001Last, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Miss Feliz, would you lead us the pledge? Certainly 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. Thank you everybody. Um, uh, just a reminder of the emergency exit locations. Please take note of the exit in the back of the room and the uh door you came in through. In case of an emergency, please leave in an orderly fashion through these exits. This is a smokefree and vapefree school district. Smoking is not permitted in the building or anywhere on school grounds. This is also a hateree and bullyfree school district. Moving on to item C, board consent agenda. The administration recommends the approval of board consent
002items reflected in schedule C1 and C2. C1 and two. Can I have a motion? Miss Feliz, I have a qu uh well, I'll make the motion to approve. Can I have second? Mr. Dillo, discussion. Yes. Uh discussion the on item number two, the treasur's report that was sent to us just today, very very late. Okay. Okay. Just that's a 55 or 59 page document. I've made these requests before that this document come to us much earlier. This where's Miss Gee? I can't see Miss Gee. Miss Let's just keep these to the superintendent. Right. Okay. No, no, no. Just just want to thank her for the for the the ruler that she gave me to read that document. Okay. Um this is the treasur's report. This is we're going through a very intense budget report tonight.
003And this is a this is a uh the January report is our halfway report for for the budget tonight. So I would like to request we either table this report or I need I'm I need I I mean it's not going to change the report. The report is going to be the report. Everything in it I I is I'm going to be in approval of the report. But because I like to go through those the you know each and every item in that report to to be certain of what's in it to to watch the lines to make sure we're where we are need to be with the with the budget that we're about to hear tonight. I can't do that because you see the way I'm dressed tonight. I had a fundraiser for my
004Lions Club. Normally I prep for this meeting all day on Wednesday. So when these late reports come through I have time to read them. I didn't have time to do that today. I prepped yesterday. You and I had a long conversation yesterday about the questions I had about this agenda. Couldn't do that with the late report especially with the treasurer's report. So okay. So let's going forward, let's let's just try to put it in place that if we have multiple page documents that need to be for the board, they're not they've got they've got to come at least come they can't come the week of they've got to come at least by Friday before a board meeting. So this is ample time for the board to read it. Is that something I think we should
005be able to accomplish? I mean there's nothing time sensitive, right? No, not at all. Okay. Okay. That should work going forward. It it it should work and I' I'd respectfully like to table the that report for this meeting. Is there anything timesensitive that treasures report that prevents us from doing that? Okay. Does anybody have an amendment says a motion? Yeah. Correct. Just want to make sure the board agrees to to pulling this item. All right. So, um we need a motion to amend the motion or does Mr. Lee have to recall our motion? Uh you can amend. Okay. Someone like to would you like to make a motion to amend your motion, Mr. Fe? um to remove item two. Why don't we Why don't I withdraw my motion and we'll just we'll just um I'll
006make we'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Okay. So, and we'll table the treasurer's report. So, it's got to be in I just want to look to council to make sure we're doing that right. I don't know. It is. And does the seconder have to or just she miss So, there'll have to be a second now as well and a vote on on the new motion. Okay. So, can I have a motion to withdraw the motion or is Miss F making the motion? She's making a motion to withdraw a motion. Correct. Is there a second? Mr. Little, any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Okay. Motion is withdrawn. Now, we'll ask for a motion for item one. That's you. Yep. So, the administration recommends approval of board 10 items reflected in schedule C1.
007Can I have a motion? Mr. Low, seconded by Miz. Any discussion? See none is in favor. Motion carries unanimous. Um This is a relatively short superintendence report. Um, so I'll get right to it. Um last week I had the privilege of attending our high school winter concert, our second winter concert featuring featuring our amazing jazz ensemble uh conducted by Angelina Watson, our mixed chorus and concert orchestrator that performed together. There's quite a number of students on stage which is pretty fantastic. That was conducted jointly by Mr. Henry Philip Finnegan, Juliet Valenci and Cynthia Holden and our wind ensemble which also perform under the direction of Angelina Wson. Again, watching uh these uh sort of uh groups uh perform is always sort of impressive. So, big shout out to our entire music staff. And again, I'll
008say each time, always impressed by the sheer number of students who participate in our music program. Moving on with some more happenings, I had the privilege of reading uh to students at Kramer Street Elementary School. One of the highlights of that interaction were the students kind of boasting about their math scores as soon as I walked in the room. They show me their data. But I got to read a book called Bumpy Has a Motorcycle about a father who takes his daughter on a motorcycle ride around around their old town. And the book was about change. And the kids got the theme right away because certain stores that used to be there weren't there. And one of the third graders said, you know, the theme of the book is that even though things may look
009different, the feelings are the same, which is really uh insightful by the third graders. So a great time reading to them. Frank P. Long kind of set me up for their uh readalong book. It was called The Book with No Pictures, which is very suspect. Um, but the book had no pictures because it made the reader do and say really silly things much to the enjoyment of the students. So I was making weird sounds and saying really silly things about myself and they enjoyed it so much so that they made me read it twice. Um, also we participated in a parade of champions at Bport High School celebrating our girls uh varsity wrestling team and Cameron Howard who won the individual state championship. At our next board meeting, we'll have more of an update of
010some of the accolades that our student athlete achieved in our winter sports season, including indoor track that we haven't spoken about yet. So, big shout out to our student athletes and our coaches. I also engaged in my first classroom visitation for civics capstone project in preparation for our civics day that's happening later in April or May actually at Belport Middle School. These students in Miss Williams class were advocating for a study center for students at the middle school that is separate and aside from the study center that exists for student athletes. I thought it was a great proposal. I had some great questions for me and had a great time in the class. And I also want to highlight that this u next week on March 25th uh Billport Middle School is hosting a curriculum
011fair from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. uh in the gym through the auditorium entrance where you get to see some of the highlights of some of the things going on at the middle school. Uh there'll be staff and students participating as well as a little musical performance by our South Korean singers. So if you can make it out, please stop by our curriculum fair at 5:00 on March 25th. Outside of the district, I had the opportunity to go to the refit uh breakfast. Refit stands for reform educational finance and equities today. Um this was hosted by Dr. Sammy Gerggas who used to work here in our business office. But the point of the breakfast is a lot of our elected officials and legislators are present to receive some questions that were facilitated by Dr. Gurgus. Questions
012included questions on foundation aid, our foundation aid formula. You know, one of the things that we sort of um advocate for is a restructuring of that aid formula and sort of the weight that certain students are assigned like our special education students or our English language learners. Civil service reform. A lot of us are frustrated by civil service in terms of our ability to hire employees and the length or the amount of time it takes to do so. Our universal prek aid right now is capped at $5,400 per student. This figure I think was developed in the early 2000s. So, it's really antiquated. So, we're really advocating for that amount to be raised. Uh federal title program funding. We had some questions about some of the uncertainty of title funds. uh health insurance cost which
013seems to be skyrocketing across the board and the impact that charter schools are having on public schools. So in all it was a productive morning an informative morning um and happy to have attended it. I also had a wonderful time at a woman's history event at Bilport Middle School where some dignitaries from the Suffach County Police were invited which included Miss Elizabeth Yates who's our assistant commissioner, detective sergeant April Hargrove, Deputy Police Commissioner Belinda Alvarez Groman, our Latino leaison, officer Jasmine Filant, and our police chief or some kind of police chief uh Milos Sodto. U they did a really great presentation. Um, I really enjoyed just not the fact, you know, first and foremost, we're so supportive of law enforcement, so it's great to see these law enforcement dignitaries here addressing our eighth grade students.
014The fact that they're all women was really remarkable and impressive to me just because I think they serve as amazing role models for our students, boys and girls, and they also represented such a diverse group of people. So, I thought it was a win-winwin. And I want to thank Dr. Blazik again for lending a hand and making this happen for our middle school. It really was a an incredible event. Um, and again, please follow us on social media. All of these snapshots are just from Instagram pages from various schools and organizations. There's a lot going on in our school district. All this stuff is just from the past week. And there are different ways to follow us. One is our community portal, which you can subscribe to on our homepage. Our social media links are
015all posted on our homepage as well as the superintendent's corner, my contact information, my social media feeds, and my weekly update. And just as a little point of reference, we're hoping to launch our new website July 1st. So, I'm really excited about that. So, be on the lookout for a more formal. That concludes my report. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you. Okay. Um trustee and advisory committee reports. Lauren, I'm going to start with you. Um so, in March, um we're continuing with our spirit month. So, this Friday we have anything but a backpack. Um, next Friday is Hawaiian day and then the day before is class color day because Thursday, March 27th, we have class Olympics. So, everyone's super excited for that. We're really looking forward to it. Um, next Friday, um, we leave
016for our conference in Albany. So, thank you. We're also looking forward to that. Um, we're pairing up with Key Club. So, student council and Key Club. We're going upstate to Albany to um partake in this conference. Um April, when you say April, we have the academic competition. So, it's something like Jeopardy in which the seniors and juniors and then sophomores and freshmen compete against each other with um questions about Bport and other relevant facts. Um and we are also collecting warmer clothes for our spring clothing drive. Also with spring um spring sports started on Monday and we're also super excited for that. The warm weather has been very nice as well. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Miss Liz. Thank you. Yes. Uh congratulations to Miss Lrea. She scored in the top 10 of her class.
017So congratulations to you and all the other um uh students that are with you. And um enjoyed Women's History Month. Thank you again, Dr. Blazix, for such a wonderful presentation. I think it was exceptional this year. The kids were really engaged. Um uh I think they really did enjoy the presentation and it was also nice to reminisce with uh one of my former union members who I represented when I was president of uh the Suffach County Association of Municipal Employees back when she was not a police officer and she was a probation uh aid um Sergeant Harrove. So it's nice to see how we all progress over the years and where we where we end up. So it was a nice event. Thank you once again. That's it. Great. Mr. L. Um, I just want
018to piggyback kind of on the how great our music staff is. Last Friday, uh, at 1:00 there was a scramble to get Scamia rehearsals. Um, they were supposed to be at West Hampton Beach. Unfortunately, they had a scare. So, the high school administration as well as the music department was able to uh set the rehearsals um at our high school um, which was great. those kids. The next night was the concert, which was, if you have a chance to go see a Scamia concert, you should. The music is fantastic. Um, and it's great to see our district so represented, um, with Miss Wson being the president of Scamia. Um, also want to give shout out to the high school for the junior prom. Um, that was also last Friday night. Uh, my daughter went, she
019had a great time and I just want to say thank you, Miss Kevin. Uh nothing. Thank you. Please I attended a meeting of Compass Unity um and um was glad to not glad to hear about some of the things that they were reporting on because it has to do with like cannabis laced gummies and snack packages that look like Fritos and things like that. And apparently there's a rash of this going on in our community or the surrounding area. And I just I hope I'm glad to know I didn't know about it, but I think it's something that we ought to know about and we ought to let parents know about if they're not aware of this going on. Um, I went to the winter concert, the second I went to the first one and
020also the second one. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Attended a policy committee meeting yesterday. Um, and we're plotting our way through some policies and weeding out ones that are not absolutely essential and trying to combine things to make it a little easier and more functional. thoroughly enjoyed the women's history uh event with uh women and law enforcement at the middle school and I attended the very uh the policy committee which was the very first one that is was chaired by our new assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and she had it structured so that the main part of it was a discussion of delivery of different classes and all of that and the discussion was so vibrant we didn't have time for it so I don't know um how that can be rectified next time but it
021it was very worthwhile and um glad to have been a part of that that was the equity you had said policy committee equity committee Yeah. Yeah. Equity. The policy. The policy I only made one comment about, which was trying to trying to streamline things and get it easier to work with. With regard to equity, that's what our assistant superintendent um she had an agenda and the the meaty part of the agenda was very vibrant, but we couldn't I felt like we could have gone on more for that. Anything else? That's it, Mr. Barry. Nothing to report beyond what's been already reported. Got it. And I have a couple quick things. Um, so I had a NASA SUFFK school board meeting last week. Uh, there were a couple things that came out. Um, one of the
022things I don't think I realized was next year is the 250th anniversary of our country. [Music] 176. Yeah. So there is I know um the county executive has uh put together a committee of leaders throughout the county to uh it sounds like Suffach County is planning um you know plenty of celebrations next year uh for this and there's a committee on it and there is some discussion as to how are we linking schools to these celebrations and you know what what what are we doing and things like that. So, I don't think there's anything right now other than a you know, we should probably be thinking about it internally and seeing what there is and opportunities to connect with this county committee to um explore how we can tag along and what they might even
023be offering for schools for students by way of programs and and maybe there's field trips. I don't really know. Um I do know that Bob Beckio from NASA schoolboard is on that committee. So, he might it will be a bridge to the school community. So, we will probably hear more. So really more of an FYI at this point. Um, another topic of conf of uh conversation was the uh was the new regulation I think that goes in effect next year which is the student school board member that officially goes in effect next July one. Correct. Yep. Obviously we don't have that issue because we've had one for a number of years. I think we're one of the only districts on Long Island that has had it for as long. But the question that did come
024up because I offered you know to let the room know we've had one for years. Anybody has questions, you'll let me know. It's been a great experience for us. But somebody asked a question and it made me think, does our student board member and how we handle it conform to the state regulations? And I and I don't think we're doing anything wrong, but there is more to it, I think, within the regulation, and I'm not really familiar with it. But there are instances where the student board member will participate in discussions although not executive session but there will be opportunity to solicit more than just what's happening in school and to be around and to hear things but there is more in-depth involvement from the student board member in this new law. So we should
025probably take a look at that and see how things may need to change going forward and prepare our student board members for that etc. So, we actually brought that up in our policy committee meeting because uh actually when we meet again, we're going to look at our policy uh regarding the exeicio and make sure that we're, you know, in sort of uh aligned with what the expectations from the state are. Got it. But it came up at our policy meeting. Got it. Um I'm glad you mentioned Skamia because we were applauded in the room by a number of districts for our ability to uh quickly transition during the fire and move rehearsals here to South Country. Um there were a lot of music families in there. um one of our music teachers mom is the
026Nisares representative. So she's very involved in music community and the praise was heaped upon our district um uh quite a bit at that meeting. So thank you to everybody who did do that and put that together and was able to pull that off. It really made us look great and that's a wonderful thing especially at a scary time. And it was interesting because another part of that in relation to the fires was there's a number of uh board members from eastern Suffach Bose. He's on the NASA school board and they discovered they have a building at the West Hampton airport and they were evacuated and the building they were evacuated to was evacuated and they didn't have a plan. So, it highlighted, you know, some significant flaws in what they thought was a sound emergency
027plan that they never had to really enact since '95, right? I don't even know if they had a building back then. So, it did get me thinking of, you know, how often are we auditing our protocols and certain securities and things like that. And it's something that to the health and safety committee, if they're not already on their radar, should probably start brushing up on some of those things to just see what has changed, whether it's technology, whatever it is, there's probably things that change. So, it was good opportunity to refresh that, have that conversation. So, ironically, Mr. Galina, who's here today, brought this topic up to me today. So, he's already engaged. Great minds, pal. Great minds. Um, Mr. Hun also, we tested our rave app at Kramer Elementary School. That's the, you know,
028app that we have in case there is an emergency. So, we've been on it. But yeah, ironically, because of the uh whole there were bomb threats at West Hampton, that's what sort of necessitated there to cancel the rehearsal. And so, um, yeah, Mr. Gina is on it. Oh, is that right? Was the rehearsal not canceled because of the fires? No, the fire. Oh, it was the bomb threat. Okay. It was the same week cuz because it is interesting because that bomb threat issue that was three schools I think that received the bomb threat and I know they arrested the student but it it was interesting you bring that up because I got texts from from my kids about it in our high school. So it circulated pretty quick. Um Okay. So good. So glad. All
029right. And the credit also goes to students uh to make it happen. The admin obviously the music staff but also there were student volunteers that helped make this whole thing happen Friday night. Literally something that takes weeks to plan. they were able to deliver and then an afternoon. So credit to the only other piece that came out that I thought was worth mentioning and as we go through the budgets and I think it it was last last week where we talked about transportation and the significant increase in transportation costs. Um I was a little bit surprised at how many districts are struggling with the exact same issue around the room. was anywhere from a million5 to $3 million that about half of the districts anticipated an increased transportation cost because their contracts are up and
030there seems to be somebody said I wouldn't say it. There seems to be plenty of collusion amongst transportation companies. Every district that I have spoken to and it's it's a handful that have gone out for RFPs for busing only had one district respond excuse me one bus company respond and it was their current provider. That is, in my opinion, clear evidence of collusion. So, um, and that's difficult. Any any district has, you know, $2 million increase to any budget line, it's going to be difficult to manage. So, um, so it seems to be a problem across the island, not just us. And, um, I think that's all I have. Okay. Okay. Moving on. Do we have any cards? No. Okay. Um, you're up. All right. All right. So, today we're going to be doing our
031fifth budget presentation, which is a staffing analysis. We're not going to be going over uh revenue numbers or expenditure numbers. We're going to be talking about staffing. Um and I want to preface this by saying that this is probably one of the more difficult uh presentations I've had to make because um as President Putoutini alluded to, uh there have been sort of unexpected and unanticipated rises or increases in operating costs that have taken multiple school districts by surprise. But in looking at our timeline, here we are March 19th, our staffing analysis. Um on April 2nd, we'll provide an expenses and revenues update to see where we're at. Um again, this on this budget process is ongoing and will culminate in our budget adaptation, which is when we present our final budget on April 20th. May
0327th is our budget hearing, which is our last meeting uh that we discussed the budget and public aside from any budget road shows I may engage in. And our budget vote and election will be on May 20th. Um again, right now we're um in the process. We're not in April yet, but we've done our staffing analysis all throughout March. U we're in the process of now really looking at our expenditures and revenues and trying to see exactly um to make sure we're just doing and scouring every little line item that we can scour just to see if we can find some savings in uh expenditures and also trying to develop ways we can perhaps increase revenue. Um so here are the considerations we made when we go into like staffing analysis in normal times. First
033we want to make sure that academic achievement as well as social emotional needs are being met and supported in any given programs in our schools. We want to ensure compliance with special education and state education department regulations and mandates. Uh we want to maintain our academic and extracurricular activities to the greatest extent possible always. Um, we also have to respond to the district's declining enrollment in a responsive manner, which means whenever we respond to declining enrollment, we want to make sure we're responsive to the needs of our students and our programs. Um, I know this image is somewhat small, but just in um the last school year, uh, the school district has lost about 111 students when we look at the bottom line enrollment numbers. At the same time, our number of classified students and
034English language learners have gone up due to unexpected significant increases in operating costs. As I alluded to before, our financial challenges require staff reductions that align with our declining enrollment. So, what I mean by this is we had a long-term plan of reducing staff through attrition. What that means is as people retire um you absorb those retirements and sort of level the playing field because we've been able to sort of enjoy small class sizes and maintaining different types of supports uh in our schools. But um this plan which was a gradual and long-term plan has really been sort of uh accelerated to a short-term immediate strategy because of the urgency of our situation. And I kind of want to talk about what the situation is first before we go over our staffing numbers. First, I
035put together this 10-year comparison to show how our operating costs have skyrocketed over the last 10 years. And just these um sort of line items, um when you look at uh our English language learners and the services we provide to them as compared to 2014 numbers, our costs have gone up by over $2 million. And currently this figure was taken uh probably in February we were at 17 almost 18% of our population are English language learners. We're hitting the 20% mark uh in March. So even though our enrollment is declining, our enrollment of English language learners is increasing. Um we've had about a 3% increase in special education uh students in terms of just percentages of overall population. But that 3% represents almost a $2.4 $4 million increase in expenditures associated with special uh special
036education. Cyber security wasn't such a a thing in 2014. Those expenses have gone up by almost $3.4 million. Our insurance has gone up by about $3.3 million, not counting the increase of almost 15% that we're anticipating for the next school year. Uh that's insurance. Mental health costs have been somewhat steady. We've had a pretty robust mental health program uh over the last 10 years. Physical security includes technology security staff. Um that's been an increase of about $700,000. Boseies is another big ticket item. We're using Boseies to greater extent and obviously their operating costs go up. That represents an additional $3 million. And transportation, we've seen an increase of almost $3 million over the last 10 years, not including what we're anticipating uh for the next uh school year. and other operational costs are just maintenance
037of the buildings. Um, since we haven't had a bond project, the buildings are sort of starting to sort of need repair. Those costs to repair them are increasing on an annual basis. But despite a decline of almost 600 students over the last 10 years, our operating costs just these areas have gone up by $22 million. More immediately, I'm talking about this coming school year. What we anticipated was that we're going to have uh sort of a deficit for three years. this current year, the first year of the deficit. And this is because of the disparity between the building aid we're receiving and our debt payments. So, we were able to navigate these disparities by strategic use of our reserves. For this upcoming school year, that's 2526. We anticipated a deficit of about $1.3 million. And
038when we got the governor's initial budget proposal, that deficit was in the numbers of about $1.2 million. So, we're pretty accurate in our projections. What we did not anticipate was these line items and the exorbitant amount of money that they increased or the cost increased. You're looking at special education alone. We're looking at almost a 6 and a half% increase in special education costs. Transportation is the most monumental at almost a 16% increase. Um, this includes about a 9% contractual increase. And the fact that we're using a lot more minibuses uh for our special education students, which add to the cost, but this is uh almost a 2 million or $1.6 million increase we did not anticipate. And really the big one was health insurance with the 15% bump that we're receiving. That represents an
039almost 15% it's 14.52% increase, but about $2.8 million. That's a little over $5 million increased operating costs that we didn't anticipate. So these projected increases are not inclusive of standard increases such as salary increments, standard operating costs, and other expenditures. And to give the board just a little context, we typically plan for a 3 to 5% increase in these costs when we anticipate a projected budget. We certainly didn't anticipate double-digit numbers. And unfortunately, this is forcing us to make some really difficult staffing decisions. Um, because at certain point, which is now, we have to sort of eliminate staff to sort of meet the declining enrollment. And I say this kind of with a heavy heart because I appreciate the impact it has on teachers, on a community, on staff morale. Um, we're not alone in
040this. Doesn't make me feel any better. Currently, we're part of I'm just stick to healthcare. We're part of a three- district consortium that uh has a fully funded health care system. That's a three village school district, Smithtown School District. Uh we're on the same boat because of the rising uh healthc care costs in addition to transportation cost. I spoke to the superintendent in three village uh just today. They're looking to lay off about 31 teachers. Um a handful of administrators, clerical staff, security staff. Smithtown is up to 42 teachers they're laying off. Um and the same is happening in districts across Long Island as uh President Patini um alluded to. Again, our hope was to sort of do this long term because we do appreciate our teachers. Um but yeah, it's um basically the situation
041or the crisis has sort of forced our hands. So, we have to do a really deep dive into staffing. So, at this point, um he's only been here about a year, but I'm going to introduce Jason Hudman. He's going to go over the staffing analysis and more spec specificity than I can because I'm losing my powers of speech. So, I'll have uh Mr. Hudsman take over from this point. Thank you very much, Mr. Santana. Um, good evening to the board of education, to our South Country School District at large. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to present here our staffing projections for the 2025 2026 school year. Um, what I wanted to do tonight is just to kind of start talking about the language of how we think about and how we look at at staffing.
042And it really comes down to the language of what we call FTE or full-time equivalent. Um, and a full-time equivalent is is another acronym for a full-time employee. And the FTE or full-time equivalency is really based on the number one or often you'll hear it read as 1.0 as a a full-time staff member. And at times we do have FTEES that could be denoted as decimals. So, for example, if if we are talking about a 0.5 FTE, that would be an employee that works half the time that a typical full-time employee would would work. And again, a point 2 would be somebody that represents that works at 20% of of a typical full-time uh full-time employee. Just as we do our our staffing allocation and budget, um from time to time, we do have some
043teachers that are either part-time or that are split uh amongst the buildings. And so, you know, some of our staff, we may have somebody who's a 0.5 FTE at the middle school and also a 0.5 FTE at the high school, but we look at the at the sum of of what they are. And this person in this example would be a 1.0 FTE because their their sum of FTE allocation would be a 1.0. Uh, from time to time also too, as we do our our staffing projections, we we will have um some teachers that are split by department. So we may have a teacher that's a point4 ENL teacher and also a point a 6 uh English language teacher for for this example. And again that person would be designated as a 1.0 full-time full-time
044employee. The only other kind of definitions that I wanted to start with this uh this evening is when we talk about uh FTE, we talk about uh fullyear classes on the secondary that meet every single day. That would be considered a 0.2 FTE. And then our courses that are either running every other day or courses that run uh for half a year, that would be a 0.1 FTE allocation. As we go through our presentation this evening, we're really going to look through five five lenses and and five areas of focus uh in regards to our staffing. First being central office and obviously central office is kind of charged with the operation of uh of the entire district annotated there. I won't I won't read that that portion of the slide, but you can see what
045uh central office is responsible for and the staff members that are associated with those roles. We'll also be looking at our administration and support and this will include uh both our district and building administrators that are charged with carrying out the functions of the school district um and their associated responsibilities within their specific titles. The third the third facet will be we'll be looking at our elementary schools and all the the associated staffing uh related there. our elementary staffing and schools. Uh we'll be looking at kindergarten through fifth grade and uh and also our our prek center. Um we'll be looking at all of our teachers, support staff, mental health professionals, guidance, and other instructional coaches. And similar to that, we'll looking through the same lens for our secondary, but for secondary, we'll be looking
046at grades um 6 through 12. And our final piece of the puzzle that we'll be looking at tonight is our non-instructional staff. uh and that includes uh both district and building staff that uh ranges from our teaching assistants to our safety officers, nurses, maintenance, clerical and other support staff that will be uh categorized as our non-instructional staff. So to start us out, our first lens that we talk we're going to talk about I mentioned was our uh central office and for for next year uh we do not have any projected changes to our current staff. Currently we have 13.5 uh FTE that that are allocated under this umbrella and at this point uh that's what we anticipate for our 2526 school year uh with no changes in that area. Up next is our administration and
047our support personnel. So uh it's it's a rather large table. I'm not going to go through each one, but I do want to kind of highlight a couple of key areas. Um, first of all, that that first highlighted number eight, just want to want to point out that that there has been a reduction in our middle school enrollment of almost 200 students. If you look back over the last 10 years, um, and currently we do have a middle school assistant principal position that is unfilled and our plan at this time is to uh to absorb that position for the 25 26 school year. Uh, additionally, South Country has been has been committed to our dual language and restorative practice programs. Uh and despite our um despite our reduction to the coordinator positions that are annotated
048there with the highlighted yellow uh zeros, the focus for next year will be on supporting these programs through professional learning that will be done throughout the 2526 school year. Um just to to to define that a little bit, those both of those positions are what we call TOSAs. TOSAs are teachers on special assignment. Um, and so when we collapse a position like that or we choose not to to staff that, those teachers that are currently in those TOSA roles would go back into their uh whatever area of teaching that they would that they would be. So if they're an English teacher and they're a Tossa, they would go back into an English teaching position. All right, so let's start talking about uh our elementary staffing. So uh first up is our is our South Haven
049Early Childhood Center. Um, this obviously is is primarily managed through our YMCA and it's funded through the UPK grant. Um, at this time there's no projected staffing changes to to our current uh staffing. We we anticipate that looking very similar to what we have for for this current year. The next three slides I want to talk about are our our elementary uh kindergarten through third grade buildings. Uh, and first up is is Brook Haven Elementary School. As I as I start here, I do want to kind of highlight a couple pieces on these next three slides because they're kind of laid out in a very similar format. Um, across the top looking at enrollment, we do have general education, dual language, and integrated across the top. Um, we also, another key facet of this that
050I'm sure people are interested in is that center area there is average class size. You can see our average class size currently, uh, compared to where we anticipate being for the following year at the on the bottom portion of the table. Um, for all of our K K3 buildings, obviously, we're going to have a a focus and there'll be one number that kind of stands out. If you look at our kindergarten number, that number always looks a little bit odd only because if you look at the average class size there at seven, but that's based on our current uh current enrollment. Um, that obviously will continue to grow throughout the rest of the spring and and into the summer. And for uh Brook Haven, we do anticipate still uh running um six sections of kindergarten
051next year, which is aligned to what we have uh in in our current staffing. However, due to enrollment, uh we do anticipate a reduction of a section of grade two highlighted there in in yellow on the left hand side. And we also anticipate uh two reductions on the special ed side. One being in our special class. If you can see on the right hand side, they're under the special class. Currently, we have uh two sections of third grade special class. Next year, based on our students and their IEP needs, we are only anticipating requiring one special class. So generally in on this slide you're looking at a 1.0 uh reduction for elementary FTE and a 2.0 reduction for special education. And again this is just one building. We'll also talk about this kind of more
052globally looking at the entire elementary model. Uh next up is Kramer. So Kramer there's there's not too many pieces that I want to highlight here. I will highlight two pieces. Number one again uh that kindergarten is highlighted. That's for two reasons. Number one, um we still don't know what our final enrollment will be, but uh we do anticipate a reduction in FTE at the kindergarten level. Currently, we have four sections of of kindergarten at Kramer. We do anticipate in having uh having three for next year. That's obviously something that we'll monitor and if if there is a tremendous increase, that's something we can we can adjust. But at this time, we do anticipate that being three sections. Um, the only other thing that I wanted to highlight from this slide is that all the way
053to the right, our special class. Um, we will continue to have five sections of special class at at Kramer. Um, however, it's going to look a little bit different. And what I mean by that is we plan on adding based on student need an 813 um special class program at Kramer and we plan on then moving uh one of our 1214 programs over to Vern Critz. So, speaking of burnt crits, my transition there. Um, speaking of our credits, again, looking at our uh, kindergarten sections, that's always a place to look, but at this point, we still anticipate um, having three sections of kindergarten. Again, we'll monitor that throughout the spring. Due to enrollment, uh, we do anticipate reducing uh, a grade a section in grade one and also a section in in grade three. So,
054that would be a reduction of 2.0 for from the elementary FTE. The other thing I wanted to highlight for uh Vern Critz is the five on the right hand side. So currently we have four special classes. If you look right above that uh this year we're anticipating five because that's that one section of the 1214 that would be we would be bringing over from uh from Kramer. All right. So that concludes our our K3. So now moving on to our uh intermediate building. So our intermediate building uh there's not as much movement here. The one thing I I will um annotate is looking at our our grade four. Uh we currently have three sections of integrated. Um if you look at our current our current staffing, we plan on moving one of those sections down
055to uh to fifth grade. So we we plan on having a total of uh 12 sections in fourth grade and 12 sections in fifth grade, which uh which makes sense considering that our our enrollment projections are pretty similar there. So there's no adjustment. It's it's a it's a flat move, but it's a re reallocation from a fourth grade to a fifth grade position. Um we do have an increased need based on again IEP um IEP decisions that is going to uh indicate that we're going to need an additional uh special class at um at Frank P. Long. So that's why we do have an increase from four to five special classes. So that would be an increase over 1.0 on the special ed side. So, I know that was a lot and doing it kind
056of by building is kind of keep difficult to keep track of. So, this is a little bit more of a of a summary um for for where we are right now looking at our staffing projections for our core and special education. Um so, across our uh K5, we do anticipate a reduction of 4.0 uh FTE from the elementary side. And at this point, our special ed number looks like it's going to be flat because we're going to have an increase of 1.0 0 on the uh special class and a reduction of 1.0 on the integrated side. So that special ed number looks like it's going to be flat as of right now. The only other facet for our elementary staffing that we need to consider um are our other our other uh areas of instruction.
057Uh this is a rather large table because it does encompass a lot of information. Uh a lot of our uh staffing is going to remain static in uh in in our buildings. I will uh highlight a couple of key areas here. So again based on uh some section reductions u we are looking to reduce 1.0 in the area of library media specialist. So instead of Kramer and Burn Critz each having 1.0 we're going to reduce that and give them a split again based on the total number of sections that they have. Um and also a similar type of reduction between those two same buildings. We're going from having one and a half or 1.5 FTE of math specialist to one. So that would be an additional 1.0 0 math specialist FTE reduction. Uh again, the
058only other piece on here that I wanted to to highlight is looking at our our ENL staffing. So, our ENL staffing is down 1.2 as far as from the FTE perspective. Um but as as far as our program, we're still meeting the needs of of all of our students both in in a co-et model of our ENL program and also in our standalone program as well. Um so in summary looking at our uh at our elementary staffing uh we do again I've mentioned a total of 4.0 reduction in elementary if you add that to a reduction of FTE of 3.2 from our specials and our supports at this point from our elementary side we're looking at a 7.2 reduction in FTE uh at the elementary side. Obviously, these these are these are not easy numbers
059to to go through. Um, you know, and and I do want to thank our our administrative team and our cabinet. A lot of work has gone into putting all this together. It's been a difficult kind of yman's task to be able to put this together, but I do want to thank our administrators um for for their feedback and constant communication in arriving at at these numbers. Um, so as we look at uh at our secondary staffing, I it's for us, we want to st first start looking at our enrollment. And a couple things I want to point out from the from the middle school side. So, first of all, ironically, um, as of right now, it looks like we're completely flat on our Bport Middle School enrollment. However, there is a bit of an anomaly
060there looking at our at our sixth grade and we're down about 50 students for next year in sixth grade. And I do want to kind of highlight that because it does have an implication. I know we're talking about secondary, but really our sixth grade um enrollment will have an adverse effect on our elementary staffing because um our sixth grade teachers are really elementary school teachers and are typically either tenured or probationary in the elementary track. So technically um any reductions in that sixth grade area would really live um on the on the elementary side of FTE even though those teachers kind of live on the secondary world as part of our middle school. Um the only other thing I wanted to mention here is we do have a reduction of 107 uh students um looking
061at our high school for next year, but it's a little different. And due to kind of student uh student course requests and new courses, the overall decline of high school enrollment does not have the same proportional impact on staffing. And what I mean by that, there's there's really a direct correlation like if you look at sixth grade with the number of students that decrease connected with FTE. Um at the high school, it's a little bit different because um students have so many different choices of courses that they can take at the high school. So there there is there is an impact but it's not as direct as that you'll see um as we as we go through our our sixth grade staffing. Um so we'll start by talking about our uh Bport Middle School looking
062at again core academics and uh and electives. Uh again there's a lot to kind of process and take take in on on this table. So I'll kind of start with just kind of mentioning that the overall enrollment at the middle school uh is static for this year year-over-year. Um but as I previously mentioned there has been a reduction of almost 200 students over the last 10 years. Um and during that time we we basically have maintained our staff our our staffing. Um unfortunately at this point uh this year we we are looking to make some reductions uh in staffing here at the middle school as well. And I will start with that uh that highlighted yellow. So that is uh that's definitely a direct result of our decrease in enrollment in sixth grade. So, we're
063looking to decrease our FTE in uh sixth grade, which again, as I mentioned, is really more of an elementary FTE by two 2.1 FTE. Um, it's also a reduction of 1.8 in English language arts and 1.0 in social studies. I'm not going to go through and read the whole table. Um, but as you can see, there's there's basically reduction in just about every single area of of core academics and and electives. Um, and that was something uh, you know, intentional as we started here, we really wanted to kind of cast a wide net and and to see where where our reductions were going to be. Um, and based on our requests and where we are, we ended up with a pretty uh, diverse uh, group of area where we ended up making reductions. So again,
064at the middle school in academics and electives, we have a reduction right now of 7.35 FTE. Um, and that does not include um our our second part of the middle school and looking at our specials and support. So, I would kind of draw your attention down to the lower right hand corner where it says uh specials and support subtotals. So, we anticipate being down to 1.6 FTE at the middle school and that's inclusive of the reductions in in uh special education, ENL, and reading. Um, so if you take the 1.6 6 reduction to get it to our previous slide of 7.35 reduction at the middle school um at the middle school only we're looking at a reduction of 8.95 FTE um and I and I will say that despite our proposed staffing reductions there there
065will be little to no impact on existing middle school programs. So we're still able to offer very similar programs but just in in a little bit of a different capacity. Um, again, uh, as we look to our our final part here as far as our buildings, looking at our high school, again, it's a lot to process. Take a minute to look at that table. And while you do that, um, I just want to remind of what I mentioned before about due to student course requests and and and new courses. The overall decline in high school enrollment does not have the same proportional impact that we saw, for example, in our sixth grade staffing. um where it doesn't necessarily affect one particular area in a dramatic way, but as you can see based on our on
066our reductions, uh it does still have an impact. Um so just to highlight a couple key areas, obviously a reduction of 1.4 in in mathematics, a reduction of 0.9 in science and reduction of 1.0 in health and physical education. again um in total at the high school a reduction of 4.3 um FTE in looking at the academic and elective area of the high school. The last facet of that would just be at the high school looking at our specials and and supports and similar to our middle school page and as you look at the lower right hand corner looking at our specials and support subtotals and at this point we're down um we would be looking at a reduction of 2.2 2 FTE and again that would be inclusive of reductions in special education and
067also in reading. Um it does include uh an increase of point4 in ENL to meet some of the mandates um that that we need to meet on our for our uh our hours up at the high school. So if you take our 2.2 reduction that's indicated on this page and add it to our previous slide, you're looking at uh for the high school staffing a reduction of 6.5 FTE. So again, this this fourth fast the fourth facet was really looking at secondary school. So this this page kind of brings it all together from the secondary perspective. So again, we're looking at an 8.95 at the middle school, 6.5 at the high school for a total reduction on on the secondary side of 15.5 FTE. The only other thing that again I want to just remind
068everybody that 15.5 2.1 of that is really it really kind of lives more on the elementary side because those sixth grade teachers are technically elementary school teachers. Um you know despite uh all these proposed staffing reductions uh we we really don't see uh we really see little to no impact on our existing middle school and high school programs. Additionally, we will we will be running some new courses at Belfport High School, including AP psych, AP African-American history, real world communication and writing skills, anatomy and physiology, natural disasters and climate change, and uh and also the science of well-being. So, um you know, despite despite some of these difficult decisions we are having to make, I do want to kind of highlight that we are still continuing to re reinvigorate and and revise our courses that
069our secondary students are able to take and pursue. So, um, our last piece that we wanted to look at was our non-instructional. Um, and at this point, just a reminder, our athletic coaches and club adviserss are not considered FDES and are not part of this presentation. Um, at at this point, our non-instructional staff reductions are still possible at this point. We have this flat. Um, but they are still possible depending on our close examination uh of our needs as we continue throughout the the rest of the spring. So, that's the that's the fifth pillar in in our presentation here tonight with the non instructional piece. And so finally kind of putting it all putting it all together um looking at a 3.0 reduction from the administrative and support a 7.2 reduction of FTE on the
070elementary staffing uh 15.5 reduction of the secondary staff would give us um a total of 25.65 65 uh in total for uh total FTE reduction across our K K12 uh program. Um obviously these projections may change as the budgetary process continues. Uh we'll continue to assess our overall budget and share the impact of those projections on the budget and provide an update in May. Um I will just kind of end this portion of the presentation just with saying um there's a there's a lot of work that went into into putting this together and this started with this is really just looking at it from an FTE perspective. That's why I started this presentation by defining FTE because that's really what this what this night is about. Um, our next steps would be going from FTE
071to actual our our human impact of of who who this would impact. And and our work uh at at the cabinet and the district level and certainly through HR will be to work with our uh you know collective bargaining units to talk about timeline of of when we would communicate that to to our potentially affected staff members. Um so with that um I know it's a it's it's a difficult presentation and I was not necessarily looking forward to this having to share this this this uh you know current state of affairs but this is this is where we are. Um so I would be you know open to answer any questions that you have. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate the presentation. We'll go around the room show questions. Um I'll start on my left. Anybody? Yeah
072I'll start. Um so we're we're talking about um staff reduction. um directly related to declining enrollment. Um and then you also talk you you also spoke about health care costs having a 15% increase. The reduction in staff has nothing to do with the health insurance increase. Correct. The health the health insurance increase. Maybe this goes to Mrs. Santana. No, that accelerated process. So both are true. So the idea of reducing staff based on enrollment was sort of a long-term plan that we're going to hope to accomplish through attrition through retirements. The healthcare cost, the transportation costs and the special education cost is what exasperated the whole decision-m process and made it a necessity to do it this year. Otherwise, we would have maintained our staff. And again as people retired we you know in talking
073with you know some of the collective bargaining units we anticipated numerous retirements next year a handful this year and subsequent year where we would you know write at the numbers uh but in a more uh slow and deliberate manner than sort of ripping the band-aid off like we're doing. So because all of those it was like the perfect storm. Oh yeah. Okay. And you're already contending with the disparity of building aid. Um so we but that we sort of anticipated and our projections are pretty accurate when we came to that but would we was impossible to predict these costs. It's impossible and that's why so many districts are are facing these challenges in this uh budget season. In relation to the insurance costs you mentioned the three districts that are in the consortium board meal
074and Smithtown. Is this this specific insurance plan through this consortium that is ra has that gone up disproportionately to other plans like is this and I know like if we talked about pulling out of the consortium it falls apart but like is this the time to get seriously discuss leaving the consortium is there a better plan you know a cheaper that so right now the consortium is looking at different health care providers right now we use United Healthcare so that's in the works with their executive board Um, I think people are frankly afraid to talk about pulling out because if any one district pulls out, they kind of dissolve the uh I get it, but like, you know, I'm it doesn't matter, right? I'm concerned about us and what we're doing. So, the question remains,
075does leaving the consortium for a new plan? I mean, are we looking at that or did this just kind of hit us and all a sudden now we're not thinking about it, right? Should we have been thinking about that along the line and are we thinking about it for the future if it saves cost? So it's a hard question to answer because I don't think anybody anticipated dissolving the contorum and so basically we anticipated slow increments because you know our healthc care costs are were somewhat uh smaller than like nichip for example. Um but I think and and what it is um and this is again this is not um scientifically proven but basically the narrative is with the advent of all these medications OEP that's really skyrocketing costs for the insurance companies and so
076the because more people are living longer and living uh having requiring more medical needs it's right it's increasing the cost so now they're kind of catching up the night my wife works in Smithtown so I'm on the same plan as everybody in south country so I get it and I've watched it change over the years significantly, the things you have to fight for, the medications. I have a son's diabetic, so like I I get it. But again, the question is, and what I'd like to know, and if you don't have it now, is are we hearing similar stories on increased insurance costs from districts outside of the three in this consortium? And if the answer is no, I'd like us to make sure we're understanding why that's the case and what is the benefit to
077staying because the threat of it collapsing at the stake of our staff and our district paying more money isn't really my concern. It shouldn't be our concern. We're kind of catching up. So there's market increases in NICHA in prior years, last couple of years. So I basically think that they're sort of catching up to those. So basically what you're saying is that our healthc care premiums are still lower than NICHIP. Yeah. But we're getting to the point where where it's catching up and that's what these increases are. So and is that a guess or that we know that? No, we know that. Okay. Um protected it basically for a little while. Well, that's what it was there for and then as districts kept dropping out. Um there seems to be a significant drop in sixth
078grade enrollment. Is there a reason attributed to that? It's the class moving up. all the classes. No, no, I get that. But why is it Oh, so you're not comparing. You're not That's not um So, in other words, our current fifth grade, that's not cohort to cohort. No, no, no. So, basically, our current fifth grade that's moving up to sixth grade is a lot smaller really. And another thing to bring up is the high school. Each year, we're going to lose about 100 kids, close to 100 kids. If you look at the high school classes for the next year, um 10 11 12 are a little over 300. I think they're 340. And every year, every grade lower than that, ninth grade, eighth grade, seventh grade is in the mid200s. So eventually the high school
079enrollment is going to drop by a little over 300 students. Got it. And then the last one I have at least for now is there on slide 23 and you talked about wait I might have the wrong slide. [Music] um 22, excuse me, in the the electives and the core academics, right? You have each one of these areas except for math is less than than one FTE that's being reduced. How do we fill those positions based on certification at the high school? So is this in addition to the number of teachers that we're reducing staff by is there another population of teachers that are going from one FTE to 0.9.8 or whatever the 25 uh6 encompasses all this in some cases are teachers who have overages. We have teachers who are also like 1.1's or
0801.2s. Okay. So so it's hard to answer the question specifically but for some people you know we consider someone who's excess someone who goes from 1.0 0 to 08 that's considered an excess to us. Uh there's going to be a handful of people in that category. Um but some of us is also is absorbed. So when you look at the number 25.6 it's not 25.6 bodies. That number is going to round out to about 23 people. Got it. That so that was a get. So yeah. So some people are going to lose go from one to maybe a point8 or something like that. So 1.2 to 1.0. Got it. Okay. Um, that was all I had for that wrap. Did anybody else have? No. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Huntsman. And so that brings
081me to the next part of our Did you have anything in I was going to ask another question? Yeah, I just put it out there. So, if you're ready, go ahead. Okay. Yeah. So, so I mean there's so many things we spend money on. Did we look at absolutely everything to make sure that we we have tightened our belts? So, we have and we're continuing to look. So again, this process is ongoing. If we could sort of uh salvage any positions, that's our mission. Okay. Because that's why, you know, with respect and and you know, I'm sorry I got a little hot under the collar about the treasures report. I meant no disrespect to you. Um but that's why it's so important that when we get these reports, we have time to go through them.
082And you know, you know, we we meet with the with the um assistant superintendent of business to go over these reports. And um and that's why it's so important that we we fully understand where we're where we're spending our money and where we can spend money where we can save money in in equipment. There's there's a lot of things and a lot of ways that we can tighten our belt. So are we doing that? What what are we looking at to the overall report is what 25.65 is that is that the final subtotal? Correct. Do I have the right slide up? Yes. You have to remember that our current budget is $143 million. We suspected with, you know, about a 3% increase that would increase about 145 146, which is what we sort of anticipated.
083That's kind of typical. Uh, but we're looking at right now expenditures in the 150 plus just based on projections. So that's where we have to make these hard decisions because we have to bring it back down to that uh 145 number about it, you know, and and we have a community that's used to the way this district is run and they're used to the way the class size are and they're they're used to the teachers that they have and they they they want they want to see things remain the same. It's terrible and it's uh you know class sizes were still going to be healthy class sizes. If you looked at the average for elementary school, they're capped at 22 uh which is still pretty healthy. It's not what we've had. Um, but yeah, these
084these decisions are really difficult. And so over the next course couple weeks, we're still going to be looking at other budget line items to see where else we can sort of make cuts, but we still have to operate the district. And um, you know, when transportation costs are surpassing 10% of your operating budget, it presents problems as well as the healthcare. So those two most impactful things that happened in this you know even even some of the discussions we've had in um finance and facility committee you know we talk about equipment uh say for example in the in the kitchens instead of fixing uh old equipment it's better off to to buy new leads to my next slide is that the best oh that's another slide about capital improvements here okay tonight y okay well
085just specifically about equipment of with our with our capital improvement vote that we're going to propose. Yes. But that's what I'm saying. It's like there there's just there's just so much this this this is a heavy hit tonight. Um very much and um so that's why we can leave no stone unturned but those I mean but it's also important like those cap the capital line can't capital fund capital reserve can't help us in that regard. None of the reserves can help us in this regard. So that's another, you know, you can only No, but what I was referring to is in in the overall budget how equipment versus replacing it. Yeah, I get it. I'm just Can I ask my question now? You sure? Oh, I didn't have you. Sorry, I didn't mean to. It's
086actually I wanted to ask the question you had started out with, but ask it in a little different way. If you put aside the money completely and you look only at the number of educators that we need to continue the programs that we have in place and to include the new ones at the high school that have been um courses figured into this. the number of staff members would be the number that you're showing today even if money was no issue. Correct. We could still maintain our programs with our proposal today. But again, the strategy was to sort of get to this point in a more gradual way so not to impact people's lives. And then when we get into the capital work, I have a question there too. So just to bring up reserves.
087So you know, school districts have the ability to use capital reserves to offset costs, but you have to use them for their specific purpose. So if we have a capital reserve for TRS, we can't use more than our TRS bill. So for example, if our TRS bill for a given school year is $3 million, we can only use $3 million of that reserve to offset that cost. So reserves aren't just funds that we have at our disposal. They're they're a lot they're assigned to very specific purposes. So same with the capital uh or capital reserve which I'm going to get to the next slide because we're still committed to making capital improvements. So you know which is you know to me it's um I don't know what the right word is. It's uh not ironic,
088but it's uh we're talking about being in financial crisis, but we still have money in our capital reserve that we can use to continually make these capital improvements that our buildings uh the uh as uh trustee Feliz alluded to, we've been requiring and repairing and repairing. It's at certain point it doesn't become cost effective to continue repairing. So to give you an update of where we're at with capital projects, um our high school turf field, which was voted on in October of 2022, was completed pretty expeditiously uh the fall of 2023. Uh we also had the magnetic locking mechanism replacements that was completed this this fall and winter, mostly in the fall. Uh right now we're doing our camera replacements were which were again uh voted on in October 2022. that's ongoing and we're hoping
089to finish that spring 2025. The wooden replacements at Vernon W Critz, we're finally going to be breaking ground this coming summer. That project uh as well as the vestibule at the South Haven PreK Center. That's the uh we call the man trap. I hate that term. It's a vestibule. Uh currently South Haven doesn't have one. The replacement of the oil tanks at Brook Haven Elementary and South Haven are scheduled for summer 2026. Right now they're going through uh the approval process. The high school auditorium we expedited. We're hoping to break deck ground um the summer uh and complete by the fall of 2025. Um we did have some sample chairs here that were removed. Uh but we already put in the order for the chairs. So that we're really accelerating that process. And our engine
090performance contract which is amounts to about uh $10 million is also working at an acceler accelerated pace. So, we're looking to break ground on that summer 2025. All these things are approved in a budget neutral way. What we're going to be proposing because we don't have a transfer to capital line in our budget is another proposition to use capital reserves in the amount of $2.3 million or a little over $2.3 million. Those this is this is aidable projects. So, we received uh or received 76% aid back on these projects upon completion. And I need to note that that aid is spread over 15 years. But the idea is to keep generating aid by engaging in capital projects. So what we included in this uh capital reserve proposition is uh about little over $1.3 million uh
091to replace our uh track surface at the high school. Right now the uh track is pretty dilapidated. Um it's also got built to uh the specs uh required to host invitationals and bring other schools in. Um, but it's going to getting close to becoming a safety hazard. So, it's not that we're just focusing on athletics. It's something that just needs to happen uh for safety reasons as well. And this includes the resurfacing of the areas, drainage upgrades to prevent flooding, which leads to other costs, and the replacement of the visitors bleachers, which are also pretty dilapidated um at our current campus. The um $175,000 for the removal and replacement of the gymnasium windows of Belfor High School. Every time it rains, water leaks into the gymnasium, causing damage, which is additional costs. So, you want
092to remedy that. And finally, the part that's not so aesthetically pleasing and people won't see is a replacement of two boilers at the high school at a cost of about $800,000. The saving grace in this is that these boilers are consistently in need of repair. So, it's becoming not cost effective to repair them. But by replacing these two uh boilers, we can salvage the parts and use those parts for future boiler repairs for remaining boilers. So that's kind of the plan. And the boilers that we replace them with will be more energy efficient and thus reducing costs. So again, um you know, provided we have a successful budget vote. You know, I do want to start the conversation as we alluded to about some bond work because bond work is necessary. Our buildings need it.
093Uh it's been almost 20 years since we've had any substantial capital work done in our school district aside from what I shared which is all just from the last two years. Um but yeah and it also generates aid and the idea is to continually engage in capital improvement projects in sort of a incre increment so that you're always getting building aid uh as a source of revenue. So I don't know if there's any questions about the uh proposition for gap reservo I do have a question um with regard to the track it's my understanding from what you said that the current track is not wide enough to host the championship events. Is that correct? That's correct. So the new track that we got in 2008 wasn't built to enable us to do that and this
094proposed capital improvement will enable us to have a wider track so we can ho host events. Okay. So to be really picky about the language it really picky about the language in the proposition. It's not just replacement of the track surface because it's too narrow, right? It's actually making the track be appropriate for for complete use. So, is there somebody with expertise in drafting the work like maybe your facilities people get somebody to look at it and try to fix that language a little bit so that it's not just resurfacing the inadequate area that we currently have. So, I believe this is up for that's not what it says. I know, but I'm saying this is up for vote. uh tonight. It's it's it's up for a vote tonight, right? It can't be changed without
095delaying it. But guarantee replacing the track means replacing it to specs. It's uh there's no It doesn't say replacing the track. It said the track surface, right? With the new track surface. It says replacement of the running track surface. Does we think it's not going to pass the So So from right no but from here because I agree it's it's inexact language. Um but if we vote on and approve this tonight does this not go to the state with plans correct attached? Yeah. once this is approved. Uh so we're not going to get denied by the state uh for our aid reimbursements because because the language was was in artful because the plans are going to show a wider track surface. Okay. Can you The issue isn't I'm sorry. The issue isn't state approval. The
096issue is voter notice. Oh then forget notification. So yeah I I didn't understand that either. So, it's for it's for voter notice. So, I think the voters need to know we're getting the track we thought we got back in 2008. You probably put that in our budget newsletter. Yeah. I I really feel confident that but nobody's really going to split hairs on this. That's my opinion. Well, I disagree with me. You That's one, right? There's six of us. Does anybody think this is a major issue in this language that it's not going to pass the vote? Well, we have we have an opportunity in the uh in all the literature to explain it. Right. Right. Okay. And our hope is to host these invitations. So this is um yeah, I appreciate what you're saying about
097the the exact the the specity of the language, but we want to get a track that meets the spec to host invitationals and to host all the events. Can can we modify the the proposal before we vote on it? So my understanding yes, the answer is yes, if you wish to do so. My understanding though is that this language came out of a business office in consultation with your architects. So the description might is from the architects, right? Correct. Uh and they're well suited to determine the nature of the projects, I think. Let me assure you it's uh not hidden language to to do repeat what we've done before, but we're resurfing. literally re resurfacing the track. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Thank you. Did you um Item three is is the vote, right? Just
098there's no discussion on that, right? the um the uh legal notice for the district elections. Yeah, that was item three. We have to approve the proposition first and then then Okay. So, we'll So, we're going to do the proposition. Is that going to be a roll call vote separately or what does that doesn't have to be a roll call? Can it be budget? Can you approve for the proposition for the uh F2? But so, we got to do one and two and then three has to be separate is what you're saying. Excuse me. I'm sorry. We have to do two. We have to approve two before we approve three. Is my correct. I just want to make sure I understand. Okay. So, you got that. You're going to do three separately. All right. So, the
099administration recommends approval of of F2 capital reserve expenditure proposition annual budget vote and election. F2. Can I have a motion? Mr. Barry, second by Mr. Law. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Item three, the administration recommends approval of item F3, legal notice, annual district meeting and election. Can I have a motion? Miss Feliz seconded by Miss Kavanagh. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion carries unanimous board. That's for option two with the proposition. Yes. Mhm. Thank you. Yes. Got it. Um, does the board have an objection to me doing GH and I together? No objection. All right. So, the administration recommends approval of curriculum items reflected in G1 through G3, personnel agenda items reflected in H1 through H8 and business agenda items reflected in schedules I1 through I7.
100Can I have a motion? Miss Kavanaaugh. Second by the Barry. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor. Motion carries unanimous. Any more any uh cards for commentary? No. Any closing remarks? No. Motion to adjurnn? Miss Cavanaaugh. Second by Mr. Dillo. All those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Journ. Thank you everybody. Have a nice night. Thank you.