001There is a call for motion to enter into public session. So moved. Second. So moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed? Sustained. 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. Hey, welcome everyone. And we're together again tonight with our Falcons of the month. I got five. What's wrong with this microphone? You know what? It's cuz they're all They're all working now. Some of them are working at the table. They know what they're doing. I'll get back to this later. First of all, this is a great turnout, so thank you. This meeting during the month, you know, we
002usually have two meetings. The meeting that we hold the Falcons of the month is without a doubt our favorite meeting because we get to honor some students who have done some really great work, so it's really exciting for us. Um tonight we have the distinction of honoring our next group of Falcons of the month. Each school in our district celebrates numerous students each and every month for being outstanding. We have asked our schools to select one individual from the many honored to represent the group. Therefore, the students who we will be honoring tonight were selected because they personify the trait or characteristic being celebrated during this particular month. In other words, these students are the best of the best and so congratulations to the group as a whole before we get started with each individual.
003Each one of our certificates reads the same and it says this. Certificate of recognition. Whereas the philosophy of the education of the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District calls for aiding all students in the development and achievement of their potential. And whereas the primary goals of the school district include encouraging each student to develop a sense of values, instill a feeling of responsibility to self and others, as well as appreciation of good citizenship. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District hereby recognizes the following students. The first student we're going to recognize tonight is Breanna Monahan. Breanna. Next we have Bajour Ali. >> Next, we have James Twining. Next, we have Nina Bachu. She deserved the applause, certainly. Next, we have Delilah Jonathan. Next, we have Lila Jacobs. >>
004That concludes our nominations for this month. I want to say congratulations one more time. Please give all of our winners a nice round of applause. Um we at this point in the meeting will take a little bit of a break, but have 15 minutes, okay? There's punch, there's cookies, and maybe before you get there, there's a backdrop there if you'd like to take pictures, okay? So we take that break so families can take pictures if they'd like. Okay, all right. Congratulations again to the Call the meeting back to order here. Uh moving on with president's comments, stay on sign up. Open to the floor to anybody? Okay. What's up? >> I was looking forward to the presentation. Uh I yeah. Circling back at the this uh Good catch. Um we'll move to the budget budget
005presentations. Okay, this evening you're going to hear a few of the budget presentations. Some of the topics that we've covered prior we'll go through a a little bit more quickly. There's some new information here certainly, um including some additional information on reserves, some uh you know, our recommendation as to how we'll close the budget gap uh with those reserves. So um please as we're going through questions, ask them during uh to to Dean and myself. Uh we'll also give an opportunity at the end for any questions you might have. Okay? Go ahead. Yeah, actually. So, if we go back to all this slide we're showing really was um what the difference was in in the in the last 2 years in what was initially projected in the state for revenues versus what was later projected
006for state revenues. And you can see um that those projections have gone up. That certainly I think made um made it a little bit easier for some of the decisions at the state level. However, it's really important to know that, you know, today the state budget was supposed to be determined. It was not. Um so, we're waiting on a decision. Some of the things I'm hearing it could be at least a couple weeks. So, it could be a couple more weeks until we hear what they're going to do. The one of the big impacts there, and and so I'll skip by the skip past this when we get to the slide, is that, if you remember, the governor put up a 1% increase on foundation aid, whereas in both the um the assembly and the
007state senate put a 2% increase on top of foundation aid. So, those are really important the you know, that's a really important decision for us as a district. Uh even though the state believes that the the receipts coming in are going to be better than what they were, there's still a number of risks. They're all on this slide which we showed in this last time. Down at the bottom, the one positive is that certainly there's a significant amount of reserves in the state budget to close some gaps if they need to. Okay? Tomorrow to I should say borrow from to take from. The we'll go over some of these things individually. This These were some of the pieces of the governor's uh proposal. One part that's really important is the UPK piece, and we'll talk
008about that. Um The governor's proposal is $10,000 per student. Okay? Right now, we get about half that. It's a significant increase. What we don't know, um is in that proposal, and would that mean that it would cover all transportation costs? If so, how would the transportation be you know, cost be paid to districts? That's something we don't know. We know that one of the two houses within the state um said that they wanted to cover transportation costs. They wanted to do it through the current um transportation formula. Okay? Now, if you could use some of the $10,000 to pay the district portion, and then the rest of it would be able that would be good for the district. If not, if the district still had to come up with their portion, and you didn't get
009the addition, you couldn't use any of those funds towards transportation, that would be a drain on the district. Okay? So, again, those details haven't been um really established that I've seen um from their proposal from the state side at least. Those are the things. Again, you see April 1st there is the deadline that they were supposed to come up with a budget. Um last year, there was not an on-time budget. There's not one this year. So, um we'll see. Uh the important date for us, April 24th is the deadline districts other than small city districts um have to really have things prepared so that they can get things in for the May 19th budget. Okay? Budget vote. We talked about this at the last meeting. It's worth mentioning again. The governor of New York State,
010just like the all the governors around the nation, have the ability themselves to sign um into this program, this federal voucher program, any district any district, excuse me, any state that elects to go into voucher program, what it does is it it's an immediate tax credit for any family that chooses to do it. You say, well, what's the harm of that? The concern for public education certainly is that that that those are funds that are not going to go to the federal government. So, then does that mean in turn that the federal government will provide less funding for education to states? My guess is yes. Okay, so like the inside, we didn't receive any additional state aid revenue productions directly like we did for the executive run yet because the budget's not passed yet. But,
011so this is from the executive budget showing the 1% foundation aid increase and then last time we went over what you did the other types of aids are. Here's the tax cap um calculation again. I won't go into detail, but it I wanted to point out cuz it's relevant later in the presentation that the the calculation starts with last year's levy. What was actually levied? Not not what we were able to levy last year, what were we actually levied. So, it's important when we talk about how much the levy going forward. Um talked about the TRS rate. So, that's actually going down from last year, so that's good. We have a significant number of retirements, so that actually means that our TRS expenses are expected to go down as well. On the other side, ERS,
012which is the employer's retirement system for anyone who's not certified, that rate is increasing as is with the salaries associated with it, so that be an increase. It's not huge. And it's important to note even with TRS with with the retirements, the fact that Yeah. The three The with TRS though, even though you have the retirements, even though the rate drops, but when salaries go up >> Of course, there you're going to be paying more for each salary, so that's important. I Here is a comparison of our tax levies over the years with the um average increase being 1.8% over 9 years. This is a summary of the department budgets that were presented at last meeting. Um Each This is a summary of just the increases that they were asking for. As you can see,
013all the departments except for special programs is a 4.81% increase. Special programs alone is a 15.95% increase. And all together, that's an 8.76% increase. You know, just one one thing I do want to point out here when you look at the technology uh budget, if you remember last time, that a big portion of that increase has to do with um what the district now needs to spend to protect our technology. And that is a brand It's a It's a brand new expense, not that we weren't expending anything on that before, but there's a new significant expense. We talked a little bit about that, I think, at the last meeting. And and I know that um when the departments were here to present, they went into some detail about that, but it's a huge expense. Excuse
014me. So, yes, this is a breakdown of those um requests. So, as you can see, the increased um technology security is 131,000. That's part of the request. So, going forward, um like we said we have our the numbers that we have from the state right now show a a 1% minimum increase on our foundation aid. Um it's also floating out there that it could be a 2% minimum increase. So the following slides present both um scenarios. So first we'll go through 1% and then and then 2%. And and what I what I guess I want you to think about is it it's really what we're presenting, right? Our recommendation is here's two different proposals showing you the 1 and the 2% state number with how we would fill the gap if the if it was
015a one if it was 1% instead of 2%. And that's what you'll see as the difference. In other words, some additional reserves being utilized to make up that difference. Okay, so here's our um revenue budget um with the 1% foundation aid increase. Just to go through the different line items that are here. We have first real property taxes, which is the tax levy, um which we talked a lot about. Next are other tax revenues. So we have payments in lieu of taxes and um interest earned and um penalties. Uh next we have services. We have our Native American tuition, which is the contract that we have with New York State to provide education to the students who live on the Tuscarora Nation land. Those that don't attend the Tuscarora Nation school, um we educate and
016we get reimbursed by New York State for that. Um next the next category is interest and earnings and then sales and um property type revenues. So right now we have a rental agreement with BOCES at Eric Road. So that's all those things in there. Um the next group of categories is miscellaneous. And then going up to the top of the next um slide there on the right side is the foundation aid. So, that's only number that's going to change between these slides in the above line um revenues between the next scenario. Um the other aid that we talked about and you'll notice that um the aids on in our revenue budget are different than what you saw on the slide previously. We have to split the aid that we receive with the Squaxin School, which
017is a different budget. So, the aid revenue that you hear see here is slightly lower because of that. We do a base It's a portion based on the enrollment. Um and then the final category is federal revenues. So, we receive impact aid for um to compensate for the some of the federal land that we can't um tax. So, that's the impact aid and then we receive medicaid as well. So, in total um I know the next slide that highlights it a little better. The total revenues make up 92. 52% of what we have proposed as the total budget for next year. And then the green highlighted um lines underneath the revenue bar is uh our different types of interfund transfers and um reserve usage based on actual expenses within the budget. So, for example, the
018capital transportation reserve is what Greg and Leslie presented as being purchasing the buses and the facilities vehicles. So, it's offset by this reserve. And the um technologies plan for their capital reserve usage is this $200,000. So, they're one-for-one in that regard. So, we have the overall expenditure budget at 96,480,000. And then that line that I showed you on the previous slide with the revenue is 89,260 89,261,970. For um so that the amount that we need is 7,000,000 218,000 to close the gap. Like I talked about, um we have those planned reserve usages. So, the transportation reserve, the technology reserve, we have a a greenway, um interfund transfer, which is for a debt that we have in the general fund that it's a plan to offset. And then, um the employee benefits and accrued liabilities reserve,
019which is we plan to use for the retirement incentives that we have linked to basically. So, the balance of fund after that is 3,563,000. I'm just rounding. Um so then that will we have other expenses within our budget that we have reserves set up for. So, one example is the workers compensation reserve, um ERS reserve for the employees retirement system and the teachers retirement system reserves. Um so, we would propose offsetting the um the expenses that are in the budget with those reserves. And then, appropriating fund balance of 1,563,000. Um you know, just important to note, I think, when you when you look at the amounts that are would be allocated from our restricted reserves or our Each year we allocate dollars from our reserves, right? The goal is to not utilize all of those
020dollars and we've done a very good job of that for for a long time now. The goal is to continue to keep as much in those reserves as possible. When the state looks at our stability as a district or fiscal stability, it's one of the things that they look at is your are your reserve amounts. So in this scenario where it's the 1% minimum increase the appropriate fund balance amount would be 1.563 million. Okay. I mean, you keep on using the reserves. So I mean, you need our reserves and you might not be able to put more money in the reserve next year in your area. That's exactly right, right. That's exactly right. And so and again, we we we appropriate this amount from the reserves where we plan to allocate this amount from reserves
021and then when we come to budget when comes expenditures, we don't use it. We Our goal is to not spend all of it. But what a school district can't do is over expend its budget. They did. Yes. This past year's reserves, how how does that look? I mean, are we eating into it? Is that what you're saying there? So it's a little too early know to know exactly, but we won't we won't be using all of the reserves that we appropriated last year. No, as a as a matter of fact, I think last year I said that I thought this year would have been closer we'd be, you know, we we haven't really had to eat into it in the past. Whereas in going to next year, it certainly looks like we would eat into
022it. Now, I will tell you this, if if I could go back, one thing that helped us a little bit here is if you look at the the building aid amount, the the second thing down on the right right under foundation aid. By the way, I didn't point this out but looking at the foundation aid amount, you see that that's 27 million. You look at the real property tax piece, that's 38 million, right? 65 million of our 96 million dollar budget comes from those two sources, so they're obviously huge sources for us. But, one other area that we get a significant amount of aid back from is building aid. The fact that we just recently closed out a major phase of one of our projects, okay, or a couple phases, Rick Tims, who you all
023know, that Dr. Tims, who comes here and works with us on our long-term planning, had had put those figures, in other words, what we will start getting back in aid next year on the phases we just closed out, into that building aid formula, okay? So, that that number adjusted by over a million dollars, I think, from initially. So, based on our state aid funds, it was 4 million dollars. Um, he projected 7 million, but we're still not sure about one phase, so he left a million out of it. >> So, so it's it's So, I guess my point is from me in the last time that we presented, there's about a 2 million dollar difference in revenues that's coming in in building aid. And remember that building aid is the money that we get back
024when we finish a project, and we get it un- until 15 years is what it uh what it takes to pay off, right? So, for 15 years, we get the aid. Now, those amounts fluctuate as different phases of projects are paid off. One of the things that we've talked about when it comes to capital projects and doing them is it's important to continue to do them. Because if you don't, your state aid drops off, and now you have a big hole. Okay? So, obviously we're doing a larger one, you're not always going to do larger ones all the time, but the idea is you want to continue to do those because you get that state aid that state aid back, and you don't have a drop off. But, from the last time we were here,
025and as I think I even had sent you guys a presentation, I sent another one, it was that building aid number that it changed. So, that really changed the revenues in what we feel like we would have to appropriate for next year. Okay? Now, Dan, Yeah. this Amazon and Plug Power and they get started sometime this year. Well, how does that affect does it affect any revenue? Once they're operational, okay, once they're operational, then it will for the pilot, right? So, they we have we have the pilot agreement that shows the amounts of those dollars going up. Right now, I think you talked with them. I didn't get a hold of anyone, but um when I talked to the I didn't talk to the county. I talked to the county and they said that because
026it's not finished yet, we wouldn't see the full amount of the schedule starting yet, but once it does, then it we should see the full schedule. You know, I know we've always talked to especially with Mr. Penns about 5 years out. And I can tell you it's really in the infancy stages. Real infancy. And I know Mike and Craig know about it, but in the town of Niagara, potentially, they're talking between 100 and 200 new homes. And we're about two on the plane department. You know, I mean, it's they're not breaking ground anytime soon, but you know, you're talking about staffing, talking about I don't know how many kids are going to be in these facilities. Yeah. Um Yeah, I understand. You know, what here's what I would say, the district has had significantly larger
027numbers in the past than we do now. We can certainly do it. What I would say is where those students are in the buildings and the the the redistricting, whenever that would come to fruition, right? Um we would have to adjust. If it comes. If it does. Yeah. Can you hear me back there? There you go. So, this next group of slides um looks at if we were to receive uh 2% minimum increase from foundation aid. So, the only number that's really changing is that foundation aid number at the on the top right. Um it's it it increases by $270,000. So, that would mean that our reserve our total revenues increase by $270,000 and then $270,000 less would have to come from our reserves. That's what that 1% means. I don't know that I I
028don't think you need read through it. In your In your packets, you have the 1% 2% difference, but really it's just a change in how much we'd be using from the reserves of that 270,000. I have a question. Yeah. Our reserves Mhm. are we more or less than last year's than last year? If you what's that number? Oh oh oh, in other words, the final of the amount that was in the the amount that was being appropriated from the unappropriated fund balance? >> Yeah. For this year for the meeting? I'd have to look, Bob. I wouldn't want to I would just want to Same kind of thing. It would It would be easy for me to pull up last year's presentations on the thing and take a look, but >> last year's last year. Yeah.
029No, I mean we're I think it's probably about the same. Okay. I think it's going to be close, but I'll I'll pull it up. It's a good question. Here is um our current balances as of um June 30th along with um what was budgeted for 25 26. So this includes that 3.5 million at the bottom. That total includes everything except for the appropriated fund balance of that you were asking about. So um This is what we have planned to use for 25 26. Like we said, um we don't think that we would be giving our into there. And then this next slide goes into the details of our different capital type of reserves. We just wanted to show you that there are different types for different purposes. The transportation reserves, we have capital improvements, capital
030technology, and then each reserve when we put it as a proposition to the public to vote on establishing a reserve, we have to put a limit on it and it's for 10 years. So um you can see that most most of the reserves there are full. And then we still have three reserves that we can add money into. Diana, could you go back to that slide that showed the appropriated amount for this year? So with the with the 2% you see it would be 1.293 and so it was what the $270,000 difference, so 1.5. So last last year it was the the what we were appropriating from the unappropriated fund balance was 1.9. So we're actually we would be appropriating less from the unappropriated fund balance for next year. And I'll explain a little bit
031more. It may seem odd that we because we have, you know, at the top of this page we have $6.9 million that we needed for um closing the gap, but remember that the $1.7 million for the employee benefits for the retirements, that's not something we normally do because we don't usually have 29 teacher retirements in a year. So we normally appropriate I think it's $450,000. So um that's completely offset by that expense and and that reserve. And hopefully with the idea that in the years following it'll be a savings for the district. Okay, so here we're back to the discussion about the tax levy. Um, our cap is 2.14%. That's a $800,000 increase over last year. Um, as a reminder, the tax levy gets divided over the total assessed properties within the district. So, it
032doesn't necessarily mean that each person's taxes will go up to the 1.4%. It depends on how it gets distributed. Um, a lot of people there's reassessments going on and so I think it's important to say that just because an assessment with a whole town-wide assessment goes up doesn't necessarily mean that person's taxes are going to go up that much because it's being divided over the whole town. So, and then here's a chart that we've um, seen different forms of um, with Brick Teams presenting, which is the cost of staying below the tax levy limit. If when we don't go to the levy limit, it sticks with us forever. So, um, back in 2014, um, the board of the time decided not to go to the levy and was short by $400,000. Each year that's $400,000
033less in revenue that we can recover. And that compounds each year. So, then again in 2019, the um, we didn't go to the levy again. So, that added on to that previous 400,000 and so on. I know I know and we usually bring this up, but somebody had last time to for us to bring this to bring this up. So, if if you look last year, we were there was 0.64% was the levy year before and the levy limit was 3.08 and you can see the numbers that you kind of went to in those years. What's important and Diana mentioned it is that when you lose it, you don't get it back, right? So, the the tax levy limit is in essence that the factor that they put in there and you always hear 2%
034is because that's the factor that's used, right? But the that that 2% factor results in 1.49%, 2.99%, but those are the numbers that when you plug 2% in with all of the other factors that you have that the state's saying you should you can go to without needing a supermajority vote. Okay? And And just say and that's because of conditions that are within the district. So, if your capital improvements are increasing, then they're saying, "Yes, levy more taxes to do that." Um if it's not made up for by aid or some other department or something. I get that, yeah. Um this is this slide's always here as a you know, or has been for a lot of years now as a congratulations to the board, to our business office. When you look at that um
035fiscal stress score, that's where you want that number. You want it to be really low. We were one of the most fiscally stressed district in districts in the state in 2013-2014. We want to stay down near the bottom there. Okay? Questions? Thank you. presentation Open the floor again to residents' comments. Do any of you have any comments? Okay. Move on to our consensus agenda items. We need to do We need to approve all points except for the separate ones. >> can If if that's on there, you don't have to vote separately. I will call for a motion to accept uh the consensus agenda items numbers 1 through 17 as presented. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. I'll call for a motion
036to approve the personnel items numbers 1 through 18 as presented. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. Uh moving on to our standing committees. Uh Capital Projects Committee, Mr. Bob. Um as far as Capital Projects, well, the auditorium is still uh so far on target for May 20th. Um but other than that, uh we were there today. And some of the improvements that were there they were the last time. And um it's going to really look sharp when it's done. I got to say that much. But uh that's all I got right now. Okay, thanks. Uh Audit Committee? Yes, the Audit Committee met today with Mike, Craig, and Deanna, and to go over the uh the internal control risk assessment. And everything
037was went well with it and in the next month or two we'll get together and pick what area we want to do the same type of assessment. That hasn't been determined yet today. That is it. Thank you. Uh policy committee Nothing from the committee. We do have first readings of another policy. >> Except for the first readings from the last. Yes. Chuck Daniels. State done. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Um first readings of policy 1620 annual organization organizational meeting uh 1640 absentee military and early mail ballots uh 5413 procurement uniform grant guidance for federal awards 5681 school safety plans data networks and security access 5681 school safety plans uh 7241 student directory information 7513 medication and personal care items 7521 students with uh life threatening health conditions and fluxes and 7522 concussion management. Um those are
038here for your review and we'll vote on those next meeting I believe. No problem. Uh external communications to the board we have internal claims auditor report. Um and that will move to our ex-officio student member report. I'd like to say that April 25th birthday we have the Eco campus and I would like everyone to come and it'd be great and all of our schools teams are starting off great for the spring season. And let's go Falcons. Thanks. Uh for president's reports, um myself and other board members had the opportunity to tour some of the schools, all of our schools today. Um so, that went well and thank you to everyone who was involved with that. And um uh and our boys at the buildings for uh showing us around and uh for lunch that was
039prepared today. And then I'll move to superintendent's report. Thank you. Nope. Thank you. First, I I can't remember um Ethan, were you if you were at the meeting um the last meeting? Okay. So, um the the musical this year was Greece and there was um uh a performance done at Sue Niagara for our high school students and it was incredible. Um Ethan was one of the the the the leads in the in in the musical that the students the students were um so much fun to be around. I got to play a small role that I didn't mess up too much, um I don't think. I didn't get any nasty grams or anything like that, but um what was what was really cool um was being able to be backstage and watch how the students
040interact with one another. Watch how um they care about one another, make sure that they're on time. The stage crew, if you've never been part of one of these things, they're incredible. They do so much to get everybody in position. If I could, on opening night, Ethan had a little mic issue on the one, right? Not your fault, just happens. The the incredible work that happened within I don't know, a few minutes before he had to go back out on stage. >> Yeah, like literally a minute, they took my mic off and I had to put it right back on. And I mean, I missed the scene, but they did it very fast. >> But but the microphone was, you know, it's not like the microphones, you know, like here and they give you a
041new one. I mean, you're in costume and the the work that was done backstage and how um competent and calm these students were when they were doing this work uh was really impressive. So, some of the you know, you just don't get to see those things. You you just get to see the people out on the stage. And the performances were outstanding, but the people backstage were great. The you know, the adults leading the the charge were were were awesome. It was a It was a really great musical and congratulations to to all of our students. Um our calendar for next year. So, the board has already acted on a calendar for next year. However, since then, um one of the larger schools in our BOCES um has gone away from the um one week
042in February and one week in April break. They've gone to two. That pushed the number of students in our BOCES, okay, so it's Orleans-Niagara BOCES, over 73% of the students that partici- that that are participants within our BOCES are now at two weeks in April for next year. BOCES um is changing their calendar or did? They Yeah, they did. >> You already voted on it. You will. Um they're going to be changing their calendar. So, that leaves us really as the last of the larger schools in our BOCES who would only be who would be at one week and one week. Um I'm not a proponent of the two weeks um just personally, right? Um for for various reasons. I've maybe talked about those before here even. That said, our students who are in the
043CTE programs, who are in the special education programs, would be significantly negatively impacted by BOCES moving to the two weeks if we don't follow suit. Okay, most joint management teams, which include four BOCES, tend to pull in the same direction because students go to the BOCES in those joint management team areas. For us, that's predominantly Orleans-Niagara BOCES, and we have a a small number who like participating in Erie BOCES' program programming. So, all of that said, I I thought it would be important to bring back to the board that the calendar. Um, certainly this is a decision that's the the the board's to make. Um, I on this draft calendar, you can see that the February break would go to just having the one day off as opposed to that whole week off. Thank you,
044Dan. And then and then it would have the um the break in April, well, March actually is when it starts. It would be March through April, uh through the beginning of April. So, um against my I want to say better, against my normal judgment, um you know, based on what BOCES is doing, um I guess I would barely recommend that we that we make this um change because of our families and our kids. Um, you know, in essence, the kids who participate would either have two weeks off, no weeks off, would have to make decisions about, you know, what they're going to do over the break when we're in session, but BOCES isn't and vice versa. So, that's the challenge that we're faced with when when they when the decision's made differently within our BOCES.
045Well, you know, you don't really need to recommend it based on the one school and BOCES. We can't leave dozens of our students in a precarious situation. It wouldn't be good. Some employees could be upset, but we're here to help with the kids. So, I would I would make a motion that change our calendar for the two weeks. And then I don't know if we can just second or no or Yeah, we Yeah, we can handle that under new business or old business. Okay. All right. So, we we can handle that under new business. Old business, we have it. It's on the agenda under old business. >> Oh, it's okay. I was just presenting it right now. And if anybody wanted to talk, that's all it was. Well, I'll let you make the motion. Yes,
046here we go. We know it's it's it's it's there. Okay, so that's that that If there's no questions, then I'm going to jump on to uh the regional grid seminar. Uh the regional grid seminar took place on March 10th. There was a really good showing. Close to 100 uh people throughout Western New York participated. National Grid, NY SEG, NYSERDA were all there. They provided us with some really great information um that was really important. Some of that information is, you know, you would could certainly argue is positive and and uh for districts some of it points to significant costs for districts, the state, and and those costs are really in areas where there's structural deficiencies in the grid. Okay? And the real question, and this is what we're going to talk about more later in
047this school year, maybe even over the summer, um is who's paying for that? Because if there needs to be significant upgrades to the grid, I just don't believe that should be on the backs of school districts. And when you need to add things that are not part of the grid, and school districts have to pay for it, and all of a sudden, you know, the budget that we've been talking about gets inflated. By the way, with a 2% um you know, uh levy limit, right? That at least for the formula's sake, how do you do that? I just don't know how to how districts would do that. And that would be on the backs of kids in years to come. They'd be the ones negatively impacted. Because if you remember, for us, as we looked
048forward into phasing in electrification for all the fleet that we would need, we're talking about a $10 million difference between over the years of the phase-in of what we would spend versus what we would need what we normally spend versus what we would need to spend if we went to full electrification. And and Brianna, come down to the break room for a treat. Brianna, come down to the break room for a treat. But I'll go get him. I will just tell you clean Chris incredible. Jack will be so embarrassed that that was just in front of the microphone. Um yeah, I don't know. I should she should she she would be really. Um So, we're going to talk a lot more about this coming up, but I just, you know, the the the costs that
049would be put to the districts is just very, very significant. Okay? And that and that bear it out during this uh seminar. Pre-K registration um has ended, but there's still spaces. So, even though the the the time that people had to get in to be part of the lottery, there's no lottery, we'll start taking them as they come in um for pre-K. Kindergarten um is going to run through the kindergarten registration is going to run through April 24th. Uh, registrations are being taken between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Okay? Um, Jason mentioned the Board of Education walkthroughs. I just want to mention one thing about that. Um, board members don't get paid. Not in our district. It's all volunteer. They do a lot of other things on the side. They're in other committees. They show
050up as, you know, in audit committees. They do all these things. And today, just another example, a number of them were here during the day doing walkthroughs in all of our buildings to see some of the things that were going on. And, um, you know, whether it was the some of the students and some of the service projects that they're doing at one of the schools or the incredible artwork, you know, that that's being done at another school. I think it's really important because, you know, as board members, they they have to make some really tough decisions about some really important things in programming. When you get to get into the schools, you get to see some of the really cool things that are happening. We bring some of those kids, like we did tonight,
051here to you. Um, and you do get to see them in a lot of different facets. Um, but it's a it's a really important thing that the time that you give up and I appreciate it. And so, on behalf of the district, I just want to say thank you for doing that. Um, the Eco Campus project, this was mentioned April 25th. I know that Ethan is going to have a large number of people there again. We had a really good turnout. After the Eco Campus on that same day, we have the wellness fair and we have the wellness walk. Okay? They're all on that one day. It's a really great, they're really great events here on this high school middle school campus. So, if you don't have it marked down already, the Eco Campus starts
052at 8:00, goes till 11:00, and the other events take off right afterward. Okay, so it's that that whole day. Um, I have the Nisbet conference in on notes under superintendent's comments because it's here in Buffalo next year. It's October 22nd through the 24th. So, if you want to mark that down, I know some people don't like to go when it's a little bit further. So, this is here, it's local. Every few years it rotates back to us, which is really good. Um, and then the last thing I was asked to talk a little bit about and bring to you and I think you should have the form in your um folders. As to the turf field usage, you should have a document in there about field usage. I think it was last year, maybe in
053the year before that, we revisited this. Um just for those who don't know when it comes to the turf field use fee schedule, you can see it, it's online. We have three different categories. One is for NW student athletics. What that is off-season. Um, that's $0 if they're if it's the athletic program. We have NW-based students or NW adult groups and there's a rate for that. And then if you're an outside student or adult group there's a different rate for that. That's the the most the highest rate. So, last year we reduced these rates or the year before and I was asked to bring this back to the the group here to talk about a little bit. So, um, I did. Did you? Did you? Chuck, by any chance, what what was the number? Here's
054Here's what I know. Um, I know that there were a couple districts who don't charge anything. I don't know who who all of those are, Rick. I Lewiston may be one. I think the Falls maybe one. I don't know that they charge anything. If if they're and I'll use the name that we have here, NW base student or adult groups. Um And whenever I say that they don't charge anything, I'm guessing that they charge when there's overtime rates and when they wouldn't naturally normally have a person there. They really couldn't do it otherwise because of you know, you you'd be you can't give to public funds. So they would they probably are charging for people who have to stay is my guess. You know, they may charge if they're turning on lights. Um but I
055know there are couple school districts around that don't charge anything. Most charge something and that's what we used when we put this together. I have a question, Dan. >> Yeah. I know we did this for the fields. I know we're going to our auditorium. Are we planning to do anything with that? We'll definitely have a I guess so. So I'm we'll definitely have a schedule for that as well. Yeah. Um you know, the one thing particularly about the an auditorium is you're going to have to be paying people who are going to run those events, right? So if you have someone who wants to come in here and you know, use more than just a microphone in the auditorium, you know, if you use the lights, the sounds, you're going to have to have people
056and it's a pretty specialized skill. Right. So you're going to have to pay to do those things. And certainly that I wouldn't recommend that the district pay for that when the groups come in. They're going to have to they're going to have to pay for that and then we're going to have to decide would we model something up like this? Would you be charging more for groups that are not predominantly that our we feel groups versus outside. My recommendation when we get there will be yes. Um I'm sure we're going to start getting those those asks. Um so the the question it I know I know it wasn't intended this way. It but it here's what I heard. Dan, make sure you work on a schedule so we have something ready cuz we're getting close
057to this thing being done. What's that? But but I heard I I didn't you didn't say it this way, but it's something that we absolutely need to get ready. Yeah. >> So, I'm glad you asked. Uh the only reason why I'm asking is because I know there's some people out there that are are like for next year or whatever. We've had a couple groups already ask you about it. Hey Dan, just so I understand that she uh Well, enjoy people have asked me on me anyway, so the football. So, it's 250 an hour? >> No, you look to the law because if they So, if it's an NWAA group, it would be $75 an hour to rent the field. So, 50 an hour? 75 an hour. So, let's say that they're for 4 hours, that
058would cost them $300 for that. Then, if if there's no staff here already, right? So, if you don't have anybody um here and they had to pay for facility staff to be here, one facility staff coming in when they're not scheduled, it means it's an all overtime rate. So, it's another $50 an hour. So, again, if you're using a 4-hour event as an example, that would be another 200 on top of the three. So, it'd be $500 for those hours. We really haven't had to because the groups have been really good charged at cleaning rates, but if there was ever a problem, we would certainly do that. Um They'll sometimes ask for some of the groups will ask for security for their events depending on what they're doing, how large their group is. They have
059to of course pay that. We wouldn't pay that for them. And if they want to do it under the lights because those lights have to be turned on, there's a cost of that. We have a a $50 an hour charge involved in that. Okay, so security, if they ask for they would pay the 250 for $25 an hour for the event security. Is this something we need to take action on or is this just a discussion? >> can you can certainly talk about it today. You can take this and we can talk about it at the next meeting, whatever you like to do. I mean, we could look at it. I mean, I would like to give this some of these organizations even I don't for two games a reduced rate per person if that's
060feasible. Okay, I'm not saying free like a couple of other districts, just lower it a little bit more so they could afford to because they do do a lot of fundraising. Mhm. And I mean, I I don't know why we can't lower it a little even if it's a couple hundred dollars for the 4 hours or something. Just something. And and you can maximize it saying no more than two games and we can see how it works down the road. Is what I would like to see. If you want to think about it and and discuss it next month, that's fine. Uh but that's what I would like to see. Did we lower it last time? We did. We did. I think it was I think it was uh I would be guessing. I'm sorry.
061I know I know I think it was at least $100 an hour and that's my guess. Yeah. >> I thought that it was 150 and then 300 originally for outside groups. I don't know I don't know if we touched the outside groups though. But we definitely I think you might be right that we that we reduced by half. by by half maybe the the NW one, but we can certainly look. We would have that if if you want me to bring that back. >> What do you mean by outside groups? What are you talking about? So that So in other words, if it's not an a Wheatland field if it's not a Wheatland field group, so not just NWA, but if it's not a Wheatland field based group. And what we did the way we
062determine that is the group has to have at least 50% of its members, 50% or more of its members be residents, right? So, that's what allows them to get that reduced rate. So, like with NWAA, they have many different um groups. They all of the groups that are in there, all of their names, all of their you know, they get all their addresses and if 50% or more, and it's all 50% for that group, they get they get the reduced rate. Are there comments on time or you want take some time to digest it and we can bring it up next council meeting? Sure. We bring it up on What what do you what do you suggest? I I don't know if um just want to help some of these groups that are uh No,
063I got what you're saying. >> struggling making money and stuff like that. That's why I said uh you know, even if you reduce it a couple hundred bucks, um but maximum only two games. I play a lot more than two because the Harvey Field, my guess is not in really good condition because of the drain. It's not because of what we do or don't do. It's just the drainage system. And we don't want no one getting hurt out there or sometimes they're just practicing in the grass, which is fine, but you know, I I I think sometimes it becomes a little bit of a safety issue for the young kids. I just want to say I don't believe it's a safety issue. No no no offense, Rick. If I thought it was, we wouldn't practice
064on there, we wouldn't play on there. I think the reason they want to be on the turf is because it's really nice and it's cool, right? And that's good. Yeah. I know. I'm sure I'm sure they're saying that, but I'm sure that they have their and I they are responsible adults and they're great adults that run those programs, but But they really thought it was a safety issue, they wouldn't play all of their other games on it. They They They They want to get on the turf because it's really nice. Right. And And And it's a it's a great experience for the kids. What I might recommend if if there's any I thought of giving certain opportunities either at a reduced rate or something like that. We'd have to come up with a number. Cuz
065I just want you to think of it this way. Foot- football only has so many games and it's usually right on on weekends. But it's could be long block of time. You'd probably have to You'd probably have to say something along the lines of this many games would be reduced. So, you know, you have Remember, you have multiple ages of the soccer program, boys and girls. You have multiple ages of lacrosse programs. You have multiple ages All of those groups would be open to this, right? You know, and I think the the the tricky part will certainly be once we're in season. So, if if we started doing this when we're in our seasons, that's when it's really difficult. Except for on certain days when we'd of course have to have staff in. Like on
066a Sunday. Right? We'd have to have They'd have to pay to have those people in because there's nobody here. But, you know, during the fall or spring's seasons, those fields tend to be really taken up by our own teams. So, we just we just have to be really careful in what we say we're we're willing to do if we can't do it, that's all. So, as long as it's within the the confines of how we handle and manage the fields now, and we if we're if if the idea is that you set a number, you know, you get like two at half that rate or whatever it might be. Whatever you decide, we just want to make sure that we do it in an equitable way across the board for all of the programs. Cuz
067we're all going to want once you open it for one, that's all. Okay. My question is and it's soccer, would they play on a football field and stuff like that? So right So right now they use multiple different fields, right? You know, like did did Do you want to set an age? Do you want to set But those are all things I think you you would think about because, you know, the little kids football starts at a really young age, so does the little kids soccer, so does the little kids lacrosse. Like that those programs once we do it for one, we have to do it for all within the constraints of the schedule. And for soccer for NWA, what we've traditionally done is just uh state qualifiers for state cup is on turf because
068they're in April and playing on grass in April is not not the best. So yeah. Uh I mean it it's a very limited select area. Um my The concern I always had and especially with the youth programs is that when you make you put six, eight, 10-year-olds on turf, especially in the warmer months, that turf is a lot hotter than what your grass and air temperature is with grass. Um so I mean that's why I'm I'm always very hesitant to for any group, you know, when they say they have like six-year-olds and eight-year-olds that want to be on the turf. Well, when the turf temperature is 130°, those kids will dehydrate a lot faster than adult will and it heat um exhaustion because of that. So I I mean I like the price in this
069particular price because it sort of deters and makes them be more specific of what age groups are going to be on there. And I always also think that with our youth groups it's it's something that you should earn is to be able to play on the nicer facilities as you get older as opposed to just saying, "Hey, let's go play on it." I guess my other question is the maintenance on it. The more we put on that field, the more maintenance it's going to take us, right? So we have to look at it from that respect, too. I mean, first we're going to get a lot more usage on that field. That's going to end up repairs or whatever we have to do to that field has to be done. So, and I mean, that's
070going to be a dollars, so Absolutely. And I think you know, Rick's idea that you know, if if you were going to consider it, I would definitely say that you would only consider it for a limited number of contests that you'd discount, right? Because if it all of a sudden they can always be there, it really it really puts a strain. Remember, we put that turf in in 2020. I mean, it's getting you know, they say 10 to 12 years, right? Is usually what they say. I mean, it's in really good shape right now. Our people take really good care of it. They make sure that they re-spread the the the little rubber and stuff. I mean, that that stuff's done, but you know, eventually we're going to have to we're going to have to
071replace that anyway. We don't want to move that schedule up if we don't have to. Even if you did one game. Just give them the opportunity. Yeah. >> What's going to I don't want to cause much of a problem here. Just trying to give them an opportunity. That one game at a reduced rate. But we can think about it. Come back next month. What if you did kind of like come they you know, bring it to the board. They want to do for a day. Say they want to do that day. It would still take that day. >> some other company It was a date. Was it a date? Here's what Here's the only thing I worry about that, but I don't know that you want to have to manage that If you're going to
072set Right, I mean, you don't want each group to come have to ask If you want If you want to set That's just my thought, right? Um Okay, we can Okay, yeah, we'll revisit it next meeting. Leave it on my comments. Um are there other items for further discussion? We have old business. We have the Any other comments on the calendar? Second brings motion. I'll yeah, call for motion Rick. Thank you. Back to the new calendar is presented. Make the motion. Yes, yes. I'll call for I'll second it. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries on the calendar. Um any other new business anybody? Any public comments? Going once, going twice. Uh any other board member comments tonight? I'll go. Just real quick. I thanks to Diana. That was nice
073to go to the schools today and see the principals and give the tours. I know you done them, but uh that was new for a newer board member. It was nice to have that interaction and see what's going on. So, I thank you for that. Um with that, I'll call for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. We're adjourned. Thank you.