Board of Education Meeting — 3.3.2025

001doesn't mean I'll miss it hi oh okay thanks for being here and I met you so far great here okay um good evening thank you for being here tonight we are here uh for the board meeting first we're going to exit uh executive session so would anyone like to move us to exit executive I'll make a motion to come out of executive session second I'll second it all in favor I I okay thank you with that we are going to move to item 1.2 on the agenda the pledge allegiance or the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you we are all present today all members of the board student board

002member so roll call is complete and now we have an opportunity for the good of the order um we've had a number of teams who have moved through playoffs it's been a lot of fun on uh to watch congratulations to all the teams who have been doing that and would anyone like to call out anything we've got some teams still playing yeah in March is aesome tomorrow and girls and boys Wednesday Yeah Tuesday Wednesday Tuesday tomorrow and Wednesday um also during the this opportunity for the board to discuss something there is a training through nisba on March 14th Friday from 8 to 12 in superintendent evaluation which falls into the board's purview and I wanted to see if anyone was interested in participating in that there's registration and so on so we'd have to log

003in it's done remotely um I'm interested in participating that Kathy you are is anyone else available and interested it's also um I can see if there's a recording available you know buy two membership buy two registration get one one recording for you or something so um Jess I'll email you about that later thank you very much and is everyone okay with that happening and sounds great okay yes okay okay um with that we have the opportunity for the public to be heard there's a Podium over here we invite members of the public uh we typically ask students just to embarrass them possibly or just to give them the first opport to be heard but if any student would like to come up and um speak to the board or be heard there it is or

004anyone else no all right with that we'll move to reports and presentations item 3.1 the nisba presentation um believe and I'll introduce you Kathy so so on Thursday of last week the district was notified out of the blue by the way it was kind of a great email to receive by nisba that the district was being recognized as a champion of change because of a program that is occurring in the high school tonight we have a representative from nisba that's Kathy Lewis along with the staff and students who brought this program to light I see many of you are here tonight which is awesome um so at this point in time I'd like to introduce Kathy and you can take it away with the students and staff that are here very good who who among

005you or was about of the four videos that go with the bullying uh initiative anti buing initiative I guess don't be shy come on on we try not to encourage the buling now tell me who all of you are because I read an article about you but I don't obviously know who's who Michael Horn hor I saw that name Ellie Ellie yes chis chisma okay hi Jack Zach Zach good and I'm Kyle tury Kyle turki okay there was a Kathleen someone involved in script approval or some such thing who who was the writer were you the script writer you were the script writer I saw your name what was it for um I do like the video of the video well technically Beyond me at this point so I'm here from the New York State

006School Board Association that's the umbrella Organization for all the school boards in the state of New York uh we have membership of around 679 different school boards and I represent area 7 of which Boysville is a part area 7 comprises from the southern aderan deck East to the uh Vermont and Massachusetts borders South the Columbia County and then I go west just past me I happen to be a member of the SKC City School District District Board of Education and I go at to Scotia Glenville in in the western part of my area so they're over 70 members of the school districts they're members of area seven and and so on so what happens with this is one of the recognition things that the New York State School boards uh Association likes to do is

007appreciate and honor the initiatives uh that are uh done by the various schools and it's really through a perusal of newspaper articles and videos Facebook pages you name it that's that's what they're looking at it's a non-competitive um uh recognition and so uh the So you you're selected for the merits of your particular work and so the school board uh Association did I believe they did the third and fourth quarter together this time I'm not quite sure for 20 24 they read about the four videos that you put together for the anti-bullying initiative and thought that that was uh um recognition or should be recognized by the school boards Association so I am here to present to you this Banner to be hung wherever you choose I don't know who all wants to see it

008be photographed with it that you may hold it do that there you go as I said it's a non-competitive recognition and we commend you for your initiative I really want to see the videos at some point uh haven't had that opportunity they didn't send me those they s the letters good and so we hope that you'll probably uh hang this in some place where it's recommended the high school or whatever that's the other end of the B I came in the back door I door it didn't even have handles on it so congratulations on your initiative would you mind grabbing that and then with the students and teachers involved y thank you wonderful congratulations to you all awesome thank you so much congratulations thank you um congratulations to everyone involved in including the staff and

009students for leading by example um at this time if you don't feel you do not feel obligated that you have to be here for the rest of the meeting that is technically absolutely okay um it want make you feel bad but I know we have a big night tomorrow night Wednesday night Thursday night's the concert so we got long nights ahead of me may want to have time your family this is the first time I the champion change has been presented so fast from like notification on Thursday Conta Friday Avail and now we all threw with that uh Jo you yeah all right so I have quite a few things for this month um starting off with the John clever Kelly Foundation or the jck foundation who was two guys who came to our school

010um as part of the foundation and they had talked to high schoolers we had an assembly got to listen to their stories and struggles about mental health um and then following that presentation we got to meet with them one-on-one during gym periods and talk to them and students all had opportunities to talk to these the Foundation if they choosed about struggles that they might have and where to seek help for that um tomorrow as Mr McCree and Mrs gilker already said um the boys basketball semi-finals is at Glenn's Falls and then Wednesday girls basketball plays in the semi-finals at Hudson Valley Thursday there's a high school band and chorus concert um for other sports that have already finished boys volleyball plays second in SE in the section the swim team it to sectionals and Senior

011Tommy zff placed fifth in backstroke and our boys freestyle relay finished second overall bowling finished sixth in the section the girls indoor 4x8 team qualified for States and then clubs um the Science Olympiad team got three medals at the capital region Science Olympiad tournament including a gold medal in Material Science and then another one that I couldn't fit was later this month four of our students will be attending a leadership training conference um which is shortened to LTC for Key Club which will help them learn about their roles as Club officers and spend time with other Key Club me members from around the New York state and they'll be able to attend seminars specific to their roles and get tips on how to make the most out of their experience as an officer of the

012club okay great going on all good that's how was the response to the jck I think people really like right um thank you and with that we're going to move to a budget presentation it is Budget Building seon soank all right Lisa can you hear me yes I can all right I was I was told by Lonnie we will be much better off than we were last time so here we go so Lisa is canot be here tonight um so before we start I kind of want to just dive into before we dive into some of the details of the budget I want to take a moment to ground this present presentation and the core values that drive every decision we make as a district um the first few slides and I can go through

013them they haven't changed much you'll see are not just introductory but they reaffirm our commitment to our vision mission and goals our vision is to create engaging and supporting learning environment where everyone can Thrive our mission is to provide all students with a strong foundation in a safe and supportive environment preparing them for a lifelong success and our goal focus on student achievement strong Staffing financial responsibility open communication and safe learning environment a school budget is more than numbers it's a reflection of our priorities every dollar we allocate supports our students staff and programs in a way that aligns with these guiding principles are our responsibility is to ensure these resources are used wisely to sustain and enhance the educational experience for all with a budget there will be years where we have to weigh

014the sustainability of what we offer and plan for the future for our school community that every school is immune from budget lows and budget concerns and as everything changes so does our budget with that in mind I want to start re reviewing the Core Concepts but I just kind of want to focus us a little bit more on the goal of our budgets so as you know our vision statement our mission statement our goal statements which which I kind of mentioned already and then our planning processes so as we met with the team and Lea you can chime in whenever you want but we are on Slide Five now um after we met with the team to understand what is needed and what would be beneficial and what we cannot remove at all we then

015look at the budget ourselves like that's the hard part so we get the wish list we get everything everybody wants and then the truth comes out the governor's runs and everything else is how much money are we actually getting and how much money do we have year-over-year and where does that money have to go so there's a lot of wish lists and a lot of wonderful things in the end there's a reality that we still have bills to pay um this includes all factors of the budget from year to year how we sustain programs and people how we continue to offer things that's really what we started to do with this budget process here's the nice thing about this draft budget this year it does include currently include a gap which we're going to talk

016about but it's important to note that the current budget that we are presenting tonight is based off the governor's budget runs uh the legislators yet to submit their runs which are typically higher and somewhere they meet in the middle typically so we'll see maybe a little boost here or there um that's typically how this goes we won't know until April and probably I'm thinking the second to third week in April to be honest with you I'm thinking the budget is going to be late this year and then we can all guess about the federal there's a lot out there right now with that was the next step I was going then Federal component of this is going to be another aspect that we have to look at so we'll not truly understand much of the

017funding we'll receive it's a lot of estimations at this point so we're going to be conservative I want you to know that we're we're going to air on the side of the worst case scenarios more so than the best case scenarios um with that being said what we're looking to do with our budget here's the highlights of it a we're looking to maintain everything that we currently have so all the programs that we're currently offering all the people that you know that are currently here we're not looking at cutting anything so we're not looking at losing a person we're not looking at losing program we're trying to sustain the programs that we currently have we also want to look at the capital outlay project that continues because that's an expense based Aid and when we

018talk about this later on expense based AIDS really do capture the majority of our budget so that Revenue we get and the revenue that you're seeing from the state a lot of that increase is all based off money that we spend the year prior so we want to continue those outlooks and those projects um and then the one thing we are adding this year and this went down from full-time we really worked hard to look at it is a point4 social worker um we have case loads that are are over the top for our staff members they're starting to exceed what we can do for our staff so we really do need this point4 social worker to meet the needs of our students and to be able to help our staff members be within the

019lines of their contract because right now they are really working very diff very hard and they have a large case load so this point for social worker is really needed um and you know we're adding to the budget this year on that point Frank um Karen Jones brought that up to me in the advisory Council to the school counseling program that that was an ask in the budget I'm glad to see you're supporting it yeah we wanted to that was something we felt really passionate about there were some other asks in the budget but we just we're you know looking through what we can add and what we can sustain we felt like adding things and taking away really what we want to do we want to be able to sustain everything we have this

020is definitely an ask that is needed and we really want to see if we can incomp it add into the budget which we believe we have so any questions so far Lisa how am I doing or you're Frozen I saw it saw okay I'm hoping she comes back because this is really going to be her slides now Lisa are you there here all right we are on slide all right on Slide s Lisa are you there hey yes I am here just keep freeing yeah slide seven and I turned off my camera if you want to turn yours off too maybe that will help us okay we're going to try this one more time I'm going to log her off and log her back on Jess could you call on ask him if he could

021come excuse me for one second Lisa had a wedding in her family and she's currently in Florida so that was something that we knew about I just like ask her to S War yes she's not she's there for a very specific reason um and I appreciate her time tonight let me try that again I'm reconnected is there a hardware that we could use um do you have a a b for that in my office I don't think I don't think it's us I think it's on it says my Google meets offline right now that Wi-Fi internal when you said you logged her off you hang it up mine is l I think I connected to the gas when I got here let me check let me check it at least I was connected [Music] I

022guess come on increase in the rates Lisa but yeah we lost you forever so we're going to start over again on slide seven okay okay sorry about that and do you want me to call you my cell or well let's try this one last time and if not we'll do the cell and go from there because I'll stop messing with the internet so all right so let's talk about slide seven Bo budget planning for 2526 slide seven okay as you know the budget is basically like a book when you open that book you have a left side expenditures and a right side the the revenues and those two have to balance so first we're going to talk about the expenditure side of the book we're in review of the 2526 estimated draft budget and compare

023it to the 2425 actual budget there is a $50,000 difference I'm going to go through each category to reflect what the differences are comprised of okay can you move to slide eight please General support General support that's an increase due to the realignment of Bosey services such as contracts for technology Services the network the web servers routers maintenance and Technical Support additional service contracts for facility maintenance and contractual salary increases instruction reflecting a $577,000 increase partially due to special education tuition Bose's program cost increases and contractual salary in increases and it also includes the point for social worker Pupil Transportation 23,8 35 increase the new Transportation facility will have increases in basic services such as telephone electric service contracts for security fire cameras Etc there will also be new equipment transportation software and again contractual

024salary increases can you still hear me yep doing great okay employee benefits I think this might be the next slide employee benefits the required contribution percent increases for employees retirement system in the teachers retirement system are increasing however when the percentages are applied to the contractual salary increase it's a twofold hit workers compensation is increasing slightly however health and prescription drug costs comprise comprise the greatest increase for 6.5% to 16% increase Debt Service Debt Service is increasing for the principal and interest expense on the borrowing from the $25.6 million Capital project the energy performance contract and debt on the 25 26 buses which we will discuss or Frank will discuss further um along in the presentation inter fund transfers is decreasing by 3 million the inter fund transfer was utilized in 2425 to tap into

025the capital reserve however there was also a revenue offset in 2425 which net the increase to zero that will be shown on slide 10 or 11 I'm sorry okay next slide please I just want before we move on is there any questions on the expenditure component because we just don't want to talk at you about these things if there's questions that come up Cathy I have one on the transportation increase you mentioned transportation software is that a one-time expenditure and then it so the transportation software there is an upfront cost for it it is transportation Aid so we are going to get Aid back on this so yes we're increasing this year next year we will be able to get Aid off of that which is a positive um the software again and thank you

026for bringing it up Cathy uh the software is GPS so that's a component of it so it's allows parents to know when the buses are coming allows us to know where the buses are if there's idling how fast you're going each will have a laptop or like a little you know like basically what all new cars have now you know and it'll be able to be routing also it'll allow for substitute bus drivers because we do have those um to be able to go on they'll know where the roots are they'll save time because they're not going to be able to be trained know where those routes are it will tell them turn left turn right it will be GPS tracking so they'll be able to do their routes also if you have to combine

027a route it'll do it with a click of a button instead of somebody spending three hours trying to figure that out as well so it is a change um our district does not have any of those things it doesn't we don't know where our buses are we don't know how late our buses are going to be sometimes this is a track and it really helps understand that so there's an upfront cost um but our our goal is it will suain itself with the transportation need that we get back so after this one year you'll be seeing a roll over okay thank you you're welcome and there's a subscription Fe well we have to pay yearly for for the plant itself just like transfinder so it's a rooting system as well so we we currently have

028to pay for our routing system that you pay for yearly so instead of us paying for X routing system with transfinder we're going to pay for bus R so there's always a system that goes along with it and the the um and one of the other components that I just wanted to state is um our current Transportation director is underneath bosis um we are going to take the transportation director out of the Bose's line and take her into our on our line we only get Aid off of the transportation director um the first $30,000 correct Lisa so they the amount of Aid that we're getting off of the transportation director is not the same amount of Eid if we went to the transportation expense base a so if we take on our transportation director we're

029going to get roughly 75% a back in the following year so it's a way for us to be able to build revenue as time's going on in order to do that so it just made Financial sense of we well she was never here as ours um she somebody else we had another we had another person Mr goyer was our transportation director she was and then when Mr goyer left the district this is before my arrival the district chose to go through both for a bus supervisor and the B Supervisor was hired with Annie who's already in District anyways um so she's going to be re back into it as civil service and everything else comes that's kind of how it works because she has rights to the position um but it is going to be

030it's a slight increase I think it's a $2,000 increase this year correct Lisa yes yeah and then what we're going to be seeing in the following year we'll be seeing 75% Revenue back which is a huge um boost to the district itself so you're going to be not seeing the cost savings this year but we'll see the cost savings next year which is important and one other question when we talk about employee benefits and that whole category um we have a number of long-term people retiring this year is there any breakage to be realized that's meaningful well if you are going to replace those positions you need to continue budgeting benefits for the new position and also for those folks who are retired yes I did compute that the um contribution rate included the contribution

031rate for uh from the retirees so it's a small amount of breakage that we're seeing um if we were to lose a position through attrition which we will um be looking at some of the teacher assistant positions as we reevaluate um TR is we just not hiring them back right we realize that we can do those things um if we were to do that with the teachers positions you would see a larer c savings um the problem is that we're not going to be able to do that right otherwise if we do that our class sizes in the elementary school increase which we know as a board we do not want to increase our class size in elementary school and the core classes in the high school are needed um so you're not we don't

032have the ability to currently do that right I was just more thinking and Bob I know we're replacing them but I would think it's like a 30,000 cost yeah depending on what we hire okay y so we're not hiring back certain teacher assists we're looking at that yes do we're looking at our class loads the needs the special education concerns and seeing what needs to be done with our teacher assistance so if we if we can lose somebody attrition to be able to offset the position sometimes the special ed child graduates and the TA is attached to that child no okay but there's a senior I meaness anywhere else there's no we're looking at the Staffing component of that so our goal at the moment is to not rehire those and lose those by TR

033so then we can take that money which is roughly if we have two Tas roughly $120,000 to help close that Gap without losing current position or structure but we would be losing those positions because even though the student is is aging out the attrition is of the student not of someone then they're not needed any longer for the position we only have a position based off a need if there's not a need for that position then we don't need to have the position no longer there so then isn't there a shuffling if there is a need currently they've been looking at it and they don't believe there's a need for that and we can lose those positions without having impact on instruction So when you say attrition are you saying the person was already planning

034to go anyway we're not going to backfill correct okay that's what I that's not what I was hearing I was hearing you say that the student is graduating no sorry if that was confusing I apologize okay the person is retiring we're not fulfilling those positions okay that yes so when I say lost by attrition I me retiring not by sorry Lisa and I use language that's the language that we use all the time so I apologize that so someone who's retiring their position would be refilled correct unless there's a need correct understand okay thank you that makes a different sense good any other questions on that and that's a very common practice in districts Feld to quote budgets and and gaps in years any further questions no okay Lisa we're on slide 10 okay great

035that's the tax cap uh yeah that's the tax cap okay this slide was presented last month it will be tweaked through little depending on what the district or board decides to do with the bus purchase however you can see it's 6.05% 2.5 is directly paying for that increase in debt service which would leave a balance of the 3.55% of the 1.2 million for increases um throughout the rest of the budget okay 11 slide 11 y we're there all right so just by looking at slide 11 the largest driver of revenues this is the other side of the book is the tax Gap tax levy so the majority of the funding for the district comes from the taxpayers the second High highest revenue is state aid state aid is increasing by over 600,000 but that's primarily

036due to the capital and building Aid Transportation Aid and other expense based Aid so just as there was an increase in the expense for that Debt Service we're also receiving building on that and that $100,000 project that is included in the ex expense portion of the budget will drive approximately 60,000 in building Aid the following year the increase in Foundation Aid which is the largest Aid category that the district Rees is approximately $100,000 or the minimum of 2% now when you reflect back on the expenditure portion of the budget $100,000 is a drop in the bucket that is definitely not enough to cover the operating expense increase for the district we are currently a safe Harless school and so the state has kept all safe harmless schools currently at 2% because we had an enrollment

037reduction years ago um and you can't so they're saying you cannot get anything less which you previously received in year to year so all safe har schools in the government budget got 2% so that's roughly $111,000 correct Lisa so if we're not using our expense based aids to drive revenue and we're only looking at our state aid our taxpayers pay really are going to take the brunt of everything that we have because of the way that it's currently working for us $100,000 is not going to support our year over years um so that's why we're kind of where we are and we just want to be very clear this could change it could you know depending on the way the new runs come out and the way that the state budget comes we could have

038higher than 2% but I'm not guessing it'll be over three or 3.5 um no yeah I think this is you so maybe we get another 50,000 maybe yeah yeah and we're short almost 800 correct yep that's what so we're going to be short at least 700 and something correct can I ask another question I know that the district is supposed to get some money from that Canadian New York electric line does that hit this year or when is that expected so that's a pilot that's expected to hit what what did we check when it was 2027 Lisa yes as soon as all of the installation is complete and the paperwork is s okay one of the things we were hoping was that those large Pilots that were looking through Atlas Copco and those were going

039to be done and set and we're going to be getting those Mony did not CU that is a large amount it's rough $600,000 a year which is great and that is going to do wonders for our district when we get that pilot just has not hit us yet and that's the 600,000 is from the electric line yes and then there'll be another one from about 50,000 y okay so those are those are nice the one problem with those when they come out and I just even though it's a couple years ahead I do want people to know it does impact your debt it does impact your tax cap okay so there's a negative impact on your tax cap um that comes out of so if your tax cap was four add that in it could

040be your tax cap would be 2 or 1.5 so it does stop the ability of how much you can get in but in the following year it goes away and then you're good you still have the money and that money increases based off of the balance so it is a positive there is some light at the end of the tunnel um but not a ton uh Lis you want to keep going on appropriate Reserve Capital yes I just want to add a a couple of comments it's so important to keep track of that long range financial plan that was presented in February once we know the pilot information and explain that to our financial advisors they can run all types of scenarios for the district so very important to keep track of what's going on

041outside of the district and I'd like to thank all County the tax uh office of Taxation they've been a tremendous help to me in trying to determine what's out there okay appropriated reserves as you can see in 2425 we had appropriated 3 million well that was from the capital reserve in 252 CS we are looking at approximately 262,000 which is from your retirement Reserve this will directly offset the expenditure increases for ERS and TRS and again that is going to be minimal impact on your fund balance so fund balance as you can see in this slide I kept it at appropriated fund balance of $862,000 for consideration as of June 30th the district had an unappropriated fund balance at the 4% limit which is about 1.4 million the district can always increase the appropriated fund

042balance of 862 to help with balancing the budget okay remember that the fiscal year in June 30th for 2425 thank you it's safe to assume that the unappropriated fund balance will increase that 1.4 million will increase this was also reflected in the Long Reach financial plan that was presented last month so it's imperative for me to Monitor and correctly project that June fund balance so if we do have any extra money that we can appropriate we can do so okay yep yes is there a power button on Dr all right so Lisa so we're on the slide 12 now for appropriated fund balance and what our budget Gap is okay the budget gap between revenues and expenditures that is correct of $831,000 that's where we are with draft number two it's more like draft seven

043for us so yes it is so conservatively again we're using the conservative government budget one of the things that we can do and Lisa if you could expound on this is we use approximately up to about $500,000 of fund balance more so than we do to be able to offset that so then our Gap is roughly 231 correct correct so do you want to give the board pros and cons of doing so okay so June 30th 2025 coming within 3 months right it's safe that we're going to have an increase unless something big hits the district within the next 3 months we should show an increase in that fund balance it would be safe to appropriate more than the 862 to balance your budget you can always ship your reserve balances and adjust them if

044necessary and I understand that there's a buff proposition creating a bus Reserve that is a fantastic long range financial plan for the district any reserves that the district can create an appropriately fund not overfund will keep the district in good standing bottom line is it's it's okay to you appropriate more than that 862 to balance the Gap questions on that that will be the recommendation that I most likely will give um is to appropriate some unal unallocated fund balance to that level um I'm currently working with Lisa and we're looking over our five years revenues and expenditures to see where that area of fund balance has been derived from so as you know like last year we put $500,000 into reserves we put $100,000 into equipment we put $200,000 into tax Reserve it's utilizing that

045money to offset taxpayer to be able to keep these programs and people that we currently have in place knowing where that money is coming from and where we can make that up um so that's what we're looking at so I I'm not one on cutting people in program because that's what you end up having to do when you have large gaps I don't think that's the right way to go um you know we built a lot of sustainability up over the years we have new programs we've hired at least 10 new people over the past five years to the district and that's new positions um you know to keep those and continue going using that fund balance does make like the most wise decision it does still be going out at the tax cap and

046this is not going out under this is going out at that will end up being 5.9 if you around the 5. Nish aing um after we talk a little bit if you choose to but these are the options that f um again this can change it's still the state budget has to come out in April we still don't know when that's going to be our deadline for finalizing this is I believe April 25th is the last um opportunity for the board to adopt the budget so we do have time thoughts or conversation can you recirculate just don't need it tonight um but the report that shows all of our fund balances like current state yeah Lisa do you have the fund balance report that has the current state of all of our fund balances and

047this doesn't include our our funds at the end of the year that we would have overage that we put into those reserves but any of the current reserves that we have and the amount that we have in those reserves I believe I do not have it but if you give me the Grace of a minute I can probably pull it up from the last no no we can do a couple days when you come back on Wednesday yeah not oh okay yeah yeah no rush I'm just I'm just asking because I'll forget so I don't want to forget at the moment and I know they do have access to them other questions or thoughts is can I ask about the bus Reserve that being proposed yeah um I read that and is there a reason

048that it would be good to do it this year as opposed to next year like do what's the benefit that we get can I talk about that when we into it that's awesome though any other questions on this itself okay so going on to the bus propositions so on the board agenda you'll see you have option a option b on the propositions because we have to have on for the meeting tonight so these are the options that you have to go through I kind of want to clarify option A and Lisa can chime in whenever you want cuz I know you know more about the funds than I do is $160,000 now it doesn't automatically take all that money off the budget because it's debt services and powering off of these things but the two

049large passengers 72 passenger diesel buses and then the one large electric School Bus roughly $460,000 um that's option A which we were kind of pushing for we have the bus drive and everything else option D on the other hand would be not to do that this year and to go with just a two large 72 passenger diesel school buses which does end up impacting our budget and doesn't impact our tax cap one thing it also does it impacts our fund reserves because we had reserves set aside to be able to purchase the Chargers and the other items and we had plan for that next year so we wouldn't be using that money which we then could allocate towards the budget Gap uh Lisa do you want to talk about how much that actually impacts the

050budget sure so the $860,000 for all three vehicles impacts the budget approximately $32,000 and change for next year um if you just went with the two diesel buses it'll be approximately $116,000 next year so there is a cost savings going be a little bit more after we do a little bit more evaluation into that um but also it's an optic component of it as well if we're going out at 5% and it's an $862,000 proposition in comparison to a $371,000 proposition that is a large amount of money for people to see um and there is a possibility that that could increase up to about $35,000 cost savings off the budget correctly yes what was the amount that you just said it could be how much she said 15 but I believe if we could look

051at almost a 35 to 40 after we get all the round numbers good so you want our thoughts or yeah yeah what are your thoughts on that first so then can I talk about the bus proposition at the same time so and then the idea is if you do option b and we're not buying the electric bus this year the idea of it is then do a proposition to fund a reserve and you have to start the reserve and Reserve has to be voter approved so it's a perfect opportunity to go out while you're doing your budget to have that on there um you can do it at any other time you want but in order to have a reserve to be able to save money the voters have to approve so we would say

052yes we're not doing the electric bus this year but we would like to start a reserve and that Reserve can have money put into it year-over year to help offset the cost of these electric buses if the Mandate continues to go forward which it will at some point um you're going to have to offset some of that so it's not as such of a large price tag within your community so that was the reasoning behind so thoughts on the propositions and you do have a discussion Point later on to regarding yeah item 7 point two is the discussion either resolution Lis is not going to be here so Lisa is going to but I'm just I'm just letting everyone know that we will end up back here um at this conversation for item 7.2 so

053what that Lisa so let's keep Lisa indoors I mean I'm a proponent of electric vehicles and I think they're great and I think we need more of them but I think the climate has changed and um you know recently I heard on the news that the federal government just squashed all the the Chargers you know expansion across the country and I know we have our own here but I think the I would be in favor of taking the electric bus out this year and starting a reserve for hopefully the future should we just go around does anyone have any questions for Lisa on this then we can talk a little bit more because Lisa has a better understanding of the finance aspect of borrowing than I do how will it affect future years um well

054really depend because first off if there's federal grants for that is going to be important so if the money is going to be there for us to be able to apply for federal grants that's going to be important if not this Reserve is going to be even more important for us because then it will be able to offset some of that cost so I I think you know we're also playing the times here and looking at how things are going to go um so that's part of the conversation that's why I wanted to bring It Forward for a discussion tonight I'm trying to get look at all aspects of this and again I'm a Community member I live here as well and understanding the needs and I'm for Ev buses like I'm you put the

055EV Chargers in you know like I think it's a positive thing it's it's green but we do need to look at the long term can I say something here please hello go ahead okay I think the whole conversation regarding electric bus and the state implement a is going to be impacted by what happens at the federal level although the state has mandated that we implement this electric bus by what is it 2027 2028 correct uh I think that the feds are going to come back with taking away grant funding um I think that there'll be a complete revisitation of this who knows but I I wouldn't be surprised if this is going to be one of the reasons why we won't see an ontime budget in Albany because they're concerned what's going to happen at

056the federal level does anyone have any questions about anything in the budget for Lisa or specifically the buses yeah I have one question so the the roughly 32 to $40,000 savings by not doing the bus proposition including the EV bus that amount is attributable just to the difference between including the EV bus and then is there additional budgetary impact based on the funding that we have for the EV Chargers being delayed that that was actually at a general fund for the EV Chargers so that would go we would just carry that money over but we would utilize it now so there was no negative impact off of our we would use it for this year for allocated fund balance but we'd want to carry it over again so we can offset it to buy it

057if we need to in the following year okay Lisa is still here right Lisa yes I'm still here all right I just lost screen mirroring does that make sense in my answer for RG yes so we still have to plan to spend the money we just wouldn't spend it in this year right and we could plan on spending this money this year that we had set to offset the Gap right and what is that amount uh we don't know at the moment I'd have to wait for Lisa to get back to really fly understand it I think it's roughly $100,000 uh am I correct in saying that Lisa on how much we had set aside I I want to wait until I get back Frank I know that's what I'm saying I'm guessing in and

058I know you have it so yeah I don't want to say yeah so please don't quote me on that okay um um I do want to talk really quick about one thing that's really important though is and I and I just I know we've been talking a while but this is important um the tax levy itself right as it's set up to our community it does not necessarily mean that and this would actually impact tax cap as well because we'd be taking it up so the tax might go down to about 5.99 5.98 correct Lisa be a minimal impact to the tax cap itself um but the tax will be set by the school board the equalization rate then is discussed and brought into it and since we serve multiple districts multiple towns that is

059put into it and the sess values are done we don't control that the tax levy itself is dispersed amongst all properties we have high growth employes F so we have one of the highest growths around in the community that offsets the level that taxpayers will pay so it will spread that growth out equally so even if it's 5.9% it may not end up being 5.9% it could be 3% it could be 4% I'm not the budget person I didn't do those numbers we haven't done those yet but it could be less then the equalization rate comes in and it changes it as well depending on your assessed value so there's a lot that goes into it I just want to be very clear for people when you see that number that doesn't necessarily mean that's

060the number that you're going to see on your tax bill I think that's important to continually say and it's also really important to say that that number that we're talking about is our 2% tax cap it's not going over you still need a simple majority of 50+ 1 in order to pack it it's just because yes it's higher than what we're used to but it still doesn't mean that we're going over what that 2% is like those are just really key components I want to stress because when people are watching this and I hope they are because I got the little QR code in our our newsletter those are things that I really want people to know any other questions on that okay and then our budget calendar as you know is here it does

061state and we're on March 3rd right now it does state that our deadline for cand U candidates is the 21st and but it does say April 7th we'll probably do a final budget presentation and the board adopts the budget I don't think that's going to happen I'm going to guess that we might push it off a couple weeks or a week just I really want to see where we're going with the state budget I wouldn't feel comfortable so we may have to revisit another special meeting to discuss that um but I just do want to put it out in the be that that's the conversation that we might want to have and then as of that budget vote is still May 20th and really think is it any other questions no thank youis Lisa thank

062you Lisa thank you all right bye Lisa the wedding bye bye bye okay all right Frank you're not done turn all right okay so I did since there's so many things I want to discuss I did actually write it all down um all right so first and foremost as we already mentioned tonight there are really a lot of great things happening across the district on different scales um I want to take a moment to recognize a couple few items too first off congratulations for our athletic teams you know we've had an amazing winter sports between our swis our bowling our volleyball our winter track you know making e the states um and then we all still have basketball involved Tuesday and Wednesday and hopefully Saturday I me these are big events going on um congratulations

063to oie the Mind students being we had a great showing the PTA helps us support that students going to states that is near and dear to my heart my son like I did om all the way through school and it was one of the best experiences and to be a parent a part of om so thank you to the PTA the parents who supp that the teachers who support that and the kids because really the kids do all the work in om and they did an awesome job this year um High our high school Regional competition for Arts is this year so we've had five students who've been selected to compete just to give you an example of how competitive this is last year we had one so last year we had one kid this

064year we had five students that made it there were 525 over 525 submissions from 25 different school districts 135 were selected and five of those kids were ours so that's awesome that that's occurring our our kids are doing great our Odyssey kids our sports teams our accomplishments for our science olympiads you know there's so many highlights going on in our district big and small it happens every single day so just congratulations to all the students and staff for all the work that they're doing because it really some of it goes unnoticed but there's a lot happening um a couple updates that I just want to kind of share uh our requests for proposals for oure program have been submitted the district is now reviewing them to determine the next steps for the program so we've

065got them we're now going to start looking at them um I just want to remind everybody we talk about it is that we do not house our upk program here no does any general fund money go to that we are only funded by the limited amount of money that the state provides the state provides $5,400 per student which is not a lot of money um and you know to be able to have a program like that so we do have to look at the RFP and see where it stands so we're not there yet but just give an example if we have 28 students in our program our total budget would be $151,000 when people look at how much funding we get from the state they always say we get so much more because you

066know the state might allocate 250 or 275,000 and I have to almost say this every year we don't get that money that money does not belong to us we only get that extra money that we pay for all that other money if it's not used goes back into the the state so I just want to clarify that because that always is a conversation that comes up I feel like I've had a that conversation each year so just want to clarify that one before we begin also the district calendar is on for approval tonight I figured I would take a quick second to talk about that and then you can always talk about it the discussion items too uh the calendar is built including contractual obligations State accommodations uh instructural needs State mandates testing holidays you

067name it the calendar goes into it it is a beast to be able to do each year um and it's just getting more daunting I feel like every year that we have uh the first day of school on our calendar is September 2nd uh with the last day of school on June 26th students first day would be September 4th there are religious and state holidays to fall either on breaks or during stamp professional development days for example El Laur is um a religious holiday but we're able to give that off because this year when it falls it falls in March and I was able to put on a March profession development day so it align so just aligning our processes with what we have um to be able to accommodate as many as possible within

068the schedule so we've done all the develop we have four professional development days we also have all of our religious holidays that we've done rash sha yamur Asian New Year which is mandated uh Lun Lunar New Year excuse me eat alour and Good Friday um all of those are still within our calendar we have four and a half superintendent conference days one and a half full days one and a half Elementary School Conference days high school middle school would still be in session at that time um and it still meets 182 requirement day for teachers 180 requirements per sta um for the state so and there are three emergency days built in those people call them snow days but as we know they could be good flood days or anything else that could happen you

069know from experience goes uh we have those they are and the give back days since we have 185 day calendar and we have 182 um that we work those give back days are going to be on Memorial Day where they've always been in previous years any questions regarding that so for a staff member who celebrates uh is it I'm sure they correct okay even though it's a professional correct yep just same if a staff member if we had uh a Jewish staff member was here onor they would be excused as well thank you I'm sorry I'm talking quick because I feel like I've been a lot of speaking to um just a couple more things here uh over the past few months there's been significant discussion regarding executive orders program changes and shifting policies at

070both the federal and state levels on February uh 6th the New York State education department released a statement reaffirming that state laws and regulations remain in effect and that executive orders do not necessarily override them I know that there's been a lot of different talk and conversation in the media and all over um as executive orders regulations legal challenges and policy debates continue to unfold between state and federal agencies I understand that there's clear directives that will emerge as time goes on until then our mission remains unchanged we are here to support every student ensuring their needs are met while preparing them to be productive citizens beyond our Halls our commitment to this work remains steadfast yesterday today and in the future it doesn't change what we do I just want to clarify that because

071I've known that been a lot of conversations out there is that we're here for kids every day um the energy performance contract is in full swing now we're on the capital project updates middle school high school almost all nearly all the lights have been transitioned and at the elementary school they are transitioning and adding the dimmers staff members who've never had dimmers before very excited it's like Christmas like someone's like oh my gosh I got dimmers um so that is happening um some of the project that is going to be impacted by the the capital project down there some of the lights we are not touching right now because otherwise it would just be kind of a pain um the biggest project under the EPC energy performance contract is our Desert Air system which is

072full heating cooling system it's a huge undertaking it's roughly $650,000 of that DPC because it has failed over time and it is failing um it is being replaced in the summer um over at our transportation facility behind us the walls are up there is concrete on the floors and by the end of next week the roofs will be in place as well well so it's really cool to be able to see all of that work happening um if you can have seen it it's it's it's impressive that they're finally getting moving forward on it even depending on some of the weather one of the things that happens is when it's below a certain um temperature the cranes and the suction cups that they have for the siding do not work so they can't put it

073up just so you know so and if it's raining Che cups don't work in the rain and so they can't but so there are like delays that are occur that are out of our our control those are some of them couple days rain so if we have rain may not be able to get some of these things up so um looking ahead this is the big one tomorrow we have the bid opening for the elementary school huge um I am hoping that our estimates are all correct and that we have bids for all of the different primes um so the goal is is that we are on budget we under budget with all the bids so we can look at them review them and award them a worst case scenario I always do want to

074kind of share it if it happens we're over budget the bids are too high and we have to table it and go back to the drawing board um that would extend out the work so don't want that to happen not expecting that to happen I just wanted to say that there always is that possibility we've estimated it multiple times we've looked at it multiple times um so we're hoping that the bids come in line with arrest are so will it be impacted by tariffs that's just that are coming tomorrow I do know that that answer because there was an article in the uh Times Union maybe Sunday I I lost track of what day it was talking about rebar and and wood and and how that they were you know the owner of this company

075it was local I don't remember the name of the company was talking about how there was a lot of projects he mentioned school districts specifically that may find that what they thought they would be able to get and what his company thought they'd be able to do isn't going to be possible anymore because it's going to be a sign significant enough increase that it may cause people to cancel their projects I'm hoping that doesn't happen me too me too but I just was like oh I was alarmed the one thing that comes out is you know we award a bid we expect that that bid when it is awarded to be done at the price that the bid is done there is a little leeway that's built into some of these things but you know

076if someone bids on it this is what we're expecting that the price is going to be so maybe they've already accounted for that we'll have to see as the time goes on um but it's it's definitely an interesting time I guess it's better for everyone involved that we don't expectations are set based on whatever tomorrow brings yeah so it's it's a big day tomorrow and now you just think be more nervous no I just but it's it's the reality I think going to be challenging and as you know the elementary school is new parking configuration lots of site work changing over the cafeteria to an elementary um the transportation facility to an elementary school cafeteria also really working on the environmental impact down there as well getting the transportation department away from the river um

077new classrooms a maker space a new entrance way I mean there's a lot happening down there that building is old um it hasn't been touched in a long time this is an opportunity to update some of those older older so I'm really looking forward to moving ahead I'm really hoping it moves ahead clearly and I want to put out into the world Positive Vibes that are going to come through that everything will be golden tomorrow um but if not we'll tackle it as we have with other things and we'll go from there it's not going to stop us from moving forward that now I am done thanks thank you um with that we're going to move to discussion of policy 2325 something that we've discussed before and I'm going to turn it over to Arie

078and the rest of the policy commit to us yeah so I'll kick us off and then Barbara Matt uh anything to add jump in so we asked for this to be added as a discussion item because there were some things in the nisba update policy on video conferencing of board meetings which came out in 2023 um but we're just getting to it we got a long list for our policy committee um that I think we're misunderstanding ings at least for me um for example um if I've had to participate remotely with a location that's open to the public it was my understanding that I could not vote um according to the nisba update that is not the case um if your remote and your location is open to the public you can vote um let

079me make sure I I've got it all in effect or uh accurate here um so there's the the way this nisba update is written it's broken into three sections so the first part is locations that are open to the public um so that would be like even if you're remote um if your location is open to the public um it the policy says such members May participate in all aspects of the meeting including establishing a quorum discussions and voting um there's some related requirements um in terms of you know disclosing who else is there um accessibility Etc um and then the next section has to do with um video conferencing under extraordinary circumstances where your location is not open to the public so this could be in let's say a case of illness if we

080decided that that constituted an emergency or extra extraordinary circumstance um you've you've got a a sick child you cannot leave your home your home is not open to the public that would be considered let's say as an example of extraordinary circumstances um and for extraordinary circumstances you um cannot your location cannot be used to establish a quorum um you must have a quarum of board members present in the same physical location where the public can attend the meeting um and then there's language in here stating that um board members video conferencing under extraordinary circumstances can participate in meeting discussions and V and voting and their locations are not required to be open to the public but they do not count towards a quarum unless your location is open to the public um there's an optional

081provision that has to do with board members who have a disability that renders them unable to participate in person in any location um I see a comment uh I don't see why and I don't know who made it I don't see why we wouldn't have this language I think the policy committee agreed so it's our intent to incorporate um the provisions that relate to uh disability members with a disability and some of those are required so those will of course go in um and then the third section oh maybe it's not a third section um the the what I was thinking of was the third section was the disability piece U but as we were discussing this as a policy committee one of the issues that came up was um the ability to if you're

082having a meeting through ex using the extraordinary circumstances and that is kind of how you are making the location available to the public there's a provision that you have to allow for video conferencing yeah um and that includes like full participation by members of the public um including the ability to like participate in public comment and currently our um approach to this is we broadcast the meetings and there's actually a policy on broadcasting that's on later um but that's a little bit different um but we don't allow for public participation in our meetings virtually right so we don't open up comment to someone who wants to join on like a zoom and be able to publicly comment during public comment I think our practice has been to read those comments into the record assuming there's

083time we yeah we were doing that during times when people were maybe potentially couldn't right so if we wanted to um allow for the extraordinary circumstances for the board to hold a meeting um I think that still requires a resolution Matt correct me if I'm wrong the resolution is required only for the extraordinary circumstances right and the language you were talking about actually I was able to find it oh perfect the last two yeah we we only have to broadcast or accept public comment via virtual means if somebody is remote we don't that that doesn't we accept this language we wouldn't have to do it all the time no matter what so I think if if we were allowing like I'm traveling for work right and I'm participating in my location open to the public

084there's no requirement that we allow right public comment through that whatever link I'm joining that's not a requirement um if we had the technological capability I suppose we could do it if we wanted to I see Frank and probably Lonnie it itch in in his seat in the back because you know at least you know I know we're we're improving and we have improved dramatically over the years but there are still Tech technological challenges in in getting our meetings up and running and even to allow remote participation by somebody like Lisa is sometimes challenging so we wanted to kind of flag like it's been a while since we discussed this as I mentioned at the beginning there was a misconception on my part about whether I could vote let's say I'm using myself as the

085example if I were remote turns out I can we haven't been doing that um but for discussion purposes we wanted to open it up and see if anyone has an interest in circling back to that resolution is this something that we want to do in order to expand the ways that we can allow for meetings under extraordinary circumstances and potentially assuming technologically feasible allow for public comment through whatever platform and far Matt if you have anything else to throw out there please feel free I think I mean I think that they're close but the difference is that the the first requires more notice just the Ordinary video confering and it must absolutely be open to the yes um but then in terms of the extraordinary circumstances correct me if I'm wrong I just want to

086go through this just to make differences is that with the extraordinary circumstances um it seems like it can be done on a you know less notice and that where where member ising from not be open to the public but if you're going to use that option there has to be that time ability to have the real time interaction and that's where I I G that logistically that's where I hang up is is that I don't know that as already you pointed out it is what it is but we saw the difficulties we had with regard to just you know having someone patch in video is some way that we can we can can meet those requirements of having a live real time 2way interaction I mean I think not to trivialize it I think that's

087a solved problem right if we do a Hardline wi I think it solved we're doing Wi-Fi I think that's the issue if we hook up a line and plug it into the computer spend money any whether it's like you you buy something from Cisco that's an all-in-one camera and you all One camera TV panel whatever and then hook it up to a WebEx meeting and then public can get in and it's TurnKey or something from like have WebEx through so you know we don't have to pay for WebEx because we have it through DL so our web we do have the ability to utilize WebEx for meetings just to clarify that a little bit if you're wondering about that our uh our DL TV setups are not portable correct they don't pable there is a

088portable one in there is there a portable one we could use that I mean if that youex that could be our mean put it right here and right you know maybe that's the solution but just as long as it's hardw yeah yeah so I think just to read the paragraph that's in the policy for all meetings involving video conferencing under extraordinary circumstances the district district will provide members of the public the opportunity to view the meeting via video and participate in public comment via video conference in real time where public comment is authorized to the same extent as in-person comment so that's that's kind of the what I think is the key piece of this is if we're going to go down the extraordinary circumstance if we want to right that's the question do we

089want to consider this so that we can allow our members to to participate when there are these extraordinary circumstances so we two parts one is extraordinary and one is ordinary so ordinary is is covered that's not optional that's in the law that's the first part about um locations that are open to the public right so if if you're participating remotely in your location is not open to the public um then you cannot you I want to make sure I get this right hang on yeah if you're location's not open to the public then it you have to go under the extraordinary circumstances provision if we only go under extraordinary circumstances for extraordinary ccum es there's basically no heads up for members of the public you we're very minimal it basic the draft policy basically says

090ideally it's at least four days before but if you've got a sick kid that's impractical um but there's language in there saying that the meeting notice should be updated as soon as practical so and per policy 2340 we would have to be make sure if I have meetings so right right yeah so we still have all the requirements to notice the meetings the way that we already do now you would just have to update the notice essentially as soon as you knew it was the request was made so let's say Monday morning the message goes out and folks now hear oh wait I can participate remotely so we would have to everyone just right or if you're going to have the technology in place for extraordinary circumstances why wouldn't you do it all the time

091and that is the question yes correct that that is why this is a discuss something but doesn't if you're true to the intents of the extraordinary circumstances doesn't that suppose you actually have such circumstances didn't I just hear that you know why don't we just do remotely all the time no I don't why don't we have the setup all the time toble stream it I think for the for the public for who who let's say is stuck somewhere and can't get here there's probably so many people who would want to be participating in these meetings in live time yep you're giv me the no I have no idea I was going to ask do we have any way to do we know how many people tune in I mean do we have a number I

092mean we can we can see how many people watch after yeah I just have no idea yeah I think it's people do watch yeah it varies but it's musty TV it's between 250 to 500 depending on it that's more than I expected it so if if we could make it half of those might be [Laughter] Rachel I actually don't watch I do watch the committee meetings thanks for calling up I caught that one almost text you also super fun is to watch them on a large screen TV nothing I was slightly wrong um 19 views 43 views 23 views 23 views 29 views we're roughing now between 29 and 45 look at the December VI oh December yeah that's an anomaly though well half those I'm looking at the audit facilities policy let see policy

093audit curriculum looking at board hold on so Joy do you think that a lot of students would want to participate from home or remotely so board event I was right 227 in January thank you for coming 305 in December again like I said anywhere between 227 and 350 okay November was 82 so we don't thank you I mean we don't have to like hash this out today this policy is on our list and we can come back to it um we have a couple of other like board organizational policies that are still that we're still working through um but if if people have thoughts you know we can I like the idea I've had regrets ever since we uh turned it down like we do and there have been a bunch of circumstances certainly even

094for me right I think twice over the past two years does include me too huh Does it include me too yeah so actually you know what you may be a loophole because you don't vote anyway you're not part of the quum I don't think I think you can participate remotely without circumstances I think that's true yeah like if you're sick you can probably remote in without a problem but uh yeah I I I don't know a number of times and and I'm not the only one who's had to miss for being sick or sick or have you know like number of us it would be a lot and it's not just for convenience right there's things that you know supp conversation don't want to miss be a part of so right yeah I would be

095strongly in favor of revisiting this and it I think it strengthens the ability of the board to work completely but it also strengthens the ability Community to participate participate well to to be heard if they want to speak or but also to feel like they're more current in terms of things like it's easy to forget to go view it but if you know it's 7 o' on Mondays you're G be there y see TV I'm telling you all right I think that gives us enough direction we can we can start working on this um we'll have to coordinate Frank we can talk about this in our meeting this week but the resolution would have to um we'd have to pass the resolution okay okay cool thank you thank you thank you guys all right with

096that uh we're going to move to item 4.1 the minutes of the regular meeting would anyone like to move them I'll move it second I'll second before we vote any comments or discussion vote all in favor uh treasur reports any um I'm sorry I'm having a moment okay sorry I was clicked on Treasures reports but I was seeing personel I'll move those second comments questions all in favor okay Personnel items before we actually have this happen Bob Bob Mal maluski I had it and I lost it Bob malusi has been here for 38 years and that is the longest stretch of time that I think have had in in the time that and that I have sat here to say not which is not a long time either but um that is a closing in

097on four decades is a remarkable contribution and remarkable part of this organization and he's a wonderful human being yeah every really it's wonderful you so I just want to say thank you um to Bob the all he's brought to this District wishing you all the best going forward so but uh would anyone like to move move this uh items all of 5.2 5.2.1 all the way through to 5.2.6 I'll move it second I'll second it anything else um all in favor I I welcome to uh let's bring together items 5.3 and 5.4 in consent agenda would anyone like to move forward I'll move it second I'll second it any comments or questions okay all in favor with that we'll move to the district calendar which um I'm going to comment before Mo anything uh I

098have kids who've been waiting anxiously for that full weeks off in the winter just saying and not yet there's a lot of us that wanted that full two weeks off I want to be very clear I don't know why superintendent's days aren't Tuesday stay ouch we we have adjusted the calendar before so are you're like my back is screaming sh up um would anyone like to move it or discuss this further I'll move it second I'll second all in favor I thank you for making me giggle you're welome always yeah the non-resident student admission requests um some of these I'm shocked that they're going into kindergarten I know these kids are 10th grade um anyway way any comments or questions or anyone like to move them forward I'll move second all in favor I I

099uh we have a contract for New Scotland soccer this is just um any questions or comments or anyone like to move it forward I'll move it second I'll second all in favor okay um memorandum of standing with casik another great acronym anyone discuss or move forward second I'll second on in favor I okay um so car is moving to um maybe not greener pastur because we have for now working with us on ours but sorry it had to be done but um Joe Mayo U will be joining us for a period of time should we vote for that 5.9 questions comments can I have a question I have a question on that when I looked at um um the reimbursement for travel the line of Duties does that in commute like it's just when he's

100going store okay I just want to make sure yep I just want to make sure that was a pretty daily a good daily rate make sure in okay thank you I to yeah I do want to clarify um Neil's last day is March 14th and um you know I do want if it's all right for me to say he's been an asset to the district a great human being I wish him all the best in the world um so good for him we're very lucky with Joe Joe has 30 years or more experience uh he's worked at a very large school district and then a much larger school another larger School District he comes well recommended um and he's very excited to start here as well so we are very lucky to find a seasoned

101person to be able to come in and if they have the stamp of endorsement and approval by Neil then I know that is a good thing so and that's a positive transition it will help us through we are going to um go through the Civil Service it is a very long process with that list um which will probably end up being broken because they're hard to come by and then we'll go through that but I just want to clarify so we'll have Joe probably for roughly three months but please give our thanks to NE yes for um would we have that phrase that was uh deferred deferred maintenance deferred maintenance think he got us to undef a lot anyway would anyone like to move this one 5.9 I'll move it second second all favor one

102more question on that now about that specifically but do we have the ability to grow our own we do okay are we with training okay yes our own staff people besides grass Rachel we could actually grow humans yeah so for example um we've had a staff member who was a custodian who then became a part-time ground keeper and then we're training them with like say Bob or other people so our goal is to be able to build in those people with our welln knowledged individuals much hard when to director facilities because you have to have a civil service with that as well okay but always an opportunity yeah I think it's because especially they're hard to find you yes it is a process that we've been working on there is a potential senior field trip

103to Jenkinson's Beach um and does anyone want to discuss this or offer the sh or move it second a second all in favor I Jo have a great time um hopefully it'll be warm and sunny yes Surplus items 5.11 move it I'll move it second favor audit committee all right looking forward to it thank you for adding the item from last time that wasn't done there uh curriculum committee you guys um we have not met since okay since January do you have a meet meeting scheduled um our next one is supposed to be on Tuesday March 25th facilities also have not we have one coming up though is it next week next Tuesday Tuesday right have fun I wondered if are we still going to do that okay that's it's the 11th um all right

104so item 7 oh policy sorry so we have a lot we did me um we have a bunch of policies on I can talk through them when we get to them or now which would you prefer we get to them yeah yeah sure so and we're meeting again on Wednesday awesome thank you the policy committee so this is the establishment of a bus Reserve should everyone vote uh at on May 20th if we vote to put that on the ballot uh is there any conversation that we anyone like to raise any like to move I'll move second any questions before we vote on it no just in case there are questions about this just because we established the reserve doesn't mean we're funding it correct okay possib yep you have to have it established even

105if you put $5 in it you still have to you have to have it there in order to put money in it but you don't time for us to do it correct okay I think it's a good planning you know yeah step great all right all in favor I all right um this one is I think this is the first time we I again I can remember doing this where we have two potential resolutions on this or proposition language in the same item we choose one or neither I cannot choose both so this is what Frank and Lisa were discussing diesel buses and an electric or just two diesel buses we choose now now and this is to send to the voters bu should we go around everyone should weigh in B want to start

106option b b is which one two diesel is just two diesel buses B for me too B for me as yeah be nice to have a but I just don't think the environment is going to support it and I don't think the federal funds are going to be there it's like the climate has changed huge fire and if we're looking at federal grants I I just don't think and I think New York State's going to change their perspective because they're going to have to yeah yeah it the funding is it's likely anyway and also the infrastructure from New York St I know I know and not even the federal funding but just the fact of bridges and infrastructure and electric infrastructure the technology not supporting a full route in the winter that there's a lot

107so I guess the longer we push it out the better technology will end up purchasing when we do purchase so all right um so would anyone like to say this we are um I I'm I'm just saying every it sounds like we're going to vote for B and then we'll strike a okay so this is a vote for item B only which is the purchase of two diesel buses only so for anyone is following along it's resolution b or proposition B excuse me um so we're resolving to propose that b would anyone like to move B I'll move it second I'll second all in favor I okay J would you please strike item a we are not going to vote on a everyone's with that I'm not bringing it Forward um okay so would you

108like to now talk about um policy 252010 yes so 2510 is our new board member orientation policy and this one we tweaked a couple years ago um at the request of a former board member um and when we went back to it it was part of a review of Just a section on board organizational policies generally and we added this one in um because it's one that we've talked about a couple of times and we added language at the end of this um regarding what happens when we not really what happens but acknowledging that we can have a new board member outside of an election for example if we had a a resignation and needed to make an appointment um and to require ourselves to hold a retreat when we have a new board member

109even if that is outside of a um um election process just as a good way to kind of Orient new people um so that is The Tweak that's in 2510 um you want me to just move to the next one sure if it's okay with everyone we'll just go through them and then vote on them as a consent agenda okay great um 2111 is our policy on board member Authority and what that means is that we act together and only as a board um and not as individuals um and we added an affirmative statement in here towards the end um that has to do with uh Board elections and uh it's that last second to last paragraph that says the board shall take no position in support of or in opposition to a candidate for

110election to the board if any individual board member feels obliged to take a public position or public action concerning a candidate the individual board member must state that they take their position or action as a private citizen and not as a member of the board and related to that provision we talked about um what happens during campaign board you know election campaign season um where you know I could be going door too with a candidate as an individual but people whose doors are being knocked on know me as a board member um and under this change in the policy I would have to State when knocking on that door that I am you know taking a position if I'm taking a position um as a private citizen not as a member of the board so

111that is a tweak that's in there that we made um but that's public what if you're talking amongst friends this says public position or public action concerning a candidate so door knocking is one thing but what if let's say you were you had friends over and the candidate was a friend and you introduced that uh is your is the location where you're having friends over open to the public or was it invite only I mean I think that's getting really close to the line yeah um and if it were me I would say I'm saying this as an individual not as a member of the board but hey I really like this candidate I I think that would be adhering to the spirit of the the change in the policy May oh so I live

112in this community I've lived here for 20 years superintendent here for six years when I'm with people that I've known for 12 years 15 years and they and I'm speaking about education stuff with my own kids because we're all parents we speak with other parents about our kids I will say very clearly before I speak I'm speaking as a parent not as an official or a person who works for the district even if it's somebody I've known for 20 years I am very clear on what position I'm taking and that's in my own house or in my back porch or anything else so I would make that recommendation across the board to anyone as just good practice y see what yep okay so the next the next one or is there any more discussion or

113questions on that okay the next one is broadcasting and recording of board meetings this is a first read for us we do not currently have this policy um but it was it was a nisba up update and it was a kind of timely for us to talk about it because um our December meeting we did have media uh set up in recording portions of our meeting um and that is addressed in this policy um and basically it's total totally permissible as long as the means of recording or broadcasting um is not obtrusive or disruptive and does not interfere with the deliberative process of the board um or the right of anyone attending to observe or listen to the meeting so we talked about you know if during the course of that let's say a board

114meeting some members of the media wanted to come and set up like right here right and it blocked public view or our ability to communicate like meet to Matt that would not be consistent with the policy and we would be able to to instruct that person to make change um so that this will be a new policy for us we don't currently have it but it's on for a first read if anyone has questions um I have a question just that it says that uh in the second paragraph that you can't they can't interfere with the deliberative process or the right of anyone attending to observe or listen to the meeting um or the recording of the meeting shouldn't be done right M so I don't know that it says that it's not obtrusive or

115disruptive does that include like it couldn't come between Frank and the owl I think that yeah I think that would so it kind of covers that too I just want to make I would think so I would I would consider that to be obtrusive or disruptive and interfering with the deliberative process of the board right if that's set up right there and I can't talk to Robin and Matt I think that's a problem and it do so it's disruptive of our recording y this is awesome I I think this is really useful I'm glad you yeah and it's it's timing too yeah thank you I just had like this I was thinking about it and thinking like okay just such a great yep so it's first read though so if anyone has um anything you

116want us to take back and work on just let us know that's it with that uh a consent agenda for item 7.3 and 7.4 would anyone like to me them second any more comments or questions all in favor I 7.5 we're enjoy it onday with that we move to 8.1 the opportunity for the public to be heard behind the newer anyone looking forward to coming up didn't even notice that was it's beautiful Glory um and this is the opportunity for the board to be heard we do have a mini retreat coming up May March 25th which is a Wednesday please don't forget 4 p.m. it will be in it's the 26th thank you checking I just know it's Wednesday thank you 4 pm start time high school library right High School library it's going to

117be awesome professional it's gonna be awesome with that we um there anything else that the board would like to bring forward or discuss talk about adult at some point that I thought I got you were no I mean I thought yes there was reest next month um I do not know when that's okay I wait until after the budget thought the bo we could wait on the yeah I just wasn't sure got a lot there was a question asked about a presentation for the board on a adult ad I asked when it could be done because right now I'm need even budget so um I was looking at may and or June for that presentation after we have an ability to understand and that was the board is understanding of this what's going on and

118said yes please um so dates to remember um this guy still had light in it when we were driving in tonight and our next meeting might even be later it's s with that would anyone like to move that we adjourn anyone like to second I'll second all favor thank you Joe is there something everyone needs to sign oh