is Bailey Everett. >> Hi, thank you. Um, I want to start out by saying that I am a graduate of Belort High School. My children are fourth generation here in the South Country School District. I have four children currently um, attending private school. I think it is um,

055I'm going to ask you to respectfully uh, reject the private school transportation proposal. The 25 mile rule established in 1990s has been a long-standing and reliable practice for families within the district. Changing this standard abruptly now feels arbitrary and disrupts expectations that families have planned around for decades. Transportation requirements in New York State public schools currently obligate districts to provide transportation for students in kindergarten through 8th grade who live more than two miles from the school and more than three miles for high school students. The district is already operating within these required standards for students attending their home schools. If the district is moving towards strictly following these state minimums, it is important to consider whether that standard will be applied equitably to all students or only those attending private school. Reducing that limit to

05615 miles would make all Catholic high schools on Long Island ineligible for transportation along with most Catholic and elementary and middle schools. A majority of private schools also fall within this range. This change would significantly affect many families and limit educational options that students are currently enrolled in. I understand the importance of fiscal responsibility. However, saving approximately $400,000 while impacting 121 students represents a relatively small budget adjustment with sub uh substantial community impact. This change would shift transportation cost to families, could influence enrollment decisions, increasing the number of students within the district and offsetting those savings. and would reduce the district's transportation standard to the legal minimum rather than maintaining the level of service our community has historically supported. Before I uh before eliminating a long-standing service that directly affects our students and families, I

057urge the board to explore operation efficiencies and alternative funding strategies that preserve stability, fairness, and access to all. Thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you. Uh, is this Tessa Gold? >> Um, good evening and thank you for your time and transparency around this process. Uh, I've reviewed the transportation analysis and I understand the goal of aligning the state minimums and managing costs responsibly, but I want to reframe this decision in terms of both proportional impact and underlying assumptions. The proposal generates approximately $400,000 in net savings with an 11.6 million transportation budget while directly impacting over 120 students and their families. So this is not just a cost-saving measure, it's a trade-off and one where a relatively modest savings creates a significant amount of disruption for a specific group of families. But more importantly, I

058would encourage the board to pressure test a key assumption the model that affected families will simply absorb this change without altering their behavior. That may not hold. If even a portion of these students transition into district schools, the financial impact could quickly outweigh the projected savings. As I understand, the estimated cost to educate a child in this or a student in this district is roughly $39,000 a year. It doesn't take all 121 students changing behavior for this math to break. It only takes a handful. Just 10 to 15 students returning to district schools would offset the entire projected savings. And beyond that, some families may choose to relocate to maintain access to their schools, which introduces an even bigger risk of losing taxpayers from the district altogether. Neither of these dynamics have appear to have

059been reflected in the current analysis. So before moving forward, I would strongly encourage the board to ensure that the financial model accounts for real world behavior, not just static assumptions. I would also encourage the consideration of more balanced alternatives such as a centralized hub system within 15 miles or guaranting in current families to avoid mainstream disruption. Both approach both approaches both approaches move toward cost savings while preserving continuity and access. Ultimately, this is about making sure we are optimizing the right things, not just reducing costs on paper, but making decisions that hold up in practice. Thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker is Katherine Stark. >> Yeah, I I think all my points have been made already. Um I oppose the the cut of the the transportation too, but let's move

060on and uh I would just repeat points. >> Well, thank you for your comment. >> Thank you. >> We'll still note that you uh participated, >> Tracy Holding. Uh, good evening. My name is Tracy Holding. I'm a resident of the South Country School District. U, my children, Bailey Holding, who is nine, and my son, Hudson Holding, who seven, both attended Kramer Street Elementary School through first grade. We made the difficult financial decision to remove them and enroll them in private school after experiencing declining educational standards due to significant cuts in resources and lack of support in fundamental areas conditions that coincided with a serious financial crisis within the district. This was not a choice we made lightly. Like other families in this district, we continue to pay full school taxes. However, unlike many others, u

061we draw no direct educational services in return. The only tangible benefit my family receives from the district is transportation. My husband and I and I are both working parents who commute into the city four days a week in order to earn a salary that enables us to pay for private education on top of the significant taxes we already pay. Because of that schedule, I do not have the ability to transport my children to and from school every day. I rely entirely on the bus service the district provides. Removing transportation creates significant financial and logistical hardship and effectively punishes families who made difficult choices to ensure their children receive the educational standards all children deserve, standards they were unable to access within the South Country School District. I respectfully ask the board to consider the incremental

062financial burden being placed on this group of families who are already carrying significant costs as a result of the district's current financial crisis. Fiscal responsibility is important but fairness and trust matter too. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. Next is John Crosley. >> John Crossley. Uh live in Elport. Um I moved here from Brooklyn about two years ago. Um we moved my son was in public school in Brooklyn. Um we spent the pandemic in Brooklyn. My son got a note from one of his fellow students with a drawing of a gun threatening to kill him. So, we decided to make a change. We came here when we were speaking to the real estate agent. He was like, "You should come to Balport. It's great. South Country School District, you can choose

063any school you want because of the busing." And I was like, "This is great. We have so many options. We are going to find a place for him where he is happy, where he looks forward to going to school. he's not going to come home from school every day upset because that's what was happening when we were in Brooklyn. So to what everybody else said like that was such a big selling point when our real estate agent was taking us around and we are so happy here and he is thriving here. We might not have chosen to move here. We might have gone a little bit further out east if we didn't have that option. Now, I don't know fiscally if it if it's better to have people enrolled in the district because of what

064some people said, declining enrollment, but for us, you know, we're paying our taxes into the school district. We're not utilizing any benefit. We are so happy that we moved here. We'd love it here. But had we not had that option, we we might not have have moved here if we were only had one, you know, one school district option because like everybody else said, that would be the case. Where my son goes is 22 miles from where we live, so we would not be eligible. We would have to figure that out. My wife and I both work. We would have to figure out how to get him to school in the morning and how to get, you know, home. Uh I've had to pick him up. it's, you know, 40 minutes, 45 minutes with traffic,

065uh, both way, you know, each way. Um, and having the buses is a tremendous help for us and allows us to live here, uh, in the district. So, um, I I I just to repeat what everybody else said, you know, that's that's personally where we're coming from. So, I asked you to consider that and the families affected when deciding on this issue. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next is Lance Me. Hi. Uh, Lance from Bport. Um, I went to Bport Kramer through high school. So did my brother and sister. It served us very well. I'm a professor at Stonybrook. My sister's a principal at Rocky Point Middle School. My brother's a lawyer. We like to talk about that. Um, I was very, very happy that my kids could go to Kramer, walk from home

066to Kramer the same way I did when I diesel. After about two years in consultation with principal and his teachers, um, we decided it wasn't a good fit for him for various reasons. I also talked with my sister a lot about this and we all came to the determination that he he really needed to move and then his brother behind him. So, we went to a private school where he's flourished. Um, I bring all that background up because I don't think it's unreasonable um to pull a kid from school if they can find better education and you can accommodate it. Um, I agree with most of what's been said here. I was going to talk about some of it, but I'm just going to go to one point. This 2 to 15 mile decision is

067kind of an arbitrary decision. handed down by Albany. I don't know how they came up with it, but clearly they were saying, well, there's got to be a slot. It doesn't make sense if you're in Albany or Brooklyn that you have the same to do the 15 miles. There's some then some sort of reasonleness that has to be attached to this. And I would suggest, as was pointed out, um, if you've got most of your students more than 15 miles away doing your busing, there's a reason for that. And the reason we found for that is we did not find a good fit for our children within miles. They happen to be 16 miles away. Um the effect of this if it goes through will be my wife will have to give up her job

068to drive or we're going to have to find another solution for now. So again, I would just ask is it reasonable to stay at 25 historically been 15. What is it for this area? Okay, it can't be the same in Buffalo as it is in the Bronx. We don't have very many quality schools within 50. >> Thank you, >> Peter Farage. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Hello. Thanks so much. Um, I don't want to repeat a lot of the points that people made. Um, but I will just say this on the back of it. When this happened, we're now looking at another school district, which we don't want to do. And also, I would love to my kids to local school, but it's not a good fit for them and it just doesn't work. So,

069I think as a taxpayer I should have that choice. Um, and I'm just going to start with what I was going to say. So, obviously we've covered the 404,000. It's not 897. And I feel a lot of us feel that that's a misrepresentation. And I think really you should be careful with that or the people that are presenting it should be careful because there's probably going to be implications to that later if that is something that is used. Um and in the context of that 11.6 million uh and the district-wide fiscal recovery plan, this is a really small saving uh with a disproportionately large impact on families in the community. More importantly, these 121 students represent something rarely acknowledged that families pay full school fees while the district does not bear the cost of educating

070their children. If even a portion of these students do come back, as was discussed, it's going to be a lot more than $44,000. So, this proposal creates real consequences. It shifts the burden onto working families who rely on safe, reliable transportation in order to make the right choice for their kids. It creates inequality where only families with flexible schedules and the financial means can attend a school that fits their needs and their kids' needs. It increases traffic, a lot of traffic and safety risk for children traveling long distances and it undermines the trust among taxpayers who contribute to the district while exercising an educational choice which should be all right. The district has already demonstrated that efficiency measures work. Route optimization and staffing adjustments saved approximately $350,000 without reducing services. So that's the kind of

071solution that protects both fiscal stability and community trust. The decision is not simply about aligning with the state minimum. It's about whether we balance our budget by removing access for a small group of families who are already contributing more than their share or more than they take. A net savings of roughly $44,000 can't really be worth the long-term financial risk, safety concerns, and erosion of community goodwill this policy would create. So, I would respectfully urge you to to reject this proposal. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Is this Penny or Perry Goldmith? >> Perry. Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm not here to talk about the transportation budget. Um, my name is Perry Goldsmith. My daughter is in kindergarten in the dual language program at Brook Haven Elementary. She's my first child in this

072district. Um, For anyone unfamiliar, the dual language program splits the day evenly between Spanish and English. Nearly half the students are native Spanish speakers, the others half English speakers, and every child is learning all subjects in two languages. This is not a standard kindergarten classroom. It's more intensive, more complex, and requires more support, not less. Yet, this year, that support has been cut for kindergarten and many other grades. Of major concern is the removal of full-time teaching assistance. Challenges specific to the dual language class without assistance include students with behavioral needs that can't be separated, emotional needs that can't be individually addressed, teachers lose instructional time transferring students between each classroom, a job that was previously assigned to teaching assistant, not to mention concerns of safety. Other kindergarten classrooms have 18 or 19 students, while

073this more demanding program has 24. Two years ago, the district deemed 24 students in a class unsafe and therefore assigned a full-time teaching assistant to the dual language class. This year, that same class only has only about 40 minutes of TA support per day. And even that time is reduced when the assistant is needed for bus dismissal or somewhere else in the building. Teaching teaching assistants were distributed equally across schools, not equitably. And Brook Haven is the largest elementary school in the in the district. What's most troubling is that not a single decision maker who approved the removal of full-time teaching assistants has come to observe how a dual language cap classroom actually functions day-to-day. State law is moving towards capping kindergarten to third kindergarten to third grade class sizes to 20 students. In New

074York City, these caps have already been implemented. In three years, these conditions may not even be legal. I want to mention that the phrase together we are united united in our mission to provide our students with the best possible learning experience is on the South Country School District homepage. You cannot claim to provide the best possible possible learning experience while stripping teachers of the support they need to do their jobs and stripping students of the basic tools and instruments required to learn. Just today we got a notice that the elementary schools are implementing printing restrictions that will impact in-class worksheets and homework. Shall I begin to list the numerous ways the fundamental skills of handwriting is beneficial for learning and development? The board and prior leadership made a series of decisions that have left the

075district in significant financial distress, resulting in a diminished learning environment and a compromised educational experience for our students. Those responsible for these decisions must be held accountable. I'm asking you to acknowledge that these choices are failing our youngest learners and to find solutions that restore fiscal stability without sacrificing the well-being and education of our children. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I believe that completes all the public speakers. >> Thank you. >> Before you all leave, thank you for being so respectful in your presentations. Um, you know, I wanted to make this comment just as an observation to the board in just a minute. Um, you know, sometimes the board meetings get contentious um to the point where it's been spoofed, but the ability to speak and articulate your concern in the manner you did

076certainly gives us pause to reflect. So, I just want to appreciate your approach. >> Thank you. >> Got to get those kids to bed now. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um we're next up is some items for discussion and action is the budget presentation. >> Yes. Thank you. >> I think maybe I should have went first. >> Thank you. And uh once again, I just like to echo the superintendent's comments, those of you that came out, uh this is a very difficult process that the district is going through. And as we indicated in the very beginning of the process, um when we look at these type of fiscal situations, we look at everything and we talk about everything. It doesn't mean that they're going to end up as they're a done deal,

077but it's very important that we hear the feedback from the community as well. So, having said that, um I'd like to start out just by um chatting a little bit and thanking the administration and um all of our colleagues for their efforts in working with us in developing a draft 2627 budget. Um what the board is going to see tonight is something a little different than what you have seen in the past early in the budget process. Because of the fiscal situation that the district is in, we wanted to present a framework in a budget that's a draft document, a complete draft document so the board knows where they are is as far as the spending plan, what reductions have been made so far and then also a projected revenue site and we have some

078estimates as to the tax rate as well. Okay, got the first one. No. So, the first thing that I'd like to talk about is what we've been doing over the last couple of months. And this is really, really important because it brings the district forward from where we were as far as enhancing the budget process, uh, installing and implementing controls and oversight and the monitoring. And we've come a long way during the budget process in accomplishing these goals. One of the things that we have done when you look at the detail in the budget document, we've actually disagregated codes. We created new codes that's easil easily identifiable for I want to say contract items that are embedded that you might not necessarily pick up or budget correctly. So we flushed those particular things out. We

079implemented controls in the business office to enhance that process. Um and that's one of the things that I have to really thank the business office staff uh as well is for putting up with me and all my u controls and conversations with them. The other thing is that we um considered effort to reduce cost that happened from day one. We look we are looking at everything. We are looking at every budget code. We are looking at not only the budget side but we're looking at the revenue side and we have made headway in making and reducing costs without directly impacting the core instructional programs and I think that's something that really really needs to continue. Um implementation of midyear reductions. We saw that we made uh some inroads this year to reduce the 2526 budget.

080Uh that's going to help us as we step off into the following year as well. Um the thing that I'm very very uh proud of and um I guess humbled by is the outreach to our uh strategic partners uh individual firms, professional firms that work with us that have indicated that they would hold their fees and their rates for next year. Some of them are deferring their billing instead of this year to next year. Um the support has been overwhelming from our strategic business partners and I think that uh that has to be noted. Uh the opportunities to enhance revenues. Um that's one of the things we done. We we talked about uh filing final cost reports and getting building aid in a more timely basis. We talked about analyzing all our revenues and making

081sure that we have coming in what needs to come in to support the budget. And more importantly, this is going to be the culmination of a process for a three-year recovery plan. Okay? And um coordinating with the special act legislation that the superintendent talked about is going to give us a pathway to fix this. And for those of you that you've probably heard this before, but sometimes it gets old, but the reality is where we ended up in the 2425 year, we overexpended the legal adjusted budget by 3.5 million. We had an operating deficit of 16.2 million. That is not something that could be corrected overnight. It's not something that could be corrected in one year. This is a multi-year plan that the district's going to need a little bit of a runway to start

082to write the ship. And we started doing that in 2526 with the midyear cuts. We're continuing with that into 2627 in the budget development piece. So this is really the 10,000 foot view, if you will, of the draft budget for the board. And instead of looking at individual snippets, if you will, this gives you really a complete picture by some categories and where the cost drivers are within our draft budget. So this is broken down, as you can see, by salaries, and fringe benefits and debt service, contractual expenses. When we talk about contractual expenses, I don't mean union contracts. These are our 0.4 object codes within our budget. It's a New York state thing. We have our Boseies cost. We have our uh supplies, our textbook transportation, and then our uh transfer to capital. So

083starting out with salaries and fringe benefits, if you look at the numbers up there, our salary and fringe benefits make up 66% of our total budget. So we are a serviceoriented agency. Uh we're a people agency. So most of our costs are in um staffing and in fringe benefits. You can see that proposed for the 2627 year. Um we're recommending at this particular point again it's a draft budget. We're starting the process from here. We have identified and reduced almost $2.4 million in salaries. And as again once the superintendent indicated we will do a complete presentation on the salaries and what has been uh reduced. Uh suffice to say that we have I think 16 16 teacher retirees. A lot of those positions are not going to be filled through attrition. So we look very

084closely at how we are affecting people, how we are affecting lives if you will. Um but there will be also some positions that we have to possibly excess. Okay? And that's just part of the natural process when you have declining enrollment within a school system. Now you can see the fringe benefits line. It's a $2.5 million increase. And we have a little slide. We're able to drill down and see where those cost drivers are a little bit later. But uh for now we can see that the increasing fringe benefit costs are far or canceling out the savings that we're achieving in salaries. Um debt service, we have an increase in our debt service of about $1.9 million. That's a combination of two things. The one is the new debt service for the energy performance contract

085that's coming on the books for 26 27 plus we have some debt service in there for the special act legislation and what some potential borrowing may cost us down the road. Um contractual expenses we'll be going through that at a later meeting. That's about a $1.3 million increase. um Boseies is almost a million dollar increase. Now you can see what the district spends overall in Boseies, $4.5 million. That's a lot of services. One thing that the district has to do is go back and evaluate uh those particular services as well. Um supplies, we reduce supplies from the get-go. Uh when we first came uh this year, we cut off spending early. We cut off spending in November. That doesn't mean that people did not get the necessary supplies that they needed. It just means that

086we cut back and going forward in 2627, we cut the supply budgets by 20%. Okay? And once again, I just would like to emphasize this was not done in a vacuum. It was done with conversation. It was done with looking at multi-year expenditure trends, seeing what was spent, what wasn't spent, what people may have as inventory in their buildings, how much do they really need, what do they really need. So, it was a whole process that went into this. It wasn't just an arbitrary decision. Let's cut supplies 20%. Um, it's a whole backdrop on that. uh textbook and workbooks. Uh that's another area that we looked at very closely. It seems that we're in very good shape for textbooks and we could kind of scale back next year. And um the next item is is

087transportation. Transportation, our projected cost next year is 13.1 million. Uh $1.5 million increase over the current year. That's a very large area component of the district. if you will. And again, we'll see more details on that at a later slide. And the cafeteria fund transfers and special aated funds, those are straightforward, as well as the equipment. So, what this framework presents to you now is a picture of what our costs would be in these particular categories, which equals $152.5 million. which is a $5.3 million increase or a 3.64 spending increase. So that's the start of the discussion. This next piece is really a continuation from the previous slide. You see where we end off on the bottom total general fund budget. One of the things that we were talking about to the board is if

088we had the possibility to put a referendum to the community to reduce the mileage, what would be the cost impact? We know the cost is about $900,000. We know that if the proposition would pass, it would bring our budget down to about 151.6 and our spending to about 3.3%. Um, I did want to clarify some misinformation that I heard this evening. People say that we weren't transparent or maybe not as transparent. And if you go to the district's website, I think it's the second presentation that we did, there is a slide on there and there is a footnote on the bottom that talks about state aid. And for people that are um that are here and that have heard that that discussion came up in a budget advisory committee meeting that we had and we

089we talked about the cost and we talked about some of our cost generates aid is expenditured driven aids. So with that, when you look at a school budget and you look at the spending side or the expenditure side, that's the side that we're looking at. When we see an expenditure of $900,000 and we see that we're reducing $900,000, we're not netting that figure against the aid. Okay. The revenue budget is a completely different box. You have the expenditures and you have the revenue box. and they they act actually independently. And the way state aid works for those that might want to know is that you spend the money first and then you get the aid in the subsequent year. Okay? It doesn't come in the same year. It doesn't offset your cost. It doesn't provide

090you in if this was to happen. It doesn't provide you in the 26 27 year with a net cost. What it does, it reduces your cost 900,000 and the following year your transportation a will go down by about 400 some thousand because the transportation aid ratio is about 56%. So hopefully that clarifies that. Okay. So the other thing that I just mentioned is that we have two boxes. We have the expenditure box. Now we have the the revenue side. And this is the revenue side that funds uh what the total budget is. And at the end of the day, your total revenues have to equal your total expenditures. Uh that's just the way very simply how a school district works. So when you look at the top of the revenue sheet, we start out with

091state aid. >> There's not a pointer on this, right? >> No. I checked. I can point for you. >> No, no, I don't want to press anything. So, we start out with state aid and state aid, it's a given number. Um, when we get our state aid runs, the one thing we have to do is if you look at the district's aid run is what's called UPK aid in there, it's uh prek. We have to back that out because that's not considered a general fund aid. that gets accounted for in a different fund. So with that, we also took the liberty in uh pumping up our foundation aid a little bit by about 1%. We got 1% in the original uh state budget. We anticipate that maybe we'll get another uh 1%. So we actually

092were very aggressive on the revenue side in coming up with this budget. The next large item is our pilot payments. That's a given. That's a schedule of p uh uh construction projects if you will or properties that have not on the tax roles yet but we do receive payments uh directly from the particular participants and our other income that's straightforward you see the categories it brings us down to our total state aid and other income numbers. So completing that thought is the next part is the pieces that we call other financing methods. Okay, this is money from your reserves. I like to say savings accounts. People can relate to it that way. And you could see that for 2627 we're projecting about 2.8 uh $2.6 6 million um in using from our reserves. Now, one

093thing that I want to share with the board that we made a a conscious decision and we also reviewed with the controllers's office is at budget time last year, there was a certain amount of dollars that were indicated that they wanted to use from reserves to fund the current year 2526 budget. Because of the diminishing returns of our restricted reserves, we made a conscious decision to say we're not going to use 100% of those funds in ERS and TRS. We're only going to use 50%. For this current year and the rationale being is very simple. We don't want to leave the district broke. Okay? We have a hard enough time navigating where we are. So what we want to do is we want to leave some of those revenues as you can see so that

094it could help us a little bit in the 26 27 school year. So that's the difference. You see a new line on there spec special act legislation deficit ban borrowing. Okay. This is not considered revenue. This is considered other financing source. Okay. And in order to get to the $152 million budget and back into a tax levy of $76 million to bring us to the cap 6.51%. Okay. We end up having to borrow almost $7 million. So, what this budget tells us right now, looking at it, we put together a budget, and we know this budget's going to have a $7 million hole in it. Keep in mind what we talked about earlier. It's a multi-year recovery plan. We started this year. We're going to continue 26 27 and for the next two years, we're

095going to continue on the same path. The thing that I I have to repeat and I repeat over and over again. Just by borrowing does not resolve the structural deficit. The district has to continue reducing cost. Okay? That 6.9 million eventually has to go away. It has to be wiped out. Okay? And interestingly enough, when you think about it, if that 2.6 million above that 6.9 was not available, guess what? We would have a bigger hole. We would have no money to use. Okay? So, we are going through some significant fiscal challenges. We are doing our best to look as I say around the fringes. look around for the lowhanging fruit, things that don't directly impact the core instructional program. Okay? But when you think about what was just put together and presented, it basically

096provides a blueprint that says that we could have a 2026 27 budget of 152 million, which is a 3.64% spending increase. We can say with confidence it's at the cap. It's at the tax cap percentage. We're not under, we're not over, we're at the cap. And this is what the result would be. So having said that um long- winded a little bit but I think nonetheless important in explaining those particular pieces understanding the special act legislation and again um we keep repeating this in different ways. I hope people really understand it um that to borrow deficit bonds allows us to legally balance the budget. It allows us to legally fill those holes and balance the budget. Okay? Because we cannot finish this year in another deficit situation. You cannot overexpend another vote approved budget. So

097that has to happen. Okay? And it's important to note that whatever funds you borrow, they have to re be repaid in future budgets. Okay? and um and do not replace the need for ongoing expenditure reductions. We list the um the legal framework there. Um I don't need to go through all the details, but basically it says the same thing that we've been saying that it legally balances the budget. Uh it it appears on the revenue on the finance side, but it's not recognized as revenue. It's other financing sources. Okay, very important. Now, getting into some of the meat and potatoes, some of the high-cost areas. Um, as you can see, our total transportation budget is 13.1 million. It's a $1.5 million increase. Um, as you know, South Country contracts all of its bus services. Um,

098last April, I believe, the district received a five-year bid and Town Bus was awarded that bid. Going forward to 2627, um, those bid prices are up at around 5%. So, we're seeing a 5% rise in our contract transportation cost. Um, as we mentioned previously and was mentioned here tonight by one of the community members, uh, I appreciate that they're actually reading some of the presentations that we had some midyear cuts. We did some bush routing, uh, efficiency and we were able to trim about 350,000 from the budget without affecting the transportation for kids. And that's just some of the things that we do when I refer to lowhanging fruit and ways to save money without cutting into the core program. Um implementing and enhancing the budget strategies and control to ensure that the transportation budget

099aligns with the contractual utilization. The budget controls and the things that we started out with this conversation extremely extremely important. Why? Because they were lacking previously. Okay, the the we talked about bringing credibility to budget document. I can say with great certainty that the document that has been presented 26 or is being presented 2627 is a credible budget document. And what I mean by that it represents your current program cost. It rep It represents the anticipated additions. It represents projections for anticipated cost increases. It's a reflection on of where the district is. Okay. Versus the current year budget which maybe that 11.6 million transportation number um should have been a little higher at budget time. Okay. So when we talk about credibility to the budget document, this happens throughout the entire document and we're talking

100about you know a thousand codes budget codes if you will and each code means something. So having said that I also mentioned here that the transportation aid ratio is 56.7%. And once again, transportation aid as with any expend expenditured driven aid always comes in the subsequent year. Doesn't come in the same year. So just seeing our utilization for transportation. So people can get a full depth and breadth of what we offer as far as um the number of buses. So, we transport uh just under 3,100 students, and that's without uh athletics or field trips. Just our contractual transportation during the regular school year and during the summer, it's about 3,100 kids. You can see from this matrix and the summaries on the far right, we have about 94 buses and 46 matrons. And during the

101summer, we run about 33 buses at 39 mrons. So when you think of what makes up that $13.1 million, it's right here. This is what we do. And um this is the transportation cost pro of the program. Another expenditure um cost driver in the budget is fringe benefits. uh we talked about that salary and fringe benefits encompass 66% of the overall budget. Uh when we look at these particular benefits we can see the increases and decreases. Uh state retirement which is the first line that's ERS. We know the rate has gone up 17.6%. It's a 1.1% increase from the prior year. You can see that for TRS we're happy to report that we're the rate is down 1.35% to 8.24. So we're seeing a very significant reduction in TRS and that has to do with

102a lot of those teachers that are being reduced within the budget through attrition and through retirement. So there's a savings that the district achieves there. Also, uh, social security, this is a savings as a result of reducing staff. Uh, workers comp, workers comp, we're seeing an increase. Um, but again, we do have a workers comp reserve and these monies are normally paid from the workers comp reserve. Okay? Again, the reserve is a funding comes through your savings account. So anytime you see that something is funded from a reserve, it has no impact on the tax rate. Okay. So I think that that's a very important concept. So even though we're showing an expenditure side of X number of dollars, we know that those X number of dollars are being funded from a reserve. It's not

103impacting the tax levy. It's that other source of revenue on the revenue sheets. Um unemployment, uh we anticipate an uptick just because of what we're doing and what's happening. Uh unemployment again has gotten uh very expensive. The rate has gone up to $829 a week for 26 weeks. Um and again, suffice to say, we do have an unemployment reserve. So any monies that we spend here get funded from the reserves do not impact the tax rate. Disability insurance that's a small savings. The really the next category health insurance that's a very very large cost driver. We can see that overall our health insurance and medical costs are up about $3 million. Okay. Uh the district went through a a u rate hike last year twice. They had a mid-year increase as well as an increase

104in the beginning of the school year. Uh the plan has a 12% increase going into the next school year 26 27 and that's reflected in these costs. You'll see that we have Medicare reimbursements. districts are responsible for uh reimbursing retirees their Medicare Part A and uh we do that and also we have a insurance opt out provision which is increasing by about $360,000. Now, when we see the opt out, even though this is increasing, it still generates a savings for the district because individuals that opt out for the health insurance, the district doesn't have to pay the full boat of the cost for a health insurance. The individual gets reimbured is either 40% of the cost of an individual plan or a family plan. So, if a family plan right now is upwards close to

105$49,000, I'm sorry, $39,000 to $40,000, um, you know, 40% of that is a significant savings for the district. So, opting out is not the worst thing in the world, but it still does add cost to our health insurance. dental is is a uh a minor uh increase in the terminal leave pay and buyouts that has to do with incentives we did with the assistance of the BTA and we thank them we came up with an MOA where we were able to make the incentive uh fundable from the district's uh reserves and not impact the general fund as greatly as it has in the past. So that was a um that was a big benefit. Once again, this is another category that benefits the district because we do have these reserve funds. So your total benefit

106costs are uh projected at 37.7 million. It's about a 7.27% spending increase. And um you know, we watch the benefit costs very closely as we go forward. And the final cost driver I just want to talk about a little bit is debt service. Um the reason why I wanted to talk about debt service because it goes handinhand with the special act legislation, how it's going to work and how we envision borrowing going forward into 2026 27. So the first two lines you got your school on principal and interest. That's your normal serial bonds. The next two lines you'll see you have EPC and that's your energy performance contract. That's where I mentioned that 2627 we have new debt service for the first time. Okay. And that's put in the budget appropriately. And by the way,

107when that project when those projects get complete, we will also be getting building aid on those projects. and the building aid is upwards around 70 some odd percent. Um, in addition to the building aid and the cost, we also get rebates from the project that is underway. So, we anticipate over half a million dollars in rebates back from the uh the energy companies for embarking on this project as well. So, at the end of the day, an energy performance contract should be what we call revenue neutral. It should not cost the taxpayers because of the additional state aid, because of the rebates, and because of the decrease in energy consumption, the savings should equal the debt service and the payout once the project gets going. So, an energy performance contract is something um that's beneficial

108for a district to have. And certainly we we're probably I want to say halfway through the current project as it stands. The last two items, the one that's highlighted is a special act uh deficit BN, which is bond anticipation note borrowing. When we talk about special act legislation, we talk about deficit borrowing. and what we will anticipate, we have authority, we're looking for authority to borrow up to $12 million. Okay? It doesn't mean that we're going to necessarily go out and borrow the $12 million, but what that 630,000 represents is the interest cost on that band and only the interest cost. We didn't budget any principal because in the following year, this year, we're going to take out, we anticipate taking out a bond anticipation note. next year we're going to have to renew it

109and roll it forward. Okay, so we already have the financing mechanism in place. Think about when we go back to that um that revenue sheet and I'll just I'll slide back because I wanted to point that out again is this slide here. that special act legislation for that deficit borrowing. Again, that's the $6.7 million hole that we $6.9 million hole that we need to fill. And the debt service is where we're going to be paying for the interest on that. So hopefully that's um clear clear as mud. Okay. So that's the um so that's the debt service. So basically uh again just to recap, you have you have a plan in front of you that gives you a full picture of what a draft budget would look like at 152.5 million. We know the spending

110increase 3.64. We know the tax cap levy increase is 6.5%. Because we're at the cap. Okay. And we also know that if the proposition goes through, that would be the differential in um what the budget and the uh proposed tax levy would be. So with that, I know it's a different format. Um hopefully you found it helpful, not helpful. Um I think it presents a much bigger, clearer picture of the budget as a whole. And um I welcome comments or discussion. >> The rest. >> Even before tonight, even before tonight, >> I was struggling with how this transportation referendum was helpful to the school district. And I see the numbers. And when you do your last slide, I see what's there. We have a proposed budget that's right at the tax cap that is providing

111all the services that we need for our students to continue. And it in and at the tax cap it includes the transportation for miles beyond 15 miles away from 15 to 25 miles. Correct. >> That is correct. So if there's the referendum, the money for the district, it we're not getting more money for the district. What it is is, I'm going to use air quotes, a savings of $900,000 in the budget. So that the amount of taxes levied is $900,000 less than if we went to the full tax cap including all the transportation. >> Did I get that right? It sounded muddled to me as I said it. >> It would it would bring us down to that particular point. So I think some of the strategies and the questions for the board going forward

112is where would the board be comfortable? Are you comfortable at the tax cap at 6.51%. Is there any interest or appetite to exceed the cap? Is there any interest to lower the cap? And I think the one constant that we all need to keep in mind is that we still need to make the budget reductions. We're not there yet. And I and I just by the financing piece, we're financing the deficit. You have to continually in the forefront of your mind, we must continue to reduce our cost because our costs are here and our available revenues are here. and you have little or no reserves to make up that difference. So you need to bring those two into play. They need to get so it's something that for the next even going into 26 27

113if this is the the budget district doesn't stop looking for savings. The district doesn't look for ways to cut back. I mean we have to still we talked about our Boseies cost over $14 billion. it. There are literally hundreds of Bose services that we have to assess and say, okay, are there some that maybe we don't need? Are there some that we're paying for and maybe not utilizing the service? So when we talk about efficiencies, those are the type of things that we're we're really peeling back and we're diving into in the budget, but we can't lose sight of the fact that this is really the stepping stone and we still have to cut back on cost. And I appreciate what you said, but I still have not had those dots connected for me, >>

114okay, >> about how that benefits the cost reductions that we need to be doing. >> I don't see I'm just not seeing it. >> Okay, it's 900. First of all, it's $900,000 less. You're reducing your cost. So the dis the budget is being reduced by 900,000 and the following year for full disclosure about aid is that the transportation aid in the 9 to 2027 28 budget will be adjusted accordingly and unfortunately it's not a it's not a one for one if you will because what happens is think about what what I talked about trans uh transportation aid and transportation aid is is an expenditure driven Okay. And if we have if we look at that transportation line, we have projected 13.1 million. Our current budget is 11.6. So we know that if we go in

115to this year that we're spending a heck of a lot more in 2526 than 11.6 million. And I can tell you that because I know that's one of the categories that we have a budget deficiency in this year. So we're going to spend more. When you spend more, you're going to get more aid, okay, the subsequent year. So is that 400 some thousand for private school going to be a direct deduct from transportation aid? Absolutely not. because when you look at our proposed cost 13.1 million, our costs are going up considerably and we're getting we're getting a huge um bump as far as transportation aid. So, there's going to be pluses and minuses. You know, you can't just take one category in a budget and say, "Okay, I'm going to spend $10 and we're going

116to get back five and okay, the net amount is five." That's not how we present a voter approved budget. You have to look at the expenditure side. You talk about the expenditure driven aids. If you're making reductions like we we are doing, we have to be very cognizant not to only look at expenditure driven aids. Why? Because textbook workbooks, it has their own aid categories. Boseies, it has its own aid categories. We get Bosey's aid. But the the fallacy with Boseies, we don't even get Bosey's aid back in the subsequent year. We get only 55% of Bosey's aid back in the subsequent year. We get 45% in year three. Okay, that's the way Bose aid works. A lot of people don't know that. So it's not a direct dollar for dollar, but that's how BOSI's,

117you know, that's how Bosey's paid. That's the state how they pay out Bosey's aid. So there's a lot of um I want to say getting into the weeds, you know, when you start looking at that. But suffice to say, I think the way that we, you know, presented it and as a as a package gives a good maybe bird's eye view. But yes, any reduction at 900,000 because if that reduction doesn't come from there tomorrow on cabinet, I'm going to look at Jason. I'm going to look at Tony and I'm going to say, "Guys, where where else are we taking the 900,000 from?" attempt to before really I just want to see if I could attempt to connect the dots. So basically one of the uh challenges we have is how do we reduce expenditure

118and I think what John was trying to articulate is if we remove the you know and there's a lot of compelling arguments against you know sort of going in that direction but if we remove or change the radius miles that we provide transportation for and there's a savings of $900,000 that doesn't mean that we have all of a sudden $900,000 to spend on something else. >> Correct. I don't know if I articulated that correctly. In other words, that's is representative of a reduction because as part of your presentation, it seems that in the proposed budget, then this is a draft. This is not our final budget. You know, there's still, you know, few several weeks away from us getting there and we're going to be revisiting this, but this is kind of just where we're

119starting and we'll work from there. Um the idea is when you looked at the uh potential borrowing for next year or the def deficit which was $6.9 million, this essentially will reduce that to $6 million. So it'll kind of ease or sort of close that little gap a little further. >> That's right. >> So I guess the best way to describe it is right now we have a hole that's this big. Next year we're hoping to make the hole this big. Year two we'll make the hole this big. And by year three we want to close that hole. So, that's really what's happening. You know, you could do it all at once, but the one thing that I did want to um I did want to talk about and you know, I'll probably be accused

120of fear-mongering or something of that nature, but I think it's reality and I think it's very important for everyone to understand what the options are. Okay? whether the board of the community feels 6.51 is too high, it's too much money. We I always ask what's the alternative? Okay. And when we look at that, see that property tax line, okay? 76.1 and then 71.4. We see the difference there is 4.5 million. So this is reality. No discussion, no exemptions, no gerrymandering the numbers back and forth. If this district ends up on contingency budget, we go back right now and we would have to cut 4 6 million from the budget. Now, think about what that would look like for your program. Okay? It's a it's a challenge and again I throw that out there not to

121scare people but I want people to understand what some of the options are because it's always you know everyone there's cause and effect so there's re you know every there there's a reaction to every action and you know that's something to me that I always keep in the back of my mind for a district to be on contingency budget I can tell you with certainty and I'm sure legal counsel can confer with me that is probably anywhere from 5 years to recover from it for a district to recover from a contingency budget. >> So yes, >> so this is one of the ways that we're considering and and I'm having or struggling with the mathematics for the short term. Now, the long-term plan is a three plus year recovery plan as obviously we lose debt

122servicing and we get additional revenues in other places. But please correct me if I've if I'm misstating this. The way we're going about this is we're saying to reduce the transportation radius such that it's going to reduce by our calculations here by $900,000. And we're suggesting to do that through a proposition. And the only way for us to do that for a proposition is that we have a budget which goes to the tax cap at 6.51 that includes the 900,000. >> That's correct. >> Okay. But but if I reduce because of the way we're doing that which is proposition the proposition must be approved by the voters. If the proposition is approved by the voters then the budget is then reduced and instead of a cap point of 6 uh what is it 6.51 we

123go to a lesser tax cap of the 5%. Correct? >> 5.25. So aren't we cutting our nose off despite our face? Because if I push and I'm just using this as the scenario. If I suggest or in in promoting because I've sat here and said we need a budget to run the district. That's there's no issue with that. At 6.51 we go out to the voters and we say we want that budget. We promote that budget. If I if they disagree, if they approve that budget, but they give us the cap tax reduction, we're also reducing the cap. So, I'm reducing my income, my revenue by $900,000 for that year. So, I'm saving $900,000, no question, in year one. I'm reducing the bus cost. But on the other side, I also reduce my revenue that

124comes in from the property tax. Am I missing something? >> No, that's a that's a good analysis. I think the piece that we have to talk about is that that's an option. As we stated, that's an option. Nothing to say that if the proposition passes and you reduce the budget by $900,000, you can't increase the tax levy by 900 and bring it back to 6.51%. But if the cap if the cap if >> the cap is 6.51 so what that so basically if you look at that property tax line and the way if you remember the tax cap formula what we did >> when I calculated the max of what that 6.51 would be and that's that $4.8 million. So that's the that's the that's the gap if you will that would bring us to

125the cap 6.51. So that's the maximum tax levy that 76.1 million. >> That's our that's our cap. >> So that's why so I built this plan as a starting point for discussion we built there because it it's always nice to come in with a budget and say okay we present you a plan that we're at the cab now we can talk about further reductions. Now we can talk about if you want to go over if you want to go under. >> Can I just make a quick point to your point because um you know we've been discussing this a lot obviously. So I think one of the the misconceptions is when you look at expenditures and revenue, they have to balance in a budget. >> Yes. >> But right now, to your point, when you're

126saying that if we lose that $900,000, we're losing $900,000 in revenue. It's revenue we don't have because that revenue is coming from the the deficit borrowing. >> Correct. I don't think it's it's not like a an equivalent. You see what I'm saying? >> No, I do. But what I guess what I'm saying is that if if I'm going to if I'm going to believe in hearttohearts that it is not only us, when I say us, I mean the board to look at it, but we're asking the community to back a plan for us. And if I'm going to be practical, I want to say I want that 6.51% cap. I'm going to promote that the idea is we we need 6.51% on that cap going forward. that if we're here as a board, this is

127my personal opinion, not right now. I'm not convinced that that prop works because no matter what, I want that 6.51%. I want to save the 900,000, but I want the 6.51% in there. Whether that because I need that money if I reduce my revenue, I'm also reducing my ability to have expenses. So, I need to find that 900,000 somewhere else. I'm kind of >> I So, I just I'm trying to get that part straight in my head because long-term I want to do the cap to cap the cap for those three years so that my revenue continues to increase because that was our biggest issue as you came in and explained that to us that our costs are exceeding our revenue. So, while I do want to reduce cost, I also need to increase our

128revenue because at the end of the day, transportation hit us with additional cost. Health insurance, as we all know, no matter what position or job that we're taking is increasing. So, I'm just trying to >> special ed and special ed. I'm get that frame of reference. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Chris Pini, who's um >> Trusty Pini, do you want to speak? >> He's ready. Trusty Pacini. >> Yes, I do. Thank you. Um, so I I have a couple of questions that were not related to Mr. Ross' comments, but now I have some comments related to that. Um, and I apologize that sometimes it's not easy. My reception isn't great here. So, if I missed a part of it, please excuse me. But we keep talking about if I look at this slide

129here on at at the end here. So, we're saying it's a $900,000 savings and it lowers. But are you saying that if we pass this referendum that our levy increase is 5 and a quarter and not 6.51 or that we can >> No. >> Am I understanding that correctly? >> No, you you have the option, Chris. Could you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. You have the option. You could reduce the levy or you could reduce the cost with the transportation and still raise the levy up to bring the revenue in. That would be an option. >> We can still be at 6.51% with the second option here and use those funds for however we see fit within the budget. >> Okay. >> Is that accurate? I'm I'm asking. Yeah, you have many different options

130and scenarios that you can consider, but what I'm hearing the board say is that the 6.51 is important to be at the cap that you want to raise that amount of revenue. And I go back to what I said earlier. Still recognize that even if we set the the tax levy at 6.51, we still need to subsequently reduce our cost whether it's during 26 27 whether it's in 2728. That's just the process that we will be living with for the next couple of years. >> But and I understand and I recognize the issues that were under the need to reduce cost. However, I think this is pennywise and pound foolish. So, I'm going to ask the president to take item F2 separately because I'll be voting against this um this this resolution and I understand

131it. But if if we really consider it and and to some of the comments, the net cost is really $44,000, not $900,000, right? Because $900,000 of it, a percentage of it is able, right? That's accurate. Well, I I think the net cost is you don't see the net cost in the um in the same school year. You see the state aid reduction in the subsequent year. And then as I indicated because your transportation costs go up, okay, and you're being you're having additional trans aid, you probably won't see that much of a deduction in transa subsequently results in a $500,000 of additional revenue next year. >> Is that a fair statement? >> In additional revenue or less? Well, it would be additional, right? >> No, because if the state if the state aid is taking

132back if the proposition goes through and we reduce our expenses by 900,000, you're getting less building aid on the uh less trans aid on the 900,000. So, you receive less aid in the subsequent year. If the resolution didn't go through and or if it wasn't on the ballot, >> okay, the $900,000 cost expense this year results in additional half a million dollars of revenue roughly next year. Is that accurate? >> Yes. It will generate transade as it's doing. >> And I think that's the conversation we need to have too because if I look at this budget slide, it really just pit private school families against non-private school families because everybody's going to say, "Well, sure, I want point and a quarter less taxes next year." So, I I struggle with how this is presented. So,

133regardless, I understand it, but $400,000, which would be the net increase, even whether it's this year or next year, is roughly a quarter of 1% of our entire budget. And I understand the need to save funds wherever we can. But this is a community who have been overwhelmingly supportive of our district and our budget for many, many years. And to some comments from some of the people who spoke tonight, they came here for that reason. So they they you know I I don't know that this is the best place to save money just yet. So for me I'd rather see this tabled and looked into a little bit further. But you know that's just my opinion. >> But however I I don't want to spend too much time. I said we talked about it for

134a while. I have two specific questions or one question with two two specific scenarios. This is the second year in a row maybe even the third. We are talking about increases within our budget from our busing and healthcare. That's accurate, right? It's at least two years in a row. >> Yes. >> Is there nothing within So, speaking about busing specifically, because I believe they're both separate because we don't have a contract for healthcare, correct? >> Um, we belong to a healthcare consortium. Yes. >> Correct. But we don't approve an annual contract for No for healthare. >> Got it. So, but busing we we we're in what? A 5year contract. It was a five-year contract. Yes. >> And is this contract over or are we still in the midst of contract extended last year? >> The

135bid just came in last April. The first year of the contract was effective 26 27 school year. I'm sorry. 25 26 >> within our contract that present protects us from, you know, increases because this is, you know, 13% increase in transportation while we're within a contract. There's nothing that level. That's one of the advantages that the district would have in looking at a five-year contract with a carrier. Number one, it presents continuity. If you board didn't have that in place, you would have to go out every year and bid your transportation. Okay? Or they can renew the transportation contract at CPI at the May 31st CPI. So, there are other options. the district chose to award this particular five-year transportation contract when they awarded the bid last April. >> But John, just to to Chris's

136point, one of the issues you brought up is that we believe it was underbudgeted in the prior budget. So that affects the percentage increase because I think Chris is bringing out the 13% increase if it's a 5% increase on the contract that it's poorly budgeted the year before. Hence the the the 13% differential from year to year. >> Correct. >> We actually have a bud we actually have a budget shortfall in the current 25 26 year in transportation. I mean that's what it is and we're we're navigating through that as well. >> So what you're saying then from my understanding is that this increase of roughly 13% isn't necessarily a contractual increase. It's a budget increase because we didn't budget properly in previous years. I think it's a it's a combination of it's a combination

137of two things. Yes. >> And also the increased number of buses. Is that also profound? >> Yeah. And increased utilization the number of buses. The other thing that drives that if you look at the matrix we use a tremendous amount of um matrons on our buses. And when you see a matron on a bus that's basically uh it's it's a special ed bus. and their the CSC is appointing matrons to ride on the bus with with kids. Um >> so I I I and I'm sorry to interrupt but it's just I I guess I want to understand are we So then all things presented equal from year to year what is the percentage increase? Are you saying that this 13% is might is driven by two factors um poor budgeting in previous years and additional

138services in forward coming years? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, and are you saying that the increases in busing are a direct result of um services contract or or mandated services for specific students? >> Yes, that's part of it. Yep. Is that a part of it or is that I'm just trying to understand is >> just a part of it, Chris. It's So, for instance, if we have if we have 20 students that go through CSES and they're all provided special ed transportation that requires a one-on-one um a one-on-one or a matron, we have to provide that service on the bus. >> So, we're increasing our services based on the needs of the student. That's where our utilization increases. the cost increases are there. You know, that might be a flat 5% on the cost of

139one bus, you know, to one year to the other. But then you have coupled with that the budgeting deficiencies from this year. So when you look at when we show this, we're showing budget to budget. We're not showing adjusted budget to this to the next year's budget. We're showing budget to budget. So you're getting a real look and that what I talked about earlier is a real indicator of what the cost of your program happens to be based on your current level of services. >> Got it. >> If that answers your question. >> Thank you. And and I I think it it's an important distinction specifically for the public to understand that our cost of the contract based on the rate didn't go up 13%. But the services we're using on top of that as

140what's driven this 13% increase, right? >> It's true. Combination. Yes. >> Got it. Okay. So then the next part of it is healthcare again goes up 13% this year. Now I understand that's on a multi-year contract, but last year we had a midyear increase. Is there not something that prevents um companies, specifically insurance companies, from increasing their rate midyear on a publicly voted on budget? Like how are we supposed to manage that and plan for an increase mid year after our budget has already been approved? >> Um that's a great question, Chris. Um the the plan that the district belongs to is the sub school employees health plan and that plan is always been on a fiscal year July through June and the reason why that plan is on a fiscal year because it coincides

141with a school district's year unlike NICHIP where NICHIP runs from January 1st to December 31st. It overlaps a school year. So, and the reason why I'm familiar with that is in my other district, we were part of that plan for a while. So, to answer your question, it was in my tenure. I have never seen that plan do a midyear increase. I don't know the particulars as to what caused that increase last year, but apparently they didn't have sufficient monies to pay claims or whatever the situation was, you know, happened. But they do have the ability to have the board pass a resolution. And the board is made up of uh administrative representatives and a labor representative. and they take a vote as to whether they support or whether they don't support the increase. >>

142Yeah, I I I would think that this would be something a topic that should be brought up to our local legislators and possibly even something that we submit as a legislative priority to NISBA. I mean, I I just don't see how a municipality that has an annual budget that's voter approved can accept increases that are exorbitant in the midst of a budget season. So, that's all I have on this, but thank you. I appreciate the uh responses. >> Thank you. Point of clarifications very quickly. The way the resolution is written with regard to the transportation is that it mandates a reduction of the budget by $900,000 and therefore the lobby. So I just want to make that point clear that the way this resolution is written proposed tonight that if the resolution passes and should

143the proposition pass then the budget subsequently gets reduced by $900,000. >> Okay that but going to what trustee Ross said and what I was trying to say I think we need to be at the tax cap. So I'm not seeing any benefit of getting us below the tax cap. from any of these things. >> I correct me if I'm wrong, John, but I I it it it starts to benefit us in years down the road as we reduce the cost that we're obligated to pay, but it's something that's further down the road. That's why I said it's a there's no short-term benefit is the way I'm looking at it. Um so I I I understand the need for the red the reduction costs. Trustee Bellis turned in. >> First I want to say I've been

144through about 20 of these this simplified but the most clear presented presentation of the budget I ever seen. So, thank you. >> Um, the one thing I do in that >> I'm done with it, but I'll probably not. Uh, but if you go to the special act ban and borrowing, that's my biggest question because I understand what everyone's saying here in regards to the 900,000 900,000. We have that's money that's borrowed money. We're using borrowed money to move forward. So, every savings we have is going to bring down that borrowed money over time and we have to eliminate that money in a three-year period, basically, is what you're saying. Uh my my question is there's going to be cuts everywhere and every place obviously and there's going to be more cuts. If it's not 900,000

145here, it's going to be 900,000 there because we have to evaporate that $7 million by next year. It may be and I don't know if you have projection what we may use, but we only have what 12 million total. So about 5 million in the safe over the for the next couple years to balance that budget over a three or four year period. So if it's if every dollar is not taking down that money because I think that's what I kind of heard you say was that could bring it down to only six million borrowing and the following year less borrow and the following year we're spending money we don't have now we have it in borrowed money but it's going to have to be brought back somewhere else. So I understand and I I

146had neighbors I had friends that all spoke tonight and it's we have to start being fiscally responsible in the sense that we have to find ways to save money somewhere another and maybe this is the right reason or the wrong reason or wrong spot to do it but like you said tomorrow your conversation would be with John and Tony about where the next spot what is the next spot is it another teacher is it another program is another sport is it after school busing so I think we have to be realistic when we have these conversations that it's not going to stop right here and I and I feel for the people that this is affecting right now, but there's going to be so many more people affected. But we if we don't do it,

147they're contingency budget. We're talking about massive cuts that we won't recover ever. So, I think my point is where you have that $7 million there. >> We have to evaporate that some point in three years. >> 100% agree. >> And if we don't do that right now, we have no path forward without some of these cuts. And I think what is the next step? And I think said this, what else is there cut? there's going to be more and more and we have to do that over the spread out period. If we don't start considering some of these cuts, I don't know how we get to that point and what is the contingency? Is it sports? Is it music? Is it what else? So, respectfully, I just and I I respect everybody that made a

148comment tonight. It has nothing to do with one individual person. It has nothing to do with anybody in any different program, but I heard about the dual language program that the TAs being cut. >> If it What's the next option for that? Do we go to no TAs? You know, these are things that we have to have real serious conversations about what is comparably effective. Um, and I know bringing down that number from 7 million or 6.9 over a three-year period, we have to have some serious conversations. And I'm not saying that this is the right one. I'm saying there's a conversation worth being had. But I think we're looking at I think what you said exactly that 900,000 brings it down to only $6 million in borrowing. So right there, we're $900,000 closer to

149where we need to be in three years. Is that kind of what I'm hearing? >> So, >> yeah, >> I think I think we realistic question. I mean, >> could we present the proposition reduce the transportation and set the tax levy at the >> at the cap? >> Yeah. >> No. No. So, uh how it work is you have the uh the budget and then the transportation proposition would serve to reduce the overall budget. You don't have the option to both raise the taxes and remove the transportation. Well, let's go in a different I suppose. >> So, and sorry, just one all I would say was finish that would be is >> if we don't get that amount down, where else does it come from? >> Well, it's it's it has to come down. >>

150You don't have an option. >> We we're I'm going to go back to how we started this conversation when I first came aboard. We got to have a conversation about everything. The problem is is that things that even if it's as the superintendent indicated, even if it impacts one student, it's an issue for someone. So, it's very difficult decisions. We have to look at everything. I applaud the board for having this dialogue. I think we need to have this dialogue. We need to expand this dialogue. We need to bring and work together to come up with other ideas of how we can bring down costs. I mentioned Boseis. You know, again, the focus, our focus so far has really been keeping the instructional core program. So, when you talk about things like um the transportation,

151okay, you're not affecting the core instructional program, it's on the outside. When you think about what we've done in the teachers that have retired and we don't replace them through attrition, that's a budgetary savings that we're not impacting somebody's life. When you think about the midyear transportation cuts that we made where we looked at the bus efficiency routes and I was able to say, "Okay, we have two matrons on this bus we don't need. We have one van we don't need and we can save $370,000." So yeah, we're looking at everything, but we're running we're kind of running low on the >> the lowhanging fruit and the stuff around the fringes. >> And over the next couple years, we're going to have to make some real significant. And I guess I guess what I think

152I heard you say was pretty relevant to the fact that we that 6.9 has to get down and we have to start chopping it slowly and we're going to unfortunately there's going to be a lot of people along the way that are going to be affected and it could be pro it could be every teachers to TAs to programs to everything in between and we have to slowly get that done. We don't have an option there. The alternative is contingency and contingency means loss of everything. Am I correct on that? >> Yeah. So you have to you have to understand again the path that we're going down with the special act legislation. If they're going to give us authority to borrow, >> what's going to happen is going to be tremendous amount of oversight. The

153state is not going to give you oversight to borrow and then let you do whatever you want or not reduce your deficit or that one year you're going to come in and you're back at an operating deficit. Okay? That's not a good recipe for the district. that's that'll put the district in a whole different you know situation. But so with that it be it you have to do it because it becomes you know it's necessary at this point. You running out of revenues that $2.6 million that we have on the table that's up there for the 26. That's like that's the other half of some of the reserves that we're using. So we may have some reserves left in unemployment. We may have some reserves left in um acred compensated absences but TRS will be

154down you know we might have a little but you're running out of savings account. >> Can I just add one comment to that made a good point. I know it's hard to project this but in your experience and I'm sure you've already projected somewhat into 2728 that 2.684 and the 6.97 your hope is to close that gap tremendously right >> big time. If we don't if we don't >> big time. >> Is there a number that's what is it right now? So we're at like about $10 million give or take. >> Yeah. You you close. >> We would like to cut that probably in half, right? >> Easily. Yeah. >> So that's another five that we have to come up with next year. So it's this is a long-term problem that we have to fix

155in a shortterm period. >> Yes. So I had two other follow-up questions on the same one. Under this under your under the the debt servicing for the uh special act legislation, you had commented before that the 630 um is interest only. >> Correct. >> Is that a practical prospect for next year? I mean, if we go out and borrow 6.9, am I getting an interestonly loan with the idea that 6.9 is then paid over the term or am I paying PNI going forward over that year? >> To understand what a a bond a bond a deficit bond anticipation note when you borrow on that you you normally pay back interest only in the subsequent year. You have you have the option and in years down the road if you go to renew it you can

156pay down the principal if you choose. What we're choosing in 2627 is the intereston option. >> So the way this is going to work exactly is in the 2526 year we will borrow a bond anticipation note and that'll that'll look to fill the hole this year. Okay. by law and by Gazsby 62, but I don't want to get into the granular stuff. We will have to renew that within 6 months, okay? And provide the borrowing for this school year. And again, the one payment that we're going to make is that 630. That 630,000 interest represents if we borrowed $12 million. >> Okay, that was my that was the second question. The third question that I had with you that was related to that and and this is a completely foreign entity to me going this

157is the first year looking at it and that's dealing with or addressing TANS and we borrow TAN's money at the beginning of a academic year in order to meet that gap from the time when property taxes begin to roll in because property taxes aren't coming in until December or January and we need that cash flow in order to make payroll and do all those nice things that everybody expects to see on Friday. >> Exactly. >> Okay. Can Can it or is it possible because we've been authorized to borrow, is the borrowing rate better? Is it or even possible to I'm going to use the scenario if 6.9 is borrowed. If we were to borrow additional funds to make up that cash flow, is that a better way to reduce it? Because because of our issues,

158we have dropped in our bond rating for what we had and now uh yearover-year we're looking at paying a 33% bump or actually no almost 50% bump. You have it marked as uh or extra an additional $300,000 in interest that we're paying on that TAN. So we're paying almost a million dollars on that TAN's obligation back. Is there a way to combine the two issues, the ongoing or the repeating cash flow issue by raising since we have that special act legislation? >> You're saying borrow at the same time? >> I'm saying borrow ahead. So if the special act legislation is meant to be a stop gap, right? We're going to we want to spread that debt out over the the course of time so that we can catch up. We're also borrowing on the tans.

159Are we in homeowner parliament? Are we getting a cheaper rate out of the tan out of the uh the >> no the the the special act legislation versus the tans. Is there a way to >> No. when you I think when you're suffice to say that when you're looking at either a ban bond anticipation note or a TAN tax anticipation note or a rand revenue anticipation note they're all short-term so the market looks at that as short-term borrowing so the rates are normally what they are what will affect our rates is our potential credit rating >> the the rate I understand I guess I I was wondering Because the bond anticipation note is something I'm stretching out, right? The short term is 3 to four years. >> The bond anticipation note is basically going to

160be renewed every year until the district decides to either pay down principal or turn around and sell bonds. A bond anticipation note is temporary financing to fund your cash flow until you get that that point where you say, let's say we're into year three and we're up to $11 million and we say, "Okay, we don't want to borrow bands anymore. We're going to call on that special act legislation. We're going to sell $11 million worth of bonds." And now from now forward that's going to resolve our deficit and we're going to have a principle and interest payment for as many years as we decide five years. You know we don't want to make it 10. >> No no no I get I guess you've answered the question different but it that bond anticipation note is

161annually renewed. I'm not borrowing 6.9 and stretching it out in payments over the course of three years. I'm paying interest only that year when I'm borrowing that money again the following year. It's a temporary means you have the authority. Go back to the original slide when I talked about the um the special act legislation. It gives you the authority to bond. It doesn't mean you have to bond. We can do this whole thing with bond anticipation notes. We can turn around and say, "Okay, we're borrowing. We're paying interest. We're paying interest. Okay, year three, we want to put $2 million in the budget to pay down the band." So now you pay $2 million down in the band and you borrow that much less and you you keep going. So you do have the flexibility.

162You can keep doing short-term financing andor you can bond the whole thing and make it permanent. >> When you bond the whole thing and make it permanent, Chris, to your point, you're spreading it out over multiple years. >> That's the part I was I wasn't understanding. So thank and then just from a dollar perspective the 9735 on the TANS what what what's the gross amount that we usually borrow? >> 25 25 to 27 million. >> Okay. So that 973 is the interest only on that 27 million >> and that represents about 11 months. >> Okay. And our budget planning end the 630 is representing interest only on the 12 anticipated interest only. It hasn't been out to the market yet. It's just an anticipated number, but that's the interestonly number anticipated on 12. >> That

163is correct. Okay. >> I'm sorry. >> Felis has >> Okay, >> Felissa, are you ready? >> Yes, ready. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Mr. Belmont. >> You're welcome. Um, a lot of information to digest and I uh I just want to go back to the residents who spoke about the transportation proposal and um and just say that that it's a missed opportunity that we never spoke to the residents who were sending their children to private school for several years now. Um, I I had wanted the superintendent to speak to the families to see what it was we were not offering in our school district uh that that uh that had them bringing their children, sending their children to private school. And we never did. We never spoke to those families to find

164out why. And we learned today from one of the speakers that said it was their real estate agent who encouraged them to come to South Country because Cal South Country had a very very generous transportation policy that encouraged them that they could send their children to any school they wanted because of our transportation policy. Uh something that we didn't know. And so we also have been wanting to speak to the real estate agents so that they could encourage uh sending their kids to our our school district uh sending sending people who were buying uh uh homes here to send them uh their children to our school district. And it wasn't that at all. They were encouraging people to buy here so that they didn't have to send their children to our district that they could

165send them to private schools. So, two things I'm concerned about is they have no intentions of encouraging people to buy here so that they could send their kids to our schools. They're encouraging people to buy here so they won't send their kids to our schools uh because of our transportation policy. So, what is that going to do to people who have told us uh tonight that they may consider moving out of our district? And what is that going to do to people who may con reconsider moving to our district because now they don't have the trans, you know, if they don't have the transportation policy. Th those things I think we should be aware of. And had we reached out to those families sooner, we would have known this information before we considered this policy.

166And I just think the board should bear that in mind that we could have had this information at hand before we considered a proposal like this and I just think it's a shame that we didn't have it before putting this proposal forward. Thank you. >> Could I ask a procedural question here and I'm looking at council and Mr. Del Monte and the superintendent for this. We have items for discussion, the budget presentation and an active questioning with regard to that, but it also is getting into the next item which is the transportation proposition. Is there a procedural reason why it has to be decided tonight? Is there a timing issue on propositions that >> your district clerk wants to weigh in? >> Okay. In order for us to get the legal notice published timely, we

167need to know if this is approved or not because next the next board meeting, we have to approve legal notice so that it gets into the papers timely. >> So, it could be at the next meeting, right, Chris? What was that? >> So, this this could be on the agenda for >> it could. We'd have to just go over that first and then go and approve the I give two options for the legal notice. One with and one without. >> Do you have one more meeting? >> One more meeting. >> Okay. So again, a procedural question. Does that mean we just table it today and put it on the agenda next time or procedurally? How do we need to proceed? >> You you could do that. You could pull it off of the agenda for

168tonight. Well, let me let me get a sense of the board. And I'm I'm bringing this up not to cut off the discussion that we're having about the budget, but just to get that resolved. Is there a sense of the board to um remove item F2 from from the agenda tonight and instead put it on the agenda of our next meeting? >> Yes, >> that's fine. for me. >> Yes. Yes. >> I can't see. Yes. Okay. >> Um, Trusty Feliz, how do you feel about that? >> Yes. >> And Trusty Pacini. >> Well, I first I don't understand what we need what we're going to know between now and the next meeting on this issue. So, I I personally would like to know where the board feels about this now um before we put this

169on to the next meeting. What else are we going to know that we haven't talked about already tonight between now and then? >> I'll speak for myself about what I hope to know between now and then is to get a firmer understanding of how we can make sure we're at the tax cap of 6.51 without having it re having it reduced in some way. >> And I think personally if that's going to be the case, I would like that conversation that you would had you would have with Mr. Huntsman and Mr. Santana, what's the what's the next $900,000 going to be? I think that should be presented to us as well because I think it's these are hard decisions that have to be made at some point. So, if it's not this, tell me what's

170next. And I think you said first the conversation you would have tomorrow would be with them to tell us what's next. So, if it's going to be what what is that next option? Because I we still have $6.9 million to come up with next year. So, um that's what I want to know. So if if there's a space from now to then be told what that is, then I guess that's okay because we have to come up with the money somehow. >> My position it's being tabled. Whether it goes on whether it goes on the next board agenda or not is to be determined. We're asking is we're saying as the board today that this proposition come off today and it's going to be considered by the board. It doesn't guarantee that it goes back

171on the the next port agenda. It's just coming off for today. There are numerous options that can be waited and considered. So procedurally, does that mean do we have to necessarily take it off or just not vote on it? >> I think we have to table it because we're not we're not voting on it to decline it. The vote the the application or and I would make the motion to table what is line uh today's agenda item F2 for further consideration by the board. >> I'm still not understanding what it is we don't know now that we will know in two weeks. And to Ann's point, she mentioned the the levy limit Are you saying if we take this off the off of the >> I mean our levy limit can go to 6.51 whether

172this is in the budget or not correct? >> No. It's meant >> that was what they that was the problem that was pointed out that the way this is structured >> if there's the transportation proposition and it >> reduces the cap >> fails. the voters don't approve that, then um our our budget is going to be at 6.51, but it will include all the $900,000 in transportation. >> Yes. >> Is that correct? >> It doesn't mean that we can't reduce in other areas to Rob's point to get that $6.9 million down. But I I think that's what I would like to hear about other areas where we could reduce chunks so we're within the le levy the tax cap levy limit and we can look at areas where there can be the substantial savings that

173you're looking for. >> Good. >> I'm I'm still struggling understanding this. So, if if the we don't make a change to the to the busing and the $900,000 stays in the budget, the proposed limit is 6.51%. Correct. >> Yes. Correct. >> If we reduce the $900,000, the levy is 5.25%. But the only difference is that $900,000. Correct. >> Correct. >> So, the district, where does the district gain funds with or without it? because it seems to me it's whether or not it gets passed along to the taxpayers or not. >> Isn't it understanding that correct? >> Well, that was the question I was asking earlier saying I I can't connect the dots on that because I'm not seeing how it gives us >> Hold on. Wait a minute. But it it so if the the

174the budget as proposed at 6.51% calls for I'm sorry, John 6.9 million in borrowing. >> Yes. Seven. Just under seven. >> Okay. So if the if the if the budget is reduced by the 900,000 and the the transportation issue is approved, our revenue drops because the we're no longer having a tax cap of 6.51. We have the tax cap at five five and change. >> That's if you you only talk about the transportation referendum. I think what Chris might be um alluding to is that nothing prevents us and it would help the district if we were able to reduce that borrowing by six that 6.9 million that 7 million by more doesn't mean that it has to come from transportation maybe comes from someplace else >> 100% but I but as but as I look

175at everything whether we talk about state aid and aidable money and how it transitions like Chris is talking about the net for the one if I take the combine the numbers into a single year. That's not reality. In reality, when you take the 900,000 it cost for transportation, I get 500,000 for a year. Now, I'm looking at a multi-year spread for how those monies play out. So, it's not practical to sit there and look at it in isolation for a single year. But to Chris's point and to what I'm looking at is if we have a budget cap at 6.51% and it's approved, we get the 6.51% we cover the $900,000 lending aside, but if we run and have this proposal as written, this proposition on on the docket, we still have to borrow $6.9

176million next year because we've reduced our revenue by $900,000. because we've reduced the tax cap down a percentage point to to to reduce the income coming in. So in that single year, keeping things consistent anal an analysis year-toear not multitude of years in that single year if we reduce if we accept the proposition we're going to reduce the income from property tax by $900,000. So, it favors the taxpayer and reduces and removes the bus transportation option from those 121 students. That doesn't we don't borrow $900,000 less in that single year. Have I stated that correctly? >> Yeah. It's >> and it's just as it's written. I'm not saying I agree with you. We have to cut numbers. We got to find it. It was one item that was brought up as a >> and and

177I and I understand that, but I'm just trying to make sure I I have the numbers because we keep doing and I and I say we it's me, John, not you uh breaking out the analysis that when we keep saying it and we heard the speakers tonight as well, the net numbers versus gross numbers and those numbers all get mixed up. So, I'm trying to keep the time frames consistent because Chris Pacini, Chris, and you could correct me if I'm wrong on that end. He's asking ultimately what the netar effect is on the budget for that no proposition or proposition. >> Can I ask a question? Um, so that I understand that we're comparing tax levy to tax levy, not budget to budget. So, this is a question I'm asking which I think everybody's alluding

178to. If the tax levy is at 6.51%, that 6.1 that 6.51% increase only speaks to the tax levy, not the budget. >> That's correct. >> So that essentially means we'll have $900,000 more in tax property revenue. >> So I think I think the question that people are asking or the board trustees are asking. >> So it's important to maintain that revenue in the tax levy portion of our revenue side. Let's see if we can find reductions of $900,000 somewhere else. The counterargument to that, of course, and and I think John will appreciate that, is we're still going to have to find an additional $900,000 reduction no matter what. This $900,000 just got us closer to that goal. But I understand what the board is trying to say. The trustees are saying that if you just

179compare tax levy to tax levy, um that base that base number, the $76 million, whatever it was, u increases by $900,000. >> Correct. Correct. So, right. That's right. We we we we realize we need the money. We're going to have to roll up our sleeves and figure out as trusty fellow is saying we have to save the money, but to cut we are cutting our nose off to spite our face as it's written. Not that we can't find another solution, but as it's written and as it's described, we're dropping we're g we're basically giving back to the general public and for excuse the plain language. We're screwing 121 kids and not getting any benefit for the greater good that at the end of the day. So to ex Yeah, I want big chunks. I I

180the the poor budgeting bothers me from the from the past in those pieces and it's 13 million versus 11 million on the years, but we got to figure out a way to do that. And I don't think we're getting the benefit that we want by losing 900,000 because we do need to lose 900,000 if more to to get to that spot. But that um I don't see the the actual benefit to everybody. We just got to cheat one group and lessen the burden on the on the other. And can I say this respectfully and I'm just saying this as as a full respect to everybody that's going to be involved in this budget process. Like I said, that 6.9 million, >> $900,000 is for teachers. >> So what else is it? Is it a is

181it a sports program? Is it a music program? So we start we have but we have to those are the conversations that we have to seriously start considering. So if it's not $900,000 here, where's the next stop? Is it for teachers next year, too? No. The problem is we can't the $6.9 million is not going away. We have to get rid of that. So I think all these things have to be put on the table and I feel bad 100% for 121 kids. I think it's something that we have to just have that conversation about and I think we have to have the conversation about every other component as well. This is just one component that I think we have to present as an option because we don't have any other options before we start

182going down that road of where else do we take this money from >> and there is basis but but it's not that simple from that standpoint. some of this conversation, having it in public. Maybe that is the way some of this gets aired out. But we lose debt servicing in two to three years. So there's a large debt servicing that's going to disappear that is no longer on the budget going further. I can't wait though. I got to make up that gap. We have to run programs. We have to carry it. We have to get to that point. There's also issues that we've talked about before, whether it's hedging our gas fund because the gas fund is one of the things on the the the transportation thing that causes us problems. gas prices go up,

183the bus company is protected on that end. They don't lose on that contract. So, there's other ways for us to figure it out. And I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but it's also not simple. It's not because we lose $900,000 that we can't that we're going to have to cut four teachers. from that standpoint, even losing two teachers who are on a senior level and we're at, I believe, a 40% uh seniority basis that as we're losing those teachers, for every three teachers we lose, we have the ability to pay two more and still save some money as we bring new blood new people in as older people are retiring. There's lots of little things and as John pointed out before, the lowhanging fruit, we've kind of exhausted it. So we got to

184get to those numbers in other places and we got to get revenues up. But we also face which is the other part that comes into it is that we we have the facing cost of increasing number on special ed. We have the increasing transportation costs. The medical costs are going up. So frankly we have to find more than $6.9 million because we're $6.9 million in a whole just from this year to last year. I believe we're looking at a $2 million bump in medical costs that are that are going to go there. Right. >> So we So we're struggling where those numbers are all over the place. I think we're there's no simple answer. So I I I agree with you. >> I think there's a bigger conversation of a lot of different things. is

185just one. >> So I have one comment which is I think what's so frustrating is that the only reason we're talking about transportation tonight is because of the procedural requirement of having it decided no later than next meeting. Otherwise, that discussion could be had along with the future presentations that we're going to have about staffing and healthc care and other saving options. That's just a comment. Trustee Pacini wanted to say something. >> Yes. No. Um I >> I guess a simple question, Mr. Bonte. If every student that we have that is currently attending private school came back to our schools tomorrow, would our budget situation improve or not? Would it improve? Our class sizes would probably go up. >> Well, I mean, we are our our our cost would go up and our revenue wouldn't.

186Correct. >> Well, it it all depends where the the kids land. I mean, that's a theoretical question. The kids might be spread out over multiple grades, too. >> Yeah. I mean, so I mean, but in in very simple terms, without diving into it, right, we we still get state aid on the full amount for every student that is eligible to attend our schools, private school or not. And when they attend private school, we're responsible to pay for their busing and their books and that's it. Correct. >> That is correct. >> So, I guess it it goes to my comment originally, right? It sounds pennywise and pound foolish considering the $400,000 net cost is less than a quarter of 1% of our budget. And when we talk about well, you know, whatever the real estate agents

187are telling us and to be able to quantify that is a little nuts because the way real estate is on Long Island, I don't really know the answer to it as much because there's so low inventory. People just need a place to live. So, if we're really going to look at this, it still is a from a revenue standpoint and a cost standpoint, not a negative when a student attends private school in general without specific, you know, rare instances. Correct. So, if we're going to spend all this time talking about less than a quarter of 1% of our budget, for a population who has been supportive of our budget and has been, you know, overwhelmingly yes votes on our budget, it just seems like we should be looking somewhere else. >> Do you have any

188recommendations, Mr. >> Bini? And I'm a no and I'll end it here because we've been talking about for a while. I'm a no on this resolution and I think I've made all my points. Thank you. >> Right. Um the procedure for tableabling is >> it is a sub motion. So there's a >> it's a sub motion. So there's a motion uh to adopt the uh resolution. Then there's a submotion to table the resolution to lay it on the table. Uh and then once you do that um it'll be ready for the next board meeting. So you'll put it on the table. So have the motion made. Does it have to be seconded? >> Yes. >> A motion second and then a motion to table and that gets seconded. >> Right. So you're going to table

189it to the next board meeting >> and then you vote on that motion >> and we'll vote on the tableing motion. >> Yes. >> All right. Does anybody want to make a mo >> We didn't make a motion on this. Why can't this item just be pulled from the agenda? >> We can also do that. >> We Well, that's easier. >> Yep. >> All right. >> I think I started with that earlier. >> Okay. Well, somehow I didn't hear that part. >> I heard that we had to go through this complicated thing. >> We'll just take F2 off the agenda tonight. Is there consensus as to? >> They have no objection. I have no That's fine. >> Can just delete it from on here or I can want to do the minutes. >> Yeah. So,

190President Hayes has made a motion to uh remove that agenda item. >> Okay. Now, you need a second the motion. >> Second. Second. All in favor? >> Um >> Okay. Everybody at the table agreed to remove it? >> Okay. >> Trustee police, do you? Yes. All right. So, we've at least cleared that part of the agenda for tonight. Is there more discussion or questions that people want to have with Mr. Belmonte? >> Um question >> on >> Mr. Belmont has a question. >> He does. >> Okay. >> Can I ask a question? >> Absolutely. Um I I'm I keep going back to it's necessary to discuss um everything and we understand that some things people are more passionate about than others. Is there something specifically that the board would like to see as we collaboratively

191make this challenge to cut another $7 million from the total budget? So are there areas or so I I just you know we we bring the board suggestions and to get into a debate on right wrong that's fine but is there something specific that the board would like to see in this budget or would like us to address? >> I think we got to put it all on the table. I have to be the first one to say it. Put put it all put the we have to put sports. We have to put music. We have to put everything. We got to start comparing things because we can't get out of this without it. So that that's what I've heard that we have $7 million to make up, right? So nobody wants to make any

192cuts, but it's we have $7 million to make up. So I guess put it all out there. Give us presentations on what the different categories would look like. >> Wait a minute. But that's that's not fair to state. You can't just say you so you got to be specific. So on a on a at least we we discussed you brought it up tonight that there's the issue with the two different health plans. Is there is there a benefit even if it's just a lay person even if it's based on your experience is there a benefit whether it's budgeting wise or controlling costwise going forward with regard to the difference between NICH and the the healthc care triad that we're currently in we're looking at a 13 based on these a 13.2% 13.25% 25% increase year

193after year, not to mention potentially a mid-year increase as they passed along to us last year. I is there a difference from NIH? We can certainly look at that, but I think we have to also look at the quantitative um compassion that the people, the members have for the plan because that's a I agree. You know, that's another >> aspect because they're very passionate about the plan and there's a reason why a school district would belong to a self-insured plan because they have that direct management. they have the input into the decision making which you don't have when you're with a nice ship. So I'm just g I'm giving you the other side of that argument but it's something that you know certainly we could take a look at it and I agree I agree

194that there again same thing there's no simple answer to what's there correct >> and I also just on the other board members don't lose sight it's not this isn't necessarily just about cutting but it's also about generating revenue and sometimes that means thinking outside the box and from that end you know I have always thought that we we exist at least in a in a world where there are whether it's groups like the South Country Education Fund or other granting organizations that we we don't take as much advantage of and I don't know that we know enough as a board member to to look at those things or encourage but how can we add revenue and monies to our programs that are then supported by those grants and and generating things. So not necessarily something

195that has to consider tonight, but I'm the idea of raising revenue is not it cutting is not the only way to make up that gap. >> That is correct. And as an administrative team, we'll we'll we're going to discuss additional reductions. So, so we'll put multiple things on the table for the board to ponder. >> Um, because like I said, there was like we said or trusty Fetta's point, there is a operating deficit that's present for this year. There'll be operating deficit for next year. The idea is how do we reduce that? >> I I just got want to add a comment to to John's question as to where you want to see cuts. I guess, you know, for a number of years now, we've been talking about NICHIP versus the reciprocal that we're in

196the the with the three other districts. And I guess I've never really gotten a clear-cut answer as to what is a cost savings, right? Because when you talk about people loving the plan, well, we're there's only three districts left in it. So, how much could it be beloved by, you know, teachers throughout the county? So, I'd really like to understand if Night Ship is cheaper than the the the reciprocal we're in. And then I I'd really like to understand why if there's only three districts in this and they need us, why we don't have more um power, sway, however you want to put it, over what these costs because I have to think if if we stepped away from this reciprocal, it probably falls apart. Am I wrong? >> You're probably right. So, how do

197we not have any leverage to negotiate rates, you know, when we have that type of power? And the same goes for the other schools. And I know I believe Ward Melville, it's in their contract, so they really can't voluntarily leave, but Smithtown can. So, I I guess I I I can't understand why we're continue to hold ourselves hostage to this specific program unless you tell me it's significantly cheaper. Well, we can provide the board with that cost analysis. >> Okay. >> Do we know off the top of our heads if we think it's cheaper or I mean do we have >> I am we are currently working on that analysis. I wouldn't give you an answer off the top of my head. It's the rates are different. There are different timings in the year. We

198got to average things. It it's it's not as simple as that. And also I I think that without that information I don't understand how we can even have the conversation as to what to do here as to where we want to see things because I would say health insurance would be the first place I want to take from because it's consistently the the largest driver to our increases year-over-year. So that would make sense. I think we need that information before we can really move on. So we just as a point of clarification, there is language in the uh future contract with regards to the healthcare plan and in the uh trust agreement. So we would have to look at that as well. Um and sometimes that's subject to collective bargaining. So you know these are

199not the types of conversations that you can necessarily have. Uh but we'll look at the contractual language as well. >> Well, I think only the employee contribution part is what would be considered confidential. Correct. No, there is language of the contract which I don't have off the top of my head that speaks to our participation in the consortium. >> So you're saying that it may be within our uh BTA contract contract with the BTA that we're in this consortium >> to a certain extent. >> I mean because that's something the board should have known for a long time. If that's that would be news to me. I've been here 14 years. So >> language I mean >> the topic of coming in and out of this consortium is is not new. Can I can I

200just defer? >> Go ahead. >> So I don't mean to interrupt. Paper ready bel association. I'm president. >> So along with the trust agreement which the district has been part of I'll say the second tier since it began years ago. There is language not only in the contract and the trust agreement of means of the district and the local unions to be involved. Now we just keep saying BTA I believe the long and trust agreement is not just the BTA okay within that it is all of us who are part of the consortium who are part of SCP which that would include the BTA it would include anyone who is in the administrative association I believe anyone who is part of the BTAA that opts into uh the health care so it It's everyone that's

201involved in the consortium. Okay. Um, so I'm happy to share that. Again, the trust agreement with the district, the district has had it longer than I've had it because the district has been involved in the in the consortium longer than I've been in the district. So, I will be happy to share that again. But like we're opening up things here I think that I feel shouldn't be discussed right now. So I mean I'm more than happy to share it. I'll have it to Mr. Bel tonight. Um and he could distribute that in any means necessary to the board or wherever else you get. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> All right. So, have we exhausted questions and discussion on F1 right now? >> Okay. Um, so now we're going to go to F3. >> F3 is

202the proposed consolidated uh school calendar. You know, one of the modifications we looked at and something that's not been typically done here is to bring kids in before Labor Day. The reason we're proposing this calendar is because it gives us greater flexibility in the school year to navigate um the additional holidays that have been sort of adopted by New York State um and some flexibility when it comes to closures as a result of uh snow days and this is consistent with the Boseis calendar. Yeah, it's consistent with actually the majority of districts in our cluster. >> Does anybody I I see a question. >> Well, I was comparing it to the current uh last year's calendar. Well, no, current year, I'm sorry, the 24 25 26. And it looks like the days per month of

203a of instruction are the same, >> right? >> Um am I I don't know if anybody else has looked at that. >> So, it's really just the question of coming in before Labor Day that makes this district this calendar district uh different than ones we've done in the past. >> Correct. And so it does give us the option of for example adding that Wednesday before Thanksgiving uh that flexibility. Um and so in terms of like you know with the 180 days that we have instructionally here it does from my understanding and again the uh sort of the jury is still out and how snow days are applied or not applied with regards to the state because we're still waiting for that clarification but this does afford us some more flexibility in terms of how we

204spread our instructional days out. >> Can I ask what what is what is what's September 4th and September 7th? >> September 4th is just in case people go away for Labor Day. It's the Friday before and the 7th is actual Labor Day. So that is a holiday. >> Can I make a comment? The superintendent made a comment about the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. >> When did this become a day off? I mean, I know it's been around every now and then, but like we're sitting here scrambling for snow days and we're given days off in November that I don't really understand why. Historically, um, Trustee Pacini, think back, Dr. Giani was here and there was a year when there was the availability of an air quotes extra day and I know there was some discussion with

205employees about what they would like and it was the day before Thanksgiving. >> Yeah. and and I get that, but like when we sit here at the end of February coming into March and we now get snow again in in Long Island, it just doesn't seem sensible to give days off that early. And at the end of the day, as a parent, so now you might as well just give the whole week off. Now it's a two it's a two-day school week. Then December is almost two weeks off. There's multiple days off for holidays in January. February is a break. End of March into April is another break. I mean, it it's just it seems silly to be for this to become it cuz it's it's getting to a point where this is now going

206to become the way the Friday after Thanksgiving was 30 years ago. Every people used to go to work. Now it's a day off. I mean, were you going to give the whole week off? It just it seems silly. And by the way, nobody else has this day off. So, we create a huge daycare issue for parents who are not in education. >> Actually, I disagree. I think there are several districts that have the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I think we're one of the few who don't offer it off. >> Um, >> that is correct. >> And correct me if I'm wrong on this one. Also, that day is a very high absentee rate. >> Correct. >> For students because people try to get a jump start on the Thanksgiving holiday. >> But I think I do

207think and we did provide the board with a comparison of all the proposed calendars. I do think that is a common day that's off in school districts. >> So, everybody else does it, so we should do it. It just, like I said, we're sitting here scrambling for days and wondering about waiverss and we want to give an extra day off in November. I I just I just don't get it. And you place a huge burden on parents who aren't in education, whose kids are now off and they have to go to work because the rest of the world goes to work the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Just my two cents. Whatever you want to do, but I'm a no on on that. >> Chris, is there another day that you think would be better? >> I

208I I I I really don't. I mean, I I don't care. Come in earlier. I you know, do do we need I mean, how do we need Friday before Labor Day off? I mean, we end up losing that day every year anyway. I don't know what is we have to have versus not but you know I mean the multiple I mean where are the I it's hard to see on this on my computer I can't blow it up but you know how many conference days do we have >> that has not changed three conference days >> three conference days how many of them are during the day when no parents can show up >> there are parents who show up on one of them >> but there's very few on during the day on the

209on the work day I mean You know, and I understand some of them are contractual. I I really do. But, you know, again, giving extra days off before the winter just seems foolish. >> Do we need the full week of spring break? >> Yeah. We want to be consistent with other schools. >> There are 17 days off between November and February. roughly 80 days. >> So, what if we put the day before Thanksgiving back and do an extra day on Memorial Day like has been done in the past? >> That's an option. We could also have 184 uh instructional days as well by adding the one date back >> and that builds in the snow day >> gives us the snow days. So, what I'm hearing is I don't know if there's consensus from the

210trustees that you want to table this as well. >> Listen, I from from a teacher standpoint, I I know I and my wife brag that that they'll take the Memorial Day extended if you don't use the snow day to take the extension on that end. You know, you're tiring out. It's years end. It's a break. It's a break at that point. I I agree with Chris to a degree on this that when you get those starting before Labor Day is not an injectable thing, but when you work in for two days and it's a day off, like you to I hear them and I'm not the one teaching. I I could never do it. I praise everybody who can. I couldn't don't have the patience but to get into that rhythm to start getting things

211going. You come in for two days and they kind of you know they just falls apart. >> Two days really isn't building a rhythm though. Two days is you come in, you get your syllabus, you drop off your supplies, you set up your desk, >> right? And then you come back, you do that the first two days because there are teachers who don't put out supply like especially when you get into the upper grades, you don't get that beautiful supply list that you do in elementary. So you have people scrambling to try to get the right folders and things um at Staples. Um but giving those two days to get that stuff taken care of and then you come back in on the 8th on Tuesday and you are now ready to go. >> Yeah,

212the two days gives an opportunity for teachers really take care of logistics. So it doesn't take away from instructional time and then the continuity really begins up >> because whether that those days are this the second and third or eth and 9th those first two days are just setting up your classroom. >> Well can we just agree at least on September to start before Labor Day as shown? >> That I agree with. So, all right. So, July, August, September, and October, we can agree on those. And then we're then the only question is the day before Thanksgiving and whether or not that should go over >> to the 27th of May. >> To the 27th. >> Any objection to that? >> I'd have no obje I have no objection to that. Anybody else? >> I

213would personally leave it as is. >> I'm sorry. >> I would personally leave it as is. >> That does match with William Floyd. >> Most local. >> So this was this is like William Floyd. >> Yep. Correct. >> So you get the day off. You get the day off before Thanksgiving. >> Yep. We actually do it as a emergency day where we actually have a rapid release at the end of the day on Tuesday so staff can get out early on their way. >> All right. So that being said, what we what we're looking at here is consistent with surrounding districts. So then basically this is what it is for this year and part of it is because of the way the holidays fall. >> Correct. >> So does anybody want to make a motion

214to approve this calendar? Uh, trustee um, Dilo, second by trustee Calderon. Questions, discussion. Seeing none, all in favor? Um, everybody at the table? Yes. >> Trusty Phelise? You're in favor? Trusty? >> No, I'm opposed. >> Okay. All right. So, it's uh six in favor and one opposed. So the motion carries. >> Uh next is the uh charter school resolution. Uh it's basically this is sort of um a ceremonial resolution to show support of our advoc advocacy efforts as the sort of the impact of charter schools on Long Island is getting greater and greater impacting uh school districts in a support manner. At this point the fear is that there's a sort of a movement to expand them. Just to give you some sort of uh context, you know, charter schools are basically private schools that

215are funded by taxpayer money. Um they have the right to reject students. They don't serve the entire public um like public schools do. You know, we service everybody who lives in our community. Um they don't have the same regulatory oversight as public schools. So obviously from our perspective as public school people, it's not something that we sort of support. What this resolution says is that we basically uh the board of education authorizes the board president to submit a correspondence to NISBA to fight in this advocacy effort. One of the things we're looking to do is to have sort of local control over the establishment of charter schools within our school boundaries. So in other words, if someone proposed building a charter school in our community, the community would be able to vote on whether or

216not this is something they're interested in or not. >> Okay. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? Trustee Ross, second by trustee. All in favor? Everyone at the table? Yes. >> Yes. >> And I can't see Miss >> both trusty Pini and Trusty Felisa. >> Okay. Then it's unanimously approved. >> All right. So now we're going to G. The administration recommends approval of curriculum items reflected in schedules G1 through G3. >> Is there a motion to approve G1 through G3? Trustee Dillo, second by trustee Calderon. Questions? All in favor? Everyone at the table? >> I see trustee Feliz. >> Just trustee Feliz. Trusty. >> Okay. So, six in favor and I think trustee Pacini is absent for the vote. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, now we're on >> personnel. >> Yeah. >> The administration

217recommends approval of agenda items located in H1 through H7. >> Is there a motion to approve H1 through 7? Trustee Ross. Second, Trustee Feletta. Questions? All in favor? Everyone at the table? and a yes trustee. >> So um six yes and trustee Pacini is absent. >> Okay. So um H1 through H7 is approved. And now we have I >> business items. Administration recommends approval of business items reflected in schedules I1 through I6. >> A motion to approve I1 through I6. Trustee uh Dilo. Second by Trustee Calderon. All in fa >> All in favor. Everyone at the table and trustee police. So all six in favor. Um the motion is approved. >> Want to quickly congratulate Mr. Brian Ginty uh principal currently at sixth grade in the middle school on his retirement. Oh, and >> is

218there a card? Somebody wants to speak? >> Anybody have a card? I'm sorry. >> Yes. >> On the business agenda, is that through one through six or one through seven? Four through six. >> 1 through six. >> Seven. >> We added >> They added seven. >> Sorry, I did not update. I'm working off my Yeah, just do it as a separate item. >> All right, we did one through six. So we can now do >> um >> no refresh. Sorry the fiscal advisor notice. >> So we have to approve just I >> I so the administration recommends approval of business items reflected in I7 >> motion >> which is >> mine's not coming advisor. >> That's the fiscal advisor. So motion >> a motion by trustee Ross second trustee felva all in favor >> everyone

219at the table and trustee felise it's unanimously approved thanks for catching that one >> even at this late hour >> this late hour you still pick that up for us I thank you >> okay so wait what >> okay Um, all right. I don't think there's anything else. >> No, there's there's no closing. Anybody have >> anybody have closing remarks? >> None at the table. >> No closing remarks. Uh, is there a motion to adjurnn? Trustee Pelisetta. Second, Trustee Ross. All in favor of adjournment. It's unanimous. >> Thank you very much.