001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right um this is going to be a short little public meeting uh just have public commentary to take care of I think there's one so I'll read the public commentary protocol all opinions are heard everyone should be in active listener each person is responsible for his or her behavior respect diverse perspectives be conscious of your speaking time and tone a limit of three minutes is an appropriate time frame to State your issue speakers may not give unused time to other speakers issues of specific Personnel either positive or negative cannot be discussed at board meetings references comments or discussion that does or may identify
002by a specific student or students by name or situation will not be discussed publicly due to fple law issues pertaining to specific students should be addressed privately with the students teacher principal or school counselor in accordance with policy 1400 public concerns before bringing the issue to the superintendent's attention the board reserves the right to close comments on an issue if residents become unruly or disrespectful or if the topic is something that the board is legally unable to discuss in public if an unusual number of people are attending to bring forth a specific issue the number of speakers could be limited depending on the number of people wishing to speak during public commentary the board reserves the right to reduce the time limit on each speaker until everyone is heard the sole purpose of public commentary
003is for the board to actively listen to the community meeting protocol requires that questions presented to the board during public commentary will be responded to when possible at the board's discretion questions requiring investigations will be referred to the superintendent and will be responded to in a timely fashion through future board meetings electronic mail mail or telephonically provided the contact information is supplied on the public commentary signup sheet I don't have who it is uh I'll gra it oh what happened shk just signing oh just signing I told her that never happens so no public comment oh good sorry about I got tricked all good all right well I practiced my speech thank you for coming everyone we can move on to board discussion um any board discussion on agenda items we just voting on the
004agenda right yep that's all we got to do in the public meeting anything we want to discuss before I no I just wanted to uh say one thing to the viewers at home um the the taxpayers the parents Etc I just wanted to say we're sorry of the confusion last Board of Ed meeting uh it was never Our intention to have any of the parents think we weren't supportive of the Bots that was completely contrary to how we felt we actually spoke to missano after the meeting saying that there would be um unanimous support we just needed to find out what the line items were that were being transferred um and that stems from a communication problem has been going on for quite some time so our frustration was with communication not with the body
005we have been completely supportive of the Bots we love the team and I I think the board as a whole appreciates what it does for this District it puts us on the map for all the right reasons it's a team that celebrates diversity of thought um that's mine I apologize I had no joke [Laughter] uh so the Bots team it's it's really it's it's the best in every part of our district and that's why we support it um it was never an issue moving forward with uh supporting them going to the championship and helping them out as best we can with the budget but we just had to make sure we understood what the line items were before we approved them so that's why there was a delay so uh as a whole we love
006the Bots team we look forward to their demonstration the next time they come to SS we wish them the best of luck in championships we're sorry for the confusion but uh once again it was a communication problem and uh we wish them the best of luck once again thank you good all right um I have one more second uh we have enough people here Rob I have comments okay uh let's well can rob yours Rob can you hear us I can hear you yeah just no comment from me sorry sorry to be remote this evening okay no problem can you hear me yeah yeah absolutely all right um so motion to approve business office agenda motion motion second approve all in favor I I I I all right I'll go four on that uh Katie
007not available thank you very much all right um so that's it is everyone set anything else no good motion to adjourn the I have some comments sorry also for the public so just to follow up with Mr Sansone I'd like to just thank the board of education for approving the amended budget transfer so that we were able to expedite making travel arrangements for soots to travel to the world championship in Houston I also want to recognize the Dilemma that the board was challenged with having only received the request that morning shortly before the board meeting without the detail that you guys needed to make the decision fortunately we did get that information to the board and we were able to secure travel for the team so that's that's awesome we're going to work towards making
008the process of purchasing more efficient as we move forward while recognizing this was a unique situation it required the purchase of airline tickets totally more than $25,000 so thank you for approving the initial transfer and the remaining funds good luck to the team we're going to be following you guys uh the whole way so that's awesome if I could just add on that we're going to have the link to watch them yep thank you you will uh and then also before we adjourn to the budget Workshop just take this opportunity to thank the Board of Education and the entire Administration team who is here tonight for all your hard work and thoughtful planning about how to best meet our students needs in the 2025 2026 school year and Beyond we recognize how much time you
009give and appreciate your participation in the budget development process as we have discussed this is a particularly challenging budget year it's unprecedented in my time here that South Orangetown has received a 0% increase in state aid so this evening when we adjourn to the workshop we're hoping to reach consensus on the re-budget items or the questions about tax levy use of reserves unrestricted uh ERS and TRS reserves and the transfer to Capital and to recap the the past uh budget workshops we share that our district again is going to receive virtually no increase in state aid despite Rising costs and a budget Gap due in part to revenue shortfalls resulting from a tax crap tax cap growth factor which has not kept pace with inflation um and and just Rising costs as we know so
010you've heard from our school and central office administrators about their requests and needs for our students and you collectively as a board have also supported and advocated for priorities that we've discussed throughout this process such as reducing class size and addressing student literacy needs just as an example we have shared with the board uh our anticipated savings with retirement through breakage uh We've identified other areas to reduce in the amount of .1 million that would have no direct impact on programmer services for students and would not result in any staff layoffs at the last Workshop the board asked that we identify additional reductions for their consideration and so we'll be focusing on that but again with the goal being um to avoid layoffs and impact to program and services and with that I'll turn it
011over to Mr Finn okay motion to adjourn the meeting to a budget workshop at 652 motion sorry all right thank you very much all in favor all right all right