001[Music] Good evening everybody and thank you for joining us for our work session Tuesday March 25th 2025 with Senica Central School District. Um we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. I just want to point out that um Sarah is currently not with us and we're hoping that she'll join us in a little while. Jeremy, would you lead us in the pledge, please? Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of America to the Republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Thank you. [Applause] We do a quick roll call. If I say your name, say present. Present. Present. If I say if I say your name and you're not here, don't say me. Okay. Um Vincent present. Jeremy present. And I told you Sarah will be hopefully joining us in
002a little while. Mara present. Lorine present. Laura present. Ed present. Superintendent group. I am here. Thank you. We'll begin. Actually, we're going to go right into our presentations. Mick Bar, director of facilities, is here to present a facilit facilit. And I'll let you Thank you. Um, I'll be turning it over to Mick in just a moment, but um, for the board's knowledge, Mick has been our director of facilities, uh, and has assisted during a time of transition and has taken some time since his appointment to his role to really assess the department, short-term needs of the department, long-term needs of the department from a staffing and um, really operational standpoint and has some recommendations that he's going to be sharing with you. so that you get some insight as to again both his short and
003long-term vision for the facilities department. So, thank you Mick for your time that you put together in in the presentation and and we look forward to hearing more about your thoughts and visions for your [Applause] department. Make sure Okay. All right. Uh yeah, thank you for for uh having me tonight. I appreciate the opportunity. Um, you know, as as Dr. Krueger was just saying, you know, I've I've have only recently been appointed since July. Um, you know, I really appreciate the opportunity and the trust you've shown in me, you know, putting me in this role. It's really been a career dream of mine to get to this position and I'm really happy to be here to discuss the department with you tonight. Um, so, uh, my presentation, modernizing our buildings and grounds department. Uh, first
004thing I just wanted to take a couple minutes just to tell you about myself. Um, I live in Hamburg. Um, my beautiful wife Jenny, we got three kids. Um, I've been in this line of work for roughly 10 years plus. Um, I have an interesting background though. I originally was trying to be a teacher. I went to St. John Fischer College. I graduated in 2009, was certified to teach social studies 7 through 12. I sought for about 5 years. Uh, was was part-time going to Buffalo State. I was very close to finishing a master's degree in exceptional education. Um later on in life, I I went to ECC and uh earned a two-year degree uh in building management and maintenance. Um I was also in the Army National Guard from 2009 to 2015. Um and
005you'll notice a lot of these overlap. There was a period of time where I referred to myself as the ultimate part-timer because I was I was working part-time at Hamburg schools. I was part-time teaching. I was going to graduate school. I was in the Army National Guard. um came to a point when I just realized that teaching wasn't going to be the career for me. Um you know, some of my interests had changed. Um worked at Hamburg as a custodian, labor, cleaner, uh was at Frontier as a head custodian, eventually became something called the district head custodian, and then was hired here as executive housekeeper all the way up until this past July when I was promoted to DOF. So, I've really gone up um you know the chain here and worked basically every type
006of job um that that's that's been there in the buildings and grounds departments. Um so, so objectives for tonight is I really wanted to talk to you about some of my evaluation of the B&G operations. um explain what I feel is a great opportunity for change in the department and you know proposals for some reform and improvements um to the department operations which might be an improved management team um improved career pathways technology integration and formalized training. Um, so look at look at our department. Uh, way I'm going to do this, I'm going to see kind of what I see going on in the past and current and kind of give you an idea of what what I would ideally like for the future. Um, department was and is experiencing ongoing inefficiency due to an
007insufficient number of management staff resulting in a reactive management situation. Something I'd see better for the future is a well staffed B&G office efficiently leading and serving the district at large, contributing to a proactive management environment. Um I I I really have had the experience in the past few years of of just feeling that as a management team, clerical team in the B&G office, we're we're rushing to put out fires and then the head custodians, the maintenance mechanics, everybody below us that we support. I feel often that we cannot provide the effective management and leadership to them because we're just putting out fires all the time. where, you know, any member of my department, you know, and in the B&G office is working, you know, efficiently in the best they can, but it comes to
008a point where, you know, it's beyond our capacity. Um, some things related to that, the executive housekeeper position was vacant prior to November of 2022 and then has actually been since I've been promoted to DOF in July of 2024. uh the assistant superintendent of B&G and what actually became the head custodian on special assignment. That position uh has been vacant since um July of 2024. Um our maintenance mechanic crew chief position has been effectively vacant since uh January 23rd of 25. And unfortunately um to those of you that know Dave Cer, he had a very severe stroke and he had to do a medical retirement. So very very sad situation for Dave. you know, keep them in your prayers. Um, you know, but that was a major loss to to our department in terms of
009experience and knowledge. Um, and our highly capable, you know, department clerk is performing at peak efficiency, yet the heavy workload is honestly, you know, exceeds what one person can manage at times. Um, so you know, on the future side, I I would really like to see leadership and clerical roles f focused on what I'm kind of breaking down to past, present, and future. So when you think past, you know, I'm thinking repairing and reconfiguring in-house projects of of things that come with old buildings that are decades old, 100 years old. Um, when you're looking at present day, that's things like day-to-day operations. That's things like um, you know, preventative maintenance, scheduling, ju just things that occur on a day-to-day basis. And then future, that's big picture planning. That's that's technology, that's new equipment, that that's
010new change we want to we want to look at in the future. [Applause] So continuing uh a look at our department um in the past and current you know I believe we have too few positions in which motivated employees early in their career can can develop and gain experience. Um I just don't feel there's enough opportunities for someone who comes in brand new employee especially think of someone who's 18 19 20 25 something like that. They're just starting out in their career. I believe at this point there there there isn't always the best opportunities for them to learn hands-on. Um what I'm looking for the future is new employees have a career path ahead of them. Multiple pathways to choose from. You know that over the time in their career they can they can work
011into different higherend positions within the department. Um technology is underutilized limit limiting productivity. I'd like us to move to a position where technology is used to a maximum acting as a force multiplier. Now, when I say force multiplier, I really this is a great time for me to mix in uh military and history background I have. Um the a great example is when you think of force multiplier, you got to think about World War I. Millions and millions and millions of men doing the fighting. Okay? If you think about modern day military, there's far fewer people in the military. I mean, in terms of sailors, Marines, airmen, you know, soldiers, there's far fewer of them. But they have much more technology at their hands. they have much more training and they're much more effective than
012anything that was in the past. So that's an example of what I mean by force multiplier. Um training and staff development is unstructured and inconsistent. And that doesn't mean that the individuals in the department aren't doing their best to train people. What I mean is we either don't have the time to set up a formal training plan and or we don't have the time to manage who's been trained in which types of skills and who's deliberately had which types of content or training towards towards their job. Um district-wide sections are underst staffed and under equipped. Um so in the future I'd like to see training and staff development and structured deliberate and tuned to the needs of the district. uh district-wide sections are properly staffed and have access to a variety of equipment and technology.
013Um so this gets to some challenges we have, but I'm I'm trying to see them as opportunities. So um the labor pool has changed significantly, especially in the last 5 years. The prospects of hiring highly trained and experienced external candidates to fill higher level roles. So these are things like maintenance mechanic or high custodian. There's very low prospects of finding someone out someone outside that we can hire to fill that role as we need it or as as I would imagine someone you know would be in that role. We're competing with private employers. Another challenge is the lack of technology integration limits our performance. Uh we have to think of the you know our capital project investments. We've invested heavily into camera systems. Um, our electronic door locks are going in, access controls, web-based controls
014for HVAC and building systems, lighting systems, and more and more everything from event planning to work orders, maintenance, you know, preventative maintenance, anything like that, it's all based online. It's based in the cloud. Even things just like sharing documents and information is increasingly based in the cloud. Um, another challenge we have is the department is in the path of a title wave of retirement. Um, when this passes, we'll have lost over 300 years. So, and this is thinking of of people like Joe Far retiring soon. Jim Zachi, who had worked for the district for over 40 years. He retired last summer. Dave Kohler, who I mentioned had worked for the district, I believe over 40 years. He just was retiring. And we have some head custodians. Um, one of them who's sitting with us right
015now, he's actually going intending to retire soon. Um, maintenance mechanics. These are people that have worked full careers and you know are pretty much experts in their various roles and in a matter of several months we're going to be losing all of them in retirement. So it will be a major hit but I also see it as an opportunity. Um so we've been given an opportunity to rem reimagine the department and plan for the future and I believe we can do it in a fiscally neutral and fiscally responsible way. um some positives to build on and you know there there's many more than what I have listed here but I I'm just wanted to you know note a few that I think are relevant to the the to the discussion today. Um the B&G department
016has leaders in its ranks. We are blessed with several people who I believe hold the desire to lead, manage and motivate. And I want to bring that up because I've been in other I've been in other employers, okay? I've been in other places and that's not always the case. sometimes you you are at a lack of leadership within your team and I believe that's not something we lack. I believe there are people in various positions um that want to rise to the occasion but I think I think we need to help them get to those those spots. Um we have several employers employees early in their career whose potential exceeds their current position. Their attitude is excellent. Their work ethic is ideal. I believe district leadership, those above me, have shown a willingness to consider
017and try new ideas. So, I I I I thank you for that. Um, you know, discussing this presentation with you before we we we met tonight. Um, I've I've received a lot of support for this and and that's why I was brought um here tonight to speak with you. Um, our department already has the framework needed to be successful. We're just missing a few key pieces. I missed that. Okay. So ideas for reform improve management team. So at the top I'm proposing you know director of facilities also um filling the the vacant executive housekeeper position and creating a position that we we did have in the past um assistant director of facilities. In the past it was assistant superintendent of buildings and grounds. Um and I I envision that as a as a triangle, a
018team of leadership um that would believe, you know, that would lead the maintenance grounds, custodial and clerical sections. And again, what I'm envisioning is the director of facilities specifically, you know, I have a focus on big picture planning, the future, uh large change. Um the assistant director of facilities is is focusing on things of the past. So repairs, you know, heavy maintenance issues, in-house project planning, things like that. Executive housekeeper, you know, which was the position I did, and I I really value having somebody that could take some of that off of my plate, so to say, is just someone who's focusing on the day-to-day operations, the stuff that pops up on a, you know, on any random day. um you know things like purchasing supplies um you know really anything that happens um so
019an idea I have here for reform um I think we're moving out of what I would consider restrictive model so the old model had limited pathways to learn promote and progress so when when I started with the district and you know there has been some some improvement to this in my in my mind if someone started as a cleaner really the next step after That position would be custodian. After that would be head custodian. And then some of the headcustodians would promote to be maintenance mechanics. Also, if you started as a ground work groundwork grounds worker, you could become a grounds worker crew chief. That was really the pathways that existed. There's been some improvement on that. But what I'm proposing is something multiple pathways towards a career. So we want to create some positions
020and titles in which newer motivated employees have the opportunity to learn and develop into the next generation. train and prepare the staff we have and our B&G department can be a destination district, a place where we can actually attract external candidates to come work for us because they they can see that, you know, I can start as a cleaner, maybe I could be a labor, make maybe I could be a maintenance helper or custodian or grounds worker. Um, another title I'm adding to this is senior custodian. Um, I'm told that we did have it in the past. I'm seeing at some of our larger buildings, you know, the it would be appropriate to have a a title between custodian and head custodian. And again, it's another stepping stone in a person who's choosing that that
021career path to become a head custodian. It's one step along the path. Um, so just, you know, looking at this model, I I believe it it presents multiple opportunities. So, you know, things have changed, but the way it always was in the past is often if you you were hired as a cleaner, that was your way of getting your foot in the door. Then you move on to something like labor. What I'm proposing is a person in that position, they might decide to become a laborer and be working with the grounds crew outside to learn how to be a grounds worker. They might decide to become a maintenance helper. And that that's on the job training to eventually become a maintenance mechanic. Um and and I consider right now I I do feel we have
022some people that would fill these types of roles but the roles don't exist yet. Other ideas for reform technology integration ecosstructure. Now this is something that's recently been implemented and this is this is under operations now. We have remote access to building controls via any device on the school network. Um and with VPN capabilities you can you can access it from home. Helix Intel. This is something that's planned. We actually get get this at no cost to us because we work with Nicer, our insurance corporate, insurance company. Um, it is something I've planned to do. But again, going back to the the BNG office staffing. It's just something I I quite honestly have not had the time to dedicate, but I think once we do have the time to do this, it will dramatically improve
023our operations. I mentioned that we're we're in a position where we're reacting to to management issues, reacting to repairs, things like that. This Helix Intel will give us the opportunity to properly manage preventative maintenance things ahead of time. Um, it also tracks assets and equipment. Uh, it has an entire preventive maintenance scheduling and tracking system. And it will replace our, frankly, I think it was designed in the '90s, Qear. It's um, it works. It's okay, but it's it's not user friendly and it it's it's very, you know, cumbersome. Um, and Mick, for those that don't know what QAware is, it's it's our uh ability to put in a help desk ticket, for example, a work order. So, that's our our current system that we utilize that is um not user friendly. It's it's a pretty
024archaic system, right? And it's um it it takes it takes a person to manually create every single user account for the district while Helix Intel has single sign on. So that would link seamlessly into everything that we have already created our entire infrastructure for online access. Um along with the these programs, a technology request I have that would really support the custodians, the mechanics, the B&G office to be able to to do this is I'm asking for 15 take-home laptops with VPN capabilities. So this is for head custodians, grounds crew chief, people like that that they can access Helix Intel Ecosstructure. They can access maybe select cameras, you know, maybe the outside cameras to see what the snow conditions are. They can do that from a distance. Um, I'm also asking for 15 to 20
025Chromebooks, specifically ones that are 360 where the where the screen flips around and has a worldfacing camera. One thing that's really interesting about Helix Intel is there's small barcodes that we can put on any piece of equipment. And right now, like I mentioned that this is planned, just not active yet. Every single air handler, unit, refrigeration, you every piece of building equipment has this on there. It's just and it's been tracked and it's uploaded into the the cloud. If a mechanic or a custodian needed to generate a work order, they could walk up with a with this iPad or a you know uh Chromebook, take a picture of the barcode, it would the unit would pop up and everything, every work order, every every task, every note, every piece of um equipment that goes to
026it, like you know, a belt, what type of grease to put on it, that can all be digitally tracked. Um and again, this can be connected to either reactive work orders or preventative maintenance work orders. Um I I also you know think we have to have an openness to new technology. Um so I believe want to talk about floor machines here. So these have been on the market for a few years but they're getting cheaper and they're getting more efficient. More and more companies are creating them you know you know every single year. Um, this is a robotic floor machine that does does it work independently of a person with it. Now, what I I mentioned force multiplier. I think this is a good this is just one good example of if we were to
027invest as a district in this type of equipment, giving this to the custodial sections would allow them to accomplish more, do more and focus on other things like you know ma maintenance to the educational spaces or work orders, preventative maintenance, those type of things. Um, and as we gradually gradually integrate these this technology into our procedures, we'll gradually need to shift our personnel to higher levels of training, higher higher paying positions to be frank, higher specialized [Applause] positions. So, um, the last piece of this this proposition, um, before tonight there were only six people that knew about this. Um, this is this is something I have been dreaming about for a number of years now, even before I worked for the district. Um, like I mentioned earlier, I went to ECC, graduated with the building
028management and maintenance um, program. It was a 2-year degree. I had to do some of it part-time, so it took me closer to 3 years. Um, it's a fantastic program. The course load is exactly what we need as a department to train our people, especially I mentioned those people earlier in their careers that have a potential and want to move up to the higher positions. This is the type of course we want we want them to attend to. Um I'm basically asking for the district to explore the the opportunity or the the option of somehow funding or sending people in my department to this program. Um, it doesn't have to be the full two-year, but I'm still in contact with some of the professors at this. It's a very, it's a very small faculty that's
029in this program. I do believe that if we set up some sort of formal training relationship with them, we could easily customize which classes an employee could attend to. Um, and if someone's looking to be a head custodian, there are certain courses that would probably be great for them. If they're looking to be a maintenance mechanic, there's several other classes that would be great. I personally took most of these courses and it covers a wide variety of things. If there's someone that maybe someday we see them moving into the role of an executive housekeeper or assistant director of facilities, maybe we send them for the whole thing. Um, whatever it is, I I just I I as I mentioned earlier in the presentation, at this point, I don't see us having the time to dedicate
030to training all the people to their full potential. I think this is a way that we can invest in our our current staff, especially if we're if we're having the the challenges of hiring from the outside. You know, let's fight with the army we have. I I think we can train them, we can equip them, and you know, we can we can prepare them to complete, you know, the mission of the B&G department, you highest [Applause] level. So, with that, you know, I just ask ask for your support. I really appreciate the opportunity to come speak with you tonight. Um, do you have any questions or any anything else you'd like to ask of me? Um, I'll start with you guys. Got some different um Oh, sorry. The current staffing of the BNG department, is
031it fully staffed or are you short-handed right now? We do have some open jobs. Yeah, we are short-handed, right? Yeah. Just like you know Dave Kohler, he um he had a medical retirement. We do have a few open positions. some positions we just filled but overall yeah we we are not completely staffed okay because I mean that's a huge concern I see before even considering any uh hiring at you know management level is man the job's got to get done in the buildings and management's not going to go and do the job so uh that's one thing that definitely needs to be focused on is getting every building up to full staff before we can even in my eyes consider you know hiring new management. Um, the schooling thing I I don't think is a
032horrible idea, but uh, reality, the way I see, you know, anyone that's doing a hands-on type job, everyone learns differently. So, you might have select few that will benefit from this, but you're going to have quite a few that will do much better, like you said, starting out and being in the building and actually learning the job from guys that are experienced and know it. Because you can go and read a book about, you know, fixing an engine or, you know, doing something on a boiler and until you're actually in there and with the specific unit that's in your school or, you know, building or a vehicle you, you know, the district owns it just cuz you read a book and, you know, learn about it there, you're not going to I I agree 100%.
033I I guess the reason I'm proposing both both of these at the same time is if we had an employee that we positioned them into a a job that is a learning role where they can do the hands-on next to going to the class on boilers or the electrical class. Um you know the two the two types of training would complement each other. That's you do doing one or the other exclusively is I don't believe is the optimal situation. A mixture of both for sure. I I don't u I don't disagree with you at all. And then those uh automatic floor cleaners, when would we propose those would actually operate in the buildings? My goal is over the next 5 years we buy 15 of them. Like what time during the the So the technology
034on those is, you know, like I said, the new models are being developed all the time, but they can operate any time. They can even operate while people are in the building. They're they're that good and they're that safe or we could operate them third shift. They're they're they're really are pretty amazing. And they can be mapped out. They can have all types of custom, you know, options that you can select where if there was a problem or maybe just, let's say in the winter the the first floor got especially salty from people dragging ice melt in, you could just send it out just on the first floor to do a cleanup midday. You could have it do third shift and it if they fill up, they empty, they clean themselves on their own if
035you buy the the docking part with it. Um, but like I said, my, you know, this is me just just being aggressive. My goal was 15 of these in five years. Well, my concern is if we did it when the buildings were closed uh with the motion sensors and all the schools, right? Yeah. So, you know, so that maybe that wouldn't be optimal, but but second shift or even in the day, they they can operate. They're that safe and they're that autonomous that they don't they avoid people and objects in the hallway. And then are all these positions that are on this uh chart you have, are those all civil service positions? They're all civil service titles. Only custodian, senior custodian, head custodian. Um I believe those are the only ones with tests. Well, okay.
036Executive housekeeper, DOF, those those have tests. Um assistant superintendent of buildings and grounds or assistant DOF. Um I do believe that's a test, which is something I only recently learned. Um, but you know the mechanic positions, they're civil service titles, but they're they don't they're not competitive. They don't require someone to take a test first. Cuz that would be my other concern with it is, you know, somebody that we want to go through this path all of a sudden takes one of these positions and then just isn't a good test taker and correct after the test comes out. I think it is important to look at that this this gives other pathways for a person who maybe isn't great at taking a test. Um, gives them other options. I'll yield. Nick, I just I appreciate
037you having a coming in and having a vision for for down the road. Um it seems to me that some of the ideas are, you know, the mother of necessity. You're going to have a difficult time finding people and attracting people in. So is that like mainly so like the the training and these other pathways is that mainly to attract in new employees to develop a career? I I I think it's both. I think it's both. I think if if the word get around that we are deliberately paying for formal training for our employees and we offer a wide variety of stepping stone positions to become a head custodian or a maintenance mechanic, etc. The world will get around. we're going to both recruit and the staff that we already have. They're going to be
038better prepared and I think they'll just like they'll they'll enjoy working here and they'll feel appreciated that much more. And I think there's an opportunity there for employee retention that we may recruit someone into an entry level position and then they see pathways for a career and for career advancement which we hope would lead to employee retention. that that people start with us and ultimately make it a career where there's career advancement opportunities and the support whether it whether it is sidebyside training whether it is formal training and schooling that occurs through ECC Mick and I have also discussed Erie 1BIES has workforce development programs that are we think of one Boseies as programs for high school students and of course our juniors and seniors in high school might go to area one Boseies, but
039they do have adult programs for workforce development where we can send someone and and they're very much hands-on to learn electrical systems, to learn HVAC. So, there's a few options before us, but I think recruitment, retention, career advancement opportunity so that we we hope that we are hiring someone that ultimately makes a career here. I just had one question. Um I know for my line of work too, but just you know what kind of time commitment would you be looking at to require that if we put you through this kind of education x amount of years that you're committing to the district? I I mean I I've talked informally about you know if if we provide this type of training you're you're going to work for us for three or four years but ultimately that's
040something I'll have to work out if we were to move forward with this with the superintendent we'll feel um but that that is definitely something that I'm I'm aware of. We don't want to train somebody and then they jump ship and take and take a job that they're looking for at a different district. Yeah, that that happens that happens within districts at the administrative level where doctorates are paid for by the district. I'm sure that's in fact happened here. And uh part of that comes with an agreement. So I think that our our our custodial staff, it would be great to have to build our own and give them that opportunity. the people that live in this community, give them the opportunity to benefit from that and build up their own uh career while working
041and serving our students and our schools. I think that'd be be an outstanding idea. One of the things I would suggest would be that somehow there be a Boseis component to this because uh some of the equipment that we purchase for instance Jeremy said being trained on specific equipment some of the equipment that we purchase comes through both these grants and then you would have maybe the pew has the same camera system that we have here in Wasa and we could be training those folks on that you know together and I think there might be even more of an opportunity than say in ECC that I think we would have more say with Boseies and how to craft those courses to customize them for our needs. But I I think it's a worthy pursuit and
042a and a good conversation to have. I'm reminded of the question, would you rather train and develop the people you have at risk of losing them or not train and develop the folks that you have and they're stuck with you? Yeah. When we invest in our people and train in them, it is an investment that comes at a risk. They may leave us for another opportunity. But the downside is we don't do that. And then what? And I think we have a, you know, the veterans in our our organization do a fine job of that, but I think a lot of it's on informal. It's like, you know, they take them under a wing. You know, someone like, you know, work with Pat Gian for for two days and you better than getting a master's
043degree somewhere else. But um you know formalizing that and maybe even you know turnkey trainers so maybe maybe our own people could be compensated for being a trainer you know. Yeah. I mean I think before it's come up mentorship like that type of thing. I mean we have it in the educational side we have an administrator side. Um, I love that idea. And I mean, Vince, you know how much I I mean, I've been a cleaner since my whole life. And had I known about this type of career when I was younger, I may not have been so dumb as to start my own company and I could be happily retiring in another 10 years and with a great career. I mean, I really love how you, you know, you can have a great rewarding
044job in the district. And I see all these people that are happy and I get sad that we don't have a lot of newer people coming in and so if we can find ways to get that I mean through Boseies an academy I mean the the the trades and the stuff we do can be a rewarding career we just got to get the younger generation to see it. Um I I would like I love the concept of getting out maybe ECC or Boseies, but I also want to um hopefully there's an aspect in here we can work towards, you know, career fairs more like the like I believe Allenale had a career fair a couple days ago. It was at in the gym at West uh Westell and students from Allenale came over. Yeah. And
045I don't know if we had any representation there or not of our people, but the people that do that could be the best ones to speak to the young kids about these types of careers. So hopefully you can work something like that in your ideas and we can help you with it. And and and if we we did go this direction in a formal training thing, I think that would be a massive, you know, flag to fly that come work for us, you're going to get training. Even as a custodian, even as a laborer, we're going to get you training, formal training. So when I when I see you know the robotic four machines and any level of automation that comes into an organization shows up red flags about the eliminating of humans. Yeah right
046and that would obviously be a concern but you're not using that to eliminate positions. You'd be doing that to give them to maximize their their usefulness. Absolutely right. I think that needs to be stated clearly. Absolutely. Um, the way I see it is I might be here for two more decades. Um, so after 20 years, what's the B&G department going to look like? And and that's really why I'm here to speak to you tonight cuz I'm trying to look not just one year, two years. I'm trying to look what it's going to look like over the next few decades. And technology is it's it's going to happen. Um, we're either going to find ourselves five, six, seven years behind everybody else or at, you know, at the same pace as everybody else. And I think
047even if we introduce these high-tech features, these automated machines, what that's going to do is just require us to hire more highly trained people to maintain them and to operate them. Um or train our own. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. They certainly can't replace them though because the principal walk gets out of their car and realizes they forgot their keys that day and they call they have to call their cleaner to let them in the building. Correct. So not calling a machine to do that. Right. I'm just making making the point that absolutely agreeers do a lot more than clean. Absolutely. They're all they're caretakers of the building and and that's really why I I in in this department technology to me is a force multiplier. It's not a replacement. It's not the only solution. It's it's
048something that we can use to increase our effectiveness dramatically. Do we take interns from Boseies that have related programming existing already like the seniors who are going out into trades? I I I have I've not worked in a situation where where we've done that, but that's definitely something we can look at doing. I know that my professional side of things, we do that with school districts for the Erie, Touch, Chaka, and Kataragus. Love to see that in West Sonica because that's another growth potential there for you. Okay. B&G interns. I just have one last conservation, that sort of thing. Yeah. Would you think that along the staffing lines of getting the people that we need to be in the roles first of all before more leadership and then say down the road if you had
049the technology to do things that that would allow your current staff to also play into safety cuz their eyes are and their ears are more alert than just focused on being overwhelmed right now with the AB. Absolutely. And I think I think preventative maintenance and reactive repair maintenance contribute directly to safety. So if if things like, you know, if we had autonomous floor machines, that custodian, that laborer, that that senior custodian maybe that's working at night has more time to to handle the work orders that might be directly related to safety or do have more time to conduct a thorough building inspection, something like that. So definitely will free up time to dedicate the safety. I um my ask is talking to you, but it's obviously to the superintendent. At some point I would love
050to see I've never really seen the data on this. I know you said we're we got positions to fill and you know clearly we're not overstaffed like you know you said there's a you know we're we're short-handed because we're having trouble hiring. I would love um to see obviously it's not a directive. asking you um kind of where you would love to see our entire department at versus where we're at. Again, not tonight, not tomorrow, just whenever. I'd love to see almost comparison where hey, in a perfect world where, you know, things are. This is where I would love to see our staffing levels and this is where we are. Not saying that we can do anything about it. I just would love I've never really known I I've always experienced where we've been at,
051but I've never known anyway. What does a building need to be comfortable with all the positions? Is that Do you want to break it down like building by building? You know what? I'm going to not dive in like whatever you can come up with what you think works and then we can ask for more if need be. I don't know what you guys think. I mean, is there certain things you want in that information or Well, I think it'd be good to see a breakdown building by building. Okay. That's just Yeah, I just put on a piece of paper, you know, 10 custodians. Yes. Yeah. Actually, you know what? I'm sorry. I'll be clear on that. I I would love like what I'm looking at is almost like a menu of hey I all of
052B&G would be super happy if this was our staffing level and then you know here's where we're at and you know hopefully there's a happy medium at some point. Um you know again however you think that works out well. Well I'm pretty sure last year we looked at some historical data in terms of that. Um, but again, I think what you're asking then is you're asking for current and then where do you feel like you need how you need to position people? Is that I think especially if you were to have those machines, what would that affect? Well, yeah. I mean, I'm looking for more of a like if tomorrow I said money isn't a real thing. Let's fix everything versus where we're at. Okay. Like, yeah. I don't um again, I want to be
053clear. I don't want to lay people off to hire machines. I love the idea of getting machines to do some of the stuff where they can focus on other things. Being in classrooms, cleaning classroom, you can't use those machines to clean classroom, but you can certainly it could cut down on your time spent in the hallway and then you could get a little deeper into the classrooms, right? my my my tenure here in the district since I started with my kid. One of the biggest things I was hear is there's not enough time and there's too much to do. So, I mean, you know, I I just I'd like to see that data um just to get a picture almost like we're doing that audit of our facilities. Mhm. Same concept if if that's cool.
054Okay. Sure. Absolutely. Any other questions? Hello, Sarah. Thanks for the presentations. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Appreciate it. I'd be happy to come back another time in the future. Um, you know, once a year or, you know, something like that. Yeah, I don't know if you have if it's just you and you working together or if you've got a group or how this process goes forward, but anything we can do to support disc more discussions, we're we're for it. Oh, okay. Actually, we did at one point have a facilities committee. Yes, we do. Yeah. So, that might be something worth, you know, I'll volunteer for it and our maybe we can get some clarity on the role of that. We do have a facilities committee that will be assembling to review the building condition
055survey and things of that nature. Looking forward to the next capital improvement project. That may be a different scope and lens than staffing kind of vision of the buildings and grounds department. May maybe there's an opportunity to bring those two together. Um but certainly we've had discussions there'll be future discussions. I think what you're hearing is with the number of retirements on the horizon rather than backfilling those positions with the current titles is this an opportunity to look at doing things differently with the creation of new or different titles that we we don't presently have. And again, all of this anticipating to be staffing neutral, not a reduction of of our workforce by any means, but potentially changing of titles. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, Mick. Mick, if you could pass that remote to Willfield.
056He'll be coming up to join us next. [Applause] Hello sir. You want Sure. Giving me the power. [Applause] So we do have um some updates for you regarding our 26 budget development process. This slideshow is a slideshow that has been a work in progress for months. So you have the entire presentation here for the sake of time tonight and also looking ahead to our April 8th meeting. Our April 8th meeting will be a more indepth review of where we are in the budget development process because we anticipate the board will be adopting the budget on April 8th. So I am going to quickly review the slides that we've previously discussed in detail at at past meetings and just focus on those slides that are updated information. So um I have shared with you previously the
057budget development process and input that we received from our community with 191 participants engaging in the thought exchange and we reviewed the priorities that were shared from that feedback and the outcome of the thought exchange. I also would like to um point out that for those in the community that are not receiving emails from us, uh you know, certainly our faculty and staff and our parents of prek to 12th grade students get regular updates from the school district because we have access to their email, but we did also launch a community email group. So any resident who would like to receive emails and communications from the district can sign up to do so. So some of the milestones um we are at uh where it's bolded the second draft uh budget March 2025. As I
058said we anticipate adopting the bud the budget at the April 8th meeting. We will have our budget hearing and vote both occurring in May with the budget vote being on May 20th. Budget goals. You're very familiar with this. We've reviewed this at previous meetings, but I have them included here for your review and our budget guidelines that have really been guiding our operations throughout the budget development [Applause] process. We've shared with you the appropriations. These are the breakdowns of our anticipated expenditures for the upcoming school year and changes in those expenditures with salary and benefits being the lion share of our school district budget but then also our Bosey's budget debt service and transfers. This is um an updated slide. So I've highlighted anywhere that is updated. You'll see that we've um actually indicated that
059in yellow with an update and we do have updated numbers for the anticipated teachers retirement number. We were going on an estimation prior to this, but we do now have the teachers retirement system contribution at uh 9.59%. So that's been updated here on this slide. So, as we get closer, of course, to budget adoption, some of these numbers become a bit more clear and a bit more finalized. At the board's request, uh you had indicated a desire to know our staffing levels. staffing levels of where we were pre- pandemic, where we were with the increased staff that we brought on with COVID funds and some of the stimulus funds that we received, the changes that occurred and the reductions that occurred last school year, and then our current staff and any changes that we have
060for projections to staff. So, this first slide is a snapshot of our teaching staff. And right now, currently, we have 606 teachers. You'll see the note below that we do not anticipate increasing or reductioning reducing the number of teachers that we have but through retirements and attrition we are going to be reallocating some of those FTEEs. We have increased need in special education and increased need in our English language learning program. So ENL teachers are two areas of need. So we will be taking advantage of some retirements that we have to offset the increases that we have in both special education and ENL. But again, we anticipate that being staffing neutral with still targeting the teaching staff to be 606. Similarly for our buildings and grounds department and all other categories of CSEA from food
061service to our school nurses, teacher aids, technology and transportation. You again see the changes over time in red, the reductions that were made during the budget process last school year and what our current staff is presently. And again, just like I mentioned with the teachers, we are operating in this budget development process with similar numbers of FTEES going forward. We do not anticipate any reductions um that we're recommending at this point. So really a staffing neutral budget. Will anything that you would add or extend there? Um, no. Just uh really just to say that the current staff 2025 in all cases exceeds the 2021 staff. The only exception being the the print shop area which we which we pretty much closed down uh last year. We just have one person operating a digital capability as
062opposed to the old school multiolor presses. Thank you. [Applause] So this shows um you know our health insurance estimates for the upcoming school year broken down by bargaining unit. And then we also have some updated numbers here to highlight for you. You'll see all of the changes that were made in various budget codes are highlighted in yellow. So, this has been really going back through with a fine tooth comb to see um where might we be able to make additional adjustments, trimming of supplies and materials, trimming of other areas so that we can hit that that budget mark. Anything you would add here, Will? Yeah, the changes are in the second draft 2026 column, which is the first numerical column to the right of the the description line. Anything that moved has a a highlighted
063color on it. Uh the technology changes. Uh equipment purchases for technology are really because we're really trying to understand what the role of Chromebooks are in our elementary division. and uh instead of getting ahead of ourselves and just replacing, we're going to we're going to hold on for a year and not run a replacement cycle on those and and really make some decisions about what the role is instructionally for Chromebooks, especially at the lower grade levels. Um the contract transportation, we left at the higher number just to give uh maximum flexibility for the transportation operation. Um, electric and gas utilities were estimated upwards. We moved the electric number up uh pretty substantially. That's the one in red. And uh we the biggest reduction really came in special ed tuitions. Um we had a large increased
064budget for the current year. We're unable to place students. So in essence, we have excess funding in that code. and looking at next year's projection, um we came to the conclusion that it wasn't realistic to to assume there would be that many additional slots available. So, we did leave a reserve in place. So, if we are able to place kids, we we will go ahead and do that. But, uh it's a smaller reserve and it's more reflective of what's actually happening in the 2025 placement of students. Well, can I just ask a question about electric? Yes, sure. So, it's up three almost 300 grand from the actual in 24 to what the budget is for 26. Yeah. Um, a while back we talked about the possibility of adding some solar um at a piece of
065land near near Northwood. I I just I felt it when I see that I was wondering if there was any any movement on any of that. We have a meeting scheduled later this month to review solar options. Yeah. Um, keep in mind that a solar option for a school district is if we put in a solar farm, we're basically financing that and putting it in place. So, the net impact might not be as significant as it's not free power. No, I understand. So, put it on the grid and we Well, we'll be Yeah, that's right. So, we'll be we'll be reviewing that later this month with a with a forward eye. Yeah, but uh electric has been spiking. I mean, if you look at your home electric bills and you're not balancing, you've gotten some
066surprises. I'm building the windmill. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Call me in. I just plug in my We got a big extension cord. [Applause] Two slides after what will just described, we have additional detail on the Boseis Bosey's budget and as Will described some adjustments that we made to special education tuition. We're still holding a reserve there of 750,000 because um just a few high-cost students that move into a district could could use that allocation that we have in reserves. But the the truth of the matter is that there are not enough placements available through Boseies which is requiring us to bring our programming in district. It's good for students. It it's good for transportation. It's good for the district. So we're happy to do so. But in that uh shift of personnel by adding additional
067special education teachers for the creation of additional self-contained classes in district. this is an appropriate adjustment that we're making and still does allow us to have a $750,000 reserve in the event that we have increased needs in special education um or students who enroll in our district that are not in a placement currently. So between the two reserves half a million on the budget line for special ed tuition directly outside of Boseies and 750 within it's a million and a quarter um available And I I was just going to say I don't believe there are any other changes that that we need to highlight with you. Those were the latest updates as we get fine-tuned numbers. Uh the latest information that um Will and I have received is, you know, do not anticipate an on-time
068budget out of New York State. So we don't anticipate receiving firm budget numbers in early April. So, we're conservatively planning our budget. Hopefully, by the end of April, we'll have firmer numbers, but that will be, of course, after the board adopts the budget. I'm sorry, Ed, did you have a question? Yeah, this was not necessarily about the current budget, but um you I know you're saying reserves, but um there's still no is there was there allowing us to create a reserve fund for special education costs. Is that dead on the fine or? It's it's still proposed right now, but it hasn't been created. Pay attention. You are you are a person. Yeah. Um I think that would be an amazing thing to happen. There's a few things that are still the increase of capital outlay
069projects from 100,000 to 250,000. The creation of special ed reserves. There's things that have been proposed, but they're not yet approved or finalized. Lauren, get on that. Okay. that was brought up to Senator Galin in a uh conference call I was on the district saying that there's you know there's no ability to to hold funds and then if you have people just move across the boundary you know it's a $100,000 there's there's no so we have to build it into our budget lines there I know there was also talk about uh funds following a student um is that anything hurt anyone on that at all a while back Mr. district brought it up a few years ago that they were looking at maybe having I think they did change the rules for 4201 schools which
070are like the schools for the blind schools for the deaf that it more was the school district of origination. Um nothing is primary responsible but nothing on a grander scale. Things I thought were good ideas. Can you back up one? Mhm. first time. So, this is the summary page of the work that's happened over the last couple weeks. Uh on the left on that column, the blue highlights, we've reduced our funding gap to 5.5 from 8.3. Um that 5.5, if you look at the very bottom of that column, is 3.31% of appropriations. If you look to the far right on the bottom, you'll see that we historically had funded uh around 2% of appropriations with our fund balance. We're still in excess of that this year, but down from the 4% we funded last year.
071So, I take that that we're moving positively back towards a more stable funding situation and away from reserve usage. Um and the summary of what movements are highlighted in blue there. The what reduced the fund balance allocation from the 8.3 to the 5.5 are right there. Uh salary and benefits down, Bosey's down, other categories on that one slide down. Um and additional revenue on state aid that we're anticipating um in line with our capital projects that we filed the final cost reports on in December. [Applause] And that's all summarized there in the narrative that I just talked over. I mentioned the $100,000 capital outlay project. Um we have earmarked that and actually just met with Young and Wright earlier today. We anticipate using the full $100,000 that we have available for replacement exterior doors at
072Northwood Elementary. So, that uh is something that we're factoring in for next year. We'll get 76% state aid back on that $100,000 investment in replacement doors at Northwood. And then here, um we have our projected costs for the replacement bus schedule that we have. So, we'll be utilizing some reserve funds, our bus reserve funds to make additions to our bus fleet. And you see at the bottom of this slide, the total proposed expenditure would be uh just over a million dollars for additional and replacement buses. Just just one note on this. Um we're going to be changing the language of the proposition. In the past, the proposition has reflected in detail the amount and size of buses. we're going to purchase. Um we've received notice from the bus manufacturers um as late as today that
073given the tariff situation and other restrictions with the state in terms of their ability to produce um um diesel and gas buses that uh they're recommending that any bus reserves be put up for the number only like the $1.1 million only with a more general description. Um, if tariffs go into place, the cost of buses could escalate dramatically and immediately by 25%. So, obviously, we couldn't afford the buses we're talking about here, and we'd have to make a selection as to which ones are a priority for us. So, it's just to give us more flexibility not to spend any more money. Um, ideally, we would buy exactly what's on the screen, but there's no guarantee those chassis would be available or priced at those levels. Oh. Um, and you guys can point this out. Um,
074the the bus reserve money has already been it's already been in previous budgets. We just need permission to spend out of that money. And what we're asking for is permission to spend to that level we're asking. Yep. Yep. Okay. I just want to make sure in case someone's, you know, watching for the first time. You said that better than I did. Thank you. So the first proposition that voters will have the opportunity to vote on of course is the school district budget. The second we just summarized is the purchase of school buses. And the third is our auditorium infrastructure project. So the $8.5 million project that would address the needs in rigging, lighting, and sound at both East and West Middle School and East and West High School. I think it's important to underscore that
075even though the district is looking at balancing our enrollment through redistricting or reconfiguration in every option that we're looking at, we are still utilizing all of our schools. So there is no plan that we are considering where either middle school or either high school would not be utilized by students. And those auditoriums are used daily by our students for band orchestra and coral practices, for performances. They're used by our communities. So, this will be an investment in those spaces um that will be a long-term investment. And as you know, we have increasing and escalating prices in repairs, difficulty getting equipment, and we're spending additional costs on rental bringing in rental lighting. I had the wonderful opportunity on Saturday to see Something Rotten Jr. at East Middle School. Great performance. Um, but you can't help but
076notice that they have tree light stands. Um, so additional lighting that we're bringing in to help supplement and have the lighting on stage so that we can see our performers. Um, we're spending well over 10,000 in rental expenses on lighting alone. So, this is much needed repairs that we need to make in our schools. Um, and then the last uh item that our voters will be voting on is we have two board of education trustee seats that voters will be um exercising their opinions on on May 20th. Uh next steps, we will have a budget presentation on April 8th. That will be our final draft budget presentation. And um if the New York State Bud budget is adopted by then, we'll have the opportunity to have more firm numbers for you. And of course, we'll
077have the public hearing on the Smart Schools Bond Act. Uh between now and then, we do have another budget advisory committee meeting, and that meeting will be on March 31st. I don't have a question, but I just want to make a comment. Um and if I'm out of line, board member, please say something. I firmly believe investing in our theaters, regardless of redistricting, reconfiguration, will be money well spent and money well spent with long-term gain for the district. I don't believe there's any moves we're looking to make that would make that move irrelevant or a waste of money. I want to be just completely clear on that to the to the public, but that's okay for me to say. Of course. If not, sorry. I think it's important that you said that because as a
078as a voter, as a parent, um knowing that that's important, that these improvements are needed and that anything that we're looking to talk about and no plans have been made that they would all be utilized and it would be worth the investment. Yes, I I firmly believe that we're making a smart decision spending this money if we're so [Applause] Any other questions or comments? So, yeah, I just have one. So, what is the hole we're in compared to, you know, what are we taking out of reserves and what is the tax increase? Um, the the levy increase is 275. Um, the tax increase depends on what the assessments come in at. So, we get a first look at assessments sometime um during April. Um I think the the the town has to file their assessment
079role um by the end of April um with the state. Um so right now there has been small changes in equalization rate. So the tax increase for West Senica would be less than the 2.75%. And the tax increase for like Chawaga and Orchard Park would be higher than just based on changes in equalization rate. But that'll change even more dramatically based on how the assessments come in. So we're really, you know, 30 days away from having a a tax picture. And then are we taking uh money out of reserves to balance the budget again this year? Yes. But my point was on the summary slide, we usually do that to the extent of 2% of appropriations. Last year we over four. This year we'll be just over three. So, the trend is in the right
080direction, but we'll be allocating $5.5 million of fund balance against the $162 million budget. Um, so it's reasonable to assume that any real impact would be less than, you know, the 5.5 just like in the current budget year, we had uh I think over $6 million allocated to 6.3. And, you know, I I would imagine we'll spend less than half of that in fund balance. So, we're we're we're moving through the sort of the deficit operation process and hopefully shrinking that reliance on fund balance as we proceed. I was thinking I mean we really need to look into the future and do better cuz it's we shouldn't have to I mean the reserves I understand for when we get these like the contract for the buses that one way up or the electric bill that's
081going up. I understand jumping into the reserves for that, but every year go to the taxpayers and say, "Hey, we need more money to pay our bills and pay everybody is there needs to be more forward thinking whether um it's with when we're diving into contracts or you know, anything we're doing. Make sure we're bidding out for everything and getting the best price and that way we're doing a service to all the taxpayers. And if it's the best price we can get, it's the best price we can get. But uh to continually just keep asking for more money is is not what we should be doing. Great. Any other anything? Thank you. Well, thank you. And um I'll point it out. We had a group of pig kids in earlier uh or kids that need
082to come see us for different classes. I believe pig and yepation but there was another class I think right or was it just pig I think okay I think it was just pig great kids we're spelling that out cuz pig kids doesn't sorry participation government um uh all you need to do to vote in the upcoming thing in May is be 18 or older and live in the school district. Um, and I believe if um, our district clerk can answer this, what's the time frame you have to live to vote um, in the district? 30 days. 30 days. So again, anyone, you don't even have to be registered. Um, so anyone who wants to who's going to come vote who will be 18 that day or is already 18 living in the district, make sure
083you bring your ID. Um, but that's it. Please come out and show your uh, show show your vote one way or another, but come out. Thank you. Thank you. There we'll move on to number three, personnel. Um, if everyone has a motion from the floor, please on 3A, I'll make a motion to approve 3A. Mara, a motion to approve 3A. May I have a second? I'll second it. Moren, a second. On 3A, any [Applause] discussion? Okay. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Right. passes 70. We'll move on to board of education discussion. Um I I'll open it up for board discussion. Does anyone want to bring any topics up that are not listed on the sheet? Thanks. I just have that I'll be in uh Albany May 5th through 8th and we have a meeting
084on the 6. So I'll just have to set up for the virtual. Okay. No problem. Okay. Awesome. I appreciate you doing that. Thank you. And I just want to say quick, Ed, that a few of us had a chance to go to that design uh day over at West Designs. What's that? West Designs. West Designs. Yes. Um very impressed with what the students are doing here. It was really exciting to see their passion and they're learning life skills and how to run a business and project management and really just to see their pride and excitement of everyone involved. It was really quite spectacular. I loved it. I love the fact that we got to see the culmination of uh and if you guys can correct me here, when did they come to us and talk
085about starting that class? Was it last year? Was it two years ago? A year ago. Was a year ago. So in in a year, what I what I what I saw is amazing. And I think the best part was in discussions with the people there. I mean, first of all, the kids were man, they were great and they were so passionate about it. But there was um there was even a kid from East that was there and I believe we're making we're you know we're going to see this throughout our district. It seems it's such a great class. I know East has got their version and we're looking at basically improving the whole program. Um but like all of these kids were just so good at what they were doing already and a year ago
086they presented about doing it. So um everyone did a great job with that and I'm glad the kids are running with it. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time. Jeremy, Lorine, and uh Ed were all there. Thank you. I think it means a lot to our teachers that and our students that the board has interest in what's going on in our schools so that you can see firsthand the impact of the decisions that you're making and your support of the curriculum one year ago and and what it results in now for our students. So, thank you for your time to be there. Any other board discussion? Prince Sarah. Um, we have on here school and community engagement and um I don't know exactly if that's is that the thing I That's the goal. That's
087the the goal. Okay. Great. Making sure. Yeah. Now we'll now the board will be taking a short recess. Um I say short, it never is short. Um before continuing on with the discussion work session, the board will not be voting on any items. So we're not conducting any more um any more any more things that there'll be votes or decisions made. So again, thank you everybody and we will go to our recess.