001[music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Hello everybody and thank you for coming out to the Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 regular board meeting. I know it's a scorcher out there, so thank you for coming. Feels like it's 80° out. Um, we're going to start with the pledge. If I could have the Northwood student ambassadors come on up to the microphone here, please. I pledge algiance to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. Big job. >> You guys want to hang out there for a second? We're going to do our roll call and we'll take the call. >> Zach, >> here. >> Jeremy, >> present. >> Sarah, >> present. >> Laura, >> present.
002>> Adam, >> present. Charlotte >> present. >> Cal >> present. >> Ryan >> present. >> Marlo >> present. >> Me present. Dr. Cooper >> present. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. We'll go back to our Northwood the student spotlight. >> Thank you so much. I'm Mrs. Ferry. I am the building principal of Northwood Elementary School and I'm proud to announce our Northwood student ambassadors who's here tonight to tell you a little bit about Northwood. They're here with their adviserss, Mrs. Noak and Mrs. Valhoff and we have Mrs. Zachino in the back. But we are certainly proud of them and I think after tonight they you will certainly feel what we feel and how proud we are of Northwood Elementary School. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is Paris Cross. I am a student
003ambassador representing Northwa Elementary School. On behalf of Miss Ferry, Miss Zakanino, our advisors, Miss Noach, and Miss Flehoff, and all of the student ambassadors, we would like to thank the board of education, Dr. Krueger, for inviting us here this evening. We are here tonight to highlight some of the amazing programs, experiences, and accomplishments that make our school such a special place to learn and grow. Good evening. My name is Scarlet Kamacho. At Northwood, we use PBIS to help our school be a happy, safe, and welcoming place for everyone. When students show the Northwood code, be safe, be kind, be ready to learn, they get recognized during morning announcements twice a week. We also celebrate our great choices with the fun monthly parade. In addition, we have assemblies and create skits that students perform, reminding us
004to shine every day at Northwood. >> Hi, I'm too short. >> I'm too short. Thank you. >> Hi, I am student ambassador Camilar Bella Sanes. Our fifth grade students have an opportunity to join our safety patrol team. Patrol members learn how to be responsible leaders by helping students follow bus rules and cross the street safely. They remind classmates to wait their turn, stay in line, and listen to the bus driver. The safety patrol helps make our school a safer place for everyone. Hello, my name is Phoenix Fullington. Northwood has many opportunities to be involved with our community and our school. Two of our most popular clubs at our school are cardio club and fitness and fun. Both of these clubs take place before the school day begins giving students a great opportunity to start their
005mornings in an active and healthy way. In these clubs, student participate in a variety of exercises and movement activities that help improve endurance, strength, and overall fitness. Miss McCarthy and Mr. Lock lead these clubs and do an excellent job of encouraging students to challenge to challenge themselves, work together, and develop healthy habits that can last a lifetime. Hello, my name is Audrey Maxim and I'm excited to share about a brand new club at Northwood called the fourth grade STEM club. In the STEM club, Mr. Zooki and Mr. The view lead students in lots of fun hands-on activities. Students made boats and learned about buoyancy by testing how much cargo they could hold before sinking. Students also built bridges using bread and other materials. Afterwards, they talked about ways to strengthen their bridges and collected data
006to identify the strongest and longest ones. STEM club is a fun way to learn, build, and experiment. In addition, we also have math enrichment club. In this club, students explore math through puzzles, games, and hands-on challenges. Miss Noak and Miss Englet encourage students to work together and solve problems and discover how math is used in everyday life. Good evening. My name is Joshua Chudy. Art club and yearbook club are both led by Miss Stra. In art club, students use their creativity to design and create amazing projects. In yearbook club, students are responsible for designing the yearbook cover and contributing artwork that is published throughout the book. The entire Northwood student body then votes to choose which cover will appear on the yearbooks front, making it a truly studentled project. Northwood also has tone chime club
007led by Miss Gerotty. Tone chimes are metal tubes that make beautiful bell-like sounds. Nine fifth graders joined the tone chime club to learn how to play them and met before school to practice holding the chimes playing them playing them correctly and following the music. By working together, the students learned to keep the beat, listen to each other, and play as a team. Their holiday performance was a delight. Hello, my name is Lena Fronzac. Our librarian, Miss Lef Fever, keeps our entire school connected through one school, one book program. In this program, every student in the building receives the same book to read. This year, we are reading Saving Winslow. The books are sent home with reading vlogs and family activities so everyone can participate together. We answer trivia and vocabulary questions during our morning announcements
008and discuss the book during our weekly library visits. Miss Le Fever also supervises Battle of the Books and Lunch Bunch book clubs, giving students even more opportunities to en enjoy and grow through reading. Hello, I'm Nicole Atinson. We believe that being kind and helping others are important parts of being a great student in the Kerry community member. Some of the highlights of the student ambassadors include several service projects throughout the year. In October, we held a Halloween collection for the West Sakica SPCA. In November, we organized a food drive and donated to the Lions Club. In December, we created holiday cards to help bring the season for local nursing homes. In January, we held a hat and mitten drive for the West Center clothing closet. Good evening. I'm Abigail Soula. As we look ahead to
009the rest of the school year, we are excited to continue activities that allow us to show kindness, appreciation, and generosity. One special tradition at Northwood is our Valentine's for senior citizens. Students make kind cards and messages to help spread happiness to older members of our community. We also take time to celebrate our Northwood support staff. These adults help our school everyday and make sure students feel safe and supported. Northwood also collects personal hygiene items for the West Senica clothing closet. This helps students and families donate items that other needs. My name is Claire Ross. On behalf of all the student ambassadors, thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here tonight and share the many great things happening at Northwood. We are very proud of our school and the work we are doing together
010to help others. We truly appreciate the time you have taken to listen to us and for your continued support of our students and programs. With your encouragement, we are learning how to be leaders, work as a team, and make positive differences in our school and our community. Thank you for supporting Northwood and our west side of the community. [applause] Boys and girls, thank you so much. You are incredible public speakers. Most adults don't like to speak in front of a microphone and in front of an audience. You did an amazing job. Thank you so much for telling us about your wonderful school. >> There's a lot of stuff. >> That's great. I never heard of that. >> Okay, we'll move on to our exeicio board member report. Charlotte, uh, in honor of Black History Month,
011Roappa is having a door decorating contest, a hiphop dance class, and a movie this week. Uh, over the weekend, we had a winter dance with over 150 participants. Avery Jurich, Alexis Reed, Brady Murray, all qualified for the state qualifier trackmate. And as for upcoming activities, we have Spongebob the musical on February 26th, 27th, and 28th at 7:00 p.m. along with February 8th at 100 p.m. If anyone is interested, they can contact me for a complimentary ticket. Um, and then the 8th grade dance is this Friday at the middle school. >> That's all I have. >> That's great. Where was the winter dance held? At the school. >> The school. In the gym. in there gym. >> That's awesome. >> Westfed hockey is now 10 and six. Their next game is home at versus Sweet Home.
012Boys boy boys basketball beat Cleave Hill yesterday and is now 9 and5. They beat them by 20 75 55. Next game is tomorrow against Mville at home. The girls basketball is on top 13-1. They only fell to Orchard Park once and in their second game they beat Orchard Park. They play Will North tonight. And West has our musical Something Rotten that is Thursday through Saturday. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time for $15. That's via the link in the West Senior Drama Club's Instagram. >> I don't I mean >> I don't know how you're going to get there. >> I like Charlotte's version better. Yeah, sorry. >> It's okay. I'd rather pay for the ticket anyway. We'll be good. I'm very excited about that. >> Last but not least. >> Thank you. Happy to share
013my update with you all. Just wanted to start by giving a calendar update in light of our recent school closings. Uh so far this year, we have had three school closures due to weather, January 15th, 20th, and 26th. But it's important to note that on January 26th for that particular weather event, uh, Governor Hokll did declare a state of emergency. So that does wave us from our 180day requirement for that particular day. Um, which means that we have officially as our count have two snow days that would count against the 180day attendance. So, at this point, we don't anticipate having to retrieve the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend. If we have additional snow days, however, that that is still a possibility and something that we've outlined in our school calendar. But I just wanted
014to make sure that everyone was clear on where we stand with the use of snow days and our minimum number of days required for student attendance. wanted to um congratulate each senior teacher um for being recently induction inducted into the New York State Master Teacher Program on January 21st. The New York State Master Teacher Program is a rigorous selection process. You have to fill out an application, go through an interview process before a committee u before being selected to this program. This is exclusive for teachers of STEM and Anna is a science teacher at East Senior and will participate in this 4-year professional development program uh that's hosted locally through Buffalo State College. It is a a huge honor. I had the privilege to be there that night with Anna and her husband and Mr.
015Winnicki to congratulate her and again wanted to send her our congratulations. I'd also like to congratulate two West senior students, Michael Duffy and Jonah Higgins, who I am sure we will be seeing on stage for Something Rotten. Um, they were invited to perform at Sha's Centennial Celebration. They were the only two students who were invited to perform that night for the celebration. So, a huge honor for them. I'd like to congratulate our athletes of the month from both West Senior and East Senior who are all photographed here and listed below. And then I have a special recognition. If I could please ask um a special guest that we have in attendance uh to please stand and come up towards the podium. It is my uh privilege to introduce you to Mr. Dave Samra who is
016a school bus driver and we recently received a email from a parent regarding their beloved Mr. Dave and I'd like to read that email to you. Good morning. I just wanted to send a message out there regarding the West Sica Central School bus driver, Mr. Dave, driving Route 12. He has been our driver for a few years now and I should have said something about him before, but regardless, I wanted to extend my absolute gratitude and appreciation for him now. The bus garage called this morning to say that elementary bus runs were running around 20 to 30 minutes behind schedule, but he was there right on time. I believe that he is just about on time anytime we receive those calls. I wouldn't even mind if he was late, but he never really is. I'm
017aware that many calls or emails to the bus garage may not have a positive message, but there is nothing negative that I can say about Mr. Dave. He is always friendly, calls my child by name, waving to parents every morning and every afternoon. He dresses up and is always generous with children on holidays, which is rare. Sometimes he is so reliable that he is also the bus route that swings around and collects my middle schooler when their bus cannot reach him. It's so nice and mind easing to know that my kids are cared for and safe with this reliable person. I just wanted to share how grateful I am to Mr. Dave as our driver. Thank you for your time and for hiring Mr. Dave. Have a nice day and a safe journey home. >>
018Thank you. [applause] MR. DAVE, if I could ask you not to go away yet, I'd love to present you with a certificate of recognition. Um, and maybe a quick photo with our board president and vice president. If you could come up to the front, please. pressure. >> Thank you. [applause] I had the pleasure last week um to visit West Elementary School when they had their production of Frozen Kids, which was absolutely wonderful. So, congratulations to the cast and crew of Frozen Kids. I also wanted to recognize West Middle School's efforts. Uh they recently hosted a Coaches versus Cancer basketball game. Uh you'll see photographed here there were some faculty uh that engaged in a faculty basketball game and also student basketball games. In all they raised over $2,000 for cancer research and awareness. So amazing
019job to them. Wanted to highlight some things regarding student engagement and this really I think hosts uh or highlights student engagement and creativity at its best. Our students recently participated in the cardboard arcade and this was a competition um from schools throughout Western New York that was hosted at the Keybank Center. Uh you'll see photographed here some of the creations that were made by West Senica students. We had students uh from the middle school and the high school level that were here on the right. The picture does not do it justice, but if you're familiar with the children's game operation, this young lady made a disco fever operation. And so um you're challenged to take parts out of disco Elvis uh without uh setting off the buzzer. So students created this um mostly out of
020cardboard, but of course they had some electronic circuitry to go along with it. And when we look at what it takes to have our student attendance improved, student engagement is at the heart of this. When students want to be in school and are engaged in school, they are more apt to come to school. So I love when we can highlight and celebrate the student engagement that we have. Um our students at Northwood keeping up with uh giving a shout out to Northwood Elementary. their prek classes recently went on a field trip to gymnastics unlimited and we had some amazing authentic learning experiences uh that were affiliated with some of our academy programs. Our engineering academy students recently participated in their engineering review where they get feedback from community members who are in the STEM professions.
021So sitting down at the table uh getting feedback from professionals about the design that they've created. In addition, our finance academy students recently participated in their bank teller training and that was held on site at the financial trust federal credit union. So the credit union personnel were involved in training our students right on site at the credit union and now of course they have the skills to do our studentrun credit union which is held within our high schools. And then lastly under authentic learning I did want to highlight our efforts regarding expanding access and opportunity for our students to participate in international learning opportunities. Uh this was a goal and a challenge that I gave to our faculty and staff after seeing that sometimes we will promote an opportunity to travel abroad in the fall
022and that opportunity is taking place in the spring or summer. In some cases, families only had six months or nine months lead time in order to fund raise or gather the funds to be able to support this opportunity. and and I have sent the message to our faculty and staff that if we value this, which we do, we want to give families adequate and ample time to be able to fundra for this. And so you'll see that these are trips that are planned 18 months or more out. We have some new locations that our students have never had an opportunity to travel to before. We have an 8-day trip to Costa Rica, our first trip ever of students going to Japan, and also an 8-day trip to Italy. I was speaking with a dad whose
023son is going to be going to Japan, and because they had that advanced notice and lead time, he asked grandparents, aunts, and uncles for Christmas and for his birthday to give him money to be able to support this trip um to Japan. So I think our our advocacy around very long lead times will increase access and opportunity to our students so that more students can take advantage of these opportunities. Shifting gears, I did want to share a reconfiguration update. I have a communication that will be going out to all elementary families tomorrow afternoon that summarizes the work that we've been doing. Uh we have been meeting consistently and regularly both elementary principles and many of our department leaders on the the logistics planning and work that needs to be done to ensure that we are
024ready for a smooth transition as we reconfigure our schools. First up of course are our east side elementary schools where Clinton will transition to a K to2 building and Northwood will transition to an intermediate school at grades 3 through 5. But in our planning sessions, things from transitional supports to support our students, families, faculty, and staff. Also, transportation. And with transportation, I wanted to highlight here that our goal is to have our transportation and approximate start and end times for our schools finalized in March. We think that's really important and and something that families will want because if they need to make child care adjustments, it's giving our families about 6 months notice. So, we are not announcing at the 11th hour that we have a change of school start times, but to really uh
025allow families to know that as soon as possible. And we're targeting that in March. Furniture and equipment moves and the logistical details of that and any program adjustments that that we're going to be experiencing such as the location of special education programming, technology in primary classrooms. Um, of course, things like instrumental music are all part of our planning and the work that that we are doing. And then, uh, as I said before, we have a detailed update that will be going out to all families tomorrow afternoon. I have requested that the board be copied on that communication. So, you'll get to see the information that's going out to families tomorrow. And then I just wanted to highlight some upcoming events. We have our community clothing closet that's open uh several times and opportunities throughout January
026and February. I have the dates and times listed there. We have found its best to provide both morning and daytime opportunities and also some evening hours. UPK registration already looking ahead to the fall. UPK registration is open and we will have a lottery for UPK on April 9th. So, it's important for families who would like to participate in UPK and have choice and voice in where their child may attend UPK to participate in that and to have their enrollment completed for the program by April 9th. Kale mentioned this. I'll underscore it again that we have Something Rotten at West Senior coming up um starting tomorrow, February 4th through the 7th at West Senior High School. And Spongebob the musical, as Charlotte mentioned, at East Senior High School. East Senior's spring craft show will be on
027March 7th. That is a fundraiser for the West Synica East Student Council. And that just highlighted some other upcoming events that we have with our community awards dinner where both Zach Armstrong and teacher Taran Neicaria will be receiving awards of recognition and then our board work session on February 24th. I also wanted to highlight and you'll hear more about this in the next presentation that we have facility focus groups planned for February 25th and 26th. On February 25th, we'll be holding student focus groups at both East and West Senior High School during the school day. And then on the evening of February 25th, we have a facilities focus group at East Senior. And the following night at West Senior at 6:00 p.m. Those evening focus groups are open to all residents, all community members. We'd
028really like to begin to raise awareness around the needs in our schools. have an opportunity to see some of the locations uh that we're looking to make renovations specifically at our high school, for example, in restrooms so that community members can see the current state of some of our schools and and why we have prioritized certain things within um our facilities work that lies ahead. And you'll be hearing more detail about that in the next presentation tonight. Any questions from from the board? I just had one question. Do we anticipate more prek classrooms being available at Clinton this year with the reconfiguration or not? Do we not know yet because of numbers? Obviously, >> we I would say we don't yet know, but we have right now um just to give kind of a status
029of where we are right now, we host three UPK classrooms in district. uh one at Northwood, two at Northwood Elementary, two at Northwood Elementary, one at Winchester Potters. So we host three in district. The other UPK classrooms are in community- based organizations. So we have partnerships with child care providers that are licensed agencies that provide preschool um community- based partners like Great Expectations for example or Bright Paths. Um, and we are exploring with the anticipated increased funding for UPK, what is our capacity in district for how many classes we may be able to host in district, but also trying to assess what is the capacity of our community- based organizations to potentially take on more sections of UPK. >> Anything else? Anyone? Musicals and all that are great. the art craft show thing was so
030much fun to go. I'm looking forward to that. >> I guess I would just add cuz um >> West Middles was missing but I think that's cuz the storm but West Middle did an amazing job with >> what what did they have? >> They had a musical. >> Oh, really? >> The lions between the lines that it was wonder and thank you for recognizing them. It was a wonderful show. Thank you. >> They did a great job. and they built the sets themselves, I found out, and that was amazing. People like uh your husband and lots of other people involved in that. I thought that was amazing, especially since we weren't renting anything. That was great. So, great show and we look forward to the rest of them coming up. >> I just have one
031more um >> Sarah >> comment more than question. Would it be possible to share the UPK registration slide on social media? because I know there were parents questioning like how to get registered and with the new website I know it's it's a little tricky to navigate if you're used to the old website. >> I thought I saw it on social media if if it would be helpful for us to put it. Melissa, can you confirm? >> I was going to say it's been set to go once a week. >> Okay. >> So, we can we will continue to do that. And I just wanted to highlight also that within your folder I did um prepare a summary so you had an idea of where we are currently with UPK. Um what the current funding is
032for UPK which has been underfunded in New York State compared to what the real cost of the program is. Right now, um, New York State provides $5,400 per student for a full year, uh, school year UPK program, which pales in comparison if you've paid child care expenses at any one of our community- based organizations. Most families are looking at an expense of about $1,000 a month. So, 5,400 uh for a 10-month program does not cover the expenses. Um and similarly when we host those programs in district currently there is a funding gap gap that is not covered by the grant the $5,400 um per student. We have a class size maximum of 18 students. So, that equates to $97,200. And $97,200 is not enough to cover the expenses of a full-time teacher with benefits and
033TRS and a teaching assistant with benefits and ERS. That doesn't even begin to mention supplies, materials, things for the program. So UPK in its current state has a significant funding gap and one that we believe in that investment of early education and we have uh made that investment and made the choice to cover that funding gap locally. Should the governor's proposal uh go forth in the budget that would increase the per pupil amount to $10,000 per student. So it is long overdue. I oversaw UPK when I was an elementary principal about 15 years ago. The dollar amounts were the same then. $2,700 for a half-day program, $5,400 for a full day program. It hasn't changed in well over a decade. And we all know expenses have gone up. So, it's long overdue. Going up to
034$10,000 per student will help tremendously. There will still in all reality be be a funding gap there, but it will help to close that gap considerably. It's something that we'll be watching to see if ultimately it is in the final adopted budget, but right now it is in the governor's proposal. So, you have a sheet in your packet if if you want to see that detail and on the back of this sheet is a breakdown of where our current programs are both in district and in our community- based organizations. I'm going to go back to I I wanted to acknowledge it one other musical that happened in this last couple weeks which is uh West Elementary. I went and saw that on Friday. It was also very well done. Talented. It's a lot of singing.
035They did Frozen. It was it was very well done. So, congrats to those kids, too. >> Yeah, that was amazing. And that was that uh that Disney involvement with with the show. It was really cool. I mean, so >> I mean every level we have it going on. Wildly talented kids, right? >> Under the guidance of amazing teachers. >> Good to go. >> Cool. >> Um, we'll move on to our capital improvement presentation. >> So, it is my pleasure to introduce our colleagues. I think I have a microphone. That's okay. I'll use my teacher voice. Um we have the team here from Young and Right Architects and also campus construction who have been actively working with our facilities group uh to analyze our building condition survey to help us to prioritize from the building condition
036survey. the things that are critical and essential to be in the next capital improvement project and then also the things that are the the goals and desires of the district where we want to have educational and programmatic enhancements. I'll say that in addition to the building condition survey and the goals of the district, we also have a plan that is aligned with the outcome of our redistricting work that we've done and reconfiguration. We heard from the community loud and clear that they did not want to disrupt the east and west boundaries. And so in order for us to create more classroom capacity at West Middle, I think you're aware that our plan is to fill in the pools at both East Middle and West Middle. They both have approximately 3,000 $3 million in needed repairs
037and rather invest in those aging pools, filling in those pools and creating classroom space. So, I'm going to turn it over to the campus and young and right team to talk further about the work that we've done since our last board presentation to begin to further prioritize and and the scope of the project as it is today. So, thank you all for being here today. Thank you everyone. Um, so our last presentation, we want to just give you an update based on that. So, we've made a lot of progress over the past couple months. Um, so we just want to review the budget, the scope, and the next steps with you guys. So, I think you're familiar with all of us, but my name is Tori Walzac from Yen and Wright Architectural, I have Marissa
038and Shawn Bright. And then from the campus team, go ahead. You can introduce yourself. >> Okay. This is Nick Humphrey and Dave Otter. >> Awesome. So, um, appreciate the opportunity tonight to come back and update you of all the, uh, hard work that we've been up against. Um, which has been great. We're going to kind of talk about um where we're where we've been and where we're at. So, if you remember the last board update, we came and kind of talked to you about $437 million worth of BCS items, if you recall that, and we actually got it down, if you see, $26 million was the last update that we actually came and shared with you. Since that time, we've been meeting probably weekly, every couple weeks, and in between there, and got it down
039to about $82.2 $2 million is where we currently stand. So, this next slide is actually kind of where we're at in regards to the scope of work at each of the buildings. And we're going to now dive into the detail of what is that $82.2 million at each building. >> So, I'm I'm just going to just throw it out there. The the original number versus what now is not from like clipping coupons and saving cost. We're we're low. We're prioritizing certain things and all those things have to be done but we're bringing it down to what's priority what we can do now. We're not we're not like saving money by you know it's that that money that all that needs to be done but we're focusing on these major major items now. Correct. Correct. Okay.
040>> Yes. >> Thank you. things, if I can just elaborate on that. Things that we're focused on are things that are out of warranty, are in critical risk of failure, and and you will see some of the things that are highlighted. We're talking about boilers, um, electrical systems for our fire detection. I'll I'll let them go through the detail, but they are things that were really deemed from a a health or safety perspective to be critical and and critical maintenance. Um, I I have shared with the board there was a period from 20 2003 until 2018, a 15-year period where not one capital improvement project was done in our district. And since 2018 through present, I think our district leadership and board of education members have had greater focus on the need for us to
041just responsibly maintain our buildings. The reality that you'll see is we are making up for that time when we went 15 years without doing any significant capital improvement projects. And I would just ask, you know, if you are a homeowner, imagine if you paused and did no work on your home for 15 years. You didn't replace a furnace, you didn't replace a roof, you didn't seal your driveway. After 15 years, you would have a lot of catchup and makeup to do. And that is um to some extent what we are faced with. So, I'll turn it back over to the team to talk about the priorities and the scope that we have by building of what we've deemed to be the most critical items. >> Great. Thank you everyone. So, starting at East High School,
042I know it's a little hard to read on the screen, so I'm going to read this down. So, district program priorities at East High School are restroom renovations. That's a that's a big one with all the students there. And replacement of the pool equipment. We're talking about filtration, pumps, dehumidification system, and the lights in the room. As far as building condition repairs outlined by the survey that occurs every 5 years, fire alarm system, the boiler plant, hot domestic hot water heaters, portions of the heating loop, uh select doors, and select water valve replacements. And then on the outside, some of the fire hydrants and shut off valves need to be replaced. And then another item on the site is a baseball field at the high school. >> If I can just interject here before you
043go on to the next school, I think it's important to note under the pools that when Erie County Department of Health, they regularly visit schools and test the water. Uh Erie County Department of Health shut down the East Middle School pool and the East Senior Pool um because it did not meet sanitary requirements and sanitary levels. The East Middle School pool has since been drained and closed and we don't intend to reopen that pool at East Middle School. And again, this is unfortunately reflective of when you don't maintain your property. We had to do emergency repairs at East Senior to be able to reopen that pool. And and we all know that emergency repairs are often more costly. We are not eligible for state aid on those emergency repairs. and it really underscores our need
044to continue to maintain our property in a responsible way. And so we have gotten through um what we need to do to reopen the pool at East Senior, but there is still extensive work that needs to be done in that pool in order to maintain it. And to expand upon um campus's slide on the budget numbers, we included a slide that outlines the overarching scope for each of these buildings. So, specifically at East Senior, some of the major BCS items that we talked about are boilers, fire alarm replacements, um, and restroom renovations. Also, at East Senior, um, they're considering reconfiguring the baseball and softball field. So, you'll see on the screen here is a preliminary sketch of what that could look like. All right, at West High School, a little bit different of a list.
045So, more bathroom renovations and pool equipment. But as far as building condition survey items, fire alarm, the boiler plant is also tired. The high voltage lines in the basement need to be replaced. And there's some miscellaneous plumbing repairs that need to occur throughout the building. The nurse's office air handling unit needs to be replaced. And then there's more miscellaneous doors that need to be replaced. Um, so here's a scoping plan for West Senior High School, just the first floor to kind of give you a tangible idea of some of those BCS items. You can see that specific scope that's highlighted. So again, boilers, fire alarm replacement, restroom renovations. >> All right, we're going to move to the middle schools now. So at East Middle School, first we want to move the library to the second
046floor. And here's the big one. We're going to we're proposing to infill the pool at East Middle School and convert that into multiple classrooms, including the locker room. That'll be also be relocated into classrooms. And then the TAC rooms are going to change into a music suite. And as far as building condition survey, there's six classrooms where we want to do asbestous removal of floor tile, replacement of a ramp in the basement that's in a not safe condition right now, more miscellaneous door replacements, and again, miscellaneous plumbing repairs. As far as some air conditioning that we're going to do, the tech offices, very important, have air conditioning and technology classrooms so the servers don't overheat. And we're also going to do some dedicated circuitry for air conditioning in future office locations. As far as the
047site, we're going to replace some damaged sidewalks near the one of the main entrances. A lot of spawning and dilapitation going on there. And then we're looking at adding 20 parking spaces for the relocation of where we're going to store maintenance equipment at the at the site. So we're going to we're proposing to create storage building at East Middle School which will replace the location at 900. >> If I can just interject there Dave, this is part of our long range plan to move us out of the Ebenezer building. Right now the technology office and where the district server is located is on the third floor of the Ebenezer building. That roof is chronically link leaking uh right outside our server room. So evacuating and getting out of the Ebenezer building is of importance to
048us. Relocating where there is space available on the campus of East Middle School, moving into what was the old East Elementary School. And this allows uh for the relocation of the technology department including their servers, the air conditioning to support and protect the servers. But it it does accomplish our long range plan to vacate Ebenezer. We can then sell that property, take any of the revenues from the sale of the Ebenezer V building and reinvest into our schools. It also reduces our footprint as a district and the number of buildings that we have to maintain. So, while it's an initial investment in East Middle, we really do believe that this is going to pay off in the long run um by reducing our footprint and reducing the number of buildings that we have as a
049district. As mentioned, key interior renovations at East Middle School include infilling the existing school and repurposing the space as a tech suite. The floor plan on the screen highlights in purple um an area where the pool and the adjacent locker rooms would be renovated to include a shop area, a classroom space, a new access corridor, and also splitting the existing boys locker room into both boys and girls locker rooms to support adding that access corridor. The existing tech rooms towards the top of the screen in purple are planned to be repurposed as an upgraded music suite. And this would include coral and instrumental music rooms, a general music room, practice rooms, and teacher offices. >> We're envisioning something very similar to what West Middle has, having the music classrooms all in one location. So, it
050would bring equity to our schools as well. We have a gorgeous music suite at West Middle and would like something similar at East. >> All right, moving along to West Middle School. We are also going to be infilling the pool at this building as well for more classrooms. And the old technology space will turn into general ed classrooms. Another boiler room that needs to get renovated. And then more miscellaneous doors and valve replacements. Similar to East Middle, West Middle, school technology rooms are also planned for the relocation and upgrades. This existing pool would be infilled in order to convert the space to the tech suite with a new access corridor and necessary renovations to the locker rooms. Um, also West Middle is currently in need of additional classroom space. So, the existing tech shops are
051shown as converted into classroom space. So, on the right side of this plan in purple, it shows the existing two larger classrooms can be converted into four standardsiz classrooms. >> All right. So, we're going to start talking about the elementary schools. A lot of cool stuff happening with the elementary schools, especially in the outside to deal with traffic congestion. So, we'll we'll talk about each one one at a time. So, first, Allenale. Another fire alarm system generator needs to be replaced. There's some water infiltration in the boiler room that we want to remediate. Miscellaneous doors, miscellaneous plumbing replacements, and a backflow preer for the domestic water system. And then we're going to talk about some playground and some site repurposing. So I'm going to turn that over to Young and Right. Actually, I'm sorry. Allale
052and West are on the same campus. So you're going to have to go through one more slide before we show you this neat looking sketch. So West Elementary, we want to expand the cafeteria, renovate some cafeteria space to align with the expansion. Third floor classroom renovation. Need more classrooms up there for the kids with the realignment of the district. Then as far as building condition, we have fire alarm, some cracking and some stairs. Elevator is tired and needs to be modernized for current safety standards. Miscellaneous plumbing, miscellaneous doors, and then the site, as I alluded to. >> So, one of the big topics that we've been evaluating with the district is site improvements at Allenale and West Elementary. Um, so to address the issues that you guys have been experiencing with parent pickup and drop
053off, we took a look at the site and as you can see here on the screen, um, it shows a preliminary sketch of us just resurfacing and working with the existing parking lot footprint so that way we can reseal it and then restripe it into a new layout to improve the site circulation for parent pickup and drop off buses and cars. I think if you could stay on that screen for a minute. I know many of you are very familiar with that campus. And what creates kind of a obstruction and bottleneck is um just beyond Allenale as you're heading towards the tennis court. There is a structure. It it's a shed right now that's used. We put snowblowers and things in that, but it it creates an obstruction from traffic flow. In this rendering, we
054would be removing that garage. that garage would be demolished. We would pave where the garage is now, thereby allowing a large flow and loop of traffic coming into the campus and then traffic exiting the campus. We'd be removing what is really an obstruction and a barrier from flow um to allow us to to move cars more efficiently, more safely. Uh with our reconfiguration, we anticipate more buses uh and parents being on that campus. uh at the same time. And so us having a more efficient traffic flow is is critical. >> Can I ask a question? I I know I've asked this before and now that you've done the site survey and everything, there is no other way to get a secondary entrance or exit into this campus. Correct. We were looking at this approach as
055a really coste effective way to deal with the issue um because there are certain issues such as wetlands, traffic studies, um things that are big unknowns at this point um until we go further into the process. >> I'll just piggyback on that. >> Um I noticed there's no touching of the entry exit. So is that another case where we're not looking at expanding that footprint at all or are we just not talking about it currently? Um, not currently. It's something that we're looking to see if we could simply make one entrance only, exit only to help flow that traffic and divide it into three lanes of traffic as opposed to just one to really improve the traffic flow. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Clintel Elementary, also a another school that has major traffic issues.
056We'll get to that in the slide next. First item that we want to do for program needs, we're going to remove a no longer needed overhead coiling door that could potentially be a safety issue in the classroom. So, we're going to make that safe and add additional coat hooks for students. Building condition survey, fire alarm, grease trap for the kitchen needs to be replaced. Mortar is falling out and needs to be repointed to keep the building envelope watertight. And then there's the typical tire doors and plumbing items that need to be replaced. And there's a light pole that needs to be replaced on the outside, some playground equipment, always a fun item, and then the sketch. So, one thing on Clinton is there's a tremendous amount of backup uh on the street. So, this next
057sketch you're going to see we're in and we're pretty sure this is going to help eliminate or greatly reduce onbound offbound traffic. So, at Clinton Elementary, the existing parent pickup and drop off loop and bus loop currently creates a backup of cars onto Clinton Street at certain times of the day. So, this preliminary sketch on the screen shows an expansion of the current site work to address this issue and promote safety on the site. The parking lot is expanded to the north to allow for play space on the asphalt, which would double as overflow parking for events. And the pickup and drop off loop wraps around the rear of the building to allow for a substantial increase in the amount of cars that could be in the queue during pickup and drop off. There would
058be manual gates at the beginning and the end of the loop so the building staff could control when cars are allowed in and ensure safety if the school were to use the loop as a play space during the day. And with this layout, the new fenced in playground is relocated to the rear of the building just inside the loop. Okay. Northwood Elementary where I heard all the kids earlier tonight. The main office in this building has not been touched since inception. It's a very tired, very small space, but does need to be updated to current standards. And then we want to develop a music space in room 126. Typical fire alarm replacements. Again, it's a it's a recurring theme here. Plumbing repairs and exterior interior door replacements. And then on the site, we have some
059playground, play court, basketball court. You're going to see on the next slide. >> The site work improvements at Northwood focus around the redistricting of the building to include grades 3 through 5. So, the playground was assessed as part of the building condition survey and is in need of upgrades. And the layout proposes a fence stand complex, which has a play surface for the older age groups, maintaining and expanding on the existing concrete pads that were put in by the PTO in recent years, which are the lighter colored shapes within the dark outline. And a uh a new playground area, also fenced in. where I'm sorry and I apologize. I think I was just there like right before Christmas. What is the entryway situation at Northwood? Are we doing anything with that currently or and is
060that part of When you say office, does that affect the >> When you say entry way, do you mean entrance into the school or the parking lot directly? >> Uh entrance into the school. >> We would not be changing the entrance to the school. It would really be a renovation of the main office itself where the main office and principal's office is. Okay. Yeah. >> But that does have the dual entry uh secure vestibial as we have in all of our schools. So they do have that secure vest already. Yes. So no renovations there but a renovation of the main office. >> Okay. Am I wrong in thinking the main office is right there? I just didn't know if a window was added or am I like >> there is a window there. >> There's
061a window there. Okay. That's why I was asking. I >> probably walked right past it. Sorry, Angela. >> Yes. >> That's why I was just curious. I just remember walking in. That's all. Sorry, >> there is a secure vest to be with a window. >> Yeah, that's okay. Thank you. >> All right, next elementary school, Winchester Potter Elementary. Similar with the other building, there are some overhead sliding coil doors that we want to replace for safety. >> I'm sorry. Can you tell me what that means? So this is the old building the um where the kids would store material in the rooms. This overhead coil door would come down and kind of close off the storage area. >> Okay. >> And it's >> it's just a safety issue. So >> a garage door >> so
062that when you have your coats and backpacks hung up, the teacher could pull down this I'll call it garage door to hide the clutter. The problem is that the doors are so old they don't stay up and so it becomes a fall hazard. So we have for lack of better description Jimmy rigged that's an official term and put like wooden posts to hold the door up so that the door doesn't collapse and fall down um when children are exiting or entering that area. And so it would be removing that coil door and having cubby spaces, coat hooks, things of that nature available. This is primarily uh the first floor of both Clinton and Windpot where they have what you would see cubbies in kindergarten and first grade classrooms. On the second floor of these schools,
063the students do have lockers. So, it would really just be the renovations in the for first four classrooms that have what I'll call like a garage door that comes down to hide the clutter, but are original to the building if I'm not mistaken. And really at this point unsafe. >> Thank you. As far as building condition, survey repairs, fire alarm system, the grease interceptor at the kitchen again, more motor needs to be repointed uh for the building envelope. Then we have the miscellaneous plumbing and door replacement. This is getting a new playground and a drop off you're going to see next. The priorities at Winchester Potters are very similar to Clinton in terms of site work. So the existing parent pickup and drop off loop at this building also creates a backup of cars onto
064Potter's Road at certain times of the day. So this layout proposes the same expansion of the parking area and the new loop around the rear of the building with the manual gates. And the new fenced in playground location is slightly shifted from the existing location, but it still falls within the loop at the rear of the building. All right. So, we're done with the traditional elementary schools. Now, we have Winchester Academy, the Boseies building. We're primarily focused on keeping the building integrity of this building, unlike doing enhancements in the other buildings. So, it needs a roof. There's some leaks. We want to fix that. Building facade is leaking with wind. So, that's why we want to repoint the outside. And then there's a a beam where in the middle of the gym code it requires
065to be enclosed where the folding partition used to be. So that's shown on here. And once again, fire alarm system. As far as the existing bus garage, we want to maintain the integrity of that. So we're looking, we're carrying cost to replace that roof there. >> All right. So, let me clarify a couple things. Um, we've been living and breathing this scope of work for the last couple months. Um, and this is the board's decision. Um, you know, Dave and team have said like it's getting this, it's getting that. It's ultimately your as the board's decision to move forward with some of this proposed scope. The reason we're here tonight is hopefully you've kind of seen the flavor of the work that we've taken from the 400 down to the 200 to now the 82
066million of it's a lot of stuff that as Dr. Krueer said that basically needs to be addressed because of safety issues etc. you know um car traffic so on and so forth. So what does that mean as far as the next steps? So the next steps basically is um what you heard from before we're determining right now we're in the green box um for back up. Yeah. >> So determining the scope and budget. So we have been working at that right now as you've heard throughout the last few months. We still have a little bit more work to do. And then ultimately by um you know this month coming back and and kind of talking about finalizing the scope and then ultimately the next slide is going to give you kind of a detail of
067we'll be targeting the March board meetings to come back and kind of give a final synopsis of the overall capital project for you as the board to think about and then ultimately by the March 17th board meeting for you as the board to adopt not only the secret process but also having a determination if you'd like to move forward in the community for a public referendum vote. During that time, um, and slightly after the March 17th meeting, you've heard about some focus groups that we'd like to have engaged as well as kind of the community meetings and marketing of the project after the board makes a decision and then ultimately leading up to determining when your vote would be. I just wanted to clarify and I'm I'm just I reviewed this but just now noticing
068the focus groups are scheduled for February 25th and February 26, not March 25th and 26th. So I just wanted to clarify that. Um but we we'd like an opportunity to see if the board has any initial questions, feedback on the scope that we've outlined and the pairing down of those things that we really do believe are critical and important for this project. Any questions that you have for for me? If it's building condition survey items, certainly the team here can elaborate on those further. Sarah, >> I have a question about the baseball and softball diamonds at East Senior. Are those proposed to be built so games could be played simultaneously? >> Both outfields touch. That's the only but >> it was I know I should have asked them. >> There we go. I do have
069a little cheat sheet so I can never remember the center field dimensions and all that just in case that question came up. Okay. So center field for the baseball is 360 ft. Um home plate to back stop is 60 ft. Um softball home plate to back stop is 25 ft. So they do share an outfield fence. Um >> yes same time. >> Okay. >> I had a question on that. just knowing the community, bringing up the fact that we have two brand new football fields and just with long-term planning. Um, and maybe we can talk about this at our next meeting when Marissa's here talking more about sports, but I just want to confirm that we are fielding two softball teams and two baseball teams at this time. >> Yes. And we don't we do
070not have the capacity in district for for the need that we have for JV and varsity teams. So what that means is we are busing athletes daily to a town park for baseball on the east side because we don't have access to field usage in district. Um so we we do have to go out of district. We pay a fee to the town for the use of the facilities and we have the added transportation expenses to bus our athletes there um not only for competitions but for their their regular practice throughout the spring. >> Thank you. So we would reduce uh and eliminate some expenses by being able to have it on campus >> and the um you know no the town obviously does a great job but we have no control over the um
071fields at that point. So I like having our own industry control over conditions and that sort of thing. Um but I will double check on that. Do we agree that they can be played at the same is that typ have you guys seen that before where we have uh fields touching and and they play at the same time? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I don't know anything about >> Yeah. Like I just I know spring sports notorious for rain outs and rescheduling and trying to cram a season in and if we have two fields I want to make sure that they can run simultaneously for when that need arises. >> Excellent. Yeah, I love that. I love that idea. Thank you for doing that. I'm going to ask a question about the tennis courts
072at the elementary schools that are being repurposed. Is that still going to continue to be the practice space for the marching band or is there going to be another plan in place for them? >> No, it's going to be resurfaced in a way that we want it first to be accessible for students for play, but there isn't an intention to move marching band out of using those spaces. >> Okay. I have a question about the West Senior Basement or Technology Wing bathroom that's been out of service for like four years now. I'm just curious like where the priority lies between renovating a bathroom and then getting a bathroom open. >> I I don't know if I know specifically why that bathroom is closed. You said it's been closed for a number of years. I don't
073know the extent of the repairs that might need to be done. Um, can you confirm if that was in the scope of work for West Senior? >> So, it is it is it possible that that bathroom's been eliminated as a bathroom or is it uh like you said something? >> I guess I'll need to look into that, Kell, as to the reason why it's it's been closed to be able to better answer your question. I I just don't know that. >> Right. Right now, you can see the ones highlighted in purple are the ones that were under consideration for renovation for this project. And I believe the ones that you're talking about are >> those ones that you're talking about. >> Okay. >> And they're clo they're currently closed. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I
074made a note, Kell. I'll follow up with Mr. Brinker on that to find out more about it. One of the things that that with the team's guidance that we really looked at is how do we best go about renovating bathrooms knowing that we want to some of them are deplorable. Our students could could speak to this um in a lot more detail. Zach joined us uh with Ed for a tour of our schools and got to see the conditions of our bathrooms firsthand. The most economical way for us to renovate bathrooms when our boys and girls labs are in our high schools, they are often stacked. So you have a bathroom on the first floor, second floor, third floor. It is most economical for us to tackle that entire stack at one time as opposed
075to a a oneoff bathroom that's down a certain hallway or down by the gym. So we are focusing on those student labs that are stacked at West Senior specifically in addition to the stacked student labs the laboratories that are outside of the auditorium. So when you enter the front foyer of West Senior to the right and left of the foyer those laboratories that are are used by our community regularly when they're there for concerts and musicals um they are they are embarrassing and not of a standard that that we would want as a district. So that is also in the scope of the work at West Senior. But I want to be clear just because of finances, it is not every single lab in every single uh area of the high school. It's really those
076that that we have highlighted. I want to do more, but as you can see, the scope is already we're at $82 million and are prioritizing those that that we believed were in the absolute worst condition to tackle first. the I forget which school it was at the the restroom and probably back me up on this. The plumbing, none of the plumbing is even accessible if there's issues. There's a big hole being made into the wall just to do a repair. So, I I don't believe these bathrooms had easy access to even just replace guts and stuff. So, I mean, it's is is it I remember one of them is like there's this hole and then then there's this hole and then Yeah. So, um, it's kind of I don't know how they maintained them all
077these years without being able, you know, to get to them. So, I can't imagine that the infrastructure in the walls is bad. And I'm sure once you open them up, it'll be lots of fun. >> Uh, Clinton aramentary with the playground on the back side. Was it possible at all to put it actually on the other side of the building? Well, the reason why I say that is on that side of the building, uh, there's the house up front, but then there's nothing else back there, and it's definitely going to be an issue for vandalism and kids hanging out and doing inappropriate things, whatever else. So, >> a point of advocacy from Mrs. McCarten and also from our other principles were to add some exterior lighting so that it would be better lit. um because
078we don't want that new access road to to invite we would have the gate closed of course during the weekend or after school hours but there was advocacy to add exterior lighting there. I I'm not she did not Mrs. McCarten did not express that one side of the building versus the other may be more prone to vandalism. um but did have some rationale just for access to near the gymnasium and whatnot why she was preferring it to be in what would be I suppose the north uh west corner of the building >> and >> but but your preference would be >> the other side that's all I they're all duplexes but the whole street that's complete house is where where it is now you can see the house in the corner there on the upper
079right and then it's just all wooded areas until you get to the actually the next side street back there. >> Okay. >> And the um >> revisit that I I think it would be a simple switch if we wanted to do that. We can revisit that. I'd like to to pull in um you know certainly your voice is important in that we did consult with SRO Ryback more specifically about um the driveway loops the parent drop off loops at both Clinton actually in all of the elementary schools but at Clinton and WPOT >> the SRO's probably can speak to that. >> Oh right. Yeah, I would be interested to see his take on that. >> Yes, it's a good idea. Uh Clinton has been we've had issues especially behind the building and everything else. So
080that's why I'm just curious about his take on the playground here. The other question that I say you said additional lighting was requested. Is it true that I heard the like the new lighting at the high school it goes on a lower level until the parking lot is used and it brightens up. Is that a is that real? >> Is that a motion type thing or is that >> a >> Okay. So that would be a similar process we could use with this type of thing, a lower light, but then if a bunch of kids are there partying, the lights would go on better and >> Jeremy would run and no one would see them. So they're all set. They can have their own little party. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um I have a question
081and this may have already been addressed. I don't pay attention. The west senior elevator had issues at one point recently. Um is it been fixed and that's why it's not on this part? That's a >> that that was an emergency repair we did. If I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, Mick. That was about a 75 to $80,000 emergency repair that we needed to do. >> That's accurate. >> But the emergency repair got it to where we're good now. Not a like a band-aid. >> Correct. Correct. >> Uh I have two questions about the East Middle plan. So the first one is if we're putting the tech rooms in the old pool facility and we're putting the music suite in the old tech facility, what's going to be happening with the current music rooms?
082Is there a plan for that currently? >> Yeah, the current music rooms are not ideally located because um when designing a building, my preference as a principal is always to have the noisy stuff together. It just makes instructional sense. So, if you see in some of our schools, you will see things like music rooms in the vicinity of the gym. That's the case at West Middle School. Your music suite of classrooms is near the gym or in other schools, music rooms that are near the cafeteria. You tend to put those noisier spaces together. That's not the case right now at East Middle. You have a music classroom across the hallway from what I'll call a traditional classroom where they're trying to teach mathematics or social studies. So those current music spaces would be repurposed as
083instructional spaces in classrooms. East Middle, their footprint is going to shrink a bit because all of our central offices are moving over to what was East Elementary and the current sixth grade wing. So East Middle School will will shift some of their current classrooms into what are currently music classrooms. They'll be picking up the new music classrooms where technology is right now. But I think it'll just lead to a smarter layout of all of the classrooms at East Middle. Okay. >> Yeah. I have a a friend of mine. He's a substitute teacher at East Middle currently, and he's I think a long-term sub for a teacher in the sixth grade wing, and he was talking to me about how the sixth grade wing would be closed down for central offices. And he was concerned that
084there wouldn't quite be enough room to fit in uh the new sixth grade classrooms in the space that would be provided. So, that's good enough. Thank you. >> We have met with Jason Marioli who's the principal of the East Middle School a few times, most recently just yesterday. In fact, Mr. Cerone, Dr. Cervone, uh Mr. Bar and I were meeting with Jason Marioli to again review the floor plan to review what the layout is. Um I wanted him to see the renderings of the new proposed music suite and he is confident that they will be able to fit in that that floor plan. I think the reality is just like in your house if you move into a bigger house sudden suddenly you find you fill all the cupboards and closets. East Middle has had
085the benefit to spread out and to enjoy full-size classrooms. So there may be a reading teacher who provides intervention service for four or five students who is enjoying a full-size classroom or a speech pathologist who's enjoying a full-size classroom and that isn't the space that's allocated in other schools. So, they have certainly had the ability to spread out and enjoy that and it is going to condense their footprint a bit, but Mr. Marcoli is confident that they can fit in all of the allocated spaces within East Middle School. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> Thank you all for being with us tonight. Thank you. You know what I'm going to ask? As you're packing up, um I know we're considering um a standalone building at East Middle. Is that what would you call that?
086An out >> really a garage door facility. >> Okay. And that's easier to do than classroom space because it's not as like it could be used for anything maintenance- wise. Like there's not the same rules, right? It's like a bird or um and and I'm just throwing this out here now, but for years I've always wanted to get consideration for pole barns. Um again, West Middle, great great performance, great show. Those sets cannot be stored anywhere on our property because of space. Can are we considering at all any storage space for things like that? I'm just asking. Or like do you know how it is? Like if you're building a 25x 25 ft garage, but if you go 30 x 25, it only adds a smidgen of the cost. I'm just asking if we've considered
087it or if I can ask if we can talk about it at some point. >> It it isn't considered in the scope of the work that's been done. I think we've been really cost sensitive to not not things larger. We can certainly look at what that would be if we were to expand the footprint of that a bit to allow for some storage. I also think um we do need to take the opportunity to go into our basements and clean and purge um because we have we have space available. Okay. >> It's miraculous how things like these um storage units are are all over the place, but sometimes we just need to go in and clean out the >> the junk drawer in the basement. And um not to say that we couldn't benefit from
088that, but I'm we have a lot of space in district. We truly do. Not sure that the the use of it is is preferred right now. >> Well, I'll rephrase that question then. Could we consider that or can we consider a group going through and cleaning out our attics? >> Okay. How's that? Cool. Thank you. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> And Lisa, just because you mentioned cleaning out the junk drawer, is are there things down there that could be sold? Like are there old desks or something like that that we could sell to the community and get some money from it? Nick and I have talked about, you know, there's organizations like Auctions International and things that you can bring in and do um sale of old furniture, old old equipment. It takes
089some some man hours and some uh work to be able to do that to mobilize that. But but there are things and we're going to experience that at the Ebenezer building. When it's time to vacate that, we need to determine are these things that that we need to declare obsolete. What are we going to do with the the stuff that is stored there? Thank you. Good. Good. We'll move on to the um budget update presentation. Um everything okay, sir. Or you got to >> Yeah. I got to take care. >> Okay, great. Um at this point, I'm going to excuse Zach to not go out and have a lot of fun, but deal with a flood issue. >> Yeah. >> Um if you can have our budget presentation, please. >> Thank you. Well, Theel and
090Alyssa Strauss are going to be joining us for the budget conversation. We'll have um one seat available here, but maybe we can pull up another chair unless unless you'd like to come up to the podium. Whatever your preference is. >> So, we wanted to share with you um we're I I would say a bit behind schedule. We did plan to share some budget information January 20th, but of course that uh session was cancelled due to the weather. So, we wanted to update you as to where we are in the budget development process. This is our budget calendar and the calendar that the board of ed has adopted to keep us on track and to operate with transparency as we develop our budget. Everything that is in bold really reflects the work that we've done previously
091or the stage that we're at currently. um where you'll be getting details tonight on the state aid revenue as outlined by the governor and then the initial uh tax cap calculation. We'll be able to give insights to that to the board tonight. And then you see upcoming and in future board meetings, we'll be presenting to you the first draft budget for your feedback. Any feedback that we receive, we take back and consider making re revisions for the second draft uh budget to the board. and then ultimately adoption of the budget by by uh April by midappril so that we have adequate time for the community uh to be able to be fully informed before the community votes on the budget which would be May 19th. So, with that, just a few things I previously mentioned.
092Um, what was included in the governor's proposed budget is an expansion of universal prek funding, and it increases that full day funding for a student um from 5,400 per year per student to 10,000 per year. Um, there is some concerning language in the governor's proposal in that it aims to mandate UPK. And if UPK is mandated, I think you will hear from school districts throughout the state a few initial concerns. One, do we have the space and capacity within our district to house all of the UPK? Second, if you don't have the space and capacity in district, do our community-based partners and community- based organizations have the capacity to take that on? And then lastly, and this is a concern, think of upstate in the north country and even downstate Long Island, Manhattan. They deal
093with significant staffing issues. The proposal here, if man, if UPK was mandated, the impact on New York State is 22,000 teachers. There are not 22,000 uh elementary teachers readily available. And so there are some significant concerns from what the governor proposed to what might ultimately be adopted. But while this overall is a good thing, it's not without concern either. Because if it becomes a mandate, it sounds great in theory. Just like electric vehicles sounds great in theory, but the devil's in the details in terms of if it's a mandate, there's some real challenges for school districts. And then additionally, I wanted to highlight uh New York State's effort to focus on mathematics instruction and the improvement of our outcomes in mathematics statewide. She has included in her proposal what she's calling back to basics in
094mathematics. This is $2 million that will go to NISET uh for education learning. They have a trust, the education learning trust to provide professional development to teachers. So we don't anticipate those dollars coming locally to us but actually being uh forwarded to NY. Our budget goals um are outlined here. You are familiar with these. These budget goals are are really they've been revised to reflect 2027, but they are the goals that that was established by the board last year to make decisions that are financially sound in alignment with the tax cap and foundation aid formula for example. Um and just being mindful of all of those things as we develop the budget. We have guidelines that we have established and that we've been operating under that are the board's guidelines. Um the first guideline being
095the instructional guideline to provide a staffing plan supplemented by support services, supplies, and contractual appropriations focused on the instructional goals of the district. And uh these bullet points below have been updated to revise our strategic plan and the instructional goals of the district under operations a responsibility. This seems to be a theme for tonight of the maintenance of our facilities and equipment and then also operations regarding technology transportation. We are looking to um continue our bus replacement schedule that we have had as a district and looking for opportunities to be able to expand our fleet of buses so that we can become less reliant on our contracted bus services. Long-term financial stability. Um we want to be mindful of everything that's in bold here on on the screen. and mindful of the tax levy cap
096that we have, contractual obligations, teacher retirement system, health care benefits. All of those are factors and considerations and um what we do to offset any of those increases. I think having financial stability when it comes to the use and the application of reserves, communication. Um, we will be, as we did last year, communicating with our stakeholders throughout the budget development process to educate them as we look forward to the vote on May 19th. We of course will have budget presentations. Last year we presented at the senior center for example and have budget presentations not only in this room but throughout the district and publication documents to raise awareness um for our community. So next we're going to start to break down the actual um areas of the budget both the appropriation side that are in
097development and the revenue side. I'm going to turn it over to Alyssa and Will to talk about some of the details of those items. So this slide details where we currently fall on the appropriation side of the budget. Um so you can see there's five main categories that we're going to be hitting. Salary and benefits. We're currently working on salary and benefit projections that include um certified and classified staff payroll and then in turn feed into social security costs, retirement system payments, healthcare benefits, and workers compensation. Um initial data should be available in the near future on those. We're just still working on the projections. Um, moving on to the categories that we currently have in first draft, the other codes and debt service. Uh, we have our first draft of these sections and I
098will detail those further um in upcoming slides. For Bosey's budget, we're currently in process with this. We had our kickoff participation meeting with Boseies on January 26 and we're working on that aspect of the budget currently. And additionally then there's the transfers which we will work on further as the budget continues to come together. So this slide details the initial assembly of the 2027 um budget requests for district departments that we have received. Uh the rows in yellow are kind of um object codes in the budget that have significantly changed during their initial requests. So we have items such as contracted transportation which has increased due to um being impacted by contract pricing and additional bus leases. Uh we have an increase in property and casualty rates in the 420 object code. In object code
099466 we have an increase due to internal capacity for building repairs. Uh in code 46-9 contractual we see an increase due to primarily special education service providers and B&G requests. Uh code 473 charter school tuition increase due to increases in enrollment seen at charter schools. And in uh object code 477, which is electric, we are anticipating higher estimated electricity costs for the upcoming school year. >> Any questions on that? Anybody get their electric bill for the current month? So this slide shows the initial 2027 budget for debt service which reflects our current debt service levels plus additional borrowings for the approved 2018, 2023, and 2025 capital projects. So you can see um an increase in the change column due to those additional borrowings that will occur in June 2026 and June of 2027, which will
100all be captured in the upcoming um school year. So Alyssa just highlighted some of the changes that we're anticipating on the appropriation side, which is really your expenditure side. And now Will is going to shift and look at our projections that we have for revenues. Um, as I mentioned previously, we have the governor's proposal that is just a proposal. Uh, usually the budget is not adopted. The the target is April. often it's significantly later and in worst case scenario it's it's after our budget has been adopted or voted on uh by voters. So it's responsible for us to to use conservative numbers because we don't know until that budget is adopted but Will's going to highlight some of the revenues um next. >> There are a lot of revenue categories that we have. What we
101have tonight really is the two main numbers u the tax levy limit that's not the tax levy itself. Okay, it's the tax levy limit we have to adhere to to only have a a uh a majority vote to uh to pass the budget and then the uh the first shot at state aid by the governor. So, I know the numbers are small on your screen. Hopefully, you have it in front of you. Uh the bottom line is the draft uh tax levy limit calculation shows an increase of about $1.6 million. That's 2.25%. Uh last year was 2.7, it was 1.9 the year before that, then 2.5 and 2.2. So it's it's in the middle of the trend at probably at the lower end of the trend. This is based on uh the 2% calculation, change
102in pilot payments and a change in the capital exclusion calculation. for state 8. Uh we put a little historical data in here to illustrate the process for state aid. So I'm going to start with the governor's proposal uh not for next year. I'm going to start with the governor's proposal that we heard of January before. So in January of 25, the governor came out and said uh West Senica Central Schools would get about $69.5 million of state aid. By the time this had finished the budget process with the state, which I think was late last year, um it was $71.7 million. And you'll notice the big adjustment there was in building a because when the governor gives her proposal, she does not have the information from the work that's done in our department this year
103by Alyssa to file final cost reports on completed projects by December 31st. And I think we also literally filed them the last week of December. If you don't file them by December 31st, you don't get any aid in the year. If you file them by December 31st, you get a half year's aid for the remainder of the year. And then, you know, you get the full year the following year. So, that's where you see the major uh change. If you go to a current estimate, and this was last week's estimate at the end of January for what we will receive in the current budget year, you'll see that on the foundation aid line, the top line, it's it's changed very little. Um the Boseies line is actually down as we have lower Bosey's expenses happening
104right now. Uh we're pretty flat on uh private and public excess cost. That's cost we pay for tuition for special ed students out of district. Um building aid is about what was projected, just slightly below. Uh transportation aid is much higher because our final numbers that we filed with the state in the fall for the 25 school year uh were higher than anticipated for transportation. Therefore, we generated more aid. And then structural material aids are about the same, down a little bit on enrollment. So you can see that we're trending towards 72.3 million versus the budget of $71 million. So that's a $1.3 million positive variance at this point. So when we originally budgeted this, we budgeted 99% of what the legislature approved for West Senica. Now, uh, the numbers coming in at slightly higher.
105Now, let's flip to 2027, uh, budget. The governor in the last couple weeks has come out and proposed $73.2 million for West Senica based on our statistics. Um, again, look at the building aid column. She did not have the reports that we filed at 1231. Um, so same thing is repeating this year. So in the next month we'll be able to update that number as the state issues a report that basically cleans that data up and brings it up current. Um Bosey's aid up slightly. Uh again that's on higher expected Bosey's aid and you've already seen the year before that's subject to variance. Uh pretty flat on the tuition costs. uh transportation continues to grow as we continue to invest into the department and flat on materials aid. So the number that's disappointing to myself
106and to our staff here is the 1% increase in foundation aid. You that's well below any inflationary rate. Um that's the money that's free and clear of expenditures if you wish for us to invest and it totals 500,000 on $73 million worth aid. So, I can tell you 500,000 sounds like a big number, but in a $170 million budget doesn't go a long way. >> The reality is this is going to feel like a loss to us because if our foundation aid is going up by 1%, it would we'd be flat and even if all of our expenditures were also going up by 1%. But most of our salaries and benefits increase by more than 1% a year. Expenditures increase by more than 1% a year. We still have unknown variables such as the impact
107of tariffs and other things that that are anticipated to drive our costs up at a rate higher than 1% a year. So the real costs or the real um dollars available to us for our expenditures are going to feel less than what what the 1% foundation aid is going to be able to to cover for us. when we present at the end of the month, we'll be able to present, like I said, an updated building aid number um because we'll finally have the state processing the eight final cost reports we filed the last day of the calendar year and uh that'll have generated uh the aid numbers we'll be receiving. So, I would expect that aid number to grow certainly in excess of six six and a half million and maybe closer to seven. So
108the numbers on this screen are what we refer to as our state aid runs. The numbers that we get from the state which right now are the governor's proposals and projections of what we anticipate for state aid. But will this was a question that came up previously at a board table. Can you speak to nowhere on the screen does it um indicate an amount or allocation for us for lot lottery revenue or mobile gaming sports revenue. Can you speak to where that lives in state aid andor it reflected here in our anticipated revenues? >> Sure. So the only time we get data from the state reflecting in state aid and that includes the actual budget is adopted by uh the legislature. We get it in these terms. Boseies uh access costs building transportation and structural
109materials and then foundation aid. When they pay us those aids, none of those terms really appear. They pay us in terms of general aid. General includes building aid. It includes transportation aid. They do pay us BOSI's aid separately because that flows through the Boseies first and then is released to us. So we don't actually get something from the state on that. That comes directly from the Boseies. And those codes that we get paid on called the 3000 codes are are are done and they they all group together. So what happens is they add to the same total, but the state is reaching into its own pockets and determining what it's going to pay in video lottery terminals, what it's going to pay in lottery aid, what it's going to pay out of mobile sports betting
110aid. Those aids are totally unknown to us until we get the first readout in September. So, we get a sheet of paper in September and says, "Here's the lottery aid. Pay it in code 3002 or 4. Um, here's the video video lottery terminal aid. Pay it out of code whatever. Here is the mobile sports betting aid. Pay it out of code whatever." So what you see in the supplemental statements for the financial statements that one page that was questioned at the last meeting th those are numbers that we are just we receive in September. So when we budget for the year we budget the number you see on the screen the 71 million for the year we're in currently and then we break it out based on historical trends. So what because mobile sports betting
111is relatively new aid and has only been paid in the last two years we sort of put a lump number in the budget for lottery and then when we got the mobile sports betting we broke the mobile sports betting part out. So we get no data on the pocket the state will use to pay us. The analogy would be you're owed $100,000 from your employer and your employer is a school district and then you ask the question, how much of my pay is coming out of school taxes? How much is coming out of pilot payments? How much is coming out of interest? How much is coming out of state aid? I mean, you don't know that as the receiver of the money. You just know that you got your contractual payment. So, this is the
112same function. We're we're contractual. We are in business with the state. We have a contract that says they'll pay us certain amounts of aid based on certain data. What pocket it comes from, we don't know. So that's where the discrepancy lies between what we might say in different categories because we have no known data for that versus what the actual is. The bottom line is is that what the totals total up to and the reasons why the totals may vary from year to year and we tried to illustrate that in the first three columns. Thank you. Are there any questions on that? >> And then we'll look ahead to next steps. Of course, tonight being a budget presentation, we do have a budget advisory committee meeting. Our budget advisory committee meeting has been meeting uh
113regularly and will continue to. We typically meet the week before the board meeting. However, February 17th is our winter recess. So, typically budget advisory would meet on the 17th and then the following week we'd have the board meeting. These uh meetings are going to occur on the same night simply because of the recess. Um but at the February 24th work session, we anticipate having more detailed and some firmer numbers around projections with salary and benefits as Alyssa mentioned. Um other appropriation and revenue sources and then the final tax cap calculation. Do you have any questions on on where we are in the budget development process and projections at this point? >> Thank you both. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Sorry. The next meeting is the 24th. One more time. >> Board work session 6
114p.m. >> Okay. Budget advisory. >> Budget advisory. >> Uh we'll I'll determine that. We've t typically been meeting at 4:30. We're also trying to do a policy committee meeting that night. So we'll firm up that time and email everyone just to confirm. >> Okay. And um will if you're doing the email, can you include me on that, please? I'm going to um the budget advisory committee. I think I'm included. If I'm not, can we make sure I am? Zach and I met um about him not being able to make the last one, and I'm going to be his backup. So, I just want to make sure that I know when it is so I don't miss it. Okay, we'll move on to public comments. Uh, I will not call that person up for a fourth
115month in a row. I promise. So, uh, nothing else on the sheet. I feel like I should invite him up anyway, but I won't. Um, so I don't need to read it unless there's anyone here that wants to come up and speak. No, you're not. want to chop it at the bit. No one wants to. Okay, great. We'll move on to personnel on number four. Um, if I can have a motion on 4 A, please. I'll make a motion to approve it. >> Jeremy, a motion to approve 4 A. May I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Second. And any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Okay. Passes 6. Thank you. We'll move on to consent agenda next. Consent agenda is items 6 through nine. If I may
116have a motion on the consent agenda, please make a motion. >> I'll second it. >> Sarah Jeremy first, Sarah second. There is no discussion on consent agenda. So all in favor? >> I. Anyone opposed? Okay. Passes 6. And if I was going to introduction. >> Yes. Thank you. If I could ask Dr. Cervone to come up. Uh the board just took personnel action items. Um and we have some folks that we'd like to recognize as a result of that. Um if you don't mind just pulling up the screen so that we can do some personnel recognition. Um first I'd like to highlight that tonight Alyssa Strauss was just uh recommended by me to the board of education which you approved Alyssa to be our next school business official. So congratulations TO ALYSSA. [applause] AND I
117WILL TURN IT OVER to Dr. Cerone to highlight some other personnel uh action items that the board just resolved. >> I don't believe anyone else is present, but I'd like to recognize and congratulate our retirees. I've worked with many of them over the years personally and losing a lot of great uh experienced educators. And there also are other appointments uh some of which I also do know moving in joining the district and moving into some different positions in the district and excited about what they're going to bring to these new department. So I'm sure they're watching at home and congratulations >> Rich. This slide is within the superintendent report. If you just pull up the superintendent report where I left off, the very next slide is personnel recognition. So if you just uh there you
118go. >> Oh, sorry. >> No problem. It wasn't a separate presentation that that probably threw you a little bit. So, we'll highlight um the retirees that John mentioned. >> Next slide. Do I have it? Do you have >> there's not much here for us. And I also would like to congratulate Alyssa. I've had the pleasure to work with her since she's come here and excited about what you'll bring uh to the business uh office and our district. And uh it's a huge opportunity for us. So, We have Yeah. And here's our retirees. >> So, congratulations to all. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. What we're going to do is we'll take a brief 5m minute recess. We'll throw the timer up on the clock and I promise in 5 minutes or less I'll be
119back here at the microphone. Um, use the facilities, say hello, congratulate and we'll be back here in five minutes. Thank you. We are going to move to 111 new business. Um, look through it. If I can have a motion, I believe, well, I think a motion on whatever wants to make a motion on. I'm showing A through N would be a good move for me. >> Yeah. I don't know about Tito. I don't know about that list. I'll make the motion approve >> make motion approve A through N. >> I'll second >> Jeremy Laura. Excellent. Uh any discussion? >> Um yeah, I'd like to just um highlight some donations that we have this this month. So, we have $5,726.38 for awards, banquet, and merchandise from um a West and East wrestling fundraiser through Snap Mobile
120and $1,000 from Senica Hose Company number one auxiliary to Winchester Potter Elementary to be used towards student engagement through entertainment for their field day on June 15th of this year. So, thank you very much for your um donations. We always appreciate seeing those on the agenda. Thank you. >> Awesome. Let's see that. And I'm just going to point out real quick, we got a a cool trip approved um the East Senior Varsity Baseball and also the Deca State competition. We have some students going there that's held in Rochester and um it's a super great event. I'm so happy we have people going. On a on a side note, I do think they look for volunteers to help judge and it is some of the most fun I've ever had. So if they are looking if
121you're interested, we can get you connected and see if they are looking for um people to help out with that. you go for a a one night stay and you um judge these kids um probably not our kids but other kids and it's a lot of fun. So I'll throw that out there. Um I think we're good to go. All in any other discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? >> No. >> Passes 6. Thank you. I'm going to take care of some items. Actually, we're all set with the agenda. So, we're going to finish up our regular meeting um board meeting and what we're going to do is move into a work session. So, I want to let everyone know we're not doing any more voting on items. Um we're just going
122to work on a few things that we need to go over as a board. So, want to thank everyone for coming. Anyone um you guys uh you guys are going to stick around and work with us in our session. Um and then once we're done with the work session, we will move into an executive um to go over Superintendent Midyear evaluation. So, I want to thank everybody. Um, have a good night and uh be safe driving home or shutting off your YouTube or whatever it is. Thank you.