001well I can't fall into okay let's see here foreign Island High School this is microphone number six Jim shangham microphone number five Mike Ramsey right yeah I wish I had the voice of uh [Music] microphone number four grab yeah microphone number three three three number three number two check check one two Tim Horton where there's a bit of two in every 10 minute live so I don't know and number one check number one one one one Don Edwards one at one point and the podium mic oh that's nice Podium mic nice and Loud because no one stands in front of it one two three one two three Podium Podium Podium podium yay and natural sound as I walk toward the camera you're probably hearing me fine and that's our check everybody I'm going to mute
002and here we go to mute sound in three two one right here seems [Music] intro yeah [Music] thank you [Music] and again [Music] um thank you [Music] or something foreign [Music] thank you foreign thank you yeah congratulations um [Music] good evening call the meeting to order and again with the cards [Music] stay with us this evening we need to blend Bobak trustee Jay Grover trustee Sherry Stephens trustee Jude district clerk Dr Brian Graham superintendent I'm Ashley Dreyer president Sue Marston vice president Joy lamarca trustee Danielle Bruno trustee Mike Gloria assistant superintendent of curriculum State development and Human Resources Cheryl Cardone assistant superintendent of pupil Personnel Services and Dr Ruby Harris assistant superintendent for school business and finance just a couple of announcements if we could keep the exit directly in front of me and directly
003behind me now clear in case we need to leave unexpectedly and if you wouldn't mind silencing your cell phones it would be greatly appreciated if I can have a motion to approve the agenda for this evening please and the second all in favor aye any objections any extensions if I could have an approval a motion to approve the minutes from March 27th please in just a second all in favor I any objections any extensions will she carries 7-0 with us this evening we have student ambassadors that can have the student investor from the Middle School please Sammy desenses thank you good evening Board of Education Dr Graham and Grand Island community Mr Fitzpatrick and I would like to welcome two vcms student council members to come up and talk about what we have going on
004at the middle school good evening my name is Minaj we are the multimedia specialist for the middle school student council we host our our final event the Shamrock Shuffle on March 17th lots of students came and had cotton candy played on Inflatables and danced to a DJ there was also Pizza craft soccer and other activities we have wrapped up all our events for the year but we still will be putting on Spirit weeks and other activities soon we will begin preparing for next year thank you for your time thank you and for the high school we have Sofia bukhari um student council and during the week of March 20th 24th the high school had their cautious by conspiracy and on the Friday the 24th clash of the Viking event was held in the gym the
005seniors placed first the Juniors were second freshman on Third and sophomore support the celebration of inspiration will be held on Thursday the 27 where students will give speeches teachers and staff on how they Inspire them in some way the high school spring Sports have started we have girls and boys lacrosse Boys Tennis track and field boys baseball and girls softball 's Nationals is next week the 22nd and 25th in Orlando Florida the National Academy of Finance went on a field trip to Canisius College for the Western New York regional academy Finance conference and the high school PTSA is having a plant sale fundraiser to benefit the PTSA scholarship and this past Friday distinguished alumni came to the high school and gave motivational speeches for the students teachers thank you moving on to correspondence recognition and
006good news we have the Grand Island chess club with us this evening um Mr Fitzpatrick you just do a little introduction to our amazing chess club it is really my pleasure to introduce and honorary chess club this evening it was probably about eight years ago that Miss sobleski and Mr Crow began playing chess with kids in the library just for fun after school and that soon turned into an actual chess club uh seven years ago we formed the official chess club we started in the middle school and gradually as our middle school students went up to high school we couldn't say no we had to let them continue to play with us and really we have some founding players here who actually began the club so I'm pleased to have them here as well but
007what I really want to say is this club is an amazing club for the Middle School it welcomes everyone which is part of our environment which is part of our philosophy um you'll find kids from different backgrounds different ages sixth graders playing against seniors and I really think that we have the best two coaches in all of Western New York because we consistently yeah we need to give them around I'm a little bit um I guess arrogant because uh I like being other private schools seniors from other private schools having a sixth grader being a Saint Joe's senior is really exciting and when you're in a chess tournament you can't applaud in the tournament room where you can't scream and cheer like you could at a football game but you still want to when you
008when you see that happen but uh you know nonetheless I'm just so proud of the chess club and all the things they've accomplished they're they're just great kids great people and we have two great coaches who not only know the game of chess but they also are great role models for our students so congratulations to our trust team there's a lot to celebrate if you if you could just briefly share with the boys Community some of the great highlights yes so um it was funny I walked down the Halls because I honestly didn't know how many trophies we had won over the years so if you're unfamiliar with how the chess club works or the Western Scholastic um chess tournaments that go on throughout Western New York um we compete monthly sometimes twice a month
009it slowed down a little bit during the pandemic Mr Crow and I met virtually with students still every week and we opened up a platform in chess.com to be able to actually run tournaments within our group during those pandemic years um but you meet with amazing people in the community coaches at private schools public schools we actually have won almost 40 team trophies over the last seven years individually I was tallying we've won over 80 individual trophies so when you compete in a chess tournament you not only play as an individual for individual trophies and recognition you also play as a team so your team scores are tabulated together against other teams in the area we usually have teams as far as Pioneer they come join us we now have a team from Pennsylvania that
010heard about us Bradford that actually drive up and compete none of it would have been possible without the grant funds that we receive from the PTA and the Grand Island Foundation that really fostered our ability to purchase equipment boards and of course our support from administrators is phenomenal just this year Mr Fitzpatrick helped us purchase our own chess boards that are very they say the Grand Island chess club with our logo and everything and we use those every Tuesday when we meet as a chess club but we also use them for tournaments that we host here in the high school and we do have another one coming up next Saturday in the high school if any of you happen to be around we um we play between 9 30 and about 4 P.M the tournament
011runs um but this year especially we received a notification from Senator Sean Ryan's office he had senior success apparently in the newspapers for certain tournaments including the blizzard Bowl which is one of the largest tournaments in Western New York it's hosted um by a gentleman who owns a facility in Helena New York and he hosts that every year provides all the trophies and we we had taken first place there again so Senator Sean Ryan's office reached out to congratulate the students and here with us this evening I have the parents who we could not do this without because they drive every month to all the tournament locations with their children um and they support us whenever I ask for anything for tournaments um they come in with donations they help and support every step of
012the way this evening we have our tournament Players with us so even though the chess club is comprised of about 40 to 45 students we have about 12 to 18 that play at the tournament level we have unrated unrated players we have a player who plays in the open section as well but again we have just had a great deal of success with our students every Tuesday we offer a lesson based on what we're seeing them play at tournaments or even within our own chess club we provide lessons instructions we have a Google classroom but I don't want to actually talk about it all this evening what I would like to do is because we have been active for seven years we do have seniors with us this year that were there from the very
013beginning and I would actually like them to share their accomplishments and their feelings about chess club with you because Unfortunately they will be graduating and leaving us this year so our two seniors who are both rated players here with us tonight are Tanner Hawley and John Paul sobleski so I'd like them to talk to you and share with you their experiences just one quick question April 29th here in the high school yes foreign I joined chess club at sixth grade because I just wanted to learn how to play the game and I really enjoy it chess club has given me something to look up to I'm luck up for every Tuesday and especially during the tournaments because I think they were fun and I got to meet a lot of new people and I got
014to make it I got to make a lot of memories that I can't forget because it'll be fun I mean like I got to meet a lot of new people and just I just I got to go to many new places it was just a whole lot of there's some pretty good it was pretty fun but chess was telling me how to be more responsible helped me believe in myself and and it's made me smarter because trust is a hard thing and like I became a Europe USCF it's still a little difficult to pronounce rate of player in eighth grade I cannot tell you how much I've enjoyed playing chess throughout the seven years there's a sense of accomplishment for winning both individual and team trophies because you know We've Got Drugs and even during
015the pandemic we still made some pretty good memories and Mr Brown uh Mr Pro this is us they made us go on and it was and it was pretty fun like we made a way through it Zoom carried pretty much but oh like we use the chess.com website I'm sorry that's another one uh so my best friend oh I was a lot of my good friends some of my best friends and uh and some my best memories I got from just hope and so I'm proud to be a Justified life is like a game of chess in order to win you have to make a move and knowing which move to make comes with insight and experience that you learn along the way the thing I love most about Chess is that discriminates against no
016one anyone can learn to play in the game by joining our chess club I've met students from all walks of life and I've developed lasting friendships with chess players from various schools throughout Western New York while I was in Middle School I became a rated United States Chess Federation player I worked my way through the under 1300 section and into the open section right now play mostly adults one of the most exciting things for me was receiving a letter of congratulations from Sandra Sean Ryan as well as individually signed certificates recognizing one of our many victories this year at the Western New York glitter bull Scholastic chess tournament in January we have been quite fortunate to maintain our first place stats throughout this entire school year because we have learned how to successfully divide and
017conquer as a team if you are unaware of how teams compete at these Scholastic chess tournaments every player competes individually in their respective sections while the overall performances are then tabulated toward our final team score and standing I've truly enjoyed being captain of the Grand Island chess club for the past four years as it has helped me developed my friend my leadership skills with students from all ages and also giving me the opportunity to help my fellow chess players develop their strategies and become better players being part of the Grand Island chess club has made a great deal to me throughout my middle school and high school years and both my individual and team accomplishments will always be part of some of the Fondest Memories I have in the Grand Island School District congratulations results
018Christmas oh yeah all right get ready I'll go first three two one and Mr Fitzpatrick and I will have the parents parents please give him another big round foreign [Music] report and I do want to highlight one item which is our March 10th staff development day um we got great feedback on our staff development day in March we did a variety of things our elementary teachers spent the day selecting different workshops or trainings to attend anywhere from working on um working on learning more about the ready math program um mindfulness sessions or integrated technology sessions it could be trained at Narcan many of our teachers elected to also participate in the self-defense class so there was a lot of variety for our teachers and I did want to mention the secondary teacher started their day
019with a diversity equity and inclusion on which I think was very informative and I saw I saw he who just left actually it was In Their audience with one of our panel members we had several students on the panel as well as teachers and Union community members our very own Alice who is often here to report on our order meetings so it was a really great um activity it was a really great day and I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that we got some really positive feedback on the day and we're really proud of our students that um but I am asking for one action item in motion our field trip to Costa Rica I know recently a weird group one for our French um students and this one is for our
020Spanish students who will be looking to um share the experience of going to Costa Rica from the 8th to the 15th of July 2024 so we're looking forward yeah fire along I I know the teachers have promoted it to their students but they have not actually selected which of these students will be going but there are people who have their eyes out for it and I know that just yeah I'm sure you will shoot soon okay all in favor aye any objections extensions motion carries 7-0 moving on to Personnel instructional if I could have a motion to approve Pi 1 through PRP PID please in the second all in favor aye any objections and extensions motion carry 7-0 no I just I just wanted to thank Hillary and Felicia for working together in this appointment
021you'll see that Mr Williams will be leaving the Elementary classroom and the teacher and special assignment for dean of students at the high school and I know that takes a lot of coordination and appreciate our principals working together to make that happen and of course I appreciate Dr palacci and having it back for the position for Mr Williamson uh thank you for everybody involved and I'm moving on to Personnel online instructional I have a motion to approve pni 1 and pni 2 please second all in favor aye any objections any extensions motion carrying 7-0 and moving on to finance yes thank you um so yes we have a through e that require um action so we have obsolete equipment for our I.T Department that they're asking for we have a donation of a thousand dollars
022to student council for the beautification project in memory of Nancy Hayes none of her children Peter Jody Karen and Dana and I also wanted to mention that she was an educator and a district for 44 years so that is pretty amazing and I can't wait to see what happens with that we also have our smart schools preliminary plan I believe there was a meeting that happened a week or two ago uh titanium to that so that requires more action to be warmer yes okay we also have the closing IPA which is our purchasing installment plan for those seats that's approved and on the function on a cycle of the IPA each one being a five year one so there's always falling off and we're we're getting something approved so we can keep up with that
023and I think those are truthfully those are the action items before we do the forward presentation of the budget that also requires action do you want me to go through the informational part do you want to wait I just don't know anymore I'll guide you down um and just so you are aware for information purposes we have the fire inspection attached budget transfers under 15 000 uh the check marks for March and we are getting caught up on our Revenue status reports and treasures report so I actually believe that the main meeting will have everything up to date her so we were glad to have that movie just before we move on to the budget presentation can you see if the board has anything yes yes so I just want to go uh I have
024a quick question on this uh smart school pulmonary plan okay um I was at the meeting as was um Sherry and I don't really have a question to the program because I think it's fantastic and um but there was a question in the 1935 about the rooms that did not have touch TVs and I know when we first rolled out the plan way back when we put them in I thought we had put them in all of the classrooms so I'm interested to know which rooms in our buildings that currently don't have touched disease touch screens whatever what those rooms are and should we have them in there I would think at this point all of our room's weather is renewable map Reading should have them all in there and I guess I may have
025thought we already did but if we can't put them into the program I know we are removing some that are Antiquated outdated but are there some that could be moved into those rooms if it's decided that all those I I can't remember what room you would have reaching was it reading I apologize I just know that when I mentioned um so I don't know if that's something we can look at obviously it's outside of the realm Smite of school plan but just take a look at it and see if we can change all of our teachers in all of our rooms here well and the other things first smart schools is not technically A Five-Year Plan it's a funding pot I believe that we're a funding pod and the dish school every school district is
026responsible for developing a plan to spend it so some school districts couldn't spend it in a year and then it was all gone um the review period is cumbersome so I think people did want to get into chunks to see what their needs were as they move along so there's a program and it'll be done and we'll just have to find other funding options to continue we won't stop replacing Smart Boards right like that's what I was wondering it will go on the funding will come from other locations I just I think I mentioned it to you before I won't tell if that's anything I know so yeah so so we have 40 for the smart schools that we have 45 interactive TVs um and the computers that go behind them scheduled to be on
027this that's what's on the plan that we're asking for approval we have about 65 Smart Boards that's the old school white interactive board left in the district so that would leave us with about 20 but still would need to be replaced after that so it's it's a as far as rooms that don't have anything interactive neither a TV nor a whiteboard um they're few and far between there's maybe maybe one in each building um I don't know if there's any in the high school I think they all would not do that but there might be one like one of those small reading rooms or a small bathroom or something like that sometimes it couldn't fit a Smart Board the old school ones have cameras in the corners and when the cameras go they're pretty much
028toast um when we get more as as we replace more we're going to catch up to the ones that are dead and start replacing the ones that are just to be an old smart board and we happen to have a new touch TV to put in there then we could put something like that in another spot if it fit and if it made sense absolutely yeah we we definitely reuse of everything like I'm sort of a fanatic about that that's why you know when I heard that I thought that there would be something I mean for somewhere right yeah oh yeah even if sometimes sometimes we just put in a projector if it's not interactive but at least it can project on a wall or depending on the space too sometimes so we can at
029least get from the spaces that don't have them that um e-denter would like to utilize them that way we at least have a number so as we are going through the process of Landing yes sir thank you um she's getting the last of us tonight um when we buy stuff from BOCES through BOCES we have to give it back to Bow Seasons basically and we do it through uh an electronic disposal place but it's I don't honestly know where it goes but we have to keep it back and we do it through the electronic disposal when it's not through Rosy so we bought a lot of our Chromebooks our first wave of Chromebooks with smart schools money we were able to sell those you don't get a lot for them but we were able to
030sell the old ones that would not take security updates anymore to the company that we use to purchase parts so we sort of have a credit now with them and as we need screens keyboards kids love to pick keys off keyboards for some reason so as we need these parts to repair Chromebooks we go to this one company where we've sold back our our old ones we do yes it's it is it's really a shame it is The Way of the World now with electronics unfortunately yeah smart schools or or obsolete equipment okay thank you I just want to say the presentation that was given to us in the board of everybody's residents it's not going to change they know it's a preliminary like we want to think about just adopting it so foreign do
031it Christmas it is okay okay I will ask about motion for a through items a through D under Finance done so just thinking any objections any extensions motion carry 7-0 and then we will go on the budget answer okay just want to thank the board for your hard work and our principal supervisors and our district office team as we've worked we balance the budget and I thank everybody for their contributions and that effort also I just want to make a comment um it's disappointing that we do not have a budget that's been adopted by a New York state it's been extended several times we don't force and approved budget for New York state for a while could be the end of the week but I know they're making some progress but it is disappointing because
032our district along with every other District in the state has is ready to adapt today as as we are following that process to the T as long as well as our other colleges across the state some districts have already adopted their budgets and so the the thing that's important today for an award and the community to know is that we've been assured by some leaders in our New York State Council School superintendents I imagine as well has weighed in we do not foresee any changes to Foundation Aid or to our budget across New York state from the state when the state finally adopts their budget so we we feel confident moving forward today that the numbers you see here all the numbers will stay intact if for some reason that changes of course we will
033follow the rules and regulations from the state to make sure that any changes the future could be done legally and within the scope of the dates and times and all the regulations that they have but I just wanted to foreshadow that this evening and you I think Ruby for all of her work and not only her work but her advocacy at the state level to make sure that our our budget and budgets across changing anytime soon exactly today I know that tonight we're going to get through you know the final numbers so thank you for that and is there anything um this that you wanted to highlight with me no no there's no uh update changes right right once we do have an update um I will push that out to the board you can
034also put it up on the website so people know that information but that's still the same slide from February um this slide has changed slightly you will see the foundation Aid line and then you see Foundation Aid high impact tutoring set aside there was a number there before it was 208 thousand dollars that number is now within Foundation Aid um that's really been the pushback in the back and forth on the school districts lines of planning I'm going to be honest I don't know where the state is but we do know that the assembly and the Senate are in favor of stopping correct powers that be from carving Health dollars and making us use it in a certain way so we think that pushback has occurred and we've believed that the governor will accept that
035pushback correct and um I did speak to colleagues of mine who have already had their budget approvals who said oh no it's part of foundation Aid and that's the way they um presented it it's something were to have would address that as necessary within the numbers that are here it would not be us coming back and saying oh we're increasing the budget in addition to 208 000 so anything else you want to address here um nope it does talk about the foundation Aid survey but I include those results on the next page nothing has changed on American civista I would just show it again right so it's not a just flash between recording people's eyes so these were the survey results a lot of the things that we incorporate within our budget would you take
036into consideration receiving two million dollars from the state and us being able to keep all of our programs all of our staffing all the things that we have input within the last year or two we really look back at those increases the funds the state gave us allow us to continue to work on achieving graphs work in different ways for social emotional health so those things were discussed they were Incorporated and then there are also other things that such as flag football that was brought up in reference to Athletics that has nothing to do technically with the foundation Aid survey but parents need input in those things were also taking the consideration so I just want to reference that numbers that's the amount of 405 is the amount of change so the current school year
037we have uh 586 000. they are saying we will receive 991 000 for the opportunities so um the email Mike and I received I think it was yesterday and maybe it was today um we were at 139 sign ups or applications 140 for how many so you have a you have a maximum number of slots but we also are in a position that the number of slots granted is higher than what we see between our two classrooms as well as the CEOs on the island so really what we've been doing is trying to allow the applications to roll in and then we will sit down and go over the numbers and we will go over the numbers for a number of slots but we will also go to the numbers for a dollar a month
038to make sure that the funding can support every program foreign just shows um it shows really two changes the one being the high impact tutoring set aside um not being designated there so that has gone back into foundationing and then it also shows the final amount changes and where we stand on the revenue side of the budget there have not been many differences or adjustments here outside of a programs a little less was needed to balance the budget so you just reduce that number um as necessary thank you as we are becoming accustomed to we do like to provide a snapshot of the things that are Incorporated for the upcoming budget so these are the 2023-2024 budget request inclusions so you will see the increase on the art teacher from 8.4 FTE 2.5 and then
039there's little notations off to the side so that is a staff number we have it's just on the 0.5 FTE for English slash 0.5 ft for teaching assistant is now going to be a 1.0 at the English teacher um you will see the 1.0 elementary teacher for Kagamine we are monitoring grade K enrollment as Dr Graham as expressed in the past um if deemed necessary based on enrollment numbers being way higher then we're projecting we will look at our budget and and what's accessible in that necessary hyperable narrow reading um community relations is going to go from 1.5 FTE to 8.6 FTE we also have the inclusion of SRO going from okay all right thank you I don't want to say that wrong um and we included the cyber security and data Protection Officer which
040on the 000 is inclusive of benefits I was like to make sure that's mentioned um flag football for our young ladies is also here that's a new sport so that'll be exciting High School elevator is mentioned here you do see that zeroed out we are working currently um through receiving three quotes as well as seeing if there's any type of State contract or um Cooperative that we can go through it is going to happen but we do have an architect line where there's funding available now so if we can get the third quote we'll make a move on that now and if not we would use that next year's line to cover that cost um so instead of increasing the budget knowing that we would be able to do that with the funds we already
041had we kept it there so the board maybe we're addressing it but it's not an increase of loans we also have the transfer to Food Service uh 22 000 which makes us at the one hundred thousand dollar amount which was part of The Five-Year Plan that was developed four or five years ago and he said yes right yeah yeah the full reimbursement from Federal and State dollars for food for Food Service yes helps reduce the overall deficit which is yes I do want to reference here that um and this is for any transfer to account right so he had a transfer to Food Service account a transferred to special education account which is for our summer special at Cross we've had that for years and we also had a transfer to Capital if the funds
042are not necessary to be transferred they don't get transferred pretty much just how it works so in the event that the state once they Shake everything out say students eat for free and those funds are no longer deemed necessary that is general fund money so um right now we wouldn't do anything I just would inform the board and community of what's occurring but as you plan in the future that would be a line item that is not necessary to be used that way and you could appropriate it somewhere else if that makes sense I just wanted to reference foreign definitely pushed it well we're going to be entering into negotiations with the Gita so superior country events that we will be answered so it really is a contract it'll be part of the contractual negotiations
043and then the fitness center um those are yes okay so the items and I'm glad you brought that up I apologize so the items that were referenced as grants were going to fund them I did not include them here because it was not HR department yes yes but just to clarify that's like one-fifth it's the first year request which is about yeah but we're also doing the restorative practice yes yes and um the nice thing about doing it through the grant because it's a continued this only grant that I've ever seen to be so continuous but because it is that way we are able to jump start on those things to make put us really in the queue that when the school years starting that those things are in place first trying to just get
044on the list of order and come July yes um Anakin I can also include it in their budget hearing all right no presentation excited on the next item we have here is our tax cap calculation um I won't Deep dive into it I think it's very uh Century um I do want to um reference that it is 3.33 per the calculation and I thought it was also important to also reference outside of us submitting this calculation every school district by the March 1st deadline school districts are also randomly selected to go through an office estate controller audit and they wait well into the April May time and say provide us with supporting documentation to just cross-check making sure you're really accounting for building a Debt Service correctly where your assessed values are so um last
045year I think it was around early May of 2022 we were selected and they just put you on rotation so you you could think this is your year and maybe it's not it might be two years in a row however they go through but we did go through through that process and we received and you're good to go and I think it's really more so on there and then they can make sure that districts are dealing with water of districts and District officials are doing what they're supposed to be doing and that the actual taxes that are being Levy are allowed so I assume that if you were doing that incorrectly you would be adjusting your information and also adjusting that information any questions on this and I think the project I always said this
046before I think the projections are great so you can compare one year to the next and also go back to see where you thought the rate was going to be for future Years first this provides the estimated tax rates so it is a 56 Cent change that is 3.33 as mentioned um I do show here what the projected uh do you show here what the projected was for the 22-23 year which was 17.10 and then where it actually came in at 16.96 and the year prior being twenty dollars and 41 cents and coming in at 16.20 um one thing that I worked with forecast five in helping me develop different analytical graphs to include it's nice to see the numbers but I like graphs I think a lot of people like grass it's just easier
047and we do incorporate that in our budget book our budget book is available on the district website and it will be available by May 1st usually if I could do it a little bit earlier it will be up there um as well as in the school buildings that's a requirement for the state it has to be accessible and in that it actually shows a 10-year um review of where we have projected and where we've actually come in so we started putting that in our budget book last year as well as breaking up program so you have Capital Area you have program and then you have administrative so we've done all of that graph where we started that last year so that'll be out soon um that'll allow a lot more information if people have questions
048of what the past has looked like this is a full budget um recap so you will see our different Revenue sources listed up above and then we break our expenses into salary benefits and others um this is taking in everything that you have seen in all of our past presentations incorporating the new items that we have shown as the inclusions to get us to a total as well as us being at the um foreign so the proposed budget is 73 million 727 888 dollars okay um the next prop is mount a new one it is prop 2 and this is for vehicle purchases um we have 365 passenger buses 129 passenger bus and two Ford f-350s um 4x4 for buildings and grounds the budget to budget increase for this is zero so on the proposition
049you will see prop 2 listed with a lot more language for our legal requirement and um it will be for 675 000. and then our final proposition is uh proposition number three which is the establishment of a capital reserve fund um we are asking for the voters to approve a 10 million dollar Reserve with a term time of 15 years which means you have 15 years and fund the reserve if you need longer than that to actually spend it based on how projects are planned out the funds are still there and accessible capital reserve and repair reserves are really the two areas that school districts go out and are required to receive voter approval for you need voter approval to fund the reserve establish it first you need voter approval as you also want to
050spend the money out of that Reserve so usually you'll see reserves appear more than once so you will have in a proposition for a capital project you will have the fact of the capital project being approved and it will be written in but you do also have to establish in that request that you want to use Reserve funds as well as the dollar amount you can't just say and capital reserve it has to say four million dollars and that those funds need to be in the reserve if you're saying you're going to use it you can't not have the money there and do that I did want to make no I didn't know there were some questions on in Prior meetings on do we need a capital reserve why are we doing this kind of
051now in schema things one we had a reserve before so that's expiring so now is a great time to do it and I also want to reference I don't always like when the Buffalo News puts uh puts articles together for school districts but they did have something last year around the time of voting where they broke down Erie County and Niagara County districts and what their propositions were and out of 37 districts that put forth their proposition to vote many of them did their bus crop like we're doing and then there was either the establishment or the drawdown from a capital reserve and there were 11 districts so that's 30 percent that and that's just one year that went out last year in reference to Capital reserves and they have different ones so we do
052Capital they some districts will have a capital technology Reserve they will name it specifically because I want to break it out so districts are doing it I also found an article from the office of State Comptroller who goes into a bit more detail on how it's not only smarter for school districts to establish Capital reserves but towns and Villages and just the the way in which it helps to really handle debt as well as any interest and legal fees you deal with with borrowing so I just want to reference that that we're not the first or only District doing it and it does have value and there are rules and regulations for it so it's just not something that you just get to use and that's just the voters saying we're okay with as you're
053going through year over year and if you have available funds and you deem it fit because sometimes it won't be good you may say hey we know something's coming up let's put it in the retirement Reserve because we know some changes occurring so there is discussion around it it doesn't automatically as fund balance becomes available it's not just fleets there you could just clarify that if this is approved first year we're not putting into that 10 million dollars now so it could be a hundred thousand dollars it would be 50 000 it could be 150 000. that's right yes right if you're because I knew my question was wrong the the end goal is to assist as you do projects the 10 million dollar Mark really just means hey we can do this for a
054while right so you could have a district that said I want to establish a capital reserve for two million dollars I know an insurance that is establishing Capital reserves every two to three years because it's geared towards very specific things and their Community is accustomed to that so it's a little bit easier um to understand it in that regard but they do it regularly this allows for the project that we talk as we talk through facility needs now and it could allow a project five years from now it doesn't mean I'm waiting to have 10 million to do something but as you are planning projects you are looking to see hey what do we have available in the reserve and how does the reserve help offset what we would really turn to the taxpayers to
055fund I hope I addressed everybody's concerns no that's okay that's a good question anything else no and I I appreciate this because I honestly I think one of Dick his kiss was here he was hoping that we would it's good that we're doing it now and it definitely supports the committee work of three of our board members along with the district facilities committee as we're looking at uh vaccines and it goes through a process so I know for some people it's new some some people don't even know like the full Behind The Works um that occurs so audit will occur school year closes June 30th well budget closes June 30th um during the summer months the business office as well as other clerical staff are working to make sure that we pay the things that
056have been necessary to pay for the prior school year as the new budget is also running and then our Auditors are coming in I'll say end of August ish um we move that date depending on what the needs are on the your external Auditors come in and then you pretty much do a data dump and they look at general fund Federal fund Food Service everything is reviewed and once their process is done is when we are having those discussions with our audit committee which happens usually early October and then the final audit is brought to the Board of Education prior to October 15th that is the meaning that you're really approving hey this is where the money should go and you're also looking at where we would preserve how it was fund balance what was
057the performance and do we have areas of questions so it really takes a while nothing gets funded the day after and memory has 10 million off to the side and say here you go I think this is like runs more information not only for the board but for the community or something yeah okay and then we have our fund balance flag um nothing changed from our last meeting I just like to include it um because when you see this again which will be in probably early October um that is where you'll know hey where has fun melons grown or where it has unbalanced and utilized one thing that I do want to make reference to is you will see our debt service Reserve going from June 30th of 2020 to June 30th of 2021 you
058will see a decrease and that was because we use funds to pay down debt that freed up fund balance and we use that to then go towards our Capital project costs and then you will see a jump of two million dollars from 2021 to 2022 and that was because we had project savings like we didn't spend all of the um approved 24 million dollar Capital project and there are requirements of when you get something approved you designate funds to go towards something when you don't spend that money it has to go into specific accounts it's a requirement and that is The Debt Service Reserve And Then There are rules and regulations for the utilization of that which is to pay down on building debt it's written out that way so you don't get to change
059it or I can't move those those funds to a different line um so as we look at Future projects or even stabilizing the tax Gap that is an area that can be used to do that but the drawdown should be slowed which is what we learned a year or two ago when we had that huge increase because we use a large amount of funds from that account so the drawdown should be slow and steady to stabilize it instead of doing dips questions there's no questions [Music] okay go ahead um the summer school you know how you would imagine last one actually people ask for like get too much there isn't a summer school for elementary students but I think I had the last meeting to talk about academic intervention and that conversation is between the
060parent the teacher and the principal so if there is an opportunity to offer some academic intervention to them the sun it wouldn't be five days a week for six weeks it wouldn't be anything like that but it would be a conversation between your parents the teacher and the principal and then also with Cheryl Cordon who would put together a plan to support kids for tutoring Middle School doesn't have a summer school program he has an academic intervention program so it's not summer school summer school is that what's actually regulated by New York state so we're our only summer school is in High School academic intervention is something that we do regularly and here at middle school every summer we haven't and the kids come to school it's not summer school but they do give support
061and that's organized by our and that's been that's actually was put into place by this foreign yeah and we also offered Transportation you know we did spend a significant amount of those funds to support kids in the summer and by all accounts it was a very good program right well I think that was my question right because we were moving some of those funds to other things and I think what the answer was is if they if those Administration felt that they needed it would just be academic intervention at somebody not at a summer school program it wouldn't be five days a week 11 it would be specific and discreet to the area of need that the child had and it would be again a conversation between parent the teacher and the customer any other
062questions I think you have a motion for uh Finance item into the budget car motion check was open in the second time [Music] all in favor any objections any extensions carried 7-0 well I would like to thank June for organizing I don't know 340 50k for 344 Pages which includes a heavy load of the fire inspection but it quite honestly Karen rozek and people did Chris and others and all of our custodians help to put this together and it's very significant so thank you to everybody involved for that thank you any questions all right moving on to special education it looks like we have Services a b and action for that please have a motion for that there's a second all in favor aye any objection the name extensions motion carries seven zero and that
063brings us to the superintendents report thank you very much this is really the brief but there's a lot to celebrate we want to congratulate any annaberger and Mike Murray for being unnominated and for winning the Western Education Service Council Award of Excellence uh that event will be April 26th I think banquet hall and if you want more information please reach out to June I know we already have a pretty nice food going right okay but we get a lot of people chiming in this break and uh I want to thank John or congratulate John Fitzpatrick for receiving the administrator of the Year through his region 12 seeing these executive committee congratulations to John that's quite the honor and that dinner and awards assembly will be May 11th at the same facility so excited to be
064eating it's a nice spaces and this is really it's really nice this is very special and I can tell you that all three people are thrilled and for srps too I know they're really excited has had a very positive impact that all of our schools where she has worked and there you go there's some nice pictures thank you to Larry Austin for taking these photos of these and you know I want to thank the distinguished alumni committee some members are here today uh and there's a lot of work that goes into not only reviewing those who are nominated for this English alumni the process for selecting people to be Advanced and inducted into the distinguished alumni hall of fame or Hall of Fame and I want to thank Hillary for her work in being the
065MC of the event in June put in a tremendous amount of work as well as the committee there was a wonderful evening event at the bridge of you which I was able to attend and it was really a very special time to kind of interact with families and friends of the people being deductive and then of course the the big the big program where I just I do want to mention who couldn't come and they provided video influential speaking videos of the work that they're doing and then the three people who came were just riveting and let's share so you know so I don't know Sue I know you were part of the canadies or anything you want to say yeah yeah I just want to edits down in the morning oh you're going to
066take care of it okay and I'm sure Jim wants to jump into but you know as as a fellow of Grand Island graduated is awesome to be a part of this great committee and to really see where our graduates can go once they spread their wings and in the Grand Island and we pick so many range of recipients and there are so many more right that follow behind but this year I mean we had a naval flight surgeon we had a former director of Defense research and engineering for research and Technology we worked in the Pentagon in the day of 9 11 his office return to work the next day because he had to go back to work to defend our country Lois Gibbs who was active in the um active being an activist for
067the Love Canal for those of you you didn't know what that is Brian castellania a phenomenal Finance career with ESPN and ABC and Disney World Kelly Landon who lives in Africa and saves the elephants she has quite a great Foundation down there does no fantastic work and Jeff Stone who is an attorney partner and a very active in our community and does a lot of work in education so when we sit here as a board and as administrators and principals or teachers Grand Island can give you the education to do anything you want if they you can go anywhere you can do anything your foundation is built within these I'll say four walls but there's many more than that um and I will also say not only do they speak of their experiences and all
068of the amazing work they've done in their career since leaving Grand Island high school I will tell you their message is very clear to Follow Your Passion every one of them who spoke or sent in a video spoke of following their passion yourself lots of words of wisdom I know the students are that you have not had a chance to take a look at the presentations um I would highly recommend they uh they spoke very well and their Journey since Grinnell High School have truly been just thank you for letting me be a part of it and really congratulations to all of our anonymity and I don't know if Jim wants to piggyback on that she's also on the committee and she does phenomenal work that would be and you put it all together without
069her development oh I'm sorry okay so this was uh just some candid pictures or pictures taken by Larry Austin so thank you for that we do have a very important vaping conversation led by his escaping drugs and Family Support Services that'll be May 3rd at six o'clock in the High School auditorium we really encourage families to come as we engage obviously in our budget we're approving our Vape detectors use and in law school in high school along with that when we're talking students in our principal and superintendent Advisory board we're hearing more and more from kids that they think this is a problem not only on Grand Island but all across the United States I think overall State just was part of other states winning you know almost 500 million dollars in fines from a
070company called Jewel because of their of their children so this is a really really important event we encourage families to join us for this honest conversation and you know I sometimes I I tease or jump with our high school administration but I can tell you they're working really hard to help get kids on a better path and I can also tell you that kids are using different many many different devices that they not just whether you typically might see in a movie or in a TV show and so I think honestly each day not only am I being educated but I know I know our high school administration team can be surprised sometimes that the variety of Vape devices that are available to students however they're just available at home or at the local store
071or however they're getting them and I'm just going to add this one thing talk you know Hillary and I talked to students in our advisory our student Advisory Group and they tell us that there are children selling Vape devices using Snapchat and Instagram to reach out to their peers and it's happening more and more than so this is a great conversation for parents to to help get a better understanding of what's happening I think or Jessica Hutchins and Cheryl and support team for women together encourage everybody to attend just a couple you know we spring was here momentarily and they were there was some really beautiful mother and kids having a great time on our complex and I don't know what Mr Willis is doing here but he seemed like he was enjoying spring and
072baseball we encourage everybody to go and see some of the spring Sports at our student ambassadors talk about it today I know that unified basketball is also just around the corner in fact I get this next week uh home game maybe Friday maybe perhaps maybe I think but um that's going to be just so wonderful check that out if you have never been to a unified basketball game or you know match we'd encourage you to do that that's the 28th of the home games and and uh Larry Austin started a new e Bridge or a digital version of a newsletter um you got this out in March I know he's working on another one but the priority is getting the budget presentation or the bridge newsletter out to all families and residents that that's the
073one that's mailed right right but then after that you're going to see more and more digital newsletters coming out to our families and uh I want to always thank families who reach out to me or a principal or a trusted teacher when they think something was wrong or children are not safe please continue to talk to a trusted adult you know whether your child is feeling as though or perceiving that they're being harassed or that they're unsafe please make sure you're always communicating to a trusted adult and if I any means that you don't feel comfortable talking to a trusted adult anybody in our entire Community can use their life so thank you very much that's all I am all right thank you so that brings us to the Board of Education report and the
074area one BOCES budget vote in election if I could have a motion to prove uh paying me please in a second all in favor all right any injections and extensions motion carried seven zero friends and we have the grand Islands to thank the middle school nurse she's reached an area of student nurses coming in during blood pressures and when I reached out to giving the information to remind trip she said she was extra excited because she is um so then thank you and thank you for all the hard work of putting that together Sherry we appreciate your efforts with that we did not as we talked about the distinguished alumni um [Music] the public comment section generally it's not included in this agenda we did not have anyone to sign up for that so that
075brings us to a committee of the whole I run some information for the round table beginning with one um Mr Fitzpatrick I am so excited that you won that award I'm gonna say that because I have two quick stories that I have to share I only worked with you for a year very short but it was impactful I remember the first week of school there was a bunch of sixth graders who know nothing about middle school and were very lost and scared and they were walking down the hall and you were in the hall but there was four adults with all the kids came to you and one by one they actually created a line they didn't go to anybody else they just went to you and I think it was because you're safe and
076you made them feel you know comfortable loved it because all of us were standing there with nothing to do because every single one of them wanted to go to you and ask for help because when you talk to kids you just you appreciate them you care for them I mean I remember that day I was like yeah I can work for him he seems like really okay um but also during covid um there's so much going on and I remember um you know everybody has an opinion everybody had thoughts especially me and we would email back and forth I can't remember what it was about um but you would you were going back and forth on something and I remember finally I was like listen I'm not trying to argue with you it's really bad
077but you know I feel this way and the first thing you said was it's okay to argue we need to argue through this so that we have a successful outcome and that's what leadership is to me it's empowering those that you need it's giving them a voice and I think do that and I know that for me so I'm so excited just wanted to say congratulations again to all the distinguished alumni and it was so awesome to get together again with the student body it was the first time in four years so that was amazing being together when those videos were playing and encouraging the um speaking I think we did such amazing job was awesome and thank you shout out to Hillary you did an amazing job and seeing thank you so much it
078was awesome and um is one of our teachers that used to teach back in the 60s 70s 80s and maybe late six weeks we didn't start writing 63 when the high school opened or anything but shortly after he was one of the most mentioned teachers by all the alumni and everybody everybody had a story and he was so touched he that was sitting next to him and every time somebody mentioned I mean it's like again and then I go you were a rock star but yeah so he he was very touched by that and stuff I also want to say good luck to the brown high school DACA the three um students from the high school are going to the national competition on Friday to Florida in Orlando so we're leaving on Friday and thank
079you again to Mrs um Chamberlain and Ms brute for all we do Rebecca and everything to get these students to this level National level so good luck to them I'm excited to hear everything students and thank you for all of our all the hard work for all of our advisors Mr Chamberlain put in so much time organizing all the trips and the competitions and just it's a lot of work um thank you Jude for all of your hard work with the distinguished alumni celebration I would have already told me you may have left the Bridgeview at 11 o'clock on Thursday 11 p.m so we know all the extra hours and just sure you were in the next morning very early and yes so um yes technically the birthday and um I wanted to congratulate John
080and Mike and Annie on the awards definitely well deserved and I love it when I see our faculty illustrators and staff recognize because we have so many deserving faculty and staff and administrators here on Grand Island um so thank you for all of your work with our students and your dedication and listed out to the congratulations I will be at home with us at home um and I just had gone outside in a while and I just don't want anybody to forget that July 17th we are having a doctor it does benefit our students so dust off those golf clubs or buy golf clubs get your doll pluses going love to see you all there this ditto again congratulations John you know Wellness Erica and also congratulations [Music] our budget hearing so I think it
081happens a little bit of employee board meeting which does each presentation and also allows people to have a conversation if anybody has questions any in between email call um here just one mentioned to the budget I'm sorry to referral to date for um April 25th which is the island white ta meeting um I believe it will be Dr Harris will be there to a budget presentation to anybody there in attendance as wow um I know I am planning on the American there is usually other board members at a time so there will be another opportunity hear our budget and ask us any questions before we both um the only thing I would add is our track and field coaches are doing something really special tomorrow if their home needs and their children the athletes are
082going to be recognizing and teachers that have influenced or inspired them tomorrow it's just kind of similar theme to Celebration of inspiration but a little special carve out for track and fields around so that's going to happen parallel to the district Wellness fair so if you love track and field you want to go and see some of that and come and enjoy the district Wellness activities that should be a great night tomorrow so thank you a couple of reminder dates May 8th Board of Education meeting at 7 30 p.m budget appearing at 7 pm May 16th is the annual budget vote and Board of Education Election 8 AM to 9 p.m in the high school gym with Dad I'd like to ask for a motion to adjourn our regular board meeting and at 9pm in
083a second all in favor I'm any objections any extensions motion carries 7-0 good night thank you and the students can get signatures up here