001Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. We're going to start Good evening. Um, hope everyone had a good day off yesterday. I know. Appreciate it. Um, exciting things coming up. We're in full swing for winter sports. Five weeks, I think, until we start playoff. So, I know everyone's very excited about that. Um, I know that people have been talking about um being able to not have gym class so that they can go to a study hall. Everyone's very happy about that and appreciating that extra time to study. So, I say thank you for that. And that's all I have tonight. >> Anybody else? All right. Budget overview. All right. Good evening everyone. Thank you to the board of education to our faculty, parents and community members watching and in attendance. So I'm very pleased to be here tonight
002to walk through our budget development process along with the sparks and go through a lot about our budget development, how we get to eventually the final recommendation to the board and then eventually to the adoption of the budget from the community. Uh so a little bit about our process to kind of walk through. So as we begin a development for the 2627 school budget, I appreciate the opportunity to work alongside all of you in this process. Our budget is more than just a financial plan. This is a reflection of our educational priorities, our values, and of our commitment to every student that we serve here at Taco. This evening, we're going to highlight the key factors that are that will shape our proposed budget, the challenges and opportunities before us, and how we will be
003aligning our resources to support student success while maintaining a strong fiscal responsibility to our school community. So when we talk about our budgeting process, we're really talking about our students. Budget represents our programs, the support, the learning environment for students that they experience each and every day. Every dollar is a deliberate investment in academic learning, student support for a safe and engaging school environment. Make sure that all of our students have everything they need to succeed. Through our deliberate budgeting process, we align resources with student needs so that all students have opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. This approach ensures that we are preparing students not only for success in school, but for college and career readiness for life and beyond the classroom. As we go through the budget, our commitment to our students and
004school community, it serves as a road mapap and the guide of how we're going to create the opportunity, remove barriers, and support achievement at every for every student across our district through K through 12. Every decision in our budgeting process reflected in the budget is tied to student outcomes. Whether that means access to strong instruction, curriculum, meaningful supports, or experiences that enrich the students education that will help each student to reach their full potential. These are all things that will be included in our budget that this year we making recommendations for the upcoming budget. So the budgeting process is one that's continuous. Uh right now we're in the middle of our 25 26 school year. for administering last year's budget, making sure that our students have everything that they need. We work in collaboration with
005all of our teachers, administrators, making sure that we get their recommendations of how we can continue to improve and to meet the changing needs of our students each and every year. We continuously review programs, anticipate needs, and make thoughtful decisions along the way. working with our administrators and teachers, hearing from our school community. It's critical in helping us to understand the impact and the resources that we're going to need to allocate to make sure that our student programs and services are topnotch. At the same time, as I mentioned before, we're managing the current year's budget, ensuring that we meet all of our obligations while planning ahead. By working together, we can ensure that our resources are used effectively to support educational opportunities for all of our students in the broader school community. So, right now,
006we're in the middle of our strategic plan development. This is the process we started in in early October, building off of the previous strategic plan that expired the end of the 2425 school year. We're right now we're in a gathering of information stage. We actually had over 300 surveys that responded, which is excellent in terms of the survey world, and that's a great response for us. And we're we've got three town hall meetings that are scheduled in the near future in addition to two full uh staff meetings to to get further input from our teachers and support staff in the upcoming days. So, this process is ongoing and I put this here as part of our budget development because as we're building our budget, our strategic plan is running parallel. So, as we build this
007next year's budget, we're looking at the input from all of our parents, discussions with administrators, the voice and priorities of our community, and that's going to shape and inform some of our recommendations uh as we move forward for next year. Looking at priorities, looking at additional academic programs, look at different educational opportunities that are going to support our student needs. all those things that our community is voicing, our administrators are looking at closely and this is as a new superintendent, a year of evaluation along with building leadership that's in the district. So looking at all our programs, looking at our areas that we're performing very well, looking at our data and then hoping to make the informed decisions as we make upcoming budget recommendations. These will all be part of the budgeting process. Uh this
008is the initial stages where we are now kind of going through the road map and group collaborative process meetings uh looking at the data that's provided by New York State. We'll continue to refine our budget and look at the programs that are going to be most impactful support needed the upcoming year. So, as we said, we're going to continue to look for improvement opportunities for growth and expansion. uh looking at all of our current programs and the ones moving forward and all of our ensure that all of our offerings are aligned with the community priorities as defined by our developing strategic plan, the input that our strategic team is going to be making forward and also the recommendations and collaboration with the board of education. So the the timelines for our strategic plan is to
009be fully adopted at the end of June, but that information and data and the priorities are coming together now and that's going to help stake and drive our current budget and the programs and some of the needs for next year as we look for further alignment. the offerings and the opportunities for our students. So, taking all these needs and and the high educational responsilities that we have and providing the answer to the best for our students, we also have to create a very fiscally responsible balanced budget. Uh, Miss Sparks is going to go into a little bit more about how we actually balance the budget, looking at all our priorities. But each year, the district develops a budget that balances student needs, safety, and preparation for the future year and years. At the same time,
010we're mindful of the responsibility for our school community or taxpayers to make sure every dollar is carefully spent in the short term and long term. As we look for the district to have financial stability now and into the future, we're going to continue to prioritize expanding educational opportunities, service, and programs for our students. However, given the unique nature of a small school district, we must be especially thoughtful and intentional in our budgeting process to make sure that we're allocating resources in an effective and meaningful manner. looking at programs, efficiencies, strategic decisions that we can maximize impact while maintaining the fiscal responsibility for our school community. Turn it over to Miss Sparks who's going to talk about some of the revenues and expenditures uh and how that kind of the budgeting process goes from on a
011yearly basis. We look at some of the financial pieces, how we can drive a balanced budget. >> Thank you, Mr. Roberts. Good evening board of education community. By law, school districts in New York State must adopt a balanced budget. A balanced budget is required to ensure financial responsibility, legal compliance, long-term fiscal stability while continuing to effectively support student learning. Balanced budget prevents the district from creating ongoing structural deficits and helps maintain stability in future years. The development of a balanced budget is especially important given that the district's revenue is largely derived from two highly regulated sources, real property taxes and state aid, both of which are governed by New York State, making careful planning and conservative budgeting essential. Here you can see an illustration of how our budget comes together by matching revenues on the
012left with expenses on the right. A balanced budget means that our anticipated revenues and our people are planned spending and both sides must be carefully developed and monitored. On the revenue side, we identify the funding sources available to support our district and the needs of our students. Our major revenue categories are property taxes, state aid, non-resident tuition, other local revenues, and appropriated fund balance. On the expense side, we allocate those resources to cover programs, services, and operations that directly support student learning and wellbeing. Some of our major categories of expenses are salaries and benefits, curriculum and instruction, facilities maintenance and operation, transportation and debt service. The district is always looking for ways to manage long-term cost savings in these areas. The equal sign represents balance in our budget showing that resources are carefully aligned to
013meet student learning and support needs. Here you will see our current year's revenues and expenses which serve as the starting point for building next year's budget. When we roll over the budget, we begin with what is already in place so we have a clear accurate baseline for planning. Starting with our current school year, the current 2526 school year, allows us to understand what it costs to operate our schools today and support our students right now. From there, through our collaborative process, gathering input and feedback from a board of education, administrators, teachers, and staff, we evaluate student needs and future priorities to ensure the budget continues to support student learning and success. On an annual basis, we evaluate each and every budget line to ensure we're getting the most positive impact possible to support our students
014programs and effective operations of our school district. Our organized our budget is organized into three main areas to ensure all aspects of our school are covered. So, there's a lot of different ways to [music] break down the budget. This is um organized into three main parts. New York State requires us to present in these three parts, which is our administrative program and capital. What you're looking at here is our current 202526 [music] budget broken down into these three categories. The administrative portion of it is the cost for running the district. It includes central office operations, board of education costs, leadership, administrative staff, and some other um uh insuranceances that are not health insurance, not benefits. The program is for funding instruction, student services, extracurricular activities, and programs that directly support student learning. And then we
015have the capital portion. The capital portion of our budget are our resources for buildings and grounds maintenance and equipment that create safe, functional and engaging learning environments. As illustrated in this slide, you will see how um our expenses are allocated across these three course these three components. Our largest portion at 73.4% 4% is the program portion of the budget, which is typical for a school district and directly supports the instruction to student learning. The capital portion makes up 14% of our current 2526 budget, funding the facilities, equipment, and maintenance that creates safe and engaging learning environments. And the administrative portion of our budget is accounts for 12.5%. Our three-part budget, the administrative program and capital can be broken down even further into categories like general support, instruction, transportation, employee benefits, best service, and inter transfers.
016And then within these categories, we can dive even deeper as shown on this chart to see more defined expenditure allocations including salaries, benefits, materials, supplies, service, and the other items shown. As we analyze our current budget, you can see that salaries and benefits make up the largest portion of our budget, totaling 72.18%. Reflecting our investment in the staff who work to support students every day. The remaining expenses are contractual services at 6%, OC's programs 5.6%, transportation 5.4%, debt service 7.2, tuition. That's tuition we pay for students that we send out of district is 1.5%. Materials, [music] supplies, and software are at 1.2%. Textbooks um and equipment together are less than 1% and transfers to other fund are at 0.2%. As we begin developing next year's budget, we're starting to receive some of the assumptions we
017need to put together the 202627 budget. add some of these are healthcare costs. We've already received some of those increases, transportation costs and some pension um expenditure projections. Additional information will continue to be gathered throughout budget development throughout the budget development period to ensure our planning reflects accurate costs to meet the needs of our students. Over the next few slides, we'll review the key revenue considerations that determine the funding that can be allocated to support student service student services and programs. As we review these factors, we focus on understanding uncertainties and changes so we can continue to provide outstanding educational opportunities and services for our Tucka students and school community. This pie chart shows the breakdown of our revenue sources for the current budget. Real property taxes make up the largest portion at 74.2% which
018is typical for school districts in our region of the state. Our next largest revenue source is state aid at 13% which helps support which helps supplement local resources followed by appropriated funds at 4% and non-resident tuition which is money we receive in for students at tuition into our district at 3.2%. Our largest source of revenue is real property taxes which is regulated by the state for the tax cap formula that limits the amount we can levy. This leads us to ask what drives the changes to our tax cap while each year is unique and the cap is influenced by several factors. The tax based growth factor is assigned annually by New York state and reflects the changes in our taxable property base. It's brick and mortar growth in our school district boundaries. The inflation factor
019is based on the state's calculation. So that's where the 2% comes into play. Um it's very common that we hear the 2% tax cap. So 2% is only one factor in the formula that New York State provides. And um where that comes into play is we can increase our levy the lower of 2% or the rate of inflation. So right now the um December data is not out yet. It should be out mid January. So we keep checking for it, but as of December it was 2.63%. So we're allowed to use the lower of 2% for the rate of of inflation. So it's looking like it's going to be 2%. For the tax cap. Um another impact to the tax cap formula are pilots which are payments in lie of taxes and these vary annually
020based on the terms outlined in the agreements with the town of Eastchester and then the capital exclusion. This is a critical element that varies yeartoyear and it's calculated based on our debt for capital projects net of state aid. So we are allowed to increase our levy for any capital projects that we have debt for less the state aid. So again, Coco continues to maintain high quality programs and services while remaining at or under the allowable cap. Here we illustrate the fluctuations and variations for our school district from year to year in the state provided factors for the tax cap formula. So while the inflation factor is the same for all school districts and municipalities that have a June 30th fiscal year end the tax base growth factor is unique to each district and municipality. So
021the formula allows us to increase the levy for the tax based growth factor and the rate of inflation. So you can have one district with a tax based growth factor of 1.0045 which is what ours is and another could be at 1.0 or 1.03. So it really it varies by district and comes out by the state. Um okay. So that just shows the volatility and the fluctuations of the um components of the formula. State aid is our other primary revenue source providing essential funding for instruction, student services, and operational needs. Over the past four years, as shown on this chart, we've seen increases to our state aid with the most current year, the one we're in now, 202526, seeing a 14.48% increase driven in part by increases to foundation aid and increases to expense driven
022aids such as OC's aid and transportation aid. When we look at the expense driven aid, while there is an increase in our aid, that does mean that there is offending increase to our expenditures for these um categories. So hosties and transportation. So while we are getting more aid for them, that means we're spending more on the expense side. The 2023 24 school year was the final year in the governor's three-year plan to fully phase in foundation aid. So if you look at the 2324 school year, um you will see we have a large growth and there's also a large growth in the 22 23 school year of 206.7% from the previous year. Those were two years of the governor's plan to fully phase in foundation aid and now we are fully phased in. So actually
023today or around 2 o'clock the governor released the executive budget. Um so the bud her budget proposal goes through a multi-step legislative pro process where both the assembly and the state review amend and negotiate the numbers before a final budget is passed on April 1st of 2026. So we are going to be reviewing and analyzing the numbers that came out this afternoon. And while these preliminary numbers give us an initial picture, final funding can change and we will continue to monitor updates closely as part of our budget development to ensure our plans align with the aid we expect to receive for the upcoming year. In addition to property taxes and state aid, the district relies on several other revenue sources to support the overall budget for the current 202526 school year. The budget of these
024over other revenue sources totals a little over $5.3 million. These other revenues come from a variety of sources that help fun programs and services for our students. Some of the key revenue sources include payments in taxes um which are determined through agreements in town, nonpropy taxes, um a portion from the county, that's a portion of the sales tax that comes to us from the county of Westchester. um student fees, tuition from other districts, federal Medicaid assistance. Um interest earnings is continuously monitored by tracking the interest rates and adjusting investment strategies within legal guidelines as this can be a highly highly volatile revenue source. Um rates can fluctuate pretty quickly, although they they're still pretty good. Um other categories are district um rental of district properties and refunds. related to prior year expenditures from Boseies or
025other um sources and those all contribute to the budget. Collectively, these re revenues supplement our pime primary funding sources and we analyze trends and monitor all revenue streams throughout the year. Appropriated fund balance and reserves while not typically needed may be used at the end of the process to balance the budget when appropriate. When crafting our annual budget, we have to look closely at a number of budget variables. Contractual obligations. Um, we currently have two of our three bargaining units in negotiations. We did settle our largest unit, which is the teachers unit. Um, and the outcomes of these agreements will directly affect salaries and benefit costs. Also, staffing needs can shift depending on student programs, particularly for students with disabilities or their IEPs. Also, student services and programs transportation costs can fluctuate for both IND
026district and out of district students and program placement changes can drive additional expenditures. We also have to manage the budget variable of the operations of our facilities. Utility cost both consumption and pricing can rise unexpectedly unexpectedly and facilities operation and maintenance must be maintained to ensure a safe and functional learning environment. Lastly, what we consider financial risk factors um would be some reductions in state or federal aid, taxi, legal settlements um are all variables that impact our budget. So taken these taken together these variables illustrate why strategic planning and ongoing collaboration with staff and administration are critical in maintaining fiscal responsibility while supporting our students. One of the budget variables I mentioned in the last slide um and one of a significant financial uncertainty we face each year is managing tax refunds. So while we
027we maintain a reserve to cover refunds from prior years as shown in this historical chart this remains a high-risisk area and without consistent replenishment the reserve could quickly be depleted leaving the district exposed to unexpected claims tax claims are inherently unpredictable and can place a substantial financial burden on school districts especially small ones like ours and this chart ustates how refunds can fluctuate dramatically from year to year with no reliable ways to forecast these costs. This variability highlights the importance of proactive planning to ensure the district is prepared for potential impacts on our budget. As of January 15, 2026, the district has already issued $69,747 in taxiary settlements. And this serves as a reminder the fin these claims and impose and highlight the importance of prudent planning to ensure fiscal stability. So at this point
028last year I believe we were at about $27,000 in refunds. So it has gone up um and the year isn't over. So it's something we do keep in touch with the town and our legal council to monitor them so we have an idea when they're coming down the pipe, but typically that's only within a few months of settlement. So this is a very volatile area. We do have the reserve. The reserve will only cover refunds for previous years. So if there are any refunds related to the current school years, those come directly out of our revenue. >> Now I'll turn it back over to Mr. Roberts. >> Thank you very much, so Sparks did a very nice job of talking a lot of the technical components of our budget and how we try get to
029a balanced budget. So, one of my goals in working with administration is really focusing on telling the story of our budget. And really, it becomes an investment in our students. Um, it's not just about the dollars and cents. It's really looking at programs and the services that we're going to be able to provide and what does that look like for our students for next year. And then subsequently having a multi-pronged approach where you're looking two, three years out for budgeting and courses. That's where our strategic plan will be of assistance in that as well. But our budgeting process is very thoughtful investment in the priorities of our school and district and how we translate ideas into meaningful programs and educational opportunities for our students. These investments are designed to support students academic, social, and emotional
030needs as they progress on the pathway to becoming college and career ready beginning in prek all the way through grade 12. Our budget process is guided first by student need and then the educational priorities uh that we carefully look at will balance to ensure that we're operating effectively and efficiently. Uh which is particularly important when you navigating in a small school district looking at efficiencies other opportunities partnership. We have to look at all those aspects of how do we do more with less than many times. Ultimately, every budget decision is grounded in supporting student success and reflects the shared commitments to doing what is best for our students and everything that we do here at Tuco within all areas in our school district. We must continue to strive for excellence in education and that our
031Tuo students have access to the highest levels of educational opportunities to reach their greatest potential. Uh the next slide highlights a little bit about the process and the date. So here we are on January 20th with a very basic overview of the budgeting process, some information about our previous budgets of 2526 and the moving forward piece. Uh next presentation will be on February 2nd as we go through the process. There'll be more and more detailed recommendations. board will be updated along the way and then presentations to the community of some of the the recommendations that the administrative team in collaboration with the teachers and from some of our stakeholder information and how we're making the plan and the story for next year. So this is information that'll be forthcoming. I may request it more. There's
032quite a gap from March 9th to April 20th and request an additional meeting. That's also one of the times where a lot of additional information comes out from the state level. Governor's budget is due on April 1st and there's a lot of collaboration discussion negotiations that happens sparks spoke about with the house, the senate and the governor kind of coming to what types of resources allocated. So that's a great time to get some final information before making final recommendations to the board and then eventually moving forward 20th presentation for the board to adopt. additional presentation on the 27th budget hearing on the 4th and then eventually going out to our voters to pass our budget and successfully pass that as well as the trustee election on welcome any questions from the board about the budget
033process or anything that we presented on to go into further conversation. with enrollment coming down. >> Most likely it will. We're going to dive deep into the preliminary numbers that the governor put out. um and really get into the formulas um and see how enrollment is >> um there um can I so um right now we're forecast to receive 1% which is the minimum which is about $39,000 um last year we did that um a big bump I think it was about 14 this year the current year about 14% um because of changes to um some of the components of the formula however the declining enrollment catching up with us but we really need to get into there's so many components to the formula and really get into our numbers the taco numbers and number
034one make sure everything they have all their formulas right and that um to really understand Did it start last year? >> No. Last year, I think we started off at about 11 and went to 14. >> So, um you know, it's still there's still back and forth. Um there's still a lot. Um there's going to be a lot of discussion between legislature and and um I actually have a breakfast with the legislators coming up um soon. So, with all the business officials in the region, so we'll be able to advocate Yeah. >> Something another lesson or I hope it's an additional one that really had a job years ago. So, it's built from the budget, but I believe we had it two years ago was the first or three years ago was the first time
035student I know there's a need for seniors to go on making men and women in finance this day and age. We try to get as many students again. students want to go back system. student that went a couple years ago, two years ago was able to drive himself like maybe Foreign I'd like to see bunch of So to get something like that, [music] right? just quickly, >> excuse me. Um I just want to make sure we take a very strong look at implementing AI into the curriculum also for professional development for teachers uh for curriculum development. I just think times are changing so quickly and this quite frankly has given me some time to actually put some research into and I'm looking to do it for myself and that's been very helpful. I think certainly
036change the way do things that they could react to students uh in real time which is extremely important especially for those who uh have needs uh and also implementing it into the curriculum as classes or it into the classroom uh so that students really learn how to use it ethically. I think that's extremely important and quite frankly these students are going to be working with AI regardless. starting early. >> Yeah, I think that was financial literacy in 2028, but it's basic that And they're making this mandatory. Very interesting. Basic needs some kind of investing their own money, you know, looking at anything, right? And they just realize, you know, whatever it is, kids don't think at a young age to break it down to lower level. Incorporate skills tools. We try to raise that students
037[music] to try to up >> for special educ. Especially, you know, years ago. >> I know. Um, one of the things our finance and audit committee will look at is the um for general education. >> Yeah. >> Um, special education. Yeah, special education is a little different, but I do know our director, um, we receive packets all the time and they're reviewed and evaluated. You might be able to speak to that. I know. I know. We saw come through a couple weeks ago. >> That's what just take a special education student in here. But I would like to see. >> So, we're still we're still analyzing the rollover budget, rolling everything over. Um, we don't have all the information that we need to finish it. Um, especially with our negotiations, but we're still analyzing it.
038It's hard to say at this point. >> It's still very preliminary. We just received the it's easy to put the um budget expenses together. The revenue is where we have the fil. We just got some of that data today. So, we're still looking at that. So, not not we don't have any concerns. We've been receiving Medicaid funding. Like that's a strong revenue for our district. Some districts opt not to even participate in the Medicaid program and we do. Um and it's it's a good revenue stream and and even our federal grants. We're not hearing anything, at least right now, of concern about them. But again, we're always listening, talking, talking with our legislators and, you know, analyzing everything daily, minute by minute. So remember radio. You know, so it's a struggle. Sorry. When we talk
039about the transportation, we are part of that and I do know that is one of their buses. >> So we have we um that is the one that provides our transportation to the Boseies program. Um, and at the time when we were transporting a student, at the time that student was going, I don't think any of the other districts were sending at the time. So, we were basically paying for the bus at that time. So, it's really a coordination with the four districts and also when they're sending their is it, you know, do we have an afternoon program and, you know, they all have morning. So, it's a real coordination and we could end up with two or five on the bus, but um I am reaching out to some neighboring districts because I think
040some of our neighbors maybe don't use bus and are using different transportation that maybe we can figure out. So, it's it's still kind of exploratory and seeing what options are out there, but it's something that we can consider and see how it can work with the budget. responsible transportation >> they're part of our best so they're part of our best and we were sharing with them to go to ais program a number of years ago but I don't know um you know it would really depend on who they're sending next year but I know um each fester I don't think was sending a lot but I've heard they have a lot of kids going so I think they might be using a different bus company for that so Okay. >> Yeah. It's it's something that
041we you know works out the routing for us and I do like the we're only going to have to be able to do this and it really should recently went into other schools and then still went to college that and then it kind of expensive the kids want Right. So I really would like to see you know cosmetologology or something is or they're like I think they're going to go for this is not something that's So just how interested and there there is also a push um with the legislators to advocate that it be aed at a higher rate um because right now the way those programs are aided there's on some of it so that would help if that were to go through um but that's kind of like a wait and see for
042the I would like to see relationships with colleges and university visit schools to be able to form relationships to be able to tell them to school that is very do I do think it is an area school. I would like to see some money, you know, not necessarily bring in the kids, but just funding the trip to the summer. I do want to say one thing to the community though and I used to say this all the time when I was on the executive board is for those of you out the community. If you are interested in a program starting being funded being more active now is the time to reach out. Now is the time to write to superintendent and say these are the ways that I think often people would know putting anything
043in changing things like little tweaks here and there but now is the time hears comments where they're really looking to see what we have what we can find in the same way that the board just sat here and said here are some things that we would like to Um this is the time for the community to also come forward and say here are the things that we would like to see. Certainly one of the ways you can do that is through the strategic plan process. Um that's like overall you know where we would like the district to go but specific things for next year. Now time >> can I say one more thing? Um, and also we're working on some quick like budget essentials videos that we'll post on our website that will get deep
044into, you know, we say a lot of terms like tax levy, tax cap, tax rate, like there's a lot of, you know, what our revenues are that people can maybe watch on their own times to really understand more. So, we're hoping in the next two weeks to have those out on our website. Um, another thing to look forward to. Yeah. Well, we do have a glossery up there on our website like of you know terms but I think really having like watching a video listening to it quick like information like that's how we get our information out. watch quick clips of stuff and just okay this is the difference between all the tax rate tax cap and what are our revenues what are our expenses and just quick little videos then um you know I'd
045like to present them to our finance and audit committee before we put them on the website and then if there's any other ones that are needed to just put that information out there people on what they're This stuff is, you know, really boring. It's boring for me and this is my whole career. You know, it's it's a lot to absorb and understand for most people and I really appreciate yourbody elsebody. Any other comments on anything else in general? At this point, I'm going to move on to the consent agenda. Motion to Approve the consent agenda result of the board of education school district approval election inspector rates result that the board of education approves two head inspectors at $18 per hour and instructors at $17 per hour from the Westchester County maintain list of election
046inspectors for the May 19th, 2026 annual budget public approve public transportation result of the board of education of Dakota Free School District in compliance with New York State Education Law. 3635 and after having determined the most efficient and reasonable means of transportation hereby approves the expenditure of district funds as is necessary to facilitate public transportation to and from home and through the school resident child legally attends for the 2526 school year. resolution to apply to reimbursement for the public transportation between September, 2025 and June 30, 26 upon appropriate submission of documentation and to the purchase of passes for the remainder of the 2025. >> Yeah, one thing it's not really about this. I bring it up, but um students have been doing a phenomenal job with winning regional and national championship games and going to
047Syracuse and state championship games. Um I think we have to also consider those expenses not large, they do add up all Approved transfers that the board of education of Taco University School District approve the attract budget transfer. The budget transfers can be seen public audience supply contracts result that as a result of the bid performed by MNR emergency resources with bids received on December 15th, 2025 for natural gas supply rates for both firm and interruptible service for the Toko Unif School District. The board of education of Union Preschool District makes the following award of the contract of Earth. Interruptible account vendor NRG Business Marketing LLC terminal February 126 through April 30th 26 months rate 5892 firm accounts vendor business marketing LLC term February 126 through April 30th 26 3 months supply rate do I have
048a motion and finance committee members of the board for education of the Union School District. the following individuals to serve and Lisa Drake. Just want to say thank you to everyone who volunteered. We really appreciate In favor, approve personnel recommendations. Result that the board of education and technical unit free school district approve personnel recommendations A through D. A sorry through E. Do I have a motion? Any discussion? All in favor? And final board funds money throughout the year at least four usually four girls and boys go to states when you think you know girls soccer boys are huge numbers and when you get it last minute $4,000ion We can move monies from other lines in the budget into the championship fund. Um we're we're looking we're going to be creating a line in the budget
049that's just for the championship. Yes. And um we've been tracking the cost for the past few years to kind of gauge what would be a baseline for that and working with Andy on that. So that's it. It would be in the general fund budget. It's not like a separate fund. It's going to be part of the whole the athletics budget and transportation for whatever the transportation part. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. This will be like a transparent line for um championships and doesn't get used then we could do it. >> Yes. or it would fall to just fund but we hope it gets used right >> but it's not >> no it's not a separate >> fun so um about the budget process I think a lot of ideas to the board, different things to
050look into. One of the things that I'm committed to is really making data decisions. So looking at really where we have the need data support that whether it's remedial teacher, whether it's enrichment, do we have the student need that exists or do we have the data that supports those decisions and then allowing that to be kind of what drives directions that we are going to go in. One of actually talked about the reading. I was just doing a little bit of investigation with data correlated with the state assessment scores and patterns and see where students are really succeeding well where we have some gaps. We have been targeted students that we want to provide distance and then comparing that with eventually schedules. Are they getting the service that they need to get the growth measures
051that we want to see those are different on the horizon doing those and also with building leadership being a part of that conversation excited about the strategic plan. So, so last plug for the community. I think we have our upcoming first uh town hall session with the community this Thursday evening 6:30 here at the library. So, please you haven't signed up. There's an RSVP link and we encourage families to sign up for those events. We have one on this Thursday, a following one on February 3rd, which is Zoom option. And then finally, a Saturday event on the 7th to give a wide variety of times and options for the community to come in and talk about uh some of their thoughts and feelings about things we do well, areas we need to improve in uh
052and sometimes the overall direction of our district. And just to that, I want to kind of highlight the brought up bringing forward ideas and conversations. And I was part of a really passionate group of of cattle parents. There's about 13. We have about two different meetings this year. We talked about acceleration and some things that were in existence at codle things that they found that were helping their children and also some goals moving forward I think collaborative discussion about having a budget impact which is other things we can do that's infused in the curriculum looking at flexibility of scheduling and use of the wind period more utilization of locking activities and then future conversations may have additional resources that need to be allocated whether it's talented or other options Those are the type of collaborative
053conversations we need to have all the time and then not wait for a specific time and have those discussions and get the planning things can be accomplished very seamlessly and other ones when there is a financial year one year three and also watch. So just want to encourage that as well and more conversations with our administrators bringing a lot of these topics of interest and need these programs whether it's technology whether it's business programming and where is it fit within our system uh that we're making sure that every student is building upon the capacity of every level elementary middle and high school to have those college process So now we're going to discuss all Thank you very much everybody. We will close the meeting out during our session. Have a good night. Thank you. >>
054Hi everybody. Hey, I'm uh David Morgan.