Eden Central School District Board of Education Meeting February 9, 2026

001Our first presentation will be the peace bus and creative recruitment presentation by Mrs. Banko, Mrs. Lar Rosa, and Mrs. Carter. Hey, good evening. The mic's not low enough for me. >> No, I'm a little little. >> So, we are telling you a little bit about the peace bus. There's a little feedback just so you know. Um, so the peace bus is a program we started last year and it was introduced to us at the elementary principles association. Can you hear me, Mr. certific introduced to us at the elementary principles association. Um it is a national program and we adapted it in Eden and it was with the objective that we wanted to improve student behaviors on the bus and we also wanted to find a way to give some extra support to our bus drivers

002and create more of a community atmosphere on the buses. So we found some ambassadors to our program through the staff that are in our buildings. They they are able to get on the buses a couple times a year to support our bus drivers and Mrs. L. Rose is going to tell you a little bit about some of the things that they do. It also recognizes the student leaders on the bus. So, it's a way to entice our students to really model positive behaviors, help keep the buses safe, and they are recognized when they are student leaders. Um, it is a way for us to appreciate our outstanding bus drivers for all of their efforts and support and I can tell you having some experience in quite a few districts, we have some amazing bus drivers

003here in Eden. They go above and beyond and every single day they know who's on their bus, who isn't on their bus, who is absent, and if their but if they think a student's missing, they don't move their bus until they know where they are. So, and we have students get picked up who aren't necessarily scheduled to get picked up. So if they're not in their seat, they're looking for them. Um, and it really is a collaborative partnership between the GLP and Eden Elementary staff, the teachers, the bus drivers, and the transportation department. So it really has been a collaborative effort, and we've had huge success. I used to tell parents when they would register at the GLP, if we were going to see conduct referrals, they would come from the buses. Um, we get

004hardly any anymore. Would you agree, Mrs. Bo? So, our discipline referrals have significantly decreased. Our students are much better behaved on the bus, and I think our bus drivers were pleasantly surprised on the support and appreciation they felt through this program. So, I'm going to turn over to Mrs. Lar Rozan. She'll tell you some of the details. So, when Lauren and I heard about this program at the elementary um principles association meeting, we looked at each other and we're like, "We need to do this program because we need to show appreciation for our drivers and support them. They probably have the hardest job in the district. I don't know how they manage children and drive a large vehicle at the same time and throw some weather in there and it's even better." Um, so we

005got together a team of our ambassadors, which make up teacher aids, um, some of our counseling staff, our bus duty folks, which are some of our teachers. Um, we got them t-shirts that have, um, the peace bus team on it. So, they put their t-shirts on over their coats and we go out three times a year. They have an assigned bus and their objective when they get on the bus is to review behavior expectations, help the student get to know their driver. So they introduce um the driver, have them tell like a fun fact. So they develop that relationship with the driver. Um they review safety procedures and they do this kind of the routine three times a year. And then they go over the peace bus chant, which each ambassador does a little bit

006differently. I'm not going to do it for you today, but it's a little cheer and they put their own spin on it and get them super excited about being safe and being leaders on the bus and setting a good example for the younger kids. Um and then each month um we have a character program in each of our buildings. So the driver lets um Mary kind of pick out of the buses and there's a bus award each month for the golden bus. Um we reveal it at our character assembly at EE and those kids like last month was bus 13. So we say all kiddos on bus 13 stand up and they get a cheer. They are the recipient of the golden bus and that driver gets the golden bus. >> GLP announces it on

007the morning announcements and they have a trophy that they get delivered to their bus that sits on the dashboard. Probably not very safely, so they probably put it somewhere a little more. >> Yeah. Right. So, the program is really building some steam and excitement with the children. And I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Bo. Thank you. All right. So, this is our second year doing this. Um, it's kind of a neat thing where we try to show the kids the continuation that the school bus is an extension of the school day. And excuse me. When we started out, we weren't sure how the kids would react to it or how the drivers drivers would react. But what we've found is that the drivers don't have a lot of time to talk with the

008kids one on- one. So, this is a really neat way for the kids to see that the drivers are humans like their teachers, too. They learn a little bit. You know, we have a pretty good mix of folks that work for us. We have a magician, a train engineer, a Texas marshall, an accountant. They're they come from all different backgrounds. So, that connection that they've made uh on a human level has really helped with the behavior on the bus. And the uh the peace bus is, if you kind of almost think of of it as it's kind of an individual event. So the kids, the ultimate goal for this is the kids to go to breakfast at the end of the year in May with their driver. And we pick one GLP and one elementary

009student to go to breakfast with the driver at the GLP. And the three of us work together. We each have a little bit of money budgeted for this. And they put on a nice spread for the kids, kid-friendly foods, and the kids are excited about that opportunity. Most of them are excited about the opportunity to go to breakfast. So that's kind of an individual event. And the one challenge we had last year was how do we pick? Because the kids are all most of them are working pretty hard for this. So all of the kids that have earned a chance to have breakfast go into a pool, a hat, a bag, whatever we have. The GLP kids, the elementary kids, and those kids that earned the chance for breakfast go in the hat. We pick

010one out. And that way nobody's uh feeling like we've played favorites because we can only pick one from each school. So to complement that, the Golden Bus has been really great because that's more of a team team-based program. So the whole bus gets recognized and that's a monthly thing where the peace bus is three visits a year and breakfast with that kind of that end goal of going to breakfast, the peace buses every month. And between the two programs, um, you know, each age group is working on something different. our little itty bitties are working on staying in their seats and keep using their indoor voices. And the fifth and sixth or the fifth graders are maybe working more on character traits like being kind to each other. So, they're all working towards something um

011that earns them either the the breakfast or the uh the golden bus. And the behaviors have been I I think I did one behavior report this year and I used to start out by making phone calls to parents and we'd work on things before it got to a conduct report and it's just unbelievable. The kids are into it. The drivers are into it. If there's an attendant on the bus, they're really into this. It's been just amazing to see the difference in the behaviors on the buses. Not that Eden ever had kids that were really out of control, but um following the safety rules, staying in your seats, using your indoor voices, all those things that that we want the kids to do, um it's been a huge program for us. And then the last

012thing down here is a small incentive for the kids who don't go to the breakfast. So all these kids that go in for the peace bus breakfast but don't quite get there because their names weren't pulled, we have something little that all of them get. And last year we had a few kids who didn't maybe buy into the program but when they see the culmination at the end of the year um now they'd kind of like to be a part of it. So we give those kids a chance. May's the be we do breakfast beginning of May and we still go to school till the end of June. So kids who haven't maybe bought into it in the beginning of the year have a chance to fulfill the end of the school year and still

013get that incentive that the other kids got. So we we've found great success with it. I'm thrilled that these guys came with the idea and uh I foresee us continuing for years to come. Any questions about this >> good stuff? But Mrs. B question on the other side. So if anybody else has any questions about the peace bus. >> Oh >> yeah. It's a great program. >> All right. You got more? >> No. It's a Well, I have the transportation. >> All right. Do that first. >> Do that first. Okay. >> Thank Thank you uh you know to uh Mrs. Lar Rosa and and Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Banko for bringing this program here. Just so fun to to hear this positivity and really focusing on the on those great behaviors that our young young

014people can uh can exude and and that the energy just the three of you presented and how how happy you are about it is uh is all I need to see. Well, thank you for that. And I know your your bus crew is wonderful. I um live at the ed of a dead end. So the bus always turns around and in the summer when I was babysitting my one nephew, he's like two and a half. The bus driver would always pause, open the door and say like, "Hey, when are you going to start school so I can pick you up?" And already like, you know, and the Lincoln was just th like every Wednesday, "When's the bus coming? When's the bus coming?" I'm like, "You're not even going to school yet." So I appreciated that.

015Thank you. >> Okay. So, now on to the transportation. Uh it's my my month to do the transportation presentation. In uh years past, I've often done a presentation about bus safety and the things that we do extra here in Eden above and beyond what's required. And uh sometimes I talk about the ever popular electric bus initiative. So, we thought we'd do something a little bit different this year. What you see on the screen is most of our fantastic staff there. It's hard to get everybody together for a picture, so we are missing some people, but what you see in the picture are bus nurses, drivers, mechanics, the office staff, attendants. Um, and we're just like everybody else. We're short staffed. Um, our head bus driver has her own bus route basically. I drive, our mechanics

016are driving, and we we I don't want to say we struggle, but we struggle a little bit every day to get everything covered. So, we decided this year to try some different recruitment tactics. And I'm sure everyone in the room is aware of how supportive uh the Gowin family that owns Dairy Queen and Main Street Station is with our district. So, one of our bus drivers was talking to them in September or late uh August maybe and they offered to put up our ever popular A-frame help wanted please come to us sign. So, they put it at Main Street Station and they moved it over to Dairy Queen so it didn't get stagnant in one spot and then they took that and posted it on their Facebook page because the Dairy Queen Facebook page has

017a pretty good following. So they posted it there in the town community page reposted it again. Dairy Queen continued to support us and they put their our uh help wanted ad up on their Facebook page which was then reposted again by the town page. So you know where we used to be kind of uh newspaper and uh penniesaver kind of advertising this this whole uh social media thing is new to us. So they've been very supportive in that. And the one we're most excited about is coming up. We were going to do this in the fall, but we didn't have enough time. Everybody ran out of time. But in the spring, they'll be doing a Blizzard review with us where they interview some drivers, kind of hear what it's like to be a driver, and

018maybe try to drum up some support on doing something like that. Um, so we're kind of excited about doing the Blizzard review with them. And then we tried something this past summer that we we thought would be a great idea. We did it once before and we had moderate results with it, but we had uh the folks that run the Cornfest gave us a prime spot in the parking lot between the GLP and the bus garage way up by the entrance to the Cornfest. Nice big spot. We had a bus, we had a tent, we had uh coloring books and crayons for kids. We had goodie bags to pass out and of course we had job applications and brochures to try to draw people in to apply. Guess how many people want to visit a

019school bus on their way into the cornfest? Zero. So we probably won't do that that method again. But uh we manned it from morning till evening Saturday and Sunday and we did not get one single person interested. So um you know it was worth a shot though. at least our school bus was out there and exposed, you know. And then we are doing the traditional route also, but we're taking a little bit of a different approach to the the uh penny saver ad. And we have a testimonial from one of our longtime bus drivers, Sue Pratt, who retired after more than 30 years and came back as a sub for us. She's got a nice well-written testimonial that'll go along with our ad. And we're going to hold off until the weather gets a little

020bit better. Maybe do it in a few weeks because um we are training people during the winter, but it's much nicer to train when the weather's better. So, we're hoping to get some people to apply through that. But really, when it comes right down to it, our best form of advertising remains this fine group of people here. Word of mouth, um people they work with that are retiring. We're a department that doesn't tend to to um have employees that make this their career. This is a lifestyle. They're, you know, they're up way before the crack of dawn. Their jobs happen before the school day starts. It starts again when the school day ends. They're, you know, they're subject to um not just physicals prehire, but annual physicals, physical agility tests to make sure they can

021get kids out of the bus, random drug and alcohol testing. There's a lot that goes into it, but at the end of the day, it's an incredibly rewarding career, rewarding career. We get to work with the kids. We start their day out. We end their day. Um, and these folks here are uh mostly who brings in our new folks, word of mouth. So, um, I put the glamour shot up there of those guys again to to kind of cap it off, but we're always open to ideas. If anybody has new exciting ideas we can try, we're always open to it. I still would like to see Mr. Sorticio walking around with the A-frame, but maybe the new mascot will. Any questions? Mr. Sortisio, do you have your CDL license? >> Uh, well, I'm a little

022height challenge, so I don't know that I'm tall enough to drive the bus. Okay. >> Well, they have um >> I'm good for the A-frame. >> Movable pedals. I'm not so tall. >> Let's stick with the A-frame for now. Mary, we'll talk about the movable pedals another time. I I guess if Donny's driving a bus, I could probably be able to do >> We already do. They booster seats for you. Mr. Seats. >> No, they don't. They don't. I just I just know he he's gone and and read to some classrooms and stuff. I don't know if he wanted to maybe take a morning shift one of these days or something. >> So, quick question for me. Um, so understanding we have a driver shortage from time to time. How do we handle sports runs?

023Like knowing there's stuff coming up? I, you know, I've lived it with my wife being the tennis coach and stuff like that, but how does that go about? just so everybody kind of hears what the policies and what you go through when we may have a bus shortage for a sporting event. >> Okay. So, to start a little bit of the background, we have a spreadsheet that Kim and Jay started. So, we always know what's coming up for athletics and if we see an especially difficult day, we start talking a little bit ahead to see if we might be able to bump a time or maybe switch a lo, you know, swap teams or something. Um, so we kind of always see what's coming down the pipe and then of course our first goal is

024always to get all of the teams out on time when they're when they need to be going. But because of driver shortages, most of our drivers are finishing their regular runs before they go on sports trips. So, the athletic department has been really good about being more cognizant of what time we send buses out where we're not sending buses out at 2 o'clock. We're waiting until maybe 3:00 because we have a few more drivers available at that time time. So, that's helped a lot. Um, when we're really short, we get creative and we we u share rides. Your wife probably has ridden with other teams in the past. We'll have one driver drop two teams off and then a second driver go out so they each get their own return bus. Um we might we

025might adjust departure times a little bit. Uh the coaches have been great about that. Sometimes when we're like our very last resort is to cancel a bus. Um we've started working with North Collins. You know at one of the prior board meetings there was an agreement signed. So, if we're like, we had it happen last week with wrestling. We just we had nothing else we could do. We were all driving. I drove a sports trip. Everybody was out and we didn't have anybody for that team. So, I contacted North Collins. They had a driver available. They bill us for that. So, we have an agreement with them. We're talking with Lakes Shore to see about a similar type of an arrangement to see if they might be able to help out. Lake uh Lake Shore

026has a lot more drivers than we do. North Collins is a smaller district and has a little bit more driver availability. So, we do everything we can and we get really creative with departures and pickups and things like that to try to get everybody out. >> But this isn't just the Eden. It's I I know it's with other districts. I know, you know, there's there's points in times where the coaches will get with the other coach saying, "Hey, can we you can you come here this week and we'll arrange to come out to you in in 3 weeks or something along those lines." So, it's it's just not an Eden thing. I I completely understand. I just wanted to make sure that everybody has heard what the message is. Um I've lived it, so I

027know what it is, but I just want to make sure everybody is aware of what the policies are. And you know, from what I've seen, you know, you've done an amazing job with it. We appreciate it. The athletes appreciate it. The coaches appreciate it. So, um >> I would like to thank the coaches for being so flexible because well, you know, if we're coming, we've for example today with the mod basketball ball teams, we're waiting on a bus, the driver's coming from uh Kenmore and she's driving a throughway to get back here to pick up a team, right? So, you get delayed by traffic a little bit and we're departing 10 or 15 minutes later than we planned. the coaches have been over-the-top uh understanding and flexible about it. So, I thank them for that.

028>> Well, thank you. >> Any other questions? Thank you. >> Next, we have Young and Wright Construction Update, Mr. McCarthy. >> Okay. Thank you very much for having us today. Um, you guys have heard from us a couple times recently. Um, but just a reminder, um, I'm Mike McCarthy with Young and Right Architectural. We have Dave Otter, who's a project executive with Campus Construction, Sarah Wilder, who's project manager, and Luke Lundine, who is assistant project manager, um, who's all working in the district currently. So, you probably see their faces around quite a bit. Today, we wanted to come in and give you guys an update on the current projects with the district, as well as a potential future project that's coming up. and um just kind of start some of uh that discussion. Uh right

029before we met, Dave had passed out some forms. Uh we passed out um what is included from the building condition survey as some of the top items that could potentially go into a project. So that's what uh you're looking in front of you. And then for the facilities committee, it's just a little more deeper dive into some of those. So there's a few bigger packets, but the eight and a half by 11 is what you all have in front of you taking a look at it there. Okay. So, we're going to hit on each one of those. Um, so the first one is your current project, which is uh under construction right now, and that is the emergency project, which uh the board deemed an emergency project with SED, which means it was just something

030that needed to be taken care of immediately. Um, and that is the roof at Eden Elementary School, which when there was a leak at that school, it caused some other problems within, which was part of the auditorium, which is the stage, the ceiling, uh, and some gym repairs, which some of you might be aware of. Um, there's some photos here, um, which Luke has been taking throughout construction. Um, you can kind of see on the left was the original roof. on the right uh is the new stage floor with some new stage ceiling that included some paint and ceiling tile replacement. And then on the bottom two right pictures, that's the new roof that's up there now. So, it's basically a new white roof surface that's up there. Uh it has a 20-year warranty on

031it. Um and that roof was just about out of warranty. So, um if we didn't take care of it, then if problems arose, uh that would be something that the company that provided the roof wouldn't take care of any longer. Something the district would have to deal with. Uh Luke's going to tell you kind of the schedule on that project. >> Hello everyone. Hope you're all doing well and staying warm this evening. Quick schedule update for our emergency roof project. To date, we have replaced about half of the scheduled roof and all of the interior work. Like Mike said, it was the new stage floor and auditorium plaster replacement. Um all our work has been done for the year and we will finish it in the spring when it warms up a little bit. It's

032gonna be 40. >> We'll get up there tomorrow. >> Um, so you can see on these schedules kind of throughout the presentation there's a red bar that kind of runs up and down the page. A little hard to see on there, but on your screens in front of you, that's just where we are currently. So we're, you know, kind of the beginning of February here and that's just where we're at. So uh another phase of that project sorry is phase one. Um and the scope of that project includes work happening at this building here which is a full roof uh rehab and then parking lot and sidewalk replacements. Um the there's two areas of the parking lot that are included within the project which is uh back by student parking and then back going to

033the loading dock. Those were the two worst areas and then the parking lot at the auditorium is an alternate so hopefully as prices come in everything's favorable and we can take some of that extra work. Uh but those are those items there. You can see the existing photos uh on the screen currently. Um just for the group as well, we have another alternate for the grit on the entire roof surface and uh granite curve just to see what the pricing comes in at. Um so touching on the schedule for phase one, uh documents were available to contractors on Friday and we're starting to see pre-bid RFIs come in today. So that's good. People are looking at it. Um Luke and I have been calling contractors for the past month and uh everyone has known about

034it. Trenco actually did a really good job letting roofers know that it's coming out. So, um, we have a lot of interest, which is great. Um, we'll have our pre-bid walkthrough next Tuesday. So, contractors come on site, look at the existing conditions, and ask any questions that they might have. Um, bid day will be on March 3rd when we open bids. And then we'll descope contractors, write the letter of recommendation for the board, and you guys hopefully approve the contracts on March 16th. Um the next day we'll issue notice proceeds and contracts and contractors will start getting their insurance and submitts put in for our review. And then the construction schedule is over two summers. So uh roof will be this summer and next summer will obviously start in the the more trouble areas. Um

035I think the science swing is one of those and then both base fit parking lots. So the rear parking lot and then um out by athletics that's this summer. And then if we accept the alternate, we give contractors the option to complete that this summer or next summer. So just depending on their schedules and how much they can get done. And then yeah, project close out will be next next year, December. >> That's an exciting one and a big one to take care of here. The roof is a very large roof. Um so it'll be great to have that all set and you can see leaks pop up all over the place. It's a it's a lot to maintain in general. I know actually over the winter there's been some additional damage that's come up.

036So, uh, this roof was just out of warranty, too. So, it's great to take care of it now and have it almost as a preventative at this point in time. So, it'll be be great to take care of that. Okay, on to phase two, which that focuses on GLP. Um, areas that are getting taken care of there is the parking lot along with sidewalks and lighting replacement. Um, over there it can be a little dark at at night. Um, so we're expanding the lighting over there to take care of that as well as prek room renovations. So that includes the two rooms kind of at the end of the building. Um, as well as some additional renovations to the interior ones. Uh, some of that is an alternate as well. Um, some restroom renovations as

037well as door and relief air work. So that's like venting, HVAC work, um, and making sure things are cold compliant that way. As far as pictures that you're looking at on the screen, those are two existing photos. One is the parking lot. Um the other one is part of the existing classroom that's kind of a a room off to the side of the prek rooms that they use for uh additional instruction. Okay. Schedule for phase two. So Young and Wright is wrapping up their design currently and that'll go to SED for review in March. Um right now we're seeing a 3 to four month review period which is good for bidding. Uh we'll have a little gap in between, but we want to wait till September, October till we bid so that we have good

038participation from contractors. They're not too busy. And then uh construction will be over next year. So the majority of the work we done next summer, but anything we can maybe get in ahead of time and do uh we will. And then we'll close out at the same time as phase one December. And while these buildings are getting parking lots and roofs, which isn't maybe necessarily super exciting uh work, it's very necessary. This phase of the project has a little more excitement to it um with some interior work. So, here again are some existing photos. Those are the existing two prek rooms. Um currently in the middle of them is a dividing wall that I haven't seen open in 15 years. I'm not sure if anyone else has. Uh the closet storage is like 10 ft

039in the air. It's almost unusable. Uh there's a lot of old finishes in there. the ceiling, the lighting, um, all of those items. So, we're we're looking to bring that back up to speed. That folding partition in the middle, too. It's good for taping things to, but you can't hang TVs on it, bulletin boards, all those items, which they need those stations to teach the kids. Um, so we are renovating all of those areas to the renderings that you guys can see on the screen now. Um, it's kind of an updated look, updated lighting. Some of the lighting is color changing and adjustable. Um, you'll notice in GLP if you go around to a lot of classrooms, they kind of shade some of their light so it's not too bright in there for some sensory

040things. This should hopefully help address some of those items. Um, as well as all sorts of surfaces to tack to and post and write on. Um, a lot of the closet spaces now what we're doing are actually whiteboards, magnetic whiteboards, um, which are really cool because the teachers can use those as stations. So instead you just have a wood door there. Now it's a whole another teaching station with some nice storage behind some deep stuff. Uh prek has, you know, doll houses and all sorts of things. Um so it gives them some some flexible stuff. Uh some of the cool things too about this these spaces which I think is really nice. The teachers wanted to incorporate some of their lessons into the actual design. So you can see on the left side of this

041there's kind of like a bank of like a main street type of area there um as like kind of a playhouse type of area. teachers wanted to include that. So, it's a little flexible um where it's not necessarily a doctor's office, a tool shed, and that it'll be a little more flexible. So, as their their um education changes, they can update those. So, maybe in one week it is a grocery store, the next week it is a doctor's office. So, they're a little functional. In those spaces, they're open to above. So, if you were the teacher, you could walk up to it and look down in. And part of that is some code implications. Just creating a closed-in structure requires some additional code like fire alarms and stuff. Having the ceiling open allows that not

042to happen. There's also a lot of fun aspects to it, too. In the top left rendering, you can see there's some clouds on the wall, like actual clouds. They're white and yellow. Um those are sound attenuation. So, that'll help with some of the sound in there, as well as ceilings and other um finishes that are going into those spaces. Okay. Uh capital outlay project 2526. So, that's your $100,000 project that's currently going on. Um, on this one, we put your school's principles to work. So, we appreciate all the hard work from you guys. Um, where we needed every room labeled. We needed to know what teachers were in there. So, we had to have them do a lot of the leg work on that. At each one of the buildings, you guys are getting new

043door signage that will be ADA acceptable. Um, as well as kind of fun in some spaces. So, you can see on the right half of the page, it says 406 and 409. And then down from there, that's the GLP. Um, so they will have kind of fun, colorful signage, fits some primary colors, um, and just a little more imaginative, which, you know, is fun for the younger kids. And then on the far right where it says the 108, and then down from there, it's a little more classic design, um, which fits the building that we're in, as well as Eden Elementary School. Um, so that'll be all brand new and be very nice within the school. those two, just so everyone knows, um, when there is a teacher's room on there, it does have a

044removable piece of paper. So, should a teacher move or a classroom move, the district can just print out a piece of paper, they cut it and slide it in and slide it out. Um, so the only thing that's stationary is the actual room number itself. So, it'll it'll function well um, you know, for hopefully a long time to come. Okay. Now, on to the future capital improvement projects. Dave is going to talk about schedule. >> Okay. So, we just talked about the current project and wanted to give you an outline for a proposed next capital improvement project. So the thought would be to vote in December of 2026 and submit with the design which will take about a year to SED in January of 28 based on SED review time hopefully around 3 months and

045that way we can do construction work in 2028 and 2029 with the project closing out in 2029. One item that I wanted to point out on this schedule on the screen, this is a pre-referendum schedule that shows all the items that need to occur prior to voting on the capital project in December of 2026, about halfway down when the board would have to decide and for a future project. That is actually in June. So although vote is about a year away really we have to make sure that the board is in agreement that when a capital project is required and what the scope of it would be and to authorize that by June of 2026. >> Thanks Dave. And then as part of that in deciding the timeline for that too uh the school has

046worked with your financial divi advisor team and that uh coincides with some debt falling off. So that allows for the project to happen um and kind of work with it that way. Okay. So some potential scope uh with that. Uh if you remember last uh Thanksgiving roughly, we were in here for a presentation about your building condition survey and some updates as well. This is where the building condition survey comes into play. We start looking at those items, which is what we passed out in front of you guys today. um and start to filter in those items into what this project will include. Um so you can see on the far right, it's very small, some of you probably can't read it. It was the sum of money for each one of the pieces that

047we determined needed some attention throughout the school. So it's one year, 3 years, 5 years, or seven years. Um what we do is we take a look at kind of the more immediate needs. So necessarily the one in 3 years start to filter that into what the overall budget is and then select that scope as well as educational improvements within the school. So the room we're sitting in now, the library last time was an important thing to upgrade for the school. It necessarily um you know wasn't part of the BCS, but it was part of the overall curriculum enhancements within the school. So, we need to filter those in with the BCS items to come up with an overall project for you guys to to review and um ultimately approve. So, some quick items that

048we kind of looked at here, middle school, high school, MEP improvements that goes through each one of the buildings here would be for sports facilities upgrades, which we'll hit on a couple of these a little more in depth. Restroom upgrades, interior finishes, fire alarm upgrades, auditorium and entry upgrades. Uh, I'm sorry. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. Sorry, I should let you know. Um, and I left it kind of brief. I didn't write mechanical, electrical, and plumbing because we're still figuring out what those want to be. I didn't want to single out one necessarily. Eden Elementary, one of the big ones is continue the classroom renovations. We've completed a little over a third of those classrooms. We really want to keep that going and bring everything up to speed there. Again, MEP, uh, exterior door upgrades and

049building masonry upgrades. GLP, MEP as well, roofing replacements, kitchen upgrades, building envelope upgrades. So that includes like masonry. Uh on that building, you have some metal panels outside. So making sure that's all up to date. Maybe some window replacements, uh bus garage, MEP, roofing replacements, interior door replacements, building envelope upgrades, and interior upgrades. Um so this is just a very highlevel look at what these sculf items are. I took kind of the top of the list, pulled it in here just to know what you let you guys know what kind of the district has started to look at there. Um, it's really in a determination phase right now. So, it'll really be prioritized by the district and then kind of start to weigh that in and then mix in those curriculum items like I was

050explaining to you. Okay. So, some of those items that we were talking about kind of some of the the bigger ones on there that I had started. the elementary school classrooms. Uh on the left were some of the existing rooms and what some of the old ones look like. On the right is one of the new music rooms that was done in the last project. So it would be to continue that on and and keep all those rooms moving forward like we said. Uh middle and high school, it would be to continue some of the hallway renovations. um which you can see in this photo on the right is the existing which it's probably still at least four-fifths of the school or more than that with the second floor. Um still remains to look like

051that today. And then on the right like right outside this room that's the new so it's the white tile over top of what you guys had as well as some accent banding there. Middle high school auditorium foyer. Um just an upgrade there. And part of when you walk out if you take a look up there's a lot of stained tiles. Um there's some that are broken, cracked. You can see some mechanical units um that were added throughout time that have patches of ceiling tiles around it. It would be addressing that as well as some hazardous materials that are in that area, taking care of all those items for that. Um on the right is just a very conceptual rendering up upgrading the ceiling, maybe some new wall finishes in there, how we factor that in,

052as well as tying in the plays and just student activities. Over at the sports entry, you guys have some new TVs that include, you know, who's in the sports hall of fame, you know, what game, what happened in this game, so on so forth. You could do that with the plays, um, or just student activities that are happening. Arc can post their things there. They have they have a lot posted in this area in general. Um, so it really can be an all-encompassing space for you to determine what really happens there. Um, I know there's been some promps there. It could be all sorts of stuff. I, you know, whatever you guys determine as that space would need, but just basically finish upgrades in that area. the auditorium self itself. Uh seating and acoustic panels,

053the seats, um you can see they're a little outdated as far as the color necessarily doesn't fit the scheme of the school or the auditorium. Um and they're beyond useful life. So what beyond useful life means, it doesn't mean every seat you sit in doesn't work. You know, they a lot of them do work. The problem is if anything does break, there's no replacement parts for them anymore that are made. So, what you would have to do is um your director of facilities has to take a look around, try and find a school maybe that has some extras um or someone can make pieces for them and repair them. So, it's not as an easy as a fix as it was 10 years ago to repair the chairs. Um and obviously with the color and

054condition of some um you know, it would be a good time to kind of address all of them. Second item within there is the acoustic panels. Those are a fiberglass panel that's actually inset into the wall with a frame around it. Um the fiberglass within there is deteriorating uh just based off of age. So it's um you know a material that's like starting to fall. You know, it's basically just inside. It's it's a soft issue. It's not working as well anymore for its original intended purpose. And as well, it's not something that you want to touch or have um you know, kind of exhausting into the area. It's basically like an offging type of thing. So, as it is brand new, it can and as it deteriorates, the same sort of thing. So, it would

055be something that we do want to take a look at. Um, and we just want to make sure the sound's the best that it can be in there as well. >> I know you guys have some really great plays. >> Can I ask a quick question about the fiberglass? >> Yes. >> So, when you say it's det like you said it's going into the air like so probably shouldn't be >> it's not Yeah. It's not like a, you know, a hazard like that necessarily. If you feel it though, like if you basically if you hung up a pillow, you know, like how that is eventually your couch pillows, they start to sink down. >> Okay. >> It's kind of like that. It's like a fluffy material within the wall and like an insulation. It has

056a coating over the top of it. Okay. >> Um that's on there, but it is something that, you know, throughout time you definitely want to keep up with. >> Okay. >> And this one is original to the building. >> The fitness center, an expansion is something that's been talked about. Uh you can see on the plan here, we created that L in a project two ago. Um and up kind of finishing that area, there's a classroom. There's two classrooms up there. Uh the district is talking about taking those two rooms and then expanding the fitness center into there. Could just be a shell of a room now that could be used for multiple things. Um but that has been one of the discussion points as well. Any questions? Thanks team. Appreciate it. Probably the sixth,

057seventh time I've heard it. So, um, no, it's um, thanks. You did exactly what we asked you to do last week. We appreciated the the turn quick turnaround time and and getting us all together. Um, so right now, Mrs. May, we're looking at maybe an $18 millionish uh zero tax impact project >> currently with the debt drop off. Yes. About an $18 million project. >> So these things, Jack, it's that like our fourth third fourth one coming up. So we've been through this as a as a season board over the years and and one thing we figure out over the years is it's debt coming on and off and it really can affect what your budget looks like from year to year. So, I mean, we're looking we haven't even bid out this next project

058and we're already thinking ahead to the following project for 2930 closing out. Um, so that's one thing that you you kind of constantly got to be doing. Um, anybody have any idea what numbers staring at me in the face right here for seven years out? Like if we wanted to fix everything on this campus right now in seven years, throw a number out at me, anybody? $194 million. So that's what we're kind of looking at as as we as we look at things. And this is a lot of stuff, you know, seven years out, but think about where we're at right now. We've got two phases coming up that we haven't even bid yet and we're trying to look farther out to make sure that we're managing our debt properly. Um trying to have no

059impact to the um to the taxpayers and and looking out. So what's it what's this current one going out at when we're bidding out phase one and phase two? >> 19 was the >> So we got 194 million. So we got 19 we're grabbing on this little chunk and then maybe another 18 to 20 the next chunk. So it's kind of trying to prioritize things to enhance certain areas. So one thing we looked at when we did these um tiles outside here and I know there's a couple people to one person to the left of me that is really annoyed by the rest of the color. So we could do it in what we call capital outlay projects which are a meeting that was going to take about eight years to you know get it

060all done or do we in include it into this next project. So there's you can do all these little $100,000 ones which is you're seeing we're doing uh room labeling and building labeling now. But that's the stuff that we're we're working on to you know try to improve things. But if you think about some of these things, how far we're looking that far down the road, you know, I see most of the seniors here, you'll never see it. But now think of some the students that are in the elementary school and then at least walk into a new high school four years from now with hopefully white walls throughout the whole entire building. So appreciate the work. Um, but that's what we're trying to accomplish. So just to kind of give you guys the board

061a schedule of what we're at. So we really we have about three meetings between now and then to figure out what we got to do so we can get this in front of SED in June so we can go out for a December uh vote. So that's why we kind of we kind of looked flipped the calendar and we said, "Oh boy, we need you guys here to present this to us." So that's kind of where we're at as a board in regards to time frame that we kind of need to get our ducks in a row between now and in and June. Well, we probably got a vote on before June. probably May maybe just I don't know somewhere it's it's coming up it's kind of coming quick so >> so so let's talk

062about that for a minute Don and I I appreciate everything that you said and the experience this board has with projects is really um it benefits the team it benefits uh Frankie it certainly benefits me um and with the immense amount of work first off we're not doing $194 million project so you can just forget you even heard that number I almost gave him a little poke and said don't say that um Um, we need to figure out what work we have to do, which is that MEP stuff. Thank you for asking that question because I didn't know either, but I'm probably supposed to know that. I didn't want to ask. Um, so what what are those things we absolutely have to do? And we did some of that in the last project with our

063with our systems in the basement here. Um, what's that work that is left unfinished from previous projects? And that's what what what are some of those things that that we want to do? Okay. When I say we, I don't mean the board. I mean, everybody that's involved in our community. Okay. I I know and you you've heard me say this a hundred times. We've got work to finish at Eden Elementary. We started to remodel the house. We didn't finish. Um and and in my estimation, that that needs to happen next. I I do want to say that I think um uh Sarah is most interested in these preK rooms because they're going to be finished just in time for Henry to start school, right? Which is pretty neat. Um, you know, I saw a positive

064a lot of positive responses from our small audience here about continuing the beautifification of this building, creating a space that students can be proud of. And, um, I I can tell you when we did the work here, when we did the library, we did the hallway, the response from some of our students was, "Wow, we we actually have have a school that that we can be proud of and that we like, and we need to continue to do that." Um, you know, the our last project, we we had two propositions. Prop one passed, no problem. There was no tax impact. Prop two did not pass. We didn't really get official feedback on why that didn't pass. We heard some things here and there, but it certainly wasn't a scientific examination of that vote. So, I

065I think I would like to do something a little bit different this time and and frontload the information we get from from the community. And by that I I wanna I want to use uh technology to our advantage and do a survey uh of of the entire community of what they want to see in a project. And because you know some folks may may say you know what we agree about about the elementary classrooms but we really need something else that you haven't even thought about. And I want to I want to use um it's called thought exchange. I think I've talked to you about it before and it's a way for anybody who's interested to share what they find what they find most important. So Mrs. Lar Rosa would say uh the elementary classrooms

066are the most important thing. Maybe Mr. Mcdana would say the high school hallways are the most important thing and Sarah being a taxpayer would say no tax impact. Okay. And once you put something in, you get to see everyone what everyone else is interested in. And you get to vote on how important that is. So, so Mr. Mcdana would say, I don't care about the elementary classrooms. I'm giving that one star, but I agree with no tax impact, so I'm going to give that five stars. And as you go on, things kind of sort themselves out and you hear back from the community on on what the community is is willing to support. Um, and if I have your blessing, I'm I'm going to move forward pretty quickly with that based on the time frame

067that that you just explained. Um, it would probably take, and I'm going to estimate this because I haven't done this before, probably take a month to uh to roll out and and uh and get some quality results. So, >> it's it's pretty pretty cool stuff, this thought exchange thing. to kind of give it in in general social media terms. It's kind of like liking um things through Facebook or myself now. >> Saw a couple eye rolls there. >> Yeah. >> Um I mean even the >> Instagram. >> Yeah. The the fitness center comment and thank you for putting that in there. I had a meeting last week with with Mr. I want and and our head football coach Charlie Caret about transitioning that space to be continue to be a fitness center that's open to

068our community but also increase the space so it could be more of an athletic training training area. Um and Charlie's got some great ideas. He's he's actually worked uh through fundraising to uh update some of the equipment that's going to be in that space as you gentlemen have shared. um the district built the space and provided a good chunk of the equipment in including all the cardio, but sports boosters also had a hand in in uh in in um populating that space as well. So, that was part of the conversation that if I can build a space, it's going to be incumbent on boosters to be involved in in in upgrading the equipment because we just can't we can't afford to do both. Now, I know you want a new pool, but that would that

069would be $294 million. So, is there anything else in in from the board members that that you'd like to see in this project at this point? >> Well, in regards to the pool, I understand pools are they're a big chunk of money. Um, but Saturday swim lessons, you had brought it to my attention. Um, and I realize it's been extremely cold here, but it was like the walls were sweating and I I another pool I was at a while ago, it was like that that in West Senica and I was told it was the air filtration. So, I'm just wondering if maybe looking at the air filtration in the pool cuz that es and flows from either really really hot or really really cold. There's no like >> What would that fall under then? >>

070I don't know. M I'm talking >> uh I believe that's an MEP problem. >> I I would add given that if we go forward that'll be my fourth gen and our fourth capital project. um stuff does not get cheaper and so such a huge eye openener from the first one we were involved in third field and then you look back and say how much would that cost to build today which was probably three or four times what we spent on it and that goes across the board and the same thing with homeowners get a price on concrete now you say I'm going to kick the can down around five years and now you get a price and it's significantly more expensive so as we are all taxpayers payers here. We measure, do we want to

071spend the money? But if something needs to get done, we're better off spending the money now than kicking the can down the road because it's it's going to cost more money the next capital project three or four or five years down the road. And I'm not saying the flowery stuff. I'm saying the paving is not going to be cheaper three or four years from now. The roofs are not going to be cheaper three or four years from now. And so it's incumbent upon the board to to kind of measure that and say, "Yeah, I don't want to spend taxpayer money on all of this stuff, but if we don't spend it now, we're going to spend more down the road." And and and it's critical to understand as a taxpayers, we're all taxpayers. I think

072I got my tax bill today. So, uh yeah. So, um I'm sure we'll put that word out as we get closer. Anything else? >> Just $194 million. >> Oh, we don't have that to spend. >> So, um I don't know if that's on this this number, but we looked at softball and baseball fields in this last capital project. So, a combination field, softball, baseball, lights. What do you think that number was? >> Oh, no. It was 11 million for that one. That project. >> Yeah. Where then we did when we did this project, it was under two >> for the turf field. >> Turf field. >> Yeah. The the turf field itself was like a million and then we it involved the track and then the concession stand of course and then and LED lights,

073which were cutting edge at the time. And now I you guys, maybe we don't even do regular lights anymore. All you do is LED lights. And so the whole thing was probably close to >> three or something like that. Maybe not quite that much, but but to Don's point, it would be 11 million for a similar facility. No concession stand and no track. It's just the turf. So it's crazy expensive. And just to kind of answer that a little deeper, I guess that report that includes that 194, that is an evaluation of everything that's on site in its current condition. So your football or your baseball and softball field, that is a number that's in that document to replace them as they are. So if it's, you know, grass, mud, clay, all that stuff, that's

074what's in there to do that. The curriculum part would be part of, hey, we want to upgrade it to turf with a facility, that type of thing. So that 11 number that Don is talking about though that is what we came up with last time. Um when we looked at it as as a facility creating it that way. Um and that number two that includes everything. We look at the school holistically. We look at rugs. We look at everything. So even things that uh you know you look at now we're thinking 10 years into the future. Hey you know these these this desk might need to be replaced in 15 years from now. That number could be in there too. So that's why when we plan the project, we start looking at the lower numbers

075to kind of to weed that down. >> Yeah. I've done a I don't even know how many projects with with Young and Wright and I never look at that number um because I I know it's just it's it's not it's not attainable anywhere. >> And it's and just to be clear that is any district you go to that's you know every building was built in the 50s. Nobody touched it until the 90s. So it's a lot of catchup things that just just inevitably happen. But it's you you guys are not in a rare condition to any other neighboring district or throughout New York State. >> Yeah. So that's why we look at it again to end the way we started. Things we have to do, the things that we should do, and the things we

076want to do. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Somebody just about every single year going to private high school. It's not the education that's making and you get these young men from our town that I help raise as a mom to vote for something else come the facility. I think priority >> Oh, I totally agree with you. Totally agree. The the room you're sitting in wasn't touched since it was since it was since it was built. And I I consider this the preeminent space in in the district. You know, the the work that was done in the hallway, um most of it was added on because we because we were we had we had a little bit extra money. So, I absolutely agree with you. Um and you know, everything will be considered. So, I was

077president of the booster club for six years. Don was president of the booster club. So, you're preaching to the choir? Abs. Absolutely. No. >> You know, we built a turf field. um against um many community members against it. But uh if you've been not been up there on a Friday night football game with the concession stand jamming and and every kid in Eden up there, it is exactly what it was supposed to be, a community event, and we would love to incorporate that into baseball and softball. Um but the if the numbers are prohibitive, plain and simple, the numbers are prohibitive. All right. Thank you. Really appreciate you being here. >> Thank you guys very much. >> Next, we have the budget update presentation by Mrs. May. >> Okay. So, this is the second budget

078session for the 2627 school budget. Uh we are going to focus on the tax cap calculation as well as a overall review of revenue. So for tonight's agenda, uh looking at the tax cap and the tax levy uh for historical trends as well as the overall tax cap calculation for 2627. Uh reviewing the state aid executive budget proposal from the governor that came out a couple of weeks ago. Looking at the overall revenue review um at historical trends, actual revenue in the last few years, as well as where the budget gap lands currently. Okay, so if we look at this graph, um this is a graph showing the tax cap as compared to the actual tax levy increase in a given year going all the way back to the 2012 2013 um school year, which

079was the year that the tax cap legislation was um initialized in the New York in New York state. So if you look at the gray line, the gray line is the tax cap and then the red line is the actual tax levy increase. So you can see Eden has stayed pretty close to that um tax cap each year uh with the difference in the 2122 school year. Um so that was when we were really influx uh federal funds from COVID. Um so we were able to go out at a zero 0% tax levy increase. Uh with the largest gap being in the 2324 school year. So the tax uh tax cap was 7.49% in that year. And uh the board and the taxpayers approved a 2% tax levy increase. Um and then finally looking at

080the 2526 school year, which is the current school year, uh we did go out at the tax cap at 2.58%. So this summary just kind of shows um the percentage of the tax levy compared to the overall budget. Um so just really looking at the local share or what our local taxpayers are paying towards the school budget each year. Um so the yellow highlighted bar is the 2012 2013 school year which is the um the year that the tax cap legislation went through. So that was the first year. Um the percentage all the way to the right is that percentage of the tax levy overall the overall school budget in that given year. And you can see since the tax lap legislation came out that percentage has decreased each year. meaning that our local taxpayers

081are paying less towards our school budget or overall school budget. So, what that means is that state aid or other miscellaneous revenue, which we'll kind of talk about a little bit later, um is making up a larger proportion of um of our budget or our revenue side of the budget. Okay. So for the property tax cap calculation for the 26 27 school year budget, we always start with the lesser of 2% or CPI um since CPI which is the our measure measure of inflation is above 2% it's at 2.63 we are capped at that 2%. From there we add on the um taxbased growth factor which comes from New York state and that is 07%. So it increases to 2.07 07. And then lastly, we add on different exclusions. So for this year, the only

082one that is applicable to Eden is our capital tax levy exclusion. What that is is it's what our local taxpayers are paying towards our capital projects. So, our long-term financing or our debt uh our bond payments for old capital projects as well as any short-term financing or what's considered a bond anticipation note for the current capital project that's going on for cash flow purposes um less any building aid that we're receiving. So, that cap capital tax levy exclusion comes into play and it increases our tax cap threshold to 2.52%. or essentially about 416,000 on our tax levby that we could go out to the taxpayers and increase the tax levy for next school year. So this is our state aid numbers. Uh this is reflective of uh the governor's proposal that came out at the

083end of January. So she had proposed that foundation aid for districts that were on save harmless uh at a minimum of 1% increase. So, what safe harmless is, if you remember two budget cycles ago when the governor came out with her budget runs, um districts that had decreasing enrollment or when the foundation aid formula would run and your foundation aid actually decreased year-to-year, you were essentially held harmless and you would get at least what you received the prior year. So, two fiscal or two years ago when her budget came out, hold harmless districts were uh essentially eliminated from that and you would see a um a decrease in your foundation aid. So, because Eden is a hold harmless district, we are receiving a 1% increase. So, even though if the foundation aid formula ran, we

084possibly could have a reduction in foundation aid, she is holding us harmless, and we only have a 1% increase, which is about a $95,000 increase, not a whole ton. Uh, next, our textbook, software, hardware, and library materials, which is also known as our instructional materials. We get a per pupil allocation. So, as we're seeing a little bit decrease in enrollment year-toear, we can see small decreases in those instruction materials. Our private excess and public excess costs kind of a wash. One's increasing, one's decreasing. So, overall about a $5,000 increase between those two. That is for our outofd district placements. So, our students that um are attending specialized schools um because we don't have um the programs in Eden to meet their needs. Um, so we get aid back on those. And then transportation aid and

085Bosey's aid kind of go, not that they go hand inand, but they're both expenditured driven aids. So what that means is it's based off of the prior year's expenses. So if we spend less in the prior year, we get less in aid the following year. So because our expenses for transportation and boseies because we had brought some services back in house were decreasing in the current year our aid for those expenses are decreasing next year. And then lastly our building aid. So we had talked about this in length last budget season that we had a deferred building aid coming in which was then offset by uh debt payments that we had or a bond anticipation note short-term financing in the current school year. So because that building aid is dropped, that deferred building aid is

086dropping off, we also have debt dropping off on the expenditure side, but you'll see a really large decrease in building aid. So that kind of makes up the total decrease of about 944,000 in overall state aid. So if we look at the historical review of revenue, you can kind of see going back to the 2223 school year of actual revenue as compared to the gray bar which is the current school year of anticipated revenue as well as um the second most right column which is what's projected for next school year's revenue. So our pilot payments are payment in lie of tax. So those are our solar farms in the community. um they are not on the tax roles. So instead they pay the district directly for those um school tax payments. It's payment in lie

087of tax um and that is a set schedule going out years to come and that is increasing by about $500. Interest and penalties is uh anyone who pays a school tax bill late um accumulates interest and penalties. So that we are estimating at a small increase of about $1,500, but it does vary year-to-year. Erie County sales tax small increase of about 50,000. So this is really driven by consumer spending. So as people spend more money in the market or in um our community, Erie County raises sales tax and then they share it with um a portion of that with all of the districts that reside in Erie County. So increasing that about 50,000 which stays in line with our actual revenue um over the past couple years charges to students and community. So this is

088really for uh the fitness center uh driver education for our students over the summer as well as our early morning program at Eden Elementary. Um, so keeping that relatively consistent with a small increase of about $800 just to keep up with uh rising costs. And then interest and investments. So this one is pretty interesting. You'll see if you go back to the 22 23 school year and the next two years um we had very significant interest earnings. That is because interest rates were really really high. Uh we knew that interest rates were coming down. So, we did anticipate for the current school year dropping that budget down um because we knew we were we were not going to have as much revenue. Uh just to give a little insight back in 2122, uh total interest

089revenue for the school year was $5,000. So, anticipating we did anticipate a big drop off in those interest earnings based on decreasing interest rates. Um however, those interest rates aren't coming down as fast as we initially thought. So, um, budgeting for a small increase of about, um, $20,000 in that category, but staying very much smaller than what we've anticipated or what we've seen the last few years, knowing that we are coming back down to that precoid levels of about $5,000 miscellaneous revenue. So, this one kind of encompasses a lot of different categories. Some of the biggest ones are use of facilities, uh, which so far this year has only been about $1,000. So, it ranges year to year. Uh, insurance recoveries, which we never really budget any revenue in there because we don't want to

090anticipate that we're going to have to make an insurance claim. Um, which we did have for Eden Elementary uh, for the roof. And then, um, sale of equipment. So, this one varies very significantly each year. So, we always want to budget very conservatively in this area. So last year we had about $12,000 and two years prior to that we had over a h 100,000. So it just depends year to year. That's why you're seeing pretty high levels in miscellaneous revenue for actual um over the last few years but we're budgeting very low because they do vary year to year. Okay. So if we put that all together and look at the overall state or the overall revenue for 2627. You can see that state aid is decreasing by about 944,000. That is mostly due to

091the reduction in building aid. You can see federal aid and the tax levy at this point are staying consistent at last year's levels. Other tax items, which are those uh the pilot payments as well as interest and penalties of about a $2,000 increase, Erie County sales tax of about $50,000 increase. and then miscellaneous revenue which we talked about in the last slide of about a $44,000 increase. Lastly, we had talked about this at the last budget session, but uh last school year we had decided instead of cutting programming or reducing expenditures further to the board had really decided that let's plug it with our um reserves and fund balance knowing that we had set aside some money during COVID because of the influx of COVID funding and federal grants that we received. knowing that once

092that money is spent, it is not available for future use. So, at this point, still suggesting at about a $600,000 decrease in uh reserves and fund balance because we don't want to spend all of our savings. We want to save some of it for um some financial hardships that we may have in future years. Okay. So, if we put all the revenue together and look at what our current expenditures are at, we have about a $3 million budget gap. a little bit better than last time, last budget session. Um, and if we could look all the way up at different iterations from 0% all the way up into the tax cap, which is 2.52, we're at about a 2.6 $2.7 million budget gap. Um, so this really is before we do a deep dive into

093the expenditure side. This was more just let's focus on revenue. Uh, next budget session will really focus on where we can drill back on expenditures. Okay. So, next steps are the expenditure detail review. Um, a discussion on what the tax levy and fund balance usage discussion. So, what uh the board is comfortable with going out possibly um the tax levy increase, how much you want to use in reserves and fund balance, and lastly, how we can further close that budget gap. Any questions? This is what we know today, >> right? This is what we know today and the governor's run um is hopefully the worst news that we get and you know hopefully our foundation aid increases and students. So, so you heard Mrs. May talk about sales tax. Okay. And and and that's why

094we kind of looked at each other and laughed because we disagree on this. I think our sales tax revenue is going to decrease and you think it's going to remain flat or maybe increase a little bit, right? I hope I'm wrong, but think about it this way. So sales tax comes every time you you make a purchase, you pay sales tax. You go to you go and buy buy something at a store or whatever locally, not not something from Amazon, I don't believe, um, and you pay sales tax. Schools in Erie County get a portion of that. With all the things that are going on in the world, tariffs, issues at the border, Canadians not coming over to spend their money money as much as usual. That's where I'm coming from that I'm concerned that

095sales taxs are going to decrease. So in our little rural community of Eden is being affected in what we can do in terms of our school budget by the greater world picture. So you may hear these things and it doesn't really matter to us, but it really it really does. So put that in your notes. >> Okay. >> But Mr. Sortisio, >> I'm gonna side Mrs. May on this. >> I said I want to be wrong. Okay. I hope you are. But so the the tariffs, you also get taxed on the tariffs because the p the costs are passed along to you and Amazon does charge tax. That does hit us here. So every one of your Amazon purchases uh somehow measly pennies may end up back here in Eden. >> I I did not

096claim to be the financial expert. I'm just the worried I'm the worried expert. >> Consumer spending continues to drive the economy. Maybe they're putting it all on a credit card and so that would become a problem down the road. But consumer spending really hasn't decreased. To Don's point, if something costs 15% more, that's 15% times 8.75. We get a cut off. >> I think we could increase the number, Mrs. May. >> Thank you. >> Y >> at this point during the meeting, members of the board of ed may request to have any items removed from the consent agenda considered separately. Do we have a motion to have any items removed? >> No. >> I don't. >> No. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, consensus items be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in

097favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> This is now the approximate position in time that the board is designated to receive statements from individuals and groups. The board will review all statements then respond appropriately at a future meeting. All persons in attendance are required to sign the attendance sheet and designate the representation status. For example, a parent, teacher, bus driver, chamber of commerce, etc. There is a twominut time limit. Anyone? No. All right. New business resignations that upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation for the purpose of retirement of elementary teacher Margaret Cuddi be accepted effective July 1st, 2026. The board and administration wish to thank Mrs. Kadu for her 22 years of service to the district. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I Any opposed? There any

098abstained? >> Abstain. Mr. Cutting is obaining. I'm not opposed. Just a mistake. >> Anybody opposing? Motion carried. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation for the purpose of retirement of music teacher Annette Behan be accepted effective July 1st, 2026, the board and administration wish to thank Mrs. Behan for her 33 years of service to the district. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation for the purpose of retirement of math teacher Amy Porter be accepted effective May 1st, 2026. July, >> the board and administration wish to thank Mrs. Porter for her 32 years of service to the district. July 1st. Sorry. >> Did you say Okay. >> Did I say May? >> You did

099say. >> So it's July. >> Should I read it again? >> Correct me. >> Okay. July 1st. >> July 1st, not May 1st. >> We got a second. Uh, any other discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Motion carried. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation of bus driver Jeffrey Cot be accepted effective January 31st, 2026. The board and administration wish to thank Mr. Cot for his four years of service to the district. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing her probationary period, Andrea Garrison be granted tenure as an elementary teacher effective February 19th, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I. >> Any abstained? Any opposed?

100Motion carried. Congratulations. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing her probationary period, Caitlyn Terasic be permanently appointed as a cafeteria monitor effective March 3rd, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried >> that upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing her probationary period, Dawn Oit be permanently appointed as a cafeteria monitor and bus attendant effective March 3rd, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing her probationary period, Maryanne Tyberki be permanently appointed as a bus attendant effective March 28th, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendation of the

101superintendent after successfully completing his probationary period, Jeffrey Evans be permanently appointed as a cafeteria monitor and bus attendant effective March 1st, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing her probationary period, Rebecca Cruz be permanently appointed as a bus driver effective March 1st, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I I. >> Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Kathleen McKa >> Mcani be appointed on probation as a registered nurse effective January 26 2026 and ending September 25th 2026 salary is based upon CSEA contract level 8 step 4 >> second >> any discussion all in favor? >> Any opposed? They abstained. Motion carried. Welcome aboard. >> I

102apologize for mispronouncing. I really do try to practice these before. Um that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Megan Heinekle be appointed on probation as a teacher aid effective February 23rd, 2026 and ending October 22nd, 2026. Salary is based upon CSEA contract level four step one. Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, Michaela D be appointed on probation as a teacher aid effective February 10th, 2026 and ending October 9th, 2026. Salary is based upon CSEA contract level four step one. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. New business that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Matt Delapenta be added as an approved occasional driver effective February 10th, 2026. >> Second.

103>> Any discussion? >> What What's an occasional driver? >> It's a driver who occasionally drives. >> I knew you to say that. So, so we have approved occasional drivers in the past and it is covered under B board policy 5700ish. Um, an occasional driver um is someone who has provided us evidence that they're they're physically able to to operate a vehicle uh provides letter of recommendations and has a rationale for utilizing one of the district vehicles, one of the suburbans. And this typically happens when we have a small group going uh going to an event whether it's a sporting event. >> Anything to do with bus shortage drive bus? >> No, it's No, no, it's not. >> No, it's not. >> You actually approved uh Rick Weber as an occasional driver at a meeting earlier

104this year. >> Uh let's see. Uh any other discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendations of the superintendent, the transportation route spreadsheet effective January 30th, 2026 be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> That that the Eden Central School District Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves the capital project chain or change orders as presented. Gunner's Nest Caul $1,348 ACCU repair $6,552. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> Next, we have business report. >> I actually have something good to report this time. Uh so, thank you to Mrs. Carter for allowing me to actually have some good news to present at

105a budget session. Um, so we one of the things that was approved during the consent agenda was accepting a donation from Eugene Sullivan Foundation. This donation was $1,000 and with Mrs. Carter met with the prek teachers and they decided to purchase a class set of tricycles. So we did purchase those that they can um put in rotation once it gets actually nice out and they can use them. superintendent report. >> There's a tricycle joke that I'm going to leave leave on the side. Just can't help myself sometimes. So, just a few uh a few things. Um the board you will see uh that the uh draft 2526 school calendar is available for your review and it is on the public site um for uh for anyone who's interested to to look to look at as

106well. different this year and based on successful uh negotiations with the ETA, we will be having superintendent conference days prior to Labor Day. So that's on the Tuesday and Wednesday prior to Labor Day. And our student first day will be on September 8th, which does mirror the regional calendar. That's beneficial for any of our our students that attend uh CTE programs with Boseies or or in Bosey's classes. So we're uh in line there. Um, we do have in this calendar five snow days built in. We had five snow days built in last year. We used each one of them. We're at three so far this year. And hopefully we we don't need any anymore. Um, however, this is a really tight calendar compared to what we've seen in the past, and that has everything to

107do with Labor Day falling uh at really the latest possible date. Um the one the one shining difference uh is that unfortunately I can't find a way to make uh November 25th, the day before Thanksgiving a recess day, which I know has been something we've had in this district in the past. Um the other part too is this gives us 186 uh um teacher days. Um the maximum there is 187. So we're we're within our our limitations there as well. Um any questions about the calendar at this point? >> Go ahead. So, it's a Tuesday start. >> It's a Tuesday start. >> Okay. >> Yep. And it's something that you you that you know we we've talked about for a number of years and um and it's it's it's right. It's it's the best scenario

108for our students to be in line with their with their classmates across the county. Um there may be a couple uh small small changes in in the final version that version that will be uh presented to you for adoption at our March meeting. Okay. Okay. So, if you um if you've got the um the January edition of the New York State School Board's uh um paper, there was an article in there about board retreats and how and the title is a board retreat can be the key to achieving achieving your school board's New Year's resolutions. Um I've held on to this copy because it gives us some pretty good information about um how our retreat could benefit our work together. And Don and I have talked about this a little bit. I know we we've

109talked a little bit too as a larger group, but I I I'd like to look at at a date in August um to have a board retreat. Um we will very likely have a a new board member because we do have a vacant seat right now. This could be a great time to review our um our goals, our district goals and also talk about roles and responsibilities being in the board. So, we can talk about that more and if I have your blessing, I'll start start doing some planning on on so what that might look like. >> I just make a comment for the public's benefit because a board retreat really sounds like super cool and fun. And when I first got on the board, I was like, "Yes, board retreat. That sounds amazing." It's

110not. >> I mean, I love >> We're just not going anywhere. We're >> It sounds like we're out somewhere and like it's not. We're in a room enjoying each other's company and doing a lot of work. So, I just didn't want to make it seem like we're all like, you know, >> well man, I was really excited about planning this and now I guess it's not going to be as much fun as I thought it was going to be. It's >> fun. It's just I don't public I don't want the public to think we're guess what I'm not running again in the spring. >> Oh, well, scratch everything I just said then. >> Just just kid. So, but it's it's a necessary component of uh of boardsmanship and leadership is is to work together to

111to take a look backwards and see what we've achieved and and um and at the same time look forward and see what some of those areas are we need to focus on. So, we'll we'll we'll bring a beach ball and you can bounce it around or something. Okay. Um and and the last part I I already talked about in terms of the capital project. Thank you to all the presenters. Peace Bus is is really incredible. We have probably the best transportation department in Western New York. I don't brag about that anywhere else because I don't want anyone coming looking and and trying to, you know, poach. So, um, and thank you for your presentation as well, Mrs. May, even though I I still disagree with you. >> Next, we have student report from Ian Flowers.

112Uh, February 2026, Eden Middle School had literacy night on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. 50 middle school students attended and participated in four different activities throughout the night. They tie-dyed reading raider t-shirts, played glow-in-the-dark book bingo, camping theme book tasting, and schoolic book fair. Concentration with the Eden librarian, and enjoyed snacks with decorating bookmarks. Be Kind Week 2026. Sponsored by Middle School and High School Students Council, Middle School, High School, National Honor Society, and Unified Club. Monday, February 9th, Friday, February 13th, 2026. Monday 29, Wild about kindness. Wear animal print. How can you make the world more awesome? Give a compliment. Pull open a door. Introduce yourself to someone new. Tuesday 210 compliment compliments galore. Join the middle school national honor society by giving compliments to people throughout the day. Wednesday,

113be kind bingo. In home room, you will receive a bingo board. Once you have achieved the bingo, come to stock to room 200 for a special prize. Thursday, thanksful Thursday, please join a unified club outside cafeteria during all lunches today to write a note to a friend, classmate, teacher. Give it a two of them. Friday, feel love Friday. We're ready. The senior high national honor study will be outside cafeteria during all lunches. Write a note, a kind word, affirmation, etc. On Thursday, February 2026, after school, students will enjoy snacks, make friendship p friendship pins to celebrate being kind. >> That's it. >> Yeah, that's it. >> Thank you, Ian. >> Thanks. >> Uh, next we have board report roundt. Anyone have anything to say? >> I'm good. Well, congratulations, Jack, on your wife retiring. Yes.

114Uh, the next regular board of education meeting is March 16th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the middle school high school library. The budget workshop will be May March 23rd, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the middle school high school library. I've got May on the brain here. I don't know. Might be her name. Um that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board of education enter executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person or persons. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> thanks for coming everybody. If you need your paper sign come up any of the board members can uh sign your