001Oh my god. Okay. Okay. I have question. Okay, good. um to let everyone know we had anticipated executive session. We were in anticipating it. It just didn't happen. So anybody see us vote to go into executive session and then come around. We didn't. So I apologize evening. But now the fun stuff of the board meeting is 7 o'clock. We are calling order and we are starting with the pledge of allegiance. Um I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation for all. Rachel, did you turn this on? >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Oh, yeah. Look at that. >> I know. You can power. >> You got it. >> It's the little button on the >> Here you go. I got it. >> There's four buttons.
002It's on. Sorry. I apologize for that. >> Um, roll call. Uh, Matt Berser is not able to join us this evening. Um, so we have two board student board members um who are here though both are here and otherwise everyone else is here. Not so thus, but we do have. So, uh, for the good of the order, um, I just want to say that it looks like, uh, Hades Town is coming up the end of this month, the 20th to the 22nd. So, tickets are not yet available, but, you know, it's now meteorological spring, so come uh, spring solstice, it'll be time for a new school play. So, we offer that. And congrats to all of the teams who have gone through sectionals and done really well. I don't want to take away from any
003reporting that's happened. But I just want to point those two things out. Um if there's anything else that any good to be shared. Okay, with that um we have the very fun opportunity for the public to be heard. If anyone would like to come to the podium and share anything, they're invited to do so. Otherwise, um we might just invite a guest who's here. Um Gabriella Romero is our assembly member uh representing this district and she's often found um at the farmers market when it's open and in other fun places. So, um the podium is all yours. Great. Thank you for being here. >> Yeah, thanks for having me. Um, uh, so my name is, uh, Gabriella Romero. I'm your New York State Assembly member for the 109th Assembly District. Uh, the senator sends her
004regards. Um, she's unavailable tonight, but I have, uh, really exciting updates on the, um, Can you all hear me, too? >> Yeah, we're not sure if your mic is on. >> Okay. >> I think it's >> Which one is that one? >> Echoing, that's for sure. >> Is it this? Is this the mic? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Oh, it sounds like >> Okay, it sounds like it's on. can I can bring it closer to me if that works. Uh so I was saying the senator sends her regards. She can't make it tonight, but um we've been [sighs and gasps] uh making our rounds letting everyone know about the uh New York State uh executive budget and some of the exciting um bits that are in uh the proposed executive budget. For those that don't
005know, the way that it works is that the Oh, and also hi to the newest students. That's really exciting. I I forgot that that was a new initiative from last year. Welcome to you two. Uh so the way that it works is that the uh governor puts out her executive budget. The New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate put out their what's called one house uh budget proposals. And then after that um we vote on them assuming that everything is in there that we like and that we've fought for. and then uh the leadership of both houses, Assembly and Senate um and executive uh come together as a three-way compromise to find a final budget, which is what we uh inevitably pass hopefully on time this year um in the spring. So,
006um I have a little PowerPoint and I can uh I didn't I can send it over to you guys, but uh I want to focus obviously on the uh education components um which are really really exciting. Uh mo first and foremost the prek funding. Uh this is something that when I first started as your assembly member last year was something that um Frank and I discussed uh at length and um I I learned about the explicit challenges uh of both prek funding here of Albany as an early adopter. And so, uh, the governor has proposed a really special, um, and significant increase in, uh, UPK funding. And, and the way it works is really essentially you get, uh, $10,000 per pupil or whatever is larger. There's actually some districts that already get more than $10,000
007per pupil, if you can believe it. So essentially, um, we will be receiving $10,000 per pupil for UPK, which is exciting. Um, that's a significant increase from what's uh been um proposed or even uh designated before. It looks like last year there was a 5,400 per pupil. Now we've doubled that. So, I'm hoping to see significant um uh children uh here in in the UPK program and I think that will also assist you guys kind of as you move forward in finding the right people uh that will be able to um provide your families with childare. So, that's pretty much the most significant and exciting concept that I have for education funding. Um there's of course increases to the foundation aid. Um, we changed and tweaked the formula last year, uh, as it relates to
008English language learners. Um, I'm sure you all uh, learned a little bit more about the free lunch. Curious to know how that's going, um, in your district. Uh, there's also some two new uh, funding streams. One is for teacher pipeline support. So, there's a new $2 million uh, um, aotment to create an accelerated teacher preparation pathway uh, for teachers um, in high school. uh for students in high school that want to become teachers. Um and I can go over the other kind of exciting bigger investments whether it's uh many millions of dollars to accelerate the construction of affordable housing. Um there's pretty big modifications to the way that we handle the state environmental quality review act. Um, for those that don't know, SRA is uh the um environmental [clears throat] review that happens when we
009propose new projects and new development. Essentially, what the governor proposes in those modifications is to cut the red tape and make sure that um new development isn't um delayed by these ownorous proposals while also balancing the environmental impacts and uh community uh involvement and community public comment. that's uh codified in Seeker um by making sure that we can uh fasttrack important and marquee projects all across New York State while making sure the environmental impacts are still um codified and and important there. Um higher education uh we're increasing uh in a very at least in the assembly one house I should say we're increasing EOP and HEOP investments. Um, we're hoping to see big investments in U. Albany, which is one of the biggest research institutions across all of uh the Sunni institutions. We're actually the
010most diverse research institution in the um what's called Sunni Research Institutions all across New York. Um let's see what else. Uh there's some pretty significant uh modifications in uh the the topic of immigration and civil rights. the governor came out with a proposal called local cops local crimes act. And these are what's called quote unquote program bills. What that means is that it's a package of bills that were likely to be passed outside of the budget, but she also proposed them in her executive budget. Uh so to explain that further um she proposed it in her executive budget, but we're also working um concurrently on a package of bills uh outside of the executive budget that she anticipates or hopes to pass separately from the budget. So you might not see them in the one
011house proposals that I mentioned before. Um the local cops local crimes act is composed of three different uh um proposals. one ends 287g agreements which are agreements um between local municipalities and ICE. Uh there are some there are many different levels of 287g agreements. Some are lowlevel meaning that uh the local municipality uh is able to um house ICE detainees in their uh local jails. And then there are some that are quite expansive. for example, Nassau County um deputizes local law enforcement to uh engage as a ICE agent essentially. So that's kind of the spectrum of that. So that's one level of local cops, local crimes would end those 287g agreements for a period of three years. The next one is actually my bill, which would um create a state cause of action to sue
012government agents, specifically federal government agents, if they violate our constitutional rights. Um, right now, uh, we're there's a there's an increase in, um, ICE agents violating constitutional rights across the United States. Um, right now, if you wanted to sue them, you you couldn't, uh, in state court for constitutional violations. So, really honored that the governor has taken on my bill in that package. Um, but it also goes to other uh, civil rights or um, constitutional rights violations. For example, if a um college uh or nonprofit speaks out about gender or race um and then the federal government defunds them, that's a violation of your first amendment right. You can sue on that ground. You can also sue on Fourth Amendment grounds. If someone is illegally detained or um searched and seized, that's Fourth Amendment. Um,
013and that has a myriad of different uh um uh ways of of using that and we are working with colleagues across the United States to pass that bill in a similar way. And then the third version um the third thing that's in uh the local cops local crimes is sorry I'm not like there's some feedback. Um, the third thing in local crafts, local cross local crimes is uh a proposal that would create quote unquote safe spaces across New York State that um would require uh um federal agents to enter these safe spaces with judicial warrants. Um and the the reason for that is that there was an internal memo that was leaked um saying that ICE does not have to have judicial um prerequisite, legal prerequisite to enter homes anymore. So we are designating homes,
014schools, K through 12, um hospitals and places of worship. Um and that is local cops, local crimes. Um, I will continue on because there's a lot more. Uh, and I can also take questions at the end. Um, people are advocating for a um inflationary increase for human service organizations. The the the request is a 2.7 increase. The executive budget requested a 1.7 temporary inflationary increase. What I mean by human service workers are folks that are doing really the most grittiest and hardest work um working in our mental health sphere, working with our disabled population. Um and those are the folks that get burnout really quickly and frankly need um a lot of support. Uh hope maybe we'll see a 2.7 for us, but the executive proposed a 1.7. Um I'll say my next slide is
015environment and energy. I'll be honest with you, I'm a little disappointed that I don't see a lot of uh utility rate um reform in this budget. I sent a letter last week, maybe two weeks ago, with my upstate colleagues urging the governor to take immediate and short-term reform and some long-term reform so that people can see uh literal money back in their pockets because of the public service commission's rate hike that happened last summer. Um, but I know I'm like being recorded and like live right now, but it'll come out later this week. There's we're going to see something big happen in a few days um as it relates to uh utility rates, environmental conservation uh goals. And I'm hoping that that's something that is um going to give immediate and uh actual dollars back
016in people's pockets, not performative. But I can't promise anything because I don't know. But I'm hoping that comes out before the end of the week. I know something will come out before the end of the week. But I just want to stop there on that slide to tell you that I was disappointed that I didn't see more aggressive utility rate reform when there was an opportunity to do so in this budget. Um let's see. And then you know this in this PowerPoint we touch on some of the um capital region proposals which include um additional uh money to uh upstate county or upstate cities, towns and villages. Uh maybe two weeks ago the governor announced a 150 million dollar investment to upstate cities, towns and villages. um depending on the size of your municipality, you
017received um a sign, you know, I shouldn't say significant a chunk of change. Uh and it's because our municipalities are experiencing, frankly, a crisis. And it's because the upstate legislators are advocating what feels like every day for parody with New York City, which continues to get um reoccurring and intense investment, which is great. But like the point is that the governor represents the whole state of New York and it's not just one area that needs careful investment. Um and our upstate areas are really struggling. So we will continue to advocate for um additional investment especially for upstate which is a big priority of mine. Um I'm going to end there because I feel like I've been talking a lot but I'm happy to take questions um and also send over this PowerPoint so you can
018have it uh in person. Yes. >> Definitely. I can share that. >> Are there any are you okay with taking questions for sure? >> Yeah. >> Does the safe spaces proposal include government buildings? I couldn't remember. >> Not at this time, but that's a great point. Um it includes schools K through 12, hospitals, places of worship, homes, and no it does not include government buildings. Um yeah, uh I did carry a bill to include uh Sunni schools, which I was hoping to have that be included, but no, it does not include all government buildings. >> So, hi. >> Hello. >> Well, first and foremost, thanks for the the prek funing. I think that's a huge help. I'm going to talk about our RFP that we have going out for briefly shortly. You can guess if
019you just set it up. >> Um it's because it's >> perfect. Um EV buses. >> Oh yeah. >> So is there any play on that? Are there any incentives for New Yorkers to be able to do that? If we're going to uh federal funds are stopping EPA, they've stopped the uh we applied in 2024. They then stopped that. So the question is if we are going to continue to move forward, what's going on with the EV? You don't have to have we can pick up on. Okay. >> Uh so it is not proposed in this budget, but it's something that the upstate caucus has put in one of our top priorities in our letter to both the speaker and the governor. And um the announcement that comes out this week might affect that. Um but
020uh you are not alone and I we might have even spoken about this before >> in that uh the senator and I have done um a lot of different have had a lot of different conversations with other superintendent uh along the concept of EV buses but also absenteeism and um we've learned a lot about the EV bus issue. I don't know if you guys know that was her bill that she championed. So, it was it's been helpful for us both to see a wide array of perspectives on that. Um, it's not in the budget, but uh that doesn't mean it can't be. I wonder if the announcement though will affect uh that. That's all I'll say for now. But we can stay tuned on um how things move this week. I know it's an issue
021though. You want to raise the capital? >> Yeah, I I have a general question. Just >> the cost of everything goes up a lot and has been going up. Healthcare is one of the big ones over the past I I I'm going to garble the stat, but it was something like 17% per year kind of thing over the past 30 years. So districts cover health care and cover all of these other costs that in go up way beyond anything we'd ever want to raise property taxes, but that's how districts fund education. Is there any move at the state level to help figure out a way that would keep pressure off of property owners but at the same time address the inflation that affects school budget creation? >> Is that through employees? Like you're saying the
022health care for the workforce that's coming up >> and other costs too just are inflating astronomically. But, and I'm not suggesting we should raise taxes astronomically, but they're gapped so that we don't, but then we lose things as a school district or our ability. You know, Frank and Colleen are so creative when they put together a budget and the teachers and the staff work so hard to continuously do more with less. But the system, the way it is functioning, especially in the light of massive inflation is is really hindered from focusing on education. Instead, it's focusing on duct tape and bailing twine. >> So, our expense over revenues is really high year-over-year, right? >> Our ability to tax is at the tax cap minimum, which we we still don't even want to, you know, be
023able to do that to all of our community members. We're seeing health rates increase even with consortiums anywhere between 14% in some school districts at 22 or 26%. >> Wow. >> So, we're seeing major increases that are really pushing the budget across the board. So, a lot of school districts are really they're doing cuts or they're they're doing the bare minimum so they can cover health care costs. So, some type of management I think what um Rachel is saying is some type of management outside to be able to do this will not only impact schools but impact other places as well. >> Yeah, I think saying this. >> Yeah. just if healthcare came from something other than school budgets, it seems like it would I mean >> or regulatory as well. >> I'm happy to
024look into it. Um I I'm curious though with the increase in foundation aid and this new influx of money if you think that that will help your budget. >> So our increase of foundation is 2.8%. Kelly, how much is that? >> Higher than the 1%. >> It's higher than one. So that is good. >> Not to be like the joy, but it's what's our year 200k. And how much is our health insurance increase this year? >> Million. >> Yeah. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> And that's what do you attest that to? What's that? >> It's inflation costs. >> Yeah. Healthcare over I think it was in the recent onboard issue from NISBA. NISBA the New York State School Board Association puts out something and they said something along the lines of over the past 30
025years it's been about 17% on average per year for healthcare increases. And I want every employee of this district to have health care that allows them to be safe and healthy and their you know that's to me part of the package. But >> so our healthc care has actually increased 12% for prescription um 10.45% for that and 14 7.5 for high mark. So counting how much is that on average for healthcare? >> About 13 14% >> 13 14% over year over year. We were one of the lowest ones in the consortium. There were some that were 212%. >> Wow. >> And I just don't see that not, you know, dropping to zero or dropping anywhere below the I don't want to call it the tax cap, but dropping below the tax cap. So it becomes
026an outside it drives the budget instead of education driving the budget and you know the goal of supporting staff and in a meaningful way through their salaries driving the budget so that you retain the people that make up the district. You're instead retaining the insurance company and the those are important parts of people's lives. You know, medicine is part of the health care system, but >> it's it's driving the bus now, whatever bus it is, diesel or EV. >> Yeah. Um, yeah, I'm happy to take it back to the conference and then, uh, talk to the New York State schoolboard folks to see what creative solutions they're seeing, um, across upstate, not I just find the upstate people as more of like a >> across the nation. There's got to be I mean, it can't
027just be New York that's dealing with this. Everyone >> Yeah. Yeah. I'm um I'm happy to take it back and look into what people are doing. We want to keep supporting the staff and the teachers in our district. Like that's important, but also maintaining a safe tax bill for people so that they are >> financially solvent. >> Right. Thank you for that question. >> So, one other thing is when we're talking about budgetary and budgetary issues, the state does a nice job with expense based aids and pushing forward. And I know there's no cut to expense based aids, but our capital um funds are $100,000 K projects. >> Yes. >> So New York State allows us to do $100,000 project. This is Argie V and I were talking about and right now and we get
028aid on that year over year. So we're allowed to do that. We're and we can do that year-over-year. We'd love to see and I know other superintendents might have talked about this as well, maybe having that go up to 300,000 because you can't do a project for $100,000 and really get anything substantial. And we're talking about deferred maintenance issues, roofing issues because if you wait and we push that off, then we're doing large capital projects. We didn't impact our taxpayers. So if they can take that, it's the capital outlay project is what they're called. >> Right, Kelly? You have that right. >> If it's been 20 years of >> $100,000, >> the $100,000 >> and I know that would then hit expense based aid, but it would also decrease the ability it would decrease deferred
029maint maintenance in districts. So, we'll be able to make capital improvements in a timely manner and do so budgetarily sound for our taxpayers >> and potentially support local businesses >> 100%. >> Great. I can take that back too. And so, what's the if I could just understand, you're saying that um in order to do a project over $100,000, you have to go out to our community. It has to be a capital project. It like has to go to the voters. You're saying um >> but the $100,000 you can put within your budget. >> Okay. Got it. I understand. Kind of like you can call in a plumber to fix your sink, but if you're going to remodel your kitchen, you have to >> really budget for that. >> I'm sure there's a bill on that.
030>> Yeah, I thought there was one out there. And I know this has been talked about year over year over year, but >> Okay. >> Just bringing it back again would be good. >> Okay. >> We We can do projects larger than that, but we're capped at what we can get back in aid. >> Okay. >> Unless you call it a capital project. >> Yeah. Okay, >> there questions. >> Thank you so much for all you're doing for the district, for the community, the region, and for the state. We really, really appreciate all you've done, and thanks for sharing all what's going on. >> Thank you for having me. My door is always open to all of you. Um, has my info, please share it. Uh, and I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity
031to share more and like, you know, uh, demystify the budget. There's a lot there. Um, but it when I send the PowerPoint, if you have more questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. My contact info is also on the slides. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, >> and please um, give Paty our regards. >> Thank you. All right. Um, with that we move into the I believe this open area is for interpretive dance. Colleen Frank said you were gonna >> No, you can do a little jig after you see a little bit. >> Really? [laughter] So this was and um so now we move to the budget presentation. >> All right. So, um, a lot of this is going to be a little bit of the same conversation that we had earlier and I want to
032go through it with you all and assembly member if you want to stay, you're more than welcome to, but there's no shame and also if you have to leave or go other appointments, we totally understand as well. [laughter] >> Um, so you also, this is our mission. Our mission always guides everything we do, especially with our budget and as we move forward when we have to make those decisions, we always keep our mission and vision in line with what we do. That's the first and foremost everything that we base off our budget off of. Um these are the goals that are stated within our board documents. Safe and supportive learning environments. Our fiscal goal which is a faithful steward our community's financial commitment. Um like a district for ours like a district like us. Our
033district does and is the backbone of our community. We are majority of taxpayer funded. Me being a taxpayer along with everyone else sitting at this table. We all understand that um and the importance of that. So, we've talked about this before. This is what's what was in the executive budget. Colleen, do you want to quickly review um what we've talked about? >> Y so foundation a she just spoke a little bit about foundation a there was some changes um that occurred over last year. So, a lot of those foundation aid formulas that's a 2.8 increase that was in the governor's executive budget. But when we get closer to the enacted budget which will be around spring um what is trending it could be more like 2.7% in the budget it would be a little slight
034lower probably foundation a other changes was um foundation aid was versus last year was 2% this year was 1% which was a shift in the foundation aid but for who was whole harmless last year if we were harmless this we would at 1% but we are actually at 2.82% which gives us 167 or 132 foundation >> which is good >> is better than the 1%. >> And one thing just to clarify um when we we talk about budgets and enacted budgets and what we're working with is the budget currently we're working with is an assembly member mentioned it as well. We're working with an estimated budget at the moment. The governor has put out her budget. there's the other budgets that are going to be there. So when we look at these, these are the
035best guesses and estimates that we're using to be able to create the budget in April hopefully. Um will it be on time? Right. We put money now. But um you know if it is on time when it is on time we will know then what the enacted budget is. So then these numbers become solidified. But even then some of our expense based dates I do want to clarify our BOSIES aids and things like that. There are still estimates until the following year based off of enrollment and usages and things like that. So some of it's still in flux, but the majority of that will be well known by April. Here is our state aid update. >> Y so for a lot of that key timing of when what is projected for the aid is based
036on the November database. So that when the governor does her first run at her budget or what those aid estimates are then they kind of do a reook at February database. So the February database that was just updated um reflects all the changes that have happened since that November database. The district filed what we call filing final cost reports for our building aid or building projects for the transportation and the EPC projects. We got them in December because we wanted to see some of that aid flow through earlier. So what happened with that is now that it's showing estimate, you know, the final budget still has to come out, but it shows an estimate versus what we just talked about last time of over $1.2 million in addition, which is a huge win for us.
037Um, which now which our original estimate building a was $63,000. So now overall we'll be receiving $1.9 million, which is a big help. in the district. The current aid runs are definitely as we talked about our investment um especially as Brian just mentioned expense based in foundation aid. Foundation a may change slightly because um they will be basing our numbers on actual enrollment day. The initial numbers that we received in the November database was based on projected which we filed in September on our form A. It looks like we had decrease or from what our projected was to what the beds day which show a little bit less of $100,000 when it comes >> uh what is beds day. >> So beds day is the it's the day that we announce to the state. It's
038October 6th. >> Yeah. >> Right. But it's the day that you report your current enrollment for the year. So anyone who's on your enrollment, it goes in. It's basically what you put into your soul, sir. It's the whole big thing. Basically, it's our reporting day for enrollment. So, they use projected numbers. So, even if your numbers are down by five students or off by five students, that can have a $100,000 impact. So, say in September 1st you had or September 7th you had five kids leave your district, but you were projected to have them and those kids didn't start with you. In October 6, those students weren't there and you didn't have any new enrollment in. That is your new enrollment. You could have more enrollment coming, but they use your beds day as your
039number when they do the estimated date. So, >> heads and beds stand for >> uh I don't know off the top of my head. We've called it beds for years. >> It's just beds. >> It's been beds for There is a word for it, but I got to tell you, for 26 years, I've called it beds. >> It's also the number that gets used to calculate like which class you're in for athletics. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Okay. >> It's your enment numbers. So, it's kind of like if you're born by December 1st in New York versus September 1st in Vermont versus January 1st. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, we put this slide in the property tax cap calculation just because we've done it every year and we want to make sure that everyone understands it.
040Um, it pretty much is the same thing that we talked about, but Kelly, you want to just go over very quickly. It deals with how we formulated with our exclusions and everything else. >> So property tax cap was became effective in 2011 yearover-year. We touch on this, right? effectively sets 2% but because there are allowable exclusions based on capital cost and debt service those can be excluded from your actual calculation which sometimes allows the district to go much higher than a 2% but again all depends on your capital cost and some of those other schools so for example if your pension cost goes higher I think by two percentage points you're allowed to deduct that increase or a certain reserve for us the districts um for our for us this year when we applied some
041of those exclusions right now we are looking well it was this rate between 2 and 4% but you'll see um further on in the presentation a little bit higher because of the increased capital >> our current maximum tax levy is 4.8% that we can go out of so that is the max amount that we could technically go so the 2% is actually 4.8% 4.81 81 actually >> right now. >> And Colleen, since we have Assembly Member Romero here and we did our long range financial planning last meeting >> in the negative, can you talk about like the impact of pilots on the cap calculation? >> So pilots pilots as you know are payments and taxes. They are not part of their taxable base. So anytime we get a pilot, it doesn't get distributed as part
042of those pilots. So we're hoping next year because of that roughly what they did little% because we're getting more taxjity to go to zero or refund that I know it's been legisl to exclude the population, right? >> But it will negatively impact us next year. >> Yeah. >> Um so if we were to go out at zero, we would have to go for a supermajority [clears throat] um to be able to do so, which sounds >> zero. Funny because if you go out Yeah. Because if you wanted not tax your community all at zero instead of a negative tax cap which would be giving back money which then would be offsetting the district's ability in the future to raise revenue which would then impact student you know students which would be huge >> that zero
043would be a super majority. So >> that will probably be something we'll be lobbying a lot for next year >> because it would be a compound loss almost. >> Yes. Oh absolutely. It would be a long-term impact. Great. >> And then we have um like we went to show is like to show the levy increases that we've we've done over the past few years. As you know, 21 through 24 uh we were flush with federal funds and money coming in. Um those funds have now gone as we know. Uh but those were a lot more those were very tough years also the years that we were made whole of foundation. So we got large boosts in our foundation those years as well. Um so moving on with this you know our number one priority is
044a balanced budget meeting the needs of students and staff. Those are that is what our goal is. That is what it will always be. Um because that's what our go that's what we do here. we meet the needs of our students and we need to meet our needs of our staff to make sure that we have a school to be able to run. So our rollover budget as we talked about is how we create and it assumes all staffing and programs remain constant all revenues and expenses are projected and known and historical data and trends are utilized. Um we've talked about this already the things that kind of impact our rollover budget to understand where our expenses and revenues is our our state of increases inflation increase in health and insurance benefits any projects or
045any items that we want to work on and focus on and then we look at our first overview. So Colleen why don't we talk about that. >> Okay. >> Whenever it's money percentages it's always you. So the our last budget that we presented was um roughly about the same amount. We had a slight slight increase um to 5.67% versus a 5.57 5.51%. But technically what we've done is really have sharpened our pencils and made sure that we don't want to have too many of our expenses exceed our right. So we sharpened our pencil and when we had cost saving measures we put them into play. Um obviously there's some items that we have no control over which we just talked about. We have the death service. Um our ERS increase went up a little bit.
046Um TRS is actually at 8.24%. The um TRS came out with a final percentage. So that was a benefit for us. um and prescription cost and others are are so we're being as frugal um as far as spending for supplies we just kept that budget control. So when we look at this year's budget again breaking it down into categories our salaries and benefits make up close to 75% of our budget. Um we are service based obviously education industry. Um so those will always be our big larger piece of the pie. Overall um based on what we had last year we're at 5.67% the biggest driver of this year's increase. As you can see that's our biggest. So again keeping everything neutral so we can offset those increases here. Just get you a visual of what
047those expenses that become down as a piece of the pie for the entire district. When you look at it, you can see the largest part again is our salaries and our benefits with smaller pieces being low and other contractual requirements and death service. >> So before we get on to the first draft, well this is the last time. So this is what we showed you last time and our gap and everything that was with it. Um, we looked at a lot of our expensive and a lot of different things and we're and we're still working through some of our creative costsaving measures. One of the costsaving measures that we've been talking about is an influx of special education students coming into the district. Um, when we have students coming into the district, we we offset
048those students or if their needs are not met here in the district, we typically would send them out to other placements. Um, typically we do not house our students here because we had a small population to do so. our kindergarten class coming in. We're going to have roughly four students coming in that would have would our high need students that we would need a special class for in district or we would do outside district placement. Doing an outside district placement, there is revenue that you get back, but you have to upfront that cost. So, if we have students coming in and their program runs anywhere between 75,000 and $125,000, four students can equally easily equal $400,000 onto the budget for that one year. So that is a large influx of students that we have coming
049in that could offset and increase our budget. A cost-saving measure which I also feel is in the best interest of our students is create a special ed self-contained classroom within our elementary school. Um doing so we have um an attrition of a staff member that was leading the elementary school as a general education teacher. We would fill that position with a special ed teacher and do some concessions and changes around minimal impact on enrollment. It would increase one one class group by four students um for a grade level, but it would also allow us to be able to do a self-contained classroom, which then we can bring another student back, which would be a savings of $100,000 for the district and then also then get revenue for the following year, basically helping us really offset
050that cost. So that districts when they have the ability to create special classes inside the buildings, they really do it because it is a cost savings measure and you can really craft the educational environment for those students in a very positive way. So we are looking at making a K1 classroom next year for our special education population. Um that is a cost savings measure but also I believe in the best interest of our students. So that is helping us offset some of those concerns as well. >> So what um >> y >> what do you get back the next year? Uh it really is dependent on how much we spend. There's something called stack Colleen. This is more of a wheelhouse for you because it gets and you stack out your high cost aid and
051you have to hurt a threshold of spending. But with five students inhouse and with the um amount of staff that we put into it, I believe we're going to get pretty good revenue coming back on that. So we're going to see a cost savings the first year with revenue coming back. Is it like 60 like >> there's there's a specific no there's it's different based on high cost what your actual mix is classifying whether they're high cost students so a high cost student is any expenses that are above 66,000 because our minimum contribution for our district is 66,000 so anything above that is what we get back on >> is this similar to what we were there was a conversation with Karen Jones new curriculum was it about bringing like having that kind of a
052classroom set up >> and other districts potentially bringing their students in. >> Yep. So there is a possibility to do that. So Burn has that. There's other different conglomerates because typically you would send them to a Bosey's classroom and Boseies you get revenue on it. >> This is something you can do here and then district districts can then do that. We have students go to Bethlehem right now uh and other school districts. It's a partnership. So, it's almost a regionalization component that school districts use um to be able to support students and their districts. So, if we could offset that cost, we would do the state cost that it would be if somebody wanted to send their child here and it would be a program for them. So, it could be a revenue source in
053that way as well. >> Not that that's the goal, but this >> but the goal is there's not enough placement for students across the board and it's and it's a struggle for school districts and parents to place their children. So, the more schools that do this, the more opportunities there are for kids. So it it it's a benefit for revenue and it's also a benefit for families because you have more program. >> And you said you be building a K1 classroom >> this year. Would would this program then follow those kids and become a goal or or or are we limited to K1 and staff? >> So this is to what end? Right. That's the question that we keep on and on doing with is how long can we do this? Our goal is as
054long as the students are here and we have the ability to meet the needs of our kids with budget wise as well, we're going to continue this program as long as possible. It's a K1 this year, next year we could do a one two. >> The following year we do a 23. The following year we do a 34. So the goal is as long as we have the student population and ability to do so, we'll be able to keep that classroom inhouse. >> But there's the potential for more students to come in. You might have multiple classes of this or >> you might not be able to because again it's going to be based on >> physical location. >> Yeah. Physical need of student and then class ratio. It's a 1211. >> So depending on
055how many students we can put into it. >> So you can do up to 12. >> Yeah. >> And what grade range like you said K1 really >> I think it's K2. >> K2 range then K. I don't want to answer anything that my PPS director isn't here to answer for me because I she knows a lot. >> There is some flexibility within the program. >> That's a cost savings measure that we're looking at as well. >> One other question next year like physical space. >> We have the physical space. Yep. The ability the beauty part is our um our project that we did offers us the ability and flexibility to have more room. So that's the beauty of it is that we're planning for the future with our capital projects as well. >> That's
056awesome. >> So where we currently are now. So Colleen, this slide. >> Okay. So our revenues, last time we spoke, our revenues were shorter or less by 2.5 with that building coming in. And again, we have the ability right now built in the ability, the board so chooses to go to the property tax. Um once we did reise the property tax cap based on debt service we were allowed to go a little bit higher. So again that is primarily discretion. Um state now is at 13% again because that helped us get a little bit more revenue that budget. Does this help in terms of the class size in the elementary school to keep it below 20? >> So all of our classes in the elementary school below 20 except for one grade level because that
057will be 22 if we do the attrition. >> That was the third grade. >> Yes. >> Would it >> possibly depending on what the principal would like to do? >> If we were to add another teacher in that we would add to our budget. Our class sizes at the elementary school range between 16 and 20. >> So increasing one enrollment which we've done 22 students in a in a grade level before is something the district has done. >> Yeah. >> So it's a cost-saving measure that we're looking at. >> I I I've had the kids in those big classes. It's not as >> it's not it's a totally different experience. >> If the board would look like to look at enrollment any increases that we add to the budget now will add budget increases across
058the board to what we do. Mhm. >> So any additions from what we have already proposed, like taking away the special education classroom, that will increase by at least $400,000. Adding a teacher >> instead of and and doing the special education classroom roughly 75 to $100,000 to the budget. So everything now is all going to be addition. >> Yep. >> And this is using 4.81% of our maximum tax for that. So, where we are at, that was our last one. Where we currently are at is a gap of $1.3 million. And that's when I say I want to be very clear is anything we add now adds to that 1.3. So 1.3 is what we're doing with cost savings. Adding anything else can increase that that gap of where we currently are. Now, we can
059close that gap. And the way that we close that gap is the following. we go out at 4.81% these are what we do. If we go out less than 4.81% we change these components or we look at other costsaving measures cuts at Bosey's programs other cuts that we can offer staffing cuts program cuts things like that. Um my suggestion is we have a little room with our debt services and our and our reserves that we can play with. Last year we used $1.9 million in reserves. We said that was a lot. We said we wanted to cut back on that because of how much unassigned fund balance that we were using and we don't want to continue to do that because we will be in the red very very quickly. So if we use our
060ES reserve ERS reserve which is employment retirement services for $400,000 our fund balance of 5.75 which is a little bit less than what we've done because we need to increase that again so we can put more in reserves in the future. And then our debt service reserve is which is a reserve we have we have roughly 700,000 in it 750. So using some of that debt service to pay off some debt is 350,000 that closes our gap and that leaves us to zero. So given those components that's a that's a balanced budget. >> So so on the 350,000 debt service reserve are we going to retire existing debt so it's not recurring? >> So any interest? Yes. So any of the desk any of the bond payments that we make in this year we can
061use $350,000 of so when we let step back so when we bond a project and some of those expenses come in less than those funds we then move those funds into because you can't save that in your own money you have to set aside service but we're using that funding to pay off some of our existing debt service that's happening this year. Okay. I'll I'll just say I'm concerned because we've slowly eroded reserves over the last couple years. We were pretty solidly at like 4% unassigned for a long time and now we're getting I don't even know what number we're at. Is it two? They're close to 2%. >> So, this actually allows us to get back to our unassigned fund balance because it's a cost savings. So, you want to explain that? >> Yes.
062So, the debt reserve is not So in a financial term it's not in our general fund trial balance it's a separate fund. So in our general fund trial balance using less fund balance we now can use any of the further unassigned fund balance and replenish some of those reserves because of our historical use of using larger portions of the fund balance. This allows us to use less fund balance this year and replenish some of those other reserves. >> Okay. And we we had talked about using do we have to set up a bus reserve for EV? >> We are using that as well. >> We're going to use that as well, right? >> Yeah. That that doesn't go towards the general fund that goes towards the EV purchases. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, we're
063using about $250,000 purchase this year and then hopefully in 18 months we'll get some of that money back as well which will start the process now. >> Yeah. I think next audit committee we can do deep dive on the reserves because I think we have a lot in our ERS and CS reserve that maybe we don't need it all there. Um so yeah maybe we can look at that. >> Our ERS reserve is the one that has our ability to move it further. TRS has a very specific >> usage that you can use it for. ERS, we could use debt services in Fear, possibly use ERS reserve if needed to offset any increase costs that are coming. This will allow us if we're not using the amount of fund balance to actually build up our
064fund balance to allow us to put more in reserves when it comes down to our following year. So that it's it's a little bit more of a play shell a little bit, but it allows us to be able to preset ourselves for fund balance being back next year, making sure we're back where we need to be. We have more flexibility in case >> one student moving into the district can easily cost us $125,000. Special education student coming in who needs high need services was already at a placement. We would have to continue that service at placement. So that automatically does that. So districts always want to be able to say could we use fund balance for >> further questions? Great questions. And again, this is all dependent. So we could use these RS fund balance
065and debt services. I can do more cost-saving measures that would then limit that use. We don't have to go to the maximum levy. Then we'd have to change the usage of that. So we're just showing right now in March, this is best case scenario, worst case scenario. Here's where we can get close a $ 1.3 million gap. >> So >> and then keep basically almost everything we have. >> Yeah. So, one other question back to the health insurance costs. Do we offer any sort of high deductible plan that's overall cheaper to the district >> and the employees >> not too many offer and reason is historically I think a number of employees don't understand how they work because again it takes it takes a I to me sometimes if you explain it to them it
066is less expensive um we get try to offer that plan, but I know historically when they've been offered in districts, a lot of employees don't >> it's less expensive until you get really sick and then you are on the hook for about $10,000 and that can be devastating and like it's a gamble early in their careers with no family like it's an option. >> It is an option but decide if it's a good option. Yeah, I think it's something >> given the high number of cancers that are occurring in younger and younger population members. Not that I'd ever wish this on anyone, but just >> it's an option that can really impact a family's financial aid. I just think it's >> it may be attractive to people for reasons that we don't know and we
067haven't had that conversation and I think it's worth >> it's >> that is a collective bargaining >> conversation that Colleen and I can look into the insurance committee first >> well the negotiation collective bargaining is >> we can go through that but yes the discussions that' >> be a good spot >> yeah insure. It would seem like the insurance committee would be a good spot for it to >> a good place to start. >> Anyway, >> all right. Any other questions on the overall general fund budget? Not minus any propositions or bus propositions. >> Okay. Uh vehicle proposition has not changed. We are looking at one large diesel passenger bus, 72 passenger bus and one large electric school bus. um and the Suburban for transport. So, these are the same things. We are looking at
068using our $250,000 of our reserve be able to do so. Um am I missing anything on that one, Kelly? Like I said, there's there's vouchers that will offset purchase cost immediately that they will apply for them. >> Any questions? >> I already asked. >> Okay. >> Anything else? >> So, we're going to continue to speak and work on this. Um, but I feel like we are in a much better spot than we were last time because last time we were at a gap without closure. Now we are at a balanced budget if need to be. So at least we're somewhere where I can sleep at night and then we can at least still move forward and see what we continue to do to make it better. >> Thank you guys for all the work you've
069been doing to put that together. That's a real challenge. A lot of bail. A lot of bailing twine. [laughter] >> Much better than it was the last. >> With that, we move to the student board member report. We have two student board members here and Elliot and Kella. >> Yeah, we have a very exciting next month with the musical coming up at the end weeks and the high school concerts also coming up this Thursday. As for general student population coming off of February break, so March is always a bit of a rough one. But we have a couple student council spirit days planned. So hopefully that'll get mad back up and make it a little bit more fun. >> Yeah. And then promotion of winter sports have mostly all ended. We just have some people
070from indoor track going to state this Saturday. Um and then we also had the winter wave uh earlier in the month which is very fun. I know a lot of students enjoy that. Awesome. Thank you. >> Um, with that we move to the superintendent report. Frank, do you have anything for us? >> Yes, I do. So, I did something a little bit different. I created a slideshow. So, bear with me because everybody knows my slideshows are not the best. Uh, but I wanted to talk talk about our capital project. And the first thing I'm going to do is talk about our garage to cafeteria transformation. >> So, if you look up here, um, Kathy, I hope you I know that you're at a weird angle. I can switch it over if you want. >> Okay,
071that is our new cafeteria. So, I'm going to get up. This is unusual for me. >> Do you want me to forward them for you or >> No, yeah, the next one. If you wouldn't mind when I when I say so, that' be great. >> All right, so this is the architectural draft. It's not perfect, but you can get an idea if you're walking through the bridge and you come in here. This is the old transportation facility. >> So, this is now going to become our cafeteria. So, all the work that you're seeing happening is going on. This is where they will drive in and do the deliveries. And there's some dry storage back here. And in the back, which is a new kind of addition kind of platform, is a walk-in cooler and walk-in
072freezer that's out here. This is the cooking kitchen that is here. And then as you walk out, then you have your stations. And then you'll also have seating from here to here. New bathrooms that are self-contained inside the self-contained area. Also, an office we'll be utilizing and renting and our mechanical storage area. This is the outside area and all through here is the outside seating area and classroom. And this is the handwashing area that's contained inside the new cafeteria. This is the new hallway that goes into that. So, can you see it? Okay. So, this gives you an idea of that transportation facility. So, we're talking about a 1942 building being completely gutted, renovated, and utilized for [snorts] our students. Next slide. This is actually what it looks like now. So, I went in today
073and took a picture of it so you could kind of get an idea of scope because not everybody gets to see the construction and it's also very dangerous as you're walking in there. As you walk in, this is the back area. This used to be three bays and another storage area. It also was two feet lower down than it was actually what it was. And there was also some diesel oil and spilling if everybody remembers that. So, it's all cleaned up now. Um, this is going to be actually uh concrete next week. So, kind of cool that this is all going to be done. This is that back area. Here is the kitchen area. That is a wall. That little kind of divot that you can see in the little rebar and then the rest
074of that will be there. So, it really is coming together pretty quickly. Um, it may not look like it, but that is a ton and ton of work happening within that building. So, I kind of wanted to just share it. This over here is the bathrooms. It's kind of hard to see because there's no wall yet, but that is the bathroom area. So, I wanted to kind of give an idea of our cafeteria. So, you can see dilapitated kind of old dingy transportation facility moving into a cafeteria space that will fit roughly 150 students at a time. Um, so pretty pretty strong and an eating kitchen which is not really bad. We had a heat up kitchen. >> How many stalls? >> Rach, could you go back one? >> It says >> Two toilets. >>
075Okay. >> And a toilet in the yard. >> Very exciting. >> All right. So, that is the trans. I haven't really shown inside there yet, so I wanted to do that. Our current current elementary school cafeteria seats like 70. >> It's a well legally we we pack them in there. Let's put them that way. >> Fifth graders are really good. >> The next thing I wanted to kind of share and I I've shared a little bit but I haven't shared it publicly is our elementary school murals. So um the idea behind our c like we want schools to be inviting. We want them to be welcoming. We want them to tell a story. And a lot of schools when they do [snorts] um projects they create a an atmosphere for students but sometimes it's not
076really meant for the district. It's architectural design or it's all these different things. So we have worked with a illustrator who does children's books and they have created vinyl decals that will go around our building. So the idea of this is is that we want our students to learn and tell their story and our staff to tell their story as they're in our building. So there is no words, but it's the idea that our kids will write the story. Our staff will write the story that's there. And it welcomes you. It reflects the heart of our community. It embodies our community, inspires pride. It supports the learning of our students. And it reinforces our belonging and pride, but it also aligns with our physical space. So here is the example. When you walk into our
077main entrance, you're going to see, and again, it's a child's book illustration. Blackbird if you notice that is actually the Helderbergs that is behind it. So that is a giant vinyl and so you can see what it's actually going to look like. That is a rendering of the elementary school. So as you walk in you'll have the new secure vestibial office. This will be centralized now. You're not walking up and down some crazy areas and all those things. Everything's there. And when you walk up into the corner that will be the first thing that you see and that's what our students will see. Then as you walk down that hallway, we now have our art room. So outside of our room art room, as you can tell, it's blackbirds interacting with art, creating art. And
078if you look very carefully, there's little insects that are all inside those and embedded into it because what do birds eat? Insects. Our students actually met with the artists and they created these. And then so the students artwork is actually embedded inside. So if you look hard, you can see the insects. That's what it is. And then this will give you an idea of what it's going to look like. Again, these are artist renderings. The floor is our rubber floor that's going to be there. So that's going to be the idea of what you'll see as you walk down that hallway. Next, the music room. And that is actually the real alma mater. The music teachers worked with me. It's al former music teacher. That's embarrassing. But anyways, you get the idea. And that's what
079it will look like down that hallway. And then finally, when we get to the large gym and multi-use space, we wanted to be able to create something that's not just for physical space, but it's our gathering space. It's where our students come together, our community comes together, and they do multiple things. So, we wanted a community representation. So, that's what the artist developed, and that's what it'll end up looking like as you walk down. So, nice big focal point, very open and clean and clear. So, >> so the trophy cases are gone. >> The trophy case is gone. Yes. which had no trophies in it, but yes, it is there. We can always move those, but it it really gives the feel of the district. Um, that flooring is already there. It does look like
080that in that area, not the ceiling tile, but I did want to kind of give an example of what we're going to see. We're getting close to that. April and May, we're going to start seeing a lot more work getting done. Um, so by April, we should have that vinyl up and then the windows are a little delayed, so we'll have plywood on the walls, but it is what it is. By May, we should have that door all the way all the [snorts] way open and people should be able to tour it. >> so when you say vinyl, it's like the peel and stick ones. >> Yeah. So, we didn't want >> No, no kids are gonna peel. >> We didn't want anyone to be able to actually paint it because if you paint it
081and then you have to do something to it, then you have to have someone come back and repaint it or if it gets scratched. This literally is just a big giant vinyl decal. It goes on. If anything ever happens to it, we repaint it. We then we just do it again and put it right back. So, it's really cost effective and for long-term use of facilities, it really is the only way to go at this point. >> That's really cool. >> So, I just kind of wanted to share that. I thought it was I haven't really shared that publicly. Any questions? >> Huge kudos to the teachers who've been displaced. >> Yeah, everybody's been doing an amazing job. >> A lot of like looking at all those spaces that are undergoing all this and just
082thinking of all the people who are >> Well, the beauty part the the displacement really isn't classrooms as much. It truly truly is our cafeteria workers. Yeah. I I I cannot like Yes, we've moved a couple classrooms a little bit, but I mean the fact that we do not have a cafeteria right now. We have a makeshift cafeteria. They do all the work. They travel it down. They're working in that gymnasium. I mean, they've been phenomenal. That is I mean, everybody deserve kudos, but they really have done an amazing job meeting the needs of our students and population. >> So, >> looks really good. >> All right. So, that is what I wanted to share with that. And then I want to share one more quick thing and that is our UPK program. Um we
083do not currently have a UPK program. I want to be clear on saying that. But we did put out a request for proposals or an RFP. Um it actually was in the legal documents of the Ultimate Enterprise this past weekend. Um what an RFP is, it's a request for proposals. It goes out to community based organizations saying we are interested in having a prek program again in the district. Um, so come with us with your proposals and let's see where it is. The hard part is, and I want to be clear, is that we are stuck with whatever money we get. We don't offset with our general fund. So if the governor's proposal of $10,000 works out, excuse me, then that's great. Then we could pay up to $10,000 for our community based organizations. If
084it doesn't and it's $5,400, which we currently have, we will not get a community-based organization to say yes to that. We couldn't last year. That's why we had to cancel the program. So, I'm hopeful that the governor's budget and the enacted state budget will have an increase of UPK because I do believe we'll get some community based organizations interested. If not, I'm not very hopeful that we would have a prek program if it's 5,400 again. So that's why I haven't come out and said we're going to have one because we can't and I don't want to get people's hopes up with the money unknown and yet our RFP is not back in yet or closed. So there's too many unknowns. But the good news is we are looking. We are interested. We're hopeful that this
085will work out for the best of our students and population. But only time will tell in the next month or two. >> And this this money is not long term, right? It's only >> limited number of years. >> So what they're saying because I rechecked on that. So, what they're saying is that the money that they're adding now, this $10,000 will be there for the long-term hall. I don't think they're ever going to increase that, though. It's your money or your state allocation, either one of those. But I don't believe it's going to go away. What the And I got some clarification on the bill itself as well. It was in three years. If you have any students that want prek and you take the money, you have to give it to them. The money
086is still there. You just have to pre-k programming for them. So if you don't have outside programming, you have it for 28 kids and you have 50 kids, well then you have to find programming for those other 25 kids. So that's going to be the trick is how can you do it? >> So the funding is never going to go away and they're always going to give supposedly money for each student. But in three years from now, it says that any student who wants prek, you must give them prek. So that means if you have a program, that's what the current bill is. >> And it says, and this is literally in three years. Yeah, >> there's a threeyear like timeout. >> Yes. >> Cliff, >> there's a cliff. >> Yeah, you have to. >>
087So, you get three years of the CBOS and working together with the lotto, but after three years, if you have a population that wants it, you there's no more lotto. It's you have to find program for >> and at that point, you can wind down the program. You're not you're not committing. >> You're committed to offering. >> So, like right now, if if we did this next year, are you now committing by doing it next year that in three years you have to have a unfettered >> I don't know that answer, but I believe so. just by taking the money. So we >> Well, I think no matter what >> I think what they're saying though is in three years it will automatically be prek is mandatory. It seems that it's is where it's going.
088>> That's a kettle of fish that scares. >> I think that's where it's going is that they're mandatory. It's going to be mandatory for prek for districts to hold. >> That's not >> it's not there yet, but I do believe that's where it is. >> That's not something we ever said we would do. >> No, >> we said specifically we would never do that. money >> are they going to keep paying $10,000? >> They're going to keep pay is as long as it's still in the budget. That's what the goal is. Yes. >> And if they don't pay the $10,000, we're still in the vote for it. >> So that is why a lot of people are still having a lot of conversations with this because the bill is out. It's not been enacted or
089yet approved. >> This is really weird. >> Is $10,000 >> is that Yeah. And is that enough? >> Well Well, let me explain something. Do we want >> 10 years ago when this program started and they were giving out let's say $3,000 that was great. Everybody was happy. They had more than enough money. 10 years later they were still getting $3,000. That $3,000 wasn't the same anymore. So if it's $10,000 now that's great, right? Or student per >> but in four years it might not be enough. >> Correct. So you're going to have to bring it inhouse eventually because your CBO you won't be able to offset it with a CBO >> if you're required to do it. If you're not, >> is 10,000 enough to do it in house? >> Um, >> it possibly
090is for us if we have the space and allocation. I would have to wait at least a year to be able to make sure that we can do. right now I don't think we'd have the ability to do that but I do believe within a year we could look at and evaluate the ability of in-house but I we again I have to see the long-term liability and long-term impact of that would be in the district because yes it's great for our students but if we're creating something that five years down the road is making us cut positions or cut program to be able to upkeep something that's my concern >> yeah we have 13 other grades of kids >> the threeear level thing doesn't specify It's full day which is five five hours but full
091day for prek is five hours >> but then you also have to have a place for them to be able to nap and you have to have facilities remember when we did the the playground it had to be for under there had to be playground space for under five years old >> I have so I have created an in-house prek program in another district I was in it is doable without very limited in limitations or changes of your playground >> but here's here's my >> so that I have done and have work >> that that's wonderful. I'm still challenged by the fact that we would a have to do that, b it's space and resources and three just because >> right >> this there's an additive quality to these programs. Well, you also while you're
092doing this, you also have to make sure that the kids do this functional function. So the this um unfunded mandate will now extend to UPK as well and next thing you know we're going to have you know infants that will be diapering all day. I've just seen. >> But here here's the good thing. >> Yeah. Well, here's the good thing. Right now, it's four four year olds. But here's the thing. Right now, those are all assumptions because >> nothing >> none of it nothing has passed. We do know that we have our ability for community based organizations. That's a solid. And we do know that we have a current funding allocation of $5,400. So, those are the things that we know and can control. All the other things are a little bit out of our
093control, but that's a good spot to be in. then we can evaluate those things as they come to really see what the impact is. So I think the first step is let's look at our community based organizations, see what that means, see what it looks like for us, and then we can evaluate as we go. But everything you're saying, there are some there's definitely valid viewpoints in all of those components, but I think we have a year or two before we have to really start digging deeper into those. >> Yeah, that $10,000 didn't come first. >> Exactly. >> All right, that is all I have. Okay. Thanks. My hair out. >> All right. >> What? >> Any other questions on any of that stuff? >> No. I just I'm reeling from the shock of that
094one. Um I should have heard $10,000 and thought, "Oh, there's there's going to be strings attached." Uh with that, we move to 4.1 minutes of the regular meeting. Would anyone like to move those forward? >> Second. >> All in favor? Hi. >> Everyone okay with some um consent agenda? >> Okay, we have personnel uh financial reports and claim auditor reports. Any conversation about them or would anyone like to move them both forward? 5.1 5.2. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? I >> Okay. Personnel items. Um any conversation, questions? Anyone want to move them? second. >> All personnel items go at once. >> Um I just had a question. I noticed I know we had our um some coaching resign and we have now another assistant coaching resign when we have a head
095coach proposed. Does that hold the spot for like um to bring back on assistants? Because we don't currently have last year we had a head coach and two assistants. Now we only have a head coach. Does it still need space >> bringing on bringing back to last year's numbers? >> Um, it doesn't necessarily say anything other than these are the people that are being hired right now. So, uh, to answer the question, >> not quite. >> No, no, it doesn't. It It just It just says that we're hiring this person. I'd be more than happy to answer questions after the meeting. >> Yeah, Frank will >> Yeah, >> I I'll answer any questions after the meeting. We can meet privately on that. >> Yeah, this we're just going to move forward. >> Um, so 5.3.
096Um, all items at 5.3. Anyone want to move? >> I'll move it. >> I already moved them. >> Thank you. Second. >> All in favor? I >> All right, we'll take 5.4 and 5.5. together. Any questions or comments? >> Anyone want to move it? >> I'll move this one. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Okay. Um, non- studentent non-resident student admission requests. Um, it is the time of year. >> It's alarming to see the grades they are reaching. >> Uh, Um, anyone like to move that? >> I'll move it. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Okay. And then New Scotland Soccer has a contract proposed. Anyone like to move it or discuss it? >> Is this for the normal use of the satellite fields? >> Yes. >> Okay. Just check. >> Second. >>
097I'll second. >> All in favor? I >> Okay. And an MOA for VTA for text statement. >> It was there. >> Discuss the whatever. >> Second. I'll second. >> All in favor? >> Okay. All right. With that, we move to old business. audit committee will be meeting potentially >> should be in May because we were previously scheduled to meet tonight, but we've been covering all of our financial reports as part of the regular agenda. So, there wasn't a lot. Um, but next in May, we do need to meet to get in our four required meetings. >> Absolutely. Yep. Thank you for keeping track of that. Curriculum committee, did you guys meet? >> We did not meet in the month of February. We will meet this month on March 24th. I the world is looking forward
098to it. >> I know it. >> I can't wait to see the video. >> Um I don't think there was no video. >> Um but I did get to watch a lovely video of policy committee. Um Miss Bersron has passed that to RG and there's so much. I highly recommend this is a much wa mustwatch TV must see must see TV on YouTube. >> There's a lot to cover. Credit to Frank who actually sat down and got us all organized. two and a half hours, you said. >> Um, >> and then I forgot all the work. >> I know. It's hilarious. It's really >> Yeah. If you watch the meeting, you'll see I was like, I don't remember doing that. >> But I did that, but I did. >> Yeah. So, there there's a lot
099on tonight and then I think we're meeting again on Wednesday. >> This like in two days. >> Yeah. >> So, we're going to have a lot more. There's there's a bunch of required policies that we need to get in place that I think are pretty easy. Um, so those We should expect to see a bunch more next month as well. >> Do you want to cover the meeting or do you want to just go through as we go through the policies and you can blur each one? >> Yeah, maybe when we get to the policies, I'll run through each and then we >> So policy means March 16th. >> March 16th. Okay. All right. Thanks. >> St. Patrick's Day. >> That's right. >> What color? >> Yeah, you're right. >> Yeah. >> I have an
100old date in my calendar. Yes. March 16th we're meeting. >> Okay. Well, we roll right into policies from here. Do you want to just >> Oh, yeah, sure. Okay. So, let me go in order. >> Display of the flag. >> If anyone has questions on any of these, stop me along the way. >> Um, so display of the flag. Um, we had an old 2003 version of this. Um, so we Frank called Guilderland's policy, um, which was based off the NISPO model policy. The real change to it was that we um now designate when we will raise and lower the flag to follow OS um the New York State OS Office of General Services notices flag raising and lowerings. So, we're just going to model um ours off of [clears throat] that guidance when it
101comes. >> I go to 4010. >> Okay. >> Yep. So, that's that one. Um next 4 410. Um, this was really old as well. Um, so it's just been updated to to match some updates >> on this one. Um, after that we have 4770 graduation requirements. So this one was old as well. Um, it contains a cross reference to 4772 which we have uh as 7.5 here. >> Um so we have 4772 and 4772R. So these were very old. Um the 4770 um has that cross reference to 4772. We did 4772 as a polic committee back in and and we had it on first read in April, but we never adopted it. So somehow it just fell off. >> Wasn't it 2023? >> 2024. >> Oh, cuz this was 2025. >> 2024. >> April because
102you were going through a block of graduation stuff all together and there were some things that you were trying to get all done at the same time because they all they all were connected. a line like >> so you didn't want us to second read anything until everything was done. >> So, >> exactly. And then we slipped up and we missed that we needed a second read on 4772. >> So, here we go. >> So, we've updated 4770 just to bring it up to date. It now includes a cross reference to 4772 which is on the agenda to adopt tonight. Um, we also have 4771 early graduation. >> So, can I ask a question about 4772? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, there's a paragraph paragraph three. Wait, the No, this one. Oh, it was the
103R. My goodness. Please hold. Um, the princ building principal shall submit to the superintendent of schools or nominee the name of all students who are on track and expected to earn either CDOS or SACC but not a regent or local high school diploma by the time of graduation. So, they're going to earn the COS or the >> secondary equipment, >> right? But they're not going to earn so They still get the >> It's limiting the requirement to report. >> But would they also report whoever's going to get the high school diploma? >> Those are not considered graduations. >> They're considered dropouts >> by New York State. >> Wait, >> a COS diploma or a sack is slightly different. >> But a regent diploma or local diploma, >> we get those anyways, but we need to
104know who's getting a seust or stack for other reasons as well. So it just reads to me like that's the only thing that the principal is. >> It's not. We get readings in local diplomas as well. They have to send those reports. But a seed doser or a SAC student could be 21 20 years old. It could be outside of the time frame of where the typical graduation requirement would be. >> So that's why you also want to know that so you can account for them for the graduation purposes. >> Okay? Because to me it reads that they're going to just submit the those the students getting the CDOS or the SAC but but not to give the names of students who are getting the regions or local >> because the regions diploma or local
105diploma if they're meeting the requirements to graduate high school they've already then equivalently got those. >> Okay. It just it's the way the way it reads to me doesn't make is >> understood. >> Yeah. But for someone who's doing it probably reads perfectly clearly. >> Okay. Yeah, Nisba wrote those. >> Bless their hearts. >> All right, continuing on. >> Thank you. >> 4771 early graduation is also on the agenda as 7.6. So that um was just a regular update. In making those updates, we discovered that we currently have what appears as 4771 validtory class. However, we in the past did update valid validtory class to 4774, but we did not make the update in the policy manual. >> So, that was just an oversight. So, what we're going to end up with is 4770 graduation
106requirements. 4771 is going to be early graduation. Uh 4772 is going to be the early graduation ceremonies and then 4774 will be valid class. And our plan is to continue discussing validtory class with uh Tim Kelly and whoever else wants to participate and our student board members >> in a process. >> Really want your input on this. Um and and that hopefully we'll get to in Well, the next meeting we're going to start talking about it. When we put it back up, I don't know. Um, let me go back up. 7.4 homebound instruction policy 4327. This one I believe is another NISB update. >> Yeah, it is. It is some regulatory language. >> Uh, yeah. Yeah. So this one, what happened there was NISD issued guidance to districts. Um and this is updated to incorporate
107the NIC guidance on homebound instruction. And then um 4321.4 independent educational evaluations. This one is also a little tricky. Um so what we're doing because We have currently a 4321.3 and a 4321.4 which are two different versions of allocation of space for special education programs. The version of 4321.3 um allocation of space for special education programs is fine. We last updated it in 2024, but 4321.4 we are basically substituting completely with independent educational evaluations, which is the the draft policy that was included with the agenda. >> Can PPPs P I'm sorry, two Ps. PPS in the last paragraph be spelled out somewhere in here. That was my question. personal services. >> It just says PPS and that doesn't >> Yes. Uh 4321.4 >> last paragraph. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> That's good. I have
108to look at your >> Yeah, acronyms are my nemesis. >> Okay, I got more. >> 7.8. >> So, current policy 8121.2 to automat automated external defibrillators um is we updated it um to address like there were some changes in the law relating to a so it's been updated with NISBA updates but NISBA also recommended that we move um what is 8121.2 from the safety policies to is it the health related policies. So it's being reumbered to [clears throat] 5425. >> Can I ask how that works for cross country when they're running through swift? I mean no one's running alongside them within a but >> No, but there's one >> there's one somewhere at the main spot. That's >> Yes. Just I didn't know how that Yeah. might be two miles from the person, but it's
109there. >> Correct. Okay. And then the last one, >> this is a first read. It's policy 5061 facility dogs. Um I might let you talked about this. >> So we talked about this for a while, >> five years ago. >> So this is therapy dogs. Um so you call facility facility dogs. This is to allow a staff member who has a facility dog or the certified therapy dog to bring in and utilize their therapy dog if they so wish to. Um so we don't have a policy stating that. So we do have staff members who have therapy dogs who utilize therapy dogs at community organizations across the area and capital region. Um if they want to bring them in, there was no mechanism to allow that to occur. So this is that mechanism that would
110allow it. So it's not that we're paying for a therapy dog. we're allowing or having them or paying for them to be here. This is somebody who has a therapy dog can bring them in and you know use them if they so wish to. So that that's what this kind of policy and process will do. >> So if anyone has thoughts on it, we're meeting March 16th. I think the goal is to try and finalize it then. So anyone >> and it's just dogs. >> Just dogs at this point. >> No lizards. >> No rabbits. >> No cats. No cats. >> Worms. >> No worms. >> The way it's written is limited to dogs. >> Facility dogs. >> Any questions? >> Yes. >> Um, if there is a plan, if it is approved for a
111facility dog to come in, will the community know ahead of time? >> Yes, we we'll do recognition. Also, I believe in the policy it states that the uh teacher also has to recognize and notice any students that are a part of it. I'd have to make sure that's in the policy. >> Yes, it does say. I didn't know if something would be sent out just to know through the building. Yeah. So the building prince will be sending out. Yeah. So there's a lot of clarification. So there'll have to be sign off. People have to know about it. And then there's a backup plan as well as part of that. >> Yeah. There's a provision like for the allergies there's >> maybe something like the when you sign off for the pesticides thing like at the
112beginning of the year you sign about whether you want to be notified if pesticides are being used. If you sign off that you want to be notified if dogs are being brought into your >> somebody might want to know like are they coming in a specific day or to a specific >> right but if you want to be notified like you know you sign to be notified if you're if a dog is being brought in. >> Yeah. >> This is more of an idea that say a teacher has a therapy dog. Let's say Frank McCree the my dog I wish could be trained to be a therapy dog. I am not that good of a train. But let's say my I was and I had a certified therapy dog. I would bring my dog in
113every day as a therapy dog, right? Because the idea of having the therapy dog is that it's consistent opportunities for people to be a part of and those therapeutic practices. So this wouldn't be a one-off. This would be the idea that the teacher would be bringing in that animal much like very often. >> Okay. >> So then I'm terribly allergic to dogs. How does that affect me? >> So we'll not be in your classroom and the therapy dog will not be here. >> So we just that would be >> that would be >> Yep. Yep. So if if you have a teacher who would have a therapy dog and then that therapy dog would be in your classroom, therefore you cannot do it. >> Yep. Thank you for bringing that up. >> Yeah. >> Could
114make that class very interesting. >> Okay. >> All right. So that's it and expect more next month. >> Okay. So with that 7.9 is a first read but 7.1 to 7.8 8 are either second read or revisions. Are there anything items in any of these that we want to discuss further? Would everyone be comfortable with a consent agenda for 7.1 all the way through 7.8? >> Would anyone like to move that? >> I'll move that. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? I Okay, we skipped 7.9 because it is a first read. There is no action to be taken. Um, acceptance of donations. This is the box tops and I believe it's a different amount than previously noted. I think it was 172 or something and now it's 79. Correct. Yes. Yes. Excellent.
115Um, we could take those together. the box tops um and acceptance of box top and ex the amendment to the budget 7.9 10 7.11 >> second >> all in favor I >> thank you to all the folks who dealt with no longer clipping little box tops but dealing with some weird >> app thing I bless you for that >> uh with that we have 8.1 the opportunity for for the public to be heard. Anyone who would like to speak, that is the way we do it just for the future. We do that over there. Um and then anyone? No. Opportunity for the board to be heard. Um with that, we move to important dates to remember. Um, if anyone's picking up petition from Miss Tobacin and the district office, they're due April 20th by 5:00
116pm sharp. Very sharp. And there's a board of education meeting on next one is on the 13th of April. So, not for ages, ages, and ages. Um that anyone like to move us to a journ >> second. >> All in favor? >> I thank you all. Have a great night and you're going anywhere. Stay safe. >> That's what I told. I'm like when I was looking, right? What are you >> Oh no, that was my last. Yeah, today's felt like >> Oh, we didn't put the 26. Okay, I I see what you mean. Okay. >> Hey there. Hi. Thank you. >> Oh, good on those. >> I try. >> I see those little stickers, Justin. You've got me trained. >> Thank you. >> Turn this off.