04/16/2025 WCSD BOE Meeting at Case Middle School - BOCES Budget Adoption

001tonight case for our board meeting. Call this meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. Michelle, any agenda changes tonight? There are no agenda changes. Anyone here wishing to address the board for non-aggenda related wait agenda related public comment rather? No. Okay. Michelle, any communications? And no communications. Very good. Then it is my privilege to turn it over to our principal here at Case, Katherine Cook, for welcome and student voice. All right. Hello. We'll get uh started. We're really excited to present to everyone some of the exciting things we got going on at Case Middle School. Um starting with something that the board

002well approved last year for us to add a six team which was really instrumental in getting um our AIS services um able to meet students needs. So I'll talk a bit more about that in a minute but um we have welcomed to PACE Melanie Barry our assistant principal. She's going to present to you in a minute. Ashley Buckley school psychologist. Calebani is our new AP teacher. Um Erica Darman, our SSO Dunar is our new Spanish teacher who took over um when Jerry Goer became our instructional coach. Kayla Filatrol is a new science teacher. Alex Spice is social studies. Lauren Hardwick is math. Lindsay Ryan took over our 12 Z1 special ed program. Uh Nelson Sprat is science and Katie Taylor is here tonight. You'll be hearing from her, too. She's our new newest music teacher.

003So, we're excited to have a lot of new staff in the building and that new staff has allowed us to um pretty much triple the amount of AIS services that we're offering during the school day for students in both reading and math. So, that's been really exciting. as well as having um some additional AIS classes to address students who need health in science as well as social studies. So, a couple other exciting things we have going on um listed on the board are all of our extracurricular clubs and activities. Um some of the ones that I have up there in bold are new clubs. So, we actually added bowling club last year and bowling club was in its second year this year. Um, separate from bowling clubs, the actual varsity sport of bowling, which was

004added this year. Um, both run by our school counselor at Pace, Kevin Durr. Um, and Kevin Durr has also volunteered to run our esports club. So, we have some pictures I'll show you to feature both of those. And Katie Taylor has started a new drama club at PACE. Um, I want to mention that Katie was recently the guest conductor uh for middle school chorus at by county last weekend on Saturday the 5th. So, we're lucky to have Katie here and some of the initiatives that she's doing including drama clubs. Going to hand it over to her and her students to describe what they've been up to with drama club. Hi, my name is Madison Kane and I'm president of Muslim drama club acting out. Our mission is to help students be successful by developing essential

005life skills like communication, critical thinking, creativity, self-confidence and teamwork all through the process of rehearsing, performing and collaborating using computer techniques. Some of our some of those includes include improxation, monologues, do sing, and plates. We are about to cast our screenplay everything you always want to know about your teacher, but we're too afraid to ask, which will be performed on Friday, June 6th. This club really helps students feel belonging at Middle School, and I know that's something our school district strives for. I am proud to say I am part of this wonderful club, and I also know that me and my fellow club members can't wait to learn more and more about being [Applause] So, a couple of the kiddos couldn't make it tonight, so I'm going to read for them. Charlotte Stadler is our

006secretary or sorry, vice president of the drama club. Uh, another one of our core values and goals is to build camaraderie between students and to establish a feeling of trust, support, and encouragement for all. This will build self-confidence and self-worth. Many students find it hard to find a place where they can belong. And it is the goal of our club to be welcoming and supportive of all students and not only be accepting but celebrating the differences and unique personalities. We've had a lot of laughs. Hi and hi. I am Susa and I am the secretary of the club. Not only do we work hard to build skills and create a family in our meetings, we are also working toward preparation of our show. Another goal of ours is to prepare performances for our people. And

007while doing so, we are building skills in acting through facial expressions, body language, gestures, posture, tone, volume, and t. We are learning a lot about how to be expressive and speak in front of people. a skill certainly useful for our future in college and in the workforce. I especially love it in games and activities because it teaches us to think to think on our feet and be more confident in front of our part of um drama club. Um, as a member of the drama club, um, I've always struggled with like, um, talking in front of a bunch of people and sharing my thoughts. But joining this group um has improved that and u has helped with like uh my social and stuff with um other people and my friends and especially with like um talking

008to um like other people like the school and others and like um thinking of like on the spot things and uh the game breeze is like a really amazing thing that um I got to with my friends and um it helps like think really fast and it can help with like um what like stuff in your brain and like to get it out immediately. And um it really helps with like social skills and um getting to know your friends and um the ability to communicate with one another if you're shy. Last but not least, I just wanted to say that um we did not have any funds as it's a new club. So, we want to say thank you to SAD and to student council who combined uh donated $400 to our club. So, we

009were able to purchase the licensing for our play. So, we have $24.95 left in our account. We're hoping to have a nice donation jar and our play and get the kids um in our little auditorium here at Case. We're just going to do kind of Blackbox style. Do a do a show. Uh get them used to performing and um they're going to do all of the things, but do the posters, they're going to do the the um the backstage work, the props, the costumeuming, all the things. I'm going to do as much studentled stuff as we can to really get them being creative. So, um, we hope to see a lot of people at our play and supporting the kids in this new venture. We have on the books, we have 63 kids in my

010Google classroom. And we have probably between 25 and 35 that are there weekly. And a lot of them just started their spring sports. So, they're balancing that time and trying to figure out how they can do both. But the kids come on in, we have a lot of fun, we laugh a lot and uh they're you can see just their confidence growing and their relationships with one another growing and lots more smiles and confident kids in the room which is really the goal. And I also am hoping to help enhance a lot of these kids um are both in musical and I'm hoping to help them build their skills in their acting to help reinforce our musical programs as well. So thank you so much and we appreciate you guys supporting our club. All right.

011Thank you, Mrs. Taylor, and thank you girls for speaking a little bit about the drama club. Um, I like what you said, Madison, about, you know, finding some place where you can belong, and that's really what we strive for for all of our students, to have somewhere where they feel they they fit in. Um, and that that I guess is the perfect sentiment to share with what Kevin Dur is doing for both bowling club and esports club. Um, so giving kids more opportunities for extracurricular activities. um especially something like esports that um maybe we have kids that aren't necessarily interested in athletics, but they're very talented in video gaming and they can be really competitive that way with esports in the region. All right. We also wanted to highlight a recent achievement of a staff

012member of ours, Carissa Dickinson, was recently awarded um by NBC Watertown uh in partnership with the Northern New York Community Foundation the Classroom kindness kindness teacher appreciation award. [Music] [Applause] So, and Cararissa contributes to a lot of our programs at Case, um, including PBIS, both tier 1 and tier 2. Um, she is our lead teacher for math. and she also started a new initiative this year um running monthly mentor mentee meetings for our new teachers where they get together and they have an agenda to discuss topics of relevance each month with guest speakers like Mr. Kevin Todd or myself um with different topics. So, she's really single-handedly kind of put together a program to further support our new staff members and hopefully encouraging some longevity and reducing the turnover that we sometimes see um when

013new staff come and go. So, really making everyone feel supported. So, she's not just kind uh as a teacher in her classroom to students, she's kind and supportive to her colleagues as well. All right. Um, some of our successes this year I mentioned before um with our new team of teachers, we were able to triple the amount of AIS services in our building. So whether that was um students getting extra academic support in math, reading, science or social studies, that is a huge step in the right direction in supporting our students academically. We also um have made some really great gains in supporting our 121 program at case. Um Matt Verdict has been instrumental in partnering with us and really making sure that that program is supported um not only with the teacher in the

014classroom, but having a TA in that room um sort of piloting that at case for other 12131 programs in the district. That's been excellent to have a TA in the room. And then we have um five or six aids that work in that room, too. So, we've really been focused on providing some job embedded PD for all staff that work in that classroom. Um, they they handle some of our students with the most needs. So, we've really put um a lot of efforts into making sure that the staff working in that program feel supported. One of the specific things we've done for the students, not only in that room, but potentially for the whole building, um we were able to revamp our um sensory room. So, our 12131 program is housed in a classroom that

015has an additional classroom attached to it. Um, so what you see pictured on the board is our room 102 that we've al we've always kind of called it the sensory room, but there wasn't it wasn't stocked with many items. Um so Julie Elliott, one of our occupational therapists in the district, um was aware that we had some extra equipment sitting in storage at Massie and um through, you know, some work orders and the the help of uh Dell and Adam and and Jerry and Mike, our our custodians in the building, with some help from the athletic custodians, they were able to install all of these items and really set up the room to give a true sensory experience for the students that need that kind of break in their day. Um so that that really

016um just got all put together within the last couple weeks. So it's a really exciting space to utilize for students that need that kind of a break in their day. All right, I'm going to hand it over to Mrs. Melanie Barry. How is everyone today? So, we have had a significant decrease each month um after October. That was up a little from November on in our discipline and um a lot of that I say comes from the team that we have. So, we have our SSO, Erica Derwin. Um, also just our um social worker, Amy Adams, and our guidance counselors, Carla, Ben Wormer, and Kevin Dur. We all really work as a team and enhancing the behavioral supports for students. So, finding individual needs. Um, this past year I've just been getting to know everyone,

017the students, the teachers, the families, and I think that that has made a large impact. Our town hall meetings we use to not only share data, but also our expectations with the students. We review things that are pertinent. We enhance their behavioral supports and just also increase meaningful student engagement. We've seen such a difference in them in these past few town halls and their behavior and just how attentive they've been. So, while we're at our town hall meetings, we focus on the ABCs. Your attendance behavior, completing your schoolwork. We talk about our goals. We talk about um PBIS ties into this, right? We had a whole attendance challenge and then we had um you know let's try to get our referrals down and we make it competitive and just always focusing on you know how

018can you make sure that you are finishing strong at the end of a quarter highlighting the student of the month and other awards and just celebrating their successes. So, we also in our town halls we highlight honor role A and B, the student of the month. We also highlight topics. Um, this past month, Officer Derwin came in and helped discuss um acceptable use policy, light speed, the proper way to fill out um a tip line and why not to fill out a tip line was a topic that we had. reinforcing our behavior expectations and basically anything that is on the forefront. We take that as a teachable moment for all of them. Our PBIS tier one and tier 2 has been pivotal also in student behavior and discipline. So we have Given and Megan Sudith

019as our tier one leaders this year. The think sheets continue to I think help bring the amount of office referrals down by giving them the chance to reflect on what they have been working on. Um it gives them a chance to think about what they could do differently before it becomes an office referral. We monitor minor behaviors and see where we have patterns. The student reflection piece is also an important part of how, you know, they think about why have I been doing this? Um, our attendance challenges, like I talked about, have been a huge success. They've had mystery boxes that our staff puts together and then they use their PBIS um, points for Sorry, that's a different challenge. Case. Yes, the case cash. Um, and then just our restorative practices, things like buyouts at

020recess. They can use their case cash to um maybe go and play dodgeball or go and play board games. Um, just all of the extra things we can think of, which in turn also decreases our cafeteria behaviors. In the tier 2, we have Robin DeFranco and Carissa Dickinson. We have been utilizing the check-in checkout. So there are students that are assigned um mainly through our PPT referral process and they check in with a certain teacher um at the beginning and end of a day and it just also gives them that extra connection with an adult. Our sage groups focus on specific um things like maybe social emotional um am I having a mind? Social emotional awareness um things like interactions, behavioral expectations. Um Kevin does our cafeteria connections. Sometimes we have to have retachings if

021there have been multiple think sheets in the cafeteria or multiple referrals. And then our afterchool detention is more than just a holding place. We have Audra Schwelness um works on retaching expectations with students so that there is a very intentional reteing to avoid future um referrals for the same incident. So, our discipline data, like I said, October was a rough month, but since then, we've seen a decrease every single month, which we are pretty proud of. And also our attendance. Um, by really checking in with students and figuring out what their barriers were for attendance, including tardies, we were able to promote regular school attendance. Um, some kids might have just needed an alarm clock or an umbrella or just more check-ins. Um, whatever the case may be, making those connections again with parents, with

022students, letting them know that we were, you know, keeping track and that we want them there. We had some kids that might have, you know, started coming in earlier and earlier until eventually they were coming on time. So just consistency is what's got us up to 90.36. So we're pretty proud of that. Also turn this back over to All right. So, uh, some of our areas of focus for the future, um, in kind of just capitalizing off the fact that we have increased our academic supports for students, um, we're looking to do more instructionally in terms of our offerings, um, what's in our course catalog for seventh and eighth graders. Um, one of the things that we've been talking a lot about is how we can offer more high school credit bearing classes to our

023eighth grade students. So whether that's in a course like Studio Art 1 or potentially offering more sections of algebra 1, um, our tech teachers are interested in offering design, drawing, and production, often referred to as DDP. that's a high school class that our eighth graders would be capable of taking and earning that high school credit. So, um just some of the things that we're looking to possibly incorporate as soon as this coming fall. And then, um one of the other major initiatives that we're in talks about is of course Cyclone Academy Junior and looking at uh a couple of different models we could offer for that. So, one of those models being kind of a copycat of what's currently happening in Cyclone Academy at the high school and copying that model to offer to our

024eighth graders in a program that would be roughly from 2:30 to 5:30 each evening. But we've also talked about um something we could offer after school that we're we're referring to as Cyclone Academy um junior high where they could earn high school credits. So, this would be more geared towards a student that is happy to attend our typical eighth grade school day and maybe is looking forward to um staying for an extra hour after school to gain some high school credits to give them a little bit of a leg up in entering 9th grade. Um that may be a class that they can't fit in their daily schedule for whatever reason. Um, we're we're looking at offering some options after the school day from 2:30 to 3:30 in addition to a full program like a

025Cyclone Academy middle school that would be more similar to Cyclone Academy that's currently at the high school. Um, so looking towards creating some of those programs, especially in focusing on some of our students who might currently be homeschooled for whatever reason, seeing if we can attract some of those students back to be here with us. Um, some students especially that struggle with anxiety um might be uh a good candidate for a program that takes place after school in a smaller setting. Um, so we're busy uh working on getting those programs um kind of designed and staffed and Matt Berdick's also been a a great help with all of that. Um I had mentioned and Melanie talked at length about how our referrals are down, specifically our referrals for students with disabilities are also down. Um

026so that is something that we're we're proud of. In thinking about our PBIS program, our tier one and tier 2 programs are strong and we've discussed the possibility of creating a a tier three for PBIS for students that continue to struggle and looking at interventions to help them. So, I think that is all that we had for you this evening and I'm happy to take any questions if anybody has questions. anyone? I'm also happy to not take questions. Okay. Thank you very much. Well, thanks for having us. It was great to our um our student voice uh participators. Could you just stand up and and uh say your name because we have certificates for you. I'll start. Yes. What's your name? Madison Kane. Madison Kane. Okay. Charlotte didn't tell me she was coming. I'm glad

027she came. This is and we will print a certificate for you and make sure that you get it. Okay. Okay. moving along on board and staff reports. Turn it over to Michael Morgan, our athletic director for athlete recognition. Good evening. I want to take a moment tonight to spotlight a group of exceptional student athletes who recently had the opportunity to represent Watertown at an athletic leadership conference held on March 6th at the Clark Sports Center in Coopertown. The theme of this year's conference was respect. It goes both ways. A message that aligns perfectly with our athletic department values of integrity, character, and leadership on and off the field. Four of our juniors, Mara Dickinson, Molly Mau, Jack Converse, and Maddox Corey were nominated by their coaches and selected to attend based on their emerging leadership,

028positive attitudes, and the influence they have within their teams. Throughout the day, they participated in meaningful sessions focused on topics like respect in athletics, the importance of nutrition and fitness, understanding the role of officials, and navigating current challenges facing student athletes today. Alongside them, our coach representative Robin Bloomhower and I were also fortunate to take part in leadership programming, including sessions at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We came together for two powerful keynote presentations. One from Aaron Hart of Varsity Brands, who spoke about using influence to lead with purpose, and the other from Chris Herren, former NBA player and founder of the Heron Project. His message on making good choices and personal growth resonated with all of us. These experiences weren't just inspiring, they were transformational. Our goal is to equip these young leaders

029not only with tools they can bring back to their own teams, but also to help create a culture of mentorship across our athletic programs. Leadership is not a title, it's a responsibility. And these four students are stepping into that responsibility with maturity and vision. I also want to give special recognition to Maddox Corey who was selected by section 3 to represent our region at the New York State student leadership conference in Albany on April 3rd. Out of 104 member schools in section 3, Maddox was one of just 18 student athletes chosen. He spent the night collaborating with student leaders from across the state on building the champion within and participated in workshops focused on student athlete mental health. This is a tremendous honor and we are very proud of Maddox for the way he represented

030both Watertown and Fire Section. Lastly, I want to highlight an outstanding accomplishment from one of our youngest Cyclones. Carson Brown, ninth grader, was recently recognized by the Watertown Wrestling Officials Association for being the 2025 Frontier League Wrestling Tournament Champion at the 108 pound weight class. Carson's dedication and competitive spirit have laid the foundation for what promises to be a remarkable career in our wrestling program. Mom, you can have that. These students are a shining examples of the excellence we strive for in our athletic department, not just in competition, but in character, leadership, and growth. And thank you all for the continuing to support opportunities and empower our students to lead, represent, and inspire. Thank you very much. Hey, any of our athletes who were named tonight, could you come up? Just come right up to

031the microphone. Say your name. Carson Brown, Mara Dickinson, Alex Cory, Mau. Okay. Up next on board and staff reports, Mrs. Lori Cond with the policy committee meeting report. I'm definitely not as excited about that. We had to review some policies that we've kind of ignored. Other things going on. So the first one is policy 7502. We just needed to review the changes or basically was only verbiage changes. So we were going to put that up for you guys on May 6. We're already just changing words. That's it. No policy changes at all. Policy 7501.1, same thing. Policy no change. There was a spelling verbiage that was at um and 7501, which is by the way 750.1 is student privacy. 7501 is verbiage as well. That's for parental access to instructional materials. Um on one part

032C, we have to add on Michelle's information under district clerk. And then there is just some verbiage regarding changing he, she to they, his her to their. And then there was just verb verbiage on that. So we're going to bring that forward to you on May 6 as well since they're all just verbiage. Is everybody okay with that? All right. And then um 7300 is uh curricul co-curricular and extracurricular programs. The only change on that was item number seven and it was just a change regarding the crown act. So we had to change the verbiage to match the crown act and that was something that we had to add. You guys want to read that first or put it up? May six. All right. And that was all we had for today. Thank you very

033much. I did forget anyone who was here for student voice or the case presentation. You are dismissed. You're going to have to hang out for the whole really know how to clear a room. [Laughter] Okay. Up next on board and staff reports tonight, superintendent schools report, Dr. Larry. Good evening everyone. Um, thank you for joining us tonight. Um, the first thing I'd like to do is recognize two weekends ago, and you heard Katie Cook recognize us earlier, one of our very own. Um, Katie Taylor was one of the directors in this. Um, but our students that participated in the Bycount Festival at the high school that was absolutely amazing two Saturdays ago. Last week, the high school had two amazing concerts that I was able to witness. That was great. Last Friday, there was a

034lot more talent than I have at the talent show Friday night. Thank you. One person breathe it loud. The um I'm really learning your humor. It's u the next thing I'd like to mention is this year I had the opportunity to bring a team of people and a board member Lori went with us um to the 34th annual National Dropout Prevention Conference in Louisiana. Um, we did such a great job as participants that they are inviting us back to the 35th annual National Dropout Prevention Conference and they are asking us to please speak on behalf of Cyclone Academy and all the work that other districts can emulate uh to improve their graduation rates and to work with students in need. The next thing I would like to mention is Carissa Dickensson. I know you're recognized

035already, but just another round of applause for receiving that amazing It's amazing to have Watertown teachers and staff recognized for the amazing things that are going on in our district. The next thing, I wasn't going to do this, but I'm going to anyways. I'm going to read an email that I sent to our new teacher leads. Um, you know, each year we look at retirees that are resigning uh due to retirement and we look to fill those teacher lead positions in collaboration with the teachers union. So we have four amazing teachers that have contributed greatly to our district and I am thrilled to share in this excitement of their upcoming appointments will be taking place today as a board action. Departments that are impacted by these are science, music, social studies and special education. These

036appointments are effective July 1 and are a reflection of the hard work, dedication, and passion that each of our teacher leaders bring to our district every single day. Jennifer, your leadership in science and Lori, your work in music have not only shaped the minds of our students, but also created a foundation for both departments. Kyle, your expertise in social studies and Bridget, your commitment to special education will be key in enhancing and growing those vital areas in our district. I am confident that with your guidance, all four departments will continue to evolve and thrive. Your contributions are immeasurable and I can only envision the incredible strides you will make as you step into these roles. Our district's motto is our children are our future. It truly embodies the work that all of you are set

037to do. When our district thrives, our community thrives, and through your leadership, you will undoubtedly affect positive change that impacts not only our students, but your colleagues and our broader community. You now hold the key to further shaping the success of our district. And I look forward to seeing all of you lead your departments with the same excellence that you always demonstrate. and two of them I believe are here tonight. So Bridget, if you can stand [Applause] up beginning to think our music department is defiant. Um today we had a wonder actually I want to mention one more thing because Dr. Gearharts is here. If I don't, there is a wonderful opportunity hap. Is she back there? Is she listening? Okay. Tomorrow evening at 5 to 6:30 p.m. we have an event going on at

038Watertown High School to help educate our community and our parents on credit acral and credit recovery. I want to thank Dr. Garz and her team for the amazing support and sponsorship. There will be food, there will be transportation, and any parents that are interested in learning more to help their child pass the graduation threshold is invited to attend tomorrow evening. The next thing that I want to mention, this has been a conversation with the board a few months ago, so I just want to bring it back to highlight. Uh we had the opportunity today was the first day of our director of facilities uh Tim and uh we also had a coordinating meeting with NAERTA and so we are looking at different options that we can apply for as a district to help with energy

039savings and so we had that jointed uh meeting today. We also had another meeting today with Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Appella Osborne. As I said in the last board meeting, we uh obtained the services of Labella Associates, which is who the city is using regarding 404 mitigation. Those applications for those grant monies are due at the end of this month. And so on April 30th, we will be applying for that. Our hope is to use some of the grant money. There's two phases of grants. The first grant that you apply for helps with the planning phase. And so some of the testing phase, a part of the planning phase, we've already paid for as a district. And so we're looking at applying for that grant to be reimbursed for those. And addition,

040there will be additional testing that's needed and that it will also pay for the design piece. All of which are extremely helpful because we still don't have an idea yet on the FEMA output as far as the payment. And this will also offset some cost for our capital projects for much much neededed site work on this uh campus. And that concludes my comments for C. Thank you so much. Okay, last uh board and staff report tonight is Brienne Durham, our assistant superintendent for operations and finance with the board proposed budget presentation. Did you want to click or Dr. S? All right. Good evening. Um the they adopted the the proposal for the um budget adoption tonight. This is a culmination of several months worth of work with the administration. Um we're going to start off

041by introducing the board of education um with president Jason Harrington, vice presidents Randy Richardson are the board members Lorie Converse, Tina Fluno and John Kaine, but two seats that are up this year is Polly Goer and Millie Smith. So the important thing we had the opportunity to meet with our staff today regarding the budget and it's important to understand that when you put a budget together it should be tied to something that should be tied to our strategic plan and so when you look at our strategic plan the primary goal is to increase graduation rates. So what we hope to do throughout this budget presentation is to defend how this budget will help us with the graduation rate. We know that in order to improve the graduation rate, we first must meaningfully engage students in

042lessons that apply to them both now as they're in our K12 continuum, but also in the world beyond. Um, in order to do that, we need to make sure that students are here. So, improving student attendance is critically important and enhancing enhancing behavioral supports for our students that maybe require some tier three supports, some of which you heard Katie talk about in her presentation. And then uh a huge round of applause to our school board and to everyone listening in and those physically present today. Um our capital project that passed at 110 million is the largest capital project that this district has passed. Um and it would not have happened without the community support. And it's going to be nice to have new windows, new doors, new roofs, security structures, and heating units so that

043we can focus on making sure that students are able to learn and to grow. and more future capital projects will be following. The next slide um throughout the budget we try as we're building the expenses we have to look at the revenue side. How are we going to balance the budget? And one of the ways is increasing revenue. And increasing revenue is very difficult to do. Revenue is not it's not there forever. There's there's limitations. you know state revenue is going to be very limited in the coming future. Um other revenue is grant can be grant money but also that's very limited as well to their timeline. The second option is use of reserves and fund balance. However, if you continue using your fund balance and reserves also known as your savings account to balance

044the budget eventually those funds will be gone. The third option is the tax levy. The tax levy, also known as the 2% cap, um is at 2.44% this year, which is just shy of $427,000. And the this is one of the ways that schools typically use to balance their budget. Um however, they are limited to the tax cap calculation. Just as a highlight, rate, last year was 2.77, just about 489. We went out at 0%. Yes. And the last option which is the option that is typically done is reducing expenditures. Um some districts that are facing some hardships will cut programs and cut staffing. Fortunately, Watertown City School District is not in that position. Is not what we are doing. We are actually growing. This next slide is a copy of the tax cap calculation

045that you've seen a few times throughout this budget process. Um it is calculated with um the tax base growth factor which is pretty much how fast is the city growing is about 6%. Uh you have the allowable New York state growth factor. This is where the 2% tax cap comes into play. So you have the you grow by a maximum of 2% or excuse me 2% or the CPI it's capped at 2%. And then u there's a change in pilots and the change in the capital levy which brings us down to the 2 point 2 2.44% of about $426,583. All right. We're going to talk about the revenue side of the budget. Again, we have an increase um we're looking at from a $96.8 million budget to just shy of 104 million. So, an increase

046of just over $7 million. To offset that for the revenue, we have an increase of 2.7 million for state and federal aid. Um, it's increasing from 68 million to 71 million. Uh, that is pretty that is basically increase in foundation aid and Bosey's aid. But again, I need to make it very clear with the foundation aid. New York State has not yet passed a budget. It was due April 1st, but they had gone on their holiday break with another fourth extension on the budget. Um, and the last word is that the foundation aid that they gave that they had given out in January could actually decrease. Usually when they get the aid runs in January, you're guaranteed that minimum. That is not the case this year because they are lowering that rate for the increase

047in the foundation aid formula. So the 3.18% that we talked about possibly being an increase could actually be less. Yes. Um second one is other revenue. This includes um interest, income, pilot payments, tuition and admission, student admissions. That's increasing about a million dollars. As we will talk about further along, um the interest the interest rates have increased drastically over the last few years and we have taken every advantage that we can to increase the interest revenue for the district. For this year alone, we're looking at about $2 million in interest income. So on the conservative side, we're going to balance the budget with a million dollars of interest revenue for next year. And as again, as we'll talk about later, interest rates are expected to decrease, not drastically, but they are going to decrease over

048time. So the conservative route would be about a million dollars. Again, the third one is your tax levy. This budget is proposing a 2.44% tax levy increase. And finally is the fund balance and reserves. We are increasing the amount of fund balance usage by almost $3 million from 8.3 million to 11.7 million. Can I ask a question? Um I'm a little bit confused because under the 2425 actual you have 96 million but that that is what was budgeted. Correct. when you gave us a report in March, our actual on March 18th was $47 million. Now, of course, that's not including the encumbered amounts and we're not at the end of our fiscal year yet. So, my question is are this actual is not actual. That is what was budgeted for the 2425 year, right? But

049that's not what we actually spent and that is not what we're actually going to be spending. Those numbers can vary um based on what's encumbered by the end of the year. It's also affected by any vacant positions that have not been filled by the end of the year. So there are many there are many factors that play into it. Right. So I guess my question is if as of March 18th we have spent $47 million including in your estimation including the encumbered by the end of the fiscal year. How close are we going to be to the $96 million that was budgeted passed last year by the taxpayers? The last um when I last calculated out the fund balance it was going to increase by about $11 million. Hence the 11.7 that we're going to

050carry over into next year to balance the budget. Okay. Um what is our fund balance? As of June 30th, 2024, the end of last fiscal year, the beginning of this fiscal year, we had a fund balance of almost $52 million and that is broken up into four categories. We have the restricted fund balance just shy of $19 million. And that is made up of the various reserves that the district holds. Those are reserves include unemployment, retirement contributions, property loss, um the capital reserves that we had actually disapproved to use for their project and Laura tax and so forth. Um as we're talking about, you know, trying looking at our fund balance, other opportunities that we want to look down the road to help bring some of that fund balance down. Um you do not currently

051have a workers compensation reserve. So that is something that we'd like to look at. um and further increasing the insurance reserve. And of course, we do we will have on the ballot a furniture reserve and a new capital reserve. Assigned funs are the funds that are used to balance the budget and it was just shy of $9 million for this year. Encumbrances are any outstanding purchase orders that have not been completed by the end of the year and they get carried over from year to year and that was just shy of $220,000. And finally, unassigned, which is the number that we're concerned about. just shy $24 million which is about 24% of your fund balance 24% of the budget and New York New York state recommends 4%. which we will talk about next. Now, fund

052balance management, New York State Controller, they talk about fund balance also acts as a cushion against normal variations in cash flow. Um, and that's very important that many districts have had many emergency situations come up and they need they turned out they needed that fund balance to help, you know, fix any projects. like I know my old district we had pike first in the auditorium that was that was actually a fourth of the fund balance that we had at that point in time. Um it also helps with um short-term borrowing which helped with the rand issue that we had with the flood um and deferring necessary spending or other desirable actions. Fiscal advisors actually recommends that um they say 4% is pretty much outdated. There are other metrics that indicate that 10 to 15% is

053a good place to be and that is a place that we are striving for. And finally, the Rockefeller report which is the financial report issued by New York State this year and even their recommendation is increasing the unrestricted fund balance limit for districts not on safe harmless which includes Watertown City School to 10%. It's not keeping up the slides there. um fund balance at Ottertown. Um how and how was it built? It's built by accumulation of actual revenues exceeding actual expenditures. And again, you're seeing that this year budgeted about $15,000 for interest and you're going to accumulate $2 million in interest income. Um exceeding actual re expenditures, you're you're budgeting for positions and we're having trouble filling them. So you have those expenditures, that money is still sitting there for those positions. Great. The one

054thing that I also mentioned during the staff budget presentation is grants. there are a lot of a grant opportunities that the district receives and so in those grants there has to be a sustainability piece and so the district has to when we're adding those positions or grant funding positions there has to be a sustainability piece built in so that those positions do not end when the grant ends. The idea is the grant, you're awarded the grant, you're this initiative is put in place and that it can be carried out when the grant ends. And so initially there are some salaries that may be over inflated that aren't coming out of the salaries portion because the grants covering it, but in a year or two years when the grant ends, the general fund would be covering

055that. Um so that's important to look at also. And we saw that and the board's aware of that. um at least most everyone Tina except for you that last year you saw that you're selling over $4 million being carried over from those monies into the um into the general fund out of the salary line. Um having a healthy fund balance um that helps negotiate things such as salary negotiations. We do have a few contracts that are in negotiations right now. Um also having a healthy fund balance helps reduce the cost of borrowing money. U that's one of the things that fiscal advisors supports heavily for school districts because it does lower the interest rate on any debt that you're taking out also helps with your cash flow and um any unbudgeted expenses. The one thing

056that I shared earlier too is if anyone's familiar with like a condo, you know, when you when you live in a condo, you typically pay an HOA and the HOA covers certain things. Sometimes it covers your insurance, sometimes it covers your roofs, your windows, your doors, those main exterior things. um the fund balance and I think of like Neurrobacher last year. Necrobacher had boiler systems that were an issue. If we did not have the ability to repair those because of our fund balance last year, then there could have been a situation similar to what would happen in a condo situation where you're going out and you're filing for a special assessment to raise the money that you're collecting to pay the cost of the roof, the windows, the doors, or whatever the that needs to

057be replaced in a condo situation. So the same thing is true um in a school district where it protects us. That's why when you look at us and you'll hear later on with the different propositions. The idea of creating these is to create savings account to protect the district and more importantly our taxpayers for when something unexpected arises. There's some kind of our insurance carrier or insurance premiums that we have that money set aside to cover those unanticipated expenditures. The next one I just want to talk about some fund balance management. Some things that we are doing. We already mentioned the ARPA funds. We're aware of that. Um and so that is ending and those salaries have been moved over to the general fund. But some other one-time thing, it was an initiative of the

058board months ago, I think towards the beginning of the year to bring back marching band. You know, there are a lot of smaller districts in our region um that uh have marching bands. the sense of pride that they bring to our district. Um whether they're playing at a basketball game or a football game through a pep band. Uh we had the opportunity to participate in those interviews today. Um and Andrew is a retirement, so we're looking forward to to doing that. But one thing is when you add marching band, if those of you that have costed things like that out, those uniforms are roughly almost $1,000 per student. And so the uniforms are very expensive. Um it's something that we don't have that initial cost, but it's not a cost that would carry from year

059to year. The other thing that would be built in there is the instruments to get the marching band up and running. Um the next thing is the district vehicles. Right now we pay a significant amount of money when we want to use the vehicles to transport one student, four students, 10 students um to whether it's an athletic event. The vans would allow us the opportunity to transport students. The DOT law on that is that as long as they're transporting students less than 30 days in a calendar year that a teacher could uh file to be a driver to transport kids. It could be a special ed class that wants to take their kids to a life skill whether they want to teach them how to grocery shop, go to a laundromat. Um it could be

060a group of teachers that are going to a professional development. um instead of right now we're currently reimbursing um faculty and staff that are traveling with reimbursement at the IRS rate. That would alleviate the need to do that. Um those vehicles I will say are 90% covered on our transportation aid. So we get 90 cents on the dollar for those vans. And then the other thing is our maintenance trucks. Right now if you look we're noticing this with a lot of things but we're correcting and it's not all things that we can do in one year. Our maintenance vehicles on average are 14 years old. And so when you look at owning your own personal vehicle, you wouldn't keep it that long because you're going to have a lot of things uh that you're going

061to have to replace. And so oftent times now with our maintenance vehicles, there's a transmission that needs to be replaced. There's, you know, something else that needs to be replaced and to the tune of up to $7,000 per occurrence. Um, what we would like to do is get the maintenance vehicles on a five-year rotation so that we are selling them before we're making significant depreciation and paying significant costs uh that we're losing. Um, so that's that. The other thing I mentioned during the staff budget presentation is the high school auditorium stage. Um, and what I said to the staff is every school, every student, every teacher, every staff member, and every community member that benefits from our high school and having a presentable high school stage. Our high school stage has probably not been done

062since it was uh put there, and it shows. There's a lot of great memories on the stage. Uh, but I am fear of a safety issue with it. So, currently over spring break, a one-time purchase um is getting that stage 4 replaced and that's happening next week. In addition to that, the WY stairs, if you're familiar with the locker door entry at WY, um those stairs are a trip hazard. Some of the foreign coming up, so that's also being done. So, when you're looking at fund balance management, you're looking at things that you can do as a one-time expense that don't carry over from year to year, and that would be that. The other thing that we've been looking at, uh, the board, those of us that serve on the FNF committee, the finance and

063facilities committee, we've been talking about outdoor learning spaces. They have a, um, old tennis court at North Elementary School school and we're looking at creating an engaging outside learning space for those students and also to bring some pride to the north side of our city. Um, that's just these are just examples of of one-time projects that would not have carryover expenses. Next slide talks about reserves. Um reserves have very strict rules such as the establishment of a reserve. Most reserves can be um established by a simple resolution of the board but others are required by a vote of the public such as your capital reserve which the IT reserve that we've talked about falls under that. Um and and to spend it that capital reserves also require a vote from the public. Other reserves are

064simply a resolution from the board. um they're they're funded by they're funded by um overestimated expenditures. So if there's extra money at the end of the year in your general fund, some of those expenses some of those funds are carried over into a reserve. and some of some examples of plan assistance from reserves or other fund balance management um reserving money in the tax certiary reserve use of the IT reserve as we mentioned before that's on the that's on the proposition to purchase safety related equipment and we're going to continue funding retirement reserves and um again as we talked about furniture the new furniture reserve and the new capital reserve notable budgetary highlights from a revenue aspect as I've mentioned before we have our interest income. The district funds are diversified into three institutions. That's

065Watertown Savings Bank, Community Bank, and Nightclass. And the interest earnings from those three institutions, we're reaching about $2 million for this year. Foundation aid um for the 2425 year, the current year. This was the second year of fully funding financial fully funding foundation aid in New York State. So, Watertown City School District saw an increase of 8.77% in their foundation aid for this year. For the 2526, the initial funding is only 3.18%. Um, that's a difference about $3 million from year-over-year. Um, again, as I said, um, the budget has not been passed by the state and that 3.18 could be 2.9 or it could stay 3.18. We don't know at this point in time. On the expense side, again, as we mentioned, um, over the last few months, utilities, natural gas, and electricity are increasing

066about 10%. The health insurance premium has gone up 6%. The ERS retirement contributions, this is the um, retirement contributions the district pays on behalf of non-instructional employees. That rate is 19.6%. Liability insurance, which is, as Dr. Sme put is basically your state farm insurance, that's increasing 40%. And the transportation contract which has been renewed is an increased between 13 and 16%. One of the things I just want to tell the board that we've learned since the last board meeting we have been trying to go out shop for possibly different insurance. Um however there are insurance cover a school district and so we we looked outside and we got sent right back to the current insurance carrier. So we're we're kind of stuck at that. And there was also um the u deductibles deductibles. Thank you.

067Looking at that piece is sorry but the deductible piece going up and whether it's 25,000 50,000 75,000 90,000 as a deductible depending on the issue that money has to come from somewhere. So that money would come from fund. So that would be one of those insurance search. All right, we're looking at the different categories of expenses in the budget. Um, as you know, salaries is is the largest as 6.9 million increase from 44.2 to 51.1, but we will take a look at each of these separate categories as we go along. We have three different slides to address the increase in salaries. Um again, salaries are increasing $6.9 million. On the instructional side, um we're looking at adding two uh girls flag football coaches, one assistant coach for the indoor track. Um the participation has increased

068and um we find a need for an assistant coach. Case is going to have one hall monitor. Uh four teacher assistants at Nickerbacher, Ohio, Sherman, and Starbucks. uh one first grade teacher at Sherman, a summer school TA at the high school, one language teacher at the high school, expanding the art program by half of a art teacher at the high school, and one science teacher, and of course also Cyclone Academy junior. Um for the support side, we're looking to add um one assistant director of facilities and an elementary um SSO special education. And this is this is a large increase in the budget, about onethird. Um there are several positions that have to be added to stay in compliance with New York State. We have an occupational therapist, a 1211 teacher at the high school,

069a consultant teacher at the high school, two 15 to1 TAs over at North Sherman needs a cluster aid. Starbucks get uh adding a 12131 program case is 15 to1 and of course three buildings what the high school WY and Starbucks are looking for three 12131 TAS and two CSC chairs. One of the things that I want to say and we do have member here if there are any specific questions to special education but adding these positions we've had an amazing relationship over the years with Boseis. Uh Boseies is is having the same issues that districts are facing with staffing. Um they're seeing an increase number of students that require a higher level of care or support. And so in order to meet students IP needs, individual education plan needs, uh these are regulations that we

070have to meet. Um the other thing that's a huge increase um uh impact to the district and every other district around New York State. Um it used to be called fake 21 to where students had the right to stay in school until their 21st birthday. It is now fake 22. So students that are in special education, depending on their IEP, they have the right to stay at our high school until their 22nd birthday. Um, and a big significant thing with special education is there can't be above a three-year age gap with the students in each classroom. So it creates a need in that building and other buildings. And so this is the most significant increase. Last year it was case adding the additional team in order to provide AIS services in this building to close

071the gap and increase the graduation rate. It is our desire to really um perfect and enhance our continuing special education services so that we can meet the needs of our students that are diverse and ever changing. The other thing that I will say is that um this year we have had several classrooms that were beyond capacity. Um when you look at these numbers 12 to one 3 to one that means 12 students should be in that class. There were instances that maybe 15 kids were in a class or 17 kids were in a class. Uh Matt is able to apply to the state for variance, but it's a one-time variance. The state, you know, we've worked hard to get off one list for special education. We're working to get off the other one. These are

072services that the state is asking us to provide in order to meet the needs of our students, and we cannot keep asking for variances for ones that we've already asked for in the past. Matt, did you want to add anything that just crisis by having instructional role in place. As far as teacher services at the high school services are special pushing the classes to provide supported for students out of the class. They have specialized services Matt, I I have a couple some of this might be common knowledge to some people, but I'm not a special ed and people ask me and I don't like to give wrong information. So when you have when when it's described here 1211 that means that there's 12 kids one teacher and one TA correct okay so what is 12131

073mean 31 means 12 students to one teacher for students that are in that classroom are programs students have physical disabilities students So it requires so there would be four teachers in there so right now right now it's one teacher correct so are these numbers arbitrary because I hear also there's an 811 611 like who decides are there ranks for that or Do as a district do we decide based on the need like who decides what these numbers are when you have smaller classrooms and more onetoone for these students it's regulations in the past we have overn that and they had 18 districts competing for those six seats. Yeah. April levels that are there. So those are some of the new programs that you see here. Okay, Matt. What's a cluster? Cluster. So cluster goes intoeneral

074classes and they provide support to a small group of students. We currently have one over at Sherman Elementary support. Thank you, Matt. And the last part with salaries is in relation to the pre kindergarten program. So, this is looking at an addition, this is something that we do not currently have. What I will say before I go over this slide um you see on the screen um is the currently right now we have partnerships with CEOs uh Beth M is in the audience today our prek principal Matt Berdick and um also additional staff have met Christo being one have met with our cos and our incoming uh kindergarten teachers to help smooth that transition uh for some of our friends that are coming into kindergarten with some challenging needs. Um these allocations are new. They

075are different. They allow us to build our continuum of services. Um so this proposal would be adding two special education classrooms. If you're familiar with like a co-op model, there would be more of a co-op model. So there would be a genet teacher in the class, a special education teacher in the class, which is what's currently being provided in our 4410 4410 uh in our 4410 programs. And then there would be also a teacher assistancy. This is the district taking over. Um the district right now we do have a partnership with um Jefferson County. So these positions are built into the budget, but in the following year they would be money that the district would be receiving back. Um so this would be looking at kids that are coming in in prek with identifying needs.

076This is looking at having our own speech pathologist, our own occupational therapist, our own physical therapist and psychologist available so that when parents are recommending their kid be tested or a pediatrician's recommending a kid be tested, this would provide the staff on hand to make sure that we're able to conduct these tests and to provide the classroom support to make it happen. It will better align our prek kids that are in special education classes now with our district as they would be district teachers and district uh service providers. So they would be conducting the evaluation providing the service and then uh the programming through the class. So this is this is new this year as a proposal. We don't have this sheet. Uh we updated it and put it on the um okay on board.

077Um so these are this is a dedicated team. This is a dedicated team for and there's I don't know Matt maybe you know the answer to this. There's no opportunity for our current occupational therapist, physical speech or psychologist to provide those needs at the prek level. Is our volume that intense that we need a dedicated team? I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I'm just to me that's shocking that we need a whole team. That's a lot of kids. a lot of evaluations that take time making sure that they necessary supports and services in place. Um I know on previous slide we're looking at adding additional occupational therapist with our three occupational therapist they have currently about 70 students that's improvement services they making sure that we're starting those services that I think the other

078big thing really the difference is the you know at a prek age level they can receive special education services for related service where if a kid when they become that compulsory age in kindergarten they have to meet one of the 13 qualifying disabilities. And so it is not uncommon for even more kids to qualify for special education services in prek and then be declassified in some cases as they move to kindergarten. But this would provide that level of support so that we know right now we do have a relationship. Shannon does work with um the county. But too often, you know, people are being referred and then the county doesn't have enough people to provide the service. And so being people are being put on the wait list. And to add to that further is

079that one of the things we've learned over the last well I guess the last two board meetings is that if the county is not able to provide the service, the district is legally obligated. It's hard to be obligated when you don't have the staff. So, this would allow us to provide the services and more importantly ensure that our kids needs are being met. So, when they get into kindergarten, they have the best chance of reading on level, doing math on level, excelling socially, emotionally. So, there's a lot of things that the district and the board has done to get to this point. We've added a behavioral support team with Christ and her TAs this year, the transition meetings that Beth and Matt are organizing, but we need more. The teachers are recognizing that we did

080something significant going into this year, but we need more. And so we're looking at more tiered support so that our kids, we can meet the needs. Lynn's doing an amazing job at the primary grades with the instructional side of the house. We're seeing amazing gains there, but it does it starts in prek. And if those foundational craft cracks exist in prek, the hopes of closing that in kindergarten are more difficult. Yeah. I think this is this is great. Has this been communicated to the CBOS? Nope. Because we don't know if the board's going to approve it and the community is going to approve it. They'll be very happy with this. This is exactly what they wanted. I hope so. Um not at the bottom, um total salaries is $51 million. That represents just shy of

08150% of the proposed budget. If you include the benefits, we're at 72.2% 2% and as I've mentioned before the average is about 75% for salaries and benefits at a district. The next couple slides are going to be a little quick. Um just some slight increases. Equipment is increasing about $175,000. The proposed budget is about $2.3 million. This includes of course classroom furniture, instructional instruments, athletic equipment, but most notably the four vans for student transportation and the one maintenance vehicle. contractual and tuition increasing just almost like $180,000 a total appropriation of about $9 million for the 25 26 year. Uh this represents your building maintenance work, utilities, um district services just legal, auditing and so forth. And of course it also represents the transportation contract. Um the previous transportation contract was stated 2018, so five years

082seven years ago. It was a 5-year contract with two one-year extensions. So, um that represented about a 13 to 16% increase, but there were also new routes included such as the elementary after school activity bus t something that we added to this year that we want to be able to carry over for next year that leveled the playing field for kids that needed a ride to and from uh or from their activities at the elementary level to include riding. The tardy bus is something that the district had years ago. Um, when the driver retired, it kind of stopped. It was a district driver. That bus went around. As I said to the staff today, you know, when you look at closing the achievement gap for all kids, it doesn't make sense um to us as

083a as a leadership team that when kids, you know, if a parent oversleeps or what have you um to have them miss the entire instructional day. And so this activity bus will be something that we'll be working with for first student and with our um our principles, home school coordinators, secretaries, etc. so that if a kid needs to go be picked up, they can be brought to school. Uh the next thing is the Cyclone Academy bus. This year we added the Cyclone Academy bus because we know if we're not offering transportation, we're not leveling the playing field and kids are less likely to come to school. Um we also this year, and you may have remembered us saying this, we also added that transportation to our students in the GED program uh to jump on

084that bus as well. And the other thing that we are look that we've added this year kind of pilot in and Mike is here if you have any questions for that. We've uh there are kids that have needed the activity bus or the athletic bus to go home so that they have the opportunity to participate in sports. So we're looking at expanding that next year as well. Supplies and software just a slight decrease of $136,000. The majority of that decrease, just to be clear, was pretty much in the IT related services. Um, there was some duplicity of expenses budgeted in IT and that was cleaned up with this about $2 million are budgeted for materials and supplies both. Uh, we did finally get our Bose our final Boseies figures. So, that increase went from $1

085million to 629,000. Um the biggest increase it was in the support services which is the IT services with the MOR an increase of $1.1 million. Um a lot of this a lot of the changes in the Boseis building is just reallocation of expenses but the it do have some big projects that they're looking at proposing for next year. Um the de there was a decrease in instructional for 427 420,000 and then employee benefits is an increase of 233. again just some reallocation there was no elimination of any programs whatsoever um but and also to note our Bosey's eight ratio is 78.6% 6% will receive that in the following year. One of the things that I want to before we move off of Boseies, one of the things we were able to work with Boseies this

086year on is um providing transportation to our cosmetology students. Um we had cosmetology students that if they had a vehicle and were able to go to cosmetology on the weekend to get that extra the hours that they needed to leave with an endorsement, they were benefiting from getting the they had their own transportation. They received their endorsement. Um, this year I signed a contract with Boseis to provide transportation to kids that don't have vehicle transportation of their own and there were possibly up to 12 kids that that benefited from that. So, we're looking when we say leveling the playing field, we're looking at some of our kids and families that maybe don't have things to be able to provide that. Um, we want every kid if they can leave 12th grade in our high school

087with an endorsement or a certification that can make them employable. That's the whole uh thing behind Portrait of a Graduate and the Blue Ribbon Commission in New York State. Textbooks is a slight decrease of $90,000 with a proposed budget of just shy of $400,000 and that was just cleaning up some little extra fluff in there. Employee benefits. Now, I know we've mentioned over and over again, you know, ERS rate has increased, health insurance has increased. Um, however, once going through the budget and trying to organize things to the way I like to see it, it appeared that there was a lot of fluff in different areas of employee benefits. So, that's why you're going to see an actual decrease of almost $500,000 in that category alone. So, the the budget appropriation for employee benefits is

088almost $24 million. Debt service is decreasing slightly, $102,000. Um these numbers were verified with fiscal advisors. These are just the payments that are owed on our debt. And finally, the inter fund transfers. The general fund supplements um the special aid fund with any BOSI special ed programming and of course the $100,000 capital outlay. There is no change in that dollar amount year-over-year unless of course we get lucky and they decide that capital outlay can be 250. One one can only dream. All right, we're going to look at our three-part budget. um required to introduce this as part of the budget process. It's broken down to administration, instruction, or otherwise known as programming and capital. The decreasing um $600,000 from 7.5 million to 6.9 instruction, which is where you really want to see the increase, and

089that's increasing about $7 million million to almost 82. And then of course the capital which um is your debt service and your bus purchases 14.3 million to 15.2 so about $900,000. Again this proposed budget is reflecting a tax levy of 2.44%. The tax levy does equal the the maximum amount per the tax cap calculation. I know that's really hard to see and I apologize but I believe you have a printed copy in your hands. Um what the 2.44% 44% means is on a $100,000 home in the city of Watertown. Again, everything's based on equalization value on your town. Um, a $100,000 home, let's see about a $27 increase in their tax bill. And we have different propositions that are going to be on the budget besides the budget itself. The first is the two open

090board seats for Coley Goer and Millie Smith. Proposition number two will be the new capital reserve of $15 million. And I just I want to add a comment to that one because the um with the voters support of the 10 million capital project. Um you may have heard that we brought this to the board twice. We originally brought it to the board at a $10 million um capital reserve fund and we raised it to 15 million. um what I shared at the last board meeting the rationale for that when the you know any of these propositions when you're creating a capital reserve fund it is voter authorized to create and it's also voter authorized to expend and so what's important to understand that when you create it and say you create it at $10 million

091you can't go over by 10 million1 and so the idea is is that the current 10 million that the voters approved when they approved our capital project that 10 million is now going to be extended project and to not influence our taxes in a negative way uh the resident's taxes. And so this project because we know that beyond roofs, windows, doors, heating systems, and secure vestibules at the schools that don't have them, we know that we need to get in and impact instructional spaces to make sure that our kids and our teachers have the instructional spaces they need to make sure that our kids have the 21st c 21st century learning uh as possible. So by creating this $15 million reserves, it doesn't mean that it's fully funded in one year. It doesn't mean that

092it's fully funded in two years. It's a 10-year commitment and that will get us to our second capital project and the 110 million. What we envision is the 110 million again, no uh negative tax impact to our taxpayers. We're going to plan on a second project behind the first one and our hope is that there would be zero tax impact to our taxpayers as well. And so by creating this account, it's going to help us go out with another capital project and start influencing our instructional spaces. So it's just like it's your house. Um you put money into a savings account at some point. You want to renovate your bathrooms or maybe your kitchen or your roof needs to be done or your windows need to be done. It's putting money in a savings account

093for future use without having to go to the taxpayers and have a special levy to levy. to remember our as a school district our ability to raise money comes in very few ways and one of the the ways to do that is through our tax dollars that we collect um through our tax levies and so I just wanted to throw that out with that piece proposition number three um looking to create a furniture reserve over a million dollars over a life of 10 years um I want to comment on that one too sorry no please so one of the things that I learned so the $13 million capital project was approved before um I was appointed superintendent here which I'm glad and thankful that it was but it created a beautiful music room uh both

094band and vocal at WY created a beautiful art room at WY um and office spaces and you had beautiful new spaces with old furniture put back in those spaces um you know similar to when we do things around our house you want that complete project and that complete look and that complete feel and as I said you know there's a lot of things that the district is doing to reduce behavior and you heard at the high school it's been decreased over 50%. You saw today on the case one it's reduced significantly. Um a part of that is looking at our furniture too. Our needs of our kids are significantly increasing. And so you know when you look at that wooden chair as nice as it is, it doesn't meet the need of every kid that

095maybe needs that physical movement. And so what we're looking at by creating this furniture reserve is and there's another component to this. When you work on a renovation project, renovations do not include aid on furniture. You can only get aid on furniture once. And so when the building's constructed, and in some of our buildings, they're old. And so we're not going to get aid again unless we do this. So this gives us an opportunity to start putting money away with the understanding that we are going to be impacting instructional spaces. And we want furniture that meets the needs of today's kids in those spaces um and adults. And so that allows us to create that reserve account for that. Again, voter approved, voter approved to expense. Proposition number four is a security proposition. Um because

096the I the IT reserve is a capital reserve under the rule of law. It does require voter authorization to spend the money. And the items that we're looking to purchase, as previously discussed, were the open gate weapon detection system at case in the high school and districtwide handheld radio system. And the last few slides is just the information for early mail voting and absentee ballots and um open enrollment for continuous voter registration. Just if we can go back to that slide for anybody that's listening into the open enrollment piece. Um, one of the things that the board approved um, early on was to allow our district to be in open enrollment. That was something that took board action to approve. Um, typically there was one day of the year, typically in April, that voters could

097come in and register to vote in the school district budget. Um, and these are people that are not automatically registered in the county. If they're registered in the county, we use their their role. We don't need them to reregister to vote in our um, our budget. However, for those people that are not registered with the county that would like to register to vote with the district budget but not the um county, they can come and see Michelle. It's on the screen Monday through Friday um from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. and they can actually register to vote. And we encourage anyone to use their voice and to take advantage of this opportunity that was newly afforded to us. And as a reminder, our the budget vote is Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 from 12:00 p.m. to

0989:00 p.m. We have two locations, the Watertown High School and North Elementary. And that concludes the presentation. I do questions. I don't know if you want me to ask them now. I'd rather ask them now since we just finished and express. Um, last time I asked what were the codes for the cycling 2300. So I looked at that and those codes say teaching special schools instructional salaries. Yes. So I'm assuming that the big jump in the salary is including the Cyclone Academy. The Cyclone Academy doesn't have its own line items. Um, the other question I have is the foundation aid formula. Isn't that formula based on the socioeconomic status of the kids that are within the community? It is, but there's also in um CPI increases, inflationary increases. And um the last I heard um

099from the emails that we received from NISBA and ASBO was they're changing the inflationary rate from 3.1 3.18 down to 2.9. So that could decrease what we potentially get, but we don't know yet. Okay. And when does that come out? Well, that's a very good question. Supposed to be April 1st. Yes, it's supposed to be April 1. Um they have yet to pass the budget. Um I can't remember what they're holding up on. Um, but they just went out on their holiday leave and won't be back until after Easter. And then the last question I have is the 2.44% tax level. That is the maximum that we can ask the taxpayers to approve for a simple majority vote for for a simple Okay. So the board could say 2.88, but then it would need a

100super majority, right? I just wanted to clarify that that's the maximum. Okay. Thank you. You are welcome. Okay. Further items for consent agenda. Resolve that consent agenda items A, B, and C are hereby approved. Motion, please. Lori. Lori. A second. Tina. Tina. All those in favor? I oppose. Items for board action. Resolve that the Watertown City School District hereby approves the 20 526 proposed administrative budget for the Jeff Lewis Herkimer Hamilton Onida Board of Cooperative Educational Services as presented to the component districts. Motion please. Discussion. All those in favor? I oppose. It resolved that the Watertown City School District Board of Education upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools approves the nominations of Michael Kramer and Jennifer Jones to fill the three uh year terms of office July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028

101on the cooperative of board of cooperative educational services. One vote is cast for each of the following two candidates to fill three vacancies. Motion, please. Oh, Kelly, a second. Tina discussion. All those in favor? Any oppose? Motion carries. Resolve that the Watertown City School District school property tax report card for the 2526 proposed school budget is hereby approved. Motion please. Tina Tina second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion carries. resolved that the proposed budget of 103,9,155 um dollars of the uh Watertown City School District of the city of Watertown for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2025 is hereby adopted and the same shall be submitted for approval by the qualified voters of the school district at this budget vote school board election to be held held on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. Motion, please.

102A second. Discussion. So, I have a comment. Um, Bri, I appreciate all the updates on how hard you've worked in delineating exactly where are all of our increases are. Um, you know, I've looked at this budget very carefully and over the last three budget seasons, we've had a significant surplus in funds and I do understand and I think the community needs to understand also that our fund balance is very important. Like you said, it's very important to keep that reserved. Um, and last year we were lucky enough to do a 0% tax levy, which was a hard thing to do, but we did it. And we also said, and at the very minimum, that we would never do that again. Um, it's not financially viable to do that and to continue to do that. So,

103in the spirit of that, we had the turf field. We did a lot of great things. We and we gave the community back something tangible that they could look at. I think based on your presentation, um, I like when you said that most of our English should be in instructional. Um, and you know, Katie introduced all these things at Case Middle School that I was unaware of. And I think that in that, you know, forward movement, it's important for us to substantiate the budget and I will support the budget. My only question is this and it's obviously not my decision because I'm just one and there's you know the rest of the board but if our tax levy is 2.44 44. And the reason I asked is that the maximum and the answer was yes,

104that's the maximum. I will just ask the board if we could do a little bit better than that. And the only reason the only reason I'm saying that is because we we are very fortunate. We are in a very good financial position. But really, $103 million and you know, it is what it is. Like I said, I think that you you said a lot of good things about why the budget had to go up to 103. Um, but I just think that maybe we could do a little bit better than the 2.44. Um, I don't know that that's, you know, that we have to decide that right now. If we have to vote on this so that it can move forward and it can be, nothing's final, right? If this isn't voted on today, then

105it won't it has to be on the ballot. So, the board does have to act, right? I guess my question is I I understand that part. My question is if we were to decide to lower the tax levy, we would still be able to put that on the on the ballot. What would what you're approving today is the 2.44. So in other words, if we approve this today, there's no going back unless you do a special board meeting and Okay. Because you're actually approving the budget tonight. Okay. Well, that I'm just going to put it out there, like I feel like we could do a little bit better than a 2.44. I just if I can add to what you're saying just to give you some information that you may not have because I just

106got it today. Okay. This afternoon. Um so we did go out at a 0% tax levy increase and um the loss in revenues was 489,000. And when you look at it initially, you're like, okay, 489,000 for a district that has a reserve. That doesn't sound bad. The part that I dug into today because I really wanted to educate myself on is the compounding piece. So, say we went out at 2% or 1.99, whichever sounded better. Yeah. And then you you went at zero this year. Over a fiveyear period of time because of the compounding piece, the district would have lost $6.5 million in in money. Yeah. Uh not interest, but money. Right. When you look at the fact that the state has not given us a solid number, so it may not be 3.18. When

107you look at the fact that the district this moving into next year, not this year, but moving into next year, we're losing 5.5% in our foundation aid because we were fully funded this year, that's 3 million in lost revenues. When you look at the additional programs that we're looking at adding, if we keep on this path, then our expenses are going to exceed our revenues. for that. I wouldn't recommend it. Um, but that's my own I did the research today because I I wanted to figure out the compounding piece, right? Because 489 sounds low until you figure out five years down that the district will be losing about 6.5 and in order to recover. So say the district in five years because it's hard you guys are making a decision today to project out that

108far. If you if the district said you know what we really need that 6.5 million back they would have to have a super majority and not a 2.4 44, but a 12% tax levy in order to recoup that money. And you know, I respect what you say. I really do. But really, in the last few years, whatever the taxpayers have approved, we haven't even come close to in terms of expenditure. So, I I don't believe that our expenses are going to exceed our um what we our budget. Um, but I can't guarantee that they already are because in here it shows you that they're exceeding the revenues. But right now we're using 11 point something million to cover that. That savings account is going to deplete. Even in a 5year period of time, 50,000 is

109gone and 23,000 or 23 million is in restricted that we can't even touch. And we're proposing with this budget to add an insurance piece to cover the district for liability. We're looking at workman's comp that we currently are not insured for. That is a liability that you It's hard to predict. Sure. Thank you. You're welcome. Anybody else? Um I just I want to say I know that Bri um brought up at $100,000. The median home price is $237,250 and the average taxpayer pays $2,800. That's 68.32 a year and $5.39 a month increase. So, I think if we break it down that way just to keep us safe because interest rates are going to go down in the next year, um that's a given that we're going to lose that money. So, that's just my opinion

110on it. That's not going to work out when our property taxes go up 20% next year. We're not talking about city council. No, we were talking about the residents of the city of Watertown. So, irrespective of city council or the school board, it's the same people that are paying the taxes. So, I mean, I'm not arguing what you're saying. Your math is right, but next year our taxes are going to go up. So, it's just it's just going to pile on. I that's just a reality. You don't have to agree with it. It's a reality. Kind of reminds me of what I said. What was it? Two board meetings ago or one. Sorry. They're blend. Some of them blend. But we had talked about Bri and I sit on the health insurance consortium for the

111region and we were looking at last year going out at a 3% and we had some people say go down in at zero in at zero in at zero. Don't raise it. Now this year they're raising the cost 6%. And so the idea with the tax levy is to raise it a small amount each year that's predictable that taxpayers can rely on instead of having to say now we need to raise it 12% to cover unexpected cost. Well, I I I mean that's fine, but I feel like everyone should know like what the real numbers are. So, okay. So, all those in favor? Any oppos? Whereas after public advertising for bids for restoration of the North Elementary School land survey proposal, copies of specifications were furnished to three vendors and three bids were received. Whereas

112the firm submitting the lowest responsible bid meeting the specifications for the restoration of the North Elementary School Land Survey proposal was Jacob's land surveying. Therefore, be it resolved that Jacob's land surveying in the amount of $9,100. No, that's not right. $9,100. Okay. Okay, that is right. Need a calendar. Sorry about that. $9,100 as noted in the bid is hereby approved. And by approving this, it approves us to move forward with getting RFPs for the outside learning space that can also help aid in any other future capital projects. I have a question. So the there's that's it cost $9,000 to survey north is the level of detail that that place needs to look underneath the cement but that's going to help us with the site improvements that need to be made at that building as a

113part of the capital project. So this will actually help a variety of issues similar to our high school case and wy with having the level of surveying that we're doing. Did we put the bid out to all local? How do we put this this um so your architect sends it out, your construction manager sends it out. Did we put that in the newspaper or not? I think our architect takes responsibility with advertising. Motion. Uh, no. Not. Okay. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. I understand Kelsey Shepus is here tonight. If you'd like to stand up. Thank you. Resolved that upon the recommendation of Dr. Larry Schmegel, superintendent of schools. The appointment of Kelsey Shepus as K12 principal in the district is hereby approved. Motion, please. Colle discussion. All

114those in favor. Any opposed? I wanted to say, can I say one thing? Um, wanted to thank we had two retired principles. Um, Terry Gansth and Mike Lennox. Um, when Kelsey was hired, the board approved her in at the December board meeting. um she was hired for the high school and the district did something that we've never done before and created an inter internship kind of experience at Ohio with Jessica's uh departure to Sandy Creek. Um and Kelsey according to the teachers and those veteran principles that the district really enjoys and loves admire uh spoke very highly of your capability and how you jumped in on day one and started doing the job of principles. So congratulations and the board shows their level of support tonight by saying yes. Be it resolved that upon the

115recommendation the superintendent of schools Dr. Larry Schmegel. The board of education hereby approves the following resignations. Leave of absence appointment probationary instructional term non-probationary instructional teachers on special assignment STEM program permanent lead teachers substitutes instructional substitutes non-instructional team. Tina second sorry discussion I have a question just I on teachers on special assignment and then lead teachers some of those are the same people what's the difference yes and I had this discussion before but basically they they serve the role as a coach in the district instru what is a lead teacher is in the class no well some of The lead teachers are in the classroom. So the lead teacher as a peer assignment would be somebody that is a conduit between administration and the department. They have department meetings. We have two here tonight and

116f. Yes. Um but then lead teacher. We also name our coaches to that because it has a stipen with it that allows our coaches to like travel between buildings, do different things without having to get into the nitty-gritty of all the reimburses with that. Okay. Thanks. Okay. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay. Resolve upon the recommendation of Dr. Larry C. Maple, superintendent of schools that Mary Hughes will serve as a perdium director of food service effective July 1, 2025 and will be con compensated at the daily rate of $385 per day. Just wanted to explain the rationale for this. Mary unfortunately was sick and not able to be here tonight, otherwise she would have been. Uh we currently the board approved a new director of food service. Um, our new director of food service

117begins on May 1st. Um, some of the state and federal reporting for food service happens once a month. So, we wanted the ability to call Mary in on a day to help him do the um the billing at the month end to make sure that he has the level of support. It's not like we have other directors of food services in our district that we could easily hire to come in and provide that service. And we have someone retiring in our district uh with a great reputation and wonderful skill set. And so that's why we're bringing that to the board today for approval. Okay. Motion, please. Tina. Tina. A second. Discussion. All those in favor. Any opposed? Motion carries. Whereas a resolution was passed by the board of education on April 1, 2025 approving the

118resignation date of Lucinda Diaz to be April 4th, 2025. And be it further resolved that this amended resolution reflects a change in resignation date to be April 18th, 2025 and is hereby approved. Motion please. Tina second vote discussion. All those in favor. They oppose. Motion carries resolved at an employment agreement by and between the Watertown City School District and Tina M. plane for the period of July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028 is hereby approved. Motion please. Second discussion. Thank you. Continue service. Thank you. All those in favor? Any opposed? resolve that the following revised board of education policies are uh hereby approved and adopted. Uh 10003 community use of school facilities uh 4202 deposits uh 7602 providing a safe uh public school choice to students who have been victims of a violent criminal offense.

119[Music] [Laughter] Lori Lori a second I think it discussion all favor any opposition period Do that one on the second. Okay. Resolve that upon the recommendation of Dr. Larry C. Schmegle, superintendent of schools, the probationary appointment of a non-instructional employee is hereby discontinued effective April 11, 2025. Motion please. Lori a second. Tina Tina. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any oppos? Motion carries pick up. Okay. Uh resolve that the sale, disposal or recycle of outdated, unused and generally in poor condition pianos from HT WY Intermediate School as per the list reviewed by the board is hereby approved. Motion please. Tina. Tina second. Kelly discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Resolved that the disposal, recycle or donation of damaged, outdated, and unused books from the libraries at Watertown High School and HT

120WY Intermediate School as per the list reviewed by the board is hereby approved. Motion, please. Lori Lori a second discussion all those in favor motion carries resolved that a donation from a parent in the district Mr. Rajim Richardson for several hygiene items to be dispersed among the schools and the district for students in need. This donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing. Motion please. Tina Tina second discussion all those in favor motion carries thank you for the donation resolve that a donation from the safe schools endeavor for the from of the new uh northern New York community foundation for $1300 designated as support for speaker fees and materials for human trafficking awareness day. This donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing. Motion please. Second. Any

121discussion? Okay. All those in favor? Any extension? Any opposed? Motion carries. That is the end of the resolutions. Good time. motion to address the board on non-aggenda with the public can. Okay. Some upcoming days to share. Friday, April 18th is Good Friday holiday and all buildings are closed. Monday the 21st through Friday the 25th, there is spring recess, so there is no school. Monday, April 28th, the community budget presentation is at Case Middle School auditorium. 5:30. And Tuesday, May 6, a public hearing for the proposed 2526 school budget uh and the regular board of education meeting are at HT district office conference beginning at 5:30. Uh go around the room. Millie, um thank you to Case Middle School. Katie did a great job and so did with the kids. It was really nice to learn

122about new things that Case Middle School is doing for the district. Thank you. Um again, thank you to Case. Thank you, Dr. Kimble, for coming as he's leaving before we get to talk to him. Haven't seen you in a while. Um, I went to um two of the music productions that the kids had done last week and I went to the talent show on Friday and I am blown away. These kids just amaze me on a daily basis. Um they they did a great job in all of the areas, the the talent show and then the the musicals and the choir and it was just it's just great to watch them. They did a very nice job. So congratulations to our music department. Good job. Okay, please do. Matthew, thank you so much for everything

123you do for our kids and for our special ed department and Tina and Lynn also. Thank you very very much. Um, and that's all I had to say, but I do have something to read. This time I won't forget. Thank you. Uh, this says, "Good afternoon, Jason and Tina." Thank you. This month from April 15th to the 11th, we proudly celebrated the week of the young child, a vibrant and meaningful week dedicated to honoring young children, their families, and the educators who nurture their growth every day. Each day brought a special theme that highlighted the importance of early learning through play, exploration, instruction, creativity, and connection. A heartfelt thank you to all eight of our community-based organizations for making this week truly magical for our littlest learners and their families in Watertown City School District.

124Your dedication and creativity helped bring joy and learning to life. Be sure to visit the bulletin board in the district office to see the beautiful work our prek students and staff created during this special week. It's a wonderful showcase of their efforts and enthusiasm. In addition to celebrating early childhood education, we also join the district in recognizing month of the military child this April. This is a time to honor the strength, resilience, and unique experiences of children and military families. We proudly stand with our military connected students and families, acknowledging their sacrifices and contributions to our school community. This month we say thank you and show our support because every military child deserves to be celebrated. Thank you Elizabeth Mer. Um thank you. Is anybody from case left? Um thank you for hosting us. It

125was a great presentation and thank you to the kids. Um, I had Jack certificate. So, he was at practice and did not come even though he had permission because he wanted to practice because they have a game tomorrow. But I wanted to thank Mike um for bringing them. He came home very excited from the town said the speaker for amazing. So, thank you to the school for that opportunity and I hope everyone has a great spring break. Yeah, totally. Um just to repeat myself, I know as we travel um or tour schools at the board meetings, um a common trend is that we're met with a list of more and more offerings that each school has to try to include and uh the different interests and athletes for each day and it's nice to see

126see that. Um, also, um, I've noticed with a few kids who who get up to speak, um, some of the students, they start by saying they have anxiety or they're not a great public speaker and they not. So, now I'm going to start my speeches by just want to echo the comments about case. Uh, seventh and eighth grade such an important time in students lives. I know most for me it really sets the stage for what's going to happen in the high school and thank you for all that you do to support our strategic plan. Um did want to shout out Bri and superintendent and all the administrative team and everyone involved in the budget process. What you see here is not just something that shows up on the desk. It's it's many many months

127of work. Uh lots of input from the board comes recommended by a board committee of which three of us serve. So by the time it gets here, it's really been pretty thoroughly discussed and I really appreciate all the ways you bring multiple stakeholders into the discussion. Um, and all the ways that it supports all the work everyone's trying to do to increase the impact of our strategic plan. So I couldn't say it better, so I'm not going to try. Um, oh, at this time we're in need of an executive session. for the purpose of negotiation. So, article 14 of the civil service law. Can I have a motion? All those in favor