Berlin CSD Board of Education Special Meeting 4/8

001[Music] It is 7:16. I'll call the meeting to order. We have uh five board members present. Can we stand to pledge allegiance to the flag, please? To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] At this time, we will open up the budget workshop and turn it over to Colle and Moren to present draft three of the um 2024 or 2526 budget. Uh based on the recommendations of the board from the last [Music] meeting last Thursday can the back here. Okay. Oh, you are [Music] Last Thursday, community members came up to the podium with conviction and emotion. As a school business official and as an educator of nearly 20 years, I encouraged civic engagement. Not just

002because it is embedded in New York's learning standards, but because our public education system depends on it. Our system only works when people participate, not just React. We currently have three seats open on the board. There was a larger crowd than usual in attendance last Thursday, as there is tonight, but the district has only received three petition requests a day. This isn't a criticism. It's a reflection of something deeper in our community and it's an opportunity. We're at a moment where strong governance matters more than ever. And governance isn't just what board members do. It's what the community empowers and participates in. Our public school system doesn't function well when people only engage at moments of crisis or when emotions are high. It works best when community members step forward to lead, to serve, to

003help shape long-term solutions before the cliffs appear. The financial challenges we face today and those we will face again in the future can only be solved through shared responsibility and a range of voices coming together to ask hard questions, weigh real tradeoffs, and work toward sustainable solutions. Students and teachers shared powerful and personal stories last week, expressing feelings of loss, frustration, and uncertainty. Their voices matter deeply. At the same time, our board members are balancing intense, often competing pressures. This isn't about whether we care about teachers. Of course we do. It's about whether we are designing structures that can afford them, not just next year, but for years to come. If we delay hard decisions today, we are ensuring that future students who will love their teachers just as much will face more difficult choices

004down the line. The community has asked for transparency and financial stability and I believe that is what the board is striving to do. But they can't do it alone. They need our partnership, not just input in moments of high emotion. When I was asked to consider joining Berlin, one of my questions was whether the community, not just the board, was ready to do the hard work required to build long-term sustainability. I was told yes. The Berlin community wants business office and district leadership that is transparent, focused on moving forward, one that gives fair warning when risk appear, and creates enough lead time to take meaningful action. On the same note, just the other day, our incoming superintendent asked me what I saw as Berlin's greatest strength and what I hope we grow into. My answer

005is simple. This is a district with a strong sense of community. Everyone here wants something better for kids. What I hope we grow into is a broader sense of community. One that embraces difficult discourse, welcomes many perspectives, and stands together, not just in celebration, but also in challenge. We ended last Thursday's meeting with a lot of advocacy for individuals, and that advocacy was heartfelt and important. But we didn't yet hear how we didn't hear much yet about the direction the broader community supports. We didn't engage the bigger question. How do we come together now to protect what matters most tomorrow? This is what the next presentation is about. Not just numbers, but choices and the values that align with those choices. So again, our core values need more than just the poster, right? They mean

006something. Empathy, integrity, pride, perseverance, teamwork, growth, mindset. They have to drive all of our processes. And our pillars, the two that we're really looking at here is the community partnerships, working together to find those solutions, but also recognizing as passionate as we are about education, facilities, and some other pieces are very real realities. On Thursday, I heard a lot of priorities and they are up there on the screen. Here's the challenge that we're faced with. Budget development must balance current and future needs. There are program needs, student needs, operational facilities needs, staffing and money limitations, taxpayer needs, performance goals. We're going to look at a little bit about performance data and glance slides that will come next. And the purpose is recognizing performance standing and growth for purposes of continued conversation and forward planning. Budgets

007are not just about budgets. They are also about programming and moving forward in academics. So are we doing okay? What is our status? What is improvement and what is growth? no pointer, but you'll see the 2021. So, these are this is like a line that puts all of the Questa region districts um in in relation to each other and then shows the percentage of performance on all state exams that is both elementary and high school. So, 2021 49.05% performance. the follow or the next year 50% we have a little jump 54.5 and then the most current 54.52 so we have made some movement and we need to make more here is Berlin in relation to the entire state in performance we have to have fiveyear budget goals we have five year facility goals, we also

008need five-year performance goals. So, what's available to us? How are we using data to learn from each other? On this screen, you see two scores, the 82% and the let's call it 65%. Same course, same year, same exam, different teachers. If I were that teacher with the 64%, I would want to know what the 82% teacher was doing, how she got there. He or she, I don't know who it is. So, there's data available to us that can be used to have conversations. We can analyze specific tests. We can look at an entire course across the district. We can look at a class section and see how it's performing. We can look at an individual student over time. We can look at an individual teacher over time. We can compare test or learning standards across

009many years. We can compare to like size or economically similar districts. We can build our own reports. We can ask teachers, what do you want to study about your own teaching and your own students? And we can dig down in the data and examine that to have conversations in better instruction. Other data available to us. How do we select district academic improvement priorities and how do we currently measure district improvement? Some more data we could compare ourselves to others in our roies in a variety of ways and each of these has a drill down that could lead to further information. We compare ourselves to the RIP which is the entire capital region and these data sets that are available will even point out to us here are some high priority standards that you might want

010to look at first that might lead you down the path to greater success. This is work that is done for us but someone needs to lead the charge in digging in and bringing it to the teachers and bringing it to impact students. We have longitudinal studies. All of this is a treasure trove of state and local data in addition to the student products and other local evidence of learning that we're not taking full advantage of right now. Distractor analysis is another type of data available to us where we can look at um student performance again by class size across the region the state look at questions who's getting the most wrong um if there was a question and students picked the same answer that was wrong repeatedly what's the distractor there why are students picking

011that we have responsibilities to our students and our taxpayers if the board and community do not wish to work within the position. We must use our in-house resources to continue this work through alternate means. This work cannot wait for a multi-year fiscal stability plan. Budgeting and programming are very much handin. This money helps us take those steps that we need to take. So, we're more than those test scores. I was a teacher, too. I believe that I am more than the test score. Our students are more than test score. But it's not about the score itself. It's about the collegial database conversations around noticing. It's about creating action plans, working towards system alignment, engaging in classroom action research, reflecting on teaching practice, and shared celebrations. When we succeed together for the benefit of students, that

012data leads to conversations and that is where the learning occurs. It is not that we don't have good teachers. We can do better in providing focused support and in intentionally building a community focused on collaborative accountability for shared goals. Who will lead this work with focus? How can we support our academic chairs, our teacher leaders, and our principles? How can we build capacity amongst others to do this work? I don't have answers to that right now, but we're going to have to do it inhouse with the staffing that we have because we can't let it go to chance. Teachers are important, students are important, art is important, music is important, PE is important. Everything grows with the improvement in core instruction and with teacher growth. Students can succeed and thrive here. A couple slides that

013are coming up again. So we said at the beginning of this process looking back at those data slides that we would have clear goals for student achievement and engagement and that would guide our resource allocation. So this is work that needs to be done. We need to have more conversations about student achievement and how we're going to do it within the resources we have. He said decisions will be made for the benefit of students and not for adults and again looking at cost effectiveness, sustainability and relevance to the students. That was something that was discussed last time, but it also needs to be realistic in light of the circumstances. Here are some topics that respond to some of your community questions to provide you information and give you some context. We'll go through them. First

014being out of district spending. What do some of these costs? Homeschooling. So currently we spend or will spend in the coming year if we pick up this service 25,600. That is a service that evaluates the homeschooling plans that come in and make sure they are on par with the education we're doing within the district and they get approved. We outsource that to goes. Right now private schools are many or several anyway costs associated with private school. One is textbooks. So about $8,000 goes through organizing, coordinating that, purchasing them, passing them out, taking requests, getting them back. We outsource that currently as well. Transportation within the mileage limit set by the board. We also pay health services when a student um is in private school. There are many different calculations. It depends on the individual district

015district staffing and how they divide that per student but let's say $4,000 in our special ed services which is per 90. The cost varies there as well. STEM high school there were some questions about that. Again the coming year's tuition is $13,770 per student. Career studies the per student tuition there is $14,682. What do we spend on subending special ed kids out? Well, that can range as well based on their needs from 45,000 to 183,000 per student from the numbers that I have entered into this budget. Career and technical education, that's on our five-year average. So, the year for the the price for the coming year is $426,832. And even though that's a rolling average, just for sake of discussion, we divide it by the students attending to get about 16,400 in tuition. So we're

016working on stabilizing efforts so we don't have to do this again and again. And we're working on setting shared priorities so we can work on that academic piece too. If CTE is a district priority and is best for our kids, then something else has to give. CTE enrollment means there are less kids in Berlin seats. If keeping kids engaged, they want to stay in Berlin is the priority. And how and when are we going to begin to have conversations, meaningful conversations that lead to change about relevance, real world learning, integrated SEAL, and soft skills integration. Fiscal responsibility and program improvement efforts need to be considered at the same time. We have other competing priorities as well. There are imminent issues with our facilities. We have a failing water tank, a septic system issue. The driveway,

017which you came in through tonight, needs to be repaired. That'll be taken care of during this school year. and an electrical capacity to run the new IT we're getting through our smart schools on deck that will also be taken care of this year. They weren't in the budget. They were cut from the operations maintenance budget, but now we have to pay for them anyway because we're at a point where we've patched that driveway so many times the patches are just growing bigger. We need to plan for repairs and save for projects. Further failure to address these issues will compound the impact to taxpayers. So our goal is to stabilize be able to predict what is coming down the line and address it. To do that we have suggested that for a time you would maintain

018CTE enrollment where it is. We would graduate all of the STEM and occupational studies students, get them all the way through their programs to graduation. And as we're doing that, we'll reassess as part of our multi-year stabilization plan, which is something many of our neighboring districts are considering as well. Other efforts, we're continuing to rightsize the budget lines and recategorize items so they can be better tracked. It is difficult to run a very tight budget without having better organization and history that matches from year to year. So that is what the business office is working on. An example is that is athletics budget went down. However, some of it was reduced because of huddle the cut that went for the video program. Uh some of it was staffing that was in the wrong place. Some

019of it includes um our Berlin New Lebanon MET merger. It hadn't been right sized for the money that goes back and forth between the two when we each pay half of each other's expenses. So, putting the people where they belong so we can track them from year to year and they aren't in other lines will help us run tighter budgets in the future. So, CT projection, we have a lot of supporters of CT. I consider myself a supporter of CT. Here's what we're worried about. It's our job to point out to you what is coming down the line so we can prepare for it. And so when we make decisions, we're making them knowledgeable. We know that the coming year's tuition is based on that 5-year average. So no matter who goes this year, we're

020going to pay $426,832. It is the common years that will be impacted by the students we accept this year and next year and the year after. So if we roll these averages forward, let's say all 22 students who have been accepted enter and the 11 that are currently there stay. We just keep it at 33. We still lock it up at 33. Just using that as an example and rolling it forward. We're also going to say, okay, that 16,400 per student tuition, we're going to use that for our calculation and just roll it forward. But also know that Bosey's cost costs increase, too. When they offer a program, they take all the districts participating, they divide up the cost, and that's where the per student price comes from. So, this year's per student price will

021not be the same as next year. So if you look a couple of years in the future, if we maintain those 33 seats, we're at 54 54 41,000. There we go. $728. However, if we were to take 22 returning the following year and 22 years after that, 22 the year after that, if that became our new pattern, the 25 26 we're at 426,000. The 2030 we're at 722,000. We see that coming. We want to prepare for it. If it's something the community and the board want to support, then we know it's coming. We know we have to make that money available. Revenue updates. This revenue chart now shows the 3.5% increase that is being recommended to run draft three of this budget. Over in the purple, you'll see the increase from year to year. It

022is adding $367,000 [Music] $843. Interest will be reduced. This budget will pick up reserves 558,000. And so we can't account having that money in the bank collecting that interest. It gets adjusted. Distance learning. If we remove that, we're removing an expense, but it also comes with a revenue side and that gets removed as well. We'll talk a little bit in future slides about the purchase of the truck, but if we didn't purchase the truck, well, then we can't sell the truck. We have either that revenue moves away. So, there are pieces of the budget when one thing moves, another thing moves. So, let's look at using these reserves, which seems like it's going to be part of the solution this year. Reserves are taxpayers money. It's their savings. We hold them these savings in trust

023for difficult times. We use them to carry us through short-term or unexpected challenges. And they protect our programs and they protect our taxpayers. They are not intended to be invested in situations where we know they're not going to sustain. But that's what we're doing. We're proposing to do as a transitional measure to get through this year, but we will still have the problem next year. If we pick up 558,000 of reserves this year to run the salaries that are in there, those salaries will all come with raises next year and they'll need to carry the same money or more. This is a slide from last time. So, the reserve we were talking about helping to run this budget is the ERS reserve that will be reduced by $558,000. But we have other things going on

024in our reserves as well. So TRS we can hold up to 10% which would be over the 800,000 mark. We're not there. That's a goal. We have to keep working on improve TRS. TRS is a larger payment than ERS. In a bad situation, we could remove from the TRS that larger bill to run the budget. We don't have enough funding to use that as an option right now. Um I mentioned that we have facilities issues right now. We have $1 million in our overapproved capital fund. Our project will be larger than a million dollars. And we have fund balance. So when we talk about rolling over the dollars that are going to run in this next budget, what that really is is fund balance. If we weren't rolling it over, it would fall to fund

025balance. It would be additional savings. If we don't roll if we do roll it over, well then it's part of the budget. It's not part of our fund balance. It's already committed. With that emergency projects, we have reduced our current fund balance by about $500,000. Meaning, if that water tank went, that $500,000 could be gone very quickly. So, we need to build that up. Also, long range forecast. Let's look at what comes from the tax. The top is your standard 2% applicant and the one below is 3.5%. We will pick up that 300 367,000 that was shown in the other slide this year. Uh one of the board members asked last time, well, how does that help us in future years? It does help us. It does compound, but if you look at the top

026compared to the bottom, that's about $3,000 per year. So tomorrow we or next year not tomorrow next year we will have the same problem because picking up that money from taxes this year won't fill this same size gap or bigger when it comes next year about $3,000. So on the top you have the levy cap which is 2.19%. [Music] and the recommended to run this budget representing unite at 3.5%. What's the impact to a household? If we were to go out at the 3.5 for a $200,000 house, it would be 57 more dollars than the cap. For a $300,000 assessed value house, it would be $87 over the cap. And of course, these are not actualized numbers. These are the averages that we report to the state and then each community has its own market

027and assessed values which are then adjusted before the tax rules go out. These are to help us visualize what a tax levy does. We looked at this last time but in case anybody was not here wanted to look at it again. So in the prior year, our expense, our actual expense and our actual revenue, our end ofear status was a positive $14,000. It wasn't a negative, but that is not a good ending balance. We carried over to run this year's current budget 1.5 million of our fund balancing reserves. that 1.5 million that the other business official put in this budget thankfully we're going to roll forward if we keep it all we spend some of it running in the current year budget it will not be available and if all goes as planned that money

028should be available if it's not there if we're at $14,000 that means something went wrong and we need to figure out what it was so it doesn't happen Again, just a review of historical expenses. Last time I said, "Well, is this budget too big?" I didn't recalculate the exact number, but on the Thursday night, it was around the 666,000ish range, the increase from the prior year to now. Most schools of our size will go up a million or more dollars. A lot of people in other districts are in similar positions trying to make reductions as well, but that is not an unrealistic pattern. Before we get into additions and subtractions, I'm going to review our class sizes. Again, just a quick review of class sizes. And again, these slides were up there last last uh

029Thursday. Uh what this is the next several slides is a compilation of the class sizes by grade level across all the Questar districts. So what you see in blue are the average class sizes for other school districts across the region. What you see in the green bar is our class size Berlin's and the yellow is the average. So currently our prek is two sections uh of about 15. Obviously we can't have one section of 30 kindergarteners. So the recommendation is to keep kindergarten, keep the prek at two sections moving into kindergarten. So we would have two sections of kindergarten. Currently we have three sections of kindergarten. So that would be a reduction. When we look at our kindergarteners going into first grade, currently we have three sections of 12. If we were to combine that

030to two sections, it would be two sections at the 18, which is just one above the average and comparable to other districts in the region. So again, the recommendation is to reduce first grade to two sections. I want to make sure I'm clear on this because I think there was a little bit lost in translation last week. Our current first grade going into second grade is three sections of 16, pretty close to the average of 18. If we were to make that two sections, it would be two sections of 24. While that is equal to three other districts in the region, it is my recommendation that we maintain three sections at this grade level. Second grade moving into three into third. We currently have three sections of 13. If we combine that to two, it

031would be two sections of I'm sorry, uh second grade moving into third. We currently have two sections of 13, three sections of 13. If we combine that into two sections, it would be two sections of 20 within the average in the regional norm. So, it is my recommendation to move to two sections. Fourth grade is currently third grade going into fourth grade is currently two sections. Two sections of 18. We put that together that would be 36. That is far too many. So, I'm recommending we maintain that at two sections. And our fourth grade going into fifth is currently three sections of 15. That's the average. Combining it to two sections would be two sections of 22 within the range of neighboring districts in the area. And the average I am recommending we reduce fifth

032grade to two sections. staff reductions. So this slide was up there as well on Thursday with a couple changes which I'll point out. So staff restorations, music teacher and PE teacher and then to offset that some of the work we did was removing all model schools units which is a teacher support for technology. Uh we're going to bring the textbook service in house. There are some offsetting costs to the increased work for our employees, but it will come in house. Same thing with the home school evaluation service. And then we again went through looked at the bosses cost, adjusted any new pricing information we received and find found ways to reduce our hours if they were usage based items in the budget. The additions are the same as last time. These were things that were

033in the budget last Thursday, but I want to talk about them in a little more detail. So again, we're going to take the two halftime maintenance positions, put them in one. We're going to bring in two building subs to cover the many coverages that are needed in a day, and that could be a potential savings. We're going to bring in NAR, which is a Bosey's service to to ma manage our IT along with our current IT person. We're talking about purchasing a flower truck, a forest rubber, and the 100K project. The coordinator of curriculum ed is out. So, looking a little more at neric IT management services, we said we would come back to you with new pricing that we had just received that day is now in here. And with that new pricing, it

034actually turns into a net positive for the coming year when we receive the aid. the capital outlay project. So we spend $100,000 now. Next year we get $75,000 in aid and then that rolls forward for the years thereafter. As long as we carry a $100,000 project in our budget, we're only actually spending $25,000. We'll continue to get the 75 back in house planning. Much of this slide was here. Last time I was asked to look at some numbers. I consulted with my colleagues who know much more about cloud trucks than I do and we came up with this information. I put um the hourly calculations there so you could move up or down. Maybe don't agree that we'll have eight storms. You could play with the numbers a little bit if you wanted. But using

035those numbers, the totals are along the bottom. So we would remove the 24,750 service. We would purchase this truck with offsetting the sales of old buses, scrap material, and the truck we're currently using. And that expense from year to year is not going to be anywhere near the service we're paying. And of course, it'll be a trial year. We need a truck anyway. The trucks are all older than 15 years. It gives us a chance to try it. We can go back to a service in the future if we need to at absolutely no loss because we have also sales. Not knowing the history of the district entirely, including myself, I wanted to make sure we be very clear and transparent about what equipment is in the budget. We talked about the plow truck offset

036by the sale of the current vehicle. There's also a new floor scrubber in there. cost of that is about 9,900. Our operations and transportation equipment budgets are included each year for parts and equipment that are multi-year life. They reach the asset value and they must be inventories. That's what goes in those lines. We don't always know what's going to break, but there's money to be prepared for that. The operations and maintenance budget increased in this current coming year, the 25 26 year by $50,000. And that includes the scrubber and the truck. That's across all materials, equipment, and contract lines. Those lines were cut by $63,870 in 2425. Most equipment, if we were to go into a contingency budget, unless it is absolutely necessary to run the school, would be cut if this budget fails and

037we end up in a contingency budget. The $100,000 capital outlay project would also be cut this year. The $100,000 project in year one, it gets picked up by the tax base. So, no impact to the actual budget. is offset. Every year thereafter, we'll receive the $75,000. This year is a particularly good time to pick up 100k,000 100k project to get back on that cycle because we're receiving money back for that early emergency project. We restructured our debt and so the amount being spread out over the entire tax base is only $9,250 because the aid counteracts the other part of the hundred,000 that would hit the tax base this year. Can we cut these things? Yes, we can cut a floor scrubber. But here are some of the issues. Well, replacement equipment, replacement furniture, replacement tech,

038replacement textbooks, replacement instruments, replacement science lab items, operations and maintenance costs that were cut in the prior year and the like are cut. We're adding to our asset purchasing cycle problems and our facilities maintenance problems which are part of our long-term financial stability planning. So, just like I said, when we make a budget, we can't let the programming piece go. We have to still work on that. We still need to work on facilities, too. Can we cut the cloud truck? Yes, we can cut the cloud truck. There's a 15-year-old non-plow truck that would be sold. That would reduce the revenue because we can't sell the truck. We need it now. the service costs would increase. That contract would come back into the budget, the 24,750. And we also have to keep in mind that our

039other trucks are all 15 years old or older. So, the time is coming. It would be better to deal with them one at a time in a scheduled strategic manner. What is the impact if operational equipment is cut as happened last year? When these items are cut, we are also asking our operations and maintenance staff and others to do more with less. Facilities and infrastructure are not less important than student programs when things start to fail. We do not currently have formalized cycling and replacement schedules. What's happening is we wait for things to become unusual and spend the money on repairs or we're forced to replace those things at times when they have not been in the budget. Cutting a floor scrubber is not going to restore a position. The scrubber needs maintenance or repair.

040There are costs associated with that. But it is not a multi-year expense in the same way that a salary is with health benefits, retirement contributions, taxes, contractual increases because we're looking at more than one year. So the actual numbers for this proposed budget track through there was some conversation around distance learning and what value it brings to the district and students. The first set of numbers up there do not include distance learning. And the deficit then with a 3.5 levy is the 1.7 million. We're going to do to balance the budget. We're going to roll over the remaining funds hopefully in 2425. So that's our fund balance that we're rolling over, not going to reserves. And we're going to pick up another 558,000 from our ERS reserves. What if we get more than the 1.2

041inverter? Well, then we do the wise thing and we put it in the reserves that are underfunded. If we do add distance learning back in, what is the net expense or the net impact to the budget there? It would be $23,000 839. And that is because regardless if we pick up distance learning, it has WAN services included. If we drop it now, we need to pick up WAN to run our wide area network. Also, if we remove distance learning, there are potentially four less sections than planned. other increase factors. We've looked at these over all of the budget presentations. A couple things. One is that I was asked, well, how much do we pay for retiree health insurance? Because when we carry an employee all the way to retirement, we pay for them indefinitely. Right

042now, it's over a million dollars we spend in health benefits for retirees. Today, we got some further news. insurance has been very volatile and we are have been given a new percentage to calculate. We anticipate that something will give in the New York state budget and we're hoping that will offset the new calculation we have to now do the national is the same. We haven't gotten a finalized number on that but we're at the high end 28,000 at least. What was these increases? Since we removed a number of things since the last presentation, that's the new number. And the reason for increases from year to year, we're picking up the full IT management services which will be a net positive in the coming year when we get the aid. We have records management issue that

043we intend to address. Tax collection charges went up from the Boseies and there are some shifts in private versus Bosey's placement. That brings us to the end of the numbers part of the presentation. And just a reminder, there are three open board seats. Petitions, if you so choose to enter one, are due on April 21st. Thank you, Kina. Now, back to the board. And I will start with comments from board members. Can I just add can I ask a question just about the distance learning slide again? Um I'm not really sure what my question is exactly but if you could just go over it again and then I might think of a question but I don't know what the four sections so potential four less sections that if we carry distance learning we're intending to

044run four sections as distance learning classes. They might be low enrollment, which we're trying to manage, but if other schools are buying in, there's a benefit there. If we were to run those same classes here and they had three students in them, we'd have to look at them. Some of these electives are very low, but this gives us a chance to offer our students further opportunities, interact with other schools, and to test it out. If it doesn't work well, of course, we're going to revisit it last next year. So, it's four less choices. Yes. And um we have to look at the scheduling piece after all of this is done and we come to a solution. We have to look at how things move around, what we can offer. And I don't know if you

045can answer this because of the scheduling going forward, but I think I had asked last week about um the college and high school classes. So if there's no distance learning and less electives, are we sure we could do the college and the high school at least as a help to offer some interesting things? So the building principles have been included in all the discussion that led us to these numbers and looked at their class sizes. Although schedules have not been formalized, they would be the best ones to give information about what that might look like. It's in flux still, but we do have a general idea that allows us to move forward and make some decisions. I would say the reductions that were proposed though were done in such a way so we could continue

046to maximize the offerings we have for students and in particular some of those higher offerings. And I want to apologize that last week I forgot to mention Sienna psychology with the states. I was forgetting one. I think that is one of the scheduled distance learning classes. David the Sienna psychology. But that's one offer through distance learn. That's one that we would offer through distance learning. So it would allow our kids to take it, but it would be offset by other schools taking advantage of. Okay. So, how do I I mean, again, I know you can't 100% say, but so will there still be some college in the high school like Valley Calculus or or the Sienna math or I think that's in part based on enrollment, but that's one of the advantages I would say

047in Dave or Colleen step in of offering distance learning. Say we only had three of our own students who wanted to take that Sienna site course, we may have to reconsider that. But we have if we have three of our own students sitting in the class and 17 students from across the region sitting in the class then that's offsetting a salary of her a portion of her salary which would allow it to offer it for our kids. So what are the distance learning classes that Spanish one distance learning there is a need all across the region in the area for Spanish teachers. They actually said that you offer Spanish one that would be tremendous class that other schools will want to take. So, Cameron Day teaches that, does a great job of that. Um, as

048far as the college classes, our goal is to try to keep every college lesson that we can, but you know, we'll know more once the budget is settled on and staff. You have to obviously do the core class, you know, do the New York State uh requirements. Yeah. because I I mean I just worry that there's no advanced things for kids that want a challenge and their senior year consists of course that involves well the whole the whole when we build a schedule we want to balance schedule that appeals to all students all levels um and that's the intent. So the way we have it built is we have at risk students. We have students uh you know regions track but also students that can take college classes. Um that is the goal. We always

049want a rich robust curriculum offer our students. again once the budget's done I'll know the staffing and I'll know you know in terms of how to fill you know one other thing with distance learning one class that we off that our students take pretty much every year is sign language so it's an opportunity for our students love to take it we don't offer a year but distance learning and that satisfies their little language requirement to graduate and I would piggyback on that Kim to your point of electives. There may be electives that we don't offer here, but they are offered through distance learning. You know, there's a catalog of hundreds of courses that are offered across not just Westar, but the entire state that our kids could take advantage of. So if we do find

050ourselves in a situation where we don't have enough enrollment to run a class, our students may have the possibility based on their schedule and based on the offerings through distance learning to pick up that opportunity. Criminal justice I think is one that we've had students take participating in quite a bit. So in this budget are we planning to offer four classes in house through our teachers as a distance learning class? Yes. So when we saw was Dave that was one of the things that look was looked at whether we'd be able to do that these numbers the top had it cut the bottom numbers had it included it's a $23,839 increase that's the feedback we are looking for the other piece I would add here the $40,000 in revenue was an estimate in reality if

051we offer four classes and all four get picked up we'd be looking at more of $80,000 so That's a conservative figure, but we have to be careful. Even though we're going to offer four, we need students from other districts to pick it up. And that's contingent upon it working in schedules and and bell schedules and things like that. So, if we offer all four and all four are taken advantage of by other schools, then we would actually break even for lack of a better word or be ahead of the game. It's dependent on the teacher who is teaching salary. I think it was a calculation. Um, benefits are included in that calculation. But what we do know is this year we received a course and we also got reimbursed for the TA who sat in

052the room and that was about $15,000. So even if two of those were picked up, I would assume we get $15,000 or more. And that's why I feel pretty comfortable with the 40 that was sitting in there for prior year's budgets. So is the 40,000 you you don't have a the 40,000 is two course or one course it's just it'll depend on the cost of providing the course which is dependent on the teacher who's teaching um on our end we regardless if we were to run this and we know that students have accepted sign language I would expect that we get that 15,000 again at least if even if nobody picked up anything just because we are we're running the TA here if they survive estimate based on what we know to be true at

053this point in time. So then the $60,000 expense most likely could be covered by the revenue offset that's we get paid for that by student or by district that's instructor. So they'll take the salary of the instructor and they use a little formula and disperse the cost and the people who are benefiting from that course. And does it cost our students if they're taking one and they're not offering? The only cost is the package cost. for participating. I think the 80 is no matter what, no matter how many we we participate in or how many we're teaching, if we participate at the package cost, we could have every single student, if it worked in their schedule, potentially take a course. It's unlikely, but there's no limitation, but it could also be Yongis. minimal impact. It

054is an impact but it should be we are agree with Ken. We do need to maintain opportunities in the high school for students that want to get challenged and sometimes I believe some college requires courses to be taken if you don't offer it and they have to take them to go to college. You don't have to take college. It's a debt game for parents that they don't have to take that course on years past. Are these college credit courses? The proposed ones. I think there were two. Dave can correct me if I'm wrong. You have a list of technology two that we are offering, but there's a pleth of offers coming from other schools that could also be college levels. stated the very wide range of courses that students could take. You take a general

055course all the way up through college and our students provided that catalog of courses that are available. Yes. So just very quickly um Miss Harrison, Mr. Short do a great job in terms of the um go to class and explain the process to students. We have um call like a class fair in the cafeteria in February where the kids come in and actually speak either future students department chairs ask about the different courses that are offered. After that uh Miss Harrison sat with all current eighth graders, nth graders and 11th graders to go over their schedules you know courses next year explain things to them and they work together. uh when parents want to be involved, they're more than welcome they involved as well. So it's explained to them on a couple of different levels

056and opportunities. So if the distance learning starts in September [Music] 2025, but the kids haven't yet obviously been exposed to what's available, so they'll just No, they were exposed to what's available because we are offering it this year and it's our intent. The only reason it's out is because of the conversation we had last week where folks were worried about the clubs. It's something we did last year, we intend to intended to do this year. So when kids were exposed to course offerings, these were included in those um teachers that potentially do distance learning. They actually in January got together the public distance learning instructors. So, not only are they um have a community of fellow teachers, but they're actually professional development opportunities. Each person that went to STEM was very rewarding. So, not only

057to do it, but they also work on the craft at the same time. So, I think even if they're non college courses per se or Hudson Valley courses, I mean, I think it'd be pretty exciting for students in this district who have never had a huge plethora of things to choose from to be able to take sign language or whatever else. I mean, that, you know, even like I said, even if they're a senior and it's not a college credit course, but something they've just never been exposed to, that's better than study. I I'll be honest. I said to them, you know, I know kids that and I said, "How is it learning virtually?" Everybody's different. Some people can do really well at it, other people aren't. And they said that they're getting a lot

058out of it that it's not hard because if you ask questions, but also we have our uh teaching assistant, the student there also system. Um I said, "Is it worthwhile?" I want to ask questions too. And each of them said it's been a very uh uh positive experience for them. They do recommend. And by the way, it's different students. We have like different levels. It's not just say honors. It's the students are in it are at different levels. So it's open to every and it's a it's live, right? Yes. Yeah. The most challenging thing of that is a schedule. Yeah. Not all the high school schedules line up. So there is some and I think the teachers work on that who deliver those programs. You may have a five minute swing from us to Kukaki

059to Burnt Hills as a starting time. Um and that's going to flip to the end time, but you line it up the best that you can and the teachers work within those. The teachers will meet with the students, you know, after school day or whatever that could work. So if they missed anything or refused, they could work oneonone with the teacher virtually. What's oneonone? I mean, my opinion is distance learning prepares kids for college because a lot of college classes are delivered by distance learning. At least that's my experience or lecture halls change. And this year we got a discounted price on it. Is that Yeah, last year because of the situation we were in, we worked with Mer um and Kelly mentioned the WAN service. the land services, our wide area network, am I

060saying that correct? Um, which is our internet access is bundled into the distance learning. So recognizing the circumstances we were in last year, NER agreed to essentially give us the program for the cost of the WAN and a little bit more. So we did get it at a discounted rate last year and they just can't continue to do that. Just with students that qualify lunch actually get the college credits for free. So students that you know and we fill out the paperwork and we submit it so they don't have to pay for the college credits free free college credit. So for example in our Sienna psychology right now you know I don't have a number off the top of my head we have a number of students in that class that are going to get

061free college credits from Sienna um a private school. So that's a really nice thing. We have all the equipment that's necessary. We have a fully equipped distance learning lab right now. Um and even the capacity in our recent conversations with them because the technology has changed since distance learning has been implemented um that should we choose to deliver more moving forward there are more economical ways to do that. And keep in mind the more we offer the more that cost is offset moving forward. So, a really good example, we talked about some of our uh art classes where it might be really hard for the art teacher to move everything they need to provide instruction to the distance learning lab to deliver a class, but there's capacity now should we use choose to tap into

062it moving forward to equip the art room at a much lower cost than the original setup of the distance learning labs back. But yes, that was a long answer to your question. We have a fully operational room right now that can deliver and the capacity to build that moving forward if we think it's advantageous to do so. It's not a multi-year contract right? No. So if things don't go well we're working with we will be working in their on it management. So I imagine they are very skilled in addressing distance learning that they also run. Um, I'd like to back up a little bit to the CT. Um, I'd like to back up a little bit to the CT. Um, we currently have 22 students between 11th and 12th. 22 are the number that we

063have recently learned are accepted. They're invited. We have 15 seniors scheduled for next year and 15 juniors. I'm sorry. We have 15 graduating and 15 juniors moving to seniors. We have 22 who have been accepted for next year. So Sherry seven higher who have been accepted for next year than we have had the last two years. And how does that process work? The counselor counselor. So very similar to what they've shared, students are informed of the opportunities that are available to them, including uh Quest Arbosy's programs. The Quest Arvosis programs other than distance learning, there's an application process. Um and once they go through that applications process, BOSES will let us know if yes, they have met the criteria and they have been accepted um or no that they have. In some cases, they haven't.

064Dave, did you want to add more to that? Yeah. So Rachel of the Saras is reaches out to the sophomores and juniors um sophomores at U explains what the quest is, what they offer in the programs, then ask the students who are interested to sign up to go for a visit. And then they so this year we actually have 41 students that went for a visit and they they go and say you're culinary they'll separated into culinary automotive you separate and they go there for the day and then they come back and if they're interested they fill out the application and I believe out of the 41 please don't quote me I think out of 41 one that went 35 I'm sorry I'm off a number 29 applications I believe were submitted okay um so

065they're submitted and what happens is that quest they sit in committees and they look at academics the programs have they have other schools they have a uh a rubric that they go through you know we have some kids I believe that are on weight this uh we had some students that wanted one program they recommended a different program. So currently uh just uh got concluded uh and just received the word back. Do we cap the amount of students that go or if they fill up if they choose to fill out the application do we just automatically send them or is there we have in the past and that's where we're running into a bit of an issue. uh we've not put guard rails around so to speak. Um so in that slide that Colleen showed,

066the multi-year slide, if we stayed at the 15, we would be in a position to forecast. And that's that's 15 is a good percentage per year of the class sizes we deal with. Um I I would say we send a higher percentage of students compared to other districts. Um, typically other districts will have that number and they will say we are so we can again let folks know ahead of time too. While we're providing you the opportunity to explore the CTE program, we are limited for a variety of reasons and the number of students we can send and we will recommend X. I'm recommending we stick with the 15 that we have had for the last two years and carry that moving forward. Um, we have not historically done that in the past. So now

067we have 29 students who have applied and 22 who have been accepted. have a lot of experience in prior districts when I principal I was actually given the amount of seats I was allowed for uh CT program we had set number because had to be titles in the budget and you know so on so forth no way understand what to do if you're on the same for reference When I came here the first time, my first question was what's our set number? And I was told there isn't. So again, this is any high school, but that's what you experience that I had. Well, and I would say um if you look at the sort of tuition cost of the CTE programs, I mean, it's actually I think a little bit more than like the STEM

068high school, but I believe a few years ago when people were inquiring about going to STEM or career studies um or PEK and some of those things, we did put a limit like we're only going to send two students this year and you know, I don't So you know the reasoning behind that obviously been budgetary but if it feels like if you're limiting oh only two people can go to STEM then in a way it seems like there should be a cut off as well. And I guess just to piggyback on that, the STEM and the PTAC are in and career studies are separate from that CTE bucket and those have been heavily subscribed during what I'll call current years. So my recommendation is to put a freeze on those just for the time being

069until we can level it back out again and get back on that cycle we talked about. seniors. Correct. I just I wanted to mention just um in 2023 um the Harvard Gibson Technical School had a 100% graduation rate and um Berlin had an 89% and a third of our graduating seniors were CTE students. So it's an important program but but for most years it's less than 30 that we've had between this is a spike this year. Yeah last year in this for the just the last two years and obviously after co that makes makes sense. Um but I think 15 and 15 is on average sorry to what we've had prior to the last couple years the 30. Yeah, but our 10th grade is bigger this year than most. So that could be also the

070contributing factor that Yeah. to that [Music] increase on CT. Uh it's a very important program. Um last week I had the pleasure of having two girl graduates job shadow over commercial electrical um two outstanding students and I met with them after they did their four hours of shop and I asked them what they like and they explained everything and I asked them to write a letter to the board how the program was beneficial for them and one of the things that came out of the conversation is they have a hard time with textbook learning and being hands-on they're very successful. So we have the students that are challenged with textbook learning and career paths um because these students do come out with certifications uh to get a job a good paying job in different areas.

071Um even the heavy earth moving program out the Gibson facility um the instructor is a graduate um he's doing very well. He's a top-notch instructor out there. We have graduates come back to Berlin. We have graduates out there teaching very successful. Um so it's tough. It's I think the cap you have to put on to see what's the fit. Can the students be successful in either place? And some stuff you can bring in house. Um, if you want to do it and open it up to the staff, administration, if you'd like to go take a tour, I'll go with the outdoor facility and see our students and other students uh in action and the investment in the equipment because that's the hard challenge of bringing that program back, the equipment in the space. So like

072long-distance learning, CTE, these are all part of a bucket list to make successful. And it's tough, but there there needs to be some type of tap so that they can manage the system and have continuous growth and improvement. One of the things that students shift over there for a while and come out there, maybe that'll free up some time and space in this building to enhance our programs to make them stronger, bring students back. It's it's going to be a partnership here. Yeah. I mean, 30 kids total for a year is a 30 population. And I think that's a good target number. That's a good target number as long as everyone gets what they want. Based on history, that seems to be a very good number. 15. Yeah. The number for this year is abnormal

073because that class is substantially larger than, you know, you're talking 42 kids in our senior class is 55. Yeah. So you do the percentage of it's actually the same percent. I do want to say in fairness, in response to Frank's comment, we want every kid to get what they want. We absolutely want that. Regrettably, we are not currently in a situation to guarantee that. But unless we start to have the conversations like we are having right now and set ourselves up for sustainability, we're going to be in more and more situations moving down the road that we are not going to be able to give the kids what they want. So, while I am asking for a temporary hiatus or potential reduction in some of the things we have historically done, it's so that we

074can begin to build and guarantee that kids moving forward will continue to have these opportunities. And this also opens up the door to opportunities for discussion. What can we restructure throughout the year? We got retirements coming up, other things going on. And whatever we do, we have to look at what can we restructure so that get out of this crisis management every budget cycle because state aid is not fulfilling our needs and you have your TRS, your ERS, your health insurance and your and your salary increases your budget is spent plus. So, um I think in the future, next year, we need to have some discussions on what are we going to restructure throughout the year to try to meet everyone's needs. Yeah, I I just pulled up the CT numbers from the last few

075years. So, 22 to 23 was 32. That was still a high one, but uh the two years prior were 27 each year. So, that 15 is is definitely a fair number, I guess, is the best way to say for for the time being. Yeah. And then just to piggy back off what Frick said about state aid, um I did pull the numbers from our local districts to see what they were doing differently than us and it actually boils down to the state aid. Um we Burland's receiving 2% which is 173,000 additional. Uh, who's it at Falls is receiving an additional $1.8 million in state aid. What's that percentage? Uh, 13.89. So, they're not on hold. Startless. We're on safe harmless, which means we only get a guaranteed 2% increase. But isn't that doesn't that have

076to relate to the formula change also? It it could very well have to do with poverty changes and the rates that they were using prior to this year based on 2000 census data and now they are using a more upto-date and regional uh number. But again, hold harmless, whoever's on hold harmless is at that 2%. Now, the one thing we did not bring up last tonight that we brought up last week is we still don't have a state budget. Both the Senate and the Assembly have advocated for uh addition to the 2% but neither of them more than 3%. For us 3% would be another $75,000 which could offset that distance learning that we're talking about. Um it's not a significant amount even if what the Senate or the Assembly has proposed comes to fruition.

077But at this point we will take what we can get. Did you say so? Who's the falls got like 1.8 million more at a than we did? Is that so false a increase is 1.8 million. That's their increase in foundation a for this for the upcoming year. So it's 13.89% increase that we got to most districts got to. Yeah. Yeah. was 5.58 East Greenbush 5.85 Nenberg um 5.13 wine and skill it was 2 a park was 6.25 Relair was 11.27 So, we have no [Music] control, but I just did it for research purposes to see what other districts were doing. Where's our state number? And so, I actually went on the near state website to find out what was going on. I guess to Frank's point from last week, one of the things that could

078benefit us is advocacy, but that's what the formula running. And I will say there have been improvements to the formula and there's continued discussion around the formula. Um I would encourage the board to take the opportunity to participate in this lobbying opportunities that come around because that's where we might be able to move that needle. That really is a driving problem. I just had a quick question about the the truck estimates here. Little confused about the two hours per store estimate. So I was I was asked to um come up with an estimate. Okay. And there is a note in there if you look at all the fine details that I didn't read. And so we've talked about scheduling um and offsetting different shifts to cover it. We don't anticipate there will be a lot

079of overtime with that but nonetheless I was asked to calculate it. So I said okay let's pretend we have an arbitrary number knowing that we anticipate having the staffing to cover it if the school's closed and we have our full-time people here working on it. If the school is delayed our people come in during that time and are still working for regular hours. Could it be that they have to come in extra early? Could it be that the uh will stay extra late sometimes? Yes. I wanted to include some number using a sort of middle of the road hourly wage just to perform what I was asked to perform. I mean I would estimate that the three buildings just because we own a business and we do our plowing ourselves. I would estimate that to

080be more like three three and a half hours and plowing two of our three. Okay. We're currently doing the bus garage. Okay, that makes more sense. also plow under a certain level. If it's they don't come unless it's what over 2 in or over 3 in they contract is that every 3 in or as you know dictated by myself. So if it's under a 2 in snowfall they don't come we do it. You don't feel like this would stretch what the employees that we have thin or the way we handle it right now is typically their hours are offset from what they normally are. We always have a maintenance person that starts 6 in the morning and then I have one that starts at 8 a.m. and on days when we're going to get a

081storm, we usually bring that 8 8:00 person in at 6 and they go home at 2:30 instead of 4. So, you know, kind of regulate their shifts the way that we need to. The same way with the six o'clock person, if it's predicted that we're going to get a large storm, we'll bring that person in earlier and let them go home earlier as opposed to any suggested cuts would affect that. No, we're actually looking at a suggested increase in [Music] maint. So there's no extra cost associated. Correct. And so we we currently have a plow truck that you can keep. It says we're selling the nonplow truck. So we have we have two plow trucks or we have two trucks right now that have plows on them. This would make a third one. So there

082so there would be redundancy. Yes. Although we've not had the discussion yet with you know transportation as far as that goes. The transportation staff um have done the following at the transportation facility and maintenance is able to go on and work at Bur Elementary while Burl Elementary while transportation staff are working on pling the bus. And so we would, you know, we would probably try to work with them to see if they can handle the transportation department fully on their own. Um and that would allow us to again to make a shift in hours to be able to cover both other facilities for the momentary. So the trial for one year if it doesn't work back to contract. Any other board questions or comments? So hopefully before we vote we'll have the state budget. They

083passed another extender. Um the which originally we were hearing that we would see numbers before the upcoming break Friday for break. This extender takes them through the next payday, state payday, which I believe is the 15th of the month. So they're in no rush to get another extender prior to the 15th because it won't impact state payroll. But after the 15th, they would have to do another one to get them to the next state payroll. I remain optimistic that we will know by the 22nd. I feel very comfortable using the 2% because I do think that is the floor. It could only go up from there. And if it goes up from there, as Tom said, I think we take the wise choice knowing it's not a significant amount of money anyway and we move

084it into reserves that we could benefit from moving forward. And uh so what's presented tonight um if we went with this particular budget, it would be the super majority, right? Yes, it would. And how much would we have to cut if we decided to not go with the super majority? What's the dollar [Music] amount,000 percentage, right? Well, I g the last set of slides removed that one from the slide deck. So, I would have to get back to it was a significant one of our numbers. I'm not sure what but which percentage it was, but we're looking at 300,000 or more. I want to say 385,000 top to go from three and a half to the 2.19. That might have been from the 6.4 4 to the 2.19. So we'd have to cut by 140,000

085more as a budget to not Additional levy at 3. Yeah. 137,000. So Katie's right on with her $140,000. So if we went back down to the 2.19% cap, we would have to reduce another $140,000 from what you have been presenting to them. I think that's a discussion we have to do after we do our community um feedback survey. I think we need to ask the community what um their opinions are and get their their information back to us. I know what we did get. I think it was 68% on the last budget vote and it was also at 3.5. So, and that's why we started this conversation at 3.5 because that's what our taxpayers support last year. Okay. Any other board comment? Okay. Public comment. Um, public comment is limited to three minutes, so everyone

086has the opportunity to share. This is a comment. This is time for the public to make comment to the board as a whole and not a answer or question answer session. In addition to public comment tonight, we are asking um the public for feedback via survey which is similar to last year and we have the draft survey here um so we can make it live tomorrow. Um that'll be online as well as um paper in the local libraries. Okay, Andrew, do you have the time? Okay, thank you. Uh let's see, [Music] As the cheer coach, I have a pretty big voice, so I will try to step back from the microphone and not yell at all of you. I am a 10-year resident, seven-year employee, and a parent of many district students. No, I am

087not an alumnist or a descendant of the wonderful generational families of this district, but I've been held by my peers today to the same standard visit by work. I am proud to speak among my colleagues and neighbors this evening and thank the board for the time. To state that we as a district are not taking full advantage of the state data and current district resources to utilize that data is to state that at least four current administrators and one salaried support personnel are not doing their job because they we already have access to this data and software and utilize it in many of the planning phases for all programs educator evaluations as well as many other schoolyear growth and improvement processes. One of them being diversified educational opportunities that a we clearly based on this

088budget do not have the budget to fund inhouse and b according to the New York State data report card we can do elsewhere for far cheaper than we reportedly spend on a student inhouse at according to the New York State data report card. $23,863.96 per student to your reported 14 to6,000 per student in extended building programs. You speak as if these programs do not benefit us. Their higher success rate builds our graduation rate up as well as our proficiency rates which in turn increase our financial aid. You show here a longitudinal data study, but only for ELA, which clearly shows that steady class sizes and staffing provide growth in at least that area. You use a distractor analysis as a distraction from real data that refers to no specific test, but reviewed by the district

089personnel tasked with handling and verifying that software's accuracy. It can tell you is specifically only for grade 8 ELA exams and is specifically used to identify the areas of the assessments that need further program review and can only be done when hovering over the individual markers. Somehow that software being used as a graphic, you'd have to know what you were looking at. You utilize performance growth as indicators for change, but you fail to identify which indicators these tiles relate to. In any way, you also fail to recognize throughout all the data provided that compared to the capital district, we are on equal footing to those top schools near us andor near equal footing in all areas. Those top schools in your great big growth. You state you must use our in-house resources to continue this

090work. Start using [Applause] Quiet. Good evening. My name is Bill Cord, also known as Mr. I've never had any reason to address the board of education over the course of my 32 years here in the district until now. Last week, Dr. Long mentioned that there will be 20 students each in two third grades. I think she may have had moment last week and again tonight there will actually be 20 and 21. That's according to the teacher hub that I looked at, but I looked at last week and again today. It certainly seems like quite a few students to me. The homeschooled students will very well may be coming back being taken into the equation. To the best of my knowledge, two homes children will indeed be coming back to the group. That would put the

091count to 21 22. I've been doing this a long time, not counting the two homes children that may be returning. I average two to three new students each year, and Tracy Peter, my partner, does as well. Four to five years ago, I actually had three students with special needs arrive several days before school even started. Yeah, I get that you cannot predict the enrollment. However, if you looked at the average of new arrivals, which in my experience is at least two in each room, that would put the count to 23 and 24, which to me seems excessive. And I do believe last week, Dr. Long and Katie agreed that 24 is too many. Over the last five or so years, teaching has drastically changed. The needs of each individual child behaviorally and emotionally, not to

092mention academically, are exponentially different. We talk a lot about the mountain, the mountain core values. And to be completely honest with you, it's something that I glance at from time to time when it pops up in presentation. I look I took a good look at those values before The core value of empathy, and I quote, is acting with compassion to build relationships and foster community. I sure will try my best to do that with next year's class, but it seems very daunting indeed. I implore you not to look at these kids as numbers, but to look at the needs of the group as a whole to meet expectations with success at the third grade level. With larger classes, we will never attract new families to the district or we will lose more to other options.

093Where will this lead us in the future? Thank you for your time. Nikki [Music] D. Um, hello. My name is Nicole Dunham. Uh, I was unaware of this meeting until just yesterday. So, I apologize. I really didn't have um much time to prepare a speech, but I was asked to talk tonight to express my thoughts and concerns um by my former third grade teacher, Mr. B. Um, I felt that it's my due diligence to make a statement tonight because um I have expressed concerns. is I'm a long-term one-time proud alumni of Berlin. I've attended the school district from kindergarten through 12th grade. Graduated with highest honors in 2007 and I am uh also a graduate of Russell Sage College with dual bachelor's degree in elementary education and psychology. And furthermore, I continued my graduate education

094at Sunni Albany for literacy specialists. Um, I'm often asked what led me to the decision to homeschool my children. And it's really a loaded question. There's so many variables that go into considering the pros and cons to public school versus homeschool. And for myself personally, I have three students in the Rland District. One of which who is an extremely gifted and highly excelled student in all areas. And all of my student all of my children came to me with feelings of wanting to be homeschooled for different reasons. And that is why this year for the 2024 2025 school year, we've been actively homeschooling. My oldest I feel was in a position to sort of fall through the cracks and be shued to keep his hand down. We know you know the answer. Where's my daughter

095who will be entering into the third grade when we reenroll for the 2025 2026 school year who's going to need a lot of additional support who as I said I've um you know I have academic education background but even with a 3:1 ratio at home with teacher to student ratio I found that there's not enough hours in today and compelled tonight to talk about these class reductions sizes going into the upcoming year. I just um like I said feel it's my due diligence to just speak out against the elimination I guess of sections you called it because I have personally seen we the I'm sorry the lady speaker I missed your name but talking about the budget conversations with making cuts in the Boseies program for the homeschool evaluation and the I guess the followup

096with that I do feel as though the budget cut there is left us actively sort of just dependent on our own needs. I believe that I need to reenroll my students to get my children. You have three minutes over. Can you email that to the board so we can read it? Absolutely. I just wanted to know that we will be here and those numbers will go up. Thank you. Thank you. Courtney broke here. [Music] Good evening. My name is Courtney Rogier and I'm a 2014 alumni as well as a co-orker, friend, and parent in the district. I'm going to do my best to say everything I have written before the timer cuts me off, but 3 minutes isn't enough time to describe all these teachers together, let alone individually. Since elementary students are in bed

097or getting ready for bed, I will speak for them. For the last two and a half years, I have had the privilege of working alongside these caring, hardworking ladies. Before becoming a TA, I was a monitor and would go into almost every single classroom. Watching them teach was inspiring. What's more is seeing the connection the students have with each of them. To some, a teacher is a safe zone, a comfort, and there's quite a few that don't have that at home. I can definitely speak for Megan Olsson as I had the privilege of working with her daily. Any kid in need of a hug should give it. Needing a five to 10 minute rest time in the reading corner or just to rest their eyes when they have a headache from the how hot the

098room was because the thermostat was broken in the classroom and having windows open only did so much. Megan treated me as a TA let alone or let me become fully involved in the classroom giving me the admiration in becoming one. Tess Moy her pride her and character speaks volumes. She brings spunk and fun into her classroom. No, the school Aubrey Mahar the past two years was the best building substitute. She's sweet and kind. Her position was on the line last year and she gladly took the position of the MTSS reading for Lisa Leler who stayed home with her adorable baby. But working with Aubrey is a delight and she listens to her students with a bright smile. Taylor Meyer, although I haven't been in her classroom, I can speak as a parent on her behalf.

099She helped my daughter in kindergarten with NTSS math and helped her graduate in a way. Alana still talks about Miss Meyer and how she helped with her math and gives her big hugs whenever she sees her. Again, speaks volumes. Speaking of, you're getting rid of a teacher, which I see kind of changed, but who at the time was a substitute and an assistant cross country coach, but has since become a close friend, close enough to invite him to my first wedding. Josh Weaver was and is still a mentor to his students. He was my comfort at the high school when my dad was dying from congestive heart failure and kidney failure my junior year. He gave me the best advice, gave me a shoulder to cry on and would tell me the corniest jokes just

100to get me to laugh in my dark zone. Teachers are these students away from home or home away from home. Sorry. Although it was already mentioned, teachers position should come before yet another administrator. Like the old saying goes, too many chiefs and not enough Indians will ruin a tribe. Cutting Boseies is a mistake. My husband would not have passed high school if it wasn't for Boseies. Boseies taught him how to construct, become an electrician, and he is now in the welding trade, which we need more tradesmen and women. Lastly, you're worried about enrollment. Maybe if we stop getting rid of all the teachers that actually helped our students and are there for comfort, maybe got rid of the ones that punched walls, throw books, and everything. I know I ran out, but can you just

101email that to us so we can read it? You can totally take this copy right now. Perfect. Thank [Applause] you, Sandy Hans. Hi, good evening and thank you. I just wanted to let you know that um after the budget proposal on Thursday, Friday was a really typical teaching day. The decisions that you made have an immediate really profound impact on them. There were levels of stress, there was worry, there was concern, there were verbal altercations. um one of really the hardest teaching days I've ever had. And I will say that I absolutely agree that we do need to project for the future, but this conversation should have happened in September and October. And I do think that once this is passed, you do need to reach out to the BTA, the CSEA, the VA, and

102start these conversations. We're seeing difficult. If you knew then, right, if we knew then what we know now, we'd be talking about how are we going to prepare for larger class sizes? Are we going to partner more co-eing classrooms? But we cannot do this 11th hour. Oh my gosh, we didn't know, right? You know what the salary of every employee here? You know the statement because you approve them. you know, every paper clip, every basketball, every smart work because we have to write a requisition and it gets approved. So, most of the budget you should know. So, if you're seeing hiccups along the line, you need to pull us in sooner because we can make things happen. And we know the intricacies of who we work with, who should be partnered, who should make other

103decisions, but we cannot be a district that is known to hire, fire, rehire, refire because we won't attract quality teachers. Thank you. [Music] Watch. This statement is from Sam Colbert. She's the co-f facilitator of the professional development committee who could not make it tonight in regards and I I also am a member of the professional development committee in regards to the information in tonight's presentation about data student improvement and curriculum. I would like the board and community to know that our district PD committee has already agreed previous to the budget season that curriculum must be our focus for next year's PD time. We have 56 hours of PD time built into our school year teacher contract. It is already on our agenda for our monthly meeting after spring break to start planning curriculum work for

104next year and what that looks like. The teachers have identified that they want to learn and how they want to update their instruction. I am confident that our current current faculty, department chairs, team leaders, and building principles can come up with a plan together to tackle curriculum without another hired administrator to focus that work. If and when the district is in better financial situation, we should revisit the curriculum administrator position. But in the meantime, rest assured, we have a talented group of people who are willing to do the work for the betterment of our students and their learning. Thank you, [Applause] Danielle [Music] Meyers, Julie Edmond. Sorry, Danielle. I didn't see you. Good evening. My name is Daniel Myers and I stand before you tonight as both a teacher in the district and a parent

105of a child in the district. I'm speaking tonight in regards to the elimination of one English teacher and one math teacher. I'm not sure it was specified in tonight's presentation, but both of these positions are coming from the current eighth grade team. Please allow me to take you back to this time a year ago as a board who had decided to eliminate Sam Darco, seventh grade social studies position, and Maril Hunt, a seventh grade science position. Neither position was brought back this year, which means that the seventh grade has been operating on half a team. What I mean by that is that I teach all of the ELA classes. Patty Corsac teaches all of the math classes. Then we pull from the sixth grade to teach two of our science classes, but we pull from

106an eighth grade for the compression science class. For our social studies classes, that same eighth grade teacher has one section and then two other high school teachers are pulled for the other two sections. It's disjointed for a middle school team to say the best. Now, let's fast forward to now. Now, there are two eighth grade positions that are on the chopping block. Faith Halc, the eighth grade math teacher, and Ela Senle, the eighth grade ELA teacher. So, these current seventh graders who have had so much disruption to their education already will yet again experience the same kind of stresses next year as eth graders. I cannot emphasize enough the negative impact that terminating these two positions will have on these kids' academic success. Have you thought about the compression math and science groups? With these

107cuts and talks about eliminating sections, will they be able to continue into the high school math and science classes as eighth graders that they've been preparing this entire school year for? If the answer is yes, what else is going to have to be let go in order to secure that these teachers who are certified to teach these classes are available to these eighth graders and the eighth graders need these classes. Have you thought about the 3 through eight state testing in English and math? Is this the best way to prepare our students for such testing? How does this affect the other grade levels? We now have to give up teachers to cover those classes. What will have to be left with them? Electives, honors classes, advanced placement classes. In a time when we're just coming

108out from under the state's thumb of being identified as a school in need of improvement, can you honestly tell me and everyone else in this room that this is the best way to stay off of the state's head list and that it's totally on in the best interest of the students? Also, based on tonight's presentation, I see that the music and PE positions have been brought back and that is terrific. I'm almost done. How do you choose which positions are more valuable than the others to be brought back into the budget? And if you were able to find these to fund these positions, why can you not find funds to support an indigenous math teacher to curriculums that are very foundation to every single student's academic success? Can you can you send that to us?

109And I don't trust you, but I'm going to keep my own time up here, girlfriend. And Katie, don't you come for me. I'm gonna at least finish my sentence when it goes off. Okay. I won't I won't go beyond that, but I would like to at least finish my sentence. All right. Good evening. My name is Juliet. I'm a parent of a child at Berlin Elementary and Berlin Middle School. Last year, when I stood before you, I asked for transparency. I asked how we got here. Much of the blame was pointed toward the previous administration's poor decisions or mistakes. However, here we are again. While I didn't have the opportunity to press at the time, since we're here again, I will press more now. Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the board. Our education system is

110set up with a series of checks and balances. And to get to this place, someone was not doing their job. Now, I'm not here to attack anyone, but I do think it's important and it needs to be said. One example is when I attended the board meeting on March 18th, there was a resolution brought forth and a vote requested to be done in real time due to the nature of the issue and time constraints. To her credit, Katie asked if there was a copy of the contract available for the board to look at. There was not a copy for each board member, but the people on the facilities committee had a copy and one was slid to Katie to look at. Here is where I have a problem. The board voted on it and passed

111it. And some of these board members did not even have the contract to make an informed decision. You cannot be so laxidasical with so much at risk. Now, I'm not saying this one action got us here. Not all. I know the picture is much bigger than that. However, my fear is that this is a pattern of behavior and there are other decisions that have been made or are being made without all of the information. Cutting teachers and increasing class sizes seems to always be the perceived solution. You want input from the community. Well, here it is. This is not an acceptable solution to our problem. We talk about test scores, students performance, attendance, and engagement. There are no studies that I could find that provided evidence that students benefited from increasing class sizes and reducing

112teachers. On the contrary, there are many studies done to show how smaller class sizes associated with improved learning outcomes, including higher test scores. Teachers are the heart of the school. Teachers make the most difference. When looking at education and what benefits our kids, it's the teachers. In the last proposal, there was much talk about the decisions today and how they impact our future. It sounds nice, even inspirational. Do the hard thing now for our kids and for our future. Well, let's look at the proposed class reductions. It was recommended that we maintain three sections of second grade, but then reduce grade three down to two sections. Tell me what happens the following year when those three sections of second grade move on to third, which is now only two sections. Your proposed solution is shortsighted

113and quite frankly not a solution. It's a band-aid and it comes at too high of a cost. [Music] Do you have a copy of that for for me to read or can you send it to the board to read? I will send it to you. I have a much longer version. This almost condensed. Thank you. [Applause] Cody Um, good evening. My name is Hin Snowing. I'm a resident in the town of Petersburg. One of the first things that we heard tonight in the presentation by Colleen was to quote, "We need to plan before the cliffs appear." We need to plan before the cliffs appear. Based upon what I've heard and what I've been looking at over the last several presentations and a lot of data from the New York State Department of Education, I question

114whether the cliff is actually in sight. Let's first talk about demographics. Between 1985 and 2005, the school district hosted between,50 to,50 students. 10 years later in 2015, that number had decreased to a little over 800 students. another 10 years uh therein in 2025 that number is a little over 600 students. So within a 20-year time period, the demographics based on the population count of the students here declined by 40% 25% alone in the last 10 years. Now let's look at expenses. Based on the information that was included in the presentations in 2015 2014, you spent about 17.5 million. This budget forecast roughly 25 to$26 million. That's a 45% increase in cost. Now, what does that look like? Translate to a cost per student. In 2014, you spent about 21,000 per student. In 2025, that number

115is at 40,000 per student. Based upon the demographic trends on your first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade classes, you're going to be at somewhere between 500 to 550 students in another 10 years. and your cost per student is going to be $60,000 per per child. Now, how does that compare against other districts in the state given that we're all facing the same demographic trends? In 2014 2015, this district spent about 12 and a half% more per average than comparable districts. In 2019, that was 23%. In 2022, that was 41%. Today, that number is closer to 50%. Your problem is your cost structure is out of whack relative to your demographic base. It's not the teacher salary, it's your overall cost structure. And until that's resolved, the clip is in [Applause] [Music] sight. Okay.

116to get some [Music] feedback comments over. Do [Music] you feedback? Well, I'd like to hear the board's feedback. If anything different than they've already said prior to the public comment, based on the public comment, then what I will do is share what I've put together as the draft survey and ask if there's further information I would like to seek out. Any board member comment based on the public [Music] comment. So let me make sure I am getting a sense of the feedback from the board a little bit earlier based on what we proposed tonight as the draft three bud budget. um that in essence you were supportive of the draft 3 budget as proposed going out of the 3.5%. It appears to me that distance learning was important to keep in if possible to the

117majority of the board and there was an agreement to cap CTE seats at 15. We felt that was reasonable based on past history and the circumstances we're in. Uh there were some questions about bringing the plowing in but it appears that with all the questions answered um people are willing to move forward with that. So somewhat similar to last year's survey, um the questions we are looking to ask folks is how they are best represented and the choices obviously are community member, teacher, staff member, parent, student um or any combination thereof because we want to know who we are hearing from. Um, question number two would be, is the draft three proposed budget acceptable to you? Noting that there was the restoration of the PE teacher, the music teacher, and the elimination of the previously

118proposed coordinator of curriculum and instruction. And folks will have the opportunity to rate that question from unacceptable to highly acceptable. The third question we have is the allowable tax cap for Berlin's 2.19. The draft three budget assumes 3.5. Can you support 3.5? The options being yes, no, and undecided. And if the answer is no, we are requesting an explanation. Uh given the minimal impact slide 40 and the presentation will be linked to the survey as well, so they can access it. Would you support adding back distance learning? Again, the options being yes, no, and undecided. And if the answer is no, asking for an explanation of why. And then the final question, after reviewing the budget information, uh please share any additional feedback you may have. And that's a narrative response with unlimited uh characters.

119So when this survey is completed, if they answer yes and they want to explain, they could do that in section seven. We could change. Yes, they could. Or we could they could be allowed to answer explain regardless of their answer, too. I can make that modification. Yeah, I'd rather have that modification so that um it gives us something else to base our decisions on. And then um because we are going to put paper copies out there, can we make sure the budget or this presentation is available in paper where we drop off the copies? Correct. Our plan is to deploy this digitally hopefully as soon as tomorrow afternoon. We know we have the break coming up which I know some people aren't available on travel. I know we meet on Tuesday the 22nd, but we

120are planning to leave the survey live until Monday the 21st. Last year we closed it on Sunday. That's Easter Sunday. I'm not going to ask people to put it in by 5:00 on Easter. We will leave it open till Monday at 4:30. Um we will send the board updated compilations over the course of time. You'll just have to look at those last couple on the 22nd. But the the format we use to do what compiles the data. We will put paper copies at the libraries along with QR codes. And what the QR code does is if somebody just scans it, it will come into the electronic. But if they need to do paper, we are asking it them to drop them off to us at district office because of the limited hours of some of

121the libraries. We want to be sure we get them back. Okay. Any other questions on the survey? Okay. I would like to thank um the public for coming out tonight and participating in our budget process including attending the workshops. Um so thank you. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion by Frank. A second second by Sherry. All in favor? I