001All right. Good evening, uh, Springs BOE. We're streaming to YouTube. Phone lines are open. The meeting is being recorded, and you may begin. >> Thank you very much. Welcome everybody. And those at home, welcome to our board meeting tonight. Suzanne, will you take roll call, please? >> I certainly will. Mr. Eric Frederickson >> here, >> Emma Field, Kate Saris, Dermit Quinn >> here, >> and Mr. Pat Brayban is not in attendance. >> Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States for it stands one nation indivisible and justice for all. All right, we're going to kick off our meeting with public comment number one. This is uh for comments on the agenda items only. And to start, I'd like to set the table by saying, ladies and gentlemen, we're
002about to convene into the public comment period of our meeting. It's absolutely crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues and appreciate all of your comments. While we may not be able to respond to your concerns and questions tonight, we do take them very seriously. and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be so we can respond thoughtfully at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time. I also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws, we are unable to entertain any comments or questions about school personnel or any individual identities. On these matters, we would ask you to go through the appropriate administrative channels. Finally, we intend that our schoolboard meetings
003serve as an example to our students that members of our school board and members of our community and deal with controversial issues in a civil manner and demonstrate mutual respect. In that spirit, we ask that all speakers and members of the audience maintain civility and respect for any divergent views that may be expressed. We ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience. Thank you. And of course, when you do come up, please come up to the podium. Uh, with that said, are there any comments from the public tonight for this point on agenda items only? Uh, sure. Please come up the state. How you doing? I'm Conrad Mos account. I was here a couple of months ago. Um, my main concern is always the one court here at
004Spring School. And Nancy, I texted you the other day and you texted me back that it's a town. Uh, they are maintaining the court and the school has nothing to do with that. Is that true? >> Yes. Um is that that's not an agenda item. Is it okay to respond? >> Um we normally so we usually have two agenda items. One is for only two public comments. One just for the agenda later. >> Um but then we have another public comment where you can ask about anything. So for now it's usually just I don't know. >> I'm happy to respond to you, but I just want to follow. >> Okay. No problem. >> Um yeah. Did we address that and we're good on that one? Well, I'll I'll respond more if if >> you're gonna
005respond. >> No, not during the second public >> during the second one. Okay. I didn't want you. >> Um, is there anyone? Yeah, please. Agenda items only. >> Thank you. I'm David Buddha. I reside in the Springs. I'd like to address uh two items on tonight's agenda during this public comment period. One is uh the upcoming budget presentation number three. And the second one is a business item. um the approval of a request for proposal for licensed uniformed unarmed guard services. My purpose of raising these points on tonight's agenda at this time is not to engage in any conversation or discussion, but rather to highlight my concerns and questions about these items so that when you do discuss them um when the budget presentation's made and when you discuss this particular item that you can
006perhaps take the time to answer the questions when they come up in the context of your actions. With respect to the um the presentation tonight on the budget uh there's a mention that you are working with NAERTA to study the compliance with the state mandate for all electric bus buses to me that is just a frightening concept of being required to u expend great sums on all electric bus fleet and I really wish that you would uh discuss whether or not you have any options any alternatives any desire to contest that state mandate as being illconceived and unwarranted and really premature that it electric buses for schools just simply aren't available and the expenditure and the cost is just outrageous. With respect to uh the budget, there's a a mention that you're going to again
007like last year transfer money into the capital account to purchase two buses. This time it's 360,000. last time was 350,000. I assume that this is two additional buses and not the same two buses that you either have received or you're in the business of waiting to be for them to be manufactured to your specifications. What I'd like you to discuss is what exactly is your fleet requirements? What is your timetable for retiring buses? How long do they last? How many future buses bus purchases will you need to engage in in the near future? Next, there's a mention in the budget presentation that most retirees do not pay any portion of the cost of their health insurance postemployment benefits and that amounts to $1.2 million in your budget, which is quite a significant sum. Every year
008I mention this and no change of curves, I'm going to mention it again. I really wish that you would look into whether or not you have the opportunity, the right legally to consider modifying that situation because you are not dealing with employees. You have no employment arrangement with the retired teachers. They have pension rights which can't be adjusted, can't be changed. No one's suggesting they be that be changed. But the medical costs something that you really should consider. Many entities, many municipalities have considered modifying the retired employees health insurance uh benefits. Next, um, I'd like to ask a question about whether or not you can at this time calculate an anticipated end ofear unassigned fund balance based on your committed expenditures that you've uh based on your revenue and appropriation reports, based on what you
009expect to have left over. Because last year you had $4 million left over of unexpended funds which you decided not to use any portion of for additional reduction of the taxes that the taxpayers have to pay but rather you put all of it into the various reserve funds. So I'd like to know how much you anticipate at this point having of excess funds at the end of the year the unassigned fund balance and how you intend to use that money other than what you specified in the budget presentation uh a certain amount of money similar to last year that will be used to reduce next year's uh expenditures I'm sorry next year next year's revenue requirements and those are the things I'd like to just mention now so that you can uh perhaps answer those
010questions at the appropriate time. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else tonight present here and LTV at home? Uh as of comment for the public on agenda items only. >> Hey, good good evening uh Springs BOE. This is Matthew Chiron. I'm calling from the LTV landline. I'm just wanted to u make sure that the phone lines are indeed working and operational. So uh there's no additional callers at this time. >> Appreciate you. Thank you. He's got excited out appreciate to mention the second ite. >> The other area of concern I'd like you to address is the um is the proposal for license and uniform guards. Last month you did indicate that your your budget is preparing to include an additional $35,000 for um security services. I don't understand whether this new proposal which is
011going to take effect immediately is a replacement of existing guards, a change of how the guards are to be uh paid instead of as employees rather than instead you you're hiring more of it is a supplement. So we're not replacing anyone where this is going to be more of an we'll go over a little bit. you could just discuss it because it's really unclear how this dovetales with your existing security personnel and services and I really wasn't sure whether it was a replacement of the whole scheme or a supplement >> supplement but we'll get more in depth. Appreciate that. Anyone else present that would like to make a comment right now. All right so we're going to move into our reg presentation. This is our third budget presentation which includes benefits, debt service and revenue
012budget including state aid and Sam beat you to it. I invite you to present. >> You know just before I start I want to say I've been doing this is my 18th year of doing this. I have never had someone question the presentation before I did it. Nor get questions after this is uh this is unique and and uh I would like some credit for that fact. I was going to address a lot of these issues in the presentation but nevertheless why don't we go through it and then what I don't touch on I will come back to uh so obviously tonight we're going to uh talk about a uh you know our remaining uh untouched items of the budget beginning with transportation. So obviously you know we provide transportation for students who are attending
013uh spring school and for students who are attending East Hampton High School and some other unique special education or unique placements. You can see up there the rules of, you know, what the state law requires us to to transport. The district has entered into partnerships with East Hampton to help bridge the gaps and supplement, as we're uh saying, uh some of the gaps that exist uh due to not having enough drivers here in East Springs. Uh partnerships with East Hampton can help uh bring students to school in a more timely way than would be uh having done in the past with doubling up of routes uh due to driver shortage. You've also worked with East Hampton for a position of transportation director and bus driver training and I think the I would hope the board
014would agree that the feedback has been pretty positive about that. So let's talk about the NAERTA partnership. So, uh, there was an item in the budget two years ago, two years ago, three years ago that, uh, states that school districts are not permitted to purchase anything but an electric bus beginning with the fiscal year that starts July 1st, 2027. That is a very difficult mandate because, as Mr. Buddha points out, the vehicles are not in uh, not readily available. They are three to four times as expensive as a diesel vehicle. And in some instances, the vehicles do not exist. The battery uh life that is currently available and on the market, it's for some of your longer routes is insufficient for what has to uh what is needed to serve lengthy routes. On top of
015all that, you have uh districts are finding that in the winter, the battery value uh the battery life degrades as the temperature drops. Districts are finding that the public utility is uh incapable or not able to bring sufficient power to the property where you keep your buses to charge them rapidly enough. This is not like just plugging in. You need a high voltage, a high amount of energy to charge the the batteries rapidly in them. Districts are fighting situations where you have to build an extensive amount of infrastructure, not only to support that charging, but to support the necessary fire prevention that goes along with bringing so much electricity to one site. Some districts are finding they have to buy double the number of buses that they currently have because there isn't enough time to
016efficiently charge the vehicles between the morning run and the afternoon run. And in the irony of all ironies, some districts are finding that they have to build a diesel powered generation diesel powered electric generation station to act as a backup for when the public power fails and you have to charge the buses so you can get the kids home which is there's some word for that and more than irony. I don't know what it is. The state is not taking comments on this. The only way to uh we have been told by uh authorities of Boseies and in uh various trade uh various professional organizations the only way to get the state to pay attention to this is the state wants data. They're not taking anecdotes. The only way to get that data is to
017do a study. NAERTA is funding the bulk of the expenses of these studies. I can speak for East Hampton. I'm not speaking for springs at the moment because at the moment you have not yet opened the bids. Is that correct? Have you opened the RFP? >> Yeah, we're done. >> Oh, you're done. Fine. All right. So, why don't you just highlight then what how much is Naerta paying versus what Springs is paying? >> They're funding 75% of the study. >> So, the state is placing a high value on this data. They're going to come in. They're going to do a very extensive study. They're going to look at all the routes that you have. They're going to look at what the time is, what the route is, what the ability you have to rearrange it
018differently. They're going to look at the power capabilities that you have here. What it would cost to generate more power to get PS&G to bring more power here. The state wants this level of data. East Hampton study is on our website. If you want a little preview of what it looks like, I invite you to go on to the website and take a look. Sprints is going to get a similar specific study. The state is taking all these studies, putting them together, and is going to hopefully make some progress in adjusting this hard and fast deadline. The state is already putting out waivers that are available to districts to push back this deadline, but they only will give you a waiver if you have demonstrated that you are moving towards you're making active progress towards
019achieving this goal of an all-electric mandate. It is inevitable that we are going to be moving towards electric buses. Can we move as rapidly as the state law currently says we have to? I think the answer to that is probably no. The study will show us. true answer to that. You know, the empirical value of that, but we need this study in order to move forward. Doing nothing is not an option and pretending this doesn't exist is not an option. Now, at the same time, I think Jonathan has an excellent plan here for you to continue to purchase diesel buses while we can still get our hands on them because it's going to take a while for these electric buses to be readily available. We need to preserve the fleet as much as we can
020to stretch out this timeline for as long as we can so we can get to where we need to be when the money is going to match up with the power availability with the vehicle availability and we can be properly situated. So the transfer to capital that he's recommending is what the cost of two diesel buses is for next year. I wish we could do more than that because frankly you should be getting your hands as many diesel vehicles you can while you can. Generally, and I want to speak in generalities, after about seven years, it's very difficult to maintain the school bus to the level that the New York State Department of Transportation requires. We will spend more money on maintenance and downtime than it's worth to put into it. So the the general
021system that we're putting together here is that by seven years the vehicle is moving on. Are we getting rid of every vehicle that's over 7 years old? No, because you need backups. But we would like to make our everyday buses no more than seven years old. So that's the general system that we've put in place since Jonathan and I have been here is trying to move towards that. I I I think that's about as much as you can, you know, can be said until this study is done. I know we have a kickoff fairly certain once NAERTA signs off on the existence of the study, but it's the only way to go here. The state is requiring districts that want to push back on the mandate to have actual data and this is the only
022way to do that. All right, so that takes care of that. If we want to move on, that's the transportation budget. Here you can see we're, you know, projecting a very modest increase of about 11 onetenth to 1%. Uh and there is an additional item that's in a separate section of budget as we we're going to talk about in a minute for purchase of two additional buses. All right. Uh benefits a lot of these things are you know tied into either state law or existing contracts or federal law social security you can see there the state retirement systems uh social security health insurance. Let's talk about health insurance. the point that was raised earlier, uh you can't alter what uh health insurance you are giving to employees once they retire because it states in the
023contract what they're entitled to in retirement and you can't change the terms of it once they're gone. It would be wonderful from a taxpayer saving, you know, taxpayer savings point of view to alter benefits in the future, but public but contracts that we negotiate here require both sides to agree on the change of terms. So, we could propose to a labor union that they would pay more for health insurance in retirement. And likely what we'll they will respond is, "Okay, sure, maybe we'll move on that, but it's going to cost you significantly in other things." So, you're going to pay it one way or you're going to pay it the other. Uh, I don't really see that you have a lot of ability to move on that without giving away just as much money in
024an increased benefit somewhere else as what you're going to be able to save. I do not recommend although I am not your attorney. I do not recommend that you try to push the envelope and change the benefits for people who have retired. I think you will find yourself on the short end of the stick on that most definitely. Uh you can see some of the other benefits that we have here and if we move on to the next slide you can see the cost. I want to just talk a little bit we we this is deserves mention every year of how the pension systems are work. The pension system is required by New York state law to be funded to 104% of its liability. So that means that they take the amount of money they
025would have to pay out to every single person is in the system, multiply it by 104% and that's the amount of money they have to have on hand. In order to achieve that, they mostly get the money they need from their investments. What they don't make up from the investments they have, and these funds are unbelievably enormous. What they don't make up from the investments they have, they require the employers and the employees to contribute to make up the difference. The contribution rate is what the employer has to pay in in order to help make up the difference. So, I know the numbers are very small, but you see where the line goes way down to the bottom. That's at the dot era in 2000 or so. And as the.com burst, the numbers started going
026back up again. When the economy is not as good as other times, the employers have to pay more because they can't make the the investments don't make up the difference of what their liabilities are. When the economy is strong, the employer contribution drops. Now, there is a new concept in the retirement system. It used to be that after 10 years, an employee didn't have to contribute any more of their earnings. That has changed with tier five and tier six and currently employees who are in tier six. So that means you started in the cont you started in the public employment in 2013 something like that you have to contribute a portion of your earnings for the rest of your career every every paycheck. So if we move on, you can see this is where we
027are in terms of uh the contributions of the contribution rates, the mandatory contribution rates and what it's costing the school district and taxpayers every year. The TRS rate is not finalized. I think they came out with the memo this afternoon, but we didn't want to alter the presentation at that point. But that's approximately what it's going to be. You can see the numbers there and you can see what the costs are uh for the retirement systems. Teachers and administrators and the teaching assistants are in TRS. All the other employees are in ERS and of course everybody's required to participate in social security system. Okay, we move on. Health insurance costs the district is participate. >> So the ter was actually less this year. look like the percent >> contribution rate decrease. >> Yeah, contribution rate
028drop. They even though the the pension systems work the same way and function the same way, their contributions rates are very different. And so some years one goes up, one goes down, some years they both go up. We don't have any say in that. They just put out a memo and said this is what we're going to be collecting from you based on your salaries. which then you just multiply somebody's salary by the contribution rate and put the owner. The state participates in the Empire Niship New York State Health Insurance uh program. The rates are set in Albany and we have contracts with either labor unions or individual contracts with people who work here who have to and they pay in a portion of the health insurance. Now this is the difficulty in making this
029budgetary estimate. The state the system works off the state fiscal year. We operate on a very different fiscal year here. So the system changes its rates every January, but we work off a fiscal year that starts in July. So we know exactly what the health insurance health insurance costs are going to be for the period that starts July 1 through December 31st. We have to guess where the health insurance rates are going to go from January 1st to June 30th of 2027. which means we have to kind of estimate what we need to budget for. This is one of these things where we can't miss because if we miss and we uh owe we owe more to the health insurance system than what we've budgeted for, we're going to have to cut something somewhere else,
030which inevitably is going to negatively impact the students here. So, we are estimating somewhere between a 12 and a 14% increase, which historically unfortunately has been where the numbers have been recently going to move on. the the I will tell you that since in the last 25 years the cost of health insurance has gone up something like 500%. Which is really an astronomical sum share cost for family coverage. So this means that like the total bill that we get obviously we pay a portion of it, the employee pays a portion of it. You see the number there is up to $43,965 this year. 25 years ago it was something like less than four grand. It really has just been an absolutely monumental increase. And you say, well, how much further can this go? It could
031never increase another 500%, but nobody ever thought it would increase 500% 25 years ago. So, you know, I I have no faith that it's not going to increase another 500%. So, we're estimating 12% increase in the 227 rates. Could it be that? Maybe. Could it be less? I sure hope so. But it, you know, we've been, we've looked at what the increases have been over the last few years, and that's unfortunately about where it is. I will tell you that this year the most of the rates, and there's different rates for different categories of people, mostly depending on age and marital status, most of the rates went up between 8.1 and 8.9%. There was a category for retirees that went up 24.25%. Again, this is one of these areas where you have to do it.
032You can't miss. So that's why we're going with the 12% across the board. Uh guess and that is what business officials up and down Suffach County are doing. You can see what the you know the rate increases that we're looking at there. Uh waivers are people who show us that they have health insurance elsewhere and the district pays them a portion of money depending on what their employment contract states to wave the insurance. It's certainly within the district's interest to be doing that. It's cheaper to pay the waiver than it is to pay for them to participate in the insurance and obviously is satisfying the employee because then they don't have to pay their portion of what it would be to participate in the health insurance system. >> These new cons rates I mean I
033think it was about four years ago where all of a sudden that 12% you didn't know it was going to become the norm really impacted us and it hasn't really tailed off I don't think. No, it hasn't tailed off at all. And it's it's again, nobody if we were standing here in 1999 and we said, "Oh, what's it going to look like in 2026? Oh, it could never be. It's never going to be more than $10,000." And then, "Hey, we're sitting here 43,000." I hesitate to think what it's going to be looking like in 2050. Uh, debt service. The district has borrowed money in the past to uh to mostly construct your expansion here or other capital projects. It's the district's unconditional guarantee to pay. You have to pay your debt service. Uh we borrow
034money each fall also in anticipation of receipt of tax money because again work off a different fiscal year than other uh regional governments do as a public school district. We have to borrow money. It's called the tax anticipation note. It's a note in anticipation of receiving taxes. And so we have to have money on hand to repay not only to repay the we have money to repay the note that comes from the tax that come in. We have to repay the interest that we get charged. district has a very reasonable uh credit rating and we get a fairly good rate, but you still have to allocate for uh transfers to other funds. There's three big ones here that we want to talk about. Obviously, there's uh the transfer to special aid fund. This is for
035funds part of the summer school expenses for special education students who are required by their IEPs to be in special education uh extended school year programs of the summer. you transfer money into the cafeteria fund to run the district's milk program and uh obviously we've already talked about this transfer the capital fund for those all important diesel school buses while you can still buy them. So that's where you are in terms of uh uh the the debt service and transfers to other funds. You'll note that you have a big reduction here in the bond anticipation note. I really want to credit Jonathan. has had the foresight to use some of the excess fund balance to pay down your note on previous bus purchases. The district used to borrow to purchase buses. He has paid down
036the notes early. So, we've been able to clear that off the books and help save interest costs to the taxpayers. So, he deserves the credit for uh coming up with that. So, you can see we have a nice reduction here most related to the early repayment of the bans that were issued for the purchase of buses. So this is your budget uh that we've been going through for the last few meetings. Uh you can see that we're you know we're looking at a modest increase here. Um and so of course then the question is if this is the expenditure budget, how are we going to pay for it? So let's this is the revenue. The revenue is how we're going to pay for it. The uh property the property taxes the levy is property tax
037compliant. Uh we're looking for a small increase in state aid. This is the number we talked about this last time that the governor has proposed for the district. Theoretically, the state is supposed to come up with a, you know, legislative budget by April 1st. I am skeptical that we're actually going to see it by the deadline, April 1st. This is probably what we're going to have to go to the voters with in terms of the most reliable information we have. We have a you know use of reserves. So uh other revenue that would come in and the appropriated fund balance is money that was uh approp was collected from taxes this year. Contingencies have not occurred that we need to use it and we're able to use it to pay down some of the costs
038of next year. So the next steps here you have a balanced budget. It's March 10th. Uh I think we have a lot of time now where the board can obviously be looking at the budget, take a look back at the presentations that we've had uh and you know give comments to the superintendent uh to Nancy and Jonathan about anything that you may want to see different. Obviously you can solicit comments from the members of the public as you come through. The important takeaway here is that you have a property tax cap compliant budget for the second year in a row. If we see, back up one second, Bobby. If we see of the legislature adopt the budget in time before you have to adopt your budget, we'll make some adjustments to the state aid. I'm
039skeptical that's going to happen. Um, so you can see April 21st, that's the target date when you have to adopt the budget by. So, you know, we'll have another go through of this then, just in case there's been any changes, although I don't anticipate that there will be. There's a public hearing on the 12th and then uh the public will be asked to render an opinion on your spending plan on May 19th one to nine voting right here in this room. I believe Suzanne was planning to announce or maybe Nancy was packets are available if people are interested running for board of education. You can see it there on the slide. I don't need to pay any more time to that. Uh, I think we've covered a lot of the points that were brought up
040before except for the unassigned fund balance. And I will say the same thing to you that I did last year. I think it's way too early to give you any sort of notion about what the uh what we're going to end up unspent at the end of the year. There's 25% of the year left to go. And some of the biggest expenses that you're going to have in the year are not yet determined because of things like substitute costs. as people uh you know we have a lot of field trips in the spring. We go out so to costs tend to go up in the spring. We have other expenses that are going to happen. But I think any number that Jonathan or I give you at this point is honestly not going to be
041something that I would want to rely on. We will come up with a better number as we move much closer to the end of the fiscal year. Regardless of that, I think you're in a pretty good budgetary position. I think the board will remember that not too many years ago district had severe budget strain. We were on the controllers watch list. We asked the voters to pierce the cap two years in a row, which they very generously did. And I think we've turned the corner. Hopefully, we can keep that positive fiscal outlook going here uh by having a balanced budget that stays within the tax cap and has realistic projections and contingencies. As I said at the beginning, this process uh I think when we started in January, the budget is an aspirational document. We'd
042like it to go as smoothly as possible, but things happen. Obviously, both of our costs here are talking about children and their needs, and we have to meet them where they are rather than where we wish them to be. And so, we have to build in contingencies to allow for that to happen. I think that's presentation. I hope we've touched on all the points. Are there any questions? Thank you, Sam. Yeah. Any questions from the board? >> No, thank you so much. That >> was very thorough. We appreciated Okay, we're going to move on now to our consent agenda. Uh consent agenda items. I ask for a motion to approve items 41 to 48 on the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? >> Have a second. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries.
043All right. For business items to discuss, let's uh go for a motion to approve items 51 through 58 under business items. Do I have a motion? Motion. a second. >> Thanks, Jonathan. You review, >> of course. Thank you, Eric. 51 to 5.5. They're just our regular monthly reporting. I want to note that with the holiday break, the claims auditor wasn't able to get the January report before the board meeting, holiday, winter recess. Um, so we have January and February for those reports on here. Next, we have a intermission bill agreement with East Hampton for transportation services. Um, at this point of the year, the need for an additional run came up and unfortunately we don't have the stacking at this time. So, East Hampton was able to provide us with coverage for that route. Next,
044we have the OC's cooperative bidding program. This is just a annual resolution so the district can participate in the bidding process that Boseies does on our behalf. Lastly, we have the RFP for licensed uniform unarmed guard services. The district went out the RFP for this services last month. Um this is to supplement the in-house security that we already have. Pond view services. They came back with the best proposal that's going to meet the needs of the district. >> Right. that we we've had people with that. They're they're basically not uh we're not really adding a whole lot. This is something that these folks are very professional. They're taking care of the exterior of the school. Um security is tough to find sometimes and these guys are are providing filling a gap for us that we
045currently have. >> Yes. And um if one of our guys is out for the day, they'll be able to provide a substitute security guard for that day, which is another issue we have, especially in the winter when people get sick. If we're out one or two security guards, we just have no one to replace them. This will be able to provide that coverage as well. That's great. >> At a lower cost than hiring, more security. >> Yeah, if we hire more, we might need to give them hours consistently throughout um the week or anything like that. I don't think we have security guards just on call. >> They have their own vehicle as well that they'll be patrolling um the the mostly the grounds um particularly so that we have we have some uh concerns
046about safety uh with traffic outside and this is um something that's very important. We've had some uh people that are very concerned about uh the grounds outside and the safety with driving and people on grounds that maybe shouldn't be on the grounds. So, they will be mostly outside. They have their own vehicle and there will be coverage coverage seven days a week. And we think this is something that's just very important for the safety of um our students and our community. >> Yeah, I think it's a huge benefit. There's a lot of people that use the school, you know, particular the weekends and after hours when our staff isn't around and it's really a 247 thing to just expand our coverage this way. makes a lot of sense and professionalizes this even more um currently
047with what we have. So, are there any other questions with regard to the business items? >> All right. All those in favor of approving 51 58 I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Motion carries. We move on to the superintendence report. >> Thank you. >> Well, I guess I should ask for a motion to approve items 61 and 64 of the superintendent. Do I have a motion? >> Second. All right. Excellent. Let's do it. >> Okay. So, um first thing tonight is um something that saddens me greatly, but um is something that I just want to uh really bring to the board and say thank you. We have an employee that's been here for over 10 years. Uh somebody who's extremely dedicated uh to both our students and to her colleagues. And we want to acknowledge
048her. And um we have a proclamation for her that I'm going to read. And um I'd just like to begin there. And whereas Jennifer Lapen has faithfully served the students, families, and staff of the Springs Union Free School District for more than 10 years as a teaching assistant. And whereas throughout the years of service, Jennifer Lapen has demonstrated unwavering dedication to the students of our school community, providing support, encouragement, and care to all children entrusted to her. And whereas Jennifer Lapen has worked closely with students with special needs, offering patience, compassions, and guidance while helping them grow academically, socially, and emotionally. And whereas each school day she welcomes students with warmth and positivity while working on the school carline, greeting every child with a smile and helping to set a positive tone for the day.
049And whereas her positive spirit, sense of humor, and uplifting attitude brought laughter, encouragement, and camaraderie to her colleagues while inspiring the many students whose lives she touched. And whereas her commitment to kindness, teamwork, and service has made a lasting impact on the children, staff, and families of the Spring School community. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Springs Union Free School District Board of Education hereby expresses its sincere gratitude and appreciation to Jennifer Lapen for her more than 10 years of dedicated service. and we extend the best wishes for happiness, health and success in all your future endeavors. So I just want us to all give a round of applause beyond words for all of our students. Yeah. >> Mr. We wish you all the best and we know you >> and you're welcome back.
050>> Now, I just want to u mention a couple of donations that we have uh here on our agenda this evening. Um, first we gratefully accept a donation of $2,500 from the East Hampton Education Foundation. And this donation is going to be used to help create a school store. And this is going to be a collaborative project for our business, technology, and art classes. And the goal of this project is to give students real world experiences in entrepreneurship, marketing, product design, and financial literacy. our uh teachers wrote a grant to receive this and we're very thankful for that and excited to have uh this project begin uh towards next year. And then also we gratefully accept a donation from martyrs nursery for various seeds for our students are excited that spring is uh almost here
051and we'll be planting um both vegetables and flowers in our greenhouse as well as in our gardens outside. So, we thank uh we so appreciate any donations that are given to us from our community and we're very very appreciative. And uh now just a quick update on enrollment. Um it's our enrollment's been very steady. Uh since the last month, we've added four students that are uh grades K through eight and also four students at the high school level in grades 9 through 12. And as I said, uh our enrollment really has been quite steady over the year. And we had a uh prek open house uh this week on Tuesday evening. And currently we have 30 students that are registered for preK next year. This is right around where we were last year at this
052time. So we're looking forward uh to keeping our prek uh right about where it is now. So we're excited about that. And then just some district news. um our students um as you're all aware uh the snow has started to melt and uh we've had some beautiful days the last two days and our students were finally able to go outside for recess for the first time in weeks and when Mrs. Croer announced over the loudspeaker that recess would be outside. It was really just it was just wonderful to behold the entire school screamed yay. So loud you could just all over the school and and kids were just so happy and we're just so grateful. The snow's melting and uh the last two days our uh workers have been back. Our contractors working on the
053kindergarten playground and uh that should be completed by Monday. So that playground will be open as well. Our staff will be very happy to have the parking lot uh there available again too and work will uh begin on the sockets um outside as well. And that work should probably be completed over the April break. So we're happy we can get moving and um I I'm not I don't I'm not allowed to say we're not getting any more snow because I did that once it was poor and it wasn't good. So but we're we're hopeful. Uh spring is finally is finally here. Um and also um just want to mention uh we've had a couple of exciting uh events that have occurred over the last couple weeks. On Sunday, March 2nd, our spring bonic bowlers participated
054in the Special Olympics in Riverhead. And they competed alongside 40 bowlers um from across Long Island. And our fantastic five students brought home four gold medals and one silver medal. And we really want to congratulate um all of those students who participate as well as all their coaches uh community members and students who supported them. And um our Olympiads do have another competition coming up May 2nd in track and field. And we're going to invite them to our May uh board meeting to congratulate them. And we're just so proud of their accomplishments. Uh we acknowledge them at Spirit Meet uh this past week and we're very excited to acknowledge them at a upcoming board meeting. And then also on February 7th are um as we spoke about previously our three robotics teams, the Thunderbots, the
055Lightning Bots, and the Firebots competed in a robotics qualifying tournament. The Thunderbots advanced to the championship level competition which was held this last uh Sunday, March 8th, at Hicksville High School. And our team achieved their highest robot performance score of the season, earning 260 points. Typically, the scores hovered around 180 points. the reaching 260 marked a significant achievement. They're going to be invited to our April board meeting to present their research and work to the board. Um they did do a a a mock presentation to me previously and I must say it's um it's very impressive and I'm looking forward to the board seeing that and I congratulate all the teams and their coaches. Uh it's a really big commitment. I think it was a 12-h hour day they said that they spent uh Derma
056I'm sure Derma was there to see his daughter who is uh quite is is quite talented. Um and then just want to say this weekend also marks the opening of the 2026 student exhibition exhibition at the Paris Art Museum. This year's theme focuses on America's 250th birthday and locals artists in our community and spring school. We have two collaborative pieces that are featured in the exhibition. Students in grade K5 created an altered American flag highlighting drawings of local landmarks and animals. And it's really quite beautiful. I encourage everyone to go visit. And our students in grades 6 through 8 created an abstract collage of process art that emulates the way seaweed floats through the water. Both very beautiful exhibitions. I encourage everyone to go see them. and the exhibition will be on view through April
05726. And I just want to really thank the board and the community for continuing to support the arts um in the school. It's really a big part of who we are as a spring school. And just some upcoming events. Um our PTA sponsored spring break is this Friday, March 13th, beginning at 5:00 pm uh spring school staff. And then our PTA sponsored seventh grade field trip um is Wednesday, March 18th. Our students will be visiting the Museum of Illusions in New York City. And they'll also attend the Broadway production of The Outsiders, which is really wonderful. It's a terrific book. I used to read it to my students um all the time. And I'm very excited that they're going um to see the production. And just to mention, um, our annual springs world fair, um,
058is going to be on Friday, March 20th from 6 PM to 8 o'clock pm. The whole community is invited. I encourage everyone to attend. The food is amazing um, on this on the at the event. And um, we also have a lot of really great uh, performers that attend as well. So, I encourage everyone come to the World's Fair on the 20th. And thank you very much. Do you have any questions? >> No, but um it was a long day. >> I heard that both the bowling and the robotics and the kids who made it to the robotics last Saturday or not Saturday, Sunday. They worked so well as a team together. things didn't go really well in the first round and they were just incredible and but not only the bowlers, they were fantastic.
059Uh they took it really seriously. They brought home the hardware. But there was a bunch of kids from Springs who were helping and they're patient and understanding and helped those kids. We we should be very proud of the kids in this school. They were absolutely amazing. And I'm not just saying that because a couple of them were mine. They all were just Yeah, we should be very proud of the kids in this school. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> I was there for and that was they had they had a brave to get there, wasn't that? >> That was that was um Yeah, that was for the first robotics competition. It was um it was really challenging because it was uh one of those first snowstorms and you know it was very difficult trying to
060make the decision to let the bus go and they had worked so hard and uh anyway they all made it there competed and made it safely. >> The color is just coming back to the knuckles. >> Damage on the grounds for the blizzard >> uh some you know not not bad. We have to say that uh the company uh that we work with did a really excellent job with the snow plowing. Um it's it's challenging. You know, there are still you can see we still have really big mounds. Um there has been of course there's always some scraping on the asphalt and but they did they did a great job. So, uh my driveway has much more damage than the school. So, >> any other questions or comments? All right. So, uh, all those in
061favor of approving 6164, I >> I >> Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. >> So, now we're entering our final part of the meeting. This is the public commentary that we can be off agenda topics. Is there anyone uh that is in the crowd tonight or at home who would like to make a comment before we conclude? >> Yes. Curtis again. >> I'm Conor Mosano. Uh this June will mark my 30th year here in Springs. I don't know how the how fast are going. They're unbelievable. But Nancy, I the last correspondence we had uh you send me a text yesterday saying that it's the town's responsibility to maintain that court. So, let me um we we did meet with the town as as I mentioned we would and uh we're working with the town um
062for some future possibilities going forward, but right now at this point based on the lease that we have with the town um as far as that property goes, the town leases the property for us and they're responsible to maintain it. I was told that they did have an engineer go and look at the handball court and the engineer determined that it was safe at this point. Um as I said at this point uh there they also um because I I spoke about the conditions as well uh particularly with uh debris left on weekends and things and the town did say they'll be putting more garbage pales and they'll be trying to uh you know take care of the property and make sure that they get there on weekends and things and look at the property.
063Um at this point as I said it is the town's property. We are working with the town to see uh if we can go forward in a new direction. Uh that's something we're working on. Uh but at this point it is the town's responsibility. >> So it should be in the town's budget to resurface it. >> They're not they're saying they it's not needed for it to be resurfaced at this point. Their engineer >> does >> their engineers said it said that >> the engineer told me that it definitely needs to be surfaced. >> I I can't to us, you know. So, I don't know if your guys ever played racket ball or been on a court and hit balls against the wall like I do every day. That surface is horrible. There's not one
064ball that bounces. True. So, everything's we call it a hinder. Every ball that bounces on the court's a hinder. And all I do is curse all day when I'm on that. >> That's not >> Is there any benefit at all where it it functions like a real human though? Inconsistency. >> Yes. Yes. And um and >> the inconsistency my both thing is I I want to be able to go down there and and play a match with people is impossible to do. >> Um as it is now I have a hard enough time getting through the drills every day. But um >> yeah know >> if they do surface that point you're going to make a lot of people happy. Yeah. >> Not just me. >> Yeah. As we said though, like it's it's just
065this is almost the wrong venue because we have no control over. >> Well, there's another town meeting this Thursday, so I'll throw up there. >> Yeah. >> So, uh >> No, I mean I Hey, I mean my son would >> and once it's done, if you want to come down and uh learn how to play the game, I'm I'm more than happy to show you. >> Well, thank you. Thank you for your comments. >> Thank you. >> Uh is there anyone else here or at home on LTV that would like to make a comment? We have no callers on the line. Eric, >> you you kind of faked that. You said yeah. And then I thought you did and then you said we have no callers. So I got excited for Thank you. Is anyone
066present tonight? One more. Do you want to do one more round? Did you raise your hand or no? Well, come on up. Let's uh let's keep it tight. >> Okay. Follow up to the presentation about the um RFP for licensed uniform armed guard services. Can someone please give an estimate of what you are budgeting or what you expect to expend either on a per month basis or on an annual basis for this supplemental guard service? That's not so far been discussed specifically in the budgetary presentation. >> I thought we had but we have the number on that off hand. I think we're still working with the company to determine exactly what the needs are. Um because they provided us with everything, but now we want to tone it back to what the district actually needs.
067>> We want to have them come to the district and really um talk with our in-house security guards and really work together to see how they might supplement what we have already. So it's it's hourly rates. So it'll be based on what we what we all determine that is >> but that needs assessment should be conducted first before we commit to a final number. So that's the answer question. >> Okay. I mean there is a document that you make part of your agenda that describes what they are recommending and and $55 uh per hour rate and I'm just you know totaling it up and saying it's actually quite a significant amount. So, I was just wondering if you had calculated or planned on a budget for this since it's not what I thought originally as
068some kind of replacement of your existing security system, but rather a supplement. Okay. I um did a little homework and I did a little presentation. >> I say we didn't factor for presentation, but you have a three minute presentation. No, I never see the clock on >> but I hear presentation. I go Soon after my wife and I bought a home in the Springs 25 years ago, we learned an uncomfortable truth. Our property tax bill amount is calculated using the spring school tax rate, which was inordinately higher than the school tax rate applicable to properties located anywhere within the other four school districts that are entirely within the town of East Hampton. With the 2025 2026 property tax bills, the spring school springs spring school tax rate is twice that of the East Hampton School
069District, 2.2 times that of the Monttok school district, 3.5 times that of the Amigans School District, and five times that of the Wayne Scott School District. The glaring inefficiency of having five separate school districts all feeding into one high school, yet having separate administrations and vastly divergent school property tax rates certainly has not escaped anyone's notice. Over the years, many good people have worked hard at studying and trying to achieve a townwide school consolidation, all to no avail. About 15 years ago, I joined together with other members of the Spring Citizens Advisory Committee to start advocating for a new study of the potential consolidation of the Spring School District with East Hampton, Monttoque, Amigans, and Wayne Scott school districts. Even though residents of all five school districts are part of one interdependent and cohesive community
070that supports each each other in many ways, I have come to the realization now that the possible consolidation of all five school districts is an objective that cannot and won't be achieved in my lifetime at least. So I pondered metaphorically speaking, how does one eat an elephant? The answer is one bite at a time. I now believe we need to be focused on an achievable objective. The consolidation of the Spring School District with the East Hampton School District. In reality, many steps have already been taken towards that objective as witnessed by the numerous intermunicipal agreements that already have been wisely entered into between the two districts to share the use of professionals, facilities, and services to achieve economies of scale and budgetary savings. However, no matter how many IMAS might be appropriately entered into between
071the two districts, they cannot have a direct impact on eliminating the gross disparity between the school property tax rates of the two separate districts. I've prepared a table which I've all given you a copy of based on the town's 2025 20226 tax role to better illustrate the reason for the existing gross school property tax inequities for each school district in the town. The table lists the number of parcels, the taxable value, and the total tax amount required to be raised this year from the school property owners in each school district. I've also calculated what would have been the school tax rate for a hypothetically consolidated East Hampton Springs school district with no other changes being made to the current school budgets. The impact on East Hampton school property, excuse me, the impact on East Hampton
072district property taxpayers, although not insignificant, I trust would be found to be acceptable to the East Hampton district voters. That is especially so when one considers all the additional educational benefits and amount and additional budgetary economies that would acrue from a full consolidation of the two districts in this time of gradually decreasing school populations. There would no doubt be significant additional overall school budget savings flowing from having greater economies of scale and the possibility of eliminating overlapping and redundant personnel and facilities. The effect of such a theoretical two district consolidation would have been a fairly small increase in the East Hampton School tax rate of only $145 per thousand of assessed value. But the effect of the same theoretical two district consolidation would have been a very substantial reduction in the spring school tax rate,
073decreasing it by $565 for $1,000 of assessed value. I hope this presentation will encourage you to give careful thought to my suggestion and take the necessary steps to commence a joint district study of all the beneficial educational and financial impacts of a two school district consolidation if it were to be approved by the voters of the two districts. >> Thank you. >> Did you want to say something Sam? Sam wanted to had some respect. Yes. All right. Uh, first of all, I mean, I'm strongly in favor of intermunicipal agreements. I'm standing here because of what your your superintendent and I along with Adam Fine in of East Hampton and Brian Duler of Shelter Island have, you know, gone uh up to the superintendent's conference and done a public presentation on the value of intermunicipal agreements.
074We were just invited to give the presentation again at the New York State Association of School Business Officials conference in Saratoga in June. It got significant coverage in the Niscus newsletter. There are many advantages to intermunicipal agreements and I think that the board and the taxpayers recognize that. But and and there are legitimate reasons to you know to look at a actual study of merging the two districts. We know that just up the road, Southampton and Tahoe are, you know, have engaged a professional uh firm to study that as well. That's a political issue that I'm not going to weigh in on. I am going to weigh in on on the math in the presentation just looked at the the the rates are different because you have two halves, two parts of the equation there
075and you have two different values. You have the le you calculate the tax rate by taking a levy divided by the assessed value. And since you're going to have different numerators and different denominators, you can't accurately compare these two things because when you, as any fourth grade math teacher tells their students, when you change the top and you change the bottom, you can't go back and look to see if there's any value there. There are different rates because there's different levies and there's different assessed values for each district. The combination of the two districts that Mr. Buddha puts on the bottom of his presentation ignores two huge facts. The first is that your budget is currently based on paying tuition to East Hampton for your 9th through 12th grade students, which if you were in
076a combined district, you're not going to do because you're just going to be part of that district. But the other thing, so the the number is false that is being presented there. The real problem is that when you combine two districts, and this has been shown in the combination of Eastport and South Matter uh in Brook Haven and Southampton Towns from 25 years ago, you have to equalize the value, the holdings that the district has. So all of the reserves that you have have to be equalized out to what the reserves of East Hampton has, the the the the holdings that you have, the value of this building, the value of East Hampton High School. It all has to be balanced out. The taxpayers of East Hampton are built that high school and paid for
077it. The taxpayers of Sprints can't just be merged into it without there being financial without there being some sort of financial ironing out of that that value there. So this number looks very nice, but it's not based on the reality of how you put those things together. If that's something, you know, if the board is actually interested in that, I would encourage you through your superintendent to have those conversations. But I think as we move forward together in our mutually beneficial relationship of intermunicipal agreements, I think that that is where it's most easily able to impact the taxpayers of sharing services more and more. And I know that Nancy works very well with the other superintendents in East Hampton Town for that effort and and I think that's where your true efforts. >> Appreciate all
078the input information. Yeah, it's I think it's nice in the sense that we've gone so far in the last few years to have these intermunicipal agreements that it it evens even opens us up to the conversation of you know how these partnerships can can increase to the you know the feasibility of both parties and everything like that. So, um, you know, we're an open-minded board. Um, but I have to say that it's it's due to the good work that our administration has done already to save the taxpayers this much money, uh, to have the operational efficiency that we have. And we are constantly striving to to save money and to open costs because at the end of the day, um, this is all about our students. We want to make sure that we fund everything
079that we can in the most competitive and productive way for them. So, um, we'll always keep our eyes open, but I think it should not go without saying that, um, we've done so much already in connecting that from the backup that we've been able to do for each other and the things that that we're doing now and we'll continue to look in that direction. All right. There any other comments tonight from anyone? Health TV, final call. >> Yeah, we have a caller on the line. I'll put them through. >> My goodness. Go right ahead. Hi, this is um Shelby Finelli and sorry I'm not there. I'm in the car with my kids Addy and Luke who are students at Spring School. And um we just actually wanted to call in um to echo what Miss
080Carney said about Miss Lapen. Miss Lapin, you will be so missed. We're so sorry that we're not there to see you tonight. You are everything and more that parents could want as as an educator. Thank you for all that you have done for the children, parents, and the school. We adore you and we will miss you so so much. And that's it. >> We have no additional callers. >> Our darn family is if it makes them a bit of a competition among my siblings. Um well that was wonderful. Are there any final comments for this evening? All right. Thank you everyone so much for your comments, your attendance and being here. I now make a motion to adjourn. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? All those in favor? All right.