Board of Education Meeting 3/5/25

001e e e I signed it I'm sending to my wife that's already done I know know yeah I'm just I mean he already fell into the other thing but I wouldn't for good evening and Welcome to our Wednesday March 5th Board of Education Workshop please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance led by the superintendent I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much do we have any changes to the meeting agenda uh we have one change we're going to add a public comment session right before our the items for board discussion okay thank you so much which would be now so we're going to begin our public comments District residents

002who wish to speak will have previously submitted the completed blue request to speak form from the table in the hallway each speaker will have three minutes to address the board and may speak only once in addition we have a a good number of correspondents that came by email for the purposes of brevity thank you for the lovely words at the beginning and the thank yous we're going to skip that and I'll try to cut right to the meat of everything and get through as many as possible but for now for those who are here in person we call to the microphone please Mr Michael ree if you would uh say your name and where you live please uh good evening my name is Michael reee I'm in E satet I'm a three village dad I

003have two boys in the district um I did not uh want to come up here and have to be another parent who supports armed guards and watch those who agree not yes and those who don't agree shake their heads no and nothing changes look around you the world does not wait for its leaders to finish pontificating on what to do regarding security we see at every level local National Global weapons are needed for security Smithtown has already implemented armed security demonstrating that additional prot sections can be adopted without any reported incidents of accidents or misuse The Three Village School District must follow suit to ensure the safety of our students and our staff every parent and Community member who opposes increased protections would without hesitation look to a trained professional with a firearm in a

004life-threatening situation yet we continue to delay meaningful action leaving our schools is vulnerable the recent incident of a student bringing a firearm to school highlights the pressing need for Action even with parents in law enforcement professionals with training and access to excellent resources including Mental Health Resources had an accident and a weapon made its way into a school classroom thankfully no one was harmed on this occasion having armed guards is not designed to be a deterrent so those arguing that deterrence does not work is a red herring the reasoning for armed guards is stopping an act in progress I'm going to say it again the reason for armed guards is to stop and act in progress studies that dictate armed guards don't prevent active shooter situations have nothing to do with how these situations get

005resolved nor do they speak of the speed of the resolution of these situations stopping these situations is my primary concern the safety of our children and staff cannot wait you have a responsibility to act decisively thank you for allowing me the time to speak on this thank you and next up Anthony derero hello everyone and thanks again for letting me speak um so I've been just continuing to do what I told you I was going to do I was going to speak to a lot of community members and now I don't even have to search people out people are searching me out and the constant theme is that they do not know why the reconfiguration that cost about $3 million is superseding now the start time which is in a cost of $1.5 million start

006time is proven to have a benefit for students I think everyone knows that it's it's fact and a reconfiguration is our desire to turn a system upside down that's proven and there's supposed to be a benefit to students there is no benefit Dr scanland we I want to debate you in front of everybody because the schedule aspect of the ninth grade does not exist the scheduling that we're going to do for students and one of the things I learned humbly learned is that I started this process on my own and I thought I can get people to understand but it's it's so much better when I when I bring other people in because other people have ideas too and you know I'll read a couple of them because I'm proud to to to just read

007what people are sending me the district has a choice spending Millions on a rush plan that has no that is that no one is fully prepared for or commit to one change that is already in motion and overwhelm me supported latest start times poison configuration is the responsible finan financially sound and most logical path forward let's not create problems when they don't need to be that's one I'm going to read you another one these are just you know people I'm I'm I'm meeting people at Chase Bank who are telling me that they want to they they want to speak with me because they heard about the reconfiguration and reconfiguration everyone you proliferated you told everybody that it was what the community wanted that's not what the community wanted you do not have the support for

008the community to do reconfiguration when we have an inplace programmatically successful district and we can enhance it which I think I shared the ninth grade experience with you and we haven't even discussed it because we're moving this thing forward so um another one that I [ __ ] give me one second I'm going to lose my time right well basically all I'm all I'm saying is that I will continue to have conversations with anybody and everybody because reconfiguration costs us over $3 million and that is to put the same more students in the same blueprint to have no programmatical benefit that we currently don't offer now and we can enhance that ninth grade experience I know what it's what the movement is to move the students up so we can do something in elementary school if that's

009the case you can do that but you can't do it on the backs of our students who really know who really know and that survey showed you when you talk to students and you had the mic you had the mic so you coerced a lot of that conversation to tell everybody that we're behind we're the only one but at the end of the day people know that what we offer is good your students told you 50% of them even when they were coerced that this is where they want to be Jal is the best place galenus is the best in the state right w m was Blue Ribbon School what CH you Mr ter your time is up thank you okay thank you we'll begin now with our uh written correspondence as parents and longtime

010residents we care deeply about this district and want to ensure we're making thoughtful responsible decisions for the future when the board approved this plan the understanding was that key details would still need to be worked out and yet with just months to go significant issues Remain the high school Renovations now estimated to cost over $2 million haven't even started many in the community assume this plan was further along and now it feels like we're being being asked to accept a rushed and expensive process without full transparency taxpayers were not made fully aware of these costs were led to believe we'd be saving money and with budget concerns at an all-time high pushing forward without broader discussion is not responsible beyond the cost the high school May simply not be ready by September adding an entire

011grade will increase congestion in hallways entrances and buses making an already crowded campus even more difficult to navigate security remains ongoing concern and this plan only adds to those worries at the same time the Junior High's phone free policy has been success but there's been no clear indication that it will continue out the high school this is exactly the kind of detail that should be resolved before moving forward with so much still unresolved this timeline feels rushed and many in the community are frustrated a change.org petition calling for a delay has gained strong support showing just how many residents believe we need more time to get this right if this plan were truly ready we wouldn't still be asking these questions we strongly urge the board to pause the reconfiguration the administrative work done so

012far will not be wasted but moving forward now without addressing these major issues risks serious consequences for students families and taxpayers alike taking the time to get it right isn't just the responsible choice it's the only choice that's for Maria basil and Jorge basil this is from Jim Murray I've not been involved as long as most parents that have been on this topic but I've attended a couple of district meetings and the only conversations I hear are around budget not a word around what the impact of the kids might be or even how to ensure a successful transition for the kids what I've heard from parents is we've been speaking up about concerns for months but the district hasn't given real answers it feels like they're checking off a box that says Community input while

013making it clear they're moving forward no matter what that's not listening that's just going through the motions there seems to be ample data that supports the preference for the middle school to be structured as 7th to 9th grades ages 12 to 15 rather than 6th to e8th grades ages 11 to 14 can be attributed to several factors related to developmental social and educational considerations when I've asked questions all I've been told is this is a done deal the transition to high school at the 9th grade is significant compared to it occurring at the 10th grade if they're going to do that what is the plan for the success of our kids thank you for listening this is from chrisan betco I'm writing to express my concerns regarding the proposed reconfiguration plan for our schools as

014a parent of three kids in the district I have personally seen the rise of mental health issues and the increasing pressures faced by students I believe the Middle School environment is crucial in providing a safe space filled with resources that support their growth and allow for necess necessary mistakes to prepare them for high school regrettably I've not seen sufficient information regarding the financial implications or the logistical considerations that this plan inails for our students the Allure that they will have access to participate in clubs does not seem to justify such a significant change to A system that has served our community well for over 20 years if our current model is functioning effectively one must question the rationale behind making alterations that risk the stability and wellbeing of our children I urge you to provide

015a comprehensive explanation of the reasons driving this proposed adjustment particularly ing the pressures it may place on our students to mature more rapidly than necessary the next is from Stacy I'm not sure I can give you Stacy's last name I apologize okay Stacy dang I apologize I'm a parent of two children in the Three Village School District in December 2013 my family and I moved to satet at the time our son was in sixth grade at the Middle School in Huntington Beach California the prospect of him followed by his sister continuing in the ever plummeting scores of Southern California School District was the Catalyst for our relocation born and raised in Brooklyn New York and having attended the New York City School District I was eager to come back East for my children's education my

016husband is an information technology executive in the healthcare industry and he landed a position at Stony Brook University Hospital after extensive research into the local school districts it was clear that we wanted our children to attend Three Village School District my husband gave me literally one weekend to buy a home and my only CR criteria was to be in Three Village this was the one thing I was unwilling to waiver on when I walked through the ZET Elementary School for the first time it drove home that our decision was spot-on it's not only the elementary schools that provide such a strong and solid foundation for our children one of our two middle schools jelus Junior High School is just ranked best in New York state our high school is exceptional I always feel proud to

017say my children either graduated or are currently attending Ward Melville High School where 98% of their students go on to attend a four-year institution of higher education why would we mess with something that's working this isn't just about resisting change it's about making sure change actually helps the children I don't see any reason to dismantle a system which has been successful for decades my son is currently applying to medical school and my daughter is thriving in an academic and social world that was once told to me would be almost impossible for her to do secondary due to processing delays that were diagnosed when she was in first grade I attribute her success to the programs and services offered through three village and the social and academic structuring of our district I'm convinced my daughter would

018not be where she is today if she had attended a different School District I strongly empore you to take my words and consideration for I know I stand with many who wish not to change what is not broken and reconsider the reconfiguration agenda next is from Tova Burger I'm writing to express growing concerns for many parents and community members about the reconfiguration plan to bring nth graders toward Melville High School the reconfiguration plan feels rushed and poorly communicated when this board approved the plan you gave yourselves one year to implement it but did not seek any Community input to date no physical Renovations have been made to the high school no costs have been disclosed and the arrangements that have already been made in terms of student schedules and other administrative areas like calendars and

019Grading are simply not a good enough reason to push forward without addressing the growing concerns Ward Melville is already an intense social and academic environment for teenagers adding ninth graders at this time will only increase the pressure especially without adequate preparation to meet their needs our students deserve thoughtful planning not a rush decision that risks harming their social emotional and academic success the financial aspect also remains a major concern initially this plan was presented as a cost saving measure but discussions of necessary Renovations suggest otherwise the community deserves Clarity on the scope and cost of these changes before moving forward we respectfully urge the board to pause this plan immediately open a meaningful dialogue with the community and provide transparency about the financial logistical and emotional implications for our students there is no urgent need

020to proceed with this plan on the current timeline pausing now would allow the district to address concerns ensure proper preparation and make a more deliberate and transparent decision by taking the time to address these concerns the board has an opportunity to work with the community to ensure a plan that supports the well-being of our students and reflects the values of the district next is from Justine huitt I'm rating to express my strong support for keeping a junior high school model I believe this model can provide significant educational benefits for our students as well as better support their academic social and emotional development when I first moved into this town the current model was a major deciding factor on moving here I've spoken with many other parents who agree I'm confused because in all the sports

021and various School events that I'm involved in everyone says the same that they want to keep the current model I'm not sure where those in favor of the change are but I have not found any I feel that having this transitional period is critical for students as it allows them to adjust to the demands of a more complex academic curriculum while also providing a supportive environment to navigate the changes that lie ahead of them sadly we live in a world where we force children to become older or more mature before they should additionally I attended the last Board of Education meeting where one woman spoke about how well our schools perform compared to surrounding schools as as well as all of New York State I was pretty impressed with those findings I teach in a

022neighboring school and we are not in the same boat I fully believe that our current Junior High School model has helped with our scores and how we perform as a district we have amazing teachers and administrators here in Three Village I think many of them feel it is too late and have given up hope I know that as a district we will pull through no matter what however if we stop to think about what is best developmentally for our kids I believe most would agree that keeping what we currently have has been tried and true and we would remain on top next is from Ying Chen I heard that you were going to have a meeting to discuss start school later we should put students Health as a priority no start school later no restructuring

023the Society of Behavioral Medicine recommends school officials start middle and high school classes at 8:30 a.m. or later however our high school starts around 7:00 a.m. although my daughters only have one year to graduate I do hope that kids in our district will have more sleep thanks a lot for your help next is from Carmela terso I'm a parent of three W Melville High School graduates I'm also an educator therefore I have seen firsthand the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on our students particularly the teenagers the impact on their mental health academic performance and overall well-being is undeniable with this in mind I'm writing to express my deep concern regarding the proposed grade restructuring should it be implemented without a change to later start time in secondary school the grade restructuring simply cannot take place

024without the change in start times to a later time when the reconfiguration survey was sent to parents the administration led the community to believe that Secondary School start times would be moved later regardless of the grade structure now with a conditional commitment to later start times it would be unacceptable proceed with changes in grade structure that would certainly further exacerbate student exhaustion and stress if start times remain early the student undergoing School transitions will be even more sleep deprived than they already are undermining any potential benefits of the restructuring at a time when adolescent mental health is already in crisis we cannot afford to implement changes that could make things worse if this fundamental Improvement cannot be guaranteed then the restructuring must be paused I strongly urge the Board of Education to prioritize student well-being

025by ensuring that later Secondary School tar times are in place before any grade restructuring moves forward our district has always prided itself on supporting our children this must remain our guiding principal next is from Barbara Rosati for The Last 5 Years our two groups together with many other community members have closely followed the school district's activities and governance we have asked two different District administrations and mult multiple Board of Ed members to move the secondary school start times to later healthier start times we discussed our issues the research and the numbers multiple times both with the board and with the administration a petition outlining our concerns obtains 1,700 signatures from The District's own survey it is clear that approximately 97% of the Three Village students are currently sleeping some three hours less than the medically

026recommended number of hours there's very little parents of Goodwill can do to help unless the school start times are moved closer to the teens biology many of you have campaigned on this issue and on mental health issues this change does cost money 15 years ago the district cut Transportation cost to the detriment of an entire generation's Health and Welfare this change is now more costly than it would have been if the district had prioritized the kids health when there were fewer Financial constraints effectively the district has been pre- riding for 15 years on the back of local families we've been told repeatedly that the kids health is our priority yet year after year there never seems to be enough funds in the school budget for this change instead we have seen many costly District initiatives

027take place initiatives that benefit at best a few students and at worst mostly the administration or the unions one of these initiatives was grade restructuring the District administration used a survey to choose the restructuring model parents were told by the administration that start times were not included in the survey because quote it's a health issue implying that start times would be addressed regardless of the restructuring now it seems that the restructuring whose full comprehensive costs have never been disclosed is proceeding but starttime change is pending budget review which rais raises the possibility that some 700 children might have to get up even earlier than the current ungodly hours we are appalled and disappointed that this possibility has not been clearly and forcefully ruled out as we warned several times such a move would prove unhealthy

028for the children and once again the parents medically back concerns would be ignored a school budget that allows the move of the sixth graders to the middle school and the ninth graders to the high school without adjusting the school start times would be equivalent to asking parents and taxpayers for money to pay for actively harming the children we sincerely hope the board of B and the district administ will not put the parents and community in this position thank you and in addition to Barbara radi this is signed by Quin yanma on behalf of the Three Village parents Alliance and the Asian-American Association of Greater Stonybrook next is from Goin hu as a concern parent I want to express my concern one more time it has been very clear that budget is not an issue for

029start school later since the increase of cost because of start school later is so small compared to the overall budget I hope the board of bed can take the concern of the majority parents seriously vote Yes to start school later next is from Barbie Chen I'm writing to urge the board to pause the grade restructuring unless Secondary School start times can be moved to later healthier hours studies consistently demonstrate that early school start times have a detrimental effect on teenagers mental health cognitive abilities and general well-being students going through school building transitions will face even greater difficulties if they are required to adapt a new environments while already severely sleep-deprived if the intention behind restructuring is to support students it cannot come at the expense of their health to prioritize student health later start times

030must be established before any grade restructuring takes place our students deserve an environment that nurtures success not one that exacerbates their fatigue and stress next is from Maria obiols I'm writing as a concerned member of our community it's my belief that if the planned adjustments to start times are not implemented next year the health academic and athletic outcomes for our sixth and nth graders will worsen as they will be forced into earlier school start times the board must prioritize the health of our students in any decisions made I urge the board to take a comprehensive approach to these decisions and recognize that the start times are a critical element that cannot be overlooked if the necessary changes to school start times are not implemented I respectfully ask that any plans for grade restructuring be paused

031until a solution can be reached that prioritizes the health and development of our students thank you for your time and consideration next is from Jennifer SLO please do not restructure the grades if a healthier start time cannot be accommodated our children need a schedule that is aligned with their sleep needs at the ages they are at let's do it right the first time and what's best for their well-being and give them an opportunity to learn when their bodies and minds are ready next is from AA carceles POA this is a mom of two elementary school children one of which is going into sixth grade next year with this email I am asking that the grade restructuring is also postponed if the start times are not adjusted to later healthier start times this is from fan

032ye uh I'm a parent of the Three Village Central School District I have a daughter attending galenus I'm asking the board to vote Yes on start school late and the school district to take immediate actions to implement start school late we have all known how much negative impact that deprivation of sleep could cause to Children yet that's what the current School District schedule has been doing to our children this must change in the past budget has been cited as the reason not to implement start school later however the real question is priority do we prioritize the health of our children in budgeting the answer should be an unequivocal yes I respectfully request that the board and School District take immediate budgetary and operational actions to implement start school later next is from Jing Chang I'm

033writing to express my strong support for the start school later initiative and to urge the board to prioritize its implementation our high school currently has one of the earliest start times on Long Island this means that many of our students are waking up before 6:00 a.m. to get ready for school research consistently shows that such early start times negatively impact students physical and mental health leading to sleep deprivation decreased academic performance and increased stress the lack of sufficient sleep can have lasting effects on cognitive development emotional regulation and overall health there's been tremendous effort from parents School staff and board members to push for a later school start time we cannot afford to see this initiative fail at the final step we understand that implementing SSL may be contingent on the budget but the health

034and well-being of our students should remain the top priority in any decision-making process it's clear that our school district has the financial resources to make this change and the issue is not a lack of funding but a matter of determining priorities by investing in later start times we are investing in our students health and academic success and overall quality of life this is not just a financial decision but a moral one one that demonstrates our commitment to the well-being of the Next Generation the next is from Janet Leatherwood the proposed restructuring would move even more of our young people into earlier start times early start times are bad for Learning and health for most teenagers I beg you to prioritize moving Secondary School start times later and not restructuring until this can be done next

035is from Angeline judex I'm writing to urge the board to pause the restructuring unless Secondary School start times can be moved to later healthier hours as a mom of a current sixth grader I'm immensely vested in the well-being of our students research has consistently shown that early school start times negatively impact teenagers mental health cognitive function and overall well-being students undergoing building transitions will face even greater challenges if they're forced to adjust to new school environments while severely sleep deprived if the goal of the restructuring is to benefit students it must not come at the cost of their health prioritizing student health means ensuring that later start times are secured before moving forward with grade restructuring our students deserve a learning environment that Fosters success rather than one that contributes to their exhaustion and stress

036I am personally a product of three school systems from across the world both East and West when there's a will there's a way I understand the complexities and the competing priorities I'm grateful and appreciative of your hard work next is from Alvaro beay my name is Alvaro beay I'm the father of three children in the district an eighth grader and two sixth graders I recently learned that you're considering postponing the implementation of later school start times even though I was under the impression this decision had already been finalized I trust that if you are contemplating a delay there are important reasons for doing so however I would like to point out that combined with the upcoming grade restructuring a delay might lead to even more students starting their day very early this situation could be

037detrimental to their health and wellbeing therefore I respect fly request that you also postpone the grade restructurings if the later start times cannot be implemented as planned this is from G Yang I'm writing to express my support for the proposed transition of Sixth and nth graders to new schools in the 25 26 academic year however I'm deeply concerned about the impact this transition will have if the current school day schedule remains unchanged since the change in school start time was said to be contingent upon budget despite that we have got an email notifying us how the start time will change if the existing schedule continues sixth graders moving to Junior High School will experience a dramatic shift in start time from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 7:35 a.m. nearly nearly 2 hours earlier n9th graders transitioning

038to high school will begin their day at 7:05 a.m. 30 minutes earlier than their current time these abrupt changes pose serious health and academic risk for both age groups particularly as they navigate significant Developmental and social transitions as a parent of two students who experienced the current school schedules firsthand I've seen the negative effects of early school start times on adolescent well-being my eldest son struggled with chronic sleep deprivation despite our best efforts such as driving him to school to allow an extra 20 minutes of sleep he experienced difficulty eating breakfast had low energy Etc now in college he finds managing his schedule much easier and healthier healthier my elder daughter who's currently a 10th grader has similar issues scientific research consistently shows that adolescence require more sleep for cognitive function emotional regulation and overall

039well-being moving school start times earlier especially during key transitional years will only intensify stress sleep deprivation and academic difficulties for our students I strongly urge the board to prioritize later school start times alongside the school restructuring process we have to seize this opportunity to implement a more developmentally appropriate schedule for our students the next is from Saia Everett I respectfully request that the board postpone the grade restructuring plan until a commitment to later Secondary School start time is secured extensive research demonstrates the adverse effect of early school hours on adolescent mental health cognitive performance and overall well-being implementing grade restructuring which involves significant student transitions without addressing the issue of early start times will create a situation where students are forced to navigate change while suffering from sleep deprivation if the restructuring aims to improve

040student outcomes it must be aligned with their fundamental Health needs students require adequate sleep to thrive and later start times are essential the next is from from Miguel Catalina it's come to my attention that there's a chance the board will proceed with the grade restructuring moving sixth grade to the middle school and Ninth of the high school without changing the start times I consider the possibility extremely undesirable as it will cause even more kids to be subjected to the absolutely insane school start times I think this would be the worst option available to us please keep the grade changes and the start times in lock step if it's not possible to approve the earlier start times please do not proceed with the grade restructuring next is from roxan Karimi I urge the board to pause

041the grade restructuring unless Secondary School start times can be moved to later healthier hours scientific research clearly shows that our early school start times negatively impact Children's Mental Health cognitive function and well-being your own efforts reviewing this information identified potential options that would move us in the right direction the evidence has been clear on this for well over a decade restructuring the grades without adjusting the start times will exacerbate the impact students will face next year as they adjust a new school environments and expectations while severely sleep deprived next is from you Sun uh I'm sending this email one more time to State my opinion start school later has to be implemented at the same time with the restructuring without start school later we're having more students Sixth and nth graders suffer from health issues

042it was my perception that SSL was a done deal when the superintendent emailed our parents last October please vote Yes to SSL for our kids next is from Jenny fun I'm writing today in support of start school late I know we're all aware of the physical and psychological benefits of SSL I'm ready to share my own conversation with my sophomore this morning around 1:20 a.m. they and I were in the dining room because they had been trying to sleep since 10:30 p.m. and still couldn't fall asleep usually they fall asleep around midnight uh I'm not going to get into too much detail because this is pretty specific but uh this child still manages to have lots of volunteer hours and tries to help out wherever needed she is suffering because she's always so tired from

043a lack of sleep next is from Hua Wang I'm writing to urge the board to implement starting school time as announced in Dr scanlan's email to the community in October of 2024 as I understand the budget is always tough but I'm glad the board and our school district and community in large part agreed to put our students Health as top priority with unanimous vote on yes for this matter during the October 2024 Board of Education meeting with the school start time change outlined in Dr scanlan's email which is so applauded by the community they all think it's a go the cost of about $1 million which takes about 05% of the overall budget should not be hard to be allocated in this year's budget I urge the district to put the money saved from the

044restructuring and all the teachers retirements and from other sources into the implementation of start school times first before they are allocated for other purposes this will have direct impact on our students life implementation of this change will improve their overall health and well-being both physically and mentally I cannot see other better use for taxpayers money next is from Joy Lou I'm writing to urge the board to pause the grade restructuring unless Secondary School start times can be moved to later healthier hours research has consistently shown that early school start times negatively impact teenagers mental health cognitive function and overall well-being students undergoing building transition will face even greater challenges if they are forced to adjust new school environments while severing sleep deprived if the goal of the restructuring is to benefit students it must not

045come at the cost of their health prioritizing student health means ensuring that later start times are secured before moving forward with grade restructuring our students deserve a learning environment that Fosters success rather than one that contributes to their exhaustion and stress next is from Lauren chy as a parent in the Three Village District I find later start times to be extremely important our pre-teens and Adolescence deserve and require that extra sleep and every scientific study underlines its importance we implore you to enact the later start times and DEP pause any other initiatives until this is accomplished with the current start time of 7:05 most Ward Melville students are at their bus stops at 6:30 a.m. many are waiting outside much earlier this schedule requires waking up before 6:00 a.m. to achieve the recommended hours of

046sleep 8 to 10 hours for adolescence some of our Ward Melville students should be getting to into bed by 7:30 p.m. so they can be asleep by 8:00 p.m. perhaps some W Melville students are lucky enough to have as sleep schedule which is naturally this early they are the minority even with the best sleep hygiene practice is imaginable this is simply not biologically attainable for the vast majority of high school students anyone who says that being asleep by 8:00 p.m. is an achievable goal for most adolescents is simply wrong I appreciate your dedication to ensuring that later start times are enacted for the 25 26 school year as parents we appreciate your thoughtfulness and Care next is how many more there are cuz we're up in 30 minutes it's okay I have one more okay

047that's it I can do it as a longtime resident of the district I have been diligently advocating for a later school start time for over 10 years sorry this is from Denise Williams the district and Community have been working tirelessly on a later start time for the physical and mental well-being of our students and now it appears due to budget constraints that it may not be implemented I'm writing in support of implementing the later start time in the upcoming year especially with the restructuring of the sixth and nth grades students undergoing transitions will face increased sleep deprivation compounding the difficulties of adjusting to a new school environment the science is clear early school start times are detrimental mental to adolescent Health cognition and emotional well-being in a time when our teenagers are experiencing unprecedented levels

048of stress and mental health challenges its imperative that we do not make changes that will worsen their well-being without later healthier school start times the benefits of the restructuring will be negated by the serious health consequences of chronic sleep deprivation I'm disappointed once again in the administration and the Board of Education not thoroughly taking into consideration the community's extensive research and proposals I strongly urge the Board of Ed to pause the proposed grade restructuring should later start times not be guaranteed for our secondary students that is it all right that brings us now to our items for board discussion for a conversation about the budget we turn it over to Mr Carlson all righty thank you so this is our first official um board uh budget Workshop uh even though we've discussed the the budget

049a couple of times already uh so just to uh map out the rest of the the timeline uh in addition to tonight March 19th and April 9th are at those board meetings we'll be having uh budget discussions uh the board has scheduled to adopt the budget on April 9th uh the following day um I submit the property tax report card to the State education department and the controller's office May 7th is our our budget hearing and budget hearing is a um an official term where we just review the bo budget that's uh going up uh for vote uh the budget hearing has to be between 7 and 14 days prior to the budget vote uh and then the vote itself is Tuesday May 20th the 3D Tuesday in May so tonight I'm going to discuss

050uh even though I discussed already the tax cap I'll revisit that just briefly again uh a little bit about state aid some of the other revenues we have some of our major cost increases um and I haven't covered Transportation yet so I'll cover that tonight and then where where all of that leaves us um as far as putting the budget together so the tax cap uh I I uh review it in in more detail uh the calculation itself at the last board meeting um and just to reiterate uh that um there are number of factors that go into the cap and it's still commonly referred to as the 2% tax cap but it's it's it's not just a 2% increase um one that's one of the factors that can be up to 2% uh sometimes

051it's lower than that but there are there are other variables that go into it uh it varies year-to year and every school district's cap is different uh for our purposes for this coming up year our cap is 2.78% this incorporates the reduction in our capital projects for next year um from the 3 million that we have in the current Year's budget to $1.5 million dollar next year that's what uh was discussed at the uh last board meeting as you may recall uh if we kept capital projects at the same $3 million next year's cap would have been uh 3.64% so it was discussion uh with the board to lower that capital projects to 1 and a. half million which then lowers our cap to 2.78% so the budget that we're building um we're building the

052budget to conform with that the uh Governor released uh her uh state aid proposal back in uh January with her executive uh budget proposal um it increases our state aid by a net not counting building Aid which I'll explain why in in a second uh it increases our state aid by about $238,000 next year there's a 2% in the found the minimum for any District in the state increase in Foundation aid for next year is 2% and that's what what we got in our proposal is the the 2% increase which comes out to about $591,000 but there are other categories of state aid that are are some are going up some are going down uh it Nets out to $238,000 again I'm not including building Aid in that total uh because building Aid is part

053of the tax cap calculation so just as an increase in capital projects increases the tax cap dollar for dooll uh and vice versa so a decrease in capital projects which is what we're doing for next year lowers the tax cap well the same but opposite happens with building Aid an increase in building Aid lowers the tax cap and a decrease in building Aid increases the tax cap our as I again as I discussed last time when we went over the tax cap calculation our building aid for next year is decreasing because we're we're finishing um uh we're getting through this current year uh all of the the building Aid related to our 2007 Bond referendum uh we still have a couple of years to go on the payments we'll see uh the opposite happen in

054a couple of years we'll see the payments end but there won't be a corresponding decrease in the biling a um but for now for operational purposes with the governor's budget proposal uh it's a $238,000 uh net increase now we don't know what the final state aid will be yet that will be determined uh when the state budget is completed the uh uh due date is April 1st um they almost never have it done by April 1st um lately it's been first week of April not so bad going back 20 or so years there were times when the budget state budget wasn't done till August um so that would that created a lot of problems but now um they they usually get it done early early April not April 1st but but early April now in

055normally historically the governor's budget proposal has been the floor of Bill uh state aid for the year and it when the uh New York State Senate and State Assembly are through with it and there's a deal and all three Governor assembly Senate agree on a budget It generally goes up from what the governor's budget proposal was don't guarantee in that but that's normally what happen happens so we're hopeful that our Aid will increase some uh from from where we're at right now although I mean we I mean at most I'm I'm going to say that 2% increase in Foundation Aid maybe will be 3% now if it is that's almost $300,000 more so okay more is good um but we know it's not going to be millions of dollars more we know that um but

056as I said hopefully prior to the board adopting the budget we will know final state aid numbers uh state so the tax levy and state aid make up about 94% of our total revenue the other revenues that we have um and these are all for uh what we can uh anticipate for next year our interest Revenue uh because we get our money in bunches and then when we get the money we invest it um we're very limited into the type of Investments we can use they have to be fully collateralized uh by the by the Banks uh by what's called third party collateral meaning I put we put money in this Bank a third party another bank pledges collateral for that so should this Bank go out of business and have higher rates at the

057time uh the tuitions what we charge to other districts uh for sending kids here to our programs we have a number of them um mostly um special education uh for programs that we run that those districts don't operate uh we do have a handful of people um parents in other districts that um ask to send their kids here and they pay tuition um so that that's all included in that by the way we do not pay tuition to any other school district uh we have uh students attending bosei schools or private schools uh such as like um for special uh education reasons such as um DDI or or an A HRC those those type of schools uh but we do not pay any other school district tuition other school districts do send their kids to

058us though uh adult education uh generate some Revenue driver's education um our sack program uh that's a fee based um and that's just based on on enrollment um and over the last few years ever since covid the numbers have increased on that uh each year uh the pre enrichment piece that's so for anyone who's not familiar we have a a pre kindergart a half day pre kindergarten program that's no cost to the parents it's half day if somebody that has a child in the half day program would like to send their child to the other half of the day that's an enrichment program that we could charge for we cannot charge for um an instructional program we're a public school district we can't charge for a pre kindergarten program we could charge for after school

059care we could charge for enrichment so we can charge for that half of the day not the prek piece so this is the um by the way when we talk about Universal prek Aid we've had those discussions before um why don't we get the full amount of Aid it's because we would need to put in a full day pre kindergarten program which and what we've said is yet to get that Aid would actually cost us more than what we're paying now part of the uh that that uh determination is that we would lose this prek enrichment money uh Revenue uh our summer Recreation program is always very popular um that generates uh Revenue our community swim and then other and other includes pilot which is payment and L of taxes which I discussed uh when

060we were talking about the tax cap calculation any use of facilities priye refunds is mostly from bosies we pay bosis a month we do an annual contract with bosis for the services that we're going to be um getting from them for the year which includes students that we would send to uh bosi schools uh whether it be for special education or a career in technical education uh and then we we pay throughout the year and at the end of the year if there was a reduction in the in the fees because they they when they um when the year is over and bosis does all of their calculations as to all of their costs and and revenue um there's there's a there's a refund back there they've they' they always overcharge some and then they

061pay us the money back that's included in that that's what most of PRI your refunds is Health Services is for um we charge other districts for uh residents of other districts that attend Private School located within three village for example Laurel Hill students that attend Laurel Hill schools we have to provide Health Services nurse psychologist social worker as needed for Laurel Hill students uh in turn for any of those students that come from another school district we charge those school districts that now we also pay for the same thing for Three Village residents that are attending private schools located in other school districts they bill us and that's on on the expenditure side of the budget uh and then and then the last thing is the appropriated fund balance um and that's that's in an

062ideal world it's money that we have left over at the end of the year unspent in the budget and we just use as a revenue the following year um it's not we don't always have that whole $3 and a. half million doar left over certainly since covid we have not which is why as when we talk about our fund balance and reserves they've been decreasing each year because we don't have that full three and a half million um what I would like to do is sometime soon in the next couple of years is reduce that down um but we're not in a position this year to be able to reduce that um so that that's the the other revenues and and again collectively they come up to about 6% of the budget now just a

063couple of the the major increases uh cost increases we're looking at in this coming up year contractual salaries um are up by with all this is with current Staffing right no changes to Staffing current Staffing $6.1 million health insurance 5.3 million if you remember when I um when it was talking about benefits at the last meeting and I said 5.1 million I've been saying 5.1 million on health insurance one thing that um we we do know now is that we have uh 20 uh 20 teachers and two administrators retiring this year so what we do in the budget for next year for those people we we well we have a c savings right so for to start with I assume we're replacing every one of them and then as we go through and we say

064well if we don't need to replace his we don't need that's a that's a different that's a different deduction so first though uh so I lower the salary amount right so if somebody's retiring at whatever salary and their Replacements coming in at a lower salary that salary codes well lower that I'll lower the retirement system code with the because the retirement system cost is a percent of salary uh and then I'll lower the social security code because that's a percent of salary but then I'll increase health insurance because if for the most part the retiree is still on health insurance and now the replace will also be on health insurance so it's a net savings but it could increase the health insurance line a little bit so that's why that number is a little different

065because we have those 22 retirements uh to factor in again it's saving us over $2 million total but part of that savings is we had to increase health insurance a little bit uh Transportation which I'll cover uh in more detail in a minute uh it's going up by a little over $1.1 million and then the other benefits that's the ERS and TRS that's the two Retirement Systems and FICA is social security uh those uh combined it's about a $900,000 increase there are other increases in things like our insurance and utilities and and uh you know liability insurance utilities uh some of the contracted services are uh increasing but these are the major increases that we're looking at just to give you an idea of of where we are with building the budget now to to

066go over excuse me Transportation uh a little more detail so all of our students are eligible for transportation right that was a change that was made in 201 17 16 17 I think it was 2017 it was voted on by the community uh prior to that uh Elementary School students had to live at least a half mile from school to be eligible for a bus uh junior high had to live at least 3/4 of a mile and high school mile and a half now one of the main drivers of of um changing that um was that for example probably the worst example is that there were students that lived in the S section off of Nichols Road who attended uh Murphy Junior High School who lived within that 3/4 of a mile and had to

067cross Nichols Road and there is a provision and the New York State uh education department uh Transportation regulations um to establish What's called the Child Safety Zone where it could be Transportation be allowed for a student or students that live within that that mileage uh uh distance eligibility um um requirement uh still be eligible because they live in a particular dangerous location they have to Traverse a dangerous area the bus stop is dangerous whatever the number of reasons it could be uh and there's a point system to determine that just to give you an idea Crossing Nicholls Road did not qualify so that that'll tell you the level of of um uh danger that would have to be involved for it to be considered the child safety zone so um anyway so there there was

068a a lot of discussion at the time and ultimately that now all uh the board either Administration nor the board has the authority to change those uh El distance uh eligibility requirements it has to be voted on by the community so separate proposition was put up in I think it was 2017 with the with the budget vote uh to uh do away with the mileage uh the distance eligibility requirement make it zero uh and that was passed by the by the voters so all of our students are eligible for Transportation uh our our district covers 22 and a half square miles and where it gets tricky for us on a Transportation uh um operation is that we have areas of the district where the roads are flat they're wide or sidewalks uh and then we

069have areas that we all know there are areas that the District where the roads are very narrow windy and no shoulders let alone sidewalks um so we have areas of the district where a school bus can stop make at one stop pick up 12 or 15 uh kids go to another stop a half mile away pick up another 12 or 15 kids maybe one more stop and then go to the school and then we have other areas of the district where the bus can stop pick up one student drive 3/4 of a mile on narrow windy roads pick up another student then drive another 3/4 of a mile pick up another student and so by the time there's 12 kids on the bus that first student might have been on the bus for 40 minutes

070already so and then it might have if it's up in the uh northwest corner of the district and it's a high school bus it still might have 15 or 20 minutes to get to Ward mobile high school so that's part of the reason why sometimes you see like well there's only 12 kids on a bus why don't we just combine buses well if they don't have enough time to complete their route drop the those kids off and then get to the next school for that route whe whe and that be whether it be AM or PM uh so so when we talk about the cost increases extending Transportation contract so a school bus contract can be extended uh one year at a time but the increase cannot be more than the the increase the increase

071in the Consumer Price Index or the CPI as determined by the state education department for school bus transportation purposes uh they they set that CPI increase uh rate in May of each year and to give you an idea last year it was 3.9% so we can ex so this past year we we extended our contract with our bus company at that 3.9% we cannot go above that even if we agree the bus company says well we can't do it for 3.9% we need more we can't just say okay yeah yeah we we understand we'll give you a 5% we can't do that we cannot go above that um if we do not but but both sides have to agree to extend it so generally speaking we would always say unless we're unhappy with the with

072our uh service that we're getting we would say sure we'd like to extend because the danger in not extending the contract is that if we have to do it's not a bid it's a proposals if we have to do what's called an RFP a request for proposals uh there's only handful of bus companies school bus companies on Long Island to begin with um and really only ones that that have operations kind of nearby can even can even submit proposals for us a a a bus company in out in uh Western nasso County wouldn't even be able to provide services for it so there's not that many companies and if you remember during covid uh one of we used to have two separate bus companies the one that we use for manyi buses Acme Balman went

073out of business so they were one of the major bus companies on Long Island by them going out of business is even less competition so what's going to happen eventually especially because of the electric vehicle mandate is eventually our bus company is going to say we can't in we can't go on extend that CPI and we'll have to do we'll have to do a request for proposals at the time uh and then see what happens uh so anyway so we don't know what the percent increase will be for next year as I said last year was 3. 9% uh the budget for uh that we have in the current year $1.8 million uh the budget for next year is a little over $13 million and the um increase is mainly due to the the start

074time change which is you know what we had been talking about with the start time for for since we started talking about the start time that the the problem with the the start change in the start time is needing needing more buses which means cost more money so just to you know put a you know keep it keep in mind so right now our earliest pickup times are around 6:10 there might be a couple of kids a few minutes early now but but it's around 610 it's the earliest uh bus stop times we have for any of our high school kids and the latest schools Arrowhead Mount andet start at 9:25 so all of our kids between 610 maybe a couple of minutes earlier and 9:25 are picked up and delivered to school so if

075we were to make let's say well let's make the the high school later well either we push all the schools later or we condense that time if we condense the time it needs we need more buses to to cover the same amount of area it's not even so much well how many kids it's covering the same area in a shorter amount of time that's a reason for requiring more uh buses and and you know as we've discussed you know many times over the last we started uh Dr rosadi back in 201 really 19 talking about this um the the reason the schools um went to the earliest start times back in the early 70s in the first place was to save money on Transportation right uh by doing the earliest start times it spread out

076the the amount of time for kids to be picked up and delivered to school and then same in the afternoon to go home uh so so it saved money well now to go the opposite way it's going to cost money so to do that and we went through this I don't know how many times uh all different kind of configurations we had the consultant we try you know whatever we could do to try to figure out the best way uh to change the start times without pushing those three Later Elementary Schools Arrowhead mountains stet later than they already are um one of the thing one of the changes that was made in 2010 was they the those three schools used to dismiss at 3:30 now they dismiss at 3:40 and I can tell you that

07710 minutes people were not happy with so we didn't we were looking at a way to to make the secondary schools later without making the elementary schools later also um and that's again where it comes into condensing the the amount of time that that our transportation begins in the morning and gets those kids to those schools at 925 and that requires uh the additional six big buses and three mini buses and that that cost is a little over a million dollars now because of the grade reconfiguration we can actually cut two buses so it would be it's a it's actually a net increase of seven Vehicles right so it's a net increase of four big buses and three mini buses to do the start time and the reconfiguration so uh that's so that's in the

078budget so where do we stand well our total revenue when using the governor's budget proposal for state aid using our maximum tax levy allowable that 2. uh 78% um plus the other revenues which I just uh went over comes out to $37.5 million roughly where we are right now with current Staffing well now this is not changing any current sa I accounted for the uh Savings in people retiring but assuming we're replacing every one of them uh we're at 245 million so it's a difference of a little over $7.5 million that's what we have to make up for um in in the budget so and that's what we're working on now so um the cabinet we're meeting with all of the building principles and our districtwide directors uh to go over all the Staffing numbers

079where can we make reductions and of course it's anything would be with with with the the um idea of being least impactful to our students um so we're we're we're doing that now so over the next couple of weeks when we meet or two weeks from now when when we meet again we'll have an update for you on that so uh well that's what we're doing now and then of course as I mentioned the Evo is Tuesday May 20th so um that that's all I have for tonight if there are any other questions I'd be glad to take them uh but a lot of this is you know start thinking about you know things and and we'll be we'll be bringing uh info to you uh regarding what we're looking at Staffing wise Dr scandin

080did you want to mention anything else um yeah let's open any let's finish questions with Mr Carlson first then we'll then we'll jump over no anybody we have one so so um as we saw with the public comments obviously a lot of people are concerned with these budget numbers and how it affects school start later and the restructuring so um I just wanted to add to that discussion a little bit so the uh I think everybody knows that the start time at the secondary schools are are unhealthy right we're 7:05 which is quite literally the 1% earliest schools in New York state and so it's long overdue that uh we have a change uh the earliest bus pickup I think you said was 6:10 right and so students are waking up before 6:00 a.m. day

081after day week after week and year after year and with the reconfiguration now we're adding another year to this too right unless we uh adjust the start times um and so I think one of the slides it said that you know we we have a big shortfall $7.5 million right right which which by the way I I meant to mention is about 3% of the budget so that that's what that means as a as a percent of it is what we need to one way or another come up with and and so the the the only way really we we can pay for this I we're reviewing Staffing and identifying areas where reductions can be made right which is it means it's going to be a bad sort of a budget year for for you

082know reductions in staff essentially to a certain extent yes um and so when when start times was being proposed I don't think anyone wanted to have uh you know no one had this idea that we're going to put start times in and we're going to do this at the cost of you know taking staff positions out these are you know it's not just numbers that you see these are you know people's jobs people's livelihoods and you know teachers have a real impact on the educations of our students right so um we're faced with some bad choices here right um and so uh I have like an imperfect proposal that you know we can consider um it's it's obviously a bad budget year uh this 12% increase in healthcare that's sort of extraordinary that's not a

083typical increase in healthare cost that is correct uh 5.3 million um and just and actually I I want to so the 12.7% that's our net increase from what we're paying this year to what we'll be paying next year depending on you on how you want to look at it it's it's actually more of an increase that's the the net cost difference from one year to the next but what we had this year was we got our rates are done on a school year basis a July 1st to June 30th basis our health insurance rates this year however uh we had a midyear increase never happened before this year we did 5% increase on January 1st come July 1st we're getting a 10% increase so when you net those out I mean it comes out to

084that 12 and a half% but but it's actually health insurance rates over let's say that the two that whole year period are go 5% and then another 10% so it's so to your point though it's it's extraordinary High increase we did have at one point and it was in I want to say 2012 13 was right around when the all when we had to make a lot of cuts back then we got a 15% increase but it normally does not happen that way it's normally four 5% range okay so so then in my mind I think what we what we would need then is some sort of bridge then right to take us from whatever the the current bad situation is to next year where hopefully we get an a normal uh a normal increase

085in healthcare costs and there's sort of room in the budget to put something like Star times in uh and so uh the sort of the the imperfect solution is you know we do have an unreserved fund balance which is a little over if I remember correctly a little over $7 million correct and the state limit for our unreserved fund balance is around $9 million right we legally shouldn't go over $9 million so of course more reserves is always better but we're not you know we're close to basically what what the state allows um so the proposal is we could use the reserves uh to pay for start times this year and this would give us a bridge to next year right this is it is imperfect right so one is I don't want to spend

086reserves even the 4% is actually very low for a district of this size right the other risk is is we don't know what's going to happen next year you can't tell me the healthcare cost next year we hope it's 4% but if it's another 12% year that's bad um so if we do this we pay for start times one year and Healthcare goes up 12% again we'll have the same bad choice we need to make next you know we'll have this these same two two options right are we keeping star times or are we you know is it staff reductions which which is a a pretty bad choice right um so I mean this is a workshop so we're not voting today on this but I did want to get this sort of idea out

087there where you know we'd have some time to consider it um and what it does allow though is we could get the start time change immediately in the coming year right and we wouldn't further hurt sort of the staff and teachers and by extension the children in a difficult budget year right we we we could have both right and again it's it's not without risk but it's an option I think we should we should seriously consider um what is our what is the level that we would go back into um Financial stress with the Auditors I don't know I I don't I don't think lowering our um unreserved fund balance by 1 million would put us back into that category of what they call susceptible to fiscal stress um I don't think it would I

088don't think it would um of course it doesn't help as Dr back mentioned I mean it it's yeah ideally we don't want to we want to increase fund balancing reserves not not decrease them um I I do not think that would put us back into that uh that category it's what they call susceptible to fiscal um stress um it's a point system it would add give us some points definitely I don't know I don't think it would be enough points to put us into that category though yeah that by itself I kind of think it's a little early for us to even be discussing that because we can't really discuss what cuts we're looking at yet because we're still working on that um I mean but for me my thing are are the kids if

089anything's going to be cutting for the kids or staff facing students to me that's more important than starting a brand new program to cost a million dollars so if you're taking out of reserves we need to use it for what's going to help the kids but we really can't talk about that yet until we figure out exactly what we're going to be cutting so I wouldn't be putting any proposals out about a specific program till we see what needs to be cut or modified Dr MC okay so this year I had an 8% increase on my property taxes property taxes are regressive taxes that preferentially harm the most economically vulnerable in the community not a good outcome this year the administration and some board members are seriously planning to move start times even earlier to

090for two entire grades than they already are this is particularly problematic for the ninth grade students for the reasons that we've just heard from a large number of local residents this year my understanding I don't have any insight into this but my understanding is that we will be having to force let go a depressingly large number of employees from my perspective these are shockingly bad outcomes the fundamental problem underlying all of these issues from again from my perspective is a lack of longrange financial planning we are running a quarter of a billion dollar Enterprise without any discernable long-term financial goals or a long-term financial plan for the last 5 years I've been pushing to get a 5-year financial plan in fact we would have be the end of that plan right now if we' got

091it when I first joined the back a financial plan a long-term financial plan is not an unreasonable request there are midcap companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange that have less Revenue than this district has most small cap companies have less Revenue each one of these companies has a detailed financial plan with their best effort of financial projections they have this because their survival depends on effective financial planning increasingly our survival will also depend on very conservative financial planning a good financial plan would enshrine the rights of taxpayers and parents in the same way that the contracts enshrine the rights for the union employees a plan would protect parents and children against further degradation of the academic program and protect their children 's Health which is a particular concern of mine a financial plan

092would provide at least the prospect of some tax relief I'm not making a lot of promises there but at least some Prospect at least people would understand what's happening with their taxes if we had had a had had a financial plan years ago when I first asked we would not be now in the position of telling parents that their only option is to agree to a course of action that will harm the health of their children I'm not comfortable in that position we should not be in that position if we had had a realistic financial plan we would not be straining our credibility by arguing that predictable increases in salaries and health benefits are something other than the predictable results of contracts in the health insurance Market the health insurance Market is notoriously bad in

093this state large increas Es are routine we've been lucky to largely avoid them and as je just acknowledged they've happened in the past they will happen again we should have act Actuarial assessment of that risk outcomes matter this year we have have several outcomes that are not acceptable long range financial planning would produce better outcomes it's not a Panacea but it forces people to face the unreality of their financial expectations and there's a lot of unreality out there at the moment over the next few weeks I'm going to roll out what I think was a reasonable plan this is not ideal I would have preferred the administration to take the lead on this but this is where we are I will be proposing a set of policies not a detailed plan I doubt this is

094going to be the last word on this but at least we get the ball start the ball rolling we Face a set of bad options but ignoring the future is not going to make those options any better so Dr McKinnon the the idea that a financial plan uh being put into place we are not a business like some of the companies you're quoting we are very dependent upon state aid that comes in and taxpayer dollars so I know you're reading from your script again about what you've put out for this um I would love to have seen that plan when you started that a board member I'm sure it would not have been all that good at this point no of course um but I've been in my position for three years turn your mic

095on but I've been in the position for three years and I have yet to have seen any plan come from any board member um at any point in time regarding any of these matters so regardless if it's the reconfiguration or the start time um I gave a plan A Five-Year Plan to the board over a year ago which we still have yet to discuss about what directions we're going still wondering if we're going to look at that at any point in time um if we're going to look at this we need to look at it in the totality and yes you are right there are things that we can control Health costs are one of those things this is not a predictable situation in any way shape or form uh we were very lucky to

096have Mr Carlson in his role that has been able to navigate these situations in the past and I don't disagree with you the contracts that have been agreed to in the past were basically U using money that we didn't have and we are going to continue to be paying for those things as we move forward now we have to make a hard choice at this point in time uh I've stated before of all the administrators that have sat in my role I am the one that has acknowledged the fact that our start time is way too early and the simple matter of fact is we need money to fix that the same way we save money to get out of it let me just finish first please sir um I would I'm going to go

097over some of the things because I'm accus of lying and uh misleading and coercing people into doing this plan um I'm going to go over some of those things in a moment to see where we are at right now um and I need for us as a board and uh you as a board and for the administration to come together we are open to any solutions we're starting we're going to have a discussion tonight about the property analysis committee long time coming for this to look at some of the properties we own in the district if any of the sales of those properties could offset some of our budget concerns going forward that would be a major major step in the right direction I completely agree with that there's also been discussions included within the

098Strategic plan about closing or repurposing a school we've hit the point this year there it's almost it is too late to to consider that for next year but still a consideration going forward our enrollment is pretty much leveled off over the past few years had we not done some of the reconfiguration which I'll talk in a moment about we would be talking about cutting more staff uh because of keeping at our current configuration so I'm going to talk a little bit about some of those things in a moment but I I don't disagree with about long-term planning and I think you know we've given some things the financial piece now with having the budget advisory committee the three the this is the fourth year Jeff a fifth year of the BAC fifth year fourth year

099of the B fourth year of the BAC and they've made proposals on different considerations as we move forward I think the experts that have sat at the table from our district and from the community have been very very helpful in that regard uh and we need tomorrow night we're presenting this same uh presentation to that committee to get their input as well so you know the idea the best idea wins at least I I you know Dr back I applaud you at least we're taking a risk of putting out something as a as a proposal for us to consider both as the administration and and the Board of Education we need more of that thinking as we go into this process um but unfortunately for us this district and districts Like Us in Long Island

100are not getting our fair share of Aid if we were getting $500 million like one of the large District on Long Island we wouldn't be sitting at this table having any discussion we would probably be talking about adding more programs and adding different things to our budget we are not in that position last year the the governor's proposal of cutting $8 million out of the out of our funding uh we campaigned heavily in this community we United this community against that um we didn't get a cut but we didn't get an increase it still led to Some Cuts so uh in the past three years we've had a cut each year in different areas and reconfigure for other areas and as we keep moving forward we're probably going to have to continue to do that

101um whatever we look to do it's going to have to be with the consideration of what are we going to look like in five years U and what are we going to do in five uh next year Alone um you know we wish that we would have a crystal bow to figure out what the rates are going to be for some of these things it's an unpredictable component of the market we're at the whim of uh of the the you know New York state government with our Aid packages of what we get um there was times we were getting far more than this we could guarantee that we were going to get 3% or 4% increases in aid from the state that's no longer happening and now with the Rockefeller commission's uh proposals the the

102the state is still not sure yet how they're going to reconfigure some of those formulas uh Dr D bruski and I were just in Aly for two and a half days uh working on aacy and trying to figure out what what directions we're going in and it's a still a big question mark as Mr Carlson said the state legislature still has an to approve the final budget for this let's hope it is the first week in April let's hope that we wind up getting money in some regard but we have to plan that we may not get any increase and we have to look at all these things so I just want to be clear though when we're talking about it's not as if we are talking about uh Staffing is the only solution to

103our financial issues to correct things the board has at its disposal right now um contracts that are they're working on negotiating and they have been very proactive in doing so with our attorneys trying to figure out ways to mitigate some of the costs in those contracts uh I applaud their conversations with our attorney Mr mki and and the unions that we're working with some of our unions have been very very understanding of where we are um we need some probably short-term solutions for some of those as opposed to long-term solutions that may bind us into areas where we can't predict just yet so um I'm looking forward to working with you on that five-year financial plan uh once you have talked to the individuals that you're working with on the outside they want to bring

104that to the table perhaps maybe they'd bring it to the BAC and we can have a discussion of that um um but that's where we should be heading as well I think Dr Lee also wanted to say something can I just respond to that or certainly do you mind no okay so I agree that projections are hard I'm not going to pretend that that isn't the case I also agree that 5 years ago some things that have happened were not predictable I do think it was predictable that the state would stop giving us money to educate students that we don't actually have I think that was fair predictable given that most of the well not most but a large number of the local community were making the same claim right sooner or later the state

105was going to figure it out no I I disagree with that and it's not it's not about the state suddenly realizing that enrollment was down um there are districts on Long Island their enrollment went up and they didn't even get their fair share of Aid you know it's and the district that we're saying that's getting $500 million they actually deserved more than that and they still haven't gotten that Mr Carlson has presented in the past years there's still I think Jeff you said somewhere around $35 million in in Aid that we have been due that we have still not yet to receive our districts like us uh sure yeah that was our uh Gap elimination adjustment when they took that money away from us uh it was about I think about $36 million um and

106we just never got it back so the claim that oh we're fully funded schools you still owe us from all those years and have even if we had 10% of that money right now we probably also wouldn't be sitting looking at this amount of money as it stands I I think the point here is that we need to build contingencies into the costs that we don't control right now the objection I've heard to that is well we should be stand spending that money but we at the moment we just spend all the money we have and that is going to lead us H not is going to now has led us into a pretty bad place don't disagree there okay and so I'll have a shot at it and then I'm sure everybody will criticize

107that so welcome at least it's a stop okay so my first question related with restructuring I'll ask after uh Dr clarify that U I do have one question to do to Mr cson so there is this approximate fund balance about 3.5 million can you elaborate what this for so the 3.5 million uh uh that well as I said that in and ideally it would be um money that's left over in the budget that's unspent and we just carry that forward as a revenue to offset the following Year's budget um in the since uh since Co since after covid then our budget failed in uh 2021-22 um we have not had that much left over each year in the budget and that's what's contributed towards our fund balance and reserves decreased in if we lower that

108amount that creates more of a gap in what we would have to reduce in spending so um the suggestion now tonight was maybe increase that by another million uh to pay for the star time which which we could do but that's the exact opposite of having that long-term financial plan and saying you know and I'm not arguing one way or the other but but we're saying two different things if we're saying well let's use more of our our fund balance to offset current expenditures and at the same time let's plan for a future and building contingencies in the budget those are opposites okay so so the 3 and a half million is the same as what it is this year I would like to decrease that and hopefully over the next couple of years that

109will start to come down uh but that had to go up during covid and and um okay got it when the budget failed thanks okay oh Dr mckinon okay so I'm not trying to micromanage here but given that everybody's chiming in with a few well not everybody but a few of us are chiming in with a few suggestions um what about the appropriated funds can they be reduced at all to help pay for start times it seems that there are a lot of little pools lying around that we could tap into actually appropriated reducing appropriated funds creates more of a gap okay it would be the other way around said we increase appr never really understood the appropriate which means that won't be in my plan by the way well that and that's a good

110thing and and here's what's and I don't disagree with you about the long-term plan and it's not a matter of well we don't want to do one it's it's going back to to uh the uh 2020 21 school year that was the co year uh when we used so much extra so much of our fund balance to hire all the additional people by all of the stuff we needed to keep schools open that year that's what kind of put us behind the eight wall and we've been trying to uh back get back on our feet since then and unfortunately which what what compounded that problem was during that year our budget when we had the budget vote in May our budget failed uh and and you know now and there are people say well it's

111because we went above the cap that's why it failed which I understand uh but the reason we want above the cap was not to be hey let's be greedy and let's raise it the um the taxes even higher uh if you remember they were still under 2% above the cap and and the reason even 2% uh was less than 2% was below the cap was inflation was so low during covid that meant the tax cap was super low um it didn't mean our cost went down just because inflation was so low it didn't mean our cost decreased in fact our cost increased at the same time uh so that where we we we intentionally put ourselves behind the eight ball with keeping schools open during covid right that was a that was a conscious decision

112um by and it wasn't just the board at the time or just the administration we we heard from the community I mean we had meeting after meeting we had the governing Comm the was it the governing commit I forget what we called it but the reopening committee um and and that was that was the sentiment of of the community was do whatever you need to you you have money in reserves if you're not going to use it now what do you even have it for and and I can see that point so um so we did that and then as I said unfortunately the the budget failed which set us back even more and since then we've been trying to get back on our feet and so um and and when I say like not

113that we don't want to do a financial plan a long-term financial plan what I mean is it's hard to do that while we're trying to get ourselves back on our feet and if you if you take like a a financial advisor right and you go into a a a family I always try to to convert this into like let's let's let's compared to household Finance right so like if you go work with a family and say okay we're going to do some financial planning okay how much do you take home a month okay here's where you take home okay what's your mortgage how what's your car insurance what's your utilities how much you pay for food okay what's left over nothing okay well we're done there's not much more financial planning all you're doing all

114of your money that you're coming in is going to pay your bills there's not a whole lot of financial planning to be done there and that's the position we're in now so how do we how do we get out of that well we cut spending by more than what what what current Staffing means and increases most of our money the vast majority of our money goes to salaries and benefits they're and they're they're lumped together uh so if we want to make significant cuts it has to come from that area um it's not by cutting office supplies I mean those kind of things we can do but it's does it doesn't add up to a lot of money so um the the way we do that is either reduce spending all right and and unfortunately

115that means things like higher class size less electives those kind of things um now or or we don't and we say well let's do whatever we have to to get through this year and next year we'll worry about next year um and and that's we've been doing I'm not saying that's the right thing but that's what what's been happening the last few years now one thing we know is coming and I know you're probably sick of hearing me say it it's coming I don't know exactly when is a lot of retirements will be coming sometime soon uh we know it we just know that that our staff I mean we have we have 20 teachers retiring this year plus two administrators um it wasn't that long ago well we might have two teachers retiring a

116year out of 600 we might have two um because our staff now is much more experienced there was a big hiring movement in 1960s all retired in the 1990s and then they all got replaced big another big Hing movement in mid 1990s and now we get 30 years later we'll start seeing those retirements and that's going to open up opportunities for things like adding other kind of initiatives uh rebuilding our fund balance reserves putting these long-term plans in in place um establishing like capital reserve those kind of things um unfortunately we're not in the place to do that right now unless we cut staff even more and then that's and that's that hard Choice do we do we cut staff to have money to not spend that money and that's that's a difficult decision and

117then that's really a board decision I'll give you an example uh during covid now I don't want to say what district it was but but um and I some of you might have heard me say this before during Co during that year right uh 2021 school year counterpart of mine in a a nearby District um was was asking me about you know had questions about the budget and blah blah blah that my that business official said um that they held spending so tight that year that he needed to start spending more money towards the end of the year because he had too much money left over that was the covid year that school district had kids coming in twice a week stayed home the rest of the time and they did basically because I know

118people in my office that live in that District they did nothing those two days they were in school so that's how a lot of districts operated during Co they said well we're just not going to spend money and they wound up with a lot of money left over um and that's not what we did I don't think that would have been the right thing to do um but so anyway so that's what I wanted to mention Jeff we were the one one few districts in the whole country that stayed open for Co every day and we built a lot of safety factors into the district and into the schools to keep our kids safe but the kids went to school every day and that kept their education where it's supposed to be and that's why

119we did it that way cuz I was on the board then and that's when I voted for that because it's important to keep the kids going as they should be and keep the kids healthy and keep the district as good as it is thank you so and we're still recovering from that is is the point so on on the fund balance Reserve side we're still recovering from that Dr mcon do you have anything else okay so okay I'd just like to touch on the start times I don't want to drag this on too much but since there were so many letters I feel I should also respond a little parents have a legitimate concern about start time collectively we have created a world that is hostile to children it's a world that's obsessed with money

120and clicks a world that has greatly limited the agency of children while routinely exposing them to every imaginable adult perversion it is a world that has made them more neurotic and troubled than ever before it is a very different world to the one I grew up in which now looks like a shangra and it's even very different to the one I brought my older children into the rapidly increasing rates of emotional disturbance amongst teen teenagers is a concern for every parent of teens there are very few effective Solutions one solution which research supports is later start times right now there are parents out there mothers who are desperately concerned about their children's emotional health they are concern that the move of the ninth grade to the high school combined with the much earlier star times

121is the straw that breaks their kids back we should be here for those parents I will not vote for any budget that makes an already bad situation worse we understandably hear a lot about security tragically the primary threat to the kids is the kids themselves we should not be taking actions that increase that risk I I understand all the economic arguments it's not that I don't get them I understand all Staffing arguments but that just does not overwrite how I feel about this thank you all right anybody else before we turn it over to Dr scanlin okay oh need thank you so um we just wanted to give an update since there's been some questions at several of the meetings about where we are and where we've come from with the Strategic plan um so

122you recall this whole situation started about 4 and a half years ago for me when I was uh put into the role of superintendent a year before uh Mr ped left and the board's charge was to look at a strategic plan considering these changes that we put into place not an enviable situation to be placed into as a new superintendent to make drastic changes in the first year of being in a superintendency but that was the that was the task put at hand so the uh sheet that we sent out when we did the surveys uh which was compiled not by me so alone this was done by multiple people uh and many people who are smarter than I am and have expertise in areas that showed all the things that we were looking at

123with the four different options available for the district um this actually comes this particular side is the segment under costs under the ninth grade uh and sixth grade moving to the high school and just for the record and I'm not going to be on you know my bully pulpit of saying uh you know we should have done something else but if we were truly looking at this from a purely Financial discussion and the board was looking at it from a financial discussion the discussion would have ended with looking at the Princeton plan because that would have saved the most money so was never ever put forward that this was going to be a major Financial savings unless of course that was looked at as the major plan to have been put into place the survey

124was done the community didn't favor that that was the second second least favorable option that was given out um right after um right before the just moving the n9th grade and not moving the sixth grade and just making sure that every was aware when those surveys were completed among all the different groups we surveyed the current configuration was the first option keeping exactly what we have right now was the first option was not deliberately sent out there and say no we're changing regardless it was you could keep the first option that was the second highest rated but the overwhelming majority of the people surveyed again a survey that the board considered the results from and I know there's been criticism of the survey by the way I didn't create the survey I didn't create the

125questions for the survey an international company called qual Trex which is much highly qualified than probably any of us in education in this District was the ones that helped create the survey and did the an data analysis so there was no manipulation on the part of the administration nor the board nor anyone else that helped internally helped create the survey with the company that was done so take Umbridge with those statements being made repeatedly out there to the community because those individuals that did the hard work with this did their due diligence so and I just tried to deliberately keep myself out of that situation so that those individuals didn't have any under influence on my level so the this slide does delineate out this this the link there is this page which is still

126on the district website um and what we laid out as potentially cost Savings in this particular choice that was given by the way the board at the time asked for that that that row to be added for costs um and that was right above the row that showed which districts on Long Island had which configurations um and if you note on that that sheet the our current configuration there is no District on Long Island with that configuration left we're the last ones um and we listed out all the different districts the option of just moving to 9th grade was only three districts and the vast majority were the Princeton plan or the change that we're uh proceeding to so uh the next cost of the move to W mobile High School this was done on

127the 128 uh presentation 12 128 I'm sorry presentation of 2023 um this was done just prior to the board's vote in January of 2024 to move along with the Strategic plan so the idea that this was never discussed as far as options as far as costs there are multiple slides in here to delineate the Staffing costs as estimates what we were looking at so it can tell you where we can look at at some of those in here so slide number uh 12 on this sheet showed what we were talking about with potential increases for guidance counselors fles teachers it was all delineated on that as you can see here the total cost for reconfiguring spaces as previously described will be approximately $2 million so that's in this year's current budget the 2 million of

128the $3 million in the Capital Improvements is in this year's budget and was allocated to go towards this so please remember that the money in the capital budget even if we took it out like we just did at the last board meeting cannot be used for any other purpose other than to reduce the tax levy right or tax cap that's it so that's what was done at the last board meeting by the proposal by one of the board members and done so so even if we had this $2 million right now it would be nothing else other than done for we would use it for other projects right now if we weren't done so the way the process works as Mr Carlson has explained many times when he stood at this Podium with discussing capital

129projects and bonds that we've had that money uh when we go we do the proposal to the state it sits in State education department offices gets reviewed that work is planned to be completed this summer now um in that in the capital budget um for the 23 24 School the capital budget was 1.4 million um the difference between the present budget in the cost of the reconfiguration sun spaces or Mev is approximately 600,000 which can be placed in the yearly Capital Improvement line which we're hoping to do as well this coming year again the capital budget is outside the tax cap and the approval we put this forward that the approval will be done had to be done in January 2024 which the board did and in order for the work to be able to

130begin this summer so that was what was done now where we are right now so just prior to the February break I provided a review for the board about everything we went through so we had an internal Review Committee and we had a scheduling subcommittee both tasked with looking at what we're doing whether or not we could accomplish the goals they completed their analysis now the scheduling subcommittee came up with the needs for the high school how many rooms that were needed what those rooms would be uh configured for at that time they said four extra classrooms uh were needed uh two earth science labs one art dry room two music practice rooms and three guidance off off approximate cost was around the $2 million Mark of the $3 million in the projects at this

131present time we need the four extra classrooms and the two science labs um we're also putting into place we're putting the fax classroom back into Warden Mel high school because uh with the nth grad is moving up we would like to bring back the International Food elective which we have not the fax lab was removed during covid and not put back in uh this would allow us to put that back in regardless of whether we moov the ninth grade or the sixth grade we'd still want to have that lab back at Ward Melville High School so that we could offer a family consumer science cooking classes once again at the school so we're still reviewing the the need for the guidance councils Miss Connelly and Mr Jane provided a a paper to the board which

132we gave in the board packet about the concerns of the changes that have occurred for guidance in the past several years while we think that while the number of students at w high school is going to be next year approximately what it was in 201617 school year the students are different than they were at that time period there's a lot of different issues that have gone on there's a lot more demands for those students uh there's a lot more demands for the councils and expectations about what they need to do most of which is because of where their trajectory might be whether it's college or career the councilors are intimately involved in that process so in order to keep our ratios of counselors to students The Proposal was to add additional guidance counselors which you

133have in your packet to review the reductions in transportation as previously described came out to be about $240,000 and this was due to a couple of factors where the JV Sports in particular coming up to the high school helps a lot by not having as many buses needed for that we're still going to need probably a couple of uh uh probably a mini bus for potential eighth graders that would be coming up and then um we would be saving money with also the math students that go to w Mel High School from the two junior high schools for first period not having to be busted back over to Murphy and gelus and missing their second periods in order to do that there is currently 21.6 FTE in the sixth grade this school year so there

134will be 19 FTE with the sixth grade going to the two junior high schools middle schools next year so that 2.6 savings is approximately 299 $9,000 so we did add some things into this uh into the configuration There are 16 uh uh classroom teachers that are teaching English science math and social studies but we added the two foreign language student teachers uh teachers in that area which by the way was in the proposal back in December of 2023 adding the fles into the program and we added an that the teacher will be split between both schools to provide another elective opportunity for students and that is one of our teachers that currently has a business certification that's been in the elementary level coming up and teaching those classes so giving opportunities for areas like organization

135and financial literacy um so when you try to combine let's say two schools here initially when we looked at this from the scheduling standpoint there was approximately nine sections and nine uh sections from both Junior High School coming in so the since the district that was looking at the committee that was looking at the um scheduling timeline when you combine the two schools together they had nothing to look at how that was done in the past how it would only had to be the 10th grade so without having an ability they looked at all right let's just go with those numbers in both schools well when you combine the two together you don't need 18 sections we actually wound up you only needing the 16 section so that helped a lot as we moved up

136to nth grade as well now um we're in the midst of our students doing course selections right now the guidance department is working very hard we're trying to get all these numbers in we also know that in December we gave the class size report to the Board of Education with the reductions that we know we have we can make based upon the classes that are unders subscribed there are 105 sections of classes at Ward meville high school right now that are under 15 students that's just not acceptable to keep moving forward with and part of the problem with why we're in that position is because we've allowed the scheduling process over the summer when people get their scheduled to come in and people can move things around I can tell you back uh in the

137summer in the beginning of the summer those classes were balanced pretty well across all grade levels and in different courses but after the students got the schedules and started going in and seeing where they wanted to be with their friends and which courses those changes that's why we implemented the change that we discussed earlier this year about we have to limit that so all the scheduled changes that we need to do must be completed by June this year otherwise we're going to perpetually be in a problem whether we ke to sixth grad or ke to nth graders or we move them with that change occurring those that's got to be solved because that that constant movement of people talking from a five-year financial plan Dr McKinnon is detrimental to our process it' be as if

138we plan out all these things and all of a sudden someone changes their orders at the last minute now you don't want the red car you want the blue car well we're going to have to produce another blue car so that's it doesn't work that we just have them hanging around so we we really desperately how to do this now the current estimate of savings FTE from that class size report is about 14.3 FTE so that amounts to about $1.6 million so the allegation that the numbers are incorrect and what we're looking at strategic plan uh is approximately saving 983 ,000 the way we're doing this um that's the 1.6 the 2 299,000 the 240,000 minus to 1.2 million in the uh the uh expense for the uh capital projects and that savings we were

139hoping to use exactly for the start time issue not anticipating that the 5 million1 million or $5.3 million we get slammed with with the healthcare benefits was looming out there so now the issue is we not we need that money right now to help offset those costs and we discussed this uh the detail of that in exec session um the next several budget meetings we're going to be making some very hard decisions and some recommendations and going back and forth we are working with all the unions in the district I've met with every Union president um that would meet with me out of the 10 units we have we met with n of them uh they all came in all willing to work with us in some capacity to how we can forge ahead but

140no one particular unit is being singled out there obviously are some units that are having more of a cut than others because of size but there is not one area and before we actually touched the Staffing in particular the classroom Staffing we looked at all the codes in other areas so we're looking at codes like our security code that when before Sandy Hook we only spent $500,000 where we're spending $3.1 million we need to cut that down the way to save that money is by overtime costs to cut back on some of that um so every unit that uh we've had discussions with have really been trying to work with us and trying to navigate this process and we're hoping that as we continue to move forward and some of those Union presidents are in

141the audience tonight and watching at home we continue to work with each other as we move forward in this process to try to uh solve some of this and as I've said before best idea wins if someone comes to the table like could we try this instead we will explore every option before we try to remove more staff we do not want to increase class sizes we do not want to see the closing of a school for just the sake of closing so it makes some awkward appearance to the community that we're financially uh being uh responsible uh the own governing Committee of the of the Strategic plan recommended not doing that but to repurpose the school so as part of this plan to when we gave it out in December of of in uh

14223 we recommended doing something with this building because this building the only group in this building as far as students is the academy we would have to find another home for them it's been working very well here and the students have been very successful here that program has can now when it's 12th year done very well we can't abandon that program I don't care where my office is if you want to put me in a box on the street and I'll work out of my car but we can't abandon the students in this building we need to find a location for them so if we can work to deal with bosies or the storb school or the University of some nature um to try to see what if this is a viable option we'll explore

143that and I again applaud the board for putting forward the idea of the property analysis committee we have several properties some of which have covenants on them that we need to explore um when that Committee convenes in a few minutes we'll be talking about who the members are are going to be that we're going to have four meetings in that committee if it's cutting off a piece of our property here at North Country on 25 a.m. and selling it off whatever money we get the board then needs to consider what the options are for going forward but as you know it's not easy to sell land immediately and solve a problem it's going to take time we have we have an 18 acre piece of property off of Hawkins road which was going to be

144another Elementary School uh there's a covenant on that property it must be used for an educational purpose if it doesn't it it Resorts right back to the town so we need to explore what we can do in these different areas if it's selling the nichels road administration building let's put whatever we need to do support but let that committee do its work come up with ideas I think the selection of the people that are going to be on the committee are some wonderful people I want to thank everyone that put in to be part of that committee one thing I will say is every time we ask for committee membership we at no loss of people that want to be on them and we really appreciate them being there so we are still continue to

145explore every feasible possibility as we move forward with this um but if we're moving ahead we have done so much tremendous work and I want to thank Dr bcar and Dr D bruski in particular with the work they've done with the Committees the transition teams um the courses have been set up um I also hear from a lot of people and places throughout the community I've also been in classrooms and I've been in meetings with parents who've come to me to complain about the career configuration and others that come in to to thank us for the configuration I had a student in my office a few weeks ago with his mother mom was very upset student came in and said I can take all these electives when I go to the high school that I

146can't take right now in ninth grade yes I can be in these clubs that I'm not able to be in in in the junior high schools right now and I don't have to travel every afternoon on the bus to get to my sport yes student looked at his mother and said I'm done Mom let's go so that's what I'm also hearing so we can do more surveys and find out more information but we've hit the point of we're ready to roll for next year at this point in time students are signing up for the courses we have a lot of things filling one area I will tell you in budget consideration we have 660 students signed up for business courses next year that's a record we've never had that many even when we had 2,000

147students at Warden meville High School and eight business teachers but right now we have three business teachers of which teaching uh staff of that is only 2.7 one of our teachers is A3 for the work study program they their classes already maxed out they're between 25 and 30 students in the class I don't know where we're going to put them if we don't have another business teacher so as much as I a priority for the start time is this priority is also for the education that we provide to the students and what we're giving them so I will once again say what I said before when we responding to Dr McKinnon in my Administration as the superintendent of schools we have acknowledged the fact that our start time is too early we are only one

148of six districts in the state of New York that is 7:05 early there's actually a district up state that's 6:45 and which is a really ludicrous time to be starting one of our audience members I'm sorry they have cow they have cows they do have cows um uh and one of our audience members um who we've had some communication with when we started this process we recognized a half hour change is not much it's and the only thing we can acknowledge is it's it's a good start but ideally we would love to see it change we're hearing a lot at the federal level that the federal government is going to implement something that's coming from the Department of Health not the education department which we don't know how much longer that's going to exist at

149this point in time so um we're hopeful that this change whether it's now or in the very near future whatever we need to do we need to make that happen at some point in time and whatever expenses up on there on that board we've got to find the money to be able to do this somehow some way but we have to measure those things comparatively like what what are we able to do right now no one at this board or in the administration anticipated a $5.3 million 12% increase and that's what's killing us and as much as we could try to plan five years out no one anticipated last year a proposed $8 million cut and this year we got a 2% increase there are districts that got no increase there are districts that got

150ludicrously high increases in things and what the average person whether you're a taxpayer sitting in this room or part of the administration of the board here or if you're sitting in the audience or you're sitting at home to really consider is that as an taxpayer in Long Island you're only getting a small portion of every tax dollar you send to Albany a very small portion you're helping pay for districts throughout the state of New York New York City being one of them so it's the burden we bear and since we are considered a high wealth District I invited the governor down I've invited the commissioner down to come see what we look like we are not the same district that was existing here when I started here in 1996 we're certainly not the same district

151that was in when we I was here 13 years ago coming back to the district after being other places um and we're ever evolving one area where we're evolving is that enl population that population is growing faster than any other single group in this community our Asian population in the district now is 14% you heard from L Pentel our poverty level is now at 177% that's the highest it's ever been so we need to address these issues as we move forward and let's just say for a moment if we kept everyone where it is right now by some of the proposals that have been put out by individuals and go say you know what forget it we're going to go keep everywhere in they are we are still going to have to make Cuts in

152fact that the sixth grade stays where it is right now we would have to cut four more teachers out of the program because we don't we don't need them because of the numbers in the classes in the ninth grade of it stayed we'd have to cut more teachers in if they remained in both of those schools so yes we are saving money and yes this is these aren't madeup numbers that only scandin does in his office by himself I don't profess to have any working knowledge complete on my own without the help of Mr Carlson Dr bruski Dr bcer and the entire health of the leadership team in the community and working with many of the unions in the district and I appreciate all their support over the past three years because it's not been

153easy for anyone as we gone through this process any questions from the board on this okay Dr skon thank you for uh preparing this update my question was exactly related with this you actually answer my question my question was people's impression is the saving from restructuring about 1.3 million estimated back three years ago was to cover the actra cost of transportation and now you updated it's actually AC around 1 million right however because of the new cost of the health insurance increase we have to use partially to cover that frankly I do not per personally I do not agree with that because we promise using the saving to cover the extra cost of Transportation but since this is present and it's it's not predict I was thinking it's probably time we use our Reserve to

154cover some of that that's just my opinion as as Mr Carlson said that's I applaud Dr back for actually making the proposal that's not an easy one to say but it's interesting because I've I've sat here for the past 13 years as assistant superintendent and a superintendent and some of the the things that have come up by some of the things that have been proposed is that we we need to increase our reserves um and that we should be putting ourselves in a a higher financial status by maintaining those Dr uh Mr Carlson will look into the uh factors of whether we're going to go into any fiscal um questions with the state we don't want to be on that report again um that's a major consideration um but as I said we're open the

155administration and I believe the board is as well to any suggestions whether it's from the community about how we can navigate through this difficult Financial time yeah just add one more point I actually don't agree with keeping more reservation because of a high inflation the money we don't spend actually worth less in the future absolutely thank you anybody else okay very good so we will uh move on now to item 5B this is just an update on our legislative items and what the legislative committee has been up to um on a very local level we are discussing what if any position we're going to take on the battery proposed battery storage facility so we're working on that right now and we've identified as our goals as we talked to our other leadership our health care

156costs uh transportation and any possibility of dialing back on the Mandate for the electric buses and possibly getting security removed from the tax cap so we are in the process of setting up all of our meetings with our local legislators uh in the next few weeks and hope to meet with them and have these conversations before and then maybe again after the one house bills come out in Albany okay that takes us to 5c our property analysis committee um again my thanks to everybody who applied it was do you want to talk about the battery we could we could talk about it do we want to talk about the battery storage facility uh we don't have to I just we we were just just discussing on what the district's position is going to be on

157the um battery storage uh whatever it's called um and talk it and if we're going to come out with a position on that um I think we're going to be discussing that and eventually putting out something from the district exactly so I just I just wanted to say that people have probably seen at least some people have seen the misleading advertising out there we totally dissociate ourselves from that it's got nothing to do with Tre Village school district and we're not happy I think is the way to put it okay very deceptive absolutely absolutely all right uh back then to the property analysis committee selections all right so after going through this um we've determined it's going to be uh seven parent members two community members there will be a total four meetings and I

158will just read these off in absolutely no particular order Joe bar Bessie Christopher jelo James G Carmine and Sarah Lisa rickmer John Schneider Mark tempone Peter St Germain and Joseph Betts so thank you all very much for applying thank you to those who've been selected you'll be reached by email tomorrow with some more specific information all right um unless there is anything else to discuss um yes unless there's anything else to discuss I need to see a motion please return to Executive session to finish our earlier agenda items we have 1 second all in favor no oppose no abstentions all right returning to exact thank you every