001Thanks. Call the meeting to order. Call for a motion to exit from the executive session. >> So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Call for a motion to enter into public session. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we'll begin tonight with our budget presentation. Okay, thanks everyone. We're going to be We're going to be brief tonight. We've gone through this budget presentation now a few times, but there's a couple decisions
002that need to be made, so we're going to We're going to walk through this stuff, especially the important items that the board will act on this evening. Uh here is a a look at the foundation aid as it stands right now. If you look in the top right-hand corner, the governor's put forward a 1% number. What that means and why that's important right now is because a decision hasn't been made to stay level, and we need to make a decision about our budget. Shh. Our recommendation is that we put forward a budget that has the 1% in there with the idea that the legislature could very well come back with and they could come with a deal that gets, let's say, 2%. That will will just end up with more revenues coming in, which will
003mean we'll be expending less from things like our unappropriated fund balance and reserves for next year if those dollars come in. Okay? We're This isn't the first year that this has happened where a decision hasn't been made timely at the state level. When that doesn't happen, we still have to move forward with our notifications as far as what our budget's going to be. Okay? So, here again is our tax cap levy calculation with the 2.14% being the cap on what we could levy this year. Without a supermajority, just who knows? Right? Um here's just the the average since 2017-2018. You can see this at at 1.8%. Um There in this presentation, we're not going to go through all this as we said. This will be available on the website, right, for people to to take
004a look at. Again, we're moving forward with scenario one as far as the budgeting's concerned, and that is a 1% increase in foundation aid, okay? You can see the bottom number down there. Well, maybe you can, but I can't. I think this is my eye test. Does that say 9648592? I asked. This is great. Um So, that's the budget that we're recommending for next year. Um again, that foundation aid number, which is in the top right-hand corner, that 2734464 number, that's the number that would change if we get more than 1% from the state, okay? We would be getting more money in. So, you say, "Well, that would bump up your overall budget." We just would use less of our unappropriated, where you can see appropriated fund balance. All right? But this is a So,
005go over through this. Um You want this? Okay, so going through that scenario quickly again, um we talked about the difference between our expenditure budget and our revenue budget being about $7 million. Um We have planned use of our reserves um to uh fill in that gap between our capital transportation reserves, we already have funds allocated to expend the $944,000 in the budget, so that is a uh equal offset. Our capital technology reserve is the same way with the $200,000. Our Greenway bond, we have to pay off using the Greenway innerfund transfer, so that's the $800,000 there. And then the employee benefits and accrued liabilities reserve for paying retiree benefits in next year's budget. It Just just important to note here with the with the slide is that the both for the capital transportation reserve
006and the capital technology reserve, we have propositions. Okay, so there's three propositions, one is for the overall budget, one is for transportation to expend out of the transportation reserve, the other one is out of the capital technology reserve for this year. Those are the three propositions that that people will be voting on. And these are also offsets, um workers compensation reserve, we have it's it's more than the $500,000, so this is a smaller offset than the others, but the ERS reserve for $750,000 and TRS reserve for $7 $150,000. Lost my train of thought for a minute. Um and so there's appropriated fund balance that we would plan on using if it's a 1%, again, that would decrease if we receive more from the state. I'll just That all those other slides would be the the
007the the All those other slides would be the if it was the 2% so we're just fast forwarding. Here are the reserve balances we showed those at the last meeting. If you want us if you want me to leave these up for any reason for any more time I know that you have these already. Um The one thing I'll always say about reserves is that the only way that you get reserves is if you don't expend everything that you have in your budget every year. And having those additional reserves allows the district to be in a place where not expending our entire budget allows the district to put things in reserve which allows us to buy things like our buses, allows us to do capital projects. Right, those are things that need to get done
008without putting out large increases in tax dollars to make those things happen. Okay. So, it's really important to continue to have really good restricted reserves because remember we don't get to keep whatever we want as far as unappropriated fund balance. That number only gets to be at 4%. This slide slide is just more details on our capital reserves. And then here's the decision that we need to make tonight which is the tax levy. Um and how much we are going to be raising in taxes. The highlighted line is our cap the 2.14% which is a $800,000 increase. And then um anything above that line would mean we need a supermajority vote from the public or 60% um yes vote on the budget and below that would not require supermajority vote just the regular majority vote
009vote. We have this up there. Again, this just shows you know, dollars that were not levied because if you don't go to the limit, what you lose in that year, you're losing in future years. And that just shows what you've lost. Uh with with the complete understanding in mind that there's certain numbers that as a board you're going to feel comfortable with going out to to the public, right? We get that. So, um you can see like in the one year, feel like where it says 4.28% the board went out with a 2.49%, right? So, in that year, you know, $970,000 could have been levied, but wasn't. But we understand that a number like 4.2% 28 4.28% would be a difficult number for you to put out to public. So, we get that. And then
010And then this last slide, really important. Some of you were on this board or came on right afterwards when we were one of the most fiscally stressed districts in the state. Um that 88.3% is a place we never want to be at again. The higher the score, the worse you are on this chart. We want to have that really low number. The way that you do that is by maintaining good reserves, having those balances, having a good good solid fund balance, um making sure that you're And And having, by the way, a really good fiscal stress score means that you also have lower interest rates when you do have to borrow. Um one of the huge benefits having reserves for things like buses and for our capital projects is that you don't have to borrow
011as much money. And when your fiscal stress score is good, when you do have to borrow any money, you're doing it at the best rates that are out there. Any questions? Hey. If uh continuing on, we'll open the floor for uh residents' comments. Should I be signed up? Mike second. Okay. Uh then we'll move to our consensus agenda items. Uh I call for a motion to accept consensus agenda items 1 through 5 as presented. Yeah. All right. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Abstains? Motion carries. Uh moving to our personnel items. Nothing is seconded, right? Correct. I call for a motion to uh accept personnel items numbers 1 through 11 as presented. Make a motion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say
012I. I. Opposed? Abstains? Motion carries. Uh continuing on with our standing committees. Uh anything from capital projects committee, Bob? Uh Uh yes. Uh as far as capital projects, we're currently uh the big thing right now we're doing is the playgrounds. Um They actually seem to be going pretty well. Um We're pretty much at uh Eric Road is pretty much done. Uh we're over at Colony Village now and they're starting West Street. Once those are finished, they're going to head over to the Tuscarora. So, it's Things are looking good in that respect. And so far we're on target as for May 20th for the auditorium. We'll feed back as we go along. Yeah, that's about it. All right. Thank you. Uh is there anything from audit committee? Anyone on that committee? Rick's uh the chair. Okay.
013Okay. Uh then with policy committee, we have the second reading and adoption of a number of policies. Read over them again real quick. Policy 1620 the annual organizational meeting. Policy 16 I'm sorry, yeah, 1620 annual organizational meeting. 1640 absentee military and early email ballots. 5413 procurement UGD federal awards. 5681 school safety plan. data networks and security access. 5851 cyber security incident response. 7244 student directory information. 7513 medication and personal care items. 7521 students with life threatening conditions and anaphylaxis. concussion management. So, we had the first reading. Take a vote second reading and adoption. I'll call for a motion to adopt those policies as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Same. Motion carries. There are no external communications. Move to our ex-officio student member report. So,
014I'd like to tell everyone about our little adventure to the Tuscarora Nation today. We a few of us at from our school, the middle school, and from the two other schools Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda went over to the reservation today and we were able to learn a lot about the culture there. And it was really impactful because we is most of people there from the other schools really were not aware of the culture that was in our district and it was really good and it was a vital opportunity for them to understand all the ins and outs of what is actually going on over here. So, that was nice. And I also like to say that the sports are going really well and everything is flowing really well in the school. Good to hear.
015Thank you. I have nothing for president's report. Superintendent's report. >> So, I just like to build on the back of what Ethan talked about. Sometimes you just have to pause, right? And you have to recognize something that is just truly good. The the work that was done through the equity committee and the tri-district leadership group of students and the Tuscarora Nation today was outstanding. So, Ethan talked about it a little bit. Just to get a little background. This tri-district group has been around for about 3 years now. We were invited into the group between North Tonawanda with North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls. And the idea is to get insights together from neighboring districts that help break down barriers and help them help them better understand their schools, their cultures. This year, Ethan and I participated
016in both of the events that Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda put on. Their events focused around service opportunities. We took this opportunity to introduce the ambassadors from North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls to the Tuscarora culture and we were so fortunate. They they opened up the Tuscarora Nation House. The the place was immaculate. It was it was they did such a nice job with the setup. We had Chief Bryan Ferguson who spoke to the group. One of our students opened with a with a Thanksgiving opening for the entire group. And then the students were in three different breakout sessions. And those breakout sessions focused on culture, the Wampum Belt and the importance of the history that that plays for for the Tuscarora and the Haudenosaunee. And then the last one was on Orange Shirt Day. After
017they cycled through the short presentations, those three presentations, they then they made their way over to Tuscarora Nation School. The Tuscarora Nation annually has multiple socials. Then they're called social events, but they're really social dances where members of the the Tuscarora community and the school, and remember that school is pre-K to sixth, get together and actually have social dances. So, all of the students, approximately 45 students, some of the adults who were helping take part, all were able to take part in the social dance. So, they got to not just hear about the culture, but actually um participate in some of the important cultural experiences. For lunch, there were multiple items, but a few of those items were native foods like um blueberry corn soup. There was corn mush. There was a strawberry drink that
018was very good. And um I think I might be missing something, but again, we're we're really thankful to the Tuscarora Nation for opening up their community to us for the school to plan this event so that we could showcase a really important part of um not just Tuscarora culture, but of Niagara Wheatfield culture. So, nice job. Thanks for bringing it up. Um I just want to mention a few names. I mentioned Chief Brandon Ferguson, Joanne Weinholds, Caitlin Phillips, Zam Printup, Aaron Printup, and then Shiloh Bishop, who was our student who did the opening for the students. I want to thank all of them by name. Next, uh pretty exciting news. We found out about maybe a couple weeks ago now that two members of our staff are going to be recipients of the Western New
019York Education Service Service Council's Awards of Excellence. Those two recipients are Karen Conty and Jan Ball. So, um next Wednesday they'll actually be in a week from today. There'll be an event that will be honoring them and other award winners throughout Western New York who are part of the Western New York Education Service Council. So, congratulations to uh to both of them and to all the award winners. On April 25th, please join us. We have our Eco Campus um right outside here, outside the ALC, along with our wellness walk and wellness fair. It it it grows every year. How many vendors do we have right now? Right now it's 2600. 26 vendors that'll be there. Um they set up in the in the high school, right? They'll be in the main wing here in the
020high school, the main entrance, excuse me. Um it usually wraps all the way back to the to the cafeteria. Um and we also have our uh wellness walk that day as well. Okay? The Nisba conference, I continue to leave this out here under superintendent's comments for the board, just as a reminder that the Nisba conference is in Buffalo uh from October 22nd through 24th this fall. Um at the next meeting, I'd like to talk a little bit about the turf field usage and also some of the other facility usage including once our auditorium's finished, we know groups are going to be interested in using it. I did get some information from from at least one other district on what they charge for, you know, using their theater, and so that'll give us something to compare
021it to when we set rates for that cuz we didn't have rates set before. Um and last but not least, but tying into our presentation earlier, May 19th is our annual budget vote and board elections. The voting takes place in this room at the high school ILC, and it's from 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. So, I Very good. Thank you. Uh for reports to the board, there's an early graduation informational uh item attached there. Um any other items for board discussion? And in new business, we'll discuss the budget. Any other old business anyone? Good. And under new business, um we have the tax levy. Um so, I'll open it up to any discussion. Anyone have any feelings that they'd like to resolve them? Well, to get the ball rolling, we're going to have to have
022a discussion then basically of what levy we're going to set at that. Um are we sitting at the 2.14, which is what the superintendent has proposed, or has he given other values on there? Are we going down below that? So, if you you can't just sit here and sit here we can't have we're not going to discuss it if we can't discuss it. Well, I'll throw it out there. Typically, we have we usually try to stay under the two percent. Uh I don't know about that. I know other board members probably would say I'd bring that up, so I'm going to bring it up for him. Um but uh I mean, I don't see going any lower than that, you know, but I would think it's between those two points. Um I would say I
023I I would not mind doing a 1.99 um in anticipation that most likely the budget that comes with New York State will give us a little more. Um you know, you can see that either way. I it's it'll be a marginal, you know, $50,000 um that we would not take by going up to the 2.14. But you know, it's it's always nice to present to the community, hey, you know, we're really looking out for you here. Here's some reflection of trying to keep things, you know, in line. Any other feelings from anyone else? I can certainly have the long-term effects pointed out, where if you don't stay at the limit the tax levy limit, eventually in the long run it doesn't come back to hurt you. That's where my concern is. You look back to
024the when you're in distress, all those other factors came into play. I don't want to see that happen again. Uh I agree 50,000 is not a big number, but 50,000 in the long term what, triple, quadruple in 10 years from now? You didn't you have that slide up there that showed what over the course of time what we are living in, yeah. It's significant number from 403 to have 1.6 in 10 years, 12 years. A half a million dollars in 10 years isn't it? Uh the the part to remember I and this is what I've always told the boards uh when we got them to this point, um when you went and did your fiduciary training with NESBA, they reminded you that, you know, where you have that balance of what is best for the
025community, what they can afford, versus what your role as a school board trustee is. As a school board trustee, the piece is that you are to do what is best in the financial realm for the district. So, that's the one thing I always say in this discussion, ask yourself, what is best for the district itself, meaning the operation and the the success of the school itself. Yes, you have to take into what the community can contribute and what they can afford, but your first prior prior your priority is what is the what is best for the district. That's why I was I always push to go right to what our according to New York State what our levy limit is. So, in the eyes of New York State 2. You know, voodoo economics if you
026want to throw that back in there, 2.14 is considered 2%. That's tax because of the calculation. So, I still say we're still under New York State's tax cap when I present this to the members of the community when I talk. But, I would go to 2.14. I'm comfortable with 2.14. I mean, I'm comfortable with it and only with the fact last year we went down to 0.60. Yeah, it was very low last year and that that was because of the tax cap. So, I mean, me personally, I see things coming down the road. I'm only going to wait with this bussing and everything else. I I really have don't want to be caught short what's going to go come down in the future, tell you the truth. And and the the part is cuz I
027remember sitting on the meetings with with with Amazon project and how that pilot affects it. Is there Do we have a projection of how that's going to affect our tax cap yet once that goes onto the books? So, each year the pilot amount will come out of the year on something. So, as the pilot increases, it'll decrease what we can levy. So, So, that'll reduce it. Well, yeah, because now so if we start taking money away from the levy limit now, we could we're going to be hurt even more because we are not going to make that up without going to a super majority. So, that's my concern and I would you know, I I would assume that a lot of the board would go 2.14. And if you need me I'll make a motion
028to do that. move that we set the levy levy limit at 2.14. And a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed all opposed and abstained. No abstentions. So, motion carries. Okay. And I'll call for a motion to approve the budget as presented. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed abstained. Motion carries. Okay. But uh open up to any public comments. Any other board member comments tonight? I don't have anything. You know, I I just like to thank the team and Dan and everyone for putting the budget together. Um all the work that goes into that. So, that's a big facet of your job here. It is It's all that preparation. So, we really appreciate you. And uh
029thank you to the community when you come out to vote. Uh appreciate you. Yeah. Go Sabres. Go Sabres. Yes, indeed. All right. Uh with that, I'll call for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed abstained. Motion carries. We're adjourned. Thank you.