Grand Island CSD Public Budget Hearing plus BOE General Session Meeting 5-6-2025

001Okay. When you're ready, I'm going to turn the microphones on. Get started here with the mic check. This is microphone number one. Microphone number one. Microphone number two. Microphone number two. Check. Check. One. Two. Microphone number three. Super mic. Microphone number three. Microphone number four. President mic. Microphone number four. Microphone number five. Check. Check. One, two. Mic five. And microphone number six. 1 2 3 4 5 6 microphone number six. Unless you're talking like me sitting. And lastly, the podium mic. 1 2 3 4. Podium mic. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay, they all sound pretty good. Um, thank you. Link is live. Okay, I am going to keep the stream going obviously. Um, but I'm going to mute the mics here in 3 2 1. Make sure you

002don't forget to unmute it um right before it starts. So, I'm going to mute it here. Three, two, one. Everybody You threw the short impression. [Music] How are you? I'm trying to stop and see you about the calculators. What a show. I submitted the return request early. working on it. But that was confusing because we asked is they said yes. So it was super confusing. Well and I I thought you were just confirming inequality because we had a conversation before they um call the budget hearing to order and begin with the pledge of allegiance, please. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right thank you for being here Mr. Dr. Tims is here

003as well. So, thank you so much. And you know what? To be honest with you, we have a lot of people who watch online. So, I want to thank for doing a live stream. So, all good stuff. And uh for for those who may be watching online or watching this later, uh you've probably heard me say multiple times that our board uh takes this work very seriously. Uh it's months and months of uh conversations, dialogue, discussions, additions, deletions. Uh and it is uh work that is uh based in the mission of the school district but also uh with goals to protect the fund balance and to maintain community mandates. So uh the work that goes on uh each year led by this board is uh appreciated. And today we're going to I'm going to turn

004it over to Dr. Merkel. Uh although this board has seen this presentation, some of you watching online may maybe this is your first time. So Dr. Merkel, if you could lead us through this, that' be great. Thank you. So just uh to recap the presentation I gave on April 22nd. Um as of today, we still don't have a state budget. So uh still no no real updates on uh anything on that front. Um so we'll just uh kind of go back through some of the things that were in the executive budget. Uh we have heard it seems like um two things that we have heard of is the cell phone ban uh has survived. So I'm not sure what the details are going to look like on that yet. But um it was funny. I

005was doing an observation today and they were talking about the cell phone ban and what that might look like. But, uh, we don't have any details on on exactly what that's going to look like yet. Um, so the other thing is is the, uh, school breakfast and lunch for all students. Um, so that sounds like that survived the budget process. So excited about that. Excited to be able to provide that for our students and make sure that they're warm and fed and ready to learn every day. So, state aid still the same projections based on the governor's uh proposal back in January. No new updates on that. The uh revenues uh still the same total revenues uh projected for next year um are 79,321,145 including uh an appropriated fund balance of $6,667,086. The things that

006we've included above the rollover budget for next year are some uh breakfast monitors at the high school, several several club advisors at the high school. Um replacing a current TA position at Sidway with a math AIS teacher, another uh lunch monitor at QSA for behavior management. um an ENL teacher and uh some equipment increases as well as the Viking Voyage summer camp to support uh our some of our students over the summer. So, uh we budgeted some equipment increases to start replacing some of the items that are outdated and broken. Our uh tax cap for next year, the tax levy uh is 41,846,514. That is um a 3.14% increase over last year and that uh is the the tax levy limit. So we are uh proposing to go to the limit for that projections on

007the estimated uh tax rates for individual houses. So for uh a house with an assessed value of 185,000 with a basic star exemption would see a a tax increase of about $90 for next year. And then the overall budget um summary which is 79,321,145. So, that was the uh budget that was approved by the board of education on April 22nd, and that will be what we're putting out to the public for a vote on May 20th. So, for those of you watching, please make sure you come out and vote on May 20th for the budget. Proposition two on the budget is for vehicle purchases. As of right now, our plan is to purchase one 65 passenger bus, two 35 passenger buses, and uh two Ford F350 4x4s uh for plowing and other um services throughout

008the district. Projected fund balance as of now, uh we are projected to use about $2.5 million of fund balance this year. That will change as we finalize numbers throughout the rest of the year. So, uh, here we are at the budget public hearing and our next date for the budget process is the vote on May 20th. So, please again make sure you come out and vote. Dr. Merkel, I I do want to make sure that we communicate, of course, with our board as as you did as you started the presentation, but for our community to understand that this uh is the latest uh budget uh since Governor David Patterson. So, I thought that was an interesting statistic and that was the 2010 austerity budget that he was putting together at the time. Uh so, this

009budget is pretty late. Uh you and the board have created a budget though based on the January executive uh information that we got which was a 2.3% raise in foundation aid. I believe that was 2.1% if I recall and maybe I'm exact. So we are hopeful that there may be actually more money but certainly not less. So yeah I believe on the one house proposals uh they were looking at 2.9%. So hopefully we do see a little bit of an increase in the foundation aid there. Yeah. Uh I think the second and third latest budgets came in 2023 and 2024. So this seems to be a pattern and so we hope that in the future we don't, you know, we can actually count on the state to be on time to turn their assignment in

010on time as it were. Uh and you highlighted that there are some good things for students in this budget which includes you know $340 million for food nutrition for all students. I think that is helpful and there's a projection that it could save families who purchase lunches about $1,600 a year. I thought that's good information. And uh the district, all districts are waiting for the bell-to-bell um distractionfree mandate that's coming from the state. Apparently the governor is set aside 13.5 million. Not sure you know how that is divided by 700 school districts and what the devil's in the details. So I'm sure we'll get more information about that. Uh for the board's understanding, uh I did write a letter opposing uh this mandate, this this law, because I'm worried that it's going to shine a

011spotlight on children who have uh medical needs that are private. uh because my understanding in January that this bill would allow for exemptions for kids who have say diabetes and apps that help monitor blood sugar which is a good thing but once a child pulls out their phone and everybody else isn't allowed to have it I'm worried about that kind of stigma or uh pressure on a child to reveal medical information about themselves. So I did write write a letter to the governor in January. she did not reply. Uh but I did have a lot of superintendent support it and you know so it'll be interesting to see what the final results are in this bill but not expecting too many changes. So very good. I just wanted to make sure we highlighted those things.

012I think our board has already adopted this budget. Any other questions? All right. I guess we can close the hearing. Can I have a motion? Yeah, sure. And a second. All in favor? I Any objections? Any extensions? Motion carried at 70. Then we'll start our meeting at 7:30. Great. So there's a break. Thank you. I'd like to call the meeting to order and begin with the pledge of allegiance, please of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all with us this evening we have Roger Broker trustee Jay Grober trustee Sherry Stuffins trustee Jude our district clerk Dr. Brian Graham superintendent I'm Dr. Dr. Ashley Dreer, president. Sue Marston, vice president. Joy Lamar, trustee. We have Danielle Bruno, trustee. We have

013John Fitzpatrick, assistant superintendent of curriculum staff development and human resources. Cheryl Cardone, assistant superintendent of pugal personnel services, and Dr. Robert Merkel, assistant superintendent for school business and finance. Great couple announcements. Um, if you could silence your cell phones, please, that would be appreciated. And uh just take note that there are emergency exits directly behind me and directly um in front of me in case we need to leave unexpectedly. All right. Um if I could have an approval for the agenda for this evening, May 6, please. And a second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carried 70. And if I could have an approval for the minutes from our April 22nd meeting, please and a second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carried. 70. That brings us to our

014student ambassadors. Um I'd like to begin with the middle school ambassador. Please, if you could have an introduction. Hi everyone. I am pleased to introduce you to Lily Nestlebeck tonight. She is a seventh grader at BCMS and part of our student council. Hi everyone. My name is Lillian Nestle and I'm a seventh grader here at BCMS. I'm part of the student council and I'm excited to share a few updates with you. Last week we celebrated spring spirit week leading up to our dandelion dance. Each day we had a fun theme. Monday was Hawaiian dance with zy day. Wednesday was neon day and Thursday we wrapped her crop. On Friday we wrapped it up with flower power day and we ended the week with our dandelion dance from 6 to 8:00 p.m. It was such a

015fun night. The music, dancing, lightups, and snacks made it a great time for everyone. A big shout out to the student council and the staff who helped make it all happen. This week is also the teacher and staff appreciation week. We've been celebrating all the amazing people who make our school such a great place to be. We hope all of our teachers and staff know how much we appreciate everything they do. Looking ahead, we're excited for our upcoming spring concert with chorus and orchestra. We're also getting ready to welcome the fifth graders from their student tours of BC. We can't wait to show them what makes our school so special. Thank you and have a great night. Thank you. Beginning of our high school representative come up, please. Good evening, everyone. You were actually introduced

016to Charlotte Tower by Mrs. Pel at our last board meeting because Charlotte is one of our two student board members who will be joining the team July 1. So, she is a junior and I'm going to have her give our update for tonight. Good evening. My name is Charlotte Tower and I'm the board ambassador representing the high school tonight. I'm very excited to share the exciting things happening in the high school as sports are in full swing and the school year is beginning to wrap up. To start on Friday, we will officially be halfway through the fourth and final quarter of the year. Many students are settling in to study for the AP exam that have begun this week, starting with the AP biology exam on Monday, and the exams will end next Friday with

017the AP psychology exam. This time can be very stressful for those managing exams, other classes, and extracurricular activities. But in the end, all of our hard work will pay off, and we will soon be enjoy be able to enjoy our summer vacation. This past weekend, the class of 2026 held their junior prom at the Double Tree Inn in the Hagar Falls. It was a great success and everyone enjoyed dressing up, dancing, and hanging out with friends. We had a great turnout as about 110 of our 190 students in our class came out for a fun night. The next day, the juniors held a fundraiser with the help of Chipotle. Many people came out to support the class, and we are looking forward to seeing how much money we raised for next year's senior festivities. Spring

018sports are in full swing at this point and many of our teams are celebrating wins and team records. For example, last night the girls flag football team won in their game against Niagara Wheatfield to keep a hold of their undefeated streak and improved to a 6 and0 record. Tonight the track team hosted North Tanowanda at home and are looking for a win. Over the weekend though, the team traveled to Rochester for a large meet and some of our athletes in including Brick Christensen, Liberty Noak, and Riley Quowski came home with hardware. Lastly, this Friday, the Spotlighters are putting on their spring show, Romeo to Go, a comedy play about a class of amateur actors that is tasked with putting together a low-budget rendition of Romeo and Juliet in a little amount of time. The production

019will be entertaining and humorous, and many students are looking forward to seeing some of our favorite student actors on Friday at 6 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Thank you, and have a great evening. Thank you. Okay, that brings us to correspondence, recognition, and good news. All right, so we have a very special person here. Sky Dreer is here, and we're going to talk a little bit about her. So, don't turn red, Sky, as I share these glowing accomplishments. So Sky is a senior here at Grand Island Allen High School, dedicated Girl Scout who recently earned the prestigious gold award, which is the highest honor of Girl Scouting. She previously achieved uh your silver award as well. And for this gold award project titled You Are Never Alone, Sky partnered with Where Everyone Belongs here

020at Middle School to address the growing concerns surrounding youth mental health uh and suicide prevention. demonstrating initiative and leadership. Sky met with myself uh to advocate for greater awareness and action around mental health. She took an active role in Web Fridays at our middle school, organizing and delivering impactful mental health activities including making uh the initiative you are never alone uh through uh celebrating that through bracelets and decorating sidewalks uh with uplifting messages to foster a positive school environment. In addition, Sky uh interned with Mrs. Stang, a school psychologist at Sidway, where she contributed to the creation of a wellness initiative for primary students and help design orientation programs for our middle schoolers as well. Through her work, she became a trusted mentor and mental health resource for peers and younger students across the district.

021For Sky, mental health advoc advocacy goes beyond earning these awards. It is a core part of her identity. She has dedicated over 150 hours to Girl Scouts, an experience that has deeply influenced her passion for helping others. Sky will be attending Westchester University honors college, majoring in biology, and uh be placed on premed track uh and playing division 2 rugby, which is pretty exciting. and she's also earned an early acceptance to Lecom, which is a med medical school and uh which honestly is a testament to your drive and your commitment and passion for helping others. So, uh let's put it together for Sky [Applause] Der. Be nice, Sky, if you would join the board for a photo. That'll be okay with I I just want to say a couple words as I I do for

022all of our Eagle Scout recipients. Um it's a true testament not only to a But um to her mom and Rick for their dedication, this isn't a one or a two-year commitment. I am a first class girl scout, which was the equivalent to the the gold award back in the day. Um it really starts in kindergarten, first grade when we first start scouting. It's a commitment through all of school. So congratulations both to Sky and to Rick and Ashley for their dedication um to her scouting career. and Scott, I wish you the best and obviously you've worked hard and you know what dedication you can do. So, congratulations. Good to see. Here we go. You're good. Alice, you want to jump in? Okay, so that brings us to the public comment session for agenda. items

023only. So, I'll read a brief uh statement. Um we do have a couple people to speak. At this time, public comments are invited from those individuals who desire to address the board of education on uh a topic which is on the agenda. Residents who have already previously signed up to speak will be recognized by the president. When speaking, please identify yourself first. speak clearly and uh loudly enough for everyone in the audience to hear you. Uh speakers are uh requested to limit their remarks to no more than three minutes and um sorry my reading glasses are like failing me right now. I'm sorry. to speak no longer than three minutes to appoint a spokesperson if a student is a group concerned or if necessary or desired to supplement verbal presentation with written reports. Um personal

024comments toward a member of the community staff or board of education member will not be considered appropriate. Right. So we have signed up um Sky up. Okay. Can you give these to Mrs. Okay. So, this is for one for the board members to take and then if you could pass those back too because it's just for the board and then I got sorry I didn't go the other way. I'm sorry. Okay. Um, yep. Those are those are different different set of student signatures, I believe. All right. Um, so you have three minutes. So, go ahead. Okay. Hello, everybody. My name is Sky Dreer. Um, and what I just handed out in front of you are is a petition that I created for being allowed to decorate our senior caps this year. Um, on the petition

025I got 112 signatures out of 198 senior class students. Um, I started signing. I only did it for two days. um walking around and just having students sign it and whenever I saw them on the petition I have Brooke Christensen who is our class president, Madison McGawan who is um our student council president, myself as interact club president and I also have our valictorian salute and also many members of our top 10 and AP honors classes and I have a lot of individuals who are with high standings in the high school. Um, this really matters to me because I feel like we should be able to self-express ourselves on our graduation caps. And personally, I would like to um decorate it in honor of my next chapter in life, showing many students want to show

026what colleges they're going, if they're playing sports in college, etc. Others want to do it in memory of a loved one who's passed away. For example, my friend lost her dad previously this year and she would like to use her graduation cap as a memorial like memorial for her dad who passed away. So I think overall just the decoration of caps would be a very symbolic and a good way to end our senior year. I have proposed an idea that I thought would be very plausible to um see over for administration. So, we did our senior parking spots this year, which went very smoothly and well. And for that, we um wrote up our design on a piece of paper. We drew it and then we had our parents sign it and um a signature

027of ourselves saying that we would follow school conduct and whatever we're designing. And I would like to implement that into the senior cap design, too. So, I would have a sheet of paper and someone would draw up their design that they want to do. and then their parent would sign it and the student would sign it. And on it, it would say that they would follow the design that they drew for their cap. And if not, they could either walk the stage without a cap if it didn't follow the school rules and it was inappropriate, or they could opt to not walk the stage at all. And I think since the parents would be signing it, it would be a very simple way to um be allowed to decorate caps. Also, um the chaperons at

028graduation, we pay chaperones at graduation. So I think that they could walk around when we're at Klein hands and make sure that the caps are all school appropriate. And then there's a chaperone always at the front of the stairs and I think that before the student walks onto the stage that chaperon can give a double check and make sure that the cap is also school appropriate. 26. Um, and yeah, overall I just feel like this would be a really good way to end our senior year and it's a very plausible idea and the student body really wants it through the petition and thank you for this time. Thank you. Okay, next up we have Anna. Okay, that's fine. My name is Anna, a class of 2025 student graduate at Gren Island Senior High School. I

029am writing to you regarding your decision to prohibit students from decorating their graduation caps. Recently, you stated that students who decorate their caps will be banned from walking on stage during graduation. I believe this is regressive and counterintuitive to what the Grand Island School District stands for. I request that you allow the seniors here at the high school to express themselves creatively and symbolically through the decorating of the graduation caps without repercussion. Please listen to what I have to say on the subject. Firstly, I would like to highlight the importance of self-exression which is an essential aspect of personal development and emotional well-being. We have students who are overwhelmingly eager to illustrate their own stories whilst representing the Grand Green Grand Island Senior Grand Island School District at graduation this year. It is an honor

030that this incredible school is supported by enthusiastic students as characterized on the Grand Island School District website who want to embody the Grand Islands always of lighting initiative. Additionally, some something as simple as decorating caps for graduation could aid students in embracing their authenticelves. partaking in activities that promote self-reflection and mindfulness benefit the youth as they continue into their adult lives. What not a better time for us students to demonstrate our pride and self-confidence than alongside the commemoration of our years of hard work. Lastly, if there's one thing that Grand Island schools have taught us, it's how to act as members of our community. I can guarantee you that the students who are willing to participate in the cap decorating have no harmful intentions. Yes, cap decorating is a minuscule matter, but its lasting effects

031will endure much longer than just graduation day. Something as beneficial as cap decorating should not be restricted out of fear that someone might step out of line. There are simple ways to set boundaries and create rules regarding the cap decorating process. I implore you, Grand Island School Dist school board, to allow your students to utilize cap decorating as a way to garner confidence, make lasting memories, and that creatively bright minds. If you are to have any further questions, comments, or seek help in conducting a functional school approved graduation cap decorating process, contact me through my school email. Thank you. Thank you. I think that's all we have for that. So, we are going to move on to uh curriculum and instruction with Mr. Fitzpatrick. Just uh one item just for your review is the curriculum

032and instruction reports of April. Okay. Thank you. And that brings us to personnel instructional. If I could have a motion to approve instructional personnel PI1 through PI3, please and a second. Second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carried 70 and personnel non-instructional. If I could have a motion to approve PI1, please and the second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carried 70. I think we do have an introduction tonight. Oh, we're sure. P91 I have um I'm sorry PN91 are you oh P4 okay for instructional okay if I could have a motion let's uh redo the personnel instructional please if I could have a motion to approve uh PI4 and a second all in favor I any objections any extensions Motion carried 70. It's a good catch. Thank you

033so much. I think Mr. How has an introduction. Good evening, Dr. Graham and Board of Education. I would like to introduce Melinda McCarthy. Stand up. She um was recently approved uh to be a teaching assistant at Kegabine Elementary School. She uh went to school to be an art teacher um at Buffalo State College. Uh that didn't quite happen all the way. Uh she ended up coming to Pegabine starting in October as a PDM sub um supporting our math uh RTI program. She's been there every day coming in with a smile on her face and she has learned a lot. While she was there, she decided to take her teaching assistant certification exam and was certified as a teaching assistant. Um, and we are so happy and excited to have her joining our team as our

034math RTI TA. That's great. Welcome. Congratulations, Mr. How and Melinda. I just want to add one more bit of information. uh when uh the fire occurred at um Kinder Kids, right? I believe you came over to Sidway with Mike Antonelli's leadership and quickly put together a classroom for your children who are at Kinder Kids and helped them get to their UPK graduation. So, that's just another lovely uh bit of information for Linda and we're very proud that you're joining this team. So, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] I do have one more thing. Any other intros? All right. Mr. Antelli, would you stand, please? So, tonight, uh, as the board knows, uh, you have accepted the resignation of Mr. Michael Anteneelli, our esteemed principal at Sidway Elementary School. While farewells are never easy, especially when they

035involve someone as dedicated uh and well respected as uh Mike, we do so with heartfelt appreciation for your service and support and and wish you the best in this next chapter. Great. Mr. Grantelli served our students, families, and staff at our uh in Grand Island with integrity, with care, unwavering passion, uh and particularly a strong focus on early childhood education. Your leadership at Sidway has helped our students and our staff shape uh the school culture into a nurturing and joyful environment. Sid the kid and so many other your vending your book vending machine and all those great things have just been a joy to see uh develop through your leadership. Uh Mike made the decision to step away from his role as principal to focus more fully on your thriving other business. So this isn't

036a commercial but Nickel City Hardwood and now cabinets is a thriving business in not only Grand Island but all of Western New York and maybe this region. Uh so we're very proud of you. Cheryl and I got a chance to go to the 40 under 40 uh celebration through business first uh with you uh your wife and your partners in this business. So we're very proud of that. This new direction allows you uh to be fully invested of course not only your business but with your family and uh that's a gift any parent uh cherishes. So uh Mike really isn't stepping away totally. Uh I support his desire to remain as administrator uh uh substitute which I think our other administrators would gladly support you coming in and helping in times of need if if

037they have to be away. So that is awesome. So Mike, uh thank you for your years of service, your leadership, and for building more than just strong foundations uh in our classrooms. You know, you've built memories that will last a lifetime. So congratulations. [Applause] [Music] And that brings us to finance. And it looks like we have to make a motion to do I want to do a motion for A through C first or whatever the word. It's actually A through C and G. G is also an actual G. Okay. All right. Do you want to go through them and then I'll ask them? Absolutely. Okay. Yep. So, uh item A is uh a donation from the Research Triangle Institute um for the high school. Uh item B is an obsolete bus. Item C is budget

038transfers over $15,000. And then uh item G is the property tax report card for this year. Okay. If I could have a motion to approve A through C and G, please. And a second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carry 70. Thank you. So items D and E areformational and uh I have a team here to help me with item F. We're going to give uh the board and the public an update. Yeah. I just want to introduce our guests today. Uh but first, I'd like to begin by recognizing our the tremendous work uh that has occurred over many years from our district facilities committee. Uh for the past several years years, this committee has diligently reviewed the condition of our school buildings, identifying long-term needs for our district, and their approach

039has been steady, thoughtful, deeply committed to the well-being of our students and staff. Uh if the board remembers Ashley, Joy, and Glenn were part of the original group uh for the past couple years uh working together uh they started this journey of and they brought of course a diverse perspective not only from their uh lens but the lens of the constituents that have uh voted them on board. When Glenn chose not to run again for the board, Roger stepped in seamlessly, continuing the tradition of scrutiny and dedication toward this mission of uh drafting a capital project. Over many months, the committee has met consistently reviewing mountains of data and weighing difficult decisions. Tonight, we're at an important milestone. The committee is presenting a draft of a proposed future capital improvement project. call it an early

040blueprint that reflects the hard work of the committee and is now ready for review and feedback from the rest of the board. So, as we listen to the presentation today, please understand it's not a finished product. Uh it's a thoughtful and forwardthinking starting point. It's going to invite collaboration and constructive dialogue from the uh from all of the board members as we continue toward this uh the development of this project and we hope that it meets the educational infrastructure needs of our school community. Tonight you're going to hear a draft that includes creating climate controlled learning environments, ensuring our classrooms, particularly at the elementary schools, are warm in late fall, winter and early spring, and cool in late spring, summer, and early fall, and dry year round. We're going to be talking about aging boilers,

041unit ventilators, outdated HVAC systems. We're going to be talking about a new roof at the middle school and strengthening school safety with features like a oneb button lockdown system at the middle school and high school campus, excuse me, that supports rapid emergency response. We're really looking forward to this presentation from our architects and the construction manager and our financial adviser. So today we have Matthew Cummings and Kobe Krauss from Elling Wright Architectural. We have Von Miracle, a project executive from Campus Construction, and Rick Tims, our financial advisor. So, without further ado, I guess we will have Matt join us and uh lead us with this presentation. Uh good evening. Thank you for having us. Uh again, my name is Matthew Cummings. Uh quickly for the agenda tonight, we're going to kind of focus on uh

042four key things uh that we've been working on over the last seems like years. Uh but uh we've been making some steady progress. So we'll look at the long-term planning process um and try and just kind of give you a brief reminder of what we've been doing and how we've uh kind of selected some of the scope. We'll review some of the project financials. my favorite part uh potential scope and then just a brief kind of outline on the schedule itself. Okay, so when we talk about long-term planning, it's really not just this upcoming uh capital project. It it's looking 5 years out, 10 years out, 15 years out because just like you have at home, uh you have a long list of things that you have to take care of at your house, but

043the pocketbook might not be able to afford it. So what we're uh trying to do is plan the district's future, help you guys guide you through uh capital project planning for the next 15 20 years, not just today. Okay. So when we start looking at it, we kind of break it up into two different areas. Building needs, uh we're looking at existing conditions, existing concerns, and also incorporating facilities inspections. So, every 5 years, the state requires the district to do a building condition survey. We recently completed one uh a couple years ago. We've turned all that data over to the district and use that to help build uh some of the scope items for this upcoming project and then also added things to the long-term plan itself. I think we're facility that's been it's been

044completed. So, we just recently than last year. This summer. Yeah. Okay. So, when last summer or this summer? This past summer. Yeah. Summer 2024. Uh I believe it was we looked at it. You looked at it and we received a report because the last time we got a big 210 page. I I don't remember receiving that as a board. I don't know if you guys looked at your committee. I don't remember receiving that. Maybe I wasn't here at that meeting, but I have a copy if you could get that for us. Yeah, I'll double check that we didn't we are still because I was waiting for the announcement that we're getting another one. Yeah, we are still working on it. Um, you know, there's still still some aspects that we are finishing up on it.

045The majority of them completed, but we talked about in the facility 100%. Okay. And then we also focus on district wants. Um, so space needs, uh, people desires, and then, uh, any additional educational plans that the district is trying to achieve. We try and combine those into a successful facility, um, long-term project. Okay. And then we kind of also focus on uh, well, well, actually, let's get into a little bit more detail with Libby. she's going to be chatting with you guys about um the building needs itself. So to actually go through and prioritize the building condition survey is one of the things that we do when we turn it over to the district. So going through and doing one, twos, threes and maintenance items and actually going through the thousands of different things that

046are on site team is reviewed and saying this must be included in a capital project, this should be included in a capital project or this would be a nice component to add into it. So that's kind of how we prioritize these BCS items and when we talk about the scope a little bit later, you'll see some of those items as well. So identifying the space needs that really starts by involving the right people. So we've met with the district facilities committee. Tonight we're meeting with you as a board of education. We've met with Brian, with Bob, with Phil, um, and some of the principles as well to get their input in the project scope that we've put together, you know, in kind of all the items that we've included with this potential scope. I'm going

047to hand it back to Matt for some more capital project updates. So, the other part of the agenda is to talk about the district financials. Um, I think it's most appropriate to have the district financial advisor kind of give you guys the rundown on building a ratio, uh, MCAs, and all the fun stuff that's dollar related. Sure. Hi, I'm Rick Tims. I'm your financial advisor. Uh first of all, uh we've got to keep in mind that there is state aid support for capital projects. Your building aid ratio they call it or the percentage of building aid support that you're eligible for right now is 71.5%. So what that means is that every 71.5 cents on the dollar that you do in your construction project that is state aid eligible, you would receive that type of

048support. You would usually receive it over a 15-year period and you would advertise any borrowings to pay for the project and you're also going to be using some of your capital reserve as well as some of your debt service fund to fund the project. So technically speaking, part of our job is to go through uh with the architect, the construction manager the scope of the project and to determine what parts are actually aideligible versus those that aren't and then see what we can actually achieve in terms of state support. Uh and then apply for that state support. Bob, can you hit the next slide here? We've got a little timeline here. There we go. Let's go to that timeline. The timeline is very important. We've got a timeline because what has to happen here is

049we've got to provide public notification as part of part of the finance plan. For instance, no more than 49 days, no less than 45 days notification has to be provided to the uh residents of a school district to vote on a plan. We've come up with a tenative, of course, this tenative subject to what you decide to do uh for a vote in December. Uh, and what happens is we have to have a whole bunch of requirements made by the time we vote in December and advertise them. One of the things we have to have is actually a scope and we're going to talk more about that tonight. In other words, what items are in the project? How much are they eligible? What kind of state support can we get? How are we going to

050have a timeline for the actual implementation of the project? When is the state aid money going in? How much money is the district going to use of its own money as a down payment to offset any tax impact? What tax impact could there be if there's any? And those types of things. Also in the timeline is also a number of publication dates, but we're really targeting a date in October for the board to pass a couple of resolutions for the capital project. The resolutions would include a resolution to actually approve the capital project itself. There would also be a resolution for the state environmental uh uh review act. So we have to make sure with the seeker resolutions for environmental impact are settled at that meeting. We would also have to have make sure we

051have a resolution to use your capital reserve money. Okay, which is actually voter approved in prior years. You've saved the money ahead of time, but we need voter approval to release the money to be used for the capital project. that money would become a down payment on the capital project so that you would actually borrow less money and therefore have less debt, less impact on taxes, less impact on your budget. So all those are laid out after the public vote. We have a public vote in December. Uh and you would follow your normal procedures for that public vote. You would have the publication dates of course. You would have the voter referendum and everything would be voted on with positive passage of all those resolutions. The board would then transfer the money from its capital

052reserve into what's known as the capital fund to pay for parts of the project. That money would be spent first before any money is borrowed. Therefore, you're not paying interest on money that you don't need to borrow ahead of time. We would work with the construction manager and the architect to come up with basically a cash flow for that to make sure that everything goes well to the economic advantage of the district. The district will also have to pass a bond resolution. In other words, by law, even though you pass the ability to borrow money, by law, you have to give the voters another attempt to look at what you're going to borrow. You would pass this resolution. And if there's no objection because something improper, and we expect none to be there. I've been

053doing this 40 years and we haven't had an improper act yet. So, the idea is is that within 21 days, then we have the ability to borrow the money. The amount of money we would be borrowing would be the amount that we are not going to use for we are going to use from the capital reserve minus the cash flow. We would probably borrow money for one year only. It's called a bond anticipation note. It's called a band. We call it a band. Bond anticipation note. It's a one-year borrowing that has a lower interest rate than a regular bond. So this way we're not borrowing the entire amount for an entire capital project when we don't need the money yet. The project will probably be phased over a period of time, 18 months perhaps to

054two years, depends upon your scope. And what we would actually do is then pay that that ban back and then borrow the money it to finish off the project. So the idea is to minimize any interest impact on the school district, its budget for its taxpayers. So cash flow is going to be really important. We're also going to coordinate with the CM and the architect the actual phasings of any project that you do. Uh the scope will also be determined what we will do first and second, how we how much money we will need for lead time money, if we're going to have any long lead items and things like this. We'll help coordinate all that as well. The idea is to try and spend our cash first to minimize any interest expense on the

055district and therefore impacting the budget for taxpayers. So that's basically how the timeline would work throughout the initial phases and right through the project. So we also have something known as the maximum cost allowance. Now this is going to sound a little complicated, but it's not that bad. Every building in the district has a maximum amount of money that can be paid by the state in state support for building projects within a fiveyear period. So in other words, Kegabine has a certain amount of money that the state will pay this district over a 5-year period for general construction. They also have an X amount of dollars that they will calculate for what they call incidental expenses, which would be like paying the architect, paying the CM, taking care of the finances, the bonding costs, attorney

056cost, storm water management, things like this site work that are incidental to the project. So this number changes by the way every month. We had provided some uh estimates a number of months ago from the state education department here and those those estimates as of Friday all changed. Okay. So I provided an update to you uh for each building. So there's a maximum amount that can be paid and you'll see it in this document right here. So what we would actually have is for instance you'll see the buildings lined up along the top and then you'll see basically a construction and related expenses and you'll see that there's a blue line in the middle and that is the maximum amount of aid that could be paid for that building within a 5-year period. You'll notice

057that you have done a couple of capital outlay projects and those are then subtracted from that number. So we we keep that updated. So what would happen is let's give an example in keabine for instance right now you're eligible for $10,854,000 of building aid for items that are aid eligible. Now when I keep saying aidel eligible I keep saying it over and over. What does that mean? Okay, if you're going to put a new roof on a building aid eligible. New windows eight eligible. Doors eight eligible. Repair the floors not repair the floors replace floors eight eligible. No basic repairs are aideligible, nor is generally furniture eligible. For in for instance, say you wanted to replace cafeteria tables. So part of our job will be to go through the scope and determine what parts are

058going to be eligible versus what aren't and how they're going to affect your finances. Okay? See how that would work. Now you'll notice there's another section down here at the bottom called site work and incidental. Same thing. For instance, if you wanted to put, say, a playground in, certainly aideligible. Parking lots, sidewalks, things like this, all eight eligible. You put a couple bushes around the outside, for instance, aid eligible. Okay. But there are some things that will not be aideligible. For instance, uh for instance, furniture would be down there in that in that section as well. Abestous abatement is eight eligible. But what we're trying to do is figure out exactly what you decide finally in the scope. then take a look at that for eight purposes. Now, if you go across the buildings, you'll

059see that there's a amount for each one of your schools. Each one press boxes, concession stands, those types of things are not aideligible. So, any work on those are really going to be part of that cash we're going to have to put down to offset any taxpayer impact. Right now, we don't see that in any particular scope or we would have identified it in this list. the Echo Daily building over there right now. I think uh we would actually have to investigate to find out the aid eligibility for that building as it is not currently student occupied space which is basically usually nonatable by the state education department. So we would have to investigate that and get the state education department uh a ruling on that would impact then any work over there the work

060on that building would be perhaps nonatal eligible. The second sheet, if you'll notice, we've got something a little more filled in. What we did is we took a preliminary scope provided to us by architect and CM and we basically plugged those numbers in. So, you'll see it says proposed capital project, proposed EPC. See those numbers going across the page. So, there they are right there. And those numbers going across the page, those would be subtracted from your maximum cost allowance. And so you'll see in this example, hypothetically, there's about $11 million worth of construction work in Teabine that's right now in the preliminary scope and about $567,000 worth of EPC work, energy performance work. So what would happen is you'll notice it exceeds the a ceiling. See that? By about $715,000. That does not mean

061you cannot do the project. We've just got to make sure we have the finances to support the part that the state will not support if that's desired by the district. Does that make sense to everyone? So, we actually and you'll notice there's a couple places where they are not able. You'll see they're in red. So, just preliminarily as an example out of around say 768 to 7072 million project around two 2.13 million on the bottom there in red is not a eligible. So the district could support it with using its debt service fund and its capital reserve. Now these are really two different pools of money and they have two different rules. Capital reserves can only be released for use by the district through a vote of the population. Okay? Because they were created through

062permission by the residents. They have to be allowed to be used by the residents. So that would be a separate proposition. Your debt service reserve fund basically can only be used to eliminate existing debt. It cannot be used to fund a new capital project. But what we could do is because we're finance folks, what we would do is start using that money to decrease your current debt to make room, if you understand what I'm saying, for the new debt take its place. So, it's kind of like I I always characterize the debt service fund as Uncle Lou shows up and helps me with my car payment, right? So, I can buy a snowmobile. So, the idea is we're going to take money that's used for one purpose and actually lower the impact on the school's

063finances to make room for a new project. So, that's how this would be done and we will work obviously with the team to do that. Now, the key things we're going to need to really finish up at, we have to determine, I think, as has been pointed out today, exactly what is in the scope. So, we probably have till, I'd say probably early September to figure that out if you're going to have a December vote because we have to do all the advertising, got to get all the the attorneys involved in this, got to get bond councils involved for all the borrowings, have to have all the resolutions written, and the board would have to act at its October meeting to make all this come true. So, I guess the way I'd look at it

064financially, it's time to fish or cut bait on the on the scope so we can actually work out a financial plan that will work for you. If there is a tax impact, say perhaps based on what the scope is, the aid ability, the maximum cost allowances and so on, then you'd have to determine does it stay in to Libbyy's point. You know, something would have been well, we really want that might be a nice to have depending upon how much of an impact or no impact that you would like. Does that make sense to everyone? And we will work along as you're developing this. So, we'll have to do probably a number of iterations on this because this number is going to change next month. And what it's based on is what they call a

065regional cost index and a construction cost index from the state education department from the department of labor. So, we'll try and keep up to date with as much as possible. The idea financially, as far as I'm concerned, is to get the most work done, the most important work done as inexpensively to the board of education's budget as well as to the taxpayers of the district. That is our mission. Are there any questions I can answer? Question. So the dates proposed for the publication that is those are tenative dates, right? Well, actually, if you're going to vote on if let's let's let's back up a second. So, let's just do this. If we do number five, okay, which says contact appropriate party, get the seeker resolution ready. We have to have a seeker resolution. Right. Right.

066That must occur at any public meeting prior to calling for the vote. Even it's the same meeting. Then, if you'll notice, we go down, we have to get certified copies and so on. when if the board acts on Octo on October 6th like this schedule says if they do okay then you have to publish on these dates. Well, so I would just ask that these dates be um you know definite with the proper notices because you know November has 20 28 days in it and and then there needs to be at least two weeks between the fourth publication date. It says that though here. Well, we try to do it that way. So, it's kind of constant, but it's not required by law. Okay. I I would just need some verification on that just because

067the public should be informed and have enough time to process that information as well. Right. If Right. If you'll notice the the the what you're going to do is I think there's a number in here, public information meeting number 13. And you can have that. We we suggest that you obviously have it in November. So the to your point, the public is well advised of what's going on with the whole project, tax impact if any, how the money would be spent, what the resolutions are. They've got to be properly informed. There's absolutely no doubt about it. The publications have to be at least at least four of them. And you'll see the rules up there. No more than 49, no less than 45. That's the actual rule. We try and do it about every couple

068weeks. So it becomes a constant. It's easier to schedule with the newspapers or the publications. Um, so we try and also have a publication two weeks prior to the vote to make sure because if something happens, we've had cases where there's a tragedy happened, you know, like there's a, you know, I don't know, a big storm or something, the paper can't publish, we have a chance to republish again. Does that make sense? I I guess would mean I I would ask for more definite terms on the dates being corresponding with what is required on, you know, publications. Okay. All right. That's easy enough. Thank you. You're very welcome. Any other questions? So, when the state reimbures you um and 15 years, you might already know what's um we cover the interest though. The state does

069not. It's included. It is included. It is included. It's included in a real strange way though. Uh it's called state reimbursement rate for interest. And what happens is, believe it or not, the amount of interest percent that they cover is actually calculated the year after the borrowing. Believe it or not, so you cannot know it ahead of time because it's based on all the average interest rates of all the borrowings by all the school districts in that year. Are they generally pretty close or they're generally pretty close. So there are some winners and losers, but we also will provide an alternative to you. There's something known as borrowing through the dormatory of the state of New York. Okay? So, there's a lot more paperwork to it, but the key thing is is what happens is

070you borrow from the dormatory of the state of New York, whatever interest rate you get there, it's automatically reimbursed by the state. So what we do is we usually have uh uh some New York financial advisors take a look and say okay if we went to the public market versus the dormatory state of New York what would be the best deal for us to get reimbured to the state and they will actually give us two scenarios then we can choose it depends upon where the public market is at the time as well as the state's financial position. Sure. Sure. Thank you. Sure. Any other questions? And I just want to point out that I I think I misspoke. I don't know what got into me thinking that there's only 28. So I do acknowledge that

071mistake there. So all right. Thank you. I didn't say anything. We're good. So no, I'm an I'm an teacher. Listen, life's too short. Well, no, it would it would help make sense for me here with the dates to Not to worry. I know what you're after, though. Yeah. No, it's a you're we have to be concerned about people. Not to worry ever. Thank you. You're very welcome. Some of us did catch up. Yeah. I was I just sitting here go, "Okay, thank you." So, yeah. Not to worry ever. Seriously. All right. Any other questions? So, be assured. I'll be working uh with your team and probably your facilities committee and your board and everyone here. And uh we really want we want want this to go well. Right. Okay. Thank you very much. How soon

072willing to do this? Well, after the board finalizes this is a draft that you're looking at today. So the board will have a lot of opportunity to share perspectives. Uh but uh it would be great I mean from my perspective if we went out to vote in December and that's why you saw the timeline that that we're okay. Can I just point out one thing? Sure. December is kind of like a a very good date to go out because what we've always wanted to do is try and bid things when it's cold outside. So a lot of times the deer fest and then we want to finish projects up either in June or December because there's timelines on submissions to get the aid started. So if you miss certain timelines all a suen you got

073to wait a half a year to a year. So December is like a great month in many cases not all to do. And we had success a few years ago with the last capital project um thanks to young and right and campus construction and all the team because we went out to vote in December was approved. all the design work in and then by the time that was submitted to the state it really as Rick just said was about a year later maybe a year and a couple months then then we're going out to bid just like you said in February and by the way that I'm not saying this will happen this time but we got good bids the last time and in fact a $24 million project that we proposed was about 18

074something million so it was really great work by the board and by the entire team So Ricky, that's a really good point and why it's important to try to go out December. Probably a good idea to do it after the stadium's done and after the stadium. That is absolutely correct. Thank you, Rick. You're welcome. Thank you, Dr. Tims. Turn it back over to Mr. Cumins for uh to discuss the scope of the project. Okay. So, as Dr. Grant mentioned earlier, I think the focus has been um for everyone to focus on a warm, cool, safe, dry buildings for the district itself. So, the next couple slides, we're we're kind of focused on those types of items. Uh the middle high school, um SED views as one building, but we're going to break it up into

075two just for uh keeping things simplified for you guys. Uh so at the middle school uh we're looking to uh the district is I should say looking to renovate the middle school locker rooms. Uh we have some flooring uh that needs to be replaced. Corridor lockers um looking to add okay um add air conditioning to the cafeteria. Uh there is some issues with the ramp area and the wall tile. Uh so we'll look to address that. Uh roof replacement. So, as a part of the building condition survey, we also had some roof scans done of the roofs. Um, not a lot of wet installation, but enough to be something that needs to be addressed. And it is also at the end of its warranty period. So, we'll be looking to have that replaced. Uh, Dr.

076Graham also mentioned upgrading the buildingwide oneb button uh access uh for lockdowns uh which is a safety measure that uh we're seeing in a lot of school districts around Western New York uh and also the upgrade to the Wi-Fi network um throughout the the building itself. Libby is going to chat about the high school right now. So, some of the high school scope is the same. The network infrastructure and Wi-Fi upgrades, the buildingwide lockown system. There's renovation of the gym and pool locker rooms as well. Replacement of the high school cafeteria and library windows. Corridor lockers, so similar to the middle school scope, replacing the football field turf carpet. So that will be nearing its end of its useful life during the project. So a turf carpet is good for about 15 years and then

077it loses the ability to meet the GMAX testing that's required. So that's something that we definitely want to make sure is safe for students. Auditorium projector screen and camera replacement is also included at the high school. And then there's been some issues with the sump pump over near the high school elevator. So looking a little bit more into what's causing those smells. Um replacing that sump pump and getting to the bottom of that. I have a quick question. Yeah. I'd like to go back to the smell by the elevator. So, this has been a concern for years. It's something we've been looking at for years. Um, my recommendation on that is I I I really think that needs to be determined before we decide what the scope of work is on that. We're now saying

078it was a sump pump. We've been talking about drainage. Um, the last time I was here, um, speaking with others, they think we may have disrupted or busted did something with the parking lot and last capital project. I don't know how we put a price on something that we don't know what it is. Um, so it would be my hope that if we don't know what it is prior to starting the project that before we start all of our hopes and dreams in this project that that is something we look at first because if it's something we think is going to cost a million and it ends up being millions that we aren't kneede into all of these projects before know what that is because we've been talking about this for years and we have

079not been able to find out what it is. So that's just my two cents on it. I know you guys know all of that ahead of time, but you know it's a sump house or it was drainage. It was something else before. We have not been able to determine what we do. So, I don't know if it's been looked at yet, but I it's another assumption. I would like it to be a little bit more of an assumption before we get too into the scope of the project before just so we know. I mean, I don't know how you assume a project price without knowing what the problem is. Sometimes we're taking worst case scenarios, but I agree with you. The more information and data that we can collect, the better. A perfect example is

080all the work that we've done with Kine as well. Um, but to address your concern about the sump pumps in that elevator area, we've already brought in engineers. Uh, I'm looking to bring in some additional scoping to see if there's any drain line issues or storm retention out in the parking lot area because we have heard those stories as well. So, we are trying to get to the bottom of it without doing destructive u demolition during the scrutiny. So, we already know the other thing that I just didn't hear is the sign behind our post out in front of the district office which I everybody can laugh. It it was supposed to be corrected when it was mistakenly done in the last capital project and I know I talked about just I just want to

081make sure that it's not forgotten and that we're not talking about this not corrupted. It just looks silly. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. We're we're actually looking to do that most likely locally soon. I don't like the purple. Yeah, we're probably going to do that locally outside of this project, but uh you know, a lot of these figures that we're going to see tonight are preliminary figures. You know, we haven't really dug down deep yet. So, uh, you know, a lot of these are, you know, let's let's, um, look at kind of refining the scope and then once we have that scope that we're chasing, that's not getting worse. 100%. We've been chasing it for two, three years. for sure. And and and we're actually uh still utilizing our BCS capability to

082try to do other surveys and things like that to get at some of this stuff while we can still get aid on on doing that. Um so that's you know some of the things that we've been doing like we ended up adding on roof scans and things like that so that we can be as informed as possible going into this project as we possibly can be. Thank you. All right. Um, moving on to Kegine Elementary. Uh, the scope is a little simpler here. Uh, in theory, um, one of the main focuses is the the BCS and the district are looking to um, address boilers, ventilators, piping controls um, that are at the end of its useful life. Um the boilers are I don't want to say original, but they have definitely seen uh some better

083days. Uh they've had uh piping issues with valves and stuff like that. So all of that should be replaced. And that was identified in the building condition survey. And the district um and we heard it distinctly at the uh facilities meetings uh are looking to while we're doing all of this incorporate air conditioning into these uh classrooms because of some of the climate and temperature ranges that we've been seeing throughout the school years in the in the summertime. Okay. So, if you look at the floor plan, the blue areas already receive air conditioning. The yellow areas would be the classrooms or spaces that we would see um added air conditioning uh to help with those classroom conditions. Okay. Um the wider uh areas, those are basically just uh whether it's a gymnasium or um a

084large maintenance space. We're not going to be looking to address those at this uh project in Todd, but we can certainly add things like uh Jasmine to a future project if the desire is there. Um the other major component that we're looking at kebind um as as you guys are aware, we've done numerous structural uh investigations. We've done uh waterline inspections, soil bearing analysis to understand the floor and the unevenness that uh the building has seen over the course of its life. Uh we've done multiple walkthroughs I think as recently as middle of February with the board um and some of the district staff and we've identified a handful of areas that have seen um kind of significant cracks um but due to some um MCA uh limitations we've identified three uh areas that we

085would like to uh recommend to the district to replace uh because those are in the worst shape uh out of all of the classrooms itself. So those would be three targeted areas where we're replacing the floor slab itself uh and putting down the proper depth you know fill uh vapor barriers and concrete subfloor itself and new floor. How many rooms will that leave and what do you mean by MCA? Um you know my concern is it's a safety issue and over the last three years we have talked a lot about building that kind of mine. Um um there was mild and stuff in the basement. Um and these floors have been a great concern, I would say, for this board and our district. I'm surprised to only see that three are being done. Um the

086cracking, you know, we're looking at, you know, this capital project being done in so many years and it'll be so many years before we can do another one. What will those cracks look like? What will they amount to? And what will safety concerns be for our children and our staff. Will they continue in there and how many are uh great question. Uh there I want to say are at least seven classrooms if I'm not incorrectly there might be eight or nine. Um I have the reports u probably printed out. The the latest structural analysis is that they're not getting any significantly worse. Um and this the last structural analysis was done over a year uh basically starting in December and there were multiple inspections throughout the course of the year and ultimately the structural engineer

087basically said that the analysis that they're just normal building movement and that is not uh in getting any uh significantly worse and they didn't have any structural concerns about failures to the building itself. We've identified the three classrooms that were it had the most amount of cracks and unevenness in the floors themselves. And we do believe that is due to the thin slab uh condition that is was originally built uh for the building back in the 70s itself. And this is to try and address the the safety concern that you you identified. um the MCAs that you asked about. So as Mr. Tim said, you only have so much money to spend at each building itself. So, with the initial cost and Bon is here, he can help us explain some of the overall cost,

088but that would be a significant cost to replace all of the slabs that every room that had a little bit of heating um or adjustment needed to on top of all of the additional BCS items that were identified. So we are trying to tackle the first three as the worst case scenarios and also get an understanding is is this an effective solution so that moving forward we have a game plan and a way to budget for future uh adjustments to the floor itself through I'm just I'm just surprised. Is there a shorter term fix for the other rooms? [Music] Well, and I I I guess I I guess as as a board a board member, I I I guess I would like to see the classrooms. I mean, before I I just would like to

089see them again. I mean, we've had walkthroughs. I I just want to feel comfortable with it. I you know, safety is ultimately a concern and maybe if we had another walk through, I would feel better about that. But I mean, we I we had such concerns about this building and and the structure and and floors and to only see three of seven or whatever you're saying is is is surprising. Now, we haven't sat through the meetings and I'm not I'm not discrediting any work that you guys have done, but sitting at this table for the years that I have and listening to the concerns, I'm I'm just surprised that we wouldn't fix it all. You wouldn't fix part of your floor home. He would fix it all. You wouldn't fix part of your slab. He

090would fix it all. And that's what I would do. I wouldn't fix, you know, half of my house. I would make sure the foundation of my home was safe and secure. And that's, you know, I just I just I think I need to see the rooms to make sure that we are making safe for our students because it was such a concern for this board and our district administration for years. and I'd be happy to join you in those walkthroughs um and show you the rooms that we've identified as the worst case scenarios and and show you uh the reports again because I I feel like we have done a lot of due diligence in this building just this building right we we spent a lot of time and effort to to all the concerns

091that the board has had with the building itself I I don't think it's necessary for you to I mean I can do it you know at any time. You know, I don't know if any of the other board members feel that way. I just we'll definitely set up maybe a a special tonight with some of our team and any board member that would like to join us. Can I ask one more question too? And it was at the meetings too as well as this evening. You have expressed that it's your professional opinion that um fixing the rooms that are the worst case scenarios to ensure that the remediation is working and is successful before we spend money on a solution that may not work. So, we don't want if it was basically we don't want

092to waste money fixing it and then it heaves again and then we have the same problem but yet we've done it to every single room and we've wasted the taxpayer dollars on a solution that we're not confident will will be or is that is that what I was hearing? Yes and no. So, I would say I would want you to fix those rooms. If you don't, if you are not confident that you're not fixing those rooms, then we're not doing it. We're not doing any rooms. So, your professional opinion is that you're not fixing any rooms, then we need to take a step back, put your opinion of what you're saying and what you said, then we're not fixing that. If you don't, if you're not, you know, so maybe I'm not expressing that the

093right way. You're confident that it will it will fix it, but will it will it maintain over time? Will it maintain over time? You're confident that it will fix it, but will it over the long haul in a year later? Unfortunately, we have the the lowest MCA with the building that has the most structural problem. Well, I understand. So, to throw all that money what we're saying here, we're spending money trying if I can address a little bit of that. Um, so I I look back at some of the older reports. I mean, we we've done studies in 2003, 2021, 23 did we've done several studies on this. When I when I look back at some of the core samples that were pulled, even from, you know, 25 ft down into the ground, 15 ft

094into the ground, there's very firm soil down there. 20 ft down, it's not as firm. So, you know, we we can do some of these things, but you you never know what the earth is going to do, you know. So, for us to sit here and say 100% it's going to fix it, we can't guarantee that. I wasn't saying 100%. I think we need to look for me, I need to see the cracks in the floors. And to say one's worse than the other, if it's lifted and our kids can trip, in my opinion, they need to and those were uh the three classrooms that we identified were the three worst. But absolutely, we will compared to water. That's why I want to see and I I agree with Sue, but for me personally, you

095know, visually, I'm I might not be identifying it as good as if the report was in front of me. So, with respect to the study that's conducted once every five years and whatever studies that there are done and completed on floors and what's going on under there, I want to read that because that's going to be more to me to understand the extent of it then visually I mean it's not to say I won't do that too but hey we can get those reports to you absolutely we'll put them together very helpful to see the reports and also see right I mean I mean lifting anything is not you know three lifting in major areas they're still they still could have that's all I'm trying to say not I just Yeah, agree. And unfortunately, I

096don't have X-ray vision. Uh we have dedicated building principles that we're building and basing our budgets on on how to correct. Um there are temporary measures that we can certainly look to address in the meantime for the other spaces that we are not replacing, but that as a building, you guys would have to decide if that's an expense that you feel is worth it. certainly help work through those types of issues. I just think it would be nice to see it and make sure that we are taking the safety of the student. I will just to kind of identify make sure wasn't an argument. I just wanted to understand why we know and it doesn't necessarily have to do with how it's going to shift. It's just the actual condition of the room and fixed.

097Great question. Great questions regardless. Bon, is there anything you wanted to add? I know you've been with us every step of the way for many years uh through campus. Is there anything else you wanted to highlight with respect to Okay, thanks. Sure. I I I would like to just excuse me outline a part of the HSSE report which was the latest of three structural reports that we had done. Um these reports will of course reported as well. But two of the two of the summary, excuse me, two of the summary findings that that are important to note is first is although slab movement is obviously happening happening, it does not appear to be overly excessive. Most of the slab and corresponding wall movement seems to have stabilized in comparison to past reports and observations. That's

098important in the fact that it seems that what has moved over there is over a long period of time. Um that was also seconded in some of the the year-long observation that we have had. They went out in December, went back out in June, went back out in the following December. There was not significant movements in those periods of time. So that further evidences that u the movement that we've seen there and the settlement the heaving um has occurred somewhat to its to its end. Um the third bullet that they have it should be noted that we are confident that the movement and moisture conditions are not a structural concern. These conditions do not represent a structural stability issue or structural deficiency. This condition is a cosmetic issue and a long-term serviceability issue. Now, in

099our in our February walkthrough, we I had marked down, living with me, that we had five rooms that were of major they were worse off than the rest of the classrooms in the building. Three of which were significant. So, in those three classrooms, we we put into the the um excuse me, the concept and the uh scope of the budget to remove the slab on grade, remove the subbase, go right down into the subgrade, and then build back up from from minus 3, three and a half foot of engineered fill compaction, replace the sub4 in the other two classrooms. That's what That's what we're referencing is we could try they were more they were minimal compared to the other three. We could try in those classrooms to remove the VCT take care of the top

100concerns feather that floor out replace the VCT and watch that through the course of the project. that is an extremely minimal expense in comparison to the the fullon scope of work of replacing the subgrade and subbase and stuff on the bridge. I don't think that it's necess I think if we're going to fix something and if it's not till the next project I just I just want to make sure that we are addressing the safety concerns that we have walking in these class for the last few years. That's all I just I just want to feel comfortable with it. You know, we've had many discussions and I know there was um there was some set. Did we fix the moisture problem in the basement at wwine? Has that been fixed? We were down there. We

101took a board tour down there. I know years ago. Was that fixed? Do we know? There was a lot of moisture and water in the basement. I I mean we went I know we went down there there was a lot of water in the basement there. I mean that's a question we could get. That would be good too. I think there was a lot of concern with mild and mold at the time. Um she's shaking her. I guess I think you were on the you were on the tour with us. She was. Yeah. Libby, will we be able to look at the building condition survey and see what the most recent data tells us about that? Just it may have it may not be an issue anymore, but I know at one point it was.

102And then there I think there was some settling in the new addition we put on on the connector of the two. We noticed in our in our recent walk it's not a safety concern. I was just wonder yeah just a last point that there was there was a heavier concern prior to the three structural analysis once those were completed. Once those were completed one by one, I think that we learned a lot more about those. Hey Libby, let's just take a break. I know we have some students here that are probably eager to get home. It's almost 9. If any student is ready to exit, come up to the board and we'll sign them off. I know Sh is helping right now. Anybody else who wants to you can come to anyone at the table

103for a signature. [Music] Thank you. [Music] Do you want or Liby, you want to continue? So, moving on to [Music] Sidway. Sidway has a similar scope for the HVAC replacements and upgrades. So, those boilers and UVs over at Sidway are a similar age to the ones at Kegabine, which you'll see as a theme throughout all of the elementary schools. So, we have a very similar floor plan with the yellow classrooms being the ones receiving those HVAC upgrades. So, new unit ventilators um with filters, things like that to help with the air filtration. And then the purple areas on that map already receive air conditioning. And then along with that, the exterior door and steps that lead out to the park to the playground are starting to deteriorate. It's kind of from years of salt and

104things like that. So, we have that included in the project. That was one of the main things that our VCS picked up on for Sidway and Hugh Elementary. Similar HVAC replacements and upgrades. So, new unit ventilators, air conditioning, and HVAC upgrades to the classrooms in the yellow. And then the areas in the purple already have air conditioning. So by now you might have noticed there is one large gathering space at each elementary school that already has air conditioning as well. So Hugh another thing that our BCS pointed out along with the district team is that the stage curtains over there could really stand to be replaced and we're going to replace those. Correct. Correct. We have replaced totally take them out and replace them. Yeah. Yeah. So, those uh they actually get coated with a

105fire retardant every year and um or I'm not sure if it's every year or every couple years, but uh the last time the fire inspector was out said that that was the last time that they'd be able to do that. So, we definitely need to address that. And then Staley Eco building. So, the roof over there was a pretty high concern on our BCS. Um, the team up there noticed there's some moss and things like that growing over there. So, we've included that in the direct project scope as well. And then I think Von's going to talk about schedule. All right. Um, close to the next slide. So, kind of where we've been and where we're going here in regard to the preref schedule. Um, this this bar chart starts in 2024. We actually started

106um a lot earlier than that, I think, as we as we all know. But, um, it was time well spent on some of the investigative work, particularly with Kagine. Um, went into 2024 with the thought of let's get the BCS done to identify any high need areas throughout the district. And then we kind of went into um um into this year um with a more condensed schedule. I shouldn't say condensed, but a more thoughtful approach at a at a 12 month process to finalize our scope of work, finalize um the cost estimates in the financial plan to line ourselves up well for what could be um a December vote. Um so again what we've done to date we've gathered up the scope um through multiple uh meetings with with several of the key stakeholders um

107done a great start of course on cost estimating um and determine budget options as as Rick walked through um earlier where we're what we have in front of us still finalize the scope and finalize uh the budget determination the budget option that we're going to move forward with um finalize the scope the estimate and financial plan with Rick and team. Um get into the secret process with Hen Russ and and the legal team that can uh assist us with with those steps. And then lastly um line up for a successful um public information campaign on the island and of course um line ourselves up for a successful vote would be the thought for the rest of 25. Flipping to the next screen. This is preliminary right now. This is a rough schedule. What we like

108to do, there's several reasons to phase a project and Rick touched on several really good highlights earlier. Actually, if you can get a jump start on a phase that tackles a significant scope of work and also carries a significant dollar value, such as the middle school roof, you would typically try to phase that and put a few prime contracts at that such that you can do the work, close it out, and start that April earlier. So, that that's where we start to work with Rick, start to work with Young and Wright and understand once we finalize the scope, how do we best schedule this project um to to meet the excuse me to meet the financial plan and really kind of best capitalize on the bands and and of course start that long-term borrowing process

109earlier where we can u but right now we have a rough schedule up of a of a two-phase project. It could be more than that. It could be two phases, could be three. Um we we'll solidify that further once the scope is is finalized. We have a significant um or I should say a conservative uh SUV review period on the schedule as well. Right now that's down to they say two to four weeks. So I'll call it four to eight weeks. We've seen that we've seen that be as much as a year. Okay. So I'll let Matt talk to that. Right now, we've got rough schedule until we we finalize scope and then we work to finalize this on the schedule work with Rick prior to the vote. I'm just going to ask Bob if

110you could go back to the middle school slide because I I didn't see something but I may have missed it. Is this the middle school? So, uh Libby, do we have Oh, it's right there. Never mind. It's there. Just wanted to make sure the board saw air conditioning for the middle school cafeteria as a large uh space right now in this campus. We have AC in the cafeteria at the high school, AC in the library, AC in the auditorium, but for the middle school, we have some classrooms and then this would be a great option uh as part of the scope. So, I'm glad you had it. I kind of missed it in the presentation. So, thank you. Is the little theater in the middle school air condition? I don't think so. Yes. Thank you.

111Thank you. Any other questions for us? So, some action items, right? It sounds like the board would like to see the building condition survey in its totality. Libby, that might be a challenge. I be curious to see how you do that. There's tons and tons and tons of files, but I don't know if there's a link or something. Okay, that would be great. The last time it was like 210 pages of something we couldn't read. They printed it for us. There there's some summary documents too that we'll we'll put the summary documents kind of on the top and then we'll include everything else. I don't I don't I don't think it also I just want to touch on action items because there were a lot of questions. So with for the board and and uh

112collaboration with our team, we'll pick some dates where we could walk kind of together. It's optional. It's not a mandatory thing for the board, but those board members would like to join us. Maybe Matt, maybe Libby, you know, us, we can walk together. So we'll pick some dates, send them out, and see what works best for the entire board. Is that okay for everybody? Okay. other action items. I've got uh the BCS obviously and then the flow reports from Ke as well. We'll probably have to put them in a drive or something cuz those with all those files, but we'll make sure you guys get access to that. We can also share those presentations that we've provided the district over the years. Okay. they know you had something and despite me not knowing the days

113in November, um I still want some sort of, you know, more definite terms of compliance with publication requirements and giving the public enough notice and making sure that those dates are lining up with the the publication date that we have selected, especially with the last one, the fourth one. I know it's indicated at least two weeks. Um is that you know, just uh just more definite terms. Yeah, we can do that. And Jude may have already sent something to Danielle or to the board or just Danielle. Okay. Could you make sure the whole board gets it? And then um to that end, Danielle, would it be helpful if Rick just picked a arbitrary vote date? It may not be the vote date and then you could then see it work backwards from say a date

114in December that we went out to vote. Would that help for or not? Sure. I mean the date is is titedly December 10th right now. Okay, perfect. So that was my concern with the fourth publication date being November 28th. So, and then the the public vote being December 10th and then indication at least, you know, publication should be at least two weeks prior to the vote. That would be about what 12 days maybe. I don't know. Like, you know, if I'm doing my math correctly, I think the first one can't be more than 49 days, right? So, we have to be sure that we're 49 days, 49 to 45 days for the first public. But the other thing that happens is you have to be it depends upon when your uh paper shall we say

115we'll publish it because certain certain times they need like they'll say well they publish it every Wednesday, every third Thursday, every fourth Wednesday. So all those are considerations. We have all that data on your district. So I've actually had two my staff members actually go through that to make sure it meets all those legal requirements. So, the thing we should probably do is to make you feel better. Maybe we can send it to your attorneys, make sure they're happy with it, and then that ought to put it to bed because then you're indemnified. That would be great. I just uh just want to make sure that we're No, I think the idea. No, let's double check and let's make sure we do it right. Not a problem. Appreciate that. Matt, anything else to close us

116out? Thank you for having me. Appreciate you. And we'll more than likely schedule another workshop with the board. uh at a future date in short perhaps. Yes. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. Okay, that brings us on to special education with Cheryl. Good evening. Um Cheryl, I just want to say Matt or Von, do you need us to sign anything so you can go home early? All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate your your presentation tonight. Thank you. Good night. Good night, everyone. So I have my regular uh program um CPSC and CSSE program recommendations. If I can take action on those, please motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carried 6. And then um also I I know that we presented a first read per se

117of the athletic code of conduct and extracurricular activities. Um we have updated it from 2018. So if I could add action on that too if there are any questions I'll make a motion. I'll second. All in favor? I any objections? Any extensions? Motion carried 6. Thank you very much. And that brings us to the board of education report with Dr. No, I'm sorry. Superintend the superintendence report with Dr. Graham. [Music] By the way, uh I want to thank the board, the entire board tonight for your due diligence, your hard work, your attention to detail. It makes us better as administrators and as district employees. I thank you for that. I also uh before I go through these slides, I want the board and the community to know how amazing our administrators are in our school

118district. We had a recent issue uh where one of our principles identified a potentially very dangerous and unsafe situation where we believe uh an adult male uh from somewhere in the United States was actively communicating with a female middle school student. And uh our principal, whether it was through administrative expertise or intuition, intervened uh took some photos and started having a conversation with the middle school student. And the person that was facetiming the middle school student um said, "I got to go." And left the uh the FaceTime call while this student was here for a middle school dance on Friday. With that said, the administrator and all of our administrators do this work every day. This particular administrator um did such a great job in making sure that this child was safe, communicated with the

119family, uh understood and investigated the situation, communicated with law enforcement, and we're just proud to say that that I think this this principal not only uh prevented maybe years of trauma, but maybe even worse. So, you know, there's a lot of great work that happens every day in every building in different ways, shapes, and forms. And we're just very proud of our administrators. So, thank you to the board for listening to that little spiel. And to further highlight things, we were blessed to uh attend the uh Western New York Education Service Council Awards uh celebrating Mary and Carol and Christopher Simpson. Uh Ashley was there, Cheryl was there. Uh many people came out. It's a great event and it's just wonderful to celebrate good people in Western New York doing great work in public education.

120Uh to that end, uh we had um some wonderful people come and work with our students and educators to talk about jury duty. So for our attorneys on the board, you would have been very proud of these wonderful people who came in as guest speakers and educated our students uh through that process and uh Frank Butcher's wife here uh was represented. She's caraglia and she is a current judge and many many others who helped uh structure that conversation helping our students understand their civic responsibility. Uh uh Sue, you're probably very proud to see this great uh article. I want to thank uh Lee Noison for sharing it with me. Um wonderful work uh being done by the men's basketball or volleyball team at Damon and Sue. Maybe you can just share a couple of our

121former graduates are there. I just wanted to say that uh Billy Weber and um Eddie Cor. Unfortunately, they did fall to Penn State, but it was it was hard fought. Um they were tight. Um they actually were leading the first set. Um, but they did fall to Penn State in three zero sweep. But I also wanted to mention that um, Zack Kramer also who plays for Belmont add his college um, won a bid to play um, in the um, in the same championship matches. So we had actually three Grand Island graduates. Zach graduated in 2021. So we have three Grand Island graduates um, fighting for the title. So, it was kind of exciting. Yeah. What a testament, right, to uh all the work not only by the athletes, but really the parents and the coaches,

122right? The parents drive miles and miles for their kids. I think this Patrick knows what I'm talking about. And it all comes together in these these opportunities. Penn State was a very very cool Yeah. I mean, super super. And a big thank you to Hillary and her administrative team and Brett Banker and our coaches for having a uh unified basketball uh open open of the season contest against Ken West full student body uh cheering on our athletes. Really a beautiful uh event. So thank you to everybody involved. I think this is actually a video but we don't have time to watch the video. really really nice uh event and at the same time as some of us were at the Western New York Education Service Council uh many uh Ashley and Sue and uh we're

123here at the celebration of inspiration. Uh let me just jump ahead for a minute. I'm talking about celebration of inspiration. So there we go. And uh we thank our students for taking the time to recognize uh the adults in their lives that have uh inspired and influenced them to do good work uh in their in their journey. Uh and their journey isn't over yet, but these two slides here are all of the students and the nominating adults in in their lives that they celebrated. And I just thought this was a beautiful picture of Luke and Amy and how lovely that Luke thought back to Amy. I don't remember John was was Luke in first grade when Amy second grade right so a really great story really moving event John thank you for attending that and

124I'm sure our board members will share a little bit more about that later and then uh we this is year two of our distinguished SRP uh event sponsored by corporate entities and individuals who believe in this idea uh we have well over $6,000 raised from those entities and here are the 2024 winners and now the 2025 winners. So, we're very proud of our SRP and that event is going to be outstanding and I thank Jude for helping us tie all that together as well. So, those were great celebrations. Uh this this is this is me playing uh on uh with AI. Hey, Grand Island. Ever wish your daily drive could change lives instead of just changing lanes? Our school bus drivers start at $25.18 an hour starting July 1st. Work a family-friendly split shift roughly

12525 to 30 hours a week, leaving mid days wide open for your life. Add health insurance, the rockolid New York State retirement system, and other perks like getting paid for your training because community heroes deserve benefits, not just kudos. Ready to steer futures and your own? Call 7738890 or roll over to grand islandschools.org. Become a community hero and join the Viking clan. Hey, Grand Island. All right. So, look at look at down here. 267 people watch this and I only I only did the first 200. So So people are watching these silly things that we're trying to do to uh have get people excited. So, we're almost done, but uh you know, we're trying to get it out there and we mention it here every every time we're together. Uh and this is uh one

126of our other bus drivers just being silly with AI. And of course, uh Sue, do you want to say anything about these two great events coming up? You got it. All right. And more information about that and Viking, you know, the Viking tip line. Honestly, this is an important uh safety measure that we've started in 2016. We're glad we spilled it. So, thank you very much to the board. Thank you. And now that brings us to the board of education report. We have um the item graduation caps and decorating. So, I did want to start by clearing up one clearing up one mis perception and that nothing's ever been prohibited. Uh we just had discussed this um not last board meeting but the board meeting uh previous to that. This was on the agenda and

127we discussed just our um thoughts regarding u decorating caps. I know that we asked um Mrs. Kretz Harvey to see if other school districts did this as well and um am interested to hear about that. Yep, for sure. So, in the board docs, you'll see a memo from our principal to myself, and I've shared that with the board. So, basically, uh, the memo says that our high school principal, uh, communicated with a variety of principles around Western New York. Uh, and that there are some school districts like Eden, Frontier, Clarence, Lort, Orchard Park, and Hamburg uh, that, uh, do not allow uh, caps to be decorated. Then through that research she also identified pioneer Alden Akan Wilson and Barker as allowing it. Uh so uh she goes on you know to give information to the

128board about all of that and the recommendation is uh to continue the practice of not having kids do that. So that's what's this this memo is shared with me and I'm sharing it with the board. Okay. Well, I know that um the students have provided the signatures with their interest in doing it. I realize it does it does create more work obviously for administrators which I always keep asking for anything that creates more work. Um but I hope it's something that given the signatures and uh the presentations it seems that it would uh be very meaningful. I know one of the things I love about Grand Island is that we have so many unique traditions from celebration of inspiration to um decorating the parking lot spots which was new this year for students to be

129able to express themselves and also be able to um be able to just um as individuals really express themselves. And I know that obviously students can always be inappropriate whether it be at a public event for celebration of inspiration, decorating a parking lot spot or decorating a cap, but I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for us to have another tradition in Grand Island. And um I think it would be I don't know. I think it would be a positive thing for students. So I don't know if anyone else has any other thoughts. Well, I would say maybe I would think I would defer to the high school administration. Maybe the the student council and class officers could have another meeting if they'd be willing and they could go through what their ideas were

130for our students mentioned tonight for monitoring it and repercussions for things they were inappropriate. But again, I think I in my opinion I defer to on this. I happen to agree with Jay. I don't really think this is a board decision and I don't I think we have excellent administrators and team leaders in our buildings and I really think it is up to them. You know, we attend graduation. We are there. We don't understand what it takes to put graduation on and it's really it's really in my opinion their decision and I don't feel it is a board decision. Um, so I would defer it to our administration and whatever decision they make, I will stand I will stand behind. Same. I really just don't think I'll be honest. I think it's an administration. I

131I know I appreciate Scott going and getting um signatures, but and I love that they came and presented to us and I hear them, but I really believe that I would agree. I would agree with that. It definitely is an administrative decision. And I think the reason why I added it to the agenda was so that the students could be heard. So, and I agree with Jay, I hope that the administration will sit down with leadership, but I agree with Sue and and Joy that it's definitely an administrative decision. You know, I've been to several graduations in my last 30 years as an educator and seen firsthand what it takes to, you know, have a successful graduation and to have it be an enjoyable event. But I would hope that given the fact that students

132have expressed an interest that our administration would sit down and hear students and listen to their thoughts about uh being able to do something like this. So I hope that I hope that that does happen. Jay, I think it's a great idea. And um of course it's it's not a policy decision. It's not a a board decision, but I wanted to have a vehicle for students to be able to have their voices heard at our meeting and be able to have um hopefully have a sit down and and have administration really um listen to their ideas. I will also say that just reading through what Hillary went I mean wrote sorry not went I I happen to have to say that I haven't agreed with everything you have written here as well as I hear

133I hear both sides but I I happen to to hear what you wrote and and agree I was at a graduation years ago where it went really long and it was really humiliating for the student and it really dampers graduation when a student was inappropriate and Um although we can't foresee that and it's different than a celebration of inspiration when you're hauling someone out of your auditorium when you have grandparents that have traveled from afar and you are you are having to discipline someone on the biggest day of your life. It is it was tragic. It was it was it dampered everybody's graduation. And um not saying that that would happen here, but when when you're looking at students, 200 students, it only takes one. And you really don't want to ruin everybody's day. Not

134that it will happen, but I, you know, I've expressed it. I'm not saying that I'm against it. I've just seen it go really. And can I provide my opinion on this? So, oh, thank well I don't think I need it. Um, so I certainly appreciate so much uh the petitioning and the voice of the student. I need to read through the memo and I defer to administration too, but I think that on behalf of the you know a voice uh you know we can ask questions if there are any questions remaining after reviewing the memo. I haven't you know to administration. I just got to read through it, but if there were questions outstanding, I would ask them. Um, especially when there's that many students coming together as boys. Um, and also this the schools

135that do from what I heard are that are allowing it that are permitting it just from what I heard might be smaller school districts and might be more manageable too. So, you know, I just got to um I just I'm going to take a look at the memo. So, thank you for pointing that out, Brian. Welcome. Good. And you know, any final thoughts? I I just would add that besides the memo and Hillary did a great job and communicating being able to manage uh everything that happens in in high school as you get closer to graduation includes managing AP final AP exams and regions exams. So, there's quite a bit on the plates of our administrators. So, I do thank Hillary for providing that memo. Okay. Uh, thank you. So, moving on to public comment

136session. General items not included in this agenda. We did not have anyone uh speak to that. So, that brings us to committee of the whole items and information for the round table. Beginning with Roger J. I'm all set. J, I'm all set. Sue, I just want to mention celebration of inspiration. Um, attended it for many many years and my son as a senior spoke um and so did Ashley's daughter um as a senior and it is it's an amazing event. I I encourage anybody whether you have students or not to attend these these kids get up and they speak about um lunch monitors, coaches, staff members, teachers. It's it's it's amazing what happens in the walls of our school districts. One of them talked about a preschool teacher. One of them talked about a lunch

137monitor. What we do here is impactful and it's impressive. And to hear those kids get up and and and break down into tears talking about what we do here in those buildings, it is amazing. And reminds us of just how important the education and what we do here is. Right. We we have great um staff. I'm just going to cover it in one big word. um here at Grand Island and we should be very very proud and not only are they good at what they do, they're good at at at so much more and and sometimes I don't think they realize that just a smile in the hall or a kind hello the impact they have on their kids every day and you guys do it with grace and you do it every day and

138I am forever grateful and attend celebration of inspiration if you ever get a chance because it is an amazing event and you will just understand what happens within the walls of all. Thank you to the PTA council too for putting that and to um Aaron Panko. Yep. For being a wonderful MC and putting that all together from the words of our students. They they totally they totally hit on everything that we do outside of educating. They really did. It was it was wonderful. Then I'm all set. Thank you. John. Uh, yes. I just have uh one item to remind everybody of that. Actually, it's hot off the presses. As of yesterday, the last week of school begins on June 6 or excuse me, June 23rd. That's Monday. That will be a full day from kindergarten

139to 8th grade. Tuesday, June 24th would be a half day for kindergarten through 8th grade. And that is the last day of school. and the teachers go until Thursday, June 26. That's their last date. Okay. Thank you, Cheryl. Um I just wanted to um congratulate Mike Antonelli. Um good for you. Um you know, proud of you. Um very sad for us. Um, we will miss you and I'm going to miss four years of a lot of fun, laughs, professional collegiality, etc. So, um, just make sure you stay in touch, but very proud of you, Mike. Good luck, Mike. And just one last congratulations to the sky on our gold award. You know, I know how much it takes to to do that and you know that that's a testament to your leadership and your dedication.

140So, congratulations again on that. Thank you. Okay. I just have uh one thing before I uh ask Dr. Graham to close out and give his last thoughts. I have some dates to uh May 20th is our budget and trustee vote. Uh June 2nd is the tenure and retiree reception. My class is going to be I'm taking a field trip to Universal Studios with my students. We've been fundraising for three years. So I apologize. I will um not be at that retirey and tenure reception. I hate missing that but that's the week that we are there. Um and also the night of the SRP um the night of the SRP. Yes. On May 28th, Sky is nominated for an award at Nigara Falls High School. So we will be at that ceremony for Sky. And I'm

141so sad to miss the SRP celebration because it was so wonderful last year. I just loved it. um do a great job at that. Thank you and Brian and everyone that runs that. It's wonderful. Um July 7th is our reorganizational meeting at 7 p.m. And at that meeting, I am very excited this year that we will have a new board president elected. Uh because I am going back to school for uh social work. I'm retiring in three years and I'm uh basically um trying to have other people take over a lot of my responsibilities other than the New York State teacher of the year selection committee. I am keeping that well into my retirement because I love uh my college I love I love that um doing that and seeing teachers and and going out

142throughout the state and meeting new people and and things like that. So that I will keep uh probably 70 years old still doing that. But um as far as this board, I'm going to be a trustee next year. I'm going to love sitting on the sidelines and watching someone else run the meetings. Please keep them as short as you possibly can because I will have a lot of homework to do. Um my second career will be social work and I'll be starting the program next year. So I know I'll need to carve out more time, but I've enjoyed really working with Sue and Brian and working with Jude um closely as part of the leadership team for the last number of years. And I thank the board for trusting me with that. And I just

143look forward to answering any questions that the new board president has come July 7th. And I just want to thank all of you for making it so much fun to work with all of you. And I'm looking forward to being a trustee next year and seeing someone else in this role. So I just wanted to let the board know now so that all those conversations can be had about leadership for next year. So, but thank you to everyone and with that thank you. With that, I will congratulations. Thank you. And social work. Amazing. I love to help people. I'm a special ed teacher and I'm looking forward to, you know, three years I retire and I'm just kind of making plans for the future and really looking forward to the next chapter and also being

144a colleague next year. So, just a couple more dates. We did a lot of dates, but there's an important date on May 11th. Anybody know what it is? Mother's Day. Yes. So, don't forget, please remember it's Mother's Day. And thank you to all the moms that are on the board and everybody, all the moms who teach and educate our kids. Um, the Scholastic Achievement Recognition Dinner is May 15th where Hillary and I uh will bring uh three students. And Ashley, I think you're joining us, right? Three students to uh Salvatore's Italian Gardens. They're the top three students in our school district, and they will join about 240 other top students across Western New York. That'll be a great event on May 15th, next week, May 16th. John Fitzpatrick, you started Emerging Leaders a few years

145ago. And so the Emerging Leaders Conference is May 16th. And Lisa Flity is our keynote speaker. She is a parent in our school district and an employee for Disney and I think she helps manage Disney content. So, she'll be a fascinating keynote speaker and we thank uh Felicia, we thank you and your team for putting this amazing event together for all of our eighth graders. It's a it's a conference and it's a a journey to understanding uh the various career options that are out there for kids. So, that's a really great event and thanks to getting Lisa Flity. That's going to be a great keynote speaker. And uh Hillary, thank you. On May 17th of next week is the uh premiere of the Deler American Hero Film, which we'll be hosting here at our Grand

146Viking Theater. So, that's all. I just want to thank everybody and thanks to all of these great team members who put wonderful things together for our kids. Okay. Thank you. And with that, I would like to ask for a motion to adjourn our regular board meeting at 9:27 p.m. and a second. All in favor? I. Any objections? There never are. Any extensions? Okay. Motion carried 6. Good night, everyone.