001Um motion on the floor to enter into executive session to discuss employment history of a particular person. Invited in is Mr. Buril. >> And that's all I have. >> In the cabinet. >> Not at all. >> Mr. Styles, Mr. Hotel, Mr. >> All in favor. Everyone, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Good evening everyone. At this time, it is our public input on agenda and non-aggenda items. I welcome any members of the audience to speak at this time. >> Hello. Hi, my name is Christy Fronhoffer and I'm here to thank the board, the principal, everybody for supporting the international club that
002just went to Italy and Lisbon, >> my son. Yeah, it was so cool. So, at first they were a little disappointed to get stuck in Lisbon and then they were whisked off in a bus to a beautiful hotel, had a new travel agent, a bag through the city, and like hours later, my son sent me a picture of holding a pineapple drink. So, Elizabeth has been great. It was It was amazing. But Miss Casease and the entire staff, I can't even begin to show our gratitude. She covered every base. She thought of every possible scenario that could go wrong. Some of it did, some of it didn't. But I can't believe when we put them on the bus that I wasn't nervous at all. I was just so excited for those kids. They saw everything
003there was to see in Italy. They ate everything. Um, and they had the absolute best time ever. And the staff that went with them, they spent their own money to do extra excursions for the kids. And we saw pictures and videos every single day so we know our kids were alive and having fun. It was amazing. I have never heard of a better trip for our kids ever. So, thank you so much for supporting it. Thank you for having an amazing staff. They looked after the kids like they were their own. So, thank you so much. And please keep it coming. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> It's Germany next year, right? >> All right, Mr. Camello for the superintendent update. >> Okay, thank you. Uh so the superintendent update uh meeting is uh on
004the reorganization the uh uh wine and skill u merger reorganization annexation however you want to call it. So the real update is uh later on in the agenda. So, we the board approved a flyer of all the asurances that we've made. Um, really great stuff, things that we heard from their community that they wanted the building to stay open, the building to stay K8, our tax plan. Um, the school choice one is the one that's still uh had a few people uh upset. We've gotten some emails in the last couple of weeks. Um, and remember, we did current kindergarten through 8. So really anybody that's in the school over there right now would maintain that school choice when they got to high school. Um the issue was the prek kids. So there is a prek
005classroom. The reason we didn't include prek in the beginning was uh prek is not mandatory as you know and so we didn't want to penalize kids who are four year olds in wine and skill but just didn't decide to send their kids to prek or didn't uh go to a diff maybe went to a different prek. So the way we're going to address that is uh rather than say we're going to do it with current prek, we'll do our kindergarten through 8th grade but starting in next year's school year. So, um, if those preK kids go to kindergarten in Garden Dixon next year, or if any prek kid or kid who didn't go to pre-K goes to kindergarten next year, they will still be grandfathered in for the high school choice. Um, I've said before
006that far away from now, uh, I don't anticipate a lot of kids will be choosing other schools at that point. Um, but, um, I think it's important for that community to hear that we're listening. And so I thank the board uh for um considering it on tonight's agenda and that that's the only change that we're making. And so it'll uh it'll be next year's kindergarten. Um and so I've already gotten I told the the few people that emailed me that it's coming on tonight's agenda and I already got some thank yous for considering it. So I appreciate that. The other update is I think last time I talked about we're going to have one more virtual community forum meeting. Uh, it was supposed to be Tuesday the 24th. I think I actually announced that last
007time, but that was premature. So, the date has been changed. It's actually that Thursday. So, it's the Thursday right before the vote. Our vote is Tuesday, March 31st. We're in the home stretch. We're less than 3 weeks away. Um, and so on Thursday, uh, March 26, 5 days before that vote, uh, we'll have our last community forum. It'll be virtual, and we hope to get as many people signed on as we had for that. uh uh earlier virtual one uh during that snowstorm. Um we had a lot of great positive feedback from that meeting and so it'll be a quick update from the consultants and then it'll be you know some questions and answers. We're thinking six to seven uh you know total time but hopefully there's a little bit of misinformation that's out there
008and so we want to clear that up and then just highlight uh all the positive things that we think will come from this merger one last time. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Denovo with the financials. >> Uh, so this is the first month um that I was able to include projected revenues and expenses. Uh, it's fairly early, but it appears that everything's on track to break even by the end of the year. Uh, I've entered the purchase order cut off date in the accounting system uh to be April 20th. Um, an email will be sent out to the district informing everyone to have everything entered at this time. Users will not be able to enter any new POS unless given permission by Mr. Styles or Mr. Protailing. This gives us time
009to start deciding which purchase orders to close or to roll to the new fiscal year. And that is all I have to report. >> Okay. Thank you. Thanks. >> All right. Mr. Styles, you're going to do our curriculum and instruction presentation. >> Yes. >> Stand up if that's all right. I told Mr. Mayo I would try to be done by seven. So, >> I'm not promising that. So, thank you. I'm really excited to be presenting tonight. Um, you know, if you remember, >> you have a wooden leg. >> Not not wooden, but I am I am limping a little bit. I'm sorry. Uh, so standing up will probably be a little short. So, um, so you remember Mr. Carmelo spoke at the last meeting, talked about our, um, you know, assessment scores and and our
010results. So, I wanted to follow up with that and talk a little bit about, you know, our district goals and really the way that we're supporting those goals. Um, you know, there's just so much work that goes on in all of our schools. You know, all of our principles and directors are really, you know, true instructional leaders. And I think if you're in the buildings, you would really see that. Um, you know, our staff is extremely dedicated. I really wanted to start off with that because I have a lot of bullets in programs and all the different things that we do, but really the most important thing that we do here is have really great people and it starts with, you know, our principles, our directors, our teachers, our support staff. Um, but again, none
011of that could happen without the support of the board. Um, you know, since my time in Troy, I just, you know, when you when you see this list of all the different programs and resources that we have to support all of our students, that doesn't happen without the support of our board and our community when we when we consider our budget. So, um, with that, always want to start with our mission statement of the Troy School District providing a strong educational and social foundation to graduate all of our students college and career ready. So, what I wanted to do tonight is go through each of our five district goals and really kind of highlight the different areas and work that we do um, you know, kind of behind the scenes and every day to support
012those goals. So, um, you've all seen these goals, but our first goal is increasing our proficiency rate in grades 3 through 8 for ELA and math. Um, you know, looking for 25% of our students that scored at a level one to move to level two, three, and four the following year. And then 25% of our students that score level two improve and move to level three and level four. So, the different ways that we support that, you know, that goal, it really starts with our curriculum review. Every four years we have a curriculum review cycle making sure that our curriculums align to you know state standards, next generation learning standards and you know we've really done a lot of work preparing our students for the computer based testing. So that's been happening over the last
013few years. This would be the first year that all of our students grades three through eight are taking their state assessments um you know computer based. So again not on here but our technology department does a great job. know we are I'll say we're onetoone with our devices but really we're beyond onetoone with our devices um and the teachers are doing a lot of great work throughout the year getting our students comfortable with um taking those assessments um you know computer based and that can't happen without all the summer curriculum work that goes on um you know really every year looking at our needs um and you know looking at our student data how can we make adjustments to our curriculum to continuously improve Um, Mr. Carmelo spoke about this before. Our elementary class sizes,
014you know, the board supporting and keeping those class sizes small has a huge impact. I think any classroom for the most part you go in is somewhere in the mid and upper teens. Very very few classes have no classes have 25 or 26 students at the elementary level. Um, and again, um, that really is a supportive board with that. the instructional coaches that we have and we've committed to are just really really impactful. I can really say firsthand when I was the principal at Carol Hill the impact that those coaches have. I think all the principles would agree. Um you know the work that our instructional coaches are able to do. We have two at every elementary school. We have three at our middle school. you know, they're working with, you know, the principles in
015terms of looking at student data and dissecting that, but really getting into classrooms, working closely with teachers, and it's just continuous professional development that's really embedded in the in the school. Uh we also have two instructional technology coaches districtwide that do a really great job of you know not just making sure that you know we have the appropriate instructional software um but then supporting that software. You know you can invest and say that you know you have this we have I Ready we have all these different things but how are they being utilized in the classroom and the instructional coaches can really support that work. Um again I just mentioned I Ready. something that's a little bit newer that we've been using has many different um aspects that I think support um our students in
016grades K through 8 you know one aspect is we give a uh a screener fall winter and spring through I ready which is computer based that really you know supports our teachers to be able to say you know what are the different standards and areas that students need to continue to improve and then as students students again take that assessment in the fall, they take it again in the winter, then the spring. We can kind of, you know, track that growth and see where students are growing. Another aspect of I Ready is it also can take that same information from that screener that they've used and then there are instructional lessons that can support some of those skills that go beyond, you know, just what the teacher can do. So, um, you know, for example,
017you know, you're in a math classroom and you're working on multiplication as a as a whole class, but you have some students that may need some of those, um, you know, skills leading up to that. You know, some of those I lessons can kind of help and support that work. Um, on the other side, also when you have a student that is excelling, it can continue to push them further beyond what they're doing in the classroom every day. So has a lot of great work and we're um getting again I think no this Friday we have some continued key around um again you've heard some of the principles um during their um building um presentations talk about UFly and he so it's uh you know two new aronics andic awareness programs that we're using at
018the primary level that I think is getting a lot of great feedback. Um, you know, we've always been data driven as a district and again, I think every district would say that they're data driven, but I, you know, if you really look at the way our buildings, our teachers are really looking at data every day. Um, and we really take that serious and are able to go in there and know exactly what individual students need. So, we're enhancing that with a few new platforms. We just started utilizing um Tableau which is something through NERIC which really lets us take a look at our state assessment data and dig deep into that. Um principles they've already been doing all of that work but it's extremely timeconuming. This now allows them to do that much faster. Really
019can get down to you can track cohort growth. you can really look at individual standards of where students or cohorts are are struggling or are doing well. So, that's going to be a really great tool. And then moving forward for next year, we're going to be adopting and purchasing a a new uh data dashboard. So currently all of our buildings have what we call we call MMI multiple measure index and it's it's great tool but it's done through for the most part each building has Google Sheets that they're doing. This is going to be able to replace that put all of our information in one place. So, um, you know, principles are going to be able to say, you know, give me the list of students that are current, chronically absent, um, are failing one
020or more courses, and have three or more referrals. Boom, here's all those students. Um, there's just so many different ways that we're going to be able to utilize that. So, again, it's just going to be another tool for us to be able to, you know, support the buildings um, who are doing that work, but they're doing so much of that manually. this is going to be able to streamline that for us. >> Um, I started talking about the professional development. I think that's something that anyone who works in Troy would say is we um really support our staff through professional through professional development. We are working with um continuously working with moss flower for ELA our quest our OC support uh Eureka mass squared support and then I'm really excited uh in November we had
021a great PD day where we asked our staff to submit proposals to my office and lead sessions for for their colleagues. um really had I don't even know the number I want to say over 60 or so um staff members that presented. It was a really great day. So we decided to do that again for this Friday with our PD days. Um I think Teresa we have over 100 sessions if I remember correctly. So we've got just a lot of great sessions and there's so much great work that's happening in our schools and our classrooms for teachers to be able to be willing to share that with their colleagues has just been really really great. So really excited um you know for that. And then something that again looking forward for next year. Now we
022currently have a really great system to um you know kind of track our curriculum maps. They're in a you know they're in a computer program and it's and it's been really great. But we're again looking to do is kind of enhance that. So we're creating an internal staff web page that's going to be around all curriculum instruction. So all of those curriculum maps that are on an outside source, we're going to be able to bring in to an inside source. And then in addition to that, you know, you have, you know, different curriculum leaders and and things that, you know, they might have a shared Google Drive and there's kind of things in different places. Again, we're trying to bring all that to one page so that, you know, the new teacher can go on
023and say, "Okay, I'm a high school math teacher. I teach algebra. Click, click, click. Well, here's all the resources that I need. So, I think that's again going to be a great thing. Um, and then again, lastly, but not least, uh, regarding this is the the co-eing model in some of our elementary classrooms. And Mr. talked a lot about this, just how impactful it's been. Uh, so district two, improving student engagement. So through improvements in engagement and learning, development of citizenship values and use of behavioral interventions, our violations of our code of conduct will decline um in each school by 5%. There's just so much work that's going on that supports this goal. So I wanted to start with our stronger connections grant. So we currently have um 196 staff mentors through that grant who
024are really mentoring approximately a thousand students. So that's just giving you know thousand students in our district you know just another adult in the building that can support their communities. Um the the um sorry the student mental health grant that we're continuing again just allows us to partner with some outside organizations to support our students. We do have a tier one uh social emotional learning curriculum called Second Step. Uh that's being done in kindergarten through 8th grade. Uh the use of restorative practices, that's something that all of our schools have embraced and are continuing to get professional development on. Uh and again, just the work that that can do to help build relationships and repair relationships when situations happen has just been really great. Again, professional development. We've got professional support around classroom management, also
025trauma sensitive practices in all of our schools. We also have a social emotional learning screener called Sabers. We give that twice a year for um our students in grades K through eight. What that really does is, you know, lets our support staff take a look and say, you know, what are some different needs that our students may have? they can do um you know they can have some small groups they can do lunch bunches they can do all these different things to support students in that way. Uh again data analysis the schools do a lot of work uh looking at student data and then that work can be supported by our social emotional development uh and learning committee when it's needed as well. And then again staffing, you know, the district has really committed to
026supporting our students in this area. And you see there, you know, 15 social workers, 15 school counselors, seven seven school psychologists. Again, none of that would not, you know, that would not be able to happen without the support of of the board. And then our code of conduct committee. We're constantly reviewing every year our code of conduct. Uh this is uh this year we're doing a full comprehensive review and really just making sure that code of conduct is you know meeting our district needs, meeting our students needs um and just taking and looking at those adjustments that may need to happen, making sure that we're including restorative practices in our program. So increasing our graduation rate to high school. So again looking to increase by 3% each year until it exceeds 90%. And then also
027the number of students that are uh receiving our dip form with distinction will increase by 5% each year. So not a vote on here but you know something that whenever you go to the high school and I I talked to Mr. among the team is always looking to, you know, think about ways that their programming and courses are supporting all of our different students. Um, so it really starts with that is, you know, knowing the students, knowing their interests, knowing their needs, and looking at what are different programs that can support all of those needs and the different pathways that students may want to go. Um again that starts with curriculum. Curriculum updates for summer curriculum writing. Our content area curriculum leaders really do a great job of again knowing what is needed in their
028in their content area. Is it possibly a new course? Is it looking at you know the different ways that students can get to their end goals? They do a really great job with that and making recommendations. Um those data platforms I talked about at the elementary and middle school level are also going to benefit the high school. Same type of work that can be done there. Um so we're adding um a diploma seal and then we're also looking to add graduation pathways. So we currently have the seal of bi literacy that we we have for our students that's continuing to grow. for next year, we're looking to add the skill civic readiness and then we're also looking to add it's called the individual arts assessment pathway. So again, it's you know really trying to look
029at all the different students um you know what their interests are and giving them those different pathways. Um we talked about this a lot just our our college level and AP offerings. Again currently we have 27 college courses uh seven AP courses. Next year, I think I'm correct, Josh. We're adding three Hudson Valley courses and then another AP course as well. Um, this year we started Project Lead the Way through RIT, which leads to three college courses. Um, you know, our career discovery exploration internship program is really, really great. I think it's a great opportunity for students to, you know, as they're juniors and seniors start thinking about those different directions they want to go. Uh, I think a lot of students get matched up and are really happy and are like, "Yeah, I could
030see myself doing this." But then there are some that say, "You know what? I thought I wanted to get into nursing, but I can't seem to look at nursing." So, it kind of goes both ways. But that's a great program. Um, and Mr. Monk's done a really great job of extending that and getting more students involved in that program. And then again talking about the different ways that we're supporting students with those partnerships and trade unions. Again, we want to make sure that we have the path for the students who are willing to go to a four-year college, a two-year college, or directly into the workforce. And having those trade unions um has been really great. >> Can for the people that don't know, can you explain Project Lead the Way? That's engineering stuff, right?
031>> Sorry. Yes. Project Lead the Way is through RIT engineering pre-engineering courses and engineering courses. So, um, again, probably should have put our technology wing on here, but the new tech wing that we're going to have is going to really allow us to, you know, expand on a lot of these different options. And again, um, kind of looking at what are those different students, what are their goals and making sure that we're having programs to get the students to reach all of their goals. Um, then our smart scholar program uh, that has, I think it's about 100 total students, 25 in each cohort. they're able to get I think it's up to 31 Hudson Valley credits um and there's four different pathways that students can select um you know in that program. So again, just
032having those different programming options so that we're hoping to, you know, really meet the needs of all of our students. And again, I think when students have those meetings with their guidance, uh, counselor and they're talking about different things, the high school does a really great job of saying, you know what, we really have a we're missing here. Like, can we bring something in? And I think that's kind of where the the new technology waned the uh we have the the barber room coming. That's just another option for students. So there's so many great things going on. >> So improving attendance again percentage of students who are chronically absent. We want to decrease that each building and districtwide by two percentage points each year uh for the next five years. So each school has an
033attendance improvement specialist. Again, the work that they're doing in the schools, I think if you were to ask all the principles, you know, is really been extremely helpful. As you can see here, you know, they're supporting um and building relationship with students and families. Really kind of talking with students and families about, you know, what are the barriers that they're having if they are having attendance issues. Um they're doing home visits, they're transporting students, they're doing a lot of reporting and preparing attendance reports for the building level and the classroom level. We have uh you know a district attendance data tracker that can really help provide regular monitoring of students and and their attendance. So trying to catch them before they become chronically absent. Um and if you don't know chronically absent is if you're
034absent 10% or more of a year. So a typical 180 um you know day school year that would be 18 absences. So clearly we don't want to wait until a student has 12 absences in January to get them. We want to really make sure that we're monitoring that throughout the year. Um you know all the schools you know have a lot of different incentives uh either within the classroom or within buildings and then you know supporting attendance through our MTSS process as well. you know, we're able to do different attendance intervention groups. There's just a lot of work that goes on um regarding attendance. And you know, something I put on here that I think has a a really huge impact on attendance is, you know, the afterchool programs and extracurricular activities we have for
035students. You know, those different things are motivation for students to make sure that they're coming to school. Um, so you know, sometimes we think about, you know, sports and clubs as being outside of the school day, which it is, but really it's an extension to help them, you know, be successful in school and be in school as well. Uh, and then again, I mentioned here just that stronger connections, mentors, there's just so many ways that they're helping and supporting students. Uh, and then our last uh, goal is improve equity and opportunities and outcomes. So you can see there guided by the New York State Board of Green's framework on diversity, equity, inclusion as well as SE's culturally responsive sustaining education framework. We want equity and opportunities and outcomes will be improved for all students throughout
036the district. So I want to put the restorative practices on there. Again, we're just doing continuous continuous professional development and restorative practices and making sure that we have some strategies that are changing and looking at our school culture, engaging families to make sure they really are true partners, um, you know, with the school at home. our district-wide equity committee. Uh we met earlier this year and the schools all gave an update on where they are, you know, what's their equity goal this year, what are the different strategies they're using to help um get get to those goals. the district leadership team and the survey that uh we administer every year to uh families, to students, and to staff. You know, we really take that serious and and look at those answers, look at that information
037and see, you know, how can we make sure that we're improving uh to support our families and support our students. >> Mr. Styles, I got a question on that recently. We we cut that and maybe Julie can answer. We cut that down to one only now, right? We used to do a three and it was overload and people were not answering it because it was too much and we went two and now we just do one. >> We just do one that actually just came out maybe >> week ago. Yeah. Open through beginning of April. >> Thank you. >> Um again, we've talked about this a little bit. Again, the board supported us to add unified sports teams. So, we just had our first season of unified bowling who went undefeated. Fantastic. >> And then
038for the spring, we are going to be in the process of having a unified basketball team as well. >> So, we're really excited about that, giving those opportunities to students. >> And then, you know, our equity improvement cycles that all of our schools are doing. Um, I have those. I'm not going to read all these to you, but I have them on the next three slides. You know, I think when you look at these goals here that all the schools have, you'll really see, you know, the schools, you know, they really take a look at their student data and they really kind of take a look and say, how are the ways or what are the ways that we need to improve so that helps them set their focus and their goal and then, you
039know, what are those supporting strategies that they're using to meet those goals. Um, you know, I think every building in the district is always looking to improve in different ways and equity is one of those ways that we're looking to improve. Um, and really none of that improvement could happen without the support of the board and Mr. Carlo when he's going to give his budget presentation. Um, no, all the numbers are great when we talk about the budget, but it all goes back to supporting all of this work here as well. I'll stop there and thank you for your support. Are there any questions? >> How much autonomy do you have in the code of conduct? Is there New York State guidelines you have to be within follow or is it sort of autonomy for
040the team? >> Uh I mean there are clearly some guidelines that that have to happen but there is definitely some level of autonomy if we're thinking about um specific consequences for actions. There's autonomy. Okay. >> Um but you know when you're talking about you know, can you suspend a student x number of days? There are regulations around that. Um, but schools again, I think do a really good job of kind of balancing, you know, actions have consequences, but those consequences have to be, you know, teaching moments, right? >> Because we're talking about, you know, children. How can they learn from those and hopefully, you know, not make those same mistakes? I think sometimes when um you know people talk about they want to see a decrease in suspensions or a decrease in referrals. Clearly yes
041we want to see a decrease in suspensions but we really want to see a decrease in those behaviors so that students are in school. >> Yeah. Very good. Thank you. >> Um so first I'm so impressed with everything the high school has. I'm excited for mine to get to that age because there's so much going on. But um I wanted to ask because I think it was just a happy accident at school 16. But last year they graduated the most successful class and half of those kids were looped which means they had the same teacher for 2 years and that's been associated with higher test scores and I don't know that it was organized that way but the class that was looped from second to third grade and third to fourth grade they were our
042most successful class ever. So, I you spoke a lot about data and I love that. Um, but I wasn't sure if that was something you were looking at for the elementary school levels for the first two goals. Um, because it it worked really well. >> Yeah, I mean, we have talked about looping. Um, yeah, I can go back to when I was in Carol Hill. We we talked about looping as well, and it does happen uh in pockets here and there in certain schools. Uh, there are a lot of pros to it. There's probably also some cons to it. So um I don't see us saying that moving forward we're going to do full looping but I think we want to continuously look and say you know are if we are tracking that data if
043it is having a great you know a huge benefit then you probably should take a look at it maybe do it a little bit more. >> Yeah and I think in those instances even at Dr. Ford's building it's not everybody looping but he he saw and I think all the principles would say Dr. Ford saw a group that was working well together and decided, you know, asked the teacher and the teacher was on board to to, you know, move on and do that. So, I think all Sabina, do you do any of that? >> Well, we did something similar when we moved around some people and they went up a grade level and had similar students. They were mixed up, but it did happen. Couldn't happen. >> Yeah, >> it does happen in >> good
044question. Nice job. Great job. Great job. >> He did a very good job. >> Yes, Mr. Styles. Very good job. >> I can certainly walk better than shots firing is just regular walk. All right. Uh, well done, Mr. Styles. Um, so I talked about last time we used to combine those two presentations, right? My first uh or our first like budget kind of presentation and then how are we going to do that? Um well because of the um you know the assessment report I gave last time it was because it it took so long for the state to unembar if that's a word. Uh so hopefully next year the his presentation and the one I gave last year. Uh so we're back to now draft one. Mr. Hotelling's back from Houston and we're ready to
045roll. So you your group wasn't the only ones that got stranded because of the storm. Mr. Oh, sorry. You have stuff to use. >> As much fun as >> I did not have as much fun. >> You didn't get a pineapple drink. >> Great state dinner. >> Mr. Styles already read this, but I'm going to read it again. School District will provide a strong educational and social foundation to graduate all students college and career ready. All the stuff that Mr. Styles just talked about, right? That's what we have in mind every single day when we're making those decisions, when we're asking the board to support some of that stuff, right? And certainly when we're developing the budget, we have that in mind. Uh we want to make sure every one of our students can reach
046their full potential and be successful. Uh some of these are repeats. I'm not going to talk through them, but I want them in this presentation. Uh so they can stand with the with the draft one. So that was the highlights from last time. Uh a lot of great things going on. One of the things we're doing uh Friday morning uh Mr. Styles mentioned over 100 presentations from our student or our own faculty and staff. You know, most pre professional development days are are um school districts bringing in outside people to help with things. So really, really impressive in November that our own teachers were doing it and the feedback Mr. didn't really give himself credit, but the feedback that we got from him organizing that in November was so good, which is why we're doing
047it again in March and now we've gotten uh you know that many more presenters. Um but one of the things we're going to do in the morning of that Friday is kind of shout out some great things that are going on and so some of this stuff will certainly be part of that uh presentation. Uh so how do we keep it all going? Um you know all the things that Mr. spouse has talked about all the things that I talked about last time and those are the highlights. How do we keep it going and how do we keep it going in a fiscally responsible way, right? This is the same slide as well. We always are using those two lenses. We want to give students everything they need to be successful, but we also want
048to be good stewards of taxpayers money and make sure we're always mindful of uh of them as we go through this process. There's our tax cap history. uh been really proud of that especially the last 10 years which is what we were highlighting when we were talking about the merger of things uh you know there's you know uh from that zero and 1617 all the way up um I think we say it each time that's like less than 7% increase over that 10year period total 7% increase and that that's uh the definition of fiscally responsible and we're really really proud of that because we're doing that but also doing all the things that Mr. Styles just said, right? So, we're finding ways to make sure we're making use great use of all the money that
049we do have. Uh there's the tax cap information from last time. Uh the thing I want to highlight again is that bottom part. Right now, draft one is going to assume a 0% tax levy increase, which if the wind vote goes through on March 31st, we will keep it zero. If that doesn't go through, that'll have to be a conversation that we have when we get our final budget. Um, you know, what's that tax levy going to be? Last year, we went 175. Our tax cap at that point was 257. We we agreed on 175 after a little back and forth, right? That's that's some of the good conversations we'll have here at the board. I think we went between5 and 199 and then we ended up at 175. uh this year the max the
050tax cap is 2.23 two three and so uh you know we have that same kind of conversation as we get to it again if the bolt goes through as a positive um then we'll we'll keep it zero keep it zero this year five the following year and then four straight zeros like our slider says okay so here's the new slides and we got something different this year if you remember our old slides so these are all the revenues that we come in in every district and we sent this to as part of those community forums for the wine and skill situation almost not almost every district it's state aid and it's the tax levy right so the first two revenue sources uh make up the bulk of what we're talking about here uh and then
051I thought um every other year we just give this column I thought it might make sense uh for the board and the community to see you know give some context to those numbers what what do those numbers even mean so our state is 91.5 million that's aund,000 increase over last year. Uh remember though we also had that 3.6 million come back from the small city outlay the year before. So uh that 100,000 is a little to see because it's really like a little over 3 million increase in total aid. Uh remember not foundation aid which we'll talk about in a moment. Our tax levy will keep the same again if the vote goes through. So that will be no change. It will still be 38.6. pilots and other kinds of uh things. Um it was
0524.375 million. Uh really pretty steady. That's only $100,000 more than last year. Tuitions, refunds, interest, a lot of miscellaneous things there. It's 2.8 million, but again, you're looking at 91.5 and 8 and almost 40 million in tax levies. That'sund uh almost 130 million of our It is 130 million actually with the 25 130 million of um of our total budget just in those first two. So these other ones are are small but still worth putting on there. So 2.8 million which is 200,000 more than uh last year and that's some Boseies refunds that we got. Uh the federal aid is 170,000. That's actually 60,000 less than last year. And then the appropriated fund balance is 4.5 million right now in draft 1, which is nine. Last year was 3.6. It ranges between three and five.
053Some people that have been on the board a long time, you'll remember when it was nine, right? It was 8.9 forever, right? And that's just the number that we put as revenue from our fund balance into into the revenue section of the budget. Um, and you know, um, again, it ranges from 3 to five, but 4.5 is what's in draft one. And then remember last year to close that gap at the end, we used a 1.5 uh reserve usage. Um, and so we put it in there again this year, so it's no different, but it's the same 1.5. So those are all the revenues right there. And again, the bulk of them come from the taxpayers and state aid, which is, you know, really the bulk from state aid, which is why when foundation aid
054is so low, it's so hard for a district like ours. It was just that our Friday report, but I was just at our small cities uh lobby day down in Albany, we go for the day uh and the legislators come in and talk to us. So, um, it wasn't a ton of information yet, but then right when it was over, the one house bills, uh, started getting released. So, uh, we'll have some more information for draft two. Uh, there's our, uh, significant drivers of the expense increases over the years. Right now, what we're what we've decided to do, uh, with the uncertainty in foundation aid and the uncertainty with the vote, um, is just keep everything the same. We're just maintaining all staff and programs right now. Uh you know already uh but I'll say
055again we meet with every principal and every director and we get um what they think would help their buildings or their departments help students be more successful, right? We make a list. We put them in different tiers. Uh and we've done that already. We started meeting in January uh with all those administrators. Uh but as far as draft one goes, uh none of those things are in there yet, right? And so we'll see. Uh this is probably a year that I think people will be uh I mean they didn't make frivolous requests. They really need those things and want them, but I think uh this might be a year of just maintaining staffing programs might be the way to go. There is one new thing in there and that's the after school program. Mr. Styles
056referenced more than once the stronger connections grant in his uh presentation. It's been a great grant for us. Uh it's allowed, as he said, over a thousand students to get mentored and and that's that's really mentored every week. Uh there's a set number of times they have to meet and minutes that are on there. It's really been a great thing, but it ends this year, right? Really? So, it ends in October. Yeah. So, uh we got to figure out another way to do that. One of the things we paid for out of that stronger connections grant was that great after school programming that we have at the elementary level with all the kids first and the grind time and all those after school sports and that we're doing. So um in talking to people those
057things are still you know super positive and really popular and Mr. Styles is right they're after the school day but sometimes those are the things that are getting kids to come to school and feel connected to school and feel engaged in school. So we've um actually the stronger connections is about a million dollars, right? But you know trimming some of it and so that 600,000 is 600,000 that would have been in Stronger Connections but now is is added for draft. The other one salary increases. So we just uh settled out a few uh well actually every contract uh unit over the last two years but three of them were last year. So those salary increases are now those built-in increases. benefits and insurance. Uh that's going up in every um career in every organization. I
058think uh transportation is a big one. And uh you saw the Friday report last week. We're already put that out. >> Yes, it'll be opening next week. >> The RFP is out for uh company. So that might even uh that a little bit more, right? >> I hope not. >> So he built in that. Now remember the good thing about transportation we have to pay that but uh the aid you get back on transportation is is really great. So it's still that 90% range high 80s 90%. So when you have to spend more on transportation you do end up getting it back next year once you get it out there first. Uh liability insurance increase and some special ed placements. Um you know we were talking about that actually the last couple of days. I
059think part of that is a little bit of a a co remnants. Uh the younger kids, kids coming into kindergarten, coming into prek and and that you know need special ed supports that u unlike that we've ever seen before and that's really where the increase is. So um that's that's really the drivers of the increase. But right now the um the uh budget has all the things that you have that you know we have in the buildings all the staff no you know we're not talking about any layoffs not talking about any real cuts to things uh just um you know making sure we're we're keeping an eye on everything. So there's the first spot draft market. Our current budget is 142 36820. Again, 130 a million of that as taxpayers in need like we
060talked about. Um the revenues are coming in a little bit short 143 583127. Uh the expenditures including all those increases from this page give us 144998434. So, um, you know, deficit is 1415307. Uh, I was going to say in words a very manageable deficit, but I thought it might be important to just have that right on the slide because that's I mean, listen, we don't want to have any deficit, but that's that's going to be an easy deficit. Uh, that's one that we ended in the budget process, the state gives no more money and uh skill vote goes through. So, we're keeping it a 0% tax levy increase and we end up with that, we'll just grab more reserves because we have so much money coming in. If the thing goes through doesn't go through,
061the vote doesn't go through and the state doesn't give us any more money. Uh, then we'll have to talk about what that tax level. So, uh, the way how are we going to cover that deficit? Well, those three things. Uh, and the same thing we've been talking about, right? So, the nutrition plan, we're still doing that. We've been we've done it all year long. There were things that we had to replace, but if we didn't have to, we didn't. Uh, and so we, you know, we were able to save some money this year on, uh, I would say double digit um, positions as people left throughout the year and we didn't have to, uh, replace them. So, that's continuing to happen. Uh, part of the also the 1.4 is we had a dozen or so
062retirements, right, this year, something like that. So um even if we have to replace all 12 of those uh the difference called breakage of someone who's retiring at step you know 25 uh and coming in at step one or two or early step you get that savings from each of those. So that'll cut that down several hundred,000. We'll give you a number for that for draft two. Uh and um you know again the nutrition plan. So then the tax levy, if we said we wanted to go for every 1% we go, it's about 380,000, right? So again, if we're at 1.4 and the vote doesn't go through and we say, "All right, how about if we're talking about 1%, well, it's already, you know, 380 already takes that down to a million dollar, you know."
063So, uh, just just combining these things and then, uh, oh, didn't mean to do that. Uh and then again the reserve usage we have we have money uh in those reserves um that we can grab if we need to grab it to close that gap. And so that that you know that is how we'll that's why our very manageable deficit. It's it might seem like a lot. I think for the WO school district that would be a lot. That's that's one that we can we can take care of. Um, so, uh, we'll we'll still be advocating. Uh, so you'll see in this slide here. Uh, so we're waiting for that vote. Again, we're less than 3 weeks away. It's really two paths forward. uh if that vote goes down somehow um you know at our
064next budget meeting we'll have to decide how much tax levy how much reserve usage and then we'll we'll figure it out once we hit draft two and and put in the retirements and get the real number that will be short still at that point we'll continue our advocacy uh continue to monitor the state budget process so the budget one house budget bills are out so uh there's an executive budget comes out in January that's the one we're going by right have both the Senate, the Assembly have put their bills out. Both of those groups, so we haven't reviewed the whole thing yet, but the main foundation a piece has been out there. It's easy to see that. Uh we'll be reading that stuff in the next, you know, this week and next and get it
065ready for draft two. But both the Senate and Assembly from the state have made that 1% 2%, right? We talked about that a little bit when we were talking about the executive budget. I think she put it as one on purpose so that they could do that. But they did both do it. So, and there were some other things. They they added some extra money. We didn't really talk about that yet. I don't know if you saw it yet, but they gave a little more um weight to ENLs and a little more weight to homeless and a little more weight to other poverty issues. So, uh sometimes that helps us and sometimes it doesn't. Depends on how they calculate the formula. But we'll look at all that. But the 1% the 2% is in both
066the Senate and the Senate. So, You know, it doesn't mean it's going to be in the final, but at least it means that they're going to be fighting for the same thing we want. So, another whole percent is 640, something like that, right? So, 640,000, right? That 1% goes to two, that that's already under 800,000, right? So, again, that's why I'm saying it's manageable. I think we're going to be in a good good space uh as far as the final one goes. So, we'll do all that uh and and you know, calculate the retirements in and any other changes that happen to come out in. Sometimes there's a little bit of tweaking here and there uh and we'll get you a better number on draft two on the 25th which will have a a a
067smaller deficit at that time. Uh and then uh we'll be geez only be one week away. I think Mary cannot wait for that day. Uh last thing on there uh and some of you that have been on the board for a while will know what we're talking about for the others. I'll explain a little bit now and then we'll have a full slide on it next time if you say it's okay. So we think it's also time to start another capital reserve. So remember what a capital reserve is or I'll tell you if you don't know. Um when you do a capital project and we're at the end of our big one right with the tech wing that Mr. Styles mentioned if you caught by it and it's amazing every day I think it's more
068and more gets done. Um there's a there's a um local share that we always take care of. Now we take care of it sometimes with a transfer to capital or with a capital reserve. So capital reserve reserve is like a savings account uh that the board would establish uh and then at the end of the year if we have a million dollars left over at the end of the year where we we we underbudgeted we could put that in the capital reserve. Right? So you give it a maximum uh when you do the official resolution on the capital reserve. Uh the last time we did it for our big project it was 4.6 I mean right 4.5 >> the reserve itself. >> Yeah it was five reserve was five $5 million right so $5 million
069at that point you get about a $50 million project which is where we were right. Um, and so the other great thing about the vote at the wisest level situation that we don't talk about enough anymore is our building a ratio was to 98%. And if we put $5 billion in now at that number $2 million in the reserve is a hundred million project. Million But we think it's time to we think it's time to do that, right? And so again, I'll give you a little more detail next time. You can tell me. Okay. And and that will be that goes part of the actual May vote, right? >> That's a separate resolution. >> Separate resolution that again, it doesn't cost the taxpayers anything. It's just establishing a savings account that will cover the local
070share in a future capital project at 98% building a ratio. If this vote goes through and that 98% lasts for 10 years, you don't have to have the projects done in 10 years. You have to have the projects voted on, right? So, we would anticipate with the board support that we would do one almost immediately >> and then few years down the road and another few years. So, I I think we probably could get three in three major capital projects uh for I mean I don't even want to say yes for free. I mean 300 million. That's not what we were talking about today. $300 million for all our buildings including the Garner Dickson building. Make them all as state-of-the-art as that tech wing is going up right now. Every one of our buildings could
071be that for me free to the taxpayers, right? And that's it's really insane. So that capital surve will help us do that, right? So uh we'll get more information on that next time. I'm seeing not so that go ahead >> and I don't think Mr. Styles ended with that slide. So I'll end with that slide that's around. >> Thank you very much. >> Great job. >> You said in the highlights PSU is no longer designated receiverhip school. Does that have an impact on funding that we would have gotten as receiverhip schools? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you get a few hundred,000 every year for receipts for school. We don't get that every good reason. >> We'll be okay. It's better than the designation. Yes. Because we succeeded. >> Yeah. Okay. >> In the federal aid
072Medicaid cuts, are those for specific programs or >> No, it's really been uh a longer term trend in our Medicaid reimbursement. So, um, Medicaid in schools is complicated. Um, we I've had conversations with, uh, this is Fitzgerald and, uh, Nicole Gavin who does our submissions and the Boseies who helps us with them. Um, you know, if you don't get a script back or a parent doesn't sign off, you don't get any reimbursement. Um, so it's really not, you know, a cash cow, if you will. It's a pretty low number. Um, but we work all the time to try to get those sign offs and those scripts and have them timely for the Medicaid reimbursements. It just we've gotten less and less in terms of reimbursements. And the state takes 50% of our reimbursement as well.
073Um, that reduction is more than just that though. Medicaid reimbursement for student services has gone down. We also um had what were called qualified school construction bonds um about uh 12 or 13 years ago. Um those are coming to an end and there was a federal subsidy as part of that which paid our interest share on those bonds. So that's coming to an end. It kind of like weans itself down. Uh this is the last year of the bond of the bond reimbursement from the feds. So that's also kind of part of that as well. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you so much. chapter motion on the floor for approval of minutes from February 25th, 2026. Discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Superintendent recommendation human resources staff matters unclassified and classified under unclassified
074motion on the floor for consent agenda items 1 through 11. Second >> discussion all those in favor. >> Opposed under classified motion on the floor for consent agenda items 1 through 7. >> Second >> discussion. All those in favor? opposed. Under superintendent recommendations, programs motion on the floor for consent agenda items one and two. Second discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Under superintendent recommendations, business finance motion on the floor for consent agenda items one and two. >> Discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Under board resolutions, motion on the floor for consent agenda items 1 through three. Discussion. All those in favor. >> Opposed. District announcements. All future board of ed meetings will be held here at 6 p.m. On March 25th, we will have our Troy High principal presentation and our draft two
075of our budget discussions. On April 15th, we will have our budget discussion draft three if needed or we will adopt the budget. On April 21st, we will have our Troy Community School principal presentation or adopt a budget if necessary. >> All right. So, for our Troy Triumphs this week, uh school 14 um celebrate students dedication to attendance. We are hosting a farewell to winter attendance p party policy. Students with one or fewer absences or tardies will enjoy a festive session of cookies, hot cocoa, and crafts. We've also launched a schoolwide March Madness competition where classes go headto-head to achieve the most days with 100% attendance. With a pizza party on the line, these incentives are fostering a vibrant sense of school spirit and keeping our students motivated to show up and succeed every day. School
07618's Sabrina Durage was featured today as our uh WNYT top teacher. Her segment aired today. Um it's available on News Channel 13's website and I believe we have it here as well that we could send around. Um Troy Middle School hosted Pete the Cat author Eric Litwin for our seventh graders last week. It was a great presentation that emphasized writing literacy and entrepreneurship. Coming up on Friday, as discussed, we are hosting a district professional development day. Our staff are leading more than 100 sessions for their colleagues on a wide range of topics, and our widening school staff and teachers are also participating. Several boys and girls basketball players received Colonial Council honors following the conclusion of the section 2 tournament. From the girls team, freshman Amaya Harris was named Colonial Council MVP. Kiana Tieran was
077named a first team all-star and Addie Harkin, Maya Magnetto, and Gabby Hansen all earned honorable mentions. Nice job, ladies. On the boys side, seniors Jordan Hood and Kain Bian were named first team allstars and Judacious Jius Green Zeno. >> Your royal brothers. >> Yeah, the royal brothers all earned honorable mentions as well. Anything else for David? Sure. >> School 16 won at regionals and is going to state. >> Yes. So honestly the mind high school had a team and school 16 had a team that both sides going to states. Yes. I guess >> that'll be your Friday morning. >> Very nice. >> And I think I saw didn't our high school football coach get coach of the year for the division. >> Oh donor. >> Very nice. >> Awesome. >> Yeah, that's true. >> Why?
078just >> I saw I saw it on the news. >> I just saw somebody posted it on Facebook. >> Very cool. Very nice. >> All right. Motion on the floor to adjourn our meeting. All those in favor? >> Have a great evening everyone. Thank you.