001beginning of our program this evening. I thought it was her. That's me. Oh yeah, that's me. Good evening everyone. It is absolutely my pleasure. uh three times a year. We like to acknowledge and recognize the artistic talent, skills and demonstration of growth and learning in our students. And so it's my pleasure this evening to welcome Maya Brown who's going to share a little bit about her artwork tonight. And it's gorgeous. You're all done. You could have it on the wall. Congratulations. Shake your hand and then there's your certificate. Please do share a little bit about your piece. Um, so I did this with oil pastel in art class and our job was to take a landscape picture and completely like skew the colors of it. So that was kind of my take on it. Congratulations.
002[Applause] I don't want to mispronounce. I'd like to now welcome Estraa Moscada Lavala. Did I say it correctly? Close. And we would love for you to share with us a little bit about your artwork. Congratulations. Much to be proud about. Uh this is my artwork and our job was to put like things that we like and I put things about my country and things that I like. So out and then I guess I get to accept on behalf of Naur who did an incredible job with this piece. I I can't really speak to what her thinking was it, but it was a first grade piece that she did. She did a beautiful job aspiring artist. So, on behalf of the program, thank you. Those will be Mr. Thomas again. Yes. Nice job, everybody. Beautiful artwork.
003All right. I need a motion to adjourn to executive session. Uh so uh for the uh employment history employment history of a particular person or uh all in favor second thank you. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi. All right. I need a motion to approve the resignation of action board trustee effective April 8th, 2025. So second any discussion? I'd like to take action for her years of service. Six six years of service I believe uh to the board. For people who don't know, um the board of ed is not an easy seat to to fill. There's a lot of time away from family, a lot of dedication, and so uh huge thanks to anybody who steps into that role, steps up to serve. All in favor? I post four. All right. Budget workshop. Okay. Do
004you stay with us for the unit or you Maybe I'll Let's move the student representative up in front of the budget presentation. Is that okay with you? Yes. Um, I'm Georgia Alexander and I am the secretary for the class of 2020 and the report for like the upcoming like recent events for the high school was this week was spirit week and we did jersey day, country versus country club, wicked day was today where you wear a green or pink. Um, tomorrow is anything but a backpack day. Um, and then Friday is egg day where you wear like Easter colors or whatever. Um, also what's going on is senior assassin, which I've heard is really fun. So that's like you shoot their like target with a water gun, but if they don't have their float if
005they do have their floaty on, then they're not out. But if they don't have their floaty on and you get shot, then you're out. So this occurs in my community. Yeah. No, just seniors. Um there's NHS project going on. Um the high school gym floor is being redone which is exciting. Um there the locker room is like out of order though because of that but which is a little like tricky but so far it's been pretty okay. Uh, spring sports started, which weather has conflicted with that a little bit, but so far it's pretty good. I like I'm in track, so it's I like it a lot. So, it's going well. And then lastly, spring break's coming up, which everyone's excited. Everyone's kind of just wrapping up like tests and everything, so they're all excited
006for that. But that's it. Awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you. We're getting ready to [Laughter] have a great night. You too. Okay, now we'll move into the budget presentation. Thank you all and good evening to all of our guests this evening. My pleasure to sit beside our new business official, Penny Johnson. I had forgotten the last time she was here. She was in the audience and she hadn't yet actually officially started the position. I want to tell you what a pleasure it has been to work beside her the last three and a half weeks. It's been exactly three and a half weeks today. Uh hit the ground running. Uh as the board members know, uh it is absolutely Super Bowl time in the business office right now putting together the 2526 budget. I can
007share with you that Penny has been extremely uh thoughtful, conscientious, and really uh diving deep into the budget to make sure that she's uh ready to talk about it this evening. So, it's my pleasure to present with her uh in part this evening. And so, I'm going to start just by saying for our agenda this evening, we're going to set the stage for you. Uh Penny will take you through our revenues and expenditures for 2025 26. Uh we're going to review what the ballot propositions will be on May 20th. And then lastly, we'll see if the board has any questions specific to the 2526 budget development. So far, as I shared in the last presentation, I think it's really important for the board, but also for our community to understand that the budget uh document
008is extremely cumbersome and it's all numbers, but really what it reflects is the mathematical expression of the vision and uh mission of our district. And so we think about teaching and learning and the board's uh role in governance and establishing direction for the district. The budget is what allows it for us to uh potentially pursue and achieve what you've identified as the direction for the district of Williamson central school district. And so just anchoring us into the vision and mission. Uh also important when we think about the mathematical expression of the vision and mission, we also have to be factoring in how do we execute what you've identified as the essential priorities. And I am very proud and confident that the work that we've done in development in this in this budget does support each
009of the four pillars specific to our essential objectives around student achievement, safe supported learning environment, community connections, and also fiscal responsibility or stewardship. And lastly, again uh as an institution of teaching, learning and outcomes for young people, we have a strong record of producing high graduation rates, especially when you look relative or comparatively to New York State uh target should be. We want to make sure we're always exceeding the New York State threshold and we have consistently done that over the last six years. I'll share with you I happen to know after working closely with Dr. Snider is one of his uh target objectives. Like we want every kid, we want every young person, we're small enough of a district that we should be able to have that personalized attention to make sure every young
010person gets to walk that stage at the end of the school year. And that's something that he's working uh passionately within building on uh at those last four years as are all our pre KT should mention too. And with that, I'm going to pass off to Penny who's going to share a peek at the 2526 budget. Um, I just wanted to take a moment to, um, you know, just say that, um, in the three and a half weeks, I've really enjoyed getting to know everyone here and I really have had to kind of like try to dig into some things. And I just really, um, want to thank um, Jeff Sutton and Gary Vel for all their hard work in, you know, starting this and really putting the budget together as I'm trying to look
011at the finishing touches. and she's loved being in videos, budget videos. Absolutely thrilled day one. Oh, by the way, we're videoing. Welcome to Williams. That's exactly what I said. Uh I want to start um by talking about the revenues and the um tax cap. uh in 2012 the New York or New York state put in the tax cap limit um and where the growth rate factor can only increase um by 2%. Um there are other factors that go into the tax cap calculation um that can make it the actual levy go up more than 2% but that inflation factor is limited at 2%. um for the budget. If we go out to or below the tax cap, in order for the budget to pass, we need um 50% to approve the budget plus one. Uh
012if we go out to exceed the tax cap, we need to have a 60% super majority uh vote yes. This is a uh slide that shows how to calculate the property tax uh levy limit. I'm not going to go into all the details here on this slide, but it is here for reference if anyone wants to um look at it. This here is our tax cap um calculation. Um you can see that last year our levy was $12,27,395. um you multiply that levy by the uh tax base growth factor and then you take into consideration your pilots for the current year and your prior year pilots and then that gets multiplied by that growth factor that I talked about on the previous slide that is capped at 2%. And then in the lower half of
013that calculation, you can deduct your um exclusions. We didn't have any exclusions uh this year. So our limit this year is 12,548,651. We are only doing the 12,548 645. Um it's leaving like a $6 buffer. We just rounded it down just for rounding issues. um if you know we don't want to take the chance of overt taxing even if it's like by a penny we don't want to go over that limit. Here you can see the comparison from the prior year to the current year. The increase is going to be $341,250 um which is a 2.8% increase. I'm now going to take a look at the state aid numbers. Um, this year our foundation aid is expected to be 2%. Uh, which amounts to $182,000. The foundation aid is subject to change pending the release
014of the New York State budget. It has um I get word today that it is yet um has been extended again. So, we do not have um any concrete numbers yet, but we are hopeful for potentially another percent. Here's a breakdown of the state aid. Um the executive budget that was released is um slightly different than what we are projecting to receive. Uh foundation aid, we're projecting the same. uh the excess cost aid we are projecting a little bit lower and that's just to be conservative. Uh if we were to have a high-cost student leave the district, we wouldn't get the aid for that. So we don't want to overestimate our revenue on that. The building aid we're estimating to be a little bit higher. Um we submitted final cost reports and um early aid
015starts in December and those numbers were not included in that executive budget run. So we worked with our um municipal advisors with this and and came up with the $2.1 million. We're projecting a little bit less in Bosey's aid. Um it's not the end of the year yet. We don't know if we're going to go through all of our Boseies money. Uh, and Bosey's aid is expense driven. So, we want to be a little bit conservative with that again. And the same with trans transportation aid that is also expense driven. Um, we have to submit our full budget to New York State and they base the projections on the aid off of that budget. Uh so we could not spend all that money and there's also things included in that money that are not eatable
016such as field trips and sports runs. So that's just a a conservative look at and why we're estimating under that. Our uh instructional materials aid is relatively the same. We're not going to see too much of a variance in that. The year-to-year difference in the state aids, we're expecting an additional 447,000 this year over last year, which is a 3.06% increase. The district also receives other types of revenue. Um, we get pilot payments. Um, those are expected to stay relatively the same along with the sales tax and, uh, any Medicaid that we receive in federal aid. Uh we also receive local revenues. Um the two big components of that are tuition aid and interest on um all of our reserve money. This slide shows the breakdown of our revenue sources. I talked um about most
017of these revenue sources in previous slides. Um, we also have fund balance which is where we can allocate surplus funds from a prior year um to help balance the budget and we can also appropriate some reserves to help balance the budget. This year we're not going to be appropriating any fund balance. Um, we are going to appropriate some reserves but not as much as we had in the prior year. And the pie chart on the slide shows a representation of really how much each of those categories represents of our budget. And you can see that um property taxes and state aid make up almost 95% of our budget. This shows the overall breakdown of um the current budget and then what we're projecting for next year. You can see that we are um the tax
018levy is going to be going up 341,000 and state aid 447,000. We are going to use um reserves to help balance that budget. We're using the employee retirement reserve, the teacher retirement reserve, unemployment reserve, and the debt service reserve amounting in about $460,000. um that will um account for a $358,265 uh budget increase over the last year and Bridget is going to uh set the stage for some of the expenses about 50 slides 50 slides setting stage really important again thinking about the mathematical expression uh that the budget represents and so of course just want to anchor into our current enrollment uh numbers for the last x number of years. Yes, we like many other rural school districts have seen a declining enrollment. However, when we look at that bottom line as far as how
019many students we are servicing or serving 936. So programming optimal programming supports and services for 936 students in 2526. Also want to make sure we anchor into what does that mean? What does that look like for us? What are the considerations we have to factor in in our delivery of what programming supports and services are for those students? I'm not going to read the list for you, but again, thinking about those standards, multiple pathways, portrait of our graduate, uh, community schools, etc. Extracurriculars and athletics. I mean, we just uh celebrated some of our students artwork. There's multiple clubs, multiple opportunities for our students. Also factoring into the budget when we think about our expenditures, those other programmatic considerations. We have a number of students participating uh highly successfully in the Wayne Tech and Career Center.
020Uh we have students participating in Gemini and AP courses. And frankly, another conversation Dr. Snyder and I have been having is we want to expand that programming. So we're really looking at creative ways by which we expand programming for students up at the high school. Another uh factor of our expenditures, which Penny will speak about in just a few moments, is again how do we actually execute that vision and mission? Well, we're 248 WCS strong. It's 248 faculty and staff members that make the magic happen. That is teaching and learning at the Williamson Central School District. Also included are facilities. Uh this has been an interesting year for facilities. Uh as all of you likely recall, thinking about plumbing, uh roofs, leaks. uh we've just had our fair share and so we have to make
021sure that we have a budget that allows for us to uh maintain and repair the facilities allows for us to take care of the eight buildings that our district is comprised of the three kitchens that are attached the 335 847 square feet in those eight buildings and then also we have to make sure that we have maintenance and we have sake vehicles that transport our students back and forth to school. Beyond that, there are nine negotiable drivers when you're building a budget. And so I'm going to just briefly speak to each of the five. And the first is that each year uh we we anticipate and true to form for 2526 there are healthcare cost increases. And this year dependent upon which plan our unit members are in that increase is 10 to 14% which
022is significant. The one thing I will say is after two years ago having a 22% increase 10 to 14 we actually feel grateful about. But yet uh that does impact our our budget development for 2526. We also are an organization uh that is bound by contractual obligations. Whatever it says in our teachers association contract, whatever it says in our CSEA, we are bound by those obligations. Uh important to note that this year we are currently uh entering into negotiations with our CSEA unit. And so that will factor into budget development for the 2526. uh as part of benefit packages, uh we also have to look at and build in uh monies for retirement incentives. And then we also have to factor in inflation when we're thinking about material supplies and other items. Here's where I
023think it gets a little bit more interesting for folks. And so when I think about the 2526 budget, uh what you see in front of you are the proposed budget enhancements. So these are the ads that would be new money in the 2526 year. And so on the instructional side of things, uh, first we're very excited and I know Ellen and her building are very excited about the addition of really it will be two AIS positions at the elementary school. The net change in our budget is really only one because Ellen has done a really nice job with her projections and enrollments and she's going to be able to absorb one teacher at the elementary that will end up shifting into AIS. So the actual ad for 2526 is one AIS teacher at the elementary
024school. Uh Rachel's been doing a wonderful job check tracking our compliance with ENL support for our students who may require those supports and frankly what they need and deserve. And so her recommendation is to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our ENL population that we increase and meet compliance regulations around the supports we're providing for our ENL students. Uh our technology department as well as Rachel successfully advocated for the inclusion of a 0.5 tech staff person. Uh we have been minimally staffed in the tech department. uh I would say for a number of years and so given the cyber safety concerns and considerations that we have in front of us as well as the ondemand uh needs that we have in each of our three buildings uh we think it prudent to increase
025our tech staff nominally by a.5 this will be a halftime person uh and we are putting together um a job description we would post for that uh shortly after this meeting uh moving forward I mentioned or alluded to a couple times uh the idea about expanding programing at the secondary level. One creative means by which we can do that is through distance learning up at the high school. I believe Rachel chaired, thank you very much for doing so, chaired and championed for us to secure the grant funding for us to have distance learning equipment that's already up at the high school. Uh to date it has not been uh it has been underutilized and so we're positioning now so that in 25 26 uh um Robin Dr. Snider and I have talked about really we
026want that distance learning equipment running all day long and having some either elective and or other AP/gemini course running for students to have additional opportunities. Really the vision would be down the road having two of those running so that we're offering an additional 16 courses for our students. Uh and so to make that happen we are going to have to partner with city Boseies. There's a coser uh it's a nominal dollar amount but allows for us to have access to the distance learning programming. So, it is the recommendation to move forward with that. Uh, Mr. Roco sitting here this evening. Thrilled to have you here at the table, Mr. Roco. Uh, Mr. Draco met with myself and Miss Johnston, I believe it was Monday of this week, and he successfully advocated for us to uh,
027literally this week, increase our athletics equipment budget. what he brought to us is that we have an a number of items uh that are specific to equipment in our athletic um department uh that are either obsolete or they have just they're just beyond their lifespan. And so we are making the recommendation to move our athletic equipment budget up nominally in this first year. And then uh Mr. Rockco is going to be working diligently to actually inventory all of our equipment so that in subsequent years he can uh better um recommend or advocate for additional equipment funding as necessary to make sure that we're engaging in an equipment replacement plan. So with every year that we have we know what our target is and we can budget accordingly to take care of that for our athletics
028uh department. And then lastly uh we are holding a placeholder. I mentioned and that was intentional. Uh we are hopeful to see another 1% in our foundation aid if that happens. I know Miss Taylor is hopeful that we can potentially onboard an additional teacher at the middle school. And so I have assured her that if we get that additional 1% and we hope to know that by the next board meeting uh that we will be able to onboard an an additional teacher at the middle school level. She's very excited about that. And thank you for your advocacy for teaching and learning in your building. And then lastly on the operational side of thing, it's important for us to note that the capital outlay is one mechanism we have by which to engage in facilities up
029uh upkeep and repair. And so we are absolutely making the recommendation to build in that $100,000 of a capital outlay again in 2526 to attend this replacement of some doors which pose a safety and security hazard right now. So, we've been working closely with uh Patrick Poyer, our facilities director, to identify which doors we want to focus on to better enhance our safety and security on campus. And then lastly, of course, bus purchases, which Miss Johnston will talk about a little bit further in just a few moments. So, I talked about the ads. Uh well, hopefully if you were watching the final numbers in Penny's earlier slide, uh hopefully you noted that actually our expenditure side of the budget actually went down since our last meeting. So we've been crunching numbers, working really diligently to
030try and rightsize our budget to best reflect what we anticipate expenditures to be. And so the areas of focus that we've been targeting are number one attrition where potentially are there reductions that are naturally occurring through retirement that we can potentially not have to backfill and take that cost savings. Number two, there are a number of circumstances where we have retirements and we'll see breakage, meaning the replacement won't necessarily cost the district quite so much as the person who is leaving in retirement. Uh, number three, I'm very excited and we'll speaking a little bit more in my superintendent report about uh cost savings with an administrative reconfiguration effective for 25.6. And then lastly, as I already alluded to, right sizing those budget lines, looking at each and every expenditure line and trying to establish if
031we can right size to best reflect what we anticipate the expenditures to be in 2526. So, as I just mentioned, I I think it's important for the board to have an understanding of what that actually looks like as far as the people because every time you talk about a reduction, really, we're talking about some someone and a face uh somebody that we're working with in the day in day out. And so this reflects what the anticipated reductions would be for next year. So for 2526 through attrition, what you will see is that we anticipate a reduction of 2.0 FTE in the CSEA unit. That would be our operational side of things. For our WFA, we anticipate a reduction of uh two teachers. And so we uh have a PE teacher that's retiring. And we do
032not anticipate backfilling that PE teacher. uh through some creative scheduling, we're able to uh work without needing to backfill that position. We also anticipate anticipate taking a 1.0 reduction in the special education department. Thank you to all the work of Kelly Colin in the pupil personnel department. Uh making sure that we can still meet all the IEP uh requirements for all of our special education students, but we think we're going to be able to do that potentially without backfilling of special education retirement. And then lastly, uh the TAs. Uh each of our building leaders, Ellen and Kate in particular, are again using creative scheduling to say, do we have to backfill the positions? And so they're being very creative in their solutions to make sure that we don't disrupt programming in their buildings. I'm sorry,
033I can't see across. Um oh, and the other 1.0 FTE, uh many of you will recall we started the year looking for a Spanish teacher in 2425. Uh ultimately, I think you know the ending to the story. We were never successful in recruiting a certified Spanish teacher and ultimately we had to go with uh incidental teaching model. We have someone who's currently not certified as an LTS. And so ultimately we made the determination that rather than trying to go out after I think four rounds four rounds of trying to secure a Spanish teacher, we're going to take the reduction in 2526 not compromising Spanish. We will still run Spanish and French. our uh French teacher will currently be responsible for our middle school French and Spanish. And we're going to be looking at a synchronous
034model either distance learning or otherwise that Rob is working with a couple of Rob and Rachel are currently working with a couple of our neighboring districts to make sure that our upper level Spanish courses can still be taken care of. That's our creative solution, but it is a tremendous cost savings to the district by engaging in that pathway. Uh and lastly, the administrative uh reconfiguration. I mentioned uh what you're going to see uh when I share my superintendence report is that we are taking a full 1.0 reduction of an administrator. Sorry to see uh Ellen Saxsby leaving, but it's a naturally occurring uh means of attrition by which we can take an actual full 1.0 FTE in the administrative uh department. And then we're also taking uh two other places. So, one of them seated
035at the table right to my right. Brian Roco reflects a reduction at the middle school. So, he's going to serve as a 0.5 assistant principal. He's also going to serve as a 0.5 athletic director. You might remember a couple moments ago I mentioned we're not backfilling a PE teacher. That was cost savings that we were able to engage in because Brian now will be serving in that role as athletic director. Similarly, up at the high school, we're going to take a reduction of a point4 of our AP up at the high school and we're going to embed or partner our data coordinator position with the assistant principal. And that also is tremendous savings for the district. It's actually about $65,000 by assigning that task to one of our assistant principles. So, uh, and again, I
036will speak more to that brief in briefly in my administrative report. There reflects my piece of the anticipated expenditures and now Miss Johnson will actually take you through the numerical side what it looks like. So this year we are expecting a increase in the budget of $385,265 over the 2425 budget which is a 1.25% increase in the budget. This screen shows where um most of our expenditures occur. You can see that just about 50% of our expenditures are instruction related. Um and then the next biggest piece is the employee benefits. Um listed on the slide I have the different categories instruction, general support, transportation, employee benefits, and debt service. um that'll give you details as to what is included in those sections there on the pie chart pie chart. Looking at um the expenses through
037a different lens of the state requires a threepart budget requirement. So the first section of that is the administrative component. You can see that this year the administrative component is only going up about 1,00 just under $1,800. So it makes up 001% of the 1.25 increase. Um a lot of that has to do with the um reconfiguration of the admin team and um for the decreases and then right sizing of the budget lines. The administrative component um consists of um it it provides for the overall support of the district and the management of activities. So it includes um the district clerk and superintendent's office, all the business office operations and then all the legal liability property insurance and auditing services. Um it also shows the employee benefits for all of those employees that fall into
038this category. Um as I indicated on the prior slide um a lot of the growth in expenditures is um from contractual earnings or increased costs for services. The next part of the um three-part budget is the program component. This consists of all the instructional items. Uh it includes teacher salaries, benefits, um and it also includes transportation because we need to transport the kids to get them to school uh support their learning. It also includes all the co-curricular and athletics. Um there is a decrease in benefits. Again, you know, just trying to rightsize that benefits line. And this uh the program component represents about 33% of the budget increase for this year. Um, I hit on some of this stuff as to what it includes on the prior slide, but again, the instructional salaries uh for
039K12 programs, special education services, benefits, and transportation. A lot of the changes in the expenditures were increased costs for services and rate sizing of the budgets. The next part of the three-part budget is the capital component, which um this represents a 911% increase. A lot of that increase has come from um the the debt service which helps um finance some of our capital projects, but it is also largely offset by uh building aid on the revenue side. Um the capital component includes um uh upkeep for all the school um buildings, upkeep of the grounds. It includes the electricity, water, sewer, telephone services, and um it the salaries for all the maintenance and custodial staff. Like with the other slides, um a lot of the increase is contractual earnings, benefits increases, and the obligations for for
040debt. I want to take a moment to talk about the capital outlay project. Um capital outlay projects allow the district to be able to do small renovation projects. I know um Bridget briefly touched on this earlier. um by putting it through a capital outlay project, the uh district is able to uh earn aid on that and our aid is about um 84%. So on the capital outlay project we're going to do uh next next year it will get about $84,000 back on that $100,000 project. Um, we plan on updating the interior and exterior interior doors, door hardware, and um, it'll also cover some of the construction and um, security concerns that we have with those doors. They're talking about changing this from 100 to 250,00 So if that happens, we can adjust. That's one of
041them. It looks like it will happen. It hasn't changed. I say will there. We were asking for 500. That's what you do to get um I included some uh pictures of the doors that we are talking about. You can see in the first picture there is a gap there. Um the second picture you can see where hardware has been removed or changed and when you do that it um you know affects the the security of the door and the functionality of it. And um on the picture on the right we've added like a metal guard to that which alters again like the safety and the security of the door. So, um, in the last board meeting, there were some questions about, um, our bus purchases and the amount of trading value and that with them.
042So, I wanted to put in a little bit of a slide to kind of explain things here. Um, I can't really read it from there. Um, so on the left hand side, I did um, a column for large buses. on this on the right hand side um there's a column for small buses. So um I'll just look at the the large bus column. Uh the cost of a large bus right now is about $176,000. The district receives about 81 a.5% aid back on that over five years. So at the end of the fiveyear period, the bus in turn ends up costing us a little over $32,000. Um the school right now has we start looking at replacing the bus after five years. We have maintenance contracts that cover the bus for those five years and
043by the time we get a new bus in it's at year six um on that. So I reached out and got some numbers for typical maintenance costs on vehicles and uh buses and typical tradein values for buses. So with year six, um if we start with that 32,000 after all the aid, the first year of maintenance in year six is going to cost just under $3,000 and we look looking at a trade in about 115. So that brings the cost of the bus down to $23,843. Now the longer you extend the life of the bus, the more maintenance fees you're going to have and your tradein values go down. So if you look at year eight, um you have years six, seven, and eight in maintenance gradually increasing in the costs and your bus trade
044in decreases to $8,500. So the cost of that bus then goes up to uh just under $34,000. Now extend that out 10 years. Um you have years 6 through 10 with maintenance costs. When you get up to year 10, you're looking at about $9,500 for maintenance. Um, with a trade in of $3,000. So, that bus is now costing almost $55,000. I appreciate I do. And when you make a a chart like this, people in the community can actually see that, understand it, and accept it hopefully. But it but it makes sense as to why we place a bus. Yes. So, um, looking at this, I, you know, think it's advantageous to stay, you know, in the cycle that we're we're going in. Thank you. So, we had just talked about the three-part budget. Um here
045you can see um on the same slide what each part represents and it totals out to that $358,265 increase. This is a pie chart that just um so you can see a representation of what each component um makes up of our budget. And you can see that um the program component of our budget is almost threequarters of the budget. And with that, I'm going to pass it back to Bridget. And she's so disappointed she's not continuing. And just the propositions quickly, of course, the first proposition on our ballot will of course be for the actual dollar amount uh of the budget for 2526. Proposition two is specific to the purchase of the vehicles. a reminder that because our bus purchases come from a capital reserve, we actually have to have the voters uh vote yes
046to the proposition to for us to be able to make the purchase. And then next, just thinking ahead what's coming up. Obviously, tonight's our workshop uh the 23rd, we hope to have our final budget presentation, the board of education. We're also hopeful that the state budget will come out, so we'll know where we land with that potential for an additional 1% or about $91,000. Uh we will be making recommendation to the board of education on April 23rd for you to adopt the budget and then it becomes your budget, we pass it off to you. Uh on May 7th, we'll have our budget hearing and meet the candidate night where we hope to have uh any potential uh candidates for the board of education for 2526. Uh come and speak with our community about why they're
047running for the board of education. And then of course lastly, our annual meeting is scheduled for May 20th. Uh budget information for the community. We just want to make sure folks know where to look if they have questions. Uh we are releasing videos and so budget video number one specific to what is the three-part budget, what makes up the three-part budget was released back in March and that's available on the website. Our revenues budget video was released on April 4th and that's also available now on the website and we anticipate budget video number three to be released uh on or about 4:14 so I can read it. uh and Penny uh and I just finished uh creating the video. So, we anticipate that coming out by 4:14, which is great. And all of the videos
048on our avail will be available on the uh district website. Anchoring into the annual election, we do have two expiring terms. So, the term of Ashton Mahanal as well as Jamie Sonville are expiring June 30th. And so, we have those two seats that right now will currently be available for vacancies. And again, annual election is May 20th. Uh, if folks are interested in running for a board seat, they should see Kelly Dixon, our district clerk, who has the board packets and petition, and folks would have to turn in their petition by April 21st at 5:00. Got it. And then lastly, as I already mentioned, uh, folks, please save the date. We hope that folks will come to the budget hearing and meet the candidate night before they come out to vote so that they can
049be introduced to all of our candidates for the next uh, seat, next board seats. And that concludes our budget presentation for this evening. Wondering if there are any questions from the board. Penny, you did a great job for your first presentation here at Williamson. I know you were nervous. You did great. Does anybody have any? Thank you. That was great. Okay, we'll jump right into reports from districts. Yeah, we'll start with the elementary school, Ellen Saxby. Okay, a couple things I just want to highlight. Um, we just recently did UPK screenings um at building. We had um Don Everheart in the district office as a register. She was a huge help. Did all the scheduling. So once a family came to register, they were assigned the screening time that took place in the elementary with
050one of our UPK teachers, Karen Kovc, Lisa Henderson, Jud Barnes, Emily Hancock, and one of our speech language teachers, um, Shannon Tipper Elorado. And so we are really excited about our incoming UPK. Um, numbers are low right now, but that could always change over the summer. And the other thing I want to just highlight is all the work. I could go on and on about the tier one work that's happening in the building led by Jess Craft and a great group of people who are very excited to bring enthusiasm and community to the building including the great work that our monitors are doing with justice uh leadership. They they make the cafeteria it's very loud a very fun place and they tied in the holiday themes right now. There's a giant Easter basket on the
051wall. Kids get to decorate eggs to fill with the basket. Um boy time in the cafeteria. Um we too are doing a spirit week not as um involved as the um high school but like to piggy back off the high school. So we have our spirit week too. So I just want to say thanks to Jess and the tier one committee. There's a lot of great things happening. Thank you very much and at the middle school Miss Taylor. Good evening everyone. So I have two major highlights this evening. One um I'd like to highlight Kathy Abdinaser and herit literacy across the content class sixth grade. um they conducted a mock trial centered around the potential cell phone ban um that might occur next year for New York State and it really was she the sixth
052graders there were lawyers there was a jury and they presented their case and arguments and I would like to let you all know that in this mock trial Miss Liberator and myself and Morocco attended but the jury came down with their um decision was that they were in favor of a cell come down. So, I would like to um and the jury wasn't absent. Um I would also like to take the time to recognize her outstanding work is Denon Hill. Den is our guidance secretary. Um her work to make state testing as smooth as possible. Actually, this morning before this before the glitch of the internet, it was as smooth as it have ever been. Um, I I cannot thank her enough for her preparedness, her level of detail, and just making sure that everybody's
053organized and knows where to go. So, I like to highlight her and thank her very much and high school. So, I'm highlighting three things that we're working on that are new this year, upcoming year at the high school. Um, so first, uh, Bridget and I have been working on our new, uh, New York state policy. We're having a student rep on the board. Um, so we came up with a process that we're excited about. Um, might speak more to it later, but our plan right now is that I've already started to communicate with students. Um, on May 5th, we're going to have a meeting with any interested juniors who want to be our board rep next year. Uh, Bridget and I will meet with those students and explain the role of what it is. Um,
054May 7th, we're going to have a meet the candidate uh forum. So students will have an opportunity to come up in front of their peers and present on why they should be the candidate. And then on May 20th, I'm in alignment with the board elections. We're gonna have our own election for high school for students um so that they can reply next. Um we're also doing a lot of work with the schedule right now and really focusing in our priorities. How do we expand opportunities for students? Um we're looking at reducing the number of empty spots in kids schedules. Right now we have seniors who have maxed out every elective they can take and they have two or three study halls. um reinforcements leaving early than we want. And so we're trying to get students
055to be in at full schedules and not take classes to take them, but to take them because they want to be there or something they're interested in. And we're doing that in a few ways. Uh mostly through distance learning. We're looking at pathways through FLCC that students can engage early in um up to taking up to student we looked into at Fort Byron I to visit there. give a student 19 credits through um in their case it's unaded community college. So it's a great opportunity to students entering as a sophomore next year in the college. We can do the same thing for our students and so we're trying to get students in that. Next year will be our test year for our 11th 12th graders. We're roll this out with them and give it a
056pilot and see how it goes. Um another thing we're prioritizing is ELA. Trying to make sure that all of our students take ELA all four years of high school. Right now, our accelerated students are entering into 12th grade and then they have an option to enroll into an AP or Gemini course or in some cases they don't take ELA their senior year. Um, which I think is a gap for us. Literacy being a priority of sending off to college where the most important skill is literacy and reading and writing skills. Um, so those are often our highest achieving students taking a year off of ELA. So we're trying to expand that. And then with some of scheduling, we're possibly going to have an AIS block or a reading intervention block for our high school students
057next year. Um and then finally uh this year we also introduced our students to the CEOs program which is an alternative pathway to getting their credits for graduation. And so in the past um their students don't graduate if they miss an exam right exam in order to graduate one in each of the four subjects and the fifth one can come from anywhere. Um and the COS can replace that fifth exam. So we just had a couple weeks ago two seniors who were questionable to graduate. Then we come down to one test for them. They both passed the CEOs exam which if you want to look at graduation rates again that's a 4% increase in our graduation rate would have been had they not passed the exam. Um so just alternative pathway across the Thank you
058very excited about all that work. Uh people personnel services I'm sorry. Hi everyone. Um, so in the special ed world, it is annual review season. So it's all hands on deck right now. And I really want to just highlight our special ed teachers and our PPS staff. So related service providers, mental health um, staff, they sitting in on these meetings. They know their students so well and can speak so eloquently to every strength and area of growth that that child has that's kind of getting in the way of them being able to access their curriculum. Um, I would put that team up against anyone and they would by far win. They are so good at what they do. Um, I also want to recognize that our student and parent participation in CSSE meetings is really
059increased this year. Um, more students than we've had in the past and their input is so important when we're making decisions about how to help those kids be successful. So, I'm I appreciate that. Um, and additionally, this time of year especially, the CSC department could not run as smoothly as it does without Annette Whitmore, um, and Don Everheart. They are just rock stars in the administrative support world, and they make all the behind the scenes pieces happen seamlessly. So, thank you to them. Um, I just want to shout out to the MTSS team, specifically the tier two teams in each building. Um, specifically, well, middle school and high school so far have worked really closely with me um, in terms of refining our process for making recommendations for academic intervention services. So, it's really been
060a quite a a lengthy conversation that we've had over time. We're looking forward to rolling it out hopefully in 30 weeks. Um and then developing also the elementary school as well. Um so just refining that process and hoping to make the best possible recommendations. Thank you from the office of our assistant superintendent. Good evening. I have just a few updates to share with you tonight. Um so first I want to give you an update on the pilot of our new math program that we're hoping to adopt by the end of the school year. Uh the two programs that we are currently exploring are bridges in mathematics and math expressions. Um but I would say both two very different uh approaches to instruction around mathematics. Um so we're curious to see how that pilot uh goes.
061Um so our pilot teachers have received training from both vendors and they officially began using the curriculum materials with students on uh April 24th. Um we've conducted one visit. So we did go to uh visit Honeyway Central School District uh because they are currently implementing bridges and our teachers Ellen traveled with our teachers and they had the opportunity to not only observe implementation of the program but then take some time to talk to the host teachers about their experience with the program. Um we're we are currently in the process of setting up a visit to Webster uh Central School District for teachers to do the same with math expressions. Um, so that's in the process, but just to kind of give you a timeline from now until the end of the school year. Um, at
062the beginning of May, we hope to have our pilot teachers be able to share with the rest of their colleagues um how the pilots for both programs are going, what they see as as benefits or um things that like opportunities or growth areas within each. Um, and then we'll also hopefully have some sample materials that grade level teachers can continue to discuss and explore. Um we'll send out a survey so that every single teacher has an opportunity to have voice given their review of both programs. Um and then our pilot teachers also have an opportunity to cons to continue to receive some professional learning from uh the vendors. So we'll continue with that. So there's a lot happening in the next three and a half to four weeks. Um, our goal is to have a
063a decision by the end of March to which as to which program we would propose to you for adoption um so that we could begin to work with the vendor to secure any professional learning that we need for the summer or early fall. Um, so it's it's kind of a tight timeline, but um I would say our our pilot teachers have entered this phase with open mindsets and um have been really flexible in their thinking going from one program to the next. So, um, we'll we'll certainly keep you updated with how how it goes. Um, we are also in the process of finalizing our summer professional development offering. So, we've had conversations at the administrative level. We've had conversations with teacher leaders, with our coaches on what opportunities um, we think that we should be
064able to provide to all of our staff for the summer months. So, we're finalizing some of those, but opportunities uh certainly include time for curriculum development and then learning around best practices. Um, I also would like to give you an update on our program review process and implementation. Um, so previously we've had ELA, math, AIS, and PE health engage in the program review process. They are now actively addressing those recommendations that you reviewed as part of that final report. Um, we recently within the past two weeks have held both ELA and math workshops with subcommittees from that uh, program review team to kind of start mapping out some of the K12 work that we really want to focus on in terms of vertical alignment. So, we'll we'll present those drafts back to uh, the rest
065of our colleagues and then from there they'll start having those vertical alignment conversations to be able to identify any gap areas. Um, our science and social studies departments are wrapping up their review. So, we'll be sharing our findings and any recommendations with you in June around those two departments. Uh, and then finally, um, I just want to piggyback a little bit off of, uh, Kate's update around state testing. This morning, I had the opportunity to be at the middle school, um, and just fantastic leadership on the part of of Brian and Kate, both um, working to make sure that their teachers and kids feel um, supported throughout that entire process. as we know it can certainly have a wide range of of emotions. Um there was a technical difficulty um right in the middle I
066would say middle to tail end of the testing period today. Um it was a statewide technical issue and one um that also occurred yesterday. So, um, you know, navigating that, I would I would just want to give kudos to Michaela, um, and Jerry who were there every step of the way with us and making phone calls to stay bed, making sure that whatever decision we had to make, um, in the best interest of our students and our district, we were doing the right thing um, and getting guidance from the state. So, uh, we were able to kind of ride that glitch out and get our kids logged back in and they were able to finish the assessment. Um, but also just to be able to speak to the resiliency of our kids, which I know
067Kate put in her update to families this morning. Like they were in good spirits. We checked in on every classroom. Our teachers were uh I felt calm and and maintaining composure because I know very nerve-wracking, but uh but our kids just did fantastic. So just want to give that all of them a huge shout out. Thank you very much. And almost last business official and John as if that budget report was not enough. So, um, as you all know, I've been here a little over three weeks. I spent, um, a lot of that time getting to know, um, a lot of people and, um, departments. And one thing that I see out of meeting with all of them is that everyone really cares about what they do and about the kids and they really, you
068know, go above and beyond with what they do. And, um, it's really nice to see that. Um I've been digging into the budget trying to you know get a feel for things and um and also we are looking at um going out to bond for our current capital project. So, I've been working on um uh the DASI paperwork for that and working with the municipal advisors to make sure that everything's in order so that we can um secure that financing questions from any of our other administrators. Okay, I'm going to try and go fast. I do it. Uh I want to start out by uh thanking uh the folks both administrative but also uh faculty members who are currently participating in strategic planning. I want to thank the board for setting the direction last summer
069around what were the essential areas that we were going to be focusing on. We are now drilling down into those essential areas and identifying targeted areas that we want to work on more specifically. And so right now we're focusing only on academic achievement and looking at prioritizing what potential next steps we're going to take. what are actionable items and then what would be our measures of success. We will continue the strategic planning sessions through May and then I will bring that out to a larger community meaning internal and external so that folks have an opportunity to review the work that we've uh engaged in and the plan of work moving forward. I want to also touch on district safety. So our district safety team is strong uh 35 to 40 members uh and we are
070currently working on reviewing our emergency response plan. uh we actually conducted a crosswalk between our plan and the state of education uh guidelines regarding what are the minimal thresholds you must have in your safety plan and so we have some work to do that we will be prepared to uh bring back to district safety on May 28th. We also um spent a lot of time working on an addendum specific to remote learning in the event we'd ever have to toggle to remote learning for any reason whether it be maximum temperatures. Remember that's come to next year guys classrooms get too warm and we might have to toggle. Um could also be for things like a snow day if we exceeded the number of snow days etc. So we're working on that. And then lastly I
071want to thank uh Mr. Draco who's supporting me now with uh wrapping up the addendum around extracurriculars and athletics. We had not previously had an articulation around what does that look like for extracurriculars and athletics and so we're wrapping up that work and we hope to have that to board of education uh for the reorg meeting. Also really proud and uh wanted to share a copy with you. So we've been focusing on a consistent approach to threat assessment. And so one of the documents you have in front of you is where we landed on our threat assessment protocol. Uh this is consistent this will be consistently applied at each of our three buildings. Uh the process by which we got to this was that all our mental health and administrative building level leaders participated in
072training with someone from CLPS. Uh they're the vendor that provides tapback. And so we spent a morning on March 11th with them engaging in training. On March 14th I reassembled the administrative team to talk about what that would look like in their buildings. So, I want to thank Kate, Ellen, and Rob for their work. Uh, we created a first draft of the document you have in front of you. Uh, we then met with all of our mental health team uh team members who had an opportunity to put eyes on the document and say, "Hey, but wait a minute. What about this?" And so, what you have here is the compilation or the collaborative effort of our mental health staff and our administrative team saying in the event of a threat, this is how we will
073handle it every single time regardless of which building the threat occurs in. And so huge shout out to the participants in that. Next steps around this, uh, we are going to engage in tabletop exercises and we're going to simulate scenarios and take ourselves through the process just to make sure we've thought of every possible consideration when we're addressing a potential threat in the district. And that will be scheduled post 428. Kelly's working on getting those scheduled or already has probably. Uh, I want to speak briefly on the capital improvement project and facilities. Uh, we have still a lot going on with our facilities. Uh, as you are likely aware, uh, the capital improvement project that was slated to be done. Remember, substantial completion November of 24, we're still working on and we don't anticipate being
074finished, but before summer of 25, there are a number of punch list items still outstanding. Uh, at the elementary school, all the counters over the units, uh, we have balancing issues and the grills that go over them were not installed correctly, so we're likely going to be doing replacements, which again pushes out that work through summer. Uh the elementary kitchen still has punchless items that have yet to be completed. Uh elementary heating has been an issue and we're still waiting for that to be completely turned over. They had to engage engage in significant repair and then now it's all the uh digitized piece. Johnson control making sure that it's actually functioning as it's supposed to. As you know, we had a couple issues this year that were pretty significant at the elementary school. Can I
075interrupt? Absolutely. Is it the subcontractors that have a tough time with? Yes. Yes, that's accurate. Um, on a positive note, I'm thrilled that the elementary plumbing issues, both of the B ball Ballard that was crushed by one of the contractors, um, that plumbing issue has been resolved. And also in the front of Ellen's building, uh, remember the exterior wall actually crushed one of our pipes. All of that has actually been corrected for, and you will recollect that was not part of the capital improvement project, and we did have to actually pay out of pocket for that emergency project that the state of education approved for us to take care of. Uh the last thing I want to speak to at the elementary school level, uh honestly, I've been grateful every day when it's very windy
076that we haven't had an issue with our roof. We have a significant roof issue over at the elementary school. A portion of that roof is not very stable. Uh within the next two weeks, we're going to have a vendor come out and do thermal scans so we have a better idea of how significant the issue is with the moisture in the roof. So that that will inform our decision- making around what actions we may have to take. We may have to look at an emergency repair. we might not make it to another capital improvement project before we have to actually take care of that roof. I just want you to be aware of that. And we will not have uh sufficient information to make an informed decision until those thermal scans are done, but they're
077scheduled to be on site in two weeks. Uh oh, I'm sorry, one last thing at the elementary school. Uh Ellen brought to our attention on April 1st that there were some concerns raised by a couple of her folks in the building about air quality. uh she reached out, Patrick and I collaborated and ensured that we had someone come out and actually do air quality testing at the elementary school. They got out here really quick. Ellen let us know 41 by 42 they came out and they actually conducted the air quality testing and I'm very happy to report that uh and I'm going to read it based on the testing performed there were no hazards found to be present in the air at the time of the investigations. Uh they did make note of the fact
078that we have a lot of uh microwaves and kitchens and that attracts pest and we might want to reconsider our willingness to allow those to be in classrooms. Just thought I'd bring that up to you. Uh at the middle school, we're still waiting on uh the trespa panels to arrive. So if you can recollect the looks like part of the board that's been painted, uh we've been waiting a long time for those to arrive. But we are told that we may anticipate then in district on 421 and that potentially it will be another four to six weeks before the installation is done. So again that brings us to about summertime. No, I think that people thought they ordered then they didn't and then it actually happened a couple times where somebody said they ordered and
079didn't. So it's very disappointing like we're way far out beyond where we should have been again. Substantial completion 1124. So still waiting but out of our control. Uh middle school cleaning of curtains. So another facet of what happened to happen in the middle school as a facet of doing the auditorium. Uh we recognize that actually there was an issue with the curtains in the middle school. And so uh right now we're still waiting on actually getting those curtains cleaned. That's something that needs to be taken care of. It is uh fire and safety. They have to be treated x every x number of years. And then lastly at the middle school uh we are working on the boiler flu. we will be able to pay for out of this year. Uh I think I've mentioned
080to you, we are sitting on our last legs of the boiler at the middle school as well. Uh we hoped to have sufficient funding in this project to replace the boiler. We will not. And again, uh probably not going to be that we're going to be able to go five years out in another project. We're likely going to have to go out with another project. Uh my hope would be maybe even by December of 25 because we're going to have to take care of the boiler at the middle school. It just it's not going to make it through another five years. Uh and then the last thing at the middle school is uh there's a kiln that needs to be installed and we're going to make sure that does get taken care of at the
081middle school for our teacher over at the high school uh we as you recollect we had a plumbing issue significant plumbing issue. Uh on a positive note uh we initially thought the the plumbing issue was uh trees uh well no not positive the trees actually the roots are the problem for the plumbing issue. Uh we thought that potentially they were memorial trees. We're grateful to say they are not memorial trees. So, we're not going to have to remove any memorial trees. That's good news. There is one tree out in the core area that we think we are probably going to have to remove because it will continue to pose a problem for us when we have the plumbing uh repaired. Uh we did get a quote. We've accepted a quote and we anticipate that being
082taken care of in summer of 25. So, again, just uh waiting for that to be taken care of. Last thing at the high school, uh as you might recollect, uh we had an issue at the high school auditorium. Uh some uh sawdust and debris uh in our curtains. The cleaning of the curtains was completed at the high school on 43. That was timely because we recognized again for fire safety purposes, we needed to have those curtains retreated. So, it's good that we got it taken care of. That's all done and we're working on cleaning at the auditorium over spring break. And our student rep mentioned that we have the capital outlay position to go and our students are very excited about having that floor taken care of. Which is a nice segue to my next
083item. Uh I have been meeting with a superintendent student advisory council meeting with about 20 freshman through seniors. Uh we've been looking at what are uh points of pride in the district and then we're also looking at what would better enhance their experience as students. I'm going to play teacher for a moment. What do you predict is the number one thing they would ask for us to look into? This is freshman through seniors. What did you say? More educational opportunities. Oh my gosh, Jeff, for the win, Jeff. Uh, they are asking, they think we need to do a better job with AP, Gemini, and electives. Hands down, number one thing they're asking for. And that came from our, uh, juniors and seniors. I'm really excited to see what our freshman and sophomores said to meet
084with them on Friday uh, for them to prioritize what the greatest need is. Quick update on the international trip. I brought to the board's attention was a little concerned. We had some uh concerns both Dr. Snyder and myself around the international trip that's scheduled. I want you to have an awareness that the students and community members who are participating that have paid in $400 already and they will not recoup that as a loss. And so Dr. Snder and I are currently right now collaborating with legal to create a system that allows for us to have the trip happen and mitigate risk for the stu those student participants that are going. So, I do want you to have that update that we do fully anticipate that trip to go on as scheduled because we simply can't
085ask families to incur the the loss of over $400 that they had to deposit. Okay, almost there. Uh again, I already mentioned negotiations are starting uh the end of the month with CSEA. And then lastly, I just would like to uh bring to your attention the administrative reconfigurations. I had the opportunity to spend some time at the elementary school on Monday morning and was able to share proudly that we anticipate Kelly Colling, our form, our current uh PPS director, to be serving in the position of elementary principal in fall of 2025. Uh we anticipate that our assistant superintendent of instruction is going to shift her title a little bit and next year she will serve as assistant superintendent of student and family services and that will embed a whole plethora of different areas including uh
086PPS uh bikini Vento there's a whole plethora of different areas that she will embed in her role our MT MTSS coordinator will become in 2526 the coordinator of instruction innovation and intervention and I do have a communication scheduled to go out tomorrow morning so our community can learn a little bit more about what that means uh for that role because it's a little bit different title change than what it has been as uh we already have mentioned uh Mr. Dorocco will proudly serve now as point five AP and also.5 athletic director. Thrilled to have him on board in that capacity. Jess Craft who was here and is still here. Jess Craft is Jess Crack is now going to serve not only as assistant principal, but she's actually on boarding as an associate to our assistant
087superintendent and she's going to be working to support student and family services. Uh yet to be determined what that model looks like for the two of them. They have to have some time to put together what they think they're going to be doing with that. And then lastly at the high school uh as you know we will be uh positioning to hire a new assistant principal. Whomever we hire will have the title of assistant principal and data coordinator which again would allow for us to have some costsaving measures. Any questions on the reconfiguration and I do plan as I mentioned to push out a communication tomorrow so our community has that in writing what that actually looks like with the administrative reconfiguration. Important to note, the administrative reconfiguration saved the district about $330,000. And that
088concludes superintendent report for this evening. Thank you. Uh I know that any kind of reorganization is not easy for community staff, administrators. um what we did task you with trying to figure out how to save some money, make some changes, make sure that you uh focused on uh positions, people, and resources. So, thank you. Any questions? Okay. All right. District committee reports. There was a health and wellness meeting March 12th at 7 a.m. and there was a grading and assessment committee meeting March 27th at 3:30. District events, there's a lot. All right. UPK Infinite was March 5th. End of the 25week marking period was March 7th. Senior citizens preview of the High School Musical was March 13th. The High School Musical Anastasia, which was wonderful, was March 14th and 15th. Superintendent's conference day was March
08914th. Interms were available March 14th. UPK registrations were also due March 14th. Music in our schools month concert again amazing concert March 20th. Grades 5 through 8 ELA testing today with a pickup so 9. Board of Ed budget workshop was this evening. Poor County School Board Association. I have no updates. How about PTSA? Hi. Hi. Um got some fun updates. Uh so we were also at Anastasia doing our flower sales. Um which went pretty well again. Uh bringing in money for our teacher appreciation week. So, we're looking forward at to doing um just carnation skills at the spring concert series. Uh it is also roller skating season right now. Uh we had the third grade roller skating party yesterday. Uh the fourth grade party is tomorrow and fifth and sixth will be right after break.
090Um we had a very busy meeting last night. Um for our normally scheduled meeting, we thankfully had nine children to help with this. We packed Easter eggs for the senior Easter egg hunt and then also did our job. The board usually helps do that. It's true. I'm glad we didn't have to. But uh you can go to Patty's house. We're probably still doing something tonight. Yeah. No, we're good. We're good. Thank you for taking that off of our plate. Oh, that was fun. And then um also we uh made up little goodie bags for the middle school students and had a little slip saying you got this smarty. So for testing day and it had smarties in it. So just a little something for them. Um we are getting at least I am getting really
091excited for book fair week coming up on the week of May 5th. Uh so more information will be coming out about that. Uh we will be having our family shopping night again planned for uh Thursday of that week. In coordination with that, we have more planning going into our literacy and now game night, which we are targeting kids up through grade 8 for that. So, um we'll have a bunch of different board games and just activities for the kids to do. Uh we are working with wing uh the community schools program. Um and we'll also have information uh for families about the importance of attendance because we know that is something that's being looked at. And of course, we will have snacks. Um and then also uh our next big thing that we are looking
092at for planning for next year is in May we are going to start uh reviewing officer nominations for the 256 year. So if anybody is interested obviously you can join anytime but if you're interested in possibly officer position there's some open. Thank you very much. Thank you. It's great to see PTSA alive again. We are happy to be alive again. Yes. Thank you. All right. So, moving on to board reports. I need a motion to approve the cse summary. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Pass. I need a motion to approve the February treasurer's report. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed passes. Ellen, you're really throwing me off over here. Oh, my whole thing is just messed up. Um, okay. Winter sports report. Uh, first want to uh it's an honor to
093be the next athletic director and thank Andy Cur for the time you put in. Um, I want to touch on a couple things that I've done since uh being appointed. Um, I sent out a a district parent square weeks ago. Two weeks ago, two weeks ago, touch on some things I I spoke about. So, I made it a priority to meet with some stakeholders um within the Williamson community and uh first had meetings with our spring coaches. I wouldn't recommend to any athletic director being thrown in the spring season. It has been a whirlwind learning platforms. I'm on the phone at 8:00 with Kelly Dixon throughout the day. Um, but those oneonone meetings have been great just having learning about the programs and what is needed and how to improve communication and vibration. Um, I
094met with facilities and transportation. So Patrick and Vicki, I commend them for the time and effort that uh they put in in their in their group. They are doing way more with less and uh whenever I need call and it's it's done within within seconds in addition. So, I met with uh the town park and uh had great talks with Jim from the town park and how we can improve communication there to make sure our fields are um ready and prepared as well as Williamson wreck and how we can incorporate uh the community coming into our gyms and also using fields. So the ultimate goal there for everybody is to get get students more opportunities to participate in in athletics. As uh Bridget alluded to, I met with Penny uh recently and discussed the the
095budget and specifically around how the immediate needs of some equipment uh the track mats being being one and that's being addressed and two of the uniforms uh specifically purchasing uniforms that are needed now. The ultimate goal is creating a schedule uh that I'd be welcome to share with you in an upcoming meeting about that looks at the equity amongst the programs and uh from modified all the way to the varsity level. So having a schedule that we purchase those in tandem with that also going back to facilities and how can we store that equipment to make sure that we're keeping it in good condition. Lastly, I I talked about it in my parents square was the dual sporting. So, dual sporting is a hot topic and uh there's a lot that goes into it. Um
096we currently do not have a policy around dual sporting. Uh, so right now it's going by a case to case basis, but things that I'm looking at and creating is are we making sure our athletes are safe, looking at their attendance, their behavior, and then having conversations with coaches from both sports, families, and there's a contract that will be involved. So, I welcome you to take a look at that. What else? All right. So, on my the athletic report, um, I made some some notes. I think Mr. K created this, but I'll I'll touch on a couple of each items from each program. All right. So, girls basketball. So our our varsity team led by coach Beth Brennan finished with a 9 and12 record was recognized as a scholar athlete team. Ellie Alexander was a
097first team all-star. Kayla Bellante was third team allstar. Kate Campbell was selected. This is huge. Ronald McDonald all-star team and received the sportsmanship award. So the girls basketball team was also honored with the Wayne County sportsmanship team award. This speaks to the volume about the culture and character our coaches instill. Boys basketball. Our varsity team coached by Jason Seml. They went nine and 10. They had a strong showing throughout the season. Notable postseason honors were DJ Barber which was second team El County, Ethan Alexander honorable mention and Brian Hemingway a senior allstar. At the modified level, we had two teams which is you'll see a common trend with our modified teams. We have increased to two teams which is phenomenal. Um so pushed by Ian Thomas and Steve partial giving more student athletes a chance
098to develop. Side note, the basketball team hosted their first sectional game in years at home and that was very well. Kudos to both basketball teams. Indoor track. This is a long one. It was a major highlight for the season. The program is led by coach Carl Construct uh and assistant Jeff Van Hoover. They had 18 boys and 24 girls. Both girls and boys teams were scholar athlete teams and were crowned the WF Wayne Fingerlakes Division 2 champions and Wayne Fingerlakes League champions. Section five class B3 champions as well. I'm going to highlight a few uh individual accomplishments. Faith Atwater, Hannah Governor, Cali Lysing, Maddie Nestle, Ben Burns, Cohen that right, and others not only won sectional titles, but also qualified for the state's meet competition, some in multiple events. Uh, several school and league records
099were broken across the board. Uh, these these athletes represented the school with excellence. Uh Hannah Governor also competed in states at the 3000 4x4 and she also participated in the indoor nationals in Boston in the uh 3000 kudos to wrestling. Wrestling a rush team coached by D Marie. He had 16 particip wrestling. A vars team coached by Wyatt D Marie had 16 participants. Uh they are continuing to rebuild. Uh modified at strong numbers. Uh 18 participants coached uh by Justin Zelter. Uh Zack Puling a sectional champion at 285 earned first team all all league. and Nate Allen made second team and John Holl received honorable mention. Swimming with Sonus. So swimming was coached by Mike Conine. Thank you. Our swimmers had a competitive season finishing two and six. One highlight was Emily Foss who set
100a new school record in the 200 freestyle. Our team also earned scholar athlete recognition bowling. We had nine legacy athletes participate. Both Brianna Bowinsley earned Wayne County all-star honors. A huge thank you to coach Rich B for his work with this group. Um, so overall, this is for Mr. Chris. So overall, this winter season showed continued student growth, academic excellence, and competitive sphere across all levels. I'm proud of our coaches and athletes for their dedication and resilience. I look forward to building on this momentum as we move through the spring and plan ahead for next year. Um, but again, I'm honored and thrilled to be part of the athletic program here in Williamson. There's a lot to be done, but I'm very willing to get involved hands hands on and have multiple conversations with community
101members. Um just excited to to do the work with you. Thank you. Okay. I need a motion to approve the consent agenda items 5B through 5K and the superintendent. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I opposed. Passes. I need a motion to approve the retirement resignation as presented. Second. Any discussion? How many years has he been teaching in general? 27. Yeah. 27 teaching in three years. really sad that you took over the tech this year. I don't think I get it back. Sounds like a good job for you. It does save us more. Just glad. Yeah, you can't get paid. So, let's add that to the restructure. I think there was an MOA that said it goes back. I think so. I don't remember approving that. I think the board president signed it. Yeah.
102So, uh, thank you to Mike Right. All in favor? I post passes 4 zero. Mike, I hope you enjoy your retirements. Okay. Uh, old business reorganization. Um, all right. So, we have packet in front of us from Bose. You were emailed. I think I sent this to you guys uh this week. Lynn sent this over to us as the newest request for proposals. Um after our meeting with Marian a couple weeks ago where we decided to restructure the request for proposal, this is what the new request for proposal looks like for a school district optimization study which would focus on the sharing of services primarily between the two districts. Um as well as any district that wants to participate in the study. It's not limited to just Williams and and Marian. So, I want to
103make sure you guys have a time to go through this, take a look at any questions you have, feel free to send them back to me. I'll coordinate with Bridget and Kelly to get those questions back to Lynn if if need be to feel like it was tomorrow. You didn't say we were participating by tomorrow. [Music] Oh, anyone interested returning to So, is that district interested? Yes, that's where I read that. Yes. So what's interesting is did this correspondence go out to all superintendents? Actually I think this one just went to you myself and it did but it says we've asked anyone interested to to return it by the 10th. So I guess that's why I'm confused. Williamson have an action. So this is actually the RFP for Boseies. So both would contract and that
104way any districts within the WFL region could participate and utilize the coaster used vendor to conduct it. So this goes back before we have our meeting with Mary. And I think probably the intent on this would be to review and see if this actually matches what your the board was looking for. Is this does this uh match what you were hoping to get if you were to engage in this study? And this study would be payable. That's correct. which would cost money and it would not cost as opposed to the other one which was $100,000 astronomically high up to $120,000 if not more if not more and that's part of the reason we put a pause on that is so I guess yeah so I'm confused too because I thought that we needed to meet
105with Marian uh again have some conversations. So, let's I'm not prepared to act on this. Well, and I'm confused by the April 10th statement. Well, that's right. But is that intended for us, Marian Williamson, or is that intended for other districts that might be interested? She did not disclose what other districts, but she presented on this possibility at our last superintendent meeting in New York. And so I know that following our superintendent meeting, other superintendents expressed interest on behalf of their boards to potentially explore this. So I think she just sent it out unique to us with Marian because she knew that the next step here would be that board presidents and superintendents would be meeting and that meeting is scheduled for us 15th. April 15th. Yes. So are you comfortable potentially either you or
106myself just responding saying we would not be prepared to respond until after that meeting happens? Would you like me to do that? Uh or would you like to do that? I'll do it. Okay. So, we should give you any feedback before the 15th. Yes. And probably the most important part about that is if you remember in the last uh round of proposals, they didn't necessarily match what your your expressed hope or intent was engaging in the study. So, it's really important when you look at this RFP RFP that it actually matches what you're looking for because this is what'll go out and vendors will respond. So, we want to make sure there's alignment between what you're hoping to obtain and the service that they're going to provide. What were you going to say about the
107time? Yeah, it looks like though like return of RFP receipt form is that just that we received it. No, that's for the uh consultants. So maybe that's what she's referring to. I think she wants she's trying to push the time. She's trying to push again. I think because she pushed it out during the superintendent's meeting and other superintendent expressed interest. So I think she's trying to be responsive to a number of us from across the region. And I have not done a close read yet, but I think what I've heard you talk about is scope of project that allows for you to have all possible pathways of shared supports and services with potentially MR and or any other districts that might be interested. So if this optimization study doesn't get at that, this isn't the
108that would not be the uh RFP that you would want to have her push out on behalf of us. Correct. I'm just making sure. Uh, have you talked to Ellen Fer? Do you know if they're in the same position? I do not. I have not heard of anything. We had a conversation about potential for shared athletic director which at this point is still uh it's on the table and I think we left that conversation indicating it was really important that there was clarity amongst board presidents and superintendent on what direction or pathway we would like to pursue before engaging any further in those conversations. So, we pressed pause. I think if I might internally, uh, J, if you'd be willing to speak to, there's been some confusion around maybe the why and a lack of
109understanding or clarity around why the RFP. We weren't you weren't prepared potentially to accept this RFP besides the dollar amount, which was a lot more than anticipated. Not this one. I mean, the one, correct? But I think there's an absence of understanding around that. Sure. Um, so it's complicated also. Um, but I think it's important for everybody in this room and our community to know that when we engaged in the superintendent surge and we hired Bridget, one of the very first things we tasked Bridget with was one of our strategic plan pillars, which is fiscal responsibility. The board was very focused. We know we knew there was going to be potential budget gaps and shortfalls and we knew as years go on that's going to continue to grow as well as the continued uh decline
110in our in our enrollments which you can see in this slide that was up earlier in the budget workshop. So, one of the things that we tasked Bridget with was investigating uh shared resources and how can we continue to provide Williamson Central School District families and students with as many opportunities as possible without increasing costs to program. Um it's not fair to our families to continue to cut positions and cut programming just to close the budget. That's not what this board has tasked with. We've tasked her with closing that gap, cutting numbers, getting the budget to where we feel much more comfortable with it while also increasing opportunities for our kids. That is not um an easy task. So, a lot of what you're hearing tonight is um steps forward to do that. That's part
111of the reorganization plan. That's why we started off to have with these conversations with Mary. The RFP uh that Boseies put out and the consultants that came back did not closely align with the wishes of our board in exploring all avenues around shared services. It really felt very pigeon into a merger as the only option. that is not what this board set out to do was to go down one path and look at merger as the only option. And so um in conjunction with Marian that evening um we both felt both districts felt that the RFP did not clearly articulate the needs or wants of both districts. And so and uh we had originally been told in our early conversations that the cost to that was going to be nearly 50% more or less than
112what the actual numbers came in at. That feels fiscally irresponsible to spend taxpayer dollars to not get what we originally set out to do just because we entered into the pattern. That's that to me is the definition of fiscal year responsibility. And so while it was difficult to come back to the table and say we're not doing that, both districts agreed at the time that it was probably prudent to go out with a different RFP that more closely matches the needs of our districts and a smaller scale to look at shared services and what kind of shared services um are recommended. How do we then go into that sharing of services? It's easy to say all day long, we can share these positions, we can share these courses. We live right down the street from
113a neighboring district, but the actual execution of that is much more complicated than one way thing. And so this study can help us identify not only what opportunities are available, but also how to make that happen. So I don't I hope that helps clear up a little bit confusion as to why there was a shift in our direction. Um I actually would say there was no shift in the board's direction. We're continuing down the path that we initially set out on. Um and this is step one is to look at this type of a much much smaller scale that gets to the core of what we were looking to do and that's provide more opportunities for our kids. So I appreciate that synopsis. Um like I said, very complicated though. There's a lot that goes
114into this. a lot of uh pre-planning in meetings, but the one thing that didn't happen um and I think this is also important for our community to know is Williamson's board and Barry's board had never had a chance to have a conversation together until that evening a couple of weeks ago. All of the process was driven by our Winding Finger lakes overseas as they were the consultant uh assigned to us by the commissioner to help us navigate these waters. We don't have a say in that. It is that is the only option. The commissioner assigns that to us and Moses was responsible for process and the communication. Uh, I will say our board had a hard time relinquishing the communication piece of that to both because the communication just didn't feel natural and I think
115our community was feeling that. That's also why you're maybe feeling a little confusion around what happened. Um, our intent was not for it to feel less than transparent, but we also didn't have control of the situation. this brought the control back a little bit to us and we felt it was really important uh for our community to be as clear as we can about about that as well. One of the one of the things that really hit this this board is at the very first meeting we said we reiterated Bosey's message that Q&A would be answered within 48 hours by that Friday and Boseies did send out their version of a Q&A but it was not what this board would have sent out and we really struggled with that and I'm remiss in not saying
116at the announcement portion of our public meeting a couple weeks ago that That's not how we typically would operate and I wanted our community to know that that's not a reflection of us not caring or not wanting to get those answers out. We were bound by the process and BOS oversaw that process. BOSIS has a communication team and that's the way that they operate. it maybe doesn't uh as closely align with how this board and team would operate, but I think it was important for me to at least mention that we were all feeling less than stellar about that uh communication piece and we we didn't have any control over it. So, just wanted to know about that. That's a kind way of saying frustrated. Governor, that is a kind way of saying we are
117frustrated. So, The last thing I would add is so we have the meeting on the 15th and that will be continued conversations with Marian. In tandem to that, uh myself and I think there's four other superintendents from neighboring districts. We're going to be meeting in the very near future to initiate conversations about how maybe not just Marian Williams, but about how other districts potentially might share programming and look at models of things like reciprocity where you have x number of uh slots in a district and you swap students and so that way they our students are have afford it a much greater level of opportunity uh with programming that they might have in a neighboring school district. So those conversations are scheduled to visit or not to uh initially launch uh after after spring break.
118Great. Okay. Uh BOE policy review. I'm hopeful this will be just a quick conversation for the board. Uh we were scheduled to engage in our three-year cycle of policy cycle review in the 6000s and the 8000s. Unfortunately, we met with some um challenge in the 8000s. And so I know that we are still thinking about potentially doing 8,000. My question for the board was do we want to proceed at our next meeting on the 23rd and just try and wrap up the 6,000s or would you like Kelly to build in another meeting or two for us to try and get at those 8,000s before the end of this school year? There's no regulatory language that requires you to have to engage in two sections or any number of sections in one year. It's just simply
119one of your fundamental responsibilities with board policy. So, we would not be out of compliance if we simply just stopped at the 6,000. But I did want to put it out there. We're going to try and do the 8000s. We want to get something scheduled sooner rather than later. I would recommend that we push it to next year. There are so many spring meetings coming up. Right. Yeah. Um the staff around this table has an opportunity to take care of getting ready for budget and elections. A policy review I'm certain is number one on all of your lists. We can provide coffee. We could provide really stale coffee, but um I think we should push it. So we'll just revamp our three-year cycle and we'll add the 8,000 into another year probably next year because
120that was the um most Yeah. the least recently reviewed section of policy. So next year we'll play on 8,000. I hope that we will get through the 6,000s on the 23rd and then that will at least wrap that up for the 24. Thanks. All right, I need a motion to approve first reading of new policy 7440, student voter registration and pre-registration. So I don't know if I want to have a question about it. Um, so I thought that we had agreed to take out a phrase, but I still see it. It's required by law. So it is. I sent that followup email. Okay. I missed that. I did have a note about is it required? It is required. All right. Then I move that we approve the first reading of new policy 7440 student registration.
121All any discussion? All in favor? I opposed passes. I need a motion to approve the first reading of new policy 6151, notification of disclosure of employee disciplinary records. So I any discussion? All in favor? I opposed passes. I need a motion to approve the first reading of updated policy 11:30 number of members and terms of office. So any discussion I have a question from 12 missing. Well, I don't know. I I thought we had to leave the part about type of district small city because it had the part about the time that the petitions do and all that and I hadn't crossed that out. I had only crossed out the small city school districts. So I wasn't sure if I misunderstood what you talked about or if we just had to add the ex I
122think we Yeah, we don't have to add the small city. We don't we have another policy in our policy that states about like the you know meeting an election and all that information and what's required right so I thought we were providing we talked about the yeah that's what I wasn't sure because I my notes said we were incorporating what we called well what the paper showed was 1210 into 11:30 11:30 but the only piece that got incorporated that I could see was the part that was in blue about the exhibition. Okay. So I guess uh to table so we should So we are supposed to put this part I think. So yes I mean we we can do either or we don't have to I think we should combine the two. I'll have to
123look at my notes. Okay. Let's take Yeah. So, I'll move that we take it. All in favor? I Okay, hold on a second. Sure. Sorry. I saw that like right before. All right. I need a motion to approve budget transfers from the 2024 2025 school. So second we need to note everybody. Um so there were a few significant budget transfers. Um they were all within the Boseies codes themselves. So they didn't come from any outside lines. Um one of them had to do with uh increased ENL service. um we had to um move that into Boseies um due to like a staff vacancy and then there was some um additional PE costs that we have any questions with that. Uh all in favor I post. All right. I need a motion to approve the budget
124amendment for the purchase of appropriate print or digital materials for students in each of our three libraries from funds received from the Wayne County Retired Teachers Association in the amount of $1,000. So move second. Any discussion? All in favor? I passes. I need a motion to approve the surplus of the following items as listed below. So move second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed passes. I need a motion to approve the donation of one port varsity eack coach to catcher wireless communication system to the varsity baseball team from the Ishler Bryant Watson and families. This is innovative stuff. No, it really is. So if I'm coach and Jeff is catcher over there, I can I can sign I want to see the fisher over there throw a strike. I can communicate that through a
125system. So it really is innovative stuff. Thank you for and that's section five. I had to check. They have to college equip. They have to let the umps know. Apparently the homes ask at the beginning of every game if either school is using it and we have always said no. Are other schools using it? Not in Wayne County. Well, the catch the coach can only send a signal to the catcher. Okay. I want to see a curveball next pitch. But it's one way that comes to the catch. So instead of doing the hand sign like they used to do, I just I like brand. So I'm gonna go actually see you can see says one of the donors. All in favor? I abstain opposed. Passes 31. All right. I need a motion to approve the
126general resolution for the purpose of participating in a cooperative bid coordinated by the board of cooperative educational services of Ontario, Senica, Wade, and Leeds counties for various commodities and services. Second discussion. All in favor? 4. Need a motion to approve the revised notice of annual meeting and the election. So move second. Any discussion? Just want to thank Penny for her extensive work specific to the bus purchases that will be in the proposition for 2526. What she discovered was that inadvertently the label micro bird was included as within or with the Ford Transit and it really is just Ford transit. So the change is just removal of micro is not a micro word. how we will take care of making sure that we provide adequate notifications of the change. All in favor? I post 4. I
127need a motion to abolish a 1.0 director of people personnel services position effective June 30th, 2020. So second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I opposed passes for culture survey revisions. Bridget, you emailed us a survey survey questions earlier this week. Yes, this results from a workshop conversation in summer of 24. I think was actually my first week here. Again, want to thank the board for the number of hours uh time and energy expensed on thinking about direction for the district. Uh my recollection in our conversations during that first week in July or second week in July when we met for the workshop uh was that there was some question concerns specific to the wording of some of the culture surveys that are administered and wondering if that was getting at or targeting the information
128that you hoped to receive as a board of education to frame your thinking around essential objectives. And so my hope was that if you had an opportunity to review the questions as worded that potentially you could provide some feedback and uh Rachel will make sure that she does some word spending of the survey questions to better reflect what data you're looking to review when we come together in July 25. I personally would like a little bit more time to go through that. That's okay. I've got a whole sheet here question. If you want if you want it there's a number to delete some to add. I don't know. Here's the Would you like to add this again on the 23rd agenda so that the rest of the board has an opportunity to have a review?
129Yes. I was going to say can you share that with us? Yeah. Thank you. You may capture everything that we're looking for. So Rachel, will that be sufficient time to make the updates and then administer the surveys? Yeah, we don't typically uh administer them until like the middle of May. Perfect. Okay. So, we'll reconvene. I did I did notice there were like questions. I know I figured out at the end that they were at different schools, but they were all the same questions. So, it was like I was like, I was like, delete that one. Let me just ask. I deleted a whole bunch just to different. Thank you. Uh, okay. And then you got some information on budget transfers. Nothing special. Okay. Anybody have any questions? All right. We'll move into meetings. We don't
130have any upcoming district committee meetings, which is rare. We do have some events. Uh grade 5 ELA testing yesterday or today and tomorrow. Triam Prism concert is tomorrow 700 p.m. End of the 30week working period April 11th. Spring break recess April 14th through the 18th at the policy committee meeting we just talked about will be the 23rd at 5:30 here in this board. Any board of ed highlights? No low lights, just your high. I think one of the biggest highlights this year was Anastasia. I feel like um you know out of out of all the musicals I've been to this was it was one of the best course but the support I I felt like that they had throughout the school throughout the high school like everyone had a sweatshirt or a t-shirt like teachers
131were buying them and um I don't know there was there was a different feel my kids were singing the songs after it was over and they weren't sick of it they were remembering those happy thoughts. So that to me was a a huge positive I think for our district as a whole. Um so I I look forward to the next one. I think I think all all the kids on our team and a big thank you to TSA for all things that bring our kids together that make them want to come to school and be a part of our school district are really important. Anybody else? All right, move into public comment. The Williamson Central School District Board of Education advise public comment at this time on matters on the agenda of the meeting. Please
132limit your comments to two minutes or less. The board of ed is allotted 10 minutes for public comment prior to the adjournment of meeting. Written remarks may be provided to the board of time expires before a speaker concludes the remark. We ask individuals to state their name and the specific agenda item they wish to address prior to comment and to provide the district clerk with their contact information for purposes of followup. Although the board will not respond directly to individual comments at this time, items brought to the attention of the board may take consideration for future response, action, or follow. Issues related to specific district students or employees, whether positive, negative, or neutral, must be brought to the attention of the superintendent of schools privately in order to safeguard privacy. The board reserves the right
133to terminate a speaker's comments if their comments are in excess of two minutes, are repetitive, or are not appropriate for discussion in open public forum. All visitors are reminded to abide by the district code of conduct and be respectful and courteous both the speakers and as audience members. We are community focused on veteran public education for our students, some of whom may be present. I'm I move that we executive session to discuss history. All in favor. All in favor? I session. Thank you everybody.