001No, because we're good. Michael, when I look at I'm going to call to order the May 13, 2025 Waterville Central School Board of Education meeting. Uh, I'll rise and let's so we can do the pledge of allegiance, please. 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. All right. The next item is approval of the April 29th, 2025 regular board of education minutes. Can I get a motion? Move. Second. Uh discussion. Okay. Thank you. All in favor? I we got it. Okay. Next item is approval of the April 30th, 2025 special board of education minutes. Can I get a motion? Second, discussion. All in favor? I I Jen, do we have to go
002back to something? Well, because this is a consent agenda. I could have just done it all. Well, yeah, I just because at the end I it's gonna the who approves the motion and the second. So I'll Oh, okay. So, what would you like us to do? We can go 27. 27. We can go right to 27. Yeah. Uh, can I get a motion for the consent agenda of approval of the April 29th, April 30th, and May 5th special education board meetings? Special board of education meetings. Sorry. Second discussion. All in favor? I I. Next item is business operations 3.6. Can I get a motion for approval of consent agenda or do I actually I got to go through and do these. Uh 3.1 is the for the approval of a general fund warrant in the
003amount of $96,281.17. 3.2 is approval of federal special aid fund warrant in the amount of $17,17.78. 3.3 is approval of the school lunch warrant in the amount of $520. 3.4 4 is approval of various CSE CPSSE recommendations. At 3.5 is approval of treasure reports. So 3.6 can I get a motion for the consent agenda? A second. Uh discussion. All in favor? I. And next item is 4.1 good news. So right now we'll um go to discussion. So I had a few items for board discussion. Okay. Did the board have a chance to look at the board of education meeting schedule for the 2526 school year? Yes. Okay. Are there any concerns? So, what we would like to do is have it approved um either at the 2nd May meeting or the June meeting. So, that
004way it's already set for the reorg meeting. Okay. So, we're going to do it before then. I did is it concerned, but I did realize that I won't be able to attend the reorg meeting. So, I don't know if there's going to be a virtual option if needed. I'd like to be part of that. Absolutely. I don't think the board want to move it a week earlier and do it on July 1st because probably lots of people will be gone then. But so I forget. Um, so the law is it has to be within the next couple days. Yeah, it has to be by the 15th. By the 15th. So it could be the first either way. It could be the first. It could be, but to your point, I know a lot of people
005take that probably that I will be out of town. I don't see why we can't. There's nothing prohibiting a remote or you could move it to the 15th. That would still make open meetings law rules for how you do remote options. You just have to do the eyes and press, right? Yeah. So, and we do that. I'll say yeah once we once the end's here we can have a discussion on either remote or moving it to the 15th. The other dates I was going to say I looked at it and I was like it looks good now. So it mirrors this year's Yeah. Yeah. The only thing okay and the only thing that might change is we haven't heard officially when the Bosey's um budget vote is. So that is is the only piece of
006information we don't have. I haven't heard anything either. [Laughter] No inside. Can we ask our Bosey's representative? He preempted that. Okay. Okay. And also for discussion. I'm sorry. I I think we could we could still when Dan here later potentially but we'll have a new board member. So, also on the discussion agenda, I have um a revised policy for non-resident or updated for non-resident uh attendance. Um I don't know if you had a chance to look at that. It's on for first reading. Okay. So, it gives us a little bit more um I think accountability. Yeah. And also one part I added that I think is really critical that wasn't part of it before was that the district reserves the right to limit, suspend or discontinue acceptance of non-resident students at any time based on
007enrollment trends, staffing capacity, space availability, fiscal considerations, or changes in board policy. This decision may apply to both new applicants and continuing students subject to timely communication with affected families. I think it's important that non-residents understand that it may not happen next year. The policy may change. So it is I think we can put want in your presentation. you have the data for enrollment trends and I was going to ask at that point about what we think is causing the increase and then open up discussion on how we feel about tuition and our approach as a board. So sure the policies that you put I think the policies great and I like to change it. Good. So we have 25 students this year who are either I think 20 are non-resident and five are faculty
008children. Um so that's 25 um and you can see the trend data. It's pretty consistent. But what's happening is that many of those grandfathered students are starting to graduate. Yes. Um and they're being replaced by the the other tuition rate. Yes. So what the board has done historically at the June or at the I think of the June meeting, yeah, we once the budget is approved, we will approve the rates for the non-resident tuition. It goes up according to uh the percent of the tax levy increase 2%. That's fair. Um and then we updated so there is a request form that I did not update. So there's regulation number one that goes with this policy and then there is the agreement that the student signs. So it's just you know we're including more factors especially
009attendance couple of course my thought there like a couple parts you could combine where it's reviewing the at the conclusion of each semester um or at the end there was a couple here that talked about it but I thought we like x let me find the other one but I see number 10 six like it just seems repetitive I think and it's really saying the same thing right I don't see it in six I see it in 10 deny or revoke okay yep So, so maybe just adding to six at each semester. It's hard to know. Um, okay. Yeah. Unless you think No. No. Might have been one other place that I wrote down. Okay. I can I can tighten that up. So, we just have a few minutes before our public hearing. We're going
010to start right at 6. Um, I know that there were some questions about the breakfast. I don't know if that's something that you wanted to talk about at this time. We can start it. else very active. Did you send them? Very active while you were enjoying your coffee. So, couple couple thoughts. I didn't respond to your most recent reply. I'm personally fine with that option. Okay. I think anecdotally because I haven't surveyed a whole bunch of parents but the folks that I have talked to just two major things. One I don't think any of parents or the athletes are hung on the breakfast itself. It used to be pre-COVID it was very informal snacks freshman right apparently we would go through boseies and it was I think maybe some fruit and maybe some bagels it
011was very simple yes can be that model would be very low cost and I don't I don't think anyone would be disappointed I think if we want to do something like this year for the athletes that's fine uh again because there's no cost to the athletes there's no cost to families. I think the concern as far as planning and just keeping them positive is we should always make sure that official activities have no cost to students wherever possible and families. So like recognizing the achievements of our student athletes, there shouldn't be any entry, right, for families to attend. So that should be our north spot. And if we want to partner with different groups or anything, it always has to fall under that spirit. Whether we fundra for it, ask for contribution voluntarily, like however
012we want to approach it. If there's a cost issue, that's fine. like we can't take the approach that was proposed. Like I just I don't I think it's very problematic for us as a public education institution and I think it is it truly is cost competition for more families that they should have. I think people should have the Philadelphia spot whether they want to pay X amount of money to attend cere the that's I'll leave this sports booster discussion for later but okay that's my thought on breakfast I agree with you I think you know keeping it simple so the focus of the event is what we're really there for sure I think yeah the the food is kind of a secondary thing and that would be my concern. I wouldn't want to even hear
013about one household having to make the decision on whether or not they could go and support their student athlete. So, you know, not putting anybody in that position would be my concern. Very good. It's just too like if you think about it and I know that it's hard because the I'm sure there was positive I believe. I think they're trying to make it a really nice amount. Yeah. Right. But like think of the percentage of students historically we've had on the pre-inst like that should tell us all we need to know about whether we can charge 510 13 $20 for a breakfast for a person like that's just a hard and still be inclusive. Yeah. If you run into that for a mother and father both to attend or whatever it is that being $25
014could be could make it hard. So, sure. Yeah. I mean, the family of five, which we have those, that if one of them is the athlete, that's free. The other four they want on 10, that's $52, right? A lot, right? For a lot of, right? So, so Tom's idea, as I put in the email, was to have the student athletes uh and the coaches eat the breakfast um and they'll cover the cost um of that. And then once they're finished, everyone will move into the auditorium for the recognition part of this the event. Okay. Yeah. As always, tell Tom, thank you for what a great solution. So, absolutely. Um and I am meeting with uh the head of the boosters tomorrow, just so you know. Thank you. Okay. So, now we are ready for our
015the public hearing for our budget. So, one second. Okay. And everybody, you should have received these in your houses. Okay. I like it. It's short and to the point and I think very very professional. Okay. What happened, Mike? Where is it? Okay. Oh my goodness. Mike, help. I panic. I panic. Okay. Well, welcome to our our public hearing. Um, and as you all recall, it all started with our 2526 budget development calendar, which really was our north start each at each meeting, and we reviewed it at each meeting. Our board of education set budget goals. We updated last year's budget goals. Um the goal was to develop a budget that aligns with our district's mission, vision, beliefs, commitments, and priorities, focuses on the needs of all students, and our commitment to educating the whole child,
016preserves and expands, and we added with efficiency our academic, social, emotional, and wellness programs, continues to address the impact of CO 19 on student wellness and academics, and absolutely is mindful of residents and their property taxes. So we we reviewed our vision, our mission, our beliefs, our commitments, our priorities. Okay, they're also on our website with our action plans. And we looked at student enrollment trends. So our enrollment is holding steady. We can see there was uh an increase for the 2425 school year. And as we talked about previously, students with disabilities definitely increased. Staff counts. Um we have maintained our staffing levels for the the past three years. Um the only uh area that did increase teacher assistance, we increased two out of the general fund for special education needs. And part of our
017prek grant, we included three teacher assistants. and they're not part of that. They're not marked on that. So, budget impacts. So, um our increase in foundation aid, we were hoping that we would have additional increases with the governor's final budget. Um that was not the case. We stayed right at 2% for foundation aid. Um so that's our revenue there. There, uh as we discussed, an increase in health insurance premiums by 12%. There's an increase in employee retirement system by 8%. Um, and the total amount is 245,778 contractual obligations. So, as you know, we're going into negotiations, so we're still not sure um what the increase is for WTA for the next school year, but we know that the SEIU is getting 3%. There is an increase in teachers retirement system um by 2%. and special
018education placements currently are are totaling 2.2 million and there's also an increase in liability insurance which will total $102,000 next year. As part of the budget development process, we have a needs assessment where we meet with our our teacher leaders, meet with their teams of the teachers. They review what resources, what new assessments or new standards or whatever is happening in their area, what do they need to really um fund learning in their areas and support learning. So these are some things from those meetings. So we are replacing our district telephone system and um and just in the nick of time our phone system went out again today. Um and we're covering that through Abosis Coer. We are eliminating low usage software and it's really a wash. We are adding uh preK6 and also KIGO.
019We are replacing those expired football helmets. We're replacing one laminator. We are purchasing our Vonics and the great news is that they have arrived. A lot of pallets are here and now we're scheduling our deployment and how we're going to be um putting them in the classrooms. We are offering a summer school enrichment program at MPS as well as a junior high summer credit recovery program. We are reverting back to five special educators at MPS through retirement. And while we have had an increase in our special education um number of students at MPS and districtwide, we have put in other supports. We've put in um added 0.5 speech. So now we're at 1.5 speech. Again, all of our related services come through Boseies. We've also added the behavior specialist. Okay, so we are supporting providing
020more supports to our special education students. We are implementing a two-year purchasing schedule for new new textbooks. We are phasing out Mandarin. Um, we are upgrading to a digital radio system for transportation that interfaces with our district radios. We are all set with our uh $100,000 capital outlay to replace MPS doors. We are maintaining our SRO and SPO. We are adding three new advanced placement courses and we are replacing our Boseis policy service with the NISBA policy service. So, as I said, um the governor has finalized her state budget. there is no additional increase um for many many school districts um in foundation aid where you understand the belltobell we're one step ahead of that and there is an update to poverty measures um that was a result of the Rockefeller study for um part
021of the foundation aid formula. So, our um executive budget proposal, you can see there was a decrease in building aid and that is because debt fell off and there looks like there's a decrease in excess cost aid, but those numbers will continue to adjust. Um, and I'm sure that it will be probably end up as a positive number. So we are required to present a three-part breakdown of the budget. Uh the categories are administrative, program, and capital. You can see program is the largest part of our budget at 67.9% which you would expect for a school district because that's what we do. Our students learn our and our teachers help them do that. So part of the spending plan for program you can see that um the biggest increases were in the instructional program okay
022in our staffing as well as employee benefits and we've talked about that you you understand that. So we talked about um instructional program highlights. So some other highlights uh we are continuing our consultant teaching model and our 15-1 programs in ELA and math. We are um obviously still conducting our annual reviews. Our science of reading, okay, we have an instructional coach through the reading league who meets regularly with our teachers pushing into their classrooms to assist teachers with refining their tier one and tier 2 instructional practices. and uh so proud that we are closing in on our fourth year of science of reading. I talked about the behavior specialist um connected community schools. We are continuing to maintain a site coordinator and a hub. Um and they've supported 138 families and 390 outgoing referrals this
023year connecting our students with outside agencies. um exciting that this year we have 16 students who are participating in the seal of civic readiness and the showcase at the end of this month. So really proud there. We had a new elective this year effective communication. Um and MPS we are providing all of our students with targeted interventions and regular progress monitoring through our what I need now win groups and we are seeing student growth in reading and math. We do have teachers trained in the Wilson reading model interventions districtwide and our most struggling learners are learning to read. Athletic program highlights. We have a new batting cage which was from the Wattis Foundation. We are continuing our fly car ambulance service at home football and soccer games. We are continuing with our athletic trainer and
024replacing the football helmets. As I mentioned, transportation highlights. So very exciting. We're going to new cloud-based routing software which will be fully functional and operational for the 2526 school year. Last year we purchased um one Yukon, two small buses, and two large buses. Happy to say that we have all of them in our possession. It took a while, but we have them. And this year we are proposing to purchase two large, one small, and one pickup truck with a dump body and plow for maintenance department at a total referendum of $61,138. We are also upgrading to a digital radio system for transportation that interfaces with district radios. That will be out of this year's equipment budget. Um, as I said, we are uh purchasing for this school year a large two large buses and a
025small bus. We were instructed to include a tariff, a 10% tariff. Um, and so that's why we come up with a total price um cost of 601,138. our capital part of our budget. So, this is maintenance, building and grounds, electricity, telephone, all of those things. So, you can see there was a a short um a small um oh, the debt service is the the largest decrease there, and that's really because we um had debt follow up. Capital highlights. What's really exciting is in February, our district residents approved an $18.6 6 million capital project. We are replacing our phone system. Our smart um uh our V sonics are in through smart bonds. Our capital outlay project for the 2425 school year has been completed. We have new transaction windows at both building uh buildings and we've
026upgraded the NPS entryway and the new capital outlay project will be replacing inter the doors in the intermediate wing and some other entrance doors as well. um using bullet resistant glass for buildings and grounds. Let's see. Um the 2020 capital project completely done. Um generating aid on that. We're we um had a shift change for one of our junior senior high cleaners from night to a hybrid day. So we had nobody on during the day before. So, this has been a gamecher, especially when it comes time to cleaning the cafeteria from breakfast and lunch. Um, and I think Patty Louise is going to like this one the best. So, the concession stand bathrooms have been upgraded through grant funds and now we won't have any backup toilets, backed up toilets. So, so that is exciting
027there. Um, administrative. Um, so this has to do with overall management activities including board of ed, superintendent's office, business office, operations, our software, data processing. Um, so you can see there was a just a slight decrease in board of ed and that is because we're going to the Boseis policy service. Um, and there is a savings there. Um, and administrative highlights. So, what a year. We've hired two principles, one assistant principal, one assistant treasurer, one accounts payable, and office secretary. Um, we had a clean audit, and we expended and received all of our pandemic relief money. So, that put us in really great shape. Budget approval. So, we're very proud that our school community comes out every year and strongly supports our budget. This year, we're going out at 2 0% tax cap levy and
028you can see that that is the lowest other than the 1920 school year. So I think that this year um you know we we've done a great job. So we are going to use fund balance um to close the gap. So we all know what fund balance is. It's the difference between our assets and liabilities. It's reported as of June 30th of each fiscal year. Um, and you want to talk about this this one if I'm balanced or the proposed budget. You want to talk about it? So, or No, you go ahead. All right. So our property taxes are so when we look at our revenue so we have 6,176 uh,000 um that we're getting from property taxes and star. Our state aid is coming in at 15,596,729. All other revenues 524,000 and then we
029are using appropriated fund balance of 92,000. our proposed budget um for our program. Okay. our spending plan here 15,710,111 the capital part $4,652,798 and administrative expenses 2,764,860 um for a total of 23,127,669. Um, so with a total unappropriated fund balance that we're applying, the other part was for the cap the the tax cap. Yep. And so this one is for the um to balance the budget um and the differences. Yep. 738,589. You can see how our budget compares to the past budgets recently. Three-year trend. So the budget-to-budget increase this year is 300 uh 3.72%. The total tax levy increase is 121,82 which is a 2% increase in the levy. So if we look at our tax rate, what can a resident of a home who owns a $100,000 home expect? Um, so last year the
030tax um was 2,49. So it's going up $47. Okay. Per 100,000. Per 100,000. Yes. Yeah. So the tax rate is 24.56, right? Um so mark your calendars everyone for the budget vote. It's going to be in our cafeteria. That worked out really well. There's direct access to the the parking lot there. Um we have two candidates who are running for the board. So we all know the first one. Hold on. Okay. Dan Nichols is running um our president. So he's running again. As well as Lori Zuifel. Did I say it correctly? Zuifel. and she uh grew up in Waterville and has returned back to Waterville and wants to give back to her community. So, and she has a a PhD in clinical psychology. So, so are there any questions? Okay, so we can go into
031the next session. Okay, that being said, uh I get a motion to go into executive session for hold on collective bargaining for the discussion of collective bargaining. So move discussion. All in favor? All right. So, Jacob, thank you for coming.