001Um, I'd like to call to order the Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 Board of Education regular meeting. Uh, please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance led by our ex officio student board member, Owen Brennan. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you and welcome. Um, 1.3 in our agenda is our superintendent's update, so I'm going to turn it over to Mary Fox Alter. All right. So, um, we have a number of exciting things to talk about, or I do as part of my superintendent's update. We have a very special guest this evening. Uh, Peaches has joined us and Peaches has brought team Roosevelt with her. Right, EVERYONE GIVE A APPLAUSE.
002SO, WE ARE EXCITED tonight to have, um, Brandon, the amazing Dr. Brandon Beck, author, publicist, teacher. All right. Um, here at to talk a little bit about the kids helping, um, sorry, kids helping Paws. That's right. I've I've just need my readers at this point. I was in the dark for 2 and 1/2 hours watching an amazing, by the way, OHS musical. If you haven't got your tickets yet, it was absolutely outstanding. Anyway, so, we have, uh, Dr. Beck presenting Kids Helping Paws and supporting Dr. Beck, we have a group of students who I think have a special treat for us and we have, um, our Roosevelt principal, Katie, right? And Derek, our assistant principal, all here this evening. Okay, Mr. DiRienzo. Okay. Right. All right, take it away, Dr. Beck. All right. First, I'm
003going to I'm just going to ask if it's okay if I invite my band up and we have a band here at Kids Helping Paws that we're VERY EXCITED ABOUT. THIS BAND IS GOING TO BE DEBUTING. They're having their first school-wide performance on Friday. We're super excited about it. So, they're going to they're our crew is going to share a little song with you just to get us off and it's it's a song that the name of our our school dog is Peaches and it just happens that this song happens to be about Peaches. So, all right, take it away. Are you guys ready? Yep. All right. Peach, you're so cool. With my staff, we're going Peach, I understand. I'm going I'll get you to the vet. Peaches, Peaches, and I love you. Peaches, Peaches,
004and I love you. Our only pediatrician Dr. Beck. >> Give it up for them. THEY'RE PRETTY GOOD. ALL RIGHT. GIVE IT UP. GIVE IT UP. ALL RIGHT. Good job. Thank you to them. Um super funny story since I met Finn when he was 5 years old in a music store and so excited I had chance to see him open up for the school as a teacher and when he came in and said that he was going to start playing his guitar all of a sudden it led to another kid coming to play his guitar and then another kid said he could play the piano and all of a sudden we have a band and then we have singers and we have a full on rock band. We went acoustic for you but we have other
005pieces and we're really excited about it and they're pumped on Friday. They're going to do something pretty awesome. So we're we're HAPPY FOR THEM. BUT WE'RE REALLY NOT HERE TO TALK about music at all actually. We're here to talk about an amazing thing that really started back in 2019 and it was kind of a crazy idea at the time and and our superintendent Dr. Sanchez and our school principal Michelle Greer as well as the assistant superintendent Carrie Carrie Ann Saiposs we all met together in a room and talked about this idea that came up because I read a fifth I read a Time for Kids magazine to a class of fifth grade students and it was about dogs going into schools all over the country that were rescue dogs that were dogs that were rescued
006from shelters not dogs that were purebred for this experience. And that moment when my students turned to me after I finished that article and when they said to me, "Dr. Beck, why can't we have a dog?" That moment changed my life. And I think that it changed my life as an educator and as a person and it allowed me to have the opportunity to be supported by Ossining Matters and be supported by the entire community and being supported by the entire school and the many different teachers that are involved with it in this program. And just this is not our first time being here in front of the board. This is a program that started before COVID and it not only survived but it thrived through COVID. It started as a program that was a
007supposed to be a mentor program and it quickly turned into something that was far greater. And so, I bring you here because well, these students had a long laundry list of accomplishments that are just too long to read and over the years we've done tremendous things and we leave this list of things here so you can see just the amount of people that have been involved in this. The actual senior class this year is the is the class that started this project. And I was very fortunate one of the students earlier reached out to me this year from the mental health club and he was one of my former students and I had the opportunity to come and and bring Peaches and speak to the mental health club and it was a full circle moment
008that I'll absolutely never forget because we had the opportunity to see this this the development and and how the many people that took a risk behind this project, it really turned into something great and you know, something great that you know, for me as a teacher but also for me as a father, for me as a human being. And so, you know, each year we have a long laundry list of things like this but I think it's funny that we have all of this large laundry list of amazing accomplishments and we only spend about 45 minutes together once a week. This incredible crew of kids come in every single day, every single time that every morning they come early. Sometimes they're there before me opening the door for me as I walk in. And I
009think it's an incredible thing to see what their leadership has turned into and the amazing impact that this program has had. They've developed a website. Where's Nathan? Is Nathan back there and and and Byron? They developed this amazing incredible website um that just really shows our mission. Fifth graders, by the way, these kids are 10 and 11 years old. I just want to make sure that you understand that because if there's anything that I've learned from this program is that leadership has no age limits. And I think that's what is a really amazing part about this program. And it's it a before school program that's been really incredible and I'm just going to have the a couple of the kids take it away from here. So, couple of you guys are going to come up
010and and say a few words. There's a microphone right there. They're all running away from the mic, but here they come boldly. They know they're ready for this. All right. LET'S DO IT. I'M ELENA HESS AND TO ME Kids Helping Paws is a community of leaders that get together to make a difference. Everyone gets an important role in the club so that together we can get our mission out in the open to end animal homelessness and to teach the connection between animal and human emotions. In Kids Helping Paws, we love helping animals that are in need of a shelter and getting animals out of the shelter in partner with the SPCA and we can also share our other passions such as music with me and Carter and a bunch of other kids. I'm Anika Helgerson
011and at Kids Helping Paws we work together creatively to spread awareness to other schools about um about spreading awareness to animal homelessness. I'm Elena Maitinas and to me Kids Helping Paws is a place where we can all work together as a team to help end animal homelessness. I'm Layla Miller and to me Kids Helping Paws is working together creatively and carefully to help end animal homelessness. Right. I'm Sadie Jacobs and to me Kids Helping Paws is a place where we work together to come up with many different ways to help animal homelessness. We start by raising awareness in our school building to inform other students, teachers, and families. We are also really proud to have a connection with the SPCA organization. Kids Helping Paws is a place where fifth graders such as us help animals
012in need by sending toys, blankets, and towels to the SPCA. Our goal is to end world animal homelessness. My name is Elzie McCreary and um for me Kids Helping Paws is a place where animals and humans can get along and we work with organizations like Micro School Music and SPCA. Uh my name is Kayla Preston and Kids Helping Paws to me is a place where we build growth and peace and we help animals in need and our mission is to end animal homelessness. Hi, I'm Carter Aiello and KHP to me is how we support the SPCA and work together to end animal homelessness once and for all. You good? Good work. Give them a round of applause. That was bold. GOOD JOB. I APPRECIATE THEM. THEY'RE THEY They really They really always take the the
013extra step and you know, our goal was here is you come, you you have the opportunity. I will allow you to say something. I'll allow you to speak. You deserve to have a voice and I think that is that's really what this is all been about for us. As you can see some of the pictures that we have here is just been it's been a great ride. This is a program that we've been super excited about and it's just been something that has been a program that we are excited to continue to be a part of. We have as you can see this is our our flyer for that is just came out. It is the band announcement. This is currently in the schools as we speak. We're super excited about it. They the name
014of their band is PAWS. It's Protecting Animals with Service which I think is pretty cool. That was their idea and so they're they're awesome. They they've taken the Peaches song and they've also written another parody that is is pretty cool that the kids are going to be rocking to. We're very thankful for the students and and I'm actually I didn't create this presentation by the way. The students created this presentation. We have student ambassadors at the beginning of the year that submitted a application and they earned $500 for our program through my degrees through the national organization. This program has been on News 12 in the past years. This program has been supported and we have been featured in a national newsletter last year. So this is a program that is not something that is
015just great in Westchester, but it's something that is worldwide and we just wanted to come here and take the moment to have the moment to just celebrate what's happening because the stuff that's happening in in the walls in the early hours in Roosevelt is pretty incredible. So thank you everybody for all of you for giving us the opportunity and we are thankful and APPRECIATE YOU ALL. THANK YOU SO MUCH DR. BECK AND TO all of the pause club students. Thank you so much for sharing your passion with us today and all the work you've been doing. Oh, it's Peaches. All right. And I I And uh Ms. Gagliano and uh Mr. DiRienzo, would you like to say a couple of words about the program itself? Katie or Derek? Right. I would love to thank, first
016of all, Dr. Beck, Peaches, and all of these students because this is just such a perfect example of what we believe in in our district around student leadership, student agency, student voice. And if you think about the skills that these students are learning, writing skills, public speaking skills, the the power of persuasion, using statistics, graphing, these students themselves, they use Canva to create graphics that they share throughout the school. These students are presenting at other schools, not just in Ossining, but throughout the area, and they're sharing their message of hope and love and advocacy and social justice. Truly, we have the future right before us, and this is a This is more than a club. This is a more than a passion project. The students that are a part of this organization are going to
017remember this this for years into their futures. They might not remember that assignment or essay they wrote, but they will always remember being a part of something that's bigger than themselves, and this is such a great reminder of kids having power and Roose growing leaders. So, thank you, Dr. Beck. Thank you, Peaches. And thank you to all of our student leaders for what you do every single day. They come on Roose News every week. Every week. And we do a Roose News show for 400 people, and these kids are at my desk presenting and giving the updates, all the things that we're doing to help end animal homelessness, raise awareness, making toys, making donations. They email me even sometimes without Dr. Beck knowing, and they propose different ideas. The creativity and just their compassion is
018truly astounding. So, thank you to our families for supporting us and making sure they get to school even before school starts every week. And thank you to the board and all of our district administrators for supporting this incredible, phenomenal work. Thank you. I I will say I I will you know a group of us were at the OHS play late afternoon, early evening, and I can't wait to tell Ms. Matthews and Mr. Drew D Rienzo that just wait, there's a band in fifth grade called Paws, and they're going to add a lot to the high school play performance in future years. So, it's wonderful. Thank you. All right. Let them gather for a picture. Um do you have any more in your bag? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, just a couple of things. Folks, I
019hope folks have been enjoying the new facilities newsletter that Nicole Reese has been working with our communications folks and with our construction individuals, architects, and engineers. It's just a quick little hand one-pager with bullets and photographs, so it can basically help update our community about all the activities related to the variety of facilities project. Our goal is to put one out once a month. And some months, I think this one we might be doing two. We took Owen's suggestion, the QR code for the old church area that has gotten a lot of uh questions and attention and clearly the one over on Stormy Town Road. So again, hopefully everyone has been able to check out the latest edition of that newsletter. April is Autism Acceptance Month and let's share kindness and help spread acceptance and
020understanding. Um our Board of Education Trustees will be hosting a coffee talk regarding the 2026-2027 budget and facilities and all things Board of Education. Um the first the first one will be this Saturday uh from 10:00 until 2:00 p.m. at the Ossining Public Library. Uh I want to give a huge uh shout-out and congratulations to Roosevelt student um Gul- Gulburn a a Logan Gulburn. Logan's artwork has been selected for the New York State ATA Legislative Art Exhibition in Albany, New York. He is representing our school district alongside talented artists from across New York State and it's phenomenal that we have a Roosevelt student whose artwork was selected. Our high school pioneer team played against Carmel yesterday. Our high school students visited a building and construc- construction trades fair at SUNY um State University of New
021York uh Rockland Community College where they held a big trade fair to show expanding opportunities for careers and pathways for our kids. This event introduced students to a wide range of commun- career opportunities uh available within the building and construction trades. The second annual Lions Den Invitational Track Meet was recently held. I want to give a huge shout-out to London Gilchrist, uh Charlotte Soto, and Brooklyn Williams for making the low HUD flag football super seven watch list. I hopefully you were able to check out that article. Um, the high school proudly presents the prom school edition this weekend. Um, I was at it with a a number of our administrators who were here this evening. A phenomenal show, uh, great talent, wonderful singing. Um, I just couldn't say enough about it. Um, I want to
022give a Um, the the school district by the way has a number of seats available in kindergarten and first grade dual language classes for the 2026-2027 school year and applications can be found on our website. And last but not least because you know April 15th is just around the block that is um, income tax day. But um, you know, but on a happy note if anyone saw the paper edition of the Journal News, um, Ossining students help file tax returns through the IRS volunteer program. Phenomenal article. I want to congratulate um, the high school, the teachers and Miss Langley. So and when you see it like in a big print edition you realize how terrific it is. So that's my update for this evening. May I just also say too because you mentioned the the
023play, um, it is for those people listening it is an amazing thing to watch. It's Broadway production quality as far as I'm I'm concerned. Absolutely. For two and a half hours I was tran- transferred to a different place. Just a different place, right. And our seniors loved it. Our senior citizens loved it this evening. Loved it. Loved it. I know Logan has more shout outs for the high school in his report. I mean, Owen, sorry. Oh, that's right. That's right. I did my All Uh, we have, I'm sorry, two things. I forgot. Apologies. Um, we have very exciting news. Over the break, we have three teams from our third grade Destination Imagination program who made it to Globals. So, we've got, um, our Destination Imagination team, our Ossining High School Robotic going on to Globals
024and Global competition. So, that's a phenomenal accomplishment. I want to congratulate the students, the families, the parents involved because it's a group effort, our teachers who are involved, and we will be cheering them on as they head out to Kansas City Kansas City for uh, Globals. It's uh, the end of next month, right? That's the date. Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day weekend, right. Okay, so congratulations. That's great. ALL RIGHT. OWEN, IT'S YOUR TURN. SO, hi everyone. I was just talking with Ms. Meyer. School year is winding down. We're at the high school almost in the fourth quarter, which is kind of kind of hard to say, especially as a senior. But, um, so, I had the biggest thing right now for our seniors is a lot of them are making their plans for next year,
025and I just want to encourage everyone to visit the Ossining Decisions 2026 page on Instagram. Um, you're able to see all the incredible achievements, uh, many of our seniors have accomplished. There will definitely be some more posts in the coming weeks as we near that decision deadline. And, uh, me, Ms. Reese, and a couple other members have, uh, broken off into a sub committee in the communications committee to see how we can better recognize some of our students who have really made their dreams come true with college and all of that. So, um, you should look forward to some something some more of that in the future. Um, I want to shout out our Ossining varsity baseball team who spent the spring break in Florida in Vero Beach at the Jackie Robinson training complex. We
026had a great week. We got to go to the beach in a lot warmer weather. So, it was it was very nice. Um three of our science research seniors over the break, Sophia Krengel, Hannah Contreras, and Tiersa MacIntyre participated in the New York State Science and Engineering Fair. Uh and congratulations to Sophia and Hannah for placing. I want to congratulate OHS junior Kyle Bhattacharyya for who was selected as the 2026 Scholastic Art Awards national winner. Uh and he will have his photograph, A Gathering of Culture, featured in the Scholastic Gallery as a national medalist. So, congratulations to him. I want to shout out our boys lacrosse team who picked up their first win yesterday against Edgemont. And I want to acknowledge that the Ossining High School class of 2026 will be hosting a fundraiser at
027the Yorktown Chipotle in Crompond Road this Saturday from 4:00 to 8:00 where 25% of a sale will be put towards prom tickets and all the expenses that come with that for our class. What do prom tickets cost this year? We're figuring out. We have a meeting next week, so It depends on how many people eat at Chipotle. It depends on how many how many bowls we can sell, so Okay, cuz I've got a Chipotle bowl I'm going to buy, that's for sure. Wait, which Chipotle? The Yorktown, Yorktown. I'm already there, Catherine. So, wait, is that's the one near Lowe's? Yes. Yes. >> right. And Sergio's, yeah. Give them a lot of money. Okay. So, what what when when do we have to eat at Chipotle? I think it's it's from 4:00 to 8:00. Yeah, 4:00
028to 8:00 on Saturday. This Saturday. This Saturday. We'll be there. Um we're >> are going to create a line. I got to get there before you, you know, so We're not we're not supposed to be there telling people to say our name, but we'll we'll be there handing out flyers, so Um So, I also want to um shout out some of the people that I've worked with this year in this role. Um the last couple months um have been a little bit more busy for me because I've been playing baseball, so practices and games have picked up, so I haven't been as involved as I was in the beginning of the year, but all of the programs that we have started at the beginning of the year and the middle of the year have continued,
029and all these events have continued. You know, at Claremont, um Miss Shamsi, Mr. Charvet, Miss Lockwood have helped create do an event um with for reading month at Roosevelt, our administration team and Miss Hershorn, as well as our science research liaisons continue to have that collaboration and that program. Um they actually just met today. Um and at Brookside, um working with Miss Ardoin's to have an event between the two the two of us. And um so, everything everything is running even though, you know, like I'm not as involved, and I think that's what this really position is about. You know, I I'm there to make suggestions and be a representative, but let other people um you know, help as well. And I think that's it's been really great the last couple months that we've seen
030that. So, at Claremont, um with the help of our OHS Project Lit Book Club, we had OHS students read to third and fourth graders to celebrate March as reading month. And Miss Shamsi, um uh and our science research teachers have collaborated, and we're planning on having OHS students go to the fourth grade science fair, which is next Thursday as science supporters. So, that's going to be a great event as well. At Roosevelt, again, we've continued that collaboration with the science research program and their science club. Um the science club down there is experimenting with slime and seeing if different versions of slime float. Uh they're separated into two different groups. Uh the Upside Down Earthlings and the Purple Slimy Slimes. So, um they have definitely taken the creative part, but they're learning all these um
031principles of experimenting and science research. They had to create a hypothesis. Now, they're doing the experimentation, and we hope that um next month the group of them will come actually to the OHS science research room and present their findings in some way, whether it be through a PowerPoint or through a poster. In any way, they're going to they're going to present to us high schoolers and and educate us. So, um and then at Brookside, as I said, I'm working with Miss Orduz to have our athletic leadership class at the high school present at a PBIS ceremony and assembly at Brookside to just talk about uh balancing um leadership with athletics and how to be a leader not only in the classroom, but on the field. And then at the high school, uh I know of
032the one of the topics that has come up at the table has been how the um internet-enabled device span has been going, and how were students' opinions of that. So, I've been working with Miss Langley and Miss Kiros and the whole administration team on developing a survey um for students to give their feedback to see what's working well, and to see mostly what we can improve. Um so, that's either going to go out this week or next week. And I plan on presenting it to the board um in one of the following later meetings. So, thank you. All right. This bri- Thanks, Owen. Uh this brings us to our first audience recognition for agenda items only, uh not to exceed 10 minutes. I'm seeing nobody uh here in person who could wish to speak. I'm
033looking online. I I don't see anybody. Do you see anybody, Owen? Thank you. All right, we'll move along then. Uh to our work session, uh item 3.1 on our agenda this evening, and our equity item is continued budget discussions. I'm going to turn things over to Mary Fox Alter. Okay. So, first of all, I want to thank the board for uh asking some really important questions at the last meeting, and I know Ms. McCoy has incorporated them into it. Uh at the last meeting, I know um Annie had mentioned, "Gee, you know, what happens if we get additional aid, and how come it doesn't align with the maximum allowable tax levy?" So, Ms. McCoy tonight is going to take us through an exercise of how that uh maximum allowable tax levy works, and I think
034it's real important to educate the community how it's as clear as mud, and um and basically it shows how a 2% isn't really a 2%, and I know the board has a had I I know Rob had asked what in the past. Catherine and Annie asked um a little bit about, "Gee, um what about this debt service?" What does that look like? How come? And then uh questions around the library debt. Frankie, you had brought that up, too. Many of you did. So, if you have those questions, I know our community has those questions, so Ms. McCoy included a graphic and more information on that. So, without much ado, I want to thank the board for their feedback, and um Ms. McCoy, you want to take it away? Um good evening, everyone. This is actually
035the last um board meeting before the budget has to be adopted um legally by the board on April 21st. Um so, I'm hoping that you can reach out to me if you have any questions, if you're still unsure um about the budget or its components. So, for us this year, we know that um our our our revenues that are recurring are being shifted um to the taxpayers and from the state. Um and that's because the school district has reached um its maximum um uh amount of foundation aid. So, we're in a position called, um, hold harmless. And uh we also know that there are expenses that have been, um, have increased significantly for the school district, which include our health insurance, um, to the tune of $2.1 million. So, I'm going to go over that
036with you and and and and our strategy in balancing our revenue and expenses and weaning ourselves off of reserves and fund balance unappropriated fund balance. So, um, long-term fiscal health for the school district and we have to consider that, um, is really having, um, planned deficits versus structural deficits. And what planned deficit budgeting is, it happens when a district's plan plans to spend more money than it anticipates bringing in through recovering recurring revenues, like taxes and state aid. And obviously our largest revenue streams is, uh, state aid, uh, property taxes, sales tax, and of course, um, uh, uh, you know, property taxes and, uh, sales tax, um, and interest income. Um, so, to balance the budget, the district usually appropriates appropriates its unassigned fund balance and or reserves and occasionally tapping into reserves to fund
037one-time purchases, uh, capital projects or sudden emergencies is a normal financial tool. Structural deficit budgeting, however, is the practice of using one-time reserve funds to pay for recurring ongoing expenses, like employee salaries or health insurance. Uh, the New York State Controller's Office office, who oversees all state municipalities and school districts with regard to our finances, um, and our audits, um, believes that, um, chronic deficit budgeting as a major is a major act is a major red flag because it creates an unsustainable uh, fiscal cliff. So, that fiscal cliff um, turns into a downward spiral. Uh, relying on reserves and unappropriated fund balance to plug holes makes the masks the operational costs of the district. Eventually, the reserves run dry, liquidity drops, and the district is forced into making programmatic cuts to match recurring revenue. So,
038our estimated expenses, the majority of our um, uh, increases in our expenses again would be our salaries, which you can expect. We have contractual obligations for our staff. Um, we are a personnel business. We we have we uh, uh, pay teachers and other staff members because it's a service that we provide to our students. So, that's going to be our biggest expense, our salaries and our benefits. So, the the next one largest one is, of course, the health insurance. Um, this is the largest um, increase we've seen in quite some time. Uh, we have no ability uh, to save for that or plan for that. Um, so we have been reaching out to our legislature um, to give us the ability, like other municipalities have, um, to start a health um, service health benefits reserve
039fund. Um, I'm going to speak to the difference in um, the capital line. And that's our transfer to capital line that we use to fund our capital projects. Uh, normally that amount has been over the past maybe four, five years or more. Um, we built it up to $6.9 million, $6.95. When I got here, it was $600,000 um, for six buildings, which was not um, effective. Um, we were able to do a significant amount of capital projects above and beyond the bond itself totaling capital projects is in the neighborhood more than half a billion dollars and not crazy increasing taxes on property taxes in doing this work. The other area with the largest increase is debt service. So that's almost six million dollars and we had talked about utilizing our transfer of capital which is
040a 6.9 million dollars to pay for in the future our debt service payments for the 210 million dollar bond. So I'm going to go over that. The one thing that we should point out is that the budget to budget increase for us is 4.3%. It would have been 3.2% if not for the 2.1 million dollars and unavoidable health insurance premium costs. The other thing that's important to balance a budget is your revenue. So we have our recurring revenue again the largest is going to be our real property taxes. The next in line is state aid then our county sales tax and interest income. Those are our biggest areas. The other areas again we're relying on capital reserves. We do have we established two capital reserves and utilizing this this capital reserve for next year. We
041would be closing out the 2017 capital reserve but we still have money available in the 2022 capital reserve. So we're using that to balance what we promised the taxpayers that there would be no increase in the levy related to the bond and also our capital projects. Um The liability reserve is something that we established um late last year to cover any judgments that we have to pay for. And these are like short-time judgments and I work with Kim's office and Kim to get a sense of what our exposure is and we have funded that. So that expense is being offset with the liability reserve. You recall that we we had a significant amount of grants being cut off recently and we set aside money for like a a triage of about 3 years and we
042will be in our second year um coming up. Yeah, our second year. No, our first year. So we're using the appropriated grant funding loss and we spoke to our auditors about this and they were in agreement that we should establish this money and set it aside. So we do have funds to cover some of those positions that we're covering. But it is a triage, it's a short-term solution to a longer-term problem. And then the appropriated fund balance last year or this year 2025-26 school year, we were at $6.7 million supporting our budget. We really need to be lower than that. So right now we're at 5.2. We're not absolutely pleased, that's not the goal, but we're trying to begin that process of weaning down off of appropriated fund balance. So the I translated I transformed
043this into a PDF and the heading got cut off. I don't know where it is, but it's lost. It's not apparent on the page, but this hopefully this makes it more clear about what I was trying to explain with the balancing of the debt service and a capital line. So, it's really it's been a multi-year plan and strategic plan um to make sure that we are monitoring the debt that's falling off, the debt from the public library, and um the debt that is going to come on, the debt for the school district, and the debt for the public library, um and making sure that those funds are available. Um So, in the future years when we have to borrow um do a actual bond, we have those those funds available and they don't get lost.
044So, if you look at the top um table, these are the different budget lines that I've been using over the past years to make sure that the money is somewhere in the budget, whether it's debt service falling off, I put it in equipment, or or I put it in capital. So, in um 2024-25, that was a year um that uh that was the last year for the library debt. The library debt is about 1.2 million dollars. So, we used that 1.2 million dollars and pushed it into the transfer to capital line, which you see above, which is a 14.4. Um the 7.5 was our capital reserve um that we used um to pay a portion of the 14.4. Um so, the total tax levy impact is 12 million um 89 867. So, basically here uh
045what we're doing is we're looking at the actual expense and then offsetting it with the capital reserve, which is considered a revenue. In 2025-26, which is this school year, we only uh used 7. We only budgeted 7.4 million dollars. And I just want to point out a caveat that the transfer to capital line for this year is larger than 7.4 million, but it's associated with things that we planned related to the capital bond. Um it includes um additional work at Brookside. It includes the AMD um back field um that we added. So, that is separate and apart. So, if you look at the budget for this year, it's not going to equal 7.4. It's going to be higher than that. But, those are separate items. That is not part of what we discussed uh related
046to the bond the current the $6.9 million bond line, the debt service, and no impact on the tax levy. So, this year we knew that the debt service from the library was going to fall off. So, you see that it went from 5.1 to $4 million. And so, we put some of that money in equipment for um our um air control our air conditioning uh units. Um so, we have been working on installing those. They should be done before the end of the the before the spring. Um and and we did not use any capital reserve this school year. So, again the $12 million, it's the same amount. Um so, that means that there's no If there's If there the bottom line, the total tax levy impact is the same each year, that means there's
047no impact to the levy. So, you should subtract one from one year, and obviously you'll get a zero. So, that means there's no impact. In the upcoming um budget, we are um budgeting $5.9 million for a lot of capital work, and I meant to get the slide um with all the details. It's actually phenomenal. All of the work that we're going to do for the '26-'27 school year with the $5.9 million. And I'll be sure to share that in a updated uh slide um tomorrow. Uh the transfer to debt service, however, is becoming larger because we are borrowing for uh $12 million in uh bands, which is bond anticipation notes for the school district of the 210 million that we're allowed to bond borrow and we're also borrowing for the public library $8 million of
048the $30 million that was approved for their bond by the voters. But you'll see here we're also using $3.8 million in capital reserves. Again, the bottom line is the same as the previous year. So with regard to the capital projects, that's the transfer to capital line. What we did what I did for the upcoming school year we know that we had in that transfer to capital line 6.95 billion. That's our baseline every year. We only needed to use 5.6 million. So we still have 1.3 million in that line. So we want to hold on to it. We don't want to want to lose it. Then we know we have money from capital reserves. So we add that to pay for the projects and these are one-time expenses and we're using one-time revenue. The remaining debt
049for the library of the 1.1 million is $819,000 and we can use that towards our capital projects as well as a one-time expense. And so the total amount for the capital projects is the 5.9 that you see at the first group of boxes below. The second group of boxes is basically how we came up with the debt service budget. So again, the library needs $320,000 for a ban which is a bond anticipation note. They anticipate borrowing very shortly. Probably the end of the month and we get that bill in 2026-2027 school year. Issuing has its own debt related to previous bonds. We have two energy performance contracts and yeah, that's it. We have two energy performance contracts and other debt service from previous capital bonds. Uh, $5.6 million. Again, that amount is coming from the
050transfer to capital line. So, that money is coming directly from that 6.950, and so that's how we're able to use it to pay for our debt service um, for our own um, band that we need um, for $12 million. And And then finally, the total debt service is $9.9 million. So, again, even though the numbers are shifting, um, this is the way it does not have an impact on um, the tax levy. So, with regard to the very uh, um, confusing tax levy limit formula, actually, my first budget year here, uh, it was implemented and we had to all um, understand it. And it was very, very confusing. Um, so, this is basically what gets reported to the state. This is the portal that I go into, and I enter Some of this data is
051pre-populated. Um, so, the real property tax levy is basically the levy for this school year. We don't have any money that we use to offset reserve tax cap. Um, our tax base growth factor is calculated by the state. Um, and that basically means that um, how how much uh, brick and mortar increase in properties there's been. And I'll go over that in a minute. We have pilots which are paid um, uh, paid in lieu of taxes um, that we have agreements about um, over the past years with different um, residences or companies. And uh, the capital tax levy exclusion, this is the the the the biggest impact on the calculation. The larger that number is, the better um, it is for the school district. So, we've been able to since the uh, let the um,
052the tax cap has been um required, we've been able to use that to our benefit and build up that $6.9 million capital line because basically that's excluded from the tax cap. Um so if you look at that our and then we have pilots that are um coming in 2027. So of course no one understands what this amounts to. Fortunately for me now, I don't have to calculate it. It goes through a portal. Um so they come I give them the data and it the the amount comes out. So um the upcoming school year, which is 2027, our debt I mean our um our uh capital exclusion is actually a little bit lower. Um it's 8.9 million and our total exclusions, we don't have any other exclusions. The state does allow us um to have a
053TRS and a ERS exclusion, but we have not used it since the implementation of the tax cap. Basically, it has to be 2% percentage point increases for the ERS pension and the TRS TRS pension and that just not has not happened. Um I think it happened one year and it was like $17,000 that we were able to exclude. Um that's good news for us. We do have reserves for TRS and ERS, but um it's doesn't help with us. What we need what we really would like here is a health insurance exclusion, um but that would be very complicated to implement. And then finally the amount um that we can levy is $110 million. Uh you'll notice that last this year is 107, so it went to 110, which is a 2.3 2.43% allowable increase. So
054the most when I first started like I said I had to try to um make it simple to understand the tax cap and I had five uh five fast tax cap facts. So now in looking at it and making it even more clear, um there's only three, really. There's really only three. The conversations were very different back then, um but um I really had to explain and articulate that if the bond, I mean if the budget goes down, that we would actually have to go to the the levy of the prior year and that meant significant cuts. So I had to put information like that into the five uh elements of um the tax cap that I was describing over 10 years ago. So the first thing that's most important is that um the school
055district can increase their levy by more than 2%. That's the biggest misconception um that it's 2% on individual individual property tax bills. Instead, the formula, as you saw, um caps the tax levy, the total amount a district can collect to 2%. I didn't go over that, but 2% the 2% is just simply the consumer price incident index. It has nothing to do with the overall amount that's calculated. It's just one uh component um of the tax cap calculation. And actually, it could be less. In some years, we had less than 2%. Um this year, it is going to be 2% so we should be okay. And that's calculated by um that number is given to us directly from the state. Uh the uh the school district's approved tax cap, again, it's 2.43 as I showed
056you on the previous uh slide. New York recognizes that some costs are out of our local control so we are allowed to have add exemptions for mastic spikes and state-mandated pension contributions, which we didn't have with TRS and ERS. We actually are are able to exclude our lease payments, including our 400 Executive Boulevard lease payments. We are able to um exclude our debt service and our voter-approved capital projects. So all of that is in that 9. uh 9.9 million dollars and actually almost 9 million dollars coming up this school year. So, the other thing we talked about that affects the calculation is a tax base growth factor. It's minimal, but it does impact the tax cap count and you saw that we had slightly above one. It was 1.0064. I have no idea how that
057impacted it. Again, I plugged the number in and voila, it comes out with a number. So, finally, I as I've been saying all along that just because a tax levy increase is going to be hopefully 2.43% if the board approves, that does not mean that your bill is not going to go up more than 2.43%. Every bill is different. Every school Every property has their own assessed value. I told the story about the woman who came in my office and was so surprised about her bill. It had nothing to do with the tax levy. It had everything to do with her assessed value significantly jumping in a year. So, I just want to continue to put that out there. So, those are the three biggest tax cap components in the calculation that you really need
058to understand to understand that we don't need to be at 2%. That's just a artificial number. It was never intended to be 2% because it made adjustments for school districts for those following reasons those three reasons. So, I did talk about foundation aid. So, foundation aid we've been fighting a long time and we finally got phased in over three period three-year period and that's wonderful. However, that money those increases were significant and it helped us sustain programs and we actually did lower and in some cases had no tax levy increases in years, but we're not in that position anymore. Right now, the governor's proposed budget is a 1% increase, which is $400,000 for the school district. And, you saw the amount of significant amount of increases just in health insurance and salaries. There's no way
059$400,000 is going to be sustainable for the district year to year when we have more than $5 million in expense increases. So, the reason why we are in a hold harmless position with foundation aid is because the state sees us as becoming wealthier. They look at four factors. They look at our poverty property wealth. They look at our federal poverty count. They look at the slight dip that we had in our overall enrollment. And, they also look at the median household income. And, fortunate for the town of Ossining people, your income has been going up higher than the average in the Westchester County. So, they those are all red flags for them. And, so when they see that, they say, "Well, you guys don't need as much funding anymore because your community can support." That
060was a whole reason why foundation aid was established. It was basically established to make sure that whatever zip code that you were being educated in, you should receive the same exact sound basic basic education. So, it balanced the playing field for students living in more poorer districts at in alignment with students that are living in wealthier districts. So, the state basically came in and said, "Listen, I'm going to give you guys more foundation aid because I know your community can't afford tax levy increases." They did they they said that we did we deserve that, but they didn't fund it. So, that's where we were almost 7 years ago or so. The fortunate thing about the hold harmless is that the school district will continue to receive the amount of that was established when we became
061home home harmless, which was this year, which is about $43 million for foundation aid. Um but again, um the percentage increases, we've never been in a hold harmless position all the years I've been here, which is 16. Um so they they're basically looking to the school district now to carry on um the responsibility with your ability to raise taxes um to take on those expenses. Um so they're no longer making up the difference between our revenue and and expenses. There's actually in in the formula, there's an amount that they expect the community to pay um for they come up with a foundation aid per people amount, and there's an amount in the formula that they expect the community to pay for. Uh and then they show what they are going to contribute. So, uh going
062forward, um it will only be It may I don't know what it's going to be, but this year um the governor's saying 1%. I know in previous years when we were fighting for foundation aid, um school districts in um this situation hold hold harmless situations, um they were getting a amount per student, and it was lower than the 4% I believe or 1% I believe. So, I have no idea what it will be going forward. So, the bottom line for home owners is that our median assessed home value right now is um 649. The proposed tax levy increase is 2.43, which is a cap. The estimated um tax bill is $185 per year, uh which roughly uh comes out to $15 a month. So, that helps us sustain our baseline funding so that we don't
063have to have any cuts in school district um programs. So, um the superintendent's recommendation budget is um a 4.3% increase. The total amount is 186 uh {point} 337769. Again, a levy increase of 2.4, unappropriated fund balance of 5. almost 3. It's important to note that the budget for uh the uh the state has not been adopted yet. It was supposed to be adopted on the 1st of April. So, we're still waiting. We were in this position uh last year um and we'll probably be in an in it in it again. And um uh the amount of increase in revenue from the baseline of the governor's budget, we don't foresee to be significant. So, with that, I'll turn it back over to uh the superintendent. Thanks. Thank you. Questions from the board? Sure. Lita, thanks so
064much for for a presentation. I guess just a couple of things here. Um I I you know, this is more for a community and as well that maybe we can kind of like tease that out a little bit. Um and I admit I'm admittedly I'll say that, you know, when it comes to like, you know, increases and things like that, I'm never one who loves increases, but I understand why they're needed, right? Um and the the I think the main thing here really is when we think about like property taxes, right? The the you what the community also needs to understand is the fact that there's a demand for housing that's still in Ossining that's going to drive up the prices of homes. Um and the demands of that you're going to by that factor
065alone because of our proximity to New York City and other places that are accessible will cause that that to go up. So, when you sell your house in Ossining, you you're you're likely to get a better price than what you're originally offering. So, that's going to drive up some of that well ratio in there. The other piece of this that actually is not called out, and something perhaps that's worth a discussion with our folks in Albany, is our the number of students that are actually on free and reduced lunch. I don't know how how that's even taken into consideration as part of what we're talking about here, and I don't know that it is. But, you know, they when they go to penalize and say here here your 1% cuz we're looking at your wealth
066ratio, but the reality is a little different in terms of what we see from the students that come in, and it's worth actually bringing that as part of a conversation. Because that's still relatively high relative to other districts in the area. Okay? So, I think that is something to to contemplate as part of our advocacy, bringing that up to Albany. So, I just want to point that out. Um uh uh also, I think the other thing to point out here, too, is you know, it it's not like we've taken a wish list of everything and said let's put everything and anything in there, right? The the the There There is a lot of things scraped out, a lot of things cleaned up, right? A lot of things that that would were not previously attended to
067previously that have have now allowed us to sharpen our focus, and really be good on terms of our numbers on this. And as I said, you know, I'm never like in favor of just a blind increase, but this here was not a blind increase. Our Every year that we've gone into um it trying to do something for our district, guess what? NYSSHIP comes in and says it says big increase, and then everything that we would have wanted gets eaten up by that. So, that that's really a hardship for us. Um the the other piece that I think it should be called out, too, is that if we are successful in being able to get that um get, you know, state aid to be able to cover for um increases to NYSSHIP, that that could help
068us in the future. It's not going to help us now. It hasn't helped us for the past four plus years and there was a year where we thought there would probably be a negative to the tax levy maybe to the tune of two, three, four, five percent. But the reality is that we had a five million dollar increase that one year at least the one I remember and that ate up a lot and there's so much for our foundation aid. Um and the last comment I'll make and I'll close it there is I still believe that our foundation aid is still based upon an older census number. I don't know that they've updated that to the more newer census and I'm I'll rely on Frank and your your connection back to um to the um
069to Westcott and to to the uh to Nisbet in terms of your experience on that. So I think there's some you know, valid concerns to bring up to our um lobbying efforts. Um but you know, just to say that you know, there's been a lot of work been done here and I do think that it you know, if I can say this, it really stinks. I actually use I've been a worse word than that that we that whatever we're looking to do gets chewed up by the these large increases in night shift. So thanks for everything you guys have done in all of this. Um I've asked every question I possibly could have and I think you guys have not just answered it, you've triple answered it and I appreciate that. So thank you very
070much and I'll leave it at that. I will add um thank you Roger for that and thank you obviously the board has led a lot of the work we've been doing over the past few years uh through your goals and speaking with us and with me. But this year's budget uh Alida finalized that she announced in cabinet today. We've got now her goal was transparency so being able to follow it by school, by code, the new budget that will go on the website for everyone to see. It is a easier to read document, easier to follow, coding has been there. So, again, um uh and that made it us easier to go back then. It took a lot of work to trace actuals to actuals and following the codes along the way. So, again, the
071board had a great deal of leadership in that area. So, I want to thank the board for their um feedback on that. And thank you, Alida, for it. Around the table? So, I just have a couple quick questions about the deck of numbers which will lead to my actual real question. On slide three, proposed budget 2026-2027, the grand total 186 654. Then on slide four, estimated revenue 769. What's the reason, I guess, there for the hundred and twenty thousand dollar difference between those bottom lines? Are those Are those supposed to match up, or are we actually ahead on the revenue versus what we're predicting on the budget? Sorry if I'm saying it Yeah, that was slide three, the number at the bottom of the 2026-2027 proposed budget, and then slide four, the bottom the number
072on the revenues. They're two different numbers, but I just wasn't sure if that's means anything or not. Yeah, you're right. I This slide is old. I have to update it. Okay. So, those numbers are the same. >> Yeah, they should be the same. >> Okay. >> Thank you for that. >> Yeah, yeah, no problem. And then on similar question on the slides. >> slide the fourth slide is accurate. >> slide is accurate. >> with the the last slide. >> The 186 337 769. Okay. It's just that that was a table that I had and I didn't update it. >> Okay, no problem. And then number on slide five, total tax levy impact in each of the columns is the same 12089867 is that also accurate like Yes. So those are the same for each year?
073Yes. Okay. Got it. All right. >> And that's what we promised the community. Got it. Okay. So that leads up to I guess the broader question for the board and I guess the community. So yes, as you laid out the beginning of the deck, there's different types of budgeting and deficits. There's a plan, the structural, and then you note the downward spiral. So thanks for calling that out. So the question I've got is to the budget we're using fund balance and reserves this year to sort of meet the gap, right? We've got here's the deficit, here's the reasons, and we're using these things to cover it this year. So are those one-time things that we're covering this year in the gap or next year, the year after that, the year after that, and I know
074you don't have the crystal ball, Lita, will we be in the same scenario to use the reserves and the fund balance to cover the gap, which as you noted in the deck kind of then becomes that structural deficit planning. So can you just clarify that for us, please? >> So uh if you want to go to the page um four, page four, or of slide four. At the bottom for the revenue, um you'll see that starting after Medicaid we're using capital reserves. So that's the $3.8 million. That's a one-time usage. That's not recurring. Um the liability reserve again is for these special education um placements um that we it are significant increases to our our tuition costs. Um so I worked with Kim to establish what those cases are, and we funded that reserve for
075$1 million. Kim has provided me when those cut-off dates will be. They're not forever. Um so I can fund it based on our exposure. So, that will end. It's not forever. It's aligned with the expense. Um, the 5.2 is a problem. Last year, it was 6.7. Uh, we weaned off another 1.5, but it really should be much, much lower than that. And I have to go back, but there was a year, I I it was really, really low and I was we were really excited. That number that number being 5.2 is a big problem. It's a big problem. So, if that continues to happen, then we will be in a downward spiral. We have to wean ourselves off. So, as we discussed at the last board meeting, if we got anything with regard to increases
076in aid, we would apply it to ensuring that we don't have to use um, more fund balance in upcoming the following 27-28 school year. So, the gradual stepping down on the use of it is really where you need to go. If you think about it, we're trying to project now for the next like, uh, 12 for 16 months out. So, will there be areas where we can get efficiencies at the start of the year, going back, renegotiating things, taking a look at things? So, we do set aside a certain amount of money to help us because how can, you know, like in terms of staffing? Uh, all of us know that have a baby, it's 9 months. I can't project in with the 16-month span how many staff will go out, how much coverage would
077I need. So, we do build in protectors for that. Right now, if you've been following the governor's presentation, we picked a 1% foundation aid to be conservative. Uh, if we do get additional funding, um, based on what negotiations that are going on right now, which some people say we might, you'll see some school districts act actually have projected a 1.36, a 1.4. Um, but here it would go to lessen fund balance. That's the recommendation we made last week and we will continue to do that. So, it's basically taking a look at any funding we have at the end of this year. If it's all tight to kind of do some um work at the end of this year to hedge our bets over next year, but the long-term goal should be to step down off
078the reliance of that. Right? But when as I think as Roger just articulated, you get hit by a $2.1 million health insurance, you know, you're going to start then looking at to cut programs for kids. That's That's what it comes down to. Right. So, the net is if this continues, right? Cuz we've we've all fight the foundation aid is plateaued for mega, right? 1% Maybe we get a little So, the So, the revenue from that, we call that a revenue line, is not going to go up. It's going to sort of be flat. So, then if the health insurance continues, right? And then you have these other things continue. That's why I was asking are they recurring or one-time? Right? You're looking ahead, and you've acknowledged that yeah, that could this could be an issue.
079So, looking going forward. So, thanks to that. And the last thing, it's not a question, is that I think last year on the site, we had like a tax calculator thing. So, you put in your home value, you pull it down. Do we have Do we able to do that again this year? We know We're saying 649 649,000 home, average home, about 185 in tax increase. But can we resurrect that thing to see if people >> I We have to do that after the budget is adopted. >> Okay. Yeah, so we know exactly what the levy increase is. Okay. Great. Thank you. I skipped you, Katherine. I'm sorry. Did you have any? >> No, I think I've had all of mine answered. Thank you very much. Okay. Owen, do you have any? Frank? Annie? Um
080just a clarifying question. You just said that if foundation aid is increased, did you say it'll go to decrease the appropriated fund balance? That would be our recommendation. >> Okay. Right. Um so in that case, if that if that is where it went, would that mean that the 2.43 would still be the recommended? Yes. >> Okay. Yes, cuz it's a additional revenue, right, in a different bucket. Okay. Just wanted to make that clear for you. Thank you. Oh, and thank you Alida for doing all this. Thank you. Well, thank you for asking the question at our last board meeting, Annie. Um Melissa, do you have Um I don't have any at the moment, either, but I do want to thank you, Alida, um for all the work that goes into this and um it's I
081feel it's such important this work of the board is the most important work, probably, that we do, very arguably, and um I just I appreciate a moment of appreciation for the board that we are um all putting in the time and effort to understand what this budget means, what the implications are for all these numbers um for the fiscal stability of the district and for um what's in in the best interest for not only our students, but the community at large. So, um I appreciate the board for um taking the time to really dive into this stuff, especially um on a Saturday, you know, kicking things off on a Saturday and really, you know, donating a Saturday for that and then to continue to work on this. Um Mary, do you need anything from us
082right now? No, just whatever additional questions you may have along this. And again, um I do want to thank Alida for uh there's a lot a lot of additional work. I want to thank Dr. Marra for uh diving into position control now for all the non-teachers. It's over 500 staff members. And just uh the coding of things and being able to trace it to figure out um, you know, what actuals were rather than budget to budget going back two to three years. Everybody around the table spent countless minutes. So, but the people who set the tone and the goals for that is the Board of Education. So, I want to reassure uh, from my end and from our executive cabinet end that the Board of Education here in Ossining are excellent stewards of public money.
083You ask amazing questions all the time. You do take a look at all of this. Uh, we consider it a strong partnership and you give us our uh, goals, if you will, each year on how to be able to approach this. We are faced with, I think many of you might have seen in the news that the it's called the Make Education Great Again uh, budget proposal out of the White House has a total elimination of Title III funding included in that. Um, so again, um, but this board here this time last year set aside money to help support two grants, which is huge, which um, hopefully will give us a life jacket to get through uh, two years. Anyway. Yeah. And on a more a little bit more local level, I do resent having
084to be put in the position yet again of having to approve a budget uh, without a complete understanding of the money that we'll be receiving from the state. It always puts us in an awkward bind. Right. Um, All right, any further um, budget related discussion before we move along? We expect to um, adopt a budget at our next meeting on April 21st. That's a public hearing. Um, I would encourage anybody listening at home. Uh, public hearing is something of a misnomer by the time if you're waiting until that time to share your opinion about the budget, please don't. Um, you can email the board at any time and um I'll reiterate Mary mentioned in her update that you can come have coffee with board members this Saturday at the library on the first level. It's
085a good opportunity. Oh, look at that. She's got the flyer. Um uh So express your questions, thoughts, concerns about the budget of course, but anything school related as well. Is it to bring your own coffee? I was actually talking to Ilia about that today. It is not bring your own coffee. Coffee will be provided. Coffee will be delivered. All right, great. Rob, would you like to serve? Sorry. I'm not fancy on coffee, so whatever comes I'm You could be the barista. Okay. Um All right. Moving along. Uh Next on our agenda is our consent agenda business of the board. Um does anybody have anything they wish to break out from 4.1 through 4.3? I'll say now I'll take a motion for 4.1 through 4.3. So moved. Second. 4.1 resolution to appoint additional consultants for the
0862025-2026 school year. 4.2 resolution to approve an agreement with the per diem administrator Book Site School. 4.3 resolution designating the officials to act at the special district meeting. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? Uh moving on to item five consent agenda business office matters. Does anybody have anything from 5.1 or 5.2 that they wish to break out? Seeing none, I'll take a motion for 5.1 and 5.2. So moved. Second. 5.1 resolution regarding acceptance of funds AP SAT examinations. 5.2 resolution regarding acceptance of funds from rainbow lettering and BSN sports athletic department. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Opposed? Abstentions? Moving on to item six, consent agenda personnel matters. Does anybody have anything from 6.1 through 6.11 that they wish to break out? All right, seeing none I'll take a motion for 6.1 through
0876.11. So moved. Second. 6.1 resolution regarding support staff resignations. 6.2 resolution regarding bus attendant resignations. 6.3 resolution regarding professional staff appointments. resolution regarding support staff appointments. 6.6 resolution regarding professional staff appointments before after school programs. Uh 6.6 resolution regarding support staff appointments before after school programs. 6.7 resolution regarding professional staff appointments summer school programs. 6.8 resolution regarding support staff appointments summer school programs. 6.19 resolution regarding per diem substitute removals. 6.10 resolution regarding per diem substitute appointments. 6.11 resolution regarding approval of school volunteers. Any discussion? All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Abstentions? This brings us to seven, uh second audience recognition um for any school related topics. There's nobody here in person. Is there anybody online who wishes to speak? I don't see any. Okay, no hands raised. We'll move along. Uh this brings us to
088board reports and dialogue. Does anybody have any um committee updates first? We'll start there. Okay. Um I have a few things for board dialogue and I think Mary has something for board dialogue, too. Um Speaking again of a coffee chat, uh Nicole asked me and I said, "Well, I'm when I was in the district office today, to what degree we'd like to promote the coffee chat with the district." It was in Mary's most recent update. Um and I said, "Well, I can just ask the board myself tonight." Um she offered to send like a blast like a text message or a and or a separate email. So, a blast that would just be promoting the coffee chat. Does anybody have any strong feelings one way or another? I think it'd be good cuz then at
089least this way we don't I mean which it's all to having a blast send out for the coffee chat. It's just you know, another reminder. This way at least some no one says, "Hey, I didn't know about it." We sent it out, you know, their communications, it's on record. And It hasn't been on the calendar for long. We just picked the date, so it's not really on the calendar. >> saying I'm lonely. Um it is um it's I forget the name of the desk. It's named Carnegie desk. The Carnegie desk. Um it's on the first floor, so hopefully there'll be a lot of foot traffic. Last time we did this, we were in the theater and it's a little it was a little bit off the beaten path. Um any other feedback besides Roger's? It's
090a good idea, I guess. The only question I've got is beyond the school community, how are folks hearing about it beyond you know, our internal sort of blasts and things. Okay. Does the public library put it on their calendar? I can ask Nicole. I'm not sure. I don't know if they really knows. Is it Do you know if the library has it on their calendar? Um I just have one curiosity. I know last meeting when we talked about it, we agreed that just keep and I know you made a disclaimer as well, keeping it a general coffee talk and not targeted, but I know it on the website it does say coffee talk regarding budget. So, I don't know if we want to make sure we clarify that it's an open forum and even if
091you don't have budget related questions that you're welcome to come out and have a conversation. >> Okay. Mhm. I'll make a note. And one other thing, too, just out of curiosity too, um did we do this last time when we had FAQs? That we could bring with us? >> Um I just I sent via Google Drive, like you know how you can share a file. Um last time we did this, which was a couple years ago, I made like a form, like a Google form, to just kind of capture information as people were coming. >> No, sorry. Just for clarity, that those are the questions at the place. I'm saying FAQs that we could have for some that to hand out if we're while we're there. >> Oh. No, I don't think we have anything.
092I think it's going to be based on whatever people come I mean, I would be if I were you and I were going to be there on Saturday, I would come prepared to talk about um with an understanding of the budget so that you can talk about that, a link to the budget, you know, so that people can read more and also specifically facility stuff because I think that's been very visible in the community. If you've been driving down Route 9, if you've been driving down Stormy Town Road, um you may you know, that's this the work that's happening related to the bond has become visible in a new way that might um surface some questions about that. So I would be prepared to um discuss those things. Yeah, and and also we can refer
093people back to the BOE at Ausable UFSD. >> Of course, or just ask if they have a district related question. Um and I'm I'll finish my thought now that we're I understood what you were actually saying. I did share with everybody the form I the Google form that I made last time to help capture the information um because in order for this to be effective in what we decided was best practice, I think, last time when we discussed it as a um you know, not all the board members obviously are going to be there, but we all need an understanding of uh what what concerns rose to the surface during those um little chats. So, uh it's just a quick way to take a note on kind of the topic and the concern brought up
094so that that can be just shared out with everybody equally. Um I if you if it didn't go through cuz I didn't send an email or with the link or anything, I just like shared it through Google. So, if anybody wants you don't have to use that, but some mechanism uh whatever works for you while you're there by which to share that information afterwards so that we can all um be in receipt of the feedback um from the community um to please do that. And then our community knows if they're watching right now to be assured that whatever concerns they raise can be um passed out along to the rest of the board and won't just end at the library. Um so, I'll respond to Nicole. I can CC the board if uh we want
095that we're in favor of a separate email blast to make it clear that it's not simply budget-related topics, that it's school-related topics. And I will ask her um maybe uh potentially maybe the school socials might be a way that's kind of more open to everybody as compared to the the district email. Um It might be a good idea to put it on the website. Yeah, put If you're linking it with a you know, It is on the website right now. >> Is it? Yeah, the there's like a flyer if you go to the budget page I think right now or or it might be the BOE page. I don't remember. I was clicking around the landing page with the the calendar comes up, it's right there. >> Yeah, I was clicking around on the website
096today. I wasn't looking for it, but I found it anyways, which is a good sign I suppose. Yes. Yes. Um Another thing uh we need to talk about is um Sorry, one more thing. It's also been posted Rob for your information too. It's shown up on on all the social media pages. Okay, so maybe that's all I'll inquire with >> you know, so it it was out there today. Yeah, Rob posed this question earlier today to Roger and me and I did email Illy and Nicole CC'ing Roger and Rob and just asked where it had been shared. Um and like what avenue they thought was appropriate and then Nicole answered and she said she'd talk to you and now we're all talking together. Um we need to schedule two things um as a board. We
097need to schedule um an executive session um for the purposes of evaluating Mary at at the end of the year. I think we're supposed to be doing that in May at some point. Um I'm going to take a leap and assume that me perhaps a Wednesday night where we don't already have a meeting scheduled might be the way to go since I know I keep my Wednesdays clear for BOE. Um if anybody has a better idea. Does that sound good? Any objections? I'll have Illy send one of those uh emails out with a couple dates. Could we I would do it after the budget. Right. Either the end of May or beginning of June so we get past the budget. I I would um a Wednesday makes sense to me. You know, um if we're
098able to get it in May, great. If not, it'll be early It's not the end of the world if you do it in June. Okay. Um I mean, is there a possibility to tag it to uh an exact We have to be executive session. So, could we do it on a school already predetermined school board night that we don't have other exact sess stuff or very short? So, I mean, we could. I I I do want to make sure we give it the I want to give Mary the time she requires and I I I don't know that I can give Mary the time and and attention that I want to give her if we end up having to begin the process potentially as late as 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. >> I I I would
099actually it Rob, I think I get your point in trying to bring that together. I think this is one that does require some time for us to get. Or or even before cuz I know some might do something like it feels like we could do a board session. You mean like before the public meeting? Yes, we could. In theory we could, but I mean to be honest I'm not sure many of us are available before 7:30 based on the number of people at the table even 5 minutes before 7:30 on a regular basis. I think all of us are kind of like burning our tires into the parking lot to get here at 7:30 already. I'm I'm don't want to Yes, okay. That's that's how I'm reading the situation. Ellie had a comment. Oh, sorry
100Ellie. Okay. It's already there. So it's already there. In that case So it's already there. Let me double check my calendar make sure I have it. Thank you Ellie. Thank you Ellie. Um And that's at exact executive Boulevard Ellie? No, I'm saying that it's that's at executive Boulevard. Mary's office? >> Yes, that's my new office. Okay. In that case I will look in to when to open super eval and begin that process because for some reason it's always a rigmarole. Um The other thing that I think is not definitely not in the calendar is um our retreat. Mary, do you Oh, I have it right I do have the admin retreat in my calendar. The admin retreat is scheduled for July 7th. Well, there that week there the four days, right Marina? That day that
101week the admin retreat. Yes. Right. Okay. Is that the short week? No, it's not. No. No. The week after. Um So, I had July 7th in my calendar as the day that would be the day the board would >> relevant for the board. The second day of the retreat. >> correct. So, where we have data and Cathy and we are looking at developing our goals for next year, building they're looking at real numbers. So, Okay. >> having our consultant with us. So, as I know people's summer schedules fill up fast. Um people are planning their trips. Hoping that they'll be able to get onto an airplane without having to stand in line for hours and hopefully by July. Um appointment in July 2020. Yeah. Um So, uh I guess we don't need to discuss dates
102specifically right now. It'll be sometime after that July 7th date. Hopefully you can come we can all come and and see the work that's being done there that can help inform us as we set goals. Um Right. Right. We'd love to have the board there all day if you want after as much as you can. Um and again the dynamic last year was great. Um they actually forgot that you were there after the initial part of it and um I the level of work we're just proud of our team and they really roll up their sleeves to dig into the work that has happened. So, of course the board is more than welcome actually encouraged, but it's a volunteer position. I do understand. >> will say when we weren't invited to go last year and
103I was able to attend, I personally found it more beneficial than I anticipated. I I expected that it would be beneficial and it was and I find myself throughout the year this year referring back to that um referring back to that meeting. So, if you can make it, certainly do. And then I guess be on the lookout from Ilia. I'll talk to her about sending out some potential dates for a retreat for us that would happen um presumably sometime in July. I think is when we've had it been able to work it in the past. Okay, so there's no date set for it yet. >> No, there's no date set for it. Just to be on the lookout. And it's at PNW BOCES. Okay. For ours or the the admin the admin. We can we
104can decide. I mean, I'll take feed Well, I guess we need a date first, then we can see where space is available. For for So, for ours, just throwing it out there, you know, again, given work schedules, if we do it during the day on a weekday, highly unlikely I'll be able to take the time off given time. But, what I would pitch is like a Friday or an two evening sessions. I mean, personally, I could do that that schedule. And again, if we did two evenings, two hours each, then those who have commitments during the day can can come. Okay, we'll put out I'll When I have when I have Ilia put out some dates, I'll have her put out a few different kind of kinds, types. So, um I think we tried to
105do a um We tried to do a half day. Is that what happened last year? We tried to do it shorter and it it wasn't a short amount of work. I I >> No, we we ended up going We ended up going longer. Um So, it d- it is it does take time. I know doubt. Um cuz you hear all the times through the year we're like, "Oh, that's really a good retreat thing. That's a good retreat thing." And then then we have a lot of retreat things. So, um when I Ilia I'll talk to Ilia before she puts out dates. I'll make sure there's different days of the week, different like kind of time options so that we'll see who can come to what and we'll schedule that way. Okay. Thanks, Ellie. Uh let
106me see if there's anything else from my end. That's it for me. All right. Okay. So, I I I forwarded to the board a uh petition put together by the Lower Hudson Education Coalition. Um you know, back in the day when uh Judy Weiner who used to run this uh retired, Ray Sanchez and I actually did the reinvention of this coalition and I know Frank you were at some meetings. There were multiple, but it's a advocacy committee. It's unique in the fact in New York state that it it includes board members and it includes superintendents. So, um they have been working on the uh electrification of uh bus um legislation that passed in 2022. So, they put together a a nine-page document. If you haven't received it already from the LHEC, you might be getting
107it also from WestPut. They will be sending it directly to Board of Education members, but I received it as a superintendent. Many of us agreed to discuss it at a board table, but the bottom line behind here it's a petition um uh put together by the coalition for an informational proceeding to examine electric utility residents to support readiness to support the school bus fleet electrification um requirement. Um and it's very detailed. The bottom line behind it is that, you know, um people are in the transition to a zero I'll read exactly from because if we were all part of putting it together, um the transition to a zero-emission school buses is a generational investment in the health and safety of New York students and in the state's climate future. The LHEC supports this goal. However,
108the success of this transition depends upon infrastructure, the grid, that school districts cannot build themselves. The commission has both the authority and the responsibility to ensure that the state's regulated utilities are prepared to meet this challenge. So, they have evidence from a number of school districts. They have evidence where they speak about since 2022 what um utility um manufacturers of electricity have are longer here. They talk about now the presence of huge data centers, which weren't really on everyone's radar in 2022 that consume a tremendous amount of electricity. So, um before we all go down this, they really do want the um um the state basically to hold hearings and informational sessions to look into whether or not our grid can handle this based on information. Uh there's a lot of other examples in this,
109but um you know, just curious how the Ossining Board of Education would feel to support such a petition. Feedback from the board? I think we should. It's a It's a It's a I mean, the work product that goes into this takes a lot of superintendents and boards into it. I mean, this is an issue There's some issues everybody gets behind, and this is one of those issues, and I just think the readiness isn't there, and we should basically you know, push push uh push Albany to basically adjust as we need to adjust to realities. They should adjust with this one as well. So, that's my two cents. I I would support that. I'd also say too that, you know, while this is a it it's a great initiative to try to go an electric side,
110but there's a lot of um factors that have been outlined particular in this letter that I think that um those points are very well raised, and we need to bring that forward. So, I'm in support. Yep. Yep, I'm in support. Okay. Um sup- Support in this case means sending si- signing the petition. Right. Yes, yes. Write a letter of support of the petition. >> Okay. There's um and it looks like that's something I can do on behalf of the board. They did send, I think within an hour of your email to us, they also sent it and it included a link with um a kind of template a template letter which if if the board is on board with that, then I can complete it for with our district's relevant information and send it. That's
111I mean, sometimes in the past when we've gotten these things, we put them on as a resolution, there's a benefit that the community sees it across the board. You know, we could add it to the agenda tonight and in that way it would make it onto this and just basically do a resolution or we could sign it. Either way, but in the past we've done it to try and for a few purposes. Transparency and also awareness, right? So. >> That would be ideal. A lot of Yeah. people were talking about if the board would be open to having a resolution on it. >> Yeah. And sometimes with the timing of things you have to move. This would be something I would say like if there's consensus, we could take a motion to put it on
112the agenda as for tonight and we could vote on it and move forward. Okay. If the board so chooses. Thank you for the suggestion, Frank. I have to get my wording right here. Give me a moment. Why am I writing by hand like I can't type? >> So in this in this your suggestion is that I make a resolution. So add like 5.4 or something typically like under the business office matters or something along those lines. Okay, I'm finding where it would fit here. Yeah, I guess business or business of the board. >> do it in four or five. You can do Yeah. >> Yeah, you can make it a 4.4. Yeah. Let me just pull up what it I want to have the the thing in front of me here. So I could just
113call it resolution to sign a petition to the public service commission. Uh-huh. Mhm. Okay. Any objection to that? All right. >> No. All right, then. Um I'll take a resol- I'll take a motion, excuse me. All righty. Uh to add resolution 4.4 to the consent agenda business of the board uh reading resolution to sign a petition uh of the public service commission. So moved. Second. Any discussion? If you think I need to change something, now is the time to say it. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? Now we've added the resolution. I'll take a motion to vote on the resolution. So moved. Second. Okay. Uh 4.4 resolution to sign the petition of the Public Service Commission. To the Public Service Commission. Sorry, excuse me. Um any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
114Uh Opposed? Abstentions? All right. There you go, Mary. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you all. Yeah. They wrote to you all directly, too. That's great. Okay. All right. Um Is Is that all you have for >> All right. Does anybody have anything else for dialogue? Did you catch that, Illy? All right. In that case, we'll move along to our motion to enter into executive session. Um so I'll take a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the medical, financial, credit, or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal, or removal of a particular person or corporation. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? And the board does not expect to to reconvene in public, so thank you very
115much. Have a nice night, and we'll see you next time.