001I'd like to call her to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good afternoon everyone. >> Any announcements? >> I do not. >> Okay, jump right in. Program review. >> Program review should have been removed from the agenda. My apologies, but I missed that removed. I was going to say is it because I think of it too early but >> nope. >> Okay. So never mind skip program review budget review >> just flying through. [laughter] >> Well >> is that how we move for Francis? This is our presentation [laughter] time for the good stuff. >> Are you telling him to serve a timer? >> Absolutely not. [clears throat] >> If we go over we go
002over. I'm just teasing. >> Okay, go ahead. >> It's my and Penny's pleasure to present this evening uh the third iteration of our budget draft of the 2627 school budget. And so we're going to take you through I will not spend time reading the agenda for folks because you can see what we're going to go through tonight, but we'll take you through the whole development of the webinar. uh for the purpose of folks at home who might be joining us, I am going to take a few moments and briefly go through setting the stage for budget development. And so again, just important to note for everyone who's uh watching from home. Uh really the budget reflects the mathematical expression of our vision, mission, and priorities as a school district. Again, not going to read the
003slide, but just anchoring into what we've articulated at Williamson Central School District is our district mission vision. And we are one great school district with an imperative doing what's right for children. Also important to note that what you should see reflected in the 2627 budget development is our commitment to the essential objectives which were identified by the board of education. Again, thinking about the board's role in all of this, you establish the guiding vision and direction for the school district and you should absolutely see in action uh the essential objectives in our budget development for 2627. And so purpose, why are we here? Well, first slide I'm going to share with you is our enrollment. Uh so again, these are based on 2000 I'm sorry, they're based on current beds data enrollment uh that I
004had our data coord uh data coordinator poll for us. And so it is important to note and I would uh offer to the community that we do see declining enrollment trends that raises uh problematic concerns for the district with diminishing what's the phrase diminishing returns. No I didn't diminishing returns. >> No the law of diminishing returns meaning that we still have to have the same number of opportunities for our students despite the fact that we have lesser students. So for instance there are regions bearing courses uh regions I'm sorry physics chemistry we still have to offer those despite the fact that we might have fewer students sitting in those seats and so we acknowledge and we recognize the declining enrollment and yet we still have to make sure we have optimal programming for our students.
005Next data set just looking at elementary school enrollment. Uh again this just disagregates out what our current enrollment trends are for the elementary. Why this is important if we're thinking about class sizes and number of teachers, number of FTE required to provide programming for our students. Uh one that we're watching very closely is grade K. In our previous uh per uh presentation, we actually had potentially the idea that we might be able to drop to a section and have three sections at kindergarten. Uh this is one that we're watching closely because at this time you're going to see we actually bumped that up to four. We're very concerned about having small class sizes at the kindergarten grade level. Uh however, we'll talk a little bit more about that when we get into the presentation. This
006is the stuff that matters. When we start talking about reductions to programming, this is where it gets impacted where you have three sections at with the numbers of students that you have in classes. Any reductions at the elementary level and class size or any reductions of teaching staff ultimately results in larger class sizes for our uh teachers and for our students. Graduation rates. Again, thinking about outcomes. Uh we are an educational organization, which means we should be here for uh graduation rates. It should be an outcome for every single student. What I really appreciate about working with Dr. Snyder is we are small enough. He and I both concur. Every young person who passes through the doors of that high school should get an outcome and he should know and we should be able to
007work to support all those students. You can see we got some work cut out for us. Other programmatic considerations, making sure that our budget attends to things such as uh CTE programming. We have a significant number of our students participating in WTCC programming. We are extremely proud looking at last year's data compared to this year's data. Last year we had students participating in 19 programs at WTCC and 25 26 we have 29 programs that are being participating at at WTCC. Also important to note when you look at where our students are, what pathway our students are gravitating towards, our current junior class, 41.38% of our kids are participating in WTCC programming for new visions. Our seniors, class of 2026, 44.12%. That's pretty amazing. So that really tells us a lot about the necessity of that
008pathway and why we have to prioritize that as part of our programming. other programmatic considerations. Uh I think about the conversations I'm having during my superintendent student advisory council meetings, which is meeting with freshman through seniors. And resoundingly what they talk about is wanting more access to additional electives, AP and Gemini courses. And so here what you see on this slide are the current Gemini and AP classes that we currently are offering and number of students that we are current the number of students that are currently participating in those programs. I did actually ask our data coordinator to provide me the percentages of kids who are participating in Gemini MAP and you see that on the right hand corner of the screen. So again also an important pathway as we're thinking about college, career, military
009and life readiness. We also have to make sure we're attending to this pathway as well. >> Is that current school year? So >> currently 50 >> I assume that's are enrolled in at least one. >> Correct. But some of those kids are >> multiple. >> And again, thinking about the student voice in all of this, they are asking for more in every single group that I've met with with students and I'm certain Robin Rob could probably echo that. Uh they're asking for more electives, more AP more Gemini. >> So, and again, we are working diligently to try to provide that for our students. Unfortunately, not for the current seniors. This might not be the right time to ask it, but I know in our last meeting, I think it was our last meeting, Jeff brought
010up when you were talking about early college access and that stuff. There are other states where you could walk out of high school with a two-year degree. >> That happens in New York State. >> That's what I was going to ask. >> Absolutely. >> Do we know how common it is already in New York State? I know that you can walk out with AP and Gemini transcript. Like you can walk out of here with a transcript from FLCC depending on how many you take. But do we know how many New York public schools you can literally walk out with a two-year degree? >> I do not have that data. >> Is it widespread or is it >> I think it's even widespread within our region. I think there are some districts who are offering similar
011to what we're offering and there's many districts that are offering more. Again, one of the things I really appreciate about working with Dr. Schneider right now is we are completely aligned with our desire, our aspirational goal to allow for more opportunity for kids to take AP and general courses in the high school. Like ideally, we would like I feel like last member was additional 12 classes. like this is really important for our kids so that they have more opportunities to take and acrewue up to potentially two-year degree worth of courses uh that are general based. So I don't have data specific to the state. I can tell you uh I have often felt the disparity working in a small rural school district. I mean even traveling down the road to Wayne which is twice the
012size of that we are they have many more courses that their kids can take right and I feel like very passionately about shouldn't matter where you're born you should have those same opportunities. So that is fundamentally at the core of some of the work we're as we're futuring together to try and build those opportunities for our kids. >> So let me poke a little bit. I just want to make sure I'm understanding. Like to me there's a difference between I even if we expand what we offer there's a difference between I walk out with enough credits on a college transcript that I can transfer NA and going into a four-year school as a junior versus when I walk across the stage at Williamson I have my high school diploma and an associate. No, the only
013place that's happening is the students who participate in oh my gosh I lost the name of the program PEK. So PEK is an alternative pathway through Boseies and their program is designed to be actually a 4 plus two. So students who participate in PEK actually sign on for six years and the first four are still high schoolbased and then they take an additional two years. So no, that is not a true statement that many high schools are offering. You're leaving with an actual associates. >> Okay, that's what I was trying to understand. So in New York >> because I know in other states you can't I know someone in I think Florida who will he's David will recreate with a high school diploma >> and a two-year associates degree but that's not New York State.
014>> I genuinely >> So I guess that's what I'm questioning. >> I do not have familiarity and even thinking about all of the conversations that I've had with my colleagues it has not been the case in any case I've said oh my gosh that's a great idea we should be offering an associates degree in high school. What I do think is we should be offering more electives, more courses for our kids. >> Yeah. And I don't disagree. >> So, if a kid can graduate from here with 24 to 32 credits and hopefully they all transfer, that's what we're looking for. Okay. >> Because they got to be they should be popped in courses anyway. I don't want kids sitting in two or three study halls. Right. >> Right. >> Okay. I just wanted to make
015sure I understood. >> I didn't understand the question. I'm sorry. Now I do. Yeah. No, I do not I am not familiar with any districts in our >> in our region. I've never done any research in the state. Could be across the state. I don't know. >> Okay. >> But I'm not familiar with many districts here. >> But it's so it's just the districts around us are offering [clears throat] more. >> Yes. >> Of those courses. >> So students leave with more credits, the equivalent of an associates. And I think the MOCC what they're trying to do now is create the pathways almost like we have at the high school. You get the additional like the arts pathway. >> Um so that you do leave on track to get that but it's not there yet.
016>> Okay. Um, but essentially you'd be either courses away very like you could do FCC a half semester and be double year associates. We're trying to get our students on that path. >> On that path okay thank you for clarifying that. >> And is this this work that you're doing with the shared uh services between schools as well, right? >> Could help with that >> 100%. Okay. >> And all the work we're doing with distance learning, right? Like that's going to be part of the pathway moving forward. And [clears throat] that could be sharing not only with districts around in our area, but it could be sharing with districts across the state potentially if our bell schedules matched. So other Boseies are further ahead than we are and they're already offering huge menus or offerings
017through distance learning and potentially we could tap into that which is why we invest in the coaster for that. So >> can we look into and I know we've talked about the bell schedule before and to me I I can't understand why every district can't fluctuate their time by two or three minutes to get on the same bell schedule. I'm going to give you a very simple answer. Yeah. Terms and conditions of employment. >> Yeah. >> Terms and conditions of employment. >> I I hear what you're saying, but if it's two or three minutes to start a day between this district, this district, and that district, to me, that's an easy fix. I get what you're saying, but to me, that's simple. Um, so my my thing would be >> we hear that [laughter] a
018couple hours. Look, if the school relations special is not quite that >> look, the real the reality is if we start at 7:32, the next next district starts at 7:34 and the other one is 728. I'm sure we can adjust by two minutes in either side. That's a simple fix. I understand public sector wants to make a complex. It's simple. The [laughter] public sector wants to make a complex and the public sector. It's ridiculous. But with that being said, >> are we on video right now? >> No, but it's true. It's absolutely 100% correct. It's [laughter] true. It's like zooming in our LRS, >> but still, right? I mean, let's call it what it is. >> So, my question for since our Boseies is so far behind, can we look at other Boseies in other
019districts throughout the state that are way ahead of our Boseies and say, you know what, if their bell schedule matches up with ours, hey, let's work with them. >> Uh, I have a two-prong response to your question. So, first, the answer is yes. And actually the coaster that we have is with city one Boseies and that's who we're actually partnering with to actually launch distance learning because Wayne Fingerlakes hasn't offered that yet or hasn't taken the lead on that. The second part of that is that the roll out and launch of all the distance learning has taken so much longer than originally intended. So I'm thinking about you know I've been here a year and a half. We started this work while I was a superintendent at Honeyway. We still aren't fully launched. Like we
020all participated in this grant application. We got the grant funding. got the equipment as part of the grant and we're really not still fully oper operational like we launched this year and I'm proud of the work we have but we are not as far along as we thought we would be >> and it's not strictly [clears throat] because of our district oh no >> for the people the three that's right that is not about Williamson correct that's about larger systems and structures >> and just be clear you asked because of all the shared programming we should all be right >> well that's right and to me I know we've been discussing this for over a year about the balance schedule I get public sector. But the reality is a belt schedule. I don't care about
021contracts. It is really [laughter] certainly you don't care about contracts. >> I want to say when it comes to something when it comes to something like that, don't take it out of context. But the reality is if I say to my daughter, hey, guess what? School is now going to be at 728 as opposed to 7:32. I guarantee [snorts] she can make it to school by 7:28 and it's not a big issue. >> But that's what I'm getting at. Terms and conditions. It's three to four minutes that school districts should be able to do. I get contracts and I get terms but the reality is it's a simple fact that that people want to make convoluted >> theoretically it should be simple right but that's where the frustration is with the public sector. So I
022am tangent in our subsequent part of our meeting this evening in my report I am going to speak to our progress in thinking about shared programming and services and that is part of the work like we are all providing data and part of the data we're providing is those schedules >> is the technology we're using outdated yet >> for what for distance learning I mean it's changing all the time >> no concern as such has been brought to my attention and I'm not listening for it to be brought to >> [laughter] >> So I have plausible deniability tonight. I do not I am not aware of any issues with our distance learning equipment that could change by tomorrow. Uh we were talking about different pathways and so just thinking about both career college uh and
023life readiness also important to make sure that we are factoring in that every student at Williamson Central School District gets what they need and deserve to be successful. And this umbrella of pro programmatic considerations is our special education of 504 populations. Uh it's important to note that we do have 144 students grades K through 12 uh who are currently classified. We have about 10% of our students who also have 504. So implications specific to programming and what our obligation is as a district making sure that we are in compliance with meeting uh needs as identified in 504s and IEPs. But more importantly, the whole budget is the mathematical expression of our work that we're supposed to be doing in public education, making sure our kids get what they need and deserve to be successful here.
024So, this very important slide as we're thinking about budgeting for 2627. Last slide specific to programmatic considerations not going to read, but there are a whole host of other things. If we think about portrait of a graduate and all the other work that's happening in New York State, uh through in on the right hand side, we also have to attend to our ENL population. We don't have a significant population but for the population that we do have we are required to make sure and again making sure that the students who qualify as ENL get what they need and deserve to be successful as well and you see the percentage of our populations based by based by building. Any questions about programmatic considerations? For me, this is the heart of budget budget development and it should
025be how we're uh thinking about and focusing on the decision- making when it comes to prioritizing what things we must we must ensure we keep in programming and those things that potentially we could think about reducing people and places. Uh thinking about our organization. Uh as I shared at our last board of education meeting, we are too as of the last board meeting. I didn't fact check my data as of today. So, we might not be 240 strong, but thereabouts 240 strong. And you see the distribution just about 50% CSEA, 50% WFA. I'm sorry, that's not accurate. Not 50%. Almost [snorts] a split between CSA and WFA. 107 CSA 117 WFA and that's who rep make up and comprises the administrative, faculty, staff, uh, and other operational employees at WCS at this time. And then
026as far as our facilities and transportation, we currently are responsible for eight buildings. We have three operational kitchens, responsible for over 335,000 square feet. We have 26 fleet vehicles and we cover 20 36 square miles. Again, why is this an important consideration as we're thinking about budgeting? Because we're responsible for the maintenance of all of this, all of the locations that we uh utilize as a school district. And with that, I'm going to pass off to Penny. So, I cued you up nicely on the why and what our purpose is and why all of this matters. First going to start talking about the uh tax levy limit calculation. Um this is a nice formula if you want to take the time to kind of go through it and uh look it over figure out how
027it works. But um the one this was imple implemented in 2012 um with the intent and limiting um the amount that school districts can increase your school taxes. Uh a lot of people hear about the 2% tax cap and they get um they think that the tax levy can't increase by more than 2% in a year and that's not the case. Um what the 2% cap does refer to is the inflation factor. So um if inflation happens to be 4% in a given year, we can only adjust for 2%. Um there are many other uh factors that play into the calculation that can cause the levy to go above a 2% increase. This is the calculation for our 2627 tax levy limit. It starts by using the the 2526 levy amount. You adjust for the
028tax base based growth factor which is um represents the amount of um change in assessments that have been added to the tax role. you take into account uh pilots from the prior year and then you multiply it by that uh growth factor that I had just talked about on the prior slide and then add in the pilots that you are expecting in the 2627 year and you're come to your tax levy limit of $12,869,000. Um then you can adjust for any exclusions. This year we do not have any exclusions. we did get a $6 carryover which I know is a quite a substantial amount of money. [laughter] Um so again our um tax levy for the 2627 uh school year is proposed to be $12,869,261. Now, uh if we go out to the tax cap,
029uh or below, our uh budget approval would have to be 50% for the budget vote plus one vote. If we were to exceed the tax cap, we would need a super majority, which would we would need to have an approval of 60%. This year, we plan on going out at the tax cap. So the difference from last year or sorry from the 2526 year to the 26 27 year would be $320,616 which is a 2.55% increase. Um and I just wanted to note that approximately every percent increase in the tax levy amounts to about $125,000 for the district. Francis, the teacher in me wants to see if you if you figured out like if we had a million dollar a $1.25 million gap, what would the levy have to go out that to make up
030that%? >> Yeah, that's a lot. >> It's a lot. >> The um state's executive budget came out um showing that we should get about 15,900,000 in um state aid. However, um the district is projecting that we will get about 15,472,000. Uh and that is due to some um projections that we did. For instance, with Bosey's aid, that's always um been estimate or the state's always been high and how much we were going to get. Um it's based on numbers that Boseies submits and what um and us spending our whole entire Bosey's budget. So, um, I looked at some historical and, um, I came out as s getting about 265 266,000 less than what the state is, um, estimating for Bosey's aid. Foundation aid represents the largest portion of our state aid. Uh this year we
031are estimating a 1% increase in foundation aid which is about uh just under $95,000. The foundation aid is subject to change. Uh we are hoping to at least get 2% which again would only add another 95,000 but every little bit helps. like enough to cover one person's >> salary. [clears throat] [laughter] Yeah. >> Plus or minus. >> Right. Right. >> The change from the 25 26 year to the 26 27 year in state aid we're estimating to be about 9 or sorry 394,000 which is a 2.61% increase over all those state aid categories. Uh other forms of revenue that we receive are pilot payments uh which are payments in LA taxes, uh sales tax from Wayne County, uh we have several other local revenues and Medicaid. Um we are expected to get about $41,000 more
032in pilot payments this year due to um reaching year six in the pilot agreement that's set by the IDA. Um, and then we are estimating approximately $10,000 in additional revenue for shared athletics. >> Has it been flat for the uh Wayne County sales tax? >> So, yes. >> How many years roughly has it been? >> I don't know that information. Um, I >> It's been that same dollar amount for at least >> longer than at least 15 years. I'm just curious as to is there is there >> they talked about >> is there a school district uh that I thought they lowered it? I don't think they did. >> I think that's great for school districts >> for school districts getting together in this county to advocate to the county. Hey, do you think you
033can increase at some point? >> So, I guess those conversations predate me coming from Ontario County. We had no sales tax. So, then I fast forward get to Wayne County and I'm late to the party, but they have tried for years because it has been flat, stagnant, >> no movement. Yes. uh to date I have not been part of any such activity or act >> Jeeoff in the time I've been on the board it has always been the same >> well that's why 385 >> and >> there has never been talk of increasing it there has been talk of taking it away >> because last year was uh [snorts] they almost did right >> I don't know this year last year but there has been a couple times where they talked about taking >> yeah
034two years ago I think that was a big to Well, I just wonder and then they don't have to raise the taxes >> and then they >> but they can also override the tax by voting >> and they do. So, but they it has come up more than once to take it away. They haven't. But >> so I guess to me the fact that we still have it as opposed to not >> yet. >> If you ask to increase it, they may. >> I think the irony is coming from Ontario because not having any sales tax from Ontario County. And then my um na getting here and oh my gosh, like we got almost $400,000 in sales tax and like the groans from my colleagues like yeah the same amount for over 13 years. I'm
035like oh I'm just grateful we got something [laughter] right. So different perspective. Well, and and imagine what the grounds would be if it is, >> right? Like >> to your point, something is better than nothing, right? [laughter] >> I like this slide because it gives you, you can easily visualize where a majority of our revenue comes from and about 95% of our revenue comes from state aid and property taxes combined. So those um other types of revenue are small but they do help. This um is a summary of everything I just talked about uh with the addition of what we are proposing to use in appropriated reserves. Um it does not reflect any potential use of any appropriated fund balance. So you will see later on that we still don't have a balanced budget. Um
036this again the top part is a summary of what we've already discussed but the bottom part here does break out which reserves we're intending to use. Um we are going to use the um employees retirement reserve, the teachers retirement reserve, the unemployment reserve and the debt service reserve totaling $590,000. Important to note with this slide, you cannot exceed usage for the budget line. So for instance, the employer retirement contribution reserve, we are anticipate having to expend $200,000. You can't budget beyond what your actual expenditure is going to be because it's allocated to that reserve. So it's just an important. So these numbers reflect anticipated expenditures in 2627. And if they came in under, we would not be able to reserve use the reserve for beyond what we actually expect. >> One more time. >> So
037yeah. >> Yeah. Explain that one more time. So >> yeah. So say you budgeted $200,000, but it we only need 160. >> Only 160 would go. >> Okay. And the other 40 would stay in there. >> That's correct. >> But then how does that impact what you're proposing to use? I'm trying to tie back to the 590. You can never spend more than what your budget is. You can spend less. So if we come in under, we spend less. So we don't borrow less. 160 >> borrow less against or take from our reserves. >> withdraw from our reserves. Thank you. >> Transfer. Actually >> technical terminology be transfer. >> So the example he just gave for that retirement one 200,000 budget 200. We only use 160. You can only use 160 to transfer. >> Correct.
038>> Or you're talking actual expenses. >> We can only transfer 160 from the reserve because that's an appropriated reserve to only cover retirement benefits. So >> So we can't say, "Hey, we got $200,000. We're going to take down 40 and let's go buy equipment." Can't do that. >> So [clears throat] just thinking about expenditure considerations. Uh as Penny shared the revenue, she's going to in just a few moments talk about expenditures. I want to take a couple moments just so you can understand the thinking behind the development of the expenditure side of the budget budget. And so again, thinking about expenditure drivers, these are not new. We have shared these in each of the budget presentations we've had thus far. Healthc care cost increases. This is hitting everyone across the region in a significant way.
039Uh for Williamson, it's 18.5%. That percentage varies depending on your distribution of which uh employees are participating in which healthcare plans. For us, on average, 18.5% increase. Contractual obligations. Again, looking at your contract language, terms and conditions of employment. Jeff, >> did you see what I did there? >> It's two minutes. [laughter] >> We're obligated to whatever the terms and conditions of employment are in each of our units. We currently have two units. Uh the district is currently in contract negotiations with WFA. We also have administrative and confidential agreements that need to be negotiated. And then lastly, of course, inflation always factors in. And as of January 2026, it was at 2.4% across all items. >> Can can I come back again? Um >> uh coming out of reserves, do we remember how much we
040gave at each of the reserves? She's going to present it >> in the my administrative report >> in our subsequent >> later tonight in a regular board meeting. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. with more than three minutes time. [snorts] [laughter] >> Sorry about it, Snider. >> Could we look at the healthcare cost increase percentage like over the last 10 years just to >> um I'm not sure if I have the information to go that far back. I'd have to look. >> But I I could probably get at least the last like two or three easily. Well, it was two years ago. It was 22% by >> the last show% number >> and they're not anticipating a decrease for next year. They're anticipate fully anticipating another significant increase in 20 development of 2728. Okay. So, thinking
041about enhancements again this is not a new slide. I'll give you just a moment to review it. Uh the only the only update to this slide is originally we were talking about using 2627 budget to install vape sensors at the middle school. We've withdrawn that and we're actually going to try and maybe do that if we have any excess this year. We will try and take care of that at the middle school this year. So we're withdrawing that as an enhancement uh in next year's budget. Everything else remains the same as the other iterations that you've seen in presentations. The next few slides are new to you. So uh the first slide uh budget reductions and this would be specific to instructional and so instructional confirmed means that we have uh potentially a retire resignation
042for purpose of retirement in hand. Did I I skipped my own slide? Sorry I moved forward beyond what I wanted to be. Sorry. So the first one uh under reduction via attrition and of course attrition means naturally occurring. It's not someone saying hey we don't have employment for you any longer. These are folks who have submitted again resignation for purpose of retirement. So we have 1.0 reading teacher at the middle school not going to be able to backfill that. We have a 1.0 middle school TA not going to be able to backfill that. And we are making the very difficult decision to say uh we as a district are going to have to move forward with only one language. So we will no longer be offering French. Uh we believe it makes more sense for
043Williamson to move forward with only Spanish. Uh it's important for the board to note that we will do our best and I appreciate Rob and Karen and their work with me to make sure that we offboard our current French students. Meaning we don't want folks who have pursued that path to not be able to finish that pathway and so we can use things such as not ederate you thank you uh and or potentially looking at distance learning options. So again trying not to compromise the folks the students who had pursued that as a path. What we won't be doing moving forward is offering French. So, we'll try and offboard those who were in it and then we just simply won't be able to offer French. Important for the folks, all of the folks who I'm
044certain are watching at home right now. Uh, we did when we had our original vacancy, we posted more than six times to backfill our Spanish vacancy. We were unsuccessful. We did launch this year our first trial run of offering Spanish via distance learning. I would say we had nominal success with that. And really that's the fundamental reason why we're saying we're going to pull the plug on that and say we have a very talented FTE who can teach Spanish here at Williamson and let's capitalize on his talent and strength as a lo teacher for Williamson and we're just simply not going to offer uh French as well maybe as a an some type of elective but uh we're not going to have a pathway for French any longer. So that's an important update for the
045community. >> Do we know how many students that impacts who are currently in the French path? Uh well, so our plan looking at numbers is that we're able to sunset it essentially. So just next year when we no will no longer offer French one at the middle school. >> Um there's 19 students currently enrolled at 8th grade. Um of those students will be picking if they want to continue with French next week. Uh but it'll be 19 or under likely 15 to 10 will be the number. Um and so Mr. Fington's working with a schedule will actually be able to still teach those students if they want to continue in French. And then the following year we just eat a year >> as they go up. >> Okay. What is the the reading teacher? Is
046is that reading teacher someone who goes to multiple grade levels or is that specific? >> Uh middle school only. It doesn't mean that we're not going to deliver reading instruction or it should be I should say remedial reading instruction. We're going to come up with creative means by which to make that happen. So Karen will soon lead with KT. She'll work with Scott andor Rob to determine to make sure because again we do have a strong commitment. Frankly, I have a strong commitment to academic intervention support services. So, while I recognize we have a bal a budget to balance, uh we're going to have to be creative in making sure we still have AIS for our kids. Period. Uh breakage through attrition. So, attrition is basically uh when you have a resignation and or retirement
047and you know you're going to have to backfill. So, each of the positions you see in this row are the ones that uh we have confirmed resignations for and we know we're going to backfill. What's interesting about breakages, uh, I shared with Penny, I'm like, "Oh, hey, I got this whole list of residations and we're going to hire new and it's going to come in at potentially lesser salaries and we're going to save boatloads of money." And I'm like, "I can't wait to see how much we're saving to balance the budget." Like thinking was going to be, you know, $100,000. Not so much. Uh, actually, >> I'm so afraid you use contractual obligations. >> Terms and conditions. >> So, we do have uh 1.0 FTA, another uh teaching assistant. We recognize we're going to have
048to backfill that TA. Uh so we're hoping to take some breakage. We have a special education special education teacher and then we also have a science teacher who have confirmed retirements and so we are going to have to backfill those. Additionally, uh we anticipate another WFA member and I'm not at liberty to share where that is just because that person hasn't announced uh it's speculated that we are anticipating uh another individual retire for next year. Uh so these are actual reductions. I did have a meeting with both WFA and CSAA yesterday letting them know that I was going to be presenting to the board live and that there was going to be a slide that had this up on the screen. And so there were and again all of these individuals the FTEEs reflect actual
049uh resignations that have gone through and the board acted on. Similarly for on the operational side of things uh we are going to uh reduce by the speech uh the board acted on actually we said tonight no that was last meeting the speech retirement uh we're going to take that as a reduction what we found uh task Nancy with exploring and looking at how much was programmatic versus what we call building level supports we while it's not ideal we will not be able to offer the level of building level supports that we are in speech but we absolutely will still be able to meet our complian and mandated speech as required in IEPs and 504s. And so we're going to take that as a naturally occurring reduction. Uh we also found ourselves in a position
050where we had a couple cleaners leave recently and we are making the determination to look at efficiencies in our maintenance department and we are not going to backfill those two cleaners. Uh thinking about one for CSDA a reduction for efficiency. And again I I can't I'm not going to say it out loud in public meeting tonight because I need to have the opportunity to have a conversation with the individual. We do anticipate one reduction in CSEA that uh supports an efficiency uh in the district and we'll want the opportunity to have a conversation with that individual and we'll be able to announce that by our next board meeting. Uh similarly thinking about operational there are potentially three uh CSEA members who we potentially anticipate retirements but again there's been nothing announced for Penny and I
051for planning purposes. We want to make sure that we're factoring that in as we're doing our budget development. So again, can't say they're confirmed, but anticipated. And then lastly, thinking about uh reductions, I want to thank uh Karen and Michaela Smolinsky for all their work. They went through a very tedious but comprehensive and thorough approach to looking at the software using generating a significant reduction of programs, platforms that we're not using and yet we're paying for. And so we're saying, "Yeah, we're not paying for stuff we're not using anymore." And so goodbye. Uh, and then also Penny and I have spent hours looking at each of our budget lines and saying, can we rightsize any budget lines? So, fast forward in just a few slides, we're going to give you the end of the story.
052We're going to talk about where we are with a gap between revenues and expenditures. But before we do that, I'm going to pass back to Penny so [snorts] she can talk to you a little bit about the total expenditures we have identified thus far today. start by showing um a slide that has a nice pie uh chart on it that shows um where our biggest areas of expenses are. Um about 50% of our expenses are due to instruction, which is, you know, of course, why we're here is to teach and learn. Um we also spend a good chunk in employee benefits. the administrative component of the budget is go going to increase about 1.16%. Um, and it's largely due to the benefits portion again because the health insurance and whatnot is increasing so much. In
053the instructional side, that's expected to increase about 2.38%. Um again, benefits is the largest um contributor to that increase. Um and then another large portion is for programs with students with disabilities. The capital component um there's not much of a change in that is 0.02%. um you will see that there was a decrease in the the debt service to transfers of about um $25,000 and um that's [clears throat] just due every year like as long as you don't take on new debt your debt payments are going to decrease a little. The change year-to-year over expenditures is um just over $1 million, which equals a 3.56% um increase. Before we move on to the next slide, I'm wondering quiz question for you. Does anybody recollect about how much that 18.2% increase in healthcare was? $1,000. Do
054>> you see from year to year the increase? So, this reflects the work we've done as an administrative team, Penny and I, behind the scenes. There's nothing we can do about that healthcare cost increase. We can't rightsize a budget line to accommodate for that percentage increase. So, this reflects the work we've done. The fact that we're doing from budget to budget and really the increase is only about $300,000, that reflects the work we've done to balance the budget. So, we're going to talk a little bit about closing the gap. So, on the expenditure side of thing, again, there are strategies that districts engage in to uh close a budget gap. Again, it's the difference between revenues and expenditures. And so, you think about attrition. Again, those are the ones. Capitalize on if you have folks
055who are retiring, do you absolutely have to backfill them? I hope that we've demonstrated to you that there are a number of such positions that we are not going to backfill. You factor in breakage. Again, those would be ones where you have uh folks leaving through attrition and then potentially you do have to backfill, but you might have some cost savings because you're not going to hire somebody uh new coming in at the same as a veteran teacher. We are looking at efficiencies. I did allude to the fact that at the next meeting I'll share more openly. Uh we have an we have one reduction in CSA that is very specifically tied to an efficiency for the district. And as I alluded to, right sizing, that's Penny and I going through budget line by budget
056line saying, "Do we actually need every dollar allocated in this budget line or can we rightsize this budget?" So when you get through that, you're really left with only two additional means by which to balance budget. Penny alluded to the fact that we are making recommendation to use our appropriated reserves uh in the amount of $590,000. those that actually reflects the anticipated actual expense for 2627. Again, remind reminding you that for ERS or TRS, we can't spend more than what we expect to spend. It's not a way of saying, "Oh, well, we we would like to buy more equipment, so let's just use $50,000 of a reserve. We can't the law." So, $590,000 is what we expect to spend. If we were to somehow come in under that, we wouldn't use the we would use
057the actual amount. The question mark reflects fund balance and I'll share with you why in my next slide. So we at this juncture have not made a recommendation to use any fund balance and what fund balance means is at the end of this year should we end up with any excess we could potentially make recommendation to you to balance the budget using a portion of that excess from 2526. We are right now with all of the right sizing using our attrition uh you thinking considering uh breakage we right now have a budget gap of $220,966 and given that this is a workshop and given that it is really the budget is a function of the board Penny and I work we are your agents by which to create the budget we are looking for feedback
058from you specific to direction around how you would like us to proceed. The reality is we know we can balance this budget. There's a couple things. Whoops. I'm actually let me go to the next slide. The first is uh both the House and the Senate have alluded to that we believe we will get the minimal increase which means we think we're going to get the additional 1%. Quiz question. Who remembers what that 1% is? >> 94866. I think I put 94. I said approximately 948.66. So we think we're going to get about $95,000 in that minimal increase which means another 1%. So going back to this slide, that doesn't close the gap. That leaves Penny and I really two options. Number one, it's use of fund balance. So saying at the end of this year,
059if there's excess, we can designate that we're going to use the remainder. We're going to designate a portion of the fund balance towards balancing the budget or we have to reduce. And I will share with you openly, I've spent a lot of time with Rob and the rest of C Rob Henny, the rest of cabinet identifying and prioritizing what those reductions are. I'm going to tell you openly if we have to take reductions that equates to impact on four individuals staff members. I certainly don't want to share with you where they are because those folks we haven't had any conversations but I'm being transparent with you so you know it does mean potential reductions and not naturally occurring reductions. >> Does that one include the one reduction that we saw on the previous slide? >>
060That does not include this addition >> four plus. >> So this is an addition to all those we're not back filling and the one that I've identified for efficiency. It would be all of that plus this. >> And to help me clarify, if we have a bunch of surplus from last year, >> is there a rule, a law of some sort that says we can only use it for certain things? >> No. >> So we we can put it back in the reserves. We can do help balance. We can do whatever we want to do with it essentially within >> except you can't you can't uh how do I want to say this? Penny, help me with the right words. You can put it back in reserves, but there's a limit to how much you
061can put in reserves like four% each >> having two. >> It has to be a reasonable amount based on like a 4% based on your reserve. >> Yep. >> The important thing to note and I actually asked purposefully, it was intentional last meeting. I asked Penny to do research and share with you around how we have balanced the budget in Williamson in the past. And what she shared with you is over the last decade, part of the practice has been a balance of reserves and fund balance. I'm not suggesting that's the most ideal or optimal pathway, but it is a possible pathway. At some juncture, as we venture out 5, 10 years, that may not be an option for us. I'm sharing with you tonight, it is an option. So, I'm looking for some direction
062because at this juncture, we've done the right sizing we can. We've anticipated every possible retirement we can. We've looked at efficiencies. the list of additional four people will reflect looking at efficiencies and saying we're doing things differently at Williamson. >> Do we have a guesstimation of what our fund balance is or maybe >> um at this point it is still early. >> Yep. Because we have another four three or so months. >> Yes. Yep. So I do think it's going to be around 1.6 to 1.7 at this point. >> So it's healthy. >> Yep. I think that's a great question because it's hard to justify a reduction when you know you actually have the funds. However, if we're doing short and long-term planning >> because that's a good chunk for today's interest rates. >> Correct.
063>> In the bank. >> That's correct. >> That can that help balance in the future >> and it's not a sustainable practice. So, it's a practice we can engage in today, but we won't be able to engage in that same practice down the road. >> And I I want to ask a question, but you probably can't answer it because we're a small district. So, you probably can't answer it in public session, but those four um potential reductions, I guess I would want to know how does it impact programming versus things like [clears throat] >> I'm guessing it's a combination, but I know we can't necessarily say >> I'll give you a hypothetical. I tried to give you a hint intentionally at the very beginning of the presentation when we were talking about enrollment. It's looking
064at things like class sizes at the elementary saying we have 60 kindergarteners. Are we going to do that in four sections or are we going to do that in three sections? That's the kind of conversations we have to have at this juncture. It might not be that that's the priority, but I want to give you a heads up that that is that is what we're talking about. But we're also talking if you think you're getting that extra 95 roughly 94.95 that drops us down to 115, right? >> 125. So would it be this minus the 24 being >> and then we got >> So we are fully prepared to at the April 4th board meeting bring you present you a balanced budget but just really wanted to see what the board's risk or tolerance was
065for usage of fund balance before we make that recommendation. Again, we can balance the budget and have it done saying, "Yep, fund balance." Yeah. >> And again, rec I just want to make sure the board has an understanding. Again, certainly feasible for this year given what we believe will be a healthy fund balance at the end of this year, but not a sustainable practice long term. >> So, >> and the state, sorry, the budget hasn't been finalized at the state. So, we're we assume that these are the numbers we're going to get from the state, but we're not guaranteed those numbers. >> So, two things. one. Odds are you won't have it by April 4th if I the last couple years. >> Sorry. [laughter] >> I'm gonna I'm gonna withhold my editorial opinion. >> I
066said, [laughter] >> but it let's assume we don't come April 4th when you have to present because there's deadlines we have to adhere to even though the state does not. Um, right. You have to only assume we're going to get the 1%, right? Because that's what's been published. So, if nothing else changes and we don't have a state budget passed, come April 4th, you have to present closing a $220,000 gap without this extra 1%. That was on the previous slide, right? Um, so you would have to show some combination of the reductions or fund balance to balance the budget. If you get the extra 1% afterwards, that's fantastic. >> Sure. >> Because it means you have less of those two things you have to >> Right. >> So, I guess I'd like you to think
067about the impact on staff and >> because if we have conversations, if I may interject. >> Yes. >> So, with the anticipation that we might be able to >> get another 95, which drops it down to 115, which saves possibly two employees, right? But you'll have to have the conversation with four employees that says you might be let go. >> Yeah. >> They're prepared to let go. They start looking elsewhere. Suddenly, oh, guess what? New York State finally >> has budget and now we know how much we're getting. And now we don't need to let you go. But hey, guess what? I'm gone anyway because you had that conversation. >> Just so we're clear, this balancing the budget, it the four people that is with the $95,000. So if we subtract out the 95, it's
068still four people. If the state doesn't give you the 94 >> up to four people up to four people state doesn't give you the 94 it could be more than correct. >> Okay >> now then you're back at the 220. >> I do not have much of an appetite for risk but I feel pretty confident based on everything that's coming out from legislative advocacy that we think we're going to get. >> And this is really scary because one two three there's already four people that were not back filling plus vote reduction. So we're talking about just in one year nine people or more what happens next year >> when you have already done all of the reducing is probably scary. >> So does the board have any guidance for Penny and I >> So I
069want to go >> I have a question is and it's hard because I can't district is there a possibility to do a combination of both given what you know but can't share about those four >> I think it is a combination >> you talking about like oh if it's not four and two then use the fund balance >> yes I think is it easy to to split some of that >> yes basically we're comfortable with 1% fund balance that almost covers it so if you go back to what our gap is 220 if you say well we're comfortable with matching our anticipated additional 1% with fund balance 1%. Well, then the difference is that whatever that amount is might 180 so it be about $40,000 and you're say we are uncomfortable with going beyond matching
070the 1% fund balance >> and then we're going to come up with $40,000 in reductions like the work is done >> in reductions >> to balance this budget >> in people or in reductions >> in people in everything else is people question >> I just want to make sure I'm >> I guess I'm having a tough I really wish I knew and I know it's the next presentation but I wish it was here to know how how much we had in each fund balance and what the percentage is and how much we're making because that helps me get with a better decision because if we're getting 6% return on X million in there >> is there a means by which you could reintroduce this as an agenda item beyond reports so they can provide that
071feedback once he's seen the reserves like I think that is an important consideration we did not add budget presentation to the agenda for this meeting knowing we were presenting a full hour >> but It's hard to answer too about the impact on programming and students and teachers. >> But the reality is you have to know like that's the operational side. The governance side is you have to say it's the overall budget. you're not picking who >> the comfort level on reductions in personnel vote would depend on outcomes are going to you know it's easy to say okay yeah like yes or no but you have to know how that's going to play out to to say your comfortability with that >> I guess I want to go back to the example I gave you because
072that's a legitimate example looking at kindergarten saying do we want small class sizes or do we want over 20 potential >> if it jeopardizes the things that we're working towards comfortable >> if if we want if we want our students to be able Right. >> Going back to your question, Kelly, it's going to wait for us to rein. >> So, we could we could do it under committee reports because this >> perfect I believe. >> All right. So, I do have a couple quick additional SL. Oh, sorry. >> So, we're going to pause on answering that. So, >> okay. >> Yeah. Just really quick. Um the we are proposing a capital outlay project this year. for um the capital outlay. Doing a $100,000 capital outlay project will allow us to gain uh building aid on
073um that $100,000 which will amount to us getting back about just over $84,000. Um and this year again, we want to do the capital outlay um project on doors at the high school uh similar to what we're doing this year. That's what we're projecting for 2627. Um we are proposing to buy two uh 28 passenger gas fueled buses and three 64 passenger diesel fueled buses um part of our um vehicle replacement plan. Um, this I've gone through a few times um in these budget presentations, but this just shows um how much the district uh actually pays for a bus after our typical um replacement plan. So, we like to start looking at replacing after five years. We It actually gets replaced by year six. So, for this large bus um that we're purchasing this year,
074it's estimated to cost um about 21 $22,000. um out of pocket. Um after the six years um a small bus, we're looking at about 13,421. >> Okay. And wrapping things up, our annual budget vote and election is on May 19th. Our propositions were approved by the board of education at our last meeting on March 4th. We have two seat vacancies, the expiring term of Angela Fischer and Jeff Governor. Their terms are from July 1 through June 30th. Uh all information for prospective board of education members is now available uh through district office and on the website and any questions can be directed uh directed to Kelly Dixon who is the board clerk. And for more information, a couple things. Uh we have additional presentations coming up. So we will certainly be presenting our slideshow. I'm
075sorry. I think I was saying April 4th is our next meeting. Our next meeting is April 8th. We have another meeting on the 22nd. And then of course we'll have the budget hearing. So community members who are interested can tune in uh for the next three presentations. And then also coming soon, uh we're working on budget videos. Worked on filming the first one. We hope to have that released no later than April 1st. We'll have an additional two released over the next four weeks. After that, we're going to release the three-part budget explanation. We'll present on revenues and expenditures for the community. We'll push those out via parent square as well as post them on the website. And then lastly, we do anticipate having a meet the candidate candidate candidate night on May 6th. I
076think that's a topic for conversation a little bit later this evening in the next section of our board meeting. And thank you very much for participating in this board of education workshop specific to the 2627 budget and I'll pass it back to you. [laughter] >> Thank you. Thank you Sarah. HEY, CLARIF