001this is a special presentation from the Brighton Central School District Board of Education this is the condensed version and the update based on information that is new since the last time that it was presented so the Tuesday before the final budget was adopted by the state of New York we present the proposal to you and this is an update based their work or does their lack of work and what I mean by lack of work is the incredible disappointment that we have in the lack of state aid that's being provided to Brighton which I'll talk about in the presentation tonight we had hoped in fact we presented to you on the 26th a place marker or $500,000 was an appropriate amount of me to count on coming from the state based on the assembly and
002the Senate proposals and they were woefully I'm not sure any confident is the right word but unable to fulfill even that promise which is far below that the district should be getting which does have an impact on our budget now highlight how we've had to make changes since that point in time the budget factors as you know that we review in this process each and every year we live at increased staffing demands dude enrollment merging needs changing standards our labor increases including the increase in minimum wage which has an impact throughout our bargaining units increase in health insurance rates due to although the premiums staying flat the number of people participating our contribution rates beginning to increase in our health insurance plans are elective demands for students the impact of our capital project over time
003and planning for full-day kindergarten this really plays a big part in the conversation tonight around fulfilling the promise that in 2017 our tax payer is approved by a very wide margin a capital project to focus on facility improvements across the district but to be able to add full-day kindergarten and we have to now fulfill that promise in the budget process so we'll explain that as well the tax levy growth or the property tax cap around 2% changes in our mandated programming's programs for students as I mentioned demands and changes in state and federal aids the state deficit or potential for deficit are proposed the governor's proposed cap on reimbursable aids which had us looking differently in our budget as well and changes in federal funding proposed by the Trump administration a loss of potential title
004grant monies and again as I mentioned the foundation aid issue in our district playing the biggest role in this conversation and the impact of federal tax reform particularly the elimination of the ability for a deduction for state local taxes a reduction in that benefit and how that impacts our taxpayers here at the district 2 right now or in the next six days file there five days file their income taxes and discovering what that means in their process really important for us to point out I think over and over again that budgets in our opinion communicate our priorities where we devote resources we're using community devote resources really says quite a bit about how you feel we should be supporting kids and what you feel is best in terms of our support of kids bottom left-hand
005corner frankly it's a value statement so we could talk about values all we want but where we put our money is the statement about those values that is I think most realistic and says the most the executive budget proposal meets and exceeds state standards to support every one of our child children across the spectrum everything that they need it provides funding and support of the blueprint plans that we have particularly focused on diversity equity inclusion and safety security and it certainly respects taxpayers and honors commitments well what do we mean by that particular we're proposing going over the cap and respects the fact that in 2017 voters taxpayers did approve a capital project referendum to add to our debt service but to revitalize our facilities we need to be respectful of that promise we also
006owe it to our taxpayers to provide some level of predictability if we don't begin to pay on that project now program grows significantly in the next budget year and if we don't plan for full-day kindergarten now and continue adpositions we will see a spike in property taxes over time which we don't want to see so this is respectful of that towards taxpayers points our pride including our budget really important point out on the left-hand side the pieces that we think are so important they're essential to the puzzle pieces or the the pie in this district the instructional leadership and professional development very important to what we're doing and our level of support each and every day in classrooms the types of things that are helping teachers continue to do great work with kids our co-curricular
007athletic and art opportunities for students as well are often important thank you very much making sure that our kids so many of whom connect to school in very different ways through the wide variety of clubs that we now have and the many athletic opportunities that they have this man is also supporting this budget our additional intervention services for students beyond the mandates it's what has closed the gap for so many of our kids from all different parts of our schools so all different groups in our school achieving a very high level because we're giving kids what they need that goes beyond just the state's basic requirement our summer school offerings that also support student needs so students don't fall behind and can stay on the right pace for graduation we know when kids fall behind
008and can't get credits they are less likely to graduate if they don't continue along the right path in high school we want to make sure they do that small class sizes and additional course offerings are a big part of this budget as well we continue to be able to support those with some changes some of the efficiencies we were able to find but we still believe we have small class sizes and plenty of electives for students and the team teaching structure at the middle school is so important to supporting the adolescent a child at that level providing the right amount of time for teachers to meet talk about students for students to operate on a team with consistency among their teachers that structure is able to stay in place with this budget as well and
009transportation services for all students in our school community in other words we are required to provide transportation for all students including those in private schools we're able to continue to support those students the non public students on days when we don't have school this is the one service that so many of our families take advantage of from the district who may send their children to other schools this is the place where their tax dollars are going to work for them and it is very important to their children receive the education that they're expecting from their private provider as well it is a relatively small cost item in fact only costing about fifty thousand dollars the difference between the everyday transportation when our kids are in session and when those schools are not in session but
010it's something we like to point out they were able to maintain because we care about every child even those that are not attending our public school each and every day and on the right hand side new in this budget for 2019 20 will have a dedicated full-time equivalency not necessarily a full-time person but more funding dedicated as opposed to consultant fees for diversity consultant in the district for diversity equity and inclusion that's been enormously successful this year with Marla Washington working with us and were able to budget for that next year and expand that service for somebody who's been a great advocate for all of our families a great go-between somebody who's taught us worked with our faculty and worked with many families the family navigator service which is helping families navigate the mental health
011system and bringing services right here on campus from private providers helping people get in the door we recognize it a big obstacle to people gaining service working with mental health providers is actually getting there and getting an appointment we have a staff member here that's helping families achieve that which is helping them be more successful in school and have a better experience additional full-time equivalencies to expand our services for english as new language en l students we have this as a mandated service that we've accounted for as well we have more students coming each year in fact a large group a particular grade level is moving through our system of students who don't speak English is the first language I think our teacher provided an excellent service in that way but we're expanding the number
012of T we'll be doing that based on mandate in hand school safety staffing as well additional security staff to continue to think about how best to keep our students safe K through 12 and continue planning for the full-day kindergarten program which will happen in 2021 we need to continue to plan personnel staffing funding in that portion of the budget so that when we get to that point we're not in one year asking taxpayers to fund the entire expansion of the program we need to build towards that that's the respecting taxpayers and making sure we keep those tax increases level over time and it fully funds and this is a big important pieces in 2017 our tax payers approved a capital project to revitalize our facilities to be able to add space at Council Rock for
013full-day kindergarten but to expand and revitalize facilities K through 12 that was approved in 2017 this is when that car payment now comes due if we wait to begin paying on that debt we can only wait another year it compounds our issue and the simple explanation is that I'll give several times as we don't have a car payment in our budget we paid out for our car a long time ago we didn't find a car or when we did we paid cash for it so we didn't factor in debt service into our monthly budget like you would do at home for your car payment and when that car payment ends some people put that money towards a new car or they spend it on something else where we spent it on something else it was
014called program and lowering people's taxes over time so now we're able to say we have to go back out now we did this project or we're doing this project we need to have this debt service in our budget and this is the year that it goes in it won't have to go in again it will now be there and so that's also funded in this year's proposal as well the overall spending we're asking the community to increase spending by 4.5% but it's really important to point out that's 2.9 percent in operations so the regular budget that we were proposed to the community and come to you to propose would be an Operations budget in other words doing everything that we're doing now and looking at programming than we need for next year would be a
0152.9 percent increase in spending it gets up to 4.5 because of that capital expenditure the debt serves the car payment tenshun so that's the increase in capital that accounts for 1.6 percent of a four and a half percent spending increase overall you can see where our salary line will go up our total salary spending so not each person but total overall based on people leaving people coming and retirements etc will go up 3.1 percent total spending in that area the benefits line actually will be down one hundred eighty-five thousand dollars that's because of flat rates in the health insurance plans the BOCES costs will go up one hundred fifty two thousand dollars that's for an increased cost that's provided to us we are built for that supplies and services the overall cost of doing business
016again in an eighty million dollar budget is up 1.2 million dollars a relatively normal increase but debt service will go up 1.2 million dollars that would be a heck of a car I keep using the household analogy but that's to build buildings so remember I want to go through this again we didn't build buildings here for a long time I was explaining earlier to the board the idea of upcycling not that they need me to explain to him I mentioned that a student today told me about how she was designing clothing this was a student in seventh grade who's a designer pops up cycling so using previously used materials to upcycle that make them into something better well we were doing that with our buildings for a long long time we were upcycling well now
017we're at a point where we had to build on we needed more space and we had to take care of cross repairs and revitalization throughout the district we couldn't keep just upcycling we had to really improve them in ways that that required us to take on debt that we did not have remember when we didn't have debt we used that towards program and during a period of time when the state was taking money in the gap elimination adjustment we were able to fund our other expenditures through that same funding whereas other districts kept their debt service we didn't do that now we're going back to hear you say okay we need that back now we need to put that in the budget that accounts for the 1.2 million dollars give you a little bit more
018detail around the spending that we're proposing all the way down on the right-hand side is that same issue this is the dollar amount but it's spelled out differently in this type of chart it's a 68 percent increase or 1.2 million dollars because we don't have very much debt service so we're putting the car payment in right above that transportation services are increasing 11% but that's because we're taking that service back from BOCES who could no longer provide it which is why you see the increase in BOCES spending only 2.1 percent right here we had to take back three hundred fifty six thousand dollars or a portion of that just for particular transportation for students with special needs that BOCES could no longer provide so we took on the service but again there's a drop where
019we would have had a bigger increase and another place in the budget and then instructional materials and supplies up 18 percent or about $800,000 we see only an increase overall in salary and benefits when you take that benefit line that's down just a little bit because we're in a healthcare consortium does the best job it possibly can of being efficient a drop of 0.8% along with the salary change our total spending in that area is only going up 1.6 percent in next year's budget so the biggest change again is that capital increase that car payment down here at the bottom but take a look at these mandated services really important to point this out the 572 thousand dollars most of that experience just in the last couple of months in an increase in tuitions and
020mandated programs for students to require particular type of service that's very very expensive we don't forget that for a moment we don't regret that that's what we should be doing but it's important to note that that's a cost pressure when that goes up 572 thousand dollars and our state aides not going up nearly that amount that's 572 thousand dollars in the 80 million dollar a year budget where everything else is going up and I mentioned for example just one point two million dollars in material supplies and our state aid numbers not going up new the same percent to account for that which is why we have to ask the community to help support all of these changes that contract transportation I mentioned that's that the transportation taken back for BOCES and a hundred thousand dollars
021in health services paid to other districts and these are the mandated costs when we have students attending private parochial school in other school districts those schools are located the nursing service that's provided to them is billed back to our district and the cost of that is going up a hundred thousand one hundred nine thousand dollars in next year's budget that debt service from funding again that car payment issue what if we were to delay that what would the problem look like if you take a look here at the building aid we're getting very little building in because you don't get that until the year after you spend it we'll have a lot more building aid coming on next year to help account for that the debt service is in the blue column on the left
022hand side just imagine if we take this blue column from 1920 added on to 2021 because then it will not go away we'll have to pay that and that will still be a significant expense then that we need to be accounted for in next year's budget the net levy increase though significant coming into this year but then as you can see it will level off then over time once the debt service payment is in where does our revenue come from we're very respectful of the notion that most of our funding comes from the taxpayers here in the brain Central School District 67% of that our state aid is only 10% of foundation aid reimbursable AIDS 11% again this is not the benevolence of the state this is their responsibility this is their job a large
023part of state funding or state tax dollars are supposed to be coming back to you in the form of a free appropriate public education for your children this should be much bigger your property taxes should be lower and the state should be doing more to fulfill their obligation we'd like to see that increase over time the 1920 budget the executive budget proposal assumed that we would get at least fifty two and a half percent only fifty two and a half percent of our II didn't think that that was too big of an expectation at all considering where the assembly in the Senate were in the process but after having to negotiate fully with the governor we ended up with only fifty percent fifty 3% of the aid that was due to us which is why
024we're coming back to the community event and saying that we need to be over the cap and we've made accommodations within the budget but because we're not getting the full amount even than we expected with the full amount or a bigger percentage with how massive cuts to programming or really delaying the strategy of beginning our debt service now and compounding our problem we have to ask for to go to the cap be a significant challenge you take a look at the foundation a dis issue in just a little bit of the history the orange and the blue all together are the total amount that we should be getting in this school district and that comes from a formula developed negotiated and Albany years ago that values certain items in your demographics so the amount of
025kids you have the number of kids you have total but also whom you see free reduced lunch then as a measure of of need in the district the number of students that speak English as an in language the number of students with special needs a variety of factors and they're rated in all different ways to distribute a large sum of money across the entire state so if you have more kids and if you were kids with different needs within that formula you should get more money your costed doing businesses more so when this was agreed upon you can see we were supposed to be getting about 12 million dollars and the full Faizan amount up to this point right now we'd be up over sixty million dollars that should be coming to the district unfortunately
026the state's not fulfilled that obligation and as our numbers have grown and our need has grown over time the percent increase has not come close to meeting that need we are only scheduled to receive about eight million of the sixteen million dollars so we should have been increasing one point four seven million dollars this year we're only getting two hundred forty nine thousand dollars I can't make it up those are the numbers we should have been going up one point four seven we're only going up two hundred forty nine thousand dollars and there's no exclusion in the tax cap for increased needs in your district so the state can decide to not out of their formula but they have not created any mechanism with the tax cap for those variances for those changes in your
027student population your need within your district we did thanks to the the work of fight for Brighton and many people as community many many people in this room and you as a school board and your advocacy achieve a bump of 1 million dollars into the 1718 year the problem is literally in the documents the the ability for us to have that happen in the formula the way that was written in was deleted in this year's work in the state budget so that fix although that million dollars from aims in the amount and we grow a percentage over that amount the language that would have helped that base grow was eliminated in the agreed-upon budget so people have asked what about that effects well the fix still exists for that million dollars but it hasn't kept
028pace with where that numbers continue to grow and where the increases should have been well how does that compare to other people you might ask when you look at rock where you might not ask when I'm gonna still tell you anything possible all state we take a look at what districts look like us and these are districts from all over the state different types of districts but have the most similarity to us if you take a look at this column right here the combined wealth ratio combined wealth ratio if you as a districts if people come out as a number one you're considered an average the district so that's a combination of property wealth in your community and income tax well the combined wealth ratio and that's the way the state measures your ability as
029a school district to pay for its rules so we are just below one just below average and school districts that look like us around the state Bethlehem for example in the Albany area Orchard Park in the Buffalo area they were scheduled and their full phase in a foundation aid to get a little bit more than us they're a little bit larger both of those districts so Beth I'm 17 million Orchard Park just over 17 million as well and their aid in this coming school year will be fifteen point nine million in Orchard Park twelve point eight million in Bethlehem but you have Brighton scheduled get sick 22 is only going to get 8.2 million dollars my percentage those districts 93% 75% and we're just going to get 50% how about save us is going to
030get 100 33% their number has dropped likely because they have dropped in the number of students their needs and their district tip change yet scheduled to get 14 they're going to get 18 million dollars none of this makes any sense if you look locally where do we stack up wait at the bottom list in fact we're 16th lowest of the 700 districts in the entire state compared to our neighbors I think it's interesting if you look here at Penfield the one with the closest combined well 3 she talked to us point nine two two we're at point nine five three both just under the one their schedule getting nineteen point four million dollars a little bit bigger than us so that number that bigger number makes sense compared to our 16 but they're going to
031get thirteen point six 70% of their aid and we're only going to get eight point two million dollars or fifty point four percent of our tea so this is a fundamental issue that we have and if you look across them in Rwanda strips you see this over and over again these are chests will get 94 percent all the way down to our 50 percent everybody in between and again the people with the closest combined wealth ratio to us even Pittsburghers going to get 63 percent for us if we're getting 63 percent we'd have a near zero percent tax increase to be very honest with you we'd be getting that much more in aid it would be such a significant jump for us so that's what we've advocated for and fight for brains are very helpful
032in that we don't have a fix yet and the agreed upon state budget really did very little to address this so what we're proposing in terms of remedy then is that our community adopt a four point eight nine percent tax increase to support this funding plan spending plans what does that mean for the average taxpayer our home value uses the average home go is $220,000 that would be a two hundred sixty six dollar increase in next year's taxes to support that that's point eight nine percent increase how does that compare them and what does that mean relative to the levy levy for capital versus operations the tax cap number alone if we just went out at our tax cap number which is 2.3 percent it wouldn't it would cost people 127 dollars total in their
033tax increase next year if you take it the levy for capital so that debt service payment that alone would be our tax cap number if all we did was pay the debt service next year that is the tax cap number right there the other hundred thirty eight dollars that we're asking for this is the levy than for operations this is everything else we need to make sure that we're supporting new programming for kids but also to support the current existing program the non-mandated pieces that make the Brighton experience what it is and that honors over here on the right hand side the screenshot right from the materials that we distribute to our community asking for a hundred forty-four dollars a year well that bill is alpha coming due for the capital product this is the
034based I know whom the two hundred thousand dollars we've not shipped in this is based on the two hundred twenty thousand dollar home so we're pretty close to that number that we had promised in fact just a little bit less if you take a look at what does this all mean though so this tax increase the total pyramid here is the four point eight nine percent what is it going towards to just really illustrate this point the cap number right there are two point three percent would stop us at just support for ongoing operations and programming period that number alone what we need to do though is happen of course the debt service related to the improvement plan and new programming of just point two nine percent in safety security wellness and this is additional
035amount of health support additional security staff and diversity equity support for permanent programming including restorative practices and the diversity equity consultant to work in the school district that's the additional two point eight nine percent that we are proposing the additional increase that we need to be able to do that we've got to take care of that debt service get it in right now and we've got continue to grow program and at the same time support ongoing operations and academic programs remember if all we had was just the cap number we could just do the debt service and cut out support for ongoing operations academic programs which means dramatically cutting programs to do that water vice-versa just support ongoing operations and programs and have to cut out the debt service and new programming up here so
036if we just had the cap knowledge what is the budget what if this proposed budget isn't approved by 60% of voters because remember the property tax cap doesn't say that you can't choose as a community to exceed that 2.3 percent number it simply says that if you choose to do that 60 percent of people have to choose to do that and then for doing that you will not be eligible for the relief check the property tax relief checks that you've been receiving so those are the really the two factors but as a community you can choose to do that so spending would have to be reduced by 1.3 million dollars in order to become cap compliant and we would have to look at non-contingent equipment classroom furniture we'd have to defer the debt service the
037capital project piece that I just mentioned to that car payment and keep saying over and over again we'd have to defer funding for the full-day kindergarten program we'd have to look at Department reductions and staff and non mandated program reductions as well but that's just delaying the problem those items will still need to be funded in next year's budget and we would have to look at extended studies foreign language at grade six and summer music and great for the additional athletic extracurricular arts co-curricular activities and the additional supports and opportunities that we have per student that would be the result for sure the tax cap over time has had an interesting impact in the district when it first came about we went out to the community and said we don't need to be at the
038cap number just like you can choose as a district to go over it if you choose to do that you can also choose to be under that cap number we did we only said to the community we only need this amount we don't need to go all the way to the cap so in 1213 we were five hundred eighty four thousand dollars to cap them out the following year $439,000 under the cap amount but in 1415 we went back out to the community and said listen we're straightforward with you then we will always be straightforward with you about what we need in the last year's we haven't needed to be at the cap number in fact the cumulative increase over those times if we had stated the cap number would have been more than what
039we were asking to go out over the cap and send that to the community at that point in the community approves going out over the cap feeling comfortable in that conversation we believe that we're asking for what we needed we have been able to since that time in 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 been able to stay under the cap which is where we always want to be we're coming back down to the community to have that same conversation say now we need to again be over the cap because that's the need that's what we need in order to support excellence and maintain our programs and to protect the long-term finance all through the district when we think about again that car payment the debt service issue in the planning for full-day kindergarten
040that issue around the property tax relief check this was an issue several years ago everybody likes to check no question about it especially when it's being written to you so in the legislature and the governor the governor particularly decided to provide this credit instead of perhaps reducing income taxes or actually fulfilling the foundation aid formula which is what they should be doing and have not been able to do they decided to give people a check after the facts based on what your district did in the budget process and it was some measure of property tax relief for many people the check was relatively small it's all across the spectrum it's based on your income and your star relief the maximum star relief that people are getting is seven hundred ninety four dollars the current max
041in the basic star program your relief check that you received is based on your income so if your income of $75,000 or left last you get 85% of the seven 984 this doesn't affect the 794 you're still getting that credit your star credit this is simply the check after the fact if your income is between 75 and 150 thousand dollars you're getting 60% of that Maxim between 150 and 200 thousand dollars you're getting 35% in between 200 and 275 ten and a half percent of the 794 so the check varies for every taxpayer we've been completely unsuccessful in finding out from the office of real property tax it doesn't seem to keep a record of this how much does that mean for people in Brighton what was the average check what did people usually get
042that's a record they cannot produce for us so we're asking our community members to think about the rebate check that they got realize that your amount will be similar to that amount and understand that but that's not something that the that this community would be eligible for going into next year you'll still get started this is just the additional check that came after the fact that was a different amount your star savings will still exist that's not in question we recognize their advantages and disadvantages to going over the cap the advantages are we preserve program we can avoid cuts in those programs we can fully fund that local share that car payment and start paying that now it does speed the growth of the levy so the percentage increase in next year's budget this eases
043some of the pressure on that because the levy starts out a little bit larger and it speeds the funding for full-day kindergarten as well so in other words we would be able to still be on track for full-day kindergarten and having those positions with level tax increases the disadvantage is it's applied earlier in the project so it's one more year you're paying on that it's as if you're able to make an extra payment on your mortgage there's a there's a great advantage on the other end but you're starting it now overall taxes increase when you increase the levy base we understand that so incrementally next year when it goes up it goes up over a slightly larger number and losing that rebate check as well as a concern for us that we don't take lightly
044at all and I know you as board members don't on behalf of community members so what did we do to make reductions along the way we had to find efficiencies as well particularly because the state did not come through with aid and we had to do everything we could to get as close as we possibly could to the cap number trying to also maintain program so we adjusted our mandated services of course I mentioned to you the over $500,000 actually nearly six hundred thousand in increased costs we had to add that back in since we gave you the planarity budget in general we reduced the budget to actual projections the risk provision so all these bars in green in the areas where we were able to reduce from the preliminary budget that we gave you
045in January these are the areas where we analyzed what our spending was our budget to actual and we were able to not budget as much in some lines that's the budget to actual our change in revenue assumptions so places where we are able to use revenue differently instead of replenishing some reserves put this towards expenses in next year's budget our department reductions for a particular equipment adjusted our capital allocations so using the amount out of the capital reserve to go towards capital as well our class size adjust its course offerings we are impacting class sizes slightly and electives our breakage from retirements we've been able to count on more in that area as well we've removed some of the new positions that we presented to the planarity budget that would have been used to accommodate
046enrollment changes and our occupational education services the amount of out of district placements were able to provide particularly in BOCES programming we've reduced the number of those from the preliminary budget as well so our changes in staffing in our proposed increase of 1.1 million dollars in some staffing we're looking at new positions for enrollment for one at sixth grade our state mandates we mentioned to you the English as a new language mandate though that's a mandated service where we have to have positions for that the proposal for diversity equity staff ever to now be funded in the budget outside of the consultant model that we have this year so this will be a set amount devoted to that position the family navigator position that I mentioned to you before bridging that gap for families in
047mental health three security guard positions for use throughout the district the full-day kindergarten spending of one hundred thirteen thousand dollars to so that we avoid a future tax increased spike to pay for that position and we're bringing a $50,000 worth of grant funded position back into the general fund again because of proposals from the federal government to cut funding from the federal government to the district through the state we want to make sure those positions are funded we need to take them grants which could disappear very quickly and are proposed to be reduced and on the right-hand side of the reductions that we are making we've reduced class I'm sorry increase class size an elective reduced elective offerings at the secondary level 7 through 12 about a 1.4 reduction total and so any of the
048new funding for enrollment projections for growth enrollment has been removed class size adjustments have first grade we're just going from nineteen point four now to twenty one point one two and that's from the preliminary budget to this to this proposal but we'll show you how those compared to actual numbers this year it's very comparable and in grade two class size from the preliminary budget to this proposal from twenty to twenty one point seven eight and again class size and electives about another 150 thousand dollars and this was actual FTE he's reduced at the high school reductions in each department which will change scheduling course selection as well and larger class sizes in some electives although we do this with a heavy card we also feel like we're still able to offer quite a bit for
049students in this proposal and that would change if we are not out over the cap that class size issue that I mentioned to you in grade one next year we're proposing being at 11 sections which we are this year as well their class size will go from twenty point five as a group of first grades to 21 point 1 grade 2 which is currently at twenty two point seven will actually be smaller next year twenty one point eight but that same group of kids who are currently in first grade this year twenty point five will go up slightly to twenty one point eight going into next year so a minor increase in the class size but again something we feel you can accommodate we always would like them as small as possible but in this
050current situation that seems the most appropriate reduction and we'll go to twelve sections at each grade at front row we're currently at twelve twelve and thirteen will be at twelve twelve twelve next year and actually a fifth grade that results in a point four child reduction at the fifth grade level and we're pretty close we're up slightly a fourth grade just 0.8 and up about two students at the third grade level going into next year but again relatively comfortable those numbers wish they were a little bit smaller but we can manage that going into next year given the circumstance the capillaries are fund withdrawal we're proposing in the community being able to draw three million dollars to continue our work specifically the authorization is to withdraw three million dollars from the district's existing 2015 capillaries
051are fun to pay additional cost associated with the capital improvement project that were approved that was approved by voters may 16 2007 teen but this is additional cost that we're taking out of reserves still sticking the promise of borrowing when we said we would borrow that voters approved at that time but taking where our reserves to cover other any other increase costs in the project this money can't go towards anything else so it can't go to bridge any other gap that this is specifically put aside by taxpayers over time with revenue that comes in capital aid from the state that goes into that reserve to pay for capital expenses it can't go to pay for anything else along the way the technology reserve fund currently has a balance of 1.5 million dollars we need to
052withdraw five hundred thousand dollars so that we don't have to take this expense out of the general fund which can you imagine for you to take that five hundred thousand dollars to put even more pressure on spending going into next year and this is for the purchased of servers infrastructure tablets or excuse me laptop staff laptop replacements the the way people do business our student device replacements as well an AV Hardware across the district again that way this expense which is an expensive is required for us to be able to operate doesn't have to come out of the general fund it can come out of this reserve which has been again put aside over time I just want to repeat again this issue around the property tax cap on what this means the total increase
053on the screen is four point eight nine percent the cap would stop us right there at support just for rolling over the budget with curb programming but not including debt service and not including the important proposals around safety security wellness and diversity equity and inclusion the additional two point eight nine percent allows us to do that protects our long-term financial health it is over the cap we feel that that's important to do at this time if we did not do that we would again to lay our problem and have to look at 1.3 million dollars in reductions which would include equipment furniture deferring that debt service deferring planning for full-day kindergarten we'd have to look at reductions in departments and in staffing and non mandated programs just delaying the problem to a future year and
054only growing the problem frankly over time the summary of all of this at the bottom a new cost of two hundred sixty six dollars for home valued at $220,000 and of course also the loss of the rebate check we do understand that not the loss of Starr the loss of that additional rebate and it reflects this budget then reflects what we value we believe it honors the impact of that 2017 vote respond to the mandated increases in spending for student programming that they need it honors our blueprint commitments specifically relative to diversity equity inclusion safety security it's a total spending increase of 4.5% only 1.6 percent of that in capital 2.9 percent in operations which would have been able to be accomplished under the cap but we have to add for that long-term financial health
055and new programming budget hearing on the fourteenth and of course a vote on the 21st and quite a spaghetti dinner very important on that day as well any questions party there's any way to have any further questions for dr. McGowan because what I'm gonna do is I'm going to ask for a motion to adopt in a moment and then we'll have discussion specific to the budget and our thoughts and anything we want to share on that but I want to make sure while he's up there if there's any further questions that we have I role won't run away too far all right then may we have a motion please to approve the 2019-20 brain Central School District budget as proposed to the Board of Education and the executive budget proposal at the March 26 2019
056meeting and updated by dr. McGowan's proposal this evening second moved by Andrea and seconded by Marv any further comments discussion and thoughts than anybody would like to share and ask just that we're deeply disappointed by what happens in Albany that jurors are not fairly funded across the board and that this hits our district particularly hard we are as we've discussed and I don't want to take any more time I will remind folks watching all the budget material is posted online all the archive of all of our meetings is on the YouTube archive Channel and you can take a look at the numerous discussions that we've had and talked about funding from the state know the issues that we face I guess what I would start off with on behalf of the board is thanking Kevin
057a little and Debbie all of our people really because this has been one of the most difficult budget periods we've ever gone through so what we've come up with I have to say on one hand does I absolutely represents what we value in this community what we've got value for the school district but it is very disappointing for us as a Board of Education to be proposing a budget that while we believe it's the right thing it exceeds the property tax cap and then set a level higher than we believe Brighton property tax payers should really be paid and it is entirely the fall of our state government and already I'm sorry but that is the absolute fact if the governor and our elected officials in the assembly and Senate were to finally figure out
058a way to properly and adequately fund public education in this state and apply the foundation aid formula in any way shape or form that was fair that we've laid out that we've showed them on numerous occasions over a number of years in Albany we would not be in this position we planned very prudently over the years we planned this debt service we planned the k-12 facilities upgrade because we absolutely needed to do that both for the reasons well-known full-day K in the rebuild of council Rock which we remind folks is substantially less expensive than the first alternative that we discussed which was to be rebuild Brookside school but all of our buildings need work there they're they're great buildings we're very fortunate but we have to plan for the future and that work had to
059be done the voters approved it and we are in that boat so we move forward I think with the best possible outcome given all the circumstances that we all operate under and we will continue the message of the community and we ask the community to talk with us and have conversation and understand why we are where we are separately we've already begun that process of working with those in Albany again not only on one-time aid which may happen we don't have huge hope and if there is one time a temporary aid for the moment it won't be a huge amount of money but we really need to stay to the work of getting this thing fixed for Brighton for the long haul and we'll continue to work on that that unfortunately can't happen until at
060least the next budget season which would be next January through the end of March so that part we will dedicate ourselves to and stay to that but the task at hand right now this budget and where we are some reductions have to be made we just can't fit it all in I think the group has done a wonderful job of trying to keep preservation of program first and foremost and we are on board with that so Christine just want to think again like our administrators for all that because see but also all our parents yes absolutely and my students were writing letters and notes concerts and so I just wanted to thank that we do appreciate that and we we will likely you need that additional help as we move forward into into next year's
061budget and trying to get this foundation aid formula at least repaired if you will for a fairness aspect and we really continue to advocate to try to get that floor to at least 60% and that is a minimal ask and we're not asking for the world on this so anyway so that is that is what it is we'll continue the message through the community we will you send out material the board plants the message tomorrow to the community through the email system with our details and thoughts and hopes and feelings on the budget and we'll continue to do that over the next month there's actually about five weeks prior to the budget vote so completing our conversation I guess then we will say all in favor aye any opposed thank you very much I want
062to take a moment to thank our commissioners here move ticular for leading this year were quite for Brighton yes for many students and parents concerts everywhere advocating writing liners doing what they could but your support throughout this is a boiler dance as well this was definitely the most difficult place to get to at this point and it does not feel to us like a success when we were proposing being over the cap it feels successful protecting program to the best of our ability and finding the best ways to be efficient in doing that but it doesn't feel good to be recommending increase that we're paying to myself know personally many of us that participate in this as well as parents and I know that way and it's a struggle there is a hundred and fifty
063million dollars in the state budget for member item life legislators and fifty million of that is the governor's it would take sixty million dollars in change to bring every district that's under that cwr one to sixty percent sixty million dollars instead the 150 million dollars will spread be spread out among a wide variety of political projects and pets and things that seem like fun and signs and things that people can sign their name to and take credit for and campaign commercials when sixty million dollars in change would more than make up our gap and would not mean we'd have to go over the cap for a one long time about if we could get to that point so it's just something to think about we've advocated we've asked the question already what do you need
064to do for next year what data do you need how can we impress upon you the need to do this there is no explaining that gap so when people again said understand how to do that for now the reality is there is a political solution and there's a practical solution a practical solution says we should get certain dollar amount but that doesn't fit the political narrative and where people would like to devote money when they're voting on it largely behind the scenes at the end of the day and that's a problem for us so thank you very much for the support we will continue to advocate is the biggest challenge in front of us though is the state fulfilling their obligation and us not harming kids in the mean time because they have that so
065thank you very much this has been a special presentation from the Brighton Central School District Board of Education