001this is a special presentation from the Brighton Central School District Board of Education good evening and welcome to the Brighton Central School District Board of Education executive budget proposal budget hearing and board meeting for March 26 2019 to begin this evening we have the opportunity for public participation any members of the public that are here in attendance are welcome to address the board at any matter you can ask a question or make a brief statement it doesn't have to be on an item that is on the agenda we ask that you do raise your hand and be recognized and when you come to the podium I'll ask you to come to the podium to speak and give us your name and address is there anyone here who wishes to address the board this evening in
002public participation okay seeing that we have no one here for that deceive me I'm going to ask the board please for a motion to approve the agenda with the following amendments if you will we need to amend the agenda to add a new item for which is which would be approval of minutes of our March 12th meeting and then after item for the new item for we will make a change slightly item five will become presentation of the executive budget in the order that's listed but then item number six is going to become the will still remain I'm sorry the Brighton facility's Improvement Plan Update a new item number seven will be the approval of the 2019 capital project vote proposition and then a new number eight will be approval of notice of the annual
003meet meeting the budget vote in the election those have to go in a certain order and then that would make a new item number nine approval of the joint agreement item ten approval of change orders and then item 11 the consent agenda those changes of motion to approve please so moved second moved by Larry and seconded all in favor all right any opposed thank you to begin this evening we welcome dr. McGowan in a presentation of the executive budget proposal for the 2021 moment a motion please for approval of the minutes from our bird's 12th meeting so moved second consecutive by Ingrid does anybody have any changes or additions Corrections or deletions those minutes all in favor all right any opposed great now we're back on track thanks for keeping the rebel rouser under control
004over there definitely Jim's away the history it is okay it's my pleasure to speak to you tonight to begin this process of introducing the executive budget proposal and I say begin because this will really be done in a way in two parts so I will make the proposal tonight because the state is not yet finalized the approved state budget will have to ask you to adopt on April 9th and make adjustments between now on that point I'll explain some of the places or adjustments may need to be made but this is the most up-to-date current status information that you've heard along the way kind of the combination of where does that leave us after gathering community feedback gathering your feedback and introducing pieces of the budget doing a lot of analysis over the past several
005months first it's important to point out that we've followed our key budget guidelines that you set back in October of this year and that these really boil down to making sure that we are thinking about sustaining revenue sources for not creating structural deficits in our budget process here to year that we're honoring the priority areas safety security wellness rigorous coursework creativity innovation diversity equity instructional technology our budget being a value statement about those priorities the two firket focused the work of the district on for quite a long time to get reviewed annually by our blueprint group we also want to make sure that the budget provides all students with every opportunity to get this to develop the skills necessary for that individual child to move on to college and career and develop their talents to
006their maximum potential thinking about the current economic climate changing student needs you also recognize the importance of prioritizing resources evaluating opportunities for reduction and that you established back in October you'd look at those amounts in the projected budget as well and that we would be thinking about an academic impact analysis if we had to make reductions which we'll talk about tonight and that we'd continue to implement strategies that meet our short and long term goals for facility modernization considering the volatile construction market which has certainly been a challenge this year and we have an item to mention about that this evening as well prudently planning also for the implementation of full-day K and debt service thinking about the impact of the 2017 vote for the facilities improvement project which we'll deal with as well in
007this evening's presentation and understand the impact of the property tax cap and what will happen long term again a key component of tonight's presentation so we think about the calendar a September of course you saw wasn't October I'm sorry back in September when you adopted the budget guidelines and the calendar for this budget process the process really though happening all the year through really thinking about how we analyze their successive programs what our students need what types of programs were looking at to grow and improve the following year that happens year-round in January we make the preliminary blueprint recommendations of course and then the budget development process really takes hold as we present to you the preliminary budget based on the governor's numbers and what we have from our budget makers in district at that
008point in February of course we have a budget review and you approved the final tax cap levy limit based on the state's law we need a community budget forum in March and we gave you an update again in March another community budget forum and then of course we're - tonight the executive budget proposal will gather feedback from you and make adjustments as we go into April night based more than anything on what the state's approved budget will be and again we'll talk about the impact of state revenues in this budget as well we have the annual budget hearing on May 14th and I May 21st we ask people to please come and vote the school budget vote at Brighton High School 7:00 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Kiwanis spaghetti dinner and an important aspect of
009what do we know and what do we still need to assess and what have we been assessing on the left-hand side of the screen is the what we know we know that we have increased staffing demands because of enrollment student needs changing standards we know that we have contractual labor increases that we've agreed to but we also know that there's an increase in minimum wage which impacts our budget as well we have an increase in health insurance rate rates and due to the premium increases but also the number of participants we know those things we know the pension contribution rates are beginning to increase we had some reprieve in that but they're beginning to increase again and there's a multi-year impact of the capital project that's a big piece of this that debt service and
010implementation of a full day K program which will happen in the year 2021 so those are primary factors along with of course the tax levy grow through the property tax cap what do we need to assess and one have we've been looking at changes in our mandated services and education plans even in the past month we've received significant impacts to mandated programming for students student elective demands what do our kids need in order to graduate what do they want in order to have the experience that they're hoping for in our high school how does that fit into their progression their program changes in state and federal aids the federal aid being grants in particular that third bullet changes in federal funding significant changes proposed by the president his budget has yet to be acted upon
011by Congress but there would be significant changes we could change our grant allocations from the federal government we're planning for some of that change there's a proposed cap on reimbursable eights that the governor has proposed and these are the aides like transportation ad building a things where we spend money and they get a defined amount back from the state I'm gonna say this couple every ways coupled in returns we say aid this is the state's mandated contribution to support a free appropriate public education for every child nine out of ten kids in this country attend the public school it's the state's responsibility provide for that aid is not this gift eight is what they are supposed to be providing for this mandated service to happen school districts the way the system is supposed to work
012based on their property route they're supposed to support that additional spending that they would like for their children in individual communities this is not a gift this is what is supposed to be coming to you as taxpayers from your income tax from sales tax and other revenue sources in the state your you and your children are entitled to this of course the other issue we need to be aware of is New York state deficit revenue projections are down at this point and for us that it's a consideration of what does that mean in the final budget solution how much will actually come through what's the agreed-upon number that they're using for revenue and how does that impact school aid overall and the impact of federal tax reform particularly the salt deduction the cap on state
013and local tax deduction and that doesn't that particular tax does not come directly to us but it impacts our taxpayers in terms of how much the value of one's property tax or school tax increase what that means to them is in real taxpayers so previously when you could make the argument that well you know there is some benefit to this because then that's a larger deduction for you that changes now for some people on the adopted tax code the changes in the tax code so what are the action steps we review programs we assess needs we develop the preliminary budget looked at the governor's proposed budget advocated advocated advocated with our elected representatives of course had a lot of support from fight for plane and many people in our community advocating as well whether it
014was the groups that that I work through and the council school superintendents school boards and many of you and your work through the New York state school works group do you write in through PTA and the gneissic group many people out there saying we need help and we need a fix and there because he continues it continued emails through this morning and it will continue as the state continues to deliberate their budget throughout this week as we said that we support media to see efforts as well and then on the right-hand side we look for efficiencies and we continue to do so look at our budget to actual for this year to find efficiencies so in other words what we budgeted and did we actually need that much in particular line so we can can
015we trim back in that line because our planning for that line outpaced what we actually needed to spend we got our community feedback of course through the thought exchange or report those results out to you what give you a general sense for what most people who responded were thinking relative - I won't we should be spending money on and how people felt about taxes the tax cap etc provided a community update have had a couple community forums and looked at our impacts of reductions to programs which reported out to you previously as well and looked at a list of potential options and our last presentation shows you three options for what we thought could happen relative to staying under the cap going over the cap what it would mean for postponing debt services etc looked
016at different options along the way very much believe that budgets are value statements what you are supporting what the community eventually votes to support or not support in the budget hour things that Express who we are as an organization and what is most important to us relative to what we think we can afford and what we would like to spend money on so where were placing resources says something about the directions that we're going and I think it's important to remember that this budget is about the community making a statement about what they value and depending on the choice that people make they are certainly by indicating that in consideration of what their own ability to support it is of course financially - it doesn't mean that somebody who doesn't feel they can afford it
017doesn't value something but how much we value and how much we as an organization and you as a board value these items is definitely expressed by what you're presenting to the community and so in our budget we are right now proposing a budget that meets and exceeds state mandates to make sure we're supporting every child along a spectrum meets and exceeds so what I need by that is and we'll mention this several times our academic intervention services our special education services we don't we do go above and beyond our extent studies program our sixth grade foreign language our musical program instrumental program I'm sorry at fourth grade these are things that are not mandated by the state but mandated by who we are and what we think is most important for kids and their development
018the reason why the gaps have closed and achievement for our students and why so many of our kids are excelling and my kids in all different subgroups in our student population are excelling and achieving at very similar levels because we do more and we find ways to do more in our community has supported more beyond just the bare minimum for kids this budget also provides funding and supported blueprint plans related diversity equity inclusion as well as safety and security and safety security in that area two different ways both security staffing but perhaps more importantly or at least certainly on par is the support for mental health services for our kids and this budget support sentence of course increases in those areas so the big three there that we want to focus on of course in
019terms of our value statement its diversity equity inclusion and thinking about both mental health and security staffing those being very important aspects of keeping everybody safe healthy and happy and we respect our taxpayers and honor our commitments to them and so this deals with the issue of needing to stay committed to our debt service stay committed to respecting taxpayers saying this is exactly where at this is where we will be at this is planning for something so we don't have a spike later on namely full-day kindergarten at that service issue and thinking about what we committed to relative to planning for full-day kindergarten and the passage of our of our projects in 2017 and sticking to that process as well this just gives you a sense in the expenditures trends area where the money is
020going of course as we see costs increase the largest area that they're increasing is in the instructional area and this is a comparison of our Manoa one neighbors as to how much we're spending per student we're right in the middle in a pretty good place in other words we're not spending exceptionally more per student but we're not less exceptionally less than other people either and these don't know miles I know the print is very small but they're very very close so we're right about where we're what other people spend I guess is the point not not spending exceptionally more but being pretty reasonable about that as well this shows you the trend in tax increases over time and this is the pure pupil percentage tax increase so when we think about how our enrollment has
021gone up and how we've been able to try and minimize that impact the enrollment going up on the impact of taxes for people we've had a average increase over time in taxes per pupil of two percent so that average tax over time since 2008 has been 2 percent when you consider that as a per pupil increase where does the executive budget break down where are we spending our money you're looking at a 3.1 percent increase in the salary area that doesn't mean that every salary is increasing three point one percent contraction arrangements are all over the board what it means is our overall spending in that particular budget line when looking at the number of people in the group last year there this current year into next year the total amount being spent will go
022up 3.1 percent divided up in all different ways in the benefits area we're down point so eight point three percent less next year and that's due to changes in some of our benefits including a very very modest increase in the health insurance premium next year but tributed to being the community rated I'm sorry in the consortium plan is opposed to a community rated plan which where we've been able to by cooperating with other surrounding districts here in Monroe County keep that cost increase from being too high for sure and keeping that much lower our supplies and services are up about 1.2 million dollars both these cost is up under fifty two thousand dollars and again this debt service issue it's the pay now or pay later and it's much harder to pay if we don't
023start paying it now is a 1.2 million dollar increase in the budget next year based on the approved project from 2017 but that's what 1.6 percent increase all on its own the total spending increase would be four point five percent if we were just in a normal year without the increase in the debt service we'd be looking at an increase of 2.9 percent in operations so the general year-to-year spending increase would have been less than 3% when we add in the debt service that's what gets us up to an increase of 4.5% what are we very proud of in this that we want to point out to you well of course on the left hand side the pieces that you've supported for a long time as a community instructional leadership and professional development the supportive
024programming here in the district that is we think really beneficial in terms of continuing to build our skills and best meet the needs of our students in terms of the great embedded staff development that's provided by teachers here in the trenches work on the ground level to provide that support our coaching supports our academic intervention supports of course I mentioned to you that idea we give more and we do more for students above the mandate summer school offerings same idea class course offerings keeping classes relatively slowly with some increases in the budget being proposed tonight but relatively small in terms of class sizes compared to other places the team teaching structured structure at the middle school really allows people to work on a team with students collaborating each day as a matter of fact that
025team teaching approach where teachers are meeting each day to talk about the group of kids that they are assigned to is a very valuable opportunity to the middle school re respuesta Catholic opportunist which are many for our students including our Co further extracurricular opportunities in the arts and other clubs and activities which we think are so important for keeping kids connected to school and the ways that interest them the most and transportation services which we've mentioned before providing transportation for all of our kids who attend our schools but our kids who also attend private parochial schools we are mandated provide a certain level of transportation we do go above and beyond that that being one of very few services that students not attending our public schools the four buildings here are able to take advantage
026of despite the fact that their parents are not saying them here every day those are on days off for private parochial schools we still provide transportation again one of very few services that families are able to take advantage of when we feel strongly about on the right-hand side we have dedicated in this spending plan an equivalency for diversity equity and inclusion so an increase in the staff member amount for that that's been Marla Washington working with us this year as a consultant and we'll think next year about how to look at staffing for a diversity equity a staff member and determine what that job would be what that title would be etc and how much that would be but we have funded that in the budget for right now expanding the family navigator program at
027the high school and it looks as though we will be able to add on what we're proposing to is a k-12 position actually for family navigator increasing really the model coming full circle what used to be our family support center now looking at that as a k12 position to help in all four buildings and be a family liaison throughout the district supporting again the mental health needs of our students and their families additional full-time equivalents ease to expand services for our English as a new language students two and a half positions are budgeted for that that's a mandated service but one that's provided very well district and has a big impact our kids typically in the you know area do very very well because of the service provided by that department we're looking to enhance
028our school safety staffing model by adding three security guards as well and of course that as I mentioned continuing the planning for full-day kindergarten for 2021 and the tax impact the debt service for the 2017 capital project which we should not delay starting funding for that so we in all of this we are in a situation where we need to think about and propose to exceeding the tax cap but will not explore with you and mention to you again as we have in previous meetings the advantage of the advantages and the disadvantages to that first of all on the advantages since I'd to go over the tax cap means we might be able to preserve program and avoid significant reductions we would also be able to fully fund that local share from the 2017 projects
029and start that process of paying for that day so that it is not exceptionally more going into the following it spreads the tax levy limit to allow for funding full-day K so we're adding those positions in which we need to of course going into the future or there would be a spike later on we have to add all those staff position and it increases the levy base for future by budget so by the levy being a little bit larger now the percentage in future budget years increasing over a larger base is better right so at some point that grows a little bit overall and it's important sooner rather than later because it then provides some cushion to be able to stay within the cap in future years the disadvantage is the tax increase is applied
030earlier in the project so we're starting to take that data and sooner again we mentioned how important that is but that's certainly one that somebody could say well that that's a downside overall tax increase as well to the point where somebody might say well that's great that you're saying you want to increase the tax base by increasing taxes a little bit more so that it grows incrementally well one could also look at that as an disadvantage that means that you're 2 percent on top of a higher tax is a little bit more than 2 percent on our lower tax of course and in the loss of the property tax rebate check in which is a significant concern and one that we've really labored with quite a bit will explain what we think that impact is
031for taxpayers but that is certainly the disadvantage that the state has created in this excuse me the impact on property taxes what does all this mean on the left-hand side of the bar chart that's on the left-hand side of your screen you see $127 increase that would be if and only if I the $220,000 home we were to increase the amount equal to the tax cap number so if we said we're staying within the cap we'd have an increase of $127 that's on a home diet of $220,000 the next bar over to the right shows you down one hundred twenty seven dollars which would essentially be operations right if we had a normal budget year we'd be able to just come in at the cap like we have in previous years what we're saying is
032to fund that debt service as well we're looking at another hundred thirty-eight dollars in this executive budget proposal over and above that hundred twenty seven dollars so the total tax impact being more than that because we need to fund both of those pieces both operations and the debt service and this is again based on that average increase that we had previously talked about on a home valued at $200,000 of $144 now notice also this is $138 down around 44 so it's a little bit less than a number but our community at a home value of $200,000 had originally voted on a potential tax increase an anticipated tax increase of 144 dollars so we're taking that on now in addition to that operations increase at the same time and this just shows you essentially what could
033happen if we were to delay that so the blue column right here is the debt service this would be have to be added on top in 2021 and it's a much much bigger lift we're looking to take some of that off at this point and level that out over time so this is the issue of the property tax relief credit in other words the the check that people have been getting and what does it mean if we go you can't get your check so the information that we've been provided is if you make your combined household income is $75,000 or less you would get a rebate check equal to 85% of your star savings the max star savings is 794 dollars so in other words if you are making $75,000 or less combined household income
034you would get 85% of a maximum of seven hundred ninety-four dollars but whatever your star savings currently is and again the max being seven hundred ninety four dollars so that depends all on the value of your house which it's impossible for us to protect the value of somebody's hand or know what certainty for the entire community what that is but the seven hundred ninety four dollars is the max star and you would lose 85% of them if your income is between 75 and 150 thousand dollars your relief jack is 60% of again a max of seven hundred ninety four dollars one hundred fifty to two hundred thousand thirty five percent and if your income combined household income is between two hundred and 275 your check was only equal to ten percent of a max of
035seven hundred ninety four dollars for seventy nine dollars and forty cents and that's what people would lose so it's complicated depending on the amount of again your household income and the value of your home how much your star savings is so it really impossible to project unless people themselves individuals think about the value of their home what their maxed our savings is and what their household income is use that percentage to get a sense for what that check is what we have found is for many taxpayers that's less than what would be anticipated it is a penalty it is something that every individual has to decide for themselves what that penalty is for their home what are the trends in the tax cap for us and this goes back to our original conversations around the
036tax cap - 2012-13 where we were able to go to our community with a tax increase five hundred eighty four thousand dollars or about one and a quarter percent under the cap number this is really important to point out because at this time we said to people we're not gonna go right out of the cap number every year which is what most districts and municipalities have done we said no we're only going to go and ask for what we need now maximize the ability to grow the levy as big as we could so it your increases over time would be over again a bigger amount in the following year we're also able to stand to the cap by four hundred ninety four hundred thirty nine thousand dollars which was almost a percent on the levy
037but the year after that we went back to the community fourteen fifteen so this is not unprecedented for us and said you know we're able to stay under the cap last two years we have to go back out over the cap at this point in fact the dollar amount over the cap seven hundred seven thousand dollars was the last thing then cumulative amount over time that we had been under the cap and our community at that time was very supportive that it seemed to make sense that discussion of the community when we presented here's what we need here's why we need it and this is what we've done relative to this conversation on the tax cap each year and looking at in 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 because of the lack of
038foundation had come to the district we had to be right at the cap number and you definitely were that burden we were able to keep the the tax increases by percent though relatively low throughout that time as I said if you think since 2008 our tax increases only buying the pure pure pupil increase of two percent so we did keep that very low but it had to be at the cap number and now we're coming back like we did in 1415 singing to the community we now need to go back over the cap and here's why here's what the impact on program is if we're under the cap and here's how the state's revenues are playing a role in our need to go over the cap so what have we done since the preliminary budget
039we told you there could be potentially to keep all programming a seven and a half percent increase in the property of tax levy we're not at that point at all so what have we done well first we've had to adjust for mandated services and this was the amount that I mentioned to you for particular programs for students we've seen a nearly $600,000 increase excuse me nearly $600,000 just since we presented to you in January and this is in particular tuitions for particular programs and services required for students from nearly $600,000 we do not regard that service for a moment to our students we do not regret that we're not upset about that that is the reality though that's the number for you to be aware of those are required services for students we've made adjustments
040to our budget actual projections risk figures provisions and other words those have been reductions in some of those areas so that we could fund other program we've changed our revenue assumptions we've also made reductions in our equipment and our department budgets our capital allocations our class size adjustment course offerings made some small reductions which we'll discuss tonight as well grades 7 through 12 and K through 5 not wholesale program changes not coming extended studies or for language or the instrument of the nominates that we talked about all the time but having to look at class size in particular some of the offerings that we have overall some of our breakage from retirements have helped in this areas well put us a little bit further to the green remove some of the new positions that we
041added for enrollment in other words class size potential reductions as kids were getting in the 7 through 12 and made some adjustments for anticipated there's still an increase but anticipated occupational education programs so we are still increasing then area but less so than from the preliminary budget previously presenting this is just an object summary in the on the spending side salaries benefits as I mentioned the salaries going up 3.1 percent but the benefits going down 0.8 percent that means in total we're only up 1.6 percent in the salary benefit area a total and overall again the side dollar amount for people's salaries that's the amount of spending in that area the other important numbers to point out around instructional materials and services a lot of this has to do with our auditions and the technology
042area in particular supporting students in many new and different ways exciting innovative programming but it does require increase in spending in that area and transportation services so you increase of spending by over 11% in this area you will see a corresponding decrease in the BOCES budget because we've taken on the transportation for some of our students with special needs it was previously provided by BOCES and the debt and transfer again that's the 1.2 million dollars or the increase in the debt serves for the 2017 project so that increases our debt service nearly 70 percent remember this was the we need to get a car payment in the budget we did not have a car payment because we paid off the car a long time ago we need to put it back in so we have
043that placeholder and that money spent to reinvest in our facilities what are the factors impacting our salaries that budget line at the top which is our largest spending area as it should be it's our investment in the people that do such great work our contractual minimum wage adjustment contractual and minimum wage adjustments it's a 1.6 percent increase the new positions proposed are $325,000 and that's enrollment at sixth grade that's a one full-time equivalency we have two point four positions budgeted for in all staffing and sips pending students interrupted with education interrupted as well those are mandated services divided diversity and equity position that I mentioned to you a point for FTE the family navigator position will go from 0.4 to 1.0 and our proposals related to safety security wellness which were three full-time equivalencies for
044security staff will continue to plan for full-day K that's an increase of $113,000 and make adjustments in the grants of $50,000 that's putting part of a staff member back into the ground or I started back into the budget from the grants because of federal government changes in the grant funding and eventually that funding will disappear we want to protect ourselves from that when it happens that revenue source the proposed staffing reductions were discussing our class size an elective 7 through 12 so removing the new funding for enrollment adjustment so again this is from the plenary Jennifer plenary budget where we said to you we needed this number of positions for enrollment we're taking those out of the proposal at this point then class size adjustments we're going in grade one from nineteen point four to
04521 point one two we wish we could stay under 20 and be a little bit smaller we do not have an option able to maintain any balance in this budget of course so we do have to reduce a section there and grade two will go from twenty to twenty one point seven eight again we value small class size these are these are not insurmountable these are challenges but they are certainly manageable challenges and still being able to provide an excellent program for our kids and our class size and electives at the seven through twelve level we will have to reduce some one as well in those positions not knowing at which programs until schedules are complete and we can look at what sections we are funding and what level of funding we can provide based
046on enrollment in each of the course areas so we'll make adjustments along the way at the seven through twelve area as well just to give you an idea of what does that mean of course we have eleven sections this year in first grade will stay at 11 next year we have 12 and second grade now it will be 11 going into next year which means the class size will go to twenty one point eight it currently this year is 22 point seven so it's actually a little bit smaller for second graders next year than the second graders this year the first graders this year who will be second graders next year will go up though a little bit in their class s again for that grade level for the staff those sizes a little bit
047smaller but the kids who are transitioning from first to second grade their class will be slightly larger than it was this year as first graders and at the 5th grade level we currently have 13 sections it will go to 12 but the class size actually at that grade level will go down slightly for those students coming from 4th grade it goes up just a little bit not very much just 0.5 of course the half a child's always tricky at that grade level factors impacting benefits of course we take a look at over time what has happened in our health insurance rates just increased 1.1 percent but based on attrition in the group it requires no additional funding going into next year which is a very very good thing the factors impacting the BOCES budget as
048I mentioned to you a couple things we want to point out the business technology services we take advantage of and are aided on or up 6.4% including professional development big increase here in occupational education of 22 percent by percentage big increase but dollar amount $79,000 this is though for programming for students interested in occupational head programming at BOCES they run a really great job and provide a lot of really interesting programs for students interested in those and we would like to be able to provide that opportunity for our kids in the instructional technology or you are 37% but again it's a hundred and eleven thousand dollars and that's as we continue to look at 21st century implementation and we purchased our instructional technology through BOCES we are down 16 percent transportation remember that was the
049balance of transitioning our special needs transportation from a BOCES provider to in district contract transportation and that was because BOCES couldn't no longer provide the service to us they did not have the capacity to do so so there's not a financial decision of course going into this year our other budget factors as well we just want to point out remember I mentioned to the nearly six hundred thousand dollar increase in special education contracts tuition programming cost of five hundred seventy two thousand dollars most of that very recently health services that we pay to other districts for students who are attending their $109,000 contract that's for brain students attending private parochial schools outside of our district or in other district we have to pay for health services to the tune of hundred nine thousand dollars and
050contract transportation again as I mentioned because we're taking that cost on and once again that 1.2 million dollars which is the capital increase the debt service increase where is it coming from we recognize most of it is coming from local property taxes 67% this percentage should be much smaller because this percentage here foundation aid should be much bigger and we'll talk about that in just a moment we are proposing a tax levy increase of four point eight nine percent and the cap is two point three four again this is assuming this is a big assumption I want to point out to you it is assuming that we will receive fifty two point five percent of our foundation aid the governor proposed 49.3% this is based on our conversations with legislators with legislative aides reading any
051tea leaf fortune cookie Cracker Jacks box anything that we can possibly try and figure out what will the dollar amount be it's much better formula fortune cookie unfortunately the budget process in Albany is mystical enough that it sometimes feels like that we are talking with them constantly trying to get a handle on the number if this number changes we will be coming back to you with additional changes on April 9 let me say that again if the state budget does not honor at least this number we will come back be coming back to you with additional changes and those changes will be cuts to program period there is nowhere else to go at this point so don't mean to sound threatening just being realistic we will have to make additional changes in reductions if that
052it's number doesn't come through we're very hopeful based on the assembly proposal that was in a 53% the Senate slightly below that and we've tried to meet somewhere in the middle trying to anticipate what the negotiations might look like and we bet on that number we will keep you posted as soon as the state's budget is approved as to what the fundation e number ends up being why does that matter back in the day when we first started to have this conversation we were receiving just 44% of our foundation name so in the total amount that was supposed to be paid to bright based on the state's adopted formula that takes into account the number of kids we have the number of kids with special needs the number of kids living a piratey the number
053of kids with English as a new language for their program etc etc we were supposed to be paying a certain dollar amount we were only getting 44% but similar districts with the same combined wealth ratio so now there is the same ability to pay we're receiving 81% of their foundation aid and we made the case back in that time that we needed some kind of equity in that that was entirely unfair and because of unique circumstances with our student population having unique factors in the formula that drove our number of differently than other people we were unfairly affected when they capped very arbitrarily certain pieces of that to accomplish a political solution in other words divided money up the way politicians wanted to throughout the state where that landed us was in 2017 18 through
054the health code majority leader at the time Morelli and Senator robach fight for Britain and many advocates in this room were able to achieve a 1.1 million dollar increase in aid at that point a separate tier in the state aid formulas carved out exclusively for our districts district one district and one tier there are four tiers we were the one district in tier B they got 1.1 million dollars we qualified for them the problem is the governor in his proposal it was line 7 and it said if you have this factor this factor this factor this is what you should get we are the only ones of the 700 districts that had that factor the governor's proposal took an eraser and got rid of it crossed out deleted white out whatever you know metaphor you
055want to use got rid of it and it said the line will not be used so in other words it disqualified us from getting that exception again that 1.1 million dollar stayed in the base or that blue amount right there it didn't get taken away but any ability for that to grow based again on the form of the telling us it should grow it should grow every year was eliminated the orange of blue put together in this chart is what we should be getting and we are only getting the blue the governor in fact only proposed an increase of $76,000 the amount due to us increased one point four seven million dollars the formula says it should have gone up one point four seven million and the governor proposed just 76 thousand dollars so now
056there's an eight million dollar gap between what the state should be paying and what they're proposing to pay going into next year well how does this compare with other people so we have a set of or a tool software tool that shows us statewide comparisons and picks districts that look like this so if you're familiar with any of these districts Bethlehem for example in the Capital Region Orchard Park Bassett back in the Buffalo area these are districts that are similar to us in achievement a little bit bigger than us in terms of size but similar in some other ways most notably if you look at the combined wealth ratio combined wealth ratio is the property wealth in a community in a ratio to the income wealth so when you file your income tax and you
057say what school district you're in that's how they figure out how much wealth there is in a community and they give you a number and the number one is average so Mayo pack would be an average need district in the state we are just below that 0.95 3 to give you an example locally Pittsford is 1.3 Bethlem is 1.07 Orchard Park is 1.07 so pretty close to us so Archer Park is supposed to get 17 point two million dollars based on again their enrollment E&L special education free reduce etc they're scheduled to get fifteen point nine million dollars or ninety two percent of their total allotment Bethlehem's seventeen million dollars scheduled to get twelve point seven million dollars or seventy four point nine percent brighton sixteen point two million dollars only scheduled to get eight
058million dollars forty nine percent of the eighty-two based on the governor's proposal that to me is kernel and it is unexplained unexplainable so every person we talked to in albany says well yeah that's way it is that's not that doesn't seem like a very thoughtful answer to me it's not that the people we are working with are not thoughtful in working with us in advocating for us there is just no good explanation for this other than the regional disparities and the desire for politicians to tweak this formula to distribute aid using a shares concept across the state to make sure that new york city gets its share long island gets its share western york gets its share such a New York gets its share the problem is when you make those adjustments you ignore the
059factors that might drive up our share higher because our need might be more you're ignoring the whole point of having a formula in the first place and making it a political formula as opposed to a needs-based formula and that's what's happening what does all this mean for us in our property tax levy here we have proposed again are proposing a percentage in the tax levy increase of four point eight nine percent what does that mean then for our community on a home valued at $220,000 in the town of Brighton two hundred sixty six dollars and in the town of Pittsburgh two hundred sixty six dollars so the tax increase on a home valued at two hundred twenty thousand dollars would be two hundred sixty six dollars we also are proposing to the community withdraw three
060million dollars from the capital reserve fund the current balance is nine million six hundred thousand two hundred eighty three dollars and essentially we're asking to be authorized to withdraw three million dollars from the district's existing 2015 capital reserve fund for the purpose of paying additional cost associated with the district's capital improvement project approved by the qualified voters of the district and a proposition health on May 16 2007 teen and that allows us to start work at French Road this summer so this was money that was already in our reserves that can go and towards our local share right now to get work done in front show that we would like to accomplish this summer we also would like to a draw from a technology reserve funds really important to point out that both of these
061the capital and the technology can be used for nothing else it can't be used these designated reserves that voters approved and set up several years ago as as an account for this purpose can't be used to pay for anything else it can't be used to reduce taxes it is in a sense reducing taxes because they're not going out and asking for this expense to be covered by the tax levy but it can't be used to cover instructional programming or anything else in the general fund we'd like to withdraw at one point I'm sorry we have one point five billion dollars in the technology reserve fund and we're asking to withdraw $500,000 that continues our 21st century program as well the one-to-one programming at the secondary level infrastructure in terms of switches for closets the cabling
062upgrades wireless infrastructure storage for our virtual servers laptop replacements and device replacements K through seven as well as district AV Hardware replacement so the summary is we're asking to spend 4.5% more next year what 2.9 percent of that is the normal every year increase in the operations budget of 2.9 percent one point six is capital that that serves that we need to begin to take on and it reflects our investment of the blueprint priority areas that you've endorsed and that a blueprint committee works on each year as well as every staff they're responsive mandated increases in spending and our continued investment while trying to minimize our impact to students it also honors that 2017 again the facilities approve a project that our voters I did approve it reflects what we value if you think about
063those items that I mentioned to you we feel very strongly about in terms of editing staffing and programming in the diversity equity area adding staffing and programming in the family navigator but the mental health support area and the security area in addition to being able to keep the things that make bright and brighten we feel very strongly about it being a value statement about who we are and what we value in this community not taken lightly at all in terms of being over there the cap and we'll continue to advocate for more funding to try to bring a number down as far as we possibly can we'll assess the impact of the final state budget we're hopeful than a week from now we will have a state budget that will be able to be discussing
064or ask you to adopt then an adjusted budget on the 9th of April the budget hearings on the 14th the budget vote spaghetti dinner on the 21st of course as well I like very nice for questions for me you can say that again the presentation questions I would just the important point you make is you can't slide money from the reserve to do whatever we want it's specifically controls I just think that can't be overemphasized and that's also as voted on separately I mean if you if a community member did not want us to use that money it still could not go towards the other side of the budget at all it's you know it's one of those things Souter reminds me even in a year that son is challenging is this year of course
065we haven't had one of those a long time but it's important that we might remind folks live in the community to please pay attention to what we're discussing all the material is online the agenda for tonight's meeting is there that material stays there the budget area the website continues to get built upon and updated as more information is available it's really important we try very very hard to communicate not only some of the rules and regulations as you say Larry with regard to what reserve funds can be used for but also the situation with state funding which is very difficult to understand because it's inexplicable quite frankly and but we're trying to message to the community and I'm going nearly daily basis right now we appreciate the citizens action group fight for Brighton and all
066the work that they're doing trying to again motivate our residents around information and to contact our state leaders to to advocate for an improvement to the situation we you and I and Lou and all of us continue to do that with all of our contacts and Albany and we'll continue to do that on a near-daily basis also but it's really really important I think that everyone in the community be fully cognizant of what we're talking about what we're discussing where options we have available to us which are really relatively few to protect what we do value and why people live here why we are who we are so we'll continue to work on that thank you to Lou for all the work that he's been doing generating new charts and graphs and diagrams nearly daily
067hourly and to you Kevin for all the advocacy work that you're doing on telephone in person an email with folks represent us and work for us in Albany and trying to get them to pay attention so more to come we do remind that essentially the budget vote is eight weeks from today when we meet again on the ninth that we are scheduled to adopt a budget by the first or so they're not late we will know very definitively what is it that final state budget so we will have a definitive number as far as revenue to us from the state and so half and joke about the things you like feel free to let me know all the things you don't like Lou decided to do but I do want to thank and reiterate what
068was said for his financial leadership we wouldn't be able to get to this point and figure this out without a total disaster it was not for that leadership to end all the budget makers who are here because it's awfully difficult for principals and directors to have this constant conversation well what about this can you do this can you cut this can you do this and they are constantly looking at how they can do that while always thinking about and expressing the impact to kids and the staff members that they work with so I appreciate all their work on this awesome that's a good point it does remind me also of a message I think that we've tried to give the community and I had ignite I mentioned I think to you previously that I've had
069a couple of conversations with a particular individual with regard to our situation it doesn't quite understand why are we here again and it is hard to explain but one of the things that's tip isn't that people need to understand you highlighted the cap that entered our life a while back and you know year-over-year school districts have dealt with this because they've tightened margins they've spent from reserves they've spent from surplus funds we've pruned around the edges all of us not just Britain those days are over we've tightened this up to the point where given our unique situation you know at the end of the day repeatedly over the last few years the state has adopted a budget that has given districts enough money to keep getting by and that it doesn't work like that anymore
070especially in our unique situation and we don't have those other elements in our disposal anymore to be able to do that without making additional adjustments and cuts so we're hopeful we don't know and we'll continue to work on that part of it so anything further for anybody see me on that hey Kerry thank you dr. McGowan you bet and again some members of the community who may watch this tonight or see this at another time on the YouTube channel or see budget materials sent to them please feel free to call us email us with questions either to dr. McGowan to mr. Li MO directly to me writing board member we're happy to have a conversation about situation and the factors that we are all going into decision that has to ultimately be made so all
071right moving along the to it we also are happy to be receiving an update on our Brighton facilities improvement plan and I will turn it over to Louie we have some of our guests from our construction team here this evening Lou good evening so this is a reminder of what you're getting for the money that dr. McGowan talked about so we have tonight we have Gary Huffman and John limbic our project executive team to give you an update on the progress of the construction project as you recall in 2017 our voters approved sixty four point nine million dollars worth of work big portion of that is the expansion of council Rock and a reprogramming of that school to accommodate a full-day K through 2 program but work is being done in in all of the
072schools as dr. McGowan said we're asking for the reauthorization so we can complete the work that was promised to the voters at French Road just one quick correction I don't want to scare Ellison that work is not going to be done in the summer where we have to get voter authorization and then we'll rebid read that work so I didn't want to get her another visit she needs to regroup with our entire team here we're working on that wheel or package it but that reauthorization is really important so we can do everything that we said we were going to do so I'm asked Gary to come up first and provide an update on the council Rock side of the project thank you good evening mr. Lindo doc dr. McGowan in the Board of Education thank
073you for the opportunity I am here this evening to give you an update can you hear me yep I have a cold so I am here to give you an update on council Rock this evening and and we started working at Council Rock a few weeks ago and we've accomplished many things already in the winter has been the storm and sewer utilities underground to accommodate the future addition and we have completed the temporary staging area as well in the last few weeks we've done that completely we are going to be coming up on working on the billing pad and we're going to start the foundations for the south addition than the new classroom addition and a little in just a minute we're gonna see some pictures to of the work that's going on give you
074a six-month look ahead we are going to be starting and constructing the South classroom addition we'll be converting the auditorium to a temporary cafeteria facility every summer to do that addition that goes up the front of the building in that in and out of term we're going to be accommodating also temporary kitchen temporary there's a suite along with some permanent office semi-permanent offices and toilet rooms we're also going to establish a new temporary main office and South student entrances that's going to be effective with the renovations that are coming up shortly and we are going to implement temporary intermediate steps to keep all the whole building systems functional we have to keep all the life safety operational fully operational student staff that's the fire alarm master clock the PA data systems everything that goes into
075the daily function of the building for safety and security pictures as promised so we are doing the store and sewer lines they go around the east and south order lights of the property now the the existing ones had to be removed so that we could end it in remove eventually so that we could accommodate for this new addition that's going in substantial pipes the financial structures are going in being constructed these are all things you won't see because they're all below grade nothing more excitedly downspout rerouting as well fun stuff is yet to come but this all has to be done first it does yes it does and so this is our temporary staging area that was constructed stress temporary because eventually it will come out but it's there for now for the function of
076building the addition that's where materials will be staged the office trailers would be located and then just a simple graphic identifying all the pipe you just saw all the purple lines it's quite a bit its marginalizes the intensity and the quantity of what has been done but it is significant you can say it's been done so far I can see that at the end of the project but just recognition to the to the neighborhood and that's a lot of work it's a lot of disruption in the neighborhood this is a heavy part of it we have an upcoming community forum to talk about the next phase which is the building of the foundation pad that will be disruptive work and you know we just appreciate our support of the neighborhood and you know as as
077much as we ask for patience it's it's pretty disruptive neighborhood so I just wanted to recognize that on their behalf so with that one but you tell them by God thank you thanks again for the opportunity to provide an update in your packet we've put in the phasing plans for the middle school in the high school and I'm not going to go through each one of these I just wanted to highlight instead a critical work that we're planning on doing this summer at the middle school we are going to get the kitchen and the cafeteria completely replaced new equipment new fixtures and we're also focusing on a handicapped ramp that's going to be installed at the entranceway to the cafeteria again all of these are in your packet what the show are the different areas
078that we're going to be working on over the next three years the high school is the same we've got a three year program there but our key activities our GED has decided that the district needs a new transformer to feed the high school so we're working with our D you need to develop the plans to get ten new 4-inch conduits from a brand new transformer I went and wrote under the driveway and into the building and all the switchgear to feed the systems within the high school our other key activity is going to be the auditorium retrofit we take that over on April 15th and plan on having that for six months so hoping that we have a real nice facility for the district and we're complete we are doing one piece of work at
079French Road this summer I did not put French Road into the program we are going to be doing the asbestos abatement on the roof and replacing that roof section to get that taken care of this summer now Lou how can I make this bigger what I'm showing here are the issue logs that we create for the project what we did earlier in the project we introduced the board in the district to our issue logs and we create an issue at any point in time that we have a situation that may have an impact on cost or schedule and we track these issues these become the basis of any further action on that issue or that situation it could be a change order it could be a credit back to the district that could have a
080scheduled impact but we developed these issue logs so that we can track what we're running to on the site and it also helps us protect our contingency so that we know where we're at with the project this this is the council rack I don't want to get into a lot of the numbers because it would probably bore most of the people but we'll get through this this is for the capital project phase one and phase two at the other three buildings what I'm more concerned with we have a summary slide I'd like to yeah sure so because we're keeping both sides of the project separate because we've got a separate architect on each project and we've got different budgets what we do is we produce one bridge summary sheet for Lou and his staff at
081the end of each month and what this does this lays out that what we have for the phase 1 contracts what we have for the Council Rock project and what we have for the phase 2 contracts and then the different categories that we've got this is our overall capital contingency budget right here this is approved change orders that we've had to date this column here feeds directly off of our issue log where we show what we're tracking in pending changes dollar-wise and then this would show what the remaining capital contingency is so again both projects are running along the same format we're developing the same issues prevent providing the same financial reports every the end of every month and that we beat won't sleep monthly with the Larry Davis represents the board rule I'm on
082his fan so it's been very successful we've had phenomenal support from dr. McGowan from the board from Lu Li mo and his staff and especially the principals who are getting quite an education are there any questions that I can answer for you tonight nice you appreciate the updates John and Larry does keep us posted certainly Lou does but thank you to our extended thanks the entire team well underway all over the place we appreciate it and we appreciate being updated and things being taken care of in a timely basis so that's the only way to keep a project of this length and magnitude scaling on schedule so thank you I'd say this for most in all these conversations is there's a huge focus on regular student and staff safety like it's all the time like
083security the whole thing it's always a focus they greatly appreciate about John and Gary and the teams there's never any compromise with any of that stuff so I've appreciated that all along we've also really involved our facilities team you know John Rob Kevin all those guys are involved in decisions making recommendations and things their input and experience has been invaluable to what we're doing that's fantastic and you're right that is Priority One and as Lou added our neighbors especially at Council Rock and you know making sure that we keep them posted a new loop and we appreciate their patience and continue to ask for that for a while so thank you thanks again thank you okay thanks Lou all right then next up we have a few items of business related to the upcoming election
084in propositions and things first up are item number five or I'm sorry item number seven any agenda and also looking at this again I think we want to change language a little bit so a motion to approve item number seven to read approval of 2019 capital reserve proposition because it technically they are withdrawals from those reserve accounts as dr. McGowan outlined that we're approving tonight in a formal way that we need to so with that maybe we have a motion to approve that please so moved second proof by Karen will move by Karen and seconded by Larry and again these are the two resolutions there - it's a resolution and proposition number one and proposition number two number two being the technology withdrawal to the ballot to be voted on on May 21st 2019 all
085in favor all right any opposed thank you next up then in a companion with that seek a motion please to approve both the notice prepared by our district clerk on the annual budget phone an election and also on the list of election inspectors for the annual district vote as prepared also by Kim well by andreadd seconded by Kristina any questions comments further on that so see that sort of legalese on the annual budget vote election the specific notices are there those will be published in all the legal proper places and newspapers and such and then also the inspectors for the vote itself all in favor all right any opposed thank you next up again tonight we want to ask of C commotion this is now budget but agenda item number 9 motion please for approval
086from the resolution prepared by loo approving the joint agreement for the 2019 BOCES 1 capital project so moved second moved by Marv seconded by Karen this is that Lou had presented information to us previously on a couple of different occasions this is the our BOCES policies 1 capital the program project and this is the agreement I wish that that will be financed by all the component districts and we intend to complete our share through reserve fund allocations and that additional borrowing as we've discussed so all in favor aye any opposed thank you very much and then we have also a couple of change orders for approval motion please an item legislative over ten motion to approve the change orders with regard with latest change orders architect the engineers services for the 2017 facilities improvement plan
087so moved by Larry second seconded by Mar and again we've had that it's well documented they're a couple of change orders as well have been an ongoing way with regard to a couple of items that were outlined in that all in favor any opposed okay thank you very much then we have our consent agenda this evening relatively short of motion please to approve the consent agenda by Julie seconded by Andrea it does include tonight two different gifts we want to make note of thank you very much to mr. James Ravel to the gift of a number of hands to the theater department or drove collection visual Performing Arts at Brighton High School and also a gift from the Brighton Education Fund to supplement learning alive supplemental reading and math classroom kit for Council Rock primary
088school so it's a purchase of that kit so we thank those folks both for their gifts and for those again we support the bright and education fund we appreciate that all in favor all right are you opposed you very much or remembers any other vendors for this evening can we go anything else this evening okay then just to get a quick reminder we next meet at April 9th at a business meeting and anticipated budget adoption 7 p.m. here in this room motion to adjourn please so moved second cool by Karen seconded by Larry on favor any opposed our journey thank you everyone this has been a special presentation from the Brighton Central School District Board of Education [Music]