001and we're going to start our meeting a whole minute early because we are just like that. Um, we're going to move to 1.2. There's a flag behind you. Um, pledge algiance to the flag >> of the United States of America to the republic for it stands nationy andice for all. All right. Uh, everyone um is not here. Kathy here is not able to join us and Mark is not here today but everyone else is here so that's good. Uh, for the good of the order, did anyone get to the elementary school play? >> There's a dream. >> You did? >> No. No. >> It was fantastic. The kids did an amazing job. The teacher did an amazing job. All choreographed. The costumes were amazing. It was It was really excellent. So, >> great singing. There's
002a lot of talented kids coming up. Very exciting to see. >> Um, excuse me. It's May 7 16th. Uh, at Proctor there's the was this? >> No, just me if there's um there's the musical theater event where there are a bunch six nominees from district and um oh there was the trout release Mr. Matson's last trout release for his retirement but Mr. in the row. Thank you very much. Is going to carry on that tradition. And congratulations also the middle school Mford team um had that video of manufacturing mission. So that's um yes. So and teacher appreciation week, please send our gratitude to the staff and teachers who are involved in making this district as awesome as it is. Thank you all. else. >> Uh I'll kind of piggy back up with what Rachel sent
003uh teacher appreciation. I I was happy to see that the uh school board's newspaper. They highlighted um a brief documentary that New York State United Teachers produced called One and Five. And I highly uh highly recommend uh the watch. It's brief but very powerful. Uh it focuses on the fact that one in five children in this state despite the wealth that we have grow up in bottle and the effect that that has on their ability to learn and this is something that uh we are not immune from here in this district. Uh and another thing that they touch on in that in that document is the lengths that teachers go to on their own, their own time, their own pockets, their own dedication to do what is necessary for children. Because when children do not
004have the food, the clothing, the warmth, literal and figurative that they need, they cannot run. it is it is was just not something that they're able to do. And so it's something I I commend to your to your watching. It's it's it's available on YouTube. Um it it'll just reiterate a point that was made in that which is uh is relevant to what we do on a daily basis not only here in this community but statewide means that poverty problems that we have are largely a policy choice. We choose to have the poly the poverty problems that we have in this state in this nation. Um, and one way of combating that is through community schools, uh, which is also touched on in the documentary, and it's something that I know that we as a
005district do our best, um, through the community shop that we have and through other services that we provide. Uh, so it's called one in five. There's also a website number one, the word in the number, and then the number five, the new york.org. uh a lot of very good resources there and we urge you to take a look. So with that, uh, thank you very much to the teachers in ALS here that do what they do on a daily basis because without them, we would not be here and our our children would not be in the situation good situation, good care that they received here. Um, all right. With that, move the opportunity for the public to be here. If anyone in the public would like to come forward. All right. Um, well, the reason
006we're all here is the budget hearing doesn't get any more exciting than this. >> Okay. You can stand. >> All right, you can stand up. >> However you would like, Colleen. >> All right. >> This looks very familiar. >> So, >> get excited. >> Many of you may have seen this multiple times. Um, and also if you go to our website, you will see information that is on it. Also, for community members, I did send out a five minute video. It's actually four minutes and 37 seconds, I think. Um, it it took me about an hour and a half to actually record, just so you do know that. uh and it really is just very high level overview of the budget. Tonight we are going to go through the same presentation that we went through
007three times already. We are not going to go in depth. Um so we won't go over every single minutia component of it that we've done unless you have further questions that you'd want us to go through. Other than that, we're just going to really hit the highlights um to go through it. Also, uh committee members now have this and as do we. It's on your tables. This is the budget newsletter and budget hearing that has to go out. Our regulatory aspect of this has to be hit. Why are we here on a Tuesday? There are certain amount of days by the time that the we have to have our budget hearing next to our budget vote. If we had it on Monday, we would not have been in compliance. If we have it on Tuesday,
008we are in compliance. So that is the reason that we're having it on a Tuesday and not a Monday. This has to go out after our budget hearing. It has gone to our post. It is at our mailing house. It should be there tomorrow. this should be in our community's hands by hopefully Thursday or Friday depending on the time. So, kind of just want to clarify a couple things as we're going through it. So, with that being said, as we always do and as we have throughout this time frame, we talk about our vision and mission statement. These are the things that guide us and I think it's important because you know, a lot of hard work going into the vision statement. If Horville Central School District is an engaging and supportive community of learning
009where everyone can participate and thrive for the highest potential, our budget has to reflect that vision, making sure that everyone can thrive. And the same with our mission. It talks about a strong foundation of knowledge and experiences in a safe and supportive environment to prepare them to be productive members of a global society and lifelong values. These are again things that are you'll see within our budget and things that we prioritize as we made this budget goal happen. Again, I'm not going to go over each of the board goals, but they are here. Now, the overview of the budget highlights itself. We do not exceed the prop property tax limit. It's 50% plus one to be able to pass it. It preserves all of our current programs and services for students. So, we're not seeing
010a shift in those programs. instruction and current alignment. So we maintain all programming and services of staffing. We are losing one staff member through attrition. That staff member is going to be shift that budgetary component is being shifted to be able to offer a self-contained special education classroom. We are currently looking at our enrollment numbers for the elementary school to make the best decision of our class sizes. Currently our elementary school, I believe, is at 65 students for kindergarten, which is the lowest that we've had in a very long time. Yeah. Typically we go up to 75. My daughter's class who is graduating now was the last class. They were 62 when she was in kindergarten. Um so there sometimes is that bubble class. This might be a bubble class which then we can lessen
011a section and then increase the section. So increasing the grade four section between two or grade five to 22. We could be able to lessen those sections. So nothing set in stone but we are looking at all options at this point. But enrollment is an an important component of um going in and adding that self-contained classroom. As I said already, it does twofold. One, it's a cost-saving measure because those are high-cost students going out coming in. We still have to upfront that cost without getting paid back. So that does allow us to create a program. But second off, it allows us to create a program here in Boryville. And I would put money down on it anytime that our staff can do a better job anywhere else. We we we will meet the needs and
012exceed the needs of our students. Those students won't go to another district and be mascots have that mascot. They will be here. They will be our mascot and that and our blacks. Yes, they will be our blackirds just like the rest of us. So, I think this is an important step for our district and I'm really excited that we're able to do it and it does two things. It's cost savings. It's it it reaches a budgetary goal and it meets the needs of our students. It continues with our technology upgrades and also our operation and maintenance that we've been doing with deferred maintenance. It continues with those objectives. So, we're not losing any of that with this budget. Uh transportation, we are continuing with our future running plan. Um as you know, created bus garage.
013We are moving forward with the state initiative buying our first electric bus. There might be shifts coming down the line with EV mandates. Even that said, with the shift to EV mandates, we're right to be able to still have a bus. We went through our planning. We have roots that can meet our planning. We have the infrastructure to do this and we set up the reserve. We've well thought and well planned this as a district. So, it it makes sense to move forward with that thought process. >> So, question about that. If we were to switch to buying like one of the diesel buses, >> would that increase the expenses portion of our budget at this point? because we're using the reserve funds to pay for the EV or is it a wash? Like >>
014it'd be a wash because the EV bus is so expensive. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> Yep. >> Y >> and we have submitted for a voucher reimbursement on this. We may see it in two years. So we'll get some of that additional funding back through the voucher program through New York State bus incentive program. >> So we've submitted that. It takes a while. So we should get that money back as well. >> And also still There's still the deadline the state still currently has in place that we have to buy electric buses. There might be inspection components going along with these buses or so there's still a lot out there that we don't know. So the safest bet until we know what legislation chase is to continue with the plan that we put in place
015four years ago. So this is the fruition of that. Any questions on that? As we as we discussed multiple times um there are primary cost drivers that are out of our control. debt services is is 25.78% of our budget. Again, as I've discussed, that's an expense based aid. So, we are seeing revenue back on that, but it still is a part of our budget expenses. Benefits and health insurance, as you know, has went up increase. Even though we are the least amount of increase around the area, we still got a 14.75% increase. And contractual salaries, TRS, PRS. Any questions? Colleen. >> So again, as um Mr. McCree mentioned, we're not going to go into great details on the hierarchy of this. We This breaks it down into categories um and shows you where those categorical
016um changes and those increase and decreases in the budget overall. As we mentioned, debt service is one of those highest. That's the um cost of financing that we take on once we finalize a project, which finances our capital project. Other than that, your biggest in increases are typically your salaries um and your benefits and then along with that as we not noted is your employee benefits. So you can see that um increases and decreases on this side on this slide which overall gives us an overall increase of a little over 2 million or 6%. This just goes further down into again some of those breakdowns showing you the salaries and equipment um more of the detailed line um and the values of those again increase of over 2 million or 6%. Shows you this shows
017your expenses at a glance. When you look at it at a um picture view of it, you can see where your biggest slice of the pie is. It's in as we are a serviced driven organization. Um, our biggest slice of the pie is our supervision and instruction. And then the next one that's tied with that obviously is your employee benefits. And other than that is your operating cost, which is your general support, um, inner fund transfers and your debt service. We are required by New York State to break down our budget into three parts, which is your administrative, your program, and your capital. This again provides you what those differences are between last year and this year. You will also see more of a detailed of those three-part. We have our budget documents that we're
018required to post on our website. Those are all in there and you can see more of the categories which fall into those three-part programs if you wanted to look further. Our revenues, so revenues, as we know, um are the most what we're struggling most districts are. We rely heavily on our state aid and our tax levy. Our tax levy is about 63% of our budget which primarily finances most of our um costs for the district. Outside of that is our state and federal aid which is about 30% and then small minor revenues such as pilots which are payment in lie of taxes. I know that gets um some people confused on what that term is. Those are agreements that are typically taken on with IDA. It doesn't it's not a tax per se but it's
019a um it's a it's an agreement in lie of taxes which they get a set rate primarily over a certain number of years. So other than that everything else is small. We used um for this year because our expenses did um exceed our revenues. We used some of our fund balance and reserves to balance the budget which we used less than last year which got a little less. We use less than 600,000, which is great because we don't want to keep relying on our fund balance and reserves to balance the budget. We want to be strategic because we're looking for that long-term stability moving forward. As we look at our 26 27 revenues again as we talked about um our tax levy which is about 4.18% increase this year which again is under the allowable
020um property tax cap is our biggest source of um income along with the state and federal aid for our state and federal aid. You'll often hear about um foundation aid. Foundation aid for us was about $79,000. When you think of one person salary, foundation aid is not going to cover that. So there's a supplemental revenues that we have to u utilize to balance our budget. >> So I know some people will say, well the state doesn't currently have a budget, >> right? So how can the district approve their budget? We have regulatory. We have to approve our budget. We have to go through it. Now, um if there were changes to the state aid, which there's not going to be. I want to be very clear. Yes, there are. It would be very minimal and
021typically what we would end up seeing is maybe a $10,000 change in our foundation aid if that's possible. But typically we don't. The way that school districts are structured in New York State is it's really taxpayer dependent. The more wealth you have in your community, the more the more that you're expected to put into your community. That really is the way that does it. The less wealth you have, the more foundation, the more support you get. uh the fact that we're a high wealth community that means that we are really taxpayer funded and taxpayer independent. So that's when we're looking at these programs and these needs and this is what I talked about in the the video is that we have to really make these these are hard decisions and we understand the impact but
022if we don't look at maximizing our tax ratios we will create negative impacts in the long run for our students and for our community. Um so it really does have a negative impact years down the road. So tax levity, we're at 4.18% which is the maximum allowable account. We do 2% tax cap. Our foundation aid, as Colleen said, is 79,184, 1.33% increase. It might go up to 2%. You never know, but I doubt that highly. State and federal aid overall, you did we did see an increase. The reason that we're seeing that increase is because our debt services. Like that's really important to understand this. Our debt services went up. That's expense based aid. New York State has tried to get rid of expense based aids in the past. People lobby for that to not
023go away because it's a way for school districts to be able to spend money to get money back and be able to control and continue our long-term plans for financial and facility maint. So this is how we ended up balancing the budget. This is the revenue considerations. Col's total revenues went through it. >> Yep. This is very simple breakdown. So when you look at your expenses, our expenses are 36.6. Our revenues are at 35.5. Obviously, we don't have enough revenues to support our expenses. So where do we go? We have to bridge that gap, I call it. So, we're looking to use um money out of our ERS reserve and then the balance of that out of our fund balance, which then gives us what we call a balanced budget. So, your expenses match your
024revenues. Not going to go into how the property tax cap is developed. This is our tax caps and levy increases that we've utilized over the past few years. And this is equalization rates. So, I just want to clarify these are tentative equalization rates. We do not have control of this. So what we set as a school district then gets equalized out by basic ratios and everything else and tax roles and everything else that's out there. County can explain to it and that is what your tax value is. Sometimes it may be less than what a school district is levy or sometimes it will be more. I will use the example from oh my gosh 10 years ago now or 11 years ago. Those community members who lived in the Gilderland area Well, specifically the Weatherfield
025area, but I bought a house and didn't realize that happened. Um, what ended up happening was during the equalization rate in the summer, we got our tax bills and our tax bills went up immensely, almost by a Yeah, it was it. >> Yeah, it was a lot of money that we didn't anticipate. It was actually $6,000 more budgeted that we didn't even have budgeted already. So, you are seeing a large increase. So, that was the equalization. School districts have no control of that. But so we try to work with our municipalities to understand how that works. So did I miss anything on it? >> No, she's just going to explain that the village of New Stellen is actually what Bill is right called tax rules. >> So this is this is not what the current
026equal this is representative last year because the equalization rates at this time were not published in August when we set our tax levy. you will see the newest um assessments because assessments all of your values is based on those assessments, right? So that's a piece of the pie that's happening. Those are based on what the current assessments are as of 25 26. They're not out at they usually just they probably just came out May 1st. Those are based on last year. So they will be updated. This just gives you an idea of what it may look like. >> Just want to make sure everybody knows that. >> But again, districts don't have control of this. We have control of the levy, right? >> But there's no other control. >> We've talked about what's on the
027ballot. So, we have the approval. We have the purchase of the school buses. Um, we also have the approval of the 2026 27 library and the school board of um education vacancies. So, full details are on our website. We also have budget packets in all of the buildings. Next thing is our May 19th school budget book from 2:30 to 9:00 in the middle school. >> Okay, any questions? >> Thank you, coach. >> You're welcome. >> And there'll be a big sale for cash. >> The Borisville Teachers Association does a fundraiser each year um to give back to the school community. I believe they raised a large amount of funds for this and also they have really good food. Like their bakes are really good. Um there's a couple teachers who really go above me and
028I'm not going to I'm not going to call them out but it's pretty amazing some of the things they make. So yes, there will be a big sale. >> Thank you for that. And we'll talk a little bit more about the vacancies when we get to the dates number. uh student number. >> Okay, so a pretty good amount this night. Um for spring sports, they're doing very well. We haven't quite entered the sectional season yet, so I can't confirm that yet, but they have been doing very good. Uh last Wednesday, we had the NHS induction ceremony and there were 35 inductees. Last Friday was also decision day, so all the seniors had their final decisions of where they're going to college or if they're working or can be gap year. Um, everyone wore like if
029they're going to college, they wear their merch. Some made jeans and they painted them and there were also parents a parent committee set up like a station for us to make pennants of what college we're going to and they actually just come about down the hallway. Um, and then there was also a map for us to put pins of where we're going. And this week, uh, AP started. >> So, there's lots of emotions going around. >> And last Friday, >> May was the ceremony, right? >> I think it was Thursday. >> Thursday. Okay. Last Thursday was a nationalization ceremony where 15 people became US citizens and um there was community speaker and a student speaker and select choir singing there for the national anthem and the seventh graders and 11th graders were invited and I
030also was able to go since I had a study hall and it was very nice to see that opportunity and to watch them. Um, I know like there was a lot of students that ended up going and it was a very cool opportunity to just watch the process of that happening. And me and Ellie also sent out a valid victory class survey where we asked if uh all high school and they think it's valuable to have validator and solidator and a valid victory class. The majority of the people that responded said yes. And for some preferences of how to change that is they definitely think it should be more stricter of the requirements and some people said to either weigh APs or add more like APs that they need in honors and there was also
031some ideas of like adding uh character or being a sports to it. >> Some also said that that can even be like a separate uh recognition instead of just being included into it. And yeah, >> Thank you. Thank you guys for doing work beyond doing surveys. >> Yes, very I very much appreciate that. >> We we all do. >> Um do you want to do with >> No, let's do it. >> So much. >> So, first and foremost, you know, having students on the board is important. This is Michaela's second to last time. So, it would be great. And also, for those who don't know, Michaela's sister was actually the first student board member that we had. So, there's a history there. Also, I am meeting with the two candidates have been push um sent
032to me for the next student board members and they I'm meeting with them this week. So, I will have my recommendations to the board and hopefully the announcement for the June meeting for Horan this week. So very exciting and that will give time for them to meet with Michaela and Ellie and then to go through the next conversation. So get a little student to student training. I do want to quickly talk about the naturalization ceremony. Um I want to thank Mrs. Cardillo Donloo. They had to apply to be able to do this through the the League of Women Voters who helped support that. We were the first time applying and first time being able to do it. Um it was an amazing ceremony for me. I've been an educ educator for a very long time
033and I have never been able to sit on the stage and watch 15 people become citizens and just to watch and feel the energy and say it was probably one of the most rewarding things that I've ever done. It was it was great. Um the honorable maid Dagustinino was the federal court judge was here. Um she praised our district. She praised our students. Um the League of Women Voters said that there are school districts that don't allow students to be involved, do not have students there. Um honor the honor also mentioned that having students was such an important thing and then afterwards she stated that we need to host it again. >> So so we our school did such an amazing job. >> So hats off to our school students. We had roughly 250 300
034students there. They did not speak a right. And I will tell you, I only heard positive things coming from kids saying it was a really new experience this year. So, it just highlights our vision and mission completely. Um, I want to talk about really quick what Matt said. Um, Diana Stout, former board member, also is taking over the New Scotland Food Pantry, has reached out to me recently. So, the fact that you said that is super important because we're going to be working to make sure that we get more communication about options for food insecurities within our community. Um the New Scotland food pantry is one of those pantries that you can also go by appointment or go in can go at any point in time. So it's kind of like our community station that
035we have here in school too. So we'll be getting that information out. But there is a need in our community. We know there is a need. So we're going to continue to support that. Our prek update currently, this is important. Everybody got one of these. Um we have spots for 18 students. We currently have eight applicants. So, it closes on May 31st. So, I know I'm sure we'll get more people coming in, but currently we're at eight for that. So, just going to fill up and kind of talk about that quick. >> It's a lottery. >> It is. It has to be a lottery unless we get 18 people. >> If there's more than >> Yes. Yeah. Otherwise, it's a lottery. Um, staff appreciation week is this week. I did send out something on our
036website. I did talk about it with our staff a little bit. You know, we should only go down to one week to appreciate everybody with that works in a school system. It is something that people do. Yes, it is a job, but it is also a passion to support our students. Everybody who works in a school district makes a positive impact on our children or on our school community. And we aren't vorville schools without our staff. So, there's so many people that are there for that. But also, we're not Vorville School District without our Voresville community. And our PTA, I want to thank them. They are having a circus for all of us. They but they gave us all today noses. I got a lot of pictures from staff members today wearing these. They were
037hilarious. So, thank you to the PTA for all their generous support and acknowledgement as well because it does mean a lot. We don't do it for the thanks, but when you do get a thanks, it goes a long way. So, thank you to the PTA. Uh, last thing I want to talk about is the capital project update because again, it's always on. Um, the big thing is is that our elementary school is coming along. If you went down, you starting to really see some of the the things that are happening. The windows are going in. So, the first window is actually in the building today. I had to prove what we were going to use, but by the end of the week, you'll see windows. Our cafeteria, there's probably 25 people in the cafeteria working
038constantly at this point. The joistices to the roof and the wall that will finish out the main office and the new hallway are coming in. They're actually coming in tomorrow. So, we should have a roof and be able to finish that off. By the end of May, we will have access into the main office area. So, everything is moving towards plan. We did get a little good news is that and we're checking it out. The stairwell stringers then the stairwell that we're doing may be salvageable. Um, that's really important because it costs a ton of money and it's very expensive. So, when they pull them out and they can salvage some of the stringers, um, that will also offset some of the costs that we're looking at for the well the masonery and the water
039man. So, there are things that are still there, but a little positive news hopefully that that will continue to move forward. Any questions on the C project? >> I had one. >> Yep. Um, with the Kanas T- wall and baseball starting, I was seeing lots of people traversing the parking lot next to construction equipment. Are we still using that bridge that people >> the bridge >> the covered bridge cannot be used? So, they have to go through the the main bridge and then go up the sidewalk and around the building. Yep. the the reddish like nightcl the newer one >> that's the one they're supposed to be using but there's it should be or they should be going that right is what you're saying >> so I shouldn't be making a right come across that
040bridge >> are they going into through the construction >> I I saw I was driving by last night and I saw people coming off the bridge and then crossing behind what looked like one of those mobile like scaffolding things that had its lights on. So, I was >> I'll talk to >> maybe that thing was going to back up and there were people in the >> I'll talk to the construction crew and make sure that it's clear and safe. >> Yeah. Or at least like roped off so people have a path. >> Yes. >> I'll make sure that we address that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Appreciate that. >> Anything else? Thank you. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> Right. With that, we move to the minutes of the regular meeting. They are not currently posted.
041Um she did post them. >> Um I just opened this. Oh, now they're just show up. Okay. I was looking at six. >> Can I make a motion to table approval of the minutes until our next meeting so we can >> move to save them for next month? >> We can even move consensus agenda. >> Sure. Um, can can you note that we're moving RG's moving it? Anyone want a second to >> second? >> All in favor? >> We are moving to approve minutes next for last. Um, with that, we have a discussion of the board's um activities calendar. We talked about this last month. It's very exciting. We have an annual activities calendar that we we had talked about during the retreat and we put together. We never formalized but it includes a lot
042of the activities that we have. Um, and there were there were things that were of interest to all of us that we wanted to learn about and thought could be presentations either within committees or within the regular board meeting or within audit committee where we sometimes have like educational opportunities. Um, so are there any things in here that people want you going forward or discuss? >> I think it looks good. I think it's very comprehensive. >> Yeah. Um >> well, >> thank you very much for >> putting that together. >> Well, thank you. >> Extraordinarily comprehensive. Keep us busy. >> Yeah. All right. We'll keep rolling it forward and um we'll talk about what can be presented each month at different points. >> Can I make a recommendation to do it at the board training
043summer retreat? >> Yeah, the retreat >> because not just being here but being at the retreat is the part of fun. Um, all right. With that, we can move to Are we good? So, we'll Yep. All right. Uh, financial reports and claim auditor reports. We can put those two items together for discussion or anyone like to. >> I'll move them. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> Um, we have personnel items on the agenda. We have two different administrators who are um potentially should be vote uh joining this district. >> Um we have uh we also have two school counselors. Brian Whitley, I'm so sorry I not punctuating my fingers. um a Spanish teacher um a Irish a school counselor Brian Ridley another school counselor counselor Daniel apologist means and then we
044have two administrators Kathleen Goodwin as the middle school principal and uh Joshua Wagner as the um athletic director the dean and the director of the school education and health um as well as numerous other appointments. So would anyone like to discuss or move all of it? >> Uh second. I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> congratulations um some swag. >> Yep. So, as members now of Morrisville administrative team, please come on up and grab your new your Blackbird swag. Kathleen, I know you have some, but Josh, we know you don't. So, welcome to the team. Congratulations. >> Figure you need one of you. Thank you so much. Congratulations. >> Congratulations, guys. Thank you very much. We appreciate you. Um, all right. We have CSC recommendations and CO's substitute teacher which we can put
045in the consensus agenda mind. Would anyone like to discuss or move? >> I'll move them. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you. >> Okay. We have the Cole Summer Writers Institute um with President Oba as the adviser for July 6th through the 10th. Anyone interested in discussing anything? >> Move it. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Um and then there's the board's bill football agreement discussion. >> I'll move it. I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> um and then we have ironically or one plea on teacher staff appreciation. We have the MOA memorandum of agreement for the BTA collective bargaining which would provide a contract for the next three years with teacher association. Would anyone like to discuss or move >> to say congratulations and I will move?
046Yeah. And I'll I'll second and say thanks to Frank and the admin team and and the teachers uh union that worked so hard on getting this agreement done timely and I think without without a lot of fanfare just everybody just worked diligently to hammer out the items that needed to be in there. So thank you students again. >> Would anyone like to vote? Yes. All in favor? I >> All right. Congratulations and thank you. We appreciate Um, with that we move to old business. Item 6.1. The audit committee did not meet. >> No, we're done meeting for the year. So, we've had our required meetings. I think we're >> okay. We're done. We'll look forward to >> Unless there's an issue that comes up. >> Perhaps >> we were thinking Sorry. >> I feel like
047I'm going to give you the bad news. We would like to at least have a half an hour of your time to talk about reserve plans and everything else in June. Just Okay. You wouldn't mind just make sure closing out the year understanding where our close out is anticipating the expectations. >> Yes. Sorry. >> Sounds good. >> Even though we disregard, >> we'll be meeting in June. >> This is exciting. We get another audit committee meeting. >> All right. >> Yeah. We just thought it might be good to kind of close up the year. >> That's right. Sounds good. Looking forward to it. um with that we have a curriculum committee that met um in April way back when it was sometimes cold and sometimes >> um we discussed some course updates. So some of
048the new um course that we had are personal finance is now state ed says we need to have all schools need to have some course on personal finance. Um, with the change to the diploma that's coming up, there'll be an individual arts pathway. Um, which is nice to offer students different pathways, so we're not pushing all students to take the same courses. Um, we discussed again, of course, a new that's coming up that we are the pilot for um the semiconductor technology and integrated circuit design. >> Very exciting. Um, I have a child who's very excited for it. Um and that'll be primarily project based learning which is fantastic. Um some of the things that have changed um is the career career uh career financial management. Um for grade six they're going to be working
049on digital fluency and some of the other things that are going to be offered I see are fashion design and global foods. Um, we went over the use of, um, I Ready, which is a software program for middle school students. Um, and next year they're going to be returning to Star Math. Um, and then expanding STAR into the high school as well. Um, and then the last thing, oh no, we went over our, um, ESSA accountability determinations, and that is, >> are your students succeeding? >> Yes. Every student succeeds act, which essentially just means we go over all of the numbers. Um, how our students have performed and we just break it down into how many students have performed at this level, what the growth has been. Um, and then last, we talked about the
050accelerated math. Um, that would be an option for students currently in grade six to enter into grade seven. Um, and It looks like part of that will depend on the toe max test that is coming up. Yes. Um which is one week from today. Got the sixth graders too and our next meeting is May 26th. Would you um talked about the idea of we've I talked about talking about state testing and how that is used. I know in policy it talks about I think opportunity for intervention and um but not it's not the only thing that's used for interventions. >> No. >> Um they like how long the tests take for students like how long is a third grader sitting and taking a test. They're not timed. So um that I cannot answer. I have
051never administered a state test with third graders. Um, so I can't speak to the timeline. Um, I can tell you with any standardized test, the best that we can do as teachers is look at those numbers that we get back and see, are there gaps somewhere? You know, should the students moving on from my class to the next class? Should I let that next teacher know, hey, this class is a little bit weak in this? We might want to step it up here. Or um, they're doing super well in this area, so maybe we can throw in something else to focus on. Um but >> but when do you get like they just took tests? >> Can I go over this if you would like? So we we utilize our three through eight testing to
052look at our curriculum maps and assess them when we get them over the summer. We did something called tapo reports and we've talked about this at our at our curriculum committee meetings and actually at the lab curriculum committee Karen talked about our interventions that we utilize for our students ensuring that we have students move from a level two to a level three on a state exam. These are not students that are getting ready 504. These are just students who were not prep were not deemed as proficient on those state exams. We give AIS services or more services to those students to help them get up to what their expectations are and then we utilize that as a as a benchmark. Okay, those what those those state exams are used for. The Tableau reports are very
053indepth. They go through it. Any teacher who knows Tableau or utilizes those melong presentation on Tableau reports on its own. Karen Conway loves them. >> It does. Yes, she likes the chat. >> She does love them and they're very in-depth. All of our department chairs have them. I see teachers shake their head, they know about to have low reports. We talk about this all the time. We utilize them at our grade level meetings. We when we get the information in the summer, we give it to our teachers early. They go over with the curriculum maps. They make sure if there are gap and weakness that we're seeing, they're seeing how they teach it in the classroom and then how to re-evaluate. It's a tool. It is something you utilize. It's not defined as a use,
054but since we're mandated to give these, we're going to find the capacity to utilize them to benefit our students. Does that help? >> I still have so many questions like do teachers when they get the students scores, do they get the questions and their answers and where they got? >> Yes. And they also align to the standards. So, it's not just about the question, it's about what standard did the student not get or what skill set did the student. >> So, they're getting the questions on the test. I don't know for specifically if they're getting it and I don't know the minutiae of if the question is important. It's the standard that or the skill that's being taught that's the most important test. There might be four questions that ask the same standard of skills.
055>> I still have more questions. >> So I'll give you an example. Um when I taught an IB course, which is upper level high school course, um I did not get the students exam grades back until the middle of July. I would have the uh the grade on the different sections that they took. And so again, I didn't see the exact questions, but I knew on the listening portion how they did. I knew on the writing portion how they did. And again, it was aligned to exactly what the themes were, what IB said we had to teach. and it went from there. It wasn't I'm not sure what other questions you >> but you don't have that if necessarily again. So like if you're teaching fourth grade >> or seventh grade, you don't get the
056results back. The next teacher gets those results. >> The teacher sees where the deficit is for the child that they're getting and then the teacher who had them last year can look at their curriculum to see if there was any gaps or weaknesses in that component that they need to evaluate. This isn't a end all be all. this is what we're going to use as test to fix our programs. This is a tool to say where the students are coming in. If I'm a fifth grader going into sixth grade, my sixth grade teacher can say, "Well, I didn't do well on standard three or xyz." Then they can plan that for for the next year. I think the other thing is let's take away three through eight testing and look at grades 9 through 12.
057Let's look at regions test. Let's use that as the same example. The child has to pass that in order to get credit at the moment, but also they they leave. They move on to algebra to geometry or they move on from earth science to biology. Completely different core subject. Who doesn't follow it? But the teacher who had that child is going to utilize that assessment to see and align their curriculum to make sure it hits the state expectations. And I think the question comes down to is is it a concern with standardized state testing or is it a concern how the district is utilizing that state testing to meet the needs of our students. That's where I think I'd want to have that understanding the curriculum committee to know where we're going where you'd like
058us to go. >> I both I think sometimes get very stressed out by the tests and the fact they happen. I grew up with the Iowa test and the test once it's a weird thing. students are spending some time here on tests. That's me. >> Sorry. So, does the curriculum committee have something that's going to talk about in the name meeting? >> Um, the So, the only thing we had so far was to go over achievement levels looking at our students with disabilities. >> Also, we're going to go over screen time. >> Yes. >> One of the board members asked for us to do that with the curriculum. So, we're going to do an evaluation of instructional components and how we're utilizing screen time grades as well. >> Yes. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Thanks
059for explaining all that to me. Sorry to stretch. >> We're also going to go over optouts as you requested as well. >> Um, facilities >> policy you guys met. >> Good. Um we had our student board members present or Michael >> I don't think just Michaela >> uh gave us feedback from the student survey regarding our victory uh policy in class that's a discussion I continue to have policy committee certainly where happy to take any feedback that anyone opinion has with regard to uh that policy and how to how to view it and which direction you may want to go. Uh we also finished up our discussion of the grading regulation which you'll see on the agenda for this first read. U my understanding is that that was developed through tremendous uh teamwork uh input
060through number of different stakeholders. Uh and uh that's a good thing. Uh and certainly since this is the first read, um we need to take that input. Uh one logistical question that I have, Frank, is we are meeting again meeting tomorrow, our next meeting. Um, so I think if somebody did have feedback to give us between between today and tomorrow, I think that would be unlikely. So I guess the question becomes if we do get feedback between now and the next full board meeting um how we might deal with that feedback uh if it might lead to changes in the balance. >> I have Monday May 18th. >> I I would I would >> be happy with that, but >> I think I have both. Could we do May 18th? That would be great. >>
061On the calendar of the district, it says May 18th. >> Yeah. I don't know. >> We We had some switcher rooms before because we have to reschedu some. >> How about May 18th? >> Let me take a look. May >> it looks like it's May 18th. I have it available. >> So, so let's let's >> That would be really helpful actually. That would be very helpful. Uh, >> I'm good. >> And and so you're you're good. You're good, RG. Okay. So, we'll move that to the 18th. Um, so I will I will not apologize for not getting in touch about what I thought was tomorrow's policy agenda. Instead, I'll thank you for being an overachiever for putting together a policy agenda for the AP. >> There you go. >> Thanks. >> Uh, um, And while
062I've got the floor, um, we've got the second reading for a new animal dissection policy as well as a conditional appointment policy for that feedback on those. So they'd recommend just approved. Um and uh otherwise at the next meeting we anticipate going over that of uh NESBA policy updates that recently came out and uh also have some things in circle. One potentially meeting policy uh which you know time to time picks up some interest question I don't think we currently do have policy correct me if I'm wrong that governs how it is that facilities or or school property are named or commemorated and the question is whether you want to do that and what are your guidelines that you have to work within in order to do that. Uh so that that should that should
063produce an interesting conversation. Uh and then and then finally the other thing that we discussed which is on the agenda this evening is the uh the resolution that we're we're we're going to discuss here this evening. So with that our next meeting is now the 18th of May on the naming policy. It's been on our agenda for quite a while as to whether this is something we want to do. So if the board and I'll say prior policy meeting conversations. We were leading towards not allowing things to be named. Um that creates a whole host of issues about what happens if you don't want to change that, >> right? Um, so if anyone on the board has feedback on whether we should or should not explore adopting a policy on hinges, please >> and and
064the policy could very well, correct me if I'm wrong, policy very well be exactly that, which is that we do not, >> right? >> Um, which we could answer the question one. >> Um, I have multiple drafts of different levels. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I have multiple drafts so you I can share all that too. >> Super sticky topic long. >> Awesome. Thank you. Thank you to all members for all the things you do which you can watch those meetings on YouTube. It's fun. You can even put up on your TV. Lots of fun. Um with that we've moved to 71. There's a NISBO resolution that the district um for members of the New York State School Board Association and they um have an annual meeting in October where each member district can vote
065on the resolution submitted to determine if those will be part of what his lobbies for. and Matt and Barbara, you want to cover this? Um, >> I'll let you start because you drafted. >> Sure. Okay. Um, just checking to see if I had it up. Uh, but draft um, we we put together a resolution which We've seen throughout the budget process uh the effect that the increasing cost of health insurance can have on the budgeting process. And uh so we we uh put together a resolution that urges this vote to use it lobbying efforts to try to positive change uh that would provide some relief for school districts uh in terms of terms of it its ability to pay for for um healthcare coverage. costs. Uh, it does we we chose not to take a
066a specific confine ourselves to a specific um solution so to speak. We we did say that the resolutions have mandated a specific type of legislative regulatory change, but that some ideas that that prompted the resolution might be uh modifying the tax cap so as to accommodate for health insurance costs, which is much like what they do now for uh retirement costs or carveouts. uh when we calculate the tax cap which take into account some changes in uh teacher and employee retirement system costs uh other examples are statewide single parent health care system uh or direct aid from the state or health insurance costs. Um, so in a nutshell, not to take up too much air, that's that's what the that's what the the resolution says. And if it passes, you would uh file that with
067and other school districts if they so choose could join us in this in this effort and uh come October at the annual meeting or vote, we would make our pitch and do our best to have resolution adopted. somewhere. >> Could you read aloud the last paragraph of the rale? >> Sure. It is fundamentally unfair to New York students and contrary to our constitutional obligation to provide a sound basic education. The school boards are forced to diminish quality of educational services nor cover increasing health care health insurance costs. Providing insurance coverage is a moral imperative faced by all districts. Therefore, and this is strongly advocate that the state take steps to ensure that providing employees with quality, affordable health coverage and ensuring students have access to quality education are not being excused. >> Thank you. Um,
068we can make a resolution today, I believe, to move this forward for this resolution and submit it to NESPA for their resolutions that they have on. Is that something that we would like to do at this point? >> So, I would say yes. I think the draft really strikes the right balance of highlighting the problem while at the same time not prescribing the solution. And I think for anyone who's dealt with trying to get legislation done or advocacy, it's it's often an iterative process and you know you might go in with one goal but you're willing to accept less incrementally to try and get something done and then build on it in future years. So, I think that's what we want Miza to do is to kick off the conversation and start talking with the
069legislature and the governor's office about how to solve for this for districts. Um, so I I think we need to get to this bill sooner rather than later so we can start thinking about how they would act on it if um school district recommendation. >> Any other thoughts or comments? Um, so we can have a resolution that we will move this resolution to NISBA and submit it from the district. Um, would anyone like to move that we resolve to move this resolution to NISPA? >> I move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you, Matt, for drafting this. Thank you for working through it. With that more work from policy committee, the first read on policy 4710R, the grading origination um >> so as you know we've done the policy and by the way
070it's already changed from the last policy and I got a request from the building administration to add drop ad components in the structure for drop ad courses that was given to her by the guidance counselors and her team. So I've added that language as well um to it. So really what this does again as we talked about our policy in general our policy from the board is the wide area. This grading regulation is now the guard rails that are put in place, but it doesn't stop the autonomy or expectation of our staff members who have control of the of their grading or their structures. So, it doesn't dictate exactly what grading structures have to be. It gives guidance on those expectations and how they are going to be structured. It did take um items that
071have been kind of sporadically across the district for years. uh some written, some not written, and it's taken all those in for consideration and then codified into practice. And then so our building leadership teams, our faculty meetings, people have had insight on this. Um they've talked about it, they made recommendations. I looked at those recommendations. We talked about them as a board. We put it into a first draft. As we've told our staff already at faculty meetings, the principal did it's a first draft. It doesn't mean that it's set in stone at this moment in time. It can be changed. This is just a discussion phase to get us to a second draft. If we get a second draft and we get an approval in June, that will allow time for some curriculum time or
072teachers to work on their grading to be able to develop processes and policies that adhere to it. Again, I think a lot of it's already done in practice, but there are some small changes. So, doing it in this time frame allows people more time to be able to get to where I'm not going to go in depth into it. We've gone into depth. There's a lot into it. Any questions? >> Yeah. Yep. >> Um, >> and by the way, I will probably not be able to answer those questions, so we have to write them down and get back to you afterward. >> Okay. The question about the prescriptive nature of the final grades. This is the high school of the rumble. Um, where the final grade is 4% of the local final and 24% each
073quarter. How does that work? When a teacher wants the final to be more, >> they don't they can't. That's what has >> Well, currently right now retentance exams are 4%. But yet cumulative final can be 90%. So that's an inequitable component of so this is something that the staff developed a cumulative final what really should happen with best practices. Why are we going to test a child with something they learned in September and they've already been tested and they worked on it the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter, they might have already skipped it. you're going to retest something for the whole year and if that child gets a 65 on that that's going to be 50% of their grade. >> No, not necessarily. But what about if it's if it's an art
074project and they've been working on it through and and then they present it. So, how does that work for like an art project or if there's a thesis type of if it's a course with a thesis that you work on through the course here? So, Uh I I do understand your >> you're typically three quarters, >> right? But you can be graded on your progress, but then how you lay out the final product, you know, if there's a senior seminar type of course or something. I I just I don't know how that works and maybe that's what teachers all want but it it it's >> Can you just clarify the question so we can bring it back to the policy committee and to the teams to better >> how does it work for final projects
075and final you know papers and is this the 4% what is going to happen across the board for all courses and so it's two questions I This practice matched the regions policy that was put in place. >> Yeah, I remember when the regions policy got put in place and that one got squirly because it was agreed on as 4% and then we were told that was as a conversation they were being told that regents were not going to be able to be part of grades. This is like more than 10 years ago. They were going to be eliminated as part of grades entirely and that was coming. So make sure you you're ready. And then they got put in at 8% and it had been agreed four. It was a whole thing. It was kind
076of funny. But um so the 4% is still like why are they part of the grades at all? I don't know how that works. Um >> would you like the cumulative to be more weighted on the students final average? >> I or less? >> I wouldn't want to prescribe it. I personally don't have any pedagogical >> right. That's the people who did write this >> did make I get that but >> okay I'll find out the answer that policy. >> Yeah. And then um there were a couple typos but that's not but um the is the word parent portal going to be used going forward or we always using the lovely parent portal? >> Okay. Um and then It said it had some comments about teachers reaching out to parents. Do they reach out when
077they're when a child is having trouble? Do they recommend testing? >> I can't speak on teacher. Yeah. >> Okay. But is that something they can do? >> Yeah, they always >> Okay. So, if they're saying >> Yeah. This doesn't stop a teacher's ability to to communicate. This just gives a guard rail of substantial substantial flow. >> Okay. So, if they're saying your students struggling, they could say they might test to see if >> I don't think it's no >> not testing but some >> we spent a lot of time talking about this because we felt that in some instances there was a communication gap where students were were falling behind or not making progress that should be expected and parents myself included at various times felt like they weren't hearing from the teacher until it
078was at a point in the semester where it felt too late for them to catch up. >> Okay. >> So, the goal was to try and put some guard rails around when that communication should happen so that it's happening timely and in a in a in a manner such that the student can can make up that progress during the course of the quarter, semester, right? a 10% drop or something. >> If a teacher has seen a child have gaps or weaknesses in their learning, then they can recommend MPSS or EIS structures. The buildings have those processes be so appropriate. And at any point in time, a teacher can reach out and say, I see that Rachel's struggling with reading and having comprehension issues. Here's what I'm going to do as tier one intervention in the
079classroom to help support this. These are the supports that we're going to put in place. I mean, this is our teachers do this all the time and I've seen this. Okay? So I can speak directly to that. They do that constantly already. This really is just about substantial fall. If I have a child who goes from 85 plus you and the next thing you know they have a 65, this is an obligation to say, hey, you know, hey, listen, I know there's something going on. >> Yeah. >> Right. Okay. Thank you. Just trying to understand the process. So um thank you. If you if the board does have any questions, please send me that policy and we can like how do you do an article? >> Yeah, we we didn't talk about that. So, I
080think that's something that we can explore. >> Thank you. Um, sorry to this is a huge body of work. I if anyone hasn't read it, it's fascinating and it's such and like the codification of this is surreal and kudos to all those who have been involved in it. So, seems like a ton of people. So, thank you. >> That's why we do. >> That's Yeah. Um All right. Happy May 18th. >> Yeah. The only other comment I'll make is I think that where we're trying to go was to further have it align with our equity policy. uh because through conversation I think Frank you were uncovering inconsistencies uh even across across classrooms within the same >> grade perhaps as to how teachers were were grading um or evaluating students and we wanted to try and
081create some structures to promote that equity in grading. So >> this came out of building revelations, right? They were talking about they were seeing and they filled out, you know, forms and they started saying, "Oh, you do that, I do this." Like how do we align that? >> Right. But it was interesting because Nelly brought forward that survey and students understood that you know science is going to be great different that it's been >> and some of the positive feedback I heard from department chairs is they really like the idea that we can do rating policies and grading procedures by department. So world language can create a world language department rating. So that follows it from grade seven to grade 12. English can follow that also and create that grading processes. So it really does
082help create that consistency. That was a big thing people had always >> and and if I could I'll just just add not to pick too on it is that certainly we're continue to to welcome any feedback that that people have. Um that's the purpose of the first reading is it's meant to public read this may have questions or suggestions and certainly reach out certainly people within my school community. Um I I think that that's a very important feature of this policy is that it was created through collaboration with the help and the input of those who are going to be affected by it. Um and I think that's a very important thing to strive in order to be able to reflect that people have a say in this policy and that those who um have
083expertise in this area are allowed to exercise it and be heard in in terms of the formulation. So if that if president is okay with it, I will move >> or no, this is just a first read. >> Well, with that said, >> that's a perfect time. This is a perfect time for you to say that because all items is valuable and we're going to move to uh instructional animal dissection, >> right? >> Is fun, too. But that's actually an approval. It's a second. Are you good with that? >> Would you like to move it? >> I will. >> Would anyone like to second? I'll second. All in favor? >> All right. We have animal dissection. Um, and we have policy 19260. Finish my appointment on student safety. >> I'll second. >> All in favor?
084>> I think. >> Um, all right. We're going to point personnel for the upcoming election with uh school library budget vote and election. Um would anyone like to discuss or vote? >> Rachel, I'm gonna since I'm on the ballot, I'm just going to abstain. I don't think you need me on this one. >> Okay. >> All right. Would anyone like to move it? >> I'll move it. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? um acceptance of donations. We had some generous donations from the PTA. Thank you so much for those. >> Um would anyone like to move them? >> Move them. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> um and because of the way things work, we need to allot the coral writers donation. Would anyone like to
085move it? I'll move it. Second. I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> We now have an opportunity for the public to be heard again. Anyone would like to come forward. we usually did. >> Um, and we have a second opportunity for the board to be heard and we have dates to remember and I kind of wanted to those two because we have an upcoming vote on the 19th. Um, we have two open seats. We have one named candidate which means that the community has an opportunity to write in candidate. We uh if we have a right candidate who for some reason who gets the most votes but is for some reason refusing the honor and joy of serving um we would then move to the next candidate. Candidates must be 18 years old.
086If you're 18 years old you have the legend right citizen and resident of district 30. And so we welcome any can get um to come and join us as board member should they be so voted in. And so um there you go. The election will be in the foyer over there uh 2:30 to 900 p.m. on the 19th of May. So two weeks from today. It's exciting. Um, anything else? Am I forget something? Great. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in your lives. This Sunday is Mother's Day and to all the moms and happy teacher and staff appreciation week. We appreciate you. And would anyone like to need us to adjourn? Move >> it. Second. All in favor? I. All right. Thank you all for being here. Have a great week.