Board of Education Budget Workshop March 15, 2025

001all right Alita are you ready okay all right I'd like to call to order the budget workshop for Saturday March 15 2025 and I will lead us in the pledge before we start I pledge aliance 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 all right welcome everybody thanks for being here um Alita is going to start us off thank you good morning everyone um I'm happy to be here and present the 2526 uh superintendent's proposed budget um it's going to be a lot of conversation but I just wanted to give an overview uh of the budget uh for the 25 26 school year and we'll start off by talking about the uh projections that are

002U made for our revenue and also our estimated expenses so the overall budget is uh actually lower than it was uh for the 2425 school year um it's down by 1.5 million Which is less than a percent uh the levy limit amount we discussed this at the board meeting on Wednesday is um up by 1.7 million so it's going from 1069 379 to 1079 36403 and that represents a 1.67% increase in the tax levy and as we discussed on Wednesday that is the tax levy limit amount uh we are not using any cap capital Reser reserves or ERS or TRS reserves um in the 25 26 budget as uh you'll see um the ERS and the TRS are flat uh so there's no reason to use those reserves uh there's no reason for us to

003use Capital reserves for the 25 26 year um the unappropriated fund balance the usage that we anticipate is $6.5 million and I'll go over another use for an appropriated fund balance uh as we move along through the presentation so uh the expenses the salaries that are in the budget are uh contractual increases uh so whatever the contract dictates for all of our units or unions will be uh reflected in the budget uh like I said before with related with with regard to expenses um the TRS is going the employer which is the employer contribution rate is going from 10.11 to 10% so what that means is that 10 uh 10 cents on every dollar uh the school district has to contribute uh for our teachers our uh certificated admin administrators Etc uh the ERS system

004uh pension the employer contribution rate is going up from 15.24% to 16.5% so again that means that $1650 for every dollar is uh paid for by the school district for our non- certificate at staff health insurance there's a very minor increase in the premiums uh you'll recall um this time last year there was a major increase in our health insurance uh but I'm pleased to say that N Ship is doesn't have uh that great of an increase for the 25 26 uh school year and federal and state grants we want to talk a little bit more about that uh knowing the things that are going on um within the federal government uh I think it's it's important for us to consider a contingency plan in the event that there are any midyear Cuts during the

00525 26 school year with regard to the revenue um sales tax uh we know that we can't really predict what sales tax is going to be but based on the previous three years and even with the changes in the economy uh the the the revenue has really maintained um its consistency as far as the amount that we are getting back uh per quarter so we did increase the projections for revenue for sales tax to align better with what we've seen in the past three years uh interest income we're doing the same thing uh we've done very well with interest we have uh money from our uh our reserves that we save um in our bank account and uh the money that we're generating from interest has been uh more than anticipated so we increase our

006uh projections for 2526 to align with those increases in the past three years our unallocated fund balance as you know I just mentioned that we will need to use $6.6 million to um as an additional Revenue uh to for the to stay within the tax levy and one of the things that we're looking at currently is if we can identify additional un unallocated fund balance to use for expiring federal and state grants so again we'll talk more about that um at towards the end but we need to have a contingency plan in the event that there are um midyear Cuts related to federal and state grants and we would like to consider looking at uh what we project to have as Surplus at the end of the 25 425 school year uh use of reserves

007like I said there's no use of any Reserves at this time our state aid numbers are based on um the runs that were released on January 21st uh we know that uh we anticipate another run coming out after the legislator legislature uh approves its budget um and then we'll know what our final numbers are uh typically that information is available to us right around April 1st when the budget is due uh the state budget uh tax cap we discussed that tax cap is the same as a a levy limit uh and we know that it's 1.6% the one thing I would like to state is that if there are any changes uh to the use of capital reserves or to the building Aid that tax cap number could change so we won't know definitively uh

008if that 1.67 is going to be the final number we'll better know um after the uh state budget is finalized so I'm going to turn it over to the presenters or to marry if she wants to uh intervene um but I'll be back after the regular presenters to give a summary of what we heard today and our recommendations thank you thank you Miss Zuber um first of all I I need to reiterate to the Board of Education our gratitude for last year's process around the budget the board adopted a philosophy of um how we approach recurring revenues how we approach recurring expenses um the board um um author Iz the use of reserves in the hope that they would be a use of one time and it it turned out to be that case um

009we are we were a little bit more aggressive about our revenues around sales tax and interest and that puts us in a favorable position this year um keeping with the philosophy this is a multi-year approach again overall the theme that it is now um the overall budget is almost 1.5 million less than last year's budget the levy at this moment on the things we can control we can't control March 31st or April 1st the levy will be below 2% we have we are looking like in all cases even how we live our own personal lives um you know if you get a budget to do something um I know I'm going to go out and make sure I check out all the sales I clip coupons I try to save as much money as possible

010so it doesn't mean just because we as a public entity using taxpayer money we have a budget for X that we're not strategic and cost savings on that so the ability to save money also is a strategy based upon uh cost that maybe you're projecting 18 months ahead of time as it Bears repeating I know the board understands it because they see it all the time but at this moment we're projecting Personnel costs for let's say I don't know April of 2026 um a baby takes nine months you know like uh you're you're you're projecting for leave Replacements you're projecting for maybe contingencies you're you're trying to do so in a coste effective way a way that protects taxpayer money keeps the levy low but allows us to induce some levels of savings I appreciate

011the board's questions regarding ing the federal funds um the board was shared information in the past where we're a little over 6 million in that uh salaries are actually almost 5 A5 million I'll let Alita share that later but there is an approach to be very um strategic and and just because we don't know a year from now what can happen and uh many of those programs that are funded through the Consolidated grants cover our students with disabilities so and our AIS cost so so um these would be things that we need to keep an eye on and we do have an approach as Miss uh McCoy mentioned where we can be a little bit more stringent about how we approach things to generate a level of savings this year which could help cushion any

012potential costs um coming up I know this is a topic at every organization whether it's a topic at putam Northern Westchester bosies with my superintendent it's a topic with with I know at nisba it's a topic at nisus no one has a crystal ball but everyone is trying to figure out a way to prepare for what we're anticipating could be potential cuts um a year from now so again um I just want to express my level of gratitude and I want to thank the administrative team who are here today um they who spent hours talking about program I appreciate the meetings that we've had ongoing since um basically November um so thank you all for all your hard work thank you all for everything you do and I know we're going to have a good

013day talking about the nuts and bolts that make our school district what it is so thank you everybody thank you um we have our buildings and grounds first before we move forward though I want to establish with the board when we would like to ask questions I assume we want to do it in the same way that we do it at typical board meeting we'll go around it probably makes sense to do it after I don't know each individual comes up to talk about their Pages we basically uh built in probably 10 minutes for them and some might have more efficiency of words that we've slotted 15 minutes so the board can ask questions at the end of each presenter right great all right it looks like Jared's up first and Jared brought his homework

014for me this morning um so we traditionally kind of go Page by page on the uh on on the budget um as you know my budget is operational so it's the kind of the back of the house oh I'm sorry my budget is operational so it's it's all back at the house uh so to speak um but uh uh starting at page 15 is uh the operation salaries um there's uh there's not much different there there is some increases there which I believe contractual we did ask for uh in this budget one additional position which would be a um evening custodial supervisor uh that I believe is in the budget here I think that the building principles would back me up on that to uh kind of have that supervisory uh person in available in

015the evenings to kind of Overlook what's going on uh in the buildings as far as the custodial staff would also help with making sure we're set up for events making sure that uh we have the operation supplies that we need um and just make things run smoother um beyond that uh there's no other additional positions uh there are just uh contractual obligations turning to um the next page uh the biggest one that jumps out at you there is the change in the equipment line uh on 1620 D200 uh the operational equipment in other words the money we we have in there to purchase a truck or a vehicle which is mostly the majority of it that hasn't changed as matter of fact I think we went down year to year a little bit but the

016big increase in there is the equ is the in the equipment line is to purchase the uh window unit air conditioners um for the classrooms that do not have central air conditioning currently uh or that we expect to have in the near future so let me explain what we mean by that we identified the classrooms that that don't have airG conditioning um in anticipation of the legislation change that came about uh which actually happened this year and so we're trying to get ahead of that and that's what the big increase in the in that cost is um Alita and I had talked about it and gone over it during budget development and if we're going to buy window units and put window units in in classrooms that's really not a capital expense that's really equipment

017so this is the right place to have it in the budget so that's what that big increase is uh the next page on page 17 is utilities um anybody who pays their electric or gas bill at home knows about the increases that we've seen um we've kept the budget line pretty even we feel we're comfortable with these lines um I'm happy to report that the solar uh panels are starting to come online uh everybody here is the first to hear of it actually the second because I heard about it Thursday afternoon um the uh solar panels on this building the roof of this building are activated as of Thursday so we're now generating power we're now generating power back to the to the grid and that will result in a in a uh way I

018understand it's going to be a credit invoice that we're going to get uh from conad for the generation of that solar power they're continuing work at Claremont you've probably seen seen the when you come up the hill the Transformer going in the additional condom coming down the building we're really close on that uh we're hoping that within the next uh few weeks maybe a month and a half uh that we'll have Claremont online and Brookside will be soon after that so they've been working hard on uh on getting that done yeah so electricity is the is the major one here uh because of the cost of electricity and and the amount that we use um obviously we're going to see some increases in use of electricity and probably we've seen it already a little bit

019we went we just went through a harsh winter but you know we brought we brought all these heat pumps online all those new air conditioning units that we have at Claremont and and Brookside those are all heat pump equipment which we're using as a primary source of heat the natural gas steam system is a backup after that um and so we're going to see a little little bump in electric bill for using the heat pumps and then we should see a corresponding greater increase a greater decrease in the use of natural gas related to those heat pumps um so that's that's ongoing so but it's reflected in electric bill uh turning to page 18 so this gets into some of our our repair codes and our plant expenses um service contracts things like that some

020of the increases you'll see in this line are basically related to the to the some of of the Steep increases we've seen actually in uh expenses related to service contracts related to buying Parts and Equipment um buying parts of pieces it's amazing to me like a common part that that I just had this discussion with our mainus for the other day that normally cost us about you know $150 to buy is up over $300 now um and it's like it's electronic actuator for a damper it just just crazy increases that we've seen so we're managing those expenses we make sure that we buy carefully uh we try to um we we always we always try to buy a state contract wherever it's available um we try to be efficient in The Way We Buy in

021other words anticipate price increases if we know we're going to use it you know we're we're going need a lot of this type of part you know we'll stock up on them if it makes sense and then of course we don't want to have dead inventory either so we try to manage that part as well so that we don't have parts that we don't need us sitting on the shelf so the increases that you see there um are basically related to an inflationary uh expenses um related to repairs and uh buying equipment turning to page to page 19 um that's essentially pretty flat the section of pro program improvements program improvements are the requests that come from the building principles on improvements they want to see made in their buildings it might be changing out

022floor tile in a classroom it might be doing painting work it might be um uh you know freshening up an area um uh with with uh with better infrastructure they're generally the smaller jobs that we can that we can pinpoint and uh get fixed over a summer period or over breaks so like for instance recently we did uh one two three classrooms at the high school we uh took up the floor tile over the winter break um in those three classrooms redid the subfloor and two of them and then put new floor tile down um and that's over the course of three or four days really um so but those are the kinds of things that we're doing both over the summer and during breaks we anticipate work like that to happen over the spring

023break as well those are continuing over the year and again they're generated by the building requests by the principles um that uh We Gather every year during the budget development process um the custodial supplies line on this page we had a uh I had as for a pretty significant increase last year again due to increased expenses and um I just asked for a little bit more to cover our expenses for custodial supplies um I think that covers our our pages in the budget um do we Le do we want to talk about transfer to Capital here no right okay um so I guess is there there any questions from anybody I'd love to uh sure does anybody want to go first does anybody have any go ahead thanks Jared um just just going back to

02416 about the ventilators just wanted to get some page 16 just get an understanding of that so right the state passed a law saying if the temperature reaches X that's no good in the classrooms right you cannot and if you do you have to have air conditioning for those students right I believe that's and I'm really really simplifying it but I believe not quite exactly the first version uh could have been read that way actually the the final version that actually was passed um the language was changed significantly it gave the the school district a lot of flexibility there um to to do the right thing but we have to take measures to help cool the space that could be uh turning lights out um putting some fans out opening Windows those those kinds of

025basic things that that make common sense um and once the T temperature meets an additional thresholds then we have to take we have to take other measures that could be as simple as moving it moving people from one space to another okay so two questions here generally where are these going do you have a sort of breakdown of the buildings where you think you need these and the second part of the question is by putting these in as an expense into this budget this won't necessarily be duplicative for any of the capital cap HVAC you're putting in meaning like if this building is going to be as we've talked about mostly air conditioned by the time you're done with it based on the previous Capital approvals does that by putting in these ventilators AC and

026Heating units right in in the classrooms is that sort of duplicating what you've already done on the capital piece if you could just clarify that sure it's a good question and and and one to be careful of yeah we we thought about that ahead of time so using the example of D we already have a capital project in process that that those plans are up at State Ed they're awaiting review when we get those plans back we'll start the work here we did not include window units for this building uh because we know that we're going to put air conditioning in the instructional spaces in this building we have a plan for that where these window units will go will be will be spaces that we know we don't have an immediate plan for um

027so there's there's we did significant amount of work at the high school here's another example a couple years ago the entire third floor all the instructional spaces at the high school on the third floor now have air conditioning but that leaves out a lot of other spaces that don't have air conditioning um at the high school so these window units would be focused on those areas that don't have air condition conditioning and we don't anticipate a capital project coming up that will add air conditioning another example is Park the um uh the core building of Park the original part of the building of Park the first two fours those classrooms do not have a some have window units currently where they've been added for whatever specific specific reasons but we would add window units in

028those rooms that do not have window units currently and then the next part of that is to to keep in mind is that we've made a commitment anything moving forward everything anything we have on the books anything that we're planning for um now or in the immediate future specifically the bond project um those spaces will have air conditioning got it so when you so two things so just for our benefit and maybe anyone out there and TV Land and we're in the room and you say window units are we talking about you know window unit boom you put in you go to the store and you you put in or these these those actual ventilators and just do you have an idea of what this ask to buy these window units get us to percentage

029wise like will it get us to like 90% in building x 95 meaning that those classrooms at least the classrooms will have air conditioning in a certain percentage uh if if you don't have those exact numbers to tell is fine I'm just trying to get a I don't have the exact numbers here with me today but the goal is to is to get to the all the instructional spaces that do not that do not have air conditioning so all all the instructional spaces there there may be offices that aren't included in that there may be um you know some other space I'm not thinking about but the instructional spaces the classroom spaces those are the spaces that we're focusing I think I think Jared too um I want to thank you and Alita for for

030taking care of some infrastructure issues like service panels and additional feeds and additional lines because if you take a look at Roosevelt Roosevelt is the perfect example because Roosevelt has for those of you who see it they have they're not like the ones we have some might have at home but there are wall units that can a on an industrial level that can AC a space so um but in order to run one of those you need a direct line um so you need space on a panel you need service that comes into a building you need switching to be able there so um for those of you who might have noticed last year in front of park there was a lot of activity around electricity and service being put so all of that work

031now has put us in a place where we can do this the energy performance contract and again I want to congratulate the board for their foresight on this and for Alita and her planning but the um the energy performance contracts allowed univent who were older than 1974 to be replaced with a system that would heat and cool very efficiently at no cost so we've got rooftop units we've got Chiller units we've got traditional wall units but not like what you would put at home we've upgraded our infrastructure all with the goal to have as many aced spaces as possible so yeah no that that's great so does this line This ask get you to that goal to get to that 100% for next year or do you think you're still going to need some more

032I guess what I'm trying to get at do you did you ask for enough to get us to that goal as quickly and efficiently as possible so Alita asked Lita and Mary asked me to identify all the instructional spaces that do not have air conditioning um and based on I what I did is I identified those spaces and then I tried to estimate the cost based on historical because we've done similar work like this um in in in buildings to add air condition units so to Mary's Point what it requires is we have to take out a window panel a panel of a a sash replace it with an insulated aluminum panel like a structural aluminum panel and then install a commercial grade window unit and then in addition to that run a dedicated circuit

033dedicated electrical circuit which requires electrician and we have one staff electrician and we would we we we would sub that work out to an electrical contractor just out of efficiency yeah um just out efficiency we would sub that workout and um but the the goal is to get as is as many instructional spaces as we can we're going to get really close with this number we might hit some costs escalation and that's my that's my caution is is in the climate that we're in so we'll be back here next year if it so in in the in the equipment line we included and that's what Alita just pointed out to me uh it's broken out a little little finer is 45 classrooms at OS 27 classrooms at Park and one again yeah 45 classrooms at

034at OS 27 at Ark and then I think we have one lump sump here I think out of this is written out as one lump sum for for Claremont I think in Brookside because I know that there's rooms to Claremont on Brookside that we have to get to so you'll notice like Roosevelt is not included in in this because we've already done Roosevelt we made a concentrated effort to put window units in each of the each of the spaces that don't have air conditioning at Roosevelt so Roosevelt essentially done check it off it's done um there's a quite a few rooms at at OS we have to do there's quite a few rooms at Park we have to do um the majority of uh Claremont and Brookside has air condition the great majority of those

035of those buildings however there are rooms in those two buildings that do not have air conditioning even coming out of all the work that we've done so we we're trying to concentrate on to hit those so this building here we have a capital project in the works for all the instruction that's the add a chiller we'll have a a fully air conditioned building when we're talking and I think I covered all six buildings there yeah thank you Jared and I think um to Jared's Point here's a perfect example of the ongoing commitment to work we're doing right now the new classrooms that will shortly open up at Park are all a seed spaces yes right yes and in addition to the park project the that we recently completed was upgrade the electric service which was

036which was a big part of being able to to go move forward with this we replaced the 1995 HVAC equipment on the cafeteria wing of Park and when we did that all of those new units have air conditioning so the cafeteria the library and the classrooms all in that down that wing of Park and then the second floor the new second floor park has uh a vrf heat pump system which is also air conditioning um that's four classrooms on the second floor and three or four offices that are also air air air conditioned three offices so we're hopeful on a successful budget this year we will bid all this stuff out and give you the totals all right Frank no I think it's fantastic we're in the position to have the amount of air conditioning

037we do I mean 10 years ago we didn't have anything in buildings and so just the fact that we've got service there which is a huge part of this like really credit to the work that's been done just from a transparency standpoint instructional spaces that we're talking about are really classrooms at the end of the day so gymnasiums cafeterias and all those buildings when we say 100% in any building we really probably not 100% in any building when you look at all the space I'm just trying to make sure there may be some people that look at a gym and say is it it's expected to be air conditioning they shouldn't really at this this is really to get all the classrooms essentially air that's correct okay just want to make sure great Point Annie

038do you have any from these Pages yeah um first of all I think you do an amazing job keeping at the buildings and I we went on that tour I don't remember when it was because time has gone um but it was just really incredible to see all the detail that you put into it and then to just connect it to the budget here um my one question you did explain this in the budget but can you just kind of um expand on what plant expense means okay it it got could be a variety of things so um it could be that the uh the elevator broke and needs is broken and needs some repairs so um it could be uh there's a there's a burner out on a boiler that needs some repairs uh

039it could be uh it's mostly repairs and things that need to be fixed a roof leak it could be a fire alarm repair that needs to be made it's those kinds of things that are recovering expense we had just this week we had a uh uh a clogged area drain in one of the parking lots so we had to bring in a vac truck uh to vacuum that out and and figure out what's going on with it um it's those kinds of things those plan expenses and then of course then it also turns into service contracts so like the elevator system is required to be uh serviced annually by a qualified person th those kinds of the boilers get cleaned every year um there's things I'm not even thinking of um the the custodial floor

040machines the the the ride on floor scrubbers as you see they get fixed and repaired they need parts you know break sometimes all those kinds of things those continuing ongoing expenses that's what's really in those lines okay and then um do it includes funding for the lease so that's where I was getting confused if it's like equipment versus the lease funding so the the El can speak better to the lease at 400 but the the go ahead Al the lease is in there 18 1624 X okay so plant expense can be like the service contracts the repairs and then also lease right leas is in there thank you 723 a lot of yeah but the 723 is not representative of the the least amount was within that number okay did you have more Melissa any

041questions on these yeah I just wanted to get a clarification on 17 regarding um the great news that the solar panels are you know being activated now I'm glad to see that project really we're starting to kind of reap the benefits of that that the credit that you said we're going to get I'm just curious as to like so for this budget line it's just kind of a projection based on not having that solar panel in place right so in theory over time well depending on how costs go up and stuff but that could be not as much as an increase over time correct line right and we're as we bring more air conditioning on that that's going to be we're going to incur an expense for electricity so and then on top of that

042you have to budget for the anticipated cost increases for electricity and and that's that's the kind of the dance that we all do um to anticipate that expense but yes we haven't seen those credits yet and it's hard to quantify them because I don't know what they're going to be but we anticipate having those credits in the future okay thank you Kath any questions on these Pages no thank you very much all right m questions have been asked already by my colleagues with great minds who are thinking alike um so I think I you're out of the hot seat now all right thank you thank you Jared appreciate the work on this thanks Jared thank you everybody um Jim's up next thanks Jim morning Jim all right so we're going to talk about transportation and

043we're going to start on page 66 of the budget book so um 66 starts off with the staff salaries so I just have one correction that I noticed in the budget book that that's going to be corrected I spoke to the lead already she's going to make the correction for us so if you see where it says parttime overtime and that that's showing zero that o actually should say 10,000 so the reduction is is uh five not 15 so just just so you know the overtime is normally uh for my staff my office staff and that Norm the bulk of the overtime happens in um end of July August September and the beginning of October and that's all the additional time for the routing um and then after the routes go out all the changes

044and and stuff that we receive uh all the late changes and stuff um the bus monitor line so that line uh reflects 65 monitors so just to give you an idea is where we are with monitors so last year we structurally changed the pay scale for the the monitors which has been extremely beneficial so um we are hiring more monitors and keeping more monitors so we are right now at 64 this line reflects uh 65 monitors and one of the things that I should say is there's also a 10 addition 10 additional monitors that aren't reflected in this line that are Grant funded so those are the ones that come out of the upk grant so our actual number of monitors needed is 75 and right now we have 64 so equipment uh moving down

045to the next series of of lines so equipment if you notice that the first line that's that's bus that's if we were to purchase uh another bus so for those of you who don't know the district owns three uh School Bus Vans large school bus Vans um normally what I would do is I would have put in for a vehicle replacement this year but we are working with so putham Northern Westchester bosies um hired a consulting company to help districts with electrification so we have partnered with them um that's INF uh consultants and we've already submitted all of our information they have submitted for a grant for us for for electrification so rather than put in for a bus this year more than likely the bus that we would have replaced um will be able

046to purchase the following year and it should be an electric uh V so it's a place for us to start so we're just waiting on that I was told it takes about 8 to 10 months for notification on that Grant um the staff development that that's uh you know conferences and such um I we reduced that by about $33,000 because I generally don't attend uh one conference a year so that went down the other expenses are our Weather Service our so Partners in safety does our drug testing and our uh mandatory physicals for our drivers uh equipment repairs so we contract with Royal Coach so they do all the repairs and DOT inspections on our vans uh Insurance Consultants that's pretty pretty much the same as before uh bosis so we we do contract with

047um uh bosis Upstate who does all of our SharePoint work so State Ed now requires us to do multiple uh downloads into SharePoint for uh superintendence approval physical performance test so uh F bosis does that that work for us the supplies so one of the good things is you know our supply line has been able to to be reduced because we are no longer doing the mass mailing of 5,000 letters for uh parent notification family notification routes we do everything by email now so that has been extremely helpful because we've also been able to notify families with the changes um a lot quicker instead of using the mail uh gasoline speaks strictly to our vehicles our our three vans and uh we don't use the last line so the next page is our contract Transportation

048so again one more one more change is in the narrative on the top leftand part of the page where it says 83 routes it's actually 89 routes so we contract 89 routes so that's one route in addition to what we have uh last year so we're running 89 Vehicles so the contract uh code number the amounts reflect 89 routes big buses and vans this year we've been able to reduce the amount of time so it's not so much the number of vehicles in addition to how long we actually use those Vehicles because we pay for live time for those Vehicles so last year we had several late after school programs we're no longer doing those um so we were able to to reduce a number of the routes from 5 to 6 hour routes back

049to four to 5 Hour routes so we were able to have some Savings in there also that contract number um reflects a uh CPI estimated increase of 3% so that's the benefit of you know renewing with a contractor because um if you go out to bid then you're subject to whatever the market is and the market could be 12% or 15% increase so we we um we're ending our five-year contract with our current vendor at the end of June so one of the things you see in the in the notes Here is that I'm recommending that we uh renew our contract with our current vendor for an additional 5 years the benefit is all of our increase would then be locked into whatever s dictates as CPI for transportation so again estimating about 3% for

050this year and then the uh computerized rooting system that is um that's our our routing software oh and one other thing for the for the um the overall contract number couple things that are in there that you should know is we have what state Ed calls is a wet contract so we pay the fuel for live mileage so the the diesel fuel is included in that and also for us to continue the the IND District summer school program so we run approximately seven Vehicles over the summer just for the IND District summer school cool and then the last page is um you know the schools and uh Athletics uh that is their trip uh request and that's the estimate for that so and that's pretty much my pages um anybody on the board want to

051start with questions um you said it but I just want to make sure sure I understand so our contract transport Transportation contract ends and we have the choice through state law to renew the existing vendor at CPI or we could go out for an RFP my understanding is going out for an RFP is likely to drive that number up significantly is that why you're continuing I mean typically somebody would say why aren't you go out to open bid process why would you just renew a fiveyear contract and so just maybe you could give a little bit of light on that yeah so years ago when I when I first started you know in in this business one of the things is you would save money if you went out to bid because you know the

052market was very hot contractors would underbid each other so you would see significant Savings in the first year or two Market's not that way anymore what districts are seeing is when they go out to bid they're seeing you know contractual increases of 12 or 15 and sometimes higher to bring in the new contractor or even they get the same contractor back at a higher rate um and to avoid that um you you renew your contract and then they're locked into CPI so I've already spoke to Royal Coach they're happy working for us the truth is I'm happy with their service and there's really no reason not to renew and it would lock us into whatever CPI is and other than two years ago where CPI was higher than anticipated it's normally about 3% and then

053the second question was I guess the the after school transportation reduction what does that mean exactly so that was the end of the Boys and Girls Club where we were running you know several buses at 6 PM we're not doing that anymore okay um I'll go around the table Annie do you have any on these Pages yeah U Frank were you just asking about the academic programs line when you said after school program no I just men um well that's my question why is that zero why is what academic programs on page 68 for 2526 Z I'm not I'm not sure why that one is zero at it and probably needs to be updated I don't think it should be zero um and then for 75 bus monitors what exactly does that cover is it

054Olive Park Olive Park and Brookside so so that's a great question the way the way the monitors get assigned right so the first priority is all of our legal responsibility so anything that's IEP driven they're first second is Park school and then uh what we do is we um working with the the building principles they tell us which buses you know that they're getting the most referrals from we then assign there and then we start with the younger kids moving up upwards okay so that's 75 just so you know because it doesn't cover everything because we're doing 89 routes but what it does will cover is all of our IND District routing okay um so then for that if a child has an i AP and requires a monitor does that mean they can take

055their neighborhood bus because there will be a monitor on there or is that a monitor for um alternative transportation it depends on on how that IP CL if they could be either it could be either thank you Melissa any questions on these P yes I just want to make sure I understand um I think it's kind of been asked but I want to make sure I understand on page 68 the academic program line um is that line to represent specifically internal transportation for our academic programs is that or is it like a combination of any travel to any academic program that yeah that's it's a combination of both so some trips are coded differently M so I don't know why that one is zero because I don't believe I have anything uh I I believe

056there is stuff coded in there okay so that would represent any transportation we're providing for just after school programs and things that would be that line right no so for the after school programs that's actually covered in home to school okay so the way I cover those is um we would so the best way to explain it is um our contractual rate is the same per hour for up to four hours so and it's all live time so what we try to do is is we try to build routes so that we don't push that 4H hour threshold until you know we try to maximize that 4H hour threshold so we may have one route that does only one school in the morning so that I have bankable time in the afternoon so it may

057only do one school in the afternoon I mean in the morning but it'll do three things in the afternoon one of those which would be the after school you know activity programs got it so we try to build stuff in a way that because you know during the school year things change so you know we'll get asked oh can we provide transportation for this program so what I do is I go to the we we have a a sheet that shows live hours and I look at um where I have availability before I jump to the next hourly rate so I fill those in first before I add a but that's how that gets covered thank you anything else yeah it for me but I don't know if they're to clarify yeah yeah you're good

058though Melissa yes I'm done yes so so there there is stuff that's that is supposed to be coded in there so just to give you an idea like um uh college tours are supposed to be in there the business skills Olympics uh ninth grade literature um young authors conference all of that should be in there it was it was in there last year and I just have to see if we um you'll have it but that that's what belongs in that code yeah more to follow there might other theod I think was conversation when we saw it it was miscoded yeah so it might be the WR so we'll look at it okay where you know where where it says field trips and academic competitions it could be in there as well right so we

059have to just make sure so one of the things um I just real quick want to touch on so um last year we had a conversation about this this year it's actually a reality um uh we've got the bus Patrol uh installed on all the buses now and I have to tell you you know for somebody who spends a lot of time on the road doing observations um there is a difference when traffic comes up to a stop School Bus um I'm not saying that cars still don't go by but I got to tell you the frequency is much much less yeah it came at the last meeting yeah and it was uh the report you sent us in January 55 tickets have been issued right and if you looked at the report right there

060there the bulk was at the very beginning and you can start to see it taper off that's what we were curious about I think we just had like the number so we were curious because that's what we want to see we don't want lots of tickets to be written we want people to not run the stop signs agre agreed and and what's really great that's funded by that program is all the internal cameras because for as long as I've been in this business the internal cameras the views are absolutely uh you know excellent um the sound quality is great um you see the entire inside of the bus where before you know technology just didn't lend itself to that I would say the only downside to it is it takes a long time to download

061the videos because no no longer are they just downloading you know a single camera they're actually downloading four cameras so it takes it's a lot of information so it takes a little while thank you for that um kather do you have any questions about these Pages no I think Melissa got mine go ahead yeah hi hi Jim um okay a couple of things just back to the monitors for a second you said there were we're covered at 75 we have 89 runs so the Gap is what are those out of District runs or you just don't have enough cash to cover those 14 no those those are out of District runs those are you know a run that is maybe one or two students going to a single school you know so rather than you

062know assign a monitor to to those you know like we running a a van down to Maria Regina doesn't really you know require a monitor it's those are the runs we're talking about right but we're funded or you're asking for because I remember previous administration when I was on that side of the board table previous budget was to fun to cut have a monitor on every single bus asteris out of District run so we we are trying to do that right again just on the turnover on the churn on the Staffing I agree I've seen because it comes up to the board meetings right we have to approve the you know hiring or resignation of of those bus monitors um I think there's been a downward slope in the right direction meaning the turn has

063gone down but there's still looks like a pretty high turn rate on that do you believe the it's the compensation it's the nature of the job how do we sort of keep those monitors so we're not turning them in and out or is that just the nature of of the role so two things it's kind of the nature of the role but a lot of the people who leave are leaving for uh longer hours more full-time type work got it um okay I got a couple on digging in a little bit on the Weeds on the buses themselves so I think you know we talked about this a little bit um so with Royal Coach there's been some new bus purchases getting really weedy bus numbers in the 700s um and if you don't have

064this information now that's fine but can you speak to like for example some of the new technologies that hopefully I don't know if they're part of the renewal contract like for example the old buses may have X type of cameras but the new buses are going to have better in internal cameras airbags um stability control more cameras on the outside is that is that accurate to say that the new buses will have better technology uh and is that part of the contracts as well that we ask for that so when they go out to buy these things whether it's Thomas Bluebird whomever it's still out there that that they're equipping accordingly no so that's that's a good question so just to give you an idea of some of the Technologies on our buses so uh

065Royal Coach this year replaced 18 large school buses and we're waiting for the delivery of 10 additional School Vans um so again it's just manufacturing delays but we have 18 new school buses um in in the Y what's really nice is um this is the first time that we're not getting hand-me-downs from another yard because there there's another District that they contract with that in their contract they spec uh air conditioned buses right we in our original contract we never spec so we used to get those buses by default now everything that Royal Coach provides us is air conditioned so the entire fleet is air conditioned which is nice um as far as the cameras Go Bus Patrol in our contract with us in Westchester County installed those cameras onto all of the stuff regardless

066of the age of the bus the other thing and if you remember the conversation from last year real Coach was purchased by be Mobility a much larger transportation operator and one of the things that beac Mobility did was they installed a camera called LX on in every bus and what that LX does is it's a camera that's mounted on the windshield of the bus so it's forward facing and rear facing but the rear facing is it's looking at the driver so what it does is this camera watches the road so it's monitoring speed it's monitoring your lane placement it's monitoring whether or not you stopped at at a stop sign right and what it it will do is it'll prompt the driver so if it sees that the driver didn't stop at the stop sign

067it'll prompt the driver that there was a stop sign and then what it does is it it makes a record of that the other thing it will do is it will also because the the rear-facing camera looking at the driver will tell if the driver has an earpiece in whether the driver's wearing a seat belt where the driver no uh dozes off it's monitoring all the those type of Biometrics of the driver as well and those get sent to they they each yard has to have a designated person who receives those notifications those notifications then result in counseling so it's not disciplinary in the beginning but they get called in and they say listen this is what the camera has you know and they'll go through those events so that's new for us we just

068we started seeing that uh at the end of last school year and now this year and that's been very beneficial um as far as you know Technologies go believe it or not there's really not a huge difference between bus manufacturers whether it be a Thomas or a bluebird right foundationally the buses are identical it's more of a cosmetic or you know personal preference type thing believe it or not got it okay so thank thank you on that but okay but the new bus is I mean there's presumably there's at least incremental improvements in Tech technology and or efficiency cor and all that and just back to um I think you did mention this one seat belts so all all of the buses that we have have at least the lap belts and I think we

069had a discussion around threo belts you're say I believe and tell me if this is wrong our buses the new buses won't have three-point safety belts for the students part of the reason for that is it reduces the capacity is that is that correct so there's a there's a couple things that go into that so number one is so uh the only thing that's required on large school buses are lap belts in manufacturing so um you can option for those but if you option for that then what happens is you uh would reduce the capacity by almost a third on every bus they are required on vans so what the federal government says is anything that's under 10,000s has to have three-o belts in it and that's where the Vans fall into so all the

070Vans have three points got it okay uh talk a couple of minutes here around electric buses so again my understanding of the state is in 2022 they said okay by 2027 all districts got to have all electric Fleet you cannot buy anything diesel or I guess quote unquote fossil fuel and PE districts asked well how are we going to pay for it and the state said well we'll figure it out and I think that's still where we are right now I don't know if that 2027 mandate's been pushed off and my understanding based on my personal research is that to buy an electric El bus it's it's at least 2x two times the cost of a gas propane powered bus so if that's all accurate with that said will we will Royal Coach be at

071least trying to buy one of these fullsize electric ones to kick the proverbially kick the tires on it or we're still waiting because it sounds like the funding still is not there and the legislature maybe will push back that 2027 deadline because to me that's like well not even two years off and that seems to be ridiculous considering there's no funding approval for all these districts that you know contract is that all accurate and if so specifically around the you know are we going to try an electric bus just to see how it works the cost you know and see see how it goes so um for ju just for clarification the dates um are 2027 in which you can no longer buy gas or diesel 2027 is when you must start to buy electric

0722035 is when your entire fleet must be electrified now I I was up in at s just this past Thursday for my quarterly Transportation meetings and this came up so there is no word although there is legislation out there there is no word that they're going to kick the can down the road yet although there is legislation for some delays and you can you can file for an extension you know manufact action would be one of the issues because you know you know nationally you know everybody's going to be looking for electric buses so you know manufacturers is not going to be able to meet that so you can you can file for an extension although that hasn't even been agreed upon the other thing is the only money right now that is somewhat questionable

073is the Federal grant money the state money according to S is still out there so and we're already in the queue in you know looking for a so we're already uh I believe in second round so and from what I've been told second round should not be touched it's the the other rounds down the road so uh two times the cost of a bus so that's also not 100% accurate the truth is you know right now a conventional you know the traditional school bus that we see nowadays runs about 160 to about $170,000 uh new buses are going to run somewhere in the 400 range uh about $400,000 and that's going to be the offset right so the offset is supposed to um basically offset the upcharge of what you would have paid at70 to

074the 400 that's what that grant money is supposed to fund it's it's not really going to fund the entire bus it's going to fund the difference of that so royal coaches told me what they go their plan is is uh um within the next year to purchase two electric buses one of which Austin would get to kick the tires and that's a full size full size okay all right U La okay yeah but right so two times it's it's more than that and then you got to look at well where is the was the crossover on on the efficiency I mean it's a it's a noble idea but the reality is the infrastructure infrastructure cost there's um you know that that Gap in that so hopefully they be decisioned or they'll move the timeline or

075come up with more funding because that's it's a lot of money and and and again the infrastructure itself probably so there's a there and and you know we we have a um well not only us but numerous districts have some contractual issues because we we have a matrix in our contract that uh provides for live mileage so there's a formula for how many miles per gallon you know dictates you know how much we reimburse the contractor for fuel no no nobody and on a national level nobody has a matrix for how many kilowatt hours per live mile so at some point we have to cross that bridge as well and nobody has an answer for that great thank thank you for that and then the last part is just around the school trips page 68

076and my understanding this just covers the transportation but do you have enough budgeted here and this might come up in the later part I got I've got questions around do we are we doing enough and budging enough for school trips um do you have enough money as uh requested here that if we are going to consider you know uh more robust school trips this year and down that you could cover the cost of that so for example for I mean like there used to be like this whale watch trip in fifth grade I think that's gone there was a Statue of Liberty trip that that left and I know there's Logistics in cost regions but if that hypothetically were get put back in things like that do you have enough here to cover out of

077District City elsewhere cost to cover that line I don't know if that goes to academic programs or something else so we we budget for basically through through the budget process the buildings submit their transportation request for the upcoming school year we estimate what the cost of those trips are going to be and um that's what we budget for so outside of that um you know if there was additional request I mean there's some wiggle room because some trips you know are shorter than what we estimated or cheap than what we estimated so there's some wiggle room but you know I mean for a huge a large influx probably not okay so we got to figure out what as part of these budget discussions what's been asked for and what we're looking at and then obviously

078make sure you got enough to cover it and and and if there's adjustments adjustments okay thank you can I jump in I just have a question before I leave um I was wondering if this is included in after school programs you could tell me if it is but every time we have like a Cultural Arts update presentation um we discuss who is able to participate and if transportation is a barrier and I was wondering if any of that is included in this and if not this is not a directive I'll leave it to the rest of the board if they're interested in seeing this too but I would be curious of what the cost is to include that like before school transportation for kids who want to do morning chorus or morning band I don't

079know what the schedule is so that that's a good good question so uh no that's not included in the current budget or the stuff that I proposed um although I would tell you that before school transportation is a bit of a logistical issue for us because um we all of our all of our routes run on a tiered system so we have you know on the first tier we're bringing in um the high school the middle school and St Augustines and I'm just speaking about our IND District operation right so um those we consider that to be our first tier so all of those vehicles are are being operated for those schools and then they go to do the elementary tier so we would have to find a gap um to bring in to to

080run special routes to bring in kids ahead of time and you know so this goes kind of in Reverse of what I said before for after school programs so we would have to build routes almost uh heavier in the morning and then lighter in the afternoon to accommodate something like that if logistically we could cover it and then that would impact the afternoon sign the after school activities all right um when you go last everybody asks the questions that you were thinking in your head first Frank and I were on the same wavelength this time about the bus contract um so I don't have any additional questions I'm also set anybody else have any other questions before we I actually had one about the cameras but I was going to you can ask it go

081ahead um does the county get the money from the tickets or do we get the money or did you say that they just go into the cameras so what happens is the the way the legislation's written for the red light cameras the the funds from the summons go to the county uh and the manufacturer and I believe the state gets a portion the distri does not see any of that thank you all right thank you so much for the hard work you put into this my pleasure and you're out of the hot seat so you can make room for Mike come on up Mike good morning everyone morning so talking about technology the technology budget took months of careful consideration to craft we use data analysis we collaborate with our building administrators and our staff

082um and we even brought in outside Consultants to look at our infrastructure so my goal was to create a fiscally responsible budget that meets the needs to support and of course enhance the use of Technology throughout the district so we're going to be looking at my three budget pages and the first page is going to be page 20 and this is for Central data process processing this covers the systematic cost that we use to cover all of our administrative programs throughout the district this includes but is not limited to uh our business office Financial programs our student Information Systems our HR programs special education programs food service and data warehousing this year you will see an uptic in a couple of lines um the first is of course an increase in our staff salary line

083um this includes for my department contractual salary increases um it's also including now a new employee that works directly with um Kim Mauricio and uh the special education department to talk about data and work with them to incorporate data into their programs um so that was um included in my budget line for this year another line you will see is um a $2,000 increase for staff development and this is going directly to the need that we see for uh professional development for our building administrators with um Infinite Campus and some of the work that they're doing within Infinite Campus we have at least two of our buildings are looking really in deep um for their their PE how they're going to structure their periods and their scheduling and so we bring in some experts through

084Infinite Campus to to help them build uh new schedules within the uh the program so that they can maybe uh Implement that for the following year um so that is an increase um and again I want to make sure that we are there to be able to support all of the building administrators with their needs for Infinite Campus um the program changes frequently and this also helps us keep everybody current with what can be done in the system another increase you'll see is through our bosei services um our bosei services um the biggest increase in there is a new data visualization program um this is we're we're moving away from Tableau which is a program that we use and we developed for the last few years um and uh a a new program came in

085that we thought would be even more valuable and so we're we're starting are we're actually doing a yearly implementation for forecast 5 and that's a program that is directly through my learning plan so it's actually built directly into um the system that we use for asop for for our attendance uh for for IEP direct so it really it's going to tie together a lot of those systems that we already use um and again the the data is going to be used to allow our administrators and our staff to make informed decisions based upon very easy to use uh pie charts line graphs to really be able to dig deeper into um you know how our how our children are doing and how they're growing built into this is also an increase in um an additional

086CIO support we actually had CIO support in there before and CI CIO support is a is a service through bosis that actually provides again professional development for the data team on some of the to either um enhance or to follow through with some of the new things that are uh being required for State reporting and and so they help support this we do have a new data analyst coming on board we had a retirement this year um we haven't been able to hire them yet it's been a very difficult process but we're we're working on it um but this service will really be able to help that new individual um get caught up with how to do a lot of that state reporting pieces um this should be a one-time cost for this year only

087because then hopefully within that year they'll be up to speed to be able to support it um and we can do a lot of that work as well Mike just as a clarification that position is a civil service position it is correct and that is that's the that's the issue is yeah so Civil Service decided that the the the month before my retirement to do the a new test and then it takes them six months to grade the test before I get a list of people that I can actually go towards um so filling that gap for four months has been challenging so uh yeah that that's been the issue with that so thank you Civil Service um the other lines here again that the forecast 5 is built within the bosei services but bosei

088Services is actually very interesting in because throughout the spring they actually go and they they negotiate with the vendors yearly and so I don't know and most of the districts I think there are 58 bosis districts working with the lyric and uh we are able to negotiate better contracts based upon the larger amount of districts that are using their services so throughout the spring um they negotiate and then that we get a cost so we don't know if it's going to be a two 2% increase 3 % increase so what we do within my budget line is I actually do any of my Bose Services I'll put it up at least 2% and and then if I have a conversation with them they're like oh this is going to go larger I might put in

089a three or a 5% increase but that may not be what it actually comes out to be and so the the numbers that you're seeing here actually reflect the two three to 5% increases but when I actually get those contracts from bosis they they let me know what the cost is and I go back into the system and I change the prices around it um we also make a very firm commitment um to all of our students in the aing school district uh to make sure that they have adequate access access at home for our on toone Chromebook initiative um we do that uh now grades five through 12 we have a our one to one students take them home 20 and are able to use them for learning 247 and so the commitment that

090we made was to be able to provide everybody with that sort of access and we do that through um kajit hotspots so that it's a Hotpot that the district provides to a family that may not be able to afford to be able to have um connectivity in their home and uh we have seen an increase in the need for these um so we are actually going to be Pro getting another hundred in District um hopefully that will be able to cover the need um but one of the best things that has just happened was that the E rate which is our government um support subsidy for um internet and now for kajet hotpots so we the majority of the cost is actually going to be a a reimbursement back to us so it will be

091a 20 $20,000 increase for this budget but sometime throughout the year the district will get at least 25 to $30,000 back from the um from that e rate through a reimbursement uh so it actually will be it'll end up being about a $25,000 a year savings thanks to e okay the next page we're going to take a look at is Page 29 which [Applause] is sorry which is our in this is for research evaluation our our our student testings this is where we actually you're going to see an increase in our staff salary Line This is due to the increase um unaa uh who was our data analyst she actually was a 08 position and um we are going to be putting in it to a full-time 1.0 employee for for this coming up school

092year um it's very difficult to just find somebody to fill this position it's even more difficult to find somebody who will do it part-time and so we need to be able to put this into a 1.0 position to be able to get it um that's really the only increase in that line again the other one you might see the $99,000 increase or Bose testing again that's the that's that 2% increase and again that will adjust based upon whatever bosies of vendors come back with us finally we have page 57 this covers our instructional our instructional technology equipment our technical support through the lar and bosis professional development for our teachers curricular support network infrastructure and and some of our instructional software so I mean we we put a lot of money into this because we

093want to support our staff and our administrators in order to enhance the way that they work in the building the way they instruct the the teachers or the students using technology um and we really want to make sure that we are um providing them the tools so that our students have the ability to learn Express what they've learned through the use of through this technology we want them to become 21st century Learners and Global Citizens while teaching them to be digitally safe the the biggest line the biggest increase you will see here again is our line for bosis and there's a couple of things that make this much larger and it actually seems like an increase but it's actually not um this is actually a budget transfer from a different budget line through through our

094curriculum instruction um and is now put in technology because it is technology programs that are being um used so uh a large piece of this is brought over from um what was Jessica Turner's budget is now then put into into uh bosies we also increased our internet bandwidth in the district that was a $20,000 increase um this is to support our students in and our faculty in the building to get the best uh coverage uh and as well as our computer-based testing um which was actually a huge success last year and um for grades 3 through eight um and again we're lucky that eate funds this so majority of the cost is covered by by that funding all of our instructional devices are procured through an installment purchase agreement or an IPA um this is

095that's done through the lric so this agreement operates as a lease amortized over four years it facilitates our equipment replacement Cycles without requiring upfront expenditures of all the funds this established process we which we've used and utilized for many years enables us to receive state aid on almost all of the dis the device Acquisitions so four years ago now we were able to uh we were very fortunate to receive a very large federal government um uh grant that was promoting digital Equity throughout the district um this was an $800,000 Grant um and it allowed us to establish our Wonder one program in our lower level grade grades um especially Park and Brookside um the the issue we had was we really need to make sure that we cover the cost of this replacement cycle so

096at some point we need to get that $800,000 replacement cycle built into the IPA and so over the past couple of years every years I've been increasing the IPA and increasing the IPA this is the final increase so that after this year we will no longer have to see that increase in our IPA because we will be able to cover all of our replacement cycles for all of our devices in the district and I believe that is about it for me um it's been a great year uh so if you have any questions please all right does anybody want to start you can start questions go ahead I'm going to embarrass myself I was talking to Mike before the meeting I'm like we're from the same neck of the woods growing up and on Saturday

097mornings we used to spend time running around our soccer fields now we're going through budget lines come along with so um just is it fair to say for bosis all the lines for bosis that's like a shared service model right so if we were to say no no no we're going to try to do this all ourselves whatever they provide us the data processing Etc that would be a lot more expensive ensive and Staffing and things we need to buy is that is that essentially the Bose connection here it is absolutely um we as a district the you know the a the percentage in Aid goes up and down depending on what the state says but right now the district get back 65% of all of our instructional um work that we do through bosis

098so 65 I think it's it's almost 57 I think for our ad administrative so anything that we get through both these any Services any contracts any any equipment anything we get through them depending on again if it's an instructional component or it's for for administrative we get a tremendous amount back so it's more it'd be more than double if we didn't go through both right okay laptop so that is great we have a a goal of onetoone assignment for all technology for for all students and I believe so the first question here is just remind I guess the board and everyone else when do we first hand a student a laptop is it third grade is it fourth grade when do we when do we so so we have our prek students using Chromebooks in

099the classroom um so we actually have a one toone program prek through 12 okay so every student has access to an individualized computer we don't start giving out a device to take home until fifth grade now fifth grade it was fourth grade in the past but again uh like you said we we I I I'm guessing the question was from you if you're bringing it up was that um you know the backpacks are heavy and if if a kid is going home with that we want to make sure that they're going to be using it if it's not being used we were using it more in the classroom and so that we decided to um purchase um what's it crates or or or cases for them so that they're all charged and they're all ready

100to go within the classroom okay yes good anticipation I was going to get to that in good good one okay just on the the laptop so is it a state law uh regulation or is it sort of a local thing and your advisement from a security perspective that no look my my family is fortunate enough that we were able to purchase our own laptop for our son so if there was an option we would have sort of politely declined the issuance of a laptop there to us because we were fortunate enough to be able to pay for his own and therefore that would save the district that onetoone purchase is it a recommendation a requirement that or the idea I'm throwing out there is right if if we go to families and say it's almost

101like a means test like if you want to accept the laptop we'll give you one but if you don't want one for whatever reason or you could do your own you could use your own and then you can authenticate to any of the services is that a possibility here or would that not be recommended from a security standpoint because again we have two laptops and we would rather have a student who who needs that and can afford one in the home to be able to have it and so that's a good effect and then of course then the district saves money on that purchase sure sure um there is a management issue it's not a state law that requires us to provide a Chromebook to every single student um you know we're doing that because

102we see the value in providing them with 247 access to a device to be able to continue their learning through you know outside side of the classroom um but it's it's not a it's not a requirement I mean I think it becomes a little bit more difficult now that we actually are at three to 3 through eight doing CBT um so it kind of says we need a device for every single student um but in terms of being able to provide it's it's a management issue when it comes to a student that brings in their own device there is a a a we've had issues where a student brings in their own device and they have not properly um put virus protection software on their system or they come in with the fa software that

103they've downloaded and they try to hack into our system um so that's one thing that we have to look at from a management point of view um another thing is that we have classroom management software installed on all of our Chromebooks that allows a teacher to be able to um stop everything that that child is doing in the classroom to get attention um and if a student has their own device that we we don't we are not allowed to be able to install software onto their device they have to do it themselves so we do have a BYOD program that starts at the high school level um so if we if a student wants to bring their own device they can um again we run into those issues with the student has to download the

104software to be able to participate in a lot of our activities so it makes it a lot easier for us to be able to manage those and again from a security standpoint it's a it's it's a lot easier for us to be able to manage what's happening in in in our Network and and our environment with with that um we we tried to uh do that at the high school where we were we were doing a survey for for students to say um well how many of you think you're going to be able to um bring your own device the the year for for the for the following year so we we did eighth graders so that when in ninth grade they get their their Chromebook um we found those numbers were completely off so

105for 2 years we ordered less than we thought that we actually needed and we are lucky to have a pool of Chromebooks that uh we use for for looners to be able to supply to those students that that said oh I'm going to bring on my own device and then didn't and we're not able to um so we want to make sure that we have uh devices for everybody we we put that into account um right now I think we're at about 14% of our high school students have their own device in the classroom okay so basically you looked at it and be given the the the sort of cost benefit pros and cons you believe still doing asking for the onetoone allocation and but absolutely okay fair enough yep so yes just to that

106the weight concern you alluded to which was one of my questions so a student in the district is not bringing home their laptop then on a kind of daily basis are we saying until fifth grade now okay all right that that and that's that's fair I I would say yes my question around the context around this was the weight so when ours again rep sample of about three at our bus stop for kids who had had backpacks with laptops I mean they were pushing close to 20 pounds laptop plus books I'm not saying the laptop caused the biggest weight issue but I do wonder that I think in fifth grade our son was using it on a fairly daily basis when he had it earlier though certainly in fourth grade it was coming home and

107very rarely being used so maybe if we're waiting the fifth we're okay on the issue but the point was that if a student is only bringing home the laptop to charge the thing and it's not getting used my you know my personal concern was it was adding unnecessarily weight to a bag and a student in fifth grade could you know be weighing 50 pounds themselves so 20 pounds out of 50 additional weight it's a lot yeah um for a health standpoint so if if they're not the point is if they're not coming home now to fifth grade uh and I know he used it in fifth grade fairly frequently I I'm less concerned now about it it was especially for the younger kids if they're lugging those things home just to charge them I did

108wonder like can we pilot one of those locking you know multi-charging stations just to charge and that is what we had in the classroom um prek through through four are the Locking charging stations awesome okay uh but we're also we are considering and looking at piloting possibly um and again this is very very it's low on the priority list right now but we are looking at possibly um a a tablet that might be able to suffice so you're talking about a much less weight device I think it's also something that would not break as easily uh we've seen a lot of damage this year actually we've seen dramatic increase in damage this year especially at our Middle School um that well that's traditionally every all the time when you look at damage in all districts

109around the area that have one to ones and everybody does um Middle School is the most difficult but we've seen a dramatic increase in the amount of damage um and then we talk with districts that are using one to ones um you know with um with tablets and you see much less damage and you see a lot more use Believe it or or not and so I've been working and speaking with uh some of my uh fellow people in um White Plains that does uh a lot of tablets through the high school and um they're very very happy with them so it's just something where we're in the Bas the very Beginnings to look at got it and so back to page 29 of the research and evaluation just to clarify the the data analyst

110asked from a 08 to one um I I and it's time I see data my eyes you know light up in a good way because you know can get sort of geek out on that stuff but um will this is is will this person's role because last year we we had a cut a data it wasn't signed as I believe data analyst we we took it out of the budget as a full-time role is this bringing it back and if so great will this part of this person's role be to Crunch all our data our nwe test mapped against the arc test versus and New York state test versus everything else versus attendance to give us a nice big n it sounds like Tableau right because you said you're moving away from Tableau correct will

111this will that person be doing this type of of stuff so no so this is this is a replacement for just one of my data people I have two of them that retired okay so that's the position that we're actually going from a 08 to a 1.0 the person we let we we lost last year again was du a to a budgetary constraint was an assistant director for research data and assessment um that position unfortunately will not be filled and that's the kind of the person that you're talking about with the crunching everything the person who was in that position is still in the district we do provide a stip in for them to be able to do a lot of that similar work but obviously not at the same level as they were when

112they were in the position full-time and one was an administrative position and the other is a civil service position so um based upon the need and the level of work we've up the8 to a 1.0 so I do do think um this might be further discussion with the board yeah I want to keep us on track as far as time is concerned and make sure our questions are focused as much as possible on the budget in front of us yeah yeah no totally I'm just saying this because this if that's that clarification we don't need to talk about that but in further budget discussions let maybe figure out you know whether the administration believes just understand why we don't think we need someone to Crunch a lot of those data points to give us B

113pictures that that so that's we could table that the last thing I have just so on the AI piece you've got enough in your budget ask for any AI uses and things right you you feel comfortable with with with that I mean there may not be a large number you need to ask to be able to use and use different new technologies again around this data analysis yeah I mean speaking to when we spoke Alison bacon and I came I believe it was in December to talk about AI um we we are very we're in a healthy spot when it comes to again we're doing it slower than other districts and I think that's the smart way of going about it um we actually ALS and I just got in um we received contact from

114brisk asking us to possibly go to national conferences to speak to that through what we've done in hling so that's very exciting um so we're we're in a really good spot with that uh we're doing a lot of professional development um we actually did it at the superintendent's conference day and people were clamoring to get in into it and we actually had to turn it away but of course Alon is now making you know group work with those people who weren't able to that was on thurs popular work yeah it was the most popular Workshop um there's a lot of excitement around it there's still a lot of trepidation about around it but I think that we're heading in a really good direction um again we're doing a lot of TurnKey training we get people

115who are really good at it you know uh is Garen Patricia Garen right who is at the special at at the high school um she's she is known as a guru around the the area and she has people from other districts contacting her to talk about how she's using AI with her students so you know when you hear those things it means that we're doing a good job with getting it out there and working with our our staff thanks mik um C do you have any questions I'll go this way no I'm good thank you Melissa any from you yes so I had a slightly layered question it did have to do with the combination of staff development and I did have a question about the AI and regarding that so do we have are

116we forecasting any budgetary needs around staff development for AI it sounds like you're doing some kind of internal um opportunities uh to educate but do we see a need for that um kind of like a more robust training as we start to grow our understanding around that that's part one of my question I'll fall there sure um so as part of my as part of my ask for for for what I wanted to do for um in terms of additional support um was an an additional role for the district coordinator which is the role that Alison bacon has in it um understandably with the with budget constraints and a lot of our needs through other departments um that was a a role that unfortunately was not able to get into the budget for this year

117um but Alice and I really do still have a good handle if we did have another person obviously we could do twice the amount of support in the in the classrooms um but it's something that again that's why we're really turning towards a lot of our TurnKey people who are experts who are teaching the classroom to be able to help support their peers in in the in their area and if I can add Melissa too because it's a great question um if previously you heard Mike speak about the lower Hudson Regional information center which we call the Rick we are members of model schools and that is a an initiative through them so picking up on the idea that a Consortium of school districts all focused on a theme and when you're a member you

118can attend a lot of those events at no cost and they can come and push into the district as well so we are definitely leaning into our model schools membership in order to help support that and it's been a topic at I I want to thank the board for um the support of a tri-states Consortium because that topic is coming up there too as well so those conferences and workshops along those lines thank you and and our putam Northern Westchester bosies um they offer an awful lot of um and it's becoming a Hot Topic across so we see more services there so thank you thank you for that um so the second part of my question is still around staff development I was just curious on each of your pages around that line item um

119on page 20 and pardon me if you kind of answered this in some way or another already for these questions but do we for this year already at this point in the year we've kind of doubled what we expected um for the budget and we've increased it about for about 2,000 for next year is there like a was there a bump and something that happened um this year that caused us to to go that over or and not expect it to next year yes so we we had a lot of new administrative staff and a lot of staff so we we had a little bit more of an increase based upon that okay um and again because luckily we have a a good stable administrative group um that we probably don't foresee it going up

120as much okay thank you and the board made adjustments last year for that so we appreciate it thank you and so maybe there's a a theme here going through the other two pages over on page 29 the staff development line um currently we have not used um any of it so is there a reason for that particular line I of that we have not needed staff development in that area so that that staff development is actually earmarked for conferences okay and the conference that actually is going to be using that money doesn't take place until um later in the school year something over year was like a timing thing um so perhaps on page 57 it's a similar um circumstance because I see as of now we've only used um a small portion of the

121budget date and it seems to be like a a turnover budget for that line so I'm assuming there's like probably time staff development around that too okay thank you that's all I have Frank any questions I guess a question and a comment so it concerns me with the Civil staff requirements and the speed of that for our data analyst reporting and since we have a lot of money riding on our data that we apply to the state and meeting those deadlines what's our contingency plan if Civil Service can't deliver and we need somebody to do this work well I I want to thank Alita McCoy who this has been a topic of conversation and Mike so they've been looking at Consultants people would agree we're looking at Robert Half which the board has approved because

122the work needs to get done right so that's the line like whether it's in the budget or not we have to have our state reporting on time and so we're thinking on those lines and we're having a plan because I guess my faith in getting these candidates in in a timely fashion isn't very high considering other areas of civil service hopefully you feel differently but yeah we've been in at lead has spent a lot of time and Mike interviewing uh Consultants to help support the work we have a really good candidate coming in on Tuesday that actually has a lot of school knowledge based um so I'm actually very very excited so it's not something that we're gonna have like with Robert Half there was there was times when we would have to actually instruct

123and teach them how to do the work and because it's so intricate that it's definitely you have to you have to know right State reporting and what the codes are and everything else this person has that that knowledge base and so I'm very excited to have her come in and interview with Don on on Tuesday and hopefully start this coming up week do you as a full time or as a consultant as a substitute as a consultant because it's not civil you see the conundrum that's what I'm saying exact service line doesn't match up with the Serv civil service line that we already have in place okay yeah but there's huge ramifications if we don't get this right right and sounds like we're putting the plan to do it in spite of the in dealing

124with civil service Mike brings up an important point and it's something I know Lita has spoken to me about in Star multiple times you know you could do do great job in Private Industry and um other types of approaches towards things and we have our own language and our own vocabulary and our own systems so having someone who's got that highly technical background that understands query based language but the mountain to climb for the technical skills of how this works with with State reporting is complex so we were excited that Mike was able to find a consultant that um will work as a consultant understanding the rules about the next civil service test and exam but these are you know challenges all public schools face and trying to align particularly in technology very modern systems

125I mean in one of the civil service job descriptions to correct me if I'm wrong Alita you probably like it actually includes like a 16bit old OS as a requirement in the job description 30 plus years old so this is our uh World we're we're living in right now but and that was our financial system that was pensation I was a kid when that came out anyway um but so so but I it's it's just both departments working together to address the exact need Frank that you just mentioned yeah thanks Angela um the we're advocating Frank a group that I'm a part of the lower Hudson Council uh School personal administrators are advocating for change with civil service just to let people know because advocacy in that area is very much needed um specifically the

126rule of three if folks are are familiar with that it's very restrictive um so we're hoping to to work with civil service on um potentially having a 70 or higher score be uh those folks be eligible for higher regardless of their ranking that would be a huge change but as anyone would know um in Civil Service the ad advocacy efforts have been have been challenging over the years but this particular position that Mike's talking about is so essential that he's done a great job and a credit lead it too for trying to bring in someone who can understand the fact that it's not going to be a long-term situation but we need someone um now uh to be able to do that so um it's it's a tricky situation but I think it's going to

127be something that it's it's kind of buyer specific right we have someone who might be a retiree or someone along those lines it works but not for a long term for the long term we still have to wait for those things to be scored those tests to be scored and then higher off the list I mean that's great to hear you know I would encourage you like in in the other member districts in that advocacy consider having the bubble up through our board and through the other boards to the uh like to the county school boards associations and N because if it's on a few of our lists when we're meeting with the legislators they tend to take more seriously and this is such a kind of a narrow Niche thing that it could easily

128get lost in noise right yeah Frank I just added it to our board dialog list so we can talk about it as a legisl you know discuss it from the perspective of the legislative advocacy Committee in my head I'm remembering nisba already having something related to this in their list of stuff that they advocate for but I could be misremembering that so I'm going to make I'm making a note to myself to look into what what they are already doing and then bring I I made a note in my reminder list called board dialogue so that we can discuss that um more thoroughly at the time yeah no I agree I mean we have the education chair and we have the Senate majority leader in our County we should really make use of that and

129basically try and make sure we're all speak in the same tune to make change here this is this has big implications for all districts if they can't to get the work done right do you have any other questions for Mike poor Mike who's standing here listen listening to beo in the Civil Service process um I just had one question uh you mentioned the hotpots being reimbursed through grants do you happen to know if those are state or federal grants so it's it's eate um and that is a Federal grant okay so we budgeted for it so that if we don't get those grants for whatever reason we still have it in our budget but we're hoping that to turn that absolutely already got the grant it's actually it's actually something that all districts get it

130just depends on the percentage our percentage is 85% okay and then actually we take whatever's left and we put it through bosis and that they give us a 65% so really our it's minuscule what we actually end up paying fabulous thank you any other questions thank you so much Mike all right Chris you're up thanks m okay morning everyone morning I actually have a presentation from last year very similar to last year I want to put it up um just because uh it really is similar but it just has updated data and information that I think is very relevant all right so I'm going to try to align my board packet really to the presentation uh so that you really have um all the knowledge that really goes into the budget and everything that it's

131being used for um please feel free to ask any questions as we go through it so the department is a physical education Health nurses and Athletics uh this is the Staffing that we have right now 78 coaches 21 fys Teachers Health and phys teachers together and 16 School nurses and starting with that with my board packet in page 27 um the first thing that you see is the office team which is the junior Administrative Assistant the athletic coordinator and myself there is a difference at $72,000 that difference is actually um a budget code allocation needs to be reallocated from page 64 or it was put into inter Scholastic supervision where you see a change of 72,000 there so that's where that difference is from and going down on page 27 um in physical education everything

132is all the numbers really stay the same the staff development um is rolling over in 3500 it's been more than sufficient in my ability to lead staff development and once in a while bringing in um a professional to give us new exciting opportunities um in physical education right now really the focus has been to have a cohesive various curriculums that go from the bottom up that are age appropriate uh just to give you a quick rundown starting at Park and at Brookside we have a movement exploration curriculum really focus on locomotive skills um health and wellness and just character building that leads into Claremont which is a skill thing curriculum focus on skills and using those skills into introduction of sports as you go to Roosevelt Roosevelt it continues with a skillin curriculum um into

133a multi-level activity curriculum which is really where you use those skills um and apply them to actual um games uh teaching for understanding games or actual sports games where they're being used that translates over to AMD which is u a sport Ed model and the continuation of multi- level activity which is really once again embracing Sports embracing Fitness and all the activities that we align with the modif Sports modified Athletics and transition to high school it is um same thing sport at model uh sports are there but now we've had IR relevant classes that are with other curriculums such as a fitness model we have strength and condition class which has grown tremendously um it's being taught almost full-time the enrollment has increased which is solely based on Fitness so students are really getting to

134choose um what type of curriculum they want to align with at the high school uh recently we've Incorporated classes that uh are more character based in leadership and also geared towards future careers and Athletics so uh there's a sports medic class being offer now that aligns with different um that really gives students the opportunity to explore uh with careers in in in fields that are associated with Athletics so um as you see for that first page for 27 everything is pretty much the same uh I did not need an increase in anything so if you go to the next one in page 64 is where we start talking about um the coaches and the programs six uh I'm sorry I I skipped over to 64 we'll come back to 60 yeah so uh coaches S

135as you saw the coaches that we had really a major goal from the very beginning um and a big thanks to to my direct supervisor M Meer is really to increase the programs to slowly increase the programs and the participation of students so as we see here through the fall we've been able to see um per per program that everything's increasing uh we added um in my first Year's year for the fall we added for the fall we added boys volleyball boys volleyball has increased uh thank you to the board for always being very supportive and allocating funds to these programs and as you see those numbers uh 21 participated a year ago 24 participated this year but the reality is that there's more than 24 kids showing up to these uh to these events

136we're just making cuts um because for the safety of the students you know we could only carry so many students but because of that and analyzing that data we continue to add program so for next year thank you we we're going to have a boys JB bball team next year uh which will just increase um the opportunities for students overall in the last three years you can see the total participation has increased in the fall from 353 379 and the data this year was 384 as we continue with the winter which we just finished same thing we saw a tremendous increase in numbers uh once again um newly added program bowling bowling has increased uh last year is really just we saw we saw mainly boys participating and we had a um a perfect divide

137this year of a boys team and a girls team of seven and seven which is a total 14 and overall uh with the addition of competitive cheer uh those numbers tremendously increase as well um I'd like to throw in here as well that as you see these numbers increasing a major factor is the amazing coaches that are leading these programs um I take very very seriously the the coaches that we put forth in front of our children and they these numbers are really here because they are following the vision and passion of our long range goal of really building a culture of care and then as we continue with the spring I I don't have the numbers yet I was able to get the numbers from last year that we I didn't have present last

138year but um as you can see it went from 269 to to 284 I expect to see an increase this year uh big part of that too is we added girls flag football uh I also see along with girls flag football that program really increasing and seeing higher numbers in the future which will most likely lead to a JB program as well with modified we've seen an increase in number of was in modified as well we just newly added um modified cheerleading it had 14 girls I was able to add that program once again I just assessing and analyzing student interest when I first um in my first year we didn't have any inal programs through Athletics uh I began just two programs that first year and in those two programs you saw a a

139huge interest and one of them was Cheerleading so therefore we haded modified cheerleading and once again thank you to the board you know for U really always allocating those funds to provide these programs uh as as we see same thing with the other programs the numbers the numbers stayed the same for these two years it increased um originally the first year from 189 to 2011 and has stayed a 2011 consistent in the winter we saw a big increase in numbers um from 96 the last three years 86 83 96 129 so we continue to increase participation in our programs and in the spring um same thing we grew numbers from 410 to 467 and we have also increased um Equitable programs for um diverse students of special needs uh so unified programs with Miss Macio

140um we partnered to continue to increase those programs we really just had Pioneer Pioneer has turned into unified uh we went from having unified soccer to unified basketball to adding unified bowling last year um which which is a new initiative we just had the youth Leadership Summit so we really are the the home school for um demonstrating to others you know the high level that we have here at the UniFi program this year we competed in we're competing in four bowling events so that program just continue to grow and a future goal with Kim is to to trickle it down to the middle school so with the second Big Goal and this is data really that I'm most excited about sharing is that um we've really had a passion for the holistic education through education-based

141Sports to really support our students in need mentally emotionally and academically uh in the first year I noticed um I started taking data so the first thing is we set up a system where every student is flagged on if C campus now that's a student athlete by flagging the man campus we're able to pull reports daily which gets sent to coaches to monitor their attendance and we're also able to pull data to see how many students are participating and how they're doing in school when we say athletes in need of academic support is by following the academic policy of students failing two or more subjects so we see the first fall uh student athletes 58 students were failing more than two subjects last year was 29 and this year was 17 so we continue to

142see a tremendous decrease and what I'd like to say about that is we're really just building a culture of students embracing the holistic education here at aing and just having a a passion for really wanting to be the best version of themselves and receiving that support so uh in token in the budget just through our own resources no extra funds uh athletes are being provided with um study H every single day Monday to Friday after school for 45 minutes tutoring through the Einstein program and like I said it's just just constant monitor um and support from the coaches and making sure that they're attending their classes same thing with the numbers is if you see um for the for the winter seasons theyve from 25 to 15 to 13 this year and spring I don't

143have right now but when you do see 17 to 23 it looks like an increase the reality is the subvariables the 23 is because our numbers increase and we added flat football uh when really looking into that flight football made up um we made up of eight girls um that were failing two or more subjects we're really delving deeply into that eight seven out of eight other girls were L students so um really assessing that is is how we're able to provide with support So in seeing that number we increase the numbers and actually this data is so so great because we are increasing we're here there's no percentages here what we're doing is we're increasing programs while at the same time decreasing students um having academic struggles so in that case I I I

144I would hope to see now when we get the data for this spring that number decreasing so when we go into inter Scholastic coaching salaries there's really a difference of 35,000 to explain that that increase in um is a little bit of the differential that you see in inals due to the OTA contract um inals needs to be allocated either in stiens or depending on level uh by hourly rate so in wicap we really have this allocated stiens um in the inter Scholastic salaries and hourly rates in the inals so when you see the deficit of 19,000 it really isn't a deficit because that money is in the other code of inter Scholastic coaching salaries uh what we've done is we're increasing those programs which is what I'm going to go into now for intramurals

145like I mentioned before in 2023 we only started with uh basketball and cheerleading we saw uh big numbers as soon as we started the programs as soon as we made it accessible uh thanks to Jim manahan we work together to have busing to truly make it accessible and Equitable for all students to participate um most programs are getting filled up immediately so if you see with basketball it went from 55 to 78 to 100 the way to do that is to add more funding a typical in program is 2 days a week for example basket boy um at claira just passed it was 4 days a week completely filled every single day so as we see the student interest every single year I've been allocating more and more money more and more money for it

146so at the moment the way it looks is um through Athletics we're running three to four programs at Claremont and at Roosevelt I'm looking to increase that next year uh that's why there's a little bit more money allocated and again thank you for that I'd like to show also when you know that with this data you're able to see as the programs are growing um we're adding more programs the other aspect of it for opportunities is not just intramural programs but camps during the breaks during the summer um same thing assessing the data then raming has increased more and more um parents are being aware of it enjoying it uh go I have to give the credit once again when you see these numbers increasing at the Forefront of these programs is aligned with our

147Varsity head coaches in athletics uh they helped to to lead this this is where we incorporate uh culture of care with the varsity athletes uh they come help in the camps they come help um during the breaks they come help in the in the youth programs uh we have them in every single building every administrator here knows that uh at Park they come and read with the kids uh at Claremont actually this week was an amazing event where those numbers that I just showed those hundred we created the second annual allstar game so kind of the the kids that really embraced it uh played a an allstar game this Wednesday that just passed and The Varsity athletes came and helped out rep coached so you really are are putting them together for the young ones

148to see role models and to just create you know these relationships that I really think build that culture of care that we want long term the World Cup soccer is just another interal program that's at the at the high school um last year was a 140 kids participated which were 14 14 teams groups of 10 um just just previously we had 170 so with 17 teams uh soccer is the most um sat of sport here so with um Dr D we've also done the Hispanic heritage tournament which also went from 90 kids to 160 kids I didn't put that in there because that doesn't come out of our funds um but yes socer is just continuing to grow and we just keep allocating more and more money for it and going to scholar athlete teams

149this is the data from this year um where by NVA standards if 75% of the team has over a 90 average um they're considered scholar athlete team now if you look at the data we've gotten a little better we've increased but what really we don't see here is exact the subv variable is for example first time ever the girls basketball team everyone had it over a 90 average so everyone was a scholar Athlete on that team uh when we look at the football team they weren't a scholar athlete team but three years ago their overall average was a 71 this year was an 87 so it's projected as continue this culture they would be a scholar athlete team very soon um before I go into this I I want to continue with my package so

150that I would explain the top of page 64 with the salary vision and U the inals you know we could jump in or I just continue with that at the bottom it's pretty much um a rollover of the very you know I thought about Mary was saying you know not not necessarily like best bank for your buck but really being more fiscally advantageous as much as possible um where we've been able to use the money and allocate the money properly where I didn't feel a need to have to increase uh the categories below if we go to page 60 um it really is all the same um it's just a real uh code reallocation is with the nurses summer work um is where we just see the difference the U the 201815 the first one

151is just the difference the the contractual difference in the nurse salaries as they're going up the second part is just a reallocation uh it's the same around the same amount of money that we use every year for summer work for the nurses and at the bottom everything is pretty much the same we we see a $200,000 difference but that's just an code reallocation as well and lastly um extra classroom activity accounts is something that's not part of the budget it's um to be honest with you it one of the first things I was asked when I got here from many parents um many kids is about fundraising uh where's the money going for fundraising what have we done with this what have we done with that what is this team doing I I never had

152an answer for that at all um so in working with Alita we C created extra classroom activity funds where any fundraising anything that we do and work together to allocate money goes directly to an account for that team so to give you an example with Summer leagues we had a soccer summer league that students had to pay for every summer this year once we started these activity accounts what I did is uh we hosted the soccer summer league all the money that came in went directly to the soccer account it's in a soccer account and we allocate those funds so we're able to grow more programs this summer we had three teams and it was free for all students as we go forward our soccer summer league will NE our students will never have to

153pay for it and by being fast fiscally responsible there's actually additional money left over in that account for the socer team where if any parent um student or the board wants to ask um I could give you a direct answer where those FS are going so with that as well that money left over gets used for many opportunities that um are no hit to the budget but are very advantageous for our students other things have been um tournaments we host tournaments we bring in money like that it goes directly to their accounts we use it for our kids going to tournaments so right now the boys varsity basket uh boys basketball program not just varsity but the modified um are practicing in the offseason they have it they have many tournaments coming up that are

154all paid for no students have to pay for these tournaments they don't have to pay for the summer league this is all coming directly out of the accounts um so truly making it more accessible and Equitable for all students um other things involved in it are travel programs uh the wrestling team has sent uh some students to play um to compete in so much programs that they you know that they were maybe not able to afford they were able to get support uh that they're thriving in a certain program we don't I guess the best way I can put is that uh we don't really have high LEL in some sports we don't High have high level Youth Sports here when we have students thriving they we get them the opportunity to really participate somewhere

155else and this is done through the fundraising and the funds that we're bringing in through tournaments uh other opportunities have been same thing girls basketball is going to be playing in in leagues nothing nothing at the cost of the girls they um they'll travel to trips so baseball went to Florida basketball went to Florida volleyball has gone to Florida to KSA tournaments this is all been fully covered through these um through these fundraising and extra classroom activity funds lastly that comes to mind which are great things is um we celebrate our seniors that have Senior Games and flowers gifts different things are given um once again not coming from our budget but coming from just having a little bit of supervision over exra classroom activity funds and working with the co with the coaches to

156do that and lastly some programs have done scholarships it is my goal that um with this organization um and and conversations with all coaches once we start seeing this elevation of of funds being used properly like this that it will motivate other programs to raise some funds too and offer scholarships to kids and going to college we already do it we just to do it through a few programs it'd be ideal to grow it to every single program and that's it ready for some questions from the board anybody want to start start um so thank you for that it was very comprehensive um you know I did appreciate um personally the summer league being um I think transparent this past summer um that was really nice to see um I guess it doesn't sound like

157any of the funds from that are in this particular budget that we're looking at today do I have that correct correct those funds will come out directly from the U management of the summer league the money that comes in from other schools paying for it um and and it'll go all that money goes directly into a extra classro activity fund for the soccer program okay and then this um next is just a comment um it's not necessarily related to this year's budget but it could be related to next year's budget we do have the World Cup coming up in the summer if someone were to ask me if I would support some sort of combination of our language programs combined with Summer programming and Sports Programming in some sort of innovative way I would be

158inclined to support that next year absolutely it's a it's a huge cultural um wonderful thing that a lot of kids are into I know know that they get the trading cards they meet at local businesses where they'll trade them I've seen our um dual language students that are native English speakers speaking in Spanish to trade cards and talking about the games and obviously it's a a worldwide um competition so I think it's a really good opportunity if somebody were to start thinking creatively now about it um I just don't want us to miss out on it yeah just that you're absolutely right um when we hold the the the tournaments students pick their own teams and they'll usually go by um their their countries or or different ethnicities and uh another thing actually I can't

159even believe that four years is coming around already you know just in my office Al we we'll have the the World Cup running the girl the World Cup games running and you just see students coming into the office uh during the day and the free perious lunch is just hanging out there so it's definitely something to be celebrated I'll go this way around the table Melissa do you have any questions for Chris no just um thank you for providing that you know Outlook Beyond you know the numbers on the page as to what is being produced with that in you know Athletics so I was great to see that thank you thank you Frank no I mean I think the data presents a really great story in terms of the increase significant increase in participation

160and yet our academic supports actually have been declining at the end of the day so more students engaged better better academic performance most of the time you see those two things go hand inand more students more academic needs right so it's the holistic approach is really really valuable and the um and clearly and this it's a thank you for sharing that with us um I guess my question around the intermural programs and all the work that's been done there and like the great numbers in participation I know like the World Cup Tournament how often is the intramural and and I get the elementary p a little easier with facilities but at the middle school in secondary level the intramural seems like there's good participation there but how often are they really getting in are there

161challenges with access to facility to resources could you just talk a little bit about the students that maybe don't go on a varsity or JV track but yet are clearly engaged in school and participating how often are we able to meet those needs and what would we try to do if we if we couldn't meet those needs yeah that's a great question um it it is a challenge I have to take facilities um in mind in other programs so started with the elementary level um I can give an example let's say with Roosevelt I speak to miss man all the time they already have three after school programs um those programs are running Tuesday Wednesday Thursday so therefore I know that the valuable space is Monday or Friday but in the winter it's too cold

162to be outside so uh we had basketball now in being mindful of the space same thing those programs are there but in the winter we can use out sorry in the spring we can use Outside Inside So now we'll have soccer and volleyball um so it it is a challenge I find um it's more challenging at the the middle school and high school level because of a lot of our programs practice year round our Varsity programs so therefore uh when we're in season the high school gym and facility that's being used and the programs that are offseason are using the rest of the facilities or um AMD so AMD is really full packed out every single day until almost 9 o'clock at night um so because of our vars JB programs kind of practicing all

163year round it makes it it makes it difficult uh but it is an open gym which allows for all middle school and high school students to to participate in which we see we do see that U so it doesn't have to be just people from the program um technically it falls on there I don't I don't want to say Mer but it is an open gym for everybody um so you know as you know with girls basketball when they have their open gyms you have middle school students there many uh it's open to everybody so it it is challenging um we maximize gyms as much as possible so I I can tell you at any time Monday or Friday that you walk into any gym so someone is there okay so from it sounds like

164from a field in facility usage you know you bring up an interesting point the the nature of rcity sports going to this year round model at the end of the day really necessitates more facility use at the end of the day and then conversely that limits intermural capabilities if you're running till 9 o'clock at night with those programs so Fields gym space all those things some of which were're able to address in the future Bond and stuff but sounds like definely future exploration is maybe trying to see what we can do with rec center in the in the in the village in the town Rec Parks and Recreation for capabilities it sounds like we have more demand than we can need Y and and we work closely with uh with Rec Center too so they

165like the the rec center basketball and soccer and activities are are fully a Claremont every single day uh so we we do have something always going on but but to to what you're saying it um it seems like the the elementary um we we've been able to fit a little more with the Elementary at the high school the there's less there's less space and um and allocation to high school inals that's why really right now you know um we have the the World Cup soccer we it really is only when it's nice weather out that that we're able to accommodate them okay thank you thank you thanks Frank go ahead Rob so just related to Frank's question to make sure understand um for I guess I'll talk in murals are we saying that we had

166to say no to students who want to do an inter mural because of either a staffing or B field space is that is that fair and then the Staffing you know then you could in theory ask for a budget line the field space is you can't you know money doesn't necessarily solve that issue until we talk about building more Fields maybe down the road is that is that accurate like we've had to say no to to to kids to get into a program is anything limited based on that so no uh we've never had to say no to to any student so as a student interest and anytime a student has brought up something we've created those programs and we've created the space for it um we just haven't because of the um the limitations

167on on spacing we haven't been able to add more programs so that's why I we've added them and uh the board has been very positive about that but it's been very slowly um and that and at the moment as we've added them for my first year they've increased at Claremont they they increased at Rosevelt uh and they've been a little the interal has been a little stagnant at um at the high school because of the limitations no one has really came uh I I think um the few that have came forward with cheerleading uh soccer and we've we created those programs um and then at the high school anytime anyone is interested in inal programs or just participating that's where they um they get sent to open open gym programs okay so it sounds like

168we haven't said no but because of the capacity feel limitation we run things later at night early in the morning type thing that we hopefully will be able to okay so that's 100% yeah um just on the summer camps the summer camps are open to any student uh any anyone interested or is it like if you play field hockey you could do the field hockey summer camp but if you don't play field hockey you can't is that is it tied to the varsity in JB sports or no not at all it's it's open to all students uh we we've done it from third to uh to eth grade um with the with the mindfulness of of bringing our bars to the athletes uh and they're always involved and engaged to to help out to create

169that cohesion but um students have participated some have never played the sport it's it's open to everyone got it um and this is this is a comment um slash question anecdotal of course but you feel confident you're line and I don't know if the supplies line item on 27 addresses this of 7500 which is a flat year-over-year but you've got enough um in here to satisfy like I'm talking like recess hey here's a kickball here's a soccer ball here's a basketball like we have enough of that because I've heard a little bit anecdotally sometimes equipment that goes out like it gets tired and used and there's a gap and replacing it and that fine like that could just be like hey so the kids just aren't speaking up but I want to make sure you

170got enough money to cover like all that basic again recessing type yeah that that's that's a great question so uh in analyzing the budget at first it didn't seem like it um because well first of all you know we we we we buy our equipment to through State vendors you know state there's unfortunately a bowl that I could get for $15 through a state vender contract is $60 so it seemed like it wouldn't be enough in the beginning but um as I've had great conversations with coaches and p teachers who have been very Mindful and have had time to do inventory and really monitor equipment we've been taking care of equipment really well that uh very confident that the money we have is enough to allocate I've worked with the building leaders um give an

171example here in AMD we we bought a a storage container metallic storage container that that's outside for recess uh they receive equipment every single year uh and we have close discussions on any equipment needed we have it and we can provide it okay great yeah I talk a lot about recess and lunch I know curriculum's coming up next but that's where some my head up go recess and lunch um and a la a last Quick One just on hockey can you just clarify like we don't have our own hockey teams in house students who do that go sort of sort of a Consortium of other um in the area and sort of form outside right it's more of a club sport can you just clarify that and that that there's not enough interest to to

172bring a hockey program in housee or was there ever one correct so it's it's a merger uh hockey hockey is a big one with all districts where we're merg our whole school for boys hockey Arington uh they have even they have low numbers but they have the highest amount of numbers so they they'll usually have an interest of 8 to 12 students and then we're merged with six other schools Sleepy Hollow our s different on where it's really just one to three students that are interested so in in an effort to really provide access for that one or two students anytime I see that I I reach out to other programs and and create mergers uh and we vote as athletic directors for it um everyone is has the same uh you know issue so

173anytime that it's really one of two students we have that with gymnastics as well for the last couple years so if we go like on my data that I had before you'll always see two or three students with gymnastics so that's a merger where there's a lead School Whoever has the most um interest interest and and then we just align with them and then for hockey or gymnastics these things that we don't have enough interest in house do we we help fund that or those students on their own and they have to private no so we pay for it and we all the way it's allocated is per student so we we pay for one two students we pay um the the rank fee the practice fees and um they just subdivide it by the

174cost of per student okay thank you you're welcome um Chris briefly I have one quick question on page 60 um I'm looking at uh Line 28542 Health Services you said that that money was allocated elsewhere I can I can speak to that okay thank you Alita I just want to know where it went so I don't ask the same question it's actually a code that I take care of okay so I it should be in there so I just added it like the amount this a it it needs to be updated it's basically um the cost of us uh paying for health services for students that live in our district but are attending other school districts okay but I just have to up I had to update it so it'll be there in the next

175run so it's not a no it'll be a 2,000 $200,000 yeah it will be flat it's the the average cost is 192,000 a year okay thank you sorry about that uh Chris S right no problem um I then I guess I don't have any questions for you that question turned out to be for Lita um um any other questions for we need like a five minute break it's 11:25 right now e [Music] SC I know yeah I'm gonna stay to I'm G St I always I usually stay to lunch grab lunch and go come unless you can get a robot all right at all always say ESP a lot still thanks Mike thanks for coming down it's it's working I think it might be the wrong the question for you I am GNA get a

176start [Music] I know and then it's too late nobody now you know their program it's in Scarlet nobody I she hers is broken I inter wh you I brought my [Music] I'll slowly start to just back out so nobody no misses would all right are we here the people who need to be settled are ready to go all [Laughter] right we're not even halfway through Katherine all right so uh next up is a Q&A on budgets from Maria so you want to go from there yes okay Kim and I will be from our seats we have a lot yes okay is I'm gonna move myself so that I to Roger seat so I can see so good morning good morning president mamelli esteemed board members our superintendent Fox alter our colleagues our families and hopefully

177our students who are watching thank you for the opportunity to present our curriculum and instruction budget for the 2526 school year um this budget focuses on 5,000 approximately 5,000 students in our district um it was intentionally and strategically planned alongside our building principles our directors and you'll see the intentionality in the next eight pages that I have the for great Fortune of presenting next and thank you to Angela for uh for clicking for us um curriculum and instruction curriculum is the what we teach including our resources um instruction is how we teach it and that includes professional learning that includes our resources and the last but not least is our assessments how we measure and monitor what is being learned in our classrooms if um please turn to page 24 and if you notice in

178code 2010 the staff salaries you will see an increase there um this is a result of monies that were allocated that need to be reallocated to a different code um so that will be corrected once we see that reallocation you'll see a decrease in that code um these staff salaries are at the district level in addition to that and also some of the increases are contractual uh 2010 151 curriculum and instructional practices um these are you'll see an increase of 64,9 41 these are uh activities that as we continue to align curriculum we put more resources into that as we um for example this year we had report card committee so the different committees that we are looking into in curriculum alignment but not only that we're looking into curriculum reviews so we want to

179ensure that we are prepared for that at the building levels you may notice a couple of fluctuations as curriculum development is really closely tied to the district initiatives and direct ctors and buildings really play an active role in collaborating so you'll see a little bit of fluctuation there depending on what codes um the directors have different codes than our principles do so um you'll see a little uh fluctuation there uh 20102 200 you will see is equipment you will see a um a decrease of uh $41,000 that was a one-time expense for this past year here that was uh the interpretation units the cases that we purchased uh last year two years ago we purchased six for district wide use um for our buildings to borrow for as they engage families for uh to support

180interpretation this year what we did was we provided each building their individual case which is 20 units um for them to use at their convenience and uh so that they didn't have to ask in the event that they need more obviously we have them available for them at district office so you will not see that's why you do not see um you see the decrease in that code um the 2010 400 specialized subject consult uh subject area Consultants this is a decrease um the normally in this code we have our um this is a decrease as a result of a recoding to the next code that you will see um which is the 2010 400 bosei services so a lot of the Consultants that we used in that 20 in that four or five specialized

181have now Bose contracts so we had to reallocate the um services to the 400 code um and these those codes are more are focused on our equity work if I can turn you to page 30 this page focuses on inservice training contractual services so here you'll see the salaries of our curriculum coordinators our Mentor coordinators our mentors so those are inservice professional learning that we provide uh our our staff you will also see the Bose Services which focuses on conferences UL support professional learning specific uh e uh social studies Ela and um uh curriculum and the summer summer uh social studies alignment specifically to code 2070 150 you will see a a decrease and this is a result of last year we had uh budgeted for our three um three instructional coaches we no longer

182have them so there that's where you will see the hu um the huge increase and the huge impact to that code uh we also F in our analyzing of our budget and ensuring that we are physically responsible um we reduced our conference funding although we still have enough uh but we did reduce um the the amount of funding that we allocated for conference es hence the impact on that code 2070 151 um this is where we have our mentors uh we it's just a reallocation there seems to be a glitch but the mentors are planned for our coordinator and our mentors are still intact for next year so we are we will update that code in that code we also have our new educator uh summer Learning Academy so our presenters are also within that

183code um and our new educator summer Learning Academy are for our first year our teachers that we welcome and we have a week-long Academy for them in August our 27490 you will see a decrease of $40,000 again this is um we also uh budget conference within this codee so again we analyzed our budget and we in order to be fiscally responsible we looked at our current expenditure and we uh lowered the allocation there this is also the code that hope that um funds are data literacy support with Kathy connley it also supports our math alignment and rigor which is our work with Kathy Bron so these are are services that are provided through this code in addition to that decrease um is also as a as a result of the fact that some of our

184uh professional learning Consultants they're contract they're not no longer contracted with bosei so we had to shift them to a different code so hence you'll see a little bit of a decrease there the next part of our of our presentation is academic services and I want to provide you a little bit of context for the next pages so the next slides I'm waiting the next slides will provide you with a little bit of data this slide here uh presents our English language learner enrollment and their language proficiency now miss DEA Cruz aroo will um will be presenting on Wednesday we're very fortunate for her to be presenting uh a lot more detailed information regarding our multilingual learner programs but for today I just wanted to provide you a little bit of context with for the

185next slides and for the budget implications uh so as of February we have enrolled 1,102 multilingual Learners I'd like to uh please pay um take your attention to the bottom right uh pie chart entering and emerging uh those that represents the language proficiency of our multilingual Learners entering and emerging are the first levels of language proficiency and I wanted to bring that to your attention because for those two language proficiency levels as per CR 154 we must provide two periods of services so if we have 20 children that's 40 periods of services so when you're seeing a staffing request when you're seeing that is the reason why is because of the of the regulations of the mandates regarding Commissioners regulations part 154 the next is just a summarization and again Miss DEA Cruz Aro will

186uh present on uh Wednesday but this is the um some of the request as we move forward in order to ensure that we are aligned with the mandates of Commissioners regulations part 154 I also wanted to bring to your attention and also within the context obviously we are continuing with our commitment to arkc as we as we we enter our year four and this year we're calling it a reflect and refine so this is the trajectory our road map uh we have three pillars that we will be focused on and it's really to deepen and be very strategic as we move from learning a curriculum to actually implementing it with Fidelity and really using um really being comfortable and empowering our teachers uh to be like in teaching right we we start shifting to independency

187so this is our we have professional uh professional learning I will get into more details about that we have our District activities and then we have our building wide activities um and this is the where we are today so again classroom materials and resources will be updated to align to the to continue our alignment to the science of reading I'll get that I'll get more into uh details in the slides just wanted to provide the context um as we continue please turn to page 36 this page is focused on professional learning on staff development and our Consultants so 2110 400 um you see at districtwide there is a again a reduction again that was looking at our conferences attendance and again we physically fiscally responsible we reduced that a little bit so that's that um

188the result of that um as we move forward forward we're working clo so under this code we also have our consultants and our partners and as we move forward we're working closely with our part Partners to be more strategic and targeted so under here again we have our data literacy so we are fortunate to be able to um combine uh use two codes in order to uh ensure that we're uh we are um allocating enough funds so through the lyric again Kathy connley is here uh in this code as well uh meeting the needs of linguistically diverse Learners um although Miss de lauz Aro has allocated some funds for professional learning under our titles we um we are required as a district not uh to Supple the title is to supplement so under here we

189also have co- teing and trans languaging we have uh allocated fundings for here for under this codee again supporting the um as per cr4 as a district we are required to provide 20% of professional learning to all Educators uh addressing the needs of multilingual Learners under here as well in this code we have our literacy uh initiative uh Arc so we have our leaders learning series we also have Benchmark we have foundations we have heger under assessments we have our NWA for professional learning Mr Hannah under his code has the technical part of NWA we have the um under the under the curriculum and instruction codes we have our um professional learning we also have branching Minds under this code uh we also have our Sciences we have our Benchmark we have uh science 21

190so we have all our content is under uh for professional learning under this code and if I can turn your attention to page 39 as you can see this page um remained pretty static uh there was is a slight decrease um this under this code our textbooks and workbooks we have our materials for uh Ark we have our and this is where some of the slight differences come into place so materials updated to align to the science of reading so Arc is deepening their alignment so some of our uh teacher guides have now included foundational skills and decodable text we just started the implementation of decodable texts in Park School this year and we are expanding it next year so some of the funding is located here we do have uh Ark has also made

191new Spanish resources available we have grade five toolkits grade six Spanish translations are available um and we have a possible grade eight grade six excuse me arc Fusion in English and Spanish so as we continue to strengthen our implementation of Arc we are also aligning uh ensuring that we have all the materials necessary for our teachers to do the great work that they do in their classrooms uh also this incorporates the toolkit replenishments um we are expanding the use of the toolkits to our enl teachers to our AIS teachers so that everybody has their hands on on um what is going on in the classroom both in the classroom and outside of the classroom for those teachers that provide additional support uh so we are expanding that use uh the consumables most if not all

192well most of the student use uh materials are consumables which we I see one right here uh are consumables that we must order every year but we are our principles are very diligent in ensuring that they take inventory alongside the work of um our new director of literacy lla mson um ensured that we took a very um detailed inventory of the materials that we have so we were very fiscally responsible and ensuring that we were ordering exactly what we needed um we also have new workbooks and notebooks in K2 from kindergarten to Second so we needed to transition back um we also as you know the the the non consumable materials are our baskets in the classroom well through the years we are finishing our third year of implementation and it there's a lot of

193wear and tear in those books because our children are using them so we are um we are ordering replenishment baskets for our classrooms those that that are in need of it so that is also we have also in working with with Miss mson we are also creating a replenishment plan as we move forward so that we cycle our books um we are also part of the funding here is allocating for the additional classroom libraries and cortex for our projected new dual language classrooms in grade two and three inclusive of this we don't forget the secondary the high school uh also our uh liter literary novels are also included in this um in this code I ask you to please turn to page 40 and this is bosei specialized Services um this is again professional learning

194student programming and resources and specific bosei services that support um our work so for example the bosei services that are under this code our translation services um our task GED support are under these um under this code uh professional learning for foundations and Norton Gillum and science 21 are also under this code not much of a of a change so unless you have any questions when we get to questions and page 50 if you can please turn to page 50 page 50 focuses on our community support um programs um these are if you please notice uh code 23 30 these are focused on instructional salaries for extended programs uh you do see a zero there however this is you do see a reduction excuse me that reduction is just a reallocation to a different code

195but all our programs are intact for extended day uh not only did our building principles um allocate funding for it but the district did as well this is also where we find our driver's education program exp uh expenses this is where it's allocated to and the revenue for driver's education it's not that it doesn't exist it's just it comes from um the revenue from parents approved at the Boe meeting or added to the budget as Revenue in this code the budget and subsequent expenses are directly related to enrollment in the program so this is where it is located uh here it's also in this code we have regions review Credit Recovery um is also included in this code you will see an increase in 2330 uh the 5034 code this is uh due to the

196reallocation of a our multilingual learner intake a portion of her salary came out of our titles as required by cr54 We cannot put all her salary in that code so a portion of it um is now added to this code here and if I can turn your attention to please to page 51 this is um so I'm going to take you by code you'll see a total decrease of 157,00 on the total page however when you look at by code your 2331 the 4,000 one which is your Elementary um that state just a slight increase um due to contractual uh salaries uh the biggest adjustment or the biggest change was in our 23 331 the 4250 code and there it um it says High School and Middle School uh extended year program combined uh this

197code the $345,000 difference is just located in another code so we do have a an AMD um that our building principal uh Dr Nova planned for and we also have our high school full summer Learning Academy plan PL for it's just that the monies will be updated the codes will be updated and my final page is page 52 uh code 2332 406 are academic competitions um has a decrease of $10,000 again it's just a uh this code has to be updated um and Miss Langley Miss McCoy and myself will be working on that other than that this is where uh the academic competitions are located um we have our A&D academic competitions we have Westchester for OS we have the Westchester science and engineering Fair we have manth olympiads our Interstellar our genius genius Olympiad

198we have our different competitions um under this code do you want to do questions on these Pages before we on yes please and that completes my eight pages trying to be as fast as possible thank you now that we can see the food up so um I'm competing with the food uh any question anybody want to start from around the table uh mindful of the time too as they work go ahead Frank sure so page 30 uh the first line there with the reduction you had said there was three instructional coaches that were being reduced I guess they were budgeted for I guess were these positions not filled are we cutting service what's happening so last year um we did do to the of finan cial constraints we did we did not invite them back

199to be instructional coaches they were back in the classroom okay um but we had already budgeted for it okay so this year we reduced so I guess the question becomes that we're not seeing a need for additional instru or instructional coaches at this point I guess this in the future if we decide there is a need we bring it back but this is something that's a we didn't fill this year we were going to use we didn't fill and in the future we're not sure what will happen right and based on our on our budget and the constraints and the funding from Grants federal grants okay so that might tie into the beginning of the conversation where we're trying to see how we're going to right okay the co grants in addition to the other

200so and Mr schnacker just as an instructional coach a teacher comes out of his or her position and become and now becomes a teacher on special assignment so we're paying that salary as as well as someone to cover them so that's two salaries that were cover and then just quickly on page 36 you had had a line there for the staff development under the I guess under halfway down the page the 2110 code the Middle School the the 40,000 increase for staff development is that tied to anything is that which one I'm sorry uh 2110 yes the 400 the AMD has an increase there of $40,000 so it could be and I Dr No's here but it could be because um some so because directors have their code okay and buildings have their code it

201could be that more of the professional learning is falling on the is being allocated the funding is being allocated to the building and not the director code so it's a collaboration between the directors and the buildings yeah I I mean I guess the question is it's an increase of 40,000 is it just a reallocation of something or are we trying to get something out of that so not not necessarily for today but if we could get some additional and I will definitely provide that for you great thank you thank you that's what I had thank you um I'll go around this way Annie um that was my main question um I have a question from last year that didn't come up so we don't have to discuss it now it's just something I'm curious about

202last year we talked about an after school enrichment program that was going to be four days a week and I was wondering if there's any um plan to talk about that again bring it back so right now our extended day or after school program so extended day could be before or after um what we did was instead of that compreh because that was a comprehensive plan um we we did it via the building and the district and depending on what their needs are so if it's two days a week or three days a week it's more it's more um building Leed and building specific so that comprehensive plan may come back but it it was costly so so due to our budget constraints yes thank you um if it does come back up in the

203future I think we had discussed this last year too that doing it five days would probably increase participation I think it was slotted for four originally but it's like really hard to find care for that one day so completely understand thank you uh Melissa or do you want me to I see it's still circling do you want me to come back no I'm ready thank um thank you for that presentation my I just a couple of questions on um page 50 I was curious about um the line for the task program I see that it just seems like historically and in the future we don't usually budget for that line but we've Ed 15,000 this year um could you uh clarify what that was for and why that usually is in a budgeted line Melissa

204can you say what line you're talking about against um it is on page 50 line 2330 it's at the top um section 2330 uh 3700 2330 which one I'm sorry 2330 1700 3700 sorry eyes it's on page 50 at the top yes at the top towards the top yeah I would have to check with um let me follow up on that with for you okay absolutely so as far as that line I don't know if you could I know you're going to follow up but I'm just curious if you know this like that the supports that I'm assuming com out of that line item do we know usually is that for students who are taking an alternative Pathway to graduation is it specifically for that cusp of students kind of in that gray area's coming

205out of that's my question is it for students that are going or is our back on right that's what I'm thinking okay thank you absolutely um just one more question similarly on page 52 uh 7,000 the project uplift that is also a line that does not seem to be historically or future budgeted but we did use a small amount to uh support that line could you just give more clarification on the on that line item I'm going to follow up on that okay thank you that's it for me okay I have my follow-ups it's fine it's okay uh Catherine um yeah I just had a question I know that we have a lot of star clubs and other extracurricular after school programming um specifically we have quite a bit at Roosevelt and AMD is that

206in here yes and can you point me to exactly where sure so if you go to page 51 again nope hold on that's extended Year my extended yeah can I please ni Nicole can you come um and just speak into a mic so that people watching online can hear what you're saying because I I know I saw them it may not be on my page right right just give me the initial four so sorry everybody we are um also looking I'm trying to get Wing Cap I just don't have it on this computer so I'll work on that other answer for you as well um but the star program our salary based programs using our um a staff code so the code is actually 151 12 3500 I don't have the budget book in front

207of me to know what page that's on but that actually comes out of a staffing code and then in our own Supply budget is then where we budget for any of the materials that the um clubs might need and that comes out of our per pupil funding which I allocate across the board and I will um do a further Deep dive into that other 40,000 I just want to confirm I thought it was one thing but that's a different code Nicole you the page 50 50 it's p 50 and the the 2330 1 X1 XX 3500 that's a combination of codes so that compris that comprises Roosevelt it comprises the high uh the middle school but we can provide you with a breakdown that's all of the schools combined exactly so we can provide you

208uh with a breakdown that the amount that's allocated towards uh the Stars program Roosevelt and any other school that's budgeted there Claremont planned for extended day but it's it's a roll up of all of those codes so the total amount is for this upcoming school year is 261,000 and majority of that is uh AMD the Stars program so I guess I'm trying to understand if that's a is that an increase is that a decrease are we are we doing more programming in that space for next year is that the plan or is it so it's it's best that we get a breakdown for you so I can see why there's $4,000 incre decrease cuz I can't tell since it's a combination of schools and then I guess from from a programming perspective if I if

209I could just get some clarification on whether or not there are plans to do any increases or decreases if programs are being added cut Etc Absolutely I'll have that for you because there's there's another code that I we need to look at okay did you have any follow thank you go ahead Rob can I go can I go last year because you if you have something you might ask the question I just have one question absolutely um and I can go first before you if you prefer um I was looking at page 24 um you touched on this a little bit you mentioned that it was there but I'm curious about uh 20101 151000 curriculum and instructional projects um so we budgeted for this year uh about $45,000 we've used 16.5 and then we're um

210increasing the budget I'm looking at a MD to 69 is there some sort of curriculum and instructional project that is happening that requires an increased amount of support for next year I will follow up on that okay sure it's yeah it's on page 24 it's 1510 and we're it's broken down such that OS is uh cutting $20,000 $21,000 about and an AMD is receiving a $25,000 increase despite spending only 16.5 this year so I was just curious why coding it's a coding it may be a coding thing yeah it may just be it's coding do you want to speak into the mic um that for the uh curriculum and instructional projects there what I um had actually planned for this year with you know with the support of the board is to run an AMD

211as we think about curriculum alignment a curriculum development week so when we think about curriculum development um how we've strategized as a team is that first we attend the bu uh districtwide Leadership Retreat where where we learn about all of the vision action plan where'll be attending the board retreat this year then going to the districtwide retreat then after that I pull our team directly for a retreat with my administrative team so a slight bump in some of the um professional development resources are directly the Middle School principal and assistant principal needs for some professional learning then from there the next step is coordinators so that has been consistently budgeted where we have the curriculum coordinators come together bring them up to speed on the action plan and then the final step that we've planned

212for the first week of August is for all um not all teachers but I had budgeted uh requested for 40 teach up to 40 teachers to come together across all departments with their curriculum coordinators and assistant principles to work on curricular alignment so that come September we are ready to go with full unit plans for the year like that year plan and then our that way all of our professional learning moving forward from that is really diving into differentiation but our strong focus on tier one instruction um really occurs in that summer I like to say like the school year is built in the summer so that is why that 25,000 on that 2010 line that you just asked about so is that something that you an anticipate wanting to do um each year that

213certainly as curriculums changed so currently um they're some like at the district level some of the curriculum was embedded in other departments in the past so there would be a curriculum week for ELA so instead of doing that it's not double budgeted but I do think it's going to depend on how curriculum's change I don't know that we'll need the same extent maybe in the future it's actually just bringing in our new teachers and for more of refinement but right now we are looking to create that cohesion instructionally um so right now A onetime expense at this level but perhaps a decrease in the future as long as we get the materials the organization that's strong for moving forward thank you of course and it's also looking at doing that curriculum alignment and re kind

214of revision reflection throughout the year as well and not as much not as many teachers and that's across the district thank you all right Rob go ahead right and so I'll Bal I got a bun but I'm going to balance I'm just going to pull out a couple of biggies because you know respecting our time here and so and any of this by the way is coming from love of of what you do and and for the students so just on 30 page back to page 36 the 736 880 total ask for Consultants um is a you know we're taking that back essentially to close to the 20 20 24 25 level however the 2023 2024 to 2024 2025 is literally about a 100% increase year over year so can you just help um and

215again if if the the correct answer is like you need more information doesn't have to be today but I I would like anytime midal I see Consultants just want to make sure it is is it statutory um what what are we looking at here because that is a huge increase from 2023 till today it's it's well you know it's 100% increase so is that something that you know again totally for oh I'm sorry page 36 regarding consultants and looking at again the ask for next year 736 last year's ask was 726 but the previous before last year's ask was 3 68 so we've gone up a lot was that AR so I'm looking at 2324 our first year of implementation was 2223 so I do need to analyze that and really bring I uh create

216an itemized report regarding that so that I can compare great and then so that I I think you know the board might like to see that because that that is a substantial you know every year difference um and maybe it's related to this and you knowed consumable so yes I brought a couple of props myself around the arc and I guess same thing if not for today happy to get the answer but we're going into year four of Arc correct so that means our contracts coming up for Renewal soon on that so we do not have a contract with the American reading company we every single year we have a 4-year implementation plan that Miss Turner created ated so our first year of 2122 was a pilot year um you know a research year and

217then we formally implemented in 2022 22 23 was our first year so it's it's not a contract it is a year bye where we uh contract our professional learning that's a year contract um are consumables as we need so it is not a contract that we we're bound to okay um so and again we either for today or if you have the info love to see the numbers on that all things Arc American reading company whether it's the consumables whether it's the Consultants whether it's the learning development how much basically when you wrap that all together from year one to year two year three year four and if you're having conversations or we'll have conversations with them soon around what year 5 six S8 presumably we're going to continu it and and yeah around the

218consumables you know again this is an well it's not anecdotal but is party of one these books came back here's three Arc books at most these are a third to a half full and so when I see that I'm like wow these books are probably expensive and if you multiply part you know data point of one amongst hundreds of students and look that might be the way these things go we enter in an annual agreement with them we have to buy a certain amount of quote unquote consumables and admittedly I'm dating myself but I remember back in the day you get that textbook it would say put your name in it would say Do not write it do not highlight in it I'm not going to confirm or deny whether I followed all those instructions

219but it would not be a consumable that could be used year after year after year so when I we see stuff like this comes back this is a lot of there's a lot of money going to a company for stuff that's not being necessarily used used and if that's how these companies generally work that you're locked into consumables okay but I imagine we're spending a lot of cash on these things so I don't know if there's digital options I don't know if there's reusable options but as you look into this for Beyond um i' love to understand the numbers on that what we're required to do and if there's an efficiency or way to sort of get that cost down because it's a big they're big numbers here even if the state helps us with

220it so thank thank you for for looking into that no problem we do have a response for 2110 405 Don you want to do it I'm sorry which was that 21145 cons Consultants oh okay that was page 36 36 thank you so the um Consultants the large increase in this year alone was 338,000 was for briger bger security for the high school and the middle school so that's yeah briger briger security yeah so Ed more we add more speak monitors to help with bathrooms Supervision in hallways Supervision in the um parking lot Etc right briger um is a contractor company so um they we we have a part with them they work both at um AMD and Ohs so uh we've actually recently hired two of our own security guards at OS um and looking

221to hire more but in the interim we need to use brigger to um to yeah as Mary mentioned supervise uh High needs areas so with was was that the answer then for the 2023 to now increase so we so we okay so we needed essentially to almost double this line over what will be three years due to mostly security at the high school some of it some of it is being offset so we haven't been able to hire security AIDS cuz it's civil service and um the list is very very short yeah so it's offsetting salaries something that we would have under salaries but not all of it right there question right is 300,000 for more Consulting for security which is going to go on in Forever year to year or you know it's I

222think that's what you get the gist of what we're asking right yes absolutely yeah it helps us to understand why the increase wasn't necessarily consumables or that something else but yeah no it was 338,000 in this year alone okay then and we're that's year to date so so that means it's going to be higher yeah to hire our own staff but they it's it's it's yeah it's that's the shortterm solution not the long-term solution but it's the short-term solution so hopefully it's going to be a reallocation in a future budget to permanent staff is what I think you're saying ideally yes yeah okay good for today okay yes all right um so Mary and I were just chitchatting off to the side here um given the time what we want to do is have our

223special education presentation while we have or presentation is putting a little strongly discussion um uh while we have our staff here who may be able to speak to some of the budget codes and then we'll move that item four that says district office we can do that after lunch okay because that sounds coetic let's do that um take it away Kim I realized that I am the only anything between us and that so I will try to move along very quickly um I also am going to remain at the table just because all of my items are here and in case you have additional questions I have everything at my fingertips and I don't want to move up there and have papers falling off the podium um so thank you very much and for the

224opportunity to present the proposed 2526 budget for student Support Services uh this budget is a true separation with all the directors I have the honor to directly work with who are here with me today Lindsay McAn Jessica Jin Grandy deelia Lopez and Jeremy Duos within our department we work with social workers and we have approximately 14 social workers throughout our district school psychologists for or I'm sorry 13 with the 14th starting in the beginning of April school counselors approximately 13th throughout our district related service providers which include occupational therapists speech pathologists physical therapist teacher of the dep and heart of hearing special education teachers K through 12 registration and of course the students that we serve on a daily basis so I have shared this slide with you um when special education previously um did

225our presentation back in December member I just want to highlight the classification rate and currently right now we hover about 13.48% uh the state average is 18% in classification rate and we service approximately 1,5 students but this is also including students with 504 plans as well as cpsc so it this number I just also want to stress is forever changing um those of who live in the special education world right now especially the two directors will tell you that we are in our um peak season of annual reviews and this is a constant um change and fluctuation with our numbers in regards to um also balancing initial referrals at this point in time okay so on your budget Workshop agenda you have um three pages that I'm presenting on I will rest assur to share

226with you there are definitely more that I needed to add so I am just going to share with you the pages and tell you exactly which page you need to turn to just to highlight increases and decreases so the first page we're going to go to is page 43 I'll give everybody a moment to go to page 43 at the top of this page you will see teaching salaries teaching assistant and one: one teaching assistance if you look at code 2250 150 the first is teaching salaries there is an increase in this code which is due to the projected hiring of three additional special education teachers one at OS for next year and two at AMD this um hiring will lead to meeting the needs of students in special classes and integrated co- teing classes

227this code also includes salary increases for educators if you look at our next code 22501 teaching assistance you will also see an increase and that is due to the hiring of additional ta to support classrooms um and students within those classrooms our next code where you will see an increase is code 22501 153 which is one:1 teaching assistance in eight you will see a significant increase due to the hiring of additional staff based on CSC special education recommendations as well as um so those recommendations are made to support students I just want to bring a little clarification um to support students that have academic and behavioral needs that are in special education classes but it's not always the case um students that potentially have other needs that may not be in special classes or classified

228there might come about um the need to support a student in that manner um this code also includes additional teaching assistance to support two anticipated classes at a andd next year as well as an opening of a class at the elementary this year and the recoding of teaching assistance I will now I will now draw your attention to the bottom of this page AG which is noted other than Personnel Services you will see an increase in code 2250 4X um to support students with different abilities to participate in sensory friendly field trips um this was brought to the attention of uh the director of Elementary education um that our students really needed the opportunity to attend field trips in a sensory friendly environment so hearing the need that was shared with the director of Elementary

229we decided that we were going to budget those opportunities for our students we also increased um this budget to support Unified sports which you heard um Mr Herrera speak about earlier um supporting the unified sporting events such as bowling which provides opportunities for same age peers classified and non-classified to participate on the same sports team um the the program aims to develop socialization decrease bullying and decrease stigmas so we really find that to align with the values and opportunities for our students we also budgeted for adaptive physical education equipment um that was the need that we felt um was growing and we wanted to provide our physical education teachers an opportunity to um really make some additional recommendations around adaptive equipment for our students so we increased the budget in that area area as well

230in this budget you will also or in this code you will also see we budgeted for um a regional Pioneer Dan which is hosted which we host um every other year um for the lower Westchester region the Pioneers league is is designed for students with special needs to compete against other districts and a variety of sporting events such as basketball and soccer and I also want to give a huge shout out to two of our educ ators who take a huge huge initiative in leading this work which are Kim Clifford and Daniela Castro um I will now draw your attention to code 260 um in this code you will see um it includes online subscriptions for special education teachers and speech and language pathologist such as board maker uh boom learning and SLP toolkits in

2315480 there is an increase in this code for textbooks um as the proposed budget continues to support our schools with need of books and supplies through the per pupil expenditure in 2250 500 there is an increase in this code as well to support special education instruction of supplies in each of our buildings I will now ask you to turn to page 44 um at the top of this page you will see staff salaries and clerical support in the direct code 150 there's a decrease in this code just due to a recoding in 2251 um 160 there's an increase in this code due to um health insurance adjustments and raises at the bottom of this page you will see code 22 5145 there's a decrease of $50,000 $50,000 in this code um for transition and instructional

232consultants and the reason for this decrease is that it was moved to code 90 where you will see that there is an increase but I will also share with you where those increases are coming from so it is the um this is the bosis code and this increase is reflective of additional teachtown curriculum and professional development for teachers who teach um our teachtown curriculum and our Rise program which is a Elementary all the way through high school program um which is overse by both of our directors who work directly with those um specific teachers um for materials to support this particular program we also have included in this code um records maintenance for digital records we move towards this direction last year and we would like to continue um we had many many many boxes

233in our lower level and we also recognize that this isn't an efficient way to keep records um unforeseen circumstances happen and you don't want your boxes to become runed so we did digitize our record so we would like to continue with that initiative as well um the transition and instructional um Consultants I know that I would like to just um bring Clarity to that so the $50,000 is split between two different Consultants one will be used um to expand and enhance the work that we want uh do with transition planning for our students at the secondary level um but also looking at opportunities that expand Beyond um for our students that are between the ages of 18 to 22 and then we also would like to really focus on next year our instructional practices in

234our special education classrooms so um we did budget um a small amount of funding to work with G&R Consultants to allow for that to happen um we also budgeted for professional development for special education teachers who are implementing the AR curriculum currently this year they have had three sessions with um our Arc professional developers we would like to move that to four sessions next year and it really allows them to take a deep dive as a team um to really share best practices and we would like to increase it to four instead of three because it would align with each unit that they teach throughout the school year so that pretty much summarizes um the 2251 490 code if you could turn to page 45 all right I'm going to draw your attention to the

235bottom of this page um because that's where the most significant um decreases or increases are coming from so if you look at code number 22 5245 there is an increase in this code um and this is to address tutoring Services used districtwide for all of our students um for any student on a medical leave or that has been suspended that is in need of um tutoring Services 22 52 471 um this code is for tuition other other districts what that means is tuition paid for our students to attend a program in another District to meet their needs um so we currently have students that attend Pleasantville Brier Cliffe or a mayopac program um and there has been an actual decrease in this code due to two students graduating 472 um this is to which for

236private placements currently right now um we have approximately 37 students I also want to emphasize that these numbers are also um forever changing we are um looking at different placements for our students with the Forefront of our minds always being focused on what's in the best interest of our children um so um currently right now there's a decrease in this code and that is due to a student um that was at a residential um that is no longer living in Asing two students that are aging out one student graduating and a student returning to OHS if you turn to page 46 um at the top of this page you will see code number 22531 15 um and there's a decrease in this code due to the portion of the salary that's included in this code

237um there was a midyear retirement um so due to the midyear retirement that's impacted this particular code if you look at oh and then you know what that is all for page uh 46 page 47 that's a good thing okay page 47 um uh let's see all right let's look at code 22544 90 there is a decrease in this code and this is our um special education out of District uh Bose's code um there's a decrease in this code due to three students returning to OS and one student graduating I also want to highlight our director of secondary who works very very very closely um with our AIT District chairperson Nicole Cox who really take a deep dive and having in-depth conversation around what students are ready to come back and when you really have

238that in-depth conversation it is to provide students with an opportunity and due to having that ongoing dialogue and those connections and really really learning what your students need we were able to bring St three students back to O okay um budget code 9901 950 um in this code this is actually the district's contribution towards running our extended school year program as you know um we are very proud of our ESI program um it is a six week program we are required to run um a 30-day program either full day or half day our program with the hours that we do run is falling and considered more or less a full day program because the length of time through that program we also budget for um opportunities for our students um to have Arts and Music

239um this year we'll be at Claremont school so that's always a great highlight for us um but once again it is a six week program 30 days um I will now draw your attention to page 49 you know what I'm sorry is it I'm sorry page okay page 59 code 15-11 there's an increase due to a budgeted this is due to budgeted summer work for school counselors um and this budgeted work includes um summer work um which includes the Freshman transition planning scheduling and parent evenings that occur throughout the school year 1512 there's a decrease in this code due to a position adjustment that was moved to a grant page 61 okay 2820 150 psychologist salaries there's an increase in this code um which reflects the recoding of a position um that was moved from

240another code um and additional salary adjustments and then page 62 um at the top of the page is another increase um that Rec that includes um and reflects the recoding of a position all your pages that's all of them okay um any questions for Kim go ahead Frank not really a question but I guess a comment so appreciate the insights that you gave as far as the changes and we heard commonly a lot of students coming back which clearly we want our students to get the best placements that meets them but it is very endearing and really kind of think probably shows the quality of the work we're doing when our students are choosing to come back in from outside programs so it's just an indicator of not just it's great financially from a budget

241perspective for us but it's also a great indicator of the program quality so appreciate the efforts that are done there thank you any um yeah I have a few questions for uh page 43 Personnel Service substitutes the it's decreasing by 30,000 and I was just wondering if you could speak to that a little I have heard just that you know the pay for a sub isn't amazing and then a lot of um it may be hard to find Subs so I was wondering if that yeah just can you speak on that so I would speak yeah I would just turn that one to Alita um I do the substitutes across the district those codes and I base it on um like threeyear history so any changes would be as a result of that um change

242districtwide okay um and then just really quick and too we um the district was able to and the board um voted on increase in sub pay from $110 a day to $125 a day about two months ago so we've seen a uh a big increase in interest in substituting here in the district that's great to hear um the next one maybe this isn't for you and I've got my codes all mixed up but uh on the same page for equipment it's never mind that's another a question I just read it wrong um another question is about Medicaid so it says that Medicaid defas the cost a bit are parents aware through the um special ed process that they can apply for the Medicaid waiver in some programs because I feel like that may if they

243aren't aware that may end up helping us out more if there is more like you know Medicaid funding to tap into that way so I think it's a really good point I don't think through the process we talk about um the Medicaid piece um but we do so I think that that's important that we should begin to have some dialogue around how we can best inform families around that piece the one thing that we do do is we do send um our letters home to our families explaining the Medicap pce and then for them to send back um their um specific forms um so we do hang on to those in our office and process those but I do think that that's an area that we should definitely start having additional conversations with families about

244yeah that would be great I know that a lot of people don't know about it and it's also really intimidating to sign up so like having some handholding through the process would probably be very beneficial and it helps outside of school too um and my last question is for the tuition decreasing because kids are gradu uating or coming back do you feel you have enough of a buffer I know you said those amounts are always changing but in the budget do you feel you have enough of a buffer if there is an additional child who needs to go or so we do um I have really in-depth conversations um with my two directors and I will say is there anybody or any students that are on our radar that are coming up um first we

245always have the conversation how are we best supporting them in District um before we're even thinking about an outed District placement so if there's any anticipation that a child might be on the cost in regards to staying in District or potentially looking for an added District placement we do know them so that we can budget appropriately and keep ourselves in a position of at least a buffer the only time that um it becomes difficult is if a child moves into our district that we had no anticipation of the child attending the district and that sometimes does happen to us um in fact it happened to us twice this year so far um one we're just newly registering and the other um student is currently in our schools but um has additional needs um so that's

246where we kind of are not shocked but it happens and Le uh and Alita works with us very closely and making sure that we can um provide the appropriate Services through our funding thank you that's all for me but I really appreciated how like concise and efficient you were it was great Melissa um yeah just kind of a couple of comments reiterating the sentiments around just the progress we've made um just expanding our own resources and services here in the district to be able to meet the needs of our students um so it's very impressive to see just how the the program continues to be comprehensive and you know responsive to the needs of our our student students um I have one clarifying question and then I kind of had a piggyback question on um

247what Annie was asking but on page 59 and the top section uh 2810 15100 pardon me if you had touched on this a bit because I did have to step away uh for a moment but the uh that line the summer work line could you just expand a bit more on that I see we had um to date we have a pretty significant increase for that yet um the line is usually budgeted well below that so was there something significant that changed um a shortterm expense or something to that nature so um the addition of this is due to um our school counselors so our school counselors would be participating in additional summer work working with our building administrators so for example um scheduling um different types of programming um so that has been added

248into this budget so at the same time a few years ago we only had school counselors at AMD and Os um and we also knew that there was a need to provide additional support um um not only with school counselors but I also want to acknowledge the leadership of um Dr Lopez who works very closely um with our social workers so we added additional school counselors um but with that they are now doing additional work during the summer which has caused an incremental increase So currently we have um a school counselor at Rosevelt school and then we also uh newly added a school counselor at the elementary level um that is supporting both Brookside and Claremont um majority of the time um it's it's that we want to ensure that we really are providing um

249support to our buildings but with that comes additional funding um so we have added um those school counselor positions but it has impacted the summer work as well which is an increase in that budget got it thank you for explaining that um just to kind of pick up um where you were talking about like just possibly expanding the knowledge of families on the resources that they might have is there this is kind of a budget question because it's an impact to the budget but is there some type of um process or you developing that and some of the um the just different strategies that you've been talking about along the school year with kind of collaborating with families to kind of just offset not with the intention of offsetting but maximize the resources that students

250get but that's the outcome it would have right um and just just I know there's been different um initiative to kind of for parent organizations to be reinvigorated around those discussions and things but I'm just curious as the district are we like collaborative Partners in that process with those outside kind of resources and maybe even agencies and um care managers and things that might be assigned to students so it's funny you bring this up um so we know that um one of our greatest family needs is the process around opwdd um and how to navigate that work um but we also know that one person it's very difficult for one selective individual to take on that responsibility so um through conversations with Megan master jako and having our family engagement Specialists we have decided to

251um train our family engagement Specialists who who have direct contact with our families on a regular basis once again First Step um we also know that we want to make sure that they have the appropriate knowledge to help families that are coming to them with questions so um Lulu benc who um has been providing parent training to our families um we did four our fourth session is coming up next week for our cpsc to csse transition she will be working with our family engagement Specialists over a series of training them around the opwdd process so we are building our capacity within our district with our family engagement Specialists who will then be able to help um facilitate that work with our families um through our buildings that's huge thank you I'm glad you all on

252the already looking forward to that thanks the training is coming up for the family engagement specialist I believe it's next week as well thank you I ask a followup question from that too um is there already some kind of training for like CS versus opwdd how they're different why you would choose one over the other just like I'm going to make it personal because I don't understand it still and I've I feel like I've gotten a lot of information but I'm still not able to process it in a way that makes sense to me and figure out what is most beneficial so we have not provided a session on that um but the more feedback we keep um receiving from our families around navigating um the more I think we're able to provide so I'm

253happy to add that to the list of um a parent training around that and knowing the difference between the two we don't good okay Rob just a couple of quick ones and again in the interest time we can punch another day just to understand um anywhere it mentions you've got call out boxes basically that we will be reimbursed by whether it's federal or state um governments um just so understanding on the from the budget side if we ask for x on a line and we say some of this will be reimbursed does that mean the actual expenditure by the district could be less than that s so if you ask for a million dollars for something and we're going to get a reimbursement of2 50,000 on that the actual cost to the district is 750

254is that kind of how things work yes but and a can expand on this a little bit more um we don't actually to my understanding receive that reimbursement in that current school year so I believe it comes the following school year so you're always a year behind on that reimbursement um the specifics around the reimbursement that are being provided um varies depending on the service um but I know that Alita and I had um great in-depth conversation and she has outlined each of those areas got it okay to answer that question yeah we could have sort of understanding dig down into what exactly percentages there are and other things another time um my only other one I think for now is around Pages 61 62 in general around the clinicians the Psychological Services the social

255workers um is there like a uh a a rate like you gave and said well we we're tracking at 13 point something percent on the referrals um and the state was 18 do we have a similar number like for a district of our size give or take about 5,000 students break broken down by each kind of building and primary secondary that we you know it's a recommended of like a one to 20 ratio for a psychologist or one you know to 15 for social do we have that I'm just trying to get a sense of again not necessar right now this meeting at this time but how we track against recommended ratio per students on on the clinicians so I do track um I want to say I monitor um I do my best um

256in regards to mon monitoring the comparison from year to year um there is a chart that I have that I'm happy to um share and we could go through um but what we look at are um one the enrollment uh two the number of students that are classified um then what we do is we look at how many students are classified by grade we also look at number of 504 plans um and once again this is just a basis around the work um for a school counselor it's um usually a one to 250 ratio um so at the high school um we are below that um I would say at the middle school we um we are we are not um but um deelia I don't know I don't know the ratios off the top

257of my head for the clinical um aspect like in regards to um what the national average should be um for social workers and psychologists but I will before dellia does chime in we did create a three to fiveyear plan and with that three to fiveyear plan um just to take you back um I maybe you were on the other side when this was discussed we did not we at one time only had two social workers at the high school and two psych I'm sorry three social workers at no it was two two social workers and two psychologists and I'll just use the high school as an example um we now have four social workers we have four psychologists um we have also added um um a social worker at every grade level starting at um

258K all the way up so we have two social workers at our elementary buildings we have three at AMD um so we have grown our clinical staff significantly um as well as our psychologists at one point there was only one psychologist at AMD there are now three psychologists at AMD so so um we are constantly evolving and trying to address all of the needs as well as being fiscally responsible and utilizing the mental health Grant um as a means to support our buildings as well as our students and our families and then I'll turn it over to Dr Lopez if she knows the ratios sure so oh that's loud um to for social workers is 1 to 250 as well for school psychologists is 1 to 500 I would like to add to that because

259we also have the mental health Grant we have been able to increase um the number of interns districtwide both for School counseling School social workers and school psychologists so right now we're really high highly staffed so we have about 22 interns districtwide aside from the um clinical staff that we have so that's been a huge huge support for our students and our families as well um and we're constantly also training our social workers in terms of the systems that are available through Westchester County in terms of student supports and family supports as well so we're highly staffed with um a very good student to um staff ratio right now thank you all right um I just want to say I don't have any questions Kim you always I don't know we must be on the

260same wavelength or maybe you're just really good at explain exp things in a way that I understand because I always feel like you I always come with questions and then you've always anticipated them and answered them in your initial presentation I just want to say thank you for that and then also thank you for your team because I think I think oing does a good job of obviously we need to be meeting like mandated needs of all of our students but I think that and it's reflected in this budget we have a priority of going beyond that to to provide you know more fair enrichment activities for all of our students so that they're um accessible to all and um I really appreciate that and I think my colleagues asked some great questions that also

261highlight that so um thank you we're going to take a break for lunch we're going to take a we're going to come back at 1:45 and we're going to be coming back to Bullet 4 from this um and we're going to go quick through that and then through the rest of day thank our for those of you who might be able to see or not see our wonderful administrative team is here I want to thank you all for everything you do for being here today and being available to answer a questions so thank you all thank you you're welcome to take a wrap with you for lunch as you if you you're welcome to stay you can all go but or you can take a wrap with you or eat lunch or whatever you need

262to do but thank you w are we ready are we ready to get started again good to go okay let the fund continue uh next is our district office budget codes all right I I had just uh just in a quick for those of you as a followup to what Kim was saying before um I had to submit instructional review paperwork Jared and leam we might get into that a little bit later about the capital Bond but in it they asked me was State what programs will be bringing back from bosies and um I had a great conversation with Kim Topic near and dear to my heart a therapeutic support program so we were able to identify at the new grade seven and8 building and at the high school space for a tsp program for

263our kids so very clear very direct language around that and I'm excited to um talk about that at a later date but when we get closer in the plans but just want to highlight that thank you Kim and terms of the district office budgets for the I beg unless the board has particular questions I mean um I'm pretty much we we put a lot of my the conferences nisus um um other organizations in here the uh American Association of schools of Roy I'm at a certain place in my career where I don't attend a lot of them you just keep when you hire the next Super long-term superintendent and maintain that budget um I thought for the efficiency of time unless anyone had additional questions on your budget um the office of the superintendent or

264the district clerk um we could jump to Don's in HR well I'm not um I'm just looking at Roger's questions which he sent in um he had a question about on page eight yeah I'm next that's me so you're going to do that all right then I'll ask his question thenk go can you um 1310 business office there's an increase of 200,000 in the um the salary code me and Don identified that there uh needs to be a reduction in that code of about um 80 80 something like 80 yeah um but we are adding a position uh we need to add a position in accounts payable and I explained that in the write up that you're looking at uh when I first came here um 13 13 years ago 14 years ago um there

265were three people in purchasing and accounts payable there was a purchasing agent and two accounts payable Clerks um to date there's only there was only one person um given the the increase in the amount of payments that we have to make it is it it it is clear to me that we need at least two people in a department so this accommodates uh additional position um and also just regular um contractual increases um but we did find a position that will be uh coming out of that code of 880,000 so um technically this code is only going up 120,000 the um the the increase in the Consultants is what we discussed earlier um and it's related to Robert Half uh we have had difficulty filling these positions uh the two people in the accounts payable

266office currently are from Robert Half um we also have someone in payroll that's from Robert Half um so this accommodates um the um additional Staffing for robber half um we are also uh looking for uh assistance from an IT perspective um specifically from the business office uh We've yet to have any uh individual support to meet our needs I know I can speak on behalf of Don he has similar needs when it comes to wind cap and position control and the types of reporting that we can get out of them um so we did uh engage Robert Half to provide us with an IT person uh for the business office so that's considered here and we also are determining whether or not the two Staffing members the two staff members in payroll meet our needs

267so we are currently looking to work with three people in that department um these departments are extremely critical um obviously payroll is where most of our expense is um and then the remainder is paying our vendors on time and accurately um so we are looking at doing some um workflow Automation and that's why we got the IT person from Robert Half involved um so that's what we're looking and those the reasons why those codes are increasing does anybody have any questions you answered Roger's question on the table any questions none I guess is Don turn so uh thank you Lita so similar to uh what Kim said earlier with um with her page uh on page 12 for me a large number of our expenditures go through um uh Personnel filing and the digital filing

268of that which was a plus for the for 400 because we were able to free up some space that was downstairs for that was loaded up with boxes when I a few years ago um to allocate to um to O Prime and the like so um that's a bosis code that we have there we also um utilize data uh databases for um not just the employees but also looking at um really different um software comp uh software platforms that we have so School meter which I'm sure some of you are familiar with it's a data that's um uh housed the New York's data that we have the ability to use to uh look for Trends with uh attendance or demographics or contracts um benefits and um compensation things like that we also have um different

269conferences in there under staff development one of which I'll be attending at uh the New York state conference this year there's a slight increase there because it uh is an overnight and that's a a state conference for school Personnel administrators um it's a pretty well-known conference years ago was in Cooper toown um I think it it's going to change this year but it's it's a it's a it's a great conference that allows for a lot of networking and um best practices um to be shared amongst colleagues um the other expenditures that we have are really for things like job fairs or interview committees um Consultants uh are really based on um folks that will hire such as an arbitrator or a medical consultant that we need to to contract for um a variety of reasons

270um and also in um supplies really again that's very uh modest increase but most of that is due to um things that we have at district office that really um surround on committees and interview packets um and supplies based on the amount of uh stakeholders we want to bring in to interview candidates for positions so it's pretty straightforward nothing really um too different from last year any questions from the board that's quick to the me of the alita's presentation yeah all right take it away Alita um I I'm supposed to do Pages 7173 and um the pension I already went over the health code um and uh the pension code I would I would just want to highlight for page 73 which is The Debt Service you'll see that there's a reduction in The Debt

271Service Code um and this leads into our discussion about Capital um you'll remember that the library debt is coming off in the 25 26 school year so that's why you see that reduction in debt service so if we would have just left that uh that negative 1 million there and not placed it as a placeholder somewhere else and that's somewhere else is in the transfer to Capital line that's why it's not 6.9 is it's 9 million um then we would have saw even a greater reduction in our trans in our um our tax levy limit calculation so even though that million is is not there uh we know that the library is looking to um add debt as this debt is or add debt when they're ready to add debt um but we also have

272to accommodate for this debt um somewhere else and again that that money is in the transfer to Capital line so in 26 27 you'll see depending on when they plan to borrow um that that debt will go back up and then we'll be aligned when we put on our debt um with the 6.9 million for the bond so this is a fun part of the budget presentation because it becomes all wrapped up and um we get to have our voters vote on it um I do want to say that there's been a lot of discussion about this being fixed and that being fixed um so I just want to say that this is the first look um at the budget so there are probably going to be changes I doubt it's going to change anything

273significantly with regard to the budget itself because there's increases and decreases um but I I just want to put that um put that out there so the next steps that we want to do like I said we want to make sure that the budget is in its final stages before the board approves it or adopts it and uh we want to go the capital plans because those are very important as that those numbers impact those projects impact um the tax levy cap um and then uh want to go over uh the use of fund balance um not just for the general fund but also looking at the federal and state grants that are falling that may end sometime in the 25 26 school year and then we can have a discussion on the tax levy

274limit um and the amount that we're proposing with the superintendent budget so this is a a graph I mean a table that identifies all of the uh State the state and federal grants that are budgeted or projected for the 2526 uh school year so the federal gr grants as um the superintendent said a lot of the federal grants are related to um students with uh disabil ities so for examp for example uh 611 619 are related to uh uh students with disabilities immigration speaks for itself title four I don't remember but it's a smaller Grant um Title One a lot of our staffing is either special uh or students with disabilities or uh prek so we do spend a lot of title one on prek and the remainder is students with disabilities um and also

275our first steps program is budgeted out of there or expensed out of there um um the state grants include um Universal prek our second Grant of um Universal prek uh New York gup My Brother's Keeper Fellowship fellows and the regular My Brothers Keeper program so if you look at the total at the bottom the total federal and state that we project to receive for next year is $6.8 million so um we typically don't anticipate um expenses in a in a future budget based on the political climate um but I think this year is a little unusual or this upcoming year will be a little unusual um so I think that we should come up with a plan just in case um something happens um to reduce some of these um these grants the things that

276are most important would be um if you look at the total salaries uh for the federal and state that's 4.8 and then if you look at the benefits which is fringe that's another $494,000 so my suggestion would be that the the school district anticipate um a reduction in um federal and state by uh 5.5 million not the entire 6.8 but just taking into consideration the 4.8 and the 494 and rounding up to 5.5 that would be my recommendation I do not recommend that we Levy taxes for a just in case event I I believe what we should do is assume i' I've been working on the fund balance um we work on it just to make sure that we have the amount of money that we need for the budget itself which we anticipate will

277be 6.6 million what I'm suggesting is that we have the 6.6 million allocated to the from the general to the general fund from fund ballots unallocated and then we also um what and we believe we have available the additional 5.5 million um in fund balance so instead of fund balance being 4% um to accommodate the 5.5 million uh fund balance would be an area of 7.1% so that would be a deliberate um um plan in which we are saying that we're going to have more than 4% and it'll be 7.1% again the budget is I still have to look at the reg rest of the numbers um but the the the amount would be 3% over the 4% so that would be uh you know something that we all understand is some there's a reason

278behind why we're doing that um but I would not suggest adding these positions to the budget and levying taxes but having money set aside in the event that something happens during the 25 26 school year that we didn't plan for and again we're only looking at the salaries and benefits not the entire Grant themselves wonderful School mental health Grant take a look at that amount of money that we're getting for that it's over a million take a look at um the MBK program take a look at New York year up um you know if I had to sayk is basically coming from the state but we're living in unusual so we don't know so I think it's important the board had ask this is the money there is an opportunity to look at a different

279realation of fund balance for one year to prepare you know this isn't isn't a sustainable model but it's a one year that just are you ready for questions or is there um does anybody have questions not so much it's kind of a question but not really a question because I know I'm glad that we we have an idea of what is possible uh if you know circumstances change drastically I know um I have brought up when you know after covid and we had a lot of Grants coming in what is like a long-term goal of figuring out how to start infusing some of these Grant funded initiatives into the overall budget way before it was even a concern that this could be just you know a possibility this could be ripped right from us us

280um so I'm wondering like to the point that was made about this is not a long-term solution is there like um are we still simultaneously figuring out how we phase in um through just noticing what is really needed to continue that is being funded through these grants how do we phase that in um over time I I could speak to co um but from a philosophy and then I'll have aita to talk about details but I certainly think annually which you did last year and we're doing this year looking at your recurring revenues and your recurring expenses and trying to be deliberate about the maximum allowable tax levy puts the district in a much better place to absorb things as you move forward so that is a philosophy that given this uniqueness of times is

281a way to appr approach this work hope I I think we were very deliberate with the um the stimulus funds as you know a lot of that money went towards um some of the after school programs that we knew we couldn't um continue uh throughout um past the grant ending um but we did spend a lot of money on one time expenses uh like the air conditioning um so even though those those uh stimulus funds ended some of those positions were put into the budget um but we were very careful that we uh didn't spend it all on recurring expenses right um I think with the state and the federal grants these are these grants are uh typically um not an issue where they're being cut like in a random way right um so I

282think the planning has to be a little bit different um but like um the superintendent said says we we can't do anything now I don't suggest levying taxes for a what if scenario but this gives us having one year gives us the ability to plan for the 26 27 year budget so again even the approach is not necessarily looking to address the entire problem but only looking at the the positions and the benefits associated with those positions so that's step one um and it's it's really just to put us in a position where we can in appropriately plan and not react um in any given school year okay thank you that's what I was hoping thanks um I appreciate the forward thinking it's really almost like a self- insurance you could look at it that

283way uh given the tumult at the federal level when it comes to the possibility of of you know what's going to happen to these funds or could potentially happen to these funds um are we going to be are we going to have a problem if at audit time if our capital or if these um this Reserve is beyond 4% we've had years in which we've been beyond 4% and the only time let me not say well in 20 in in in our controllers audit when the New York State Controller came into the district and audited us then they they pointed that out but it comes up as a part of the audit report it's a paragraph and says that we're over the 4% I I'm I can't speak on behalf of them but I know

284we me and Mary was in a conversation with um Council about something else and we brought this up and you know they think it's wise and I I don't I mean it'll be it'll be part of the audit report right it will be part of the audit report but it's what your other Mo right right with intentionality right like what's worse there's not there's not a formal like repercussion you'll get it written up in your order report okay so I mean I don't know if he's going to now that I say that um but that's what's happened in the past right it's comment in audit report and it's not like a major finding or anything like that it'll just be stated that we're over 4% okay so I mean in this situation normally I'm I

285don't like having it higher than 4% I've said that before in this situation I can certainly understand I guess the question is if if the controller's office were to come in and audit this separate from our yearly auditor and say well you're over the 4% would we be in a position where we would be forced to go to the community and and give this money back or we would just be able to explain why it's there and and carry on so when you have a an audit report you're required to develop a a corrective action plan and within that correct action plan you have to explain how you're not going to be at 4% and the comment would be that we are at 4% over 4% we're aware of that this is the reason why

286and going forward by this date it won't happen and and I'll be responsible you have to put the person responsible the date that'll it'll be fixed and that's it and then it's published but they can't force you to to you know change it it's after the audit they looking at audited documents so I guess this is some of this is where you've been sitting here for a while and you've seen what's happened in the past you know you I'll offer you my perspective on it at the end of the day you know the the school boards Association including the County Association has been advocating for many years to increase the amount of undes fund balance from 4% to 6% which matches basically the best practices in general Municipal law at the end of the day

287the state had that ability when the pandemic hit the state increased its undesignated balance fund close to 15% so the state built up its ability to weather a storm that's significant coming ahead in my mind this is a way that you do that and um the you know in basically having programs and after school programs slashed and when the market crashed in 2008 and then basically having to go to beg to get prek saved I'm willing to support these programs and be and you know and deal with an audit that asks for a corrective action plan versus having to go to our families and say you're not going to have pre next year because the states decided to reallocate its money to make up idas part A and B that the federal government's cut or

288whatever they've done I think that's the most responsible way to offer continuity of service and we try to build a transition plan to keep what we can out of this at the end end of the day to do that I think that's the responsible thing the state's doing it on their front they've given themselves the the runway to do it and you know there there's lots of districts every year that are above the 4% in undesignated fund balance and historically the comp controllers asked just for that for a correction Plan and there's not been followup to basically well how far along are you how you're not there I think it would be very easy to answer in this we rely on a significant amount of federal and state funds to ensure Contin stud service for

289all of our students that basically Ally we would put that in a response letter at the end of the day similarly to what the state's done for its own coffers that's my two cents on this but it really comes from the position of I don't want to sit down look at parents and say you got to go find child child care for your kid next year because we can't have pret at the end of the day and the stuff that we know that school mental health that impacts not just students well-being but the safety of our schools is another huge aspect so this long-winded answer to this is basically I think that we basically need to do what's wise here prudent financially and to me making sure we hold on to some additional funds in

290order to basically do that makes sense but we'll we have the benefit of a few weeks for the community to hear it as well and for them to weigh in um so there has been a fair amount of anxiety in the community about this whole situation and like especially upk came up and what the future of that would look like can you give me a way to very like concisely describe what will happen should we be out $5.5 million like using the fund balance and all of that for someone who doesn't totally get all of the different budget pieces so you're saying you're saying if we didn't put aside 5.5 no if we did like how do I explain where that money's coming from oh so it it's like you don't have to worry about

291this because the district is doing this with the fund balance it's going to be over 4% but it's fine so so the the biggest issue besides fund balance is that you're not supposed to increase your budget during the school year so by Us increasing our budget we have we'll have a a revenue or and this is where I would get the accountant involved um that actually that's the biggest issue that you're increasing your budget or or you and you didn't plan for that if that were to happen then you have the ability to use undes ated fund balance so you can't use reserves because reserves are earmarked for certain things those you can only use that for Capital you can only use that for increases in ERS and TRS so by having that money available

292we would have the additional expense coming from general fund or a federal fund if we leave no general fund um but that that that additional expense will be offset by our savings which is the fund balance I can write something if you want so I think the the answer is in simple terms for the community we have money and savings to cover it and we're making sure that that's unencumbered so that if the worst happens we're okay I think oh go ahead sorry no I was going to say is is I think a part of the question also was like how do we get from 4 to 7: like where is that coming from yeah that's after the audit is done so when the audit is completed based on the end of the fiscal year

293June 30 2025 you'll see that money sitting in fund balance okay you'll see it in the audit report like when we do the audit you'll see that it's going to be over 4% okay um and there's a dollar amount Associated it with it because it represents 4% of the 2526 budget um so there's a number that will be sitting there and then you'll see in the F the is a a page that's called um something statement of fund balance and you'll see that there's additional Revenue above and beyond the 4% it's going to be on that page I can show you the exact page remember ler when the Auditors came two months ago basically said we had additional Revenue um that we could not um project at the time because it was based on state

294a that was submitted August 31st every single year so it goes back to a philosophy and remember the money you're seeing now is basically about a year and a half ago two years ago so then it comes into fruition well what are you going to do with it like if you and you go into a budget process typically conservative because you don't want to overestimate the problem with that is that when you get additional revenue from either sales tax or interest income or or uh more state aid because they reviewed paperwork that they said they would do on their timeline and all of a sudden it shows up one year um that allow you so right now Alita can project using the the working with the treasurer that will be in a position to be

295able to do this because of this and then of course as soon as a budget passes um a leader runs a tight ship you know you just don't go out willy-nilly about spending things I don't mean that that's a wrong terminology but you bid things out you get cost effective if their efficiencies and I know the board on regularly on an agenda you'll see that we approve Point twos because we're having difficulty hiring certain positions which helps us put teachers in front but those Point tws don't include TRS or medical because we're not filling those but they become part of your fund balance as well right so just so now I can articulate a little better thank you um they'll see it in the audit report so the audit report is going to show that

296um instead of it being 4% it's going to be 7% um and they'll see that once the report is done and I can I can provide the page once the um again the report is done it'll show that it's 5.5 million above the 4% and it'll be sitting there and you can see it and then we publish it on the website the audit reports so that's money we we technically have now theoretically to be spending this school year that we will not have spent normally we would put it into reserves right right um but we right now the way been looking at it to date I can see that we have enough to do this um and also do um the 6.6 okay so if I'm at for example a play dat and someone's randomly

297like oh what about upk and like don't worry about it because the school has this money already and instead of putting it in reserves it's going to put it in fund balance so the savings like it'll cover it okay great thank you if they were to approve that if it wouldn't get put to the voters any other questions so I made um Jared come back a little earlier I robbed him with a sandwich he didn't want that so I feel compelled to let him go over this [Laughter] line just okay I'm going to change my glasses so I can read this clst close I think we went over it at the last board meeting but it's just for every so in in the proposed budget is about $9 million in transfer to capital projects there's

298a long list here um let me talk a little bit about how we came like when we when we think about these transfer to capital projects we want to be targeted we want to focus on the on the needs of the buildings right and we also need to be mindful you're I'm going to point this out as we go along you want to be mindful to kind of keep kind of group work together and group work together in buildings so that it makes sense so that when we go out to bid on a project I've got this project like a lot of work of this type together right or I have a lot of work in this building together it doesn't always work out as cleanly as that but you're trying to do that as

299you go through this so there are a lot of things on our list of things to do a list of needs so these things are plucked out on a priority basis like we really need to do these things but it's also it's also put together in a package so that it makes sense all right um so in a transfer to Capital talking about making sense so the first line the 78 new building you you you know that we're building a new building under the bond what's in what's in the budget is clearing an earth workor behind the building so that um we can we can have the grass field um and also put the infrastructure in for storm water water retention um at the same time um so that kind of that makes sense we're

300putting that work in together um we're making sure that we're getting ahead of it and that uh when we're done with the 78 building we have a whole project that makes sense um you may remember that well I know you're remember the board decided in the bond not to keep not to keep the Earth workor in the bond project itself in order in order to keep it reasonable so this is this building on that also in the project is the Brookside cafeteria renovation and kitchen Edition um we already have voted on and we're working towards doing a significant amount of work at Claremont uh we're doing the Brookside Edition that's that's already in motion um we're we're waiting for State stated approval to to move forward with construction which we're hoping it's going to happen

301really really soon but the last piece of the puzzle there is the the uh cafeteria and kitchen renovation um security camera upgrades districtwide so we looked we looked at was starting back last September really we started to look at the needs uh for security camera editions and where the where the kind of um where the holes are or where we can improve on or where we need to make things better we worked with Al tarus on that we worked with our vendor State contract vendor on putting together proposals um and so that's built into the budget in that line uh another another area uh the next line down is resurfacing the AMD track the AMD track I don't know exactly but it's it's either 20 years old or a little bit more than 20 years

302old to track track surface and what we're starting to experience is it's a it's a it's a paav rubber surface that's laid on top of a black top what's happening is that black top surface underneath is developing cracks sort of lateral cracks across the track and that causes movement and that gets transferred up into the track surface so um what's included in the budget is to Mill that all the way down take up the track surface Mill it all the way down to the subbase repave it and then put a new smooth surface on um uh the um the football field itself the turf field is not being touched uh we do have to do a little bit of drainage repairs on the inside of the track um that's relatively minor it's basically just wear

303and tear on the drainage so it's the track and there also a little bit of drainage repairs um you everybody's aware we recently had a watermain replacement uh wi main repl uh break at at Brookside um but we have also experienced a couple of water main breaks at Claremont and and back during the development process again when I looked at the list um there are there's that water main at Claremont really should be replaced we um over a Christmas break a few years ago uh we had we had a watermain break over there we had a big flood um and one of the reasons why I want to be proactive about that is eventually we're going to have to redo the black top on that parking lot and I'd rather get the infrastructure of this

304water m in and done so that you don't have to dig it up down the road so we're not quite there on that black top but it's going to have to happen at some point in the future so we want to think about that um then you got the OHS list so replace the gym Windows gym floor repair main gym bleachers and paint gym so the that's all things together related to OHS gym we're going to be doing a significant amount of capital work uh around the uh with the bond project around the gym so the the locker rooms are already are going to get renovated we're going to do some additions um this is a good opportunity to get in there do some Renovations um the windows on the gym on the Highland Avenue

305side of the gymnasium they're showing their age and they they blow open sometimes is what happened and the hardware is kind of faltering so um it's a prudent idea to to replace those windows uh resand a gym floor that that gym floor it's du it's what it comes down to um and new lines and then do the bleachers and paint the gym those bleachers see a lot of wear and tear there they're very very very busy gym as everybody here knows um Park is that's also an area where we kind of grouped like work together um so masonry powerpet wall repairs so it's repointing and fixing some leaks and things that we experienced at Park on the on the masonry um and then also uh at along the front of Park there's um there's some

306side there's quite a few sidewalk sections that are really getting into they're they're all cracked and broken up so it's a maintenance item it's something that just kind of needs to be done and then same thing at Roosevelt Mason repairs repainting exterior painting of the building especially that front facade that needs to to get cleaned up um there's sections of that and are not raw masonry they're painted um that needs to get cleaned up and fixed and do the Mason repair um and then uh the second floor of Roosevelt has a a rooftop air unit on it that is end of life um that is it's got to be 25 years old um uh you may remember that when the administration offices were at 400 that space air conditioning it kind of it's kind of

307of a leftover from that so we want to we want to get ahead of that and get that that rtu replaced um and then again masonry work and concrete stairs and sidewalks at Claremont um that plays into kind of grouping things together so you see that strategy there so we've got a bunch of masonry repairs maybe at different buildings but we can bid that out together and get a better economy of scale same thing in ohos gym we're kind of focused in one place there's a variety of different things but we can bid it out and get get it done at scale yeah they geted right and they get AED right well and everything that's in here right we can we can we can bundle things together and and and get the building a on

308um and uh yeah and then Brookside it Brookside both at Claremont and Brookside were these masonry repairs that we're talking about are actually on the inside of the brick wall above the roof on the 95 editions we're starting to see some deterioration of those bricks and the flashings and we want to make sure that it doesn't get too far out of hand and then we wind up with roof leaks that that we don't want um and getting moisture in the building where we don't want it um and then the concrete walkways to the parking areas I think everybody's uh have seen the um the black top paved areas that and the black top paved sidewalk and concrete sidewalk that leads out to the parking areas at Brookside so you know we did the curb work

309and we did improving the pavement around a circle and around the flag pole we want to kind of continue that and go out further uh and it should present nice when it's done so that's that's there's a lot in there there's a lot of little things in there well they sound like little things they're not little things but when you bundle them all together um it comes out to be about 9 Milli million do in the work so um so that's what that stuff is there may be some questions any questions we did talk about this um on Wednesday about that from one members about the the which part of the Claremont water line is town villes and which one is ours yeah we own in every every even if your own homes you own

310everything Downstream in the Maine so the village uh takes care of the main in the street and then there's a valve uh that they put in and then everything after that is ours including the fire hydrant that are on our so any fire hydr you see on our property we own and our responsibility to maintain them uh so the and the Claremont main is interesting because it goes in kind of um kind of towards the the driveway entrance on Claremont Claremont Road and it goes towards a a fire hydrant that's near the pine trees and then it makes a 90 degree rightand turn goes all the way across the parking lot that makes a n other 90 degree turn and goes into the boiler room area so it runs all the way through that parking

311lot and the portion that I saw when they had it dug open and I'm a reformed old plumber U the portion of that main that I saw it's it's old it's it's cast iron and it's dates it's it's original infrastructure from when the building was built in the 1950s so it should be replaced without damage by waiting for the catastrophe to happen right so like this is the attempt to keep it cost contain so we lived that a few weeks ago up Brookside and I'm sure you've heard the uh the story from the superintendent but it's a hering you get that a phone call and it literally snowed that morning and the custodian who's on duty at the school calls me as soon as it got daylight he was shot there shoveling the sidewalks because

312we had like an inch of slush on the ground and uh he said J said I came around the front and I can see it in the daylight and there's something wrong here and it's like oh boy he described what it was and I knew right away in my gut we had a water rain break terrible any other questions thank you for stay scking through my pleasure you're welcome so um again this is just the uh uh maximum allowable tax levy calculation and again I just want to point out that this is not final until the uh the state finalizes or approves its budget because what gets impacted in this calculation is the um building Aid so if the building aid number goes up that's to higher uh that reduces our tax levy limit amount

313so this number is subject to change and if we change anything within the capital projects so the the other part that we wanted to discuss because I sometimes think that we have these meetings and we never kind of settle on the tax levy limit amount everything hinges on that number um so right now I believe it's I think it's 1.67 um I don't know why I can't remember either if it's 164 167 I believe it's 167 so everything in the budget is based on this number as the revenue increasing the levy um two the new number went from 107 don't get so embarrassed um one 10659 379 was the uh property tax levy for the 25 school year 2425 and we are uh suggesting going up to the maximum allowable tax levy limit of 107

31493643 and you know as part of the report you have to ask they ask you the controller's office asks if you plan to override un thecar Le the answer is no um so that's the maximum amount and our I reported that we're going to the maximum amount of course I can always um change that but I think it's important that we you know are clear that that's what we're doing from the board's level um so we know how to move forward or if they there there's anything that needs to be changed we could start to address it um prior to the uh next board meeting on Wednesday so I do want to give some broad Strokes to all of this so and again it is critical that I thank you and make ask the board

315to focus back on the decision making that you made last year because it's put us in a good place this year this budget actually is a decrease of almost 1.6 1.7 million the tax levy limit the maximum allow tax levy is less than 2% it adds new positions and actually some new programs there are some smaller ones and I'm going to ask Maria to put together a list for you so you can see it it adds critical business positions it offers the board a strategy to handle what happens when we lose Federal money it and it maintains the programs that we there are no Cuts expected here any decreases that you saw have to do based on trends of actual spending and needs and and and thank you and the last really big thing is

316we're able to address the air conditioning situation so there's a lot of really good things that align with your board goals your board objectives in this and I I just want to thank the team I want to thank Alita and her team just for working together on this and and also the philosophy about we use our reserves when we need to we we have a need to do our fund balance right now um unrestricted Frank nailed it when he talked about I was part of that advocacy group why are we stuck at 4% where everyone else is allowed a different level um and you need to be able to do that when you're facing a a tough situation but this maintains programs this doesn't cut anything it actually adds to it we're adding staff in

317key areas and and it and it takes care of recurring Revenue by increasing your maximum allowable Levy which puts you in a good place for the next year and it you're using your capital reserve on some really Mission critical important capital projects and the a conditioning is in equipment because that's where it belongs you made great decisions over electricity you made great decisions over switching gear great decisions over LED lighting you make great decisions over solar paneling you're seeing all that work as we move forward thank you any questions from the board um I'm kind of wondering as we move forward right we're going to go out to our community and say we need one a 1.67% increase and we're going to stck away some of this money uh and savings and uh we think

318that this is a wise thing to do because uh we're unsure of the reliability of for example Federal grant money someone will ask well what if we didn't do that what if we kept it at 4% and we used that money on this year's budget to lower our taxes I am not suggesting that that's what we do I do not think that that is the wise move but I would like to be able to compare the negative consequences of that choice when we explain this to the public globally when you when you you you have to frame it in the term of recurring Revenue this is not recurring Revenue when you use Revenue that is a one time because of an efficiency you get extra this and you put it in to recurring expenses you

319make a bigger Gap the following year so you have this based on an audit that there was a conservative approach a year and a half ago and I understand so we getting more money than anticipated but again it's not recurring Revenue in the form of your maximum allowable tax levy it's like state aid or what what building project did they decide to review and all of a sudden you know they basically said when funds be if you've ever read how the state decides to reimburse it says when funds become available that can be next year or 15 years from now and when you put in expense driven documents it could come in August when you put it in it could come the following year or the other year the auditor basically mentioned how you had

320additional revenue from different onetime sources like an additional sales tax an additional interest so but if you used that onetime income to set off recurring expenses you create a bigger Gap the following year and I I want to point out um you know because after that uh audit report I did share with the board because uh the auditor himself pointed it out that we have been using our fund balance and reducing it so just because we have it this year in that follow-up year in 26 27 it may not be available so you find yourself not only with a gap but not being able to fill the position at all um so we have been using the fund the unappropriated fund balance and reducing the amount as well as the reserves um so not only

321do you run the risk of having a bigger Gap but you run the risk of having to cut those positions yeah so it is right like it it philosophy is you have to step down off your use of it and if you look at the money that's exactly what's happening it was a very high Reliance and for so you're stepping down on the use of it so you're you're heading in the direction that you want to head it's not going to be done in one year though yeah Mary do you need anything from us as far as like feedback how again I just I just want to make sure that everyone is on the same page um right you want to hear like how we're feeling about a 1.67 1.6 and um the discussion about

322the federal funds doesn't mean to being made now it's really a end of the year uh type discussion um but it's good to point it out because um it's important to talk about because it could have impacted the budget if we decided we wanted to Levy taxes for which we're not but the the discussion again around the fund balance happens during the audit um and when we start to move things either into reserves or but I think it's important to for people to be aware that that that's what the plan is and like every school district at the end of the year when you have additional money any above the 4% people put it into reserves your tax reserve your TS your ERS based upon whatever needs this year we're saying recommending that you keep

323it in the uh fund balance the unassigned and uh use it in anticipation next year so just the the the conversation about the the tax levy limit that would be helpful okay if everyone felt comfortable with that number okay do we want to go around the table yeah I can go go ahead um I think this is actually a really refreshing budget cycle because I think some of the hardest budget Cycles were when we were getting the increase in Foundation Aid those were really tough I think this you know if you want to average out salaries let's say on average are increasing we have to bank on an increase of 2% year-over-year you know I don't know what the exact number is and any any tax levy that is right around 2% without other unexpected

324forces I think you're probably always going to get an okay from me so 1.67% certainly seems reasonable I'm on board it's a green light thank you you want to go ahead go ahead sure um I went into this very anxious and you quelled that anxiety very quickly because there was a lot of conversation about you you know being fiscally responsive and all of that and I think it has been felt like I think people feel very squeezed right now so I was um a little nervous there would be something about like a over 2% but like Katherine said it's under 2% and that feels really manageable and it was a really it was a nice presentation sounds like a green light from Annie um Frank or Melissa we kind of ping ponged around F it's

325it's a responsible plan that strives to maintain the core programs and has what people expect to be there and it's doing it in a way that we're leveraging past ex past Savings in order to blunt this and so I think it's a responsible plan to put to the voters another green light Melissa yes so up front I would say it's a green light for me I just want to commend you know the different gears that had to work together to make make it possible um and it's something that has been a long-term kind of accomplishment right it's not something as you said marriage is not something that over time that you can accomplish in one year um and that goes for our past practices as well um some years where you know was a lot

326of kind of toiling away to figure out how do we manage um our fiscal responsibilities along with um being cognizant of the impact on the community so I think this year especially considering um some of the unexpected um or anticipating the unexpected um I'm really pleased to see that we have a contingency plan for that and are still able to really keep the community in mind and of course um keep our you know our students sneeze at the Forefront of it so it's really refreshing to be at this point and I just want to thank all the hard work um that went into this because it's a lot of it's a lot of numbers game and we're accomplishing so much out as well on the back end so it's not just the the tax rate

327itself but it's how much more we're also accomplishing um you know with our bond being passed and all that so I think it's it's a really really uh impressive year for the district and I'm proud of all the hard work that went into it thank you I agree I was based on the budget experience last year I was kind of bracing for impact when it came for this year that we might be in a situation where we have to ask for a lot of money in order to maintain our programming uh without avoiding any cuts and so it's nice we're not uh it's nice to see we're not asking we could always ask for more like we could always use more right but um that we're able to maintain what we offer and then also

328make some marginal improvements along the way with our students and our community in mind and I think 1.67 is so reasonable for that um in order I it's impressive to me that we're able to maintain what we have and only increase that much um I think it's the fiscally responsible thing to do I wouldn't make a change so uh and like as Melissa said the ability to kind of insulate ourselves fiscally be Forward Thinking uh when it comes to both Federal monies and the bond and still only ask for 1.67% I think it's a great value for our community so it's a green light for me too I think we're headed in the right direction thank you and just a moment of appreciation for everybody who stayed here today it was nice to see well

329I'm sitting like facing directly all of our administrators earlier today like what a great Bunch like we really have a lot of people putting in a lot of great work for this uh budget you know every day and all of the work that they do but particularly today when it comes to putting in all these details in this in the budget and everybody at the table here to I know I've put in countless hours to put this you know 70 whatever page document together and to know it's just the beginning I know it's still a a process but um I appreciate all the work that's gone into it so far because I feel like this is a really fiscally responsible um budget that goes a long way towards accomplishing our goals and our standards for

330our students so thank you very much I'd like to thank star and I'd like to thank thank Don um it's been great working with Don um especially um us having a commitment um towards using position control um in the proper way the most efficient way um and obviously the rest of the superintendent staff um Kim and [Laughter] Maria only she's being nice she's being very kind so I'll take it I'll take it all right do we have anything else to do are we done let's go home at 2:43 nice job team good job everybody great job thank you sh