001Please take roll. So I'm the president, and I call your name, Mrs. DiCursio. Present. Mrs. Eggersmith. Present. President. Yep. Present. Can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. motion pass can i have a motion to approve board meeting minutes of march 25th 2026 i'll make a motion i'll second all in favor aye motion pass that brings us to tonight's presentation mrs bosch good eve Is that working? Yes? Okay. Good evening. Thank you for having me, Board of Education, Superintendent O'Hara, for having me present tonight. So
002March was busy at CES. Our March, I'm going to jump right in. CES goals linked to District Goal Number 1. Our March PBIS Assembly was held Thursday, March 26th. We had an outstanding student representation. In our winner's circle for the month of March with over 70 students earning their way into the winner's circle, it was quite difficult to get the picture taken of all 70 students with Hambo, but they all did a really excellent job. Some of those students, more than a handful, were also earning their winner's circle for the second and third time, so they are now sporting multiple bracelets, which is really fun to see around the school. The curriculum committee reviewed the teacher survey of the Amplify Science pilot, and it has been determined that we will not continue with the program.
003The concerns with the program included student engagement, New York State standard alignment, and in the lower grades, developmental appropriateness. We are working on incorporating another online resource for the teachers. It is a full science curriculum that has a digital platform and is aligned with New York State standards. as well in grades three through five. Teachers were trained on Inner Orbit, which is an assessment tool to support three-dimensional assessments in the area of science. We utilized this assessment platform last year in the fifth grade, and it proved to be well aligned with the end-of-year state assessment format and content. Our fifth graders did... extremely well on the New York State science test last year. So we are continuing to use that in our orbit in grades three, four, and five. We just used it in five
004last year. The DEI committee has been working and finalizing our multicultural evening. event plans that will coincide with the CES art show which is around the world themed tomorrow night communication was sent to families about opportunities for them to participate in the evening's events we have several volunteers and we're looking forward to a fun evening the event is from 5 to 7 p.m. tomorrow night the last half hour is reserved for a Gentle journey. And the intent is to have less of a crowd, a quieter setting, and more sensory-friendly experience for those who desire a calmer experience, a calmer journey. The multicultural presentations will be set up in the main lobby when you enter the building for people to view and experience prior to moving down to the makerspace. Some of our volunteers are bringing
005some food from... different areas of the world. Some are teaching games, some are having song and dance. It should be really nice to enter the lobby. We're going to have it fully decorated for the event. We're really looking forward to it. And then after you cruise through the lobby, you'll head down to the art show, which Mrs. Downicht has been working diligently on installing over today and tomorrow to be ready for all of our families to come to the art show. goals linked to district goal number two CES multi grade level PLC is met during the March 17th district conference day they brought student work samples from the beginning of their PLC work up until now and examined them as a group to determine next steps and areas of focus for the remainder of the
006school year with the original PLC goals in mind students earning honor roll and hard work hero awards for the second quarter were announced in March students were called down to the main lobby they were provided with certificates and they were all highlighted in a parent square message that went out to the ces families community partnership updates in march we did host an author author eric luper mrs amy carolla coordinated the author visit and all the ces students attended presentations throughout the day for mr luper in the maker space mr luper presented his process of writing books and connected what he learned as a child into how he has a career now as an author. Students were able to ask questions. It was really an excellent day and presentation. The PTA and SEPSA helped fund that
007event, so thank you to them. As well, the PTA did run a evening Reading Under the Stars event that same night. So it was all about reading and we all really had a great time. Another community partnership is our Master Gardeners. They were back in March and then they were there again today and they are scheduled for several Wednesdays in the Pollinator Garden working with our fifth grade teams today. They were cleaning out the garden of the old plant material and getting ready for planting the new plants that they have been growing in makeshift. greenhouses made from different plastic containers and you know we are reusing things and creating tiny greenhouses for growing plants which is really fun and awesome to see out there too and they will be planting them soon goals linked to
008district goal number three I did send home a New York State assessment letter to families in on March 23rd assessments are going to be upon us soon the letter outlined the dates of the three through five and ELA and math assessment dates and the fifth grade science assessment our nicest lat testing will also be administered between April 6th and May 22nd that's kind of on one-to-one basis with many different students and those are administered by our enl teachers and ce go s goals linked to district goal number four ces has completed six successful fire drills since school started we have had three lockdown drills this school year we had one this past Tuesday on April 7th which was successful we have two more fire drills and one more lockdown at least that we will do
009before the end of the school year so we are on track to do those things that is it for my CES presentation tonight are there any questions on that presentation before I change hats Questions, just a comment. The addition of that sensory-friendly gentle journey, I absolutely love that. It's so important for children and families who need it and get to participate in ways that feel comfortable to them. So just kudos for having that be a part of it. Yeah, we're really excited about it. the DEI committee besides you know talking about different cultures and things like that and how we are welcoming all we have a strong focus on how we are supporting all of our varied learners in the building as well and access and making sure that everybody has comfortable appropriate access to
010everything that we're offering so that gentle journey name was was fun to come up with as a committee and we were happy about it okay now I'm gonna ask our Odyssey of the mind middle schoolers to get on stage and I'm gonna talk a little bit about out of the sea of the mind I am the Odyssey of the mind coordinator for the district so I am changing hats and on my student presentation tonight is not my actual students right now but they are my former students and several if not Every one of them was on one of the first Odyssey of the Mind teams that I was coordinator of. So it is nice to see them continuing with their Odyssey of the Mind journey. I'd like to introduce our Division II Odyssey of the
011Mind team. Emily Cassetta, Sawyer McElroy, Chloe Gassai, Stella Dunn, Emma O'Leary, Christoph Newhouse, and Charlotte. Charlotte! Hi! Are you participating? I guess so. I was going to say, and Charlotte was not able to join us tonight, as you see, she's in a uniform, but she's playing the role of a student, so it's totally appropriate for this. And I was going to say, she's not with us tonight, but these kids are really awesome at shifting, and actually one of the team members was unable because of other conflicts. conflicts because they are all very multi-talented and one of the students was involved in various other things both at the regionals and at the state competition and these students still placed in the regional competition third place they were offered a lottery slot to go to the states
012and they placed fourth out of 19 teams from all over the state so that was really an impressive showing and they were a team member down so that's something to mention So the Chester Academy Division II Odyssey of the Mind team chose problem number five, which is the performance problem titled Taller Tales of John Jivory. In this problem teams created and presented a humorous performance about an original tall tale the tale will include a team created hero or heroine that performs an incredible feat a unique Explanation of how something began or came to be and a surprise for the audience each event will be accompanied by a visual weather effect that represents an emotion Please turn your attention to the stage Chester Academy, are you ready? Chester Academy, you may begin. Anyway, this world was
013so boring, by the day Sandra was 12 and found to be alive. I can't handle it. There were no rules. I could not handle it. She takes a nap! She's sorry! Please, I didn't even oppose! That was a one-way street to the idiot game creator. Anyway, in this town, there was a girl who was quite the opposite of boring. Her name was Jane Diggory. How was Sheila's form than anyone else? She legit can't even walk. You were making me mad. Get out. Exactly. Get out! Fine. Get out! Anyway, back to your work. Hi there! My name's Jane. We're neighbors. And I wanted to know if there's anything neighborly I could do for you. You can't, you won't, you're basic. I literally just offered help with anything you want. And you're gonna give me attitude? Fine.
014I guess if you're a warmer and stuff. Wait, that's a great idea! Mental note, don't talk to this one. That kid has a couple of screws loose. Which one first? Totally legal magic or clouds for dummies. Oh, that gives me an idea. I could build a machine to change the sky. Oh, oh, wait, how would that work? Oh, I could, no, no, no. Oh, no, that wouldn't work. Oh, I could use a cloud to power it. That would be hard. Make it shimmer, make it shine, make it swell, make it melt. Make the world a boiling pot, make it super duper hot. What's up? And what my business partner needs to say is, it's your 25th birthday. Where did you come from? Your... Your incredible, peculiar, hair-head-starred... Wow, my machine came with a childish nincompoop.
015Way more than some, it's a party in here. Okay, um, so why and how are you here, technically? Um, we, uh... You don't. Um, but why do you? We're basically mechanics. Okay, that's so fun! Um, can you mechanic me off the meat, please? Um, here, that would be great. And we could all benefit from that. It's totally fine. Are you serious? That's right, I got the button right here. I wanna test it! What the slap jack did you do? Oh, it's amazing, isn't it? I call it Super Ultimate Molten Magical Extraordinary Radiance. Or Summer, for short. It's too hot. Fix it. Too hot, you say? How about it? Thank you! Are you out of your ever-loving mind? Are you serious? It was your idea! Just go! Smoke a bunch of boxes and it's working. What
016the hell with butterscotch? Is that seriously what came before? No, no. Um, Charlotte, let's keep it PG here. Come on, why can't I just say this? Charlotte, you cannot keep your inappropriate terms to yourself. You're a get out. You won't be the rest of the movie and you'll fail my class even more. Yeah, get out. Fine. Fine. No one will appreciate summer. I'll make it so cold people's breath freezes right in front of their very eyes. Make it crystal, make it clear, make it freeze, make it disappear. As you can imagine, people in the town also hated the idea of a winter wonderland, whether they knew it was coming or not. Ooh, what should I call this one? Wonderful, ingenious, neat, transcendent, ethereal, remarkable. Nis. Winter. Really cool. What did Jane do? Seriously, what's going
017on in here? They're frozen together like icicles. Is that what people think of me in my inventions? You know what? It's actually crazy. Stop it. It's not her fault she looks bald. And has some friends. You know what? There's only one thing. I need some help from my friends. Oh, boy! What is this? What is this? Where's my beloved original book on the way? Why is there everywhere? How do I handle- Oh no no no! People already don't like me and my inventions have gone on an international tour?! Season hip! Season hip, eh? It's been years ago! Insane. I know what I must do. Gaten's on thin ice and so am I. Nobody will listen to you after what you've done, you monster. That is exactly why I'm here. Not everyone loved the way it
018was, but why? It was so great. Of course we loved it. It was great. Okay, hear me out for a sec. To be human is to, you know, feel great and sad and angry and most importantly happy. Great and happy? This is different. Don't listen to her. Please? This is what I've been trying to tell you. Listen, our worldly life can't live without emotion. So that's why I'm introducing General Lee. Okay, seasons! Cause you know how we had to do a tour for this finale, we had to do a season tour, like, get it? You too! You too, yeah! This is an opportunity to be more confident, which, you know, I think there's no... Who's with me? The answer was... People came around, and they created this go-with-us thing. She went on to live the
019rest of her life in the Bullitts with her husband, John Joseph Singlehimer Schmick. That's it. Well, the species begins to rotate as they do today, but yeah, it's a sad story. Wow. You know, that may be really boring, but at least you didn't have to confess. Nope. Sit down. What? No! Get me out of here! You're joking. I was so surprised by Charlotte's entrance that I forgot I forgot to mention their coach general Leary mrs. O'Leary thank you so much she did an excellent job being an Odyssey of the mind coach is definitely a unique experience and this is mrs. O'Leary second you're doing it and the kids went to States this year and we're so proud of them and they're cleaning up so thank you if you have any questions for them or me
020about Odyssey I'm happy to answer any no thank you thank you mr. planning in is next on our presentations Once again, Mr. Flanagan, you follow the students. I know, I know. It's never a good thing. I always come out losing in the end here. Great job, everybody, as they're scrambling around here. Well done and well-deserved. They worked really hard, and to place it that way at States is really impressive. So great job. We're really impressed and appreciative, and we're excited to see the program continue to grow. So it's been an exciting month. Everyone's back and energized from spring break and ready to go here. The prom is right around the corner. So today we announced and we sent out to the juniors and seniors their prom information packets which outlines the criteria to attend the
021prom, the cost of the prom, the tickets, making sure that anyone that wants to attend the prom is academically eligible in order to attend the prom. And if they are struggling, there are study sessions and other supports that are in place to be there to support everybody. everybody can support all our activities here at chester academy um so the prom is going to be once again at west hills country club in middletown from 6 to 10 p.m on may 14th we'll once again have our mock dwy accident the day of with our prime activities we're supported by the town of chester police department who come in and they run activities and as well as representatives from garnett and the guest speaker that we're still working with orange county on so more information as we get
022closer to the date but it'll be here before we know it I don't know if we spoke about the senior trip since I've been back but I had a blast I meant I think I'm still sore from walking around there's a lot of steps a lot of steps around Orlando but we visited just about everywhere we managed to do three Disney parks in one day we were hopping around our students really took advantage of the hopper and we wound up going to Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom all in one day. It was a lot of fun. Students got on all of those different rides and activities and even the monsoon that we ensured at Epcot didn't hold us back. And that was a really long day so I give the students a lot of
023credit. I give myself a lot of credit. I went through a lot of Tylenol. And then We also visited Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and the brand new Epic Universe, which was awesome. I loved it. We stayed actually right across the street from Epic Universe. We were able to walk there. So it was a really good senior trip. So probably by the time we have our next meeting, we'll be with the next class looking for approval for the next trip. So we're really excited about that. Our travel company. um you know once again you know did an outstanding job you know supporting us on our trip Just some quick congratulations, the cast and crew of Little Mermaid. I mean, that really blew me away. I expected a lot just from the preparation. And when I
024watched it, I couldn't believe what I was watching. It was even beyond expectation. It was so great. So they did such an amazing job with Little Mermaid and Mrs. Scali and the cast and crew, many people that are here. What a show. I think that... we've really started to raise the bar on our shows and the students are really meeting the expectations and rising to the occasion so we're excited to continue to see growth in that program so i'm sure mrs scally is is thinking up the next big one i'm sure and i'm sure there's gonna be lots of emails coming my way and all kinds of other things so we're ready for that mock trial is actually next week they advanced as well in the in the county meet so they're going against Washingtonville
025on Saturday over at OU BOCES we're excited for our mock trial team once again a big thanks once again to miss Amy Carolla you know really really kind of stepped up and helped out and was able to keep going and we're really looking forward to their success but we're here tonight you know not really to hear me talk you know i kind of bridge back to to some of the awesome things we have going on and generally that involves students so we have announced our valedictorian and our salutatorian here at chester academy so i'm going to start off and unfortunately unable to be here as our salutatorian ocean chen i did meet with ocean who really did want to be here and his family couldn't make it tonight but I still want to honor him
026and kind of just go through his bio real quickly to honor Ocean Chen as the salutatorian of the class of 2026. This fall Ocean is planning on attending Stony Brook University with the intent to major in computer science. Creation and technology have always been points of interest and fields he's wanted to seek out further and develop into a career that will change the lives and the futures for everyone. Ocean has been a member of the mock trial team for four years and has participated in many volunteer activities. He's an active member of the Key Club, helping out at charity events, and when not pursuing academics, he enjoys drawing, listening to music, reading, spending time with friends. and during his junior year he received the Sojourner Truth Award and is now ranked second in our class
027with a GPA of 99.04. So congratulations to Ocean. You know Ocean is, like I said, he really wishes he could be here and so do I. So well done Ocean. So I'll give him a little applause. Now someone who is here tonight, who's here every time we have a meeting, I'd like to congratulate our valedictorian sitting at the end of the table, Ms. Brooke Battaglia. So Brooke, congratulations. Also here in attendance are Brooke's parents who are here. Thank you for being here tonight. Brooke just does amazing things. I'm going to read her bio in a minute. And the only thing that, you know, I can't figure out with Brooke is how the rest of us go through the day with 24 hours. And Brooke must have 29 or 30 of all the things she does
028because she's constantly doing something that I always wonder. probably the most involved student and i don't know that i've ever said she's probably the most involved we've ever had at chester academy since i've been here which is just awesome so congratulations to brooke badiato a valedictorian of the class of 2026 and for all our younger students here this is someone to really strive when you hear all the things she's doing and and successes she's had uh brooke is still deciding which university to attend but her top choices are the university of north carolina at chapel hill the Georgia Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University. She plans to study biochemistry and has always been passionate about life sciences, intending to pursue a career in medicine. She is an active member of her school and community
029and was the co-founder of the medical club, the youth in government, the president of the class of 2026, the board of education student representative, which we see here tonight, key club vice president, and the national honor society secretary. She's also the captain of the varsity soccer and basketball team and participated in varsity lacrosse and cross country throughout her high school career. This winter, she was ranked among the top 50 high school basketball players in Section 9, which is an incredible honor. Brooke enjoys reading, watching movies, creating artwork, and shopping with friends. I think the only thing she doesn't enjoy is sleep. During her sophomore and junior years, she was selected to attend the Hugh O'Brien Leadership Conference in Albany, which is a huge honor. We know every year that we select our students. She is
030ranked first in the class. with a GPA of and this is really unprecedented here and I don't know that I've ever seen this year as 102.4 so congratulations I'd like to present you I'm sure we'll take pictures later but well done and so I think that's certainly a highlight that I can put into my presentation, which otherwise, you know, I'm trying to just keep everybody rolling with the area to get through. But, you know, having Brooke here to represent our class is just such an honor. She's worked hard. She deserves it. And I'll open it up for any questions anybody has. just half of the board congratulations to both yes I mean she doesn't miss a meeting again as planning and said when you sleep so thank you before moving on to mr. Aguilar like
031to take the opportunity to excuse any of the students who graciously gave up their time to come share their talents with us it certainly can leave if you would like good evening everyone once again thank you for this opportunity to speak can't believe where we are today in April the year is flying by it's great to see the kids after spring break and just saying can't believe we're gonna make that sprint to the end so really looking forward to it you have my report I have some great things to share with you again of the success of our our students but also one to highlight the success of our teachers through our the leadership through this past month I first like to begin with my report slight uptick with our no cell phone personal device
032policy and I'm gonna put that towards the spring season As you know, spring season with baseball, softball, track and field, you know, we've had a lot of students involved, but the numbers remain low. And again, I want to thank the students, the school administration, the faculty and staff and students that we continue to work together. Big challenge as we go to the home stretch, but I have faith in our kids as we all do, and we'll continue to remind them, you know, again, for their success. first I'd like to thank mr. Paulus and recognize our middle school student council this past month the middle school student council was able to organize movie night for the middle school students over 60 students attended and it was great to see the kids but also having the opportunity
033of showing a movie in the cafeteria. Again, this was great with the support of our Board of Ed, Mr. Schwarzkopf, providing the technology of having a movie played on a large screen in the cafeteria. As you can see, kids having a great time relaxing. They showed up with sleeping bags. I had the opportunity to be with friends and enjoy a movie. The movie, middle school, the worst years of my life. I would have to defer to that and question it because our kids were laughing, having a great time, enjoying the movie, the sound quality, the movie quality. Just a great night for these kids, and I especially want to say thanks to the middle school. student council because these kids work hard meet every week with mr. polis and got things done and it was
034just great to see that because as you can see when they put a plan together and using the resources that we had you know we had a lot of kids turn out so I want to recognize the kids and mr. polis I had the opportunity to sit in on this dailies class they called me in because They were doing a health class presentation and one of their presentations was regarding connection to school and it just, you know, right away I had to be there because I wanted to know their perspectives. And in my report, as you can see, the kids, excuse me, the students want to be here and they have pride and they have a sense of this is our school, this is our second home. So when listening to some of their ideas
035and I presented to you their presentation. Talking about school spirit, something as simple as what we've been doing for quite some time on every Friday, it's Blue and Orange, we ask everyone who wants to participate, wear your Blue and Orange, wear your Chester gear. It doesn't have to be from a varsity team, it could be from a club, it could be from an activity, it could be from something in the community. Anything to just reflect and show your pride. So again, our faculty has led the way. as they wear their Chester swag. And our students, especially in the fall season, when there's a home game, they wear their colors. So it was great to hear this, and this class here has some great ideas. April, Reagan, Avery, and Hannah have some great ideas for next
036year, and I told them I'd love to sit with them, brainstorm, tell me what they're thinking, and how can we help and support to make this happen. because yes it does matter that every student feels that they're connected here at the academy so again uh i i just want to thank miss daly because it was just a great class to observe uh finally um one of my favorite classes i'm very big on technology um mr rodman's class i had to do a i did a formal observation in the class he had his students come up with their own business Business design, logo, and t-shirt, all going through the makerspace. And what was unique about this class was that recently Mr. Rodman, Mr. Jordan, received software, updated software for the 3D printing. Now in the past
037I've been following with them and having conversations on what they're able to do. I showed you a sample in my report. It's very good because the last year we weren't able to do the 3D printing unless they had the object and they had to do a 360 capture from a photo. Now from what they're able to do, we just take a picture, AI fills it in. and they're able to have a recreation, have a 3-day. So in the student, in the presentation, students came out with their logo. They all critiqued their logo, which was great to hear because students spoke about design and placement. One student was talking about a hotel that he wanted to have, and he had three symbols, five symbols. Three symbols looked like they were overhead chandeliers and two diamonds. A
038student made a comment, you know, if you turn those chandeliers to make them look like the diamond, you have a five-star diamond hotel. And then he started explaining, do you know what that means in the hotel industry? As we know, a five-star hotel means crime, del crime. It's the highest that it could be, and he took that information in. Another example was that students were talking about color, and I was surprised that one young man shared that the difference between Coke and Pepsi and the success of Pepsi. And when we asked, well, what was so successful about Pepsi? And he shared that when Pepsi first came out, the colors they used was red, white, and blue. And that's why people jumped on it right away. So it was interesting that our kids knew that. So
039then finally, our students were able to create, reproduce, and even come out with their logo designs. And when they came out with 3D renderings, Because of this updated design, it becomes more exact and again to help them showcase, model what their business is going to look like and because we're doing it here in our maker space, they're able to see and they also created their own logo on their t-shirt. So now their presentation of their business is they have their own swag or t-shirt and now they have their own logo in front so they can showcase. I was fortunate enough that I received a complimentary one of one grande bust of myself I'm very happy and proud of this but here's what's unique the hair is perfect I'm very happy about that but last year
040we couldn't have done this and I'm thinking again and talking to Mr. Rodman Mr. Jordan The logo here, I bet you will be more precise come next year because as technology continues to update. But something like this, again, imagine our kids can start producing objects up to 2 inches all the way up to, I believe, a 12 inch, you know, continue to modify, cut, paste. But this was taken because I do remember the picture. I did, I believe, an interview on YouTube and they took a screenshot from that. I have that shirt somewhere, but my hair not too long ago was like that. But again, I just want to recognize the wonderful things that our faculty is leading our students and what our students are doing. So again, that all comes from the support of
041our Board of Education, our school administration. So thank you again. I have to tell you, Mr. Aguilar, many years ago I took my son to the Football Hall of Fame, and there's the rumor we know of the hall, I think, called Bus. The Bus. We keep working at it. Oh, you're going to see. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of ideas and creativity that we're talking about. It's just amazing, and again, for our kids to have that opportunity and skill. you know again from a simple picture and AI filling in and that's pretty good thank you again thank you for sharing next up we have our friend from OU BOCES here to present the 26-27 budget so good evening it's good to see everybody and everybody has the hand I don't know how that happened good
042evening everyone my name is Mark Coleman I'm assistant superintendent for finance good to see you all again and congratulations to all of you on like the amazing things going on here between Odyssey the capital project for up 102.4 right congratulations I once had a 102.4 but I had the flu so that's exceptional so congratulations all right let's get right into it so so basically the budget this year unremarkable a little boring which is good for a budget right we want you want to hear boring when you when we talk about budgets so we're gonna get into that I'm just I'm gonna start on page one of the flyer real quick there's a couple of dates today is the BOCES annual meeting and I'm here by myself from the administrative team along with one of our
043board members Edwin Estrada who joined me this evening the rest of our board and admin team is back at their offices because we had our annual meeting and then they have a regular meeting so they are still probably in the in the midst of that so they apologize they couldn't be here but i i love coming to chester it's a well very friendly friendly team to work with And then, of course, April 21st, the BOCES budget vote. So you probably already have a meeting scheduled on the 21st of April, and you will vote on the budget as well as two cooperative board members this year. Two of our sitting board members were renominated, Martha Bogart from Goshen and Larry Berger from Cornwall. I'm sure most, if not all, of you know who they are, and
044they have been long-serving, dedicated board members who are really committed to the BOCES mission. So we wish them all good luck. Okay, so the budget itself, the admin budget, I'm just going to bottom line this. The admin budget itself, 1.7%. Okay, we are very aware of... All that is going on in terms of foundation aid, in terms that we still don't have a state budget. Inflation is through the roof, so we are fully aware and sympathetic with you and all of our districts about the things you are facing. We are facing them as well, but of course our charges get passed along to you, so we're very conscious of that. So after the 1.7%, because 69% you see the chart there, 69% of our chart of our budget is actually retiree health insurance costs, and
045retiree health insurance costs, of course, are up. We have 583 retirees. There's 20 new retirees this year that are anticipated, and we lost seven retirees over the past year. So, you know, we do the math on that, and that is our budget for next year. In order to help offset that, though, we do apply a couple of revenues. A new one this year that we're applying on the front end, you'll see interest and earnings, $250,000. We have not applied that before on the front end. It's usually applied to the budget, but on the back side, you just get it back in your BOCES refund. We applied it up front this year to try to help drive the cost down overall right up front, and we're going to continue to do that going forward. The next
046revenue that's applied is the administrative fees, and that's about $1,050,000. And that gets applied from charges to non-component districts such as Newburgh. You guys all pay into the admin charges. Newburgh does not. So if they use our services, we offset your cost by charging them an administrative fee. It also gets charged to districts who are outside of our JMT, outside of our four-county region. So at the end of the day, after all of those revenues are applied, the budget $8.8 million, it's a 3.48% increase. Just know that on the resolution that you're going to be asked to vote on, you'll be voting on the $10,134,000 figure, not the $8 million. So that is what will be proposed on the 21st. I'll put a little blurb in here that the administrative staff supports, the administrative budget
047rather, supports over 1,350 staff. It's not just an administrative budget. We support through... human resources and payroll and all those other things that this really supports the organization in excess of 1,350 employees, much like your own budget. You see the benefit analysis breakdown there, of course. Health insurance is up. Employee retirement system, TRS, down slightly, but that's just based on rates. Health insurance is up about 6% or 7% this year, so you see that increase in there. then you'll see on the chart on the right you'll see the central admin breakdown so myself mrs. Hap is in dr. stroka we are partial FTEs in this budget the rest of us is applied to program that we directly supervise or work with by law the district superintendent is required we budgeted one FTE so you'll see
048the district superintendent salary is a 1 FTE in there that position is currently vacant then you'll see that in order to reduce the budget we did reduce one point three to support staff so we had a vacancy so nobody lost their job but we did have vacancy we decided rather than fill it we could handle it and we decided to pass that savings along to the districts and the point three to change had to do with allocation of various staff in the budget in other out allocating budgets where they assist okay to the next page the capital budget So in 2022, as you remember, there was a countywide vote for the BOCES Capital Improvement Program, and we phased in the charges to the districts over a three-year period, and that was done for various reasons
049to help, you know, make the charge not so harsh to you, but it also helps with your tax cap numbers during those years, tax cap exclusions rather. And you'll notice that the budget for the capital project is down slightly this year, and that is because last year we finalized closing on the bonds. So once everything is settled, everything was an estimate to that point. So now that the bonds are settled, that is the permanent amount. It's $12.8 million. That will remain fixed for the remainder of the financing period, and then I'll explain how that affects you when we get to the back page. The picture, I should say, at the Capital Projects is coming along great, and the picture that you see there is the gymnasium at the Arden Hill facility. As you probably all
050know, the Arden Hill used to be a hospital, so there was no gymnasium facility, so our kids didn't have a phys-ed station that was like a gymnasium, so now they will have that, and that's really great for all of our special ed programs as well as our CPAC programs that are housed there. So we're excited about that. That should open this summer. And if you want to keep up with our capital project, there is a QR code there on our website every month. We update you with the good, bad, and the ugly. We're just showing it all. And you know, based on capital projects, a lot of it's ugly. Okay, under that we have the rental budget. rental budget is fairly flat it is up slightly minnesotan kong ocean we renegotiated leases for space with
051those two schools and we removed $40,000 that was reserved for adult ed space you Reason being is because we anticipated being in the city of Middletown to service clients there. The problem is that state ed just won't approve space that's outside of a school building. It's virtually impossible to get any space approved outside of a school building. We pulled all those programs and are pulling those programs into already approved spaces in schools throughout the county. So we took that out of the equation. However, we did, based on an incredible number of referrals for special ed, we did have to lease two spaces since last budget. You'll see that under the new lease section. That's in the Port Jervis School District. We have several classrooms and two school buildings. And those referrals continue to build. It
052places those children in a lease-restrictive environment, which is what state ed likes. But it also helps us. be able to not refuse kids the number of referrals are coming in even if we finished our capital project that we still exceed what our needs are so we are constantly looking for space to house those kids you'll also see there's a there's a warehouse lease that is new that is a short term probably a three-year rental that is a warehouse within two miles of our gibson road facility we're using that for the capital project and here's why HVAC equipment. There's a tremendous amount of new HVAC equipment going into all of our spaces. Millions and millions of dollars worth. We were able to pre-buy that equipment. We saved it on tariff increases. We saved on just inflationary
053increases. And also 18 to 24 months on HVAC and electrical equipment in some cases. Has been since the beginning of COVID. We estimate that having that warehouse and pre-buying that equipment saved us about $1.2 million so far in that equipment. So we figured that was a small price to pay for a large savings on the project. And then at the bottom... Another new line in this area is the sublease revenue. So any revenue that we collect in terms of leasing our space out to anyone by law has to go in to offset the rental budget. So this is a help to the districts. And this is the Orange County Office for the Aging space. that they use for the Meals on Wheels program. If you didn't know, at Arden Hill, for the last 12 years
054or so, Orange County Office of E-Raging makes all of the Meals on Wheels for the seniors throughout the county at that facility. Initially, when we acquired that facility, the county came in and funded their build-out in lieu of rent for 10 years. Now that that's over, they are paying revenue to us to lease that space. So that will help our districts by offsetting that expense. Any questions so far? I actually have a question. Yes. You mentioned the warehouse rental is 123 years or is it per year? That's an annual charge. 120 annual, yes. Any other questions? Okay, on the back page is the allocation. It's basically based on the ARWADA. So the R-WAT is the Resident Weighted Average Daily Attendance. That is the formula that State Ed uses to allocate BOCES charges to district, and
055it's based on a formula of your attendance, your socioeconomic condition of your community, your wealth ratios, and your actual population. So for Chester, you can see your number one there, how each of those is allocated to you. That is before aid. So you get aid on those numbers in your annual aid runs every year. And I will tell you, I broke it down so you understand what that means to you. So overall, for Chester, the increased admin rental and capital is 0.63% increase. The dollar amount, $2,699 over last year. So just so you know, what does it mean for me, that's what it means for you. And again, those are prior to aid being applied. All right, so that is the budget. any questions at all on the budget any additional questions okay so then
056there's another insert which is called the oebosis district data set which is created for the chester union preschool district of course it gives you a five-year snapshot of the snapshot of your enrollment both in cte and special ed You can see the trends broken down by academy or by program if on the special ed side. And you can see your enrollment trends. You are trending up, which is good. It means that we are providing a service that you and our kids find worthwhile. And we are happy to be able to provide those services along with you. really proud of our partnership with Chester as you know we have quite a partnership in a lot of different areas and we are proud to be able to service you so we are providing that because that gets
057asked a lot like how many kids are you sending into what program so that that should answer that question these numbers by the way are especially the CTEC side that's based on lock-in so sometimes those numbers change sometimes you might add a student later on or a student may come off at some point so those numbers are based on locking okay think oh I just I did want to mention program rates so not only with the admin budget you know we're always conscious about what we roll out to the districts and how we sell services. So I wanted to tell you that our CTE rate is 1.73% increase, again, well under 2%. And our average special ed, because there are many special ed programs, our average special ed rate increase is 1.52%. So we really
058hammered home to our program directors that we really have to be really, really especially careful this year because... districts are facing a tough time so they took it very seriously we probably went back three times with them they came in great first try but we still went back a couple times to get to this point so we're very proud of that rate those rates and you know anything we can do for you of course reach out we're here for you head you good thanks again good to see you all we appreciate your partnership in giving our students you know opportunities that we can't provide here on our home campus absolutely thank you very much thank you that brings us to our budget presentation by ms. O'Hara and mr. Sousa okay I just want to start
059off by thanking our partners again at OU BOCES for their presentation this evening we appreciate continued collaboration and support for our students and throughout our district so thank you again so our presentation tonight focuses specifically on undistributed expenses central services central admin and Board of Education administrative services and BOCES excuse me BOCES administrative services I just want to reiterate as shared previously all of our budget presentations and supporting information are available on our website under budget and finance there we go the proposed 2627 budget continues our commitment to investing in excellence supporting student learning strengthening programs and services and expanding opportunities aligned with our district vision and student centered future focused and team driven mission while advancing the skills and competencies outlined in our portrait of a graduate as shared in each of our previous
060budget presentations the 2627 budget priorities focus on three key areas first strengthening academic excellence through programs and staffing this includes data-driven instructional priorities professional development and strategic staffing to maximize student learning second advancing college and career pathways partnerships and communication this supports future focused opportunities through business and community partnerships and improved communication systems and third optimizing infrastructure for safety security and sustainability this includes facility improvements safety enhancements and technology upgrades that support student learning environments and these priorities guide our decision-making and ensure we remain focused on supporting students while maintaining fiscal responsibility so at this point our assistant superintendent for business Nicole de Souza will now continue with an overview of undistributed expenses thank you very much so before we get into the numbers I want to take a moment to explain what undistributed expenses
061actually means these are costs that support the entire district but can't be tied to a specific school or department so this section is going to cover employee benefits debt service and our inter fund transfers we'll look at the year-over-year comparison on the next slide Okay, so looking at the three-year comparison, 26-27 is in the dark blue. Benefits are essentially flat with less than a 0.2% change. So while health insurance costs are rising, the TRS employer contribution rate set by the state is actually decreasing. So those two factors largely offset each other. Our debt service is up $314,000, which reflects the capital project financing. which is unrelated to the cap to the athletic complex I just want to make a point of that that's not included here and our inner fund transfers show a small $10,000
062increase the transfer to special aid fund represents the portion of summer special education costs that are required to be covered by the general fund this slide provides the detailed line by line support for what you just saw I won't go through item by item but you can refer back to it as needed our essential services covers the administrative and support functions that keep district operations running things that serve everyone but aren't tied directly to classroom instruction for 2627 this section includes six categories we have public information central printing and mailing our central data processing legal services personnel and HR and special items so we'll look at the numbers on the next slide essential services shows relatively modest changes year-over-year across many categories the most notable increase is in public information which reflects new BOCES services
063we're adding for 2627 our special items reflects rising insurance and some of our additional BOCES expenses and legal services reflects anticipated district needs again this slide provides the detailed line by line support which you can refer to back at a later time our central administration and Board of Education cover the leadership and governance functions that guide district operations this section includes the Board of Education itself the district clerk the superintendent's office and business administration these are functions responsible for everything from board governance and legal compliance to financial management procurement and strategic planning or that is essentially flat year-over-year and central administration is up $42,000 which reflects contractual salary adjustments are both C service costs and supplies across admin functions it's also worth noting that the 2526 budget which is you know a current year in
064reflects the establishment of a dedicated treasurer position which strengthened our fiscal oversight through proper segregation of duties that position is now fully embedded in the base budget and is not driving the current year increase again these next two slides you're seeing provide the detailed line by line support and you can refer to them as needed so here we have our BOCES admin services that mark just talked a lot about these are shared services provided to component districts meaning the costs are distributed across multiple districts making them more cost effective than procuring them independently the expenses associated with these services have already been reflected in earlier slides the following represents the majority of the administrative services provided to Chester so I wanted to provide a brief update on the state budget as it directly impacts our
065revenue picture as of today the state has not enacted its 2627 budget the April 1st deadline has passed and the legislature is currently operating under a budget extender while negotiations continue as you are aware we are in a safe harmless position which caps our foundation a growth currently at 1% under the governor's proposal potentially 2% if the legislature gets their way so we anticipate asking the board to adopt the proposed budget at the April 21st meeting and it has been the case in the past years we may not have a New York State budget by then and if we do we will update you as needed so that's our next budget meeting April 21st which we're going to be asking you to adopt the budget and we'll have the BOCES budget on that day as
066well and then May 6 is our public budget hearing all the information can be found online on our website under the budget and finance section you can find this presentation and all our prior presentations and our budget vote is May 19th that's all I have for you any questions for miss O'Hara again we're eternally grateful for all your explanations and just to reiterate this will be as of tomorrow morning up to date with the presentation that was presented yes on the website yes that brings us to our first public comment and we're wishing to come down to address the board seeing that no one is coming down we will move to roundtable side first just wanted to again say congratulations on the accomplishments Brooke I also wanted to mention Brooke was instrumental in which our
067interscholastic athletics project in our video which was the student voices are why you were featured in that video several times and the whole point of that was to share with the community the student perspective at Chester as an athlete specific to Brooke and what it means not to have athletic facility football field track multi-purpose field and and what that looks like in the day to day for a student and Brooke made a significant impact volunteered to be a part of that did a phenomenal job in explaining everything from Being able to run from one place to the next Having nowhere to put your materials outside things that we don't even think of when we're thinking of an athletics facility So beyond all of her other accomplishments, I do believe Brooke most likely has a clone
068somewhere that we're not aware of but just outstanding and Very excited have the ticket in front of me for our art show and multicultural family night tomorrow so just a reminder to attend that and I did send a reminder to our CUFSD parent advisory panel that we have our meeting next week on the 15th for all of our parent representatives we are in our fourth year so I look forward to those conversations and our parent advisory panel always supports the district in our efforts through continuous improvement and that's all I have. anything to share from us I do I wanted to share that Orange County School Board will be hosting two meetings this month the first meeting will be on April 15th at 7 p.m. in person and we'll focus on the student board member
069experience and then the second meeting for April will be also in person at BOCES regarding the use of generative AI thank you any other from board members before we move to Brooke what you mean to share with us yes first thank you everyone for the all congratulations that truly means a lot to me And then this Friday and Saturday is the NISMA for the chorus and the band. The middle school chorus will be seeing the MJ Musical on April 29th. And then Mrs. Scali was recently selected to chair the Junior High School All-County Festival for the 2027 school year. And Broadway veteran and Tony Award performer Arbender Robinson, who came here previously to talk to the chorus group, will be conducting. The Key Club officers were elected yesterday. Congratulations to Jake D'Onofrio on being the
070new president for the upcoming year. The Key Club time cleanup is also this Saturday at 8.45 a.m. Student Council is the 15th and 29th this month, and approvals are due by the 13th and 27th. And then CES is looking for volunteers to help with after-school clubs from 3.15 to 4.15, two days a week for eight weeks. There is also a bingo event coming up on April 17th in the evening in the cafeteria gym for the elementary school, and volunteers are needed for that as well. And then lastly, prom tickets will be sold from April 14th to the 24th. What is the cost of prom tickets this year? I'm not too sure. I think it's around $100 for a ticket. $95? 95 from the crowd any questions for Brooke you go down to meet with the
071elementary or do they funnel the information up how do you gather your information but that's great that that line of communication has been open which is wonderful so thank you that moves us to consent agenda I would like to make a motion to adopt consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.8 all in favor aye consent agenda items pass that brings us to our second public comment can I just say something sure it's National Assistant Principals week and I want to give a shout out to Mr. Aguilar colleague in the in the field thanks for your work you know just I think thank you um seeing that no one has I mean public comments can I have a motion to adjourn all in favor aye for those of us who tuned in from home we thank you
072for tuning in and hope to see you at our next meeting which is April 21st 21st thank you and good night