SOUTH COUNTRY CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD MEETING 02/4/2026 PT2

001So, I'm calling, um, the business meeting of the Board of Trustees back into public session after having, um, an executive session. There's no action to report from that. Um, and we're going to start with a pledge of allegiance and, um, I'm going to My go-to is my student ex officio member. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, the emergency evacuation. Um, please note the exits and in case of an emergency, leave quickly and orderly um, to the outside. This is a smoke-free and vape-free school district. Smoking and vaping is not permitted in the building or anywhere on school grounds. It is also a hate-free and bully-free school district. We're

002now going to see and I going to turn that over to the superintendent. >> Thank you, President Hayes. The administration recommends approval of board certified items reflected in schedule C1. C1. So, is there a motion to approve item C1? Trustee Falaschetti, second Trustee Calderon. Um, all in favor? Um, there are 1 2 3 4 votes and Chris and Trustee Ross five. Yeah. Yes. Um, any any no votes? Any abstentions? >> One abstention due to my absence. Thank you. Thank you. So, that um the minutes are approved. So, now you will That's right. Go go back to the superintendent. The administration recommend to approve of board consent items reflected in schedule C2 and C3. Is there a motion to approve C2 and C3? Trustee Cauterone, second trustee Falsetta. Questions, discussions, seeing none, all in favor. And

003the vote from Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, then the uh motion is approved. Now, D. We're up to the superintendent's report. All right, welcome to our February 4th meeting of the Board of Education. I'll proceed with my superintendent's report. First, reminder about snow snow closures. We did send out a communication to the community with that with the possibility of having to go remote or virtual instruction on snow days to conserve our instructional days. Luckily, we were spared a storm that was deemed eminent for this past weekend. We don't really have snow in the immediate future, but we're going to be really uh solidifying our virtual plan for our staff and we're hoping that we don't use any more snow days. Unfortunately, much to the dismay of the school district, Brookhaven Bob, which is the Brookhaven groundhog,

004saw shadows. We have 6 more weeks of winter. Due to the conditions, the children were unable to experience this little joyful event, but looks like our winter's here to stay for the foreseeable future. I also wanted to talk about the fact that a lot of the superintendent's work goes unseen and I wanted to talk a little bit about the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association's legislative priorities. I had the good fortune of attending an advocacy breakfast with President Hayes this past Saturday. Basically, these legislative priorities focus on stabilizing school district finances, aligning aligning state mandates with real costs, and ensuring funding formulas reflect both student need and fiscal realities so districts like South Country can sustain programs for today's students. So, I did want to share the legislative priorities that were discussed to sort of give

005an indication of how they may or may not relate to South Country. First, we talked about the Child Victims Act. As you may be aware, the state passed a law allowing claims to be made against school districts based on the Child Victims Act that can span up to 50 years. School districts Some school districts were disproportionately affected by some of these claims because they were made by folks that are either not living anymore or at a time when the school district was not covered by their respective insurance carriers. So, just kind of summarize a little bit, the you know, while we support justice for survivors of these heinous crimes, some of these settlements are just unplanned, unpredictable, and reach millions of dollars for certain school districts. There are school districts on Long Island who have

006had to take out bonds to cover these settlement agreements. Uh in South Country, um we've settled claims that were made against South Country were covered by our insurance carrier and settled. We have one remaining case that's settlement phase that will not and financially impact us. However, the indirect impact on our school district is our insurance rates have gone up as a result of these claims made against school districts across New York State. So, this is one of the legislative priorities to get some sort of help in New York State to help districts that are in need. Moving on to our next priority are the zero emissions buses. As you may be aware, we have a certain timeline to adopt school buses to be fully electric. The impact on this, while no one argues the environmental

007benefits of having emission-free buses, currently we don't have the infrastructure to support these buses in terms of our electrical grid. Also, in terms of the fire, we don't have suppressants. Electric buses have to be parked with certain distance in between the two. So, if some school districts that have bus lots don't have the facilities to accommodate that mandate, so they would have to actually engage in capital work to expand their bus lots just to accommodate the new electric buses. And also, it's another one of those unfunded mandates because this would have a tremendous effect on school finances that could adversely affect school programs. While South Country doesn't own a bus and we lease our buses or use our buses through contract with town buses, we've already seen increments in our bus contracts in anticipation of

008this mandate being enforced. So, basically what we're doing is sort of lobbying for that mandate to sort of be delayed, giving the school districts the opportunity to really uh uh think them through and perhaps have some waivers for school districts that don't have the infrastructure to make this happen. Next is foundation aid reform. This goes out saying but foundation foundation aid stability is critical for responsible financial planning. Eliminating save harmless with disproportionate impact districts with declining enrollment like ours and any changes to the formula should be phased in gradually including transition aid. Some districts like ours who have a mixture of high wealth and high poverty get disproportionately sort of affected by our current foundation aid formulas. So we're looking to for the state to sort of act a little quicker in terms of amending

009those formulas. Student aid reductions require different decisions or more accurate and modernized foundation aid formula is what we're lobbying for so we can adequately request reflect I'm sorry the rising cost that school districts are facing. And along those lines when we think about I wanted to share a slide that was shared with us by Bob Lowry the executive director of NISBA. There is a big discrepancy between the growth factor we get to use in calculating our tax levy and the actual inflation factor. If you look at the graph graph you don't need to see the numbers but when when we use uh the inflation factor we can only we're limited to 2% in terms of the growth factor we can use. So typically the growth factor is going to be 1.02%. So because it's either

010the 2% or the lesser of two with CPI. When you look at inflation the last several years inflation has been way above that 2% mark. So what that does indirectly sometimes directly it forces districts to make tough decisions to sort of reduce expenditures because the state aid is not matching inflation and rising costs operating the school district. So again we want to look at just the way we sort of factor in our growth factor in future foundation aid formulas. Moving on universal pre-K funding. Um some of the talking points is basically we all want access to pre-K programs. Um they play a critical role and sort of uh our South Country families, but we want increased flexibility. When I say "we", we I mean school districts in general want increased uh flexibility that will enable

011South Country to responsibly expand or strengthen pre-K offerings without leaving uh state funding unused or creating long-term fiscal strain. So, we're limited in how we can use the pre-K uh funds that are allocated to us by the state. And often those aids are always have to be removed when we look at the actual aid we're receiving cuz they're so they're so specific in terms of their intent. So, what the uh association's lobbying for is just some more flexibility in how we can use that aid to better accommodate our programs and our families. Project labor agreements is something that has come up here um we've discussed. The short of it is this is not a position opposed to the preferred labor agreements. Um it's a position allowing districts to have local control and to participate in

012competitive bidding. Um we all support fair wages and safe job sites, but we oppose a one-size-fits-all mandate. Uh independent studies uh have shown that PLAs mandates increase construction costs and sometimes delays in the completion of projects. Um and so local local districts should retain the ability to determine what's fiscally responsible. So, our impact again always, should this mandate go through, is um higher construction costs means fewer capital projects completed for our school district. So, we just want to retain that local control. Uh that's what we're lobbying for. Moving on to charter schools. Charter school funding. Right now, there's been an increase of the amount of charter schools that have been proposed. Uh I'm not sure if people are aware, but we fund charter schools by paying the tuitions uh on a per pupil uh um

013expenditure. So, what we're looking to do is have some more funding controls over charter schools because charter school expansion strains our operating budgets and reduces resources available to district students. As of now, we have about 40 students attending charter schools that we finance through taxpayer money. Um and currently charter schools are approved by SUNY, not the State Department. It's another thing that we feel should change. We also feel that school districts have some sort of local control and whether our school boards have any ability to approve or disapprove the building of charter schools in our communities. Uh but there are school districts on Long Island that are disproportionately affected by this. Two school districts like Hempstead, Central Islip, and I know there's a proposed charter school going up in William Floyd School District. So, it's

014something that we've been advocating uh for and just changing some of the four forms that better serve our school districts. Pilot payments or pilot properties in the tax base growth factor. Currently, and you'll learn about the tax base growth factor a little bit when we talk about the tax levy cap calculation, pilot properties are not included in that formula. So, that artificially decreases our the ability for us to uh use that as a growth factor. So, by including these uh these properties in the growth factor, it will improve our fiscal predictability and reduce the risk of supermajority override votes. So, by not including these properties um in our growth factor, it has an adverse effect in our tax levy calculation. And those are the um sort of six legislative priorities that our association are putting

015forward. I also included brief summary of our NYSSCOSS, which is the New York State Council of School Superintendents, uh legislative priorities. The ones highlighted in yellow are basically similar to the ones that I just spoke about. Above and beyond uh those, uh we want to oppose the implementation of federal school voucher tax credits. These tax credits usually go to families whose children are already attending private schools and sort of are used to kind of diminish the need the need for them to go to public school. Um we're looking to reform tier six retirement provisions to help with the improvement of teachers. Um I'm not going to go over the ones that are on fifth. Modernize civil service rules. Right now uh the civil service is sort of uh program is sort of antiquated in terms

016of the list and the availability of candidates. So, we want to sort of expedite that and change that to serve the school districts. Um special education costs. Uh I saw a remarkable statistic, but 90% of school districts on in New York State are sort of uh identifying special education costs as one of the number one concerns in school district finances because of the rising costs that takes to service our students. Again, this is not a statement against students who have special needs. It's a statement against the rising costs associated with those students. So, we're looking at the state um to do an in-depth study um to see why the costs are so disproportionately higher in New York State than in other states in our nation. Um and finally um there's a provision that doesn't really

017affect us with the availability of telehealth services um in terms of school districts that have health facilities on site for families who can't access the school district. But in summation, you know, the legislative agenda calls for targeted state action to protect public school funding, stabilize education workforce, and modernize mandates and policies so districts can continue providing equitable, high-quality educational opportunities for all students. In addition to that, I also had an opportunity to peruse the Nisba legislative priorities and you'll see a lot of similarities in all of the legislative priorities. And I just want to tell the board of trustees that all these um pamphlets and information we provided to you as far as um board update, um you know, again, foundation aid and school funding, uh school services and mental health. We're looking for um

018more support for our special education students, English language learners. Again, these are the what we call unfunded mandates that increase costs to districts. You know, that's supported by New York State. Uh property tax and local control. Again, these are all financial, but in summation, the Nisbet priorities focus on ensuring equitable and predictable school funding, reducing unfunded mandates, and preserving local control so that school districts can manage rising costs, support student needs, and plan responsibly for the future. The agenda emphasizes full foundation aid funding, property tax reform, or property tax cap reform, expanded mental health and special education supports, and greater flexibility in transportation, facilities, and district operations to sustain high-quality public education statewide. So, that's just kind of a glimpse and a summary of all the legislative priorities that we're going to be sort of

019lobbying for in the upcoming year. We are going to be attending legislative breakfast in Longwood this coming Saturday. We will have our elected official answer any parents' questions that are related to these legislative priorities. Uh moving on to more of a local report for South Country, just to sort of give a progress report on the 2026 2027 school budget process. A little recap. Um again, we've had the benefit of working with John Belmonte. He's been here for a couple of board meetings. We've expanded the scope of our external audit to provide a more comprehensive analysis of our budgetary practices, enabling the district to enact tighter controls and make even more informed decisions. And we're developing our comprehensive three-year fiscal recovery plan, which includes expenditure controls, revenue enhancements, and structural adjustments. In terms of expenditure controls,

020we've already seen a savings approaching $500,000 in our transportation costs alone by some of the controls we've implemented and changes. Uh revenue enhancements, we've contacted and submitted capital project completion reports [clears throat] to the State Department to maximize our aid for this current year. And the structural adjustments will come as we develop further develop our three-year fiscal recovery plan. All this has already been discussed. This is kind of a review. What's new is that on Tuesday, which was yesterday, um a meeting was held where Irwin McCracken, he's a chief auditor for the New York State Controller's Office, he's on Long Island, him and his team, his audit team, met with uh President Hayes, myself, and Mr. Val Monte. We had a great introductory meeting in discussing the scope of the work they'll be doing in

021the force for the foreseeable future. In fact, our auditors from the Controller's Office are going to be looking at our budget development process for last year's budget and this year's budget. So, this is going to be next set of eyes that we're going to have here live in district for the foreseeable future to help us plan a budget that's going to be credible, based on data, and again supports our programs. Um they have our full cooperation. I want to thank Val Monte for being so expeditious in providing them the information they requested, and you certainly gave them a warm welcome as they work here on a day-to-day basis. So, I'm glad for the collaboration and looking to uh see what feedback they can provide. As a part of the um sort of uh three-year fiscal

022recovery plan, um the board also passed uh unanimously passed a resolution authorizing the district to pursue special act legislation as a means to address the budget um deficit for this current school year. Again, this resolution didn't give the approval for uh a bond or a certain amount of money to be uh borrowed, it's just to pursue the process. So, I wanted to give an update as to where we're at in that process. First, on Friday, January 30th, the administration, myself and John Val Monte, met with Assemblyman Titone to seek out his endorsement and assistance. The meeting went very well. We provided uh the Assemblyman with the draft um legislation and talked about next steps. In addition, we will be meeting with Senator Murray uh this Friday, February 6th, again to seek out his endorsement and

023assistance. We'll be providing him with the same uh let's take it back that we actually provided uh um both the assemblyman and the senator ahead of time so we can discuss it live on Friday. In addition to that, we will be meeting with Talia Malloy, who is the Suffolk County regional representative for Governor Holcomb on Monday, February 23rd, to bring the governor's office up to speed with the special act legislation. So, all these meetings are already have taken place or are scheduled to take place in the next couple of weeks because we really want to get the ball moving to make sure that this legislation gets placed in the governor's budget when it's finally proposed in April. And finally, I want to thank Pat Brady at BTA for his assistance for getting NYSSIT to participate

024in our lobbying efforts. NYSSIT President Melinda Pearson will also be advocating on behalf of the Suffolk County School District this end, and we are in the process of scheduling a meeting with her so we can discuss particulars. I'm really excited about the fact that we've been able to work quickly to make sure that we were doing everything we can in our power to make sure this special act legislation reaches the governor's office in a timely manner. So, this is a lot of the work that's been going on in the last couple of weeks, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some student things because basically, the reason we're all here, certainly the reason I'm here, is for our kids. 3,800 reasons why I do this work, and so for me not to highlight them,

025I feel like it's a disservice for them. So, first I want to talk about the Nisba, Suffolk County, and Nassau County School Superintendents Associations joint meeting we had a couple of weeks ago. Trustee Lucetta, Trustee Delillo, and Trustee Hayes had the pleasure of joining me. The meeting or the dinner focused on CTE partnerships and how we could sort of partner with industry because there is a shortage in for workers and a whole multitude of industries. We got to hear the president of Suffolk Suffolk County Community College speak, but also something that was interesting at the time is um hearing uh one of the uh presidents of Accelerate Training, a defense manufacturer, speak. And what was amazing is the fact, and alarming at the same time, is that the United States has a shortage of submarines.

026And they literally need tradespeople to build submarines. Welders, plumbers. Um so that was a really interesting presentation because I it was not on my consciousness that, you know, we have this demand for workers to build submarines. Um but there were so many other CTE opportunities that um we're going to be looking into. It's part of our strategic plan. Um because there there are some programs we can sort of implement that are represent really little to no cost to the school district. Um but the highlight, I have to say, is our jazz band performed. They opened the night. Uh their performance was wonderful. It was nice to see our district name uh highlighted in front of over 300 participants and almost every school district on Long Island. So that was a big moment of Clipper pride.

027So a big shout out to Anthony LaMarca and the whole jazz band for really representing us magnificently in terms of performance. But we had dinner with them and they were just they were just amazing students. They really represented the school district well. So want to give them a shout out. Also want to give a shout out to our girls wrestling uh team. We're the uh Suffolk County undefeated champions for the season. So big shout out to them. Um really proud of their accomplishment. Uh this team, which is a collaborative effort of five school districts, uh ranked number one in New York State. They're ranked 25 in the United States of America. Um Kenneth Chiulli was also awarded the coach of the year for girls wrestling. So I want to give a big props to Coach

028Perry and Coach Chiulli for providing the girls with such a great uh experience. And and the it's remarkable in two years how much this program has grown and how much suc- success we've been able to experience. And just to give a quick update of other sports happenings, and this doesn't include all our teams, but our girls wrestlers will be competing in individual county championships on Valentine's Day, which is February 14th, at Bellport High School. And then at Stony Brook University on February 15th. Boys wrestling also did very very well in the county. They uh uh in the top 10. Uh their league championships are this Saturday at Bellport High School. Uh individual championships are on February 14th and February 15th, both at Stony Brook University. So, people are available to attend the competition on 15th

029at Stony Brook, you'll be able to see our girls and our boys compete. Uh which should be pretty fantastic. But again, we made um the final four in the Suffolk County Dual Meet Championship, and we're kind of currently ranked number three in the county and top 10 in the state. So, kudos to the boys wrestling program. Our boys basketball team are just one win away from the playoffs. They play two more times this week. Uh they have a game um at Babylon, I'm sorry, at um on Thursday, I believe. And then they have uh Friday uh game at 4:00 p.m. at Bellport High School. So, again, if they have one more victory, they'll make the playoffs in this winter season. Our girls bowling finished fourth in our division. Um our girls winter track, um they

030finished 10th overall and were just nine points away from being in the top top five. And several of our uh female athletes or varsity runners uh are earning all-county honors. We'll share that information at a later board meeting. The Clippers will next compete in the state qualifier meet uh um on February 9th and 10th. So, mark your calendars. And finally, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Unified Topgolf. It's a great program and a terrific experience. Great experience for our students to participate in our Unified Sports Program. They've been going to Topgolf and just having a fantastic time. I have been unable to attend, but the feedback I get has been pretty fantastic all around. So, big shout-out to our athletic uh department, Mr. Martino, who's not here, our athletic director, and for all

031the trustees and for all their support. And finally, I just want to give a shout out to our guidance team. This was um National Guidance Counselor Week. So, shout out to all of the guidance counselors that uh wear many hats as they sort of navigate uh public school for our kids K through 12. So, a super shout out to General Estivo and all her team for the work they do with our students. And finally, please catch up to uh with all the good happenings in South Country uh in our various social media handles. In terms of upcoming events, I'm super excited about Pippin, our musical. That's going to be held this Friday and Saturday at Bellport High School. I'll be attending the Friday night uh performance, so I'm looking forward to that. And again, we

032have the Longwood Legislative Breakfast on February 7th, which is a Saturday at 8:30 a.m. So, that's it. Please do peruse our Clipper Pride uh our website. Uh again, we have a link under our menu. If you click on District, you can click on Financial and Information and Updates. All of our budget presentations and any updates we may have uh are included on this link, including our FAQ. That concludes my report. I want to thank the Board of Trustees for their commitment, as always. And as always, it's a pleasure to serve this community as a Superintendent of Schools. Thank you. So, we will now do Trustee and Advisory Committee reports. Um I'll start with our ex-officio student member. Yeah. Um it's been a slow month for StuGo, but we're gearing up to celebrate P.S. I Love

033You Day. This organization is very special to me, and I'm really happy that our district is dedicated to mental health. If anyone's interested in buying a shirt, please reach out to me or Ms. Hoffman. Half of the proceeds are going to go to the P.S. I Love You organization. And our senior class is working on planning their senior trip, and tomorrow they're going to hold a meeting for students to discuss it, and just parents be on the lookout for all this information through our classroom and Parent Square. Thank you. Trustee Felsenthal? Yeah, not much. I did attend the Nisba conference. It was really neat to see the jazz band there represented. And obviously CTE, which is near and dear to me. I'm excited to hear that it's part of our strategic plan, and hopefully it's

034something we can implement sooner than later. And the opportunities I think are endless, so yeah, that's pretty much it. Trustee Calderon? Trustee Police? Uh yes, I just want to apologize to the board and to the community that I missed last meeting. I It's only the third meeting I've missed in 8 and 1/2 years. Um a friend of mine, very dear friend of mine, was recovering from cancer, but took a turn for the worst. And I got an emergency phone call that I needed to be in California the next day. So I was able to reschedule my plans and be there with her when she passed. So that's why I wasn't at the meeting. She passed that night, and I had made arrangements with uh with our board uh clerk, with our district clerk, to make

035arrangements for a remote option, but couldn't do it. Anyway, that's why I wasn't here that night, but I would have supported the the legislation for the uh for the special legislation. I would have supported the motion for the special legislation and the actions that took place that night uh because of the situations that we are in. So I didn't want anyone to think that I avoided that meeting for the for the for those reasons. Um and I wanted you to be aware of that. Uh before I did leave for California though, I was able to attend uh Frank P. Long their PTA meeting and the intense competition for another 24 uh competition that night for a little bit and and then traveled over to Brookhaven Elementary for their third grade concert which was again fantastic

036and looking forward to more events this week. I'm going to attend Kramer their dance this week because I just got my new sweatshirt that they uh that they the the best sweatshirt I've gotten so far from this from this district. The goat their their their their mascot is the goat and they just they did a wonderful a wonderful job on that their sweatshirt. So I'll go to that event this week and I'll join the superintendent at the legislative breakfast uh this weekend at at Longwood. So looking forward to that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I I have nothing. I've been mentioned in a couple of other things where I've been so uh So basically for you and for me it's ditto on the Nassau Suffolk school board meeting with the jazz band. But I'm going

037to add on to submarines. I mean just the fact of iron workers and all of that it was very interesting to me. But particularly given on Long Island and our history of building some of the most important things we had like uh you know the moon landing [clears throat] device. I've forgotten the name of it. You know way back when. Um built on Long Island. So it was kind of nice to hear about opportunities for young people to go into the trades that are really going to be part of the future. And some of those programs were particularly interesting. There's one I think it was in Virginia, uh which offered a lot of benefits for to students if they participated in it in terms of housing and um you know, taught covering the cost and

038all of that. So, I I appreciated the substance of the meeting as well as seeing our jazz band there cuz they were terrific. Um Just quickly to piggyback the uh that was the advanced the defense of manufacturing that they were talking about and how they expedite this training so that kids can really get employment in a really expeditious manner. Um you know, one of the things we've been saying for a couple years here is that, you know, we emphasize the three E's for our graduates. You know, we want you to be enrolled, enlisted, or employed. And the employed component is really really taking on a sort of different meaning because there's so many trades that are unable to fill positions. And so, there's job opportunities [clears throat] out there that are pretty accessible to students

039if they just know the pathways. So, we're going to do a concerted effort to educate them about those pathways and programs that are available to them. Okay. Chris Ross. Uh Chris Ross. Is he still there? Chris, do you have anything? His screen is black. I'm sorry? His screen is blacked out. Oh, I think he's he's watching on YouTube right now. Okay. Um all right. Well, if he wants to come in I have nothing to add this week. Nothing today? No, I'm good. Okay. Um So, yeah, I I think um I'm not going to talk more about those events, but um I am also scheduled to be at the Longwood breakfast along with Trustee Felice and superintendent and I'm not sure and Rob's going to be Rob Vallesera, trustee Vallesera, will be there as well. Okay.

040So, next, public commentary, any cards? None? All right. I F, items for discussion and action. We'll begin the treasurer's report. Okay. The treasurer's report and Belmonte fiscal period. Mr. Belmonte will be presenting that. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. So, this evening, it's our pleasure to bring to you the December 2025 treasurer's reports. Um I'm assuming we will be able to get them up on the screen. Give me a moment. Okay. Um I'm happy to report that over the last several months, we have been very successful in enhancing the fiscal controls in the business office, um enhancing the monitoring and the reporting processes, and that has been going extremely well. So, as we promised the board and the community early on, um we spent a considerable amount of time in focusing on the treasurer's reports, the

041accuracy of the reports and the documentations that the board receives on a monthly basis. So, um um one of the first reports that we will start with is the treasurer's report. It's okay. I'm just dancing up here. There you go. Okay, so what the board has the the first report they have is you have a a listing of all of the district's bank accounts through all of the funds. Um once again, we're happy to report that everything has been reconciled and tied back to the uh district's financial records. Um you'll also note that we have all positive balances in our cash account, which is a very good thing at this time. Um it's always good to be in a positive situation. And our total cash at the end of the month of December was just

042over 14 million dollars. So, the following reports that you have in back of the summary represents the trial balance of the district's accounts that tie back to the treasurer's report. And that's an indication that our financial records are updated in accordance with our bank records. So, that's just a point of information. Um the next report that the board has is the collateral report that shows in accordance with the board's fiscal policy that all our accounts are appropriately collateralized to the percentages that are within the the policy. I think we have a little problem navigating here, but okay. Um so, the collateral reports are all in order as well. And the Um that's the last reports on it. Go back there. There you go. Uh the next reports that we get into are the budgetary appropriation

043reports. This is on the expenditures side of the budget and the um spending side. Is that Yeah, probably the appropriation part. So, um you will notice that as you go through this report, it's 16 pages long and um every appropriation code has the appropriate um appropriation and there is no negatives in this report um as of December, the district has expended a total of $64.6 million out of our $147 million budget and we have $69.6 million encumbered against our budget with a remaining balance of that's available to spend through the rest of the year uh 13.9 million. As we talked to the board in the past, the significance about fiscal fiscal control and budget control is to ensure that you have as much encumbered of your voter-approved budget and it gives you a good indication

044what you have remaining to spend. So, at this point in the school year, a lot of that 13 million is probably probably will be taken up in timesheets and things that are not currently encumbered. Um we did cut off spending last November. So, a lot of things are in place and um there's very few encumbrances that have taken place at this time. So, on the budget side, on the monitoring side, we are doing very well and light years ahead of where we were going forward. Just a quick question about like say for example health insurance costs. Do you have all your health insurance costs anticipated through the end of the year? Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. So, there may be surprises, may not. Well, we we have a pretty good idea what the projection

045will be at this point. We are going to be short in that area and we are finalizing those numbers and we will be looking to transfer money that may be identified in other areas of budget to health insurance. Keep in mind that this is going to be a very very interesting year from the perspective that we know coming out of the box we do not have sufficient revenues to cover our spending of $147 million. So, um that brings us to the whole conversation that we spoke about in the past that whatever that gap is, that's where the deficit funding will be coming at. Right. So, um we are very aggressively monitoring that. More importantly for the purpose to determine whether we have enough money is to finish through the end of the school year. Okay?

046And how long that will take us, our existing resources, before we actually have to go out to borrow. So, it's not a question of if we have to borrow, it's going to be a question of when we have to borrow. So, the more that we get a handle on our projections and what our final cost will be through June, we'll be in a very good position to manage that. Now, South Country School District is in a consortium for health insurance. That is correct. >> Because it's it's more cost-effective than being in the NYSHIP state program. Would you would you agree or disagree? Hey, I think you have to do an analysis of that. Um there's periods of time where the NYSHIP plan may be um more cost-effective than the Suffolk School Employees Health Plan. And

047there may be times where the costs are comparable. Um and it you know, it basically varies. The biggest challenge for the Suffolk School Employees Health Plan is that you have three districts in that consortium. Whereas if you're looking at NYSHIP, which you have a much larger pool to spread the spread the risk and the cost. So, um we have seen our health insurance costs escalate considerably over the last um year. In fact, they had two increases, uh as we know. And we do know this year that they have already adopted a 12% increase in health insurance. Uh and that 12% increase, I can share with you probably equates to close to 2 1/2 million dollars. Okay? So, as we navigate 26-27 and we begin to prepare that budget, um we will be incorporating those anticipated

048increases for health insurance. Because everybody knows my background is from Suffolk County government. And so, with our 10 unions, we had a self-insured program. Uh similar to the consortium. And so, when we to not use the Empire program or or the Empire [clears throat] program. And so, when we found costs were escalating, we worked within that consortium, [clears throat] within that self-insured program Right. and our third-party providers to to come up with play with come up with ways to to scale back costs so that we didn't have to pass those costs on to our to our to our members. So, do you see the consortium doing things like that? Um yes, I mean I can honestly say that in my prior district, we belonged to Suffolk Schools Employees Health Plan. As you know, you have

049a administrative trustee as well as a labor trustee on that particular board. And when we meet and we look at the cost of insurance and changes to the plan, that's something that the plan always looks at with our with our providers. We're also very cognizant of the the Empire cost and the benefits that are offered because you don't want to get into a situation because you're in a self-insured plan that it becomes very costly because you're offering many more benefits or opportunities than NYSHIP. So, you know, the difficulty with that type of plan, in my opinion, I think it's a good plan um because there's only three districts in the plan limits the the base, if you will, and the the workability to really control premiums. So, basically, when you get an an increased number

050of retirees in the plan, you have increased costs, you have different cost drivers, the weight loss programs, and the the meds that they're using are really driving up the cost of insurance. >> Yeah, we didn't have that when I was there. >> Yeah, so it's not only, you know, not only are the self-insured plans seeing this, but NYSHIP is seeing this as well. So, I think overall the NYSHIP rates this year may have gone up 8% or thereabouts. Suffolk Schools is about 12. I think from a coverage standpoint, it's probably pretty comparable what's offered between the two plans. So, it's something that the district should evaluate on a periodic basis. Okay. You know. All right, thank you. >> And to see which might be more cost-effective for the district down the road. All right, thank

051thank you. Okay. Where are we, Mr. Superintendent? We're on revenue? You are on the Okay, the revenue. Yeah. So, the other report we have for the is the revenue report. We're happy to say that you can see that out of the 147 million, we've already recognized 90.9 million dollars. We still have ways to go. We do know that on this revenue report there's a 5 million dollar line from fund balance that's not going to come to fruition. That was the unappropriated fund balance that was anticipated at budget time that is not available because we have a deficit unappropriated fund balance at this time. Also, the other number that is going to be somewhat limited is the second line of appropriated plan balance. This is the amount that at budget time we told the community we

052were going to use from our reserves and keep in mind that we can only use the amount from reserves up to the expenditures that we expend to each of the categories. So, um you know, suffice to say at this particular point I'm also working very closely with the controller's office to do revenue projections. And um I I can say with a certain degree of um where we are at this point that um we have about a $10 million hole between revenues and expenditures at this point in time. And as we as we do things, as we control costs, as we achieve savings, um as we finalize our projections, we get a better handle on that number. So, um every week, every month that goes by, um we'll we will be fine-tuning those numbers. Um it's

053my estimate that I'm going to say probably by the beginning of April, we'll have some real solid information as to what's going to be the game plan, part of the 3-year plan, the back the borrowing, and as we go along, we're going to bring the board up to speed with those strategies as well. Again, with the overall goal, we will not over expend the voter-approved budget. That will not happen this year. Okay? Which is a good thing. Okay? There's a lot of people that are happy about that. You can say. Um The next report that the board has, and this is new this month, and I know the board has not received it in several months, is the high school extra class activity account. So, I am very happy to report that this report is

054up to date. All these school accounts have been reconciled. All monies have been accounted for. More importantly, if the board recalls, when we did our audited financial statements, the management letter was very critical about co-curricular funds and not only for last year, but comments from prior years. So, as of this point in time, we have addressed every one of the situations and comments on the audit management letter. We have met with the appropriate advisors in middle school and high school. We have put procedures in place. We have put processes in place. So, um we have also coordinated this with our external auditors and they're very happy that we have rectified many, if not all, of the management comments. So, I I'm hopeful that um when the board gets their new management letter, all those prior

055year comments are going to have have has been resolved. So, um and thanks to um Erica in the business office and her efforts and my efforts for the meetings and especially the advisors, um it was quite a bit education and a lot of conversation and a lot of processes put in place. So, um I'm really happy that we're we're at this point, um much sooner than we anticipated. So, that that's a good thing. Thank you for that piece of good news because having been on the audit committee, um for a number of years and seeing these management letters come in year after year with regard to the extra classroom activities reports, I really like hearing that all the issues that were raised in the last management letter have been addressed. And so, the board can

056take confidence in in your report to us tonight that we have seen progress in getting uh the internal controls particularly in this area in place and working and in a position so that now when the controller's office gets to this portion they should see that the management letter was fully complied with. >> Yep. You know, we did do a corrective action report and we responded to each one of the items, you may recall. Um that corrective action report also gets filed with the controls office in the state. And in every one of the items, there's a timeline for completion. And uh as I indicated, um we are well ahead of our original anticipated timeline. Um it wasn't difficult to uh necessarily clean up, but I think the important thing for me to express to the

057board is that anytime that you have a management letter it always behooves the board to ask periodically where we are on the follow-up. Okay? I offered that tonight. It's something that should always be done. So, just for the future, you think about that. That's how you keep your finger on the pulse of the district is doing what they're supposed to be doing. Okay? Thank you. Next, I get to talk about the property tax cap. Now, I just want to start out by saying I know a lot of people are anxious and they're going to say, "Do we have to pierce the cap? Are we going to be under the cap? Where are we going to be?" I'm going to present this that this is going to be almost like three buckets, okay? The middle bucket

058is going to be our property tax cap calculation. The other pieces that come into this before the district and the board can decide whether we want to be at the cap, whether we want to be under the cap, or whether we want to be above the cap is dependent on the first draft of our 26-27 budget which is in process not completed yet. We hope that within the next several weeks we will have that completed. And the other bucket is going to be the revenue bucket. Okay? So, when you know what your revenues are, when you know what your expenditures are okay? The difference to get to where you need to be is going to be the tax levy. This is where the tax levy piece comes in. This is where the the board and

059the community will see how much can we raise in taxes to bring us to 0% on the cap. So, that's just a little um just a little preview of getting there. Hopefully, we'll go this way. Okay. We all know why the property tax cap exists. Um it was done many years ago, I believe back in the beginning of uh 2000 and it limits by state law the amount of growth in school district property taxes. It came about because there was a feeling in New York State that school districts were taking advantage of taxpayers and raising uh their taxes at very, very large percentages. So, this particular piece of legislation came in place as a protection for taxpayers and to keep school districts, if you will, honest on managing their budgets and their financing and being

060responsible to the taxpayers of the community. A very significant piece, which holds true today. Um, it also encourages districts to do long-term financial planning. And the reason for that is, if they're limiting the amount of money you could raise by taxes, your hands are somewhat tied. So, you need to plan accordingly. You don't have the discretion that we had many, many years ago prior to this to say, "Well, if it's good, we're going to go out and if we raise 10%, we raise 10%." And some budgets passed and some budgets failed. So, many school districts in New York State, most school districts in New York State, because of their size, has to comply with the tax cap regulations. Okay? So, it's a it's a very simple process. We're going to try to keep it simple.

061Property taxes up to the tax cap limit, and it tells you the amount and the allowed that you can grow. Okay? This is how it works. Very simply, I'm going to try to use the KISS method here. It's going to start with last year's tax levy. That's going to be the top of the formula. It's going to be adjusted by a growth factor. We've heard the superintendent talk about that this evening. It's the lesser of CPI or 2%. We're happy to say that that number this year is 2%. Okay? Because, um, CPI was, um, was higher. So, it goes down to the 2% minimum. Which is a good thing. Um, certain items are removed or added back to the cap called exclusions. And those exclusions are, you know, debt service and um netted by building

062aid as well as pilot payments, okay? And then you get to what you call the minimal allowable levy. Now, this is the minimal amount that you're allowed to levy based on a percentage. Okay. So, that's basically the formula. This is it in just a little different way to look at it. The most important piece when we get down to the end of this is going to be the maximum tax levy allowed. And that's going to give us an indication of what we can raise the tax levy to to be at the cap. Okay. The items that can be excluded from a property tax cap is capital debt service. And that's capital debt service when you borrow to do capital projects um and things of that nature, including energy performance contracts, as we know. Uh capital

063expenditures, that would be monies that you put into the budget to do a capital project that you plan on putting in the budget and expending in the same year. Okay? However, the net figure goes into the cap into the calculation. That debt service has to be reduced by the building aid that's received by the district in that fiscal year. Okay. So, that's a net figure that's excluded. There's other provisions uh for exclusions known as court judgments or torts. Uh we're happy to say that we don't have any of those exclusions here at South Country. You also have the ability when your pension costs rise above two percentage points, the amount over the 2% can be excluded from the property tax cap. Okay? And the other um the related adjustment is in the area of pilots.

064Um the district has a very aggressive, large um pilot projects within the district. Um they're roughly about 7.7 million to 7.6 million a year. Um I'm happy to say that when I saw that schedule, uh my eyes were wide open and I said, "Wow, we have an awful lot of projects here." Um so I took the um I took the effort to call the director of the I uh IDA in the town of Brookhaven. Uh she was kind enough to take an appointment with me and um we sat in her office for probably I'm going to say over 2 hours and we went through my spreadsheet um pilot project by pilot pilot project um verifying everything that we had on our list, things that may have ended, things that may have changed, and it was

065a very productive meeting. So, um you know, I got a very good handle on South Country's pilot payments and uh and that's because it is, as we will see, a significant part of this formula. Okay? So, I don't want to talk about too much. Talked about pension rates. Um this is kind of noteworthy because it also impacts us in the development of the 26-27 budget. The ERS rate, which is the Employees' Retirement System, uh we always seem to use acronyms. And um this year the rate is 16 and 1/2%. Next year, when as we're building the 26-27 budget, there's a 1.1% increase. And because that increase is under 2%, there's no exclusion on the tax cap calculation for employees' retirement costs. Now, for the teachers' retirement, the rate is going from 9.59% down to the

066to the current estimate of 8.24%. I'm very, very, very happy to see this. Um not that because there's no exclusion on the tax cap, but because when you look at this TRS rate and it's applied to your staffing costs, and we know that we're reducing staffing uh through attrition and otherwise uh for cost control measures, and we apply the TRS rate, our TRS rate is going to be down about 1.35% [clears throat] from what it was last year. So, that's a good thing that you're seeing a very significant cost driver within the budget that is going to be going down. And that's really the reason why I threw that in there. Um you do have options, as the board knows, in calculating the tax. Um the district can decide to go above the calculated cap,

067and that's called piercing the cap. And this decision is made by the Board of Education as part of the proposed budget development process. Okay? As I mentioned previously, March 1st is the date that the district reports the property tax calculation to the controller's office, as well as the they transmit it to SED and New York State Department of Taxation. In that filing, we have to answer a question. Does the district anticipate piercing the cap. Yes or no? Okay. We will answer that question. We do have the ability to go back at some point prior to the budget adoption and modify that report if need be. Okay? So, even though we are reporting on March 1st, it's not locked in stone until we finalize the report when the budget is done. Okay. It does require if

068the board does decide to pierce the cap, it does require um the voter approval by at least 60% of the vote supermajority. And I think that's all uh standard operating procedure. Many people know that. It's the higher threshold and that's required by the law by New York State. Okay? If the voters approve a budget by a 60% margin, then that tax levy um is implemented for that particular year. However, if the tax levy does not pass, okay? The board has some options. And their options are they can submit a revised budget for a second vote and that would normally happen in June. Uh they can adopt at that point and say we had enough, we're not going to go any further, we want to adopt a contingency budget and you adopt a contingency budget. A

069contingency budget means that you go back to the prior year's tax levy. Okay? That's a contingency budget. Um as we see up there, okay? And when you when you do that, when you end up on a contingency budget, those exclusions that I talked about earlier, debt service and um and all the other pieces don't come into play. They all go away. So, under a contingency budget, state says you go back to your current year tax levy, whatever it is. Okay. Every school district, as we mentioned, they must file a tax levy calculation annually. Okay? And we talked about it must be done by March 1st. Um the filing has to be done even if you don't plan to go to the cap, to the full cap. In other words, if your cap is 5% and

070you say, "Well, I'm only my budget increase is only my tax increase is only 3%," you still have to file the tax cap calculation with the Controller's Office. Okay? Um it is filed electronically, and as I mentioned, it is shared. Okay, so this is the drumroll. I'm sorry, but I have no audio. Okay. So, the first draft of this tax [clears throat] cap calculation, the most important figure, the bottom line if you will, is the adjusted tax levy. And we can see that through the calculation, which you'll see in the next two slides, the adjusted tax levy limit would be $76.1 million. That's a 6.51% increase from the current tax levy. So, the bottom half of that slide shows you and what I calculated for the board is that, "Okay, we know what our current

071tax levy is right now. We saw it in the the calculation. If we go to 76 million, then we go to the tax cap, how much can our tax levy increase?" The answer is $4,653,000. So, based on these numbers and that calculation, that is going to be the breathing room that we have between the current tax levy and what we could spend up to the cap. Now, I'm going to go back to my three budget observation and comment in the beginning. Okay? This is a number that we have. It's a number that when we complete the revenue side and we complete the expenditure side and we're going to know if our expenditures are 150 million and our revenues are 145 million, we know we need $5 in tax levy to fill that gap. That's why

072that number is so important. That's when we will have the conversation. Do we pierce the cap? Do we stay at the cap? Do we go under the cap? If the board says, "We don't want to pierce the cap." We go back to the drawing board. And we start continuing to do surgery to get that budget number down to where it needs to be. So, um next couple of weeks is going to be crucial. Um I shared with the controller's office a copy of this. Huh? Okay? And the last two slides, I'm actually giving it everyone the worksheet. For those people that love numbers, um here it is. Um these are the calculations. So, the top of the worksheet starts out with the current year tax levy of 71 million. To that, you add the um

073tax base growth factor, which comes from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Okay? Then you add back your prior year pilots and you come to another number. Then you take out your prior year exclusions, you come to another number. And then as you get down, you'll see the allowable levy growth factor of 2%. That's that 1.02. That's the 2% we talked about earlier. Okay? And then you subtract out your pilot payments. So that's tax levy limit is an important figure because that's the limit that the district can levy in taxes before exclusions. That's why the exclusions are so important. So this particular slide starts out at the top with that tax levy limit. It takes you through the the lower piece where you see 2627 [clears throat] capital tax levy. You'll see

074that you'll have the debt service in there. And I want to note that this year people are going to ask why is that tax levy percentage so high? Well, one thing is think about what we're doing here. The debt service is being excluded from the tax cap. So we're adding that back to the 68 million above. In that debt service, we have new debt service this year for our EPC. The 2627 is the first year debt service of 1.5 million. So this is helping the district by raising the cap percentage. Okay? It's a plus. We have to net that figure by building aid. Unfortunately, we know our building aid is going down from 1.4 million down to just under 400,000 as we see on the screen. Okay? That number is taken out away from the

075debt service cuz as I said previously, it's a net number. Okay? The last piece that goes in there is adjustment for BOCES. BOCES provides us with a net figure of their capital and BOCES aid, and we get that directly from them, and we plug it in. And then, you can see our our exclusions were 7.7 million. So, you take that 7.7 million, you add it to the the uh tax levy limit above 68 million, and we come out, lo and behold, with the 76 million that we talked about as the threshold. Okay? In those little gray boxes on the side, it just compares the the new calculated to the existing and the 16 the 6.51%. Okay? To me, it's pretty simple. I worked with it so many years. I don't want to confuse too many

076people, but um So, this, I think, is for the district's perspective, good news because it gives us a little bit of breathing room and leeway as we navigate the 3-year um plan and put this thing together and try to put together a solid 26-27 budget. So, with that, I'll take a breath and Can I ask the first question? Because this is your presentation about revenue and what we can anticipate from tax levying. Right. This is not affected at all by the overruns that we had last year and the deficits that we're having this year because that's all on the expenditure side. Is that right? Um well, it it's a combination of both. You have over overruns on expenditure side and we have have had shortages on the revenue side. Okay? So, when we're building the

077new budget 26-27, all of this is going to come into play. Okay? So, the tax levy, I think it would be safe to say it's going to stand on its own as a separate component of revenue. As you know, if you remember your revenue sheet, and we'll have a different presentation, we'll get to that as well, you'll have your state aid, you'll have your other miscellaneous revenues, okay? You'll have whatever we may be looking to apply from restricted reserves, if anything is left, and then we'll come up with that tax levy plug number to get us where we need to be. What I was trying to clarify for myself is if if if all if things had not happened in the 24-25 year and in the 25-26 year, this still would have been our tax

078cap this year? Uh yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah. So, we were going to get this tax cap for this upcoming year no matter. >> This is based on think of it it's levy to levy. And it takes out all the other extraneous things. Okay? And the things that drives this is that um the growth factor and the um the index and the debt service and the state aid. Okay? Reactions? Comments? Uh Does Chris not Does Chris have anything? Does Steve Ross do you have anything? Any questions? Um I'll make I'll make a comment. No, I'll start. Um I don't remember which year it was. But whatever year it was, um our tax levy limit would have allowed us to go up to about [clears throat] 7.49% I think it was. And we thought that was going

079to be way too excessive. And we didn't even want to approach that. Um so we ended up adopting something much much less. Um so I think what I would like to see um because it does it doesn't really give us a lot of money. It even the 6.51% >> That's right. which to the community is going to seem huge. Um so I think what I would like to see uh you present the board with is a um like a seri a variable seri you know 4% 5% and and what that would yield for us. And you know several options. Um instead of just you know but what the full limit is. Um and what and what that will yield back to us in the tax levy limits. I mean start with you know two three

080two three four five. And uh we'll go from there and see how we can build the budget. That's right. That would probably be part of the discussions when we're really deciding where to be within the cap out. And it really is going to be a lot of other variables that come into play. And we're going to be talking about borrowing. We're going to be talking about um other available revenues. Um shortfalls, the amount of the draft budget expenditures, um things of that nature. So, there's going to be many pieces that come into play, but that's an easy thing to do. We can certainly do that. And And the other The other unfortunate piece about this 2% cap is it's not, you know, when you know, when it comes out in the wash, it's not 2%.

081Even though it is, you know, it is. That's correct. And And that And it's the perception of of what we have to um explain to to the public. It's like, you know, where's the 2%? When it doesn't come out that way. And sometimes when you that say you you saw the situation in this calculation where your debt service increased. So, it's a it's a positive effect percentage. Now, you have districts that they may have decreasing debt service with increasing building aid. That a larger amount is coming off. Now, think about if we had a certain amount of debt service and we had a pulled off 1 and 1/2 million from that debt service versus [clears throat] we only had to pull off 100,000. So, as you do capital projects, it changes the dynamic of the

082formula. And some districts may be in a situation that they're at a 0%. But it's just it's the nature of the calculation. But um it does take some planning and strategies during the year in working with your debt service. So, the board has heard me talk about it before. In '97-'98, which is a year a year beyond where we're working now, we have about a $2.7 million drop in debt service. Think about what that might do to the property tax cap. I'm thinking about what that might do to the property tax cap. So, those are the discussions that come into your long-term planning that we will be talking about, you know, for the future. And to um you know, and while it it has to be spoken about, you know, and and um, but to

083to pierce a cap that's already at 6.51, just seems out of the question from where I'm sitting. The good thing is we're not there yet. We don't We don't know. We don't do hypotheticals at this point. >> what I'm saying. Give us Give us the Definitely. Give us the the the the You're going to be given a lot of information and you'll be able to make, you know, informed choices. And again, part of the planning and the consideration is taking into the taking into consideration the community. And, you know, whether the community is feeling taxpayer fatigue, and there's the political element, too. You know, the importance is, and, you know, we touched upon it, we talked about it, I can't emphasize it enough, you saw on the last slide the differential between tax levies. Currently,

084we're at 71 million. Our tax levy limit goes up maybe 6.5% to 7. um, 76 million. Think about if you go on contingency. Think about all those increased costs in the budget, from health insurance, transportation, things that we can't control, but we have to put in. Special education, new kids coming in, whatever. Think about building a budget with those things. Well, that's your next presentation. >> Being on Being on contingency and then having to cut back to that tax levy. Is that going to be one of your next presentations? Um, we we will get to that point. Yes, during the budget development process. So, usually I like to talk about contingency at the end because that's like the worst-case scenario. And districts that end up on contingency, it takes them many, many years to recover.

085You know, it's not really a good place to be. It hurts you fiscally, it hurts your ratings. It hurts you in so many ways that um it's it's probably anywhere I'm going to say a 3 to 5-year recovery when a district come ends up on austerity and contingency. Because your programs won't look like anything like they are now. Totally different. And then and then of course you're going to give us the breakout as to what that looks like per household. Per average household. >> Absolutely. When we do the tax rate. So, in the spirit of um thinking out of the box and looking at things around the fringes that don't necessarily affect the core instructional program as we move forward with our 3-year plan and our deficit uh financing and program, if you will. One

086of the things that we wanted to look at is the district's transportation policy. And what I would like to do is Now, this is just a discussion for consideration um for the board. We did present this to the budget advisory committee in the beginning of the week. But it it is important for the board to hear it and discuss it for the purpose of if we decide to go forward, which you'll hear later on in the presentation, it will require a referendum to be put before the community. So, let me just frame this for the board as to where we are now. So, the first slide to give you a indication that the current budget our current transportation budget was 11.6 million. Due to the budgetary constraints and increased service utilization um that was one

087of the things we did, our projections on, and we came up with a figure that we're about, as of February 2nd, [cough and clears throat] here, about 721,000 shy in the area of transportation. You okay? I'm good. Okay. Um so, okay, so suffice to say, we know that our transportation code this year is short. So, as soon as we saw that, what we did was uh I called in the transportation consultant. We sat down, we had a meeting. Um we embarked on a um a bus route efficiency study, if you will. And out of that oversight, we were able to identify about $350,000 in cost savings, okay? That did not directly impact the kids or transportation. Okay? What that was from was we noticed we had um excessive matrons on buses. We noticed that we

088had some buses that may have been late. We were able to consolidate routes. So, we were able to save a few vans, and we looked very carefully at that. So, that's a plus. Um So, now, we know that we're 721,000 short. So, now we we're still short of about 371,000. So, here sets the stage that when we're looking at a 3-year recovery plan to make reductions in a budget, how much do we go into the instructional program or the support programs? And how much do we affect people's lives and people? Names, okay? And part of looking at this, again, is looking around the fringes. So, taking the presentation, why we do the policy, um transportation is happens to be of the largest cost drivers within your budget besides special education. Um, and I think the

089the review of the policy is a critical component of the three-year recovery plan. And why do I say that? Because when we look at the policy, we have an opportunity to maybe align the level of services that we are providing above the state mandate. So, when we look at our private parochial school transportation within our policy, the district very generously transports up to 25 miles. The state minimum private parochial school is 15. Okay? So, I saw fit to say, "Okay, let's do a cost analysis on that. Let's see what's that costing the district." And you can see by the numbers there that we um 25 miles to 15, we've also identified the students. We know that we transport 193 students to private parochial schools. We also identified that the students that we transport beyond the

09015 miles, to that 15 to 25 miles, they represent 121 students. Okay? To put a dollar on that, what we would save on the expenditure side is just under $900,000. Okay? Now, the reason why this is up for discussion, as we said earlier, we talk about everything. Some things may be painful, some things may not, but we want to evaluate everything. So, when we look at this putting together a recovery plan, and we say we have to cut another million from the budget, and we're able to do it maybe through transportation and not go in and reduce additional staff or excess additional staff, is this a better way to do it? I'm not answering the question. I'm throwing the question out there to the board. Okay? Full disclosure, transportation cost is an expenditure driven aid.

091We get transit. So, if we're cutting 900,000 from the budget, it's going to affect a piece of our transportation revenue. So, that little blue bar on the bottom, I did the calculation for everyone. So, our transportation aid is 56.7%. So, we we reduced our cost by about $900,000, it would have a corresponding decrease of about 493,000 in transit. Okay? The bottom line is, we would still have a net reduction and savings of $404,000. Okay? So, those are the facts. That's where this would get you. So, basically, um so, a policy change option to align with New York State. Again, you would reduce your private parochial from 25 to 15, bringing the district in line with New York State. We identified the the target, if you will, that is going to impact 121 students currently transported

092beyond the 15 miles. We identified the annual savings of about $900,000. And from a budgetary standpoint, it provides long-term stability for the district. And it becomes part of your three-year plan to stabilize the finances going forward. And you're still providing services up to the the state minimum, okay? So, it really is a more of a strategic approach to the fiscal management aligning the practices with the the state while preserving the educational programs and the teaching positions that directly serve our students, okay? Um So, at this particular point, I just again, it's going to be something we're going to ask the board to consider. Um as I mentioned earlier, it does require voter approval, okay? Transportation eligibility or change in the transportation policy always has to be done by referendum. The board does not have the

093authority to unilaterally make this decision. The board can make the decision whether to put up a proposition to the community or not, okay? That's your choice as we evolve through the budget development process. Um The referendum process, if the board chooses to go forward, would include comprehensive education for the community to to ensure that everyone understands the current situation and the change and the fiscal impact and more importantly the impact to the affected families. And of course, going in this direction, we would provide clear direction and answer any questions. So, again, um you have a very simple um four-point approach from a budget review, a board review and direction, to educate the community, public referendum, that would be in May, and then implementation if approved. So, we kind of touched upon um some of the

094reasons why this makes fiscal sense. Okay, so I won't really rehash them again, but um approximately you you're going to be not approximately you're going to be achieving about $900,000 in expenditure savings with a you know impact on the revenue side at all at the same time. So, the reason why we're bringing this up now, I know um Chris Flynn, our district clerk, she's very anxious because she's going to be looking to put together um the ballots soon on the referendums, and she's going to have to know whether the district wants to go forward with a referendum. Okay, how the referendum would look um on the ballot, it would be it would be drafted between ourselves and legal counsel that it would be conditioned about the budget would be X if the referendum passes, the

095budget would be Y if the referendum does not pass. Districts do this all the time, um and that's how it would be presented to the community. Again, it's a it's a thought, it's an idea, it's a something that we're thinking around out of the box around the fringes that would have least amount of impact to the instructional direct impact to the instructional program. So, with that, I will Oh, where's my question? Oh, I didn't have a question, sorry. So, with that, I'm sure there's questions. I [clears throat] have one. Do you know what the the radius is in surrounding districts or what how prevalent is in 25 miles? >> most districts, the majority of the districts are at 50 miles. 15? Yeah, but probably there's very few that may be beyond that. So. Next question

096also. Um, so it's a net savings of about $400,000 a year, but if it projected over our 3-year recovery plan, we're looking at a 1.2 savings. So, could ultimately knock down that legislative borrowing that we're talking about at $12 million, and we're we're chopping that down pretty quickly with that amount. And then obviously it allows us to save programs, teachers, and Absolutely. >> that. Absolutely. So, the other piece, Mr. Barbato, if you can explain that, you know, regardless of the aid we receive back, you still have to budget for the the total expenditure. Right. So, that you know, if if we have to budget for $900,000, then $900,000 has to give somewhere else, not the net. Right. So, so so to the superintendent's point, um, so it's clear, even though we're talking about a net

097effect, we're talking about two different pots, if you will, expenditures and the revenues. So, if our budget is $150 million, and we save $900,000, then the budget ends up being, um, you know, 100 149.1. So, you have to have 100% of your revenue and spending, that whole amount would come down from your, uh, expenditure side. Okay. So, I mean, that's a large, you know, that's a large chunk of a budget reduction. I can't talk about the public the popularity of it or but So, if there were a proposition added at the budget vote time, at what point do you need authority from the board to go forward with that? Um Are you looking tonight or are you looking No, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that to the board. I would say that I

098think talk about it, think about it, discuss it. Um if you anybody has further questions, we can further evaluate it, but I would say minimally maybe at the next board meeting. Um for the sake of Chris because she has to go forward. I know what she has to prepare. So, um it's either going to be yes, we're supportive of a referendum. At least that would get the ball rolling for the work that needs to be done to prepare for uh Chris's end as the district clerk, and we can work with legal counsel in drafting proposed legislation. I think Barbara and I will be spending some a lot of time together. But by having the referendum, it puts it out there so that our entire community weighs in about whether this is a service that we

099want to offer in this district. >> Yeah. And basically, when the community comes out to vote, they're going to come out and vote on that proposition separately. So, they're going to vote on the budget, and they're going to get to vote on So, if the overall community says, "No, we don't want it." then proposition goes down, the money stays in the budget, we continue doing what we're doing. Okay? Um and it may mean that we may have to cut more in the during the year or make reductions or go further because of that that three-point that three-point plan. Just a comment, you know, I think anytime you make a decision that could, you know, adversely affect any member of our community, they're all taxpayers, it's a difficult decision. When you consider, you know, the situation

100we're in and our just not structural deficit of this year and sort of anticipating recovery plan in subsequent years, you know, where do we want to invest our money? You know, we want to invest it um in something that's going to, you know, obviously have a beneficial uh effect on the 121 students that we're talking about or in our programs that are, you know, affect our our our district and our schools that are attending our schools. So, it's a it's a difficult situation to be in. I don't know that we'd be having this discussion if we were not in the situation that we're currently in. But, it is about these points certainly merits discussion. Thank you for the thoroughness of both presentations. >> My pleasure. Thank you. We are on with items for discussion. We

101have a first reading of policy 1500, which is public use of facilities. Again, this is an opportunity for the board to review the policy before we act on it at our next or subsequent board meeting. And in the interim, we are going to be There's about 3 weeks between our board meetings. We're going to be also working on a regulation that gets attached to policy that discusses fee schedules and some of the sort of parameters for our facilities use. Um but this is a result of uh multiple meetings with our policy committee. Um we reviewed, you know, the Nisba recommended policies, uh policies of other school districts just to come to sort of uh uh the consensus of this uh being a comprehensive uh policy that kind of meets needs of the districts. And all

102of this has been an effort to tailor it to the needs of our district. That's correct. Okay. And the other policy that's also being submitted for a first read is policy 3420, which is our uh non-discrimination and anti-harassment in school district. Basically, again, what we've been doing is looking at all of our policies, um with the guidance of NISBA. um We've been given some guidance to sort of just clarify some of our policies while maintaining some of the things that are unique to South Country. This is the first read before taking any action on it. To give the board an opportunity to read through it and answer any questions arise, you can always reach out to my office for answers. Thank you. This one copy, the red-lined version, I didn't see any red lines in

103it. Um there's You're talking about the anti-harassment >> Yeah. There's one red line. Black line? Is it? Like where is the red line? >> Oh it actually is black line. It's a black line. Okay, got it. It's actually red. The scanner didn't capture the red. Okay, okay. Thank you. So we're going to move on in the agenda with curriculum agenda items. The administration recommends approval of curriculum items reflected in schedules G1 through G4. G3? Wait, three is it? One through three? That's correct. I'm going to retract my recommendation. Administration recommends approval of curriculum items reflected in schedules G1 through G3. Is there a motion to approve? Trusty Belue, second by Vice President Delillo. Questions, discussion? None. All in favor? Um Who's in favor? Yes. It's unanimously approved. Moving on to personnel agenda items, the administration

104recommends approval of personnel agenda items located in items H1 through H6. Is there a motion to approve H1 through H6? Trusty Falsetta, second by Trusty Calderon. Questions, discussion. >> one question. I didn't get to ask it in the other I'll ask it here. If it can't be answered, that's fine. You can answer me some other time. Did we hire the baseball varsity coach? There's only assistant coach on this one. >> in a prior agenda. It was. >> Yeah. Okay, thank you. Okay. Um, so I have first and a second and a question. And all in favor? This is a process of doing Yes, unanimously approved. I do have to go off script or off agenda a little bit to give a shout out to Principal Shawn Clark. We just accepted his retirement. So, you know,

105we talk about Kramer's mascot being the goat, perhaps he's the greatest of all time. So, congratulations Principal Clark ON YOUR RETIREMENT. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT, MOVING ON TO BUSINESS AGENDA ITEMS. The administration recommends approval of business items reflected in schedules I1 through I8. Is there a motion to approve items I1 through I8? Vice President Delilah, second by Trustee Falsetta. Um questions, discussions. All in favor? Yes. Yes, then it's unanimously approved. Any any yellow cards for public commentary? No. Closing remarks by board members. Student has none. All right, looking on my right, none. None. Yes, one quick follow-up in a minute online. Let me check the online. No comments. Okay. Just one quick comment. I was able to go to the Unified Golf and it is fun to go to. So, Superintendent, if you have

106a chance, you should go. And it is heated, so it was freezing that day, but they kept warm enough with the heat. >> I appreciate that, Trustee Felice. I'll try to make it. >> Okay. No further comments. A motion to adjourn. Trustee Vice President Lillo, Trustee Felice. All in favor. And I think that's unanimous, also. Thank you very much.