001Thank you everyone for your patience. We ran a little bit over executive session. We're now going to exit executive session. Um anyone like to move us out of executive session? Second. All in favor? All right. With that, we are back regular session. Um and we're going to go right into audit committee. Um I asked Lisa to send me had all the reports tonight. That's where we are. It's the minutes from our February meeting. Can I sit or do I have to stand? It's a little hard to see you from there. Okay. Hi. All right. So, yes, I did send you the drive that said audit committee 512.5. The very first item on the agenda is the review of the February 3rd audit committee minute minutes and I believe that is the second it's a word
002document. I don't know if we need a motion or a second. Very good. Um, the next item on the agenda, excuse me, is the 2526 external audit update. Mr. Alan Walther from On the DEO Group is here to provide information about what they are looking to um review as part of the audit. Thank you. I'll email you. Okay, that's fine. Um, good evening. Um, I think I know most of you, but my name is Alan Walther. I'm a partner with the Bio Group. We are the school district's um, external auditors. Um I prepared a brief PowerPoint presentation to talk about the upcoming audit for the um June 30th, um school district fiscal fiscal year. Um so the first slide is the scope of our audit um our scope of our services. Our primary objective is
003to audit the school district's financial statement in accordance with government auditing standards. Um in conjunction with that we also audit the school district's extra classroom activities funds um in um in accordance with the cash basis of accounting. Um we will issue a report on internal control over uh financial reporting and compliance um in accordance with government's management otherwise known as the yellow book. We will issue a management letter if necessary. We assist with the preparation of financial statements. The financial statement preparation is predominantly taking your fund level financial statements that Lisa and Christie maintain and um converting them to uh the governmentwide financial statements um as well. We also um offer unlimited phone support throughout the year. We do get we're working on a um a payroll question as we speak. We do get a
004handful of uh phone calls throughout the year and no charge for that for that service as well. Um the next slide is is our responsibility. So this is what the the responsibility of the auditors is. Um performing an audit in accordance with government audit standards. Expressing an opinion as to whether the financial statements are presented fairly in material material respects in accordance with gap gap being generally accepted accounting principles. Reporting on internal control and compliance. Reading the other information in the financial statements and considering whether it is materially inconsistent with the financial statements. communicating fraud and or abuse in accordance with professional standards if we find if we find any communicating specific matters to you on a timely basis and we will plan to perform um our audit to obtain reasonable assurance the school district's
005financial statements are free of material statements. The next slide is governance responsibilities. This is the responsibilities of a committee and the board of education. So that the the governance is um responsible for overseeing the financial reporting process, right? The the at the highest level, setting an appropriate tone at the top, reviewing the school district's activities in the financial arena, discussing significant accounting internal control matters with management, informing us about fraud or suspected fraud and abuse and abuse, including your views about progress. At the very last slide in this presentation is my contact the people who work on the job. Feel free to reach out if there are any concerns, any areas that you think we should focus our attention on. Um, informing us about any matters that are relevant to the audit, any again any
006matters warranting particular audit attention, any communic communications received from regulators, matters related to internal controls and your views regarding your communications. The next slide is management's responsibility. This is the responsibility of the administration. Management is responsible responsible for taking responsibility and fairly presenting the financial statements according to gap right through your we do assist in preparation but ultimately with the school district financial statements not on the management's responsible for designing implementing and maintaining effective internal controls communicating significant and counting internal control matters to us providing us with unrestricted access to health persons and all information relevant to our audit. An audit needs to be without scope limitations. Anything that we ask for regarding finances is is fair game. Um informing us about fraud, abuse of legal acts, significant deficiencies and material weaknesses, adjusting the financial
007statements, correct material statements. If we do have adjusting entries as we go through audit, we will provide them to Lisa and Christie. And at the end, we do make sure that the school districts um general ledger is reconciled to audit work so they are they both match exactly um informing us about material subject and events and then finally providing us with written representations in conjunction with financial statements. The next slide is audit risk. So audit risk is defined as the combination of the possibility that errors or irregularities exist in the school district financial record and that such errors are not discovered through the school district's own controls and audit procedures performed failed to uncover them. Right? So that would be the definition of an a failure. Right? There's an error of the financial statements. School
008district didn't find it. We didn't find it. The school district financial statements are materially misdated. So what do we do to use that audit risk. Um, we focus our attention on your organization, your operational risks, your tone at the top, control environment and how you monitor controls. We focus on critical business processes and internal controls and we look at school district significant accounts and the related disclosures. Some of the detailed procedures that we do um evaluate and review controls and control environments. Um we do some internal control testing. We do walk through or payroll transactions um cash receipts, cash dispersements. Um we evaluate risk assessments, test test key controls and then we test um significantly um substantively the the year end balances, your cash, your receivables, your payables, your long-term debt. um to make sure
009that your financial statements are fairly stated. The next slide, significant audit areas. These are these are areas each year, right? We're we're actually in the process right now. We're doing our our risk assessment today and tomorrow. So, we're here um as we speak, but each year we do a risk assessment and we modify our audit program um accordingly. But these what's on the slide here are some areas that we will look at every year. um revenue recognition, making sure that property taxes, state aid, federal aid is recorded in the proper period. Um management judgments and accounting estimates, there's some significant estimates in the financial statements. We do uh look at those every year. Other post benefits, compensated absences, um legal matters, journal entries, we're required by professional standards to take a look at journal entries
010every year. Um so we'll do that. Capital projects. We always look at to make sure that capital projects are accounted for correctly and staying within budget. Payroll. We look at payroll every year. Payroll is by far the largest expenditure of the school district. And then finally, fund balance reserves. We always look at those to make sure that you're in compliance with the New York State 4% um limitation. The next slide is materiality. Materiality is a very important concept for us as your auditors. Without material, without materiality, we wouldn't be your auditors. We be employees. We be looking at every single transaction. Right? So, we determine um materiality based on individual opinion units of the school district through governmentwide financial statements, general fund etc. And what materiality is is we determine tolerabeness statement which is the
011maximum dollar amount that we would be willing to accept and still be able to issue an unmodified opinion on your financial statements. From our our miss statement we determined test scope and our test scopes are dollar amounts for substitute test. Yes. Can you give an approximate what has been historically the maximum dollar amount that has been acceptable? Um, it goes by fund. So on a sliding scale, your governmentwide financial statements would be the largest. Um, your general fund would be the next largest. Off the top of my my head, I I don't have that. I can share that with you. So is it a percentage then? It's based upon u it is it's a there's a formula. It's based upon um the school districts generally we use expenditures. So we take your general fund budget
012basically we back out interfund transfers that kind of thing that you know that's within and come up with the number and we take it for I can share I can share that with thank you. Yep. Yep. Um so we use a dollar amount when we're testing cash receivables payables um based on um our materiality and then for um control testing it's just a sample size. Um when we test controls we're not concerned with the dollar amounts. We just want to make sure that the school district is following its own um policies. Um and then from materiality as we go through the audit if we do find adjustments we keep track of them and if the adjustments cumulatively exceed our tolerance statement then um the school district has to book those. Okay. If we have past
013adjustments um usually we just book the adjustments. Um but if we have past adjustments they will all all adjustments will be reported to you um in the required communications letter. The next slide is our is our um our timetable um the preliminary work April 24th 25th if not correct it's it's May 12th and 13th we're doing it today and tomorrow our final field work is scheduled for the week of July 21st um as as the calendar turns July 1st and the school district determines your next honor committee meeting and board of education meeting let us know we'll get on schedule um so that we'll meet all of the New York State reporting deadlines um for October 15th. Um the next slide, new developments. We're working with uh Lisa as we speak to help the school
014district implement um Gazby 101 compensated abences. What that what Gazsby is a governmental accounting stand for that sets the accounting policies that the school district needs to follow. There's a new um um standard with regard to compensated absences that changes the way that is reported on your financial your compensated assences that are actually paid out to your employees are based upon your contract. That's what okay you're you're just glossing over. So I I had a more white hair grow today. we have to do um in order to make it a correct and accurate amount, we're going to do a three-year look back period and do the calculation for the past 3 years. Then we're going to do the calculation as of June 30th, 2024. And there we'll do the June 30th, 2025. So, it's a
015lot of number crunching. Just leave it at that. It'll leave your mind spinning. So, sorry. I mean, sorry Al. Yes, fair enough. Fair enough. Fair. The adjustments to the extent that there will be one will affect your governmentwide financial statements. It will not be a general fund adjustment. Are we going to need to create a reserve for this, Lisa? Yes. We think we're good. It would be the wise thing to do. Yes. Yes. You'll have a recommendation. Yes, there is a that's one of the allowable reserves um from here state. Um the next slide, we are required to follow up on prior findings which is easy because the word last year so good job. Uh and then finally um the last slide here is the client service team with our phone numbers um and email
016addresses. Again, any concerns, anything that you'd like us to to take a look at, feel free to call us, shoot us an email um and you can uh um consider that. And then um any questions? Thank you. Thank you. We'll see you guys in At this time, Christine will review the school lunch profit and lunch report for March 2025. Here's some things that you should take note of. Go. Hello. Um, so I'm going to go over the March school lunch fund and I'm going to start with the revenues. Um I comp obviously this compares to last year. Our meal meal six sales did go up to date. Other sales went down. Um surplus foods is down and this year one of our biggest things is we didn't get the supply chain funds that we got
017last year. Um, there was a food uh, I'm sorry, a farm to school grant through cooperative extensions that we took advantage of. And so the revenues overall year to date, we're down 34,000 compared to last year. For um, revenues, I'm sorry, expenditures. Expenditures um, compared to 2024, salaries are up about 13,000. Um, contractual expenses were right in line with last year. Food purchases are down this year about 5,000. Supply purchases are down about 10,000. Our retirement is up about 8,300 and health and dental benefits are up 17,000. Um, making uh our expenses higher $39,000 this year. Overall year to date, we have a shortage of $139,000 as of March. So that basically wipes out our June 30th, 2024 fund balance in the lunch fund. You had a positive fund balance, but right now we are
018in the red. So what's your recommendation, Lisa? Well, the recommendation will be um to collect any outstanding debt and that I need to review with Paul. Um next year there's not free. Yeah, free free for K through 12. We just need to make sure we apply for any federal reimbursement. Right now, we don't know what the process is going to be to apply or what the reimbursement will be. Can I add to that, too? Go ahead. I have not seen anything on any bills yet or any specifics on how that money is going to go. So, you know, Paul Franchie is like, "Yay, it's free." And I go, "Nothing's free until I see the regulations that came out. So, yes, we might be getting funding. I just don't understand exactly how much what it's going
019to look like and how we're going to benefit it." So, as soon as we see that come out in the bill and how it's written, I think then we can say, you know, it's free for for kids. But, I don't want to know. I don't want to like say anything until I see it. exactly how schools are impacted. School health ratio, is that included or not included? Um, that hasn't been clear yet in any of this. So, I really am waiting to see that, but yes, it would be great if it was free lunch and then it would definitely help us offset some cost. Yes. And then we'll have to look at any of those um extras that are sold, look at the pricing for the extras, look at the adult price um and just
020look at increasing prices. It's what we can do and apply for claims. Okay. Number four is the claims auditor report for April 2025. That is a spreadsheet and that is prepared by Robin. Oh, Robin Burch. I asked her to break it down by fund and warrant. She does that on a sheet, a a separate sheet, and then she goes into what items did not the cut and why they exactly the cut and most of the items that Robin will um question or kick out and I'm talking about claims um have purchase orders which are after the date of the invoice. That's a big no no but that happens frequently in all school districts. So, we're doing our best to address it. And there are certain departments that are better and certain departments that are not
021as good about getting purchase orders before um we actually make an expense. Okay. Number five is the review of the revenue status report that is attached. As of today, we are right on target to receive our 2425 general fund revenues. They're coming in as budgeted. Number six is the 2425 appropriation status report with history. That's the that's the document that you folks like. It has all those years and it has really tiny tiny amounts. But as of Friday when I did it, we are 75% um spent for our budget. So, let me phrase this this way. Our 2425, we have a budget. Our 2425 expenditures as of May 8th, we've spent 75% of that number. That is right on target. We're going to have significant um expenditures come in June with the multi-pay and also
022with debt service. So we're going to see that 74 jump to 94 95 96 which is where it should be by June 30th. State aid analysis. Yes, we do have a new state budget. Everybody was all happy and saw all these wonderful amounts. And I'm going to burst your balloon. Sorry, business officials, we take a class in bursting balloons. Okay. So, the foundation aid that was originally proposed in the executive budget in January is the exact same thing that was the final budget. So, there was no further increase in the foundation aid. It was $111,000. Okay. Um, we did see an increase in transportation aid approximately $95,000 and that goes due because we received two buses in February March and we've already so we've generated a uh we saw a slight slight decreases overall in
023the textbook software library and hardware aids and that just has to do with people comes and I believe that the snapshot was originally in January and then they took another snapshot in April. So our pupil counts might have changed slightly. Um public excess cost and high cost again that changed slightly like 34,000. The biggest the second biggest increase was Bosey's aid and that Boseies generates a projection on behalf of the district. It's notable that our commitment for 25 26 Boseies is less than our current year. So that projection in aid is based upon what we've spent so far in 2425. So please don't get excited about additional aid. Um, again, this is a guarantee. It's not guaranteed until the district submits the state aid in August. It gets cleansed and released in November and then
024we actually know what we'll receive for 2526. So, there's a big lag. I want to say something about state run itself. If you look at the state run itself, I got a little excited when I saw universal prek. It was the expenditure that we did last year. So $124,198. It looks like if you look at it this year, what the state has given us is $361,800. That is not actually true. So I got conf confirmation is that is how much that the state has allocated for us at $5,400 per pupil to serve up to 67 students. So the pub per pupil expenditure still is 5,400. It has not changed. We can only spend 5,400. So we have 10 kids, you know, it's 50,000. So it gives you an example. We don't have the leeway to
025use that money for anything other than prek and we can only use $5,400 per student for that. So that's why that's one of the biggest concerns that people have when they're talking about this is that they would like leeway for school districts. So we can either increase the per pupil amount, you know, so if we had 10,000 per student, it'd be great. We could service 37 students. more than we ever had and I would guarantee programs that um but that's not what the state is allowed. So it is still even there it's for 67 students at $5,400 per people program is not going to work for $5400. Think about state aid as being a cup of tea. Okay? Not a tea bag. Think about it as a cup of tea with all these loose pieces.
026When you get to the bottom of your cup of tea, you actually find out what you're drinking, right? You actually find out what was included in the cup of tea. That's what stage is like. You have this wonderful cup of tea, you drink it, and next November you'll find out what you were drinking. Okay. I don't know. I Yeah. Don't get excited about Steve. The very last document uh for the audit committee agenda is something that I've prepared for uh throughout my career. Let's leave it at that. So in 2016, one of the recommendations that the comproller had was to have a reserve plan. Every district should have a reserve plan. And most districts out there do not have a reserve plan. What's a reserve plan? It lists the reserve that you have, the purpose,
027when it was created, how it can be used, and the funding level. And then it makes you project forward to see how you're going to use that specific reserve. Let's take an easy example, the 2018 capital reserve, right? The district utilized $3 million from that 2018 capital reserve. What the board needs to know is how much remains in that 2018 capital reserve, how long can you tap into that 2018 capital reserve and how much money that you can put in each year. So say we have I'm just plucking from there. You have um 2018 2020 you have three more years, right? for Grims and Gables. It's three more years and you're going to put a half million dollars in for the next three years. So that's $ 1.5 million. What are you going to use
028it for? What's your next project? What is your plan for that? Okay. So what I have included is just a very rough draft of what I've done for previous districts. It doesn't have to be opted on June 9th, but I would really like some feedback, some consideration as to what I'm presenting. What we did have to do on the property tax report card is we did have to project intended uses for 2526. This document would be intended uses for all those reserves. Okay. And that's all I'm going to say. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. So, Lisa, if like I was looking through the different reserves and like the unemployment reserve, if we don't have any intentions of laying anybody off or having a decrease in staff, do how can that be used? How exactly how
029can that those funds can they be transferred to another reserve? Do they have to be put back into the general fund unappropriated reserve? That's what I should be able to tell you with this document so you can come up with a concrete plan and use it in conjunction with your audit. Thank you. Okay, your long range financial plan. and it all ties back. Okay. As far as feedback on it, I think for me the missing piece has been when the reserve expires, how long we have to fund it and when it expires like you were saying, the what can happen to it transfer those funds into another reserve? to vote, you know, create a new reserve to transfer those funds into we will be asking you to consider some fund balance um changes on June
0309th and that you typically do every year just to clean up for the auditors or what are we doing? I think this gives you more answers to your questions as to why we're doing it and where we get new funds from. Okay, I can send the ASBO or it's the reserves. I think it had it maps. I think we shared it before. It's the reserve and what can be used for and what it can be used for. There's a beautiful book. Yeah, we can I can share that out with the board. So, that has everything in it from the law. So, I mean, we'll we'll give it specifics to you when we talk about specific ones, but there's a document that comes out. I was gonna say Jim Jim gave us a I think I
031have I can easily if that could be like an appendix to help. Yeah, it's it's like a two-pager. It basically has every reserve, what can be used for, what can't be used for, and how it can or cannot be transferred. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Yeah. All right, that we finished the audit committee meeting. Thank you all for your patience. Um, and we move to 1.3 in board meeting which is the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. All right. Roll call. Um board members are here with the exception of our student board member who's unable to be here this evening. So there you go. Um and now we go to our budget hearing. What are
032we going to do? You know, so Lisa, I have it all set up for us. Okay. All right. Does that mean you're going to do it? You can do it from there if you'd like at this point. We I feel like we're old hat after our video, too. We did such a nice job. So, uh, one thing is the budget hearing is today, as you know. Um, there are some state guidelines and time that we have to deal with. Our budget newsletter is actually out there up and there for anyone who wants it. It's going out in the mail tomorrow. It's part of our budget hearing and budget notice. I'm also having it posted on the website and sent out through school messenger. So, that way people who are already within it get it very
033quickly as well. Um, I can't always trust the mail. So, we just want to try to safeguard making sure everybody gets as much as best as possible. And as you all know now, we have a state budget. So, at least finalizes a little bit more of where we are. Um, we have done this a few different times. So, not much has changed. So, I might skip through a little bit if that's all right for people. Are you okay with that? All right. So, the first few slides have not changed since the very beginning. Um so the planning document as we talked about you know it's we really try to safeguard everything that we're doing planning for the future you know some of the reserves things that are coming that are not coming how do we
034safeguard um for all the future because as you know it's uncertain times and we do not know what the future's going to bring when it comes to funds. So trying to make decisions that will be able to keep us sustainable. Uh we look at all different types of topics from facilities safety initiatives mental health supports curriculum support personnel. Uh we review supports, learning opportunities, professional development, training for staff, instructional needs, which is facility, transportation, equipment, cost increases, contractual, health insurance, employee benefits. You know, we can't always know that everything's going to happen, but we do our best to to kind of figure it out. We work with everybody. They give me a superintendent budget to look through. I then work with Lisa, and we try to make recommendations that align with the board goals. Um,
035this budget draft has not changed. It does not exceed the tax levy limit. is still a 2% tax cap. We only need a simple majority to be able to pass it. Uh we're preserving all current programs and services for students. Everything that's been budgeted is still budgeted. Nothing's getting cut. Uh the only thing that we are looking at cutting is to uh teacher assistance that were done through attrition to retirement. Those are the only things in the budget that we had this year that are not in the budget for next year. Everything else that's in the budget is. So for an example is you saw that there's a resignation of a staff member today and somebody said well you're not filling that position. Nope, that position is already in the budget. We've already budgeted for
036that position. The only things that are getting cut we've already discussed. So it's a two teacher assistance through attrition. Everything else we're re rehiring and refilling new positions that we have. Um so we are looking at a social worker position part-time social worker. We are looking at partnering with BKW on that. they are looking for a part-time social worker as well. So, we are looking at sharing that together, sharing that cost and also hoping to get a full-time staff member and be able to attract better candidates if we work together. So, Bern will work with us on that. Um, and we keep on looking at all our known costs or health insurance that's really driving us capital projects and things like that. As you know, we are looking at a tax increase and now we'll
037look at the planning document for Lisa. So, all you Lisa. Okay. Thank you for this. I know I went okay so a an overall increase of expenditures is 42,884.12 significant decrease is the inner fund transfer as I mentioned at the audit committee meaning you have $3 million that was going to fund the capital project that is no longer needed it's one time use debt service and I'm sorry I'm going to bottom up debt service is the biggest increase And as we've mentioned previously, that will pay for the December 2022 $25 million project. That's the first principle and interest or mortgage payment on the construction project. Employee benefits are going up significantly. Health insurance 16%. Uh um pupil transportation increasing slightly 213 835 not slightly that's a big number uh instruction 567 635 that's due to
038contractual increases and general support 348963 is the increase and I really turn the page please I detailed what category why there are increases One that I forgot to mention was the property casualty liability insurance is increasing significantly and we found that after we thought we had finalized the budget so we had to include that. Um let's see let's go to page 10. Can I ask a question? The debt service payments what's the frequency of this? uh principal and interest principal once a year interest twice a year for the next 15 years. Okay. So this is in a nutshell the tax cap um calculation. The tax cap 2526 is 22253153. The actual 2425 tax cap, the tax levy was 21,4114, a dollar difference of 1,2530, which is a total increase of 5.97%. Of which that 5.97
0392.5% is for the new debt. So overall, all the other increases account for 3.47%. % and this is at your maximum allowable levy 50% plus one. What I've been saying to people when I meet with them and have conversations is if we did not have the approved capital project we would probably be at 3.47 because that's our tax cap and everything that goes along with it. This is where we would be and that is typical to where we typically around those areas. that 2.5% extra is that approved capital project that we have to pay for somehow that's where it's coming and I I kind of put it into two buckets so everybody has that understanding and Lisa and I went to a recent lunchon and we were sharing this and people they understood you know
040they actually said we totally understand like we get this so just sharing it in that realm I think is an important concept is that people understand there's two buckets there there is our capital project bucket and then there is our overall general fun we and the 2 and a half% increase that gets included in the levy that um we don't have to like do another 2 and a half% next year. That's just baked in. It's baked in. Sets the tone is always there. So that way when we do another capital project, when our debt services come off, instead of having a gap year, we want to be able to put new debt on. So that way we want to make sure we're planning for another capital project so we don't see another increase like this
041again or a decrease that we're hitting. So we want to be a future proof so this doesn't happen. It's very important that you include your uh financial advisors in these conversations and they'll talk about level debt. Level debt level debt is where you won't see a 2 and a half% increase and you will have that coming up in future years. you have that opportunity because you do have some debt service that is going off the books within the next five years. Okay. Okay. Page 11. So these are our revenue sources. Just like every other school district, we have state and federal aid. other revenue sources, tax cap, which I just explained, appropriate reserve, fund balance, and the total income sources of 34,525 to 50, which is showing an increase of 428.884. Okay. Um, page 12
042just shows that we have a balanced budget. Our revenues equal our expenditures. Page 13, we just have to present the budget in three parts. So what you saw on previous pages, let me page seven is just restated on page 13 into administrative program and capital. And there's a very specific framework that us number crunchers have to recode those expenditures in. So administrative would be everything under general support plus a portion of employee benefits. Program it's program it's instruction. instructional services and capital is operations, maintenance, debt service and employee benefits. So the total again is 34,525 250. Okay, page 14. And this is me preface this one. Yeah, this is all tentative. This is not set in stone. These are examples of true value of what tax rates could be. It does not mean they will
043be this. We're doing our best just to kind of give estimates so people have an understanding of it. So if they're lesser or higher, please understand we don't have control of that. Equals equalization rates are something that we can try to estimate but not always, you know, um be able to know for sure. If you remember in Yep. I was there um I just moved into Weatherfield and I thought taxes were going to be one thing. The equalization rate hit and my taxes doubled for school taxes. Um, and I knew it wasn't the school's fault. It was equalization rate. Equalization rate is completely out of control. It has to do with the assessed value of the homes and a whole bunch of other things. But sometimes we have no control as those equalization. We have
044no control sometimes. Yeah, we have no control. Correct. So, even though we're trying to give you this example, I do want to really set set in stone that we're trying to give an example of what this is based on our growth and everything else, but these are estimates. Lisa, yeah, I fought this just because once you say a number, people will hang their hat on that number and this is so out of our control that it makes me very uncomfortable. Enough said. What I did is I looked on New York State equalization and assessment and like anybody else can, I pulled up Albany County, I pulled up school districts, I printed out the information and um they were all ative rates that were there. So that's step one. The next step was I contacted New
045Baltimore Gilderland and burn assessors and they would kindly presented to me the assessment data as of May 1st. Okay, again tentative. So I took that information along with those equalization rates and our proposed tax levy. I came up with these rates. again tentative rates. Any questions? And it's probably going to change. Okay. Um number 15, we're asking the voters to consider the bus proposition. Two large 72 passenger diesel school buses at a cost not to exceed 371,000. In 2027, I haven't seen much changes yet on the fact that school districts still have to buy electric buses. There's been a little bit of change. We have not seen the full regulations come out of what those changes are, but you still have to start purchasing. So, we do need to start future proofing that, getting some
046reserves in place. Electric buses can be a very large expense, anywhere between 350 to $450,000 per bus. Um, so that's double where we currently are on our buses. So, this bus reserve will help us do that. We're going to increase our fleet with diesel, making sure that we have enough buses to last us for the long term until the electric um buses can actually meet the needs of our district. We do have a fleet study and our fleet study is pretty clear that we cannot have a full fleet of electric buses given the current just wouldn't meet the needs of our district. So doing this helps us and also sets our taxpayers up so we not see full feeling the full brunt of this when we do go out by those buses. You're talking about
047the bus reserves. Reserve the next slide. Yes it is. Okay. So let's talk about this bus reserve next slide. So it is in essence it's capital reserve. Okay only it's not for construction it's for the p purpose of um purchasing equipment. So I believe a capital reserve cannot exceed a period of 10 years. It must state the purpose and it must state the maximum amount it will be and um where the source of funds are. So according to this it would be established July 1st 2025. The maximum amount would be $5 million. The duration would be 10 years. It does allow the district to put unreserved unappropriated fund balance in as of June 30th, 2024 if this is approved. So, that's a good thing. And it doesn't limit you could put all I don't think
048you don't have the funds to do so, but if you had $5 million, you could fund it all at once and that's it. That's it. You've reached the total amount, but you haven't reached the term. Okay, so next steps. So we have two board candidates running for the position that is Robert and Rob. Um they are the incumbents running and opposed. Our budget vote is B20 next time. It's right around the corner some people. Um and really we are here. So are there any questions? Thank you guys for all the work you've been doing to get this. I know that there have been so many different moving parts had it own special. All right. Um so thank you. Next Tuesday, a week from tomorrow is the budget vote. You can have your absentee ballot or
049you can come in and enjoy voting democracy in action. I is it too late to get an absolut off the top of your head. Sorry. It's not too far away actually because the mail if it's mailed should be there's a mail has to get back on any thank you people to vote um with that we have a second public hearing today uh the public hearing about video conferencing board This is a um policy that's being brought forward to allow to the time when we were more able to do remote meetings and this allows uh to be held. So if there's anyone say Barbara and Matt jump in there's anything I miss. We've talked about this policy before we had a couple of starts. I'm trying to get the board in terms of the process for
050that. Um but this policy in it revised form. We already have this policy. Um but in its revised form would allow board members um who have extraordinary circumstances such as illness responsibilities etc. to participate remotely and their location does not need to be. So if you have a sick child, you can join remotely through say Google meet which would allow as well for public participation which is required for this change in the law. Um you could be at home with your sick child and still participate have full voting rights. Um but if your location is not open to the public um you would count towards establishing farm when someone does participate under the extraordinary circumstances provision I'll say that those meetings have to be to the public and provide them with the opportunity to participate
051in but I guess right well what I was thinking was because we have two items that have been public hearings why don't we ask the order we'll have the option for heard Um, all right. Thank you to the committee for all the work you've done to bring it forward. Um, with that we go to the go to the order. I know there's a great convention marine sniper convention so there's a lot going on and unfortunately to share the order I've been getting a lot of updates on senior assassin which I did not know was until this Yes, goggles are I've seen a lot of kids walking around with goggles around their neck or their heads. How do you know they're still in? Yes. Yeah. So, apparently it's very exciting. It's a squirt gun. Yeah. And
052I'll give a shout out to it. Okay. Yeah. They're doing such a great job like using all the like video resources and producing like regular update on Instagram. Such personalities are updating a great job and I think well I think um with that we'll move to the opportunity for the book to be heard. We had two um presentations for hearings about the budget and also about meeting. So if any members of the public would like to speak to those things or on another topic as well that Okay. Um we're going to skip it 3.1 unfortunately and we'll move directly to Thank you all for being here for those two hearings. We appreciate your presence and you All right. So, I'm going to kind of go in different orders of what's up there. On the board
053members table is a little token of my appreciation. Um, each year I try to do something for staff appreciation. May is appreciation month, I think, almost for all educators. So, teacher appreciation, administrator appreciation, nurse appreciation. Like, it's everyone. And really, it takes it's everybody in this district really takes it together, right? It's it's not just one person. My mom was a custodian for 32 years and then a bus monitor and lunch lady in retirement. So, she could never leave the district. And you know, from teacher to administrator to custodian to bus driver to secretary, food service workers, everybody takes it together and especially board members because you get paid so much to do all this and we appreciate everything you do. Um, but really honestly, this is it. So each year typically I have the
054students in Mr. Tersky's class, they usually make a pin. Um, but I realize there is really nowhere to put the pins. So this year what I did is I just ordered these um for everyone that is affiliated and works within the district. I have another hundred coming. Um I ordered 250 or 60 and I'm short a few. So there are more coming for more people. Um again I want to make sure volunteers BTA members I I gave one to Miss Newell who is always here doing all of our costumes. She does every single costume in every single play. So I just wanted to make sure that everybody gets these and has appreciation for it and it's a small thing that I just try to do so much. Um next I want to talk about the
055capital project. Yay. So multi cap projects we're going to talk more in depth about facilities committee our transportation facility really is coming along really quick. Um we are looking at the July we're going to try scheduling actually when we're going to have our opening day have a little event balloon people maybe sell you know serve some hot dogs get people to actually see what it looks like in there. Um, if you notice they've come back to do some of the fencing, it's because what ended up happening, the large fence poles that were out there, the manufacturer, some of the poles were smaller than they should have been. Um, so myself and Mr. Mayo, our interim director of facilities, felt that we paid for certain poles, we want the poles that we paid for, and that
056means they had to come up, rip out the old one, rip out the foundations, reset the foundation, and put in the new poles. So, they're back there ripping it up and putting them in. But we're getting all these really nice poles. And those poles are the ones that are like the 30ft ones. So that way any foul balls or anything like that do not go over into the transportation facility. Um we're we're refining our paving everything else. So transportation facility is up and running. That's awesome. We're very excited about that. As you know, we had to make some hard decisions when it came to the bid project for the elementary school. Um that construction project has been awarded. We've already started with the new contractors in there to be able to start scheduling and understanding
057their schedule. So that's first step May 20th which is right around the corner. We're meeting with them as construction to really try to work out a schedule. Uh Mr. Mayo and Mr. Bendy are going to start working with staff members because we don't know the exact dates yet. We won't know exact dates of when everything is done or when we're scheduling until we get that construction. So as soon as that construction meeting really gets down, we really figure it out, we'll be able to move a lot faster on some of the planning. The goal is still in goal is still going to be opening up in August and August getting everybody in we said now that it's kind of limited in comparison to some of the scope. Really do think that that's going to be
058doable for us to make sure that we're back into the building um and and there but again construction projects are construction projects. you have really no control after you get into it, especially with a building as old as it is. Um, that is a concern that we have when we open it up to find out what's hidden. I'm hoping buried treasure would be great, but we're we're we're definitely we're seeing. So, yeah, probably that can be buried treasure as well and it will cost a fortune. So, really that's where we stand on that. Other stuff we're going to talk about facilities questions. people have Yep. They're working on that with Mr. Venzia now. They're looking at days and times that can be covered to help support them. So Jeff is well aware. He's working with
059them directly making sure that we can get that. So again, after May 20th after that construction project, I know that we've already asked for boxes and things and I know Jeff has been conversation as well. One of the things that we've been trying to figure out is where do we put all this stuff? So, you know, one of the one of the finalizations we just made is the gym will be great because there's no work getting done in the gym and we can always delay putting some of this work out like the gym floors. So, any of like the storage things that we need to have so far music room that's going to go back into those locations instead of getting stored, we can keep it on site in the room. So, that's one of
060the things we're trying to work out is when they close up, where do they put it? And then how do we get it quickly back in the room? So saving some man hours, saving some time from getting it up here in terms in comparison to keeping it on and that's after school over they're working on the time frames of when they could be it might be during school day and that might be getting them some coverage. So I'm really working looking for as far as Oh yeah. Sorry. like in the fizzer movie when you're at us or on the stage or in a story outside or inside it all depends. So this is the things again all things we got to work through right that would be perfect. So again, these are none of this
061is easy. None of this is set in stone. And we really are waiting on all the instructions and all the crimes. There's a lot of hands in this. And so we really just have to try to organize it as best we can. No solid answers. Put it that way. And even with the transportation facility, we've been doing this almost for a year now. It's still every week we have our meetings. Every week we're trying to problem solve and figure things out. That's noice. Thank you. Yes, it was after it's done, but we probably will end up getting comics boxes as well. Last thing that I had on was a discussion that I want to bring up regarding student board members. So, as you know, we're in June, we try to use these finalizer student board
062members. One thing as I've been talking to other school districts is that they have more than one. And that's something I wanted to board to think about. Um, sometimes they have two and or three depending on the school district and the size. Sometimes they have and then they have an apartment where they kind of work together. Um, so that way, you know, our students are very busy. They have busy lives. They're trying to do a lot of things. It allows for that flexibility for the students. Gives more experience to students as well. Um, I just wanted to know how the board felt about maybe possibly having two student board members, maybe one person and then maybe one person who is the ultimate. Um, just wanted to kind of open it up and see how you
063Now, do you think two at the same time or they want to come? They can. If not, they just it's good experience for the students and so they both get presentation. I would leave it to them to work out. Some school districts I've talked to um only one person gives a presentation. One goes if they have time they sit in the audience. They can share. They can jointly do it if they want to. A lot of times the school districts are telling me that they typically only have one student. So we're definitely up for two. Would that require Yeah, it's it just says student board members. an alternate for I don't think is any issue. I've looked at other places. I haven't seen how many or what it is just we can point to. I
064think we looked at this in policy too, right? And didn't we made a change? Yeah, it was a change to open it up per regulation. Yep. I thought that We looked at it. We considered because you had raised this a while back. Yeah. Uh it is there's something um we amended it December 9th of 24 and I we can look at it again but I thought we broadened it so that it could it's um I don't think we brought it to 225. It looks like everything is in the singular. Yes. We can fix that. Could that be adjusted for the June meeting? Sure. Yeah, we can get that at our meeting. Yeah, I can take a couple words. Should it be two or that's going to be one of the questions with the language two
065may or may not function as an alternate or not the two function together or as alternates for each other. Just giving it yes possible. And that's all I have. All right. Thank you. Thank you again reporting. That we move to minutes from our April meeting. Any comments? Would anyone like to move forward? Second. All in favor? U for the April 23rd minutes. Uh she has I just want to uh treasur and claim auditor reports. Are you is everyone comfortable signing those two? Anyone want to comment or question discuss or move? Second. Second. All in favor? I personnel items, questions, comments, thoughts. [Music] Second. All in favor? All right. Welcome to everyone who's joining district. um CSSE recommendations and the proceedings sublist and approval of produce there were two bits. Um I'm going to put those
066three together if everyone's okay with that. We can discuss them if there any questions or thoughts or anyone would like to move. Second. All in favor? I Cole Summer Records Institute. Questions, thoughts, comments. Move it. Second. I'll second. All in favor? Okay. New Scotland Soccer Club agreement not yet reflecting um that exciting calculation of the impact of soccer versus Um and also the workshop agreement with these facilities. [Music] This is the first year we've done that with paper. Paper. Okay. formally. So, um, but I I've heard that when when the buses stop, it was very I seem to remember when my kids did it that maybe was doing service. So, the hell workshop agreement is for us to allow our buses to nonprofits can lease out their buses to other nonprofits. We as a municipality
067can lease our buses out of nonprofits per an agreement. uh break agreements are always better. So it shows exactly what is um needed. So this year they we did it last year as well. Um so this is the year that we're doing we're finalizing more because there's some more asks more buses and monitor more time frames. Um so they are doing that. So the agreements are drafted by our attorney and works through with us and the news common soccer club agreement as Rachel was saying it reflects the current use of facilities not the corner not cooperate not the Cornell study that showed the differences between walking and using fields and how much more time our effort needs to go to be able to maintain them through the Cornell study which we'll be talking about at
068this I'm very excited about I'm going to watch that several times. Would you like to move these or discuss more further? I'll move it. Second for 5.8 5.9. All in favor? I audit committee. Would you like to review it or would you like to just discussed? Okay. Curriculum has not met. We have not. current looking at the first week of June covered a bunch of it. Um, some things he didn't project stuff water testing was going to happen over spring break. I'm excited. I don't know if you want spoilers or we can wait till next. No, you can spoil. Go ahead. I don't know. Wait till next week. So, I will say that um again, our director of facilities, Julio, has done a phenomenal job looking into this and really going shaking her head. I
069guess really phenomenal job. Um, when they came in, they found a lot of smaller little areas that he actually had patched right away. Little pin holes, little things going on in there. So was able to actually address major issues that were going on. But again, when you fix one leak, all of a sudden another one comes up and you have no idea where it came from. Um, but he does have some some solutions. He's working with Mosaic and the architects really to address it. So with our new capital project, which is $100,000 one for next year, he really will be able to address some major issues on those roofs and fixing it and getting us a warranty and doing all the things that we need. So he the report. I believe I shared it out
070once over again, but really a lot of work. Um, we touched on Yes. And Joe has ideas at facilities. He's actually gotten quotes for roof door to actually since we have a found building and it's there fix the found building. So that's our goal. So he's um he's got some ideas and plans and we're going to talk about that. Get that up in mind. Yeah, I think that was we met last week. I think it was a few polic on the agenda for tonight. I prefer to get to them so everything's fresh. I know when we have our next committee here. Um I think historically policy has really over the summer. Um but we talked about if we stayed together as a group um potentially meeting over the summer because we've got some items that
071are on our list that we like to um kind of knock out including transportation policies in July. We have a whole group on our running list of transportation policies that we want to try to get done. Yeah, exactly. But mainly so that any hot can really like dig in over the summer and start to implement any changes that we make. other members of the board who would like to be on. You're welcome to. I'll we've got we've made good progress, but we still have a lot. Okay. Well, thank you all for what you've been doing there. All right. Um with that, we'll move to business 7.1 the SQ resol are there any questions or comments just we have to say it as it's formality we have to this is for the $100 that little holes.
072Okay. Um, any questions, comments, or anyone like to move it? Second. Thank you. And I remember years and years and years ago when came in, we started that whole conversation about Energy performance contract DS discussions question. Thank you. Okay. So uh a week from tomorrow is a vote here budget library candidates resolutions to appoint folks questions or comments about this resolution 7.4 This was questions, comments. Just one note on this that we have the policy up next. So assuming the approve the resolution as a board will need to amend the policy to include the resolution number and Frank asked me to say that and I believe there's something for everyone. Yeah. So anyway, um we have Yeah. So first we have to approve the resolution. I'll move it. Second it. All in favor? I. Excellent.
073Now let's go to policy 7.5. Any conversation or I know this was challenge together. Yeah, there was some nuances and we have to consult with council a couple times especially about the resolution and process. Um I'll just make the motion to amend the policy that's posted to include today's date. Second it all in favor. Excellent. Okay. Uh 7.6 um questions. Yeah. So this one is um a policy that covers certain benefit type issues for management staff. Um it has not been updated since 2007. So it was in need of some updates to bring online with our other management contracts. So those changes been negotiated and they're reflected in the policy. Any questions or comments? Second it all. Thank you. So uh textbook policy include nonpublic schools. Okay. So I'll I'll comment on uh 7.7 and
0747.8 at the same time because they're kind of related. Um so 1740 um we we have this policy and our policy is called textbook policy including our public schools. The NISBO policy is called relations with nonpublic schools. I don't know if anybody has thoughts on whether we keep our title. I think it was probably an oversight when we moved this forward that we did not um change the title. But Jess asked me I said just keep it for now and then we can always Okay. All right. Good. I said I'm not going to change anything without discussion. Yeah. So, I would I would think because it's broader than just textbooks, I think we should go with this title of relations with public schools. Um, and and this one we looked at it because we had
075gotten one, it was an NSBA update um and two, we've gotten a question from a community member um about whether or not public school students participate in some of our extracurricular activities. Um, and under our current policy, the answer is none. Um, and we then looked at the homeschool policy, which did allow for participation in extra activities. So, we thought there was a bit of inequity there that we wanted to remedy. Um, so in both policies, we've now expanded the language to allow for either homeschooling or non-public student participation in extracurricular activities. at this discretion of the superintendent and so long as there's space in the program. Um so those changes were made and then one other note on 1740 there's a cross reference to a policy that we don't yet have but we're going
076to do it in June. Um, it has to do with um the title. It's I'll tell you in a sec. It's 4321.10 and the program. Thank you. Yes. Um, that's what it is. Um, we have a whole bunch of 4321 whatever policies, but we do not have that one. Um, and we don't have a policy that we thought was substantially similar enough to not address this one. And that was also in this update before 21.10. Um, so we can I think for purposes of this meeting we can remove the cross reference on 1740 and then we'll when we do 4321.10 meeting we'll put this one back up but it'll take a first reading. So we have you're right. Yeah. So 4321.10 would be a first in June. separated. Actually, I don't know if we're meeting
077before. We need to work out the timing of that. It may have it'll come in when it comes in. Yes. Yeah. Whenever it's ready, but um our plan was to review it and then you'll see it on that next. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. One sequence of the extracurricular activities just to clarify for anyone who's watching this afterwards is that extracurricular activities is not sports. regulations very clear on interal sports. It does not include that. Um so we follow commissioners regulations when it comes to those things. Extracurricular activities are nonredit bearing organized school activities. So this is clubs. This is things that are open to the general public. So they are not nonredit bearing. So let's let's say jazz right is a nonredit bearing course after school band is a credit bearing course right and lesson. So
078you can't do that because it has to be nonredit bearing and it cannot be an inter mural sport or actually for an athletic sport because those are not allowed by commission. Yeah, it can be done esports. It could be esports. It could be esports. It cannot be nonredit bearing ski club esports. It just cannot be again face provided. Yes, we have two buses and we only have 60 kids. those 60 kids club would first go to district students then if the space provided then would be open up to nonp kids or home school students. Um but I just want to be very very clear for anyone listening that it does include those commission regulations are very and policy as well that 174 changes as comments or questions or any second. All in favor you Frank
079has chosen to recognize him so generously and kindly going forward along with members continues to be missed but he is being recognized in star with the starfish award scholarship because of starfish award. um notice that his um his wife and sister are helping me um fund this for six years at $250 for student. Jim was a interesting fellow and he has a wide array of interests. So really this is for those students that make an impact without asking for the impact and kind of like you. So it's kind of what we're looking for and we're just excited we can give off this for our students. Not that I a very dry. Yes. Um so are we questions or comments? Like to move this second. I'll second. All in favor? [Music] I have a donation being
080recently offered. or you want to move it. Second. Second. All in favor? I All right. With that, we have an opportunity for the public to be heard. We did have those two hearings and there was an opportunity then about those items. This would include those items and anything else like right there. If you like, there's a second opportunity for the public for the board. Now, don't forget the dates to remember. The next date to remember is May 20th, which is Tuesday tomorrow. Um, starting at 2:30 to 9:00, you can vote right here in the lobby of the pack. And then we have a board me board meeting very to be very brief at 7:30 on Thursday to five election. Um I will need to be there in the morning. Can we technically do it at
081night after I'm just curious. No. So, it used to be you can't, but you have to have legal counsel there if you're going to do that. Oh, you do? Yeah. There's some other kind of rules and regulations about that. Wednesday. Yes. Sorry. I did not. No, I mean it's just like your schedule is very fine. Okay. So, not 7:30. It is very great. Oh yes. Okay. All right. We have a Thank you. Um and with that um second favor. All right. Thank you all. Thank you. Uh nobody in the board should move until you meet you.