001This is the meeting we call to order. Please rise for the lighting greens. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everybody. As we know, Mother Nature can be really fickle. We can have an amazingly horrible morning where we can't get our kids to school and then sunshine uh hanging out for the afternoon. So, uh welcome everybody that's here, everybody that's at home watching virtually or maybe watching this meeting later. Uh and happy St. Patrick's Day uh on behalf of uh my Irish kin. Um Michelle, do we have any agenda changes this evening? Um I did provide the board with an updated personnel report that's highlighted with any changes in the
002meeting. And we did reschedule Mr. Fairchild and his student voice to our meeting next week. Get back to him on 420 23. Very good. Thank you. Um we're at the first public comment session for our meeting this evening. Uh this is for agenda related items. And what are we going to do with that? 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 session discussions involving individual district personnel or students. Persons wishing to discuss matters involving personnel or students should present their comments to and or concerns to the superintendent of schools during normal business hours. All speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil
003manner. 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 will certainly take any questions or comments made under advisement, but will not necessarily be responding to any questions. As always, the board welcomes written comments and we always get those as well. And all board members and the superintendent can be reached via regular mail or email. Each speaker is allotted 3 minutes. If you happen to reach the end of your time and hear the buzzer, which does not have its earmuffs on tonight, so I imagine it's going to be loud, please do not be alarmed and conclude your thoughts. Uh Melanie, you did sign up for public comment.
004I think you're the only one that signed up tonight. Yeah, I don't think a lot of people are going to be here tonight. Um So, this is in with regard to items for board action under the first letter A, approval of public hearing for budget vote and election. There's a lot of few things that I'd like to point out, specifically with the proposition of the energy efficiency report, which is slotted to be 5.3 million roughly. Um it states that it's authorizing an energy efficiency project to provide improvement of all district facilities, installation of LED lighting, updates to the HVAC systems, and building control. So, I would just like to point out to the board members especially that uh Melanie, who wasn't here last year, that same verbage was addressed in the 110 million capital improvement
005project. I went back and I looked. And so, now you want to put another 5.3 million to the capital So, to me, this is now 110 is turning into 115. And if that's what you're doing, then that's what you should say. Because that's not being transparent. And if you can go back and you can look word for word, it is what was supposed to be included in the capital improvement project. So, I'm not understanding why we're adding another 5.3 million. It also there's verbage there about the tax levy, and it leads some people to believe who don't really understand any of that language that the tax levy is paying for that, but our tax levy pays for everything because that's how we get money from the taxpayers. To just to point out, 2324, $92 million
006budget approved, we spent 69. In 2425, 96 million was approved, we spent 57. In 2526, 103 million was approved. I don't know how much we spent. The fund balance is at 22 to 24%. We could probably tolerate somewhere somewhere between 10 and 14% according to what the accounts have told us, but I'm not understanding where this 5.3 million dollars is coming from. And to me, this can be optics on this is that we're now once again gouging the community. I don't know what the number's going to be for the upcoming budget season, but I think that the board needs to be a little bit more fiscally responsible in looking at these numbers. And the last question, and I know and I know you're not going to answer it, but I'd like it addressed when you
007vote for this, is why are we hiring another lawyer? That would make four lawyers. I believe that this district will hire, and I want to know what's the reason behind the fourth lawyer. Thank you, Dawn. Anybody else for public comment for agenda related items this evening? Board and staff reports, policy committee meeting report. This is uh So, what we did on we looked at a few different things, so I'll keep it quick. Um we looked at policy 8101, RTI and MTSS, which is our assistance to bring to our superintendent recommended we add language at the opening that makes the district board ordered MTSS frameworks explicit. The committee agreed. It is small but meaningful update that reflects how we operate. We went over policy 8105, homework. Uh this one's still a work in progress. Uh the
008committee identified significant implications in both sections and directed that the grade level guidelines be fully redrafted um before we look at to the full board. Policy 8200, and instruction. This was our most involved session. We're recommending significant restructure, shorter board policy supported by a new administrative regulation that the superintendent may approve. We also made two global changes. Um parent becomes parent or guardian and throughout the same of the policy. And superintendent becomes super becomes superintendent or president. And we updated the legal citations to add several that were missing. Most importantly, this statute statute that governs special education services for public school students. Um we did policy 8201, homebound instruction. Uh the board adopted this policy earlier in the year, and then after we adopted it, our policy services and Madison and BOCES sent additional additional
009recommendations. These are material changes, so this policy will need to come back to the full board for a formal re-adopted vote. So, if you want to give it another read or if you want to put it on the next agenda for a vote. Maybe that's a copy of the updated version that someone can vote on. And you don't know if you want to do anything about it. How significant are the changes? Pardon? How significant are the changes? With that policy, they added an appeals process, so it kind of fits with the past appeal processes if they choose to appeal the district's decision. Whether the director or medical doctors decision. Who are you hoping to get this in for the first reading tonight? Okay. Um so, we can have that to the discussion section. We can
010talk about it then. And we'll make sure it is posted on the website. Okay. So, I think I'm going to see the latest It's just Follow up for the board. Um regulation 8402.2, conduct guidelines. Uh this is an administrative regulation that the board adopted. Regulation 8402.2, and that's for the items for the superintendent to approve. We needed to add language about student use of AI tools on district devices. So, just consider voting on that homework one and the other Our changes are mostly ready, we'll bring them to the full board for a vote. Is that the policy? This is a reference for the appeals process. It's page eight. Any questions for Tina? Is this a public All right, at this time, I uh Superintendent of Schools report, Dr. Smith. Thank you. Uh I want to
011thank um all of our uh staff that organized the U Matter event under Dr. Amy Gearhart. Uh that was a wonderful opportunity last week to meet with our high school um students. Lynn had the opportunity to attend and so did I. Uh what a wonderful event. Our counselors were there, our administrators were there, our home school coordinators were there. Um excellent opportunity to connect with the students. And uh also, I want to thank the community sponsors that were there. I think there were seven or more community sponsors that were there giving resource resources to our families. Um the purpose of that event is to make sure our seniors are on track for graduation, and it allowed for a personal opportunity for them to meet with a support team. The next thing that I want to
012uh I know many of the board members around this table went. Um but our 7th through 12th 12th grade art show was last week in the Flower Memorial Library. They had over 120 pieces throughout Flower Memorial Library. What an awesome opportunity. Over 350 parents signed in on that opening night. So just huge congratulations to the student artists and may they continue their passion for the arts. Um Lena and I also attended last week the STEAM Fair at Wiley. Uh it was an They actually saw an increase in students that participated in the STEAM Fair this year. Many of them grabbing on us to have us physically go back and look at their science explosions and some of them actually were exactly that. Uh some volcanoes that erupted and made for some extreme excitement. So it
013was nice to kind of see the students in that light. The next thing that I want to thank our board and our community and the planning team on is we have we hosted this past Sunday. We hosted our senior citizens in our community that were ages 62 and older for the showing preview showing of SpongeBob. One of our guests in the audience was there. So we want to thank you for attending. What a wonderful opportunity and I think our food service did an amazing job. I had an opportunity to interview some of the senior citizens that were there to ask them what they enjoyed most. Uh Michelle helped me on the interview process with that. And then we also interviewed both of our SpongeBob characters. They really shared some excitement for the energy of the
014audience and how respectful the audience was to their their preview. But also the effort that went into their casting crew to put that on. A huge shout out to our food service department that worked that day. They actually came in on Saturday to start prepping some of the food and the food was absolutely amazing. I ran into a woman Shawna I did that used to work in our food service department and retired. And she ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and was she's one of the pictures that you see on social media. And she wanted me to know that she used to be the cook for when the district put this on when she was an employee and now she's benefiting from this program being back. She said I used to
015make the cranberry sauce when I when I worked for the district for these events. And I said well how did the cranberry sauce fair out with your opinion? And she liked it. So the other thing I thought was impressive in those comments from one of the senior citizens. They said you know I graduated myself from Beaver River. Um but every Friday I sit out in my chair and I wear all purple. Um she goes I may have graduated from one district but I bleed purple. And it was just it was awesome to hear the passion and how much joy that Sunday brought our guests and what a wonderful opportunity and we hope to continue doing that. I had the opportunity to visit North Elementary School this week and you know worked with the kids in
016the cafeteria to kind of hear what they are enjoying about lunches. Interestingly enough I was there to interview the kids on what they thought about the lunches being served this year. And some of the adults came up to me and made some comments that they were speaking to regarding some of the students that are non-verbal. And they said our kids are eating more vegetables and more fruits. And one of the adults said to me I think we're throwing out less food. Um because more and more kids are actually eating so except for the meatballs. They have not been convinced to going to eat the meatballs. So we have to work on the meatballs over there. Um the other thing that I would like to mention is I had a wonderful meeting. Tina was in that
017meeting and Bree. We had a meeting last week with the city manager Eric Wagler. So we had a wonderful phone conference with him regarding our intermunicipal agreement. One of the things as you know I've tried to do since I've been here is actually get these contracts before the budget season so that we can know where we are. We had a positive meeting and so they were having that on their agenda last night so that we could share more on what those two costs are going to be for those shared spaces moving into next year. Uh the next thing I'd like to mention I had a wonderful tour of the YMCA with Ambrose. Michelle and I attended that to see that partnership and to see what we could grow there. Um had a wonderful meeting with
018Advocate Drum. Um I did send them out with homework. I had this in Key West and I really would like this to move in this direction here in Watertown. I asked them to please consider allowing our military personnel to serve as mentors for some of our at-risk students. So I sent them with that homework. Tina and I had a wonderful meeting with Potsdam. We are looking at when you look at succession planning and you're going to see some of the decisions we're going to ask the board to approve in the budget process is really considering when you look at the district where we are now and we can't just address the immediate needs. We have to look two years down the road, three years down the road, maybe five. And so in that with that
019being said we're looking at special education being a critical need. The district and and prior boards and our current board has supported that. And so you're going to see some of that and some efforts that Tina and I are trying to work with to get some of our teachers that maybe are GenEd certified also special education certified through a quick pathway of three to four classes. Tina's also she'll share more at the next meeting regarding our partnership with Oswego as well. So you'll hear more about that. Tina. And the next thing is our budget meetings. This year is a very different year as one of our guests spoke earlier tonight about our fund balance. That fund balance is not going to look the same moving in years future based on where the state funding is
020going. And so it's critical this year. We do have a fund balance as I've said in prior public presentations. We do have a fund balance that would carry us for the next two years but it will not carry us beyond that. And so we've started those hard conversations this year looking at course enrollments and projections to see what sections are needed and wanted. I'm shifting some of those resources to some of the special education areas that we have a higher need. So we're going to continue those conversations with those leaders in those buildings and hopefully be prepared to on or before the 14th day to present that to the board. And that concludes my comments. Michelle, items for consent agenda. Resolved that consent agenda items A, B, and C are hereby approved. Motion please. Mel
021and second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Items for board action. A, approval of legal notice of public hearing budget vote and election. Resolved that the annual public hearing in lieu of the annual meeting for the qualified voters of the Watertown City School District be held at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 at H.T. Wiley District Office conference room and virtual virtually via a link posted to the district website. Resolved that the vote by scanning voting machine upon the budget and election be held on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026 between the hours of noon to 9:00 p.m. Prevailing time will be held at Watertown High School and North Elementary High School. Resolved that the school district clerk is hereby authorized to and directed to publish the notice of said hearing, budget
022vote, and election and all other matters in accordance with the applicable provisions of the education law. Motion please. Mel and second. Discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh item B, approval of Madison-Oneida BOCES final services commitment form. Resolved that the Madison-Oneida BOCES final services commitment form for the board policy audit services for the 2026-2027 school year is presented as presented to the board is hereby approved. Motion please. Mel and second. See any discussion? All those in favor? Motion carries. One thing I will add to that is we are still waiting on some of those final numbers to come in through the board so that we can get a better picture of what our expenses will be. Yeah. Ask him if you just got the receipt now. Who do you think 20 numbers?
023Uh item C, approval of general construction contract award. Resolved that the general construction contract award for the North Elementary tennis court renovations with DC Building Systems Incorporated is hereby approved. Motion please. Tina and second. No discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item D, approval of legal services. Resolved that the Board of Education approves the retention of Hancock Pany Law to continue to provide legal representation and counsel to the district as needed. Motion please. Mel and second. Discussion. The only thing I'll add to this case to clarify from earlier as this is an attorney that we do currently have a partnership with that went out on his own. So he maintains that partnership under his his firm. And has worked on cases that we currently have. So that's that's why I have this
024addition of attorney. It's not really an addition of attorney. An attorney we're already working with who has left the firm that he was working with. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item E, approval of renewal of transportation contracts. Resolved in 2024, the Watertown City School District issued requests for proposals for transportation services for the 25-26 school year with options to renew the awarded contracts through the 29 and 30 school year as as follows. Home-to-school transportation in-district and out-of-district transportation for public, private, and parochial schools, Cyclone Academy, Cyclone Academy junior 20C runs, detention runs contract, athletic trips and field trips contract, and summer transportation contract, and whereas following the RFP process, the school district awarded the transportation contracts to First Student Incorporated, and whereas Board of Education wishes to renew the transportation contracts with
025First Student for the 26-27 school year. Now, therefore, be it resolved the board approves renewal of the transportation contracts with First Student Incorporated for the 26-27 school year and authorizes the superintendent of schools to take all actions necessary to carry out the terms set forth therein. This resolution shall take effect immediately. Motion, please. Tina, I second. Melanie, discussion. I'll just add to the board's benefit. So, we did agree in prior boards agreed to an annual renewal of the contract with First Student. So, it's something that is required for Whispers in the state budget discussions of potentially being able to transport pre-K. How easy would it be to implement that contract? Yeah, we're working on that. I don't have definitives, but what I will say to you and Albany also, so what I will say is
026the district considers transporting pre-K, but the state has made it very clear through the governor's office that that's not going to be included, nor is it included in the um the uh proposed budget. Um what the district can do is out of the 10% administrative costs, the district can elect to use some of those funds to provide transportation. Uh if we were to move in that direction, our recommendation would be age four, not age three. Age four has different requirements for transporting students. Um they need five-point harnesses at the three-year-old level, and uh we would recommend keeping our existing policy for transportation, which is 0.75 mi so that you don't have one household with one kid being transported, both elementary age, maybe one's in third grade, one's in kindergarten. The or pre-K I mean, the
027pre-K kid gets transportation, and the third grader does not, right? So, we would keep a consistent policy there, but more information to come. I had an exploratory meeting last week. Uh Wilson and myself and uh First Student um and Pyramid Transit to see what that software looks like, but I could see if it's something that we could fit under the transportation aid. I think the bigger issue, you know, where some of the other districts will be able to obtain it if they have one section of 18 kids of pre-K. Uh we have many more sections, 26 sections of pre-K. Um so, it won't be as easy. We'll we'll we'll need additional buses, so we're working on what those costs would be. Uh there is there is language in the contract with First Student that they
028are working towards that electrification. Right now, there is we're in Albany, but there's nothing right now. The only deadline that they're postponing right now is the initial deadline of uh 2027. The 2035 one is not postponed at this point. We do obviously have some major concerns with the grid, and some of our districts in our region have already went to electric buses um and they had some struggles, distance. Is there going to be a concerted effort to make sure that we push that back? I'll see. Stay tuned. Any other discussion? >> All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item F, approval of 2025-2026 health services. Resolved that the Board of Education of this uh Watertown City School District of the City of Watertown, New York establish a rate of $321.86 per pupil for the
029school year 25-26 for health services non-resident pupils attending the non-public school located within the state Watertown. The appendix illustrates the determined determination of the above rate and is hereby approved. Motion, please. Tina, I second. Melanie, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item G, approval of YMCA facilities use agreement. Resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the facilities use agreement by and between the Watertown City School District and the Watertown Family YMCA effective July 1, 2026 and terminate on June 30, 2027. Motion, please. Go ahead. I'll second. Tina, discussion. Uh what I'd like to add to this part is um and I did mention it briefly in my uh report out, but I did have the opportunity to meet with Ambrose. Um their current contract technically goes through the end of this
030summer, but we decided to extend it 1 year um so that we have some predictability as far as budgeting purposes. Further discussion, questions? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item H, approval of an MOA with Jefferson County Board of Elections. Resolved that the approval of a memorandum of agreement by and between the superintendent of schools of the Watertown City School District Board of Education and the Jefferson County Board of Elections for the budget vote, school board elections on May 19th, 2026 is hereby approved. Motion, please. Tina, I second. Melanie, discussion. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item I, approval of election inspectors. Resolved that the following persons be and are hereby appointed inspectors of election to serve in the respective school election districts for the proposed school budget vote
031and Board of Education elections to be held on the 19th day of May, 2026, and the clerk of the board shall give written notice of the appointment to each person as required by law. Watertown High School, Frank Gorey, Terry Williams, John L. Cherry, North Elementary, Shawn Griffin, Deborah Doyle, and Tim Glover. Further resolved that in the event of the inability of any of the foregoing to serve, the clerk of the board is hereby authorized to obtain and appoint a replacement. Motion, please. Melanie and then Tina, discussion. I think I've asked this question before. Is there any penalty if you vote in the wrong location? Well, when they look it up on the They'll say you're Got you, I'm sorry. I think Sandy tried to do that intentionally when he was a student. Well, I mean,
032she's right there at North. Right. Um all those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh J, approval of personnel report. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, Dr. Marie Schiegel, the Board of Education hereby approves the following: appointments, uh probationary instructional, probationary non-instructional, term and full-time non-instructional, Cyclone Academy, tutor at school, permanent, substitute instructional, substitute non-instructional, spring coaching girls, leaves of absence, sick bank. Motion, please. Melanie, I second. Tina, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? That motion carries. Item K, approval of a pay rate. Uh resolved that upon the recommendation of Dr. Marie Schiegel, superintendent of schools, that Michael Holland will continue to serve as per diem director of facilities for the district and will be compensated at a daily rate of $500 per day. Motion. Tina, I second. Melanie, discussion.
033What I will add to this piece is Mike has been with us since Brian left the district. He's been an excellent asset in training our new director of facilities, has done a wonderful job. His experience with working with FEMA, his experience working with construction projects makes him a valuable resource to maintain. What I will also tell the board that is public knowledge is that he is not receiving benefits from the Watertown City School District, and he is not receiving any ERS contributions from the district. So, that is straight pay, and he gets paid when he's working and does not get paid when he's not working. He does not work every day. Yes. And seems to know a lot about a lot. Sure. He's been very helpful with getting us our district restructured and putting some
034systems in place there. Maybe we're lucky to have him. So. Any other addition? Any other discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. L, approval of educational trips. I resolve resolve that the educational and athletic student trips as presented to the board hereby approved. Take a motion, please. Mel and Jen second. Discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? That motion carries. Item M, approval of an amended resolution. The resolution was passed by the Board of Education on February 24th, 2026, approving the probationary instructional appointment for Nicholas School fifth and social studies seventh teacher. And we have further resolved that this amended resolution reflects the amendment in position to reflect a change in salary to $54,995 and a change in step to C1. And it is hereby approved. Take a motion, please. Mel and Jen
035second. See discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. N, approval of an anonymous donation. Resolve that an anonymous donation of $100 be accepted for the You Matter event at Watertown High School um be held yeah, in March, which was held on March 11th to purchase uh grocery gift cards. The board gratefully accepts and approves this donation and will be accepted and acknowledged in writing. Take a motion, Mel and Jen second. >> [clears throat] >> See discussion. So I second it. Had a lot of donations for that event. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item O, approval of a donation. Resolve that a donation of several travel-size personal hygiene items from the Lodging Kit Company in Gloversville, New York be accepted for the Get Ready Rooms at Sherman and Ohio Elementary. The
036board gratefully accepts and approves this donation, which will be acknowledged in writing. Motion, please. Mel and Jen second. See discussion. We do I did not know there was a Lodging Kit Company in Gloversville. I'll write it down and I'll check it out. I'm going to Gloversville. Who is this? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item P, approval of a donation. Resolve that a donation from Mrs. Julie Keggins for two $25 Stewart's gas cards to support the You Matter The Future Is Yours event. Um this donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing. Take a motion, please. Mel and Jen second. Mel, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. And finally, uh item Q, approval of a donation. Resolve that a donation from uh Penn Enterprise in Gloversville,
037New York for two $25 uh Amazon gift cards to support the You Matter The Future Is Yours event. This donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing. Motion, please. Mel and Jen second. Discussion. Just a huge thank you to those people that donated and supported the You Matter event. Uh the families that received those gift cards were extremely excited to receive them. Helpful. You got to imagine it's Dr. Amy Herrick from Gloversville High School. Who else is there? All right, all those in favor? Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you. We are at the uh second opportunity for public comments. Same rules apply. Um Amelia, I think you're the only one that signed up. I know Kevin's not going to say anything. Um I have a question. Do you guys know
038what you're going to present the budget at this year yet? I know you decided on the tax levy being 2.6%, but what is the budget going to be presented at to the community? The calendar is supposed to be the 14th. No, no, the amount. So last year we approved 103 million. What's it going to be? >> That's still being worked out. Okay, so we don't have an amount. >> still have a lot of things that we don't expect to be done on our end yet. We don't know the intermunicipal agreement amount. So there's a lot of expenses that we don't And do you anticipate knowing like when? Uh we have been trying to put pressure on different people to get these things for the last couple of months, but we don't have it all yet.
039Okay. So um just for the benefit of the community, I have several concerns. Um but I text John earlier today and I told him that I took the time to research my stuff. I think people know that when I talk, I'm not just throwing numbers out there. I spend a lot of my personal time going through stuff. And everything that I wrote down was going to be 6 minutes and you told me that I can't say that it's too much. So that I consider as being censored and I'm not going to be cut off and I'm not going to be told how much I can and cannot say. So for the benefit of this board, I will be going on the hotline on Friday and I will be going on the Glenn Curty show on
040Friday and I will express all of my concerns on that platform and then you guys can prepare written rebuttals for the following meeting. I think it's terrible that you're treating people like this. You're censoring the community. You're not allowing people to speak. It's not like you have a line waiting outside. People don't even come to this meeting. I mean, you don't have to answer this, but how many people actually call you and talk about concerns or anybody on this board for that matter of fact. Like it's ridiculous that you don't allow people to speak. These are valid concerns and you guys are not even being privy to it because no one's calling you and you're not allowing people like me to speak up. So if you're interested, you can listen to me on Friday and
041then you can come up with your rebuttal then. Thank you, Amelia. Anybody else for public comment? Uh non-agenda related items. Okay. Items for discussion. All right, so let's dig into these policies posted in on the calendar for second reading. I've been looking at the look at the statement of policy that says homebound instruction can be provided to the students home via remote instruction at a hospital or at an institution that is not a school. The illness or injury must be substantiated by a student's treating uh treating healthcare provider and approved by the Watertown City School District's the district director of school health under this the direction. So that really to clarify that a little bit more. Um Um clearly indicates that the statement will be un uh the student, sorry, will be unable to attend
042school for at least 10 school days during the next 3 months. So just for the clear that. Um we added the word clearly specifies at the beginning of section B. So no substantive changes there. Uh section C it just refers to different sections, so no substantive changes there. And then the the biggest change would be the decision and appeal and the appeals process as worded is A, notification of decision. The district shall notify parent and guardian of the director's approval or denial of the request for homebound instruction within 5 school days or receipt of the written verification from the student's healthcare provider. Um section B section 3B, right to appeal. A parent or guardian may appeal the denial home instruction to the Board of Education within 10 school days of receipt of the decision. Instruction
043must be provided by the appeal is pending. And then the denial goes straight to the board. Yes. And then the instruction under A is instruct is the delivery plan. The district shall develop instructional delivery plan for each student receiving homebound instruction pursuant to the law. The plan shall be reviewed as needed based upon changes, conditions or needs of the student. Um so this the reason why we're we're doing it this way through the discussions, this was already a board policy that was approved uh at a recent board meeting. Um however, the board acting on this policy, the policy service said, "Oh, we'd like you to add a couple more things." Uh so this was at their request and we are asking if I'm still going to be doing the policy committee uh to put this
044for the board's vote at the next meeting. Um really the biggest changes were the decision and appeal and we feel that that adds uh safety net for families. Um the burden is placed on the district in that regard. And so we would ask for that to have that moved forward. So there was no appeal process in the old one that was outlined within the policy. 80101, okay. We can put that on the website so the public can see that. 30 days. So there's no um doubt in that. Which is a good thing. Yeah. All right. The other one was kind of such and such and such. Okay. That's all I wanted to get out of the discussion. Okay. Anything else for discussion or information? There was one other thing. So, the other is I shared
045in other public board meetings you know, when we look at our costs running a school district no different than running a home. I specifically referenced in prior board meetings the increase in utility costs. I shared it with our student advisory council meeting that Caleb. We shared where we were in 2025. The district paid just over 33,000 that month for our our utility bills. And if you go back to this current December, the past December 26th, it was about 49,000. And so, as a region we are looking to get some support to send a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul. And I'll read it out loud just for the board's benefit. It was posted for the board to see. But, it does say subject urgent action needed to address rising energy costs impacting education. Whereas the rising
046cost of energy has become a significant burden on public school districts across the state with many districts experiencing year-over-year increases in energy prices of roughly 30 to 40%. Whereas New York State has the sixth highest commercial electricity rates in the nation with cost approximately 60% higher than the national average placing an additional and disproportionate financial burden on public institutions such as school districts. Whereas these drastic increases occurred despite stable energy consumption levels indicating that external factors are driving up costs beyond the control of local districts. We're in we're talking about electric buses, but that is something that plays you know, a role in electric bills. Whereas the additional financial strain from increased energy costs divert critical funding away from educational programming, staffing, and essential services required to support our students and our communities. Whereas it
047is the duty of our schools to provide a stable and conducive learning environment which is jeopardized by the rising operational costs associated with energy. And whereas public schools as essential public institutions should not be forced to divert limited educational resources to absorb unpredictable and extraordinary increase in energy cost. Therefore, be it resolved that we the undersigned superintendents urge the state government to take immediate action to address the escalating energy prices impacting our schools. We propose the following actions. One, review and regulate energy prices. Implement measures to regulate regulate energy pricing to ensure that public institutions are not disproportionately affected by market fluctuations. Two, energy assistance programs. Establish or enhance energy assistance programs specifically designed to support public schools in managing their energy cost. And lastly, emergency relief fund. Create an emergency relief fund for school
048districts facing financial distress due to energy prices surges to allow them to maintain educational services without sacrificing the quality of their educational institutions. Be it further resolved that we call upon all stakeholders including the state legislature, local governments, community organizations, and families to collaborate and advocate for the necessary changes to support our schools during this crisis. Sincerely, Dr. Loertscher. I wanted to advise the board that I am finalizing sending that after this board meeting. Try to talk about a lot of our costs. One of the things that we've said at other meetings and will continue to say as we go through our budget process is when you look at the consumer price index and you look at the cost of energy, you look at the cost of health insurance, liability insurance, all of those things.
049All of them surpass the CPI levels which is why you see a budget that is you know, disproportionate. So, if we can get some of these costs in control, it will help the overall budgets. Any comments, questions? It's just another advocacy to try to help public schools as we see and I I mentioned this at the last meeting in brief. Reiterate it when you look at the public schools throughout the New York State in the governor's proposed budget, 68% I think it was pretty early getting 1% foundation aid. And so, you're seeing costs CPI is about 1%. Utilities as I said are 30 to 40%. So, all of them surpass that 1% increase in aid. And 80% of our budgets in a school system are staffing and programs. So, the only way to modify that
050is to cut programs and cut staff. So, I just thought that it was important to align with the other superintendents in our region to support this issue. We appreciate that. We appreciate the other discussion. Brief maybe maybe a little bit longer. Did I hear that there's going to be another national grid adjustment on April? I saw that article and the What else? Um and I haven't heard much for a second is that the consortium that we're in that the delivers the energy. One One delivers, one supplies it. And their costs keep going up at least 10%. And actually they had us prepay our January bill and they expected us to prepay $106,000. Yeah. And we weren't the only ones. Indian River was twice that. It's they're hurting, too. When you look at you know, from
051the energy and I will say this because it was also mentioned earlier, the capital project. You know, a major point of this capital project is HVAC. So, we didn't we didn't get into a lot of classroom spaces. We're working on the HVAC. So, I'm hoping that in the next this project is an eight-year project. By the end of it we'll have working boilers in each building that we don't have the energy consumption costs that we currently have. And I will say because Mike Stang was mentioned earlier, you know, with his 40-plus years as a director of school facilities in Louisville, that experience has been extremely helpful. We're looking at how we're using energy and how we can minimize some of those consumption. Anything else for discussion or information? >> [clears throat] >> Since I did
052kind of let that cat out of the bag, I am going to address the EPC comment that was earlier. The EPC comment was something that our prior board worked on. And there was great board support across the board for us to look at energy performance contracts. So, if you go back and watch some of those meetings, you'll see that. This energy performance contract does not as I said in the last meeting does not have to go up to the voters for both voter approval. What I said at the last meeting was the reason why we want this to go up to the voters is because if we do, then we get an additional 10% in aid. And being fiscally responsible for our community, it's extremely important that we look at every revenue source to try
053to maximize that. I will agree with the comment that was shared earlier about proposition that was up for vote today. We don't write our propositions. We go through bond counsel to write those propositions. If you look at all of the propositions in any district in New York State, I would agree that the way some of them are written, there are a lot of legalese in those propositions that are confusing. And so, I did share that at the last board meeting as to why we wanted to go up to the public because our buildings need a lot of work. As as all of our community knows or most of our community knows and our board definitely knows. And so, leaving 10% of money on the table was just not something that I felt was fiscally responsible.
054The other thing that I I also want to mention when you're looking at the EPC, there's a lot of things that districts do. The Board of Education has a bond counsel which writes the propositions. The board has attorneys that work on these propositions. But, they also have a fiscal advisor that works with the district. And so, what we're doing is we're looking at the 110 capital projects which did have some of the things that were listed in the EPC. And the hope is and I thought I said this at the last meeting, the hope is to try to remove some of those things from the 110 capital project to put it in something that we're getting aid on and getting that reimbursable. Because as the board may recall, if you go back to when we
055got on the bus and took a tour of the district, the cost of the high priority items in this district with the condition of our buildings was over $260 million. So, I will agree that 110 is a lot of money. It does not touch everything that our buildings need. I'm going to give HVAC as an example. Brian I said in a meeting last week, you know, one of the buildings had an HVAC issue. We have we have a big decision to make as a district. We either pay the $9,000 to get the HVAC up and running or we transplant those students and put them in the high school auditorium. That true learning is not happening when you're shoving kids in a space that's not familiar to them and it's not convenient for our families. So,
056what I will say is the 5.3 million is a continuation of last year's board and this year's board as far as where we are moving with the energy performance contract. And whatever we can remove from the 110 so that we can attack other items that are on that list of the 260 million would only be a better benefit for our entire community. I will also reiterate that was said in multiple meetings that when we put the 110 million dollar project together and this board and prior boards, we have put money away towards that 10 million reserve and the intentionality behind putting that money was to have a zero tax influence on our community. So, that is money that's put in there. The other misconception that I would like to share tonight is that yes, there
057is a local tax share, but on our buildings we get 94% or 93.something percent on building aid. And so, that building aid is coming directly from the state to work on the condition of our building. So, I would just add that anything we can take off of the 110, it would behoove us. We have a lot of buildings that need new windows, some that need new roofs. Anything that we can remove, we have talked with prior boards about the desire to bring baseball, softball to this campus. Any money that we can free up for a lot of that to happen. The other thing that I will say, which I felt like I said in a lot of board meetings, is the FEMA piece. You know, we we are still holding off there's a partial government
058shutdown, so we're in in a holding pattern. But when the government opens back up, there was roughly 14.1 million that the district may get. If we get those monies, some of it's going to bring our building, our high school in North and minimally case back to pre-disaster conditions. I say minimally case because Case had minimal damage. But the other 7.1 million was to work on site work on these campuses. And looking at the infrastructure in our site, that is not going to if it's not done, we're going to have continued flooding and and needed repairs. So, to be fiscally responsible, there are a lot of moving pieces. I when it comes to the $110 million project, that's one piece. The other piece is the 14.1 million for the the FEMA piece. And the other is
059the 5.3 million for the EPC. So, I just wanted to mention that because I think all of those things would be a benefit to our community so that we're taking that burden off of our tax force, putting it on the state where those monies are. And essentially everything we're doing at this point is energy efficient. All of the buildings obviously a couple of the buildings are 50 60 years old which is why they need I'm going to have a meeting every week and every other week with all of these different organizations, but it's it's to the detriment of our community to make sure that we maximize every dollar and every cent. We can't talk about why our buildings are where they are. The only thing we can focus on is where our buildings need to
060be. And so, I think that's and we we pushed our architects, our construction managers, legal and everything to move in the direction that's doing the best for the taxpayers so that when we walk away from this $110 million project that we're able to stand up to what we said we were going to be able to do. And we have energy efficient buildings that hopefully bring down those national grid costs. That's what I'm informed by us. The other thing we're hoping with the energy pieces you can't do it when you look at the EPC grants and some of you may be familiar with those grants. And I know that we talked about it in last year. The way the grants are written, you can't go out and just say I'm going to go and get central
061air in these buildings. Right? That's that's not a rationale. So, it's for energy savings. So, you're looking at what the buildings are functioning at now and what you can do to reduce those energy usages. So, although we can't use it to say we're going to put AC in this building and AC in this building, although we would like to, what we're trying to do is say, "Okay, what can we do to get these buildings AC ready?" So, when we take out the roofing structures or the wall structures or the window structures to get the buildings ready with the new HVAC systems, what can we do to run the lines so that a future project we can put those condensers in and have AC. It's a lot of meetings. It's all right. I'm sure it sounds
062like a lot. Any other points of discussion for the CV? I have a question. Please. Is there a best practice because I feel like I've done lots of about board meetings on snow days so well when I came in it was nicer. Um and the public has already been made known that today would be a meeting. Like what is the thought on when we continue with with a board meeting on a bad weather day versus not? So, I work for the Mercy in the board, so if the board wants to meet, we meet. And if the board wants to reschedule, then we can schedule it. So, I'm just a baby here. >> [snorts] >> First year president, third year on the board, right? So, I I leaned into the you know, senior member of the
063board and that was Colleen. And Colleen was clear that we would every way able to have a board meeting we do. And obviously we have a lot of business to attend to and packing up the meeting and doubling up is going to make for a really really long meeting. If this board wants to make a hard and fast rule about how we're going to operate, we can do that. If we want to say if it's a snow day, we're not going to meet, we can do that. If we're going to say if it's a you know, if it's a snow day and there's a state of emergency, we're not going to meet. Or we can just continue to say we're going to watch the weather and if the weather's going to be good, we're going
064to hold the board meeting. And if the weather's going to be nasty, then we're going to consider not having the board. When we were having those discussions this morning, I mean Dr. Schmigel asked, "What do you guys want to do? We're shutting down school." I was quick to look at the forecast and say, "Hey, it's going to be clear at board meeting time. I think we should have the meeting." Colleen chimed in and said, "Yeah, I agree." And that was, you know, kind of the discussion of the morning. I know there were security members that, you know, reached out that weren't necessarily happy with that. I know we had I had some more members that, you know, weren't not happy with that decision as well. But at the end of the day, my vote doesn't
065count any more than anybody else's. I I said this morning to the whole board at large that it should be a consensus and I would follow the consensus and you know, the consensus was was let's schedule the board meeting and we're going to hold it and I did not feel like there was a consensus to go the other way. That changed but we're more than welcome to make any rule we want in regards to whether we meet and how we meet with the weather. So, in regards to your question of past practice, you know, and this includes the past few the past few years, we've always held the board meeting as much as possible. I don't remember. This is what, my ninth year? I don't ever remember not having a board meeting on days of
066school being closed. And I don't know if you even know what Indian River does. I know at Copenhagen, which is my only other experience, that they do a board meeting. I I did notice things here on inter office so I don't know if I'm missing something. We're we're also on the luxury of streaming so we're able to watch. Yeah. So, nobody technically misses the board meeting in real time. But [clears throat] I mean, if you want to think on it, I mean, hopefully I don't know knock on wood this is our last one for snow day. It is March. It is our last snow day. Sorry. Um but I I will whatever the board wants to do, I will support it. You know, as as a as a majority of the And what I can
067promise is that depending on which way the board goes, if they want to go I did reach out to our superintendents and others in this our service members in this region and some hold and many of them look at the weather to decide if we still meet or not. What I will say is that if the board decides to go in either direction, which I believe direction that we're not going to meet on a snow day, then what I would do is recommend based on the agenda on whether or not we need to reschedule it or if we can consolidate because there are some things that are date sensitive that have to be submitted to the state by a certain date. And so, we would want to you know, as a district we need if
068something is submitted late. And there are other, you know, particularly going through the capital project, there's a lot of different things that have to be approved that are time sensitive that require board president signature and mine and board action. So, but I would advise you if you decide to go in that direction. That's a lot of information to take in. I will say I don't want anybody traveling in nasty weather. The last thing I want is somebody getting hurt or in a car accident. We're lucky we're consolidated in the city of Watertown. Most districts don't have that luxury of being so compact. But the last thing I want is for any member of our community, any member of our staff or any of our board members to get injured trying to get to a board
069meeting. That would be a devastating thing. So, that's definitely not something So, if you have a proposal for how you want us to address that, think about it, bring it forward. This will be a good question though. Anything else for discussion CV? Okay. Upcoming dates. It is finally here. It is time. You've seen the advertisements. Watertown High School SpongeBob the Musical on Thursday, March 19th at 7:00 p.m. followed by Friday, March 20th at 7:00 p.m. There's a matinee on Saturday, March 21st at 1:00 p.m. and then the final show at 7:00 p.m. in the Watertown High School Auditorium on Saturday, March 21st. As if our musical kids don't get enough that weekend, the following week on Tuesday, March 24th is Music in Our Schools, which is absolutely one of my favorite programs that we put
070on. That will be in the Watertown High School Gymnasium at 7:00 p.m. If you have not seen that and you are a lover of music, whether you have students in the school or not, come out for that one. You are going to see all of the bands, all of the choruses all together in the same place at the same time. 5:12 5:12 p.m. Thank you. Spring recess. No school Friday, April 3rd to Friday, April 10th. Kale, will you be going anywhere? Um Arkansas. That's an unusual spring break destination. Um Finance, Audit and Facilities Committee meeting Tuesday, April 14th at 4:30 followed by our volunteer recognition reception on Tuesday, April 14th at 5:30, hence the early start time for House A House. And then our regular Board of Education meeting here at 6:00 p.m. on that
071same Tuesday, April 14th. Our fine arts department is organizing it. It's something that we've It's kind of a work in progress over the last couple of years, but similar to what we do with our retiree recognition. Um we're asking the art and music department to sponsor this, and so they'll be doing a performance. Uh but we've asked each building to recognize volunteers within their building that keep their buildings going. Um it will It will be a themed volunteer appreciation month. Oh, nice. And we'll have student delegates recognize those individuals as well. All right, I'll look around the district. I never started with Ollie. So, I want to start with Ollie tonight. He always gets the leftovers and just First of all, good. Um I really don't have a lot other than reiterate the art show.
072Did not Um it was packed. It's one of those old um things. You would like to see the spring is here. Um and you spring sports season. >> [laughter] >> Um I'm going to tell you about that, especially um and I have a lot of comments and conversations about um flag football. It was good to watch them all. Watching them all. Yeah. And that was a I'm going to pass. It was a lot of fun to watch them all. You know about the good stuff I'm talking about and actually had a really good two and a half I had ever did that day the first I didn't get to see the part of it. I think it was great. The parents are I think it's great. Or the end result I know. Excited to see
073at least one full month of spring sports. Um and we're excited to hopefully get spring sports in. Excited to see the lacrosse team and others outside the other day, and hopefully that will all come back soon. Um and then I would also like to say in regards to the public participation policy, um we did a lot of research about local districts, and I could only find two districts without a time limit of for public participation, and I do speak to a lot of community members throughout the weeks leading up to um board meetings, and I agree that most don't feel that they can come at this point, and so part of the idea of that time limit was to make the meetings more efficient, and I I think that was a statement that Watertown uh
074city council also made when they added a time limit to theirs. So, the it was to kind of um make the meetings more efficient and to go in line with some what some of the other districts are doing. Um but I am open, and I hope that people will reach out to us in the meetings and speak to us so that we can bring a message back to the administration and and make visions uh come to light. Thank you, Mel. Thank you. Um What's that? Um I just want to give a big shout-out for that seniors week thing. SpongeBob thing. Um I think that is is awesome. I think it's so beneficial for the seniors and the students to get to interact together. Um there's a lot of things on Facebook and all of that
075with students that are like in college if they live like in a senior residential home, they don't live there for free, but they just have to interact with seniors and stuff, and you know, then daycare and seniors who live in the I just think it's it's great to see the seniors doing that. Um so, kudos to them for doing that again, getting that going up to Schmigel Lake for our business department. And I can't wait to see SpongeBob. I saw that commercial, and they just They're just so happy. This is my question about the music department. But that's it. That's all I'm about. Thank you, Tina. Phil, I don't want to discuss. I don't have much to say today, but happy St. Patrick's Day. >> [laughter] >> What is that? Are you Irish? No. Everybody's
076Irish if they have a cat. That's the one hard Thank you, Ollie. Um So, uh I did have comments from Dr. Amy Gearhart. Um the lion sure did not make the trip here from my office this morning. Um What is that thing? She's watching my doctor in >> [laughter] >> Um I did not forget tonight, so. Um this past Wednesday was our You Matter, The Future Is Yours event at Watertown High School, which I really saw a lot about. A total of 25 participants attended the event, which focused on freshmen, sophomores, and seniors. All students from these classes were invited with a targeted focus on students considered at risk for a variety of of reasons. Sophomores were provided information specific to their grade level. All students and families were provided an opportunity to meet with
077a counselor to review their current progress, as well as what needs to be accomplished to be successful in high school and beyond. A variety of faculty, staff, and agencies were involved to make this event successful. This truly shows that it takes a community to help make a positive impact on our students' lives, and it could not have been done without them. Stay tuned for our last event of the year, You Matter, May the Fourth Be With You, scheduled for May 4th and to include all high school grade levels. Excellent. Thank you, Dr. Amy. Uh and we'll look forward to that that event. Um the art show, uh I won't I won't beat a dead horse, but it was phenomenal. We had such talented talented artists in so many different It's on the 19th. It's on
078the 19th. That's this week coming up on the That's this week coming. another art show at Oh, yeah. At the Yes. So, let's make you know, make sure we get down to see that one, too. Yeah. Um the SpongeBob ads, I've seen them on TV. I saw them at Johnny's Pizano. Um so, looking forward to that. Um the SpongeBob dinner looked phenomenal. I saw the pictures. The press release was great. Um so great to have those interactions. Tina, you said it the best, you know. Uh we've got some really good kids that when they get the opportunity to interact with our community, they just are such a great representation of our school district and everything we're doing. Uh and then I wasn't Albany, as Dr. Schmigel said. Uh I was wearing my nice hat for
079a couple of days, but met with all of our elected officials. And there's a lot of overlap between what nice is trying to accomplish and what we're trying to accomplish as a school board and a school district. Um so, we were advocating for a lot of those things. Um Our elected representatives in North Country are so good to us. They understand the value of public education. Um they're willing to advocate for us in the assembly and the state senate. Um the one house budgets are out, and now the real fighting begins in Albany, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that um a lot of that fighting starts to send really positive and good things towards public education. Um because we could use a little bit of their help right now. So, um we'll
080stay on them. We'll keep advocating. Um we are advocating all corners of the of the state government, so we'll keep working at hopefully. We know there won't be a budget on April 1st, but shortly after April 1st, um we hear good things. So, Um and with that, we are in need of a proposed executive session for the purpose of a proposed acquisition, sale, or lease of real property. May I have a motion? Melanie and Susan. All those in favor? Any opposed? We are in executive session.