001to open session. Resolve that the board of education reconvene to open session. The time is >> 7:01. >> I'll make a motion for that. May I have a second? >> Second, Dr. Walsh. And all in favor, I >> I And that's unanimous. Can you please stand and recite with me the pledge to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands nation. Okay. So the first thing we're going to do is uh item number six, which is our student board member remarks. So I turn the microphone over to Nala. Would you like to share anything this evening? >> Hello everyone. I just wanted to give a quick update from science honor society. We are currently working on launching a science tutoring program to help students who may need extra
002support for their science classes. For juniors and seniors, please remember to fill out the interest form if you would like to be a tutor after school. It's a great opportunity to help other students and get involved. For anyone outside National Honor Society who might want help with the science subjects, stay tuned for more information about the tutoring program as we get closer to launching it. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. And now on to our presentations. I'm going to turn it over to our interim superintendent, Mr. Anthony D. Carlo who's going to highlight one of our student athlete accomplish accomplishments. Three student athlete accomplishments. >> Yes. Thank you uh Mr. President and to the board and to the public and parents. So, um, as you know, the course the last couple of
003weeks, we talked about, um, you know, winter season and, you know, our vice president talks and gives the updates about our playoffs and sectionals and states. And tonight, we're going to honor three student athletes who, uh, performed incredible and have gotten some incredible recognitions both on a school level and on a state level. So, I'm going to ask our athletic director, Mr. Beluchcci, to please come on up as we um give honor to those student athletes. So, because I want him to talk a little bit about each one of them, but our first student athlete that's here tonight that we're going to recognize is Caitlyn Whis. And Caitlyn um is going to be honored for indoor track and field in setting the school long jump uh at 15 and 9 in. She she was able
004to um do an outstanding job and she broke the school record. So, if you would mind coming on Caitlyn, congratulations. Congratulations. Why don't you talk a little bit about the kind of work and dedication that goes into the long jump because for the public to understand how >> um so I would say for the long jump it's really I do all sorts of short distance running so it's a lot of leg work and just learning how to like sprint really well. Um, I would say techniques if you ever want to do a long jump. Um, would really to be just make sure you are count your steps and jump and look up, don't look down. You know, it's a little saying, never look down and reach for the stars. >> So, let me ask you
005a question. When you when you when you did the jump, did you think that it was as good as it was? >> No, >> you didn't until they until they until they measured it. >> Yeah, it's a little little surprise. Congratulations. We are so proud of you. >> Thank you so much. >> An indoor track and field um school record for the 1600 mile race. Uh 4 minutes 27 seconds 72. And that goes to uh Kevin Greco. Kevin. have to as an athlete myself. Never made a record like that, but uh I have to correct it. I don't know how that happened. Uh 4 42771, not 72. >> So that was my fault. I I told him I remember the number and he said it was actually 71. So, uh, I looked it up and
006it was just to have to why I thought it was 72. >> Yeah, I'll just put a little >> We're going to get reissue. Keep that one. >> I can't cheat you out of a hundredth of a second because uh that's important. But Kevin, same thing. Lots >> talk about um to put it in short for long distance run to put in short uh long distance running is really about putting the work in day in and day out. I know personally it was a lot of miles about 60 miles a week just to get to that. But it was um it's been great. I'm really glad to finally do this in my senior year. Glad to do it alongside my friends and the coaching. Coaching has been great and yeah, it's really it. I just
007um consistency I guess. Thank you. Last but not least, as we had mentioned and and wished this young man all the best up in Albany. Um, and he was going to talk a little bit about his experience because it's the first time of course for him and we're so proud of his accomplishment. But Hudson Gabberino, who finished eighth in the state, which is the top eight that automatically gets state honors. So you're going to be having in front of you an all state athlete as a junior for wrestling and that's Hudson Gabberino. Hudson, COME ON UP. YEAH. UH, REAL QUICK, I I could not get up this year. I'm very disappointed because I coached wrestling a long time, but I had a meeting that day that I and a few other things. So, I was
008very disappointed I didn't get up there, but the coaches were texting me every round. And when I saw he's in the blood round, that that means something whether you know wrestling or not. And he made it through. He got past the blood round, made it to the uh podium and uh really put us on the map again. It's been a lot of years since Pauling wrestler made all state. So congratulations and uh he's back for more next year. Uh yeah, going up to Albany was an amazing experience and you know having such wonderful coaches come with me was also awesome. You know, they helped me navigate the tournament very well. all the logistics were taken care of and um it turned into a really you know fun time and it was like you know kind
009of a life-changing experience you know just to see everything you know like guys you see like clips on Instagram like the highly ranked wrestlers you see him walking around with you and you're like oh my gosh this is this is crazy so it was it was fun and it was you know it was great to leave Albany with you know something something to talk about so yeah thank you all for having me tonight hard work and dedication is going to be honored because now your names are going to be up in the gym for breaking no seriously for breaking school records that what you've done and being an all state honore you know you will be um in the gym not you know letting the public know your prowess and your dedication so I I
010just want to make you understand that all the hard work, dedication to your parents, thank you because you are that person or persons behind the scene that would have been there since they were probably this small encouraging them and it's not only a tribute to them but a tribute to you as parents. So again, congratulations. You do us proud and we know you're all going to do great things. Congratulations. >> Now, that's a way to start a meeting. There you go. That's a good one. >> Just on behalf of all of us, congratulations to the three of you. That's awesome. That's amazing accomplishment. Wearing Pauling on your chest at the state level is just something for our whole school district, ourselves, to be proud of. So, congratulations to each of you. I know all the
011all the hard work that goes into it. Eddie, don't think I forgot you're coming up here next year when you win section 1's uh title. Don't think I forgot about that. Um so just again, congratulations to the three of you and the families. That's a great accomplishment for all of you guys. So on to our next presentation for the evening. We have our superintendent's recommended budget and again going to invite Mr. Anthony D. Carlo to the podium along with uh Mimi He'll be presenting our assistant superintendent for finance. >> Thank you, Mr. President. As you know, school board and the community, over the last couple of weeks, we presented to you um through our department leaders and our administrators an overview of our instructional and support service budget. So, tonight I come before you um
012kind of summarizing um what we are looking at in the 2627 school budget. So I'd just like to uh open up with the following. Uh to the board of education and to the entire Pauling community. As we enter into discussions of the 2627 school budget, I have come to appreciate the passion of the community for providing students of Pauling an engaging and enriching educational experience for our students. The central office staff along with our building administrators have worked diligently to balance our commitment to serve the needs of every child while providing value to our taxpayers. Developing a budget that maintains class size and programs within a tax levy cap is a result of carefully considered planning both short-term and long-term. The proposed TW 202627 budget advances the implementation of the benchmark literacy program at the
013elementary school in grades K to 4, maintains class sizes, and continues to offer a wide variety of academic and extracurricular opportunities at both the middle school and the high school. This budget sustains the board's commitment to continuous improvement across the district by maintaining support of our outstanding professional development program for our faculty and staff. These educational object objectives will be presented tonight and and can be achieved while remaining within the allowable tax cap levy. A little bit about the process. Several months ago, we began the process that included collaboration between building leaders, program directors, and district administration. We looked at enrollment trends, program needs, contractual obligations, and state requirements. We also examined areas where adjustments could be made without compromising student opportunities. As we know, every year we're investing in our students, and we understand
014that despite sometimes financial pressures, this budget maintains a strong focus on direct student support, investments prioritizing instruction, academic interventions, and curriculum resources. Our intent is to ensure every student has access to opportunities to prepare them to be college and career ready. And again, from a fiscal point of view in this budget, we remain committed to fiscal responsibility throughout the development process. We reviewed expenditures carefully, pursued efficiencies where possible. We also evaluated staffing and program structures to ensure resources are aligned with student needs and district priorities. and of course to the taxpayer and the tax impact. The proposed tax levy was calculated with careful consideration of the allowable tax cap and the community impact. Our goal is to always to balance and maintain strong educational programs with sensitivity to taxpayers. And in closing, the proposed budget
015reflects our shared commitment to students, our staff, and our community. It supports an educational mission, maintains fiscal stability, and positions the district with continued success. We look forward um to your thoughts throughout this process, the board of education and the public. And again, I thank the community for your continued support of the Pauling Central School District. So, we are going to do a little bit of u somewhat of a review in regards to some of what we talked about over the last couple of weeks. Here we go. Um, as we mentioned, and you heard me talk a little bit about it in the overview, um, we talked about the importance and the foundation of early literacy. As you aware, and just want to make the public aware, um, not only myself, but every single superintendent
016in the state of New York this past summer had to sign an a testation for the New York State Education Department, which talks about the science of reading and implementing programs that by the end of third grade, so we're really focusing on K, one could even say UPK, but um, K 1, 2, and three, and that students need to be at grade level in reading. by the end of third grade and that school districts need to look at prioritizing that as they move forward. Aka seeing the priority in this budget because we're asking the board of education to approve as well as the community because you ultimately approved the budget. um and the expenditure for benchmarks which we're making a commitment over the next three years to implementing down at the elementary school cater for
017with this benchmark program as has been mentioned by leadership as well as our assistant superintendent Miss Deborah Kirkus about professional development materials supplies training umformational sessions for parents of course as well as a PD for for teachers and how important this initiative is so there's a big chunk unk in the budget which is what this is really all about. Um and then we look at our continuing increasing support services at both the middle school and high school maintaining strong academic and extracurricular programming which is not being touched and of course responsible to align our staffing with our enrollment. You know, what what districts are tending to look at is really what we call right sizing the district and looking at staffing that that we need yet is in line with our student population and enrollment.
018And I think this budget enables us to do that. Uh, as I mentioned before, the early literacy initiative down at the elementary school u benchmark align with the science of reading focusing on foundational skills and and I want to mention something to you because the the the district this year has really done a good job down at the elementary school uh beginning to look at um word work and foundations and it really has been something that has been embraced because one of the things we talk about all the time is fluency decoding and a lot of time and energy has really begun to focus on this as a result of a lot of this implementation for next year. We've had to make some adjustments to our our schedule and you will see that um you
019know as we get ready to go through and get ready for next year that we want to make sure we hit those benchmark minutes and hours both in um literacy and in mathematics. Then again of course our professional development and instructional support for our teachers. And this is interesting and I want to be very honest and transparent and you know um our high school principal is in the the audience. So I went and I spoke with every single faculty um at the beginning of this year talking about getting ready for the budget. And one of my conversations at both the middle school and high school level was I need you to understand something, right? Um we're going to probably be reallocating some monies this year when it comes to professional development. And I explained just
020what I explained to you in the public tonight that we need to gear some of that monies or more of those monies at the elementary school level because if we can get students to be at grade level by the end of third grade, it's going to make your teaching and take kids to new levels and heights when they get to middle school and high school. And I can tell you right Helen, I mean you saw the the the nodding of it. Uh and and and they understand that. And I think we sometimes in education um lose sight of the why behind things, right? So what our responsibility is and my responsibility in presenting you a budget and to the public is saying at times, you know, we have to readjust our allocations to where they
021really kind of need to be laser focused. And then when we look at the middle school, um we are looking at an additional special education teacher. Now I want to spend some time talking about special education, not only short-term but long-term. Um, this district needs to look at its continuum, right? What do I mean by continuum? We have to look at programs that start and kind of weed themselves through K to 12. Um, Dr. Sweeney has seen in in speaking with of course teachers, looking at our curriculum needs and speaking with parents, you know, that we need to have some additional support for our upper grades, seventh and eighth grade, especially in our ICT classrooms in the area of social studies and science. So now we'll have that complete continuum. But what I mean by
022this is yeartoear special education is is is is always evolving, right? There are there are there are students with certain needs that we identify in our district. There are sometimes students that are coming in from out of district that have needs that in some cases we might not currently have a program for but may have to create a program in the future. So I think over the next couple of years you as a board and community will see some of those conversations happening that we may have to either ourselves develop some programs because we have the need and the students and it makes sense because ultimately we may want to bring some of our students back and create programs that make sense. looking at regional partnerships with some of our local school districts to maybe
023work together to support programs because some of the needs that we're going through they're going through. So I just want to preface you're going to see this ever evolving and that's why in the beginning I talked to you about when you look at a budget it's not just short term but it's it's also long term. um supporting our our students needs as I mentioned to you, of course, making sure we're in compliance with all of our IEPs and then um you know, improving our individualized instruction and reducing case loads. So, what's interesting about this and we talked about this during uh the fall when we had presentations from our administrators when we looked at our MTSS program, right? One of the things that we have to parallel is really create that solid program and and
024we really have to look at making that board a part of policy, right? Like this is what we value as MTSS. This is what we value of of kids that need support and how the flow works from being identified to going into AIS to leaving AIS because if we can do a good job with that and get those kids as was mentioned at grade level by third grade, we should hopefully not see the number of students that are coming before the committee on special ed um and possibly being classified. I mean, you heard the number at the last board meeting. It's upward of close to 19%. Right? So, if we work together, hopefully we'll start to meet more and more needs of our students and to have less kids possibly be going before the committee.
025That does not mean that there are some kids, of course, who go through MTSS, still struggle, and then of course be able to move forward. But what nice about that, if we do a really good job with MTSS, all the data, the information is there. So, then we go to the committee, it's easier to get that process moving and and going along. uh elementary school. So let's talk about assistant principal um going from a 0.5 to a 0.1. So currently you are aware we have a split position. Okay. We have uh we have um Audrey um Feliciana who's down there. She's part-time AP and she's part-time special education. As you know I I talked about a little bit before the needs are ever growing and increasing at our elementary schools from an academic point of
026view. some cases from a a behavioral social emotional readiness point of view and and the volume of work that needs to be done. I believe and I think we all believe this is not Mr. D. Carlo's decision. This is a discussion on a global level that it is something that is needed down at the elementary school. You have a new initiative as I mentioned to you that is going to be coming in over the next three three years. We're seeing more and more students um that need that social emotional readiness and there's a lot of time that Miss Feliciano is in classrooms helping coaching teachers helping students to settle down and gain themselves so they can get ready to go back in the classroom. And for example, I'm going to be honest with you, for
027the next two and a half months, she's not going to be there full-time because she is chairing ces. That's problematic. So, um, again, it's something to to talk about. I'm sure we'll have conversation around it, you know, but but I think the needs, um, you know, warrant it moving forward. And of course, I talked to you about what that looks like when it comes to discipline, student services, her his or her ina increased presence, and of course providing that additional support. Um, enrollment remains relatively stable. Um, we're going to contain continue to maintain our current academic programs. Um, but there are times and I think this is important for the public to also understand when we get to the high school. And listen, being an outsider coming in this year, you have an incredible program
028at Pauling High School for a a a size district that this is and the opportunities that are there. But what happens from year to year and I don't want to I know I know Helen had mentioned this our principal Ken students needs change right so just because a certain class may run this year does not mean it's going to run next year because the students needs are different or their wants are different right so what'll happen is you know Miss Cal will work with her team and just kind of again recalibrate maybe sections and things that are happening and going on so we're not looking to take any of that away But you know, right now the students are enrolling. So as they enroll and we see what the needs are, you know, things change,
029right? We know what's happening out in the world, right? We're going to get kids college and career ready. So you are going to see over the next number of years some changes. You know, this past Friday, we had superintendent's conference day and we spent a lot of time on a portrait of a graduate. Um and and that's a whole another kind of looking at what college and career readiness is going to be. But um I think they do a great job at the high school really adapting to what students needs are. Students share with them what some of the things they'd like to see. And this is why these days during the year when they go out um and explore other job opportunities when we get past graduates to come in and talk about their
030professions and what they work on. Those days are important because that kind of sometimes drives the feedback that we get on the classes that kids would like to see offered um you know as they continue through through high school. And then of course in closing as I mentioned to you focusing on investments in students, strengthening our instructional program especially in the elementary school continuing the supports that we have for our students and maintaining our academic and extracurricular programs. Um, and now it's going to go to Tenz and will talk about the meat and potatoes, money part of it. So, I thank you. Any questions? The board. Okay. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. D. Carlo, and good evening, everybody. Okay, so um, as Mr. Carlo mentioned it and
031also as you've heard in previous presentations um there's been a lot of work and collaboration um that's gone into the development of the budget. In addition to the things that you've already heard about um I do need to mention also that the superintendent and I met with our budget advisory group um and there we we talk about specific areas of the budget. Um that group for us includes Mr. Gratchic, Dr. Walsh and Mrs. Spielogle. Um and basically they helped us determine the uh the levy the sorry the level of the tax levy with the goal of stability over time being the focus. So that's important. Um they also determined the levels and timing of funding for our new literacy program benchmark. Um and we discussed some adjustments that are needed in our tax certiary reserve
032again with the long term in mind. So, I do want to take a moment to thank everyone um who's been involved in the budget development process. Um all of the information that we gathered really comes together um and ultimately becomes the superintendent's recommended budget. So, um as Mr. D. Carlos said, we're going to dig into some of those uh details now. So, uh, the superintendent's recommended budget totals 51,29,737. That is a dollar increase of $1,400,300 over the current year and a percent increase of 2.81%. Um, one of the ways that we look at the budget is to break it out into the four categories that you see here. Um, and as you can see, the instructional portion of the budget is the largest, as of course it should be at 50.5% of the total budget.
033The next largest section is benefits, transfers, and debt service at 32.5% of the budget. General support is at 10.5% and transportation accounts for 6.5% of the total budget. Um, one thing to note is that the um that districtwide our personnel related costs, so basically that's all of the salaries and all of the benefits that we pay to employees or that we provide to employees um make up more than 70% of our total budget. And that makes sense because you know education is a people business. So um it's it's really our human resources that make our program successful. Okay. So now um we're going to dig into each of those four different categories with some additional um additional information. So if we look at the instructional uh portion um the total dollars there is 25,847,127. In
034this area we have a dollar increase of $419,978 over the current year and that's a percent of 1.65%. And this area um accounts for about 30% of our total budget increase. Um in this particular area 71.4% of the budget goes strictly towards salaries. The next largest portion of the instructional budget is um BoseI services at 17.2%. The bulk of the instructional Boseies um costs are really for our special education programming and our occupational uh education programming that we've received through both Duchess and Putnham Northern Westchester Boseies. Um another large item that's purchased from uh both Duchess Boseies and the Mid Hudson Regional Information Center or what we call the Rick um are technology related services. Um a lot of hardware and software is included there. Uh we also purchase other instructional uh services through Boseies.
035We uh do arts and ed services, professional development, our library databases um and officials for our athletic events. Sorry. Um contractual expenses in this category. This is where all our field trips are. uh conferences, textbooks, special education tuition for outofd district placements, professional services for our special education students, um and entry fees for athletic events. Um the the.5% of equipment that you see there um is basically year three of a 4-year plan um that our technology department put in place for district-wide technology infrastructure upgrades. specifically. So, and some of the things Dr. uh Mr. D. Carlos spoke to, um, one of the the largest, um, items in this particular area of the budget is the benchmark literacy program that actually has a price tag for next year of $255,000. Um, and as Mr. Coller said
036the uh changing of a halftime AP and a halftime cse chair from one position into two separate positions has a cost of course associated with it. The special ed teacher that we're adding. Um also we had a need for um an additional special ed TA which we actually had to put into place this year but that's an increase towards next year's budget too. and the elementary school um had mentioned that they they need an additional lunch monitor. Um and then we look okay so we have additions to the budget but we also had some uh subtractions from the budget. So one of those areas is um the mental health clinic the services that were being provided by aster services um this budget does not include that program. We also saw a lot of um breakage
037because we had quite a few retirements last year, we had some retirements this year. So that helps us to absorb some of those costs. Um and uh this budget does take into consideration um the prek grant offset. So basically those adds and those subtractions really kind of even out. Um and and really the balance of the difference in the um the increase in this uh section of the budget really um is mostly contractual obligations uh for our employment agreements. Okay. So on we go to benefits, transfers and debt service. So this area of the budget is $16,670,699. That's a dollar increase of $797,148 and a percent increase of 5.02. So this is really broken out into a few different categories. So our New York State retirement systems um thankfully the T uh TRS system is
038actually decreasing the rates from 9.59% to 8.24%. to 4%. So that helps us that saves us some money. Um and then the ERS rates are going up slightly um about about a 1% um across the blended rates. Um I will say though that the largest impact on the budget for 2627 is due to increased health insurance costs. Um, so this includes costs for active employees, retirees, health insurance buyouts, Medicare reimbursements, all of which are uh written into our contracts. Uh, we also have an increase in debt service. So um this does it does account for another large amount um of an increase, but we also have an increase in our building aid which kind of offsets this. Right? So, we've got the expense uh with the increase on the expense side. We also have an
039increase on the revenue side. Um, and that's all part of our long-term capital plan that was put together by our fiscal adviserss when we first went out for the 2020 capital project. Um, and interfers are expected to remain uh they are remaining steady. um and in combination. So all of these changes um account for about 57% of the total budget increase. So this is our largest area of increase. Okay. On to uh general support. So uh the total budget in this area is 5,364,738. That's a dollar increase of just $24,821 and a percent increase of 046. Um, and similar to instruction, this area includes um a lot of salaries and in this case for many of our support staff. Um, and basically that represents 48.3% of the general support budget. Uh, majority of the salaries
040in this area are for uh employees who are part of our CSEA unit. The next largest area in this part of the budget is contractual expenses. Lot of different things go into this category. So, um, there's our annual audit, our district-wide general and liability insurance, legal services, postage and printing, fuel, oil, propane and electricity, uh, repairs and maintenance contracts for our equipment, rent for our district offices, two full-time school resource officers, um, and professional development for our non-instructional staff. So, there's a lot of different things in there. Oh, sorry, did I not advance? There you go. Thank you. Um we also use Bosey's services uh to support this area of the budget. Really we use them across the the whole budget. Uh in in for this particular category those would include claims auditing, actuarial services,
041public information is a big item there. Telephone and internet safety services um and and then we are required as a component district of Duchess Boseies to pay a portion of their administrative budget. and you will hear more about that March 24th. Okay. Um so that's an amount that they give us that we need to put in our budget each year. Supplies in this uh area include office supplies and copier paper for newsletters. Um and actually the largest portion of supplies in this category are for purchases of cleaning and maintenance of our buildings. Um if as far as equipment goes, um we are uh in the budget has included a replacement TZO floor scrubber and a replacement commercial size snowb blower. And those two items together are $16,000. So um some of the other items of
042note in this area, um we are seeing increases for our service contracts for our new HVAC system. So, as the different phases of the capital project come online with the air conditioning, there are costs associated with um service contracts. Uh we're also funding 10 new and replacement security cameras in our middle school and high school. At the elementary school, um there's an update plan for the PA system. And um the exciting one is um an allocation of $25,000 towards the new LED sign at the high school. And that's meant to supplement the funds that the senior classes have donated across the years. And I know there was uh some conversation around that at one of the meetings. Okay. And then we get to the transportation portion of the budget. So this is 3,327,73. It represents
043a dollar increase of 158,353 and a percentage increase of 5.0. Uh you can see here 66.4% of this budget is salaries. So this is a very um staff oriented area. Um it's it's our bus drivers, our bus monitors. Um and you know we we've been having we Dr. Mr. D. Carlo spoke about um special education needs and we have um in many cases we have to add to our transportation staff in order to accommodate those needs. So, we've added some monitors. Um, and uh, you know, we also have a lot of out of district athletic events that our drivers are going to, and there's overtime involved in that. In addition to that, we are actually requesting two new bus driver positions to be included in next year's budget, assuming we can find the bus drivers.
044That's the biggest challenge. Um, but we hope that that would help, you know, uh, relieve some of the stress that's on on our transportation staff. Um, as far as equipment is concerned, we are budgeting for the purchase of two 36 passenger buses and two 66 passenger buses. And that's right in line with our 10-year uh replacement plan for our vehicles. Uh, that's 19.8% of the transportation budget. Supplies account for about 8.5% and really the bulk of that is fuel and bus parts. Um, one thing to note is that transportation expenses are eligible for state aid. So, anytime we can identify costs that are specifically related to the transportation department, we want to put them in this portion of the budget so that we can generate aid on that. Um and at this point and yeah
045like so what you'll see is if you when you look at the details if you want to look that closely you'll see that there's an allocation for electricity there's an allocative allocation for insurance things like that those are things that we're allowed to claim as transportation aid um and right now our transport transportation aid ratio is 43.4% 4%. So we get that much back on any expenses, eligible expenses. Okay. So that was one way of looking at the budget, right? The state though requires us to look at the budget in this format which is called the three-part budget. Um and basically the difference here is uh transportation goes into instructional uh everything that's related to O andM goes into capital um and the benefits get distributed across the areas. So that's why you see it
046looking one way uh as we just talked about and then in the three-part form it's a little different. So for us uh the instructional is the largest part of the budget at 72.9%. Capital is then 17.26% and I'm sorry capital also includes debt service and the administrative portion is the smallest uh part of the budget at 9.84%. And on this slide basically you can see um a history of our budgets since the 2020 2021 school year. I happy to say that our percent of increase from year to year is going down 26 27. Okay. So, how do we fund all of this that we just talked about? Basically, uh school districts have a variety of sources um and they really fall into these three general categories. local revenue, which does include the tax levy, state
047and federal aid, and fund balance. And we'll talk about each of these in more detail. So, starting off with the local sources of revenue, uh, in our district, the tax levy is our largest, uh, source of local revenue. Basically, it accounts for 65% of our total revenue to support our budget. Um and I'm going to get into details on how we determine that tax levy calculation um in some future slides. Uh we also receive small amounts of revenue from a variety of sources including a pilot which is a payment in lie of taxes and we also get interest and penalties on taxes. Um we have other miscellaneous sources of revenue. So we get reimbursements for health services that we provide to students from other districts who are attending private schools in our district. And this,
048you know, it happens the other way too. This is something that all all of the districts take uh do. Um and then we are also planning to utilize some funds that are available from our workers compensation consortium to help budget uh to help balance next year's budget. Uh we're we continue to see uh strong levels of interest uh income, but with the interest rates coming down, um I'm I actually budgeted for a bit of a decrease in interest earnings from 900,000 to 800,000. Um and I uh raised the in the budget for our Bosey's refund by about $80,000 because that's really more reflective of the trends that we've been seeing. Um basically what happens with the the Boseies refund is that each year we sign a contract with Boseies. Um and they bill us accordingly
049based on that. Boseies is not allowed to carry a fund balance at the end of the year. So at the end of the year they have to reconcile their books and whatever is left over if there's money that wasn't spent on a program they have to refund it back to the districts that participated in that program. So that's where that uh refund comes from. Okay. Moving on to state aid. So this is our next largest source of revenue. Um it accounts for approximately 23% of our total revenue. Different types of state aid. There's formula based aid and there's expense-based aid. Okay. So formula based aid is typically foundation aid, instructional materials aid, those types of things. Um, and based on the aid runs from the governor, we anticipate to receive a 1% increase in foundation
050aid next year. So that's a big $62,000. Um, I will say though that uh this m so 1% is the minimum that a school district will receive in foundation aid increase and it's going to apply to 73% of the districts across the state. So we are not alone. Um there's only 181 districts that are going to see an increase greater than 1% according to the current uh proposal for the state budget. Uh on the flip side, the expense-based aids, right? Uh they go up or down from one year to the next depending on how much we spend in the prior year. They also are dependent on our aid ratios. Um so some of the aids that fall into this categor category are Bosey's aid, building aid and transportation aid. So when it comes to the
051expense-based aids, unfortunately we are seeing a decrease in our aid ratios for all three of those categories. And the reason is that when you look at the assessed values of of our pro of our uh the properties in our district, our wealth is increasing. And as our wealth increases, the state says, "Well, then you should be less reliant on state aid." And so they lower our aid ratios to counteract that. Um, so for Boseies and transportation, our expenses are are going up. So you would think that our aid would go up, but unfortunately because of the aid ratios going down, we're really going to be pretty much flat in those two categories. Um, now on the building aid side, and this is not reflected in the governor's budget run because they don't know that we're
052going to claim early aid release on phase three of the capital project, but we are um expecting an increase in revenue in building aid and that's because we're going to be filing these final cost reports and early aid um requests uh for the capital project. And as we file these things with the state, more and more aid flows in for building aid. Um when all all is said and done, our sto total state aid is budgeted to increase by 3.83% and again most of this is in the building aid category. Um but I have to say that the trend of decreasing aid ratios um is something that really needs to be taken into consideration as we plan for future budgets. Okay. Um, now we'll talk a little bit about fund balance. So, each year we
053appropriate a um we assign slash appropriate a certain amount of fund balance to balance our budget. For the last few years, um, this has been $2.6 million. Um, and we plan to continue that for next year, but with a little bit of a caveat. We're actually going to increase that number for one year by $255,000. And that's a an amount that might sound familiar to you. That is the amount that Benchmark is going to cost us for next year. So, basically what we're going to do is appropriate onetime revenue to cover that one-time expense. Um, and that's really ideally the way to to do that, right? If you're going to use extra revenue that's only going to be around for one time, you want to make sure that you're associating it with a one-time expense,
054not an ongoing expense. Um, similar to this year, we also plan to utilize a transfer from our debt service fund. Um, it's almost equal with what we did last year for this current year. Um, and you know, when you take all of those different forms of revenue in consideration, we are still facing a budget gap. And so that means that we will need to again appropriate from our reserves. Um we need to assign some of those reserves and we're looking at 900,000 from the ERS reserve and 300,000 from the TRS reserve. So we've been doing this for a few years now, right? In the 2425 school year, um we we did very well. We ended up with savings and didn't have to touch the reserves that we had appropriated. But I have to say that
055the trend this year is showing that we will um need a portion of those budget res budgeted reserves to offset our expenses. Um that's not a trend that we want to see. Um and it does you know it gives us a caution signal um as we plan for the long term. Um now some of the expenses that are driving the budget up this year though are one-time expenses. Okay? So that means that using the reserves is only going to happen once. That's still okay. Um you just want to make sure that it's not happening on a on an ongoing basis. Um we do want to make sure it doesn't become a pattern obviously that we're using these these reserves. It's okay to budget them. We don't want to have to use them. Um and I
056have to say again I I and I I say this every year but but it's true. Um it's because of the responsibility um of you know good fiscal stewardship um of this board as well as um previous recent boards um that we have these reserve funds available at all right because we've been able to save money across the years and we've been able to put the money aside so it's there if we need it. Okay, now we're going to move on to the details on the tax levy calculation. So the um the tax levy calc calculation is based on a multi-step formula set by New York State. There's actually eight steps in the formula. Some of them don't apply to us, so I'm not going to talk about them. So, uh, what as far as
057what applies to us, we start off with the current year's tax levy and then we multiply that by what's called the taxbased growth factor. We get this information from New York State Tax and Finance. Our factor has been set at 77% which is actually up from last year uh, which was 0.51%. And basically this this gives us an adjustment to account for brickandmortar appro improvements in our district. So, new construction, additions and renovations, it does not um reflect uh changes in market value. It's strictly new construction and alterations. Um then from that result, we add the amount of our pilot from this year and we subtract the amount of our capital exclusion from this year. So, uh just as a point of reference, pilot, as I said before, um it stands for payment in lie
058of taxes. For us, our pilot is related to the hamlet uh at Pauling and that particular and this is for the first section of that development. Um and that pilot will be in effect until the year 2046. So that's pretty much a steady for us. Uh the capital exclusion is equal to our total capital expenses minus any offsetting revenue that's available to pay those expenses. So that's a whole calculation that we do. Then we take the results and we multiply it by the allowable levy growth factor. Um so the allowable levy growth factor is something that's determined by the comprollers's office every year. And basically it's equal to either 2% or the rate of inflation whichever is lower. So for this particular year um inflation is the rate of inflation is 2.63% 63% but we
059have to stick with the lower of the 2%. And this is where the term 2% tax cap comes into play and becomes somewhat confusing. Right? It's uh it's it's just one of the steps in the calculation. It doesn't mean that the tax levy can only increase by 2%. It's just one of those multiple steps. Okay. Then we subtract out our anticipated pilot for next year. And really the pilot has no impact on us because we add it and subtract it. It's the same number. So um and then our capital exclusion for next year um again so this is equal to our total expenses capital expenses. So for us that's our debt service, it's our bus purchases. Um and then um we subtract out the offsetting revenue. And for us the offsetting revenue is building aid,
060transportation aid on our bus purchases. Um and then there's a small amount of Bosey's capital aid that we have to factor into the the calculation also. And uh remember we we mentioned that we're taking a transfer from our debt service fund. we have to uh that's considered a source of revenue against capital expenses. So we have to take that out of our capital exclusion. Um the result for us is an allowable tax levy limit of 33,26,931. That's a 2.49% increase from our current year levy and a dollar increase of $82,456. the budget um actually includes a tax levy just just under that amount. Um and it is uh actually an increase of $800,456 or 2.48%. Um and so the budgeted levy is below our allowable levy increase. And again, the uh budget advisory group look
061at this as a long-term. We looked at multiple years and what the impact would be across those years. Um now, as usual, I know everybody wants to know, well, how's that going to impact my taxes? But, um unfortunately, we can't calculate tax rates until around May because that's when we receive the updated assessed values and also equalization rates from the state. Um and even then those rates are subject to change um until everything is finalized at the beginning of August. Um but I will when when it comes to the budget hearing in May I'll be able to give um you know some kind of an estimate. It won't be final but it'll be an idea of where they'll they'll fall. And you know just to remember tax rates are calculated based on assessed values equalization
062rates and the amount of the tax levy. we have no control over the assessed values and the equalization rates. So, um like I said, we'll have better information on that uh come May. And uh this is a history of our uh levytolevy changes um since the 2020 2021 school year. And then um god it feels like it was so long ago when when we uh talked about the 2020 capital project and we um we told the the voters that the the capital project um would not impact the capital portion of the tax levy, right? We said it's not going to make your your taxes go up. And so what we did was we took a baseline of what our capital exclusion was at that time and it was just over $2.3 million. And um we've
063been tracking it every year since to make sure that we're not going over that amount. And sure enough, you can see from this chart that um we've been below that baseline. Um this will be the sixth year in a row and in fact this is the largest amount below the baseline um for the six years. So, we are holding true to our promise uh that we made to the community. Okay. So, a lot of information. Um and here are our next steps. So, um each of the board members, you're going to receive a copy of the line item details of the superintendent's recommended budget. It's also going to be posted on our website. If you have any questions regarding the budget, um we ask that you send them to um the superintendent and and me
064by Monday, March 16th, because what we'll do is we'll take those questions, we'll put them into Q&A format um and we will um then be able to answer those questions at the March 24th meeting and make sure that you have the information that you need to be able to make an informed decision. um because we hope that on April se April 7th um we'll have the final review of the budget and board adoption at that time. On April 21st um that is the required date for the Boseies budget vote and that will uh that's around that administrative uh Bosey's cost that I talked about earlier. On May 5th, we will hold the public hearing on the adopted budget. And on May 19th, all of this culminates in the annual meeting, budget vote, and board of
065education election. That's what I have for you as far as slides go. Happy to answer any questions you may have at this point. I wanted to start off by saying thank you for all that you do for our district. Um, I'm sitting here and for myself, like I'm sitting here listening to you and I'm kind of amazed at how much I'm understanding compared to just a couple short years ago and that's literally all thanks to you. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Um, there's two questions that I had uh or things that I was hoping you could expand on a little bit. Um, the first one is you mentioned the onetime expense of benchmark of $255,000 and I just didn't want the public to be surprised next year or the year after
066when they hear more expenses and I was just hoping you could kind of elaborate on that a little bit. >> Yes, thank you for that and and and that is technically a two-time expense, right? because um what we're doing is we're doing a 5-year program and we are paying a small nominal amount this year and then we're splitting the remainder of it um across the next two years. So 255,000 in the 2627 year and then there will be another 255,000 in 2728. Thank you for clarifying that. Then the other thing I was just hoping um you could possibly have an update for us or maybe not um in the purchase of the new buses. Is there any updates as far as the electric bus mandate um or anything that we're thinking in terms of that
067going forward? >> Yeah. So um the state is actually offering waiverss for districts um which I I believe this district will want to take advantage of. Um, I had called the state department um to ask how we go about doing that and they said, "Well, you really don't want to do anything with that until next year because it's a 2-year waiver, so we want to get the most out of the waiver if we need it." Um, so I think that's probably this the safest way to go at this point until we have more information on electric buses. >> Thank you very much for the presentation. >> You're welcome. Appreciate it. Uh, I just had two quick questions. You may have said, and I apologize if I missed it. You talked about the one-time expenses benchmark.
068Were there You said there were a few others. I just may have missed it. >> Basically, uh, retirement incentives, right? So, we don't have people retiring every year that are eligible for incentives. So, that was one of the one-time expenses. >> And do you know off the top of your head the insurance percentage increase for this year? If you don't, it's okay. I can. >> No, I I actually have that. >> Don't have it >> around 12%. Let me see a lot of pages. Bear with me. >> Problem you for looking it up. >> Sure. Actually, it's 15% increase that I budgeted for. Welcome. >> Else have any questions, >> Teslas? Thank you so much like always. >> Thank you. >> Okay. The budget season's in full swing. >> I'm sorry. I just want to
069add one thing. Um, as far as the insurance increase goes, um, just keep in mind that as we do capital projects, that does have an impact on our insurance costs because the the, uh, the cost of our our properties goes up. So, it's not just insurance increases, it's also the value of our of our infrastructure >> at all. Thank you so much. Okay. Um so that concludes the presentations for this evening. And the next item on the agenda, I always make a mention of this is uh number eight, the administrative reports. I know the last few meetings we've really made a mention of um again a lot of work is put into this by all our different admin of our different departments. And I think anyone at home would get um some really good information
070about what's going on, the updates in all these departments, in our schools. So definitely take a look at that. Again, item number eight, our administrative reports uh within the agenda. Next up is our agenda order. Um with our agenda order, turn it over to our district clerk, Mrs. Stephanie Gordono. >> Thank you. Um so this evening we have one um item that is a nonconsent agenda item. Um so I don't know if you want to do that first or if you want to do the consent items. Um, we have a few addendums. There's uh a retirement for a social studies teacher. There is an amendment for uh spring coaching appointments and um an extension of a leave of absence for FMLA. >> Great. I I'd be in favor of just going in order and making
071sure we don't skip anything. If anyone >> an opinion, I'm happy to we'll just go in order of agenda still. >> Cool. Thank you so much. So, with all that said, um again, the items with an asterric items are uh are items the superintendent recommends for the consent agenda. If any board member wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda, please do so at this time. A consent agenda is one vote which approves all aster items which have not been previously removed. So seeing none, resolve to approve the following additions, deletions/changes, and order of the agenda as presented. I'll make a motion. May I have a second? >> Second, Mr. Main. And all in favor? >> I. >> And that's unanimous. Okay. And to item number 10 on the uh agenda, which is visitor
072comments specific to agenda items only and three minutes per person. Nothing there. So, now we go to item number 11, which are board remarks. Would any board member like to make remarks this evening? >> Uh, nothing terribly exhaustive, but I'd like to echo what Michelle uh shared. You know, just I know um you know, every year that I've been here, the the way you break down the budget and sort of explain it to everybody um is just is so enlightening. It's so great for for us and also the community. Um, and just another thing that I wanted to mention that was just, you know, mentioned in in the budget presentation. You know, I've heard a lot and I've discussed with other people, you know, this whole concept of really maximizing what we do in the
073lower grades so that um, you know, grade level reading is achieved by third grade. And so it was really great for for me from my perspective to hear that that's something that we're really focused on in terms of how we're allocating budget um and what we're doing you know to provide for that and also what we're doing in terms of professional development and putting money in that direction. So I think that that's really important. I wanted to just echo that. It was said a few times um and I just wanted to echo that and make sure that the community um really understands you know the kind of adjustments that we're making down in the elementary school in that regard and elsewhere. particularly important instru. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mike. Anybody else want to make
074any remarks this evening? All right. So, now I have the honor of turning to my left, your virtual right for board vice president comments. So, turn over to Dr. Walsh. >> Good evening, everybody. I don't have too much tonight. Our varsity sports for the spring started yesterday. Uh it was really great to see all of our athletes back on the field and on the turf. Modified sports will begin with a meeting for all the teams on Monday and practices will start on Tuesday. Make sure that you are checking the athletic calendar regularly. It is updated every day for times of games and practices. Uh March 19th, which I think is next Thursday, will be our winter sports awards and you know that we seeing that we'll have several um athletes to honor. It was a
075great winter season. Thank you to the PTA for hosting another wonderful spring dance. They do a great job. I don't know how they're still standing by the end of it. Um they had a dance for the younger grades and then a second one followed for the older grades as usual. It was very well attended, beautifully decorated and the kids had a great time. Um the PTA also hosted the first of several fundraisers at the new ice cream shop in town last Wednesday and the line was out the door. So congratulations to them. Um you know, the PTA does so much for our community and for our students and for our staff. We just got an email today that one of the things they're doing is getting t-shirts for all the different grade levels um in
076the elementary school for them to use on field trips and field day. So just just to know that they're, you know, their work is is going to good things. The PTSA is going to be hosting their version of that same fundraiser um at the ice cream shop this Wednesday for the middle school and then the following Wednesday for the high school. So I hope everybody can stop by. We are approaching the midterm of the third quarter at the middle school and high school which is crazy. Um the high school musical is set to take place the weekend of April 16th and then you know spring is really going to kick off and there's going to be lots of events. So we look forward to seeing everybody out and about. >> Thank you so much Dr.
077Walsh. And now we can go to item number 12 on our agenda which is or item 13 on our agenda which is our superintendent comments. So I turn over to Mr. Darlo. >> Thank you Mr. President. This will be relatively short. Just a quick update. I know uh last week was a difficult weather week for everybody. Um just want to update the community that um we um have two days left. One because of emergency and another one that we have out there. So hopefully we'll get no more snow. We're not going to have to interfere with your spring break coming up. Um and so that's important to let everybody know. second issue and I talked about this and we actually have come to conclusion on it and I want to thank um both the town
078village PTA PC PTSA Tiger Club our athletic director Mr. Valuchcci, our our principles at both the middle school, high school, and elementary school cuz they've been involved with me. I'm happy to say that come the fall of next year, we will go back to the tradition of a homecoming parade and bonfire. I want to thank Miss and Top. I spoke with them last week and they are going to be able to give us their um parking lot um to be able to stage and begin the actual alignment of the parade. and then we will go off and go to the um elementary school and have the festivities there. So, um I want to thank everybody for their patience. Um but hopefully it'll start to be a tradition that can come back into the community. Um
079I know our kids are excited about it. So um it's a good thing. That's what community is all about, working together. And um again, hopefully the weather stays nice and we don't have to worry about any more delays or or snow days moving forward. And um I look forward to the spring season, getting out and about, kids, uh families, and getting some fresh air. So, uh thank you all and uh I appreciate everybody listening to our budget tonight. And as was mentioned by Miss Hes. Any questions or concerns you may have not only on the board's part by the public, email us, let us know, and we'll address them over the next couple of sessions. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Carlo. And that'll bring us to item 14, which is the
080consent agenda. So it reads, "Resolve that the board of education approves all asterct items as the consent agenda." I'll make a motion. May I have a second? Sandro. And all in favor? I. Unanimous. Okay. Next up is the minutes. Uh Stephanie had a quick question. Could we do one resolution for the three of these all together? Would we like to do uh each one? separately. Maybe that would be easier. >> Sure, that sounds great. Okay, so I'll go one at a time. I'll just reread it three times and we can do that. So, uh, resolve that the board of education approve the minutes of the following meeting, Tuesday, February 24th, 2026. I'll make a motion. May I have a second? Is all in favor? I. Moving on to the next one. Resolve that the board
081of education approve the minutes of the following meeting. This is now Monday, March 2nd, 2026, special meeting of the board of education. I will make a motion. May I have a second? Shell. And all in favor of that one? I. And that's unanimous. And then lastly, resolve that the board of education approve the minutes of the following meeting. This is now Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. Another special meeting of the board of education. I will make a motion. And I have a second, Dr. Walsh. And all in favor of that one? >> I. And that's unanimous. All right. Thank you so much. Now, we're going to turn, if everybody can draw their attention to um item number um five underneath personnel with appointments. So, this is not on the consent agenda. Um and I'm going to
082read the resolution. So, item five underneath appointments, it says resolve that the board of education approve the following appointments. Uh, may I have um or for number one, the spring coach appointments 2025 2026 school year. Uh, may I have a motion for that, >> Mr. Walsh? And may I have a second? >> Second. >> Scissors or something? Yeah, >> Mr. Mine. And all in favor of that resolution, I >> I will abstain. Okay. So, now that brings us to flip some more to item number 19, which is our board of education. Uh, nothing on item 19. Item number 20, unfinished business. Think of any Item 21. Any new business? Okay. Item 22. So, this is the opportunity to have our second visitor comments pertaining to the district. Again, three minutes per person. Perfect. So, with
083that, I'll just read this at this time regarding public comment related to policy 1230. Um, so at this time we'll move into the portion of the meeting reserved for public comment. The board of education greatly values hearing from our community and we appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts on school related matters. Before we begin, just like to review a couple important guidelines from policy 1230. Uh, number one, please introduce yourself by stating your name and address and let us know if you are representing an organization. Number two, each speaker will have up to three minutes. Please note unused time cannot be transferred to somebody else. Number three, we respectfully ask that you direct your comments to the board president. And lastly, the board's role during this time is to listen. And while we may
084not respond immediately this evening, please understand that followup may occur afterward if needed. So, with that said, um, Mrs. Gage, would you like to Now, did I say that right? I was going to say with a name like mine and and seeing that, I would feel terrible if you did. Um, the only thing I'm just going to ask before we get started, if you can, it doesn't have to be right. the second just fill out the rest of it afterwards. That'd be great. >> Um, thank you. So, Christina Eric Gage, 47 Fenwood Drive. I represent myself. So, good evening. I hope you had a chance to enjoy the taste of spring weather that we've had the last few days. I'd like to say thank you for your time on the board and all of your
085hard work. I know it's not easy and it's consuming. I'm here to urge the board of education and other members of the district to continue to discuss the possibility of opening a third up UPK classroom in the school building while maintaining a fourth classroom in the community at stages. As of Friday, February 27th, there were 50 students registered for this program, while only 36 of them would be chosen for the school-based program through a lottery. The remaining 14 students would be offered the placement at stages stated in a recent letter from our interimm superintendent. Here in Pauling, we believe in the ability of our schools to provide children with a world-class education so they can reach their fullest potential. UPK program's goals as outlined in the registration packet are to meet our four-year-old children's individual
086needs and strengths in areas of social, academic, language, emotional, and physical development. While there is a UPK program offered through our district at stages that follow state guidelines, this program cannot offer some of the same opportunities and experiences that being in a school building provide. Although the board of education and district staff has changed over the years, district was this district was extremely creative during COVID and was able to bring our children into the buildings from the beginning of the school year while most of our surrounding districts were remote. I hope our district is able to be creative again and be able to bring a third UPK program into the school building. In doing so, our district will continue to strive to meet the needs of every child and provide a strong educational program. Although
087it seems many years away, as many of you know, time goes quickly and this strong foundation will be the first step in getting our students in the district college and career ready. You for your time on this map. Thank you so much for coming up and and speaking with us. As I said, um obviously our role tonight is to listen, but um I'm sure there'll be plenty of followup on this topic at a later time. >> Okay. Um so that brings us to item 23, which is our board president comments. I'm going to keep them really brief, really short. Um, first thing just want to say thank you to everybody sitting up here for all your time and um, Stephanie for all your time the last few weeks and all that we've had to do.
088If everybody just noticed the amount of uh, minutes that we just approved regarding our special meetings and as we continue with our superintendent search. Um, you know, it has been an incredible amount of time on behalf of a lot of people sitting up here and I am just very thankful that everyone has been so committed and has shared all that time and has been allin with that process. Uh, in addition, going back to Mrs. Heslin, um, just want to say thank you for all that you do and to Michelle's comment and to Michael's comment, I know as someone that's been on the budget advisory group for a couple years, that first year I was a deer in headlights to say the least. And I tried to just learn as much as I could and there
089was other people that I was able to work with at that time that um, really helped me understand and and they understood it very well. And as time has gone on, I've I too have just been able to learn an incredible amount. And uh so beyond appreciative of that too. Okay. Sure. And we can go back to that too if you want to speak. >> Sure. No problem. You could sign and I'll we'll go back to that. Um again just thank you so much for everybody's time. Again like Mr. Carlo said and Dr. Walsh said um looking forward to the spring. We have the for people at home. We actually have the doors open right now. It's beautiful in here. The fresh air. Everyone has seems so much happier lately with the sun out. hopefully
090this is us turning a corner um and all that. So, I'm going to leave it brief. Those are my comments as always. I'm just thankful for all the work that everybody up here and and everybody in our district takes part in every day on behalf of our students. Um yeah, and that's that. So, with that, um go back to second visit for comments. Right. So, um yeah, I'm sorry can't read your last name, but I would love to invite you up to the microphone to to speak. Siobhan, got it. Same thing. I'm just going to have you guys, if you can fill out email, so phone number so we can follow up if if needed at the end, please. And thank you. My name is Anthony Shafone. I live at 207 Charles Coleman Boulevard. Pauling.
091I'm a school bus driver for Pauling. Got four years with Pauling School District and four years with Dover District. I'm here today to to uh basically a grievance that we have concerning insurance buyout. A letter was sent to the board as it were received. Familiar with the insurance buyout finish your comments and I'll go at the end and I'll speak. Okay. >> Well, the grievance here tonight is the insurance buyout. which gives the employers their own medical who have their own medical insurance gives them a cash benefit. They do not take the insurance from the school district. Every February and June, we receive a payment for those who qualify. Okay. I've been receiving the payment since 2022. I started since I started in 2022, I received payments twice a year. This year, as many as
09220 employees for the school district did not receive their payment due to a lack of communication with the district office and there they were rejected for this payment. Okay, this is something that uh there was some miscommunication in May with the signing up doing the paperwork, the proper paperwork almost 20 20 employees. Now somewhere along the line we didn't it went over the heads. We have been receiving these payments and all of a sudden you know we waited in February and we did not receive them. And the the thing was that you were supposed to sign up in May for it. And somehow we never got a memo. We never got a phone call. We never got a a supervisor stating to us there was, you know, um if all these people didn't re sign
093up who were eligible to sign up, the district should have known something was wrong. a red flag should have been set up that why aren't these people taking their money that is due to them right it's it seems obvious that somewhere along the line the communication was was not right with the paperwork in May and we lost this benefit this benefit for me this benefit equals five weeks of my paycheck this benefit each year and it helps us out. I mean, if I did it just myself or a couple people, but 20, we're we're dealing with about what I understand, 20 people did not file the paperwork in May, which disqualified us from receiving our benefits. >> I'll just say really quick, Mr. Shioone, so we're at our threeminut time limit, but you waited the
094whole meeting. I would like you to finish your thoughts. So, if you can just in a couple 10, 15, 20 seconds and My thoughts is I would like the the board just to look into it to see what the problem was with this. Uh, you know, I know it's it's a I know you're talking about budgets. It's it's petty money compared to your overall budget, but it means a lot to us. I would like the board to look into it to see what if they can resolve the problem. If they can if they can get us, you know, come June is the next payment to see if, you know, check to see our qualifications. If we qualify for the buyout, give it to us in June. You know, that's what I'm asking for. >> And
095thank you for your time this evening. And if you can too, and Mrs. engage as well. If you guys can just come back up, have your phone, your email after we go to the next part of the meeting. I'll make sure the sheets over here so you guys can have that. And again, our job tonight is to listen and we'll be following up as appropriate with both. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you for waiting around and and speaking. Okay. So, uh the next part here, so board president comments, I made those before. So, now we're going to item 24, which is an executive session at the end of the meeting. Actually, um I'll read it. So, it says, "Resolved that the board of education enter into executive session to discuss matters leading to the appointment
096and employment of particular persons." The time is >> 8:24. I'll make a motion for the executive session. May I have a second, Michelle? Uh, thank you for the second. And all in favor? I >> I And that's yours. Hey. Oh, you really wouldn't. >> Okay. I would >> anywhere. Well, >> I value that. Want you to know that wasn't lost on me. like just really give it >> that's the way I think about >> I don't know appreciate Watch it. You got it. I'm on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's probably it's better to just do it. Yeah. But it's better. >> Let's do that. >> Take care. Have a good one. >> Have a good night. It's been a It's been a very warm, sweaty. You're not hanging. Yeah. You know, you have to
097tell the story. It's all about the story. >> It's all about the story. Thanks again. Right. One, two of the coaches. Honestly, you know, I tell you exactly. Exactly. I'll let you know in the morning.