4/13/26 Beacon City School District Board of Education Meeting

001All right. So, calling to order the April 13, 2026 meeting of the Beacon City School District Board of Education. Please stand for the pledge. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Can you call the role? >> Here. Oh, that's right. Excused. I think she did say she was not coming. >> Delayed. >> Here >> um Matt, can you review the fire exits? >> Exits are in the back of the LGI. >> Thank you. Please stand for a moment of silence for um Judith Abiato. I'm I'm sorry if I said that incorrectly. She was with the Beacon City School District for 30 years working in security. Thank you. Can I get a motion to

002adjourn to executive session to seek legal counsel for negotiations with the Beacon Parrofessionals Association and Beacon Association of Office Personnel and to review the employment history of a particular individual? The board will return in about 45 minutes. Does that sound right? >> No, I guess seven. >> Oh, okay. And in about an hour then. >> So moved. >> Second. >> There it is. All in favor? >> I I >> All right. It will be back around 7:00. Um, so I am sitting down here all by myself calling the meeting back to order because we have a special presentation. Uh, we are going to be introduced to the cast of Jacqueline Hyde, which is the um latest show here at uh at Beacon High School. And so I am going to join my other board members

003in the audience. And without further ado, take it away. >> No. >> Hello everyone. And this is Esposa, president of Players. had a few fairly good roles in the past. Phantom and Lori and the women now and at the lack at the risk of He's amazing and we are also very grateful for all your support. We're going to introduce Jon. He's gonna say a few things and then we're going to bring in they're going to try to do the feel is somewhat bigger than this. So if somebody introduction as said I'm join >> I just wanted to first and foremost like thank everyone here for everything that you've done for like arts in making and I've been personally affected by it because of how much like passion and like the emphasis that you all have

004like put towards it has changed my life and I know so many out there and you'll see that in the forums today. And in honor of that, we also wanted to invite you to our show um April 24th, 25th, and 26th. Um free tickets, whichever works best for you, whatever work date um works best plus one. But yeah, everybody has been working so hard on this show. It means so much to everyone out there. Um they really the time and effort uh every day 6 to9 um whether they want to or not uh it's it's about the several hours that they put in and because of the time and and the money and just like all the support that you guys have shown for us it it genuinely means the world like I go to

005other schools and they don't get a quarter of what we have and that just it's it's changing people's lives in ways that I don't know if you guys truly can see firstand but we're seeing it and I'm seeing eighth graders from Rambout performing here and they're like oh I saw lay miz a few years ago and it's changed me and I'm and I want to do this that and the other and it's just the future that you're creating and helping create through all your support is lifechanging. So we just want to thank you for that and hopefully you can come see our show if you have time and um hopefully you enjoy it. So now I'll call them in and we'll Enter quietly. >> Yeah, the space here is tight. >> We will adapt the

006speaker. You have never been that quiet going anywhere. >> And so imagine there's double doors in front of them that will fly up and all sorts of mechanics things going on uh that our crew have been really working hard to accomplish the lab everybody and maybe some >> okay why don't we try do your best Beware like today must There's a mystery that night time appears hiding inside behind all of our trueelves inside the people in their own bra of peace and be what This place while playing a safe but there's one thing I know and I know it for sure. This disease that we got has no cure and uncertain. Life is terribly hard when your life. Look around you. I have found you cannot tell by looking at the surface what is learning

007there. See that face now I'm prepared to bet you what you se the lie he will tell you is true. isn't one but two. Nearly everyone you see like him and her and you and me pretends to be a pillar of society. A model of propriety, soiety and piety who shares and gents here before you none of them ever admit. They have looks but the sinners and cross. There are preachers who kill. There are healers who preach. There are teachers who lie. There are liars who teach all of the sun to be rich and your money to burn. Even though it's obser and the name is one or two kind of well but I bet your precious few have mankind the other half is mine. Would it be surpris if we What's behind the >>

008Look behind the So the show is about and how it's the duality of man. >> It's a very >> but we would truly love it if you and see the whole thing the right way. Good job. >> All right, we can go back. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Is this your phone? Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. Thank you guys. >> That's really >> good board comments. >> All right. Okay. Are we all back? Okay. Oh, that was so fantastic. Thank you so much. I love um >> when we get to have uh exciting things like that during a meeting. >> Yeah, we should special. >> Um >> so, next is open to the public, although I don't know why anybody would want to follow that act. Uh it doesn't look like we've got anybody that's

009going to try. So uh we will move on to our workshops for the night. Uh we have our budget presentation. How does he get up on that? >> I think he just went to sleep. >> Yeah. Um, thank you. And, uh, that was amazing from the Beacon Players and definitely a super tough act to follow. Um, so it goes without saying. All right. So, tonight we're going to try to u accomplish a few different things. One is uh we want to talk about um what some of the successes of our budgeting process over the last um many years has been and like the cumulative effect of that. We're going to talk uh a bit about um some different ways to get at a $250,000 cut. Um we are going to talk uh Amry's going to

010go through um some of the different uh parts of the budget and uh then we're going to talk um a little bit about some much smaller things that we haven't discussed a lot and uh that's towards the end of the presentation. At any point we don't have to wait till the end for questions. Just just go this can be super informal. And trying to think of anything else. I think that's it. Um I do just want to say a few things to begin. One is I feel like this slide here uh it's super busy and I know slides aren't supposed to be super busy. I asked for it to be this way uh because we wanted to create a one pager of things that we are proud of. These are things that I do not

011uh take you know individual responsibility for. Uh some of these things were have been in place for a long long time. Uh many of them are uh newer arrivals, but it's uh things across our elementary, middle, and high school level that we're really proud of. Um I think our principles this year did an outstanding job presenting um features of their school uh that they wanted to highlight to the board. And I think each of those presentations um were grounded in student experience. We're grounded in data, but also grounded in some of the things that make us unique as a district and uh stuff that we're really uh really proud of. And so again, I'm not going to read any of the bullets uh but we probably I may at different points kind of flash back

012to this slide just to reference some things. Um, so we made a list and I I didn't make this chronological because some of these things took place over a couple of years, but we uh made a list of um of some things um that we've added to the budget uh over the past nine years. And so I just wanted to preface this slide uh with just a couple of thoughts. Um, one is and and perhaps I need to knock on wood for this, but uh every year uh this time of year if I open up uh my news feed, I see different districts that are trying to close anywhere from like a $2 million gap to uh depending how big they are, a you know, over $10 million gap in their uh budget process. And

013again, I'm knocking on wood. I'm a superstitious person. Uh but that's not something that we've had to do over the last nine years. I think a lot of that is due to we try to uh we definitely always try to grow and gain in each budget, but we also um try to do things in a kind of a um deliberate and careful process. I've said this in previous years that when we start something, we don't like to have to call it back. Um it's just something that I've kind of based a lot of at least my budget leadership on. And so I'm as I'm looking at this uh because we were putting this together uh last week, I'm realizing that there's even a couple things missing from this. Um but so one of the things

014I think is uh a kind of a foundation of the way we've tried to budget is uh kind of slow and steady improvement in terms of adding programs and adding positions. Um the other thing that I've really tried to do and I guess this kind of goes handinhand with like the um doing things in a slow deliberate sort of way and I don't want to sound judgmental about other things is I try I've you know this isn't something that I've believed in strongly back when I was a principal is I try not to pit things against each other. Um I try not to kind of uh uh leverage the different parts of the community sort of to create like a budget battle. Um and by saying this like I don't try to sort of float

015um I don't try to float cuts uh potential reductions to try to get people to come out, you know, to try to pit sort of constituencies against constituencies. I'm not arguing that people purposely do that, but I do see that a lot and that's something that we've always tried to avoid. Um, so with this uh with the uh with the request um from America about reducing by $250,000, um I I kind of purposely didn't put slides where I was specifically talking about people's positions getting cut. um because I even though we're late in the budget process um I I wanted it to feel a little bit more hypothetical um and not cause uh panic among some of our staff. Um that said, it's something that uh I've put a lot of thought uh towards um

016and just wanted to kind of start the presentation with this before we get into the rest. So, uh, just to kind of talk about process, we talked about April 24th being when you report our tax levy rate to the state property tax report card. Um, so we still have time if we want to make an adjustment. We on our slides in this presentation have the the tax rate uh at the tax cap um just because that's what's been discussed. If the board uh agrees to lower that, we just obviously would change that and communicate that uh to the public. Um whether that happens tonight or if we want to add an additional meeting on before the 24th. Um so those are just some of my budget beliefs in terms of like the way I've always

017tried to approach this. So that said, at the last meeting I did say like to achieve that $250,000 reduction. And I know I'm repeating myself, but the thing um I would recommend um and I'll get into alternatives, but the thing I would recommend is to hold off on the middle school uh nine period day schedule expansion, which would be about that amount of money. Um just because it's something that we haven't done. Uh it's something that we could spend another year studying. Um it's something that we would not be having to sort of reduce staff um you know to achieve that number. But uh there's some other ways to do it. Um so just looking at this uh I you know based on those things I said are my beliefs. I would not uh start

018this and just say we're just going to do away with one of those bullet points and we'll and we'll get it because all of these things are things that we spent a lot of time thinking about and uh a lot of these things are not a lot all these things have been thought through in terms of the way they benefit students. Uh but I just want to talk a little bit about each one and then I'll talk about what my other recommendation would be. So uh nine years ago we had an elementary special schedule that was a six- day rotation. Uh PE met twice in those six days. Um or yeah twice. Uh there was art in there, music in there. Um library was in there. I'm missing the six thing. Uh we moved it

019to a 4-day to increase the amount of PE, music, and art pretty much across the board for all elementary um for for all elementary schools. Uh the 4-day rotation um has students going to PE two or three times a week. Has students going to art one of the every four. Uh music one of the four. It's probably the most rich rotation or one of the most rich rotations in Duchess County. a lot of our sort of uh not rival but a lot of the other elementary schools do a five or six day rotation. Moving back to that would save staff uh but it would I think immediately be seen as a reduction the amount of time students are in those specials. Uh elementary class size reductions our average was around I want to say 2021

020uh nine years ago. Over that time, we added about six uh to seven teachers just kind of across all the elementary schools to bring our average down to between 18 and 19. Obviously, there's a range with that as we've talked about at the beginning of this year. Um but that was probably one of our biggest initiatives. Uh we have these are just some of the community partnerships we have. The Common Ground Farm Partnership involves some uh of their experts coming to our classrooms and also some school visits to the farm. That's around $25,000. The land tolearn one is a longstanding uh relationship with the gardens that are each each elementary school. It's half grant funded and half funded by BCSD. Our portion is 60 or more. >> Okay. Our portion is about $100,000 that mostly

021goes to staffing. Um that a grant pays for the other half of that. Uh we have a just a really kind of early stages relationship with Compass Arts. Uh we've kind of budgeted up to 20,000. We haven't used that much, but like South Avenue has a playmusical tomorrow that's debuting and that is in part in that relationship with Compass Arts. We also uh have the Clearwater uh experience for our third graders. We have the Sharp experience for our fifth graders. We have the DIA experience for our second graders. We have the Calabal experience for our third graders and all those things are district funded. Um over the last six or seven years we've increased mental health supports. We've added two social workers to the high school. We've added a guidance counselor to Rambout. Uh we

022have added a school psychologist just recently to the elementary level. We've actually added a couple over the years. Um, one, uh, that is, I think, pretty unique across the county is we, um, about five years ago really expanded, um, extracurricular type clubs at the elementary level and the middle level. High school always had a strong uh, club experience for the students. Middle school had some clubs. We've hugely expanded that at the middle school level. And we have uh, kind of started from zero at the elementary level. I think each of the schools maybe had kind of like one uh club each that just a few kids attended as you remember from the principal presentations. Um we uh you know it's something that we probably are close to 60 70% of elementary students are participating at

023least one of those. Uh and that's something we've taken on. There's a lot of research, I've talked about this before, that extracurriculars really help uh students connect uh to school in really powerful ways. I think starting it early starts to build that habit. Uh four years ago, we added the uh uh second assistant director of PPS. Um that wasn't just sort of a uh just a kind of whim uh sort of thing. this uh person uh now that they have a person chairing all the meetings at the secondary level and a person chairing all the meetings at the elementary level. Uh school psychologists used to do some of that work. Uh we brought in administrators to do that and they also do a lot of other things working with parents and teachers uh directly outside

024of all those cse meetings as well. Uh the last uh three years we've added teachers on special assignment um uh to focus on literacy. We have two right now. Uh the last uh three years we've added a math intervention teacher at each of the elementary schools. One uh was grant funded uh for a few years, but now we're taking over the funding of all of those. And then in the middle of this year, uh we've added uh to address uh issues we are having with um instructional co-eing models at the elementary level. We added four uh special education teachers to assist with that. One bullet point that I just totally missed in my preparing for all this is the nine period day at the high school. Uh we added um four years ago. Um and

025that uh was about three positions um worth of either teacher or additional um class preps that we've added. So we've managed to do all of this stuff within uh within our tax cap every single year. we've managed to do uh all of these things without having to cut somewhere else. Um you know so we're we're really proud of being able to take uh a lot of these things on I think all of them have been uh really a huge value. So in terms of uh if if my initial recommendation if we want to reduce by 250,000 my my initial re my initial uh recommendation still uh sticks with I would want to hold on to these things and hold off on doing the middle school n period day for a year. Um but I think

026there's some ways to go about this uh looking at this list. Um, I think we could look at the elementary class size very carefully and possibly through attrition we could do uh like a position uh this year, pull back out in a position next year. It wouldn't it would have an impact on class size. it would push class size up a little bit at a couple of our schools um in a way that you know wouldn't be unnoticed but it would be a way that would be through attrition of people who are retiring. Um we could look at the elementary uh I I try to look at things with like how uh sort of uh you know the least what I would deem the least impact. So, I would look at the uh um extracurricular

027expansion at the elementary and middle. Um we when we started this five years ago, uh you know, there's a lot of stipens that go into this uh with a lot of different teachers and staff. Um at the high school level, we are spending uh a bit over $100,000 to do all the clubs and extracurriculars. um adding and and actually if I add what was currently at the middle school is about 120. Um adding um expanding the clubs at the middle school level and expanding you know creating all the clubs at the elementary level um was another 80,000. So we could go back to doing a lot less at the elementary level and that would be a savings of about 50,000. Um, and then I would take a look at some of the community partnerships and

028not eliminate them, but find ways to spend uh less on some of them. Some of them are ones that uh I don't think we'd be able to, you know, cut back on because they're traditions that are decades long and I wouldn't want to recommend that. Uh, but we could look at like the Common Ground Farm one and the Compass Arts one and get about $25,000. Uh, so if I do $50,000 from extracurriculars at the elementary level, about $25,000 from the community partnerships, one teacher position, um, so that gets me to about 150 right now. I would probably look at, it would be hard for me to get two elementary teachers out this year. We have one sort of clean way of doing it, like in terms of uh, someone retiring. U, beyond that, it would

029be a little bit more painful. And so I would look possibly at uh roundabout, not the nine period day, but I would look at um maybe special ed services at roundabout and possibly do a reduction there. Um again, I'm not trying to uh you know, freak anybody out. I'm not trying to that wouldn't be changing kids IEPs or the services they're receiving. Um this is, you know, something I've been kind of struggling with for like the last three uh weeks or so trying to come up with this. I do think um I do think looking at elementary class sizes, the community partnerships, and that extracurricular um expansion would be the way to get to close to $200,000. Um the tricky part about the elementary class size one is I think those reductions would I would

030need two years to kind of get maybe two teachers out of that. and the special ed the special education increase. We're looking to see if we're going to always need that number of teachers. Uh so there may be a decrease there in the future like in the in uh not the 26 27 maybe the 27 28. So it's tough for me because I almost would want to have to do these reductions over two years to make it um a little bit less impactful. So I would look at elementary class size to get a position out of there. I would look at the community partnerships to get about I mean I would start with 25,000 reduction there and then I would look at about a $50,000 reduction in the extracurricular expansion. Um so that really is

031just 150 right now. I'm trying to look for another position that would probably be a position at roundabout that isn't about the nine period day. Um that's where I would start. Um there's one last way to do it. Um, and that would be, and I may need Amarie to come in and sort of pinch it on this explanation, but we talked to our financial adviserss about the capital project. The way to do it there is to basically defer uh defer the debt payments. Uh, so we would essentially be pushing like the reason why our uh the reason why our tax uh levy rate is higher um right now, was higher last year, will be higher the next year is the capital project that we are in the midst of doing. Um if we deferred um

032if we deferred our work on the debt with that to next year um that would bring our tax levy rate down to three >> yes three >> 38. Um but it would make the next year over five. Um so it's just sort of pushing uh it's pushing it off a year. Um so I'm happy to kind of like drill down a little bit on this. The one thing I'll say with like all of our other departments, uh, first I'll talk about the administrative unit. Um, I know Hyde Park is a bigger district than us, but they're not that much bigger. They have, I think, about 800 more students. Um, they probably, the last time I counted, they have about nine more administrators than we do for a somewhat similarly sized district. The reason I'm pointing

033that out is oftentimes uh oftentimes with like public feedback in any community, the one of the first things is cut administration. Um I would argue that we're probably one of the leaner administrative groups um around. Um I don't really say this jokingly, although sometimes it comes out that way. Most of our administrative positions are required by law or regulation. We're not adding a lot of fluff there. So, the administrative group is one that I would not want to touch. We're always over the past few years, we do this fairly quietly, but we look at all of our departments for savings uh because they're not directly impacting students. So, we're constantly looking at like our facilities, department, transportation, not not cutting people's jobs, but like through attrition perhaps, not always filling things. like we're always looking

034for ways to sort of hold back uh spending in some other departments that aren't instructional. >> Uh we're always trying to kind of keep the instructional thing um whole. >> Uh so I mean obviously I had trouble getting to 250. Um that's clear. Uh, I've been kind of talking about this uh with Amarie and other members of my team for the last two weeks. Um, I would have trouble with anything on this list beyond the ones I said and those the ones involving teacher positions are tricky. U, but I have trouble kind of saying like we could reduce these sort of bulleted items like we could pull back right away. Um, again I I do and I know this is now like the third or fourth time I've said this. I do think the way

035to achieve this um and I think it's the way I've always tried to approach the budget um the budget work we've done is the way I would try to achieve this is holding holding back on um holding back on the roundabout n period day um and just giving us uh more time to deal with that if we wanted to bring the tax levy rate under four that's that would be my recommendation these others are harder to get at. Um, >> one thing you didn't mention, um, that I think is it's like one of these things that I don't think we I think we take for granted a little bit is that, um, is the money we put into the technology department in terms of staffing, etc., which is a place that I feel like gets

036more complicated and vulnerable every year. And the cost of not investing in that can be so huge financially and in terms of just like privacy issues. Um, and that was a big push in the last budget. So, uh, just wasn't on the slide, so I wanted to mention that. >> Yeah, I mean, one of Yeah, I this is totally a brain slip on my part that I don't have a bullet point for the nine period day at the high school. So if we did the if we did like a one teacher position at the elementary level which is roughly 75 and we did like a $25,000 reduction in the community partnerships and we reduce the elementary and some of the roundabout clubs by about 50,000. Um, I would probably look to the high school nine

037period day. And if we wanted obviously if we wanted to keep doing the roundabout nine period day, we would look do both those nine period days in like a less that that could be a way to do it like a less sort of rich rich maybe is not the right word, but like a like more study hall sort of way. Um, that's a way to get that 150 up to 250. We could cut deeper into the club thing. Uh >> can I >> some of these just just really quickly like the the elementary class size thing is something that we kind of monitor every single year. Um and you know last year we didn't have an increase in the number of elementary students and we you know and we're not just going to keep adding

038elementary teachers to that. Um the special education increase was one that uh you know enabled us to um serve elementary students IEPs better, but that's something that we're going to monitor over the next few years to see if we will still need all of those positions. I just can't for next year. We've already been through the planning for next year. Those are not any that I can pull back on. um the elementary class size, you know, if I pulled a teacher out of that, it's not nothing. It would it would impact class sizes at one of our elementary schools, too. Um I want to be clear, like I I I I hope I'm not appearing to be difficult with this or that I'm playing games with you. This is something I've probably been the primary

039thing on my mind over the last three weeks. Um I just you know I feel the way I feel on this that like the way I've always approached this is um if we're having a issue with the budget then we hold off on the new thing >> and we keep the things that we've done. That's always kind of been my guiding principle and and you know that could be wrong too. Uh but that's always the way I've tried to approach it. Um there's like small things that we're looking to do but I hate putting a price tag on it. Uh we, you know, years ago, four or five years ago, at high school athletic games in the area, there was a lot of violence. Not a beacon, but there was uh some really impactful violence.

040Like a student lost their life at a neighboring school after a football game. Like there was just a lot of uh things happening. So, we really beefed up like the number of people we have at our games from um security to teacher chaperoons to administration to sometimes we partner with uh Beacon Police Department. That's already an area where we're looking to not ever compromise safety, but we're looking at pulling that back a little bit uh for next year, but I don't have quite have a price tag on it, but it's not it's not it's not going to be a huge number. We're looking at field trips, not uh not ones that are just, you know, really tied uh to um day-to-day curriculum, but we have some field trips that we're probably, you know, thinking of

041maybe not doing next year, you know, possibly at the middle school level. Nothing huge. We'll get a little bit of savings there. We do this every year. I don't, you know, do a lot of this publicly because we're always trying to find ways to save sort of behind the scenes. That's like less uh of a thing. So, uh, so again, just to go back to the basics, um, I didn't want to put like a list of direct sort of cuts. I because I didn't want, uh, individuals worried about jobs. I also, like I said, I I I try not to sort of lead budgets this way because I don't like pitting constituent constituency groups against each other. U, getting to 250 without pulling back on the roundabout thing I really I think is almost more

042of a two-year thing. Um that would be our effort in terms of looking at uh teacher positions at the elementary level and within the special education department. Um and also decreasing community partnerships and the extracurricular stuff at roundabout and elementary school. So it would kind of take us two years to get to beyond 250. Um >> but that's uh that's what I would be looking at. >> Keep moving. But I think we probably should stay here for a little bit or >> Yes. >> Can we just talk about that debt the debt deferral? >> Yeah. >> So, um, we're at four 4.47. If you're saying we, if we defer, we go to 3.8. Next year, you're saying it could be around five. >> We were at five last year. So, it's a good it's a

043good indication because we'd have to spread it. We'd have to spread more of it over the next two years. So what I'm thinking is if we defer the debt, we do the nine period day and then next year maybe we need then if if we're at five then maybe we need to look at I'm just throwing things out there the nine period day at the high school or then we look at other things. um because um I'm not in favor of cutting um extracurriculars at the elementary or middle. Um I I am I think the class size is a discussion to be had. I I do think that's warranted, but um but like when I hear those numbers that that's not like a huge jump to me like 4.47 47 to five >> to next

044year, but then maybe looking at a way of maybe doing some reductions to get it down to 4.47. I, you know, I don't know which is better or which is worse. I don't know. Um, I'm not I I think the nine period day is very important. Um, >> and I want to be clear, I'm not trying to make any of you in favor of cutting like elementary clubs. I just I'm looking at things that like what doesn't directly impact like the classroom, right? Instructional part. >> Uh as a you know former elementary parent, I love them. I think it connected, >> you know, my son to school in different ways that he hadn't thought of before. I think other people feel that way too. So I'm not trying to position you all to, you know

045what I mean? Like and that's why I kind of listed these things and it's on me for forgetting the nine period day one because I know I was talking about it. Uh but like that's where I would be looking to like make reductions. >> And the reason why I don't have non-instructional departments up there is we're always kind of we're always looking at those to >> you know tweak here or there like because we don't like touching the classroom part. Um the elementary, you know, one of the challenges with elementary class size is uh it's getting to the point where, you know, South Sergeant and Forest will kind of just run like a two classes per grade kind of thing. And so it's hard to be like, hey, we'll pull a teacher out of uh

046one of those schools because then you have, you know, like it's it's like you have this unwieldy number. Uh Glenn is bigger. So Glenn has a little bit more fluidity with the number of teacher sections they have because they're around 400 students. Sometimes they have three classes per grade, sometimes they have two, sometimes they have four. That's rare, but like they they kind of go up and down. So you can do a little bit at Glenum with that. Um but you know that's uh yeah it it's could just with what Eric was saying about reducing um could the could the debt be reduced I know your goal is to get under four but could the debt be reduced like less to like 4 point you know where the levy rate would be 4.1 or 4.05

0475 or something like that like is it adjustable? >> Yes. So at the by the we only have a f we have four years to raise the levy enough to pay the debt because that's the the uh schedule of the capital project. So we have to have the money by the time we bond at the end but that um that was a number that I had given to BPD our financial adviserss. So, yes, the debt could be less. Um, we could take more debt off and build it over the next two years. Um, that would reduce the the cap >> um to get us wherever it is that you know you wanted to be. It also doesn't leave any money on the table. So, um the other worry is we could cut things from the

048budget um and reduce the the levy. um the debt has a bigger impact because it it's part of the capital exclusion calculation. So it's an adback. So that's my only worry was um last year it was tough for people to face a 5%. >> Um I know neighboring districts are having that issue. this year. I I didn't know if that would then become a problem next year and the year after for people um by us deferring it this year and then, you know, pretty sure that it would be over 5% because we're taking um more debt and and deferring it over two years. That was the only concern. >> I mean, I think assuming that that because we defer this debt to next year that that we can find money next year to lower it

049is a really huge assumption. >> I agree. I'm not comfortable with that. I have to say like I just I feel like that's irresponsible and we all we know is that things are getting more expensive and interest is growing and all of these things and so that just feels a little bit irresponsible to me and I feel like everything that you listed is something that you know that would really impact our students. These are all things that I think have really improved the student experience, the staff experience. And I I just feel very strongly that that none of that should be on the table for cutting. If I mean, let's remember this isn't this is a sort of self-imposed cut. This isn't a cut that we're facing because of the tax cap and the state

050aid which make our budget. We're also I want to point out we're talking about dollars at a certain point. It's like okay, if we can if we can lower between, you know, 4.4 and then down to 4.3. We're talking like under $10 per family. It's really >> that's the other thing >> versus entire program that I think would really improve the experience at the middle school. So, for me, none of that is I I I am very sympathetic to the burden of paying taxes. However, I don't I feel like the the cuts we're talking about making here are so gigantic compared to the savings that each family would have that it's not even noticeable compared to their like overall tax bill. >> That is the other thing I you bring up a really good point.

051I wanted to talk about the other side of the number where it's like there's a percentage but there's also like what that percentage represents for households. And just to reiterate, it's like for every $100,000 that you cut from the district, it's like from the average tax bill, it's a $10 savings. Is that correct? >> That's the um >> so the potential tax um with the higher levy is 213, 213, and 245. Now, I always say that at this point doing the budget presentation because I use last year's assessments. Um, and as we know, it goes up every year because we've seen our tax rate per thousand go down every year because there's more properties to spread the tax levy over. >> Sure. >> So, this would to me would be worst case scenario. So, this

052if we stayed at the current tax cap and that would be the financial impact for a year, >> but that could only get better. because um we don't know what the new assessments are. We don't know the new properties that are coming on the tax roles and we won't know that until after the budget vote. Um but you're correct. At the last meeting we talked about what the impact would be um on a $250,000 cut and it was $10 a month for the average taxpayer. It wasn't a lot of money. And you know, last year we had a slide at the May meeting and we don't have the data from the other school districts to run it right now, but we did a median home value, what someone in Beacon pays, what someone iners pays,

053what someone in Arlington, Spack and Kill, and Hyde Park. And you know, Wingers was the closest to us. They pay about 20% more, but uh Spack and Kill pays about 50% more like in a similar house and school tax. Arlington is even higher than that. It's probably about 55% more. Hide Park a little bit higher than that. Probably 58% more. Like um these are these are the districts. When I say competing, I'm not talking about like on the you know the the athletic field. It's it's like these are who we're competing with um for staff and and um you know most I forget I I attended this meeting a few years ago and it provided me with great clarity around the hiring process but it was like most districts in Duchess their teachers come from

054Duchess not all but most and so we're all kind of competing against the same you know uh districts for the same people um so those districts you know a similarly priced house they're paying not incrementally more, but they're paying exponentially more in yearly taxes than we are. We'll run that for the May meeting, you know, whatever we decide with this. Um, and again, I I I keep doing these Mayaas and I'll stop, but like I don't I I I'm not I don't try to play you guys. I don't try to play games with this kind of stuff. Uh, it's been a slog for me looking at the list trying to sort of like figure out ways to get there. um you know and like I think I would need two years to do it without

055really big impacts. Um but they would still be notice like they would it would still impact like what we do instructionally. It wouldn't be nothing. >> Um you know so sorry I'm going to go >> give everyone a headache. Uh >> I think the other thing that I want to mention that I brought up last year also is that you know there is this is the system we've inherited but if we don't go to the tax cap we're leaving money on the table and we know that our state aid has steadily gone down because Beacon has become wealthier. It doesn't necessarily reflect our school district demographic but it reflect it reflects Beacon I guess. But you know what we risk, I think, is having to go over the tax cap in a few years because

056we haven't been just sort of gradually growing the budget in the way that this system was intended. >> We we've been trying to from afar, we've been trying to analyze other districts. I'm not going to name them, but there's, you know, that's in the news a lot right now about districts that have pretty big budget gaps. >> Yes. And what we've been able to ascertain is, you know, some districts with the um I call it the co money, but you know, some districts did a lot of staffing with that. We chose not to, you know, like just fund new positions with that. We did other more sustainable things like um and I I mean that's that's a big one I think that's been feeding the gaps you're reading about. U but I think it's other

057things too and I think it some of it could be what Meredith is talking about. I was a deputy superintendent in a district that would go under and then have to go over and we had to do that a couple of times. Um, but you know this it's it's a good exercise for me because like you know we could be faced with a really like dramatically worse budget from the state. That's why we've always kind of tried to go so slow with things because like I I hate pulling back on stuff. Uh the the prek funding really helps us this year, but it helps us also kind of gain our footing a little bit um just from a financial perspective. And I it really helped us with the nine period day. Um and then the

058other thing, and it's not something that I talk about in public beyond what I'm about to say, but we also have a lot of employee contracts that we're working on negotiating right now. And so it's just something that um I hear all the time about trying to be more competitive um not from our employees but also from you know people in the community too. Like we we um hate losing folks uh to other districts that pay more. It feels like it's been less but it still happens and we're never going to completely fix that being as close to Westchester and Putinham as we are but like it's a it is a thing that we deal with. Um, so I anyway I I I'm sorry you guys keep talking about this or do you want us

059to kind of keep going we come back to it or >> Well, is there anything else that at this point in the presentation that's jumping out to anybody that you feel like you want to mention or talk about or should we >> Well, as I you know my you know last year we were at 5.1 this year we're at 4.5. five. I just worry sometimes that we're and I understand we don't want to leave money on the table, but you know those percentages I believe are probably the highest in the area in the county. It were was last year and I think this year too. And I think it's just a concern I have that we're always kind of there seems like. And I I understand we don't want to leave money on the table,

060but districts do leave money on the table sometimes in the interest of trying to keep the tax levy down. And I'm just I don't know. I I totally get the point of what we're trying to save here. I do. But I just I think it's just worthy of a discussion if anything. >> I totally agree. And I I'm I'm sorry if I >> No, no, not at all. I don't not I don't take offense to it all. >> Some of the some of the districts not going to the cap are, like I mentioned, already taxing their homeowners far more than we are. And that's a hard message to deliver because a lot of times people don't care and I totally get that. Um, so I'm not, you know, I I've had a lot of these

061kind of conversations over the last nine years. Um, and I also think it's it's a it's a tough conversation any year, but I think this year it is. Uh, but you know, when I'm sitting around the table with other superintendents and they're saying talking about not going to the tax cap and I see those numbers I just read off, um, again, I'm not calling out any of those individuals, but like they're already their revenue is so much higher than ours. And I I think ultimately that's because they started at a different place when the tax cap was implemented than than Beacon did. >> If that's kind of my understanding, that sort of predates my arrival in in New York. But um but I think that's kind of what went into that. So that that's a

062hard one for me because these are the districts that um just to talk about the employee side that we are trying to hire teachers in the same pool as they are, right? And and it goes beyond that, but that's a big one. So again, like I you know, I know I've said it now five times. If we were to if we were to and I know no one's agreeing with this, but if we were to bring it down, I would just hold off on the brown belt thing. And I know I've said I was kind of saying that so I'm blue in the face, but that fits with how we've approached stuff in the past. Like it's it's, you know, >> the least disruptive to what's already existing. >> Yeah. And um and yeah it

063and and perhaps uh perhaps we see areas like a year from now where we could do some attritionbased reductions. Um I I do think though right now it would be that's what I would do to get under for this hold off on that. >> Matt, if we roll out the nine period day with the f 4.47 47. Will Rambout be ready to roll out a nine period day with a robust schedule for the students? >> We've we've had some really good meetings with the >> Okay. >> content coordinators there. Uh it, you know, I have a slide on that later. At sixth grade, it's adding a health class. It's adding a welcome to sixth grade class, which I think both are needed. Seventh grade, it's adding electives. We already have teachers submitting electives they'd like

064to teach. Seventh grade is basically adding a period of electives. Like all seventh graders will now have kind of like a low homework, high interest type class. Eighth grade is the year that we're going to have to make a nice graphic for which we haven't had time to do because eighth grade based on student decisions, there's a lot of different options, but we would be adding a technology class. That's the one that probably needs the most development right now. The committee, Saggy, Brian really feel passionately that they really something that's really hands-on and less digital. um that will take us a little bit of time to develop that may be kind of a work in progress over the years. >> Um and then we want to add health, you know, another health section too. So

065I think most of it that technology class probably needs the most development and it's also finding the right person and all those kinds of things. But um we're already having you know submissions for electives. Um, I think the sixth grade classes are the curriculum could be pretty easily developed this summer. Uh, so yeah, I think we're not ready to go tomorrow, but we're going to be ready to go for next year for sure. I know Brian and his folks have worked hard on it. Saggi's really involved as well. Um but I but you know again and I I don't you know I know we have other slides to get through but that would yeah that's where I would pause to do it the reduction. >> I'll just say if if sorry to interrupt if um

066if going to 4.47 means going to a nine period day at Rombout then I would be in favor of that because I believe in it. I think it's important um not only from the students perspective, I also think it brings uh more favorable things for the teachers in regards to professional development. So um I definitely would be in favor of that. So that's just where I'm at. >> And if we didn't add the nine period date, it would drop the levy to >> Well, that that's that's the board's call. >> Yeah. But so our levy would be lower than the 4.7 >> 4.47 or 4.47. >> Um I switch to that slide. I mean that's I mean you you could use the funds for something else. >> Uh but if we were to reduce it

067I that's where I would do it in conjunction with not doing the nine period. >> Okay. And if we did the nine period then it would I would need it at 4.47. I mean, again, I know that was maybe kind of painful to watch me do that because it was sort of painful up here, but it'd be we'd be sort of nicking out a lot of things to get there if we weren't looking at the nine period day in terms of holding it back. >> Okay. >> A year. >> Um, >> yeah, I just want to maybe say one thing or a couple things. I agree that it's painful and I think it's healthy to look for that level of cut. I think what it comes I was thinking about okay 250,000 is such a

068small percentage of the overall budget right it's less than 1%. To me what this reminds me is that so much of the budget is just nondiscretionary. Like 40% of the budget increase that y'all and we're going to go through the slides are just benefit increases. Um, and so and when you're listing these little things where we could get 10,000 here, 50,000 there, like the discretionary things are just so so small compared to the non-discretionary things, you know, some of the biggest increases that we're seeing are in benefits and, you know, special education where also costs are increasing. We don't have a lot of discretion there. So, I most of the discretionary things are raising by very very small percentages, most often less than inflation. Um, so I just think that this is a very responsible

069proposal for for a budget um where we're managing huge cost increases in in a ton of different places um and finding out a way to do that without making cuts and even doing this thing that we've been planning for for for many years. So, um, part of me is concerned that we have a budget that doesn't have, you know, a quarter of a percent of slack in it, but I actually think that shows how much of the budget is non-discretionary and how much trimming the the district staff already does um in order to present us something that works with numbers in in a world where the costs are increasing so much and we're able to provide continuity for for our students. So, I know we're going to go through the details, but that's that's kind

070of my reflection on this uh conversation. >> It's a good way of putting it. You know, it's always cold, but tonight it's like hot. >> I'm loving it. I love it. Conversation. >> Lose some water weight tonight. Uh, so anyway, Amarie's going to do some slides and then I'm not going to belabor like the nine period day one because I just talked about it. We do have a few at towards the end a few like really small scale additions, but I think they're cool to talk about. So, we're going to highlight those tonight, too. So we talked a lot about the tax cap calculation. Um and I think the important part of this slide is that the taxbased growth factor and the allowable growth factor are both two percentages that are determined for us. We

071have no um decision making in those two. The capital exclusion um we talked about a little bit that was where we were going to defer the debt. We do have some but it it it just kind of defers it into a different period. So, and I'll get into a little bit more what the calculation looked like in a future slide. Um, this is a pie chart of proposed expenditures. Obviously, when you see this, um, we are mainly people, salaries, and benefits. I mean, I agree with what Chris's perception of that was. Um, because there really isn't a lot of other um, that's mainly where most of our expenditures lie. Um, I'll go through these quickly. If you have a question about them, I'd be more than happy. And again, I'm going to probably do them

072at the hearing. Um, we changed to this format last year. We thought it was really helpful um to kind of break it up into departments and then kind of explain what's in most of the areas. Um, so this is more of the board of ed, the superintendent's office, business office, um, auditing, attorneys, all of the um, professional services. not a huge um increase in any there that um we probably need to talk about. Um facilities and printing and again we we really did a deep dive in facilities. So um things are just expensive and you heard Jesse say that at his budget meeting but we did we were trying to keep this um as level as possible. Um obviously contractual is just professional services outside contractors that has gone up a little bit. Um and

073then Bosey's services. We're trying to utilize more of Boseis. Um so we're just trying to um utilize the best we can with what we have. Insurance and Bosey's administrative. Um the contractual piece is mainly our liability insurance. That's where we're seeing the biggest hit. Um there was a a price increase for our insurance company. It's been kind of across the board with all the districts. So, that's one area that I think everyone in the world kind of sees, but we're seeing it specifically here in the district. Um, this is more about the building and level administrators, uh, the office of this assistant super curriculum, instruction, and professional development. Obviously, not a lot of movement there. There's no new positions. It's just mainly, um, salary increases. Uh, this is the bulk of the elementary. This is

074all of the teaching area. So this is where all the the teach the actual classroom teachers sit here. Um and again we tried to keep things kind of level. Um so you're just seeing some increases in salaries and some material and supply. Um for the reading initiative that we instituted there is just consumables that need to be added every year. So we wanted to do that special education ser uh department. Matt spoke a little bit about um some the increase in the salies um is just the addition of positions um in the contractual area. We did we do have a a couple of students with some significant nursing needs and we had to do professional um nurse for that. So that's what what's sitting there. Uh school psychologist, social workers guidance. This is kind of

075uh the buckets. uh technology um you're seeing a huge increase in equipment um line here um that's from the technology department and that's -ate so what's hard to really understand is some infrastructure um additions that have to be done but it's deceiving because we're getting money is the money that came back from the telephone companies in the lawsuit years ago so school districts can but I can't make it net here. So, you're going to see the big increase, but then there's a revenue piece that offly offsets it. So, um I think the whole increase here is about 350 where we're getting uh close to 250 to 300,000 in reimbursement. So, it's not costing the district that much, but you're seeing a a a pretty big swing here because that's the way it has to be

076recorded. So, I thought that might be um worth mentioning there. um transportation department. Um the equipment line here um the increase of 20, but the 57 is the wheel alignment machine. I think we talked about that when we were talking about buses. Um it's a piece of machinery that we could do the wheel alignments for the buses in-house, which would be great because as we send them out to the dealer, it just gets more and more expensive. So, um what we try to do is we try to really systematically do big pieces of equipment like that down the bus garage. um like once a year or something to try to keep it level. Um and district benefits um medical and dental, our medical benefits went up over um 11, they went up about 11%. Um

077which is hard to manage, but I don't think that comes to a surprise for anyone. Um it's just kind of where it is. You'll see a decrease in teachers retirement. That rate did go down. Teachers retirement rate went down. Um which is helpful for us. employees retirement system went up but obviously teachers retirement is higher payroll. Um so their fund is doing really well with the stock market. So they that's how they determine what their rate is. So they were making a lot of money. So thankfully the districts benefit from that and debt service. So debt service again is you know the major the major piece of this is the just the incremental building of the new capital project and trying to do it systematically. Um we decided then to do it over four years.

078So we're splitting it out um over the next we did it last year this year and then two more years after that. >> And then we talked about this slide a little bit the potential tax impact. Again I use current assessments. I don't have next year's assessments. Um, but we have seen assessments rise. Um, and basically it's mainly for new properties coming on the tax ro. If you walk around Beacon, you see a lot of building. Um, when they get their CFO, then they become on the tax roll. So, um, we're imagining I have asked I've reached out to the city to see to try to get an estimate. So, by the budget hearing, I'd be able to give you a little bit more information for that. Um, and then on the left hand side

079is actually the tax cap calculation, how I got it, 4.47%. um just doing the math and um we will put all of this kind of information in the newsletter that's going to go out so that people can actually see it in a more clear way and hopefully that will help people understand what we're doing. Um and this is more of a visual on the revenue side. Um so the the tax the the state aid, the local uh taxes, interest earnings. Um I reduced the budget a little bit um for that. We were getting close to $750,000. I'm I'm worried about the interest rate. The interest rate has gone down at least once. You know, they talk about it again, so we wanted to be a little bit conservative, but we still have an avenue to

080generate some revenue there. Um I don't think anything else exciting there. Um there's there's some ways to recoup some of our workers compensation um refunds that we get through the cooperative. So, we're going to take some of that money back and help pay. That would be like in the miscellaneous line. So, we've really in we've really done a deep dive in revenue to make sure that we're maximizing the revenue and what we can use so that we were able to support the budget. >> Did you want to talk about >> Yeah. So, uh we've talked about this before. Um, we have uh three open seats for the board and uh signatur petitions need to be in by >> April 29th by five. >> April 29th uh by five. And not to dwell on this, but

081this year the election we're going to have a few high school students work in the election. I >> think so. >> All right, that's pretty cool. Um, so we've we've talked about the bus proposition. When we do community budget things, we will go deeper into this, but we've spoken about this before. Um, our UPK, our prek uh registration number is a little bit over 100. Yes. Now, >> yes. >> Um, last year we were at like 130 >> 134. So, we're a little bit lower. We're going to do another kind of blast out to see if we get uh some more registrance, but um I think it Obviously, the state budget needs to get passed, but I think we're feeling really good about the funding for that and being able to uh have classes for

082those students. Um, a a hand small handful of the registrants are wanting a community- based placements too. So, um, so that feeds into that. I've talked about the nine period day. We'll do more at a future board meeting to just really get dig deep into this. We'll do some community events at RoundMout so parents understand it too. Um, and again I said that the eighth grade year is the most confusing year because kids can take algebra that you know if they take um bio that impacts like because they have a lab it there's all these kind of uh different versions of it uh for eighth graders. So we're going to have to flesh that out so people understand that part better. Sixth and seventh are pretty straightforward though uh with the addition of the electives

083in seventh grade and sixth grade will have that health slashwelcome to middle school um you know both alternating days class. So um we're excited about the ability to do this. and the teachers are really excited. On the superintendent conference day on March um 13th 20th uh one of those March days we I met with uh with uh the admins at Ram up at all the content coordinators and saggy was part of that meeting too and um it was at the end of the day on a Friday and the energy was just really palpable in that meeting. The teachers are really excited about this. Um these are just some small scale things. We don't always talk about the smaller things and we're going to do a better job of that in this budget. Uh but prior

084to a few board meetings, we had some seal civic readiness projects proposed uh to us and we're going to fund those. Um I think we put the overall budget number on that is $10,000 total. Um so we're going to we're already having a meeting set up on the garden folks and we're going to be talking with the outdoor classroom uh kids. Um we and this will probably be run through uh a coaster, but we're um going to be moving to having an app next year for communication to help us create a better news feed and streamline things a bit. So we're kind of narrowing it down between uh two companies right now. Uh the company that does our website, Final Site, and our SIS Power School, they both have an app. So we're trying to

085figure that out. The cost for that is probably between 10 and 15,000. not huge, but we wanted to kind of alert people to that. Uh Chloe made her proposal for a mentoring program and so we created a small budget line for that that would do we thought it would be best to have an adviser like a faculty adviser for it but also from your presentation there's a need for supplies and materials and stuff like that. Um so we're providing a budget um Dr. Dwire is going to be managing that um with Khloe and the faculty advisor. So we're excited to be doing that. And then last but not least, uh this one's that we're really excited about. A few years ago, uh it had been for a long long time uh u Duchess Community College

086when students took a course uh at Beacon through DC um they didn't pay tuition and then suddenly we just got a letter saying they needed to start paying tuition and you know it it brings back bad memories for many of us going through that whole process. Uh and but lo and behold, some districts and duchesses piloted this year um paying for the tuition of the students through a coser um through a Boseis coser that we get revenue back on and we also receive some time of a college counselor uh here on site. Uh it's not like a huge amount of time. It's not like four days a week. Uh it will probably for our size be half day, something like that. Like it's not great, but it's a start. You know, we have on our

087wish list for the future to have a college career counselor specifically focus on that in a future budget. But uh we reduced um one of our Boseies lines the communication um Boseies thing. This initial cost is probably going to be around $30,000, but we'll receive. Um, we'll receive Bosey's aid back on it the next year. Uh, I think this is a great thing that the districts that did it this year in Duchess really raved about it. Uh, that it just was a way to kind of make it all equitable. Um, we don't think there were kids holding back on taking the courses because of cost, but we're never certain about that. That would eliminate this. And it would also get us to at least see what having a very very part-time college counselor will look

088like and maybe help us plan to have uh a district funded one, you know, in the pro in the following year that would be full-time. Uh so that's something that we're doing uh next year too. And then just I've been sort of hinting at this for the 2728 year and beyond. We want to look at having a college uh and career counselor at Beacon High School has just focused on that more academic intervention specialist. Uh possibly at roundabout, possibly helping at the um at the elementary level um instructional coaching for all the new um for all the new teaching approaches we're doing. have more people helping our teachers in the classroom, behavior specialists, mental health supports are always a need. Um, and the advocacy, we've talked about different advocacy stuff there, too. Uh, so just

089in terms of, uh, the timeline this year for the Bosey's budget vote, Bosey's offered to come do a budget presentation. We took them up on it. So, they're going to come talk about what's in their budget. Uh, that the point of that whole meeting is just the Bosey's vote. It has to be on that night. On May 5th, we have a budget hearing. Uh we are I've been delayed on this, but we're going to do commendations before the budget hearing, which I think is a nice way to kick that off. Then we have the vote on the 19th. I don't have this on a slide, but we put it on social media today and I sent it out. We're doing five at least to start with. We're doing five community conversations uh regarding the budget.

090Uh two virtual, three in person. and we're focusing that the inerson ones here at Beacon High. I also I I will make myself available to all PTO's if they want me to do a spot in one of their meetings and just talk about and the budget and answer questions. I'm also happy to go other places as well in the community if needed. I looked at a couple districts that are going over the tax cap and I looked at what they were doing communication wise and we're meeting what they're doing. We're not going over the tax cap, but I wanted to have a high level of uh communication this year. Um we'll keep updating the budget part of our website. Um so I'm excited. Our first one, our first conversation is Wednesday, uh five o'clock in

091the library here and then we try different times and we'll also have a couple of Zoom ones too. Um, but if you have any ideas about somewhere besides a school-based location we should do, I'm happy to add to that. And just a quick uh reminder about the capital project. So, things are going to be going out to bid soon. There's a whole lot depending on what comes back to us uh in the bid process. Right now, we're looking at the secure entryways at, you know, the other five buildings besides Glenn. Uh we're looking at starting the air conditioning at South Avenue and possibly at Sergeant. We're uh going to start working on the softball and baseball field that is turf infields and improving the grass outfields. We're also going to be starting work on the

092theater improvements as well. Um that's it. So, uh any board members want to join us for any of our talks, please, you know, I'll send you the uh flyer we have. Please come on out. Um what before any of those we'll send out a text blast so people know or people are reminded uh that it's happening and uh we're really excited. This has I think been a good budget process. Um, I liked how we turned up the heat tonight a little bit in the room. make it a little more interesting and uh uh I mean like you know really turned up the heat so I could just get a nice sweat over here and uh uh but we're really excited about the aspects of keeping just to go back don't want to give anyone a

093migraine but just to go back to keeping all these things intact uh and then being able to add the um nine period day uh at round but we're super excited about being able to do that we're excited to talk about it And when we do our community conversations, you know, there's there's a lot of good tough questions. We're also going to try to put out uh just like if you just, you know, to remind people if they just want to ask us a lot of times we get people to just sort of call or email. So, we're going to keep reminding people if you just you don't have to go to something. You can just ask us by email or um phone call or whatever about the budget. So, we're excited uh to be talking

094about it and we will do as our presentation develops, we will do comparisons with other districts, too, just to remind uh folks like you know the disparity that we're dealing with um with a lot of other Duchess districts. So, thank you. Um any Chris, you had a question prior to the meeting. Did the rate answered it about the -ate um equipment increase? >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Um any other >> Did anybody else have any questions? >> So, >> got one question over here. >> I actually have a couple actually. So, I was just wondering um when deciding what things are being taken in and out of the budget, like what you consider. You mentioned the elementary school and middle school like extracurricular clubs being reduced. How do you decide which clubs to discontinue?

095>> Well, uh it looks like we're not going to do that. Um so that's good. Um, I think if we had to do that, so I want to be clear that was just a like kind of a what if. Um, if we had to do that, we'd probably look at enrollment in the different clubs if we had to do a reduction. Uh, right now it looks like we do not have to do that though. But that's a great question because what's hard about that is even if a club has less people, those people are usually really passionate about it. So trying to figure out which ones would be difficult. since elementary are the newest ones to the district, those would probably be the ones if we had to we'd pull back on first. Um, but

096we, you know, our aim is to not have to do that coming here. That's >> And then you probably talked about this at the last meeting, but when you're considering the 9th period days at the middle school, like what did you consider when deciding that was something that needed to be added? Um, some of it was based on some requirements that some kids were missing. Uh, so like the health, like some kids were missing health based on other classes they were taking. Uh, I think overall the teachers felt like the welcome to six I I call it the welcome to sixth grade class. They'll probably come up with a better name. Uh, but the welcome to sixth grade class would be good because sometimes it's a big jump from fifth grade to six in terms

097of study skills and things like that. So part of it's uh some kids were missing some uh requirements, not like all the kids, but some kids based on them having an AIS class or something like that. Um so some it was based on that. Uh some of it was based on like what something I didn't mention was we we're not going to add it's not we can't add a whole strand of art for eighth grade because eighth graders just have so many different options. But we are going to add more art classes as well to have some like art electives. That's been one we've been getting a lot of feedback on in terms of a need. Um the hands-on technology, something that's less digital and more hands-on. That's something that we've been hearing from parents

098and teacher or parents and students for a long long time. back in in the ancient times when I was in school. It was called shop, you know, and you I built my infamous bird feeder, you know, one year and it took me like three quarters longer than all the other kids to finish it. That's a story for another day, but um you know that it's not that we can just replicate that because we don't quite have the space for it, but we want to have kids doing some more hands-on stuff. So, that's something that we've been hearing about for years. the seventh grade part is so seventh graders are going to have a lot of different electives to choose from. Uh they'll they'll each get one elective that electives are just going to run for

09910 weeks and then switch. >> So those are going to be like high interest kind of things. Um like uh it could be something with like a sports focus or a pop culture focus or something about you know some some new technology. Like it's going to be kind of like more uh a quick quarterlong class that the teachers are really excited about teaching and we think seventh graders will be interested in taking. Um so that's where a lot of the ideas came from. just kind of like we've been wanting to do this for a long time and just listening to people, listening to teachers, listening to kids. Um, and then also a little bit based on requirements that we need to shore up. >> Yeah, I'm totally for that idea. So, what kind of curriculum

100would be taught in the sixth grade? Welcome to sixth grade one. >> Uh, part of it would be the positivity. So we started something, this is after you, you know, years after you left elementary school, but uh we started something called the positivity project at the elementary level. It's like a character education social emotional curriculum that the kids get every day. So we' expanded into sixth grade. Right now the teachers are doing an ELA class, but we'd put it in this welcome uh welcome to sixth grade class. We'd also have a study skills component, and part of it would probably be like an extended home room class, too. It's a big change for kids. So it wouldn't be an everyday class be every other day. But I think I think for a lot of sixth

101graders it' be welcome like a like not that there's a ton of homework in sixth grade but less homework not so much grade focus but more about kind of like learning about middle school, learning about the positivity project, working on study skills, things like that. So the curriculum the posit positivity project curriculum is already developed. We would look at developing like the study skills portion of it. >> Would it be all year? >> Yeah, every other day. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> So, it's a >> or semester based? I can't remember the way they're thinking about it. >> Would it be is it a separate class or is it integrated right now like the English classes for sixth graders? They're welcome to sixth grade >> with Yeah. Can you ask that again? >> Is it

102integrated in >> Sorry. Is it like is it going to be a separate class by next year or Okay. >> Yeah. Um yeah, I mean I think we do a good job with transition sixth grade. I think the sixth grade teachers are very geared into making sixth grade really welcoming, but I they were really excited about having this as part of the sixth grade experience. Um so I'm excited about that part, too. >> Yeah, I like I like that idea. >> Yeah. Um, it's a big change. >> And Chris, did you have a another question? >> You didn't. Okay. So, anybody else? >> Um, okay. Well, I I wanted to say I really appreciate um how you guys have taken what can be like abstract numbers and and really connected them to what they mean

103for the district and what they mean for taxpayers. And I feel like we're going into this vote with all the information that we need to make a responsible decision. and I appreciate that. Thank you. So, we're moving on to student representatives. >> I might just stay here. >> I was waiting for you to walk and I was like, am I forgetting something? >> Going from here. Uh, but students next, right? >> Yeah. So, um, Erin, do you want to start? >> Um, I don't know if Chloe already asked this, but how do you like balance the budget like to make it good for like the next year and all that? I mean, I've saw like you guys analyze a bunch of like home homes and all that stuff, but like what other stuff do you

104guys do? Um, so one of the things we do, so you know, every principal is in charge, right, of of the budget in their building. We also have different um department heads, so to speak, like a director level position or an assistant superintendent. So, we spend a lot of time, especially Ann Marie spends a lot of time with those folks starting several months ago. Um, just kind of trying to figure out what they need for next year. Um, that's a big part of it is trying to figure out from all of our different sort of budget heads what they think they need uh to operate effectively for the upcoming year. And then the other part of it is kind of what we've spent a long time talking about the tax cap. How far we want

105to go with the tax cap, what we are getting from the state. Uh this year we're getting a 2% foundation aid increase. I should know that I, you know, I've been focused on so many other things. So the state what the state gives us in foundation aid changes a lot and a lot of its politics based. So the state budget has not passed but um it we feel pretty confident that it will be at a minimum a 2% increase. We've had years where it's been less than that and so that really impacts our thinking. Um and then you know a big part of it was on this. Um there's a huge part of the planning is looking at how much everyone gets paid, how much they're according to their contract they're going to get paid

106next year. uh how much their benefits are going to cost. Benefit, a big part of benefits is health insurance. Health insurance can, you know, we keep using these terms like 2% and 3%. Health insurance in any given year could go up nine or 10%. And in recently, it's been going up that much. So, we have to kind of factor all that stuff in. And then the last part I would speak to that we spent a lot of time talking about is and Anie would do a much better job than me with the capital project and the debt that we're having to pay to like make the improvements to the fields to add air conditioning to the elementary buildings um to improve the theater all those things. Um to do the new entryways we need to

107borrow money to do that and then we have to pay the debt and that factors into the money that we have. So, it's like we're kind of juggling a bunch of things trying to get it all to land. Um, Beacon's always been within the tax cap. The tax cap law came into being uh 12, no, like 15, 17, 18 years ago, something like that. Um, so that plays a huge role too, like how like the state basically has a formula for how much we can raise taxes. if you go over the tax cap, you need a super majority of your voters to approve it. Um, we have not done that in my time here. I don't know if Beacon's ever done that. So, those are all the things we have to think about. >> It's

108a team effort. >> Yeah. >> No one person can do Alisand Marie and her and the business department do a large portion of it, but it's a huge team effort. >> Anything else? >> N that's it. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, Chloe. >> Okay, so um this of well this week I'm going to be going to Albany for the student athletic leadership conference >> from Wednesday to Thursday. So I'm excited for that. And then the following week I will be going to Washington DC from April 24th to 26 for their women's leadership conference that I got a scholarship for. And so I'm excited about that. And then I also wanted to mention that um we've gotten a good amount of interest in the mentorship program for mentors. So far I got 48 people

109signed up and more people are signing up. So I'm very excited for that. And I um am planning on making a bulletin board at the middle school at the middle school to start promoting it for the eighth graders. So I'm also excited for that. And then I also wanted to encourage you guys to come to some track meets. Feel like track doesn't get that much love. So, >> all right, I hear you. >> And um everyone says I'm a track star, so you guys should come watch me run. Yeah. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> Um I I I think the mentoring thing just quickly like we were not that it was it's not a huge budget item, right, for us, but it was really exciting to put that in. And just speaking as a dad

110to like the amount you you all don't realize how much middle schoolers and lower look up to you guys. They really do. And uh even when back to when the Beacon players were up here and Jonah Espinosa was talking and my son has gotten to know him on a team this year and how much they look up to to you all. And so you creating something that formalizes that a little bit more and gets it stronger is is is really huge. And so so based on those numbers, uh just so Erin, this is part of how the budget works. I heard her say those numbers and so we may need to increase the mentoring budget just a little bit, right? Like but that's kind of how it works. Like it's not a huge amount of

111money, but we we hear something and we're like, "Okay, do we need to adjust this a little bit?" Because it's now up to 50 kids. And so anyway, but thank you for doing that and I can't wait to hear about uh the conferences, too. >> Me, too. Thanks. >> Yeah, that's fantastic. Congratulations. Thank you. >> Um, okay. So, moving on to new business. >> Oh, new business. >> Yeah. >> All right. I'm gonna sit down for a long >> Okay. I'm You're standing up there. I don't know if there's something else. >> Yeah. I saw I saw this plug and I was like, there's no way I can jump over. >> I mean, you can't. Um so we are going to talk about um the petition from the lower Hudson Education Coalition um to basically

112look at utility readiness support for the um school bus uh the electric school bus um fleet that is uh you know currently state law that requires all districts to have um to have electric uh school buses. What is it? To all purchases or leases to be um zero emission vehicles by 2027. Um, I just wanted to I'm sure um Matt has some things he would he would like to say as well, but I did want to say that uh we talked about this at the Duchess County School Board Association meeting and um there was there was a lot of enthusiasm for this and one thing that I've learned from those meetings is that there are so many knock-on effects of this law that just weren't really taken into consideration from you know the speed at

113which these vehicles can be manufactured to the weather and the road conditions that can support them to the number of sites in the state that can actually service them. Um, and I think this is another really good and important element that um, not a lot of people were really talking about and like it is the state's responsibility to make sure that there the infrastructure is in place to support this especially the utility infrastructure that would be needed for charging all of these buses because this is a very this is a deadline that is coming up sooner than you think. Um, so I'm so all of that is to say that we were given this um this template letter and I'm all in support of having um our board and our district sign on to it.

114I didn't know if anybody else had any thoughts or questions that they wanted to share about it. >> I agree. That's what I like to hear. >> I think it's a it's a great letter. It has, you know, for all of the concerns you just raised, this is like something we would all love to do, but when you're forced when, you know, really stuck to do it come hell or high water, you have to have a plan in place. And it's not really fair to push that on us without us having some kind of, you know, assistance or mitigating. If this happens, then we have a loophole, you know, just just something little something. Yeah. >> So, I agree with you. >> Okay. That is an important thing I should have mentioned, too. Like, I

115think this is this initiative is a good one, but I don't I feel like it's it there needs to be more work put into it. So, >> um >> I was really excited to for someone to verbalize the all of the >> Yes. >> complexities of it and >> yes, >> um because I've only heard people say like delay, delay, delay. And I do think it's important and I feel like it's a great example of perfect being the enemy of good where it's really going to be hard for certain districts to implement this fully, but there's no reason we can't begin and I think people have hesitated to even begin the process because um there's all these barriers in front of it and it's just hasn't been fully thought out or supported. The one thing

116that this letter is missing for me is um discussion of the financial support that districts need. It goes so like deep into um the grid and and and all of those weaknesses, but it it I don't really think it mentions even once um that districts need financial support to to do this also. So um I don't know if we can amend it and just put in like want you know that somewhere >> I would be in support of that. Do you want to So what do you think the best way to do that is like just do um do it via email and we can come up with a sentence or two. >> I mean honestly this is so specific about the grid that I I almost wonder that maybe it would be like just

117a separate paragraph at the end saying like we are so into this and we need money. >> Yeah, I agree with that. Um, so is everybody okay with us coming up with like a draft paragraph for the end talking about the financial support that's also needed and then we can put it on the next will we put it on the next meeting to approve? >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> And do you mean financial support to do the infrastructure upgrades or then to purchase the buses or both? >> All of it. Right. >> Yeah. And I would even if we are making like a personal, you know, kind of addendum to it, I think it would be great to say like we've got two buses. We love them. We're learning so much about, you know, the

118strengths and weaknesses of it. And and without that experience, you know, we wouldn't we wouldn't know what we know. And and that we used grant money to buy them, which is, you know, no longer available at the federal level. Just for expediency sake, would the board be okay with those changes just happening? Flora and Meredith, you all just did it >> so it can go off so it can get >> trust us. >> Yeah, you can even get consensus over email someone. >> Yeah. >> Just because the next board meeting might be >> I think they're trying to get this out >> out the door. So Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, we'll aim to have it done and out the door this week then. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I just think waiting for the

119next meeting if if the board's in general agreement on it is probably enough. >> If we don't have to, that's great. >> Okay, then that's what we'll do. We'll work on a on a draft paragraph at the end and >> that is good. Okay, I have to get back to my agenda here. Um, okay. Reviewing the agenda. Um, there's one change. um to 14.10. We are um removing policy 7335 from the agenda uh just for tonight to make a couple of corrections. Um and then that's it. There wasn't anything else, right, Vicki? Okay, great. Um so we move on to the superintendent report. >> Yeah. Um I'll just be quick. um to first just a huge thank you to the Beacon players. I can't wait to see the play in action um in a couple

120weekends uh from now. That was a really awesome way to start tonight. Um two, um we uh uh we may not may, we're feel like we're going to need to add a board meeting uh the week after Memorial Day. Okay. >> Um it would be to accept the bids for the summer capital work. It's just one of those things that getting it lined up with a board meeting would be really difficult. I think Tuesday, May 26, would be ideal. Um, we would just need five. It's so the work can begin. Uh, excuse me. It probably would be great to have a facilities meeting that night. I Meredith, you mentioned you're not around. >> Um, just for the our facilities team to explain all the bids. Um there's a lot writing on, you know, we they're

121doing a lot of different things with bid packages to see to try to bring cost down and things like that. So um there's a lot of effort being put into this. So is that night available for folks? >> What time would you want to start? >> Well, I mean honestly that can be whenever >> works for everybody want to. I mean seven's fine for me, but um >> seven is better for me. I could do >> Yeah, that's that's totally fine. Um, okay. >> So, do we need to do facilities >> earlier or? >> Yeah, if we could like facilities could be at six or if we don't have a quorum for facilities, you know, we could just kind of talk about it in the meeting a little bit too. Um, >> well, I can

122do six. I don't know. Can you can do six? >> Fur you can't. >> It'll be tough, but I'll I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out. It might uh Amry, it might be good to set not maybe have the full team, but I could see Perry and Jesse come just to walk through the I'm not trying to be negative anyway, but this could be a complex series of awards we're giving just because there we're they're looking at a lot of different ways to bid the work to there's a lot of worry about cost um and and also completion and things like that. So, um, so I think, you know, they'll everything will be resolved by then, but I'd love the board to get a good explanation. Um, so yeah. So, so we can do

123one Tuesday the 26th 7 o'clock facilities >> at 6. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Um, perfect. And then the other thing, I'll put this in writing to the board. I just kind of want to give you a heads up. We had a great district safety committee meeting last week. One of the things we talked about was doing a a start to start doing reunification drills. Um, which is when you have to relocate a school to like the high school and then re reunify kids with their parents. Um, typically a school does this on a half day. Um, so I want to put a proposal to make a change to the calendar for the board to review and we can do this in June really. um is to make October 9th, which is right before the 3-day

124weekend, into a half day. So, we could do a few hours of either PD that day, and also do a re reunification drill where we would re where we would um evacuate uh one of the elementary schools to the high school and have the high school staff involved with that elementary school staff and reunifying with parents. We probably would do volunteers just because obviously if a parent doesn't want to be a part of it, we don't want to force that. But I think it could be a really good process for us to go through. There's really it's really difficult to do it on a full day of school. Um so I I'll put that proposal together. I just kind of wanted to say it's something and our district safety team has local law enforcement, emergency

125responders, and staff. It was something we all felt strongly about with our security consultant. Um so I'll write a proposal together for the board to entertain as a calendar change. I know it puts an imposition on parents. Part of my thinking was maybe before a weekend like that it it wouldn't be as big of an imposition. So it' be something to we can talk about in one of the June meetings. I just want to give a heads up and that's all. Thank you the Beacon players and thanks uh for the budget process this year. >> All right, >> that's it. >> Okay, thank you. All right, we'll move on to board comments and committee reports. Uh starting with Katherine every time. >> Um let me think. This has been a doozy of a meeting. Um,

126Eric, I wanted to say thank you for your consistent um, questioning of that percentage. It I want to acknowledge how difficult it can be to live in this town right now um, for some of us. And it's it's it's a time in general that is difficult because everything is is just snowballing and getting so expensive and so much more. It's like more more and more always. Um, so in a way, you know, the same thing that we're asking the public to do is the same thing that they're all doing in their own homes. And $20 a month can be like didn't notice it, nothing to one person and a really substantial portion of someone else's budget. So, I'm very grateful to the constant questioning of that. >> I just want to clarify, it would be

127$20 a year. >> $20 a year. >> You mean increase? Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Just no, please. >> That would be the worst if it all went wrong. So, thank you very much for clarifying. >> Um, that being said, I also um I'm going to echo a little bit of what you said, Chris, about how um there's just no fat on this budget. You know, it's so lean and it's so thoughtful, and I'm really grateful for that, too. Um, you know, these there's just nothing that I see that can be wasted. So, I'm I'm really I'm really happy with it and that's my input. And then I have to say, holy cow, Beacon players, that was ins, guys. That was insane. That was insane. They're so good. I'm so excited. I

128already have my tickets. I just get in there fast, guys. So, I'm excited about that. Um, you know, yeah, it's just what a night. I don't even know what else to say. I'm too flustered. Someone else take the mantle. >> No, that's good. That's good. Chris >> Katherine said it all. Thank you for the Beacon Players and the presentation. Uh, nothing else. >> Okay, great, Leavonne. >> Yes, great presentation by Beacon Players and congratulations to Chloe on her two um, conferences that she's going to this week. And that's it. >> Nice, Eric. >> Uh, yeah, congratulations to the players. It was amazing. Um, and I also echo I I just uh enjoy the conversations that we have and we've had about the budget resource officer, whatever it's been. and I think they've been productive and

129um I I agree. I think where we're at is at a very good point. So, I welcome that. So, thank you. That's it for me, >> Meredith. >> I agree uh with all of it. The the players are amazing. Um I do really appreciate the conversations and um our ability to uh talk about hard things and and not always agree, but continue to be respectful. And I hope I sounded respectful. Um, I'm all red because of the heat in this room, not um but um and you know, as we begin the work on the capital project, I just want to thank the community again for overwhelmingly approving um it. It's important work that we're doing and I, you know, I'm excited that people will start to see the work happening. Hopefully, it will feel >>

130worth it to them. Um I I also as a Track mom, go track. Track is really fun to watch. I don't care what anyone says. Um and it's, you know, you're outside and it's beautiful day. So, and I can't wait to see run. Um and then the last thing is someone came to my house, a parent, and um was asking me why school starts so early. And um that is something that I've always felt strongly about as well. And actually the the board put together a resolution a few years ago which was rejected by the New York State School Boards Association. But um I coincidentally got the email today about the resolutions for the fall. And um I would love to put on a future after the budget a future agenda to discuss um possible

131resolutions and one of them being start school later. >> Is was that your last comment? >> Yes. I wanted to say I would really appreciate doing that as well because I feel like um I think it would be really helpful also just to have a thorough conversation about what would be involved in that like if that happened. Um, I've always had this feeling of like I wish that, you know, my kids were like early risers when they were young and then they become teenagers and their and like their hormones change and then they are they would rather die than get up at 6 a.m. And like I I'm always like, "Oh, if only it was reversed." But I know there's a lot involved and there's a lot to consider. So, it would be great to

132have that conversation again. So, yeah. Um, and as a fellow track mom, yes, track is great. Um, sometimes we like to bring a cowbell and that makes it more exciting when the kids are running. Um, and the thing that's so great about track is the kids are very often competing against themselves. And when my son gets really excited, it it's not because he's like uh necessarily trying to beat somebody else, but he's trying to better his own um time or his own performance. And like I think it's a really good way for him to to grow and progress. And um and the meets are really fun. Um I did want to mention the um yeah so the Duchess County Schoolboard Association um presentation was on cyber security. Uh it was Mark Stein who is the

133director of technology for Duchess Boseies. And as he was sort of going through what districts should be doing and the kinds of practices they should have, it made me really happy about what we're doing and and feeling secure about how we're managing things. And um there was an article that came out recently and I I think it said that inc like uh data incidents at schools in in New York State increased like 70% over the last year. So, like it's it is a real it is a real issue and I and I'm happy that we are um dealing with it responsibly. Um and lastly, um as a as a former student of an arts magnet high school, I am always amazed at like the the caliber of performance that we have here in Beacon. Um

134the students are so talented and so inspiring and so disciplined and um it just makes me proud to be a parent and um a board member here. So good job guys. Um and that is it for me for tonight. So we can move on to the budget to the vote on the proposed budget for the 202627 school year. Vicki, is this a roll call vote? Okay. So, um I always forget how we do a roll call vote. So, do I just would I just go around? You do it. You call everybody's name, right? >> I will call it, but you have to get a motion. >> Okay. So, can I get a motion to adopt the proposed budget for the 2026 27 school year? >> Second by Chris. Okay. >> Mr. Shimmy. >> Yes. >>

135Mr. L. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shutter. >> Yes. Miss your Yes, Miss >> Yes. passes. >> Okay. All right. On to the consent agenda. The use of the consent agenda permits the board of education to make more effective use of its time by adopting a single motion to cover those relatively routine matters which are included. Any member of the board who wishes to discuss individually a particular piece of business on the consent agenda may so indicate and that item will be considered and voted on separately, thus preserving the right of all board members to be heard on any issue. Are there any items that any board members would like to have removed from the consent agenda? >> Yes. 16.02. >> 16.02. Any more? No. Okay. So, can I have a motion

136to approve for 14.01? 01 through 18.05 minus 16.02. >> So moved by Lean. Second. >> Second by Meredith. Comments or questions? All in favor? >> I. >> And can I have a motion to approve 16.02? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Meredith. All in favor or comments or questions? All in favor? >> I I >> abstension. Okay. Passes. All right. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Comments or questions? All in favor? >> I I passes. What are we? 6. >> Good night.