001pretty ambitious plan for for the you know the year ahead and and even those following years that was my question um just about the urgency of some of you know these things that you list out because the capital project is Not Just Happening next year right we're talking you know years going on and same with the transition to EV so if we choose to not address the gym floor and the AUD atorium things and the LED lightings lighting next year will we want to make that same argument in the following years to come like it's just too much like too many other things happening you know like to what extent should are we kind of missing out by not doing it now before the shovel is hit you know before we get too deep in
002the capital project is this the time to do this uh I I I would say this these are important projects but I think if you waited one or two years that would be okay so let let's take Tom and I spoke a lot about the gymnasium typically you get 10 to 12 years out of a gymnasium floor and then it's really good practice to refinish it I believe ours was done about just about 10 years ago so you're you're getting to that point less than that I think right because I was that because it was it was I think it it was either my first or second year on the board I believe it was 2015 it was the summer of maybe that was was my very first year on the board it was one
003of the first things I saw yeah and there's one of two areas that need to be addressed but we could do that internally you could definitely get a few more years out of it now it doesn't have the updated branding you know uh the paint it definitely needs painting so it would be a very good thing to do but I don't think it's critical that's just my judgment but but really this is for the board to decide LED lighting uh it'll it'll improve even in this room you have fluorescent lights you know the quality of of you know for students and teachers uh it would be an improvement you know so so it is a really good thing to do but I I will also say this potentially if on April 1 if either prek
004funding goes up or Foundation Aid goes up we could end up with about an additional 100,000 and then we made come back to the board in our April presentation and say let's let's add one of the projects you know I I and I say that you know I hesitate a little bit because already you have a long list of of of projects and and it will be very taxing on on on you have a small admin team um but you know they're all very dedicated and and very motivated and they know this benefits students and the community so um I know maybe that's not not a real uh firm answer I I I think it's up to the board at at this point if you'd like to you know add some extra projects or potentially
005wait for to see if we get an additional State funding and then maybe revisit this list we really you know we'll we'll take guidance from the board on this I guess I want to speak at this point because like this is like it's the board definitely gets to set the priorities for what it wants to see happen at the district level but like these kinds of situations I think are this really important but but nuanced interaction between the board and an administration because the board has has very good and well-informed reasons for what it's thinking about what it's asking for but I'm going to say something that I don't think Carl and Katherine are saying for themselves and I'm saying based on you know 10 years on the board and 10 years you know working
006closely with the superintendent and the administrative team is that the administrative team thinks that that thinks very carefully about the the budgets that they propos you know propos to the board so all of these are really good questions right like we ask questions and it gives ourselves opportunities to really inform ourselves get the information that we need and inform the public about these different ways to go but I do I am going to take it upon myself at this point to just remind ourselves you know as a a board and I don't think we doubt this but I I am going to say it out loud that we have a great deal of of of faith and appreciation in our administrative team and you know they they are proposing the budget that for just this
007year right not that this is something not that that for just this year under these particular circumstances that this was the budget that they did decide to recommend last last week um and um and I and also just really acknowledging the level of concern that I think is really a legitimate one about wanting to make sure that we adequately fund our Public Schools well that we aren't um that we don't go down a path necessarily of really looking for cost cutting when it comes to our public schools because we're so we're so invested in them and we want them to be well informed so anyway those were just a couple of things that I um want want to say at this point but all of these questions are really important and it's important that we're
008bringing them them up because it's a it's a big responsibility for us to have and we want ourselves to understand and we want the public to understand whatever decision we decide to make and I appreciate you saying that it's a decision for this year and all the work that went into planning the budget for this year but I think I want to know for sure you know in terms of long-term planning um you know when you when you don't get that when you don't go to the tax cap one year you know as we were talking about the last meeting we so we don't have that base you know of a 132,000 then the base is lower for next year has a good thought about that which I think we're not setting us up it's
009a really important point that we want to make clear yeah because we have a fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers of course I have no interest in gouging tax taxpayers clearly but we also have a fiscal responsibility to the school and to make sure that we're in good condition that's right going forward so you know making a decision on this year's budget it's amazing that we can do it all of that but are we making a good decision for the years moving forward and so I think you you Katherine has I think can give a better explanation of this than I can first off all of you who have worked with me for years know that I I usually do say we should go to the allowable tax levy so this is a different spot for
010us to be in um it just it works for us this year and when you look back at the slide of what we are proposing this year and as I explained how we create our rollover budget a lot of that $132,000 is going to be recaptured right away when I reduce some of these onetime costs out of next year's rollover budget um for instance prek implementation most of the expenses are a one-time this year expense um you know we won't put in a second playground we won't have to buy a new curriculum and new furniture we we'll already have it right and the teacher is coming from is coming from our existing staff you know we're not you know we I'm not going to say softball dug it won't Dugout won't be spent spell place
011else um air conditioning hopefully we won't have too much more to do with our air conditioning um Auditorium upgrades I would assume we'll put some budget money to it I think it's one of the areas that hasn't been touched in our in the capital plan but it the budget probably won't support $30,000 a year for it so the transportation study is a oneoff um we do anticipate a potential retirement there could there may be with the alignment from fifth grade to six moving fifth grade to sixth grade there could be an adjustment with class sizes there that we could um so it's just there it I mean granted some of it is unknown but there does seem to be enough in this year's budget that we could um comfortably make up the money within our
012rollover budget next year thank you sometimes we avoid having these kinds of conversations because it can be uncomfortable but we are having it so anything else I'd like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to let the process happen which I think um is valuable not only for us but also because it's given you know lots of members of the community the opportunity to weigh in and really think critically about what the difference is this is what the values are that are in place when we're talking about going into the cap or not so I really appreciate that I we've had a couple meetings this last week oneon-one and I appreciate you for taking the time to do that and walking through uh the budget again with us and I you know I I
013remain uh sort of similarly my my mind is towards how it com compounds over time but I think particularly in this year when we're looking at so many there's so many things on the ballot this year that we're voting for and we're thinking about the library at the same time that it doesn't make sense for me this year for us to since none of these things seem essential to me for with the 2.8 I uh I it makes sense to me so I'll be the first to say I appreciate you Sean um I I I also obviously I I came at it from a really important point and negotiating in public is always an interesting point in you know a board um and of course with further conversations as well which I I think were
014helpful and I think uh Katherine has been excellent in playing things out and at the last meeting also pointed out um that the SARS could align um and Maggie also pointed out a really good point which is there are a lot of you know there are a lot of things that people are voting for this year and if the if if this is the year in which the Stars can align um I obviously I have concerns as I think many of us do uh going forward right especially when you look at that that tariff bus change um you know we're going to get hit with that in the capital project we're gonna get hit with that that is actually that is the worry you know you know and those are real right the history of
015this is you'll pay more and you'll get less um so there's a real there's there is a very real concern um but you know we're talking half percent and C you know Katherine has laid out some really really important points um and I think the conversation was very helpful I very much appreciated it um and and so I can I can definitely understand where the 28 could be met I could yeah this is not to thank you uh and this is not to this is not to disagree and people should correct me if they think I'm wrong there is a lot of anxiety I think or some anxiety I guess I would say on my part about the capital project right and what the potential for tariffs have and the implications for that like I
016think that's something that we need to be you know just paying attention to yeah consistently communicating yes but I I don't I I do think that what we have in the budget is less subject to to those kinds of changes right there's nothing that we know about right now I mean the tariffs have been signed they're in place they're happening right like that's a real thing when it comes to the budget most of the things that we have in our budget are primarily right so a huge proportion of a budget for very good reason it's it's the human capital in our budget right and so we have contracts and we're accounting for increases and retirement fund and insurance and things like that the other items like that there's nothing in there or it's our been
017accounted for if we think that the immediate economic concerns affect we we budget for contingencies so um I believe it was Michelle who brought up like you know electricity you know what could happen with that and we do budget higher than we I don't want to say higher than we need because we do need to budget what we budget but we budget enough that if there was a spike in electric we would still be able to cover our utilities within our utilities as a whole or heating oil or anything right um you know obviously we could see increases with materials and supplies um but again we do budget with some contingencies another one is uh health insurance we have to budget as if more you know all employees take our health insurance because we have
018to be able to pay that bill if indeed that happens so sometimes there is some additional money available in um the health insurance code that we could use for something else if we get to the end of the year and and we needed it and then the one thing I I'll just quickly go back to our fund balance um that's why we have these restricted funds too for instance if we really had a hard year and we said okay this this has really this has backfired and we could pay our retirement bills out of the fund balance as opposed to paying it out of the general fund um you know if we had a big repair we could take it out of the repair Reserve so we could also dip into the unassigned if we
019had it so there's a lot of contingencies built in that protect us from right that that happening right contingencies that are built in that represent Good Financial Planning correct correct to ensure that we don't end up at the end right appreciate right because school districts cannot over cannot yourd School District cannot overspend our budget yeah and I think I mean if there is a year to not go to the levy limit you know this would be a good one in terms of the they haven't had they haven't been big conversations but we have talked about after the capital gra passed um we have talked about you know easing up a little bit on the on the community right because our taxes are still going to go up 22% over the capital referendum as well so
020you know and we have said before that maybe this is something we think about and we talk about which we are um so maybe this is the year that we don't go all the way up to limit messaging its Optics it's you know being a little bit more um you know thinking thinking of the of the taxpayers who the majority of our our Revenue so uh I think I made clear last week and I think my statements have made clear that I'm I'm comfortable with a 2.8 increase Michelle I think you were the one person who hasn't weighed in I did you did I'm sorry I apologize so I think that's what that's what Katherine was really looking for right so it's been a difficult conversation we're not I think and it definitely shows like
021in the years to come the conversations that we want to make sure we're having um earlier and often about um this uh and uh and so that we're doing this as responsibly and as openly and as transparently as we can so which is was certainly our goal this year as well so all right there is always the wackiness that we have no idea what is actually the formula to figure out your tax levy it's this weird cauldron thing and which makes one guy who understands and then and then you don't know what it is until when February February it's a it's a tricky way it's a tricky way to run such an important uh and you know we can run estimates and you know we do obviously ly look forward and you know same thing
022with our budget I do look forward to what you know we would need you know it's not a full Financial you know financial plan looking three years out but there's definitely things that we keep an eye on um trying to project what things will look like in the future but after you go past a year or two it becomes very um uncertain the accuracy it becomes very uncertain thank you again you have you need from much yes thank you very much thank you um is this our first public comment all right they're usually a lot shorter that's right Board of Education thank you the he Board of Education desires and values input from the entire School Community the first public comment session is reserved for comments on special presentations and active agenda items anyone who
023wish to speak the board we'd ask you to sign in and state your name keep your remarks for three minute to um avoid discussing Personnel oh you are there oh so I didn't do my PE multiple time okay I didn't sign in so thank you thank you Katherine for the presentation you know you know thought out and whatnot but I'm here to kind of Express concern about not going up to City allowable tax ly um you're embarking on a major project you're increasing the footprint of the organization of the campus that's going to increase your operational maintenance costs uh accordingly per square foot uh I think that the district just looking at facilities has done an awesome awesome job of leveraging the talent of the custodial staff you know unfortunately Michael sados retired but you
024know jack of all trades electrician everything else um so you've had Staffing changes there that's going to necessitate that you engage with outside you know electrical firms as just one example um you have aging Electronics case in point the auditorium get me busy this weekend because it bailed uh so fortunately we're able to get it up and running uh but as equipment ages your maintenance is going to go up and the best way and there's been study after study about this um in order to reduce your maintenance costs you know and increase availability of your equipment is to properly maintain it don't wait for that emergency it's less expensive um I do get very concerned about um not raing that Baseline um because of the future needs and the future questions that we have regarding
025the economy and the the economic forecast is a big question mark and it's it's a source of potential angst for a lot of people I don't like paying taxes but um I think that you're better off taking a cautious approach because you have a school district to run and you know what then the next year if you don't need it then do a 1% increase but you know I've been coming to board meetings after board meetings for many years and I think that the tax lby is almost a joke because it doesn't come close to really competing with uh inflation that's out there in the real so I feel like kind of put two strokes forward and strokes back um so strongly consider that um there are um another concern and I'm almost up on
026my three minutes but you have a major project right so think about your Staffing requirements for that you know do you need additional staff additional maintenance staff to kind of take care of all the chaos um those are things that you're you're probably going to need and maybe it's not the LED lighting although I think the lighting generally in a lot of classrooms is like heric sorry I like lighting but led is so much better um brighter um Better Learning environment but that's something that also is going to be affected by TX because the US does not create a lot of fixtures so that could be something that you buy this year and you implement you know um either with available staff or over time so that's it I vote for you know just really
027strongly consider the future impact and that Baseline that you're kind of giving away because you don't know what the allowable tax Lo will be in future you know years that's going into the W all right into the Ws super quick Carl speak I didn't sign in either but you know who I am uh we did get our 17th preschooler registered this morning unfortunately uh I want to thank stepping stones for engaging with us through the RFP process but they did have to withdraw their applications so since my update last week um unfortunately maybe next year if the state really does some or the federal government does something with the um amount that they offer for prek enrollment that make a big difference it would make a a huge difference for our Community Partners but they
028reevaluated where they were at and what they were able to do and they did have to withdraw their um proposal from so we do have our 17th and we would be able to offer our 18th I'm not worried about that last seat again as we mentioned last last week that um if we do have one spot it means that if a family moves in uh you know over the summer or in September uh I think likely we would have that filled at some point during the school year um but I did want to update the board since that was a change since my proposal last week uh my presentation last week and I wanted to thank Stepping Stones publicly for being willing to engage and and to um to work with us and hopefully we'll
029be able to engage with them next year you thank you um next on our agenda are the administrator information reports um we thank the administrators for those reports anybody all very so much going on I don't know somehow I've read three times today that the play is on the 20th and it didn't occur to me that said it was this weekend until tonight when someone said that um all right we're going to move into the consent agenda uh minutes may I have a motion please so moved all those in favor I I any opposed um uh consent agenda Financial may I have a motion please so moved second um I just want to note on here that we had have um on here an acceptant of donation from the Cold Spring Lions Club for some
030outdoor um $1,000 toward materials uh to support the Lori icer outdoor uh classroom so uh thank you to them for that um all those in favor I I I and then you post okay next on the agenda is consent agenda Personnel uh may I have a motion please so move second um on here with this we are actually officially appointing Dr Duffy along with just a whole slew of much needed substitutes and assistant coaches and coaches newspaper oh and the newspaper yes yes yes and the newspaper which was mentioned earlier so a lot of really exciting things on there um all those in favor I any oppos all right now moving into um moving into new business the CSA cpsc recommendation be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the
031Board of Education hereby approves the recommendations of the Committees on special education and preschool special education as presented may have a motion please so moved second all those in favor I any opposed uh next so we must have gotten the policy audit from uh Erie bosis so what the public has available to it I think is the redline version oh I have a question do the different colors mean anything BL it means a little bit of something from Eerie um yes I can I can let you know specifically in totality it's the changes that they're recommending I just wondered like I just couldn't figure out you're right there is a code that we had received I'll send it to you that I just be curious It's funny because I I'll add it to this like
032who's the one writing that's right who's I was trying to find Dees that's right between things that have been sh are we appeasing with this one but thanks for the policy committee for the work on that and um I think if we have anything else we want to pretty straightforward it is yeah thank you um so we'll put it on next time for the adoption um so all right so now we're moving into just so folks know a whole series of required um resolutions that we need to approve uh Megan won't read the whole thing but she has to read some of it for all of them and they are all a roll call vote so just be prepared for that so um uh may we have the recommended action for the resolution calling for
033the inclusion of proposition two in the notice of the annual District meeting be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the super interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the resolution to include proposition two in the notice of the annual district meeting on May 20 2025 as written motion may have a motion please so moved second all those in favor Noe no oh we have to go I have to do yeah it sorry yes vice president Valentine truste clemenson yes truste copper yes trusty mcau about that okay all right all right so now the resolution calling for the inclusion of proposition three the recommended action please be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the resolution to include proposition three which
034is the capital reserved fund fund amendments in the notice of the annual district meeting on May 20 2025 as written have motion please so moved second okay president Clemens yes vice president Valentine trusty clemenson yes trusty copper yes trusty mcnell yes okay right uh so now the resolution calling for the inclusion of proposition it resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the resolution to include proposition three which is for the Butterfield library in the notice of the annual district meeting on May 20 2025 as written you meant four it says three here but it's four oh correct four yes I'm sorry okay uh may I have a motion please so moved second okay president Clemens yes vice president Valentine yes trusty clemenson yes trusty cupper
035yes trusty mcnell next is the resolution calling for the annual district meeting and trustee elections on May 20th this is the resolution calling for the annual District meeting vote on propositions and trustee elections on May 20 2025 as written you have a motion please so moved second president Clemens yes president Valentine trusty clemenson I trusty copper yes trusty mcnell um all right so now we're actually moving away from the vote and the propositions and this is the resolution authorizing basically the expenditure um of the of the capital reserve fund but Megan I'll let you for the capital project yeah for the capital project approval of bond resolution authorizing the construction of improvements and additions to and reconstruction of school district buildings and facilities at a at a maximum estimated cost of 28 m359 n48 in
036and for the howan Central School District at philipstown putam and Duchess counties New York and authorizing the expenditure of $1 million of capital reserve fund monies and the issuance of $28 million 28 m359 n48 serial bonds of said School District to pay the cost thereof as written um I have a motion please so moved second president Clemens yes vice president Valentine trusty clemenson yes trusty copper trusty M um all right um communication for the public second opportunity right board reflection uh a lot of uh you did uh wonderful work sharing your Gra ude for the process of of selecting our new superintendent but I we would be remiss if we didn't celebrate and give you nothing but gratitude for all of your hard work throughout this process big work a wonderful wonderful leader and um
037the district and the community is so very lucky to have you in this position at this time so thank you very much that means a lot to me it really does thank you very much that was big work thank you very much um it's I'm for forunate to be able to give back to my community in this way so I really do feel that but also thank you I uh I wanted to point out that uh we uh St Patrick's day was yesterday and um Gail is a accomplished Irish step dancer I believe and so and so the to go on record the expectation of course would be next year St Patrick's Day there we go how's that work will it be on a board will it be on a Tuesday educational moment SE I
038think if Damian were here I would say I really really appreciated his comments I would have um uh he shares a sentiment that I think you know that definitely is prevalent in the community I think is prevalent among board members the one thing to anybody who's still watching this meeting this far into is you know one of the things I've learned from Katherine and Carl this year is there are so there are so many fears right I mean it is somebody whose like whole life has been devoted to Fally funded public uh education research and has seen that entire industry be decimated in the past last couple of months including the jobs of dozens of people that I know and thousands of people who had jobs like the jobs I had I certainly understand I
039really understand that c and the concern um and yet one of the things I've learned from Katherine and Carl is that we our our responsibility is to budget for what we are faced with right now so there are very good chances that as this building is built we will see the need to hire more maintenance people as we develop what I antici what I know we all hope will be a a stellar and exciting um uh a steam program there may be opportunities for for us to hire now I know that there are still going to remain to be differences of opinion I know we all have questions or have had questions um but I did um that has been something that I've learned through this particular budget season and so I do understand uh
040he wasn't just speaking about fear he was of just talking about like future prospects some things that are exciting but really what we're what we do in this process is is is budget for next year um but I think one of the things that I think probably we want to collectively be thinking about is is some of these long-term goals as well as we move forward with our new superintendent we certainly have our work cut out for us thank you all right just congratulations to Dr Duppy yes I look forward to transitioning with you which starts tomorrow morning at 8 AM yeah see you bright and early you better bring the donuts all right um I move to adjourn the meeting May I have a second second all those in favor great thank you