001[Music] All right, six o'clock. Call this meeting order. Please stand for the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Sitsman will do a capital outlay project information speech. Add lib. I I don't have it on my uh good evening. Good evening, board. Uh Jeff Frankie, thank you for having me. Um it's that time of year again. Uh so we'll get right into it. This is the capital outlay project for 2526. Uh just a brief agenda for what we'll go over, complete scope, budget, schedule, uh and then uh what it'll actually look like in the in the district. So, as you look at this, um the the key takeaways that we're
002looking at is fixing um the uh room numbering as well as exterior uh doors. So, exterior doors uh need to be labeled in order to identify them. So, that way if we have someone coming in, we can point them in a clear direction and have them go to that door. Uh it will also address uh discrepancies. We have multiple systems that go through our room numbers and they all need to line up with that. So, we'll have a repeatable system that teachers can put their names into and they will also have a room number posted next to their door and it will be a common theme through the district is what the the vision is for that. Um the budget for this uh every year it's $100,000 that is all-inclusive. that includes all the fees,
003architectural, design, and any engineering that would go into it. Um the the checklist is is there, but that is the whole project is $100,000 reimburseable to the district at the building aid rate, which is 70 I have my notes in here. 78 78.2 cents on the dollar. So, same rules apply for past capital projects. Um key key with that one is the schedule. Uh it has to be completed within the 2526 school year. These are just some sample images of what it would look like in practice. Um that that 16 that you see on the exterior door um is a common practice, but it has to be that size to be building code. But we're looking to do something that would be a little less obtrusive than that bright green. So whether it's a gray
004or or maroon to match school colors, but something that'll identify doorways exterior. And then on the interior, um so this specific door on the top you'll find is the elementary before that door was replaced. And that's pretty common through the elementary to have the room number, what it is, and then the teacher's name. um we would looking to be go towards something on the bottom. So stairs would be labeled down here with something um similar through the district and then rooms would be labeled uh so it' be ADA compliant to have braille and then have the teacher's name in a little slide so you could just print out a piece of paper. It would be interchangeable regardless of who's in that room. So that's uh pretty cut and dry. Um if there's any questions um
005that that's concludes my uh my presentation. Mike, this is only elementary and GLP. So outlays are for one building. Okay. Um they have to be according to the state, they have to be for one building as one project. Gotcha. Okay. So, one one building, one contractor. Yes. And then the other thing too, we've got a current one starting in a couple weeks. Yeah. The 2425. Yeah, that's correct. So, uh over over spring break, we're looking to do the current one which would be addressing the athletic entrance. Um that's fixing the flooring as well as uh putting in mats to drain water during the winter. Um, and that includes the secondary doors after you you reach the outside. Um, as well as the vinyl graphic that is faded on the exterior doors. Okay, that's all I
006got. So, just as a reminder, capital outlay projects are part of the overall budget and um, you know, the board will either approve or disapprove of of this project uh, at some point. And, um, it doesn't sound like a lot, right? We're we're we're numbering doors. We're reumbering uh classrooms and and other areas in the building. And we're uh adding on exterior exterior signage, but that's part of the problem with the limitation of $100,000 for a project, including the limitation that it's only one building. Um we're going to talk a little bit later when we discuss the budget that there's there's some movement or continues to be some movement uh about increasing that capital outlay uh a lotment. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Sisman. Great. Thanks. Thank you, everyone. Next up, we have the MTSS update,
007mental health update, secondary school update. Mrs. Gregory and Mr. Mcdana. Okay. Good evening, everybody. I'm Lori Gregory and this is Bill Mcdana. and we are excited to give you an update on our MTSS initiative at the middle and high school level and tell you more about how we are supporting all of our students. You guys I know are familiar with MTSS. Um it's important to remember that it is about supporting the whole child and all different um parts of the child like um academics, social emotional well-being and there are always different tiers of support that can be provided depending on what the student needs. Um exciting thing this year um I found that a lot of other um curriculum people in the region were talking about secondary level MTSS and what does that look like
008and there were a lot of differing opinions and viewpoints on it. So I said you know why don't we get a group together and talk about it and really look into it and try to develop an idea of what it really should look like. So I started a regional group and they have been coming to Eden to meet every other month to share ideas about MTSS and help each other think through this and it's been very helpful in terms of giving us a place to start and have helping us to look at our program and what areas are very strong and what areas need some more help. Thank you Lori. So, as you can see by this next slide, it highlights a number of the different data points that we use for our MTSS process
009that provides us a path for how and where we're going to provide the best support we can give to our students. We've also highlighted the basic steps that we use in our decision-m process and this system supports and relies on the continuous data analysis and the important collaboration among all the educators that impact each student that we are supporting which we'll talk about a little bit later. When we talk about our academic support and the pieces that are in place, we always start with our tier one instructional practices. When it comes to the academic support, we're always honing and continuously improving on our tier one instructional practices, which is our boots on the ground, teachers with teachers working with students every day in order to better meet the needs of all of our students. And
010if our tier one instructional practices are not enough and our students need more support, then we move up the MTSS pyramid and we start adding additional layers of support and we begin putting in tier 2 interventions in place which will also be reviewed later. So what we have highlighted for you are some of the instructional initiatives that we've already started that are in place at this point. And then the second layer um AIS AP learning lab and varsity tuners we will talk about in just a little bit. Okay. I'm going to talk a little bit about um the professional development we've provided for teachers around tier one instructional practices. Kagan cooperative learning continues to be an initiative across our district and we ensure that all of our new teachers get the introductory training to that
011to that program and it's been very successful in helping teachers to engage the students get them talking get them thinking together. Um this year we had a Kagan trainer come out to the middle and high school and work with each department um to help them talk about lesson planning and what lessons they're teaching and find the strategies the Kagan strategies that would work best for each lesson. And I linked the planning document here. It's really not anything super fancy. It's just basically a chart where they have to list, you know, what content they're covering, what are what task the students are doing and what function do they need a cooperative learning strategy for and then they list possible structures. They also had an electronic version of this that was easier to manipulate, but um so
012that just gives you an idea of the work they've been doing. We have also been continuing to focus on our integrated co-eing program. Um you know that they had an introductory training with Susan Hence in 2324 to cover all the basics of co-eing. Um our administrative intern created a co-eing handbook that was shared with them. And this year we actually brought a woman in from Erie Tubosce's um Kyla Shriber. She trained with Susan Hence and she was able to coach our teachers. She pushed into the classrooms, obser observed the teaching teams and then met with them and provided feedback. And we did that two times this year. And we already have dates booked for next year to continue that work and then you start to learn that you've been in education long enough that the
013person that's coming in to help you with your ICT, you coached and had it, you know, in high school. So, it's kind of weird how quickly that circle comes along. One of the instructional practices, very interesting enough, Lori and I were involved in interviews today for recruiting um up at Niagara Falls uh convention center. And it was interesting the number of questions that some of the candidates were speaking to as far as the science of reading that happened today. So, it was kind of interesting. So as we all know that literacy is the cornerstone of learning across all subject areas and the science of learning provides the researchbased approach to ensuring that every student develops the essential reading skills and just actually just our high school and middle school were involved in initial science of
014reading training just actually just this past Monday. We believe I believe that it's important that by prioritizing our tier one instruction, we're able to empower our teachers with more strategies to meet the diverse needs of all of our learners. And it helps set a strong foundation for all students, especially in the area of literacy. By embedding the science of reading principles into their instructional practices, it will not just ensure that all learners develop these literary skills necessary to excel in school, but also h hopefully and beyond. And one of the pieces that I speak to the science team about um is the fact that the reading exams and the regent reading exams are becoming more heavily literate with with literacy and having to read. Um so this is coming right on the heels of really
015important work trying to optimize. Also another another aspect of instructional uh tier one instructional practices is the opportunity to optimize learning opportunities for all students. and we want to make sure that they're aligned with the student needs and interests. By increasing our course offerings that reflect both student needs and interests, it should hope and we hope that it will promote student motivation, academic readiness, and hopefully further prepare our students for future success by integrating real world learning opportunities into the curriculum, into the context and content in which they're learning. So we will be talking um later on uh we're looking at proposing two new courses for our students. So for core one for our tier one interventions if that's not enough we start looking for tier 2 interventions which is the next step up where
016students might need a little bit more um guidelines and parameters around what they need to help support them better. So as you can see up here we have our um is that the I think ours is out of line. Well, we'll just switch while I'm up here. So, one of the This is AIS, which Lori will talk to in just a little bit. Um, I'm going to speak to you about the our AA enhancement program. So, as we seek better and more opportunities to provide support for our students, we do have a great opportunity to provide our AE program as a tier 2 intervention. Students are either assigned to AAP um so we can provide them with more support. And that allows the teachers after school every day uh for them to come in and
017work with them in a structured manner and really kind of hone in on the work that they need to complete and help them academically depending on what that core area is. Again, it's always something that we're always trying to grow and improve and and make even better. Students also have the option to go to AP on their own, uh which we do have students because some of them find that it gives them a quiet place to get assistance and sometimes it gives them a quiet place to get uh work done. So, we do that and we're able to provide that for them. Um, another cool thing is that we also provide transportation for the students after AP so parents don't have to worry about picking them up right afterwards. In addition, we also promote and
018encourage our students to advocate for themselves um if they need help in a specific area with a specific teacher. We also ask them to advocate for themselves and seek help from a teacher because they're available till 2:40 every day. Um, so these are just different layers that we're putting in place and working on and improving um to help students be successful all the way around. In addition to AP, we also have our our learning lab. The cool thing about learning lab and what I really like about it is that it just adds another layer of support for all students throughout the entire day. It's offered every period 1 through nine, A days and B days. Um, sometimes we do have some students who have AE and learning lab in order to provide as much support
019for those students as we possibly can. We hope that we're able to match the teachers with the core area and the core instruction that they need. Sometimes that it just doesn't work out based on scheduling, but at least they're there with a certified teacher to help them get their work done. Um, and as um they can come in at any time. Um usually sometimes we'll have students during lunch period that will come in you know fifth, sixth or seventh. They'll eat their lunch and then they'll then they'll move to learning lab. One probably a little quieter and two it allows them to get work done and maybe get some work done for uh maybe for some of their afternoon classes. And one of the things that we're continuously working on and striving for is increasing
020our communication, improving our communication between the teachers and the teachers who are running the learning lab. um and working on um improving on the completeness of work that students are doing and make sure they're working on the work that they need to get done. Okay. So, I'm going to talk about academic intervention services which is a more intensive intervention than learning lab or a right now we have it offered for our sixth through eight students in both ELA and math. And this is you know small groups of five to six students. um we use data to determine exactly what they need to work on and I have been working with the AIS teachers a lot. I have um meetings with them and we talk about the structure of the lessons um in math. We have
021a very um good structure going where the students come in, they're on a personalized learning program online where they you know have practice with the targeted skills that they need and then the teachers call the teacher calls them up one or two at a time to teach lessons to them specifically in areas that they need to focus on. So we've seen a lot of growth in math since we've been doing that and it seems to be working. So that's really exciting. Um, in ELA, we are continuing to hone the structure of those lessons as well. And I'm excited that the reading league can really offer a lot of um, information and helpful tools to figure out what supports, you know, will be a great fit for us. So, I'm hoping to work a little bit
022more with them on that and continue to work with the teachers on targeting instruction and personalizing learning. Those are the slides that were out of order. Yes. Y. All right. Next. Um, Varsity Tutors. It I told you about it, I think, earlier in the year when we talked um at the technology presentation, but that is an online um tutoring program that our students just started using this year. It's free. I have only asked that they have a parent permission form completed if they want to do it. And it continues to grow every day. I think we have over 20 students using it now, but each day I I get a few more that are signing up and it, you know, it seems to be helpful. I did a little survey and sent it out to
023the students. I only had a couple responses, so they didn't really, you know, take the time to do it. But the two kids that did respond were really excited about it. I was surprised at how many times they use it. They were saying, "I've used it already 10 times, and it seems to be very helpful. I've used it in all my subjects. So, it's really great. And I actually sat with a student the other day and walked him through it and went on with the tutor with him. And it's an actual person that's trained and and vetted. And, you know, the student asks questions and it's all by chat. And they are able to draw pictures and upload documents. And in just a quick 10-minute lesson, the student left feeling like, "Wow, I really understand
024how to start a writing piece now." So, it was pretty neat to see. Um, I feel like technology can only help us when it comes to differentiating more, personalizing our supports more. So in we're looking at things like an AAP or learning lab, can we have students working on varsity tutors, working on or working on programs where they can get targeted support specific just for them one-on-one and then also have that teacher available, you know, when other students aren't with him or her. I just feel like it'll maximize the amount of time and focus on each individual child if we can do that. And of of course now AI is being used as a tool sometimes to help students and that's a whole other territory to explore. Um we've talked a lot about academics tonight
025and it is a big part of the work that we've been focused on but we also focus on the other parts of MTSS. One being mental health and you guys know that our same here initiative has been going on for the past few years. We've spent a lot of time learning about the different pillars and the scale that they have to help students and staff and really anyone evaluate where they are in terms of their mental health. Um, exercises to help people stay mentally well. Um, we've been spending a lot of time with that and now we're moving more into the implementation phase. What does that look like in Eden? and we're talking about, you know, how are we going to have students check in with themselves or someone else just, you know, always being
026um on top of how they're feeling and know where to go if they need help and things like that. So, we actually had um a psychologist or social worker, I think he has from the same here program here this week, too. And he spent a lot of time with our teachers like talking through specific issues that Eden has seen. Um he spent a lot of time with our counselors. He did a building walk with the principles. So, we just continue to try to figure out how we can push that forward. Um, we do surveys and check in with students to see kind of gauge how they're feeling, how what they think they're good at and what they think they're not so good at. Um, and we get different results from time to time. So, um,
027we do use that data also. And that really wraps up our presentation for this evening and everything we've been focused on with MTSS. Does anybody have any questions? Do you think eventually like co-eing will be mandatory in classes especially like at the high school level just your opinion? Do you mean this by the state or? Yeah. Oh, because I know some schools buy into it, some don't. you know, some teachers back before I retired, they were like, I'm not going to co- teach with anybody and kind of thing like that. But I think it's becoming more well what's really interesting is um when we were interviewing students um today that were you know coming from the colleges a lot of these students that are part of that UB residency program they are essentially doing integrated
028co-e with their mentor teachers like you know so when I was asking them what's your experience with integrated co-eing that was what they talked about which kind of took me back because I was like oh I was thinking of special education but really they've learned how to do that by like team teaching with their mentor or teacher already. So, I feel like it's going to be an easy transition for the newer people coming in to come into that role. And I think it's a good thing and I think the more people learn about it, the more widespread it will become. I don't know about requirements and what will happen. I know that I mean it's only it's logical in my opinion. Well, it it is and I will and I will share that when we
029when when we first started talking about the ICT model. Um it was met with a little resistance. Um but in just the short period of time and just I'm I'm very excited and very pleased and very impressed with our staff that has taken it on. Um I had the chance to watch um team teaching as it happens just a very fluid process. I watched I watched a math pair actually do parallel teaching in one of the rooms. So they had one group of one students in one side of the room and they were teaching the same lesson differentiated in the other side of the room. Um and they are act and and the teams that are now working in those pairs are excited to look forward to working and doing more work and and bringing
030that on. So it's been I'm really really impressed with the staff as far as how they've taken that on and ready to move that forward. And like I always say, I was I was of the era generation where we were all little robots in school and we just did what we were supposed to do and if you didn't goodbye. Yeah. Kind of thing where and then my career I'm like well that's not the case anymore. Like you really have to everyone learns differently and they're all going to be together at some point. Yeah. Well that's good. And part of that aspect too is I'm like you have you have two minds working with a group of students. I think it, you know, lighten the load a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So, so far so
031good. That's good to hear. Yeah. Next, we will have the budget presentation from Mrs. May. Okay. Um, so starting with the budget session number three, um, we are going to focus more on the expenditure side of the house this time where last time we talked about revenue. Um so kind of an agenda for tonight look at the expend expenditure historical trends. So last budget session we looked at the historical trends for revenue. This time we're going to look at the historical trends for expenditures. Um then we're going to look at the overall revenue review and then reserve and fund balance usage and filing. Finally finishing up looking at closing the budget gap. Okay. Okay. So if we look at the historical review of expenditures um going back to the 22 23 school year of actual
032expenditures um you can see that um in the major expense categories we have increases and decre decreases. The one caveat I do want to make is um at the last budget session you know we saw a pretty large budget gap. Um this session really focuses on breaking out any separate propositions. So what a proposition is is if you're when you go to vote day of budget vote um and you have the ballot and there's different lines that you're saying yes or no to each line is a separate proposition. So proposition number one is our general fund budget or our typical annual expenditures. Proposition number two would be if we're going to use a capital reserve to purchase vehicles or equipment. So say a bus purchase that would be proposition number two. So when we're looking
033at the expenditures here, summarized historical trends, it takes out any of separate proposition. This is just our general fund budget. That would be proposition number one. So if we look at summary based on major expense categories, uh salaries increasing by about 820,000. Uh these are contractual obligations that the district has to meet. Um so again increasing there. Um a small decrease in our equipment lines. um comparing the 2425, so the current school year versus where we are anticipating spending for next school year. Contractual small increase uh about a little less than $1,000. Uh really here, uh you think of our property uh insurance, um profession professional development if we're paying someone to come in and do professional development, um any memberships that the district is a part of. So again, small increase um in contractual
034materials and supplies um about a $40,000 increase uh from the current school year to next school year. A lot of this is related to inflation. Um so we just have to increase our salary or supply lines just so that we can purchase things that are just costing more than they have in the past. Our tuition payments um estimated to increase about 25,000. Um so these are our um special education students that attend out of district placements um uh per student cost goes up every year. So this kind of accumulates what the overall increase in tuition payments would be. Our Boseies expenditures um estimated to decrease about $100,000. Um so we are reducing the services that we rely on Boseies for for next school year. So for example for that um is the uh CBO or
035the central business office. So we in the last couple years we have partnered with Boseies um and relied on them to assist with our payroll. Um we hired a payroll clerk inhouse uh the beginning of January and have been phasing out that service to bring it back um into the business office. So starting in the 2526 school year, we will no longer need the CBO since we will be doing it in-house. So you'll see a reduction of about 90,000 benefits. Um pretty significant increase of benefits of about 500,000. A majority of that is related to increases in health insurance premiums. Uh which are estimated increase 7.89% for next school year. Um which is about 325,000 in just health insurance increase. Uh the remaining increase is related to our percentage benefits. So if you think of
036you know FICA and Medicare which are 7.6 65% of our overall payroll. So, as payroll is increasing, so are our percentage related benefits. Uh same thing with our employee retirement system and teacher retirement system contributions. Those are also a percentage of our payroll. So, as payroll goes up, so do those benefits. Debt, um I know we've talked about this in pretty lengthy um that due to the deferred building aid, we are going to see an increase in our debt payments next school year of about 1.6 million. Um so overall uh when you look at the difference between our debt and our building aid increase um and then you take into account any Bosey's capital Bosey's uh Bosey's aid we receive on that capital this all comes into play when we talk about the tax cap
037calculation and I know we talked about the capital exclusion or essentially what that means is the net local share or what the taxpayer is paying on previous capital projects for debt um that is remaining unchanged year-to-year. So, while you'll see an increase here on debt, an increase on building aid, overall the taxpayer is not paying any more for our debt transfers. Um, so transfers from the general fund to other funds are increasing about 37,000. So, in in this amount is the $100,000 for the capital outlay that Mr. Stitzman uh presented on. It's also um for our school lunch fund as well as our uh special aid fund for our special education program over the summer. So our local taxpayers pay about 20% and the state reimbures the remainder 80%. So again, those program expenses are
038estimated to increase. So there's where that increase comes from. So Mrs. May, you said school lunch fund. Yep. Okay. And and correct me if I'm wrong. Um that's because the the amount we get reimbursed is less than what we pay uh to our partner in school lunch. Is that correct? Correct. For our breakfast. For our breakfast. Yep. So, we're losing. It's great that the children are eating and they and they eat at no cost, but the cost is part of the cost is borne by the district. Yep. Okay. So, when we look at the state aid review of last year versus the what we're estimating for next school year, I know we went over this in detail last budget presentation, but not a whole lot of changes. Uh the only change that was really made
039was foundation aid was bumped up about 200,000. Not that we are estimating to receive more from um the executive proposal since we don't have an actual budget from the state. It hasn't been adopted yet. Um but really this is just to marry get bring our estimates for foundation aid from the prior year that were um conservative back to where we think they actually will come in next year. So other other categories uh remain unchanged from the prior presentation. So when we look at revenue as an overall um state aid and other revenue sources uh you can see that state aid is estimated to increase 1.7. State aid is estimated to increase about 1.7 1.8 million. Uh federal aid remaining unchanged. Property taxes at this point, we haven't discussed what the tax levy will increase for
040next school year. Um so we're leaving that as unchanged for right now. Um other tax items, Erie County sales tax. Again, no other changes other than appropriated fund balance and reserves. So those amounts we talked about last time maybe bumping them down just to be conservative. Um since once you spend uh your reserves they're not available for future use. So think of them like a savings account. If we use more reserves and appropriated fund balance in one year those funds are not available for future use. So bring again bringing those up to levels that are consist more consistent with where we have had in the past. So, if we look at the actual reserve usage based on how much we're estimating to use for the general fund, um you can see that we'll use about
041150,000 for our workers comp. Um so, this is our entire workers comp premium that the district would pay for those benefits. Um unemployment about 15,000 which would cover any unemployment claims we had next school year. Um and then about 8 to 900,000 of uh retirement contributions for both ERS and TRS. So the total amount is a little over a million dollars. Again, this does not include any reserves that would be used as a separate proposition. So, uh, when we think about a capital reserve to help pay for school buses like we have done in the past, that would be in addition to this 1 million. So, this is a repeat slide from the last budget session about the cumulative difference between the tax levy um going to the tax cap versus the actual tax levy
042increase that the school district adopted. Um so the cumulative amount if we go back to the tax cap legislation um initiation in the 2012 2013 school year you can see that the district has saved the taxpayers $1.9 million uh which is great um you know financial stability um trying to make sure that we are not raising taxes more than we need to. We're keeping money in our taxpayers pockets. um but that amount is 1.9 million. So now if we take both the expenditure side and the revenue side um as well as our you know reserve usage that we're planning to use next year and then marry it out um at each iteration starting at 0% increase all the way up to 2.58 which is the tax gap for next school year. Um you can see
043that the budget gap is much lower than what it was last time. our last budget presentation. Um, so it starts at 1.8 million if we don't raise taxes at all all the way up to 1.4 million if we raise to the cap. So we have a couple of options uh to further close this gap. We could further look at cutting some expenditures. We can look to um supplement with more reserves. Again, noting that once you use that reserve or those reserve funds, they are not available for future use. Um, so essentially solving potentially a long-term problem with a short-term solution. Um, or kind of a combination of both using reserve more reserves and cutting expenditures. Okay. So, next steps are to really discuss more on a tax levy increase on what we feel like what
044the board feels is um, appropriate to adopt for next school year. And then as well as that talking about reserve usage. So increasing reserve usage uh what reserves they feel you guys feel um are appropriate. Proposition discussions um so proposition number two um for example are the bus purchases or other equipment that we want to use that reserve to pay for and discussing that um threshold and then further just closing that budget gap. So any questions? So a a few comments and just a reminder to the board and and to anyone who's listening that um Mrs. May's presentation is is at at this point in time with the information that we know based on um our projected revenues. Again, we don't have a a budget yet from the state. Um and but we have a
045pretty good idea what our asks are in terms of expenditures. so we can do our most um concrete work on the expenditure side. The revenue side is is still a little bit of hope. And there's a couple of things going on that I'm I'm going to talk about now rather than later in my report. Um number one, um we've been advised to not expect an on-time budget. That should surprise no one. Okay. The budget is due April 1. Um uh there's a number of superintendents and I had a meeting with Senator Galvin last week. he threw out the date of probably April 20th. Um, and what's interesting for us is we are scheduled to adopt the budget April 22nd. April 22, right? That's a Tuesday after Easter. Um, so we need to plan with what
046we know now with a little bit of hope. Okay. Uh both the Assembly and the Senate are um are on board with agreeing with the governor's some of the governor's changes to foundation aid, but both the the assembly and the house are recommending that they increase the the minimum amount that schools get. Right now it's 2%. We were at about 5%. Correct. Um and there in the House and the Assembly are 2.93% minimum increase. There hasn't been any talk what that would mean for a school like us. Um because if if a school that has basic needs is going to get 3%, we already have demonstrated needs that needs five. So does that mean we go to six? Does that mean we stay at five? I don't know. I know what my vote is if
047I had one. Um so I mean there's a little little bit of hope there. There's a little there's a little bit more hope um because both again this year the Assembly and the Senate have recommended uh an increase in expense pay dates. You've heard before that districts um get aid on only the first $30,000 of of a salary of a Bose salary. Nobody makes $30,000 in these jobs anymore. We we get and so they're they're looking to phase that into a greater number which could increase our aid in that category. Um, and then of interest to us, as I alluded to earlier, the Senate is pushing really hard to increase that capital outlay from 100,000 to $250,000. Um, and we and they've done that for for a number of years and would obviously be a
048very uh uh significant change for a district our size. Just a couple other things and differences between the governor's proposal and the House and Senate. Uh, as you're aware, and I think the students ears will perk up here, the governor is proposing a ban on all cell phones K through 12 during the school day. See, I knew one of you would be listening. Gotcha. Um, the the assembly's rejected this proposal. The Senate is the Senate's proposal is geared more towards local control, which I'm in favor of. Not every problem needs the same solution, and not every not every problem is the same in in every school district. Um there's also um universal support for access to school meals uh which is great uh in New York State especially when we're not really sure what's happening
049federally with uh with support for that. Um both houses support uh an increase in the per pupil allocation uh for UPK but at differing amounts significantly differing amounts. Um so I'm hopeful hopeful in that area as well. Uh the Senate has proposed adjusting the timeline for transitioning to ZEBS by two years. Um and there's also an increase uh u or there's also a call for increased aid to districts uh in terms of the infrastructure changes and adjustments that would need to be done to bus garages and to install uh fire suppression and charging stations and whatnot. Um, so that'll be an interesting uh interesting negotiation over the next three or four weeks to determine uh where our budget actually lies. Right. Other questions regarding uh regarding the budget? Um I kind of just have a
050comment and maybe it's not a huge expenditure, but over time I wonder how much the district spends on mailing things out. And I think I've mentioned this before. Um I have five kids. I know that's not normal. Um, but so I get five of everything sent to my house. It's not per address per family. And like obviously it's not like post stamps are like $10, but over time that adds up. Um, and I was just wondering if there's anything we can anyway we can look into kind of streamlining streamlining streamlining some things, you know, like the bus schedule or um the thing that went out in the beginning of the year kind of asking for family income. like I got five of those mailed to my house. I only needed to fill out one. Um
051and obviously there's other houses in the districts with multiple children. So just it's not a huge expense in the scheme of everything, but just kind of streamlining what we're mailing out to houses. I don't know if that's even possible or it like has to be per student, but it was just something like No, it's a good point. I'm thinking between the Delpentas and the Kestos, that's 12 right there. All on FedEx Road. Just just just send it to the road. We'll share. Um, you know, good point. We need to look at that. You get five calendars, too, the beginning of the year. Okay, guys. Any other questions for for Frankie? Thank you. Here it is. Okay. Yep. Are there any requests to remove any items from the consent agenda? No request other than I'll be
052abstaining from letter P. [Music] Okay. that upon the recommendation of the superintendent consensus items be oops sorry it's cut off be approved second any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstain from letter P Mr. He is abstaining from letter P. Uh motion carried. It is now the approximate position and 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. Anybody? You want to tell us how you feel about cell phones? I think we know. Sorry, I just Hold on. How did I just What was
053it? Okay, trust me. Okay. Um, next we have new business resignations that upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation of teacher aid Patty Beckstein be accepted effective March 7th, 2025. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation of bus driver Thomas Talbot be accepted effective March 21st, 2025. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. Next, we have new business appointments. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, Mary Tyerski be appointed on probation as a cafeteria monitor effective March 20th, 2025 and ending September 20th, 2025. Salary is based upon CSEA contract level two, step one. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. Upon the recommendation of the superintendent after
054successfully completing her probationary period, Rebecca Cruz be permanently appointed as a bus attendant effective April 17th, 2025. 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, Kelly Gavin be permanently appointed as a teacher aid effective April 16, 2025. 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, Britney Bake be permanently appointed as a teacher aid effective April 8th, 2025. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent Garrison Henry be appointed on probation as a laborer effective April 10th, 2025 and ending September 20th, 2025. Salary is based upon CSEA contract
055level five, step one. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? abstained. Motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Rita Stir, head election inspector Virginia Gunther, Barbara Caffrey, Emma Buckthal, and Constance Zaul be appointed as election inspectors for the budget vote May 20th, 2025 at a rate of $16 per hour and further authorize the district clerk to fill any vacancies in these positions which may occur prior to May 20th, 2025 with individuals from the board of elections inspector personal list, the personnel list. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. And now new business that upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the overnight student leadership conference April 2nd, 2025 through April 3rd, 2025 be approved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I any opposed? Any abstained?
056Motion carried. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the notice of annual meeting and vote be approved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the 2025 2026 school calendar be approved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, a resolution dated March 19th, 2025 of the board of education of the Eden Central School District, Erie County, New York. The district declaring the district's proposed capital outlay project involving the reconstruction and construction of modest upgrades and improvements to signage at the Eden Elementary building to be a type two action under SRA and authorizing and directing the inclusion of funding for such project in the district's proposed 2025 2026 budget. Second.
057Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent at the overnight planning board meeting for NYS CLSA conference March 28th, 2025 through March 30th, 2025 be approved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. Next, we have information or proposals. Then we have the business report. So, I actually have one small update. Um, we I know we talked about it a couple of months ago um about the sub uh salad line at the middle school high school. So, that did officially start a couple weeks ago and it has been a huge success. Um, so we are going forward going to hopefully look to gather more input from students on how we can better serve them for for lunch. So, just an
058update. Great. That's great to hear. Good. Next we have the superintendent report. Thank you. Um so I already talked about uh uh the things I want to share with you about the budget. I want to give you an update on the Eden Elementary roof and and where we're at. Um we've been working diligently with Nicer uh their adjusters Young and Wright and campus to develop a plan to replace the Eden Elementary roof as early as this summer. You're aware of that. Uh, as of today, we're awaiting for Nicer's final decision on the scope of the roof replacement they will support. You'll recall that as part of our capital project, the entire roof is to be replaced. It's out of warranty. We know it's leaking. We know there's problems with it, of course. Um, there is
059a growing possibility that we'll be able to replace the entire roof this summer through a combination of insurance payments and the use of reserve funds. Um, doing so would avoid having parts of the roof roof replaced across a span of years. We can't touch the E roof via the project until 2028. That has something to do with the maximum cost allowance. Maximum cost allowance resets every so many years. It doesn't reset until 2028. Okay. Um, we don't have to worry about the MCA, the maximum cost allowance because of insurance p uh payments and and possible use of reserves. Um, additionally, you if we replace it all all at once, particularly the the major sections, we could have one seamless product on the roof rather than trying to marry together two different repairs or two different
060replacements, I should say. Um and and then, you know, kind of an ancillary benefit. Right now, we have roofs in the district that are coming off warranty at the exact same time. This would spread that out by a few years. So, in 25 or 30 years down the road, who's ever sitting in at this in in this venue um won't be faced with having to replace two roofs in one project. Okay. [Music] Um and so, you know, you may have seen that Mr. Suffin asked me a question because there was there was thought that we were go we were going to ask if you would approve an emergency project for the roof at this meeting. We need to gather more information. Number one, I need to know how much insurance is going to cover. We
061learned today that um our liability our property and liability reserve um can be utilized uh um um for that uh for that coverage for for that repair as well as can the capital reserve the capital reserve uh um that we've created and funded. So, we've got two different sources and reserves that can support the the roof replacement. we need to figure out which way to go. And since we learned this some sometime today, we thought it best not to rush uh um you know, asking you to approve an emergency project. Once we get get all that determined, hopefully within the next week or so, I may be asking for an early morning board meeting for for that one one particular item. Okay. Um questions about the roof. So, good question, Mr. silver. No, we don't
062have a settlement with insurance yet. Um they are they have committed to um some settlement and now the adjusters are deciding how much they're going to cover. Okay, other questions. This this is not I keep saying roof, but it's also includes the plaster in the on the ceiling of the auditorium, the auditorium stage, some classroom issues, the flooring of the stage. It's it's $1.8 8 to $2 million worth of work overall. Right. Okay. So, moving on. I'm glad you're here, Mr. Mcdana. Um I just want to talk for a second that uh Bill and I were recent guest panelists at a Saturday morning call to leadership uh uh meeting um which was really enjoyable. Um the meeting was designed to dis to discuss career opportunities in education administration. Attendees were range from those who are
063a little bit interested to those who are fully enrolled in a program and we were able to talk about our journey and things that we've learned along the way and I think offered some sage advice. I think you did. So, uh, finally, uh, special congratulations to the cast, crew, pit, stage, and everyone that was involved with the production of Freaky Friday. Really fun show. Uh, really professionally done. Personally, it came at a perfect time for me. I I needed that energy that came off of that off of that stage and out of that pit and really proud of everyone involved. So, congratulations. Thanks. Next, we have student report. Um, in March, the Just Say hello meeting, they made friendship charm bracelets uh for all grades 6 through 12. And that's like an opportunity for the
064teachers and the students to get to talk and like meet with each other over something not like academic. Um the Eden High School student council is going on a team building field trip to Fun City and lunch on Friday, March 28th. Um the preview for Freaky Friday happened and musical happened and it was really great. I went to see it twice. And the math and science night is happening on March 27th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. for grades 6 through 8. And then the eighth graders are doing a fundraiser with fried chicken and a salad for $13. The pre-orders are due by Friday, March 21st, and pickup is from 5 to 6:00 p.m. on the 27th in this foyer. And then next weekend, I'm going on a conference for New York State Council on Leadership
065and Student Activities to plan the conference that'll be happening for that in November. Thank you. You did very well. And aren't you glad that's over? Right. Next, we have board report roundt. Anybody? I'll just echo the sentiment. Um, I haven't packed a lunch since the Sub and Salad Bar opened up, so my mornings have been amazing. Um, so I'm hoping it just keeps going. Yeah, she's never had an interest in school lunch before, so this is great. Nothing. All right. Um, future dates, bud budget workshop, March 26, 2025 at 6 PM in the middle school high school library. The next regular board of ed meeting is April 22nd, 2025 at 6 pm in the middle school high school library. The Boseies component vote is April 29th, 2025 at 8 a.m. in the district office. Public
066hearing on the budget May 13, 2025 at 6 pm in the middle school high school library. The annual annual budget vote May 20th, 2025 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the middle school high school auditorium for the regular board of education meeting May 21st, 2025 at 6 p.m. in the middle school high school library. I will not be at next week's budget meeting. Sorry, Mrs. May. There is an executive session, correct? It's not on here for me to read. Oh, I guess we don't have Yes, we do have one. So, oh mine, they're just messing with me, aren't you? No, it's not. Okay. um that upon this time we're going to enter into executive session. Uh do we have a second? Say all in favor. I thanks for coming everybody. If you need anything signed,
067come on up. [Music]