001i don't think i don't think that one hold on on the microphone please everybody stand for pledge of [Applause] states of allegiance to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all first of all welcome back to everyone from hopefully a restful vacation 4.1 of the comment agenda items ladies and gentlemen we are about to listen to public comment although state does not require us to hold a public comment period we chose suso because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members of their concerns and issues the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a debate or dialogue please do not expect the board members to respond to your concerns or questions tonight we take
002your comments and questions seriously and when there's sufficient time to process research issues if need be any questions from the public should be submitted to the use of the public comment form which can be obtained online or at the desk with the district clerk we'll have the proper staff members get back to you as appropriate i also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws we are unable to address any comments or questions about specific students or school personnel we would ask you to go through the appropriate administrative channels a total of 30 minutes the beginning of each board meeting set aside to allow for public comment on agenda items only public comments the beginning of the meeting is limited to only the agenda items persons who wish to participate in the
003public comment portion of the meeting are asked to provide their name and specific agenda items by which they wish to speak individual comments and agenda items limit three minutes and are welcomed and if you wish to address items related to a school district that are not on tonight's agenda another common period is provided at the end of the meeting for that purpose initial civility respect for different points of view clapping booing or any disturbance or disruption during either public comment periods not permitted at this time we welcome your comments do anybody want to come to the microphone to make some comments agenda items can you see none i'm sorry go ahead going to speak on um 7.01 [Music] can i begin well yes my library materials yes you can make the connection between that what
004you're going to say and library material so go right ahead thank you good evening my name is manny zhang and i'm an 11th grader at race to ketchum high school my peers and i launched a petition against her book band which reached over a thousand signatures in just seven days the author maya kababe and um the new york state english council have both signed it and yes i've read the book not once but twice students need the option to read books they want to read we often enjoy books that connect to us and sometimes that may be a tough topic such as rape violence or even gender identity people in the lgbtq community and in the minority groups use these books as an outlet and a way to connect to the world to feel support
005this book ban silence these groups these people resulting in making them feel not valid not only was this embarrassment to our school district and community but it was also an attack on the lgbtq community the attempted suicide rate for the lgbtq youth is at an all-time high of 42 percent with both many becoming epidemic the percentage will only increase and i understand that you are concerned with the images but the book is entitled to show readers and experience growing up outside of cisgender and heterosexual norms as we need to reduce the shame about sex among teens it is inappropriate to let one parent decide what is suitable material for all other families and students in addition not every student has the means of transportation to go to a public library or the money to purchase
006a computer to read it online i and many others are upset about how discreet this book was taken off the shelves no one noticed it until my petition it also concerns me how the superintendent is allowed to have this much power to override his own committee's decision to ban it the board told me that my voice was being heard but if it was you would have let students and parents of our district decide on whether this book should have been banned or not from your policy i noticed you crossed out libraries from being able to challenge the censorship which should in fact be allowed as a 16 year old who bravely stood up and started this petition while receiving death threats from adults across the country i'm sure you can handle some criticism and i
007hope kids like me across the nation are watching this and taking a stand against both being banned in their district as well in my hands i have the original copy of the logo i designed for the district library media page last year what i originally designed was meant to represent a district that supports inclusiveness not censorship and the removal of books therefore i am requesting it to be taken down from the site until the genderqueer memoir book is unbanned in the duration of my speech tonight at least four lgbtq plus youth have attempted suicide which can be prevented with increased acceptance and affirmation and one way we can do that is by returning this book to the shelf thank you for your time i think so nintendo let's just say something to that if you
008don't mind i absolutely would uh mandy i'd like to thank you for being here and presenting your perspective on this please understand that this decision was one that i made after reviewing the book based on board policy i have stated numerous times that i have no objection to the contact of the book the topics discussed in the book my concern is the depiction of the sexual images that are in that book and that would be my concern regardless of who was participating in the act that is portrayed in the book so if anyone is taking this as an affront to any specific community that is absolutely not the case i commend you for getting the signatures i commend you for speaking how you feel i value how you feel i hope that you value how
009i feel as a superintendent in my role that is responsible to ensure that the materials that are available to our students in a public school are those that are suitable and again to say that this is being taken negatively by a segment of our community that is very important as all of our community is important is absolutely untrue once again it is not the content of the book it is not what is discussed in the book i understand that i don't have an objection to that the objection that i have is the sexually explicit depictions that are in that book so i felt it was necessary for me to comment on that because i'm not sure that that is what's being perpetuated and i think it's important that people understand it from my perspective president
010lumia thank you and i'll make a comment i have to agree with the superintendent in its entirety there's no one on this board who does not care about students gender or orientation i couldn't care less but i do care about the explicit graphic representation that in my opinion should not be there and i think that the rest of the board feels the same way i appreciate your comments but that's my feeling sir next thank you i would also like to address that item 7.1 timer starting okay good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is tyler jornov and i am a student at royce ketchum high school as a student in the district i would like to make comments about the recent ban of the book gender queer by maya kababe and the issues surrounding it
011first off i would like to commend the school board for this decision while there is far more that should be done and i call upon the board to continue to take action against the promotion of homosexuality and transgenderism in schools this was nonetheless a positive step and should be recognized as such romans 1 26-27 condemns both male and female homosexuality as a dishonorable passion in verse 32 those who give approval to such practices are also condemned revelation 21 8 says that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire naturally including those who participate in the lie that men can be women and women can be men it is clear from the word of god that lgbt behaviors send people to hell i find it disturbing then that so many people have made
012it their mission to encourage others in such a direction including by making pro-lgbt literature easily accessible i urge all of you who came here tonight to protest this recent school board decision to ask yourselves how you could hate people so much that you encourage them in their sexual perversion and in their falsehood how can you claim to quote unquote love the lgbt community while encouraging them in their sin as someone who has personally been involved in such wickedness i can attest to how destructive homosexuality is to a person's health and well-being and i find it reprehensible that there are people here who want to promote it i say to the school board do not reverse this decision continue to fight the promotion of lgbt ideology as much as you are able to do so as
013it destroys people's lives and ultimately condemns them to an eternity in hell and i ask those of you who are here to fight this book and to turn away from your wicked deeds stop this protest you are condemning yourselves and trying to drag other people down with you it is despicable and wrong and you should be ashamed of yourselves that said i am no better than you i do not see myself as morally superior to any of you since i too have done wicked things i too am guilty the only difference between me and you is that i have been forgiven and washed clean of that to quote first corinthians 6 11 which immediately follows a sharp condemnation of homosexuality and other wicked deeds quote and such were some of you but you were washed
014you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the lord jesus christ and by the spirit of our god no one is beyond forgiveness if only you would seek it that is all i have to say thank you for your time time and attention good night any other comments good evening i will also be addressing agenda 7.01 my name is emma munoz and i'm currently a junior at ketchum when i was in eighth grade here a teacher of mine and i worked together to set up this school's first prime club which they still run today this year at ketchum a teacher reached out to me to see if i'd be willing to help them restart the pride club after covid all the students previously in prague club had graduated so there was no one
015to run the club i agreed and i'm now the president and we have weekly meetings about a month ago the club advisor told us about the book genderqueer a memoir and how it had been banned from our district this was very disappointing and frustrating because not only was this ban out of nowhere but it adds to the conscious constant ban of lgbtq books and high schools by banning books that talk about certain topics you are contributing to limiting what students think a good quote to consider from haruki murakami is if you only read the books that everyone else is reading you can only think what everyone else is thinking this quote is important especially now because it impacts how harmful book banning is if we ban books that contain sensitive topics we can only think
016about that one topic and we can only think about what they want us to think this book is also not being forced upon any student it is not on any required reading list or being read in any class while the book raises potential concern for some people you feel it is an important book for teenage students who may be going through similar experiences we also feel it provides a unique opportunity for students who wish to learn about others and gain empathy it is a parental duty to determine what is suitable material for their children and enforce these decisions it is not appropriate for one parent to determine what is suitable material for all other students to put it differently if you don't want to read the book or it doesn't interest you you don't have
017to check it out this banning of books with lgbtq topics is contributing to the heartful larger movement of banning teachings of lgbtq in schools thank you for your time the superintendent once again would like to say something i i'd like to respond to that and i'd like to respond to the comments before again i i am respectful of everyone's points of view um i want to make clear my personal point of view accepting of all different beliefs and values there's no question about that that's the way that i feel and that's the way that i make decisions but again the reason that i recommended that the board of education removed the book from circulation and to my knowledge the book was never even in circulation at roycey ketchum high school uh the reason that i
018asked was again due to the sexual depictions that existed within the book now what i'd like to do is i'd like to ask dr cardwell if she wouldn't mind dr cardwell could you step up to the podium please could you respond to the comments that um books involving lbgtq and other different orientations gender identities can you talk about some of the books that are available in the high schools that address those topics without having the sexual depictions included in the one that's being discussed this evening because i don't want it to appear that those books do not exist so if you would not mind thank you i didn't come prepared today to discuss specific titles that are available however i have searched the library databases for our secondary schools i've also had multiple conversations with
019some of our secondary librarians and teachers there are books in our secondary libraries that do address the lgbtq plus communities and there are several books in several of the libraries that can be checked out we are also several of us are in the process of reviewing additional books that we could recommend to the librarians for purchase thank you and the instructional review committee will be involved in that process correct yes any books okay yes are there any comments [Music] good evening board members i will be speaking on agenda 7.01 good evening board members i am kimberly munoz and i'll be speaking on agenda 7.01 i notice that the board cross out the fact that other libraries are allowed to challenge their censorship which indicating that libraries can't go against their decision the purpose of the
020book is how genderqueer is more than a story but a useful and touching guide on gender identity clearly advocating for the lgbtq plus community but especially the part of the community that can feel appreciated and that they aren't going through this journey alone it is understandable and how parents and teachers who may think this as pornography or maybe sexual contact but others this can be a comforting and affirming book as well as maya kababe courage on sharing your story the author of genderqueer and mmr maybe this could be a reason that people feel safer in public which knowing that they aren't alone in this self-discovery journey but this is also an amazing portrayal of the queer coming of age books to be published to the adults talking about the contents of pornography your child does
021not have to read this but something important to point out about this book is that it's largely directed to teens and young adults that are starting to experience their own sexuality however saying that the book needs to be banned from school's outbreak outright denies kids the opportunity to see themselves reflected on paper thank you [Music] hello i'm casey pavone and i will be speaking on number 7.01 i'm casey pavone an 11th grader at royce catching high school and i'll be speaking on agenda number 7.01 katherine patterson once said it is not enough to simply teach children to read we have to give them something worth reading something that will stretch their imaginations something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out towards people whose lives are quite
022different from their own these great words could not could not be better applied than to a situation such as this genderqueer a memoir stands to benefit not only children who are struggling with their own gender identity and looking for and looking for reassurance and validation in their feelings but also those who've never felt that way at all a story like this being as in-depth and honest as it is prevents a way for someone who's never dealt with these presents a way for someone who's never dealt with these feelings to sympathize and better understand genderqueer individuals maya kababe talks about the experience it talks about experiences that while very common for trans individuals a cis person might not even consider might not even consider this provides a unique perspective for cis allies and comfort to trans
023students that they are not alone in regards to the books explicit imagery i would like to gently remind you that the unbanning is only in regards to high schoolers in the year 2022 we need to move past the idea that teenagers must be sheltered from sex the shame that we've perpetuated for far too long only stands to stump the emotional growth of our species it is also worthwhile to note that it is not the school's job to determine what information is and isn't appropriate for a student something that one that is okay with one family uh that one family is okay with showing their children may be considered entirely inappropriate to another and vice versa what is inappropriate to one parent may be entirely appropriate to another if the school's if the school system attempted
024to censor out everything that every family considered inappropriate our libraries would be entirely empty and judging by the amount of support gathered in favor of the book such as such as the petition and in such a short period of time at that i doubt that it could even be argued that a majority of parents find it inappropriate i would also like like to remind the board and my peers that religious views should not be allowed should not be a loudest reasoning for banning items from a public school finally i would like to state that a book like this may be life-saving for an individual whose family are unsupportive according to the trevor project a highly regarded organization focused on supporting lgbtq plus youth a 2020 peer-reviewed study by the trevor project's researchers published in the
025journal of adolescent health found that transgender and non-binary youth were 2 to 2.5 times as likely to experience depressive symptoms seriously consider suicide and attempt suicide compared to their cisgender lgbtq peers if doing something as simple as unbanning a book could in any capacity reduce the chances of a student committing suicide i'd personally be willing to overlook a few risque seasons all right thank you everybody for your comments at this point let's say five point i'm sorry the superintendent wants to make another comment completely i i would like to thank all of our students who are here this evening uh in support of their beliefs that's important that's good stick to your passions you were heard your words will certainly be considered and you're valued and obviously there's a difference of opinion and that's something
026that we have but i would say to you continue to express your feelings in regards to issues such as these they're greatly appreciated thank you thank you that's the bunk 5.01 superintendent john some people raise their hand oh go ahead i'm sorry hello board hello superintendent uh my name is juan vazquez hi my name is juan vazquez i'm a tax payer in the weapons school district so uh i've been hearing all this stuff so what i want to say that i will be disappointed if you don't put the book back where it belongs uh all these kids all they want is to love uh their their their friend their friends that are going through a hard time they want access to a book that may help somebody uh to to to understand what they're going
027through i don't i don't understand why you're pulling that book off the shelf i know this you mentioned there's a couple of pictures in there five or six pictures and maybe maybe as they say pornographic which i don't think so but the main thing is is that all these people are here from love to for all that stuff and then i hear somebody comes up here and spills hate and this is what you're doing by taking the book off the shelves you're allowing the hate to continue you're allowing the hate to win you can't allow that we're school district we all these kids are here for love they're not here for that the hate that was spewing that really got me i wasn't gonna talk i wasn't gonna say anything but the hate has to
028stop that book belongs on the shelf that's it that's all i gotta say thank you for your help thank you thank you okay so thank you we appreciate that all right hey one more go ahead hi um my student is a freshman at boise ketchum and uh it was brought to my attention about the book band recently and i i didn't respond to it until i had read the book and after having read the book i was discussing it with a friend and her non-binary child and i was explaining how the book moved me how it was not simply a story of you know just a graphic novel a coming of age but a very in-depth clarification of what it feels like inside to not understand who you are and your sense of self that
029story alone i think is very potent for teenagers everywhere especially coming out of kovid especially not understanding who we are how we're supposed to be how we respond what our bodies feel like that i found this story to be very moving and in discussing it with their teenage child they asked for it they had been cutting themselves recently because they are confused about who they are and by just discussing the book there was a glimmer of hope in this person's eyes they asked for it we ordered it from amazon and the next day they devoured it so that's one point i would like to make that even just one person if you can save one person with one book that's you know that's a no-brainer to me the second issue i understand that some of
030the images may be graphic to some but we live in an age where people have access to porn on their phones every day every second of the day these kids if they want to see titillating images they know where to find it i really don't think that a cartoon drawing in a graphic novel that's a coming of age story is really so much more offensive than some of the anime that sits on the shelves of roycey ketchum's library you know where the intention is to titillate i i you know if if it was images that were offensive then i feel like maybe you would also be looking at some of your heteronormative graphic novels and not just the one that happens to be focused on the lgbtq community thank you [Music] hi um i've sent
031you guys emails and regarding these this this book in particular only because it was brought up at several meetings i'm a parent i'm a parent and please identify yourself who you are i'm a parent of two students in the walking dead school district um they're both high school students i don't agree with this book being on your shelves i'm sorry there's images depicted of two young men giving oral sex to each other okay whether it's a cartoon or not if if an artist in your school were to draw these images you would not be hanging them up on the walls okay um they makes people feel uncomfortable and whether it's heterosexual doing oral sex or um the same sex it's uncomfortable for people especially for young teens it shouldn't be out there and yeah there
032are there are kids that look up pornography on on the computers and um it's not allowed in the schools it's it's it's not allowed to be brought into the schools it's not allowed to be looked at on the computers um i protect my children i i do everything i can to secure their cell phones from them seeing this type of information because they're they're just too young they can't they can't decipher the difference of love and and and porn and things like that they're just they're young they're growing up i i try to protect them as much as i can when we were kids we didn't have this at our fingertips at our hands like it is today um this book just being out there if you if you want to buy the book for
033your child go ahead go look it up go look it up on the internet it should not be in a school library because it's in the high school library you have high school kids who have younger siblings at home they bring these books home those younger siblings will be seeing these images and it's not right it is not right it and it's not right for even them to be seeing it i'm sorry i i i can't get the image out of my head of that book i i there are several images and and like dr bond said the text is not the problem the images are and it's just it just it just does it doesn't make it okay that's all i have to say thank you [Applause] [Music] hello my name is isabella vargas
034i'm a junior at gracie ketchum i'm someone who has questioned my sexuality who identifies as queer and who has also had her own mental problems and own personal feelings that have come with trying to find out who i am simply based on media i have seen that is hated on people who are queer people who have different gender identities than cis people i've read this book and i've also read books that are in the school curriculum for english classes i take aps as a junior i've read almost everything i've read books that deal with domestic violence books that deal with murder books that deal with abuse and all this stuff and that is deemed okay to be presented to us and whether it's being seen visually or not you can obviously imagine these graphic things
035in your head as well when it comes to this book we talk about how the explicit images are what's wrong with this book but you can make an explicit image in your head simply reading a book like a separate piece or something like that which is in my curriculum this year that i've read where someone got shoved out of a tree broke their leg stuff like that and i just don't think it's right that we have such this strong hate towards the topic of sex for teenagers when it's very frequent you're never going to stop teenagers from having sex you talk about how porn and these explicit images weren't at your fingertips when you all were younger because we now have the internet more widely but you were still having sex at a young age
036no matter what that won't change no matter what is on the shelves at a library or not it's better that people can see what is actually deemed as sexually okay instead of hearing stuff like hate that makes them want to cut or makes them want to kill themselves because they don't see any representation in something like a library and the whole idea that this sex culture is bad and it's damaging us is very untrue as someone who reads at a mature reading level as someone who has grown up um with dealing with situations that may be not very correct for me to have experienced at this age i don't think it's fair that simply because this book had pornographic images it should be completely wiped from the shelves when there are other books in the
037library that i've been made to read for a curriculum that are way more explicit than one image in a novel that's all i had to say thank you okay go ahead i'm sorry hello hello um my name is laila claifa i am a seventh honors student of this very middle school and i wanted to speak my piece about um genderqueer um i'm not going to be speaking about the book itself but after the discussion that has come up about it i wanted to [Music] say that i believe that books like it with the central idea not like the explicit stuff um should be pushed in the libraries of our school because i believe that the story and the message that this book is trying to push is very important to young young teens and coming
038of age young adults who are questioning their gender and sexuality and who need that reassurance in themselves and i also want to state that i believe that students should be made a part of the making of these decisions because they're the ones that are going to be reading these and that is very important to help our community grow as a district and as schools and as maybe just even a friend group or classroom and yeah that is all i have to say thank you go ahead [Music] hello my name is christine vasquez um i live in wappington falls new york and taxpayer um i'm going to discuss a gender 7.01 um first of all um i i find that this book is necessary to have in the high school library um children of the lgbtq
039community do need this kind of book as far as the obscene that which is called the obscene scene is hard to find this book is 250 pages i've seen this um the one page of where the two females um are having the oral sex scene i mean you really have to go look through the book to find it um it's a cartoon it doesn't even look like that body part that they're using because it's not because if you read the book you will find out what it actually is um so i mean no child a child no no parent knows who their child is going to be when they grow up they could be lesbian you know anything and it's not and this book can sometimes help a child that is maybe questioning who they
040are where they're going in life if they are asexual sexual they like males females both i mean this book um really did address a lot of issues um and it's i don't find it as an obscene book i don't think it is under definition as far as the united states federal law on obscenity um the united states uh supreme court um miller versus california 413 u.s 15 24 25 1973 smith versus united states 431 u.s 291. um i don't think that this follows the book um passes as far as being pornography because it doesn't um because there is a three-pronged miller test as follows whether the average person applying contemporary or dark community standards finds this matter taken as a whole to be erotic abnormal unhealthy degrading shameful um it goes on and on the
041whole thing is is that this book in no way is genderqueer depicted as being as pornography if that's the reason why the school district took the book off the shelf because it's depicted as obscene or as pornography it's incorrect because this is not pornography as someone else stated anybody could even look at this can look online teenagers could look on their cell phones tv everywhere is around you sex is around you it's a sexual everything tick-tock young girls doing tick-tock very sexual everything seems to be sexual in this society more than it was when i as far as i remember when i was a teenager attending this junior high myself time's up [Music] this will be the last comment okay there's 30 minutes already so case closed go ahead hi my name is brandi stacy
042i am a graduate of this district i'm a parent of a child in this district and i'm a school psychologist and i just wanted to say that i support these students um i think the benefits of this book far outweigh a few illustrations to a student who is questioning or who is looking for some sort of representation and high school students are not likely going to the library bookshelves to search for graphic images again a student who does search for this book is likely searching for it because they need help of some sort they have questions and they are just looking for um something to help them um that's all i have to say right now thank you all right with that being said thank you for your comments 5.01 superintendent report i'm sorry you've
043got more comments right communication announcements i received from the board of education does anybody want any comments from the board anybody well i'll just make lots of guests make one comment i went to a play at uh john che high school and the actors the sets the musicians were exceptional i hope some of you got to see that play it was really really really really good mama is called mama mia so uh so thank you to all the participants and all the uh the advisors for such a fantastic performance okay with that being said uh somebody else yes john go ahead mom or me i would like to concur with with your comments the uh the high school performances um that we've had within the past couple of weeks uh in this district were both
044very impressive um equally as as uh as impressive uh to me this evening um was the um the eloquence with which our student body stepped forward and spoke um and respectfully conducted themselves um and i find that to um to be commendable also thank you any other comments with that being said thank you uh at this point you should pretend to report right thank you president lumia i also echo trustee morgan's uh comment students thank you for being here and um we are always here to listen to your thoughts and your views uh a couple of things that i would like to uh discuss before we go into the superintendent's recommended budget for the next school year um the wapajir central school district was once again identified for a best community in music education for
045the fifth year in a row i would like to thank our director bonnie king i would like to thank all of these faculty and staff in the music department and of course our students if it weren't for the exceptional job uh that our students did we would not be worthy of this honor so we want to thank you and we also want to thank the parents for all of their support we realize the time and commitment uh that it is for you as a parent amount of productions and rehearsals that our students have and we want to thank you for supporting them and again congratulations to everyone involved the round of applause please one of the best communities from music education weapons central school district congratulations for all involved in addition to that it also
046has come to my attention that over the break the roycey catch and debate club participated at columbia university we had six students participate i i don't have the particular information from from what i hear all six of them did very well and three of them uh received awards the first place is second place and a third place award congratulations roy c catching debate team great job at columbia round of applause for them as well thank you [Applause] and now i'll move on to the recommended budget presentation once again thank you very much director shouting get the video set up here [Music] so okay miss grandel are we ready how are you doing okay so the uh the topic of this year's budget is connecting with our community and we believe that we've done that through
047our budget process um i'd like to recognize the members of the board of education president lumia vice president kellen trustee cahill trustee odums trustee johnson trustee sloshower trustee mcfarland trustee spencer trustee morgan members of the district office senior staff mr darren lulkema our assistant superintendent for compliance and information systems dr michelle cardwell assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction ms kristin crandall assistant superintendent for finance and business development mr richard zip our assistant superintendent for student support services and accessible education ms renee harris our director for human resources mr ronald brouwis our director of facilities and operations and our district clerk and the secretary to the superintendent miss alberta pedro we can move on to the next slide so connecting with our community this hasn't changed dramatically from the last presentation as you know we began
048this process in november so what has changed at the last ford meeting as i was speaking i indicated that there was some breaking news and that breaking news was is that new york state approved the budget so what did that budget do for us we knew what the governor's recommended budget is this budget provides an additional eight hundred and thirteen thousand dollars in additional aid and i need to thank all of our local state representatives for fighting for this additional funding for education i would like to thank the legislative action committee of the board of education the the rationale for the funding falls right in line with the goals and objectives of the board of education and the district so what are we doing with that additional money we've talked about the importance of student
049health and wellness obviously we're coming off a pandemic that has existed for almost two years and we have included as i mentioned last week the fact that we will be adding three nursing positions within the district we will also provide an additional day of late-run transportation coverage at both of our junior high schools so that's additional late buses for after-school activities for our students for our students to be involved contract negotiations we still have seven of our collective bargaining units that we uh will be negotiating with within the next year we have the addition of a special educate education teacher in tuition and we are very pleased to indicate that we are going to migrate from school tool to infinite campus what is that going to do for us that is going to be a
050much more effective communication tool between the schools the teachers the district and the parents and we have met the goal the tax levy increase will be as i stated before 0.83 which for the first time since the inception of the tax cap is the lowest increase in the tax levy and for the first time the district is not going to be recommending a budget that goes right up to the tax cap so the tax levy about 180 million dollars is the approved tax levy for last year as you can see the difference in the budget levy to levy 1.4 million dollars that's a 0.83 how did we do that we have gone through systemically and looked at all of our systems as we are the ninth largest school district in new york state and we
051have the largest school uh managed run transportation fleet in new york state which we are very very proud of we did some overhauls of our systems and we looked for areas that we could condense so we would not be duplicating services we can move on to the next slide so what does this entail an additional 14.4 positions to support social and emotional health for students and staff such as social workers enl teachers special education teachers counselors nurses office staff safety and security officers at wappingers junior high school and van wyk junior high school so i believe this shows our commitment to student health and wellness as well as their safety we have also proposing in this budget that we have a school resource officer at roycey ketchum high school we have a school resource officer
052at john j high school in the proposed budget for next year we will have a school resource officer at wappinger's junior high school and we will have one at van wyk junior high school an additional four custodial positions for district buildings as well as overtime for activities and events coverage why because we are increasing the amount of activities that we have for our students boys volleyball and girls modified lacrosse teams will be added we are looking at a marching band for both royce ketchum and john jay high school we have an additional position to assist with the increased reporting needs related to human resources that are required from new york state as i mentioned an additional day of late runs at our middle school to allow students to continue to be as involved and possible
053with clubs and activities not only at our high schools but at our middle schools we talked about the move from school tool to infinite campus we have new york state district level building project 100 000 maximum the restoration of funding for school level supplies and activities including field trips allocated funds for the continued implementation of universal pre-k program it has been extremely successful this year and we are very very very pleased with the funding that we received from new york state to implement this initiative and increase funding for the preventative maintenance of our athletic fields and facilities so what does it mean for the taxpayers value of a home so let's take a look at 250 000 if your hope is valued at 250 uh according to the current assessments that's an extra 39 estimated
054dollars per uh school tax for the school year 450 72 estimated school tax increase for the school year that is based on the current assessments as of today so again we look at the historical perspective we go back to 1718 the tax cap maximum amount 0.95 percent where was watkins 0.95 2.92 was the tax cap where was wappingers 2.92 tax cap how high could we go 1.42 where did wappingers go 1.42 20 21 how high could we go 3.64 how high did we go 3.64 2122 how high could we go 2.49 how high did we go 2.49 this year again for the first time since the inception of the tax cap the amount of the maximum amount we could go is 1.38 we are below that by half a percent at 0.83 and we've been
055able to do it and we've been able to add positions as well i want to thank ms crandall for all of her work on the budget her and i have worked on this for quite some time along with other members of the district team and we are very pleased as to where we are at this point that we are able to recommend to the board of education so where does the money come from almost about 266 million dollars 68.57 percent comes from the tax levy 29.11 new york state aid 1.42 from the fund balance and 0.90 comes from other revenue where does the money go where are people business obviously 50.78 goes to salaries 32.49 goes to benefits contractual 7.65 bo c 7.16 supplies 1.64 textbooks 0.22 and equipment 0.06 expenses by category instruction that's
056almost 50 54 of our budget undistributed 32.49 general support 8 transportation 5.63 so the budget vote is on may the 17th we will have a public hearing on the budget at roy c ketchum library on monday may the 9th at 5 30 which will be followed by a board meeting which i believe the board meeting will be here correct mrs randle okay we have our website and we thank you for your emails budget at wcsdny.org email us with questions concerns and feedback there's also information uh on the website under 2022 2023 budget but again at the beginning of the year we talked about three priorities that we had for our students collectively as a community as a board of education and as a district administration and we believe that we have met those goals with
057the budget that is being recommended to you this evening and with that i thank you for your time and ms crandall i thank you again for all of your work thank you thank you director are there any questions on the superintendent's presentation yes okay i would like to congratulate the superintendent on being able to add positions for students social and emotional health for security at our junior highs and high schools and for increasing the extracurricular activities and opportunities for our students especially i'm happy to see that you're able to put in another day of bus runs from the junior high so that the students who do not have transportation after school can participate in more sports and clubs thank you very much thank you any other comments i have one quick question i think it's
058important for the community to understand the chart that you gave us uh regarding the amount of tax increase that people should receive for example you said 450 000 you see a 72 increase in the tax so please explain why sometimes that changes that we have no control over that it's my medical community sure so as dr bonk had indicated the assessed values that we have at our disposal at this point in time are from the previous school year so in august we prepare the tax rates based on updated information from each of the municipalities and we have seven municipalities that we deal with two counties and there's quite a bit of information it changes um it changes from year to year grievance day actually will be happening in the next couple of weeks at the
059local municipalities where taxpayers have the right to come in and grieve and speak to the assessors about their rates um assessed values on their property so when we do this calculation we have to use the most recent information we have it is a year old um and that why that is why rates may not line up accordingly because again there's the star piece that also can be put in there this is our best estimate it's based on just homestead properties which are our personal properties not residential properties so it's our best estimate at this time and we always say multiple times this is based on the most recent assessments we have which are not current year thank you mr crandall are there any other questions with that being said 5.03 adoption of the proposed 2022-2023
060project resolved resolved that the board of education of the waffinger central school district does hereby approve the adoption of the proposed 2022-2023 school year budget and the amount of 665 to excuse me i wish we yeah we hope not hundred million yes i'll start over okay uh 265 million seven hundred fourteen hundred thousand twenty-two dollars to be presented to the district voters as proposition number one notice is hereby further given that it said annual election to be held on may 17 2022 the following proposition will be submitted shall a budget for wappington central school district for the fiscal year commencing july 1st 2022 in the amount of 2 million 200 265 million seven hundred fourteen thousand twenty two dollars be adopted and the necessary taxes to meet such expenditures be levied and collected motion marie
061ii peggy all those in favor aye thank you everyone no that's not everybody uh seven i think is uh appreciate your hands all except um kerry keller i suppose okay 5.04 approval of the school property tax report card resolved at the board of education of the waffinger central school district does hereby approve the adoption of the school property tax report card for 2022-2023 as stated promotion marie point of information should the should the note be part of no the record no any questions if it says that stated it stops let's see what's next 6.01 marie does anybody want to pull anything from the agenda anyone else okay okay resolve that the board of education does hereby approve the following consent agenda items as stated 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.0 6.0 six point zero seven six
062point zero eight six point zero nine and six point one zero motion marie second picky all those in favor unanimous okay new business 7.01 first reading policies again uh several policies there suggested the community read those particular policies and uh if you have to make any comments making to the chairman of the police committee mr p kellen all right uh any any addition to the agenda yes i would like to uh make an addition to the agenda second by murray johnson all those in favor unanimous um 8.02 again be it result that the board of education hereby adapts the findings of fact and recommendation of the superintendent of schools dated march 30 2022 which endorsed the finding of guilt by the appointed hearing officer allison smith dated march 29 2022 regarding student number one zero
063zero three zero four three and be a further resolve that the board president is hereby authorized to sign the board determination letter on behalf of the board of education and be a further resolve that the district clerk is hereby authorized to mail the board determination letter to the student's parents motion already second peggy all those in favor unanimous 9.01 comments from the public seeing none make a motion to adjourn all the favor tell somebody okay i'm sorry go ahead and see it thank you so are there um is there an opportunity to put those uh slides back on the screen for an explanation to the public as to the other component of why wappinger's central school district is able to decrease below the tax levy this year as opposed to all the years prior there's
064a component that i remember learning about that perhaps i'm incorrect on is that our tax base has grown it is not just the rate of assessment within the five seven excuse me i'm not good at the small math but the rate of assessment within each town it is that the overall tax base has grown within wappinger school district that has allowed us to not have to go to the cap can we can we have a conversation with kristen for the public about how the economic development within this county has affected wappinger's central school district i i think it's normally it's not done but i think you have a very good question or the extent to which it has not been accomplished when we work on the tax rates at any point in time during during
065the tax process there are the three pieces there's the equalization rate there is the assessed values of the properties and then there's the portion that the district needs in order to be able to support now one of the main reasons why the district is able to not go to the cap is in effect state aid state aid is a big piece this year new york state started running foundation aid which has not been run in 12 or 13 years so by instituting additional state aid we were able to take that burden off of the taxpayers because that state aid is available to us so it's actually like a second revenue stream from the state when you in that presentation we do show revenue in that pie chart so if you look at pr prior years
066our revenue from new york state is about 24.56 24.6 uh it is now at 29.07 so may not seem like a big shift but when we can not have to utilize as much of that piece of the pie from the taxpayers that's how we're going to do so the pressure of having the burden be on the taxpayers is being underwrited by the state of new york this year that is correct and i understand what you're saying with regard to the tax pace growing however the piece of the pie is already smaller as a result of the new york state yes no that's an absolutely good that's a good indication however the part that we're all so busy at our jobs at and so busy in the public sector doing everything that we do what's missing
067is is the tax base for the wappinger central school district growing last year it did when in comparison again we're using older numbers right you can't correct now there were a handful of years where the assessed values which could be the assessed values which are both homestead and non-homestead meaning personal or residential and commercial they did decrease in the past remember though that's an inverse rate so if the d if the assessed values go down that means tax rates have to go up in order to be able to hit that number that we need to be able to balance budget so how do you actually explain to the community the adding on of new businesses the adding on of new properties and the development of the tax base to support the residential portion versus commercial
068well and this is not only applying to school districts it also applies to your local municipality roles as well which actually set the tax rate that's correct so there is some um you know there's some differential there and we as a school district get those numbers much later than our local municipalities do so we get those numbers mid july and we're approving tax rates in late august there's not a lot of turnaround time uh with regard to that but what we do what we have seen over the past two years for sure is that we have seen an increased rate in our assessments which means the residential properties are increasing in value as well as the non-homestead piece the commercial properties increasing as well so i thank you for your time all of you what
069i want to know just to to finish up because i'm over three minutes but what i want to understand is the extent of the information that you're given from the municipalities does it ever speak to the base of the of of the town that you're being given that tax rate from does it ever speak to the growth the economic development growth do you ever see any language do you ever see any charts any graphics not from the municipality um but we do try to include where those increases lie in our presentation when it comes to school taxes so it projections from the school district that's correct from our school from our information but we don't receive details okay thank you thank you very much thank you for your inspiration christian and uh thank you for
070that we're gonna make a push to adjourn second marie all in favor unanimous thank thank you [Music]