001Thank you. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh thank you for joining us. Uh we are here to present our budget hearing for the proposed 2627 school year budget. Next slide please. Okay. So a general budget framework for our proposed budget includes um an increased continuing with our increase in K5 our elementary level academic intervention services throughout our four elementary buildings our full day kindergarten program our athletic programs as they exist right now. Of course that's uh enrollment dependent um absolutely again as it exists right now in terms of from a programmatic perspective uh clubs and co-curricular programs same thing right from a budget perspective the same um budget right um is included in next year's uh proposed budget uh and again the clubs that will run will be student enrollment dependent as well our mental
002health professional team that we have in place in all of our school buildings social workers psychologists uh guidance counselors supporting our students. Those all remain the same. Our senior high school course elective offerings remain the same. Also again enrollment dependent CTE Bosey's uh high school student offerings that we've talked about beforehand. Uh those remain the same and we had talked about at some point that we do not have any students um that have requested the program that were declined or denied you know a particular opportunity. Um so that is in our budget. The sale students accelerated in learning elementary enrichment program is included in our proposed budget. We have that running in all four buildings um right now and we would like to continue that and expand upon that with regards to uh the materials
003and supplies being used. From an instructional technology perspective, we're looking to make some enhancements there. the high school physical wellness uh program, the weight room and fitness uh center. We have that in place and continuing our replacement plan for our Chromebooks and our smartboards. Couple of key budget areas to uh mention in particular because of the the amounts associated with these health insurance. Uh we are projecting an increase everyone is right of anywhere between 12 and 15%. For us that equates to 1.9 so almost $2 million from this year's budget to next year's budget specifically for health insurance costs. ERS uh we're looking at about a 5% um rate. So that's approximately 119,000. TRS the rate there approximately 582. um that is a lower percentage, right, which we're happy about, right, in terms of the
004the current school year. And contract transportation services, an increase of about 1.6 million um from this year to next year in contract transportation. Uh on the flip side, internal district comp uh transportation, that is a lower budget line. Few other program components uh to highlight our students accelerated in learning the sale program as I mentioned beforehand $20,000 specifically to support that program. Music department this is reinstating a budget line for our musical instruments. The art department um some repairs as assoc as it relates to the um the kiln right and other uh equipment associated with the art department. Technology department again a few uh requests that they made as part of their department presentation. in the library and an increase in student field trips. So, this represents uh $14,000 difference, which is doubling what currently
005exists right in the budget for this school year. This proposed budget also has a transfer to capital in the amount of $250,000 and that's specifically for us to address the PA system at the senior high school. We would be completely replacing our PA system that is um some days on functional, right? Obviously, this is a major safety issue that we are going to look to address in the very very near future. When you review our uh budget lines and Miss Glante will review those, right, you'll note that in student services in particular, uh we do have some increases in various different areas. Specifically, um out of district tuition cost, right, and professional services, there's an increase of about $1 million $1.1 million. same thing, you know, when we look at um there are there were
006a number of changes within those budget lines that Miss Colante will highlight uh that were split, right, to just kind of really delineate where um you know the program costs are being paid out of. So, you'll see some of those uh budget code changes there, architect fees, legal fees, uh voting um increases, right? This is as associated with, you know, some changes with the Suffach County Board of Elections um and some buildings and grounds personnel. Uh from a personnel perspective, the staffing remains um the same as it is this year. Class sections, uh we are this budget does include an additional two elementary school teachers based on expected kindergarten enrollment numbers. This was previously discussed um and or I should say expected, right? uh when we review the long range planning reports that that happened
007last year and the prior year at the secondary level we do have some core section uh reductions or decreases there and that's based on uh enrollment right that happens every year depending on you know number of students that request uh courses in general we don't um typically operate a particular course if we have less than 12 students additional program component increases the junior high school academic center right at one point that was not um part of a prior school year's uh budget. So next year's budget does include that. This is the center this overall support, right? Um that time period between the end of the school day and when students go to maybe a club, right, or to u their their team, right, for practice or a particular game where they able to be there
008uh be supervised, do their homework. Uh so that's included in next year's budget. benchmark reading. As everyone uh knows, this is a multi-year process, right? In implementing a new benchmark reading program. I think it was four years ago or so, we had a committee of teachers, administrators um that reviewed various different reading programs and we landed on benchmark reading. This is the fourth um year of the implementation there. Software programs um to opportunities in terms of for students and our teachers. continuing to enhance our cyber security. 60,000 um included in this proposed budget. MTSS, LinkedIn software. Uh this is a software program that uh many school districts are pivoting to for progress monitoring right um at the elementary levels. So taking a look at where our students are um utilizing various different sources and tracking
009right in terms of how students are doing and then that helps us u make datadriven decisions as it relates to academic intervention services or other supports for our students and a summer incoming K program to help students transition um from the prek kind of mindset and world right into our elementary K program for go ahead couple of areas in which this budget has some reductions, right? So, there are some salary budget differences across the board for new hires, right? We had a number of different employees who um are retiring in June. Their replacement salary um is lower than the exiting um employees. So, those salary differences have been accounted for in our budget. Approximately five PAR professionals, again, I say approximately because that does vary based on student needs, right? And and CSSE meetings. Um,
010so this is really more specific to the hallway environment, in-house transportation costs, as I mentioned beforehand, due to an increase uh due to not having enough uh drivers. Right, we've increased our contract transportation. So there's that switch there in terms of those expenditures. And then at this point, I'll hand it over to Miss Galante to review and and highlight a couple of um specific kind of lines within the actual budget, but all of the budget lines are included here. >> Okay. Thank you. Um just uh for the uh community for the information since the uh board adopted the budget uh we have posted all the budget presentations are online also the line by line. So for each category that we that you see now that's the total of multiple lines. So in other words for
011instance uh district clerk uh that line is up and I could tell you why because we have to take over the job of the uh the election for the budget and any other elections that we use like for bonds. If we go out for a bond um board of elections is not doing that anymore. So that includes costs for ballots and machines. So, if you look on online um on the bud on the district website, you'll see the line by line budget and you'll see all the categories that make up that that total. Okay. So, let's look at also at the business administration line uh 1310. Um that little that small reduction was due to three employees uh two retiring, one went on to another district and naturally they were replaced with other employees at
012a lower salary. Uh, next slide. Uh, 14:30 personnel. Same thing. We have a few retirees coming out of the personnel office or HR. Um, that will be replaced with uh, employees at a lower entrylevel salary. Uh, line 1680, central data processing. So, this is what Dr. Farley was referring to. We took some of these lines uh and we broke them up and put the expenses into the departments where they belong so that the administrators of these budget lines can monitor what we're spending if they need the these items moving forward and things like that. So that half a million dollars is spread over multiple different lines throughout the budget. Next slide. Um on this slide uh there is just a small reduction in the supervision. Um and basically that was due in that code is
013the salaries for all your bu building principles, system principles and all the supplies that they need to run their building. And again, you have a little deduction because you do not have a principal um because you do not have um uh classes going on FRS avenue. And again, for the administrative component, it is approximately 7.5 million. Next slide will be the capital component. And um 1620 that's operation and maintenance of of the district. to all our uh employees, our custodial staff, head custodians, security, uh all items like that, plus everything that they need to run the district are in those lines. It's increased because of contractual obligations have gone up. The prices of supplies and materials that they need throughout the district, like paper towels and things like that, all that has gone up. And
014also, they're looking to do more projects in house. Um, so in order to do that, they'll need the supplies and the materials to do that work. Um, line 9730, your bands have increased. Um, that had to do with the additional borrowing that you had to do for some CVA cases. So for the capital component, um, it is approximately um, $14 million. Next slide. So the program component is the last component and the largest component in the budget. um 2110 again that has everything to do with teaching our regular ed population uh contractual obligations and there's also included tuition for foster care students that may be in the district for charter school uh children who choose to go to a charter school students field trips conferences um salaries not only for teachers but for subs and
015aids and um things like that. So that's what's driving that line and that's not unusual. That's usually one of the lines that we see an increase in that's for teaching our uh special needs population in the school and again it doesn't look like there is a large increase on that line. It's because like Dr. Farley had said we did shift some lines and we took out uh a line for the CTE program for our special ed population and moved it onto the 2280 line um which is called occupational education. So if you look on the line by line that's posted on the website, you'll see two lines under that code. One is occupational ed for your regular ed students and one is a ed for your special ed students. Uh next slide 2630 computer assisted
016assisted instruction. Uh again there's an increase in that line due to the increase in the need for more software for our um students. um we have to every few years change the Chromebooks. They do come to uh uh age out portion that they can't be updated anymore. So all that is that again we did add a lot of uh those Boseies charges that came from that line that half a million dollar line that we shifted around um because in that line was the charge for e school parent square and other instructional software that now our director of IT can monitor those BOSI charges and um make sure that we are paying for what we are using. Next slide please. 2815 health services. Um the district is obligated to provide health services to uh the West
017Babylon students that attend a private or parochial school in other districts. So at some point during the school year, we will get uh an invoice from the various um other public school districts for the health services for those children. And again uh you have I believe you have more children in uh attending private and parochial schools than you have in the past. So naturally that cost will go up. Uh next slide 5510 pupil transportation. So again as Dr. Farley said we're kind of shifting from ind district transportation to contract transportation. So over this past year um in district transportation has seen um a few bus drivers either leave or retire and naturally all those routes have to go over to contract transportation. So there will be a decrease in our in district pupil transportation. And
018then if you look at the 55 uh40 line contract transportation you see uh an increase but actually that's offset by the decrease in your indistrict transportation line. It is an increase but not um it's about $800,000 the increase in contract transportation. Uh next slide. 9020 teachers retirement. Uh again that is a little lower. Our contribution rate went from 10% down to 8.24%. Um whereas the employee retirement system the n 9010 line we did have a small increase in that line. uh 9030 FICA. That's the um taxes that we pay on the salaries for all our employees. Again, so when salaries go up, naturally your FICA contribution is going to go up throughout the throughout the year. Uh next slide. health insurance. So for over the past couple of years, we went from a 2% increase
019to a 8% increase to a 9% increase to a possible 12 to 15% increase for the first half of the 2027 school year. So again, we have to account for that. Um, and you have to remember that even though uh an employee in West Babylon or any school district retires, um, they still have, uh, health insurance from the school district. So then you bring on a new employee. So now you have two employees on your health insurance. So that's drives that increase. Um, and hopefully, uh, it comes in on the lower end or even lower than they're telling us. That would be good. um because a lot of districts are struggling with the health insurance. Uh next slide. Um interfund transfer 9901. Um last year we had $300,000 and that was only a transfer for
020special ed. This year, as you saw on one of the slides, the district is also going to do a transfer to the capital um fund so that we can do the PA system at the high at the high school. So, that's also included. So, that that is driving that up. Um so, at the bottom, the program component is um approximately $119.9 million. Next slide. So, your tax levy, um, when you get your tax bill from from the town, it's not the tax levy that you're getting. It's your tax rate that you're getting. And your tax levy is just part of the formula of that tax rate. So, your tax rate is computed by the tax levy, which we send over to the town, your assessed value of your home, any exemptions that you may have.
021If you're a veteran or whatever, and you have an exemption, and with all that factored in, then your tax bill comes and that tax rate. Okay? So, the tax levy is only part of that. For next year, the tax levy for West Babylon will be 2.21%. Um, next slide. And that was all calculated by doing this uh formula that we have to submit to the office of the state controller. And in dollars, you're that 2.21% in dollars is almost eight. It's $87.9 million. Next slide. Again, 2.21% is your tax levy. Um, I did get a list of all the tax levies of the Suffach and Nassau County schools and I think about 2.4 is the average. So, West Babylon is a little below the average. Um, good thing for the community. Um, again, we are
022not piercing the cap. We just need a simple majority vote, 50% plus one for the budget to pass. Next slide. Um this slide is just shows you uh on the revenue side because we have to have a balanced budget. So how are we going to come up with the total budget? Um so it breaks down all the revenue we're using reserves, state aid, other income that we have and that basically is um will will balance out the total expense side of the budget. Next slide. So this year, West Babylon voters will will uh be faced with three propositions. The first proposition is definitely and always will be your budget. Next next slide. So the budget for the 2627 school year year for West Babylon is 141,531,66. So, what happens if the budget doesn't pass? Well,
023the district, the board of ed has um three uh things that they could do. They could submit the same budget, they could submit a different budget, or they can adopt a contingency budget. Now, no matter what they do, if the second time around the vote fails again, they have to automatically go on a contingency budget. Next slide, please. So on a contingency budget, you can only spend money for certain things and that is to operate and maintain school buildings and education programs, preserve the property of the district and ensure the health and safety of students. You cannot buy any new equipment. You cannot rent out your facilities to anyone. Um and you can't do any capital work. a non-essential maintenance cannot be done. Next, next slide. So, in order if you're on a contingency budget,
024in order to be in compliance, the tax levy for the 2026 27 school year has to be the same as the tax levy of the 2526 school year. That means the board will have to go back and make a cut in the uh budget of 1,898,922. And how will they do that? We'd have to go back and do and look for the reductions. Um and the first things that usually will be taken out of the budget is things like the sale program, athletics, co-curricular um programs, field trips, the evening high school program, um academic center for the junior high school, software programs, and all equipment. And honestly, um, you we all know that if we add all up those expenses, that's not going to really bring us to exactly that $1.9 million. So, we're going
025to have to dig deeper. And the only place usually that you dig deeper in is in your program component. Um, the next proposition, Dr. Farrell, do you want to take it or? >> Uh, sure. You're doing great. Go for it. >> Okay. Okay. Proposition number two. So, back in um 20, I believe 2022, you had a bond and you were supposed to do, which you did, a capital project on the high school roof and South Bay waterline. So, those projects were completed and they both came in under budget. So, you had remaining funds from that bond of a little over $3 million. So what the district would like to do now is use those funds for another project. One of the problems that we faced with SED was they didn't quite like the wording of
026I I'm going to say phase two of the project or you know things it they felt it wasn't specific enough to what we want to do use those funds for now. So they said to Dr. Farrell and the board um you need to maybe go out again with another proposition and the voters and explain this to the voters and um make it clear. So that's what we're doing now with proposition number two. Proposition number two will have no impact on the budget, on your levy, on anything because the money is already there. You voted for the bond. the bond passed. We have the money. It's just been sitting in an account waiting to be used. Okay. So, with that money, with that $3 million, the district would like to do this beautiful junior high school
027construction project. This picture really doesn't do it any justice. Uh but it would take care of uh basketball courts, handball courts, tennis courts, um a seating area and and it would really be a asset to the junior high school. >> Actually to the whole community because that area is used by the whole community across the board. >> Yeah. >> So what happens if proposition number two doesn't pass? Well, nothing. We can either use some of the money to pay down debt or you could just leave it there and at some point in time maybe put it back up, same project, a different project to use that money for. Again, that'll have to be a discussion with the board moving forward. But again, no impact on your levy, no impact on the budget. Uh will not
028cost the district uh community anything. Next, so then we go into proposition number three. And then we want to use money that's in the capital reserve. I think in 2023 uh the voters approved to establish a capital reserve. Meaning that this capital reserve is very specific what you could use money for. District could put money in there and then at some point have the community vote to take the money out to use on certain projects. And that's what's happening now. We'd like to take $4.5 million out of the capital reserve to do three projects. Upgrade fire and burglar panels throughout the district, which is really needed. Replace the ceiling um tiles and lighting throughout the district or at least for the buildings that don't have new ceiling and lighting tiles. and then do some additional
029parking at Tuker Elementary and JFK um which is which is also needed. So again the money think about your capital reserve or any of your reserves as a savings account. The money is already in there. So again proposition three no impact on the budget on your levy on your taxes no impact to the community. We already have the money sitting in the reserve. Okay, we just need this particular reserve needs community approval to take the money out and spend the money. Okay. So, what happens if proposition number three doesn't pass? Well, nothing. the money will stay in the capital reserve and again um the board at some point can try to take the money again ask the community to take the money out to do the same projects or to do different projects um they
030would have to decide that at that time but ba basically um the money would just stay right where it is in this reserve. So, the budget vote and trustee election May 19th, 2026 from 6:00 a.m. to 900 pm at two locations, the administration building and Santa Park School. If you do not know where you're supposed to vote, you can always contact the district clerk and she can give you that information. Again, before I say thank you, uh I just want to say any information that you need is on the district website. all our presentations the line by line on the district website. If you have a question um please feel free to email me or any one of in our administrative teams and we will definitely get back to you with an answer. Thank you.
031>> Okay, so motion for exe motion to enter into executive session to discuss CSEA negotiations. Frank Anthony,