001Call the meeting to order. Call for a motion to exit executive session. So move. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Stained. Motion carries. Uh call for a motion to enter into public session. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Abstained. Motion carries. Please stand for the pledge of the flag. >> I aliance 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'll begin tonight with um our external auditor presentation. >> Thank you and good evening. My name is Luke Faki. I was the partner on your external audit. We wrapped up our procedures
002over the last few weeks and are in the final stages of the audit. Purpose of tonight's presentation is to give a brief summary to the board on the results of the audit as well as kind of introduce some actions of the board later this evening will be hosted by your assistant superintendent of finance and administration regarding the reserves and then the next actions of the audit. Um so in front of you I left two different items. One is the draft set of financial statements and the other is a uh brief presentation. And for the purposes of this discussion, we'll focus really on the brief presentation. We did meet at length with the audit committee and went over some of the more details of the financial statements. The purpose of this is really just to give
003a brief overview and then give you some time to look through the drafts and then ultimately u accept the financial statements at the next board meeting in a couple of weeks. So foremost the first slide here, the products of our audit. We are one of three different auditors within the school district. Our responsibility as external audits is to perform a series of tests on the general ledger that's com uh maintained within the business office to determine whether or not those numbers fairly represent the district's position at June 30th, 2025 and for the year then ended. We did perform those tests starting in August and wrapped them up in September and had enough uh evidence that satisfactory satisfactory evidence to determine that we have an unmodified or clean opinion on the financial statements. Um that report
004is in quality control review right now. So we anticipate that to be finalized over the next week or so and you'll have it in time to submit to the uh state through the ST3 forms. Should anything come up in that quality control review that would be a material change to this financial statements, we'll make sure to communicate that accordingly with the audit committee and they can pass that on. We don't anticipate it. Um, but it isn't finalized. I wanted to make sure that that was clear. We'll also be subsequently issuing a report on the federal awards. Right now, the compliance supplement is not finalized by the federal government, so we cannot issue that until it is finalized. uh this is a nationwide item, so you're not unique in that and the state should be understanding
005and understanding that the federal awards will be delayed a little bit. So, we'll be working with Diana on that as we wrap things up. The next bullet is the management letter. There are a couple items, just some new reporting requirements that we wanted to bring to the attention of the board and the district. Uh so, we'll draw your attention to that letter when that's released. auditor communications letter that is a a summary of a of uh key assumptions within our what our responsibility is and what the district's management responsibility is most important ones to highlight are uh mainly our key the the responsibility to gain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are without material misstatement as I mentioned that we had an unmodified opinion uh so we were able to achieve that goal we also
006like to site that we are uh independent of the district it's a key requirement of a external audit and we are independent of your uh district. Everyone that has touched the audit is signs off as being independent. There's some uh significant auditing proceding policies are summarized within there. This year there were two new statements that were implemented in the school district. They had known material impact in there. So for all intents and purposes, these financial statements are very similar one year over the next. Uh we had no disagreements with management, no known material misstatements and all in all very clean smooth audit and it was a first year of transition when you had Allison in here last year and now Deanna coming in. This was her first audit that she oversaw. The last bullet there
007is extra classroom activities fund as you know it's a report a cashbased report that will give a summary of all of the studentr run programs and the balances therefore thereof. Uh so that's the qualitative item of the presentation. And just shifting a little bit to the expend the revenues and expenditures on the general fund. Your district's a little bit unique uh that you have a component unit with a tusker or a school that gets its state approved budget where you have a general fund that is the voter approved. So for the purposes of this conversation, we're looking at the the results of the voter approved general fund. Uh there are combining statements that break the two funds to out with on pages 60 and 61 if you're having trying to tie numbers back and forth.
008Um, but we're looking at the general fund and the voter approved budget. So, when you're looking at the charts, the revenues and expenditures, you can see that the revenues stayed pretty level year-over-year, uh, ending the year at about $82.3 million. A little bit decrease in, uh, Native American tuition, which is a formula of the state, and federal aid, which we're starting to see a lot of those federal aid programs from the COVID era start to wind down. Uh, so those both decreased it. a little bit of uptick in your state aid uh as far as it goes is from commercial gaming and some of that basic formula a but those the the decreases in those revenues were offset by the increases and as I said for all intents and purposes very smooth year revenues in
009changed by about 482,000 from last year they also performed very similar to the budget the the state aid was a little bit favorable federal a was a little bit unfavorable so those two canceled out and you did outperform the budget on revenue side by about $200,000 and that is from some favorable interest earnings within uh the school district's cash accounts. On the expenditure side of things, uh expenditures did increase by about $2 million. A large portion of that, about a million and a half, was related to instruction. Last year when we spoke, we cautioned the district that we're starting to see the end of the esser and gear programs, the ARPA era programs. about a million and a half was carried lat in 2324 in the federal aid fund. Those uh that aid now has
010been withdrawn from the federal government. So some ancillary expenses were canceled off and then some of those instructional salaries that were carried in the federal aid in years past shifted back to the general fund. So once we isolate those from the equation, the expenditures and the instructions really had a level year year-over-year as well. Um, one item that did increase uh kind of independently was your transportation. We're starting to see this across the industry as transportation contracts are just uh increasing throughout the the districts that we're working with. Your transportation contracts increased by about a half million dollars this past year. Uh when we looked at it compared to the budget, uh a favorable year on the budget. Your expenditures outperformed the appropriations by close to $7 million. A lot of that was in um
011the instruction, some salaries that were unused or some teachers with lower salaries replacing those uh uh lower replacing some retiring teachers. There's also some savings in the Boseies and as well as some costs for the instruction costs related to providing uh services for students with handicapping conditions. And those are just items that we typically see budgeted as as if they what what could be spent because you need to have that cushion in there if someone needs those services or if the Boseies bills come a little bit higher than expected. So predictable uh budgetary savings on those. Also, central services had a little bit of savings related to utilities maintenance and repairs. Similar to those instruction items that I just mentioned, uh those savings were related to items that might be needed should there be a
012a very terrible winter or repairs and and maintenance that goes unpredicted. Uh insurance and TRS and ERS bills had a little bit of a savings as well on about a $ 1.5 million increase. And similarly, very unpredictable numbers when you're putting the budget years about a year and a half in advance. Uh, so we typically see a little bit of a cushion there because we just you just don't know where that's going to land. Um, so all told, as I said, about $7 million savings and on the appropriation side and all along the lines of areas that we would expect to see those kind of savings. So what happened with the revenues coming in at 82.3 and expenses at 79.7 million, it was there was a change in fund balance of about 2.6. The next
013slide provides the proposed uh reserves that Diana Diana will go over with you later. I just want to show that the uh bulk of this the bulk of the well all of the increase and and some additional increase went into the reserves. You'll see about a $5 million a $4 million increase. Um so two and a half million was from the results of operations. And then last year you assigned about $2 million or I I think exactly $2 million for future capital reserve which was subsequently approved by the voters in spring. So that was funded and that reduced that increase that rent portion to 23.5. Uh the so that was uh the capital reserve increased by about 2.8. So uh and Diana will go over this later with you. The transportation proposed reserve increases by
014about 500,000. uh and then employee benefits increases by close to a million with some retirements on the horizon. So as I said the the plan has not been adopted yet but this is the proposed plan by your management and and it will go into detail at a subsequent resolution tonight. Uh so at the end of the proposed resolutions should those go through the last slide presents the compliance with real property tax law 1318 which states that the district cannot have more than 4% of unassigned fund balance and you'll see from this chart that you're right at that 4% rule. So uh put you within compliance of that. Just some other funds really quickly uh to note on the special aid fund. did decrease in activity by about a million and a half that was related
015to those er and gear programs. These funds activities are are summarized on page 16. The re revenues um and expenditures for the general fund that I spoke on earlier on page 50 and 51 gives a little bit more detail there. School lunch fund has a a fund balance of about 53%. Uh the state requires that you have an action plan if you're over 50%. So, I'm expecting that they'll reach out to the business office to get that action plan in place because you're just slightly over that ceiling. The special revenue fund is uh that increased by about $757,000 for an ending fund balance of 7.6 million. That's your host community funds that are awarded to the district through the contract. And that is money that must be used for capital. So, you'll see it in
016a capital reserve within your fun financial statements. capital projects fund started seeing a lot more activity as the 2022 project about uh about $23 million of capital outlay was out there as compared to 6.4 million last year. Uh you'll notice that when you look at your financial statements, there's a negative fund balance in the capital projects. That's nothing to be alarmed about. That is because there's a ban that is outstanding. Once that ban goes to long-term that liquidates into a revenue and that will flip to a positive. So a predictable deficit, nothing to get alarmed about. And then the last fund that the district holds is the debt debt service fund and that has your greenway money that comes in about a half million dollars or so a year and it also has some debt
017premium and those that fund balance uh is about $4 million and will be used in future budgets to offset that service cost. Uh so that's the formal quick presentation uh through a lot of highle information 10,000 but look at the financial statements. We did go a little bit deeper with the audit committee, but if there's any questions now, I'd be happy to handle those as I could. And then if anything comes up as you're going through these financial statements, please don't hesitate to reach out to myself or Corey Seven, uh, Scoville Svenson, whose information is on the last slide. Uh, we're both happy to assist. Any questions? >> No, no questions. I was just um if the board's okay with it, I was going to ask if Deanna would just add um the information that
018has to do with number six under con consensus agenda items that uh actually referenced because it would be important because it'll tie in right now. That way when it's time for you to vote, it just seems to make sense. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Say thank you for presentation. Thank you. >> Okay. So, as was mentioned, we have a focus on um our capital reserves um funding $2 million of our capital reserve that was defined last year into our new 2025 capital reserve that was um voted on by the public May and approved. Um so, we're our plan is to fund that reserve uh 2,250,000. Um along with that is our capital technology reserve. Um, we are planning to put $500,000 into that reserve. That helps us with our long-term technology plan. Um, we have um
019devices and um infrastructure that has to be replaced every so often. And so we have um a replacement schedule for those. And having a reserve helps us um plan for years when it may be a $150,000 cost and another year it might be 2 million. So the proposed $500,000 for that reserve. Um another capital reserve is our transportation reserve um saying we have a replacement schedule for our buses and we have not had to um issue debt to buy buses. So we can continue that plan and the replacement with um the transportation reserve and um um also with a plan of having to purchase electric buses in the future which are more expensive. Um so our plan is to allocate $1 million to that reserve. Um some other reserves um are those that might show
020up in the budget um that we've used to offset our expenses for retirement contributions. Um taxi which is um if somebody challenges their assessment and we end up having to owe them for taxes that they previously paid that can become costly especially with all the commercial properties in our our area. And finally, um the workers compensation reserve. Um and then last but not least is our other employee benefits reserve. That is what we can use when we um have our retirees um linked to uh sick leave payout at retirement. So um we're anticipating more retirements this year and so we're planning to set aside more money for that expense. Does anyone have any questions? >> Um, we need a separate bill. She'll do. She just has to You don't get roll call. They just needs
021to keep track of how many yeses. >> Very good. Good. Thank you. Uh moving on to the public hearing for the renewal of charter for Niagara charter school. Um you want to touch on that? >> Sure. It's just it's just an opportunity the district is required to offer a public hearing. Uh this would be a time for anybody who was interested to um speak about the about the renewal. Anyone who would like to speak for the public hearing? >> You uh Jim. >> Okay, good. I didn't know if you want res comments or for the hearing. >> I I wasn't sure if you were here for residence comments or for the hearing. >> So, I'm going to speak for welcome. >> I I appreciate the opportunity and you're putting this on the agenda this evening.
022For 20 years, Charter School has resided within the Niger Wefield District. Today, we serve approximately a dozen Nagfield students alongside with many from other communities. Our largest population is coming from Niagara Falls. We believe parent choice within public education matters and we're proud to be one of the options families can trust. Excuse me. Our relationship with Niagara Weedfield has been cordial and collaborative. We maintain open lines of communication with the district leadership and coordinate smoothly whenever on students special education services and work together when students transition between schools. Our staff has even participated in professional development with Nagfield middle and high school teachers focused on restorative practices. This reflects our shared commitment to positive school climate and student success. We value our partnership with the district and remain committed to serving students, families, and the
023community for the years ahead. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak? >> Just you. >> This is our faculty and staff. >> Do we need a motion? >> Close public hearing hearing. Any motions from our board or no? No. >> No. >> When when you >> Okay. All right. With that, uh, open privilege of the floor if anyone has any other residents comments. No. Okay. Moving on to our consensus agenda items. I'll call for a motion to approve uh, consensus agenda items 1 through six as presented. >> So moved. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Uh, moving to our personnel items. Um, I'll call for a motion to approve
024personnel items 1 through 16 as presented. >> So moved. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Postained. Motion carries. Thank you for coming. Uh, now on to our standing committees. Any report from the capital projects, Bob? Uh as far as far as capital projects, uh we currently are on schedule for uh closing the building up by the end of fall here and we'll be working in inside the building over the winter with anticipation of March. March is our opening of the new auditorium. So right now we're on schedule. >> Okay. Uh an update from our audit committee. You have a presentation >> presentation here. >> All right. >> Uh the audit committee met earlier with the external auditors and did more thorough. >> Very good. And
025policy committee. We looked at revisions for two different policies. >> Great. Thank you. Uh there are no external written communications approved to exeicio student members report. >> Um I'd like to talk about the homecoming week and the eco campus revitalization project. Um so the homecoming was very very good. I mean everyone like at our white out at the game it was very very good. the the students played with their heart. They did very well. Um and the pep rally was great. Everyone was screaming. Loved it. Um and the teachers were doing really good. Like they were on the field and they were making sure that kids were not running on the field because last year we had problems with that where kids were just storming the field like for the tug of war and that
026was not good. So it was good this year because they had that under control. Um tomorrow boys are going against Clarence. Let's do it. Um and then we have on Saturday the 18th the eco campus revitalization. Um this is going to be help helpful in maintaining our school's natural environment and so that we don't have to pay others to maintain it and it's free and it's a really good opportunity for our kids to go and help the school. >> Thank you. Moving to the presence report. I was at the homecoming game for a little bit. It's great to see uh students out, the community out. Um packed it, lots and lots of people. Just amazing to see them come out to uh use the facilities that we have here. Um, and then also I wanted
027to let the board know that our NISPA um, annual meeting, annual business meeting is coming up on October 16th, which is a virtual one that I'll represent at. Um, but there's a number of um different proposed resolutions. So if anyone's interested in looking over any of those, there's about a 40page document that has has those >> excited reading. >> Yeah. And it's exciting for I think it was probably about five hour. >> Yes. Last year. >> Have fun. >> Yeah. So if anyone's interested in any more information on that or or has any questions about any of the proposals, feel free to let me know. And with that, I'll pass to the superintendent. >> Jason, thank you for doing that. Five hours sounds great. Um just want to reflect back on a number of the
028different engagement activities. The uh district-wide elementary movie night happened um a few sat Fridays back and it was incredibly well attended. We had over 200 people at that event. The weather was beautiful. It was perfect. It was held outside in the courtyard. The movie started about 7:30, ended about 9:00. the organizers of that did an did a really outstanding job. Homecoming as as you mentioned I want to say there were between 12 1500 people at the football game. My understanding is there were seven about about 700 at the dance. The um the students our students were incredibly appropriate um were great um you know during both of those events during the week at you know spear week by all accounts everything went really well there. So thanks to our students, our staff, our administrators, everybody
029who did the work, our SRO's and SSOs. I mean, if you were at the the big events, you saw their presence and that certainly makes a big difference for everyone and our community came out in droves. So it was really good. Thank you for mentioning the Eco Campus. We'll be planting about 10 trees that day. If you have a shovel, bring it. We'll have shovels if you don't. Um, but we're looking forward to seeing everybody there. That is on Saturday, October 18th from 8 until 11:00 a.m. And then right around the corner, November 1st, is the Hall of Fame ceremony. Okay? You can still get your tickets. But remember, this year uh again, like last year, if you plan on attending the ceremony, you also have to attend the breakfast because um it's all held
030um in the confines of the cafeteria where, you know, in future years again, we'll have the ceremony in the you can go into the cafeteria. If you want to take part, you also have to take part in the breakfast. Okay. And I also we talked a little about the board of education walkthrough. We said I think we were going to wait till we get a little bit closer, but I'm just looking at a couple dates because we do have March 4th, March 18th, our board of education um meeting dates. We've historically held the walkthroughs on those dates. So I don't think we necessarily have to zero in on those now, but just look at your calendars now. Certainly if you want to make decision on that the only hesitation of course is we could say
031the fourth and then if this is backed up at all you know we especially if the audit is a place we want to get into it certainly would impact that decision. So it's up to you what you do with that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Uh there's no other reports to the board. Any items for board discussion? Any old business? new business. You need to approve the charter state. >> Okay. >> Or vote. >> There is >> they voted. >> Was that under consensus? >> Um yeah, I just need to know how many are in favor and how many opposes. >> That is >> actually was not >> is not listed under consensus agenda items. >> All right. >> Well, then good to hold a vote on that. I'll call for a motion to approve
032the charter for charter schools. >> I'll make a motion >> and moved and seconded and then roll call >> or just all those in favor. >> Okay. All in favor please say I >> opposed abstained. Motion carries. There you go. >> Thank you. >> Still surprised they left again without this. The last time we did this they left before the vote for it. Okay. Um, any other new business? Very good. Public comments. It's up to you mic night. >> Any board member comments tonight? >> Yeah, I have I actually have one. Um I'm actually a >> representative once board >> and for Niger Wakefield and yesterday we had a teacher that received an award for um his work in the tech industry the tech gener tech and uh he received from Harvard Freight uh $50,000
033award 35 of went to the school and the teacher trips to receive 15 and his name is Scott Brower. He's in the tech and if you seen the news yesterday we were on the news but it uh it's really was a great thing to see. He was really surprised when we kind of brought it to his classroom and as he is he's brought his students first right around and was a phenomenal teacher over the years was really nice and shout out to him for all the work he's done. Good sex sharing that up to anybody else. Yeah, >> just clarifying on the eco campus project. You said last time that there were going to be pre-dug holes for some of the Okay. So, we're not breaking through again. >> What's that? >> That that is
034correct. That they're going to be actually dug out the day before by I think Kendall is the one coming in to figure that out. Can I can I add one one more thing? I apologize, Jason. Um because you you made me think of it, Bob, when you talk about the news. Um the news also uh covered um the social dance that took place at Tuscora um because of Orange Day, which was yesterday. I know I talked about it a lot, you know, leading up to it and district sent out some information, but the media did cover it. And I'll just tell you that the the meaningfulness of that ceremony and that social dance for the Tuscora um nation um is so significant and the fact that they in include us as part of that and
035actually this year invited a number of people from from district office to to participate. Um it's just a really special thing and and what some people don't know is that you know the boarding schools took away a lot of the culture and language for some for for many native populations including some of ours here on the Tuscora nation and the amount of work you know and energy that's been put in for them to get that language and get those that that culture back um is is just incredible and you know the the states helped a lot with that particularly with language development and that's been been really awesome to see but um the the Tuscora community and the and the kids uh you know really shined the other day and Tom was there with me
036and um it just a really special day really special day. So thank you for bringing up the news because it reminded me of that. 8:00. >> Thanks. Anyone else? Uh, with that I will call for a motion to adjourn. So been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Oppos. Motion carries. We're ajourned. Thank you.