001[Music] for the special school board unit order for March 27th 2025 at 6 p.m. uh roll call please member Buller here member Stokes member Cormier here member Wigan here member fellows present member papis here member DS here member McAn present member Harrington here member white present member kusano here member C present member King present um bug to flag the United States of America the stands indis Justice public comment anyone from the public wishing to address the board nuse public comment next item is General business budget move it over to the administration thank you I'm going to turn it over to our Director of Finance we've been working hard since Monday evening and believe we have something something really wonderful to share good even um I'm going to read uh it is my understanding that we
002are revisiting the FY 26 budget because there are concerns that we may not be able to Grant fund the positions that were presented in the worksheet in the Personnel section of the budget as as you know we made a commitment that no positions would be cut in order to guarantee that everyone has would have a home in the Rochester school district I included everyone employed on October 31st in the operating budget I then added any open but unfilled positions and any new positions approved by the Committees and the board from that point on we also made a commitment to the administrators that we would incorporate various new positions that were identified during our initial budget meeting culture and climate Specialists instructional coaches and wellness instructors to safeguard these new positions I knew that we could
003not depend on grant funding because they one might not qualify or two Federal funding dollars might not be sufficient to cover them therefore as employees were transferred from their current budgeted position to another current but to another budgeted position we naturally saw savings I lost my place um knowing that the savings would happen naturally but we would not be able to quantify this until the transfer exercise was complete our grant funded positions can be absorbed by the operating by the current operating budget with the exception of roughly $100,000 so if we had one position that was available that a person was this is where they were and they took another position that was also budgeted this position then became available or savings does everybody understand that no um so if I have a teacher and
004I have if I have a first grade teacher and I have a second grade teacher the first grade teacher is budgeted and the second grade teacher is budgeted in this transfer process if this first grade teacher took this job this position now becomes an open budgeted position with dollars associated with it in the budget still no Nick I think I don't know how El to put this but but there were two people in those positions no they're open positions in some in in and that's why I wasn't able to quantify it because I did we didn't know who would qualify for this position or this position so I needed to account for this position in the budget in the event that we didn't have any qualified instructors or teachers to fill this position so I
005still needed to have this position in the budget from second grade and for first grade so that's how they're not they're not in the budget twice the two positions are in the budget but because this person moved from here to here then that frees up this position if this position was a transfer position we no longer need that position that becomes available funds to be used for the grant P the grant positions so in essence by doing that by allocating the unfilled positions the funding for that unfilled position are we eliminating those positions because they will not be filled because those funds are being accounted for by the second position so the position that they moved from is a transfer so it's not a it's not a position that's technically staying because someone from school
006street or someone from Willian Allen is now taking a POS a another budgeted position so we didn't need to place that person we put we placed the person where the qualifications are but also where the the need is what about the resident teacher positions where do those fall in all I might know that by a different mean building resident teachers I think I'm actually going to dep Katy I think those are I'm going to dep KY so the resident teacher positions excuse me are gone completely with the exception of one and that's the we didn't want to quantify how much the savings was until the transfer process was over we do still have one more teacher to place but I think by the time we fill these other positions then that that will resolve itself
007those resident teacher positions should not stay in the budget they were just placeholders as people moved around and we could find homes for them so to give kind of just an illustration to what Adriana just said if we had a teacher from William Allen who took a job not at Sam and falls right CU all all of the school street and William Allen positions we didn't fund s and Falls we funded School Street and William Allen to make sure we had money to accommodate all the teachers in those buildings so anybody who went to Samm and Falls that's that budget but let's say we have a teacher from William Allen who took an open second grade position at mclen now we budgeted for them at William Allen and at mlen so when they went into
008into that position William Allen positions are some setting we don't need those funds anymore but we didn't know how many openings there would be at non salmon fall schools until the transfer exercise was complete so resident teachers should not be in the budget they were just there as we worked through this process thank you Mr yeah thank you so the $1,000 that we we need to add that back in the budget is what you're saying Adriana yes however um I am going to make another request okay as part of revisiting the budget we um spent time reviewing the district's special education needs and as mentioned in budget sessions I incorporate Incorporated only the non-negotiable um needs and expenses identified but did not incorporate any of the tier 2 special education needs as I stated at
009our initial budget meeting the budget I presented was $1,000 below the tax cap any reductions that were made during the budget process I intended to reallocate to special education to cover that shortfall the difference between non-negotiable and tier 2 needs is $1.48 million I would like to formally request that rather than cutting the $400,000 from the budget we reinstate those funds to the FY 26 budget and incorporate them into the services portion of the special education budget um I don't know I think this might be a ktie question for the culture and climate Specialists instructional coaches and wellness instructors do you know how many we've build of those positions so far or how many of those are open absolutely I do have a spreadsheet with that information I think we filled approxim I want to
010say like six of those um I can get you an exact number if I look in just a minute and then um but we have as I said with that transfer we would have one to those as well yeah so six between the three different jobs we haven't filled any of the instructional coach positions yet okay um and it's we filled some climate and culture and some Wellness teach okay thank you that number is five we filled five with two two more so essentially okay thank you U Mr so we lost zero positions even including the ones that we have open that we currently need to hire which ultimately if we don't hire them ends up being a cost savings to the district correct we've lost nothing correct so all needs will be met nobody's
011getting a pinkel which is why I needed to account for everybody in the operating budet I just making sure the public understand just to add to that mran so that is true and as part of our we spent a lot of time on the budget this week we did discover that some of those needs that we have in special education are truly needs which is why we're asking for that reconsideration so in terms of what what do we have everything we need I would just offer that there are some needs there that follow so you said we need 1.8 asking for 400 back for special needs the difference between tier 2 and the non-negotiable is 1.48 and if we give you four 400 back million about $1 million short Mr thank you sir uh I'm
012gonna I I want to I think I understood the question that M gusano asked I'm just going to ask it in the way that hopefully I'll understand so we have position right now that are currently unfilled and even in next year's budget we still have those positions budgeted for okay thank you um since we're talking about positions this thought literally came to me as I was driving and I just needed to put it out there it's just bear with me so over the last few years we have caught a bunch of teachers at the middle school um all the teams used to have four or all the grades used to have four teams per grade now they have three teams per grade I love all these positions and I have been an avid supporter of
013all these positions but I almost feel like we should add and like take out four of these positions and add four teachers at the middle school to one of the grades to give them back another team that they've lost over the course of the last few years with budget cuts I just had to put that out there so to the point M sh is making I think it makes sense that you would defer that to tlss like the dollar amount is what we need to care about and then so that's the good thing that' be approved and then just I think that would make sense because we know the middle schools is a in general a lot of students all in one area there may have been be benefit for that to be Revisited that's
014a District can recommend at that point so I don't think we need to say position mov they'll they'll be funded regardless if there's a shi that's what I would suggest on something like that that sense I would be interested to know why we cut team well so I'll put a motion on the table to reallocate the it's 42 $489 correct I'm going to double check the number that's what we had the other night that might you ask 402 489 yes 42489 okay so 402 489 which we were under the tax cap I'm going to put a motion on the table to reallocate that to special needs tier two correct second so motion by Mr second by Mr B was a 100,000 of that needing to go to fund all of the positions because you had
015said something about 100,000 that that so again it's it is a budget we budget at you know the the couple rate for all um unbudgeted positions unfilled positions so to make it a precise wash it would be another 100 it's 108,000 but at the end of the day you there's no guarantee that everyone's going to be taking that family right so I mean it it's a a risk um but it's a risk that I think we could absorb okay how many positions do we currently have open ballpark ballpark ballpark um I want to say teaching positions less than 25 and then I think we have about probably I know less ballpark I'm going to say 20 Fair positions would that be enough to cover you if you didn't hire all those within two months and
016that's what we said you know any anytime that we wait push it out after the July 1 start date is is obviously a savings and is that just like what we did last year to cover the positions and not that $1.2 million on budget correct and we discussed that today you know we discussed like you know putting a a a pause on the hiring um to save a little bit of we leave that up to you guys any discussion on that motion all in favor by say I iOS nay n by Harrington this one day we got to do we got to do all the so can we just just so it's in the open for the public what is our total final number of budget so we're going to be presenting to the city
017[Applause] council Mr well my motion is going to Beed on that okay you know Food Services Serv 379 I just didn't want 78 455 37 to make a motion we send to the city council the operating budget for fiscal year uh 26 uh in the amount of [Music] 7,455 second any discussion more on that Mr I would just also when the budget's presented to the city council to remind them we still got to find a million dollars in Special A cuts um to let them know that we're going to have to work hard throughout the year to even fund that um we tried to come under the tax cap but that information all favor say iOS motion passes [Applause] make a motion that we approv the Food Services budget which I thought last time didn't
018have to be done but I'm going to be the one to do tonight for uh grand total of 2,248 39 second I mean thought we shut that already to yeah the only thing we pulled off it was The Bu I just said the budget so I don't know that was only pulling the budget off you know wasn't C good all right I do have a question um do we have an idea when the presentation to the city council is because it would be a great idea as many board members could show up as possible I have been told we would probably be the first to present and it would be March 25th March March way back machine ail where's my DeLorean ail I'm you can get it to us when you get you don't you
019just get it to us I will I will problem ready anyone the budget before we do that can I ask a question to to the board a non-budget question um I've been mulling over for for years actually um trying to find a way and to to um Empower student voice in our in our district and in our school board and I'd like to um suggest um that um if the board allows me to to just talk with the principal of the high school about different ideas about bringing student voice to the board and that could be as much as um giving more o to the student rep to the school board than just a like a student council report actually be number it would that might be that might be in the end but I
020think ultimately it would be hang on um ultimately I think um it would be up for the students to make the request to the board but I would like to be able to talk to the principal and maybe some students and encourage them to bring an idea to the board and I'm wondering if that's okay with the board if I I don't think I need a motion I just we just get consensus like everyone okay with that anyone have any more to add on that great thank you did you we're about to go all right so it's going to be two particular RS make the motion public under R 91 a 32 C and 91 a 32y looking better now um make a motion to seal the minutes for our nonpublic session second motion by
021Mr Boer to minutes I mean second by discussion all those in favor I opposed motion passes just one quick other we've been working on our portrait of a graduate um this winter spring slash vision of a learner we're sort of renaming it we have one more work day on April 14th typically we have board members a board member at least a board member engaged in that work we don't right now but if anybody wants to swing by on April 14th in this room we'll be working on that from 8 to 3 so um it's Monday April 14th so that I know that the committee would love to to see you if you can stop by there's no pressure but if you you know if you do want to let me know if you're coming I
022can um I can plan for that but um it's been good work working on our portrait of a graduate which is sort of it's linked to our strategic plan but it's really looking at what we as a district uh hope that our students will will learn and Achieve by the time they walk across the stage at graduation so it's a K12 effort prek K12 effort but often there's a little bit more High School representation we have a couple of high school students on the committee who join as well so um just looking at what are the things we all agree we want our kids to to know and be able to do so um I don't Matt mat I think and Nick maybe you've been part of that work too yeah we just went through
023a a districtwide um activity of professional development um opportunity where uh the entire District was sitting at the table and we had different um questions that we had to ask or answer as different groups we probably had 30 something groups and the the district seu is now compiling all the responses and I presumably coming back to us with ideas we're sort of at the tail end of our process we typically have had at least a board member engaged in work like this so I I think that the committee's been missing that and so just wanted to extend an invitation even if you can just swing through to see what the work is that we've been doing what time of day do you do it it's 8 to in this room it will be 8 to
024three on 14 sometimes they they switch that by like half an hour so if you are thinking of coming just let me know and I can keep you updated but you did say like you're not necessarily looking for a full day commitment even if you could pop in for a yeah yeah question that um I really apologize but there is one more thing in I'll public after the this will take literally two minutes I apologize I feel so bad I'm so sorry this two minutes motion motion by m wig second second by Mr all those in favor