001All right. Hello everyone. Welcome to our March 11th, 2026 board of education meeting. If you are able, please join us uh by standing for a moment of silence. Would you do us the honor in leading us in the pledge tonight? Thank you very much. It's lovely to see so many people here tonight. Uh just a public participation reminder, persons wishing to address the board must sign up prior to the start of public participation. Speakers must register on the form provided by the district at the entrance of the boardroom to maintain a first come first-s serve process. For purposes of following up with the speakers, the speakers must provide their name, address, telephone number, andor email address. To limit comments to matters which may be properly discussed during public participation, the speakers will provide the topics.
002Any group or organization wishing to address the board must identify a single spokesperson. Uh reading of the emergency evacuation procedure. In case of emergency, would everyone please follow the exit signs to the outside of the building? Please stay completely clear of the building to provide space for any emergency vehicles. Item number two. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> Elizabeth. >> Second. Brian. >> All in favor? >> I I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carried. All right. I will turn it over to Dr. Teranova for his update. >> Thank you, Mrs. Castki. Um, my first uh piece of update is a brief progress check on our community partner work that is going on in the district. Um, as you know that we are continuing to deal with a budget uh gap
003between our revenue and our expenses that unfortunately is growing worse. But this board has been extremely proactive uh to get us set up with some community partner work involving community members who can also help us problem solve ways to either add revenue or save on expenses. Uh they started to meet this summer and then formed subcommittees recently this month. And I just wanted to quickly tell you what the subcommittees are. There's a committee that's focused on legacy and major gift fundraising. That's facilitating charitable giving opportunities that include larger donations that could support district expenses in the future. There's another subcommittee called other revenue streams that's going to look at sources such as potentially accessing county sales tax as alternative sources of revenue. We have a group that met tonight for the first time, educational program
004partnerships, which is going to collaborate with colleges, businesses, Boseies, and other school districts to leverage opportunities for students that are hopefully have the same uh opportunities or better than they currently do, but leverage them for less expenses and work together and collaborate. This district's already doing that and has been doing that for a while, but we think we can expand those opportunities. A fourth subcommittee is developing a community education program. Create a financially self- sustaining community education program that could coordinate afterchool student programs, evening adult education classes, and potential summer recreation and camp activities in coordination with the town wreck department. This program could also add revenue to the district. And the last subcommittee that's been formed is energy and facilities exploring energy models that would meet the demands of our school community with potentially
005significant operational cost savings. So these sub subcommittees are going to be meeting over the next few months. Uh there's no deadline in terms of having recommendations. That could occur in June. It might occur in the summer. It might occur early in the fall. But ultimately they're looking at operationalizing these concepts, presenting them to the board, and then having the board obviously make the final decision on whether to go forward with any of these ideas. Anything we can do to limit uh expenses, but keep and sustain our programming as well as increase revenue beyond taxes and state aid would be beneficial to our district. And then my last part of my update is just a few shoutouts. First of all, I want to there's a bunch of individ I'm not going to list their names, but
006there's a bunch of individual students who have been performing musically across the state because of their excellence in the last few months as well as we've had student artwork displayed across the Fingerlakes region and in the Rochester area. And a big shout out, I don't want to steal Mr. Siesta stuff, but I'm just going to say shout out to the musical Mean Girls, which was fantastic. and the amount of work that went into that has been must have been amazing because it it did not look like a high school musical. It looked like a production that of much older uh actors and actresses. We have an extraordinary district strings concert tomorrow night at 700 p.m. in the high school gymnasium gymnasium. It's also special because we're going to be celebrating 60 years of the Suzuki
007strings program along with showcasing all of our talented orchestra musicians across the district. The commitment and appreciation to the arts is second to none here at Victor. Also, good luck to VIP Wintergard and our robotics teams as they immerse themselves in competition over the next few weeks. And in April's board meeting, we're going to honor both individual and team athletic sectional winners as well as our high school musical cast and other award winners from different competitions. It just speaks to the comprehensive nature of our district and how important that is uh for us to be successful. So, that's my superintendent's update. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Dr. Terteranova. Item four, we don't have any presentations or recognitions this month, but buckle up for next month because we're obviously going to have quite a few. Item
008five, public participation. Although the board's work is open to the public. This is not a meeting with the public. At this time, privilege of the floor is offered to those who signed up to speak. The chair will be happy to recognize those of you who wish to speak. When you approach the microphone, please identify yourself before presenting your thoughts. Individual comments will be limited to three minutes and the total time for this portion of the agenda will be limited to 30 minutes. Please note, issues related to specific school district personnel or students must be brought to the attention of the superintendent of schools privately as they are not discussable at this venue. Thank you. At this time, I will offer the privilege of the floor to John Prader. Good evening, members of the board. My
009name is Jonathan Prader, and I'm I am here again tonight to respectfully request that the school district adopts the veterans property tax exemption authorized under New York State Law. I want to be clear. I understand this is voluntarily. You guys have the option. You are not required to adopt it, but you are fully empowered to create and adopt your own version of the law, one that reflects the values of this community and the needs of the veterans who live here. You could choose to grant full exemption to all veterans who are rated at 100% disabled. You could also choose a tiered system with every where every veteran receives release relief based on their disability rating 10 20 50 all the way up to 100. The law gives you that flexibility. The question is simple simply
010whether the board is willing to act. As of now, veterans do receive a partial exemption on property taxes, but just days ago, Governor Hol signed legislation making full exemption mandatory for all 100% disabled veterans statewide. With that step taken, it's only a matter of time before the school districts are required to follow suit. So, you have the opportunity to lead rather than to Wayne. Let's be the first school or school district in Ontario County to step up and do this. Imagine the pride the community would feel and imagine the message it would send if Victor became the first district to stand behind its veterans in such a meaningful way. Several states across the country have already granted 100% property tax and school tax exemptions to all veterans simply for their service. If they can do
011it, then so can we. There are approximately 337 veterans living within the Victor School District. If every one of them received a full exemption, the total impact of the school budget would be just over $1.6 million spread across roughly 15,000 to 15,900 residents. That uh comes out to roughly $6 a month. It's a cup of coffee. Yes, assessed values do vary. A dollar here, dollar there, but uh just imagine the community. It's a way to say thank you. What in the way it truly matters. And now I ask you to look behind me. These are all your veterans that have joined me here tonight. Many are combat veterans who were sent to the worst places on earth. They lived with danger 24 hours a day for months or years at a time. They missed birthdays,
012holidays, and the births of their children. Some served multiple com multiple conflicts. Some came home with visible injuries and other came home with invisible ones. PTSD, trauma, nightmares that never fully go away. Some were shot, some are totally disabled. All of them served this country. All of them sacrificed. And all of them deserve this relief. And let me make one thing absolutely clear. Veterans are trained to never quit. We don't walk away. And we don't give up. So, we will be back every month with more veterans and more voices and more support until this board chooses to do what's right and adopt the 100% tax exemption for veterans of this district. We are not asking for charity. We are asking for recognition and we are asking for fairness and we are asking for leadership. Thank
013you for your time consideration. >> Thank you Mr. FEDER. Next I'd like to call up James Failen Failen. >> That was a mistake. I >> Okay. So >> does so no Nick either. Okay. >> That's all right. Uh Austin >> Gant >> same >> Adam. Yeah. Love you guys though. Thanks. You know it's nice that you're here and you know and we're signing up to let everyone know you were here. Two different sheets, right? Uh William Carr. >> I did sign the right one. All right. >> Hey, thank you all for for your time. And first, before I I'm I'm up here for the veterans uh exemption. Hoping that y'all will consider supporting it. First though, before I start, hey, thank you very much for everybody in the community who really, you know, helped us
014out in time of need with with Talon Gracioso passing away. I was very humbled and and very proud to be part of Victor for that. So, thank you very much for that. um for uh veteran support. Oh, by the way, for veterans, chapter 35, your high school students, if you have one, they're eligible for it now. This these guys got it approved. So, you can get up to five months free while they're in high school. It doesn't count towards the 36 uh months while they're in college. Okay. So, the veterans exemption, I think, um you know, two things are common with just about every uh disabled veteran that I've I've met. One, especially if they're 100%, they got a horror story behind that 100%. Uh, second is you see us uh you see veterans everywhere.
015You ask them for help, they're there. I I run a high school army junior ROC program and a high school in in Rochester. if we're doing a a a cleanup, a community cleanup or any sort of clean uh community service, I'll see a 70 or 80 year old veteran out there right alongside my high school students picking up trash and like I'm I'm all afraid he's going to fall over, but the kids eat it up because the veterans are out there supporting us in everything we do. So, um I I probably have a little bit different message than a lot of them, but I I hope that you'll you'll support what they've come here for because hey, we're we're a group that hey, we we still serve in any capacity we have. So, thank you
016ladies and gentlemen for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Carr. Ralph DJ Moore. So, I'll be short. Uh, thank you first of all for, uh, entertaining all of us here today, uh, and letting us to come in and speak about this. So, um, don't let my mediocre good looks fool you. I did 27 years. Um, 12 of those my family spent here. I'm a girl dad. I'm a color guard dad. I'm a marching band dad. Um, and like, uh, he had just said, you know, I'm there all the time. I'm sure some of you have seen me um, hauling props and trailers and everything else. Um, but I'm not here for me. Uh, there's about five or six that I know of personally that couldn't make it tonight. Uh, that this affects directly, right? And
017I know with any board, fiscal concerns are a concern. So, I just want to give you a few stats. 22 states in the nation have already adopted this. Of those 22 states, if you look at the top 20 schools academically in the nation, 14 of those 20 schools are from those states. So, I understand the fiscal concerns, but they can make it work. So, can we like John had said before me, let's lead the way. Uh, show the rest of New York how it's done, especially in Ontario County. Thank you. >> Thank you, DJ. And thanks to all of you for coming tonight, supporting each other and being here and for those who spoke and for your service. Um, I have asked Dr. Teranova, please reach out to, you know, we'll start with Mr. Prader
018and he can maybe decide who else to join him for a meeting with Dr. Tteranova and Christine Griffin, our assistant superintendent of business. Um, and that way you guys can sit down and talk about your concerns, look at the data, um, and and really be able to help inform us to be able to make this decision. And we think that meeting would be very beneficial for all of us. Um, so you can expect that reach out very soon. And thank you again. All right, >> I got I'm off again. See? Uh, item number six, acceptance of consent items A through. It's always more than I think it is. I Any questions or comments before we take a motion? >> Did have a comment. Sorry. Uh where was I? Oh, obviously um we don't have any
019retirements I believe on this particular personnel agenda, but I do want to recognize Steve Zavney who is uh moving on from the director of security position at the end of this school year. Steve uh has been a great asset to the district, great asset originally to the high school, but now the entire district. Uh people know him because he cares about every single kid. He's done a ton of work on the safety and security of our campus and uh he also before this had 23 years experience as a state trooper, 13 years experience in the district before the four years as director of safety and security. So I just want to thank him uh from the bottom of my heart for all the dedication and work he's done for our district and uh wish him
020well uh as he moves forward. Thank you. >> Any other comments? All right, then. Can I have a motion to approve upon recommendation of the superintendent the following consent items A through I? >> Elizabeth. >> A second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Nope. Motion carried. >> All right. Campus News. >> Good evening. like to thank all of our veterans for your service to our country and community. Appreciate it very much and for you taking the time to come out to the board meeting tonight. My name's Rob D. Rose, the principal of the Victor Early Childhood School. This month, our school came together for the chain linking ceremony, which is a special event that celebrates the many acts of kindness that take place throughout our building. We really focus in
021on those acts of kindness throughout the month of February. And it culminates in an assembly where we sing our uh original songs written and composed by Naomi Foley as a school community and then link every class chain together. It's hanging up proudly in our main hallway there. And every chain link represents something thoughtful that one of our students did throughout that month of February. And now it stands as a visual reminder to our students and staff and faculty and families every day. they come in about the importance of treating one another how we want to be treated. Looking ahead, teachers will be hosting families next week for spring parent teacher conferences. Teachers have reached out to families that they'd like to connect with for a spring check-in to discuss student progress as well as next
022steps to ensure that the final months of the school year are positive and filled with growth for each child. Second quarter or second trimester report cards will be available for families next week. Information about accessing those report cards via school tool and parent square was included in our recent March newsletter. Later this month, families will receive a parent input form. This provides opportunities for families to share input regarding their child and the plan and placement thoughts for next school year. We really value each family's perspective, encourage thoughtful feedback throughout the process, and that'll be sent through parent square. So, we hope our families are on the lookout for that. Later this month, the Eastman School of Music will be coming to the ECS with their music for all program. Our music teachers Naomi Foley and
023Megan DC spent countless hours on the uh rigorous application process and coordinating two assemblies for the music for all program to come to our school and make a strong connection with our students and young people as well as the Eastman School uh through the U ofR to really encourage um continued growth within the music and arts programs. I know our school district is known far and wide for their strong music and arts program and we think this will further strengthen this program here at the Victor school district. Kindergarten registration is well underway and we en encourage all families within the VCSD that have a kiddo who's going to be turning five on or before December 1st, 2026 to register as soon as possible. Our kindergarten program is truly something special. We've got incredible teachers, wonderful
024students, and engaging learning experience that balance both play as well as really strong foundational skills in literacy, math, and all content areas. The UPK lottery took place earlier in February. Um, we're happy to say that we had a really strong turnout with the lottery. um and that we have full programs for all of our inbuilding and community based locations and we're looking forward to another amazing year for UPK. Finally, on April 22nd at 6 p.m. we'll host our kindergarten information night. Just before that at 5:30, we'll host the multi-age information night. They'll both be here in our auditorium to make it easier for our incoming kinder families. We hope as many of our incoming families come to learn all about the kindergarten year. It's designed just for parents and uh caregivers because it provides an
025overview um more of an informational Q&A session for our families. We hope that they can all come to learn about this exciting transition as it approaches. As always, we thank the board for your continued support and we look forward to another exciting month here at the ECS. Hi, I'm Amanda Burn, principal of Victor Primary School. In March at VPS, we continue to focus on responsive instructional systems, meaningful learning experiences for our students, strong partnerships with families, and preparing thoughtfully for next school year. One important devel important development this month was we implemented our standing tier 2 and tier three review meetings for both math and ELA which was a big lift. During these bi-weekly meetings, interventionists and coaches collaboratively review the progress of students who are already receiving academic intervention services. The structure allows the
026team to examine student growth and progress monitoring in a timely way. determine whether we're meeting expected rates of progress and adjust or intensify supports when needed rather than just three times a year. By creating this consistent system for reviewing intervention data, we're strengthening the alignment between our interventionist and the connection to the classroom and getting that more responsive support system. This month, our students have also extended their learning beyond the classroom through some field trip experiences. This week, our K1 multi-age students visited the planetarium to learn about the Earth, moon, and sky. Second graders traveled to the Rochester Museum and Science Center where they enjoyed self-guided exploration, a fancy lunch at lunch in the mezzanine, and a live science presentation. Both groups had the opportunity to connect their classroom learning to engaging experiences in hands-on
027exhibits. These experiences provide meaningful opportunities for curiosity, discovery, and shared learning. On Friday, our staff will participate in superintendent conference day. Our school community will spend time learning about our building specific for unification and evacuation procedures. As part of our continued focus on school safety, classroom teachers will also have dedicated time to analyze tier one assessment data. This might include an analyzing their Ames web data to develop student literacy profiles or analyzing edctrina data to examine their math assessment data. This work will help our teachers to identify patterns in student learning and inform their windtime instruction. and our interventionists will have a similar opportunity to review their progress monitoring data, reflect on that rate of improvement, and prepare for those collaborative problems solving conversations. As we begin planning for next school year, we've also launched
028our scheduling and placement processes. This week, we visited our first grade team and second grade team to review the process and expectations for providing their input about their learners. Teachers play such a vital role in sharing their insight about students as learners and friends, which is integral in us developing those thoughtfully designed classrooms that are balanced, supporting student growth, social development, and those positive peer connections. Family input is another critical component of the process. And in this month's newsletter, our parent um input opportunity was shared and that's due later on May 1st. This month, we're also preparing our third graders for the upcom upcoming New York State computer-based assessments in ELA and math. Earlier this week, we met with our third grade and two, three multi-age teachers to review our proctoring procedures and and testing
029logistics. Something new we're doing this year is having our coaches push into classrooms to do some special meet the test style lessons. So Lauren Les, our ELA coach, and Angela Taio, our librarian, are leading lessons in teachers classrooms that help students become familiar with the testing platform and tools and better understand those expectations for written responses. Later this spring, Aaron Cole, our math coach, will do the same, focus on our upcoming math test. Finally, progress reports will be issued on March 18th, and our spring parent teacher conferences will take place on March 20th. These events provide important opportunities to communicate with families about our students progress, celebrate their growth, and discuss the goals for the remainder of the school year as well as the plan going into the next. There are many moving parts in
030March, but these efforts reflect our continued commitment to strengthening systems, supporting our students this year and next, and maintaining those strong partnerships with staff and families as we move forward together. Also want to thank our PTSA who hosted our lucky tobe loved dance at the end of February. A combination of Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day theme. Um there was a great turnout, a live DJ, and a lot of fun. Take care. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Jim Marorrow and I'm the principal of the intermediate school. Our students have been hard at work in their classrooms and we continue to see them persevering as they tackle new and increasingly challenging concepts. One great example of this can be seen in our fourth grade classrooms where students are currently reading the novel The Season of Sticks
031Malone. The highle interest and motivation surrounding this story has been exciting to see. And because students are so engaged with the characters and the plot, they have been pushing themselves through more complex reading tasks and using the story as a foundation for deeper work in both reading and writing. Our students have also had several unique learning opportunities this past month. One of our sixth grade teachers, Toeer Pike, was able to purchase a 3D printer through a grant this past year. Mr. Pike then partnered with local businesses to create an authentic learning experience for his students. As part of this project, students designed their own fidgets using the 3D printer and presented their their designs to those businesses. This project allowed students to apply creativity, problem solving, and presentation skills while seeing how their ideas can
032connect to the real world. Additionally, our fourth grade students have been traveling to the Susan B. Anthony House where they have been learning more about the history of women's rights and the many contributions made by Susan Banthony. This experience helps bring history to life and allows students to connect their classroom learning to important historical events. I would also like to share that our science fair last week was a huge success. The creativity, passion, and effort that students put into their project was truly amazing to see. um special recognition to one of the projects that tracked a the heart rate during uh Buffalo Bills games um by the students. So I very much appreciated that and appreciated the uh the thought that went into that project. A big thank you uh goes out to Natalie Sonavville
033for her hard work in organizing such a great event for our intermediate school community. And we're really proud of the effort of our students and all that they're putting into their learning over this past month and are really grateful for the many opportunities that allow them to engage deeply in that work. So, thank you for your continued support of our students and staff at the intermediate school. Good evening everyone. Brian G, the principal of the junior high school. Uh we've got a busy few weeks ahead of us. Uh starting with this Friday, as Amanda mentioned, we're excited about a professional day of learning uh where our teams are going to be able to kind of collaborate and really look at the goals that they set for themselves this year. Um and we also have our
034student council activity night uh on this Friday. 150 or so tickets have sold with sales still up again tomorrow and our PTSA has again been heavily involved in helping make that happen for our kids. On Monday, we're going to be administering the youth risk survey where we're kind of partnering with multiple schools within the region uh to gather information about how our kids are doing and the types of things that they might be experiencing or exposed to that helps us inform our curriculum and ultimately our support of our students over time. Next Friday, we have our books uh at breakfast, which I know Carol, you're very familiar with. You helped run that for years for us. Uh we're going strong, so PTSA will be on uh on campus on Friday helping us with that. Uh
035later on this month, our concert series starts up again, which we're super excited about. March is music and schools month, and we get a chance to celebrate all the great work of our students and the teacher supporting them. And uh lastly, we're continuing our plans uh as we transition into the 2627 school year. Uh currently, we're working hard to make sure we place students into their elective courses and their choices for uh language and music options as they come from the sixth to the seventh grade. Next month, we'll really kind of dial in and make sure that student supports are aligned within our AIS services and our direct supports for kids with some learning needs. Looking forward to giving you an update next month. >> Look at this. Good evening everyone. My name is Brian
036Siestto and I am the principal at Victor Senior High School. A few updates to share with you uh this month from the high school. The first is we want to congratulate the 43 students who are on the DECA state career conference last week at the convention center downtown. Students had a phenomenal experience meeting students from across the state and engaging in business competitions and uh presentations. We have great representation at the international conference next month in Atlanta. 11 students have a qualified to attend and once again thanks to our workbased learning coordinator Mrs. Uts and business teacher Mr. Kataya for their leadership um for how they generate such interest in the business program. Also want to give congratulations to some exceptional Victor Senior High School students starting with senior Giana Arnitz. She was one of
03726 students from each school district in Ontario County who was recognized last Thursday with an award with um from the Wayne Fingerlakes Boseie Superintendence Group for the outstanding leadership she has demonstrated in her high school years. She is a member of the Spanish business and national honor societies is a competitive dancer and a member of student council. She volunteers for Wintergard. She's in DECA. Um she's at the Rock to Change student summit. Um, and she is a link crew leader, works, um, volunteers at the Bloomfield Food Pantry, volunteers at Special Olympics, you name it, she's doing it. Um, so it's she is a true leader and role model, and we thank her for her leadership and outstanding commitment to the community. Um, and we also want to congratulate senior violinist Benjamin Song. Ben won the
038Fingerlake Symphony Orchestra's Mark Bradley Young Artist Competition um on Saturday the 28th and he is going to perform a solo with the orchestra in their spring concert on May 3rd. Uh which is incredible accomplishment for Ben. And like Dr. Terteranova said, we want to make sure we highlight our spring musical that was last weekend, Mean Girls. Thank you, Mrs. Burke Meyer and the entire crew, the musicians and the students and adults who were involved in the production. It was absolutely outstanding. like Dr. Terteranova said, and in my opinion, perhaps the best uh musical we've ever done. Um, and it just keeps getting better every year. Robotics is going to be at RIT this weekend uh for a big regional competition. Good luck to them. We have our Rock to Change student summit on race relations
039next Thursday at Monroe Tubosis. And also next Thursday, um 250 students. We're going to go to Boston, our annual senior trip. Um going to a Bruins game. That's going to be a new experience for us. So, we're looking forward to that. Uh 250 kids on a bus for eight hours, then go to a hockey game. It's going to be awesome. We did have a couple of uh trips this past month. Um thank you, Mrs. Dole, for organizing the pictures. Our SE's club went to Mount to Gore Mountain last weekend for two wonderful days of skiing and snowboarding. The pictures there from Deca uh downtown from uh last week. And there was uh an art trip to England and France over February break led by Mr. Denner and Mr. Redout. Um and they asked me to
040make sure to thank uh Dr. Terteranova and the board of education for supporting these endeavors and these trips for our students. Now Aiden's going to give the student perspective for the month. Good evening everyone. My name is Aiden Kell. I'm one of the student representatives to the board of education. Unfortunately, Bella cannot be here tonight due to a prior commitment, so I'll be covering part of her presentation. The class of 2028 and 2029 are preparing for the spring fling dance this Friday. There will be a variety of drinks and snacks available for purchase at the dance. Tickets are sold on tickets are sold in the cafeteria and during lunch or online with school box. Student council members have spent countless hours working hard to make this dance come to life. This past weekend, 24 Model
041Yuan delegates attended the UN AR conference at St. John Fischer. Mod Model Yuan requires preparation, critical thinking, and problem solving to develop solutions for global issues. At the conference, three delegates earned awards. Sophomore Rav Gupta, best new delegate. Senior Olivia Ofor, outstanding delegate, and senior John Berdick, best delegate. Furthermore, congratulations to all the teams and individual athletes that competed at sectionals these past few weeks. And with spring sports starting earlier this week, I had the opportunity to talk with many student athletes, and they are excited and looking forward to a successful season. Lastly, the athletes would like to thank the board of education and senior high school administration for the continued support in the athletic program. Thank you. >> Thank you all for your campus news updates. So much exciting things going on. And thank
042you Aiden for our student perspective. It's really helpful to hear uh what you're seeing and hearing around campus. Item 7B, management plan update, six to eight, learning and and instruction focusing on science. Karen Finter, Carrie Gadell, Brian Gee. >> Good evening everybody. You might notice that it's only principal GE and myself. Unfortunately, Mrs. Goodell uh was unable to join us tonight, but please know that all of the work that we're presenting would not be possible um if it wasn't for her and her tremendous leadership and support of this work moving forward. So, it's our pleasure tonight to share with you um an update related to our management plan on learning and instruction. It's the um final management p plan presentation um of the year. And tonight, we're really going to hone in on the alignment
043between that four-year management plan, our model of instruction, and how that work is impacted by and has impacted instructional shifts in science. in particular looking at the grade 68 band. Um so we want to share with you what those instructional shifts are really all about and to give you a taste of those student centered learning experiences and the impact that those shifts have had so far. So as you know the management plan uh within the three pillars um our learning and instruction pillar really has that overarching goal um to help uh the district support comprehensive processes and systems that posit positively impact students academic success. A big part of that is the development of an aligned and guaranteed viable curriculum. And this science implementation demonstrates that work beautifully. really thinking about the scope in grades
044K all the way through 12 as we go through some of the discipline areas and you'll um certainly see that tonight. Um we certainly also want to uh reinforce that idea of planning with the end in mind. the importance of backwards planning from those rigorous standards and thinking about uh those learning experiences that will uh develop the students as problem solvers, creative thinkers and how are we using and collecting information along the way about their learning through our assessment practices and really being mindful of what what we're seeing and how we respond. And all of this work certainly wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the support of our instructional coaches, our teacher leaders, um, and certainly um, Mrs. Goodell and and other leaders in supporting professional learning and creating the conditions for high levels
045of collaboration. So really this work is the perfect example of the kinds of things that are happening with that year four management plan. Uh this is a familiar document our model of instruction where we really think about that backwards planning planning with the end in mind to create that student- centered learning environment and the arrows that are coming in from the side. You know I had asked Carrie Carrie you know make sure that in our presentation we're connecting the model of instruction. She's like well it all connects. It's hard not to and even we could have drawn arrows into the the welcoming environment and the kind of learning learning environment that these shifts in science create and certainly in the ways that we differentiate our instruction for students but really highlighting certainly the student centered
046learning opportunities. Um making sure that we're providing collaboration in rich engagement opportunities for critical thinking and certainly supporting students as they're developing their literacy practices by looking at not just traditional text but interpreting diagrams, models, data sets to really have a rich experience in the classroom. So there's so much to be proud of in this work, both in terms of the teacher shifts and development and the quality of the learning experiences that this has created for our students. We'd be remiss if we didn't share with you the timeline of these changes, but I do have to admit these this timeline has been going on for a decade. Um, New York State developed the uh, NISLS standards, the New York State Science Learning Standards back in 2016. And as they adopted them, they had a very
047slow and methodical roll outlined so that districts had three to four years to really unpack those standards, plan from those standards without implementing any changes. Well, certainly COVID hit. It impacted their timeline. It impacted certainly districts timelines and how that um work was rolled out. Um but we certainly after COVID had to regroup and think about what does that look like and what does that m mean here because the one thing that that did happen is that New York State released new assessments for grades fifth grade and eighth grade and these investigations science laboratory experiences that are statewide. They're standardized in classrooms all over the state, but are embedded within curriculum. They're embedded within learning experiences. So, it's not a standalone assessment, but it's rather an opportunity for students to learn along the way. So,
048those were implemented and certainly last year and moving on into the next few years, we're seeing new science investigations at the high school level and regent exams released. So when the state uh initially presented its timeline and then adjusted, we had to do the same. Um we had to be really mindful of the decision-making. If rushed, we could inadvertently create gaps um for students in certain grade levels or we would have to have students pivot between the old way of understanding and experiencing science and the new way. We also had to be mindful of budget implications for new materials or supplies, staff development, scheduling challenges, and how to ensure that a cohort had certainly exposure to all of the content and state required lab investigations across the grade levels that prepared them for these new
049assessments. So the work really started at the K5 level first, creating a cohesive and manageable instructional plan that covered the grade level standards and shifted approach to the new standards. When you see full alignment, those dark black arrows, that's following a cohort of students engaged in our new spiral way of learning. gone are for the most part at K8 discipline silos where one grade level might cover one type of content whether it's physical science or life science it's really now integrated and you'll see that in a minute. Um it doesn't mean that um a grade level if if you see full alignment even though assessments came out before that it doesn't mean that students weren't exposed to the new standards weren't exposed to some of the new content but it really is just making sure
050that we're being mindful of our cohort-based experience and and being able to provision um adequately for them. So when we say full alignment or alignment, what does that really mean? And the shifts are very profound. The focus of the old way of learning science really was content driven. There was a set of knowledge. That knowledge had to be remembered, memorized, and reproduced on assessments. The new standards require a different way of thinking. Yes, you still have to have a core content understanding, but you have to be able to apply that understanding in new and novel situations. You have to be able to think flexibly to problem solve, recognize and and unpack differing phenomena that you might have experienced in the classroom. The teacher is not the facilitator of all of the knowledge anymore. It's not
051teacher centered top- down lecture. It is really student focused, student centered where the student is the investigator, the scientist and teachers are facilitating discovery. I often remember lab activities as a former science teacher myself, those were always confirming, right? Like you taught a certain concept, you did the laboratory ex uh exercise to prove it. Those kinds of experiments are gone. students generate questions and then build experiments to test their questions to gather data um and do that in a controlled setting but still generating those questions themselves. the grade levels, you know, um we highlighted there from discipline silos, those core contents, sixth grade being physical science. It's no longer that way. It's integrated because really when we think about science, think about any topic, whether it's climate, um whether it's environmental, it is really all
052of those disciplines coming together. And so we wanted kids to have opportunities to think that way throughout their instruction. And then finally, the professional development. Really not just focusing on what we're teaching, but how we're teaching it. And supporting teachers in being comfortable with having students generate questions, having students design experiments, having students think in that messy way to build and demonstrate their understanding. So there's been a tremendous amount of job embedded professional learning that our teachers have engaged in and we cannot thank them enough for all of their hard work in addition to those teams that have come together to take a look at curriculum to unpack those standards and to really refine practice. So we want to certainly point out that hard work and thank them. Now I'm going to turn it over
053to Brian who's going to share some great examples and some feedback and progress so far. Okay. Hello everyone. Brian from the junior high school. So we're going to talk a little more deeply about some of the instructional changes um that are being representing the important shifts that Karen talked about in how students learn science. So in sixth grade students are now learning science by taking on the role of a scientist um a chemist, a researcher perhaps and they're anchoring their learning in a real world phenomenon. Something like maybe trying to figure out why somebody might be experiencing fatigue if they're learning about metabolism. And then from there, this approach that we're kind of piloting and working with, really not piloting, um, is encouraging kids to ask questions, to analyze evidence, and to be able to
054explain. At the sixth grade level, we're explaining a scientific process. And I emphasize that because when we get to seventh grade and eighth grade, we go from explaining into higher levels of utilizing those scientific processes. This gives you some kind of an example of the types of things that students are kind of looking at and interacting with. Um, in terms of a sixth grade uh lesson, we move on to seventh grade. It's the same concept. We're still exploring science through assuming a role. In this case, now we've maybe uh leveled up to things like being a physicist or an astronomer, perhaps a genetic researcher, depending on the unit that we're studying. And again, we're looking at authentic real world problems that help drive the investigation. So, for example, trying to figure out why does a
055particular town have reddish brown substance in their tap water, right? Real world things you hear about in the news. Um, and again, like Karen highlighted, that brings together multiple uh facets of science into a singular problem that they can then kind of work through to try to solve. And at this level, we're asking kids to be able to not only sort of gather data, but really begin to analyze that data, conduct their own investigations, and now we're applying scientific reasoning and processes to the evidence that they have. So, we've gone from being able to explain it to now try to apply it. As we move into eighth grade, again, we're still modeling by acting. Um, and now we're maybe a meteorologist, a climatologist, an energy scientist, right? So again kind of an integrated approach but
056with slightly different sort of phenomenon to follow. In this case uh the kids would be investigating why is it that a particular city or area has had more severe storms over time and what is contributing to that and again uh students are learning by analyzing now systems. They're looking at identifying patterns which is a higher level uh sort of thinking process for them. And now they're using data to explain these real world events. So, it's name it, understand it a little bit. Now, we can use it to explain something that's happening around us. And that three-year evolution when we take a look at how that's impacted sort of um student results is pretty impressive. So, first off, the changes that we talked about really represent moving from the focus about learning about science to actually
057doing science. And that's Karen kind of alluded to that earlier. Oh, that's the eighth grade slide. Sorry. Um, so this slide you're going to see is some sideby-side comparisons between 2023 data and 202425 data. Our fifth grade uh had a 12% jump in its proficiency, which really puts us around seventh out of the 25 school districts in the Wayne Fingerlakes region. And when we look at the eighth grade data, that's even a more pronounced jump or a 17% increase in proficiency, which puts us around fourth out of those same 25 schools. And what these numbers are really telling us is that when students are asked to think like scientists, solve mysteries, uh like the Gailtown advent example that was earlier, investigating water quality, um they aren't just engaged more, they're actually retaining and applying the
058material at a much higher level. And that's really the benefit to the new approach. And as Karen mentioned, this comes with a great deal of effort. So we certainly have uh I think I read the early impact part um out of order. Um so sorry about that. Got my sheets out of order. Um, so when we talk about what our teachers are seeing, so the data tells us one thing, but what our teachers are seeing is a direct translation to student engagement and students be able being able to synthesize information in order to make meaning and then apply that meaning to a new real world problem with a high emphasis on literary literacy skills. And that's a shift that's going to benefit students as they encounter the new Earth Science exam and other exams that
059they'll take when they enter into the high school. Okay. And what our students are saying is that not only do they feel more engaged u but they they recognize that inquirybased that's our words not theirs but they recognize that inquirybased approaches really help them learn things at a much deeper level. And so here you got a couple representations of what some of our students actually told us when we asked them what they thought about science instruction. What have they thought about their science classes this year? Don't want to jump too fast. Make sure you got a chance to see it. Okay. And lastly, as Karen mentioned, this is a big lift and it's a multi-year lift. So, what is our future focus? So moving forward uh we're depending on uh really deepening the quality of
060student centered instruction. We're making sure that we're strengthening our questioning strategies in particular to push student thinking forward. Uh we want to increase the rigor um with which students are are engaging in student centered tasks ensuring that they're getting meaningful highle thinking and we want to make sure that our teams feel supported at the PLC level the departmental level in order to kind of continue to move this work forward. really thinking about some of the assessment and feedback practices and we used science to highlight the direction in which the model of instruction is being applied to all departments. So we wanted to focus on science today but you could have done and we could have looked at English, math, social studies uh in the same lens to see similar types of approaches and hopefully we're
061going to see very similar outcomes over time. We go. So with that, we um have opportunity for questions if you have one for either of us. >> I love this presentation, especially having a kiddo who's ready to jump into junior high. I just I think it's super fascinating just as like a parent as well. But a question that I have, so these shifts from grades six through eight, then what are the implications if there's any shifts like at the high school level? So either the honors or not or regions track either way. Um just looking at the way kids are participating in these classes at this point this slide. Yes. Um so I see that there's the timeline. I see the alignment but what does that do at that level? Like just briefly. >> Yeah.
062So >> there some big changes or not? >> Yeah. And the high school courses have very significant changes, right? We saw that with biology last shifting from living environment of old to now biology. Um earth in space is the new earth science which will be implemented in full next year. Um we're we're this year um in both science 8 and earth science. So, so whether a student is accelerated or not is still getting instruction in those investigations and the kinds of thinking and modeling and practices that can go into those investigations and teachers are piloting units that represent the the three-dimensional planning, the integration of those standards with practices and concepts. Um, but it's not a fullyear implementation yet. So then next year, both of those subject areas, whether it's grade 8 earth science or
063grade eight general science, both will be implementing fully next year. >> Okay. >> So they're they're married together, if you will. >> Perfect. And you just um spoke to the follow-up question that I have. I love that all of our students can encounter this type of learning and it's not just for kids who might qualify for accelerated programming, but I just I love that piece, too. So that's really exciting to hear. >> Yeah, it's it's science for everybody. It is amazing to see the kids. Thank you. >> I know this is a predominantly the conversation with junior high in particular earth science and the the idea that you could do that to accelerate or not but does it beg the question of sequencing down the line as they make their way into high school if
064they don't go that route? So for example, is I just asked Aiden a minute ago. Sequencing for science is 10th grade. >> That correct? >> Yes. >> So you're either eighth or 10th, but is there is there intentional conversations around what that sequencing look like in general? Does the state have certain mandates on that? I guess I'm just trying to Okay. So that's a is that part of your continual assessment? Okay. Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Do you want to share a little bit about that or it wasn't always that? >> I see you guys are j Are we like jing right now? >> Yeah, we We actually made an adjustment several years ago where uh it used to be that ninth grade was an earth science course and 10th grade would have been living environment.
065Um and we made the decision to kind of shift that around based on some of the pathway recommendations from the state. Um so that's one of those things that you kind of always can kind of revisit for sure. And the only reason I'm asking is because a lot of the science of discovery that you're talking about with experimentation and whatnot, you know, I'm so far removed from earth science curriculum that I don't I I'm trying to process like for chemistry and bio in particular, I know that there's an intentional laboratory sort of piece. And I know with earth science there there there is a laboratory component, but I'm just trying to in my mind make that connection intentionally. And I I'm starting to see it shape up here now, which is really good. Yeah. >>
066Yeah. >> I think, you know, just very briefly, but I think what helps prepare kids is in this model of instruction, we're kind of integrating those life sciences, those physical sciences, those um earth and space all into multiple years of exposure as opposed to in years past it was like you sort of had it now and then you may not see it again for two, three years, if ever. Whereas now, we're kind of taking all of that and embedding it into um you know, some skill development. So, they're seeing multiple exposure. So wherever they are in that pathway, they should step in. I've got a little bit of chemistry now. I've got a little bit of the physics. I've got a little bit of the earth science even if I'm not in the accelerated pathway.
067>> Yeah. Even I guess sorry to keep going, but the data collection piece too, you know, has that tangential relationship with the concept of, you know, mathematics and where you're going with that later. So this is this is fascinating to see that it's not just about sequencing and step-wise approach from from one to the next. there's these sort of tangential things that are going on that you know I think one of the students said like I now understand the little things better which to me is such a profound thing to hear from a you know junior high student. Seventh grader. >> Yeah, seventh grader. Right. Yeah. >> And to put in a shameless plug, right, your question about about sequencing, I the the state doesn't mandate, you know, a grade a content area per grade
068level, right? They they keep the the uh 912 assessments siloed, right? There's biology, there's chemistry, there's physics, but we know four years of science sets students up for success. Four years of science at the secondary level sets students up for success as they're heading into college. And even though the state only mandates currently three, we know that fourth year is important no matter if they're going into the field of business or in medicine, right? Like it it really does make a big difference. And so we would advocate whether they're accelerated or not, they have these rich experiences across all four years. Just want to say thank you. I know it's been a multi-year project and it it when you say a heavy lift, I know that it is this has been a lot of work
069coming into and like I don't know if the slides do it justice. I know behind the scenes you did a lot a lot of work. >> I can say they don't and Carrie would attest to that. She put in a teaching staff. Yes, you know, pass along the praise to Carrie and the staff because it, you know, it is a different teaching style and it's that whole mindset and like for you're so right, Karen, when you say, you know, it's like back in, you know, my day when we were in school, it was like you you learned the content and you memorized it and you spit it out on a test and that was it. And like, you know, you don't you you didn't learn how to apply it. you didn't you you know unless
070you went into that field you know in college or something. Um so like I love that it's you know because we're in the information age you know the kids can look up some content. Um but it's good that you're still concentrating on content but it's using that information and how does it impact or how do you answer you know solve questions solve problems and and you just that being able to apply it is so important. So that is wonderful and the hands-on aspect you know it's like every super science Saturday and every you know camp invention it's like kids love the hands-on and they learn so much from you know just trying it out and that iteration and that you know all of that stuff. So that is wonderful that it's in the classrooms. Um
071my only question is if you can like explain and I you kind of touched on it Brian that it's like a future goal too is just explain for um uh for parents like how this changes the assessment process too. It's you know because you know you you can't just give a multiple choice test and you know that you know shows you that the student knows those those skills. >> Yeah. So um a lot of a lot of the assessment is now going to be sort of project based and problem solutionoriented. So the products that kids are producing are things that they're coming together to create that help kind of display an answer to the problem that they were presented. So there are still going to be elements where kids will take a traditional say quiz
072or type of an assessment like that, but there's going to be a lot more of needing to articulate in words and in writing their thinking and also then be able to say here's the solution to this particular problem or here's how my hypothesis met with the outcomes of actually performing say an experiment or running a simulation. So the products are really different um that we're asking kids to create and produce which is then going to drive how teachers assess that. >> Yeah. Is is it is it also true I think at the high school level there's significant reading comprehension on the new regent exams. >> Yeah, very much so. >> Yeah. And this approach really embeds a lot of those literacy skills into the everyday instructional practices. Any other questions? I just realized this is
073the fourth year that you presented on the management plan and this is my fourth year on the board. So actually watching this from beginning to end has it it's inspiring. It really is. Thank you for the work you've done and it is great to see how this is all coming together. You don't often get to see the beginning to the end of these things from this seat. So this this was exceptional. Item 7 C budget development update. um personnel Christine Griffin and Dave Facero. >> Oh, and Dr. Teran. >> He's going whether they want him or not. >> Oh, they didn't put me on the list, but I'm just going to start off with a couple slides and then turn it over to the experts. It worked. That's good. Um you see our agenda for
074tonight. This is a big one. This is the personnel budget which is roughly 75% of our total budget for next year. Our goals remain the same as they have really over the last three years which is to offer the best most comprehensive education we can possibly offer for our kids uh within the scope of the community's financial ability to pay for it. We do so by continuing to align laser like on the most essential aspects that we need to spend the money on. Try to save money as much as possible, maximize every dollar spent and most importantly uh be transparent as possible. So three slides I'm going to do then turn it over. The first is what is our financial landscape currently? So you've heard us talk about our struggles with the growing gap between
075expenditures and revenue. Those continue to grow. You can see our projected GA gap in 26 and 27 is significantly greater than this past year's gap. That's because our actual expenses are going up close to 7% while our projected revenue, excuse me, is going up only 3.38%. So that leaves a shortfall of over $7 million, actually $7,658,869. The main culprits in this are the expenses, especially health care, utilities, and in some cases Bosey's expenses. But for example, our health care costs are going up close to 15% next year. That makes up 80 8 that increase is 87% of our total revenue we're getting from state aid and taxes next year. So, we're eating up 87% of our revenue increase for next year, just health care cost increases alone. That's a challenge to bridge that gap while
076protecting student programs and existing staff. And that's the good news. So, our commitment to 2627 is we are not going to reduce any student programming. We are not laying off any staff or teachers. We're going to maintain the established class size parameters and Christine and Dave are going to talk about the specifics in a second around that and we're going to do whatever we can not to have to spend any of our limited reserves when that happens. Uh that's a result. However, the the reason we're able to do this is because of the great work of the leadership of the board and Christine to create a contingency amount in at the end of this year of around $7 million that's going to cover the 7 million or most of the 7,658,000. So because of that
077contingency at the end of this year, we're able to cover uh the gap for next year. But that gap and that contingency numbers are starting to become equal and the next phase of that is the scary one where the gap is bigger than the contingency. So we definitely have some work to do in the future. But I am extremely hopeful of this work. It starts with the advocacy of this board of education and uh collaboration across our entire community including uh Mr. Modles, the president of the VTA, who's been a huge advocate in collaborating with us around state uh legislation to get more state aid. It's about innovation. We talked about the community partner work. That's just one piece of it. We have to be innovative in trying to find ways to share expenses, save
078expenses in things like health care, work with the state and the really the United States government around health care costs and do other things to just look outside the box to try to save money as well as gain revenue beyond taxes and state aid. Certainly efficiencies, that's not a bad word. That doesn't mean I want to be clear, efficiencies doesn't mean we're cutting programs or people. Efficiencies being we're optimizing our current practice as much as possible to spend the money on the most essential aspects because we have a finite amount of money. Obviously, the goal is going to be to move from short-term fixes to long-term financial health. And uh again, with the expertise around us, I feel like that is a definite win-win and that we can accomplish that. So, that's the big picture.
079We'll definitely talk more about the big picture as we move through the next few months, but I'm going to turn it over to Christine and Dave who are going to talk about the specific personnel budget moving into next year. So, good evening. Uh, tonight we are diver diving deeper into the personnel side of our budget uh for the 2627 school year. Um, as we navigate this structural deficit, we must bridge the gap um while protect pro protecting our student programs and our existing workforce. This will work for me eventually. Thank you. So tonight's presentation will outline how we're going to use strategic attrition efficiencies and targeted reinvestment without compromising our existing programs. All right, we are currently looking at the uh total projected enrollment uh for next year projected at 4, 2016 students, which is
080a slight net decrease of about 10 students um compared to the current year. The primary shifts are happening at the elementary level where we're projecting a decrease of 64 total students across grades K through six. Um, we've added another component to our kindergarten projections, uh, including, um, information from the Department of Health utilizing live birth data. Live birth data, uh, shows a decrease in 19 live births from this year to next year. Um, however, our trends over the last five years have been, uh, pretty similar. So, we are projecting at the higher end at 287 to ensure that we are prepared. These are average class sizes that Tim uh went through and despite the financial challenges, we're remaining committed to these established class size parameters. We may be leaning towards the upper end in some
081of those. Um but we want to maximize in efficiency and not while ensuring that we do not exceed them because K6 enrollment is decreasing and we'll be leaning into our established class size parameters. We will align our staffing through strategic attrition, meaning we are capturing savings when staff members retire, transfer, or leave the district rather than layoffs. You'll notice that we're not increasing um our core staffing at the junior high despite a bubble that's been kind of going through. Um and the reason for that is the complexity of the secondary scheduling and the room to absorb students. So if you have 195 students across 10 sections, you're averaging 19.5 per class. Now you've increased by 30 students. So you're at 225. You're now at 22.5 per class, which is still allows us to be under
082that 25 student target. This efficiency allows us to move resources into high impact areas where there is a growing need in specials or encore areas um and foreign language at the junior high class size comparisons. This table shows um that with our efficiency efforts, we're still able to remain within the class size parameters. At K6, you're seeing an average of an eight of 18 to 19 students in K2, 21 to 22 in 36. So, it's moving from 21 to 22. And these are all based on averages. The actual average K6 is about 08. And uh sorry I just lost where it was. Okay. We're also identifying um the increases at 78 and 912 from 20 in core classes to 22. Specifically pulling out core classes because electives can vary so much. So we thought it
083was important to really highlight what the averages are in those core sections. Uh English, math, science, social studies, and foreign language. All right. So, uh the efficiencies um through this attrition that was uh mentioned earlier, retirement, resignation, transfer, we are identifying efficiency of 8.0 elementary general education teachers and we're also identifying uh one secondary science teacher position through attrition. Um we are continuing continuously evaluating other areas as well. Again we do have to invest in those high impact areas. Uh while core enrollment can be absorbed, we're seeing an increased demand in the specials encors and foreign language at the junior high. Um we're proposing a point4 technology and a 6 world language increase to meet those scheduling needs. We're also exploring opportunities to share staff between junior and senior high to provide maximum flexibility. And
084we have a bubble position that we are holding um because of the unpredictability of the kindergarten uh sections. Bottom line, uh, we are realigning our staffing levels to match our current enrollment needs and trends while preserving the integrity of our class size parameters and maintaining all existing student programs. And I'll turn it over to Christine for the rest of the budget presentation. >> Good evening. There we go. So, uh, moving on to our financial details. We're going to begin with an update to our bus fleet replacement plan. Please note that this slide is just an update from previous presentations. Um, we've revisited these figures uh with our vendor resulting in a minor uh adjustment to the number shared earlier. So specifically, um, we intend to finance for this round of our, um, vehicle replacement cycle.
085Um, it's increased by about $7,000 to 1,566837. In previous presentations, we've shared segments of our planned expenditures. Um, this slide represents a comprehensive rollup of projected expenditures across all of our budget lines. Our total proposed 2627 budget stands at this time at 117,360,97 which is a $6.91% increase over the current year. The primary drivers of this increase are in our some of our non-discretionary lines. Um, fringe benefits account for about 29, which is the third line there, 29.7% of our overall expenditure budget. Um, that is going up 10.72% adding 3.37 million to our um costs. This is largely driven, as Dr. Teranova had mentioned, by a 15.19% increase in our health insurance costs, which is about $3.1 million. um other benefits aren't increasing as much. That's why we have a net of 10.72%. There's actually
086our teacher retirement system rate is going down by a percentage which was a nice um a welcome uh savings for us. Salaries account for about $70 million of our budget or 63%. Um, as David noted earlier, um, our 2.52% increase in instructional salary does reflect the savings realized through this strategic attrition. Um, we are currently analyzing the non-instructional salary line. Uh, I know that looks like it's going up 8.37%. I think there's some anomalies in there that we are going to revisit on that and we'll find some savings. But I do uh know that some of the drivers to that figure is overtime uh due to staffing shortages in in some of our departments specifically transportation. Um Boseies accounts for about eight um services account for about 8.66%. That's the third budget line from the
087bottom. Um that's um 8.66% of our total budget. Um that had the next highest increase of about 13.69% 69% or 1.22 million. Um the Boseies costs um that still remains a preliminary figure. Uh we're waiting numbers from Wayne Figer Lakes Boseies to come in later this month. So we'll be able to lock that down a little tighter uh and have a little better understanding of that. Um this line includes administrative services through Boseies. Um our data processing and technology p purchases along with special ed placements uh and occup occupational educational costs. Uh notably in that line uh part of that that increase is about um $38,000 of that uh is for the newly um developed early college access coser. Um it's run through Boseies. Um running these running the cost through Boseies as you know
088um uh provides aid to us. So what these are are our students that are uh taking courses through FLCC and MCC. Some of those courses are taught at FLCC but some of them are caught taught here by our own teachers. By transitioning this cost to a Boseies line uh that enables us to get aid on those salaries that we're already uh spending money on. So, um, this is a new item in our budget for next year. It's actually we're going to experience the first expense this year. It wasn't budgeted this year, but next year we will have aid coming in for those expenses. So, we're still working out the final details on it, but in short, um, you know, if if we do spend the full $38,000, I don't know that that's exactly where we'll
089end up. Um, that would generate roughly $190,000 in aid for the district. So again, strategically trying to maximize our aid uh for expenditures that we're um either already incurring or uh need to incur. Uh tuition, uh that's another line that had a big jump. Um uh that's the rising cost of um specialized placements. And then again, the other line down at the bottom that you know looks like a 50% increase. That's that inter fund transfer. That's that $100,000 capital outlay project. That's just where it's classified. That $100,000 was previously in our Boseies line uh for a project that we had done through Boseies and we got Bosey's aid on that. When we look at our revenue streams, we see a total increase of uh on the blue line of $3.5 million or 3.38% uh from
090the prior year. Um while we project 4.2 29 the first line there for uh as an increase in our tax levy uh generating 2.5 uh 9 million in new local revenue. Our state sources grew by um um 2.61% which is um about halfway down the slide. When you weigh these available revenues though, against our $17 million increase in expenditures from the previous slide, uh we're facing an initial budget re revenue shortfall, as Dr. Teranova had mentioned, of $7.6 million. Just to put this um these numbers in uh perspective, this chart, this chart shows a visual comparison of our new revenue, the green bar there, of $3.5 million um against the um cost increases, our health insurance in the yellow bar, and our projected budget deficit, the red bar. So, as you can see, our total
091projected revenue increase from all sources is $3.5 million and our health insurance increase is 3.1, which is 87% of our total new revenue being consumed by just one expenditure line. So, this kind of visualizes that core challenge that Dr. Re Dr. Teranova had mentioned earlier that where our re revenue growth is not keeping space pace with even our non-discretionary expense line item growth. Um this is creating a a growing structural deficit. It's going to require us to move away from short-term fixes and look at long-term sustainability. So uh as you know, we've talked about this before. You really have three ways to fill a budget gap. Um you can raise revenue, lower expenses or use fund balance or reserves. Um to raise revenue, we face a few challenges. Um here we are constrained by our
092tax cap formula and state aid formulas where a 1% foundation aid increase only yields us $271,000. So to fill a $7.6 million budget gap with state aid, they'd have to have a 28% increase in foundation aid. if we um you know we're also restricted by the tax cap um we simply can't tax our way out of a situation like that. So if we were to raise the tax levy by nearly 13 we would have to raise it by nearly 13% to be able to co cover a budget gap such as this. The other option is to reduce expenditures which that's very difficult to do uh given that 76% of our budget is personnel related cost and subject to contractual obligations. uh and health insurance market volatility. The other option is to utilize fund balance in
093reserves. Um this year we appropriated $3.6 million of last year's year-end fund balance to cover the 2526 budget gap. At this point in the 2526 year based on current projections, we expect to have between 6.8 8 to 7 million available at the close of the school year to help balance the 2627 budget. This is really due to our built-in contingencies. However, I must emphasize that this is very likely the last year that we're going to be able to adopt that strategy, at least to this extent. This is um kind of taking the look at the health of our reserves. Um we reviewed this back in December, but it's critical um context when discussing a deficit of this magnitude. Our total reserves, both capital and operating in the at the end of 2025 school year, um
094stands at $10.1 million. This table, you've seen this before, uh just provides a multi-year uh data behind that chart that you just saw. So rather than uh focusing on any single line, I'm going to highlight the overall trend in our operating revenues on the next slide. So these are our reserves excluding capital. Um, so this really when you're looking at that, this is um our safety net. The restricted accounts that we maintain that shield our operations from sudden spikes in mandatory costs such as pension costs, workers compensation costs, increases, or unemployment. We refer to these as our operating reserves. They are reserves balances excluding our capital reserve. Um, this right now stands at about $6.8 8 million or 6% of our overall budget. So, if you're doing the math in your head, um I want
095to leave you with a very cautionary note. Our total operating safety net of $6.8 million is now actually less than our projected $7.6 million budget gap for next year. This underscores that our accumulated savings can no longer bridge the the structural gap created by our rising non-discretionary um costs. Our focus remains um going forward on monitoring the state budget and m and identifying further efficiencies. We will provide another budget update on March 26. So, our final u milestones for the budget this year include uh Thursday uh April 16th for where the board um adopts the 2627 budget. May 5th is our budget hearing and meet the candidates night. May 19th is our uh budget vote and board of education election. At this time, we'll welcome any questions that you may have. >> I have a
096question. I think it's a Dave question, not a Christine question, I think. >> Um, so looking at the slides with the efficiencies and the reinvesting high impact areas. So looking at the nine positions on the efficiency slide, eight elementary gened teachers, one secondary science teacher, the next slide shows a point4 and a 6 in like the math of this position of those two positions. Does that is that equivalent to like a 1.0 O full-time in terms of like benefit salary or not really because they're like like the 6 and the point4 together make a full-time position. I know it's different disciplines and it can't be the same person but does it in terms of like salaries and benefits for those two individuals. Does it really shake out to be like a point like a 1.0
097position? >> Uh it can be. Um we're it kind of depends on how we fill it and uh what that looks like. >> Okay. Um and so then the positions for the reinvesting high impact areas that's considered separate from the nine efficiencies up above like those two position those the two part-time positions and the full-time position from that slide doesn't cancel anything out in the slide above. >> Depends how you look at it. >> Okay. Uh so you could look at it as an efficiency if it's of a total nine but the adding in of the point4 and the 6 you can look at it as cancelling out to eight. >> Okay. And then my final question I'm not necessarily advocating for this just a curiosity of practice in the district currently. Um is teacher
098overages a practice at all? So if there's like a full-time teacher but their their load is over their 1.0 appointment do they get does that the thing that we do here at all? Well, I'm not saying that we should, but like let's say that there's an art teacher who takes on additional sections over what their contract is. Has that ever been done? And do we do that? >> Yes. Uh we do that at uh both the junior high and senior high um pretty consistently. Um and you'll see um some contractual additional pay associated with that. >> Okay. Thanks, Any other questions? >> One quickie. What was included in fringe benefits other than healthcare? >> So, the employee retirement system, which is um your non-instructional salaries based on your non-instructional salaries, that rate did go up
099a little bit this year. The teacher retirement system, that rate did go down. Um that would be your our workers comp insurance premium which actually went down a little bit. Um and uh unemployment expenses. Um boy, I had a whole had the have the list back in my in my my laptop. But um >> that's good. >> Yeah, it's it's it's non instruction not other employment costs. Um one bright side too is dental insurance didn't go up. um that stayed flat. Um so those types of other fringe benefits. >> What are the number of employees we have right now roughly? Does anybody know off the top of their head total employees for the district? >> Are we about 800? >> Something like that. >> I think Yeah, I think we're about 530 in in instructional
100staff and about 800 overall. >> Thank you. >> I'm not sure if that includes part-time. I'm not the personnel person, but back. >> We can get you that information >> for the over just I think for clarity I think I understand it but for everyone for the overloads for lack of a better expression those are one optin correct >> teacher overloads >> yeah teachers uh take other positions as as far as I would know that opt in not sometime not always >> not always opt in >> okay but So contractually though, does the does the teacher have the ability to turn that back? >> In other in other words, we need someone to take an overload and you have three teachers. Does that does it just get assigned to a faculty member or does the
101faculty member have the ability to say actually no, I would I don't want to do an overload this year and then we move on to another. >> Since I am still learning some of the aspects being kind of new, I would like to defer to our high school junior So, um, contractually, um, we can assign up to what we call six sections, uh, at at the high school or secondary level. Um, so teachers don't always have the opportunity to be able to decline it because of student need. Um, and they do get compensated um, on top of what their salary is for that over that overage. We make every effort that we can to not have overages and we have made a lot of progress. I think Mike will attest to that in recent years
102in some departments. >> It's not perfect. Um but at the same time um we are cognizant of it, but there are sometimes where we just can't we don't have wiggle room and and we have to we have to have those overages. >> Right. Well, and to that point too, you're going to have more wiggle room if there's an overage in English versus a a more an elective. If there's overages in electives, would we do we end up going overage or do we just end up saying, "Hey, we're going to have to close off the class list because we want to maintain responsible class sizes." >> Um, we we try not to turn students away, right? >> Okay. And we have a variety of electives and programs now where very often we we I don't think
103we've used a cap for a program or class in years to be honest with you because there is variety for students. Where we start to see some of the issues is particularly in science um and special education. Uh those are the two departments where we have quite a bit of overage. >> Okay. And then thank you very much for that piece. And then on the efficiencies standpoint, would would overloads be considered efficiencies versus if you took all those overloads and hired 1.0 FTE or 6 FTE? Is it an efficiency to do the overloads financially for the district with the faculty rather than >> actually? Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. We haven't necessarily explored expanding though, >> right? One of the challenges is the uh >> Thank you. That's answered >> with with the overages. It's
104mainly because we can't if we can't find a point two science teacher or a point three some other teacher it's difficult to find somebody and uh but you know Mike and I have talked it's not great for most teachers um to teach that many sections. So, it's not something that we're actively looking at to try to save money in any way. It's really something that we try to minimize as much as we can. But one of the challenges we continue to work together on is trying to find part-time teachers who are willing to come in for an hour to two hours a day and teach because that's where the that's where the chunks of time are. >> Is it more financially beneficial with the overages because you don't have like the benefits piece on top
105of it? It's extra salary, but there's not extra money beyond extra salary being paid to those staff members. >> Yeah, correct. If you're bringing on additional full staff for that, you're paying the health insurance, all the benefits, fringe benefits that come with it, and that will inevitably cost more. Yes. >> Okay. Would we be able to see what the overages are currently? I'm just I'm curious about this. >> Of course. >> Thank you. >> We can get that. And then one other follow-up question that we can't answer right here, but I'd be interested, Dr. Turnover, if it's possible in the future to survey those faculty members, faculty and staff members who over the past five years have generously been a part of the overloads. And we we got some great data earlier on as far
106as our faculty staff survey and basically quality of quality of life in the district. And that was all improving from the previous one. >> Mr. G, you might did you give that one >> the one about the survey of our our faculty staff. Were you involved in that group for some reason? Maybe not about but it was all good stuff about how people are in a much better place from a faculty staff standpoint than they were the year prior or the year. So those things are all going in the right direction. I' I'd be interested in what's that subset look like of the folks who have been >> I think Mike has that information already probably >> that's what I'm saying mayor may have it I just I don't >> I I think I think
107again I he can correct well not during this meeting but he can correct me later um I I just think it's I can't speak for all there are some teachers that are fine with it there are many teachers who struggle with it >> right >> they struggle so I can tell you the morale of if we increase if we increase the number of teachers teaching overages is not going to be helpful to the morale of the staff. >> Oh no, I agree with that. The reason the genesis for my question is a followup for for those folks who are doing the overloads. Is there something else beyond the financial piece as far as their quality of life just to make sure we're keeping eyes on them and making sure that they are feel feeling fully
108supported? >> I think one of the challenges is just the time. The time is huge. It's it's more time and it's very difficult to uh alleviate the stress of having to teach that many sections when you know if you didn't you'd have that time back. So, but there's certainly ways we can look at it. >> Thank you everybody. We just answered all that. >> I have one final question about this and I'll turn my mic off. Um, is there any um consideration with teachers who may not have earned tenure yet in taking an overage? So, do we have non-tenured teachers taking any overages? >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um, I just want to like not gloss over a point earlier in the presentation. Personnel-wise, the um, average class sizes, like I know it's only like
109a little bit higher, but I lived the years of 25 and I don't want to go back to that. Um, you know, 18 in a kindergarten is awesome, 20 is not. So, so like I just want us to all be mindful of like I realize the efficiencies and you know we're tightening our belt but like that is tightening the belt you know it's like you don't want it to inch too high so it's fine. >> Yeah, I think we're very committed to making sure that happens. >> Anything else? I do want to say a a a quick thank you to Christine. Since you've joined the district, the number of times I've seen us maximize aid in in different ways has been quite incredible. And you did it again tonight. And and that's those are the
110types of things we need. We need to find these efficiencies. We need to maximize aid um as we're working with, you know, with our community partners group to look at other revenue sources. But in the meantime, these small little things you're doing are making a great impact. to thank you for continuing to do that. >> You're welcome. Anytime I can get something for 30 cents on the dollar, I'll do it. >> All right, then we are back to we need a motion now to authorize the bond proposition and the legal notice for the May 19th, 2026 annual vote and election. >> So moved. A second. >> Elizabeth. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any abstensions? Any oppose? Motion carried. All right. Item D. Uh we are approving the following trip. Girls volleyball to half
111H half moon New York from October 9th October 10th to compete in the Shannondoa volleyball tournament. And that is the Oh, and then approve the Victor R exchange program for the 2026 school year. Can I have a motion to approve those? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Adam. >> All in favor? >> I saw no abstensions or opposition. Motion carried. All right. We then need um A motion to approve the revised policy manual. Uh the motion is to approve the manual and resolution for the adoption of the Victor Central School District policy manual. >> Brian. >> Second. >> Elizabeth. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any abstensions? Any opposed? Motion carried. And before we move on, I do want to say a thank you to both Moren and Kate for all of their
112work um on our policy manual over the last couple of years and our ability to um adopt and move forward with that. Item eight, meeting reports, uh and Monroe County School Board Association committee updates. I had planned on attending information exchange but um something came up at my school so I wasn't able to but I plan on watching um there's one on health insurance and then there's another one on I believe it's strategic planning next week which I thought would be neat to sit in on and see >> the district operations on strategic planning. Yeah. >> Yes. District operations on information sharing. My bad. Um just quick updates from the legislative committee meeting. Um some of these are from February, but they were post our last meeting. Uh February 16th, leadership from Monroe County School
113Boards did meet with RG& CEO Trish Nielsen. um they said it was a great meeting and uh RGI is very supportive of our efforts is also sending letters to the governor's office um on our behalf to provide additional details on on the grid issue um and so we do appreciate RG& working RG working with us closely on that also instead of the Albany day where there were 20 people who used to go this year on February 26 about five members of our Monro County School Board's legislative committee did go to Albany. They were able to meet um with Assembly Member uh Benadetto and as well as Senator Shelley Mayor's office um and continue to advocate uh for more foundation aid uh UPK, the electric grid issues, um charter school funding, uh all of our advocacy
114points that we've been discussing all year. So, we appreciate the efforts of Monro County School Board continuing to do that. Um, item 8 B, standing committee updates. Any from this past month? I don't think so. All right. Then, uh, item nine, upcoming events. On the 18th, next Wednesday, we have our board visit to facilities and transportation, uh, at 8:30 in the morning. It's always fun to tour those areas and learn more about, uh, what is happening there. We have our budget workshop on March 26th back here in this room. And then our next regular board meeting is back on a Thursday, April 16th. And um on April 22nd, we have a special board meeting for Wayne Fingerlakes Bosey's administrative budget and election of board members. >> Is that the one where we have to all
115like physically gather for a very brief? >> We just need a quorum and you do that vote. Yeah, we can do it any time of day or whatever days works for you. >> Perhaps when we're together on the 16th, we can figure out who can be there and at what time so we make sure we have that quum. >> Perfect. If there is nothing else under the advocacy, I think we want to say thank you to the community for writing letters of advocacy to um our uh Congress and senators. Um we did get a comment from uh one of the offices saying that Victor parents and uh staff members did send letters. So that was very encouraging. So we appreciate that support >> and continue doing that. >> Absolutely. >> Um oh and as a
116reminder, we do have our meeting with Assembly Member Bailey on Friday now at noon. >> Noon. Yeah, they she moved it to noon. >> So for those who can't attend, uh we look forward to seeing you. >> It's in person, I believe. Yes, it is in person. All right. If nothing else, I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> A second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Motion carried. Thank you very much. And we will see you all at the budget workshop in March.