001We should reach a point too where we say like men's basketball instead of just saying basketball because we say women's but that's neither here nor there. >> Just waiting on Mike here. He just decided to reboot everything. >> Okay. >> It's on. I was ahead of you there for once. You usually don't turn it on. All right, we're moving to we have a resolution 33. Um, whereas the board of education received a stage three grievance from the Waterville Teachers Association regarding secondary teacher schedules dated on or about February 11th, 2026. And whereas the date on which the board would hear the grievance was mutually agreed upon by the district and the association. And the contractual timeline for board review of the grievance was waved by the association. And whereas the board of education considered the
002subject grievance in executive session, at which time the association was able to present its arguments in favor of the grievance. And whereas the board was provided with the full record of the grievance and reviewed it prior to rendering its decision. Now therefore, be it resolved by the board of education of Waterville Central School District that the board of education hereby denies the grievance filed on or about February 11th, 2026 and upholds the superintendent's decision on the grievance dated February 11th, 2026. Can I get a motion? >> Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Justin. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion? I I >> oppose. Motion is carried. Thank you. Moving into business operations. We have a consent agenda. We have 41 approval of a general fund warrant in the amount of $863,53416. from
003February 28th, a capital fund warrant in the amount of $384,69652. From February 28th, school lunch warrant from February 28th in the amount of $8,77325. CSCPSC recommendations as listed and the treasurer reports as listed. Can I get a motion? Thank you, Kate. >> Thank you, Lori. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I oppose. Motion is carried. And now we're moving into reports. I'll turn it over to Superintendent Abby. >> Thank you. So today we'll we'll look into the capital section of our budget for the 2627 school year. Uh to get started, we'll look at just the capital section at a glance to see where we're at. So looking back at 2425, our actual expenses in that year in this portion of the budget were $10,219,739. Budgeted for 2526, we saw an increase there to go
004up to 10,850,484 and our proposal for 2627 goes up to 11,63,818. So that's an increase of 213, 334. So obviously a larger dollar amount. However, percentage-wise based on this section, we're only looking at 1.97%. So it's always important to balance those two things. When we're looking at large sections of the budget, when we're looking at those dollar amounts, we want to see how much of a percentage impact we're really having on that overall section. So there's a few areas that we wanted to make sure that we that we highlighted both as positives and as areas of concern or areas of increases. We want to balance both of those things as we look through it. One of the first areas, so our operations and maintenance in this section, you look at the overall increase is only
005a 26%. So we are doing very little increasing in this area in the budget. And one of the reasons that we are very lucky to not have larger increases and you may have seen recently there was some news articles out about increasing electric costs and gas and electric costs and how that's impacting school districts and they actually reached out to me and I didn't weigh in because I wouldn't actually be able to justify their story in this particular case because we are part of a consortium where we get our gas and electric. So what that means is through that group we're actually locked into our rates that we're paying up through the 202829 school year. So that's a real benefit for us right now when other people are seeing dramatic increases in these areas. We
006are not. So we're locked in at those rates and just based on our usage determines how much our bills come in at. So if you look for those areas and this is true I only gave the high school and NPS but this is true for our bus garage but that was in a different section of the budget so I didn't want to confuse it and show it here but very very similar in the fact so you look at the actual expenses versus what was budgeted last year those were a little bit higher just due to those increases. So when we look at what we are proposing because obviously we could have another very cold winter and it could lead to increases. So, we're very lucky in what the rate is going to be, but still
007our usage varies. So, we need to make sure that we that we have enough there to cover it. Um, and then some some interesting things to note as you look at these comparisons both on the gas and the electric. One is that like how much least significantly higher our electric use is in the high school. And that's important. One, it's a bigger building. So, that's important. But two, we want to we considered all factors as to why that may be. And one of the additional reasons and especially with our upcoming capital project, we want to keep that in mind as our budgeting process goes forward is that we already have air conditioning in this building and we have heat pumps that are electrically driven throughout this entire building that also tie in with our geothermal.
008So our electric use is higher for those reasons, not just because we're a larger building, but because we have those additional things. So, as our capital project goes through over the next few years and we add air conditioning to the elementary school, it's important to note that we will likely see increases in our usage in that building as well. So, right now it's really like you look at MPS versus the high school, you're like, "Wow, that that's a third practically." And that's really nice, but I expect that to go up. How much is hard to predict, but that's definitely something we want to play out over the next couple years and make sure that we're ready for that and that doesn't just come as a surprise when in that first school year. >> But overall,
009very beneficial for us to be in that consortium and we're really paying it's paying off for us at this point in time. >> Thankful like from solar or wind power or is this strictly gas? My understanding is that it's solely for electric and gas and that they they go out essentially they go out to bid for us like who's involved in that consortium and they lock in those rates and then that contract comes back to us. So, and we just recently received a letter for them just like stating where we're at and even kind of acknowledging themselves like this your initial rates may have been a little bit higher, but you can see you're locked in for these next few years, which was a good reminder at this point in time compared to what some
010other schools and businesses and people in their own homes are seeing. >> Yeah. And then the next section, which was one of the biggest increases, and if you think back to the first slide that I showed, we were looking at a 213 roughly $213,000 increase. The vast majority of this is coming from our employee retirement increase. And you see we've got both employee and teacher listed up here. The teacher employment system is actually not increasing by that much. So the difference here is for our ERS there's a new employers were required in the 26 27th school year is an increase in our contribution rate. So previously it was 16.5% of our overall payroll in that it's increased to 17.6%. So you've got a percent and a half increase compounded with an increase in salaries already
011contractual obligations and that led to that 127,687. So that right there in that budget line alone was a 51.66% increase. So that was the biggest jump in this area and completely out of our control. So there there's there's nothing we can do about that. we are mandated, we are required to contribute that amount. So, it's one of those items that's really impactful this year, a large increase, and there's nothing we can do to shape that. And then the next area, which going back is there's a lot of shuffling here. So, that's why this was an area that I wanted to focus on. Again, with our coming capital project, we're seeing a lot of these numbers kind of shift around. And so, you see the the code of 9711, and that those are our bond principal
012and interest payments. So, those are what we've been paying throughout those years compared to what we have coming up in the next budget. So you see that those items actually look like an increase there on our principal payment, but that's as as you go on in your payments and you're able to pay more on principal, you're paying less than interest. So as your interest rate goes down, you're allowed to put more towards principal. So you look down to the next one of 9722 and that one you see nothing in the proposed budget for 2627. The reason for that is that our bonds are 15 years. So bonds are long-term loans, bands are short-term loans. So our 2011 capital project is going to be paid off at the end of this year. And therefore, that's why
013that it no longer shows on the 2627 proposed budget line. So as we get to that 15-year point, that one falls off. We've made all of our payments there. So it shows significantly less in that dollar change. But then as we're as it works, as one comes off, you want another one to come back on. So that's where you go down to the next one, the 9731, and that's a ban. So we're getting ready for our $18.6 million capital project. So that amount is for our initial startup. So that ban is for a $5 million ban that'll get us through these initial costs as we're getting into the project which will and you can see what we have proposed for both our principal and interest payments there. And what that will do is that that
014will then lead into another ban for the 13.6 six, the remaining B or whatever's left, whatever we haven't paid at that point in time, but that remaining balance. And then that will then transition over into our bonds from there and go into those long-term payments. And then 15 years from now, that will be coming off of that bond at that point in time. And then the other one is the band. So we're when we're purchasing buses and for this particular year, we're proposing two large buses and one small bus. And the small bus is a wheelchair bus. And that's a really important thing for us to have. We have we want to make sure that we always have two wheelchair buses because if we don't have a strong solid wheelchair bus that we can rely
015on, if one goes down or one's up for inspection, we always need that secondary one. So that's why this small bus will be a wheelchair bus with those two large buses. And so those payments as you look at those this is the first year and we we've worked with fiscal adviserss and looked at our our buses and they've said as you build this over time it's going to level out and like initially that that didn't really make sense to me like why it wasn't leveling out because as I've looked at it over the years the payments just keep going up. So like how does it level out? But the reality is when it started and you only bought three buses, well, you were only paying on those. And then in the second year, you buy
016say you bought another three buses. Well, each year then you've got to build up to that amount where you've got the same quantity of buses that are within that. So, we have finally got to that point, but it never really levels off completely because you've still got increases in cost of the bus. But if you keep that balance, then you've got some consistent payments and they're not going up drastically. They're still going to go up because they're not getting any cheaper. But we're at that point where we have reached that amount where it is what they deem as leveled off. So it's more consistent in the payments that would occur each year outside of other variables. Obviously, if you get to a year where then you say, "Well, we're going to increase our quantity of
017buses in this year." Well, that impacts it and vice versa if you do less. But the goal there is to keep it consistent so that what you're getting in aid is consistent. And the amount of time that we're receiving aid on those buses during that fiveyear time frame that we're being relatively consistent in each year, this many are going to come off of receiving aid and we're adding this many more back in so that it's consistent. We don't want to get to a year where we're adding we're losing five buses off of aid and we only purchase one because then it's going to then you're going to have less going forward. So the more that can remain consistent now at this point the better off that process will be for us. And then looking at
018it kind of as a whole as of right now with three categories broken down between the administrative programmatic and the capital like overall we're looking at a budget in this initial look through 23,893,69. So that's an increase from last year's budget of 765,940 3.31%. which is in my opinion a pretty reasonable increase with increased costs that we're facing. The downside there is that we're only looking at a 1% foundation increase going to the tax cap of 3.9% is not a large amount of money either. We're looking at an increase there of 191,000. So obviously those two factors don't match that increase in what we're hoping to provide out of a budget. So as we've said before and then we look at our projected revenue which this is this at this point in time like that's
019a cautious projection. That's not being too bold in our assumptions. That's us looking at what we've received and putting together what we are confident that we will get. There's some other areas out there that we need to dive in deeper and see if there's the potential to re receive some additional revenue. One of the reasons is we've increased some of our coser use through Boseies over the last couple years and we're hoping that that will then pay out and we'll get more aid coming back for that which obviously then comes in as a revenue. But these things are complicated to predict. So we don't want to be too bold in what we say that we're going to get for those revenue sources and then it not be there because that's the worst case scenario. So
020our next step as we had said when we're looking at a difference here we're looking at a deficit of $589,93. It's more than we want obviously. Now, we do have enough unappropriated fund balance that we could easily just say we can make we can cut that difference there, but I think we we owe it to our community. We owe it to our taxpayers to try not to deplete that. And we can't rely on that year after year. That's not good practice either. Yes, we have it, but predictions are that the next couple years are going to be a little bit of a struggle. So we need to make sure that we still have enough there to help us in those times that may be financial struggle. So the next step as we've alluded to in
021the past few meetings is now we go back through with a little bit of a different lens. We went through the first time with this is what we want to offer and did we find areas even under that lens to be like I don't think we necessarily need that. We have cut some things back, but now we go through it back with a little bit of a different mindset. And the mindset now is how can we minimize that deficit? How can we get that 589,000 down to a lower amount so we're not relying as heavily on fund balance? Simultaneously, we don't want to impact programming like that. That is not our goal here. We knew that there was going to be some use of fund balance in this budget. It was predicted last year. that
022was the trend that was coming. We were well aware of that. So, we know that's going to be part of this budget, but now we want to go back with some extra diligence and see what other areas can we cut with little impact to our students or ideally no impact to our students, but that might be a little pie in the sky to to have that thought. any movement towards >> April is where we really anticipate which Cynthia and I were just talking about this afternoon like no even rumblings of it just you know everyone kind of projecting and wishing and hopeful thinking um and it had gotten rescheduled and it's actually tomorrow that I'll be in uh in Albany lobbying in the morning asking for just that you know our our presentation is asking
023for a 5% % increase in foundation aid for old harmless. I know that's a large percentage. That is unlikely. >> Yeah. >> But even if we could get it to three would be really beneficial for us in every other district that's that's so relying on foundation aid. So that that is the hope. I think April is probably when we could expect some some more finalized numbers, but there really hasn't been anything out there that's signaled that it's going to be larger other than everyone really hoping or other questions about this area or the other ones really Just a procedural question and I may have missed it because I'm reading through some things here. Um, do we have another budget finance committee meeting coming up before the next board meeting? >> We It's not scheduled yet,
024but yeah, we will we will reach out and schedule one. >> So, we I assume we'll have some recommendations from that >> that we can then have discussion on in the full board meeting >> would be the hope. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And also simultaneously like as we progress is more sharing some other thoughts of changes not even necessarily like financial changes with the district but we haven't really gotten to the actual nice part of the budget presentation. We've been so into the numbers of of things that we're hoping to do in coming years. So other shifts that might be coming throughout the district positive things that we want to offer our kids. So, while we're still looking to make sure that we're saving, there's still we're still working on other changes and things that
025we want to increase exposure for our students. So, we'll get into that simultaneously as well. I think it will be good for us and of course for the public hopefully in the next meeting to be able to not only present some adjustments, recommendations that we can talk through, but like we've been saying and I know we're working on it, but to project outward and like again where's our fund balance right now? If we change nothing and we expect a similar gap for next year, like when does the fund balance run out because that in my opinion helps shape our sense of urgency >> around like we don't want to have to make tough decisions. Do we quote kick the can down the road and hope that some of these things work out or do we
026look at okay we're on a two year horizon or threeyear horizon whatever it is before we're in big trouble and then we have to really cut things. So, how do we extend that with the surplus we have? Because >> yeah, >> in reality, and we've discussed this in previous meetings, >> right, >> we're not where other districts are >> because we've been thinking this way since we had the co bunnies. We didn't allocate them in unsustainable ways and we've been thinking all along like, hey, we know our fund balance is quote higher than it should be, but like do we really have to spend it? can we save it because this can help us, you know, work through some of these challenges and that's what we've been doing. But but it is inevitable that unless
027some thing changes in the model like this isn't sustainable, >> right? >> And we don't we just don't want to be blindsided one, two, three, five years from now when we can see that, you know, 500,000 is just not good. >> Yeah. Basically, if we were to make budgets like this identical to this for the next four years and not be cautious during the year, because that's the other element here is is there can be additional savings as the year progresses. So, there's >> what you budget and then there's what you spend. >> So, if we made budgets just like this and spent to that budget in every line item, we'd be at four years and we wouldn't have any fund balance remaining, >> right? So that but that's not how we would do things
028or how we plan to do things. So that's that that's that balance of making sure that we're not setting ourselves up to be too tight in an area where we get ourselves in trouble because we are overspending our budget because that is really detrimental to a school to do while still trying to get that deficit as low as possible. >> Everything continues to point to health insurance costs and other spiral out of >> Yeah. And you like our line item or health insurance didn't look as dramatic as it really is this year. And the reason for that is knowing that it was going up and knowing that it was on a trend to go up for multiple years that that budget was increased in previous years. Whereas we're looking at a $400,000 increase in our
029insurance. It doesn't necessarily show the way it's listed in that spreadsheet that was shared with you, but that is the reality. It's a very large increase, but it was known. it was coming and it was budgeted for in previous years that that was coming and it was going to hurt. >> And I think what we're also interested in as a board, at least we have been for a few years, is you know, to me the approach we're taking is very sensible. It's very rational and it's forward thinking in a way that other districts around us have shown us they don't think. And that should be a competitive advantage when we look at we're all competing for the same families that have kids or are going to have kids like where are you going to buy
030a house like and we talk about our branding and our messaging like Waterville should be a district people think of that they say oh wow not only do they take care of their facilities and they do capital projects really well and there's great community support but they they manage their finances well and I know when I enroll my kid in three years they're not going to have a bunch of programming ripped out from underneath them. I know what I'm getting when I bring my kid to Waterville. And like that's I don't hear people talking about that, but to me in upstate New York where we do not have increasing population, like you have to show people like why do you want to live in Waterville and put your kids in the school, I think we
031have a lot of reasons why, but we have to make that case so that people decide, you know, when the few homes come for sale, like, oh, I want to buy that house. I got two kids. I want to put them in Waterville School District. like that's where we want to raise our family and and start thinking that way or we'll just continue to just barely get by and bleed students here and there slowly and 10 years from now we'll be even smaller and you know like not everyone has to fall into that trend like it's a great place to live that's why we're all here it's an easy commute to Udica easy commute to some other places like this should be a place where people are like yeah the school districts run really well
032it's a great place for kids >> I Not enough houses go up for sale because it is a great place. That's the difficult balance there, >> right? >> Those that come in usually aren't buying a house. They're renting. >> It's true. >> Any other thoughts, questions? >> I had a couple other items. I just >> Yeah, I was just going to say I appreciate the presentation and I appreciate the program you guys are taking. you know, we're going to continue to have difficult decisions, but to have Yeah. as much information as you're bringing forward makes the discussion easier. >> Thank you. >> Very welcome. >> Agreed. >> On a much lighter note and positive note, we received an email that our capital project was approved at data this afternoon. >> Nice. >> So that that
033now helps us move forward in that direction. We've got our next construction meeting with with CNS in March coming up on Monday. So now we we know that mindset that it's been approved. So that like really helps that meeting on Monday to start getting your schedules created for the bid process that'll then hopefully start giving us more information of timelines. >> So that that was a really important email to get today. >> It's great news. And then just I I have to comment on the weather because it's who started spring sports this week and they've been playing outside like on the fields which is crazy which I have to give a shout out to Jamie Riley who's obviously a very big baseball guy and the fact that we have people on the softball field and
034on the baseball field is pretty incredible right now. So he he put in quite a bit of work just to be able to get them out there already and we're very lucky it's dry right now somehow we're gonna get rain. It's It's not going to last, but I think people are really enjoying it in the moment and it's definitely something to at least have a smile about. >> Yeah, for sure. No, it was amazing to be out there at track practice today and literally look over and see the softball team on the field and the baseball team showing up on the field versus even just yesterday's softball team was on the turf, which was great. They're still outside, but it's dried out enough that they could be on the field. It's a big win. So,
035That's all. That's all for me. >> Okay. Who's up next? >> Cynthia in there. You want to talk? >> No, I haven't done >> I just he was covered. She She had to tell us >> we're half a mill plus shorter. I can do this alone. >> Like, yeah, just get me out of here. >> I know, right? >> Get me out of here. >> I'm done now. >> Mine should actually be really brief. Let's start with all like the good news stuff. I think first, if you went to it, Hades Town was >> phenomenal. >> It was great. It was great. >> Phenomenal. I mean, it was a great show. It could have been cast and put together like that. The show was really really well auditorium got engaged at the end of the
036last year and stuff but you know so it was really good and the kids had put a lot of time and effort into it and stuff like that. So, I thought it was a great show. Uh, we're in spirit week. Got a big dance. You know, it's spring. Love is in the air. Yeah. >> Friday the 13th is a bold day to schedule it. >> Day two. >> I'll let you know if parents thought it was a good idea when it's over. >> 10 o'clock. Kids at the gym in the in the cafeter. So, we got dance this one. We got our final spirit week. You know, talking about building up that culture, you know, different spirit weeks this year. This is our 501 with games and activities and you know remember back the holiday
037we split middle school and high school. Now for this one we're going to bring everybody back together for one unifying you know pep rally stuff at the end. So trying to build those different things with it. Um congratulations Danny Castali and Kate Baron the ones that went on to the New York State uh championships for track and field. So a huge accomplishment for us there and doing really well. Um, I think one of my favorite projects that I just think is phenomenal is one of the appetite senior projects that they've been collecting for. So, they are actually creating birthday cake kits for the food pantry. So, what they're doing is they took out donations for like the pan with a lid and inside they're going to put a box of cake. So, you don't need
038any eggs, oil, anything that it's cake, a can of soda, birthday card, birthday candles, frosting. So they're making up all these different kits that they're going to donate into the food pantry. So anybody has a birthday will be able to have a birthday cake and stuff like that. So they've been collecting donations for that going to start putting together things. Awesome. They're collecting on the tree and stuff for that. Um honor society inductions. Uh Monday, March 23rd, you're all invited. Um um the one's at six o'clock for the junior high and 7 o'clock for high school. I got an invitation right after this on the 24th. The next day I'll be going to CTE has their inductions at Bosei. So we have several kids there and in the my next report I'll give you a
039list of all the names for each of the free art societies so you can have that with you once they're all finalized. Um finally just like we're just plugging ahead like it's hard to believe that we are getting ready for next year. You know, the only thing left for course requests is sixth graders are going to pick their music that they're going to do for next year. Like for seventh grade, they do band choir or music seven. Otherwise, our initial course requests start in they'll be going home with families in the report card for the third market period. So, families can review it, ask questions, do things and hoping over like spring break. So, they're going to start some of those initial things. You know, spring break makes me nervous coming. I feel like we're
040on the backward side. So, spring break comes. It's over with. It's a mad dash to the end of the year trying to get things done. So I think we're in really good shape. We're ahead of where we were last year. I think we're in buildings been ahead of where they've been several years of trying to get things the programs in place and kids where they need to be all that stuff. So the guidance voluntaries and willingness to teachers have people in presentations and do all that stuff. So we're in good shape. >> Any questions for me? Just a comment uh an extra shout out on the indoor track for those that don't follow it closely. It's I believe could be wrong the only sport because of limited spots where they had to compete against all
041levels. So the so in all of section three from the biggest to the smallest schools in each event only two athletes were able to automatically qualify and the third athlete can qualify if they hit the New York state standard which is really hard. So Danny and Katie both qualified top two in their events and then to show we know section 3 is really good. Katie hit the state standard in long jump but there were six girls who hit the state standard. So she didn't make it in the long jump. Even though sixth of them met met that high high standard to go, only the top three could go. So outdoor tracks amazing too, but outdoor is there's A, B, and C classifications for states. Indoor, there's just one. So it's amazing when anybody goes, but
042especially from small but mighty program like ours. So hats off to them. Was great. It was a great season. But and great work on all the other stuff. >> Anyone have any other questions, Mr. Far? >> I find it amazing. And I know there's a lot of sickness in February. The exact number of absences. >> I don't believe it either. >> Year over year. Literally 58 both years. >> February was a sick month for >> It was It was It was really bad. >> Yeah. Only 15 days in the month and like it was brutal for sickness. Yeah, it was on staffing like people try to come to work and we're send home, you know, the first period because of it, you know. So, >> it's the only rational reason to keep February break in
043the school calendar honestly is you just need to separate everyone at that point, >> but then they come back and everyone gets sick again. >> That's but it gives a little reprieve for people like otherwise like why do we have it? That is the one thing I can hang my hat on for it. So, Mrs. Chrisman is obviously not not here this evening and and she is right where she should be this evening as it's her daughter's birthday. Um, she did ask me to make sure that I reference Matilda coming up at the elementary school as we're coming off of Hades Town. We're coming right into Matilda down there. That's Thursday, March 19th. And they do an inschool performance on the 18th for students at MPS. Obviously, a lot of excitement going on there led
044by our our music teacher at the elementary school, Mrs. Anne Palace. And I know I know she's been working very hard to get those kids ready. And then obviously our our pick a reading partner is underway. So, as it's it's funny how how much these correlate with the high school timing as they're going through a spirit week right now. So, last week the elementary school was going through a spirit week in line with with Pick a Reading Partner. So, they had some pretty fun days there as well. Those are the ones she asked me to make sure that I highlight, but if you have any questions, I can do my best or at least pass them on to her and get you an answer coming. >> I just wanted to give a shout out on
045uh a huge drop, best month of the year in discipline. And I know they had the break, but we also had a break in December and they were even lower than December. >> So, great to see that. I feel like in both buildings, we're seeing a lot of good practices take hold and seeing improvements in attendance and discipline and that speaks to the work the team's doing. So, thank you for that. >> And just that consistency. >> Yep. >> Like over time it'll it'll just stabilize hopefully. You'll see you'll see peaks and valleys and when you look at data historically anywhere, you'll see certain times of the year just tend to have higher absences or just tend to have more or just one for for a variety of reasons. But over time with that consistency
046and that understanding of what the expectations are, which I have to say both buildings have done a fantastic job from what I've seen in making sure that it's well known to kids and to the community like which is important. I think that that's what feeds to that environment that we're looking for in our schools. >> Yep. Anything else before we move to our student reparting for eligibility issues? So far from what I've heard around other students and everyone I haven't seen too many issues boards say that she's doing a good job pushing that it's no real so far. >> Surprised you even knew that she was blue. >> Yeah, you definitely don't announce the six times. It's a good point. He's not getting one. So, >> right. Definitely not. >> Well, >> I saw saw
047you enjoying the nice weather for tennis out there today. It's good to see. >> Yeah. And that that's a great point. I didn't mention it, but we'll throw it out there, too. Like really good numbers considering the timing. Spring sports started right after the progress report came out. So, you had a lot of athletes in meetings last week. maybe the first time that it was really clicking for them that oh wow progress reports this week and sports start on Monday. So additionally the worst market period >> I was gonna say right and and the numbers look pretty good >> in addition and >> right >> you know it's always the hardest part of the year >> right and even if they've had illness or whatever and they just haven't been able to make things up
048like it's a hard time so really good to see that and definitely a lot of conversation from the athletes themselves as sports are starting up like they're very aware to your point >> piggy back on the point with today about you know kidnapp you know choke reminding but like we're trying to preach that and think about there are you know low stakes natural consequences you know and I think like that's you know parent kind of complain about something like that but I said this is going to be a low state not a big deal but the kid has to know that there are going to be sometimes natural consequences for certain things it was not a great issue but something else and then when I explained it that way totally get it and this is
049a hall about learning experience Any committee reports? >> Not at this time. I don't think so. Perfect. Moving into board discussion, public comment. First one, thumbs up. All right. And moving right into new business then um we have a consent agenda 83. Can I get a motion? >> Thanks Kate. >> Thanks Justin. Discussion. I'll be the one to point something out on the calendar if you all didn't look at it closely because I did. This aligns with Boseies. We all understand how this works. We will be in school before Labor Day. >> We don't want people to be surprised. Obviously, it is available, but we know how that goes. Some people will be probably surprised. But Labor Day is extremely late this year, as late I think as it can ever be. >> And for
050us to get our days in without going basically into July, uh we we have to start earlier. Or we could have done something dramatic like Frankfurt did this year where they went to school two days on February break, right? And we didn't want to do that. So something Zach cover hovered with us when we planned a meeting. Um, and you know, we've had this info since middle of last week as a board, but it makes sense and I I'm sure again people don't be thrilled. Uh but it's the way the calendar works. >> Crystal and I prep our staff today for part of our faculty meeting. >> Make sure you are here four days. So wanted to make sure we got it on Zoom. >> And the other hard part of Yes. Boseies there's there's
051a scheduling committee through our three regions that we have. So our Arsenal Boseies, Mob Boseies, you know, OM Boseies, there's a representative from each that gets together with the the schedule committee and then they bring it back to their respective locations. And it's happened like throughout the entire year. And one of the big points is to not be aligned with your Boseies. Some days is okay, but to not align with them regularly is actually really problematic. So all the quantity of students that we send to CTE, like if their first day of school isn't the same as everyone's else, like that's not good. They're missing those introductions. For out of district placements, same thing. If they have a day off, but then our kids don't and vice versa, like those off-campus programmings don't work well
052and more instruction is actually missed when those calendars don't align. like the oneoffs, you know, those things happen and and those are okay, but generally you want to be pretty consistent and there's only so much like it feels like we start earlier and end later than we ever used to, but there's additional holidays that are now built into school calendars that are required. Um, and really we can't stop before the region's exam schedule and they the state dictates that. And in this particular year, the last regions will be given on the 24th with the 25th being a rating day. So no matter what, we're here that long. Like, so we're really tied to that end date. So it's it's the things in between where the consistency does help, but it it it was a shock.
053And we talked to teacher leaders before we ever even brought it here. We're like, hey, we just want you to know this is unique. This is why it's still worth doing. And everyone was kind of shocked, but at the same time then like, oh, it makes sense. It's just >> Exactly. I >> Yeah. It's just funny how different it is this year compared to next year though. And like spring break is the very beginning of April this year and it's right near the end next year. And you know it's >> and I think if I'm reading this correctly again there's six planned snow days >> total. Five >> five planned. Yep. >> Um but yeah we we know we need those after this winter. Now next winter we might not get any snow. >> Yeah.
054But look at what happened to again to Frankfurt where they literally had to go to school Wednesday and Thursday of February break because they were already pretty much out. >> Yeah. And they were out early. Yeah. And then there's >> and that was another big discussion with this as far as what you're allowed to do for emergency days. And that and that's built into this calendar as well. We show like what days if we were to use them all. We already have established what days we would then take away from a break because of that. And that's where frank they had to act. They don't, you know, there may be a year where we have to as well. So, it's good to have those dates out and established ahead of time. >> Yep. >> I
055ask about the private transportation. Is that something the families say this is where a child can apply for that or? So they the requirements are that those they have to put notification in by April 1st so that districts have the ability to budget for it and plan their transportation accordingly. So anyone that wants to attend a private school or a charter school they have to put in their transportation request if they want to be transported by the school district. >> If they wanted to go to another public school are we responsible for that? >> No. >> So just for a charge, >> right? So, for example, kids that are tuition paying here, they have to be self-transported in their school districts are not do not have to do so. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome.
056>> Okay. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Oppose. Motion is carried. And here we are at second public comment >> public. >> Okay. Any board questions. >> Do we have a need for another executive session? I don't think so. >> Then can we get a motion to adjurnn? >> Thanks Dan. Thanks Kate. 7:23. All those in favor. >> Meeting is adjourned.