001all right good evening Springs Boe uh we're streaming to YouTube uh phone lines are open you are being recorded uh you may start your meeting thank you very much and thank you to all in attendance tonight uh Vicky can you roll call please sure attendance tonight is Eric FR Patrick and the field saris D thank you very much please stand to the Pledge of Allegiance right so I love when we start meeting with our students uh so without further wait at this time I'd like to invite Emily O'Reilly and her students to the podium can't wait to see what you guys have for us tonight um so um I thought we should give a little bit of a road map as to how we got to the the projects that you'll be able to see
002so um as it a long walk to this project and you'll see Connection in a minute the tiny little words down below are all of the New York state standards that we addressed through the team and so I thought it it reminded me a little of all those side effects you know on drug interaction like all but it goes on and on so just through this one unit we we've addressed all of those standards that you think so we started veryy thing so we started with a fiction study and we read a long walk water which is a book about children and what they have to go through just to survive on a day-to-day basis and one of the characters Sal um actually Rose to create a corporation called water for which has given water
003to over 500,000 people neighboring count we M into a nonfiction study and the articles that have to do anything that can be connected to water access we water cator to see how much we use on a day Day-Day basis we talk about climate educational access inquality women right effect especially and it's the crucial that because it brings us one step closer to our research project which is going on right now kids start to around and see other things are happening in the world and things they might want then we move on to interviewing a person who has immigrated to the United States and um students job really tell us about his or her life but more than that really their story and they've done a beautiful job with these you know for many years and
004they their friends their family many times staff members have jumped in and helped us out with this and they even tell their own story if they choose to do so and you'll hear one of those time and then we poetry and we contract what women in L use and we and I those are of the questions that we brainstorm historical context of anguage entral them and tone how that conal and then on what you'll see today so the final culmination is for students to compose the poem in the style of the I Sing America on left that tells the perspective of the person that they interview so it's really multi because they have to empathize with that person they have to get into their mind their heart and tell that story with honor and Grace
005so many times my brain works like this I I wonder what would happen if we and then we just go from there and this year my brain said I wonder what would happen if we made video projects with them and set them to music and narrated them and I told the kids that and I said I don't know how to do those things but I bet that you do and I bet that you can figure it out and they all did and so what you're going to see now are just beautiful projects so I'd like to acknowledge first and then just run them straight so that we can see them after so tonight we'll see Sarina here and we'll end with GL I sing [Music] Amar forine from path to path searching for Success rning
006over again bu but I'm afraid of every day toming I will not I am aftere I will SLE in I will SLE inace with America is the new world to me new world that work place I want to be hasive the place where our lives start America I America I come to America opportunity to escape all the strugle I take my brother by the hand to tr this unfamiliar land hoping to reunite parents again my eyes that smell of mountains har but I'm grateful for the opportunity that I was able to try things I would have never done if I stayed back at home I'm grateful my brother land I to am America aw and maybe are return in the blink of an eye nervous excited this the strong wind my name ping me back
007to my family chear of for me a child alone with strangers suffering to become hiding my feelings never given up finding my to America from the hills where CLS touched the Earth where my mother's voice was the morning song and the rivers our stories I left with nothing but a name a prayer folded in my pocket and a hope to stub to World The Journey was th in silence a world that swallowed my tears my crossers where fear whispered you don't belong I Carri the weight of good on my back each step and a each mile Al here ien but not known my hands spilled but others take for granted my voice muffled beneath their judgment this land feels both mine and not it's promised heavy with C but I sing softly knowing my voice
008is part of song I do am America thank you very much for giving thank you so much those were beautiful Ming pieces of writing thank you to the students for sharing that because I'm sure there's a a lot of work that goes into that and thought and uh I like it was like having a together there you know I have to do a meeting tonight and that's really touched my heart thank you so much it's one thing to write and it's another thing to to share so thank you very much for doing yeah thank you thank [Music] you so much appreciate was there anything no we're all set I think we're going to excuse our thank you for coming tonight be very special when we open that way so if you wish to leave by
009all means do so have a wonderful night thank you so we're going to move now to the public comment period of our meeting and in the interest of consistency even though uh there's not a lot of people staying tonight I uh I want to set the stage for public comment number one is for agenda items only and whether it's people calling uh from home or in here tonight uh I wish to say that we are about to convene to 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
010and 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 identity on these matters we would ask you to go through the appropriate administrative Challenge and finally we intend that our school board meetings serve as an examp example to our students that members of our school board and members of our community can 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 ability and respect for any Divergent views that may be expressed we ask
011that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience thank you and with that are there any uh comments with regard to the agenda both uh LTV or here tonight yes please come to the general comment um I looked for the uh agenda yesterday at 3:00 it was not available I would ask you to I don't know when it did become available probably sometime today I would ask you staff and District to do as much as possible provide the public with more reasonable advanced notice of the agenda and the text presentation such as the budg presentation government Friday on Monday Tuesday or Wednesday the following next on your agenda you have uh item 71 you're be discussing the memorandum of agreement respect the district teachers I would ask you when you
012have that conversation that you inform public not only of the terms of the 2% per year increase that has been negotiated over the course of the next additional years but you a figure on what the total cost increment is for next year to this new contract which as we all know includes not just the 2% salar increase per employee or teacher also the step increase which I think typically look at the schedule about 3% so that what you propos AG to say unreasonable is essentially 5% increase for a teacher teacher fired take consideration step increase and the negotiated salary increase next7 know how much will this new contract cost next year if it's ratified second mention before starts is the repair Reserve fund proposition 6.7 there has been absolutely no public discussion than a brief
013mention budget meeting that there would be a request for a reauthorization of the repair Reserve fund I'm astonished the amount that's being requested and you have put on the agenda $7.5 million no discussion whatsoever of what you project are the needs for Reserve fund you have um obviously needs to make repairs you have an existing repair Reserve fund that's started back in 2007 with a fairly modest $100,000 authorization and over the years there been some not many additional authorizations all of which require public approval which you're now seeking perhaps only because they made a point of it earlier this year as being something that's a legal requirement so why do we need a 7.5% um budget Reserve repair Reserve fund which allows the district every year take any over budgeted funds and simply push them
014into Reserve without any real accountability and there's no such thing as a free launch every dollar that goes into the repair Reserve fund year after year the doll is not returned to the public to the taxpayers because it there a free reserve it comes out of the the tax dollars that the taxpayers have to pay so I'd like you to discuss that in detail when you get to item 6.7 on your agenda thank thank you for your comments is there anyone else pres that would like to come up LTV do we have any callers we have no callers on the line all right we're going to move to your next item on the agenda um all right I'm going to ask for a motion to approve items 4.1 to 4.13 on our consent agenda tonight
015do I have a motion I have a second all those in favor I any opposed motion carries all right so we're going to move to the budget presentation now uh this is our budget presentation number three at this time Sam would you review this budget presentation number three sure not used to this corner here be completely disorient all right so uh this is our third budget presentation obviously we've got through a lot of material we're going to talk about the remainder bit of the budget tonight as well as the two propositions that are going to on the ballot uh I want to remind you that we have divided the budget this year in terms of these presentations into three sections first we have Central support sorry five sections we have Central support we have instruction
016we have special schools uh special education other schools we have transportation and now we have benefits and Deb service we benefits and service obviously one of presentations very proud [Music] what they looking for what they think need to be the administrations at the efficacy of these programs put together for you presentations to allow you to make decisions about where we stand obviously at the same time monitoring where our revenue is we're talk about Revenue tonight as well uh bu goals important have goals doing here I think the most important goal here is that we're desing a budget that will our community support at St within the property tax liit and not the preview our fut slide but we have succeeded in that effort uh so transport obviously we have to provide transportation for most students
017who attend school here and for students to attend based ons responsiv 15 miles of students home milal ucation students and we have partnered with other districts from time to time save money uh on certain unque special education also to purch buses next year Capital fund we will come to that at the end of the presentation so that in the back of your head bug here this is the budget for what weuse terms of Transportation cost next year there are increases fuel is a volatile expense fuel costs are very hard to predict when we create this budget we're trying to figure out where we are going costu our vehicles for more than a year from now and so we have to Le on the side of making sure that we have enough money for all that
018can see how that all out benefits is a big part of the budget other than salary most expensive thing we have in the district is the health insurance plan it's one of the many benefits that we have we are mandatorily required to participate in State Retirement systems for our employees the payments are based on a percentage of the employees uh salary based on when they started the complicated form I get if you're interested soci security system requ to pay the employ of social secur tax health insurance which La contract other benefits you can see there I want to talk a little bit about pions are calculated so for the teachers you take the amount of money that a teacher makes and it's multipli by a contribution rate set by the reement system the contribution rates
019are based on a 5e rolling average of how the retirement system does with Investments the retirement system is one of the largest other systems in the world guaranteed by the United States f4% of liability they have professional money managers manage Investments of this fund is bigger than I think can cone how many places they invest money the percentage that we pay as District into the fund is the basis of how much they made liability the employers have to make difference back7 what the contribution rate has so weim in the middle of it's over remember the era era of the early 2000s where contri stock market was flying high the Pion system to munity contri as the stock market has gotten not as advantageous for investors it goes up when it gets more advantageous for investors
020it goes down so here what your pension system costs are looking like so you can see the contribution rate for the 2 the left side and then projected the contribution rates in the 256 right side of the left box the TR contribution rate has not been completely they're to tell us in the next couple weeks and we'll make that number Solid always are right is a little B trickier because that's system for teachers but Cil service Works April April for April 1 2026 right now have make best gu estim sometimes mation because we are figuring what is the Contrition be and MTI our salary cost for next year get the right where we are minut why is contribution rate C percent the percentage change cost forth insurance is so we partipate yor St health insurance
021program Empire with hundreds of local governments and the state and state employes across the state rates are set in Aly through the new State Department Civil Service uh and they are set in December for the foll months so again we have to use a little bit of projection and best guess when we create this we know exactly what our insurance Contrition are going to be for the period of the first [Music] months2 we don't know2 find Thanksgiving have we last few years to try to figure out what we need to budget for the the back six months of our fiscal year once again line up so we have to figure out best fa where we're be right has last like 12 to 14% a year this year the state surpris allbody contrib rate only went
022up at 10 point so like you know we were off by you know 11.9% but you can't miss the other way health insurance is a mandatory part of our operation so we have to project in cas situation make sure that we can f health insurance and have to cut programs P bill this shows where health insurance costs uh have been since 1999 and you will see that health insurance rates have gone up something like close to 300% over the last 25 years which is an amazing increase about where we are I think everyone's roomly remember the year 1999 you what the family cost was and you can see what the family cost is today the the increase has been uh astronomical and if you think that this is not done I don't think realistically anybody
023in 1999 ever thought that the contribution the cost cost of the health insurance would be what it is today I think we' be fooling ourselves if we didn't think that 25 years from it will be six figures project future budgets and future costs all right so this shows the trend of this basically puts into chart form we saw in the previous slide i s this to you to illustrate how much health insurance costs and how big part of our budget it is and how we have to treat it seriously so contrib obvious have cost insurance premium cost employes pay a certain percentage of this through the labor negotiated contract uh and so you can see active employes pay cost most retirees don't pay a lot of it because of the way the contracts work and
024that change the future negotiation F retirees the person retires District whatever Contrition by contract is you can't tou the contri rate re they done contract is it uh so you can see there what I'm what we're projecting terms of health insurance cost for the future employees have the option to wave our health insurance they a payment again this is negoti through contract it's cheaper for us to give them payment than have them take our insurance but they have to show us they have coverage re I just want to point this out here R cost for a health insurance plan for family coverage program more than $40,000 it is re system insurance work compensation insurance and our health insurance and this is where our benefits costs are going for next year service let Talk service finalet
025obviously you have issued debt from time to time Deb to constru get each year for tax anticipation note again the the even of our years don't line up we don't start getting our tax money that the town collect our until January our bills last the year so we have tax anticipation in order to cover our cash flow expenses in the fall we're waiting for the money to come in January the same but they don't so that's we have when you issue a bond or other sorts of debt payments there's a debt schedule that's set down as you issue the bond so we know exactly where our debt payments are going to be each year the debt is districtal guarantee to pay is back byed of District ases paid every year another portion of this budget
026is called other funds and this is where I want to talk about our purchase idea here so the three other funds we've been talking all the budg about the general fund f other funds that EX in the district ter this slide is the uhal a fund sometimes called the federal fund so we have to cover a portion summer instruction to special education students govern reur us for another portion but we have money uh we going to cover our our part of our portion of it that's the transfer to special Aid fund also approprate money to the caeria fund to pay for the district milk program obviously M come from somewhere transfer to cafeteria fund and then last we have the capital Fund in the past the district has purchased buses by issuing debt was called
027the buy anticipation note and buying buses we're not recommending you do that anymore when you issue debt there are costs associated with it you have to pay borrowing cost you have to pay the interest you have to pay the fee of selling this debt I believe for you believe that it's far better for your money and theal approach which I think what we try to do here is to have the money appropriated in your budget to transfer the capital fund to purchase buses you have to replace the school bus pretty much beginning when it's about 7 years old when the hits that sevene Mark that magic number of when theing the vehicle becomes more expensive than having a new one are subject to incredible amount of inspection high level inspection from the state department so
028that level has to be maintained at after seven years it really begins to the balance Tis so we're recing next year that you transfer enough money to Capital fund we're to purchase bus going to show up right away bus manufacturers are somewhere between 11 and 18 months uh behind when you it'll probably be at least this time next year before you see that vehicle quick just on the buses uh just for the community and everyone had you know we use the Benchmark of seven years as the reality of changing a bus but there are probably assessments or things made to determine if that bus has a longer than average life or yeah you know your buses are maintained by St school district of Transportation shop obviously emplo we have very high stand our vehicle PA
029the Department of Transportation inspection and if a vehicle lasts we'll keep it but when something is not working and it more expensive to repair than it's it's time not to sink good money after then I imagine your point like with the health insurance there's so much forecasting involved knowing that you have a bus that is near the end of it life maybe 11 18 months next one we're trying to predict the future which difficult like crystal ball is in a shop but you know we're trying our best to figure out what our you know what our real estate need and I'd rather that I recommend that you appropriate the money and have it so that you can make this Choice instead of having a choice made for you which is not a good position to
030be in thank you so this is where your your costs are for your debt service and transfer other funds uh so obviously the transfer to Capital number that's excuse that's a really big number right there because obviously before you can also see here the anticipated the bond anticipation notes and interest one the things that Jonathan are trying to do pay down the debt for these Bond anticipation not that you borrowed for these previous BU as fast as Possible's no reason to be caring and pay interest on it if we can afford to wipe it off the leure and that's what we're trying to do here Sam I Noti something I was saying I was at the bus the transportation cost of 1.2 too so about 15 years ago we we subed out our busers that
031was our fee then yeah we were paying that much in 15 years ago so how much money we save 15 have their own buses having their own buses is a really powerful position to be in I can tell you without giving too much details I want speak for another district one of my colleagues uh up Island to say how to go out doesn't that District does not own its own buses they had to go out for bid and the price went up 40% which is just an astronomical figure he with that District they can only raise uh their taxes by excuse me if I have the details wrong here was something like $1.5 million and the increase on fation was $1.4 Million so up all the money allowable under the tax cap owning your own
032Vehicles is a very wise move so that's where we are in terms of so this is everything that we've been talking about for the last three presentations we put it all together in a slide so you can see that we're projecting that the budget is going to be 38.4 million next year so we've been talking the last presentations about what we recomending for expenses we talk about how going to pay for all this that's the revenue side of the budget so you can see what we have here ween down general areas property taxes State a use of reserves uh interest the revenue appropriated fund balance the property taxes that is calculated to stay within the property tax cap has done that last years have very supportive of your budgets and rightfully so but they deserve
033breakmen tax we talk about that in our lastation state increase from State obviously now and when you are budg next month pass Chang you can see the other the other funds there I think they're lar self-explanatory I want to talk a little bit about interest this is another area where we have lot projection interest rates are very difficult to predict particularly in this market so we are being extremely conservative about what we think we're going to make interest of fund the bank again I don't nether I don't want to Pro make money interest and cut the interest rates and we make no money interest on that fund being conserv objection also reforming some of the the the the district has anticipated C come so rather than continuing to bet on what never happens let's put
034that go with what actually happens an appropriate fund balance is money that's left over from year one's budget that is used to choose expenses so that's where we are with that our goal here for sound budgeting practices is to slowly bring this down over the next few years design a budget that relies on the following yearend that to come up right so we are recomending that next years we're bring number FAL down down down so that we can have more predictability and stability for the taxpayers you don't want to have a you think I'm to.5 million to come thaty foreven for next year that's not a good technique we're going to bring it down the next years as a longm I think we want to do things spikes and valys as we tax very steady
035the way we go all right so in addition to the budget which will be on the ballot there are two other ballot items that asking you to put voters we already authorized one that is contract with East School District for high school education that is the language the meeting think we talked that everybody's comtable that uh the second bot item which was alluded to earlier in the evening problem so obviously has been a very long time since the voters last weigh in on repair Reserve here in we spent a lot of time looking at the language that was passed by the board and the voters many years ago as it was and you support inies that haveen over the last year of using the repair Reserve to reps this building to allow remain small and
036not become large there's no impact on taxes the Creations is fund every year in June just like we did last June we're going to put a resolution for your before you for your consideration to allow you to use excess money left over from the year the reserve for future use and it's up to you resolution to make that decision again we want to avoid spice ands it's I think a some easy thing to say tax down predictability tax I think the best thing you do with your budg have predictability have easy to understand for the voters where their taxes are going to be if you end up relying on returning money to vo each year small will inre L it this is no way for people to run their own personal taxes school district and
037the finances of this District reserves veryable for you to be able to keep your taxers and able take problems in this building inv ta Mone Community it doesn't M and number of projects year that they not from now the years from now say those years taking care of so we don't have to spend a lot of money and bond it now that's the importance of the repair Reserve had a question I did go first no no go ahead please so can you explain you 7.5 yeah I'd be happy to do that look you can make the number anything you want okay I'm recommending 7 and a half because it's going to give you flexibility for a very long time what what number you put in it's not that it's one time entry of money into
038the fund it's not okay this year we're going to put in you know 500,000 and then next year we're going to put in uh 200,000 but we spend 300,000 it's not up and down like an elevator once you put that money in it goes against s and half or whatever number that is so if you go let's say we're go3 million fund once we put million in which could reasonably be done in six seven years Again by 275 million who have taken care of this repair reserve and set a firm financial plan for this community for a very long time the future you're not million make it lower when you have the resolution before evening make a motion to put as a lower number if that's what you want I'm recomending 7 million because it
039will give you plenty of room to do this for many many many years it doesn't mean we're putting in million at the end year I think that's the clarification that's important for the community it's not a balloon that we're trying to take care of this year it's an an allotment that will last for years to come based on responsible bookkeeping you see what's available and as part of that available 7 half million that the community is voting on we have the option to with what we are able to move that rep we it can be a decade or put any may want to put a million in depends what's left over it depends what your other priorities are this is not the only repair this is not the only Reserve fund you have in this
040in this school district and some years it may be in your financial interest and subject to the decision of the board B the recommendation of the superintendent that you put more money in other reserves some years May we're not going to put any money in res we had a very hard year you know we had a lot of unexpected the we don't have anything left over so I think that's the important message voters not we're put in 7 million in in June we're giving ourselves plenty of stealing space in this concept to work for year to come because it will also set down your plan for the next 10 15 years we are putting an emphasis on the use of repair Reserve as a way to maintain this the structure and we're dedicating this is
041the direction we're going in over the next decade it's up to you can discuss this later when you have this resolution you you Cano you want that recation number whatever you think is politically approprate for this community I tell you that if you Pi a l number back doing this again before you know it because to ask you a question that's one we exp to the public it's a ceiling it's aing and I think that clear communication of that I know you put out the newslet every year clear communication of that in the newsletter is an important way to do that obviously you have the media here can help deliver that message as well it's a stealing but again you have to decide what's right for your District you're the elected representatives and charge of
042the finance here so from the 7.5 million number in this language is the language fundable can we still make changes to it uh you can you're need to adopt it tonight un you're going need to adop something tonight because we're kind of out of time the deadline for when ballot initiatives that are coming from the board uh have to be adopted is like March ith or something like that I think you're having another meeting between now and I just wonder if we could make it the language a little bit clearer to say the appropriation of up to $75 million add that we certainly that's fine it can be up to5 million from time to time I mean that's that's a sometimes law the board can appropriate from time to time I recommend you don't add
043a ton of language this got to be split into theot but be enough yeah but yeah you can do that however you like when you get up to that in the uh later on the agenda youly make a motion that change you okay all right thank you all right so next step most important thing here we're going to be monitoring changes for the form coming out of Al suppos to Bud April I think we said for a couple years long time that was for couple years the deadline year and last couple years we sliding dire and then obviously the superintendent will be looking to you for uh input about the expend plan we put forward last three uh budget presentations and make some changes Bas on that feedback you between now and your next meeting
044on we'll go through this you know one more time of over uh technique uh and that is when you going to have to adopt the budget for meeting on May 1 comments ISD and then decision thank you very much Sam uh from the board I know we asked questions throughout the presentation but does the board have any questions uh remaining with regards to budget presentation I just have a question about health insurance are schools required to use n um they're not there are other health insurance plans available but I will point out that your labor contracts require you to negotiate with the Union about changes to the health insurance that's offered um and I think that it would be a very difficult Stell in a negotiation process to be able to make those changes but
045there are certainly other options available for many years a number of districts on the East End participated in an East End only plan that plan's costs are actually uh significantly higher than what Empire knip is one of the best things about Empire nship even though it is expensive is it's it's an incredibly Broad and deep pool of participants one of the things you want with health insurance is you want to spread the risk in as wide a pool as possible and because there are so many participants all across the state in all level of municipal government from the state government down to Villages or special packing districts the pool is incredibly wide and that helps with cost control which I know is straight to given the amount of money that the plan costs but it's
046certainly there are there are worse ways to run a plan than the way Empire mhip does any other questions all right uh so we're going to move now to our business it item section I ask for a motion to approve items 6.1 through 6.9 business items on our agenda do I have a motion well we're motioning to approve and review we will vote after second all right uh Jonathan can you please review items 4 61 69 sure um 61 is the February 11th uh board meeting minutes um then we have our Treasures reports the uh appropriation status and revenue status reports and the uh warrants for February um after that we have our special education cncp SE reports um we have our approved the repair Reserve fund proposition and then we also have the joint
047corruptive biging program with Eastern sufferes as large of a text as that is um this is stand we do every year participate in Bose going out and doing the bidding for the school district then we get sent the contract and bid award list and then we can pick Ines vendors from there without having to go through the bidding process ourselves it's a great benefit to the district after that we have the YMCA East Tamp Center for facilities youth this is something I we do every year for for the kids um it's just to approve um the contract re thank you Jonathan we're just looking over it the YMC is the YMC charges a 6,000 is that town funded that building orally what you us to abuse certain of its origin I know it's on I
048believe it's on land owned by The Village but the building is owned by the town if I'm not mistaken not not entirely certain of the the how it was created we don't know what the previous rate was for that last year do we no I could look that up and share it with you space paying instructors I think that's just to use utilities and then there's an additional fee for um the instructors that um usually comes after all the P this I know we sign a contract yes but not true never seen that number I think it's like four days of a month I could right it's for the11 one the and you know want to begin April 1 I mean it's a great great facility for going take another Community thing but that was
049what was sent over to my office there other questions from the board with regard to 69 change the language langu yes do you want is it okay to let it be open until the 7.5 is fly exhausted you don't want to do that you want you want to keep it funded 7.5 I don't recommend you put an end date because again it creates an artificial construct that you may not like when the end day comes up right it's time it's not time triggered it's it's appropriation tra basically right but again it's not an elevator of up and down it's once we've put that last dollar in of whatever number you end up selecting but once 7.5 is in then we would have to come back create a new one correct yeah please go ahead so
050right now it's 7.5 let's say year end we put 100,000 in then we have 7.4 left so it's up until you fund it to that amount and then it ceases to be funded so if it takes you know 10 years or 20 years it's always available then and it decreases every time it's funded there's that's accounting worksheet and everything right fully fully understood and I think it's important that obviously we decide on a number now but also that just to clarify any languaging so that when the voters look at that that that that is clearly understood I think that's something that easy to uh you know misunderstand because it's a large number it's a v for that year it makes it to some maybe look like that's for that year so do we have what
051we need in terms of the reward I think time to time is a word we're not I don't think I think it's consecutive years yeah I agre I agre over yeah yeah question ask up with a number which is unfair to me if I'm not advisor I am not the admin I'm not I don't run to school we standing back so you come up with 7.5 million and how did you get there I recommended 7.5 million because I think it gives you sufficient ceiling over hopefully more than a decade of repair work done in this building and I think that it allows you to set down a dedicated path of what you're going to be doing to maintain this building over the next decade I I think that it's important for for each of us
052to remember we you know there's no guarantee any of us or all of us are going to be here over this time so you want to show that you have a path this has thought about this how we want to do this to maintain this building over the next period of years you can certainly have a smaller number but I think we've seen that you know costs of of repair work of Public Works are very expensive we've you know the the cost of just the simple Act of you know changing out tile that has become cra that has a in it is I think greater than anybody would say oh how much could it be to do this small amount of pile well by the time you add in prevailing wage and all the you
053know the the legal all the legalities to go along with that the numbers add up fast s and a half is too high a number you could try five you know I think I mean you can do whatever you want it depends on how how often you want to be having this discussion and about what kind of path you want to demonstrate to Future Boards of we had some thought we had success from use of repair reserve and this is the dedicated path to going the direction we want to go to again I don't want to subtitute my judgment I actually a question on the exact same thing I think when you see that number it looks very high and when Sam explained it to me I understood the thinking behind it and I do
054think it's really important that we think long term as Sam said so that in the future we have a reserve there that can be funded up to am that's going to carry it into the future number of years so it Mak s does that number make sense to the board as it is yeah I think we've got some some potentially big items that need to be repaired in the next five to 10 years that that number makes sense boilers are definitely going to be one of those big items as well as some of the facial work uh on the top of the building so we do have to prepare we have a very an old building and the infrastructure is something that we're dealing with on a regular basis maintaining our boilers keeping system scholing
055all those things on a regular basis we've been nonstop taking care of maintaining these see even if we put to S we go to 7.5 million and we decide that next year we're not going to put no money in it doesn't mean we have to make the 7 half million it's just saying it's just feeling canot exceed that amount go back go back remember in June we had a long resolution for you talking about with funding reserves that's the way that I recommend that you do this as a matter of course every June it closes your books close the books properly it gives clear direction to the auditor about where you're looking to have the reserve funds each year and this allows you to have Clarity in what you do I also point out law
056six in this resolution that shows where the money is coming from it's unallocated District funds that's money left over each year it's funds that remaining in the prior established repair Reserve so we're essentially asking the voters to approve here is to take everything that left over in that old repair poured into the new on that's going to eat into that number whatever you end up coming up with it's going to eat away at it immediately and any funds R happens that comes from the state so but we put that in there a matter of course in case it does come I wouldn't count on it so that's that how we come up with it if you'd rather have a lower number 5 million is you know something you think is more palatable to your electorate
057it's perfectly acceptable too you know I I want this to be the choice of the board the point is that number gives uh a board in a future board the flexibility to fund a very important Reserve but if the money is not there in a given budget that that of course is looked at scrutinized every single year and that 7.5 million at certain years may not be touched at all due to other circumstances there if something comes up there's a large strain boilers go and we haven't done that due diligence now it puts the school for another areas it's just a planning mechanism it is not a mandate to spend that money in any short period of time as I said earlier when I was speaking you have a number of reserves and in some
058years you fund them and some years you don't based on what the projections are about what you need for example you have Reserve Reserve correct yeah you have a reserve that's used to pay for compensatable unused sck time when people retire some years you fund that some years you don't depending on what you think you're going to need over the next few years and you would treat this in the same way some years you fund it some years you don't if you accomplish a lot of repair Reserve work in the next couple years you say okay you know we're in a good shape we're in a good spot let's put the breaks on that we really want to build up our Reserves in other areas or we or we've had a very difficult budget year
059we've had a lot of things happen that we didn't fully anticipate so we don't have a lot of money left over that's perfectly acceptable too it's just like you know the difference between speed limit you don't have to go that fast we're allow to go that way I just don't want to try to do try I understand trying to avoid happening what happened last Don't Look Back we go back 12 years to find out what the resolution was he blown it up that I understand you go you know 7 half million does scare a lot of people 5 million will scar people three million scar people what you're comfortable saying is you're going to limit it 7.5 million they not exceed you not the public V we do have to use money out to do
060the P right and looking at our as budgets we've had with the 2% tax cap it's going to be tough to fund that budget that fund anyway because we usually exceed the 2% and our goal as the board is not to to you know to exceed to 2.2% on the budget so it's tough budg like I said it's discussion about this at a public meeting next day bring up as well you know it's important the public understand why we're doing it and how it works I think that's the biggest one yeah it's it it's a it's a ceiling of what can be allocated and it's anything that goes in there uh if you're assuming the voters approve this any money that go that goes in there is subject to the board's vote you know the
061the board is the one voting to Move It from wherever it is into that fund each time so it's not an administrative decision it's a board decision the board has the control over the public tax dollars in every step of the way as it should be I guess another way to think of it is that most likely 7.5 million would never be spent at the same time but say God forbid over 10 years from now everything crops out at the same time to have the money even if we were able to fill it in 10 years say then we would actually have a money set aside if it was at 3 million and boilers go and the room needs repair needs to be done at the same time eat up3 million it's a yearly decision
062to decide we you know and as we do have say the boilers checked on a regular basis if they're telling us it's not going to last more than a year we know it's going to cost over a million dollars you know we're going to hopefully have money from a couple of years in there that's going to take care of that and then once that's done and if we don't have big expenditures as Sam said that's when you say let's let's take care of some some of our other reses and but you want to have that money available so if you do have a million dollar expenditure you plan for it it's just the first layer in a multi-layered system of checks and balances that allows people who are in the mix making decisions the school's
063needs are completely variable and we can move on that when we when we need to but it's not a blatant expenditure of some lump sum of money so even by voting that to use that money as Sam just mentioned there are still other things that you have to do to move that money so this is just one step in uh long-term planning and supports the school in its needs is the board comfortable 7.5 million there money only I is that it that people might not understand exactly what it is it's not explained properly to them they may think that this is an account million into the explanation of it we could do something in the newspap clarify people that we not no it'll be very important to put out in the budget newsletter and anytime
064we have a meeting between now and the budget so three things that we discussed would be beneficial is obviously uh correct Clarity the news media budget newsletter resource that we have and then I just need to know do we uh need to have the wording down tonight for clarification as it hits you you need to have if you want this to be on the ballot you're going to need to have something adopted by it's like I'm sorry I don't know the DAT it's either like March 24th March 25th because it has to go in the legal notice which Vicki has to send to the newspaper and has to start running the or just you what it's going on the ballot needs to be locked can we do that now is there a wording that you
065were comfortable with K you wanted up to I think um put goess all on right now no I'm not I'm trying to find where you want that tell me people can understand happening on a rolling basis annually this happening once a year or over the multiple times a year I mean in theory you're allowed to do you're allowed to move money in multiple times a year I've never seen that happen more than once a year but you theoretically could okay from District fund balance or other funds as described you're in into the uh repair reserve and then I think the rest up to a maximum of seven and a half milon I want to make sure we get that right correct we have it's approxim that day so let's just is that the periodic appropriation
066available funds yeah into the repair Reserve fund up to a maximum of 7.5 read that one more time to make sure if we have it right that okay no we don't want to rush this this is why we have these meetings so um in the in the on the bottom I'm on the bottom of page eight in the printed version of the agenda here so you're suggesting that it says that the periodic appropriation of available funds from District fund balance or other funds as described here in into the repair Reserve fund up to a maximum of$ 75 million here to for established or to be established by the Board of Education in accordance with the provisions of section 60 of General Municipal law for the purpose of funding major repairs District building facilities and sites
067thereof is hereby approved that's how we have it that's we have written down which I'll give to Vicki so again that's up to you if that's what you want that I have no objection you know of that working for our point of view that's what you're comfortable with that's that's fine yeah we obviously don't want to do this in haste but do you is that wording from your professional standpoint read clearly the so provisor that I'm not your attorney I I I think you're fine and does that satisfy the board in terms of clarification that we anticipate for the public to read and understand what they're voting on do we want it R so that we can hear the change or want to rad one more time tell you what why don't you if if
068if I may why don't you move on to the other parts of the agenda maybe I can with Bob's help I can type it here and then we can put it up on the screen for you to come back to a little bit later on so you can see the black that be okay we're gonna table the uh the vote for approving 669 and we're going to move to the superintendent report and approve all the other you want the other ones so just take out 6.7 so let's take out 67 then all right so uh all right so we're going to ask for approving items 61 through 66 and 68 through 69 all those in favor of approving those items I any opposed motion par for those specific items revisit 67 thank all right so
069we're g to move now we will move on to the superintendent's report and recommendations I have for a motion to approve items 71 through I think we're 77 now theend support and recomendations do I have a motion a second all right thank you can you please these it I always just do S6 because the update in enrollment doesn't really okay so I just uh as uh we're very uh pleased that we came to a memorandum of agement with our Teachers Association we began negotiating in early September uh both sides worked very hard going back and forth and we had a very respectful uh negotiation process so we're very pleased about that and I think what's important to note is that we believe that we came up with an agreement that is really to both our
070teach teachers and our communities in response to mr's question before uh the 2% increase is very much in line with what other districts are doing all around the island um and step increases yet to they do vary um depends on where you are on salary schedule and they go anywhere from 1.5% up to 3% and I said it varies year to year and where a teacher is on salary schedule but as um has been discussed here many times um our teachers are below a lot of our neighboring districts and we do Fair as we're not going to be where our neighboring districts are but we feel like we came up with an agreement that is really fair to both the community and the teachers one of the important things to us Mr Schneider went over
071cost significant cost of health insurance with getting by the end of this contract all of our is up to paying 20% for their health insurance contribution and that's significant uh impact on the district and our finances so we're very thankful that we got to that point uh with with our teachers and as I said we think it's a very fair cont so we're hoping for approval from the board next we have a lot of donations so we're really thankful to the community to our PTA uh people are very generous here we have a donation of gym equipment from and June Partners as you're aware we have established a little gym downstairs in the basement that many of our teachers and different staff members students before school and after school it helps them to keep in
072shape and a lot of times when they have some time in between evening events and when day after school they really enjoy going down there and getting a little exercise and taking care of the health so we appreciate that donation um we also are accepting the donation for the Kil at the specific price that has been given to us from the PTA we're really excited to get that installed that will be happening soon and we will have some of our students once they create their works of art show them to the Board of Education we also have a from Dr for candy buback we thank for that and we have a donation from the KU Club they donated all uniforms for oural Olympics club which was really appreciated they came out beautifully their t-shirts with
073an opray on them and they're also a dedication to miss p and very thankful for that donation um also really special is we are accepting to accept a donation for new entrance signs this is an anonymous donation from local families uh this is something that people have been talking about I think for quite a while trying to get rid of those flags outside that look like sale lot and put up something that really goes with the community so we're very thankful for that donation very significant and very appreciative um so now I just want to do a little update and as I always do uh talk about enrollment and how it's changed from last month um first just to go over some School news uh we're very proud of all the different events and things
074that are occurring around the school this Sunday our robotics team the Thunder participated in the championship competition at high school they were coached by Mrs fer and Mrs Hamilton they earned the rising allar award and based on their robot design and inovation project on tagging and monitoring horseshoe crab we saw that presentation here was really well done and very proud of their accomplishments in the competition we congratulate them on making championship and uh he also do want to thank all of the firefighters and First Responders everyone was very worried the night the floor with Sunrise Highway being closed and really very impressive uh response uh with the firefighters and all the First Responders so all of our we were able to make it to the robots competition robotics competition thanks to all their hard as
075well as event that weekend and there were five students that participated in this EV under the of MREs and Mr and we congratulate ra and W M and Quin great accomplishment for all these students participating these are some of the best musicians from around the island that get to meet with each other uh compete not only compete but more importantly just be with each other in a different and a larger environment and play Beautiful music together and then also we had our spring bers and they brought home the gold the silver and the on Sunday March our team competed in the Long Island Regional 21 Special Olympics bowling tournament at the allar river and here the up M and Randy gold earned a silver medal and Matthew and brought home the bronze and we're very
076very proud of theseal students and we recognize them in upcoming meeting in the future we've done that in the past and I know it's a very meaningful evening and it's something that the board appreciate we want to give a special thanks to teacher Whitney rer she volunteers all her time for this event and it's very very special as Christy L volunteer for our special need students with events and we're very thankful for that work from our teachers uh for our students also over the weekend uh p and volunteers work in the courtyard for about 4 hours on Sunday March they're preparing the area for GR rece from wild wild to create a Garden Spring it was really really cold that day so we appreciate uh all the hard work they did and uh their dedication
077to our school it's going to be a beautiful space Courtyard we have wild working there we have donations from the uhda are going toing in theard as should be a beautiful SP over the spring and for students and here in the summer well um also just upcoming um this Thursday the fifth grade dare uh graduation takes place March 13th at 10 a.m. everyone is welcome to attend and we do want to thank offic to and the East Camp Town Police Department for bringing this very important program to the school it's been here for a long time I know it was here DEC and we really appreciate dedication to our students as well and just FYI we did receive our new cafeteria tabl for the kindergarten and PR students it's really fun to see in the
078common room and both our karten first gr kids they eating in that room now we're going to call it the spring little cafe we're getting a little there and just really nice to get kids out of the classrooms so that they're all being able to eat together with their classmates from all different grade levels so it's really working out well and I just want to mention we did have a very successful prek registration evening we want to thank the teachers that volunteered their time all the prek teachers there that night helping parents register and uh getting just everything set up for people and so we currently have 34 students enrolled in our pre at this time of year that's significant and um we also have 41 students for kindergarten right now that's where we're at
079with our PR registration it helps us in planning for next year to get this done earlier so we're very thankful for that Andy can just put up the enrollment and you'll see it's hasn't changed much as they do from month to month uh we've been really very very steady we're up three students through and one student at the high school so really basically maintain our enrollment so that's that's where we're at right now we're working very Mr Kel is working daily uh with Administration Administration on starting our scheduling part with March and we have to think about next year but we're working on our scheduling all of our students and our staff as we go forward and hoping to have that set by April early April so everyone has a sense of where they're going
080to be and it's the puzzle putting it all together we're excited about that thank you Nancy uh always wonderful to hear about the many accomplishments of our students but also the contributions of the teachers and parents and everyone coming together uh to make these things happen you know it's there's a lot of support from our staff and our community it means a lot to this board and of course to the to the students that benefits right through the donations that were made as well so thank you for announcing this yes um and uh from what I understand and then Mr Quinn can speak on this as well uh they were extremely impressed with our students not only in their presentation but just their how they behaved how they acted just very complimentary and uh we
081did get those same compliments about our students when they went to the Science Center the Liberty Science Center they just uh very proud that our students uh present themselves in a way that makes us proud as spring Community you guys have any questions on the 71 through 77 no no all right so we're going to uh let's vote on 71 76 all those in favor any opposed no all right motion carries let I think we'll revisit We Ready revisit consider doing public comments first uh we can do public that we can do public comment number public comment can be on anything even if it's not on the agenda uh LTV we could do public comment now before we revisit 67 is there anyone all right thank you uh so yeah let's move with public comment
082one I still you move closer to all right one benefits health insurance retirees cost you will cost you next year $1.1 million with an increase of 11.53% the presentation has the following language most retirees however do not pay a portion of the cost we also learned tonight that um the teachers going forward will be required pay 20% of their health insurance cost which is reasonable in this day and age with such the lust and wonderful health insurance benefits that you pay I don't know why mention was stated by your outside financial advisor that business advisor that um you can't change or adjust the retire or make them pay a comparable 20% you don't as far as I know and you talk of course counil who knows these things much better than I do uh you
083don't have a contract of your retire they have pension benefits they have Des rights their pension far as I know there's no best legal impediment to you adjusting the cost for retirees for their insurance make it comparable to your other staff members give that some thought I'm not telling you the gospel I'm asking you to look into it because it's something that really should be looked into number two Capital fund you currently have 1.2 million unfortunately that's not true the the contract States what you are required to pay a reti from this district for the entirety the rest of their life after they retire and once a person separates whatever language they had in the contract at the time of their retirement is what you are required to honor for the balance of their life
084and so it's very clear in the contract what is paid the only way to affect excuse me the only way to affect future retirees is to negotiate with the union for future retirees once they're gone whatever they whatever deal they had when they left is the deal they get so you can't change anything about the existing retirees as you negotiate things in the future it's it's subject to the give and take of negotiation and you need to balance that out with what are the priorities we have for salary and benefits working imagine it be a very challenging thing for retiree to 20 years from now just have something pulled out it wasn't yes but it just doesn't work that way you are you you have contract language is very clear about what you are required
085to offer retirees in health insurance in the future and the only way to change that is to negotiate but it's only to change that for people who are have yet to retire the folks who have retired get the that was in place at the time of their separation thank you not seek from your business advisor but rather from your legal council frankly when someone retires their contract is over you have certain obligations um but there's no reason that you can't inquire a legal council you have the right and power and authority to adjust the percentage especially what stated in the presentation is accurate most retirees however do not pay a portion of theost I don't know if that's true well thank you for you have something else Capital fund you currently have $1.2 million in
086your Capital fund why can you not use the existing $1.2 million in capital fund to pay for the two buses that you're proposing to purchase and I don't know if there's any rest on that Capital fund buts you should inire into that you have2 Capal fund as far as two buses I think generally over the years you've done one bus a year not sure why you need two buses perhaps it would be prudent to have a schedule of how many buses you have and what their ages are you know agule is whether you need buses purchased now delivered a year from now um certainly unusual if you like to com that go ahead okay most give an estimate of what expected anticipated end of year fund balance will be we haven't heard about that yet
087your treasur financial people should be able to give you a projection Pro guarantee what will be left over is unallocated unencumbered at the end of year they should be able to predict and you could it's not a matter of next year's budget but you should be able have a discussion as to what you would expect to have available at the end of this year that you can move into um a either existing or to be reformulated uh repair Reserve account I haven't heard any discussion with that the problem with a $7.5 million amount is leaves it openend it's like uh a check what's more prudent and more open and responsible for the taxpayers is for each year for you inquire of the administration what are the anticipated concerns about major expenditures improvements they are not
088annually rep repeating themselves such as boilers I'm sure boilers don't cost 7.5 7.5 million probably 700,000 million probably well then that's number that you can that you can put that conversation just not totally interrupt you would still happen if the 7 and a half million is as we discussed that conversation not me I understand that it's it's a preauthorization every year the end of the year with minimal scrutiny and knowledge and presentation to the public to move left over funds from the end of the year's unspent budget and move it into the uh next year make the transfer end of year transfer beginning of next year transfer into that Reserve fund I understand that I appreciate everyone understands the process but you would be much better off and the public would much better appreciate if
089you kept that number at a reasonable number one is matches the lightly anticipated shortterm next two or three year uh likely Capital Improvements that would not be necessarily um funded by a new for any particular major catastrophy or major expenditure you don't have to have a check 7.5 million even if you're not going to put it all into Reserve fund this year next year why buy yourself I just would rephrase it I mean I know what your point is but it really is not a blank check it's a blank authorization to do up to 7.5 million and even other districts have had a time period other districts nearby that you work with have a time period for that contribution to a certain amount it has to be up to a certain amount within I think
090was 10 years is that correct finish your comments for now we'll we'll see there should be there should be a time per shouldn't be open and um my concern really is frankly that once you get that money that kind of money put into a repair Reserve fund it tends to get spent somewhat unnecessarily looking at the ceing I don't see $50,000 worth of work that you I don't want your time to be taken up on too much speculation I can say and I think the public is quite aware that all of the repairs have been extremely necessary and prudently spent this time from everything that we've done hopefully our track record recognize that that we've done everything within our means and the best interest of our students both of them been necessary whe it be
091the workout front whether it be lockers no problem you had presentation you had a hearing not on much notice but you had presentation last hearing you had you had about $900,000 in the repair Reserve early 2024 you spent about 600,000 from that you still have my gu to 00,000 in the repair Reserve but um a lot of more money you have there without having to explain it things have no impact on education in this building that's quite argu when you're sitting in a room and safety is a concern certainly indirectly concerned about anything that affects our students whether it's uh know a condition of the floors or anything else but I don't want to speculation please R your comments right now that's uh really it I do think that you have to give hard as
092you started to and and I'm sure you will continue to give very hard and more consideration to keeping that number for pre-authorization for incremental um contributions into the repair Reserve fund that you keep that number as low as it's reasonably anticipated for the reasonably future needs of this District maintaining thank you for your comments All right so with our last business we are going to uh revisit 67 but before we do did you want to address any of the comments yeah I I just want to you know briefly insert some uh uh again some facts into what we're talking about here uh you have a capital reserve fund you do not have the capital fund capital reserve fund exists this is what was referred to a few minutes ago first of all it with a
093capital reserve fund spending from it requires the specific voter permission in a valid initiative and the voters can only authorize things to come out of it that were envisioned in the language that set it up capital reserve fund was not set up for the purchase of buses so even if you wanted to and even if the voters wanted to you canot use the capital reserve money to purchase buses because it wasn't set up that way so it's not correct to State as was stated a moment ago that you have money available in a capital fund that's false you have a capital reserve fund which is a different animal you know the the other thing that that I would say is that you you a phrase was used that that you know work is done without
094having to explain it but I I think that's exactly opposite of what's going on here with with the use of the repair Reserve fund you have a public hearing that's advertised in the newspaper with all the uses that we're proposing for a particular purpose laid out F the public can evaluate that to see if they want to come to the hearing the administration does a presentation you who are empowered by the law to make that decision evaluate the merits of that presentation and deci or notary that was announced thank you for Sate time that was incorrectly stated in the priorities just to reiterate that time frame was allotted correct matter sorry S no no problem and then I just want to say a moment one one thought about year end fund balance in presentation I
095think it's not correct to St these presentations have them this is my 18th year as a business official I have never done a budget presentation at this point the year with the presentation on fund balance simply because you cannot accurately predict now I could put a number on the screen after that number I would have no faith in it at this moment there are too many unknown costs between here and the end and so I also will point out that it doesn't affect your expenditure budget for next year it affects what you end up putting in reserves which is a decision you reach in June so I I I think we need to be careful about you know moving around the goal posts in terms of how we do these presentations the voters are going
096to be asked to approve an expenditure budget that's what we've been focused on we've shown tonight how you're going to pay for that expenditure budget these other items come next this we work in a calendar very cyclical work we will discuss fund balance and yearend fund balance and uh projections of year fund balance when we're at the year end that's the way we can present to you accurate figures about where we actually stand and not just idle guesses we have this language now if you just a correction Sam was com made that you're an outside business official you are not an outside business official you will hide by District as a business official that is what make that clear what's the expression you call me as long as you call me for dinner uh but
097enough of that uh this is the language I think reflecting what uh yeah and uh so there you go that was more public comments I I want to hear what every said it's totally okay did we have anyone calling in uh before we conclude public comment we don't all right so we are if there are take going once twice okay we have no callers thank you LTV thank you everyone here tonight but so moving on to 67 or dermit just Robotics and Special Olympics and at Special Olympics there were kids from our school who volunteering their time as well to help the students who were competing and at the robotics competition our team helped another team to potentially be them in competition and I can say is we're all in really good standing with our
098kids and everybody should be really proud of them they were just Joy all about doing all right thank you all right so I think really will and correct me if I'm wrong to the administration but what we really need to decide now is both 7.5 million from the languaging to approve that tonight after looking at this gr the change language and the amount remaining at 7.5 are there any questions on what we have here on are you happy with the language the amount probably one more where would you like that other that's too much no this is you know this the public gets to see us I just want remind you the ballot is only so big the of available stick it there we're going to make a or underscores with font is there any
099I don't think that fits I am going to uh ask for all those in favor of approving item 6.7 hi I one comment I want to make when it's it's wor me we didn't read the whole proposition which I likeed is when you put in there the Board of Education wish to was to reauthorize the repair fund we've always had the repair fund we just being straightened out that's important too that we reauthorizing how the fun we've always had not New Creation always been there yeah we're just reauthorizing yeah this is something that we've had and I think the spirit of this uh coming full circle here is for the avoidance of doubt this is something that we've had for many many many years but we did want to put it back into the hand
100of the public there are maybe decades certainly years of experience with this repair fund and its Youth and uh we certainly believe in it as responsible spending and that's what we're voting on now so we kind of interrupt the vote but I think we have uh are we fully consensus on this I any I remain all those opposed motion carries for 67 as it's newly written um because we've already ran our public comment two motion to have I have all those in faor