001Stop it. You making fun of me. >> Are you making fun of me? >> Let me check the front. Oh, right here. >> Thank you. >> Some penalty and 15 balls. We're waiting for Peter. >> A hush is vulnerable crap. >> Good evening everyone. Sorry to keep everybody waiting. Um, all right. I just wanted to say that we called the meeting to order this evening at 5:54 um p.m. We did the pledge of allegiance and roll call and then at 556 we adjourned into executive session um and adjourned from that at 7:01 where no action was taken. So we do have some new business to discuss tonight um before we get started. Um so may I have a motion and a second um for agenda items A and B um which is the school district
002agreement for consultant services and an appointment of the impartial hearing officer. >> I'll make the motion second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um and may I have a motion and a second to adjourn the voting part of our meeting and enter into the study session of our meeting? >> So moved. Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Um All right. So, moving on. Um approval of the agenda. Any comments? We'll be voting on this next week. Being none. Okay. Um minutes from the previous meeting. Are there any comments on the um previous meeting notes um or previous meeting minutes? I'm sorry. We'll be voting on these next week as well. >> Yes. I have one comment. >> Okay. I'm just wondering if uh Failen had recorded
003my comments because there was a whole lot of information on that page. Looked pretty accurate, but it was I didn't think I spoke that long. Did you actually record it somehow and rewrite it? >> Yeah. Yeah, it's rewritten. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm just curious. >> Well, they're on YouTube, >> huh? It's on YouTube, right? The the meetings. So >> yeah, >> she can go back on YouTube and >> Okay. Either that she had great notes. >> Yeah, I'm not bad. I can't take credit for that. >> Okay, that's all I had to say. I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, T. Um All right. So, communications. Um we have had um a few from the Erie one Bosey's board of education um a call for nominations and we've had um
004letters from two nominees um Janette Plar and John Sherman. um who are both incumbents for those positions. Does anybody else have any other communications? Seeing none, uh we will move on to unfinished business. We have none. So that leads us to Dr. Janestri and the superintendent's report. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Balante. Uh we wanted to start the meeting tonight um with a few honors that we wanted to um put forth to the board and recognize. Um we first want um Gavin, come on up. Um we are super proud to honor uh Gavin Fleettow tonight um at our board meeting. Gavin is um was recognized all over social media, but we found out from Boseies this week that he was the first place winner in the Skills USA competition for electrical wiring. um which is
005a uh massive competition and to come in first place is truly an honor for him and for Sweet Home and we wanted to make sure that he got recognized by the board of education tonight um for representing Sweet Home in such a fantastic manner. We're super proud of your work. Uh keep it up and uh thank you for representing Sweet Home and in in this and getting this honor. It's a it's truly a great moment for the Great job. Thank you. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Gavin, congratulations. You're welcome. Uh and we have a couple heroes in the audience tonight that we need to recognize um as well. So um we do a lot of things as a school district and as teachers and educators and administrators um but um you know our first and foremost
006thing is to protect our our children and the safety of them comes um first and foremost. So, uh, when Sue and Liz were, uh, faced with a tough situation, um, they responded quickly to make sure, uh, our their student was taken care of. So, we had a fifth grader that was in distress, um, after eating a a burger, I believe, um, and began that that student unfortunately began uh, choking on that burger and Susan Paris um, immediately started to administer the Heimlick um, on on our student. Um and then Liz came and started patting the student on the back until the food was dislodged from this student's throat. Um obviously the student was in distress and scared um and they reacted so quickly to take care of the su student um and um really save
007them and that was just great work on their part. um we are fortunate to have them in our district and we wanted to recognize them for their quick action um and for being heroes um um here at Sweet Home. So um thank you for your work. Thank you for doing that and we'd love to get you up here and recognize you as well. So come on up. Turn for a picture. >> Smile. >> I think I got >> Thank you for knowing what to do, both of you. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations, D. You're welcome. Let's congratulations. Hello. Hello. Hello. I'll get her. Right. Okay. Um, so now we'd like to enter. What's that? >> Would you like to let them? >> You let them leave. >> Oh, you don't want to watch. You're more
008than welcome to stay for the next part, but if you have other obligations, you are. And I see you have one there. Um you are uh you are more than welcome to depart but uh >> congratulations. >> Yes. >> And thank you. >> That obligation is much more important. >> Yes. >> All right. We want to invite Mr. Feldman up for our bud budget study session number two. >> He's not ready. I'm Listen, never mind. There's a joke there, but I won't go there. Um, oh, thanks, uh, Dr. Janestri. Uh, we've been working pretty hard, uh, on gathering information, uh, since we last met in February, kind of going through some, uh, items in the budget. Uh, we had to do some mandated reporting uh, based upon feedback relative to the tax cap, uh, that
009we talked about, uh, again in February uh, from that end of things. um and are are coming back to you to report kind of a a a real time look as to where we are with the budget knowing what we know right now. Uh there are many unfortunately many details that we don't know uh as of yet that will have uh some pretty significant impact on the budget uh going forward. Uh but this gives you kind of a a snapshot as to where we are uh today, March 10th. So just this is uh this slide is a reminder. Um we use this slide uh in every presentation. Uh but this is just kind of gives you a snapshot of what we have had to do and will have to do uh relative to the budget.
010Uh we did file our final tax cap calculation uh to the New York State Office of the State Controller uh prior to the March 1st deadline. Uh and we'll talk about that shortly. Um, from a school board candidate, uh, we do have one seat that's open. Uh, the term of Mr. Balante will end, uh, on June 30th, 2026. Uh, so those that might be interested in running for the school board, uh, we do need to have their nominating uh, petitions returned to uh, the district on April 20th. Uh, and then the last day, next line, the last day for the board to adopt the proposed budget is April 24th, 2026. We intend to hopefully adopt the budget on April 22nd, I believe it is, or April 21st, whatever that Tuesday is, um, of that week.
011Uh, we do have to submit our property tax report card to the state by April 27th. Uh, and then we have to do a public hearing on the proposed budget, which ours is on May the 5th. And then of course the annual board uh election uh as well as budget vote happens in this room on Tuesday May 19th uh from 7:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. So to this point uh as again this is just kind of a a processes that we've uh gone through. We've done uh initially in January and February we have uh gotten the executive run on the state budget. uh in January. We're using those numbers to kind of estimate our revenues at this point in time. Uh we've met with each of the department heads as well as all of the
012building principles to uh get a sense as to what their budgetary needs are. Uh we do have our Bosey's participation um um services uh meeting uh has taken place and we're working through kind of finalizing that. uh and you know uh we did present again as I mentioned to you earlier we did present on May 7th kind of what we call a program maintenance budget where it is a rollover budget from year to year uh and that is based upon uh again the executive proposal that comes out from the governor's office uh in January. So tonight we're really going to give you kind of a just an update from that end of things. Uh Dr. Destri will touch briefly on staffing uh from that end of uh from at that end. uh because we have
013been working at um looking at a number of different scenarios and again I'll just caution you as to where we are right now. We are awaiting a number of things to come back uh that do have some significant impact uh on the budget. Uh we will present our our third and final hopefully iteration of the budget on April 14th uh 2026. One of the dates that I do want to remind the board, April 1st, uh, is the timeline that the New York State budget is supposed to be passed by. Uh, so we will hopefully have our final state aid numbers by that point in time. Uh, as I mentioned to you in February, this is my sixth budget in this seat. Uh, five of the six, five, four of the five previous budgets, New York
014State has not passed their budget on time. Uh, New York State has passed their budget. in fact after you all have voted on our budget um for the coming year. Uh so hopefully April 1st uh Dr. Janestri has met with many of our district legis area legislators uh from that end. Uh and um the news is is that they are shooting to have it uh and the budget done by April 1st because it coincides with uh Passover I believe from that end of things. So, we've been told, my fingers are crossed and my breath is held, uh, but we've been told that we'll be done, uh, that the state budget will be done by April the 1st, and then we will do our budget hearing and our budget adoption on April 21st, um, uh, Tuesday,
015April 21st. So, to date, um, this is what we've done for to to get to this point. Uh tonight we have again based upon your feedback from our last meeting uh we have uh re we are recommending a budget that goes right to the tax cap. We'll talk about the tax cap in the next slide. Uh but it also includes uh many of the bus purchases that we talked about uh in our February meeting and we'll get into more detail on that shortly. Uh again, uh the feedback that I received from the board, um based upon some of our budgetary, uh issues the last couple of years with, uh increased special education budget, uh out of district placements, contracted transportation. You know, my recommendation to the board and to the superintendent was to try and
016build a budget that does not use our reserves as a budgetary closure method, a gap method. From that end of things, u we've had to rely pretty significantly on our reserves the last couple of years for a number of reasons. Uh so we're really working hard to try and build a budget that does not rely on our reserves to close any budgetary gaps. We have spent a significant amount of time going through the budget line by line uh to realize any operational savings. Uh but going forward um and and where we are now uh and and I'll let Dr. Dr. uh just chime in on this in a second, but we are working through as you know we've had 12 uh teacher retirements um um ending in June. Their careers are ending in June. Uh
017and we have to look at its over those overall impact on our staffing plan as well as our budget. Uh we have met collectively with the administrative team to talk about additional needs from the admin team in terms of a budget. So we we have to talk about that including staffing. Um you know we are working to um the service employees contract uh with our service employees association is up at the end of June. We are in the midst of contract negotiations with them now. Our next session happens later this month. Um we've made progress um but we're still working through some things. So hopefully we'll have some more solid information as far as that goes in time for uh us to vote the board to vote uh excuse me on the budget uh from
018that end of things. Uh and then we do need to continue to to monitor any updates on state aid. Uh as you know our state aid came in at about 1 uh 5% of an increase. Uh and Dr. Jestri again has spent some time with our area legislators that you know there's sentiment and we've heard it at the business official level as well uh that the minimum increase might be more in the realm of 2% so somewhere between 2 and 3%. So a percentage for us in terms of state aid on our overall budget is about $260,000. So for every percentage point that we go up from 1.5, it's about $260,000 in revenue uh that we didn't realize before. Um and then uh our sales tax piece uh again that's one area of of significant
019budgetary impact that's paid out by the county quarterly. So, we'll have our our third quarter payment uh come at the end of this month in March, and we can um analyze that and and make recommendations based upon uh projections from that standpoint. We have about $5.7 million uh not about, we do have $5.7 million uh estimated in total sales tax revenue for next year. uh depending upon how the third quarter comes in that may need to be adjusted uh from that end of things. Uh and then um the last piece that last bullet there we are still waiting on information from the New York 44 health trust uh on numbers for our health contribution uh premium contribution increases. We have as you know about 6 and 12% increase budgeted for right now. Um my understanding
020is the finance committee met with the board of trustees at the New York 44 trust today. Uh they made recommendations to that trust. Um and we hopefully will get numbers by the end of the week. Um again, anything over and above that 6.5% or so uh would represent um an increase in the budgetary gap. If we get a double-digit increase, um, you know, a 10% increase on our overall health insurance premium, uh, from year to year is about $1.4 million to the district. Um, so we've got budgeted at about 6 and a.5% right now, but if we get to those double-digit numbers, there are obviously consequences to that. Um, and we would have to take a closer look at um, closing probably a larger gap. Dr. Dr. Jester, I don't know if you wanted to
021talk at all from a staffing perspective at all or anything like that. >> Sure. I I uh it's hard to make some decisions now um without a full picture of where we are. Um I've been given encouraging news that that they're hopefully we'll get a state budget on time, which means we will know our state aid number. I've also been told that um it's going to be at 2% or possibly between two and three. That makes a significant difference um as well. Um and so and then the retirements there there were 12 um actually I think 13 because we have one today um that will be on the agenda next but um you know some of those those positions need they need to be replaced and so we have to um work through that and
022we're trying to to really balance this uh um and not go over what we need to replace and not you know not be under um where we can't close the gap. So, um, we're going to look at everything really hard and and without hard data and hard numbers yet, it's hard to make the determination of where we want to go. Um, you know, I wouldn't be um I have to say, you know, this year it looks like our federal funding will come through. Next year there that's very much in question. Um, and that's to the tune between five and $6 million, which is a very scary number. Um, so a lot of factors coming into play and not knowing what the trust number is going to be for New York 44 uh is really hamstringing
023us. Don and I talk about it probably four times a day um where we're going to be with our health insurance contribution. Not knowing that number right now um makes it very difficult to make uh decisions to close um any gaps. Um I can tell you we are looking at every line um penny for penny um and making sure that we're not duplicating services. we're not overing um in areas. Um and so the goal is always, you know, um to to keep our programming um where it is at and we're going to try very hard to do that. But um the numbers are I think the 1% is is a is a tough pill to swallow um when we've been practically um at 4% 5% state uh aid foundation aid increases year after year um
024which has been helpful to balance the budget. So, got a lot got some work to do. Um, need some better data. Um, and we expect that data to come in with the next few weeks. >> Yes. >> And maybe I'm remembering this wrong, but at some point, did we talk about self-funding for our health insurance? Was that ever a few years ago? I thought we kind of brought that. >> We did it. It was actually a number of years ago um that we we attempted to do that. We brought this before I was in this seat. Um uh I was actually part of the the Shassa team at that point in time. Um but we did look at doing it and um >> I don't remember cost of >> we had we had difficulty. What
025I will say is is at the time the hangup was as I remember it uh the trust was um less than helpful in relinquishing experiential data. So, we couldn't get a fair price from, you know, if we were to go self-funded. Uh, we I will just say that a number of districts since that time frame have gone to a self-funded model. Uh, it's something honestly that we've talked about u kind of going forward. >> There's an advantage. >> Um, I don't know. there's not an opportunity to get that done in time for this year, but it would be something that >> if the trends continue with foundation aid, there's only so many areas that in a budget that we can cut. >> But when I look at it in a $108 million budget and we
026are paying close to $14 million in health insurance, that would be an area that we would have to strongly take a look at. >> So maybe for next year that would be something because I know there was a pretty hefty discussion about that. When I was in Albany for lobby day um last week, I had a couple of discussions with colleagues about the the methods they've taken to or the steps they've taken to go from the trust to self-funded. Um I think it's definitely worth exploring. We're going to have to engage our our bargaining units in that conversation from the start and the get-go. Um but I think we're going to do that um and look and see if there is potential um savings there um without impact on benefits. I think that's going to
027be important. >> That's the that's the big thing. >> That is the key. Um it's it's a it's obviously it's a heavy lift. It's a lift that can't be done overnight and as Dr. Jestri said, it would require us to work with all three of our bargaining units um from that end. But, you know, if like I say, if the trend continues and our foundation aid flattens off, we don't get the increases and yet our expenses increase exponentially, there's that would be an area that we would want to look at. >> Yep. Hey, Don, I see that on March 1st, our final tax cap calculation was due to the state. Can you tell me what that is? >> Uh, we're going to get there. >> We're going to get there. >> I'll wait. >> Okay.
028Um so on just I I again this is just an update on the revenue side uh from the state aid perspective. Uh this was a a chart that I shared with you in uh February. Again I just want to draw your attention to that first line the basic foundation aid. If you look the 2526 school year, the school year that we are in uh presently, uh we got or we are anticipating getting a little over 26 almost 26.8 million in foundation aid which represented an increase from the 2425 school year of nearly $3.2 million. Our projection in the executive run the executive run projection for our state aid is $27.2 2 million, which is a $423,000 increase from the current year. So, if you go year-over-year, we are uh at a deficit and of an
029overall increase of about $2.4 million in foundation aid. Um so, those are numbers that um that we're looking at. uh the the consultant firm that you uh authorized us to use tonight uh school aid specialists will help us kind of through that to make sure that our data is true to make sure that everything that we report to the state is accurate and to see if there's any areas that we have missed out on particularly expense driven aids uh that we might be able to recoup. So we are honestly we're looking at everything from that end of things. Uh and then the last piece of it is uh in the red there. The Bosey's aid line. We got two updates since our last um meeting in February. Uh we get a a Boseis tax cap
030exclusion for rent that we pay for other facilities. Uh and that was updated. So we had to tweak the t the tax cap a little bit. But they also provided us with a excuse me with a uh projection on Bosey's aid. Uh in February we had that estimated at $2 million. It's actually going to be closer to 1.8. Uh so we lost about $200,000 and Bosey's aid overall uh from that end of things. So the tax cap uh so this is the tax cap. Uh when we met uh in February uh if you remember uh we had the tax cap included uh we do have tax cap exclusions. uh it included just the four large electric buses that we were purchasing uh or intended to purchase. We had some conversations about diesel buses and purchasing
031diesel buses because as you know uh this is the 26 27 school year represents the last time under the current mandate that districts are allowed to purchase diesel buses. Uh so we felt as though that we needed to take advantage of that. We made a recommendation to you for uh purchases of buses that we've now included into the tax cap. So when we met the last time, our tax cap was about 1.47%. We've added the purchase of buses, which is a tax cap exclusion um to uh our tax cap calculation. So, our tax cap calculation now includes the purchases of four large electric passenger buses at $164,000 each. Three large diesel passenger buses at $183,796 each. I just want to draw your attention to that. uh you'll see that the net cost to the district
032on the electric buses because of the grant funding that we've received from the EPA and NAERTA is less than that of a diesel bus. I just want to make sure everybody understands that uh from that end of things. It also includes uh to the purchase of two small wheelchair passenger buses at $161,000 each and one small passenger diesel bus at $133,000. So in the end, our tax cap calculation comes out to uh 3.3%. Can >> I just ask you, do we have small wheelchair electric or have we not gotten that? >> They have not been made. Chassis for those vehicles have not been made yet. So, a closer look at our overall revenue. Um, based upon where we sit right now with the uh increase in the tax cap, as we talked about, our revenue
033projection right now is $107,9,65, an increase of a little over $2.3 million. Uh 1.1 million of that is straight bus purchases. Uh the rest of that is, you know, overall expenses. Uh so our revenue year-over-year um looks to go up about 2.2%. So on the expense side, uh if you remember, uh in February, we did have a a budgetary gap of about 1 point almost $1.2 million. So, we did do a little work and we went back and took a look at um the overall budget to see from an operational standpoint more so than anything else as to where we could look to to trim some money. Uh so, we did find um $60,000 from the office of instruction budget. We did trim about $240,000 from the Boseis participation budget. Uh we went through various
034vendor uh contract lines and trimmed off about $115,000. Uh and then we do have some business office savings um relative to uh salaries uh of about $40,000. So we have realized uh in the budget in this snapshot of the budget about $455,000 in savings um line by line uh in the budget. >> Mr. Felman, could you explain what those lines the Bosey's participation changes are? >> Uh sure. uh generally around um long-term suspension seats. Uh from that end of things, Dr. Janestri, we've met with the building admin teams uh at the high school. Uh Boseies is funny uh in that you have to purchase you purchase long-term suspension seats. They are your seats. If you do not use them, you are still charged for them. Uh so we felt and I I'll let Dr. Dester
035speak a little bit to it. We felt as though that we could work on a program uh here in the high school to do something different than what the Boseis program did. Uh because those seats we had five seats in the long-term suspension program. Uh and those were about um I want to say close to $55,000. No, no, sorry, sorry. $35,000 a kid from that. So, um, that was that was a big line item and we didn't fill those seats. Um, so that was an easy, um, kind of decision to make and working with, um, the admin team to do that. So, >> can you explain that? What are we paying $35,000 >> to hold five seats at? I think it was Edge Academy. >> Oh, okay. Sir, okay, I see. >> So, further, Mr.
036Johnson, to your point, uh, there was some reduction in Bosei staff development days. Uh there was some um reduction in um an engage academy which is an online academy for suspended kids and then there was some uh reduction in um days uh relative to um leader and me. Um, you know, we felt as though more so at the at the district level that with all of our schools being a lighthouse schools that, you know, we could do some of the training on our own. >> Okay. And as far as the long-term suspension, I'm assuming that our own records are showing we're not. Obviously, you said the seats aren't being used. >> Yeah, we're using a couple of them, but not all five. And and then we worked with admin to to figure out an al
037alternative to that here. So, we're we're confident that we won't need those. >> Okay. also help us with busing then if we're not sending >> that was yes it will >> thank you >> sure >> next slide Dr. please. So, uh, and we talked a little bit about these before, um, but, uh, in the executive proposal right now, uh, there is, um, a proposal for increased UPK funding, uh, for the district. Uh, right now the district has, uh, two grants. Uh, one a UPK grant, general UPK grant of $710,000, then a UPK expansion grant of $540,000. This number is an addition over and above that. It's $690,000 of additional funding uh for a UPK program. It is very much an initiative of the governor and her administration to make sure that every district has full
038day uh UPK programs across the state. We are very fortunate that we are in the throws of that um from that end of things. And that money uh would essentially equate to with all of the grant money that we would receive about $10,000 a student uh for um uh instruction. So we've applied that money uh and that savings in the snapshot of today's budget uh to salaries for aids retirement contribution system contributions and uh federal taxes. Yes. >> So um to Mr. Feldman's point by 2028 the governor in the budget is looking to require full day UPK um across districts. I think we're very fortunate here that we did that work 3 four years ago um and that we brought those um UPK uh students inhouse um and they're um with our teachers um and
039then with the additional funding and additional rooms eventually coming to Maple, we'll look to bring other sections back because we have a spacing issue now. Um, however, there's a lot of talk about this has been a very controversial ad to uh the governor's budget um because a lot of districts don't do what Sweet Home does with their UPK. A lot of them farm it out um and use a CBO uh to save costs on teachers. I I I don't believe in that. Um I think our UPK program has been extremely valuable. We'd like to keep that going. So, while we're happy about this awarded uh grant, um I think it's tenuous to say the least based on what I'm hearing from other districts who are lobbying to have some of that UPK UPK funding pushed
040into foundation aid. Um so, we'll have to see again data that we need to make some decisions down the road that we just don't have right now. Um and hopefully by April 1st, we we will know that. But um very proud of the work of UPK here um and what we've done to bring them bring it in house and we want to keep that going. Um but not not most districts don't do it the way the way Swedom does. >> Do we um how many kids are in our UPK? >> 192. >> And are any kids turned away? >> Nope. It's our goal, not our goal, it's our mandate to not turn a student away for UPK. Um, so again, we uh the last two bullet points there, we did talk with you about uh
041the possibility of adding two exceptional classrooms. Uh, one of the things um that we and and uh we've talked to you about this a lot over the course of the last three years, we've seen our um out of district tuition for highnee special education students increase by over $3.2 $2 million in three years. Uh, and it's not enough. It's just not enough money. We've not been able to and not We've been able to service all of the kids. It's just we've not been able to uh really get a a a hard and fast number on that because we've seen a lot of high need students move into the district over the course of that time. Um so we feel as though that by adding these two additional uh exceptional classrooms that we can um provide
042services for those high need students at a far uh lower rate uh than what might be charged as an outofd district placement. Uh and that would include all the services that the children are entitled to. That would include new staff. That would include aids uh and things along those lines. Um it's just uh we've not been able to I'm just being speaking frankly. We've not been able to keep up with the increasing costs with out of district placements for our highest need students. >> So these needs of the students are they emotional needs or are we talking physical needs >> or is it a mix? I mean like the two classrooms would we be talking autistic classrooms or would they be >> Well, is it two classrooms per or >> classroom total for the district?
043Um >> so we're still working on that now. Um where they would go. Um there would be a mix of of needs. Um this is mainly um kindergarten age students that would um that we would otherwise um have to send out. Um and so we are looking to keep those kindergarten age students here in the district in those two rooms. We realize uh with the help of special programs we're identifying those students now. We'll get the supports in place. even when we put the supports in place um to to educate their students here um we're still seeing a significant savings. So, we're working with the building principles right now on the space. Um, it's the the conversations are going well. Um, and we're planning to, you know, with your green light, move forward on these
044rooms. Um, and make sure, you know, we always first and foremost want to keep our students here. Um, so that accomplishes that, but it also accomplishes a significant savings to us. Same thing and I know Don didn't talk about this with her own uh OTPT staff much more control um over the staff and not not farming that out bringing them inhouse um as well. So that would be seven personnel um I believe it's two PT50s um that we would bring back into would bring to the district and realize a significant savings um there as well um and make them sweet employees. So, >> of the idea of having our own staff a little bit more, I mean, bringing our kids back, having our OTP staff. >> Um, there was some point that we talked about
045having possibly extra space where other districts could put their kids in. Did that ever come to fruition or were we just too full? >> Too full. Too full. Yeah. Now, on occasion, um, if there's a special service and there's an opening, we we could contract with that other district to do that. Um but spacing is a is an issue. >> So these would be two kindergarten classrooms. We're not sure where >> 811s. No, not sure where yet. >> 811s. Okay. So are we keeping our PTO speech at the same levels at the classroom? >> They might have we're evaluating that now. They may have to increase. So um which again still brings significant savings to us. So we will um evaluate that. We've had plenty of meetings with um Mrs. Baril Larry um and making
046sure that um any any student that goes we're evaluating who's going in those rooms we will meet their needs um in those rooms. >> Is the goal to um to add to that if possible? I mean I know you can't project what we're going to do next year, the year after that, but is the goal to continue to bring more kids back? >> We're always looking every year to bring keep our students here. I will say that. Um now we're watching enrollment and just this week we're seeing some spikes. Um our population is is um more and more transient and so um while we're we're getting uh 10 in, we're getting three out. Um and we're seeing spikes just this week. I think I had a conversation with Mrs. Del today about that. Um six
047more at at uh at at Glendale just this week. Um and it's um it's hard to manage right in the middle of a year um when um you know uh in what services those students would get um and and finding additional services. But we got to meet the mandates, we got to meet the IEP needs um for it. And so um we continue to see heavy fluctuation, I think, but an n increase in in enrollment um as we move throughout the year. Um, so, uh, it's a when the when enrollment goes up, it's a good problem to have, I always say. Um, but, um, there comes a lot of management with that. Miss Anon, I would also just say from a a budgetary perspective, again, it goes back to kind of what we talked about
048with Miss Jason with health insurance, the special education budget again on $108 million budget is about 11 almost $12 million. So, it has significant impact on our budget overall. Uh, and any cost-saving measures that we can look at potentially implementing would be something that I think and I don't want to speak for Dr. Destri, but I think that we would be very interested in exploring. >> We we might get some relief when the new Boseis facility opens um from a financial perspective. Um, but that 450 that's a significant number. It goes to show the increases in tuition and what the the numbers have been over the past even 10 years. Um the significant increases from anywhere from 50,000 to $180,000 and that's number continues to go go up. >> I just want to call attention
049to the one thing that you did say Don when you quoted a number and you said that is inclusive of speech OTP services that that student would need. So when you're calculating savings, it is inclusive of those personnel >> within that calculation because I think there's a concern that like we're bringing these kids back and we don't have the space, the equipment, the personnel to handle their needs. Um there's not, you know, known if there's a plan in place for okay, well, what happens next? Like when they age out of elementary school, will the middle school be able to handle that increased enrollment of those kids? What happens when they hit the high school? So >> yeah, Katie Katie Baril Larry has been great with us on that and so we're going student by student
050and planning that out. >> As far as a Oh, I'm sorry. No, go ahead. >> As far as a timeline for making the decision where the students will go and what do you what are you thinking? >> Well, if you give us the green light, we're tonight we're going to we're going to work on that starting tomorrow um and finalize that. So, I don't I'm not going to promise by by next week we'll have answers on that, but certainly by the April meeting, we'll have answers on that. Okay. Yeah. First first the statement. I love this idea. I think it's great. I've been glad to see we can save some money. Obviously over we've each heard from at least few of these people who are in currently in the jobs over the last couple of
051weeks as to their thoughts on it. And I might be premature with this question, but do you think the majority of them would would come right to sweet home and step away from their agency? >> Uh you are a little probably premature. Um I I've gotten the same feedback that the board has gotten from people. Um we are hard at work trying to figure out kind of what that sweet spot is uh from a financial obviously um scenario for those folks uh to try and get them to come here u from that end of things. I think that there's a a good portion that would um I just don't know from from collectively uh how the whole group would feel. >> Thank you. I know this morning Miss Anon and Dr. Janestra and I happen
052to be at Glendale and we heard a lot. We actually talked to the therapist there and we heard how much they love her there. So that's I'm hoping she would come over. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Hopefully we get to that point and we'll be good. >> Thank you. So, if you're if unless there's an objection, we'll we'll get to work on this starting tomorrow and um and see if we can fill these spots. >> Mr. Library, look at you had a question. >> Yeah, it was on the revenue side. Um, I noticed last uh I think it was last month the reports on the reserve accounts with Mnt and I think it's Chase maybe the other one >> they they the interest rate was around 2% but the new group that um has um more
053of the general reserve was giving us almost four. >> Correct. I'm just wondering because that's like about 90 like when I just did kind of math off the cuff it's could be like 70 to $90,000 additional interest. Are we able are we looking at moving more to >> we we have we have moved a bunch over and you'll probably see that in the next uh revenue report. But we've also just purchased uh about a million dollars worth of tea bills as well uh at about I think the number was around 3.6% 6% somewhere in that neck of the woods, but we are um the relationship with 3 plus one um has been great uh to kind of help us to to maximize our revenues. So yes, so we are investing as much as we can
054um obviously cash flow is an issue uh but we are trying to invest as much as we can uh to rec to to gain um revenue. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. Um all right so quickly uh this would give you a snapshot as to where we are presently. So as I mentioned earlier on uh in the uh presentation we do have uh a revenue projection as we sit tonight of a little over uh 107 million 107.9 million which represents an increase of about 2.2%. you'll see that the local tax levy uh amount right now is now 56,283,65 which is a 3.3% uh increase. And then on the the expenditure side, we're about $18,87,000 in terms of expenses uh which is a budgetary increase of about 3.1%. Uh and we presently sit tonight at
055a deficit of about $898,000. Um so we've made improvement uh from where we were in February of about 1.2 million. Uh but as we've indicated Dr. Janestri as well uh there's a lot of things that we're waiting on that do have significant impact uh to the budget. So if you hit the next slide we can talk about the oh sorry this this piece of it. I know that our community No, go ahead. You were right. Uh the community does appreciate this. This is kind of a snapshot as to where we would be with a 3.3% tax cap uh increase um uh on an average home. So again, I just caution everybody. This is using assessment values for this current school year. We won't get assessments for next school year until the summertime. Uh the Ammerst
056equalization rate is at 99%. The Tanowanda equalization rate is at 21%. I would expect that those would both change, but this gives you a pretty good idea as to where we would be in terms of an overall uh tax bill on an average home of $250,000. Uh this budget would translate to a tax rate of $101 per thousand for the town of Amherst, which would translate to a tax bill of $2,477, which is an increase year-over-year of $79. On the Tanowanda side, similar home uh at a 21% equalization rate uh would translate to a tax bill of $47.30 or a tax bill of $2,483, also a year-to-year increase of $79. Uh and that would require where we are right now uh at the tax cap that falls at the tax cap which would mean that
057the budget vote in May would require just a simple majority. It would require one more yes vote then no vote for it to pass. And then the last couple of things um just from our next steps obviously uh the next piece of it is and the biggest piece of it is uh the staffing plan. Once we have th this information in on the trust as well as on any impacts with state aid uh interest income, sales tax income, we can start to really hone in on that on that staffing plan. Uh and then hopefully we'll have some information more on the um service employees uh contract and other negotiations there. Uh and then we'll take a look at you know uh further more about uh the use of federal funds uh in terms of salaries
058and benefits and things along those lines uh and if we can utilize more of those uh to help us maybe potentially offset any further impact um uh or or deficit. Um, again, state aid, uh, hopefully by April 1st, we'll have information, uh, on that end in terms of where we sit with foundation aid. Sales tax comes in, uh, at the end of March, as well as our interest. We'll have an ideas from that end of things. Uh, and then the last piece of it is is the the biggest piece of it in my mind's eye is that that um information on the New York 44 trust and our health insurance contribution. uh if it comes in at a double-digit number, we're going to have some more work to do. Um but, you know, we'll have
059to work through that. Obviously, we have to present to you uh in April 14th to be specific, a balanced budget. So, with that, I would ask if you have any other questions. I just had one going back to the cap. It look like you use or they tell you to use an inflation rate of 2.5%. Am I right in that? >> Uh no, the tax cap there's a there's two pieces that are are given to us from the state. Um the uh taxbased growth factor is given to us from the state. Uh our taxbased growth factor this year was 1.025%. Uh and then the the growth the year-over-year uh allowable growth is um 2% or CPI which is the whatever the lesser is. So this year it was 2%. >> So CPI is much higher
060than that >> CPI that they use to to um to to gauge the the growth. I think if I remember correctly from the February meeting it was around 2.7 or 2.8%. 8%. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Thanks everybody. >> Thank you, Mr. Bman. >> Mr. Bman. >> And then just a couple quick updates for the board. The high school musical is this weekend. Um there are three shows, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday is at 7:30, Saturday is at 7:30 and Sunday is at 2:00 p.m. Um, you can get your tickets if you click on this presentation, but there's it's on our website as well. Uh, a lot of hype around the Spongebob musical and how our uh, students are going to pull this off. We're very excited to see it. Um, and it
061should be an awesome time as it always is at the at the High School Musical. So this weekend um hope to see our our um entire community come out support our students but uh really curious to see Spongebob the musical. Didn't know there was a Spongebob musical until Sweet Home decided to do it. So Dr. Jester, if I might, you could really make a full day of it on Saturday and come to the craft show and then go to the musical. So you know if you're glutton for punishment on the craft show end of it, musical is going to be great. Craft show. Craft show. >> Yes. >> I own editorial comments. >> Fell out again this year. The craft show. >> Say again. >> We sold out again this year. >> Oh yeah. 110
062of my friends are going to be there. >> Outstanding. All right. >> Um this weekend we have uh this weekend, this Friday we have our superintendent conference day. Um Dr. Wilson and her team have been planning for months. Um we're going to have um basically a alle cart and not only in offerings but food trucks will be available for our staff that will be here um on Friday. Um and so 61 different offerings uh offered at the school um at the district that uh teachers can take um and hey have a choice to do. There will be um food trucks from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the high school bus loop and um of course the board is invited. And then um the uh community organizations fair um will be in the main hallway
063from 11:45 to 12:50 on Friday. Um so um if you are around and want to grab some great food and um pop into some sessions, you are more than welcome to do that. I don't know, Dr. Wilson, if you wanted to add anything to this. >> Well, the food trucks are open to the entire community. So, um, if you are looking for a spot to get lunch and you want to bring some folks with you, please do. Um, and the the community fair will also be open. Um, so you'll find a range of different um workshops. I know some of you were looking at some some of them. There's some interesting ones, some wellness balance ones, right? As well as um our instructional focus. So, you got the whole range. But there are many teachers
064stepping in to present and they're excited about a different way to to engage in the learning. So there's a pickle ball tournament or >> so really appreciate everybody that is stepping up to uh do a presentation and to do a session and really a big inclusive day and so we're excited about it. Mr. Balante has his superintendent conference day. He just whispered to me that he'll be doing curriculum mapping all day. So, uh, >> come over and grab lunch. >> Yes, you can grab lunch over here. >> I'm at the Bosei Center, so there is Doc's kitchen there that I'm not going to complain about. >> I'm I can't complain about that, but yes. >> Um, and then I just wanted to finish tonight. Um, I know Mr. Jonathan and I um and a many
065members of the sweet home community attended the um memorial service for a former teacher Angie Kamisso um who was here 23 years in the district and um I did not get to work with her very long but um she was really one of the first teachers I met in my first week here when I did a Maple Mirror community walk and I walked in the front foyer and she grabbed my arm and said you're coming with me and um took me to um and I didn't realize at the time that she wasn't um at Maple Mirror very long. I knew she I I she spent a lot of time at the middle school. Um but you would never know it because she knocked on everybody's door and knew um everybody by name and um introduced
066me to all the the families that she had on her list that day. Um and I know what I'm saying doesn't do it justice um about the impact that she made um here at Sweet Home and everybody that she came across. Um it was standing room only of I can't even estimate um probably 600 700 people in that room. >> Yeah. >> Uh that day at the chapel. Um and u Mr. Ryan um I have to say spoke um that day and spoke uh tremendously and eloquently uh about um not Angie the teacher but Angie the person. Um and uh I wish I could have worked with her longer um here. I know um our time was short together um but she made a tremendous impact on the thousands and of students that came across
067her door but um they talked about everything from the the bakage that she would bring in um to the smile on her face every single day and uh tremendous loss for the sweet home community, tremendous loss for all of us in in Western New York. and uh just would um wanted to say um that uh to her family, we're of course grateful that we had her here um and sorry for their loss and it was a tremendous um memorial service and and um she will be missed. >> Can I just say something real quick? Um at our PTA meeting um Mr. Ryan gave us something that kind of was the essence of her and if you would to just indulge me while I read it real quick. This was from Angela Kamisso, 2122, grade K.
068Good evening. Today was a very emotional day. I will forever remember this kind, spirited, and loving group of students. I've said and continue to say to all my colleagues, my family, and friends, this is the most amazing class in my 20 plus years of teaching. I hope you all enjoyed your day as much as I did by starting with the celebration of these beautiful five and sixyear-olds. Celebrate them every chance you get. As a mom of a 14-year-old going into high school, I cannot I cannot believe how things pass you by. Pause and then love them. You are amazing parents and should be so proud. That kind of just described her. >> Yes. >> If I might just just quickly I I again I al also want to thank Mr. Ra and Michelle Dorbiala who
069also um gave some wonderful eulogies cuz when in in my meetings of Angie was just in her classroom a few times and seeing her mostly as a teacher obviously they put the life behind her about what's a wonderful woman she was and what a and what a big loss it is to the sweet home community. I want to thank them both for doing a wonderful job with that >> and u that's what I would like. >> Okay. Thank you Dr. Jester. Any questions? Okay, moving on to upcoming events. I know spring sports at the high school started this weekend or this week yesterday. Um, so good luck to all of our spring teams and I we do have a lot of honors from our winter sports teams which >> uh we will be um doing
070I believe in April sometime. >> Um we have a lot of elementary and high school uh the PTA PTO meetings coming up. Obviously, the musical. Um, Glendale has a lot of events happening over the next couple of weeks. MC Teacher Night, a Scholastic Book Fair, literacy night, um, Maple Mirror as well, um, and Heritage Heights, um, a night at the library at the middle school, a couple other book fairs going on, um, which leads us to the beginning of April, which April 3rd through 10th will be our spring recess. Um and then April 10th when we come at the end of that recess is our dollars for scholars meet raffle. I cannot forget that doc Mr. Feldman. I will keep mentioning that for you. Um so that leads us to our opening our open session.
071Um per board policy 1510. This open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda. Um does anyone like to speak? Mr. Ryan. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Balante. Uh thank you for all those who came out and supported uh Angie's celebration of life uh this past uh Tuesday. Uh just would ask the district and the board to consider um you know memorializing Angie's contribution to the district, not only uh at our building, but also at the middle school. um when we do have our new wing uh we think there should definitely be something there that uh recognizes her contributions not only in our building but um all throughout the district. So certainly one of the most talented um educators but I would also probably say uh having the pleasure of working in three different schools
072in this district uh easily one of the most um impressive human beings uh that I've ever had the opportunity to work with and know. So again, thank you so much for your support and uh your consideration in the future. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Right. Anybody else? Okay, seeing none, we will move on to our new business. Um we will be voting on our new business um next week. Um just to run through them, um A is rules um for use of our optic scanning voting machines during our district budget vote. Um B, excuse me. B is our annual public hearing um and district vote policy 1610. Any questions on those? Um C is our special education placements and um preschool class placements. >> How did I end up as C instead of A
073like I always >> you can take that up with with um No, no, that's okay. Let's see. Um I have 256 pages to get through. So I I'm working on it. I'm working on it. >> Thank you. Um uh monthly financial reports policy 2140. Um disposal of obsolete property. I believe that is a lot of tech, old printers, computers, iPads, that kind of stuff. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Um our bid um policy 5410. Um we have three bids. commercial printing envelopes and forms, special paper and others. Um, our commercial printing for our school calendar and our commercial printing for our Sweet Home Source magazine. >> Is that the same printer for the calendar as last year? Because I think we had some issues. >> Yeah, we'll make sure. >> Spring break in November on
074my calendar that I got in the mail. So, >> yes. >> Um, okay. >> Could you refresh my memory? Is the calendar out for next year already? We >> we're working on that now, Mr. Ravenold. Um we have a calendar committee that is assembling um that includes district office and membership from the three units um that that'll hash it out and we'll have it to you. I think we got to have it to you by the April meeting. >> April. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to letter G's. Capital improvement project phase one hazardous material and survey testing. I'm glad we're actually like moving into the capital projects. This is exciting. >> We are. >> We did have our our athletic council meeting today. So, that was >> Here we go. >> Um H is
075our overnight field trip request uh by Mr. Murphy to take students to um Germany in August. Um I is our policy 1410 second reading. >> Great. >> Sorry, I was just saying that's great. Yes. >> He he's done that for >> decades now. And um well, you would think he was doing it for the first time when he came to meet with me uh the other day. He has every eye dotted, every tea crossed. I mean, everything from insurance to where students will stay. It's all planned. Um he is just wonderful with this trip and um we're we're really lucky to have him. >> What are we doing with participation in the class itself? Languages. It was it the level the fourth year that we were struggling a little bit. >> Yeah. So he he's
076actually retired and he's came come back to help us out. Um so we are unfortunately phasing out German because um it's just difficult to find a German teacher at this point. Um so um Spanish and French will continue um here and we'll continue to support that. Um there has been talk I I know Mr. Johnson and I have talked quite a bit about adding um you know Arabic. Um that's our second leading language here in the district. Um so uh again finding finding a teacher and doing that that's going to be um difficult but um those are always on the radar. It's important to have foreign language. >> There's no chorus of requests for Latin anymore is there? >> There should be but no. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Um, okay. >> For Italian, too,
077but that's >> uh American Sign Language. Yeah. Um, J is um contract for iPads, laptops, um, with Apple, Inc. Um, and K is our design for an impartial hearing officer appointment, which I believe we >> Yep. >> voted on already. Um, are there any questions, comments about our new business that we'll be voting on next week? Is that can I just that that impartial hearing officer we're looking to add a kind of a um note to the board allowing >> Oh yeah. Sorry. Yes. Okay. >> Allowing the president and in the president's absence the vice president to appoint a independent hearing officer if we get a due process complaint um from a family. Um that would expedite the process because we have to turn that around in 24 hours. So instead of calling the the
078entire board in for a meeting, this would allow the president and andor the vice president to sign off on the on the hearing officer. It's a procedure. >> Is that what this resolution is? >> Yes. Y >> Thank you. >> Sorry, we voted on the hearing officer for our case earlier this evening. This is >> change a change to Yes. >> All right. I got it. Thank you. >> Um All right. Open session number two, policy 1510. Um, would anyone like to address the board? You would have three minutes. Please state your name, address, and relationship to Sweet Home. Jonathan. >> Uh, my name is Jonathan Mley. I live at 5 Durham Drive. I'm a community member. Uh, you would like to speak a bit in regards to the uh matters regarding the uh budgeting
079process. uh if we can see this year appears it'll be a rather challenging year for budgeting and trying to make the numbers work and uh for that I would like to yeah briefly express my hope with that going forward as this is working on that continue to focus on the importance of uh prioritizing uh meeting the needs of students providing key programming and maintaining good support for the teachers and staffs and our schools. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Anybody else? >> Okay. Um, which leads us to personnel. Um, we'll be voting on personnel appointments next week. Um, one is teacher and administrative. We have a resignation, a couple of appointments, a leave of absence, a reinstatement from a leave, and a co-curricular activities. um change, right? Believe that's the wait room. Um and then substitutes,
080uh long-term substitutes, appointments, and then two is service. Again, um a res couple of resignations, some regular appointments, so leave of absence and reinstatement of leave of absences. Any questions on personnel? Any other business for the greater good of the board? Questions? All right. Um, can I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you everybody. See you next week. If