001All right. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I thank you. Welcome everyone to No Place Board of Education meeting. It's March 11th, 2026. And everyone please stand also here we have um two emergency exits in the back of the auditorium and two at the front of the auditorium in case um do we have any veterans here with us this evening? We have any media with us here this evening? Okay, Mr. Ly message. Thank you. Uh tonight will be the first budget workshop that will be presented later in tonight's meeting as we enter the second half of the school year. things will things continue to move along for our students and our athletes. I would like to highlight some of the events and activities that have taken place since last May. PSI love you uh
002day and anti-bullying initiative was celebrated districtwide with different building events and activities. PSI love you day is observed on the second Friday in February. Students and staff were encouraged to wear purple to show unity against bullying. This year's theme was be the light at Andrew Muller Primary School. The Teddy Bear Clinic sponsored by Stony Brook Children's Hospital is an interactive injury prevention program. The program covers safety topics including car seat safety, passenger safety, water safety, and safe helmet use. Kindergarten students visited the Long Island Explorio in Port Jefferson that included a hands-on investigations to explore science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Students in grades one and two visited the Simple Smiles to learn about improper dental health care. Andrew Muller Primary School held this annual parents as reader partners week. Each day a new text
003was introduced along with reading, writing, math, movement, art, and music activities. Throughout the week, the children were encouraged to bring in used books as a donation to the book fairies organization. Gladier Decker South Beach uh school welcomed Rowan Murphy to speak with students and share his inspiring story. Rohan was born without legs. He spoke about working hard to become a wrestler, earning a spot on the Penn State University wrestling team, and even appearing in a Nike commercial. Rohan's message showed our students that real strength comes from a positive attitude, courage, and never giving up. The school improvement team continued the ROAR initiative where students from each grade were selected for their optimism awards. At Ladier Decker Sound Beach School, students began the Panther Page Challenge. This year, each grade will work to try to read
004the most pages. During the kickoff assembly, students had a surprise visit from the Miller Place Panther, who cheered on our students. This challenge is an opportunity for students to develop a strong sense of teamwork as they develop a love for reading. Detective Rivera from the Suffet County Police Department spoke with our Latty students about the power of respect, understanding hate, kindness, and standing up for others. Fourth grade students attended the journeys in the American Indian Territory uh presentations. Students engaged in a hands-on museum which was set up in the gymnasium along with an in-class project. The day concluded with music and a question and answer session. Fourth grade students explored and participated in a building scavenger hunt. Students work together to solve challenging math problems in each room to unlock the clues to rescue the
005penguins and escape in time. Fifth grade students welcome Miller Place High School athletes for the second visit of our athletes helping athletes program. This program introduces our fifth grade students to high school role models who work with them to inspire teamwork, leadership, and encouragement. At North Country Road Middle School, nearly 75 students spent the evening diving into hands-on experiences like propeller cars, catapults, spearobs, airplane aerodynamics at our secondary steam night on February 4th. The Miller Place High School Science Club, the Triumph Honor Society, Robotics, Lego League, Drama Club, and Student Government all provided engaging activities throughout the night. In addition, we have community partners including the New York Marine Rescue, Brook Haven National Lab, Mount Sinai Nature Center, and our local libraries at Miller Place High School. Miller Place High School Science Olympiad team competed
006at the Eastern Long Island Regional Science Olympiad and placed 14th out of 66 teams with top finishers in astronomy, dynamic planet, Write It, Do It, and more. Incredible teamwork, grit, and STEM excellence was on display. 10th grade students had the privilege of hearing from Jane Pashman from the organization 3GNY. Miss Pashkin's work at 3GNY brings together grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to provide a living link to their legacy. She shared the powerful story of her grandmother's life before, during, and after the Holocaust. Willow Place High School partnered with Sunni Stonybrook to offer 40 students an opportunity to participate in the Stonybrook I STEM collaborative afterchool program. Students uh chose from a variety of courses to enroll. The senior class recently traveled to Boston to experience its history and culture. Highlights included a town hall debate, the
007Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, the Museum of Science, Museum of Fine Arts, and the New New England Holocaust Memorial, as well as a guided tour of the historic Fenway Park. Trip provided students the opportunity to discover one of America's most historic cities. In as in athletics, all six middleplace high school varsity teams, boys winter track, girls winter track, girls basketball, traditional cheer, wrestling, and boys basketball, all qualified for the New York State Public High School Student Athletics Association scholar athlete teams. This is calculated by taking 75% of the total roster and evaluating the average GPA for the second marking period. This winter we had 154 roster varsity athletes with 102 which is 66% earning a 90 or better GPA for the second quarter. Please visit our community page on the district website where you
008can find links with information and activities to various groups that support our students. Upcoming events March 26th Andrew Muller Primary School and Lady Decker Sound Beach School will have parent teacher conferences. On March 27th, we'll have the Miller Place High School variety show and March 30th, the North Country Road Middle School spring sports begin. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Cincy. >> Um, I just have a couple of things from the board. Um, sometimes we do uh some advocacy work in the community and I just want to let everyone know that we met with the whole board met with uh Jane Bonner and um Mr. was squad drone. We were having a lot of concerns and the community was having some concerns with the new trader Joe's that um was built and also the Frankman
009sets coming. We were concerned with the traffic patterns that were going to take place over there for our students. We have um there's a lot of traffic over there at certain times of the day. Um and I will say they were they were very particular. We met with them and um they did inform us that the two roads, the access roads onto Miller Place Road, there were not going to be two exits. There was only going to be McDonald's exit. Everyone would be coming out of that. So that made us feel a little bit better. Um they also assured us that once Sprinks opens and both businesses are open that they're going to look again at the traffic patterns and we're going to put a little bit of pressure on them to do another um
010to do a traffic study of the area because it's going to get busy. Um but in the meantime, we really want to thank the town for having a partnership with us and I think that's important going forward that um you know as more businesses come to another place that the concern and safety for our students especially at that intersection where um there's always an accident. Uh so I just wanted to keep everyone up to date on that. Anyone want to add to that? >> I just wanted to add that it was a very uh productive meeting. Um they reviewed with us uh what a halflet center is and how it was actually designed and how it's existed through the years because our concern was the amount of traffic that was going to come onto the
011road and um you know with regards to kids getting to school >> and they did a very good job of explaining sort of the history of how things got to the way they are and how we're as a board We um your state has as our concern is always our schools and access to our schools and kids making their safe and I thought we collectively really got our message across and I'm very happy with the reception in town. >> Okay. Okay. The other thing I wanted to keep everyone um um up to date on is our superintendent search. Um our resumes are all it's closed. The windows closed. We've collected as many we haven't collected them but search um search firm has collected them and they will be conducting interviews over the next two weeks.
012Um and then we should have the interviews ourselves the following two weeks. So I will keep you. I also want to congratulate our family. They were spectacular. Everybody was very >> Oh my gosh. Again, if you ever get a chance to come to one of our plays, you have to do it because it they were just amazing. Every every single one of them was amazing. So, I want I want to personally congratulate them. >> And that's all on them. Anybody wants to have anything? >> Pretty good. All right. Um, so on our agenda items, if you have any questions, we made two agenda items. Please step up to the mic, state your name, and let us know your questions. Jan Miller, Miller Place. I would like to ask first if there's any possible way that
013any files or documents relating to both the consent agenda and the board policies under review can be uploaded to the website at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Um, once the consent agenda is approved, when they're uploaded late in the afternoon on the meeting day, I don't think most people have a chance to look at what it is you're actually approving. Um, I know I don't. Um, but I did get a chance to look really quickly before the meeting tonight and my question is I looked at the Scots Point contract um, for what looks to be the end ofear second grade moving up party. I just didn't understand. Is that money that the PTO raises? Where did the funds for that party come from? >> A lot of times the parents are um funding
014those trips. So they'll uh contribute the amount that is needed for those trips. >> Are they funding this one? >> I wouldn't know that offh hand. I'd have to go to the field trip form to see that. >> But you're approving the contract in the ability to sign that contract tonight. >> Correct. >> So who's paying for this? It's more than likely the parents. I don't have the field trip information with me, though. >> Okay. I feel like that should be clear before you approve this contract. >> Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? All right. Um, we did have a couple of donations, so thank you anyone who donated. I'm going to need a motion to approve and second motion motion. Motion second >> J Keller. I need a second. Second. Andrea. All in
015favor? I. >> Thank you. Hi, Stephen. You're gonna tell us about the signature. >> Turn off the mic. >> Mike, sorry. >> So, this week's for the trip to Boston. I personally went um the trip included visits to several resort sites that breeding trail, Boston Museum of Science, Snow Park, and Herbert Square. I think for most of us though the most memorable experience was definitely the annual reenactment of this uh 18th century Boston panh hall meeting that we participated in. Um our students took on the roles of columns submitting political issues in this giant historical auditorium. Basically, um when you walked in, they had to give you these cards. There were 100 cards and each of these cards with like a name on it was like an entire speech and then um the the debate
016topic was like whether you should hang the six the six people in the Boston Massacre. And so basically it was like a play um in like an auditorium like this and like you stood up and then just like shouted these um these like arguments that they written up like historical records and then everybody would scream who's really fine. It was it was hilarious. Um and so I thought it was a really amusing way to experience history that we usually only read class. So that was really nice. Um the the drama department's production The Little Mermaid also recently took place. Um, it was the first school musical I've personally attended and yeah, it was like truly like mind-blowing to see like how many moving parts came together from like the acting and the music and in
017the pit, the set design and choreography. Um, and like what the students were able to accomplish in such a short period of time was just incredible. I was I was like what what the how is possible. So that was that was really amazing. Um, additionally, um, I know so, uh, for something, we visited, um, the elementary school, um, I think last week, but also we had a a field trip, the Michael Murphy Navy Seal Museum, um, where we learned about a leadership service and the legacy of, um, Navy Seals, previously attended Michael Murphy. Um, looking ahead, members of the Tribute Honor Society will also be attending a field trip to see the dog show behind ending I think in two weeks. spot giving students the opportunity to experience professional theater. Um, and finally, spring sports
018have just begun this week with practices starting only a few days ago for batten, tennis, softball, baseball, track, and lacrosse. Uh, for me, tennis actually just started today and it was with the snow that kind of seems like never anything super exciting to see teams finally getting back outside the season. So, that's all I got to report. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'm glad you had a good time on the show. Okay, we had one board committee meeting and that was curriculum with Jen Kell. We will report on that. >> Hi, I'm Jennifer Keller and I attended the curriculum meeting um on uh February 12th. Um so our district continues to demonstrate an impressive commitment to inter interdisciplinary learning and community spirit. This is evident in our secondary students connection to the Great Gatsby to
019modern concepts of the American dream and the business department's focus on realworld financial literacy. At the elementary level, students are engaging in hands-on STEM initiatives like the Long Island in uh Explorium visit and highly successful districtwide STEM night while also building character through events such as Peace Kindness Day and the Teddy Bear Clinic. I'm particularly excited about this collaboration uh collaboration effort that took place between the science departments of Shore Waiting River School and Mil Place. the teachers meant to try to meet the new standards um uh for the science um exams that exchange and high school business students mentoring of young students in Li Decker. Our social studies and English department are uh deepening their global awareness through Holocaust remembrance honoring veterans and um the growing seal of bi literacy program. The inclusion of
020the Annne Flying exhibit and guest speakers um provides our students with a primary source connection to history that textbooks alone cannot replicate. Reinforcing our district's commitment to student growth and ethical leadership. These programs allow our students develop empathy and moral courage necessary to stand against injustice in an increasingly complex world. This dedicated focus on belonging ensures that we are supporting the de development of compassionate citizens committing to fostering a respectful and inclusive society. Community bonds remain important, specifically the friends of the arts production of the little mermaid. Um members of the production team include um Miss Phelps, Miss Coners, Mr. Hardy, Mr. B, Miss Roberry, um, and Dr. Brian. Um, community volunteers. There were so many, um, great things happening with the parents and so forth. I'd like to specifically thank Mr. Pascal who volunteers
021to build his sets every year, even though his kids have graduated already. Um, and I'd also like to thank Miss um, oh, I'm going to say Mali Melani Money, sorry, sorry, Miss Melenni and Miss Delaney. um they made sure that the kids were fed and hydrated and the the entire tech week. So um the play is so awesome and it's such a great event for all the kids. So thank you so much. Thanks so much, J. Okay. Um we're going to have our superintendent proposed 2627 budget presentation. All right. Good evening everyone. Uh and welcome to the 2627 superintendent budget presentation. So tonight we're going to do a budget overview of revenues and expenditures. Then on March 25th we'll do a budget review and budget adoption. On May 5th we'll have our budget hearing. And
022then on May 19th we'll have our budget vote, board of trustee election and library contract. Here are some quick facts about the property tax levy cap. This tax cap is calculated based on a formula provided by the state controllers's office. The tax levy represents the amount of money a school district needs to raise through taxes to balance its budget. The tax cap limits how much a school district can increase the total amount of property taxes it collects each year. If the district stays within the tax cap, just a simple majority is needed to pass the budget proposal. Exceeding the tax cap requires the 60% of the voters to approve the budget proposal. And this year, the allowable prox property tax levy limit is 2.33 for the 2627 school year with the devi uh with the
023district levying to the tax limit. Here's a property tax levy cap history for your information. Um this uh history also includes the rate of inflation or CPI and our actual calculated tax cap. One component of the calculation is the dis school district's levy can only grow by the lower of 2% or the rate of inflation CPI. The rate of inflation or CPI was 2.63% for this past year which is above the maximum allowed CPI of 2% per the OSC formula. So the district is required to use 2% within the tax cap formula calculations for the upcoming school year. The OC calculated cap for Miller Place is 2.33. For your information, this is the fifth year in a row that the actual rate of inflation has exceeded the 2% maximum that school districts are allowed to
024use in their tax cap calculations. Now let us review the required tax cap calculation. First we start with the prior year tax levy of 53.7 million. We then add in our taxbased growth factor of which is um 0.0021 which gives us 53.7. This number is assigned by the New York State Office of Real property based on residential and commercial activity within our school district. We then subtract the cap Bosey's capital exclusion for 2526 of 81,000. We then subtract the debt service building aid for 2526 of 1.8 million. This gives us our subtotal of then of 51.9 million. We then add our maximum allowed CPI factor which from the prior slides I uh noted was 2% which gives us approximately $1 million to add in. We then add the debt service minus the building aid for
0252627 of 1.9. We then add the Boseies capital exclusion for 2627 of 84,000. We don't have any exclusion for the retirement systems this year. This then totals our allowable tax levy limit for the 2627 school year at 55 million. And this presents a budget that's within the property tax levy cap limitation. Now let us review the projected revenue budget. We start with the calculated tax limit le levy of 55 million. We then add in our projected state aid of 26.1 million. We add other income of 589,000. We are then using some reserves to offset some of the expensive categories including unemployment of approximately 50,000, workers comp of 225,000, employers retirement system of 800,000 and teachers retirement system of 650,000. We're then applying fund balance of 2.67 million. We end up with a total budget of
02686.17 million or 1.31% increase. Here's a different view of the projected revenue sources to fund the budget. Property taxes make up 63%, state aid 30%. Our appropriated fund balance is 3% while our reserves make up 2% and other revenues just under 1%. Regarding state aid, we have two main types of aid. Foundation aid which has been uh relative remained relatively flat at 16.7 million. Expense driven aid is based on our actual spending as and has some fluctuations each year. Overall state aid is projected at 26.1 million for next year. Here are some important state aid ratios that are used in state calculations for our district. The combined wealth ratio is the state's way of measuring how wealthy a school district is using two factors. The property wealth, the value of our property in our district,
027and the income wealth, income of people who live in our district. Our combined wealth ratio has increased to 0.956, which means that the district is overall slightly wealthier than last year. In short, it's a number that tells the state how much a district can afford to fund its own schools. Next, the special education ratio of 51.3 determines aid reimbursements that the district receives for their high cost special education placement expenses in the following year. Our transportation aid ratio of 56.7 is determined um our aid reimbursements for our transportation expenses as well in the following year. And then another expense-based aid is building aid which is aided at 72.4% 4% over the life of the project or bond. So here's a snapshot of the district's wealth as compared to the statewide average. Our combined wealth ratio
028is 0.956 which means that the district is overall slightly wealthier than last year. We have given some other school districts combined wealth ratio forformational purposes only so that you can see where we are in as compared to some of the other districts. Next, I would like to review the fund balance and reserves. School districts are permitted to have certain specific reserves and retain up to 4% of its budget as unassigned fund balance. Miller Place currently has six reserves. employee benefits liability acred reserve or commonly known as Ebler, workers comp, compensation, retirement system reserves, including the teachers retirement system and the employer's retirement system, unemployment and insurance. The district for this year is projecting usage of 1.8 million and for next year has projected increasing the usage uh or actually decreasing the usage to 1.7 million.
029The chart reflects our current balance, projected use for this year and next, and the ending balance if these reserves are not replenished. The district does try to replenish these reserves each year. So, the superintendent is proposing an million budget or 1.31% increase over last year. Now, the New York State Education Department requires all school districts to present their budgets using five standardized categories. These expense categories ensure consistency across all school districts. They reflect the major areas where school resources are allocated from classroom instruction to district district-wide operations and long-term financial obligations. The chart presents these five major C expenditure categories which are general support of 10% instruction of 51% transportation of close to 7% and undistributed costs of 31.37%. To provide greater clarity on how district resources are used, the second chart organizes the proposed
030superintendent's budget by expenditure type. This view highlights the major cost drivers that support daily operations, instructional programs, and long-term financial commitments. Breaking the budget down in this way helps the community to understand the expenditure cate categories which include salaries of 43% benefits of 24% equipment of under 1% contractual of close to 16% textbooks.18 services of over 7% debt service of 6.5 supplies 1.21 and interfund transfers of under 1%. With regard to instructional services, the s superintendent is proposing a slight decrease of 177,000 or point4%. Primarily driven by enrollment patterns and anticipated staff at retirements. This instructional category represents the core of our in educational program and includes general education, students with disabilities education, occupational education through Boseies, a variety of instructional support and educational services as well as co-curricular act services and athletic programs that
031enrich students school experiences. With reference to enrollment, we are projecting a modest decrease to 2,235 students for the 2627 school year. Even with this slight decline, the district is continuing to support the high levels of students with disabilities populations, English language learners, 504 accommodations, and free and reduced populations. For the 24-25 school year, the district had 44 elementary classrooms with class sizes ranging from 21.3 to 26.2. For the 2526 school year, we have we have 44 elementary class uh classrooms with class sizes ranging from 20.7 to 25.7. For the 2627 school year, the district will be moving to 41 elementary classrooms. Overall, the AMP's average class sizes will range from 22.7 to 24.5, while the Latty average class size range will be from 24.5 to 26.8. Now, regarding occupational education, the superintendent is proposing to
032continue offering occupational education program opportunities to district students at BOC sites and we send our students to the afternoon um programs uh due to travel times and to meet the graduation requirements. We also are continuing to support our co-curricular activities, clubs, and athletics. With regard to transportation services, the 26 um overall this line were is increasing 127,000 or 2.18%. And this will be the fourth year of our um 5-year contract with our transportation vendor. Here's some statistics on transportation services. Again, the budget is 5.9. Um, our current state aid ratio reimbursement ratio is 56.7%. So, for every dollar that we spend, we get approximately 56 cents back for every dollar the following year. Currently, we have out of district students of 49 students that we send to 29 schools and with 13 matrons. Um in
033district we have 33 students at the four schools with one matron. And then our current occupational education has 47 students at two schools and current private and prochial we have 41 students at seven different schools that we're transporting. Now with regard to undistributed when we talk about undistributed uh costs it's a term defined by New York State. We're referring to district-wide expenses that support the entire school system rather than one school or program. These are operational and financial obligations that allow the district to function day-to-day. These costs include all staff employee benefit costs, debt service costs for payments for past uh major building renovations and upgrades that were financed through bonds, tax anticipation notes, which are short-term borrowings that provide cash flow during the first half of the school year um for the school district,
034and interfers to cover the district share of grant-f funded programs. Here's a closer look at employee benefits. Overall, the line is increasing 624,000. Um, this covers all benefit costs for every district employee, including health insurance, dental, life insurance, retirement system contributions, social security, and other mandated benefits. We have an overall reduction in the retirement system cost due to a lower TRS rate. But we also have an overall increase for health insurance due to an increase from our state insurance provider NICH. With regard to the retirement systems, um when you look at these um retirement system obligations, it's important to remember that New York State requires all eligible employees to participate in one of two public retirement systems. The first one is the ERS is the employer's retirement system which covers most non-instructional staff and TRS
035the teachers retirement system which covers instructional staff. Each year the state sets contribution rates for both systems based on actuarial pro projections, investment performance and long-term pension obligations. For this budget cycle, the ERS rate is increasing to 17.6 as compared to last year of 16.5. while in contrast the TRS rate is decreasing to 8.75 from 9.59. Now moving on to health insurance. Um when we look at health insurance expenses, the district participates in the NICHIP program or the New York State Health Insurance Program which provides medical, hospital and prescription coverage for public employees across the state. NICHIP annually adjusts its premium rates based on statewide claims experience, medical inflation, and overall program costs for the upcoming year. The school district's health insurance costs are projected to increase by approximately 886,000 or 6.9%. This increase reflects
036higher NISHIP premium rates, required Medicare reimbursements for retirees, and declination payments for employees not utilizing our healthcare plan. Health insurance continues to be one of the cost drivers in the budget as these rates are set at the state level and must be incorporated into our financial planning each year. With regard to debt service, overall debt service is projected at 5.6 million for our finance projects and for our tax anticipation note. debt service payments on our bonds that have is that we finance our major capital projects such as are building additions and renovations are in infrastructure projects such as such as the air conditioning and ventilation projects while tax anticipation notes are short-term borrowings that provide cash flow during the first half of the fiscal year. Now, to sum it up, here's the important dates uh
037that are up and coming. Um board of education candidate packets are available. Please contact the district clerk Louise Trumba to pick up a packet. The submission deadline for those packets is April 20th, 2026 at 5:00 PM. On May 5th, we'll have a budget hearing at 7 pm. And then on May 19th, we have our annual budget vote and board of trustee election at the North Country Road Middle School from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. And does the board uh uh does Mr. Lipshi? Do you want to speak? Uh thank you Mrs. Cart for that presentation and your hard work during the uh budget process. I also want to thank the uh building administrators who also contributed uh to creating this budget. Um we start with a projected budget based on this year our services um
038and then look to roll them over and then we look at the increases. And when you look at the increase that that is allowable and then you go to the slide at the very end where just health insurance in and of itself is uh just a little less than $900,000. There are other natural costs that have to go up. So we certainly had a gap when we started the uh budget process. Um uh in order to reduce those um or reduce that gap to get under the cap um we looked at um altering uh some of our initiatives um we looked at you know maximizing our in-house staff as opposed to uh using outside staff. um in calculating teacher retirements. Uh if you notice there there was some savings. We've had retirements. Um that being
039the case whether you look at the elementary uh where we we had retirements not replacing them allowed us now to uh although class sizes uh did move up uh one of the things we're able to do and we had secondary retirements as well. We'll have 58 less students next year in grades 7 through 12. So, we had some uh secondary retirements as well, which we're going to look to absorb and not replace. That being said, the goal of this budget was to maintain all our electives at the high school we had this year, all our field trips, all our student activities, all our student services. um and to reduce as little staff as possible uh by doing that. So um I don't know if the board has any questions for me and Mrs. Cart uh
040regarding the budget. Just go up to the microphone if you do. Um I was just wondering how does this budget help to advance the district's strategic plan goals? Um I think you addressed a little bit but if you want to go further. >> Yeah certainly. Uh uh and I think uh when we look at the strategic plan uh where where it ends with the whole child we wanted to make sure we were not uh going to reduce any again when we talk about rigor electives at the high school but the full experience for students that we're not going to reduce field trips. we're not going to lose uh reduced student activities and certainly student services uh for our most nudy needy students would not be uh impacted either. So we're able to maintain all that
041in regards to moving that plan forward while while having a a budget under the cap. Can you hear me? >> Try it again. >> There you go. >> All right. Thank you. Um, first I'd like to thank you um for doing all of this work. Um, because my question is so budget to budget from last year to this year. I mean, we're going up uh 2.33%. >> What is it? >> That's the tax cap. >> The tax cap is 2. I'm sorry I said budget to budget the percentage is only going up uh 2.33%. So we are staying under the cap >> and we are still maintaining um to uh Mr. Lipy's point and to this point too we are maintaining um programmatically for the kids everything that we currently have. >> Yes, >> that
042is correct. >> Okay. And the rate of inflation, the current rate of inflation, um the actual rate of inflation is higher than 2.33%. >> Okay. >> Yes. So unfortunately what we have to do is we have to stay within to in order to have a tax cap compliant budget. We have to rely on resources outside of what we get from our foundation aid in order to responsibly budget in order for this to take place. um considering health care costs, considering you know what you had just shown um you know I I'd like to say that uh thank you for doing this and thank you for keeping us where we're at with regards to the budget question. >> I haven't Yeah, I have a question. Um you mentioned that at the um uh case uh grade
0437 through 12 you'd be like absorbing um all of the like the teachers retiring through like you know there's 55 less students. Um so I know like a two or three teachers are retiring at the high school um in particular Miss Dez for um for the music program. Are there like any plans to like hire another music teacher at the high school? So, I can't specifically talk about staffing, but we're not looking to reduce any music uh that that students would be offered. >> Okay. So, like curriculum wise and like the ensemble wise, like there would be no changes. >> I'm sorry, what was that, Steve? >> Like in terms of curriculum and ensembles um at the high school, there wouldn't be any like changes, right? >> I'm not foreseeing any reductions. >> Okay. Thank
044you. >> Any other questions from the board? uh the public if you have any questions. >> Okay. >> Hello. So, I guess I'm asking them, not you, correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> You don't like the question? We'll give >> Yeah. I think it goes your way more often as we witnessed this just half hour. Okay. Um I I think it's a I don't think it's a big uh issue, but I would like to understand uh retiree medical uh reimbursements. How does this work? Because they have Medicare and then I I couldn't understand from the line that you had, how does it work in practice? >> Sure. One of the requirements of the NIH plan is that when um a a person has um NICHIP coverage, NICHIP coverage becomes secondary and the Medicare becomes primary.
045>> Correct. >> So, one of the things that we're required to do per NICHIP rules is reimburse the Medicare part B um component for those employees who take retiree health insurance. >> Yeah. But what does it mean reimburse Medicare Part B component? Because how you define that? It's defined by we get a copy of their 1099 SSA which tells us exactly the amount that we have to reimburse to them. >> Right. But okay, sorry. May I ask because it's not really clear to me how numbers work because >> actually I'm on Medicare myself so I I think I can I hope I can understand. >> Uh because Medicare has premiums, >> right? >> Yes. >> So is that being reimbursed also? >> Just the Medicare part B premium. There's other premiums that are not reimbursed.
046>> Okay. And then there is an unreimbured portion. >> We don't reimburse anything other than part B. >> Part B premiums or also an unreimbured. >> Medicare part B premiums are the only thing that are reimbursed. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> That's nice ship rules. And sorry, but are this like the basic in tier one premiums or these are premiums >> however much they paid. >> It doesn't have anything to do with tiers. It just has to do with how much they paid for part B. So whatever you paid for part B is the amount that we would reimburse you if you were our prior employee >> and that you took health insurance. Okay, I think that concludes it. Uh, thank you and we'll go back up to the stage. >> I just want
047to thank Colleen and Mr. Lipy and um all the administrators for putting in all that effort and time and making the very best budget we can make. and staying under the tax cap. That is I don't know if everybody really understands that. Um it's hard to do some years and yet we do it consistently every year because our promise to you guys is always to be fiscally responsible as much, you know, as much as we can. There's a lot of unfunded mandates. Um, and really they do a great job of keeping our programs for our kids without cutting any of the programs. And to us that is top priority. Um, you know, programs extra. We have tons of clubs at every level of um, our schools. Um we have we run even though people think
048we don't run a lot of programs at the high school AT classes we run a lot for the number of students that we have um we have a lot of programs that are um in conjunction with the local universities and uh it's really really important that we maintain those programs for our kids and our community. So thank you again. Okay. So, um, we don't have anything in discussion in action, but we have some board policies in first time reading it. Um, we have some board policies in review, and we do have about eight in action um that we have to vote on tonight. So, I need a motion for those um board policies that are in action. >> Make a motion. on it. I be discussed. >> John, all in favor? >> I thank you.
049>> Um, next is our public be heard. Um, you can come up to the mic. You have two minutes. Please state your name. Community member, non-comm community member. Um, and we follow policy 1440 for public complaints about district personnel in which we discourage complaints or criticisms um at public meetings. So, if you'd like to come up to the mic, please do so. Okay. Um um so um we are going to go back to set session for personnel matters and legal matters. So, I'm going to need a motion board for it. Did you see it? >> Made a motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. All in favor? >> Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. Thank you for coming. Good night.