001um hi everybody and welcome to the February 25th 2025 hdan Board of Education Workshop meeting I'm calling the meeting to order please stand for the flag the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation [Applause] indivisible andice okay president Clemens here vice president Valentine here truste copper here truste mcnell here trusty clemenson here okay I don't believe we have any changes for the agenda so can we have the recommended action to approve the agenda please be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the agenda as written may I have a motion please so moved second all those in favor I any opposed all right so our next um open meeting will be the howan Board of Education will
002conduct a business meeting on Tuesday March 4th so next week we get we February break here in the middle school high school library um even though it's a business meeting we're going to have a special presentation to get um an update on our Universal prek so that's very exciting and then just also knowe that the board is in the process of holding um a series of executive sessions um leading to the appointment of our uh new superintendent and then the other thing is that um there are candidate petitions available for anyone interested in running for the two open Board of Education trustee uh positions that will be on the ballot at our annual district meeting on May 20th so as a reminder on that May 20th it'll be the annual district meeting both to vote
003on the school budget um as well as to elect two Trustees for um each for three-year terms and that's really all I have I only have a few brief Updates this evening uh we were off of course last week uh but yesterday uh stakeholder groups uh for the capital project met with cs Arch um we have our nurses office group our support Suite group The Student Center group and the steam group uh we also have a Safety and Security but they they met prior to the break so we did one meeting after the other uh they were very productive we saw some updated schematic designs um it's nice to see see it start to take shape um we probably have about another month uh before designs will be presented to the board in a formal
004way but I want to thank the administrative team because the entire team is involved but additionally we have about two dozen staff members we have teachers and Specialists all contributing to this and and on Friday we are sending I believe nine people Megan is it nine people Megan has scheduled them to visit uh the maror school district where CSR just completed a major project and many of the things that we want to accomplish have already been constructed so it'll be an opportunity to speak with those administrators the teachers and and the people working in the spaces ask them you know are they happy with with the final results of the things maybe that they would have done differently if they had a do over uh and I think that'll be a valuable conversation and then
005we will continue to do you know these stakeholder group meetings and refine our plans and you know hopefully within a month or so we'll have csarch come make a formal presentation to the board so that is exciting uh also um since our last meeting It's seems like it's been a bit but Sean and I met with uh through Westchester putam School boards Association I did put it in the board update but we met with assemblywoman Dana lenberg it was facilitated with District's board members superintendents from puam Northern Westchester districts it was a pretty good turnout uh Sean and I you Dana was really interested in hearing you know what what are the concerns what are the issues that school districts have Sean and I talked about funding for electric buses for special education services and
006programs uh for pre kindergarten where you know we are launching a prek program but it's not fully covered by state funds some other districts raised um you know concerns over funding for school resource officers which is an expense uh the future of Dei initiatives was another uh concern that was raised and Ice uh and immigration enforcement in schools was another overarching concern from several districts um assemblywoman lenberg was very receptive I thought it's the timing is important because they're in the midst of budget discussion they're doing joint assembly uh Senate uh budget hearings right now which should conclude by Friday and then we'll see some more progress with with that uh and on Friday we are meeting with Bob charson and I forget do we have a board member able to join Sean all right
007team up again so um you know he is our representative in the Senate I expect it'll be a similar type of meeting but again the timing is good and what we're hearing from from our superintendent representatives in in in Albany is that we don't expect any major changes to the governor's proposal for education at least I think there's some other issues they need to sort through but Catherine and I have spoken we're we're watching carefully but we think what the governor has proposed will uh remain and be supported by by the assembly and the Senate lastly uh bosis is hosting regionalization meetings and uh Maggie Peggy and I spoke about this um on April 7th and May 5th there are two evening sessions and and I know the howan board has been working over time
008between superintendent uh you know uh uh interviews and and of course now the budget process but this is the opportunity for all the districts that are participating in regionalization to come together and listen to you know potential opportunities uh for partnering with other districts we don't need an answer now uh I I'll add it to your Friday update um and I and I don't see an issue with you know uh we're not discussing board business so you typically you don't want a firm but if if more than two wanted to attend I don't see an issue um I certainly will be there to represent the district but you know I welcome any board members who want to join I have RSVP as well to oh good okay did everybody get the email an email came
009I I had assumed that every that everybody got that email did everybody get the email okay all right just because I think I think that's right it should be anybody who um is able to and wants to go all right so now we're going to move into um a special presentation sort of an early presentation of the 25 budget so Katherine and I have uh been working on on the budget along with the entire admin team and I I thank everyone for their input let's just do a quick review You've seen this before our budget goals we definitely want to make sure we're within the allowable tax levy increase uh we want to stay aligned everything we do with the missions uh and the goals of the district uh we're looking for operational efficiencies wherever
010we can find them develop a plan for long-term Capital Improvements we're doing a lot with $28 million Capital project but as we know this current building that we're meeting in uh is an aging building and it has additional needs that won't be addressed through the capital project so we do want to make sure the budget U is in a strategic way uh set up to to handle some of those facility issues that that will present themselves in the near future uh funding opportunities to support the transition to zero emission buses we're actively pursuing grant money uh we'll have more information in about six weeks and lastly a transparent budget process which happens every year Megan plays a key role in in communicating that uh and making sure this is part of that process just having
011open meetings uh that the public can participate in the priorities again I I'll move really quickly because you've seen this before but we definitely have some curriculum initiatives one in particular is early literacy science of reading alignment implementing uh multi-tiered system of support of software we we we of course are doing this intervention but uh we want to have a software uh that can support it and make it more efficient pre kindergarten we've spoken about that you'll hear more next meeting uh we do have uh 13 uh families registered their children so that's exciting the cap will be 18 uh also New High School course uh budget will support that uh is working on that with our our teachers uh mental health and guidance will continue to be supported special education we do want to
012increase funding uh for an anticipated extra placement uh soft soft field uh softball field Dugout excuse me uh we think it's long overdue and and uh I know there's some fundraising happening but we want to partner the district along with that fundraising money and make sure that happens for next year air conditioning uh this is uh a state requirement now that at 82° you need to start making accommodations for students and staff um at 88 de 88 you have to vacate the room so we do have some air conditioning uh we do have plans with the capital project to have full central air up at the high school but that's several years away so we want to add some money to to get some portable units some window units do upgrades so at least we
013have options it won't be air conditioning in every single room but it'll be enough where the principls believe they can work out some contingency plans on those very hot days also uh our theater program um has a lot of needs they put on fantastic Productions but I got to say behind the scenes there are challenges I saw them firsthand Damian thank you um pointing out we had some leaks in the past some damage was done there's a lot of um extra work that goes into kind of you know just rigging the system um that that no longer operates to to to you know have these spectacular Productions but I think an investment needs to be made um in just finishing the stage some patching and painting some basic stuff but they need storage uh the
014lighting system you know needs upgrades so we do want to allocate money for that also transportation system analysis this is a b big one I think as you're transitioning to EV uh this will take about a year or two but uh the board I know is very interested in in doing this and we do have AB bosis putam Northern Westchester has recommended AB bosis Upstate that um handles these and will give us some guidance uh lastly uh improve the transportation Fleet uh we do have a need for one large school bus and and that would be a separate referendum now what what is new is we started adding some prices here and these I want to emphasize these are estimates but uh for curriculum we get a better view here about 50,000 uh for that
015software platform we have 10,000 prek that number of a 100,000 I do want to explain that if we receive 18 students which we're hopeful that we have we will receive $5,400 from the state per student that's about 97,000 but for this program you do have a teacher and and an aid and of course there salary and benefits and plus curricular materials and some other things that we need to purchase so maybe a little bit of an overestimate but the district's contribution will be about 100,000 however um we are using it we're not adding staff I want to emphasize that we do have a lower enrollment in one of the grade levels in our elementary school I'll go through enrollment short shortly so with that we're able to Rel leave a teacher and reassign the person
016to prek uh special education funding that placement we anticipated 200,000 of course there is state aid uh that we receive in the following year for for those placements uh field trip uh that is something new uh we haven't we realize we haven't increased the field trip District budget in many many years the foundation is very good to us uh but we think the district ought to at least increase it and um partner with foundation on future field trips there's The Dugout cost we anticipate 20,000 District funds plus then of course Community is doing some fundraising we'd like to allocate 30,000 to enhance air conditioning uh 30,000 for the stage and I think the theater program may have some money saved and they may be willing to partner with us and so maybe we could do
017about 40,000 of work is the hope uh and then that Transportation analysis where we have 50,000 as a placeholder there this is just a reminder we are not recommending Staffing increases but in recent years howan has done a really good job of increasing staff um and I applaud you know particularly with the psychologist and the counselor supporting students mental health I I think you know all of those you know were were great Investments now enrollment so on the left side uh you will see current enrollments and I did an update just this morning because we did have a you few a few students that that registered and couple of new families and then on the right hand you see uh by grade level what we project as far as enrollment and how many sections so
018it's pretty self-explanatory but you know we're hoping for 18 as I said earlier with prek um we kindergarten enrollment right now is a little lower than than previous years uh we're projecting 30 two sections of 15 would be a very desirable class size and you can go write that Carl quick question yeah questions children in the community within the school district that are kindergarten aged that do do we know that total number that census number I think we have a good idea Ezra but I I don't think we have an exact number uh Christine you know it's pretty good about knowing where they all does a lot of Outreach yeah she's she's even drilling down so some parents you know may choose if a child has a late birthday sometimes they choose to give them
019an additional year of prechool and she she even has those numbers accounted for she she she does a pretty good analysis so I think that 30 uh is fairly accurate fairly accurate of coming here but then yeah so the question is is designed how like basically quote unquote how many kids are we not capturing ah that are here so can I sure so I think the demographic study that we did a few years ago had some projections about that I know there have been do you think I know there had been some concern concerns because the number of children that have enrolled in the past couple of years was a little bit below that but under those circumstances it wasn't like we thought we were missing CH children so anyway I don't well they but
020then they come back in so like you lose them in like if you lose them in kindergarten they want to come back in first and second right you know it's just good to know what that number is I bet you Christine yeah and she'll be with us you know next next meeting so sure um and and again forgive me and I'm just not that familiar with with the district but she she did communicate with each and every preschool program and again it appeared to me that she did a pretty thorough analysis uh so any questions about our elementary sections this is not on enrollment but while we're talking about prek I think you said if we get 18 students for prek we'll get 5400 per student from the state is that number different if we
021don't get up to 18 yeah yes if you have 16 students for example you get 5400 time 16 okay but it would still be 5,400 per pup yes yes the 5400 is per per and we even there's there's enough um we could open up two sections of preschool like we we I think we have up to 40 students 43 I think the problem is the 5400 is not sufficient right you know if if that number were let's say 10,000 I think more districts would consider you know even opening up two sections we're offering the one and again you have that that opportunity where we don't have to hire a teacher we're just reassigning a teacher to pre and will we have an aid regardless of how many students are in that class yes you you
022are required for that's a requirement for and in fact there's even another option to go up to 21 students but then you need two so now they an additional expense and I have to say I think 21 my personal opinion is that's high for prek I think 18 is a good manageable number okay okay thanks great middle SCH so on the left again you see current uh sections and uh class sizes um next year uh we are looking to go to three sections uh on all three grade levels and and you can see the average class sizes you know range from 20 maybe few of 21 uh and in eighth grade it's a little smaller grade level 16 and and 17 questions right no it's consistent with the with the um stipulated goals from last
023year right and and there was an investment made as you I'm sure you recall in aligning the middle and high school schedule so this year for example there are there's more of a sharing of staff and it's more efficient and that will of course continue next year uh and the high school it's the high school is different it's not just you know clean sections of course there are electives there are Advanced courses and and you know s such a range of courses but you can see just in general you get an idea of grade levels and Julia is here if you if you have a more detailed question but you know roughly you know nth grade I assume will be around four sections in all your core classes but then of course you know students
024have choices in high school any questions on the high school numbers and you see the totals are a little lower um but but you know pretty pretty uh similar you know year-over year Julia can you just remind me on the kids that are coming in from the high school like we're are we in the process of like blending a good amount of age groups within classes too so like class the science and the maths become more Blended yeah um not as much in the freshman year uh a little bit in the freshman year in science and maths if they were accelerated in eighth grade right um but then as they become Juniors and seniors there's every class I would say besides English and social studies are Blended pretty Blended yeah yeah okay now turn Catherine
025all right thank you she'll go over the financials okay so um we did take a look at this slide last time but we did update it for two possibilities for our property tax cap this year um when I run the calculation our allowable tax levy is 3.38% so that is what we would be allowed to go to if we went to our maximum allowable that would reflect for us a budget to- budget increase of 700 we'll say 770,000 just um I'm also working on developing a spending plan that would bring our tax levy increase from 3.38 down to 2.8 that's the levy that we had last year um I think it's probably a manageable number if you choose to do that but it does equate a budget to- budget increase of only 6376 Which is
026132,000 less than what our maximum is so there is um you know some concern of where we make up that $132,000 um and again just given the current inflationary environment I do think it is important for us to just consider the potential long-term implications of not going to the maximum tax levy um that obviously is a board decision it's just you know uh prices aren't going down mandatory things that we have to pay for keep increasing and you know there is a concern of um would it catch up to us someday if we didn't go to our maximum tax levy just for historical purposes we've gone to the allowable tax levy which is effectively a cap anyway it's an imposed cap through law we've gone to the allowable tax levy every year I believe every
027year since the cap was in juli can you think of a year we didn't I think it's been at least close right if not that yeah what's what's the anomaly there wasn't there is an anomaly in during Co we agreed to a rebate we did we did a rebate during Co yeah we took I believe $50,000 off of the um tax warrant when we set the tax warrant in August good um didn't show of course we did put together just a chart to kind of show you where um if we brought the chart back further you know we started at 2021 but you know the tax the tax levy cap went in and you know back then inflation was pretty you know at a pretty low rate and so we were pretty comfortable keeping our
028um allowable at the the maximum um but as you'll see we've had a couple spikes where inflation has far outweighed the allowable especially you know 2023 um but we also had some good numbers in those years with Foundation Aid as they were doing the catch up on our foundation Aid and fully funding our foundation Aid so we were able to um handle the the difference that we saw there um you'll see that our allowable this year is 3.38 inflation right now is running at about three so it would kind of equate to where we probably need to be um but again we are working on two budgets one that would go to 3.38 and one that would keep us at 2.8 I would caution against trying to go any lower than 2.8 as much as
029I would love to be able to do that um I just think the Gap would be a little too hard to close at this point with some of the needs that we have that we talked about in our prior slides which if we think about them they are a lot of them tend to be one-offs like you know once we do the air conditioners we have air conditioners for a while um um once we do the transportation study we've done the transportation study so um that will help us in future years again found just where our Revenue comes from uh Foundation Aid it's one of our largest drivers but as you know the governor um proposal for foundation aid went through a study with the Rockefeller Institute they've made some recommended changes for how they're
030going to calculate Foundation Aid going forward um it's not officially completely done but under the governor's proposal we are projected to receive the minimum increase that you can receive which is 2% which for us is amounting to just under $58,000 increase for us for the 25 26 school year in Foundation Aid um that's the minimum number that they're willing to give right correct yeah y so there were plenty of schools that receiv received far more of a foundation a increase than us so when the governor said we're pumping up foundations we really didn't see no because of the the calculation also takes it changed the way that you calculate um the wealth of a district and lowincome uh from just being free and reduced students to a different calculation that they use and multiple different
031reasons that they changed it but so we are you know and we're considered a you know a somewhat wealthy district and so we were um put into the you know minimum increase allowable um for our expense based Aid again this is Aid that's uh given to the school districts based on their actual expenditures from prior years it is also a complex calculation that takes into account wealth of the district uh enrollment in the district along with other ex formulas that um are actually hard to dive into but for next year we are projected to have a decrease in our building Aid our transportation Aid our Bose's Aid and our private private excess cost Aid um some of that is because we spent a little bit less money some of it is because enrollment went down
032some of it is because our district looks wealthy um so we do have right now A projected decrease of expense based Aid of $161,000 partially offset by the increase of foundation Aid um this is the slide really it's more for you Ezra um we talked about our transportation expenses so we put this in here for you just kind of our trend line of our transportation expenses um as it has G uh grown over the years you will remember 2020 21 2122 there is some covid impact on uh expenses there as well as a driver a bus driver shortage that we were suffering through during those years um this does include everything for transportation including salaries but it does not include our benefit for our for our our employees um and as a percentage of our
033budget it's just under 4% of our budget is for transportation expenses so that's not bad actually we keep our transportation under 4% seems pretty good the issue that I see is we're getting less money from the state on Transportation Aid and going up by uh what 40 GS yeah correct right and then moving on we have some decisions to make so there are in the next few slides some tbds or some uh unknown numbers our Revenue summary we have our for 2526 it looks like in state aid we'll have just you know $4.3 million um in our other revenues we will be at $1.4 million uh our primary drivers of other revenue is tuition interest income um interest on late property taxes things like that there's not much that we can do as a school
034district to increase our Revenue um but that is you know we are projecting a small increase in tuition because we do have more Garrison students coming than leaving so that will help and again I've talked to you numerous times that I have very we've been very conservative with our budgeting for interest income and I am putting an increase into that for next year because I do feel that although there's a chance interest rates will will drop I don't think they'll drop enough that um we won't make our goal um interest income for next year um and then we'll just keep looking at it as the years go forward uh we always put in our appropriated fund balance it helps to balance the budget most school districts put in exactly the same amount about $645,000 and
035that's just funds that we could dip into and up to our fund balance if we really really ran into some kind of budget need during the year I have budgeted for possibly needing to use $250,000 of our reserves I would would primarily use it out of our retirement reserves if our TRS or ERS bills made it that we felt concerned about our budget we could dip into our retirement reserves to pay those expenses and then the biggest question mark right now is the tax levy um again I'm developing two budgets one that brings our tax levy to the allowable and one that brings it to 2.8% um so that is kind of you know a discussion that we have to have with how you feel about that and where you want um it I don't
036need a decision tonight what I plan to have for you for next week if need be is both of them like this is where I think we'll be if we're at 3.38 and this is where I think we'll be if we're at 2.8 and we'll um Carl and I will try to tighten up some of the numbers on our wish list to hope that we have has about as clean numbers as we can possibly get for you for next week's presentation but I do believe by the end of the meeting next week we'll need to have made a decision as to what just so that we can really start focusing on what we need to do for um the next month and then again just to kind of go through what the um may vote
037will look like we'll obviously have our standard proposition for the School District budget again I have just x's in there because we don't really have that number set but just a reminder we'll have proposition one which will be our School District budget we will have proposition two which is our capital reserve fund this is not the exact language that we'll be using but it was to get a discussion point with the board um as you'll remember we have a capital reserve fund that we set up in 2017 it was allowable for 10 years and we could save up to $1 million in that um it was voted on by you know it was passed by the voters bth back then and we did fully fund it up to the million dollars we have allocated that
038million dollars to be used as part of the 20124 capital referendum so as soon as we use that we'll be starting at zero again um I think a million is too low with the age of the building and with the needs that the district has as well as the fact that we should start probably saving for after we do phase one of the capital proposition we probably want to start thinking about what a phase two might might look like um so decisions that we need to think about is what do we think is a good number to put in there um and how much longer we might want to extend it right now our capital reserve fund will expire in 2028 so we will have to do this at some point I believe that this
039is the year to look at it and at least up it for another 10 years and we need to come up with a number um this number is what we would put excess fund balance at the end of the year as you know we can keep 4% in unallocated for emergency expenditures but anything over that if we have any excess has to be put in some kind of restricted Reserve um I was we were in a meeting earlier today with the administration and I said it's kind of like if you balance your home budget and at the end of the year you have a little extra and you have to decide what to do with it some people put it in savings account that's what this would be doing we'd be putting it into a
040savings account for future needs um I would probably recommend at this this point a minimum of three 3 million probably more likely 5 million we could we can set it for whatever I just over 10 years I'm not sure how much we'd actually be able to save but um so I would probably think at this point um with some calculations that I'm doing I would hope that over the next 10 years we could get it to about five million great and then we will be having our proposition three that's our normal vehicle purchase proposition and this year we are needing one large school bus and right now we have it at an estimate of $175,000 and as you all know this is a tax neutral proposition because as debt rolls off from a vehicle that
041we have already purchased we take on the same amount of debt to purchase another vehicle so it's a it's a tax neutral proposition and then we were just going to go over the budget timeline again I'll present more next next week um and then on March 14th or March 18th we're ready for our pre-budget hearing so we really like I said at the end of next week we'll need to know at what um tax levy limit you'd like us to develop the budget and then on April 1st we'll have it all put together with our our estimated revenues we should have uh the final numbers from the go you know the legislature by then and then hopefully adop well have to adopt it on April 22nd public hearing on May 6th and our vote on
042May 20 so that is just where we stand with budget development at this [Music] point questions gratitude gratitude I think it was good I think I I think I even said it this morning like this meeting we had thought about postponing and I think this exercise was really good to start really seeing I I've been diving into the the stage I'm at just so you know is I have gone through the rollover budget um so what I do is I take our current year budget actually just roll everything forward and make any adjustments to it that are mandatory contractual rate you know wage increases um our health insurance premium increases our overall insurance so I take everything that I know of right now and I add that in because I don't have a choice for
043those those aren't our those aren't our wish list those are things that we will be paying next year um I make any budget Corrections like if there's something that's been consistently budget for years I have I try to fix that if there's something that's been consistently over budget for years I try to you know so I try to smooth it all out and then that kind of leaves me with what money am I still allowed to you know I'll use the word play with but you know what I mean it's like our our money that we can put into different things um and so right now like I said I'm at the stage where I have our Revenue except for the tax levy limit so right now I have to be honest we have to
044do some more massaging of the numbers because either of our tax levy limits right now do show me having a small deficit that we need to cover um but I'm not I'm not at the point where you know I'm raising any kind of alarm Flags there's still some some massaging of the numbers that I need to do before just for perspective the you mentioned the health insurance premium uh percentage increase uh of which we do not control we're part of a Consortium um roughly what was that increase 4.99 4.9% significant and and Ezra um I'll add to that it's gone up somewhere between five and 8% every year for the past half dozen years it's outpaced your ability to raise revenue under a tax cap oh yeah it goes up more than wage as a
045percentage without question and and we are happy you know Katherine and I like the transportation yeah for a bit more information on that we're happy if you want to examine and drill down on a particular area of expenditure like Health it's easy for us to give you some additional information if it's helpful to the board because again what what we're looking for guidance you know from from the board on is 2.8 versus the 3.39 right is is the maximum so we are looking for for the board and we're happy to discuss it a little bit now or if you want to of process this and and ask us for more information and and pick it up at the next you next week uh yeah I think the key is that between the two you know
046what are we going to miss things other than you know budgeting or taxing people for things that we don't really know yet about in the future you know what would the big differences between the two budgets what be right um we talked briefly about it in our gview meeting you know a couple weeks it sounds like there's a little bit of W room with some of the some I appreciate you I appreciate you doing that you know going through and and you know having two scenarios that we can look at think about and ask question I think it just it's going to be a healthy discussion for next week of being able to actually decide you know when when we start the budget slideshow about what our priorities are to make sure that we're aligning
047a budget that is Meeting those priorities um without over over taxing the taxpayers go ahead two I have two questions since I have two you only have one one of mine no Michelle okay um so my question has to do with the other um attachment online that was the executive summary and the fiveyear plan and that's from 20203 so I'm building conditions the building condition yeah so how is that sort of playing off of what we're doing with the budget here like are we ticking away at those things you are we in year one are we have we addressed all of the things that's related to this right and so all of that and so you know the total for year one was like somewhere in like seven million and I know some of those
048things were addressing in the 2024 Capital project you know some of the AC and things like that so I'm wondering you know are we kind of choosing what we want to address this year and how does that do we have the money in the capital reserve fund how are we making those decisions great question so um and important and I thank you for reading it we apologize I I thought of it this morning I thought it would be helpful in totally discussing this topic but yeah I've got my new my new trustee head on so I'm kind of like wait what is this document and where are we at within this document we're required every three years to building conditions and it basically identifies high priority facilities needs middle middle level priority and then lower
049priority um it is somewhere in the vicinity I believe of $9 million of you know things that probably should be done in in the near future yes you are correct some of them will be addressed through the capital project but certainly not all of them uh I think the idea is we wanted to just give in trying to determine how much maximum you would want to be in this fund and again it's as Katherine said earlier it's going to take years to build it up and we have to be very careful we have to Comm communicate very clearly with the public this came up at the admin meeting we don't want people if we say set a $3 million maximum it may take us five or six years to to reach that 3 million and
050then we would need to ask the public to approve spending it on various facilities projects we don't want the public to think mistakenly that we're asking them to approve another three million because that's not the case here so we just need guidance from the board on setting a maximum amount and then as you're years go by if we have good Financial years and there is some Surplus the board then can can move that Surplus into this fund and build it up over time and my question one of my questions is related to that so talk to me a little bit about the different philosophies on why you might want to have a a number that is closer to 10 versus one that's closer to one why why might a district want to keep it artificially
051low I I I I think if you if you simply didn't have facility needs yeah then you may say why Park so much money in in a in a reserve where we don't anticipate spending it right but I guarantee you that's not how AE problem with with this older building uh but yeah I think the high school is going to be in good shape when this Capital Project's done but but this and and and the campus you know there's a lot of masonry work road work uh you know these are old buildings and you Roofing projects come up so so yeah I think leaning towards having more in there and again you know it it's the board would set up a maximum it would be built up over time but then you need to ask
052the public if if if you say if you want to spend 2 million on a roofing project in the future you would need to get voter approval for that and you'd probably add it to a a budget the only time you can bypass that is if something like really emergency happened you can use do an emergency use of your capital reserve but it is with that you have to try to replenish it the I don't think you have to try I think you have to replenish it the following year um if you don't have voter approval for it and the other thing to remember is we have allocated every dollar that's in our capital reserve so for right now if we ran into some one of those emergency situations we don't even have anything because
053we have already allocated the million dollars to the 2024 capit referendum so at a very minimum we would it at just to get it back to a million dollars I just think with what we're going through and what we see and what you read in the building condition survey it's it's probably not enough and just sure just to that point and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong but also Sean you know this is a you know it's a it's a reserve fund that can only be spent on certain things you know there are districts who don't quite have the fiduciary responsibility that howan does and has far more than 4% in an unrestricted Reserve F you know you can run their st3s you know that there's you know we keep it at what
054is supposed to be the maximum but there are districts that go well beyond that and then you know it gives them more flexibility but it's also not you know kind of like fiduciary responsible at some level because it's you know that's the taxpayers money yeah right so by having the capital reserve fund you're you're basically saying like we have these numbers if you don't have maybe if you carry more than that 4% which you're really not supposed to do then you might not need such a capital reserve fund of which you then tell people hey this is coming in and then this is coming out yeah another example could be if some districts get back 80 or 90% building right so they may say okay let's instead of allocating money here let's use it for
055other purposes we have other needs and we will borrow because we know if we do a major project we think that's % of the cost so this may not be as important to them that makes sense me because I I recall when we first discussed this Catherine that the community there was some conversation then about raising it above a million and for some reason we decided that a million was the cap because going above that there was some push back about what that meant and and I was curious as what what might the argument have been at the time I think it would be if we thought we could get it to three or five million in like a year or two it would be that we actually have way too much money and that
056would be that would be push back um because that would imply that we have overtaxed our taxpayers that we ended up with a surplus got um but given the facilities report which is asking for or you know looking for at least you know 7 million even in the first year of kind of like urgent needs why would the thought be that three or $5 million in the reserve fund is too much I I don't think it would be okay but I think the key is in communicating as I said earlier yeah this is a little complicated um so we just have to be really clear and and that's why again knowing those building conditions survey needs that have been identified I do think we need to communicate that very clearly if we're asking them to
057go my other question was about uh the bus I know that there will be members in the community will ask about why are we get bus like I'm curious to know that based on the based on the current mandate we'll buy this bus in 25 well we have to retire that bus and is it 32 that we're supposed to have or is it 37 it's it's so we going to be right in that 10e we're going to be right in that 10e margin that's typically when that's what I 35 but for for the first time um our representatives in New York state said the governor said 235 is an aspirational date yeah the governor never said that before but I think in the current um National level where potentially money may be clawed back uh
058you know again we're waiting on the CPA Grant we we don't know um if there's less federal dollars to to support the transition can the state handle it and there's a lot of concern that they won't be able to you know fully fund school districts transitioning so so they may need to back off and and and the general thinking is that that date will need to be sh and the the cost of um electric school buses is gone up not now so making it harder and harder for us to even well there's a supply and demand is so car electric cars are actually dropping a bit but electric buses are going up dramatically they're just they're it's slow in production and there you know and there and there's so much grant money that you know
059as long as people have the grant money they will spend whatever the dealers are asking for pretty much so it's an interesting situation yeah maybe a question for another time will be what do you do when you find yourself in a hybrid situation where you need to have the facilities to both manage a typical bus as well as electric buses good question in fact with the Architects we we we um did the site planning right before the break and we talked about that you know where would the charging stations go how would we run the Electric uh you probably will be in a highd situation at some I just have one comment about the the um the capital reserve fund so and thinking about and all of this honestly is always thinking about how do
060you communicate it to the public in a way that's understandable and also palatable and doesn't engender concern um so a difference between like three million and five million given the level and I don't need to answer of this but given the level of need expressed in the building conditions survey would we really need to set the capital reserve fund up to $5 million knowing that it would take us a while to save that much and we probably need to be spending some in the in in the meantime and so this is really more about like um perception and messaging kind of question like you know one million to 3 million versus 1 million to 5 million and and and what does that mean that the like we understand because we think about this life what
061it would mean to and that it represents responsible budgeting and spending to be able to fund those reserves over time like we understand this but we think about this a lot and so one so again my question comes back to given the level of anticipated need to spend money in the capital reserve fund as we save it what is is there something to be gained by setting it at $5 million instead of $3 million because my naive thinking is like well $3 million given that you know in a couple of years we're probably going to need to ask the public if we can spend it on something maybe setting it at $3 million is going to be enough and that's actually an increase that we will be more successful in explaining so that's just my
062thoughts about that I think with the setting it with a brand new 10-year term we could consistently fund and spend and fund and spend up to them you know that we could um I need to actually yeah I'll look again because I don't anyway that was just one thought about that as we're moving for this I guess the other thing I would say and I I think think I think it's okay for me to say this I mean you know in our agenda meetings with Carl and then also with you know Katherine you know Maggie and I really drove I think the request for the two different options you know given the the the you know community's enthusiastic support for you know supporting the capital um the the capital project Bond referendum it seemed judicious
063for us to at least explore the possibility of not going up to the tax levy limit there are I'm sure are the allowed tax levy yeah the allowable and and you know Ezra raised one good point about like how some of these costs are going up at rates that far exceed what our tax caps are that um that that you know inflation and you know remains a you know certainly remains a concern um but I do I just did want to say that this is something we felt like we really to just jump to the allowable tax levy in this year in particular was something that we want we wanted we didn't want to just do that without considering you know considering Alternatives I guess the only other thing and maybe this is a an
064offline conversation but like I understand the concern right is that if we don't go up to the allowable tax Lev limit it could be in in years to come that we're going to be in uncomfortable situations right we see that happen in other districts but we also know and correct me if my thinking's wrong or we need to talk about it some other way but we also know that we have a lot there are a lot of staff that have been here for a long time that are approaching retirement age we don't know if they're going to retire but we know that's going to happen and when that happens that's a reduction in in staff costs which are our the main driver of our budget we also know that there is a you know there
065appears to be some reduction in the number of students right and so it it suggests the possibility that as some teachers retire they may not always be in need to replace those those those people I mean and those are the kinds of things that I guess I'm going to want to try between now and next week I guess maybe with a conversation with Katherine but like well there seemed to me that there might be some some other things driving costs are always going to go up right but there may be some factors driving the possibility that cost aren't going to go up as much and of course what the board decides to do in terms of 2.8 or 3.4 essentially is a is a is a collaborative decision but those are the kinds of questions
066I have right now so well I mean I I would assume along with the side by side some suggestions about programmatic Cuts will be made so we how we'll have some sort of narrative to attach to what does it look like for our district to have 132 $2,000 L right like I said with still working on the numbers both scenarios at the where the point I am in budget development right now does show a a deficit right obviously a smaller deficit at the 3.38 it's not an unmanageable deficit I don't think at either one it's just figuring out where are we goingon to where where will we cover that from whether it's we push off one of those wish list items for one more year or you know we have lots of different options that
067you know we'll be able to talk about more in depth next week thank you thank you yeah thanks so much thank you um so we're now at the time in our meeting for Comm unication from the public on special presentations and agenda item um the how 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 um and I think say um all right so moving into consent agenda minutes um may I have a motion please so moved second all those in favor I I I any opposed um consent agenda finantial may I have a motion please so moved second um I just wanted to say I looked really closely at the sports merger agreement kind of amazing
068very early for baseball year when we don't know for this year no but it just seems early sorry inter all right those Spring sport well but we don't have to go into them if we don't need them but it's putting them in place I was actually gonna have a different message than Maggie which was I thought it was really great that through the mergers it offered lots and lots of different opportunities for our students right like for students like to get to swim and you know play hockey I mean it really reflects our commitment to providing students with the opportunities that meet what they want so um yeah all right so um all those in favor I I any oppos um and the Conant agenda Personnel may I have a motion Fe so moved thank
069all those in favor I any po all right unfinished business um short superintendent search update moving forward we're on target um I think you know just contined thanks to everybody uh who's helping to make it happen thank you to you yeah for for creating this I mean for creating the process facilitating it really I mean it's it's not easy it's a lot of work it's a lot of hours it's a lot of opin that you are going back through sometimes a second time and having us you know so I appreciate that yeah I give you a public service award so sweet which is which is nothing doesn't come with a prize that's where it comes with Panera I will say that it's been very well W Ron you've done it really do appreciate it ly
070Lyn and Neil have done a very good job everybody involved has been and Megan y everybody involved has been great yeah it really it really is it really is a collaborative effort and so um uh and uh it's a good a good system we have going on and I appreciate the thanks um it has not been it has not been an insignificant undertaking I will certainly say that um but an exciting one um and then for new business we have our CSC cpsc recommendations may we have the recommended action for be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the recommendations of the Committees on special education and preschool special education as presented may we have a motion please so moved second all those in
071favor I I any opposed all right well now at the time in our meeting for the second opportunity for communication from the public that would be related to any and all School District matters all right um board Reflections does anybody have any Reflections before we um I'll say it's I've spent a lot of time with the board members and it's pretty great I did want to say I did want to say that we we adhere very very fiercely to the rules that govern our gathering that we do not gather except when the camera's on like we don't do that so this has in my six years this has been the most time I've ever spent with the board and it's very gratifying so I agree I think it's niceo superintendent final thought all right um
072I move to adjourn the meeting May I have a second second please second all those in favor I thank you