001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. I'm open to other points tonight. I know a lot of new things tonight. I'm going to talk about some good things. I want to just say one more thank you to all of those amazing volunteers and all of our students and all of those buildings. Um, like I said, we can't do it without volunteers. There is so much that goes on in a school building. Uh, and what I failed to mention is something that is even more amazing is that all of our volunteers are also teaching our students to be monitors. And so they're getting the next generation uh to help the community, to help the schools ready to go to school. So that's a wonderful thing. Um, welcome everybody here. Welcome to
002everybody at home or maybe watching this later. Uh, Michelle, do we have any agenda changes for this evening? I do not have any agenda changes, although I wanted to point out that I did update the personnel report um since I posted it on Friday, so the board members do have an updated um highlighted copy and also an updated uh copy of the substitute packet. Thank you very much. Uh, and with that we'd love to uh welcome Mr. Chad Fairchild. He's been very patient and very accommodating for us. Uh, so we hope it wasn't too much of a hassle adjusting meeting in which you and your wonderful students and staff members will be attending. Glad to be here. Glad it's not snowing. Any questions? Uh, with that I'll turn it over to you, Mr. Fairchild. Thank
003you. Thank you very much. All right. So we are the brackish water here at Wiley. I just to say we're like an estuary where all those streams and rivers flow into from around the district, all schools, and then we send them off in the big wild ocean, occasionally to the high school. And what does Wiley look like? Wiley is a building. This year we have students. We updated that today, too. Uh, 14 fifth grade classrooms, 14 sixth grade classrooms, five special education classrooms. And if you count up all the staff that we pay to be in this building on any given day or a couple days, it ends up being 129 employees here at Wiley. So it's not It's a small thing. Uh, very similar size to Case Middle School. Uh, only just two grade
004levels. So Well, there are just two grade levels. That's it. But that's that's who we are and by numbers. Any instructional videos? Yes, maybe. Um, Wiley, we have a lot of cool opportunities for our students. Uh, we have math Olympiads, we have student council, we have yearbook, National Elementary Honor Society. Uh, ensemble, which you just heard. Now, I would say isn't it amazing that you the quality that you heard from fifth and sixth graders, but I don't even think saying fifth and sixth graders is needed. It's just amazing quality, period. Like that's some amazing singing. Uh, we have our band. They're learning instruments. They have Our sixth graders maybe have a year and a half under their belt. They're doing a great job. We'll get to hear them at the end of this month. This
005is a concert that has changed for them uh for uh reasons of birth. You'll understand when you see Mrs. Spencer. Uh, we have forage, we have liberty, we have gifted and talented enrichment program. And uh we also have uh pool that our students learn water safety on. We have sliding. We have a lot of cool things that happen at Wiley. A lot of cool things. And here's some just different pictures of that. And we will be focusing on the gifted and talented tonight because I don't think you care as much about your needs speaking as you care about your needs students speaking, which is what I came here to hear also. But in the meantime, I would like to give you just a glimpse. Thank you to Tyler and Tommy for putting this together for
006us. It's our little 100 day video. It's really short and sweet, but it just gives you a flash of what our school looks like. So. From the gifted and talented, there's one other uh introduction that I did this as a reminder of and that is Mrs. Olivia Gallagher here. She loves to be in the spotlight. >> [laughter] >> So Chad, any time you need to speak, you speak. It's all good. Who's that? But she handles the absolute lion's share of the student management here and we would be lost without her skill and steadiness and even keel hand and faithfulness. So a big thank you to her. Huge thank you to her. And without further ado, I would like to introduce to you Mrs. Ashley Stevens. So this is the floor is yours. Do you want
007me to read it again? I I have a designated guardian for sure. >> [laughter] >> Speaking of Ashley Stevens, um so I'm going to say very little. Um, a couple of well, I guess maybe a month or so at this point with the weather. Um, I asked my gifted group to I told them what the plan was for this presentation. So this is really, besides a couple of grammatical improvements, um this is really all them. So my group that's presenting, do you guys want to come up? Um, my friends are now presenting. This is Say hi to Wave to everybody. My friends who are So um Dakota, um she's kind of like in charge of this whole thing. She helped organize it quite a bit. Um, but before you guys present, can you guys just
008say your names? Um, hi. My name is Callan Gorbas. I'm Irena Fan. I'm Ariana Van Ornam. I'm Kevin Dunn. And I'm looking at the chapel. Who's that? Who's No, your name. Your name. I'm Joey Donahue. I'm Felix. So this We made a presentation named the benefit benefits of the gifted and talented program. A presentation by Leah, Dakota, who Kevin, Callan, Wesley, Joey Donahue, Sophia, Irena, Ariana, Henry, Felix, Mikael, and Evie. Some of these people are not presenting and some of these people could not make it. Some of these people did leave cool quotes. Um, Graham, Henry, Evie, Ivan, Ann, Ann, Mikael. What does GNT mean to us? GNT is a special program that will always have a place in our hearts, even if some of the people are more or less questionable. >> [laughter] >>
009Every day we look forward to win class just so we can come down. It's a fun and safe space for us to be ourselves and let loose for a little while. We have a lot of fun on our projects and sometimes we work together. Why does GNT matter to us? GNT is important to us because it provides us with fun educational experiences. It is mentally helpful throughout the day. It has monthly groups like cooking and even learning new languages. This program is a well-deserved break in the day for us to learn things and be a little silly. How does GNT help us? GNT helps us explore new things without the same pressure we would have if it were an assignment from our teachers. We learn new things and take new chances. It also gives friends
010an opportunity to work together and talk, something they might not get to do often. There's also the chance that we make new friends, which I suppose is also good. Keep thinking. Some projects we worked on There are quite a few projects we projects we've worked on including but not limited to learning a language, make your own country, and playing a Dungeons and Dragons and adventure. There's just so much more, but no matter what project we work on, we always have fun. And here are some moments that we have from G&T. This is mostly from our place where we did robotics where we got to learn how to use different technician stuff with our teacher, Mr. Zabotech, who helped us a lot with us. And these are the projects that we have done. And just to
011add to that, on your way out, we do have some projects in the employer area of the district office of the front unit that we've done. Here are some additional comments from our friends who couldn't make it. In G&T, I have a chance to access my full full brain power instead of doing easy stuff in class. I wish we had class in G&T for an actual class, and Miss Mrs. Stevens could be our teacher. This is by our friend Graham. In this special education, I use my brain and work hard. I would do it all over again cuz it was worth it. This class is great for making friends, allies, and comrades. This is by our friend Henry. I like G&T because it gives me an opportunity to use my brain more than normal. This
012is by our friend Ivan. I can focus on making creative projects like making board games. This is by our friend Ian Schwartz. I love going to G&T because it gives me a safe a a safe space to escape from the non-stop work and stress. I can I'm sorry, you I cannot read that person's Um, but this is by our friend William. And I'm sorry, I couldn't read the rest of yours. Um, about our leader. Mrs. Stevens is our G&T leader. She lets us do almost any project as long as it's safe and helps us whenever we need it. We can trust and depend on her. She's just truly the best and deserves a lot more recognition recognition than she does than she gets. We cannot think of a win we had without her. She truly
013is the best. Thank you, Mrs. Stevens. Good job, guys. Thank you, guys. Is that Irena? I can tell I Thank you so much, Irena. Alan? I can tell Alan. Thanks. Thank you so much. Joseph? I can tell Joseph. Thank you so much, Joseph. Ariana? Thank you so much. Good job. Uh, and last, Bryson? Colin? I did not Thank you, guys. Any questions for our students before we have them sit down from the board? You're all set. Thank you all. It's really nice and it is a great thing that this is a place for us to get to be a part of. Uh, cuz he's been here like 3 years ago. And it's been a great 3 years. We look forward to the next year, too. We can do the guests. So, thank you to my
014staff and uh all the people that I get to work with, all 129 of them. Fantastic. And thank you to the Board of Education for allowing us to share with you tonight and share our great students with you. All the cool things they they do. And the last one is just a thank you from all of Good job, Mr. Good job. Um, our student voice uh are Jeff Lewis BOCES CTE pathways with Mrs. Lisa Blank, and we have some students to participate in that as well. As the our students walk up, this is the video we were preparing. I'm Lisa Blank, director of CTE programs for the district. And it's really honored work with the students. You heard a little bit from our wildest students in the gifted and talented programs about the robotics work
015that they were doing. Those sorts of programs help build the background knowledge and give kids the experiences to lead to this next level of learning. And we have students here with us tonight, and I'm really grateful for the partnership we have with Jefferson Lewis BOCES. And I'm going to let you take things up here on the base side. It's a wonderful Mr. Jefferson. Hi, Jeff here. I'm I'm the director of career and technical education at the Jefferson Lewis BOCES. Hello, Jeff. Hello, and Lisa and I are hoping to do tonight is give you a little taste. We we don't have a lot of minutes. We could take hours, but we want to give you a little taste of what career and technical education is, why it matters, and most of all, why it matters for
016our students in terms of creating opportunities. I think the video you just saw and the words that those students will share with you will probably mean a lot more tonight than what Lisa and I will share, but we'll give you just a little bit of background. We're going to give you a little taste. The some of the documents in the slideshow that we have will be available to you. You are going to send it to you. You can go to the board of education page and access this and I know Michelle has loaded things for us, so you can get more details if you're really interested. You can also reach out to us because we're happy to share. We love to see these programs grow, and we would love to see more pathways developed for
017our students in the future. I don't like this. There we go. So, in 2025, July, this was adopted by New York State Department of a Graduate, where there are six key six key items that we want our students to have or things that we want our students to have. Then we want them to be academically prepared, we want them to be creative innovators, critical thinkers, effective communicators, global citizens, and reflective and future focused. They're all very near and dear to my heart in STEM programming. But, I know they're also very near and dear to the CTE program, which is like next level. Do you want to Yeah, we we actually we had a big statewide meeting today, and these six attributes come up regularly at career and technical ed. I think we at BOCES in
018the career and technical ed side are lucky right now because the items that these six attributes are talking about are the things that we're already great at. Uh I shared a document that isn't in the board path yet that uh the CTE statewide network, the other 36 directors of CTE and myself worked together as a team, and we created that document to highlight what it is we're already doing that meet or match the expectations of the portrait of a graduate and the ways that that we can showcase student learning. I think I'm hoping that this document and this work we're already doing will be a leader as the state starts to roll out New York Inspire framework and looking at how we can implement those things in school this week. A lot like what we
019designed with the talent. So, the implementation of these attributes is expected by almost all districts by 2029. So, this is coming. We've got some great examples that kind of lead the way in that. So, in 2024, a new CTE framework was adopted. And this is one yeah, you can't really see it. So, you may want to take a look. It's really an interesting development in that it organizes the CTE programming around 14 clusters, 72 sub clusters, 12 career ready practices. There's a lot there. It's a blueprint for developing programming. And let me tell you why it matters. It's for consistency >> [clears throat] >> across the nation, across the state. All of these subcategories and all of the details and parts of that, but we don't need to get into them now. Depending on the
020area of workforce readiness or preparation that the students are going into, it ensures equal opportunity and it ensures rigor. Another thing that I would add in working with New Visions students, we deal with a very transient population, and when they enroll in these programs locally, we know that the what they're doing is recognized across the country. So, it matters a lot. There's a link in the lower right to the guidebook if anyone wants to learn more. This gives you just another view of how those clusters are divided into six big categories of caring for communities, building and moving, connecting, and I can't remember what that one is right now. Um but you you see what those those different categories are and the programs at BOCES fall into all of these. Investment in the future is
021one that just sounds near and dear to me. Cuz we do that every day. In order for a course to be considered CTE formally, it needs to fall into one of these seven subcategories, and I think the most important piece is that a CTE course must be taught by a CTE certified instructor. The United State Education Department has its own set of criteria and expectations for a teacher to be there. Um one thing that's very different from what we might see out at the component district, most of our CTE teachers come from business and industry and get certified as teachers after the fact. So, they bring expertise, technical expertise and knowledge to our students. And then one of the fun most fun jobs that I have is teaching them to teach and let them get
022there. And students get industry certifications that open up lots of career possibilities as a result of participating in these programs. One of the things I wanted to point out that not everybody may be aware of is in 2023, New York State when the computer science standards, computer science and digital fluency standards were released, we also had a change in middle school CTE requirements. There's a 1.75 credit CTE requirement. Computer science will be part of that along with family and consumer sciences, technology, and other programs. Just wanted to talk about this a little bit, and I'm not going to stay here. But one of the things for me as a teacher, I always wanted to open doors to students, not close doors. I want them to have experiences so they see things that they maybe would
023not have thought of in terms of careers in their future. And so, we like to start really early. We have Scrub Club inside of Warren being given tonight in here in New York for the volunteer awards. Scrub Club starts in grade two, where kids are getting early healthcare experiences. We don't want them to rule out possibilities. We also realize that there are things that cause people to make compromises and rule things out. So, we try to fight some of those battles, and you can learn more about that if you want to contact me or receive the slide deck or handout that's available to you or board faster. So, we really want to get to the CTE programs in action. This is the the highlight. We love hearing from the students, so here we go. Unfortunately,
024we have a couple of students who could not be here tonight. They had conflicts, so I'm going to start with Jack Sissel. He first night of the track season. Can't miss that, right? So, he is an H-vac student in energy and natural resources, and he just had a statement that he wanted to share, which I will read. He said, "My experience through BOCES has been a journey of discovering many things I that I found interesting. The great thing about this journey is that it cannot fail me in any direction I take, whether it be acquiring certifications needed to enter the workforce or an internship already laid out for me. Lastly, I will forever have all the skills and relationships I have acquired at Owen Tech to aid me in my career." There we go. Let's
025see who's [clears throat] next on the list. Madison. Madison is in the was in the pre-tech academy, and I think we spoke this morning. She's in medical careers, healthcare, and human services is the cluster that her program is in. So, what would you like to share with the board and your fellow students, maybe younger students that may be interested in exploring CTE programming? Um for me, being uh being enrolled in BOCES, somewhere in there, so it's shown me really how job experiences are um gives me opportunities. So, I want to get out of my home school community. And getting certifications is really nice and having a lot of like job experiences. When you go, it's really like you're actually job like the actual job. That's pretty sweet. See next, Michaela. I'm Michaela. I'm in cosmetology.
026Sorry, I should say full name. Cosmetology, healthcare, and human services. Go ahead. Yeah, I also agree. It is really like being at a job, which really kind of prepares you for that in the future. I didn't really know what I wanted to do, and I just I thought I wanted to be a nurse. And but then being in the class and being around people who wanted to do the same thing and teachers that were committed to helping you learn, it really made me want to make it a career in my future. And I see Ella back there, right? Ella who's next? Ella Ella is in the culinary program, which falls under hospitality, events, and tourism. And I have to say that we had a breakfast one day at the high school, and Ella spoke about
027her culinary program, and it inspired me. So, I I wish I could do that program at BOCES. So many of my wish I could do the culinary one. It just sounds like so much fun. It is a lot of fun. And when you're in high school, your world is about this big. So, um being introduced to new people, new experiences, being in the workforce for as long as I have been, and then continuing to do this in schooling, it's opened up an entirely new world of possibilities for me that I never imagined. I just uh visited my dream college, Culinary Institute of America, and I am admitted to there for fall. I would have never had that experience if I didn't have BOCES under my belt, if I didn't have my internship under my belt
028from BOCES, if I didn't have my certifications that I do. I have two certifications. I have my ServeSafe and my OSHA, which is a lot of money out of pocket if I didn't do it through school, and it's an incredible privilege just to get to be with people that I love every day for hours doing what I love every day with the greatest teachers and in the greatest, most curated towards the students environments. It's just one of the most You just absolutely thrive in what you're doing there, and it's really beautiful to watch all of your classmates, all of your peers, even your teachers just absolutely blossom throughout the years. It's my favorite thing. Thank you, Ella. Um I know that um Michaela and Madison probably thought they were done, but I'm going to I'm
029going to I'm going to push you a little further. Um Ella just shared with us her future plans. Would the two of you talk about maybe where you see yourselves going after school? One something that I always brag about or when we make our bumper sticker, not it. It's going to say CTE started your go anywhere. Oh, no. And to me that's that's really what this is about. Some of our students finish a program and don't go into that field. Others decide for sure that they know their path. Do you two share with us a little more about where you're headed? Um >> [clears throat] >> I will be seeing I'm going to medical assisting. So, you're um after that I'm trying to get into becoming a medical assistant. Oh, great. Um I'm just checking.
030Can I ask a quick question, Ella? You mentioned certifications. So, have you earned certifications through your programming or are you working towards specific ones in your lab? Yeah, uh we did CPR certifications, uh stop the bleed, and first aid. Awesome. Um I plan on getting my cosmetology license in June, and then I'm headed to Oswego starting in fall for business administration. And then I'm planning on doing straight hair in salons until I can build up the clientele and the money to hopefully eventually own my own salon. Great. Thank you. I want to point out also that Madison will have three different BOCES instructors before she's done. You Well, actually maybe not. Do you have Mrs. Chester for med careers? No, I didn't have Okay. So, Madison will have three teachers. There's a pre-tech student in
03110th grade. She had actually three instructors that year. And then this year is in med careers learning about all of the different medical pathways, and next year will be a medical assistant student and will finish ready to go into that that work. Um other students might come and have the same instructor for 2 years as a junior and a senior. So, you have a unique experience as well. And she's one of the I we had a good conversation earlier today, and I know that she is grateful for these things that she's Okay. So, unfortunately some of our others were unable to make it tonight. Um So, I just wanted to share a little bit about it because you may not be aware. There um our CTE programming is to include academic outcomes across diverse student
032populations with immediate lasting benefits in student engagement, completion rates, and post-secondary success. Some recent data, this is national data. Um The average graduation rate for public schools is 87%. CTE concentrators is 96%. Hopefulness about the future, 25% public schools, 40% nearly double in CTE concentrators. Engagement learning, um self-reported it's 16% and 37% for CTE concentrators. Um about 7% of CTE students are more likely to graduate on time, and the high-risk CTE students in grades 10 through 11 are eight to 10 times less likely to drop out. That hands-on learning, that the experiences they have makes all the difference. I think they feel very connected to their programs and it and they develop a sense of place and purpose, and that really matters to them. And to give you all a sense of what this looks
033like regionally, I would say just under 1,500 students attending between the BOCES Technical Center and the Howard Sackett Technical Center in Willsboro, um and um and nearly Well, region-wide about 45% of 11th and 12th graders attend a career and technical program. In Jefferson County we're at about 40% right now. The numbers are increasing. Okay. So, we have a special recognition tonight, and the person who is receiving a special recognition unfortunately was unable to join us. You know the weather we had today? That is really busy from the checkers even she's been trying to stop them. The weather we've had today resulted in some flooding in her property something out of town, and so she had to leave to deal with it. So, this was supposed to be a surprise. I So, I kind of I
034gave away the secret. She knows, so I will announce that um CSTA New York, the Computer Science Teachers Association of New York, um has given for the first time ever regional awards this year, and we are recognizing Laura Kinney as the North Country Region recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award for 2026. Um Laura has been very involved in teaching computer science from the start um computer science discoveries and computer science principles. Uh she has she integrates computer science applications into her geometry classes. She has coached first robotics at the high school level, and she's partnered with our STEM coach Brian Zibell Tech to bring standards-connected computer science experiences to her students. So, she's done a lot to move computer science forward, and so we're happy to recognize her. She will be getting an award that
035looks just like that. It is actually I'll have to Unfortunately it's got a crack in it. I'm going to have to reorder it. It fell, I guess. I went to open the box and it had a crack. So, I'll be ordering a new one, but she is going to get a very nice award recognizing her for the great experiences she brings to our students. But this is computer science is another path in the CTE clusters, and so this is very fitting with what we are doing today. So, thank you everybody. Thank you for joining us. For our condition here at I Tech Actually Madison for some reason one for you. Um but we will get that to you soon. I'll make sure you get one. I got one for Ella. Thank you so much for
036sharing. Appreciate that. Thank you so much. Appreciate that, ladies. And we'll make sure you get one. I'm sure you're going to want to frame it and put it on your wall. Um it's amazing. Thank you. I think it's fantastic. I appreciate the science behind it. Great progress. Um we are at the public comment portion of our meeting tonight. Um we have two. Oh, yeah. Eight more students per year. Now we are at the public comment section of the love We have uh two public comment periods. This is for agenda-related items only. Uh in accordance with board policy 2306, the public comment portion of the Board of Education meeting is designed to give members of the public the opportunity to address the board related to school district operations. The board cannot permit in public sessions discussions
037involving individual district personnel or students. Persons wishing to discuss matters involving personnel or students should present their comments to and or concerns and or concerns to the superintendent of schools during normal business hours. All speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner. Uh obscene language, libelous statements, and threats of violence will not be tolerated. It is not the practice of the board to respond during the meeting to questions posed or comments made by speakers. Therefore, the board will certainly take any questions or comments made under advisement, but will not necessarily be responding to any questions at this time. As always, the board welcomes written comments, and all board members and the superintendent can be reached via regular mail or email. Each speaker is allotted 3 minutes. If you haven't reached the end of your
038time and you hear the buzzer, We have a waffle today. No muffling today. Please do not be alarmed. Conclude your thoughts. Um Millie, you were the only one that reached out that I'm aware of. Sure. Um I just have two things that are on the agenda up for vote today. So, I'm hoping that my questions um can be answered before you guys vote. And the first one about is regarding the Morik contract. And the Morik contract had two questions on there. So, the um student system software that we currently use is School Tools. And I noticed that there was a drop in that contract rate. And overall, the contract the total contractual amount is down also. And I'd like to know how that usually doesn't happen. So, I'd like to know why there was a
039drop in that contractual rate. It's good for the taxpayers, but I'd like to know why. And also, if someone can address, and I don't know what the budget presentation is going to be tonight, and maybe it'll be addressed during that portion, but I've heard some rumblings that the district and administration is considering um eliminating School Tools and going along with another software program, which I believe is Focus School Software. So, if that is something that the district is considering, I think that that needs to be um brought to open floor. And the second thing that I'd like to talk about is just a question. Again, I hope it's being answered. The amendment on the intermunicipal agreement, I read through that agreement, and it's an Obviously, it's an extension of the provisions, but it definitely does
040not specify what provisions we're extending. Um so, I would like to have some information on that. I think. Thank you, ma'am. Is there anybody else this evening that would like to speak to agenda-related items? Okay. We're on to board and staff reports, starting with the FAF Committee Report, Mr. Paulie Dozier. Yes, thank you. So, we met a little early tonight to accommodate um and kind of did things in reverse order to get through the questions. Starting with the $13 million project project up in North Syracuse. We walked in this evening. Um you saw also that update. Um It is almost finished. Some weather-related projects um which will be completed. Um we have projects I spoke of the um capital outlay update. Um and that, if you remember, you approved >> [clears throat] >> the funding
041of the exterior bricks to high school. Go green initiative was under discussion. I think Bob Knickerbocker home detention junior high project. Air conditioning was the next topic. Um and the the direction of the school and our hopes are to build into these buildings um air conditioning ready systems. It's not full air conditioning, but it gives components like piping and electrical um ready and in place. As long as we turn down the walls and open up the ceilings, it's a good time to do it. We'll go through that expense. So, if you have questions on that, I'll answer. Uh then phase one PE planitarium. You um saw the plans and drawings for that. They've won a good results um sort of in Ohio. There's one which we are voting on tonight. Um you can see the
042energy performance contract was discussed. Then the state of ways or possibilities of increased space within the school. Um the direction will be potentially to move. Then a FEMA update. Um could be $110 million project. Um and the remainder of the time for the budget adoption presentation, which we're not getting into detail because we're about to do that next. That's it. Sounds like a busy meeting. That's always a was. Any Any questions for Paulie? Okay. Thank you, Paulie. Uh Superintendent of School Report, Dr. Bill Sheehan. Okay. So, we're going to reserve this portion of the agenda for the budget presentation. Uh just as a reminder, this budget presentation is for the Board of Education. Uh one of the responsibilities to adopt the budget. Uh the budget that is adopted by the board goes to the public.
043People are wondering, I want to ask today the process in which um you know, we're obligated by regulations. And uh being a small city school district, there are certain rules and regulations as far as timelines uh that are separate and distinct for our district compared to maybe other districts that are not considered a small city. And so, this by the board adopting the budget, it allows us to start printing materials and submitting them uh to the public for public notice. Um it is to notice tonight, and you'll see it on our timeline that the public hearing for the budget is in February at 5:30 p.m. Okay. Bree and I are going to kind of go back and forth with the PowerPoint presentation regarding our budget. And just as thank you, as I said at the
044beginning of this budget presentation, a thank you to our Board of Education members for their volunteers. We recognize the volunteers today. It's important to recognize our board members are also volunteers uh to serve on our Board of Education. So, we applaud them and thank them for their service. The important part when you look at the Watertown City School District is you look at the total number of students that we serve. This number that you see represented on here is exclusive of our pre-K universal pre-K students. So, it's actually closer to 1,000 or slightly over. Um we have roughly between 900 and 920 20 students in the Watertown City School District. We facilitate eight schools. And our proposed budget going into next year will be the $112 million. When you look at our schools, you look
045at the total number of schools and the grade level expansions, you can see to the left of the slide uh to include our addition to North Elementary School this year. And um it's important as we talked about the uh budget process to know the timeline. So, we'll be sharing that with you. Um but it's also important to to mention from a historical perspective that the Watertown City School District is the largest public employer in Watertown. Pardon? Um what's important to recognize when we go through a budget process um is the fact that our budget needs to be aligned to where we are, which you see on the wall over here is our um strategic plan, our five-year strategic plan. And so, we're looking at, okay, what initiatives do we have in our budget that's supporting
046increasing graduation rate, increasing meaningful student engagement. You got to see the CTE pathways in our collaboration with BOCES. Improving overall student attendance. We know that uh students do not learn if they're not here. Um so, different initiatives that we put in place to make sure that that is supported. Um enhancing behavioral supports. We have students that come with varying needs and making sure that those needs are met uh so that we can teach them where they're at. And then the enhancing infrastructure. One of the things that I wanted to highlight for the board this evening, um and Paulie mentioned it in his report out, is, you know, last year we had two different public votes. Um we had the public vote on the capital project, which was in March. And then we had the budget
047vote, which was in May. Um we are successfully I've said it over the last couple of board meetings, but I just want to reiterate that. Uh that project is beginning a year in advance. Um so, we're excited we will be breaking ground at the end of this school year. That was uh voter adopted obviously last March. So, we're excited to break ground come this June. So, when students leave um Ohio Elementary School and Starbuck Elementary School, that part of the phase, all of our schools will be impacted at some point along the phase, um but those two schools uh will be done first. Um the other thing that I just want to highlight that I that I do believe is important as you as we go through the budget presentation tonight, and Paulie hit some
048of it in your report out. There are a lot of hands in the pie, or whatever that word is. Um you know, as far as where we're looking at for resources to look out for our community's best interest. So, um you have the budget, you have the capital project. Um the capital project that was approved last year had minimal to no tax impact on our voters because of the reserves that the district had that was able to offset that fund. Um the same thing is true for the for the uh capital project. We'll be surpassing the 110, that was the $15 million project uh that was set aside. That was also voter approved. So, anything that goes into those reserves will offset that so that it doesn't have negative implications on our taxpayers that would
049cause us to go above the cap. So, we're leveraging those exercises, we're leveraging our FEMA dollars. Um and that was mentioned, we are there's a partial government shutdown, and so we're waiting for FEMA to reopen. Uh once that reopens, there is an additional uh up to $14 million that we may be receiving for capital projects, mainly on this campus at the high school and Case, uh but also to include uh some of the lower level at North. And so, what we're doing with the 110 capital project for all the things that we told the voters that we're doing, but there are certain things that are in that project that if covered by FEMA will allow other projects to take place. Um something that uh a couple of boards ago we went through a bus tour,
050we went through the entire district to look at the status of our district. The total cost of that was about $260 million. And so, what we're trying to do is move forward instructionally, move forward as far as the infrastructure needs, but capitalizing on those different revenue streams. Um in addition to that, tonight you're going to hear us talk again about EPC, the environmental performance contract, uh, that will also be a proposition on our ballot. Um, that does not need to to have a voter approval. However, the reason why I did make that decision to add it to the voter approval in front of our board board to push that forward is the additional 10% in aid that our district will receive. That 10% is money, and that money can be used for a variety of
051other things uh, that the district needs. Uh, we are also looking at go green initiatives uh, through NYSERDA, so we were able to update the board on that. We're looking at the potentiality of uh, geothermal and uh, looking at undertaking a particular building in our district that would fit seamlessly into the um, the capital project. Anything that we can do in these additional revenue sources to free up additional things allows us to complete additional projects that we were not able to complete um, within the $110 million project. The other thing just to kind of reiterate what she probably already mentioned um, is it allows our buildings to get ready um, with the AC infrastructure. So, I mean you know, then as we're taking ceilings down and we're taking walls down to to reach uh, to
052replace um, unit ventilators, it allows us to also work in there and and replace the lighting and replace add piping so that when we get to that point we can add central air. Uh, these buildings as many of them do not have central air. They have limited cool down spaces. And we're just going to talk briefly about our timeline that's represented in January here, but actually conversations began as early as November. Well, we began the budget discussions in November and December um, talking with the administrative group about um, where we see ourselves going forward. But the bulk of it starts in January. We meet with um, the department heads um, such as IT, building and grounds, food service. And then we also meet with each principal from each of the buildings. Um, they every principal,
053every department head must present a presentation to the executive team that highlights the five five items of our strategic plan. They're highlighting the successes, what are their wants and needs, um, where do they stand staff wise? Do we have any retirements that we can plan for? Or do they need some extra staffing because of um, increasing enrollment? And everything that they ask for has to be backed up with the strategic plan, it has to be backed up by data. And also in January, um, that was when we had our wonderful 20% health insurance increase. So, the rate increases in health insurance and workers comp are held every year in January. Um, and then also that's the same month that we begin calculating, formally calculating what our year end fund balance would be. Um, that that
054number is always a moving target cuz to this day, to this moment we still have not received our federal impact aid. We still have not received our 4410 pre-K revenue. Um, and of course maintenance likes to come up to me every few days wanting another another big purchase for some repairs that are going on in the building. So again, the number fluctuates back and forth with the entire time that we're putting this together. Um, in February is when we received the initial numbers from the governor for our state aid. Um, as you'll see in a few slides, we you know, that number was not what we had planned cuz if a couple weeks later we got some wonderful news overnight that as our enrollment dropped, we lost another $785,000 in foundation aid for the following
055year. Um, then we February was also one of the years we shared um, the first round of the expenses with the full board and the revenue and fund balance with the FA Committee. And then of course we started calculating our tax cap calculation which was presented to submitted to New York State on March 1st. And then for a few months we had all presentations to different groups, staff advisory, student advisory, the adoption um, the budget hearing next month. And um, then of course on May 18th is our budget vote. And then after that we will be presenting again like we have for the last three years at the New Visions Center as well. Um, the only other thing I would add to that slide is that this year, you know, when you look at near
05668% 68% of districts in New York State are suspected of only getting about a 1% aid increase, um, you know, it allowed us to really look at the budget through different lens um, because you know, as you look at fund balances, and I know that was a question in the past, when you look at that, you know, the Watertown City School District looked very strong, but if you listen to formally a couple of years, but if you look at other districts around New York State that are laying off 50 teachers, 60 teachers, 70 teachers, you know, significant numbers of staff, um, it was prudent that we made sure that not only did we go through the revised uh, circles, we met as an executive team to identify the priorities, but also we visited those meetings
057with building principals to have those tough conversations so that we can make some some adjustments now so that next year we're not having to dig deep. So, that's critically important to this process. Sure. I'll also add to that too, Dr. Seibel, that um, state budget is usually due April 1st. Um, it is April 14th, we still do not have a state budget. Um, and uh, the last article I saw was they are going to have another extender on their state. So, we're going to I would expect it well into the end of April, probably even May. So, that's something that was briefly addressed. Um, the budget in plain English, um, it is increasing from $103.9 million to $112.1 million which increases about 7.9%. But that's just the expenditure side that is increasing 7.9. The actual
058tax increase that we are proposing is at the staff the tax cap at 2.55%. We will have a slide later on that will present what that looks like on a $100,000 home. Um, 75% of it of the increases in our discretionary, we have no control over most of the increases. Health insurance alone was a 20% increase of $6.3 million for our district. Uh, we really wanted to emphasize that we're maintaining workforce stability. Instructional stipends are maintained and our staffing levels have been adjusted to match our current enrollment and there were no layoffs planned for next year. While other schools are heavily considering those as receiving the news, um, Watertown City School District is not in that position. Just a couple of points to add as we probably talked about school budgets, um, it's important to
059think about our own personal households. Um, as homeowners, our insurances went up, our health insurance went up, our grocery bills went up, um, energy bills, gas prices, all of it went up. Not because of a poor choice that individual people made, but because that's simply the cost of things now. Schools face those same pressures. The same bills every household faces, just as much larger scale serving over 3,900 students. A school district, it's important to mention, is not immune to the economy. We operate uh, in the same world that our our consumers and customers do. We just serve this community's children while doing it. All right. Our proposed budget, where does the money go? Our proposed budget is $112.1 million. Uh, that's an increase of 8.2 million. Um, we are required to present the budget in
060three categories such as administration, program, and capital. Administration does not mean just the administrators of the district. It is the admin it's the administration of the district as a whole. So, yes, it's your principals, but it's also their their clerical staff. It's um, legal fees, it's fiscal advisors who helps with all of our capital projects. It's the finance of the the district, it's personnel and staffing. That is going up about $1.3 million from 6.9 to 8.3, and that is basically um, the benefit increase and instructional salaries. We have a slide that shows the exact cost of benefits that have increased. Uh, program is the the instructional program for the entire district. It's all of our teachers, our teacher aides, the transportation to from our student, for our staff, for our students, athletics and both curricular
061activities. That it has increased to 6.9 million dollars. It's going from 81.7 to 88.6. Capital is um, the maintenance, buildings and grounds. Um, it's also the debt service payments um, for our capital projects over the years. And that is actually going down $100,000. We little over 15 uh, excuse me, 15.2 million to a little over 15 million. That's because we do have some capital projects that are rolling off. There are some capital projects where the payments that that our debt payment has completed. But in a few slides you're going to see how that has impacted the revenue side. So, we'll talk about how it's really important to as we plan ahead, you know, to make sure as one pocket's rolling off, we get the next one ready. And the next slide just shows that as
062a pie chart all the different major categories that are in the budget. And as you'll see, salaries and employee benefits of any school district make up about 75% of the pie. You also have um, contractual and supplies at 12%, and the remaining amount is mostly debt service, equipment, and interfund transfers. This slide that was important because it's I read a couple of statements earlier regarding expenses. Um, these are expenses that the district has seen a significant increase in. These are not things that we can predict. Uh, these are things that the district is forced to to pay. Um, when you look at health insurance, we do as a Watertown City School District, we belong to a health insurance is Russia. Um and that went up 20% um significantly higher than what we would have projected
063or wanted. However, when you look at other insurance premiums in New York State that it went significantly higher than that. Um the one part that I I've mentioned in the past four meetings that's really important to mention here is um as Steve Todd was retiring, we worked really hard to create a legislative body um of BOCES which I served on the committee. Um we have spent a lot of time in Albany this year and Washington, D.C. advocating for a lot of these points and school funding along with our New York State United Teachers partner, our school board associations, our school council of superintendents, uh and others to advocate for uh school funding to cover some of these unplanned for costs. Um liability insurance last year with the um liability insurance, our region saw a significant
064increase in that. For this current fiscal year, it's 40%. Next year, it's projected to go up 20%. Our utilities, you may say this is a pretty conservative number. Um I know that I've spoken with employees that said that they feel like their insurance or utilities have doubled. Uh I know that I've personally faced that. Um the same thing is true when you look at a school district. You know, when you compare the Watertown City School District, um our utility usage for last December, you know, you were looking at like a um what was it? $34,000 for the month utility bill. And then uh this past year this current uh year it's 49,000. And so, there's significant increases in utility costs. Um and we are working on that and that is something that is important to
065work with our elected officials on um to put more controls. Uh this month alone, I know we met with Scott Green. He had mentioned uh you know, another significant increase in April for utilities. So, it's something that we as a district are going to face as well as our key students. Um transportation, we saw an increase of that of 14.4%, excuse me. Uh slightly less than last year. Um but if you look at a lot of things, we get transportation aid for students that live over a certain distance. And then there are things that the state does not provide transportation on, but things that we as a district value and our community values. So, we have a tardy bus uh that we worked with the board last year to add. We have that. So, that's
066being planned for. We added activity buses so that kids have access to after school activities. Um and so, we've also added transportation for some of our athletic students that would not have uh transportation. That is something that we also do not get paid on. And so, when you see things go up, those are also expenses that are not um aidable in some cases as I just mentioned. Uh maintenance costs, you see that that went up 10%. Um I think when you go around um as well as my left, you can see the age of infrastructure of our buildings throughout the district. Um and so, the increase to maintain these buildings, our hope is that once we go through the age gap in infrastructure and controls updates um on an H vac standpoint that we will
067be able to reduce those costs and that's a part of that guarantee that you can see. Um and our school resource officer contract, we have an amazing partnership with our Watertown Police Department and that cost also went up 9%. What you don't see on here that you heard me mention earlier was food costs. You know, we see it when we go to the grocery store ourselves. We as a district serve a lot of food with the students that receive uh breakfast and lunch and with our evening school we also provide a dinner for our cycle and the adult students. Uh this is just another visual representation um of it. When you look at CPI, consumer price index, you look at typically uh this year was 2.6, but it could be up to 2.9. What we
068wanted to show by this visual representation is the fact that our percentage increases with those uncontrolled expenses surpassed what CPI is. And so, when you look at, you know, your revenues and your expenses, you can see very easily that our expenses that are not district controlled are surpassing that CPI and definitely surpassing um the state aid. And although we are very thankful um and nothing is set in stone until the governor's budget is enacted, um we are above that 1% uh but none of it equals the percentage increases that this slide represents. The two uh largest increases in the budget are are of course salaries and benefits. Salaries increased almost $800,000 over last year. It may look a little wonky cuz the special education did. So, it's the $800,000 for the district as a whole.
069Special education itself had the largest increase of $3.9 million. The other four $4 million were simply decreases throughout um throughout the budget. Um there was also some reclassification of special education staff. It is vitally important that the district ensures that anything special education related is coded correctly because that does affect our IDEA grants. So, payroll really loved me this year. I got really close with Matt Burden um and made sure that every TA, every teacher, every related service person was coded correctly to ensure the numbers were accurate. So, that's why the numbers look a little wonky. But overall, salaries did increase by $800,000. Um special education also has some um new classrooms added this year. Um the teacher aides themselves was a $2.2 million increase in just um assistant teachers alone. Uh we did have
070some grants ending. ARPA funding was done in October of this this year. RECOVS is ending this year and and the first of day grant also ending. So, there are some summer programming, um professional development, and various staff positions that are no longer covered under the grant and have been um moved over to the general funds. So, I want to stop there for a second because that piece is critically important. If you look at grants ending and you look at 70 to 80% of the district's budget is staff cuz we are in the people business. And when you look at all of those programs and staff that were added over years or decades in this case, you know, it's the district has to have a sustainability plan. And so, when you look at you know, your
071you look at your revenue side on your aid side, when you have grants, it almost overinflates what the aid looks like because you're getting additional revenue streams. What doesn't work in New York State is you don't hire all of these programs and staff and then in 10 years when the grant goes away or 8 years when the grant goes away, you don't you don't cut those positions. You don't cut those programs because our communities rely on those programs. And so, you know, initially when you have grants coming in, it looks like on the revenue side you have additional revenue sources coming in, but that's because at some point those revenue sources are going to go away and those salaries have to be consumed in another way, which is what this shows. Um the other thing
072that we want to mention going out of the next point is new positions. Um when you look at special education, which is the top three on that um slide as we covered, but um those are required. And so, when it when it comes to special education, we have a legal obligation to make sure that we are following the law with IDEA. Uh one of the things that we worked with our federal legislators on when we were in D.C. is the fact that fully funded IDEA funding is 40% of the true cost of educating a student with an IEP. Those funds that we receive as a district really come closer to 14%. So, as you can see out of 100%, only 14% of that is covered by IDEA. So, it's critically important and we're going to
073continue advocating at the federal level for that funding to support the increased cost of our students to make sure that we're meeting their needs. Special education is not one of those things that you can say, "We'll get to it later." We have a significant significant obligation to meet our students' needs. And when you look at raising the graduation rate from 54% to 69% for special education, it shows that by building our continuum of special education, that we're better able to meet our students' needs. And so, this is where we're looking at for special education. Um the next thing uh that I want Oh, the other thing we do want to mention that we did mention in F and F that I will say up here in front of the whole board is that um special
074education is something that you cannot always predict. You know, a district may receive a public school is required to take all students that register. Um it is not a private school. Um and that was not a good thing towards our private schools. But we take all students that register at a public school. And so, if a student registers that requires a residential level of placement, the burden becomes on the district to fund it. It is not an option of do we fund it or don't we fund it. It is a legal obligated funding. And when you look at one particular student and you look around New York State in the limited residential treatment facilities, a cost for a full-time live-in residential treatment facility can go from 100,000 to 300,000. That would some of our other
075districts in our region. So, that is something that a district has to have some cushion to be able to plan plan for a student that you don't know that you're getting. The other thing that we want to mention is we worked extremely hard and I'll I'll throw in out here for this. We've worked really hard uh in the last 3 years to make sure that we have been equitable and added instructional coaches in each of our buildings to make sure that we can focus on a high level of the science of learning and the science of success. And uh this administrative uh administrative sorry, the instructional coach would be a focus at our high school to make sure that they have an instructional coaching support like all of our other elementary, middle, and intermediate. The
076other thing that could be negotiable, but shouldn't be, is the administrative intern. We are looking at partnering with BOCES and Oswego College. We've been working with Tina and her department and district superintendent. When you assess the needs in our community and in our region, there is a significant number of administrators that will be retiring. And it is critically important if we value education to value the pipeline or value a succession plan. Because right now, when someone retires, we are reactioning. And so, our hope in building this into the budget is a teacher on special assignment that would allow us to build an administrative pipeline so that as we have administrators retire, we have people that we can feed into these openings. The cost of professional development on a new hire is significant. If we can
077take someone that we have vested that is tried and true and has data to support that they are phenomenal educator in a classroom, why would we not want them to to enter a pipeline and go into administration? So, although we say to the board tonight that that could be optional, we don't think it should be. Um The next thing that I want to mention is our community partnerships and strategic communications. Um we're looking at that position. This role we're looking at frequently, you know, people think of this is maybe a PR hire, and that misses the point. Uh the real work is sustained community relationship building, translating complex budget information for families, connecting our our military families and district resources, and maintaining the community trust that makes this budget possible. Last year the community said
078yes to our marching band, to our flag football, to our capital project, and we put those dollars to work for our community. That's all I have for now. I'll talk about employee benefits. Really great. $6.6 million $6.6 million of this total increase is from employee benefits. 6.3 of that is health insurance premiums. If you look year over year, dollar for dollar, it's actually it comes out to be more than 20%, but that's because we also have some other things built into there, which is through legacy costs. A legacy cost occurs when you have a teacher that retires and you still need to replace that teacher. Now, you're responsible for the health insurance for the for the retiree and the new person coming in. And of course, we have the salaries of positions that are kept
079up with the grants, and so their benefits are also following following into the general fund. Um Medicare reimbursements are included in there as well. Those have increased this year, and they're expected to double over the next 5 years, so in the last article I wrote I went on that. Uh employee retirement system, that increased $800,000. The employee retirement system is the contribution the district pays for any non-instructional salary. For a tier four for a tier four benefits, it's increasing from 19.6 to 21.4%. This is actually one of the areas that's in contention in the state state budget right now is about changing to your six, and we'll see what that looks like once the budget passes. Hopefully. Um teachers retirement system, we are very fortunate New York State has got one of the best funded
080teacher retirement systems in the country. We had a small decrease of 600,000 in that. The contribution decreased from 9.59 to 8.24. And then finally, of course, FICA which is social security and Medicare. That's a mandated 7.65% for every salary. So, hopefully you look at this slide and you look at like the you know, the significant reason why our budget is going up cost of living cost of living each year. The most significant increase that the district is seeing as a part of the insurance premiums is this $6.3 million. Um so, that's something that is worth noting. The next couple of slides refer to special education enrollment. We just wanted to show that in 2022-2023 we had enrolled 245 students in special ed, and by 2024-2025 that number has increased by 100 students to 159. We
081do not have the number as of today for for this year. Um we've got some new programs, a 12:1:1, 8:1:1, and a 6:1:1 class. We have some growing classrooms as well, 15:1 and a 12:1:3:1. And then the next slide just shows it a little differently, just emphasizing that special education just it's it just keeps growing. It is a mandated program. We are required by law to provide these programs. And again, you know, almost $4 million teacher salary increase, excuse me, special education salary increase, and $2.2 million of that was for just teacher aides. I think that I mentioned last year during the budget cycle, but I want to mention again because I think it's important to mention. You know, I mentioned the fact that IDEA IDEA when it's fully funded it's 40%, and I said
082we're getting closer to 14%. Um what I said last year during the budget cycle, if you remember, was that IDEA when it came to state 22, okay? That was a significant change, and so prior to last year, schools were responsible for educating students with IEPs until their 21st birthday. Last year that law changed. Um with that law changing, the funding did not change. And so, the district had to add a 12-month classroom at the high school level, which is one of our most significantly priced classrooms because of the level of needs of the kids. Um and we're excited that our families wanted to keep their children in school to their their 22nd birthday. That also came with a cost, and it was one of those things is unfunded mandates. So, when we look at New
083York State and we look at regulatory factors that drive up costs, those are those things that we are speaking at at the federal level as well. On the revenue side, the revenue is comprised of four categories: state and federal aid, property taxes, local revenues, and then the fund balance and use of reserves. With our property taxes, I might jump around a little bit here. We're proposing a four 2.55% increase, which equates to about $450,000, and then in a couple of slides we'll show you what that looks like on on a it's a $100,000 home. Local revenues, those consist of our pilot agreements, the tax on utilities, and interest earnings. That's decreasing just a little over $100,000 from from $3 million to $2.9 million. A lot of that is just because interest rates have dropped. If
084you recall from this current year, we had increased that to a million dollars of expected revenue. That's been dropped to $500,000 for next year, but the offset is bringing up that utility tax a little bit to be a little bit more reasonable. We've had some selective budgeting in that, we're bringing it up to a more realistic level. Um state aid, that is increasing by $2.3 million from $71 million to $73.5 million. Um The reason that looks it looks like it's a $2.3 million increase, but on the next slide it's actually a $600,000 drop, is when we budget for state revenue, we budget very conservatively because when the governor releases her budget, there are two things that are still an estimate at that time, and that's BOCES revenue and transportation revenue. Um transportation revenue is calculated
085out when we enter our annual report into the portal in over the following summer, we have to put in what we expect that we're going to spend for next year. So, she thinks that oh, we're putting in a hundred, you know, million dollars, but maybe we only spent half that. So, that's where the transportation aid comes in. So, if we tend to see that will fluctuate between the budget from April and then what we really got come November November. Uh for BOCES aid, BOCES aid is also an estimate on the governor's side. We don't ever have those number actual numbers until seven months later in November. So, when we planned for the budget for this year, um we budgeted X number for our BOCES revenue, but it actually came in $3 million higher. So, what
086we did was for the budget for next year is we used the actual funds that the governor gave us in February. And of course, not having a state budget today, we're hoping that the numbers are pretty close to what the final was looking like. The highlight last year was the first year that the budget actually came below what the anticipated revenues were supposed to be. And then this year we already did receive an initial email saying that you lost students, and so your enrollment is down, so your funding is down. Funding is tied to full-time FTEs, and so we're looking at $785,000 less. And so, if you look at about 60 students, it's roughly about 12.5 thousand dollars. And of course, the last category would be the fund balance and revenues, increasing from 11.7 million
087to 17.2. We have a couple of slides to talk about that in just a few minutes. So, let's talk about state aid. When the state aid funds came out in February, we were really expected to receive 3.89%. A few weeks later, Dr. Schlegel and I received a late night email from New York State stating that our enrollment dropped, say goodbye to $785,000. So, we're looking at 2.54% increase today. As Schlegel just said, last year was the first year the final budget was lower than the initial one. Um, so we still don't know what those numbers are going to be. Um, yeah, you know, about 70% of the districts in New York State only received a minimum of 1% of foundation aid, so we're very fortunate in that. And also, um, if you recall, we had
088also had a representative from New York State come in and audit um, the state aid reports that we file in New York State to make sure that we are receiving the maximum amount of aid that we can. So, there were some dual enrollment numbers that he helped us correct and that really helped our numbers as well. Um, can you highlight the difference in the negative overall change as far as the increase goes? >> Yeah, I'll get there. Um, in red you're going to see the building aid drop $2.5 million. As I mentioned just a while ago, um, the capital part of the expenses had dropped because of debt service rolling off. This is the aid reflecting on that. So, we have $1.5 million increase overall foundation aid, a $2.5 million drop in building aid. And
089Mary asked, "Well, they have home, why does that number say a million?" Because there's other aspects of state aid. There's um, textbook aid, um, both the student closest aid and transportation aid are not included in these numbers. So, between all those different categories overall, we are losing about $600,000 of state aid year over year. Um, this is the point is um, clearer to look at when you look at our foundation aid increases and you go back to 2023-2024, um, and then I don't know how hopeful the promise of public funding, um, foundation aid, you can see that the increase in aid that year was 20.83%. You can see it drastically going down uh, to 8.7% in 2024-2025. You can see it going 2025-2026 to 3% and then again, this is not adopted yet or enacted,
090so this is the proposed to 2.54. What you saw in previous slides is costs going up and revenue sources coming down. So, that's something that's uh, one of this slide to uh, annunciate. Let's put some in context. Um, this represents uh, the tax the proposed tax levies that we are made aware of today with the different districts in Jefferson County. The ones in red, which is LaFargeville, Sackett, and TI, it's in red because those are districts that are going over their tax cap. Um, every single district is pretty much going to the cap this year. Um, I the health insurance rate hit a number of most districts, but for us at the 2.55% increase, we are well within the middle range um, between our local districts. The important part when you look at the tax
091levy increase is the predictability. Um, what you don't want is to go from 2% to 13% from year to year because the costs go up so high. When you look at revenue sources of how districts receive revenue, it is very different than publicly how we grow and increase revenue. Um, the only way to decrease expenses is to cut 80% of our programs. Um, so many 80% of our programs. So, that's what this is here to highlight um, what the hope is and what I would encourage the board and we encourage the board to grow at a predictable rate each year. So, it's something that our community and our taxpayers can predict for year to year instead of significant increases you can see in some other uh, circumstances and in in other municipalities. Um, what is
092the impact on our homeowners? Um, on a $100,000 assessed house, um, it's about $29 a year, which equates to about $2.42 a month. Um, as I said earlier, it's way something cheaper than a gallon of gas at this point in the year. Trying to get some humor, guys. It's a good point, Mary. My humor lies dry as it is, but come on. Historical tax levy increases Dr. Shpielgel just said we're looking at something that's a little bit more predictable and this is something not just here, but um, even in the health insurance band, it was something we had um, our pushing for too is an increase that's a little bit more predictable is easier to be able to promote this to our taxpayers. But let the in 2024-2025, we did um, the board did vote
093for a 0% tax increase, um, which is um, equating to a $1.5 million um, loss in the levy for next year. And just uh, to highlight I did say this last year in our budget presentation this for full transparency. When you look at that 0% tax levy that the district voted on, you you have to look at the compounding factor over a period of years and so when you look at a a five-year window, although we're representing next year's budget at $1.5 million, the total would be a total of about six 6.5 million in potential loss revenue. Okay, fund balance. So, fund balance as of July 1st, 2025, as you may recall, um, restricted was 13 million. Restricted fund balance is all of our reserves. It's the We have a capital reserve, workers comp, employees
094retirement, teachers retirement reserves. Um, all of those combined came to about $13 million. The assigned, which is the amount used to help balance the budget and any open purchase orders, was about 13 million. And then the unassigned, which is the leftover savings, we started the year at $23 million, which is about 22.27%. Um, and those numbers were actually um, reviewed by the auditors and that's the numbers that they um, had agreed with. Projected at the end of this year, Here you go. Um, the restricted is going down to $11 million. We did post a liability reserve because we did have a couple of CDA cases that were settled this year. Um, we we are also withdrawing to help balance the budget 500,000 from the employees retirement reserve, 500,000 from the teachers retirement reserve, and a
095million dollars from the debt service reserve. Debt service reserve is not um, budgeted in general fund. It's actually its own separate fund. Just a just as a little FYI. Um, but also we are making sure that we continue to contribute to the new capital project reserve. We're good. Contributing, excuse me, a million dollars into that capital project. We know that we're making that a priority as well because as soon as this $110 million project is completed, we need to be ready for the next one. As Dr. Shpielgel said earlier, just you know, the the tiny is alone with $260 million. These buildings need a lot of work that we need We need to make sure that those are high on our list. Assigned, which is the amount to help balance the budget again, is going
096up to $17 million. Um, as of the as of today is about $4 million in open encumbrances, but those will decrease by the end of the year. But then again, expenses will increase when that comes down. Um, so that leaves our unassigned, which are our remaining savings, is $16 million, which is about 14.23%. So, that's about an 8% drop. Started the year at 22 and going down to 14. Some of the things that I want to point out in that particular piece, you know, the Watertowns City School District and we're familiar with it because we shared the one heat and thankfully it's repaired. Um, but when the north wall caved in in that building, that was an unanticipated $500,000 repair to that building that was needed. Once you start digging into some of these buildings,
097you realize, okay, the the job is larger than what you anticipate. Um, when you looked at some CDA cases from the 1960s, um, when you look at, you know, in the middle of our North Country winters, boilers going out, all of those things are funded through this source. So, the other thing that we clearly communicated with the community, that's the reason why they voted yes on it, um, our capital project. Um, our capital project had this not been done in this fiscally responsible manner with minimal increases at a predictable rate, we would not have went out at a $110 million capital project without needing to uh, raise taxes. And not only would we raise taxes, raise taxes significantly. And so, that is a significant piece when you look at that project and the minimal impact
098to our taxpayers, it's because no different than a a savings account in your home, you're saving over time for that expense that you couldn't imagine it would be done. Or you can imagine. Maybe you imagine that a roof has a 30-year lifespan on it and at the end of that 30 years that roof is going to need to be done. Except for a school, it's not 20,000 or it's not 30,000. We're talking millions of dollars to put in a roof um, on a school and in bringing it up to code. What I will also point out when you look at the decrease in the unassigned fund balance in this proposed budget and dropping the percentage points that Bruce suggested, that is a fiscally responsible approach. Um, one might say, "Well, why don't you just go
099from 14% to 4%?" If we have 4% in a fund balance unassigned, when the when the when the North Country sorry, when the North incident happened, those CDA cases happened from the '60s and other instances occurred and the capital project, that 4% would not have weathered that. And so, we um, I do not The other thing is, you know, it was uh, when you look at the 4%, it is not a law, it is a comptroller ruling on what the guide is as far as the the 4%. Districts that are over the 4% and they are identified for being over 4% are asked to come up with a responsible plan to lower that percentage. To go from 22% to 4% would be fiscally irresponsible to our taxpayers. So, the three ways that we balance the
100budget, um, increasing revenue, using fund balance and reserves, and reducing expenditures. Um, the increasing revenue is the hardest option. Um, as I said, you know, taking a risk by using, you know, 100% of what the governor presented us in February for the revenue sources for for next year. Um, because the state aid, you know, it's fixed by a formula by Albany. Federal aid is outside of our control. Um, I think it's the next slide we're talking about how we still don't know what the impact is on title money. Um, the last we heard that first the federal government was going to have it, then they weren't going to keep title money. So, that's still up in the air along with our impact aid. Um, the use of fund balance and reserves, as we say that
101you Oh, jump in front of me. Using with caution. As Dr. Spiegel just said, we got to be very strategic when we bring down our fund balance. Last year, um, when you had to ask what was recommended that a school district should have for a fund balance, and 10 10% is pretty much across the board. Fiscal advisors recommend that, um, the bond council recommends 10%. Business officials are comfortable at 10%. Um, and then of course reducing expenditures, which is the most common way that districts are um balancing their budgets. Um, I hate to bring it up, but you look at this in the news, you have Liverpool Central City School District, and that's how they're going to have to look at balancing their budgets is cutting from positions. And not positions, but what I said
102earlier, we're not cutting positions, we're cutting programs. Um, and so if our community values the programs that we have in the North Syracuse School District, then this is their way of voting it. You know, on May 19th, is their option to vote for the budget in either direction to support what we're doing or not. Um, but this is, you know, our schools are public schools, and as I've said in the past, when our schools thrive, our community thrives. And there is a lot of We are making waves with the amount of effort that's happening in this district, and we are going to continue to do that because kids matter, students matter. And if we think that our community values our students, we'll do the community. They'll be contributing members of our society. It's important that
103they contribute in this way. So, as we look at programs, we're going to be looking at being fiscally responsible. We added the number of meetings we're having this year because it's like, okay, well, you could have weathered the storm into next year in this proposed budget. But then what do we do next year? Then we are Then we are the Syracuse School District. And then we are cutting things that families are going to feel. You know, for that kindergarten family that called me my first year as superintendent and said, you know, my kid can't make it to school because I don't have a vehicle. If we cut that bussing in the morning because we don't get aid on that bussing in the morning, then that kid is now sitting at home. And so, how do
104you close a reading gap with a child that's not in school that is to learn? Um, and those things that I will reiterate because we mentioned it earlier, special education is not optional. We have a fiscal responsibility to be fiscally responsible to our taxpayers. We have an obligation to our students to make sure that we're meeting their need, uh, and meeting any uh, regulatory requirements under IDEA. Um, the next thing that we really wanted to, you know, to highlight that you've heard us say already, but there's a lot of There's a lot of work that we said we started these conversations in November. The conversations are continuing to happen. You know, once the budget's, uh, adopted budget is in place, we may have to come back, and there may have to be something in here
105that's reflected differently as a result of it. So, we do not have those numbers yet. As Bree said, our BOCES expenses or BOCES expenses, those are 7 months out. Those typically come around November. Liability insurance, we're told it could be up to 20%. But what happens if it comes in at 22%? Those are increased unplanned for expenses. Uh, I already mentioned it earlier, the cost of a new student in special ed that may need a higher level of care. That is a district's responsibility to pay for. It's not an option to say we're not funding that. It's a requirement by law. And then the impact aid funding that we will We had a meeting this week already to continue advocating that is a additional revenue source. The district gets probably just shy of 360,000-ish uh,
106in impact aid. And as of this year, we have not received those additional funds. So, some Those are some uh, revenue sources. So, you may say, um, and I know it's come up in the past, you may say, well, you know, you projected that this was going to be the balance at the end of the fiscal year, but then this was the balance instead. While these revenues may come in under, these revenues may anticipate income higher, you also may have additional costs that come in that we can't account for. And so, those are all factors that that could change the bottom line. Um, and then, Bree, do you want to talk about the confirmed and the favorable side? Yeah, um, things that we know. Um, the task aid was given to you at the end
107of February. I'm not saying I'm right, I'm sorry. And it wasn't until New York State came on March 1st at 2.55%. Um, debt service decreasing. Um, as I mentioned before, um, that you saw on the capital side that has gone down by $100,000, but um, on the other side you got um, uh, building aid has gone down with that. Um, TRS rate, that is down. As I said before, we do we are lucky enough to have one of the best funded, um, retirements in the country. So, a couple of things we're looking at. Um, you know, what we brought up earlier with the technology piece that I mentioned yesterday. Um, one thing that we're going to be looking at this year is we're trying to, um, kind of bring it down. Um, one of the
108things that we're doing this year is we're going to be looking at instructional technology. Um, we are looking at moving that to the board so we can get aid on that the following year. So, there's a lot of work getting done uh, in instructional looking at those programs uh, moving forward. The other thing uh, that I said earlier that I want to re- reiterate, you know, there's a lot of grants that are written in this district, and a lot of money revenue sources that are coming in that offset this that don't give you an actual true picture of what our costs would be if those grants were not in place. When you see it is when those grants uh, fall off, and those costs will roll over to the um, general fund. And so, what
109we're doing, which is why you saw some of the some of the slides you may have seen, well, you know, you're adding this, but we don't really see the costs over here. That's because we're looking at reassessing um, our our course loads. We don't want to lose some of the um, higher level more rigorous classes that we're offering. We don't want to lose some of those offerings that we have for our more advanced students. And so, we're looking at how can we offer them How can we maximize class sizes in those courses? Um, and some of that as we move forward in future budget cycles, um, some of that may be looking at at New York State Inspire and regionalization. And if there are classes that maybe we have that maybe have lower enrollment numbers,
110but they have a value to our community, our community doesn't want us to lose those classes because there's value um, in them, then we have to look at maybe through a regionalization plan, how can we market them to other districts in our region because there's value adding courses in our district where uh, they work around our master schedule and our students' existing schedules uh, as opposed to to potentially purchasing a maybe class in another district that we're bound by their master schedule. Um, it's a little bit harder to fit when you have kids that are taking those maybe courses that maybe are advanced, but you've got two or three kids in them, and you want to keep that level of rigor. I think looking at Chad kind of reminds me of French. You know, our
111first couple of years here, we worked really hard to try to keep the limited numbers of French because we don't want to lose that rigorous option of a language and only offer Spanish. Um, it was also mentioned earlier about the student information system. Yes. Um, our current student information system is extremely outdated. Um, I've been very honest since I've got here. I did not like the system years ago, and I don't like it now. Um, my first day here, I board members asked me, can you please tell me how many study halls these kids are taking? Um, I hear that some are taking five or four. You know, to pull those schedules, it was things that we had to do in Chad at the high school that day. We had to manually pull those schedules
112and look at how those individually handwritten notes to try to calculate that that information. We did not have access to reports. As a former high school principal, I met with students daily on their graduation plan. Our current pathway doesn't allow us to do that. And we have counselors doing a great job, the best job that they can. Earlier I was talking about succession planning for administration. What about our student side of the house, on the counselor side of the house? You know, if a counselor retires in the middle of a kid's cohort year before they graduate, that kid could work to their their high school graduation and now be short a credit or two, and now the high school administration is scrambling to do credit recovery. And so, this new student information system, which is
113funded and through the board, and so we will get aid on that. We are the first district in New York State to partner with this information system, and we've been having bi-weekly meetings or weekly meetings um, as we launch Focus. It's going to give us data at our fingertips that will help drive not only what we're doing on the instructional side, but it will also allow us to be more fiscally responsible on the course load side as far as maximizing our courses, seeing where those trends uh, reach out. Um, so I wanted to make sure I tied that in there because that is critically important, and it ties the instructional side in the sense that it is something that we can get aid on in future years. Did we miss anything on that? So, you're
114looking at three uh positions opening on our school board for next year. We have uh John Payne's seat, we have Jason Hearing's seat, and a vacated seat. So, these seats will be open and on our uh ballot. Uh this one I mentioned before, but I do want to mention again EPC, the Environmental Protection uh contracts. Um it is something uh it was mentioned before that there are things that are identified in here. You're looking at like your control systems, and we're looking at lighting infrastructure. Um unfortunately, in a business uh buying lighting is a little bit more expensive than than in our homes. Um they they're over $5 million when you're looking at the district as a whole. Our hope is is that if we receive these monies and you receive them based on aid,
115and you receive them based on energy savings. And so, the only reason this proposition is going to be on the ballot, which the board uh approved me to add to the ballot, is because we get an additional 10% of aid that can be used for additional projects. And so, it was the most fiscally responsible thing to do. And again, not all districts approved of this by uh the the voters um because it is something uh What I will highlight is that all of our propositions in any district are approved by bond counsel. Um they're to protect the board, they're to protect the district and the taxpayers. Um but I'm willing to acknowledge, as I've said in past board meetings, um when you're looking at propositions on a ballot, um there are a lot of legalese
116in those propositions that are not necessarily user-friendly. Uh we will have communication that will be going out in our newsletter, um our budget newsletter to help communicate. And as is required and has been done in every year, um we have these budget binders that will be available in each of our buildings, including our district office, and that will be advertised so that such community members that would like to come in and review that uh binder at each of our schools uh will be able to do that. Was there something you wanted to add to that? Um ballots uh absentee ballot information, we are a rolling district, and so um that's the uh the next slide, so I'm ahead of myself. But absentee ballots, those will be going out. Um and these are the application deadlines
117is May 12th, and they must be submitted by May 19th. Um and that's the kind of ties into what I was saying earlier on the timeline. That's why 10 nights board meeting is critically important. This is a significant function of the Board of Education, who I mentioned earlier are volunteers, because as the board adopts a budget, it gets legally approved to go to put it in Watertown Daily Times, it's a public notice, and then the public is noticed of what the ballot is with the overall budget and the succeeding uh propositions, and can vote accordingly on the 19th. Um and just to reiterate, on the 5th of May is our um it's our budget hearing, and that is open to the public. Uh open enrollment, the board voted on this over a year ago for
118open enrollment. So, these this is for um sometimes people get confused on this slide. Um this is not for people that are registered voters in Jefferson County. So, if they are registered voters in Jefferson County, they are not required to register with the district to vote um as long as they are a district resident. These are for people that may not be on the voter registry that would like to vote in our district budget, but not necessarily to vote in the county. And they can register with Michelle Durell, and our office times are on this slide. Okay, and we have um two locations as in years past, and that is a requirement that's different in our district than other districts. Uh based on the size of our district and the fact that we are a
119small city school district, uh we must maintain two voter locations. So, Watertown High School band room, uh we'll continue using that pathway, and then North Elementary School in their gymnasium. Well, if they want to hear this all over again. We do have more presentations coming up with our student advisory community presentation and deliveries. So, one wasn't enough this I just want to thank you, Bree, you and your staff, you and your business office staff. Um that was extensive. That was that was pretty pretty thorough. And I just took a lot of time, a lot of input from a lot of people. So, thank you for the time, thank you for the effort of giving those presentations. As we proceed with the budget presentations, we have a community budget presentation. We did present to our staff
120yesterday, our staff advisory, our administrative cabinet. Uh so, we're excited about that, and our students will get to get to the opportunity to weigh in at our next uh student advisory council. So, we're excited about that as well. The budget will also be delivered to each of the buildings tomorrow, and they will be dropped to Sally today if you want to see them as well. And uh I will uh update the board as I hear more on the governor's proposal uh budget. And once that's enacted, there will be things in there that uh that I need to be aware of then. Thank you very much. We will move on to items for consent agenda. Resolved that consent agenda items A through K are hereby approved. Is there a motion, please? I'll go with Ms. And
121the second? Uh no discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Items for board action, the approval of property tax capital outlay part is letter N. Resolved that the Watertown City School District property tax capital outlay part for the 2026-2027 proposed school budget is hereby approved. And the device was in front of you then. Motion, please. Okay, and the second? Any discussion? Discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item B, approval of proposed 2026-2027 school budget. Resolved that the proposed budget of $112,121,818 of the Watertown City School District of the City of Watertown for the fiscal year 2021-2026 is hereby adopted, and the same shall be submitted for approval by the qualified voters of the district at the budget vote school board election to be held on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026. Motion,
122please. Polly and the second. No discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item C, approval of a 2026-2027 capital outlay seeker. Whereas the And if I this seeker is what we put out as a capital outlay this year, we're working on an ADA ramp over at North Elementary School, that's something our voters approved. So, this proposal that you're hearing right now is for next year for this budget that we're working on, and it will be included in our budget newsletter for Uh and that is tuckpointing. Uh when you look at the brickwork at the high school, there's a lot of tuckpointing that's necessary to save the exterior of that building. So, this is the proposal for next year's capital outlay. Whereas the Board of Education of the Watertown City School District has considered
123the effects on the environment for the of the proposed 2026-2027 capital outlay times and work to be shut down limited to the following, the 2026-2027 capital outlay project consists of various masonry restoration and reconstruction at Watertown High School. Whereas the board has reviewed the scope of work of the project and has further received and considered the advice of its architects with respect to the potential for environmental impacts resulting from the proposed action. And whereas the board has reviewed the proposed action with respect to the type two criteria set forth in 6 NYCRR part 617.5C. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of Education as follows. Number one, the proposed action does not exceed thresholds established under 6 NYCRR part 617, the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Number two, the board hereby determines the proposed
124action as a type two action in accordance with the SEQR regulations. Number three, no further review of the proposed action is required under SEQR. Number four, this resolution shall take effect immediately. Motion, please. Sweeney and the second. No discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item D, approval of phase one A contract for school. Whereas the Board of Education of the Watertown City School District solicited bids from prime contractors for construction services in conjunction with phase one A of its 2025 capital improvement project. And whereas bids were received and publicly opened on March 30th, 2026, and whereas the project architect and construction manager reviewed the bids and bidders bidders' qualifications, discussed the scope and schedule with the lowest possible bidders, and by letter dated April 2nd, 2026, recommended acceptance of these bids and
125bid alterations and award of contracts for the work of phase 1A as set forth herein. And whereas the Board of Education determined that in its best interest of the school district to accept the recommendation of the project architect and construction manager and award contracts as set forth herein. Now, therefore, the Board of Education hereby resolves to award the following contracts for the project. Number one, general construction contract to Lawder Construction Contracting. Number two, plumbing construction contract to Jay Cashman Contracting. For 208. Uh each bid construction contract to Crosby Brown Line Incorporated. Um electrical construction contract to NYTRIC Electrical Contractors LLC. The Board hereby authorizes its president or the superintendent of schools to execute contracts and related documents on behalf of the school district in compliance with this resolution and take all actions necessary or convenient
126to enter into the contracts authorized herein and to comply with the Board approved proposition for the 2025 capital improvement project, applicable laws, regulations, and executive orders relating to the contracts or the or to the project, and do all other acts that may be necessary or proper to effectuate the proper purposes of the foregoing resolution. Six, this resolution shall take effect immediately. I'd like to move the motion. See how that is. Ready to discuss? Just a couple of highlights here with the um you know, our bids, it's a little bit different uh in a public school district as opposed to like the RFP process. Um districts are required to take the lowest responsible bid. Um we did share with the F&F committee that uh when we looked at the number of contractors that submitted their bids,
127uh they were close enough in range uh that uh we thought that they were responsible bids that were submitted. Um we did have a follow-up meeting with our contractors, construction managers, and uh bond counsel, and uh board attorney that um felt like the contractors that did submit that we're in a good place. Um tonight's vote does give us the green light to move forward. Uh this phase is 1 year ahead of schedule regarding the 110 capital project. Um there are a lot of things contingent based on the Board's decision tonight. Uh if this is approved tonight, um the district will be able to move forward, award these contractors, and then the most important thing when you look at a at a school um is the HVAC equipment has a long lead time. When you look
128at uh door frames, door jams, those kind of things, they have long lead times to manufacture before the schools get them. Our hope with the Board's approval tonight is that the equipment will be ordered, and that Starbuck Elementary in particular, that once teachers and students leave that at the end of June, that we can vacate that building and we can start that capital project. Our hope is to have that building open for the start of the school year in September, and so time is of the essence. It seems to me that you're really pulling out I did want to mention one of the things I mentioned in the F&F, if you want to say uh here for the rest of the Board to hear. Um you know, when you're going through a capital project, no
129different than you're doing construction in your home, you're trying to make sure if you're replacing siding or windows that you're doing it in a logical order. Similar is is true for a school district. Um and so when you look at what we're trying to do with FEMA, when you look at what we're trying to do with the EPC, when you look at uh I told you tonight we're we're looking at a nice sorted ramp to look at possibly geothermal. When you look at all of those different uh levers in here, it's critically important that we're aligning the timeline. And so um with that being said, with starting earlier in Starbuck, that's uh the building uh will be able to reset its funding much earlier, will be able to move to another phase uh much earlier,
130and the hope is that we'll receive some of those escalation monies later on that will be offset. What I did share uh with the committee was the increase. And so when you look at replacing uh say this room for example, the HVAC in this room, you know, a wall has to come out, ceiling structures have to come out in order to do the duct work. Um the same thing is true in our classrooms, and so what we're looking at doing is trying to we went over budget about 1.1 million in phase 1A, um but I wanted to share the rationale because it's critically important. About 600,000 of that money that we went over was because we don't want our community whether it's through aid or whether it's through tax revenues, what we don't want is
131that ceiling to be replaced twice. If we're taking the ceiling out and we're taking the wall out to replace the HVAC, the lights should be done at the same time. Otherwise, we're paying for that ceiling to be done more than once and potentially the wall. And so you'll notice that as we're going through the project, there's some escalation. Now, there were some things that were not necessarily tied to that, but we're like, you know what, we'd love for that sidewalk to be done, but getting the sidewalk done isn't going to be pulling out a wall that we just paid to everybody. Um and so we had to make those decisions, and so by making those decisions, it pushed There was a slight escalation of 500,000 in cost that came in a little bit higher. As
132we're setting F&F, we're glad that we're not at the tail end, you know, because a lot of these contractors have their summer schedules already developed. And so, you know, we're beating the clock as far as finding contractors that can come in, come in at a reasonable price, and do work that we used to do that we uh promised our voters uh last month. So, I just wanted to add those contexts >> [clears throat] >> Any other discussion? All those in favor? All right. Any opposed? Motion passes. Mr. Fields, I guess Board of Education. Item E, approval of more services request form and contract for 2026-2027. Resolved that the more services request form and contract for fiscal year 2026-2027 as presented to the Board is hereby approved. Motion moved. Mel and decide. Teach, discussion? So we
133have to first stomach the decisions on the technology side, but we're looking at trying to streamline like right now if teachers want to use we have the Lightspeed Alert that's automatically on student devices that alert the adults in the building and in the district office when things come up. And then we have something where the teachers can actually log in, look at what the student is doing in their classroom. Um then we have e-hall pass that are secondary students use to move throughout the building. Um and then we have our um Raptor system. So what we're trying to do, which is what we use as a question for the magic people that visit buildings, uh what we're trying to do is look at, okay, what systems are we using? Are we maximizing the BOCES aid
134on those and so that we can get more aid and probably more as far as reimbursements. But we're also trying to look at ones that are redundant, and so we're trying to streamline some of those uh instructional technologies or technology supports. Uh so you'll see more continued effort with that. Uh as a region, we try to look as a whole of what other districts are doing. Um and then there are district-specific technologies like Focus, for instance, the new student information system that we're doing to pilot, and those things are critically important in our community for districts to pilot things so that other districts can learn through your uh experiences. Um and it also um when you look at it from a monopoly standpoint, it allows the software programs that we've been purchasing for years and
135relying on, it it actually pushes them to have to look at, okay, these districts are contemplating jumping ship and spending a significant amount of money on money on different programs, we better step up what we're offering so that we can compete with those other programs. Because I do believe when that does not happen, I don't think that's healthy when it happens. When it doesn't happen, we get stagnant, and um our schools lose out. And our programs don't do what we think they do. The curriculum has been working with Jack to try to get some teachers to pilot the new programs. If you're actually piloting in a different district, but Is it a newer program, and that's why it hasn't been in any of your schools yet, or is it something that you've developed or you
136just haven't marketed We talked about it earlier with Focus. Focus is not new, but new to New away from a lot of other states. Um, secure. Was that what you were talking about? Okay. Yeah, so that's something we will be compiling with Focus. But we can see it sometime because that is something that we're pretty serious about. I think you are right about it. It's fine. I don't know. And there's a lot of systems I can say we have meetings where we had two or three meetings already. The different stakeholders that come in and are using the software and we get the people in the buildings to be the tech experts for those buildings to help with the rollout. And in every single program we're looking at what are we doing in our district that's
137done manually at the high school level. You know, we have we have a lot of things that the high school counselors do that are manual. We have a lot of things in Lynn's office that are that are done on spreadsheets. A lot of these things will be you know, automatic once they're built into the student information system. information will be coming the administration information system. Questions or discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, item F, approval of amendment to intermunicipal agreement. Whereas parties entered into an intermunicipal agreement back in July 1, 2025 with the term expiring June 30th, 2026. And the agreement provides that and it may be extended by written amendment signed by both parties and the parties desire to extend the term of the agreement while continuing to review
138and evaluate its provisions. Now therefore, the parties agree as follows. Number one, extension of the the term. The agreement is hereby extended for an additional one year from July 1, 2026 and expiring June 30, 2027. Number two, no other changes. All of the terms, conditions and provisions of the agreement shall remain in full force and effect without modification. Number three, purpose of extension. This extension will allow the parties additional time to continue coordination and evaluation of this agreement. Motion. Melanie and second. Tina, discussion. Uh, one thing I will say, um, I need to say more than one thing, so just in case. One more thing. Uh, I want to thank the city for entering this agreement again. Uh, the intermunicipal agreement. I know that the city is also working on their own budget and going
139through that processes and I know that they're also seeing increased expenses that they did not anticipate. So, um, I just want to thank them for entering in good faith a conversation by both myself, my team and the city manager and his team um, in coming to this agreement. So the the change is we added one year. We were looking similar to the SRO agreement. We were looking at trying to extend it for two years. Uh, my rationale for the two years was to allow the district to have some predictability on some of our increased costs. Um, and so we went out and we did ask for a two year increase um, and instead of a two year we did come to a three year mutual one. So we are excited for that and that will
140cover uh, the Watervliet City School District and the city's use of our facilities for the next fiscal year. Questions or discussion? All those in favor? I actually would like to add something. So um, I said I needed to explain. So last year in the budget something that we added was we wanted our students um, our varsity baseball students to have the same access to the field. And so that increase in that intermunicipal agreement was a part of that. We wanted both varsity and JV to have access to the high school field. And we also wanted our students to have access to the locker rooms. So there was an increased cost associated with that. Now all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, item G, approval of Questar agreement. Resolved that an agreement um,
141as presented to the board by the Questar counselor Columbia and Questar BOCES also known as Questar agreement for certain internal audit services for the 2026-2027 school year is hereby approved. Motion, please. Tina and second. Mel, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, item H, approval of personnel report. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools Dr. Mulvey, the board of education hereby approves the following appointments, probationary instructional appointments, temporary appointments, provisional appointments, permanent permanent full-time substitute instructional substitute non-instructional leaves of absence, retirements, and resignations. Motion, please. Tina and second. Mel, discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item I, approval of paid administrative leaves. Resolved that upon the recommendation of Dr. the superintendent of schools that the administrative and non-instructional Motion. Tina and second. Mel, discussion. All
142those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item J, approval of revised policy A201. Resolved that the following revised board of education policy is hereby approved and adopted. A201, home instruction. Motion, please. Tina and second. Mel, discussion. Just to add to the application so that everyone is on the same page. So the change on this So once the board approved the policy, um, the policy service provided additional recommendations unfortunately after the board had already approved it. Um, and so the additions to the policy, the only addition was the fact that parents have the right to appeal the decision. Um, the home instruction decision of the district. I did this one last year. Yes. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. And item K, approval of athletic and educational field trips. Resolved
143that the educational athletic trips as presented to the board are hereby approved. Motion, please. Melanie and second. No one got your motion. Discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, we are at our second public comment for non-agenda related items. Same rules, same time on this? No, you are the only one that requested time tonight. So the first comment I'm going to make um, is I know you're not giving me an answer, but with this packet for for elections came uh, candidate qualification form. And that candidate qualification form was paid by you by the district to have legal put it together because I'm not going to believe that any of you put that that together because everything here is about legal. So you wasted tax dollars. Uh, who is the brainiac that decided
144you're going to waste tax dollars contracting an attorney to create a form only to be said that it's optional once it made the media. That is the most ridiculous thing and we're talking about spending money and it got to the media and all of a sudden it's optional. So you printed all these forms and no one's going to do it. Because if it's optional, no one's going to do it. And then you put a stipulation in there that you can't be married to a board member, but you can be married to an employee of the school district? I think that's a double standard there. So I would ask you guys to pay more attention to what you put out to the public. The second thing I'm going to say is this whole budget conversation. It's
145really interesting because you provide a lot of details, but this is a very clear relationship. It's an inverse relationship between cost and revenue. And when it's an inverse relationship, the only place that you can control that is in expenses. Okay? And we're not talking about controlling any expenses. So as a board, I think you are obliged to look at where you can cut expenses. You are talking about putting in a Focus software for $200,000 and you What about the money that it's going to take to implement that? And why at this critical time when you are increasing our our budget to 8 million 8.3 million dollars, do you feel the need to spend money on a software when we have School Tools? When I was on the board, we talked about how it's not that
146efficient. There's different things that can be changed. But this is not the time to invest time and money on a new software program. That's absolutely ridiculous and I can tell you that many people in this district have talked to me about it and they are just like Melanie said, they are not in support of this. But once again, things are being shoved down people's throats. You talk about saving money, district vehicles, you're still driving around in a $85,000 We have vans that sit in the parking lot. You talk about transportation. She Bree brought up the transportation that's going up by 4%. Why are we having all these expenses? These are things that can be cut out. And let's just talk about the most critical point here. You forced a $1.2 million legacy cost that the
147taxpayers in this community over 244 10 programs. We told us we haven't gotten reimbursed for that yet. Why did we impose a $1.2 million legacy cost when we have CBOs that have efficiently and effectively provided our universal pre-K program. I'm going to keep talking. They have effectively provided our UPK program. They take care of This for discussion. Item 8. Policy 8200 home instruction and 8200.1 new home instruction regulations. So, we have policy and regulation that the board is looking at the policy. And home instruction, we have a number of students who are under this policy in the district. But essentially, we've added some new proposed language here. Our policy company has regarding um parents and guardians roles as home instructors. Also, student role. Um the policy goes on to propose changes or additions that have
148to do with the teacher / parent's responsibility. Um also, grade level responsibilities in terms of curriculum. Student responsibilities. And it goes on to talk about homework policies for the home instructors. So, your state has rules and regulations regarding home instruction. This policy outlines those in accordance with our district and our policy is that Possible to do? I hope this is to have this on the board agenda for board approval. I have a couple questions for you. Anything else for discussion? All right. Upcoming dates. Policy committee meeting Tuesday, April 21st at 5:00 at Case Middle School. Followed by the regular Board of Education meeting on the same date, April 21st at 6:00 p.m. We will be at the Case Middle School. I break for that meeting. And a walk around the district. Randy, is there anything
149to add? No. I have a couple things. I I do want to say just for on my heart thoughts and my feelings. We're kind of finding our way in our public town now. Um and obviously, the president's discretion, I respect that. But just It'd be nice to find a way to let someone know, I know we do this, but let someone know that it needs their time and their demand. We have 3 minutes and 30 seconds. It just feels a little abrupt. I don't care who's talking. Even if someone's here to say something good and then be praised, but I just feels so abrupt. And we talked about this. And and I know we're finding our way and I respect the policy and but I just wish we could find a way to have a
150little more of a warning so that is it softer end? That's all I'm going to say about that. Um I do want to thank Maureen and Dr. Schlegel for all the work on the budget. It was mentioned in the presentation, but this process started many months ago. So, not a whole lot of discussion here at the board level at this point, but the committee has been talking about this for a while. Colleague Jason and I have been in many of those meetings. So, while we didn't have certainty until today, this is not new information. We've worked on this for a while. This I think that's important to say. And I I'm grateful and I'm pleased to see that we're using $17 million in fund balance. It's right to do. Well, that's but that's 15% of
151this budget. That's scary. And I know we can't continue to do that. So, glad to see it happening, but just I really do worry about the consequences. Means that's using fund balance. Glad to see we're doing that. Um you know, 75% of this budget in Greece things that we can't control. Um how is it people are able to control this? We should all work in this together. If I can add something, I would like to tell the public one thing that's important for our community to understand when it comes to our budget is budget so it is mentioned as instructional technology software. You you can't The district cannot use the instructional software money to pay for staff. And there is aid on the instructional technology side which is very different than the teacher side where
152the money comes from you have to use. So, two buckets. And then just lots of reasons to be proud tonight. Although that we have been Especially like to hear all the work about the skilled trades and where that's going. Our country needs that. We need more money in the infrastructure. And just lots of good things to be really pleased with. Lots of good products. And that's Jason. Um you know, everything went good. Uh I do want to touch on what Millie Smith said. You asked if anybody wanted to hear. I'm not sure that I ever would volunteer myself to hear more of your thoughts. Um that's a joke. I know. Um but I think that it is important, I think, when we adopted this policy and it affected a lot of people. Maybe I didn't
153belong uh when I was there and people were going for 20 minutes. Maybe it was 10 days or whatever. I don't know. Randy sent me whether we wanted to hear it or not. If one person gives something another 30 seconds. Other than that, nice to hear that. Nice to hear that as well. But only ask to Caleb. Uh students are getting back in the school at 7:30 for both secondary schools. I'm pretty sure of that. I'm glad to be back in the school. There's a lot of students that are doing school work and then they're making this Um I would like to thank Dr. Schlegel and Barry Schlegel for the budget presentation. And Mr. Bielchak and Mr. Bielchak for his presentation to you. They have shown me that wildly has changed since I've last been
154here. And I would like to thank all of you guys. Thank you, Caleb. You're not going to Tina. Um I would like to comment on the I was saying. I understand that it does seem to be cut off. Um cuz that's that's the um the way you put it into form into a position into how it works. And then you know, you can be and and make a ruling about how it is is not allowed. And I'm not going to say anything about the things. If you know what I'm saying. So, I'm I'm a little bit of a rule follower sometimes. I just think that that's the way it's supposed to be. And I don't want to say um you know and that's you just got to follow you know. Um I went to the
155musical in our schools. I thought it was absolutely phenomenal. And I wish there was a way that we could do our kids out there more. Like, you know, they didn't come to the school to see it, you know. I just I don't know. Like, there's just so much talent that's not being shown to me. the public. SpongeBob. I agree with you as a mom. I don't know what I thought it was going to be. I didn't understand how they would have done it into a musical. So, I'm not going to say they did a great job with that. Um that was a lot of fun. Uh National Honor Society. Impresses me every time to see the amount of kids that we have on the National Honor Society. It just blows my mind every time and
156they think that these are not There's just I they just keep coming and coming and they're it's amazing. Um I went with Dr. Schlegel and I went to the BOCES. Um they have amazing programs up there. And there's so many things I didn't realize that was available to the public. Like, if you want to go and have your hair done and your nails done or your manicures, pedicures, facials, whatever, they do that for the public. And I I never realized that. My perfects. I was quite impressed with that. They did a good job with that. And track football. I didn't need to go cuz I have new grandkids, but I would have loved to have seen that. Cuz I could tell that it was a lot of fun. And a lot of people enjoyed it.
157So, hopefully we keep that. >> Melanie I also really honestly say this well that was those students were so well-spoken and it was so nice to see the number of students up there. It's in that assembly was well-planned as she normally is and this is she is also just did such a great job getting up there about those kids. Um And now we have more students who are doing more of the volunteering in the community as well. So that was a lot of lots of extra peace when it comes to our society. Um which ties into tonight. One of the things that I really loved was actually watching the students watch their parents go up to accept the award and the pride that some of the kids had was just made the whole thing worth
158it. So I loved that. We like we are setting our students up to become volunteers and productive members in hopefully our community. Um and we did do the BOCES tour and something that they spoke about was uh really focusing on critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving and that many meetings the last few weeks where that's been such a great focus even at the elementary level and how we can um assist our students with those skills cuz those are the main skills that they will need um moving forward. So I just love that that's a huge focus in the BOCES. Um Mrs. Fouts said Mrs. Fouts thanks. So I actually thought that was Case. I'm not going to lie. I just was surprised but pleasantly surprised when I learned it was Wiley. So that was amazing. Um
159Um I don't want to repeat what everyone said but I will. So I just want to thank Green and Dr. Schneider for their staff for the great presentation and like Randy said, um him and I sat through many information sessions in the BOCES finance um and information is given over and over again and as it changed and evolved um there was a real and huge change that happened in the BOCES this year. Um the presentations and the awards um did not disappoint. As for our child, um provided presentation with the talented students. That's just Steven's. Um I love how they gave their own presentation. That was nice that she um and my kids have gone through Wiley. They're out of the house so I don't have that daily reminder or involvement but it's good to
160see that um just as much or more is happening. Um Listen Jeff, the Jeff was BOCES CT station. Um that was wonderful being with these students and seeing them first seeing the um passion and their programs. Uh Dr. Amy Hebert Dr. Hebert sent along some thoughts on the day. I told her I might make her read these on her own. For tonight Um in order to ensure a positive finish to the end of the school year, week after spring break is going to be an exciting one. April 13th to the 17th is our district attendance week. Thanks to the hard work, creativity, and insight from Jill Colino and Dr. Alexine Thomas Brown. Theme days with uplifting attendance videos will occur throughout the week. Additionally, April 13th is the kickoff of our district positive postcard challenge.
161Adults will share positive messages via our positive postcards and send them home in the mail. Each month will have a goal to meet with 15% of each building's enrollment being the goal for April. Sending positive messages home will promote inclusivity Excuse me. and enhance the positive climate of our district. Looking forward to ending the year strong to all don't count the days, make the days count. Thank you Dr. Hebert. Um You guys hit on everything that uh I've been able to experience over the last few days um at HSTE inductions. Um I was amazed. I loved the fact that the students had an opportunity to talk about where they plan on going to college, what they plan on going to college to major in and we do have some seems like more teachers in the
162pipeline so that's always a positive. Um flag football, I was in the mountains doing some hiking so I didn't get a chance to see it. Um I know it was a little bit of a rough game but that our young ladies and their coaches but uh chin up anytime you're starting anything new, um there's always a little bit of learning curve so I do look forward to making it to one of the future home games. Uh and then um Laura Kenny who won the award for STEM. I know Laura, I've known Laura for a long time. I just wanted to congratulate her. That's that's an amazing accomplishment and just shows the level of teachers that we have here at Watertown City School District. Uh teachers that go above and beyond and are are worthy of
163of getting acknowledgement from outside organizations. Uh and then thank you Chad. We appreciate the uh the presentation today um and I mean we use your building all the time but we always enjoy hearing what the kids have on the other half of the building so we appreciate that. Um and that's it. That's fine. Bob was good. Music in our schools was good. Hearing those guys a second time, I I think they get better. That was amazing. And of course you and I got there late so they made us sit with the music teachers who were sweet but they got our seats. Um and then uh finally uh RSF committee um policy we see every meeting, you know, we're bringing policy forward and a lot of what you guys do qualifies under the radar so we
164get to this point of the season. So committee we agree Dr. Schneider uh you um does a lot of work that doesn't go unnoticed so thank you for putting together a budget that's responsible that maintains our programming um and uh helps our buildings to be safe and supportive environments for our kids. So that's it's no easy task for a district this large. Um doesn't go unnoticed. Um and that's it for me. Uh at that point I'll take a motion to adjourn. Tina, I second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We can say you stayed in the