001God to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and everybody who's here with us and everybody that might be watching at home and watching a little later. Uh we've got some exciting things going on tonight. It is uh teacher appreciation week and today is teacher appreciation day. Uh so we want to do a little bit to thank all of our hardworking educators uh throughout the district. We wish we could call them all in but I don't think well maybe the ar maybe not quite. Uh we've got our public uh hearing for the budget. So that's an important aspect of what's going to happen tonight. And that is indeed the first thing on our agenda tonight. So I will turn it over to Dr. Needle with the school measure of public
002hearing. >> Good evening everyone. Um we do have a couple of things as our school president said that will be happening tonight. So you may see people kind of walking in closer to six o'clock. So we apologize in advance for that. >> Hello [laughter] pulled out the red carpet carpet. I want to thank everyone for being here tonight. Um, this presentation, and Bri's going to correct me if I'm wrong, tonight's presentation is number seven of presenting our budget. Um, what I did, Bri and I have had this conversation because we've been following the governor's proposed budget. Um, those of you that do not know, there are eight enacted uh extenders, budget extenders. Um, the current budget extender goes through tomorrow and then our legislators have to make a decision if they're going to approve that
003and extend it again. Um, as you do know, the P public vote is on the 19th. So, the information that we're presenting tonight is the best information that we have. Uh, there may be information, and Bri and I've said this in other budget presentations, the other seven that we've done is that, uh, there was an incident last year when the governor's enacted budget actually came in lower than the proposed budget. Um, so we will keep an eye on that and we will put out those, uh, information once we have it. Um so far in our budget presentations um we have presented to our student body, our uh administrative body, our faculty body. Uh we've presented to our community, we've presented to our board. Uh we do have a presentation tomorrow at the noon. So we're
004excited about that. This is our third year presenting there. Um and we are also presenting at the Sunrise Notary notary, sorry, uh Rotary on Thursday. And then something new that we're doing this year is we are presenting at eyes uh retirement community. So we're going up to eyes. That will be the 10th presentation we'll be putting on before the public vote. Um and we'll look to continue expanding that next year. Okay. Um the first slide is really a thank you to our school board. Um as we've said in other meetings, our board is a volunteer body that works extremely hard uh for the governance piece of our district. Um, so this is just a highlight of our board members. Our student board member we believe might be at a track meet, so we apologize for
005that. And he also may be coming in late. >> Um, this is about who we are as a district. Um, these numbers when you look at the total number of students in our district do not include prek. So we're actually uh close to about 4,000 or just over when you include prek in those numbers. Uh, just over 900 employees, just shy of about 920. Um, we operate eight schools in the Watertown City School District and nine facilities if you include the masking learning center. Um, our proposed budget, which we will dig into further in this presentation, is 112 million. Our schools are listed on here, so you see those. Uh, one thing to also mention is the um, you know, the increase of students with disabilities, which we've seen a significant increase over the last
006three years, and we'll have more data on that. um our as we go through the budget process, you kind of see it um behind the coals over here, our strategic plan, that was a shot out the two of you. Um our strategic plan, uh those are the goals that we center around our budget and these conversations and Bri and I will dig a little bit deeper into that started in November. So when we're starting to get information and there's also things that you're going to hear on the presentation today, I already mentioned about the governor's proposed budget is not enacted yet. Um there are other factors that we are waiting on numbers and Bri will dig into that. Um the other thing that I will say because this is something that's important when you look
007at the size of our budget. Um it's two things. One, if you look at the amount of programs that we have in our district, um and you look at the proposed budget of 112 million, what that does not take into consideration are all of the grant funded opportunities that we have in the Watertown City School District. So if those grant funds were not included, that number of 112 would be higher or the district and community would have to decide are those programs that we would like to continue. So I do want to mention that and then I will end this slide with a comment about the Watertown City School District being the largest public employer, the largest private employer in Ontario is Mary. Uh this I basically said, but I'll repeat it. It's important. It's
008tied to our strategic plan. And this was our five-year strategic plan uh with the understanding that we have a mid-year check-in and end of year check-in. Um our priority and you could see after the data that we shared earlier on in our previous board meeting, an increase in graduation rate, um increase in meaningful student engagement and we're doing a lot of amazing things under Lynn and our our curriculum department for that. Um improving overall student attendance and the work that both Tina and Lynn have facilitated with our home school coordinators, counselor, social workers, and so forth. uh we know that if we don't get kids to school, we can't teach them. So, a lot of the things that are in the budget are to help with that. Uh enhancing behavioral supports. You know, we do
009have students that struggle um with behavioral supports and there's a lot of supports that we put in as a district to really build that behavioral support team to address those behaviors so that we can get to the academic gaps that some of our students have. Um and goal number five, which was a perfect uh addestation to last year in March, if you remember during our our music and our schools month, our community uh voted overwhelmingly to support our facilities. Our facilities in this district are old and a lot of work is needed. Um one thing that I do like to highlight, uh that has been advertised in our community both in the Waterton Daily Times and News Channel 7. um you know, we receive 93 cents on a dollar for our facilities uh regarding our
010our maximum cost along when we're doing repairs. Um and so that's critically important when we talk about phasing of projects and you'll hear more about that as we move on. So all of our project is based on time to these goals and we're going to go to Bri. >> Um as Dr. had mentioned uh the the budget planning begins around November and we meet as an administrative team to talk about how the process went the previous year and what can we change for example um the first year I came on board last year um when we met with the different buildings and departments it was a mixture we had maybe at 10 o'clock we met with the high school and an hour later it was with special education this year we changed it up so
011we met with the departments first special education IT buildings and grounds and then we met with the building so we were able to split it up a little bit easier that way. Um those those presentations began in January with those departments in the bu and the building principles. Their their presentations had to highlight successes needs in their building. Um anything that they were asking for had to be data supported and it had to be supported by the strategic plan of the district. Also in January is where um our wonderful health insurance consortium uh voted for the 20% increase which is really what um drove the budget for next year um and workers compensation rates. And also this is when we really begin estimating what our year-end fund balance will be. Um I'm working on that
012all year long. It's really a moving target, but we don't really receive state aid runs until November, December. So January is really when we have some solid numbers from the state to begin knowing what our revenues and will be going forward. And then beginning in February, we have um different reports that are due to the states. Um we have the the board will um adopt the tax cap and then it's submitted to New York State by March 1st. In April, we have our tax um our tax report card that's due within 24 hours of the budget adoption. And throughout these next several months, we have several u presentations that Dr. which is already mentioned with different different organizations um benefit in plain English um the budget expenses grew by almost 8% it was 7.9% however
013the tax increase is going to be only 2.55% the difference between that is going to be carried over with the fund balance which we will go into more detail later on the slides um on the middle of the box there the 75% of the increases non-discretionary, which means it's things that are out of our control. Again, health insurance premiums was 20%, that was $6.3 million. Um, special education services, that is a that is a mandate by the federal government. We have to provide those services for our students and those numbers are consistently increasing year-over-year. The overall our goal was to maintain our workforce stability. So, our staffing levels were adjusted to match our current enrollment. We did not have any layoffs for next year. We are we are required to present the budget in three
014categories. Administration, program, and capital. Administration is the smaller portion of the of the budget at um $ 8.3 million. It's an increase of 1.3. Please don't look at the last column where percent change is because when you work with smaller numbers, obviously that number the percentage grows astronomically. But administration doesn't just mean the administrators you see around the table. It's administration of the district as a whole. So you have your principles, you have their secretarial staff. Um that's where our liability insurance is. And um half of that about over $600,000 alone was health insurance increase for that staffing program is the largest of the largest section of the budget at $88.6 million. That is the instruction of our students. That is our our general instruction, special education, transportation of our students and athletics. And that
015grew by that grew by $6.9 million. That is the bulk of the increase as we would expect. And then capital um that's the middle portion there, $15 million. This is where buildings and grounds is reported. Um this is also where um any debt service payments are recorded. um any building projects that have rolled off uh we will no longer have the aid which you'll see later on. So that has a decrease of about $100,000. The next slide just shows it in a pie chart. There we go. These are the major categories of a school district's budget. receive salaries and employee benefits which makes up about three quarters of the budget which is what we expect here in New York State followed by contractual contractual expenses and supplies debt service equipment and inner fund transfers >>
016I do want to add Bri to this piece that's I think critically important that we've talked about as an executive team and I believe we did mention it the community budget presentation is that when you look at the controllers report they look at all of the districts in New New York state and they look at where they are where they are spending based on poverty levels and a variety of other factors. Uh the Watertown City School District when you look at that report lists Watertown City School District is spending significantly less than other districts in New York State and it's actually onethird you know at the bottom oneird as far as spending perm. So that's important as you look at these charts. slight delay. Um, this slide we added this year because what's important to
017to look at is all of these up arrows. Um, you know, when you look at more of like Central New York and some of the media outlets and things that are being said about the budget, you know, what people don't understand is they look at, okay, well, the district went down 62 students, and we'll speak about that in a future slide. So, if the if the if there's a decrease in enrollment by 62 students, then the cost should go down. What this slide shows is health insurance went up 20% which is what Brie said that was 6.3 million. When you look at liability insurance that's 20% last year went up 40%. Um this year the plan for next year is additional 20. Utilities I think this and all of us in this room are experiencing
018this in our own personal worlds. Um I I would say this is a very conservative number. Um you know I know there were months this year where I felt like mine doubled at home. Um, and we had months as a district where our utility cost was over $100,000. Transportation went up 4%. You know, this is important to mention because when I talked earlier about the the um grant piece, Lynn, Lisa, there's a lot of behind the work uh the scenes work that goes into the grant writing, but transportation is something important to look at because the district has board policy where we transport students less than a mile and a half at the elementary le level, less than two miles at the secondary level. The state has specific mileage requirements for reimbursement. So that means
019the district's policy allows for transportation of students where there is no aid reimbursement. So that's where as a community it's important because if we value our kids getting on a bus at a kindergarten level at 75 as opposed to one and a half, then it's something that the taxpayers have to be aware of because we're voting to say yes to that and we're voting to carry that cost. In addition to that, if you remember last year's budget presentation, we added late buses this morning. You know, it it took one conversation with a parent and a student for them to say, "My kid missed first period and now they're missing their concert at the elementary level. We can't close an instructional gap if we don't get kids here." And so, we added that we're not getting
020aid on that bus. You know, this year we're transporting our students that are athletes that maybe to level the playing field on an lens, we're transporting students that we don't get, you know, athletic aid to transport those students. So those are the things that are often forgotten and missed in a budget that we value and there's a cost to and the cost goes to the taxpayers to decide do we support this budget? Do we support the fact that we want to keep these resources available for our students in our community? Is it something that we do not? Um, so I wanted to mention that that the maintenance piece is critically important because when you look at our facilities and that is on our strategic plan, our buildings are old and you know our our buildings
021are a community asset and it's important for our community to make sure that we're maintaining our facilities and that um we're taking care of them. And so that's 10% that's built in for that. Uh the next thing on there is the school resource officer. We have a partnership with the Watertown City Police Department. that rate went up an additional 9%. They have the same expenses that we're seeing with health insurance and different expenses that they have to pay. The one thing that this doesn't show that we all are experiencing at school and at home is the fact that uh food costs went up over 30%. So when you look at different variables, these are ones that we wanted to show that are out of our control. Um, when you saw an earlier slide that Bri
022had up that said 75% of the budget is something that is out of our control, that means 75% regardless of what the outcome is is still 75%. Um, so we wanted to show that this is just a different way of looking at it. Um, for those of you that work in business and you're familiar with a consumer price index, you know, it usually fluctuates in between 2.6 and 2.9%. So it came in at 2.63 63. As you can see, what we wanted this graph to show is the fact that these costs that don't they're not they're not all inclusive, but they far exceed the 2.63. They also exceed the 2.5% at the tax levy and they also surpass the 2.54% um at the governor's proposed budget. >> I will start with the salary side. Um
023salaries are increasing about $800,000 to $51.9 million. Um the biggest driver of this is going to be special education. I know it shows that there's a $3.9 million increase in special education salaries, but we only have an $800,000 increase overall. That's because there was a lot of reallocation from general instruction salaries to special education. And this is a requirement to ensure that we are still maintaining our maintenance of effort levels with the idea which is the individuals with disabilities >> education act. Thank you. Um in order we need to make sure that we are monitoring our special education costs in order to keep keep that that grant money coming into the district. >> There is one more piece that I want to say that I probably would have said in an earlier slide but it's
024important here too. When you look at IDA and what is Caleb, come on in. Our student board member has arrived. Our look at IDA and we had the opportunity this year to go to DC and also Albany a handful of times to advocate for our budget and to support our neighboring districts um on their budgets. Um, but what I will say that I've said before publicly, when you look at IDA and you look at the fully funded IDA, when that law came into be, it was the the federal government saying we're going to pay 40% of the cost of educating a student special needs. This right now the federal government is paying like 14%. And it's always been less than 20. And so basically, I say that because then the costs shift in another direction.
025These are programs that are legally mandated. So, we're going to continue advocating at the federal level. Um, and our superintendent colleagues are going to do the same thing so that we can continue advocating for that IDA additional funding. But I will say looking at Leslie reminds me, um, if you look at this school year, we added a self-contained classroom at the high school level this year. um because the law changed at the federal level for us and districts to we are mandated to provide faith free appropriate public education until a child's 22nd birthday. Um that was not the case prior to this year. And so as a district and kudos to the high school, many of those parents in that classroom wanted the district to keep those kids until their 22nd birthday. So that's a
026great thing for the district, but it was also one of those things that was an unfunded uh mandate that we also mentioned in our federal advocacy. >> Uh we also had a number of grants that are ending. Um ARPA was finally completed in October and then recode grant will be ending over the next few months. So there were a number of salaries that were supported by those grants that were um moved into the general fund. And then we do have a few new position and I believe Dr. wants to go home. >> So, we're looking at adding K1211 classrooms. Those are self-contained classrooms. So, we're looking at building our continuum. We're looking at the elementary level, adding a resource classroom. Uh we're looking at adding an instructional coach at our high school um so that
027we can continue that great work that's happening instructionally up there, which ties into our graduation rate. Um an administrative intern. Uh right now, we do not have a succession plan uh when people are retiring. And so that will help us build up that and we're looking at summer to help us with our community partnerships and strategic communication. Um in addition to that um we've got our contract our contractual obligations and maintaining workforce stability which is something that um Brie had already mentioned. >> This is the biggest driver of the budget um employee benefits overall was a $6.6 million increase but 6.3 of that was health insurance premiums. uh when you look year-over-year, dollar for dollar, it actually comes out to more than 20% because we do have legacy costs. And what that means is when
028an employee retires, which actually we have one in the room, two in the room that I recognize, when that employee retires, we still cover their health insurance for life, but we also have to cover the health insurance for their replacement. So, you end up with a lot more than just a simple 20% increase. And then, of course, on top of that, there are Medicare reimbursements, and those continue to rise every year. Um employees retirement system is the district's contribution towards non-instructional salaries. That would be our custodial cleaners um kitchen staff and even some um teaching teaching aids. Um that increase from 19.6% to 21.4%. So about $800,000 increase there. Um a good thing teachers retirement system the district's contribution towards instructional salaries. We are we are blessed to have the the one of the best
029funded um pension systems in the country for our teachers retirement system and that's actually decreasing from 959 to 8.24. So there's about a $600,000 savings there. And then FICA which is the 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare is pretty stable at about roughly $100,000 increase. >> This slide right here, what we were hoping to show, we had maths up in this slide. What we want people to see is the increase of special education over the last couple years. So you can see we've went over um 100 new students. Um you can also see where we've added um our level of continuum of services for special education. This year you'll notice that we do not have finalized numbers. Those numbers are fluid. Students come in and students go out. Um, one of the things that we
030also wanted to mention on the special education side is that, you know, there are t there are some things that you can predict if students are in the district and you carry them from one program to the next. Um, but oftent times there are things that are unexpected and unanticipated where you may have a student that comes in with a level of residential treatment facility needs and that burden is on the district um and our tax base. So um and that is not something that we can necessarily project because the costs vary and the needs vary depending on uh the student. >> Uh this is just a different way of looking at it and you can see where our special education you saw an increase of 19% over the last couple of years. The revenue
031side revenues made up of four different sources. the state and federal aid, property taxes, local revenues, and then the fund balance and reserves, which helps balance it out. Um, we we're going to bounce around a little bit because three of those are going to be talked about later. So, we'll start with local revenue. Local revenue includes pilots, the utility tax, which is the sales tax on the national grid bills, and interest earnings. Um, that's decreasing just slightly, about $126,000. Um, for this current year, we had budgeted about a million dollars in interest revenue. And with interest rates decreasing, we're budgeting about half that for next year, but the difference is made up into the in the utility tax. Hence the, you know, just a little bit of change there. And then uh we'll talk about
032the next three areas over the next following slides. The next one is state and federal aid. Um if you recall, Dr. Schmeaggel mentioned about how um the governor's budget last year was lower than what her initial proposal was. And we've already experienced that one once this year without even having an enacted budget. When the aid came out in February, we were initially promised a 3.89% increase in foundation aid. Foundation aid is at the largest bulk of the state aid calculation. And then a few weeks later, Dr. Spiegel and I got a 10pm email from New York State saying, "Congratulations. Your enrollment dropped. You're losing $785,000." that was about 12,500 per student. So about 62 students. >> Um normally they don't seem to make a lot of adjustments on that, but ours was over 1% and
033they went back and adjusted that. Um the other area that's a that's a large bulk of the state aid calculation is building aid. Building aid is the aid we receive on any capital projects that we're doing throughout the district. So, um it's really important as when we're doing a project, you have the you have the um the debt service with that, but you also have the aid, so it usually stays pretty even. Um this year was actually a little different. We had um projects rolling off and we weren't quite ready with the $110 million project to keep that level. So, we have a drop of $2.5 million in building aid. And if you may recall, the capital section of the budget went down about $100,000, which represented the decrease in the in the bond payments
034on that. Um, and then overall, if you look at the bottom, we have $1.5 million increase in foundation aid, $2.5 million decrease in building aid, but overall is a $600,000 difference. And why is that? Because there are other areas in state aid um that make up the calculation. Uh there is transportation aid which is an estimate by the governor when she presents her budget in February. Uh we really don't know those numbers until we have the state aid runs later in the following year. And also is Bosey's aid. Um most of our Bosey's expenses we get aided on that in the following year. And that's another estimate the governor uses when she does her proposal and we won't know that number until November. So we have quite a bit of revenue. That's a huge estimate
035um for the next six, seven, eight, nine months. uh foundation aid increase. Um in 232 24 when Governor Hokll came into office, she had proposed to make foundation aid whole to all of the districts. So over the course of the two years, you had some massive increases in um in the foundation aid. We had 20.8% in the 2324 year and then 8.77% in 2425. And of course once that promise was fulfilled, then the aid has plummeted. We received 3% for this year and next year is holding at 2.54. But again, um that the state's budget is not finalized yet. So that number is still an estimate at this point in time. >> Other things that Bri and I've said in other meetings is that when you look at the governor's proposed budget, six water town
036is not one of them and we're grateful for that. Um many of the districts, 68% of them in New York State were projected to get a 1% increase. Um the other thing that I wanted to mention with this slide where you look at that significant eight increase in 2324 and you see it going downhill is that that's when if you go back and you look at fund balance reports that's where the fund balance went up and that was because what you don't want to do is you don't want to if you spend that money what happens is when the eight goes down then you have to cut those positions. So if you want to maintain your workforce, maintain your programming, then you kind of stable that. It kind of overinflates the fund balance piece of
037it, but then it keeps your staffing stable as you move through the significant drop in a >> All right, the next area that we're going to talk about is going to be property taxes. Um we are proposing a 2.55 tax levy increase which is at the tax cap. It is not going over the cap. So a simple majority vote is required. Um this slide actually represents the proposed levies across all the districts in Jefferson County. Um we are in the end in gold and except for Carthage we are the lowest in Jefferson County at the 2.55%. There are three districts that I know of at this point in time that are planning to go over the cap and those ones are in red. Um the overall in you can go ahead Dr. Schmegle. the the
038overall increase results in about a $29 annual increase on a $100,000 appraised home, which comes to about $242 a month. the historical tax levy increase. I just wanted to share this with the public um to show uh we had a the proposed 0% for and that proposed le levy increase in that year resulted in a loss of $1.5 million for the 2627 fiscal year. when you look at that over a compounding period in time about five years about six million >> our goal is to keep things predictable a little bit more level instead of the the um hills and valleys when it comes to these these charts um finally we'll talk about fund balance and reserves when we started the year we had a $49 million fund balance and what we want to focus on
039right now is the unassigned unassigned is the leftover savings where the the state recommends a 4% % um that you're not not more than 4% and the district set at 22.27 and as Dr. Schmingle has already stated with the um the large the large foundation aid increase a few years ago and of course all the co monies the districts received many many districts were well over their 4% for a number of years. If we go to the next slide, in order to balance the budget, we're looking to use $16 million, excuse me, wrong, $17 million of unassigned fund balance. Um, that brings our unassigned our leftover savings from 22% to 14%. But by doing this, we are also still planning on contributing a million dollars to our capital reserve for the next project down the
040road after the 110 is done. That's the $15 million reserve that our voters overwhelmingly supported last year in the budget proposal. Um that's significantly important. If you think about the $10 million project, we were able to go out and because of these savings, we were able to go out and do the $110 million project without tax implications to our our property owners. So the same thing is hopeful of the board when we move to the next project uh that we would be able to go out without raising many districts have to raise taxes to do that construction work. Our hope is to not affect that. >> I think another thing that'd be important to point out we still have a state budget. If there's a huge decrease in state aid revenue it's going to end
041up coming out of fund balance to help balance out the budget. that I will mention Bri that I think you've mentioned in the past um is that you know you look at when you're over the 4% it's a recommendation that's one thing um so it's not like violating a law um and the idea is coming up with a responsible plan how do you come up with a responsible plan no different than you would in your own personal house except for obviously this is a lot more money you're looking at you know fiscal distress and how do you go from 22% to 4% and then the following year you're negative 4%. You know, so what we're looking at is our budget two years down the road, three years down the road, and trying to project. And
042a lot of those things are unknown for next year, let alone two years down the road, three years down the road. Um, nothing that we could have done last year would have predicted where our utility costs went, where our health insurance costs went. Those were all unknown things. Uh, that at the end of the day, that 6.3 million has to be paid. All right. There's three ways that we balance the budget. The first one is increasing revenue, which is obviously the most difficult one to do. Hello, interest rates have been decreasing. How are we going to be able to increase that? Um, and again, state aid. Um, because we don't have state budget, we have no idea where we stand on that. And it's largely fixed by a formula developed by Albany. Um second area
043is using fund balance and reserves which you have seen that that is one of the options that we are taking for next year by drawing down from 22% to 14% of our unassigned fund balance. Uh however there is a risk by doing that if you deplete it too fast you have no way to replenish it and once those monies run out there difficult decisions need to be made. And then finally, the last option is reducing expenditures, which we did a little bit of, and many schools are using this this method. Um whether it's staffing reductions or program elimination, which we did not do. Um we didn't have any layoffs. We had some people retire and those positions have been um through attrition, we dealt with those positions, but no one has been laid off and
044no programs have been removed. >> Next slide here is just going to highlight some of the things that we have open items we're waiting out to see on the New York State budget. our liability insurance to be finalized and special education placement needs are continuous and federal title one and impact date that we're still waiting >> on go ahead >> contingency budget what does it really mean a >> if the budget fails um the district has an option we can go out to the voters again with the same budget we can go out with a different budget or we can immediately go adopt a contingency budget. What that means is the district has to remain within the confines of the same tax levy as the current year. So that there would be no tax increase.
045However, that would also mean we can't buy any equipment. That that means there's no technology for our students, no new equipment for athletics. Many districts when they have a contingent budget, they completely remove their athletic program. Um no maintenance equipment. We can't even do our capital outlay if the budget was voted down. Those are some and as he's already mentioned I the district needs a lot of work and this is some areas of major concern for the for the district als oh oh also no new staffing so the positions that we had mentioned we wouldn't be able to create those positions except for federally mandated positions such as special education but no matter what all of our increasers are still going to be in there the 20% for health insurance the 20% for liability insurance
046those costs don't go away with the contingent budget Next one is proposition number one, which is our board seats. We have three board seats open. Uh the two highest gogetters will get the three-year terms and then the one with the lowest would receive that one-year vacated seat. Um the next one is our EPC, our energy performance contract. You know, we're trying to utilize a lot of different revenue sources. Um so the EPC contracts allows us to take some of those items out of the 110 project to complete them through a grant. Uh you may have seen the video that we've sent out over the last uh week. Um the idea for this is energy savings. So they look at what energies you'll save over 18 years and those are the the savings that you would
047get over the program. In addition to that, you would get building. And so now we're able to do some other high ticketed items that we would not have been able to do without this. So the the reason why this is on the um ballot is because it's a big project. We want to make sure that our community is aware. And secondly, by our voters acting on this on the proposition or on the ballot, um the district receives an additional 10% aid uh when it comes to this project. So it's money coming in and money coming in is less the taxpayers have to burden. Okay. Absentee ballot information. Uh this will be going out. We are working with Forms Press and Jefferson County Board of Elections. So more information. We'll be working as hard as we
048can to get these out to our voters as quickly as possible. Um, our open enrollment, this has been on for the last couple of years. This was a priority of our our prior board to make sure that we had an open enrollment. So, anyone who is not registered to vote in the county can't come and register with Michelle Rebell and vote for the district budget. Uh, but I've told our high school seniors that are 18 that does not register them to vote in the county. They were just registered them to vote in the district. And Leslie, you guys hosted an event in the Jefferson County Board of Elections to get students registered to vote um as a part of the the social studies curriculum. Our budget is May 19th and just as a reminder, it's
049held at North and it's held at High School D. Escape out of that open for questions. Does anyone have any questions or comments? >> Uh, I'm Mandy Bird, CEO of the Childress Center, and I'm here tonight to speak about how the proposed budget treats the community partners who help run your UPK program. Um, I will admit that it was hard to listen to the budget presentation and all of the justifications for the increase in taxes to cover this extensive budget to include rising cost of salaries, utilities, insuranceances, all of which are also felt by the community based organizations that are helping to run your UPK program. So again, according to the released RFP, there are no planned increases to our per pupil funding. We're told that if the state gives more, then maybe we'll get
050more, but that's it. You're all very aware that we haven't received an increase in funding in over 10 years. And in fact, we've actually seen a decrease over that time. In 2015, the UPK partners were getting 12,000 per pupil. We are now down to 8,700 for four-year-olds and 7,100 for three-year-olds. You're also very aware of the increase in costs associated with running an early education program over the same period to include an increase of 75% in staffing salaries alone. So less money, more costs. The excuse that we've been given to justify our stagnant rates has been that we can only get what the state is willing to give toward UPK. This isn't true. Many school districts put local funds into their prek programs and notably you yourselves are putting local dollars into the UPK program,
051just not for the CBOS. We have been made aware that four-year-old UPK students will be offered busing this coming school year, which is a new proposition as UPK students have not historically received busing. So, my question is this. If the Watertown City School District can allocate money to pay for aspects of UPK programming such as busing, why can't the local funds pay for your prek administrative costs or the incredible expensive curriculum we're mandated to use or classroom supplies that are actually needed in the classroom so that CB so that CBOS can get 100% of the funds from the state as other school districts do. And don't get me wrong, I'm not against the bustling of the pre-K students, and in fact, I think this is a wonderful option for parents, but hear me when I
052say this does nothing financially for CBOS. You have heard us over the last year and a half tell you that we do not have enough funding to administer the quality programming that you're asking us to. And this year, you're now adding busing for preK students at a substantial cost to local taxpayers, yet still not increasing funding for CBOS administering the programs that these kids are being busted to. This next school year, you have less providers and less space being offered by providers because of the lack of funding. So, I'm asking you to seriously consider how you can afford to add busing for prek students while at the same time ignore the funding requests of your community partners and to please go back to the drawing board and ensure that the community providers that care for
053your preschoolers are given what they need to do their job. The long and short of it is this. I would ask the board to extend to your community providers the same understanding you're asking the community to extend to you tonight. What one last sentence? What our youngest learners and their families need is a funding model that supports them, not one that stretches the providers serving them past their limits. >> Thank you. >> Questions regarding the budget or comments? Hearing none, we're going to go ahead and close the portion of the hearing. Okay. Uh, I need a motion to return to open session in the second. All those in favor? Any oppos? Okay. Michelle, any agenda changes for this evening? >> One thing I had was an updated personnel report that I uh provided each of
054the board members highlighted on that. very much. Um, so our next item on the agenda is the student voice high school choir program this evening. Hello, Watertown High School Choir. Um, I would just like to say at this time we need to mute the microphone if we could please, Miss Lane. Um, unfortunately, copyright infringement laws do not permit us to live stream student performances of copyrighted music. Rest assured, the live stream will resume as soon as the students have finished singing. Listen to our seniors. We had a concert a high school performance that they rocked it out of the park. And so at the end of the concert, we begged them to come and sing for our community and our board of education today. >> Hi, this is Rebecca Rose. I'm the director of the
055choir programs at Lark High School. And with students before you are the seniors um they cover um concert choir, select choir, and um they gave up one of their evenings. And I'm so excited I get to sing with them one more time before they go across the stage. We're gonna be performing two numbers for you tonight for our spring concert. The first is book lingers on and our second is fly away Oh, Hi everyone. Enjoy your graduations even high school. I think our students are still in the hallway. Can we give them another round of applause? that's staying in the high school choir. Jason doesn't have his hand up. Leslie, I keep trying keep trying to get Leslie to perform live and Jason, but I have not been successful yet. So, um, kudos to them.
056What a special way to recognize our staff. Um, this week is teacher staff appreciation week. So, let's give all of our staff and our teachers in our district a round of applause. Our applause and we couldn't help but put a little bit of effort, extra effort into tonight because today is a board meeting, but it is the official national teacher appreciation day. And we have teachers throughout the Watertown City School District that rock it out of the park every single day. They come to work because they love kids. They care about kids. We have teachers and administrators in our district and staff that have given decades of service to this community. And I just really want us to give another round of applause. And then I'm going to share some statistics. So we can clap
057loud enough but not too loud or the roof falls off because it is a capital project. I said to get better or worse I don't know. Um, so we had a grand idea last week and it was, you know, how many people have had ideas at the last minute that hopefully turned out great or they bombed. Probably shouldn't have said that. Okay, so in any event, we had an idea at the last minute to put out a nomination form for our teachers because we wanted to make this week special. and um we added it to our principal's plates. And like everything else as a building principal or administrator, they take it with with grace and they found a way to make it work. And what we did is we modified the version depending on elementary
058and high school and middle school. And so we put out either an electronic survey or paper survey to actually give students and staff an opportunity to nominate amazing folks in the Watertown City School District for teacher appreciation day, which is tonight and today. So we had a total of 1,279 nominations submitted. So for pulling this off at the end of last week for today we had over 1,200 nominations. That gives a loud comment about the amazing folks that we have in the Watertown City School District. And you know when you look at uh the,279 we have 382 teachers in the Watertown City School District. So that also tells you that many teachers received duplicate nominations. So that's exciting. Um, so the next thing now what we're going to do is we're going to call up
059building principles and they're going to uh recognize the teacher or teachers in their building. And what I'm going to ask is that we can get a picture group photo of all of our teachers that were nominated and a huge recognition for all of our teachers in our district that do the hard work every single day because as our motto says, our children our future. So at this time I'm going to call up our high school principal, Mrs. Leslie Atinson to do the first recognition. work hopefully in a picture. >> Watertown High School was very very excited about this project. As Dr. Schmegel said, we didn't have a lot of time and I wasn't exactly sure what the response would be. Um, but the response was overwhelming. Um by the end of the first day we
060had close to 600 nominations in the high school alone. Um a broad variety of our teachers were nominated for awards. Something we expected and something we're very very very proud of. But there was one teacher within uh the faculty of WHS who rose to the top uh to put it bluntly and um she is a remarkable woman. You you just moments ago watched her perform with our choir. Um Mrs. Rebecca Rose is our vocal music teacher. U she is responsible for many many things and wears many hats annually. She runs our conference allstate program, our area all state. She is responsible for the bycounty participation obviously for her curricular classes and ensembles. Um she directs our annual musical production which is enjoyed by literally thousands throughout the greater Watertown community. and she does it with
061grace and she does it with humor and uh she does it with a phenomenal volunteer staff of people from within the community who who are knocking the door down to be part of her projects which I think speaks volumes about the welcoming and gracious atmosphere she creates within our school. Um the students resoundingly supported her in their nominations as our teacher of the year, I guess you'd say. And um when I called her privately to my office to share with her that she had been the highest vote getter getter, she um she was a little um reluctant. She didn't refuse the honor, but she said, "This is this is a little overwhelming." She said, "Because this project, this event, if you will, uh was for all teachers, not just within our school, but within our
062district, which of course it was. But at this time, I'm very, very proud to introduce to you once again our vocal music teacher, Watertown High School, Mrs. Rebecca Rose. Let's give Rebecca Rose and representing our medical school, Mrs. Melie Barry. So, we have a fabulous staff at Case Middle School and we were excited to do this as well. Um, many teachers received many votes, but once again, one teacher stood out. Um, this individual is caring and genuinely passionate about his content area and makes learning fun for students. He also leads our Dungeon and Dragons club, which is a new addition and very popular. Um, some things that were said about Mr. Nelson Sprat, our seventh grade science teacher. I am nominating him because I think he's a great teacher and always makes sure that we
063are learning. Also, I love his teaching style and how much he tries to talk to us and learn about his students. When he sees someone who looks down, he always makes sure they're okay. He's also a teacher most of us are comfortable talking with because he listens and also makes most of us laugh and have a better day. I have never been able to understand science and have it be so fun until I was in his class. He does a very good job of making it easy to understand lessons and keeps my attention. And Nelson cares so much about making sure students are acquiring knowledge that they will carry with them throughout their lives as opposed to just trying to get kids to memorize content and standards. He wants his students to develop a real
064understanding and appreciation for the field of science and it will help them become intelligent functioning members of society in their adulthood. So I introduce Mr. Nelson. going in order. We are now going to invite up Mr. Fairchild. Thank you very much. We did our just a slightly bit different at WY. We did have nominations from all across the building, but we said asked Dr. said, "Dr. Shield, can I have one of our teachers that gets a ton of votes represent our whole building?" He's like, "Oh yeah." So that's what we did. This is Lori Fance. For those that don't know her, she's amazing. Really Lori got a lot of votes from students and they had a lot of nice things to say about her. It is true. That is also true of many of the
065teachers here at WY and we have uh collected some comments on this little card here front and back that were stated about WY teachers. So Lori is up here and she has a ton of wonderful comments about her but I went across the whole gamut and collected comments. So, I just representing our teachers at WY and yes, you were still one of the top folks there, just so you know. But here we go. Comments about teachers. Uh, she helps me when I need help or I have had a bad day. She's kind. She gives me hugs. Makes me feel appreciated. Explains things to me good. uh patient lean deaths always has a smile. She inspires me. She always pushes me to do my best. That was Mary. I can talk to her when I'm struggling.
066Gives me confidence. Makes math really fun. See, he's calm and respectful. Never gives up on me. helps me find my passion. Sets the bar high. Easy to trust. Helps me become a better reader. And the last one, because you just never know what you're teaching your students when you're in front of them each day. This I just had to put on there because it was just too wonderful. She has the best outfits ever. But that same teacher today, she was wearing earrings that were little uh disco balls. So truly does have the best outfits ever. But Lori, on behalf of all of the teachers, thank you so much for all that you do and thank all of the teachers of Ivy for all that they do. Thank you so much. Now representing Sherman Elementary School,
067we have Miss Dina Lane. >> Thank you, Dr. Schmegel. My pleasure to be here this evening to introduce uh all of the teachers. I actually attended Sherman's faculty meeting today and it was great. It was just phenomenal. A great group of dedicated individuals and teachers there, but one rose to the top and I actually saw him earlier at the faculty meeting. The teacher with the most votes at Sherman Elementary School was Mr. Chad Cole. Coach Cobb is a highly valued and impactful educator who has built strong lasting relationships with students, staff, and families across the entire building. He consistently creates a positive and inclusive environment, greeting students each morning, uplifting others with his attitude, and ensuring every student feels valued, motivated, and confident. A trusted colleague and a steady voice of reason, he supports staff,
068fosters teamwork and sportsmanship, and is always willing to go above and beyond to make schoolwide events and daily operations successful. His leadership, creativity, and unwavering commitment to students in the school community have made a lasting difference. Congratulations, Coach F. just asking him against the controllers's recommendations if he would resend his retirement. I do believe his wife who is here with him tonight has a long list of projects. So, okay. So for the next school we have Janelle Duby who will be recognizing the teacher at Nicerbacher. >> Good evening. I have the honor tonight to be recognizing a first grade teacher at Nickerbacher, Miss Anna Marath. Anna is the kind of educator who makes a lasting impact on everyone around her. She is patient, kind, and has a genuine love for learning that shines through in
069everything she does. She consistently finds the good in all students, helping them feel valued, supported, and capable. Anna always has a smile on her face and brings a positive, welcoming energy into the classroom each and every day. She is willing to try new approaches and as an innovative thinker, constantly looking for new ways to improve her practice and better meet the needs of her students. Her dedication, creativity, and compassion truly set her apart, making her incredibly deserving of this recognition tonight. Congratulations, Anna. Round of applause two schools. We have, as I said, Sandra Kane, who's going to recognize her school at North that still has the roof on it as of right now. And we are getting a new roof. Um, and then she will also be recognizing Ohio in Kelsey's absence. So, thank you.
070>> So, the teacher that we are honoring at North tonight is Ashley Malone, who just absolutely loves any sort of public attention. >> [laughter] >> Maybe not so much. >> Ashley Lone makes a lasting impact on her students in ways that go far beyond the classroom. Her students describe her as someone who truly believes in them, showing them that when they try their best, they are capable of more than they ever imagined. She creates a classroom where kindness, patience, and encouragement are felt every day. students know she cares deeply about them not not just as learners but as individuals which is why many say she is the reason they enjoy coming to school alone goes the extra mile to support her students whether it's helping them master spelling finding fun and creative ways to make
071math meaningful or showing them to cheer them on at showing up to cheer them on at their games her classroom is filled with laughter smiles and a sense of belonging she makes learning engaging and accessible, especially in math, where she helps concepts truly make sense. Above all, she believes in second chances and sees the potential in every child. Through her compassion, dedication, and unwavering belief in her students, she inspires confidence, resilience, and a genuine love of learning. While we are proud to recognize this outstanding teacher, she also represents the very best of our entire staff. Across our school, our teachers share these same qualities: kindness, commitment, creativity, and a deep belief in every child's potential. Together, our teachers create a community where students feel supported, challenged, and inspired every day. Thank you so much, Ashley.
072The next teacher is going to be Stephanie Hagglin. And what is very special about this is Stephanie was also a North teacher back in the day and she worked with some of the board members that are here back in the day. So I love this opportunity to be able to speak on her behalf as well. Now this was written by Mrs. Sheepus. So envision her reading this. You can hear her before you see her. The laugh followed by encouraging words. If you know her, she likely already popped into your head in the first line. If you need a volunteer, a tutor, or even a driver, she is she is willingly says yes with zero hesitation. Just a few examples of how her kindergarten students feel about her. She helps me with math. She plays with
073us and helps us. She makes us feel good. She has lots of patience. kindergarten. Just so we all know, her colleagues also feel this way about her. She is the definition of kindness and caring. She loves her kids, past and present, like no one I have ever seen before. She cares and works so hard. Stephanie shows up every single day and gives her all to each student. She is very dedicated to make sure all her students have to be very dedicated to making sure all her students have to be successful with her education. She has a heart of gold and her students are lucky to have her. Miss Stephanie Hagglin, you are truly wonderful and so loved and appreciated. Thank you for being the loving, caring soul that you are each day. Thank you for
074always putting the students at Ohio first. We love you. Okay, let's give a round of applause. Gaffne will be representing Starbucks. Thank you. >> Thank you for asking me to stand in, Mr. Ninger. Uh Starbucks has a very special place in my heart. It's a tiny little gem in the district. There's some amazing work going on and the two people that are here that will be recognized have been very integral to that work. So you may or may not realize we're doing a lot with curriculum and instruction in the district and they both participate in the curriculum alignment process. They're on the teams for the rewrites. It is not glamorous work and they both worked very hard on that. Um they're also exemplary teachers in their classroom. So, I often will send people over to
075Starbucks to view what's going on in their classrooms and one of them is even having a student teacher next year. Um, so first I'll talk about Jenna Wilson. She is a grade two teacher and these are some things that Mr. Navager shared with me to share with you and they come from your students. Loves her students unconditionally. Miss Wilson puts a smile on my face every day. She always has a smile on her face. She says good morning to me and she helps me when I'm sad and she helps me when I'm scared and she makes me feel at home. Miss Greenwood is kindergarten teacher and her students have to say this. She is the best. She is my favorite. She is a fun teacher. She makes my heart happy. I love her. So congratulations
076Miss Hannah Greenwood and Miss Jenna Wilson. recognized if you could please bring your certificates up and join us for a family photo. >> Okay. I was hoping with the board of education that we can get one over here with the teachers somewhere on the teachers probably >> can we take that >> there's got to be another teacher a while >> okay is Rebecca Rose up Okay, it's just like the students. Some of them are upside down. So if the certificates be facing out, they say cheese unless you have a dairy allergy. Can you lower please? In all seriousness, thank you very much. Congratulations. Um, I would like to congratulate on behalf of the Waterton City School District the examples up here, the exemplars of amazing amazing teachers. Um, for those of you that are here
077for this reception for them, um, over here we have cookies and punch. So, if you can please grab some before you leave, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Anybody's here for the board meeting wants a cookie or watch before we Wow. Also, congratulations to all of our wonderful teachers across the entire district and all those wonderful examples that our students and our administrators um picked to represent their their fellow educators in our district. Um those kind words from all of our administrators were wonderful. We appreciate their time this evening. We especially appreciate the time of our educators this evening to take the time to come and join us. Wonderful. Um we are at the uh first public comment section of our evening. This is for agenda related items. We'll remind speakers to conduct
078themselves in a civil manner. We do have a three minute timer. Is there anybody that is here this evening for public comments on the agenda? Okay, seeing nobody rise to the podium, we will move on to board and staff reports. And we start with our superintendent of schools, Dr. Um, first and foremost, as we congratulated our teacher appreciation and staff appreciation for this week, um, we have um, teachers that serve on our school board. So, a huge congratulations to uh, Melanie and to John for their service um, to education and hopefully as well. Um, I would like to mention the triricart county art show that's going to be taking place tomorrow at 6 pm at the state office building. So hopefully you find time to see the amazing work that our students submitted on behalf
079of their teachers. Um the next thing I would like to mention, I have mentioned it the last couple of board meetings. Um we will be conducting uh interviews next week and I say we being the high school principal and myself for student board members. Um and so we did have Caleb apply to serve on the board again next year. And we had an additional student that is on our student advisory council also apply. So, we'll be conducting those interviews next week. Do not get nervous, Kayla. Um, we will be doing those next week and then I will be coming to the board with a recommendation for that. And the next thing I want to mention, you know, when we look at running a school district, it's awesome to have amazing community partners. Um, yesterday, um,
080we had a partnership with, um, Balanced Nutrition, um, supporting them right here. Um yesterday they had a May the 4th be with you and 10% of their proceeds went to food for families in the Watertown City School District. Um so I just want to thank them. You'll see a a future motion for the board to act on regarding a donation. Um their collection totaled yesterday $400 that will be contributed to our food for families. So we are grateful uh for those efforts and um Linda, do you want to add anything to that? We're just extremely appreciative. We know we're in need and we appreciate the extra effort balance nutrition to do this for us. >> So, thank you to them and thank you for the people that support that business. Um, the next thing I
081wanted to mention is the 110 uh capital project. Uh, Bri and I have had a lot of meetings for capital projects and other meetings for construction. Um, we did get some good news today uh regarding 1A. Remember, we're starting the capital project one year earlier than what we anticipated. Uh there's a lot of good things about that. One B spoke about earlier with the MCAS, the maximum cost allowance. Um but also getting debt on and debt off. Um and also when you're looking at mass maximum cost allowance, it allows it to start earlier, reset earlier so we can look at future projects. And that ties into what I said earlier about the 93 cents on a dollar uh for those repairs. So we're excited about that. They are going to be mobilizing May 15th. So,
082you know, more than a year in advance to start those projects. And the two projects that we're starting with is North not North Elementary School. Sorry, Sandra. Uh, year 1B. Um, it is Ohio Elementary School and Starbucks Elementary School. And, uh, we will be uh, racing to the finish line. Um, and we will have schools open on time. So, we're excited about that. And, uh, those two buildings will have perfect heating units uh, for next school year. So, we're excited about that. And that concludes our >> Thank you very much. Any questions for Dr. Okay, then we're on to our assistant superintendent for instruction. >> You It's teacher appreciation week as you know, and I want to extend a thank you to all the incredible teachers in our district. As I've said many times, I
083think it bears repeating. Teachers are the heart of the educational system. Each day we see you. We see the dedication you bring to our students. We see you embracing new curriculum and teaching practices even though you are already amazing. We see you going above and beyond in countless ways to help our students learn and grow and thrive. Your work matters deeply and we are truly grateful for all that you do. So that was one. And then two, strong instruction and curriculum are producing measurable gains in reading and math and many other areas. Our school day intervention programs and after school tutoring are extending that progress. That's giving students additional time with teachers who know them. These results reflect sustained investment investment in our teachers, their development, their coaching, and then the programs that ultimately support
084our students. We thank you the community for the continued investment in our students. >> Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Student Services, TN. >> Good evening. Dr. and I have met with college officials over the past two months as part of the district's proactive approach to building internal capacity by encouraging staff pursue additional certification in high need areas including special education and educational leadership. We recently partnered with Sunni Pontstand to host an on-site informationational assessment session at Watertown High School focused on pathways for both n certified staff interested in becoming teachers and current teachers seeking additional certification. In collaboration with Sunni Podkston Sunni asgo, we are also exploring streamlined pathways for teachers to obtain students with disability certification including summer coursework and microcredential options. In addition, we are continuing our leadership development efforts by hosting Sunni Asiggo
085CASformational session to support staff interested in pursuing school building leader certification as part of our intentional succession planning. Moving forward, we will continue targeted outreach and align these opportunities with our anticipated staffing needs to ensure a strong sustainable pipeline of education leaders within the Watertown City School District. In recognition of National School Nurse Day, tomorrow, May 6th, I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the dedicated nurses of the Watertown City School District. Our school nurses play a vital role in supporting the health, safety, and well-being of our students each and every day. From managing complex medical needs to responding to daily student concerns with compassionate professionals, their work is essential to maintaining a safe and supportive learning plan. We are grateful for their expertise, their care, and their unwavering commitment to our students
086and school. And finally, I would like also like to take a moment to remind our school community of the upcoming Watertown City School District recruitment reception. The event will be held on Tuesday, June 16th, 2026 at 5:30 right here in the conference room and will honor our retirees for their years of dedicated service to the district. We're also pleased to share that the Wild Intermediate School ensemble will be providing entertainment for the evening. We encourage attendance as we recognize and celebrate the lasting contributions of our colleagues who have made a meaningful impact on our students this week. do another presentation. >> I appreciate all the hard work that's gone into that presentation, but at this point, I think the board members um all right, so we're on to items for consent agenda. >> All the
087consent agenda items A through G are hereby approved. >> Motion, please. >> Tina, and a second. Now any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Items for board action. Item A, approval reju agreement. >> Resolve that upon the recommendation and assistant Dr. Larry Schmeel. The agreement stated in April 27th, 2026 to extend the probationary period of an instructional employee. The probationary period is hereby extended to and including August 31, 20127 in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the agreement signed by the superintendent, the instructional employees, and the water education association president is hereby approved. >> Second motion, please. >> And a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item B, approval of position abolishment and creation. >> Whereas the board of education has here has determined
088a need to update its technology leadership structure. Now therefore be it resolved that the position of information services technician is hereby abolished effective July 6, 206. And be it further resolved that a new position titled assistant director for technology, cyber security and innovation is create is hereby created effective July 6, 2026. And be it further resolved that the superintendent of schools is authorized to make any necessary updates to job descriptions or organizational structure to implement this change. >> That's if I modify it. We can reread it again. What I would not do is the the July 6th date because if we want some carry over 40 leaves, we may want two months. So I wonder if we should say May just say May 2026 everyction. Sorry guys. >> Whereas the board of education has determined
089a need to update its technology leadership structure. Now therefore be it resolved that the position of information services technician is hereby abolished effective July 6, 2026 and be further resolved that a new position titled assistant director for technology cyber security and innovation is hereby created effective May 2026 and be further resolved that the superintendent of schools is authorized to make any necessary updates uh to job descriptions and organizational structure to implement this change. >> Discussion the abolishment date would still be what she read which is July 6, 2026 which is the last date of service but it allows us to hire the successor prior to him leaving. So there's a transition There's a lot in the IT department that's important for carry over any further discussion. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries.
090C. Approval of personnel reports please resolve and upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools Dr. Larry, the board of education hereby approves the follow appointments probationary instructional term probationary instructional cyclone academy permanent permanent part-time substitute instructional substitute non-instructional leave of absence resignations discussion was coming here wasn't I agree. We do try. I think he has something else lined up. Any [clears throat] further discussion? All those in favor? >> Any oppose? Motion carries. Uh item D approval to end probationary period. >> That'll sound the recommendation. Dr. Larry Chingo, superintendent of schools. The probationary appointment of a non-instructional employee is through by discontinued effective May 1. 26 >> motion please. Melon second team discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item E, approval of educational and or athletic field trips. >> Resolve that the
091educational and athletic field trips as presented to the boards are hereby approved. Motion is melon and a second. Randy discussion. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item F, approval of the donation. Whereas Watertown High School Student Council participated in the construction for Northern New York initiative, a program of the Northern New York Community Foundation designed to address food insecurity through the collection of canned goods and non-p perishable items. And whereas the Watertown High School Student Council created the entry turn hunger on its head, earning the best design award and collecting 562 items to support local families in need. And the team was awarded a $500 grant designated for the Watertown City School District food for families program. This grant donation is accept gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing.
092Motion is a second discussion. That was uh that was quite the instruction. Did you guys see the picture of the little feet hanging off the top? Uh what a great program and thanks to all the five different entities that that our team for. >> Um all those in favor? Any opposed? Extensions. One extension. Thank you. >> And item G, approval of anonymous donation. >> All that an anonymous donation of $150 be accepted for the water high class of 2027. The board gratefully accepts and approves this donation which will be acknowledged in writing. >> Motion please. >> Jason and second. Thank you. Discussion. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> End of resolutions. >> Thank you. >> Uh we are at the second opportunity for public comment for non-aggenda related items. Is
093there anybody that wishes to address the board for non-gender related items? >> Yes. >> Hi, sorry I wasn't here earlier. Running from here to there, but um this really kind of is something with the budget. We have $110 million budget, but very our baseball fields, softball fields, they do not exist. That is so unfair to our athletes. It is sad. We played Fulton one day down at North Elementary. The Fulton parents talked about what a disgrace. They couldn't even believe that we're playing on this and we're paying the city. I don't even know how many years it goes back that those fields have been that way. I can say that even when I went to school here, it was that way. The softball team has to be right next to the water sewer treatment plant
094with portaotties. Yet we have a turf where all these other teams get to go and play. Scoreboards, concession stands, but your baseball teams and your softball teams have nothing. We're paying to use the other facilities and most of the time games are canceled, practices are cancelled. A lot of times these these kids cannot even play. It is not fair at all. You are totally secluding two groups and making them go over here. They can't get fans to come there. You can't expect that kids are going to travel to fair grounds or travel to North to watch games. I just would love to see us actually have a baseball or softball field. And I know John, you coach softball. You see what these fields look like. It is sad. And just I mean we're building all
095this other up, but we don't have anything for our baseball or softball. I really think with a budget that is inflated that high, we should be having these things for our kids. you're totally secluding one group and everything that this district has become about is including all. Everything is equitable for everyone. Well, it's not because you're totally secluding baseball teams and softball teams. I'd really encourage you guys to take a strong look at that and I know John those fields. It's it's pretty sad. So, that's all I had to say. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> I can say it's on the radar. It's preliminary discussions, but it is on the radar >> and I'm honestly surprised that more people don't say something about it. And I know there's been many talks in the years of
096it, but it it's really it's sad whether you have a kid that plays it or not. It's just it's not fair. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else for non-aggender related items this evening? >> Okay, so we're on to items for discussion and information. And we've got Adam Snider from TOS Sports here to talk about the Watertown High School marquee. >> Uh good evening, Board of Education. Uh Dr. Smeaggel, parents, teachers, students, anybody else out there tuned in. Um out of Hill Sports, for the record, um I am on the board of education out of Victor, New York on the east side of Rochester, and we have a community tonight, but this officially gets me credit for going to a board meeting. Uh, I will make sure they all know
097that. Um, I may look familiar to some of you. Um, this is my second time here. I was here twoish years ago for the senior video board. Um, so I think we're going on at least 30 years that our company has been able to partner up at Watertown. Um, we're a family company. We try to be all things, tell people we can't, but we do our best to do that. So, design, uh, service, installation, and we're there for everything afterwards. So, um, tonight's exciting, uh, presentation will be on a new message display in front of the school. Something that I know everyone's been looking at for quite some time. >> One of the things that I want to add, thank you for standing on the opposite side of the table shoulder, but uh, we appreciate
098your partnership with scoreboard. And, um, what I did want to share for the board tonight is, uh, I had Leslie Atinson do a little bit of research on when our board at the high school went out. um it stopped working September 11th of 2025. Um so this is something that's been on our radar, but we're looking at a variety of other construction projects and things. Um we wanted to put this out here for that discussion. >> Uh if you would go to the first page of that pres. >> Um so I will say that we've we have been talking about this no less than three four years and we've gone through multiple iterations and I know the school the staff has asked all the right questions. We've installed hundreds of these everywhere and it's becoming
099more of a thing with schools primarily because it's a very easy way to communicate to the community and get information out. So what you're seeing u the school went through everything. They've talked with the town the power requirements all things all stones have been unturned. Um so I feel like we have a very good foundation for where we're at right now with what where we're sitting with this. Um but this is the basic look. So the um the composite brick um we tend to we like to do that to match the school nostalgic look of the school. Um then you have the video display but then on the top the intent of that is to give a base look to the school. It's got the new school logo. Um and this is a really nice
100top. What they do is it's aluminum and it's routered out and then the light will shine through. So at night it looks really really good. Um, something to take note of with these signs is that um, the new ones automatically will dim at night and they're also programmable. So, it's just like a calendar in your phone. If you want this to turn off at 9:30 at night just because you don't want need to see anything or neighbors don't want the light on, you shut it off. But, it also automatically dims. And that's a question get a lot. Um, let's go to the next slide. So, the big thing with changing your sign right now, it runs parallel to the road, and there's two issues with that. One is I don't think most people even see
101it. I think it's just not really visible at all, which means it's not even worth really having there. But the second thing is it's kind of a safety concern because if people do know it's there and they're looking for a message on the sign, they're taking that extra time driving down the street to try to look for something. So the intent is you want to get something big enough there that it's really easy to see. Not so big that it looks goddy, but it should be a quick scan on their car. The message should be very clear and they can keep looking at the road. So what we have proposed is to bring the sign a little bit closer to the road. We have the limits that we need to be from the sidewalk and
102put it perpendicular and that way it's going to increase your field of view. It's going to be bigger, more easy to see. Um and ultimately it is a safety thing. Um the second thing is uh safety. This will tie into your emergency broadcast system. So this is um cloud-based meaning um whoever is in control of the sign will have a login. They can log in. Um schools closed deciding the emergency broadcast. If you need to get a message out, Dr. Shamila, you can log in and literally get something out there in a couple minutes to at home for the correct login. Um next slide. That just kind of gives you the visual for where roughly we would like it to see it based on where the old sign is. again moving it a little bit
103to the right and then >> tree right behind the old sign fell last week at the end of last week and almost knocked down that sign less cost before the sign notice that um okay last slide and that kind of shows you what it's going to look like um we propose an 8 mm so it's your stadium that the the millimeter is the distance in between your LEDs. When you have a huge stadium video board like what you have here, you can it can be a little bit wider and it keeps the cost down. This will be an 8 millimeter meaning you're going to be able to put up pictures of seniors, student of the month, whatever it is you want. A picture is going to look like a picture on this which you know
104kind of keeps you technology proof for the future. Second thing is there is no subscription to this, but it's cloud-based, meaning as the software upgrades, um, you're going to get that for free for as long as you have the sign. So, you're never going to be out of date with this, which is also good. Comes with a lifetime subscription with Verizon, so it speaks to the cloud constantly, but all information is stored at the sign, meaning if it loses connection for some reason, you always have that there. You're always going to have something. >> Do you guys have any questions that I can answer? It's probably very stupid. Are you going to be able to see what's on the marquee on both sides of it? >> Yes. Yep. It's two-sided. So, if we put it
105perpendicular, there'll be two signs essentially back to back. It'll look like one structure, but they'll be back to back. So, you'll be able to see coming from both directions. Yep. >> What's the price tag on? >> Uh, so we're going to do the excavation work for this, the concrete pad and do bottom all the way up. Um, we've asked the school to take care of the electrical just getting it to the sign, but it's roughly 130 132 for everything. >> We looked at different options from other districts in our region that have like the V-shaped signs. Um, but we really after looking at all of them and looking at the layout, we felt like this would be the most visible from the street in either direction. Right now, unless you're coming from the road right
106next to the hardware store, you're not able to see the front side without taking your eyes off the road. life expectancy on this. >> So, we guarantee from the day they stopped making that specific model, they guarantee 10 years of parts. Um, this is brand new, so it'll probably be around for the next eight years, which means you have at least 18 years of guaranteed parts. Um, at the 18 year mark, you might want to consider getting something else. Um, but technically, you can still replace parts. And each of these, it's made up of little mods, you know, at your stadium. So, say a kid drives by, shoots a BB gun at it. So, that little piece that goes out, you don't have to replace the entire sign. You can take out that specific pod
107and put it back in. >> How many mods make up one of these strings? >> This is pretty big. Um, they're roughly one foot by one foot. So, it's roughly going to be 10 across and then 60. So, 55 60 mods total on each side. mentioned something Adam when we were talking about those mods are replaced there's something that they do keep it so the lighting doesn't look out in one section so um there's a lot of companies that do this but the problem is they're made when they're made overseas they're made to last five years so for example if this is burning for 10 years right the LEDs are burning if you replace that mod it's going to have it's going to be brighter when you put the in So that looks terrible and
108most people get rid of their sign and that looks bad. This the the system will automatically recognize the age of the mod. So it's in that mod will match. You won't notice that loss. So that's that's a good thing. >> So we were looking at potentially our hope was to get it up seniors for this year and then the installation we're going to miss this year's graduation group but it would be in place by the end of year I think August September the latest and then for next This is the one electronic panel for the entire district. It's also the main street gets a lot of drives through traffic um for when we're trying to send quick messages out. Right now on the current in working it's not working. This would give us with that
109base the opportunity to update announcements drop as schools are closed or we have an emergency release and helps with that. I'll just throw in a lot of districts once they put in one they end up throwing it at all the schools and tie everything together. It's not one message if you want to and then say there's a secretary of schools in charge of that school. they can control it. But there can be somebody like an administrator los this is a big project. on this. I just need to say, you know, I think first of all, I think it's great. I think we need it. Um, everyone here knows big on how we present the district. Um, I just wonder in a year where we've said needs versus wants, this feels a little bit more like
110a lot. And with all the needs we have in our district and some, you know, related to instruction and students and teachers, I have a hard time where we are right now and what we're asking all of our community to do is to balance our budget. I I don't know if now's the time. I have some concerns about the perception of this and they should all the other things we've been asked to do and not do. I think we asked everybody tighten their belts this year and this one maybe feels like it might be a little more timed for a time when we have more flexibility with our resources. So I would just ask my colleagues to think about that piece of mind. This is something that's central to accomplishing some of our most important
111priorities. I'd have a hard time with that, but that's other arguments. I'm sure be influenced if the money was available in the budget already or if it had to come from like general funds, whatever. >> I just not necessarily, John, because I think you think of all our buildings and some of the ones that were mentioned here that are being addressed through the capital project, but we have some buildings that are hurting the basic things. caught a lot of that out of the capital projects and put it in. I just don't know if how does how do students directly? I can think of a whole bunch of other things students and teachers benefit from it. I I I love it. I think it's great. I'm just not sure how feels like >> anything else. Thank
112you so much for having me. >> Thanks. Ride home. >> A nice long ride. >> Anything else for discussion? See you board members. Okay, upcoming dates. Tri County Art Show starts tomorrow, May 6th, at 6 PM at the Dallas Office Building. Uh, always a wonderful show. So, please get out if you can't make the opening tomorrow. It'll be up for two weeks at the state office building during normal operational hours. Uh, Watertown High School senior prom, Saturday, May 16th from 7 to 10. Um, school budget vote and board elections, Tuesday, May 19th, noon to 9:00 pm. Once again, uh, on this side of the city, you'll vote at Watertown High School and on the north side, you'll vote at North Elementary. Uh, policy committee meeting Wednesday, May 20th in the district office at 5:00. And
113that will be followed by a regular board of education meeting on the same day at six o'clock right here where we are presently. Um, look around the district. Caleb, how did the meet go tonight? >> It went well. Same for younger. >> How' you do today? >> Congratulations. >> We appreciate that. Thank you, Kim. I just wanted to um also comment on the teachers appreciation. Um, I got on parent and some of the comments were on there and but one of the comments that I loved was child nominated somebody and then the question was why and I thought but uh it seems that there's a a common denominator with all the comments made that is that they feel that they are able to feed themselves and they feel safe. I think that's extremely important. Um
114that our our kids are comfortable going to school, they're happy, they're safe. Um I think that's um you know, our teachers spend tons of money. They spend tons of time trying to um manage the programs so they can learn easier, you know, singing songs or whatever. math and all that stuff. So, they have a lot of sleepless nights and they worry about their kids just like parents do. So, I'm I just wanted to just throw out the teachers that they are very appreciated and all deserving recognition. Um, I did see something that I thought was sweet was a crossing guard on the corner of Ohio and Eastern Boulevard. Um, had a little chair set up at the cross in the afternoon and the box came. So the kids when they were across stop this little
115girl, you thought you gave her a million bucks. She was jumping up and down. She was so excited. Like that's just so sweet. So kudos to the crossing guard on the corner of Ohio and Strile Park. Um I saw the case ladies won lunch with for life. I thought that was pretty impressive. That was I'm sure that was also for families funding. I think they'll support that. Um I'm new to pork or to build so um it takes me a while to figure out what I want to train but don't be intimidated they have books go support >> it's a experience for me anyway and that's it teacher appreciation week appreciation appreciation week. Thank you said that tomorrow's most appreciation. I appreciate that because what they do on the day today is also so much
116um we had some great here tonight some um and then just to hear Lyn talk about after school tutoring. Do you think some kids get such great benefit after school outside of the dayto day class even if it's still with their teachers as oneonone seems to be more relaxed from my experiences. So they just get so much out of that after school. So I love that that's happening. Um and then I I know that there's a lot of like training and PD happening too. like a few months ago there was and I don't know I'm sure it was just something um but everyone in the training soccer like what is happening there so they are dedicated to their craft and [clears throat] the most of their time together. So, >> um, just a couple quick
117things. I attended my first fly football game. Awesome. I think we won again. Um, last night, but no, it's just a second to adjust to. Um, but it's really cool chance. Um the other thing is just a shout out to I don't know if anyone or if everyone knows this past weekend there was a conference research edit and I think one or those often without any credit they often serve. Um but at this conference um I I heard quite a bit about it. Um but two specific things were not only did we attend this but we also presented water presented at this conference and water looked at quote unquote um in high regards in this field were many ways leaders not followers. Um and then more specifically to them is from the state. um quote
118unquote kind of just a shout out to >> Can we get that on our past really that's the greatest tribute to our teachers I think the lives they live honoring those teachers and I encourage anyone when you see a teacher you had tell them that they're going to get made in your life that's the best reward that's the best way to show teacher and then so I wish we could get serenated at every meeting >> because it sets just the right tone doesn't it for us and hope lingers on >> [laughter] >> Um, I like the Did you say teachers? >> Yes, that was fantastic. I thought that was great. Um, I will say that the teacher from Case, it was like I have a brother that I didn't know about [laughter] minus the hair.
119Um, he's in the bowling thing and now he's doing Dungeons and Dragons. It's like carbon. Um, so that was that was good. Um, I said something earlier, but you know, Mr. Bird just retiring. Mr. Starbucks himself 31 years. He was a student teacher and I was in fourth and fifth grade and he'll tell you if you ask him um that I was probably the best student he ever had and would agree with him there. Um but just those shoes came so we were lucky to have him for the time. Last thing I would say is uh John, as you said, Saturday the 16th is the senior prom. I would urge all students to have fun but exercise good caution good judgment and caution and be safe in that and call for a ride specifically for
120too we did get a report from Dr. Navy Gear Hearts. So, we appreciate that. Uh, the positive postcard challenge is making a favorable impact across the district and community at large. In the month of April, 1,361 positive postcards have been shared. Nearly all buildings met April's goal, which was 15% of the building's school enrollment. Winning buildings will enjoy root beer floats on April 8th with the theme, "Oh, the sweet taste of success. Keep the positivity afloat. on to May with a goal of 20% by the end of the month. So wonderful program, Dr. Amy, thank you for that report. Um, thank you to our speakers tonight. Um, thank you Amy for coming in and sharing that. Uh, thank you to Mandy Bur for coming and sharing her thoughts on the budget. Um, it's a busy
121time of year, extremely busy. Uh, our seniors are, um, you know, just about at the end of their, um, time here with us and we wish them all the success and all the safety. is great for some of them to come and share their talent with us one more time uh before they go. When I say it's going to look a lot different next year not seeing those kids on stage, I feel like I've seen those kids on stage hundreds of times at this point after such a talented group of seniors. Um so sad to see them go, but happy for what lies ahead for them. Uh and then just spring lacrosse and track and everything else that goes on this time of year. So, I haven't minimum of five football games yet, but I
122really want to before their season is over. Um, so yeah. So, um, and I guess I would be remiss if I didn't say to all of my fellow educators to enjoy, um, you know, teacher appreciation day and teacher appreciation week. Um, I know so many that work at Watertown. Um, and have for a long time and I've known Mr. Burgess. I was at the children's home 30 years ago when I first met Mr. Burgess. So, um, you know, wonderful educator. We have wonderful educators in every one of our buildings. So, we're very blessed in that that respect. So, with that, we have >> Yeah, please. >> I just want to wish everybody happy Mother's Day. >> Children have two legs or four legs or whatever. Happy Mother's Day. >> Thank you for the right. >>
123Yes, I did that first. [laughter] I did that on purpose. You're welcome. >> With that, we are in need of an executive session for proposed pending current litigation. Can I get a motion, please? Got Melanie and I got Jason. All those in favor? I we are in executive session.