001That's it. Just sitting on the end. I didn't know if you came in or not yet. Um, yours is already Thank you. What service? See, good to see you. Oh goodness. There's always there's always reason I think. Yeah. So, what is it? Yeah, that I don't know. I didn't look at the thing yet, so that could be why I know it's set up first. Let me try. Daniel, I'll adjust my screen. What's up? See, you can be taught. Yes, it's wonderful. An old dog. Learn something new every day. Derek Ed used to say that. has this been updated since uh look you'll be proud of me. I took the actual see I took it and I highlighted it. There you go. So why dangerous you understand what this said? This is where this was changed.
002Yeah, this is the one that I think I pulled up uh Wikipedia that we were talking about. Yeah. So, that's the one that they were like, right? And then Christine, you're also set with that stuff. Yes. He said remove that. What did they remove? I I don't know. So it's confused that right because they talked about blocking like okay what did you block prior to yesterday patchwork obligations. Now all schools rest assured that they do not need to comply with new rules which included expansion expand protections of LGBT. It's gone it's gone back. which is just where it started. That's what doesn't make sense. This gives bands who's protected which is everybody which is all right. So it just it's they haven't adopted the new language going back to this policy. Yes. Okay, cool. Thank
003you. Put my cold in here. It's 60° outside. This is the one. Oh, I can't wait. Yeah, I remember seeing you. Whenever you guys are ready, I'm ready to go. Because we don't have any individual lines. Exactly. My share. Were you thinking the same thing? So was Danielle. No, I know that's the number. We're going back to every single one. We're going to the version that was before this 16. I saw part 22 which is 22. It's very similar. Okay, that that's okay. We're good. Thank you. You good? You good? Um, okay. Sure. You're you're in it too, right? Presentation. Are you in the presentation? I'm just making sure it's the right one because I know we had a couple versions. Okay. Like to call the meeting to order. Can I have everybody stand for
004the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call. Naisha here. Maryanne here. Scott, I'm here. Brian here. Dirk here. Danny here. Uh Peter here. And I am here. May I have a motion and a second to approve the role? So moved. Second. All in favor? I I minutes of the previous meeting. May I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes? So moved. Second. All in favor? I I communications. Does anyone have any communications to share? Just can I talk about a little article that was in the Buffalo News about our girls hockey team? The cash team her sweetheaul. Yeah. Got some recognition. They're all star
005all Federation girls hockey first team. I'm glad to see hockey still alive. Sweet home. It's all I had. Thank you. I'll pass it around if you'd like. Okay. Okay. Unfinished business. We have none. Dr. Janestri, your turn. Thank you, Mrs. Betaglia. Um, few updates for the board tonight. I know we have um we want to we know the budget is up for a vote tonight. So, Mr. Feldman um is going to uh take over in just a second. Um we wanted to talk a little bit about CBT testing which starts tomorrow. Uh our capital construction update. We had a building news committee meeting today. Uh the school calendar which we reviewed last time. Um I left the the notes up there um in case there's any questions. And then a Memorial Day update. Um so
006before Don goes on, I know last week we talked a little bit about um the psychologist position. Um, and I just wanted to update the board on what we did um, between last meeting and this week um, to kind of um, take a look at that position. Um, so overall staffing, we wanted to recommend basically everything the same um, except we did have a a long-term leave um, slash potential retirement in high school chemistry. Um and we would like to propose uh we will be able to replace the chemistry teacher um and reinstate reinstate the psychologist position without changing the budget. Um so um obviously we were on a balanced budget when we presented to you um we understood the need um for the psychologist and then um we wanted to reinstate that and that
007um uh with with chemistry kind of came into our lap um and made the uh recommendation um pretty simple uh to make. So, we did update uh our staffing plan um with that addition um in there. Um but everything else would uh remain the same. And of course um you know, we closed the $ 1.5 million gap um in doing so. Um just a reminder though that other factors that could influence staffing throughout the summer, including registration and transfers. Um uh we we know that August is a very big time at central registry. Um, so we'll be monitoring those numbers quickly uh and and thoroughly. Kindergarten registration, final and approved New York State budget. Um, no end in sight. Uh, we're going to be voting on a budget tonight or you're going to be voting
008on a budget tonight. Um, that does not we are unclear about what our state aid number is going to be. Um, but we are mandated to move forward on that. And then of course what's happening at the federal level and federal funding. So um, we're going to continue to monitor this throughout the summer. Um but uh wanted to update you on on that plan um before asking Mr. Feldman to come on up. I good. You're good. Okay. Excellent. Unless there's any questions. Okay. Okay. Um we're presenting the budget for the fourth and final time tonight for your consideration and vote uh here shortly uh on our spending plan for the 2526 school year. Uh just again just a couple of of points here as we kind of go through this. Um this is uh these
009are up on the board here some important dates relative to the budget timeline and the budget uh process. Uh on Monday uh that date is wrong. It should be April 21st, 2025. On Monday uh it was the uh deadline to submit uh petitions uh for those interested in running for uh the school board. We do have two seats that will be available uh on May 20th. Uh those are the seats of Brian Liel and Dirk Rabbinold. We have presently uh we will have four uh individuals running for two seats. Uh they are Brian Liel, Dirk Rabinold, Jonathan Mley, and Alan Pla. Uh so those four gentlemen will be running for two seats uh in the election on uh Tuesday, May 20th. Um the last date for the board to adopt the proposed budget uh as
010Dr. Janestri had said is actually Friday of this week. Uh we are uh again as Dr. Janestri mentioned uh proposing a budget uh with the uncertainty of the state budget. Uh the state has, as many of you probably have seen over the break since we last met uh now two weeks ago, uh they've done a couple of an of and voted on a couple of extenders uh to keep the government afloat uh while uh this situation is kind of hashed out and they do get to a point where they'll actually vote to approve a state budget. So, uh, we have worked very hard, uh, to get to a point where we believe where, uh, we we're in a good place with our estimates for our state aid. Uh, we've done our homework to make sure
011that our, uh, foundation pupil unit number that we talked to you about last time is on par. Uh, so we anticipate uh, our revenues from the state being pretty close to where we've estimated. So, we feel pretty good about that. Um, you'll also vote tonight uh on our property tax report card. That's just kind of a snapshot of budgetto budget year uh as well as our reserve levels and any reserve usage that we might have uh to close budgetary gaps. We have to submit that uh to the state office the uh state controllers's office by uh April 28th. And once you vote on that tonight, we'll certainly do that. Uh we have a required public hearing on our proposed budget which will be Tuesday May 6th uh here in Virgil's where we'll present the budget
012in three parts uh the administrative capital uh and program side of of things. We'll also do uh our meet the candidate night that evening um where the four candidates will have an opportunity to read a statement and uh answer any questions. And then lastly, uh, the budget vote and school board election will be here in this room on Tuesday, May 20th from 7:00 till 7:00 a.m. till 9:00 p.m. So, uh, this particular sweet home, as I mentioned, this is the fourth and final time. So, we're kind of down at the bottom of that, uh, the second to last line where we are doing our our budget adoption on April the 22nd. Uh and then um we've gotten to a point where we've gone through and looked at every line item in the budget uh to
013make sure that we're true. We've uh looked at our revenue projections and things along those lines. Again, the only missing piece that we have now uh and it's a large one. The only missing piece that we do have is the absence of a state approved budget from that standpoint. Um so next slide please, Mike. So this is just kind of an update on revenues. This is an exact slide that uh I shared with you guys uh the board last time. From a state aid standpoint, we we there are four major areas that do impact the revenue side of the budget. The first is state aid. Uh there are no movement uh on state aid. Uh we did propo we did present to you last time an update on Bosey's aid and high excess cost aid
014that we did expect a little bit more um expense driven aids in those areas. So, we've made those changes uh to the budget uh when we presented it to you last time. We did file our real uh property tax cap uh with the state um in a timely fashion. Our final tax cap filed to New York State was4% um of an increase from this current school year to next, which translates to about a $218,000 um increase in the overall levy from year to year. Uh the third category, sales tax. Uh we did get our third quarter payment of sales tax in at just over $1.4 million. We're trending towards about 5.5 5.6 million in sales tax revenue for this current school year. Uh and we have budgeted uh about 5.45 million uh in sales tax
015revenue for the 2526 school year. Uh and then the last area is the use of reserves. Uh we have a number of reserves that are at our um at our purview to be able to use to close any kind of potential budgetary gaps and we have maintained our reserve usage consistent with what we did last year uh to for a tune of $350,000 uh total in reserve usage. So on the revenue side of the house uh we do have estimated revenues of 105,576,12. It's an increase of 5.165 million or an increase of 5.1% uh year-to-year. This gives you an overall budgetary snapshot. Uh on the revenue side, again, as I just mentioned, we have $105,576,12 in estimated revenues. of that uh the local tax levy, the local tax share would would translate out to 54,486,662.
016That's the point4% that I mentioned as part of the tax cap increase. That goes right to the cap. Uh that is our tax cap for this year, which means that uh in order for our budget to pass, we only need a simple majority. Uh had we gone over that cap, we would have needed we would have needed a supermajority or 60%. Uh but because we stayed within that tax cap, uh we um only need the simple majority to pass from that standpoint. And then and then on the expenditure side of the house, uh again 105,576 and $12, a 5.1% increase. And we are presenting a balanced budget this evening. I did this the last time just to kind of give um uh the board as well as any folks that are might be watching uh
017at home or in the audience just kind of a closer look at some of our major budgetary increases. On the revenue side of the house, we talked about tax levy at $218,000 of an increase. Uh pilots or payments in lie of taxes, we expect a $52,000 increase. sales tax, a $350,000 increase interest um uh from our investments and things along those lines. We do expect a $340,000 increase. We do expect to see an increase in Bosey's rent uh over at Northtowns of about $30,000. And then our state aid um including our our foundation aid and all expense driven aids have an increase of $3.75 million. So that gets us to a subtotal of $4.74 million. Uh and as we did mention to the other to uh the board uh two weeks ago, we were fortunate
018enough to be awarded a UPK uh integrated class setting grant uh that we expect an additional $660,000 in revenue uh to help us close that budgetary gap. So overall increases in revenue about 5.4 million. And then on the right hand side, the columns there are the expenses that uh are are pretty much mandated for either contractually uh or increases to uh other things such as tuition. Uh salary increases across all three of our service units about $1.4 million from year to year. Utilities across the district about $100,000 increase. Uh our work with Boseies including special education Boseies is about $52,000. Our liability insurance across the district is $75,000 increase. Charter school tuitions $200,000. Special education in general, including out of district placements, 1.4 million. Our bus purchases, $147,000. Contracted transportation, $500,000. And employee benefits, uh,
019just about a million. So, you can see on the expense side, we're at uh, $5.3 million in in kind of major, um, increases. This is kind of a um a snapshot of our proposed uh budget in terms of a tax uh rate impact to our community. Uh we've done in the past kind of a um uh an average home at $150,000 assessment. I took I I presented, if you've watched before, I've presented at $1 150,000 250 and $350,000. This is the one in the middle. This is $250,000. I always do this, this is cautionary, but we are using the assessed values that we used when we set the tax rates for this year back in August. So, our assessment values will change. Uh, we'll get those over the summertime just prior to the board voting
020on tax rates for this coming year. The Ammerst equalization rate u remains at 100%. The Tanowana equalization rate is at 23% and this is going to uh the tax cap levy limit of 54,48662. So for a home assessed at $250,000 in the town of Ammerst, uh the tax rate would be $9.70 per thousand or translate to a tax bill of $2,425 or an increase from year to year of $7. On the Tanowana side, uh uh the assessed value uh using the equalization rate, the assessed value of $57,500 translates to a tax rate of $42.39 per thousand or a tax bill of $2,437, which is an increase of $9 on the town side. Next slide, please, Mike. So, in summary, uh on Tuesday, May the 20th, the board or uh will we if the board does
021approve the the budget tonight, uh we will um be asking you to approve um one proposition uh the the approval of the budget. Oh, that budget number is wrong. It should be 105. It should be 105,57612. Sorry on my error there. There we go. Uh which is a budgetary increase of 5.1% a tax levy increase of4% over the current year. Uh the proposition the second proposition will be to elect two board of education members. As we mentioned earlier, the terms of Mr. Liyel and Mr. Rabinold expire on June 30th, 2025. Uh and the top two vote getters of the four gentlemen I mentioned earlier uh will receive a five-year term that expires on June 30th, 2030. Uh and again, uh voting happens here in Virgil's. Um Tuesday, May 20th, uh 2025 from 7:00 a.m. to
0229:00 p.m. You can enter through door 6 in the front. Uh we'll have uh chef will be here doing kind of a a goodie baked good sale. We'll have the chicken barbecue. Kids will have some art here on the hallways for for folks to see. Uh lastly, we'll also be voting on our proposed new Panther logo. Uh so there'll be two sets of voting going on. One for uh the budget and one for our new panther. You need to be 18 years of age to vote on the budget and live in the district for 30 days prior to May 20th. How about to vote on the panther? You can be any age. Students, faculty, staff, community members. Yep. Anybody just need to be able to hold a pen? Hold a pen. That's it. Any questions
023as terms of the budget? Just have one quick. So, this month I was going through the um special ed, 300 pages of it this month, and I'm always seeing um add-ons of like um special buses for the kids. Is that figured into all of this? Uh, one of the things and I'm we've struggled this year to kind of um really estimate as best we can uh on really two areas. number one um contracted transportation related to McKin Vento students our homeless students because we just don't know when they're coming. Uh and the second is um the sheer amount of influx of students with special education special needs. Um so we've done you saw that we've added a little over a million dollars to our budget to help kind of mitigate some of those costs. One
024of the things that that we don't that's beyond our control when a student that comes to us that requires out of district placement uh we don't have a say on the tuition that we pay to those those those agencies. So uh we're I feel as though that we're in a better place and we've done a much better job to try and kind of get a a handle on those costs. But we've had close to 50 60 uh special education kid kiddos move into the district over the last year that have required some some placement besides Sweet Home. I have one question if I could. Yep. I uh don't fall over but I think you've done a good job. I would call it holding the line on taxes to the taxpayer. I think that's terrific. the
025money that may come in the fourth quarter for sales tax. If that dollars come in higher than expected, where does that money go? And if the expenses aren't as great as you reserve for, where does that go back into the reserve? What what I'm So, I'm going to let me ask you I'll answer your first question and then I'll just ask a clarifying question on your second. Okay. So sales tax, we've budgeted um and don't quote me on this. I think this year we've budgeted five in this school year we budgeted 5.1 million uh in sales tax revenue. Um if the numbers come in higher and we're at a surplus, that number would help go towards a potential fund balance at the end of the school year. your question about uh expenses. Help me understand
026that. Uh it looks like you have uh reserved 350,000. Yeah. So if if if our expenses come in less than than anticipated and we don't need to use utilize any reserves, that money would essentially stay in those reserves. Stays in the reserves. So the money can't again I it would be awful nice to get to a zero increase to the taxpayer but it can't happen once we vote on this. Is that correct? Uh that's you've got a I mean we could have a conversation about it but yes in short yes if you guys if the board wanted to look at using the way that we use the towards the end of next school year you know using those reserves could help offset some of those costs. But essentially, you know, we're going to collect taxes
027based upon that tax rate and tax levy um once you vote on this. Uh would you mind me using the phrase holding the line uh taxes this year? Well, I think you know from we've done a good job. Uh two years ago we went out on a tax neutral budget which means we didn't raise the levy. Last year, we did not go to the tax cap. In fact, we left um a little over $1.4 million uh in tax cap allowance um and and return that essentially to the taxpayers because we didn't raise our taxes. And this year is a is a minimal in my opinion a minimal tax increase. I would say if you wanted to use that terminology, I think that's a fair assessment. Yeah. My concern in the long run is, you know,
028we're we're we're fortunate to have you finding grants and some other monies that allow us to grow our overall budget by 5% and really not burden the taxpayers. But I I still get this sense at some point, you know, that chickens are going to come home to roost. Listen, Mr. Abanol, I don't disagree with you at all. the the um the prospect of the the federal funding piece of it. Uh with the current administration, you know, we showed slides before where we have $3.5 million tied up in federal funds uh 2.1 of it in of those 3.5 million in salaries. Uh if those things went away, it would be a far different conversation. So, we're doing our very best to maintain. It's been the goal of the board. uh to maintain programming inside of the
029budget and be as fiscally responsible as we can and I believe this budget does that. Very good. I think it's important to note that some of that increase is state funding because of the increase in number of students we have too plus the the special needs students too because we get a higher dollar amount for them when they come in. That's correct. Understand? Okay. Any other questions at all? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um we also start computer-based testing, New York State testing in three through eight. Um this week, um I asked Dr. Wilson just to give a brief update to the board on where we are with CBT. Um and um and recognizing that this is kind of a very busy weeks uh coming up for Sweet Home. Busy indeed. Um so computer-based
030testing is kicking off tomorrow. Um this is year two of us being all in on computer based testing. We have been um uh doing computer based testing now uh for grades three through eight for the last couple of years. The integration work continues. Um, a lot of emphasis on integrating instructional technology into everyday instruction to support our students across the board because you can see um there's three main areas here that um New York State requires um in testing, but we have other um other platforms that we use that also these skills would be skills that students would be able to apply to. um computer-based testing window kicks off tomorrow with ELA um and then going on to math May 5th and then on to science. So it it is no longer just the strict
031couple of days that you might have remembered from the past. The state opens up a large window um that covers the span of about a month and a half or so um for us to get through all of this testing. When it's all said and done, um the second half of April going into most of of May, um each school will have participated in about five days of testing. Uh two for ELA, two for math, one for science. Um there's a proactive plan to address the statewide issues. I'm not sure if you've heard um yes, there was um quite the testing for the whole state started off the week prior to break. We elected to start our testing after break. That was already something that we had done. Um, and with all of the issues,
032um, everything was shutting down. Uh, New York State did, um, chime in and let us know that it was not, um, a local school district issue or a state issue. It was the company that we actually that the state actually contracts with, NWA, um, that administers the test. We believe that as we went into break, they found the problem. So, we are thinking that we are in good shape for tomorrow. But if if we have a proactive plan to address um if those issues continue um we've been watching very closely today to hear of any districts who might have had issues. Um and we have a plan to help reduce frustration if there is that kind of a breakdown is beyond anybody's control. But we we have really good folks at each of at all
033of our schools um that are that or are organized into tech teams and really all the structural structural structural excuse me support is in place from styluses to all the exams being packed up ready to go. As you can imagine, it's a pretty big operation. Um and we had a big simulation assessment that we did back in January. We did the same thing last year. Um this helped to um inform us, give us feedback as to things we could do to be ready um things that the feedback that we needed from teachers and feedback from students and so we are feeling really good rolling into the first day of testing with ELA tomorrow. Dr. Wilson, do you have some sort of communication group that you're with that if they start having issues that are from
034the company, you can suggest that you can find out right away? Yes, Bose is is working with us. They are a big support for us connecting back to the state. Um, and so there is a system set up so that they can let us know if we're communicating with them, they they can let us know whether it's a state issue or something locally. So that is all set up. Plus, we have our own internal plan for each schools. We met with the principles today. Um, Dr. Kazakowski uh before the break, we brainstormed some different things we could do to be ready. Um, and then we made sure we met with all the principles so that they know what to do if there is um anything that stops us from being able to get on. Thank
035you. Is this an opt out test or This is one of those exams that you you will see refusals, but and we were concerned last year with us um jumping into our first year of computer based testing that we might have an increase when we actually had a decrease. So, um a decrease in ELA and a slight decrease in math. Um but uh we're looking forward to another decrease because now people have have one year under their belt. They feel they feel much more comfortable. we have been adopting curriculum that supports the computer-based focus. So like our new math curriculum. Um there's a many components of that that lends itself to instructional technologies. Um and so we feel like we're in a good place. Thank you. And I I don't know if everybody got this
036particular email, but I did receive an email from the middle school letting faculty know that they're going to do a staggered login so that hopefully we can avoid some of the issue. Yeah, that was part of the plan having um one grade level go in first. If we see that it's an issue, we're not going to have the others go in and just increase the level of frustration. We look at everybody halting and shifting at that point. Good plan. Thank you, Dr. Wilson. Um wanted to update the board that we had a building use committee meeting um this afternoon. Um we are at a point where we called in the architects, construction managers and our financial planner today um to discuss where we are with scope and finances of the of the next project. Um
037we are in a place where we have to look at a few areas um because of cost um and the possibility of actually proposing um um ba based on the recommendation of the building use committee um and where they are at um possible two propositions which we'll get into more detail because we're going to invite everybody back and we would like to present to the board probably in June or July um on where we are. But um we're hoping Proposition One will our goal is to make it tax neutral. Um and then Proposition 2 would address some um needs uh at at the athletic facility at the high school. More information on that to come if that's the route that the committee wants to take um moving forward um with the board. Um but this
038the the plan so far addresses spacing needs at the elementary buildings. Addresses need for renovations at the elementary building, addresses needs identified um that have been red flagged in the building condition survey. Um we're discussing ways to better utilize the high school athletic fields um so more contests can be played at the same time. Um and we're reviewing our financials again to have minimal impact on our on our taxpayers. Um, so we're going to meet again as a building and use committee I think in in about a week or two um to kind of um debrief on what we learned tonight and then um bring those questions to the team of architects, construction managers, financial planners um and then prepare for a board presentation um I would say before hopefully before the end of the
039school year. Any questions on that? Um, district calendar committee, I just I left this on here, but we know that uh you were presented this information um at our last board meeting. Um, thankful again um to the members of the calendar committee for all of their work um in in providing input on where we go. We follow align closely with the um Bosey's calendar. Um this calendar we're presenting to you follows New York State education guidelines and and regulations in terms of days and hours. Uh it incorporates New York State assessments and regions exams, legal holidays, contractual language, the Bosey's calendar, like I said, we follow closely. Uh the potential for emergency closures, and of course, stakeholder feedback. Um you know, the holidays that the legal holidays that are on there, um they're all incorporated
040in there as well. some big uh dates um that you that we discussed last week um including the August 28 staff development opening virtual day um first student day would be September 2nd of the 25 26 school year um and then um a possible the rating day would be the 26th um depending on if we use all of our emergency days or not uh we're proposing um June 29th as the last day for teachers but if we uh have u days left over, we would um use that day in cooperation with the the teachers union. Uh we would use that day um as the as the free day instead of the uh Memorial Day weekend. So um it meets all the guidelines and regulations like we said um and um it is posted here um
041for your review. Dr. They added last time that um lunar holiday. Are there any on the on the There's always seems like Yeah, there's always a few more being proposed. Um and we'll see if this budget passes anytime soon if they if they go through. Yeah, they'll be voting for the seventh seventh extender tomorrow. Yes. Extender. Yes. But if they didn't come up with something would hopefully they would not do it for next year. Um and that they would give us time. knowing that our calendar has been Yeah. approved. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. If not, we would have to come and amend it. Um, as Mr. Feldman mentioned, we are um these are our concepts for the final Panther logo that will be voted on by our community on May 20th. Um, they will be unveiled
042to the board at our next meeting, May 6th, I believe. So, we have taken this concept. We're working with 26 shirts. They're developing um them into logos uh that that could be used um here at Sweet Home. Um they're working with our students that our students will be taking a field trip to 26 shirts. Um they're providing their input on the final concepts. We'll be ready at the May 6 meeting to uh show them to you. Um and they're also going to be published in the Sweet Home Source magazine. Um that will go out. Um obviously we had we're voting on the budget tonight. You're you're voting on the budget tonight. So, we're almost at a wrap stage with the Sweet Home Source, so our community can see them um in newsletter format um as
043well. Um so, we're we're excited May 20th, uh you know, um we hope to get a big turnout, so everybody has a voice in and what our logo is going to be. And then just a reminder, um it's nice and sunny and potentially warmer out today. um as the days get closer to summer um the chances of us using another emergency day get slimmer and slimmer. So if we do not use another emergency day between now and April 30th um the the Memorial Day weekend will be extended and Friday, May 23rd will be a day off for um the district. So we will announce that officially at the next meeting at May 1st. May 1st I'll send out a note to everybody to say it's official. And that's what I have for tonight unless there's
044any questions. Thank you. Great. Um, upcoming events, uh, we have a couple of meetings coming up districtwide and individual building meetings. Um, our next board meeting is on the 6th. Open session per policy 1510. This open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda. Is anybody interested in speaking? Do you need me to read the policy? Uh, good evening. Paul Simandera, uh, Sheay, president, uh, faculty member at the high school. Um, just a quick comment on the budget. I don't envy the position that our entire school community is in in trying to make decisions in balancing and making decisions uh this versus that, so to speak. Um but I have to be able to to say how disappointing it is on the night that you're voting for something is the night that we're also learning
045about a cut to the science department at the high school. Um at the last meeting there was an impassioned um number of people speaking on behalf of the needs for supporting our psychologists um at the high school and the services to the kids and and what's really entailed in that. So perhaps that's a a good thing that our board has a greater vision of understanding of what uh various supports might be. But on behalf of the number of texts I've received just tonight realizing that we are now cutting a science position. Mr. We're not cutting a science position. We're replacing the science position and adding the psychologist. There's no cut. There's no cut to the long-term substitute. Well, I guess I must be misreading I'm sorry the slide you have. It it presents itself that
046a the position at the high school is now being flopped out for the psychologist position. The the slide reads, "Due to a long-term leave retirement in high school chemistry, replace chemistry teacher and reinstate the psychologist position." Thank you very much for your time. I your support as always. My mistake. Thank you. Anybody else? Just the agenda. Go ahead. My name is Peter Hoyek. I live in uh Milwood Drive in the downtown Wanda. I brought this up before when I've come to other meetings. So, we're adding another $5 million to the school budget. I just it just kind of amazes me that this budget keeps going up. I lived in this school district since 2000 and my school taxes have gone up 400%. Now they're going to go up again. That's my first comment. Secondly, I've
047also been here previously discussing uh how are you going to prevent illegals from voting? Uh when this this slide was up there that mentioned about the budget vote coming up on May 20th, you said they have to be 18 years old and you have to live in a district for 30 days. That's not my understanding of what you need to have to vote. What What are we going to do to prevent illegals from voting? I still haven't got an answer from this. I asked this question last time, too. I still don't have an answer to this. That's it. Unless you want to respond. That's what I No, we can't respond. Thank you for your comments. Anybody else? No, we can't respond. I I know. But is there something posted on the website about the requirements
048to vote? Yes. Does it include a driver's license? Some form of Yes. Yes. Yes. Prove your doesn't it proves your residence? Yes. You have to prove res. Yes. So, okay. Thank you. No, no, no, no. I I I can't have I can't have a conversation with you. I'm sorry. Okay, moving on to new business. May I have a motion and a second to approve approve consent agenda on items A through L? So moved. Second. I understand we discussed these last week. So all in favor or two weeks ago, we typically go through each go through them. Yeah. to be sure there's no discussion. You wouldn't bite, please. Okay. Letter A is the bud budget adoption. B is the special ed class placements and preschool placements. And I'd be remiss if I again didn't um make
049note of our amazing people that go into all the work for the IEPs and the 504s and the evaluations. We had 300 pages of annual reviews. um still having kids come in from other districts, transferring in just our our people do such a good job. Our um counselors, our speech pathologists, OTP, a lot goes into these IEPs and it just amazes me how much effort and and detail goes into these. So again, I I want to thank for all that effort. Okay. C is our monthly financials. Also very detail oriented. Uh bids for policy 5410 is item D. We have office supplies, athletic uniforms, art supplies. Comments or questions. E would be the district vote for the chief election inspector and the inspectors of the election. F is the Erie one Bosey's budget and the
050two members two board members or three board members running for their seats. I' I've got a question on that. N Scott would have the answer. Is do we Mark Mecca's Williamsville correct? Is there not already a Williamsville person on the Boseies board or did that Mark is the current It's Mark? Yeah, Mark is the current Williamsville. Okay. But who was prior? Okay. I I thought there was still another Williams person. No, Mark replaced. Oh, that was last year. Three years ago. Yeah, it would have been three years ago. I don't remember who it was. I'm sorry. All right. I'm just trying to catch up on that. And there's three seats because somebody else dropped out. No, there's three every year. They uh they they have threeear terms and nine board members. Oh. So, they they
051take three out three of them go every year. Okay. Thank you. I forgot. Yeah, that's okay. Thanks. All right. I'm okay with it. G would be revised policy second readings for three of our policies. I had uh a couple questions on 7554 and I've spent some time researching the Texas decision and the current default back to what it was in 2020 and it doesn't look like it changed at all. So I'm not sure what we're really voting on there. I'm okay with it because it primarily says we don't discriminate against anybody and anything basically. Yeah, there had been changes made that had been planned to be made and then both policy service sent us these saying take them back based on the new where the new administration is coming through and things were what the
052administration has has I guess ruled on or executive order. Okay. Okay. I'm all right with it. Thank you. Okay. Next is the district calendars, the attendance calendar, the payroll calendar, the holiday calendar. I is the acceptance of donations. We have four. J is a SRA outlay project. K is the Bosey's Dexter Terrace and sweet home contract. L would be disposal of obsolete property. I think I only saw one item in there. Was that a mixer? Yeah, we added another one today. There was a mixer. Yeah. And a microwave. Oh, I missed the microwave. I missed the microwave the other day. Unfortunate, you know, microwave died in in transportation. So, new one. Say again. They need a new one. We they we've been taking the camera. I make we have to have our bus drivers have
053their cups of coffee warmed up, so it's good. Okay, any more comments or questions on A through L? We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I opposed abstain. All right, that brings us toformational items. Maisha, would you like to start? Um, yeah. on to begin on April 2nd, student government successfully hosted our highly anticipated movie night. We had a great turnout of around 170 students who came to watch the movie and then more than 35 volunteers who helped make sure the event runs smoothly, helped set up and hand out all the snacks, organize our decor donated from the from AMC, clean up all the popcorn left over and the on the auditorium. We appreciate and want to give a big thank you to Miss Deepisquali, Mrs. Bruce, Mrs. Udsik, Mrs. Reed, and
054Mr. Padmanaba for all their help from making big balloon arches and photo booths to managing the sound system in the auditorium. Looking ahead, student government is looking to make an initiative to introduce outside lunching for all students starting next month when we hopefully have consistent good weather. We're aware this has been done previously at the high school and we're currently working on a finalized new and more wellthoughtout proposal that not only evaluates the benefits and the challenges but also outlines a clear path to ensure the experience would be safe, inclusive and enjoyable for everyone. And our goal is to submit that proposal to administration by the end of this week for review and feedback. And then we aim to to implement it to have something that's both familiar and improved. Lastly, before the break, students
055from the student app team participated in the annual challenge to change event at ECC. Students were able to meet with student leaders from other school boards, learn how to discuss concerns related to race and social justice, participate in breakout sessions, and appreciate and understand how to break down barriers that separate us as a community. The leadership summit with students from all over the schools will be on May 30th at Benched by Rizzo which is also the same day as our final connect life blood drive for this year. And also um the new gowns caps and gowns came in and there's been a lot of positive feedback from students and they especially like the new tassels. Thanks. Thank you. Sure. And thank you for the popcorn that you distributed the district office. Uh it was delicious.
056We appreciate it. Yeah. Okay. Um I went over to Heritage to watch the frog and toad. I don't know if anybody else got over there, but it was just so cute. The kids is just, you know, it's an extravaganza and it was just so cute. Next, um I went over for the Amherst diversity committee over at the um senior was it the library at this time? um Sweet Home and Williamsville. Sweet Home represented by Dr. Janestri um talked about building a strong school community and you know for us there's some certain times like graduation so proud you know when we see these kids coming around so proud this for me was one of those moments Dr. Janesty Janestri just represented our district so very well and really got the point out what Sweet Home is.
057So, I just wanted to tell you just a phenomenal job. It was a good turnout, too, for the first time. It was fun. Um, health and safety, crisis response plan, um, added to district safety plan. They're review, they're going over that. How to respond to a traumatic event. We actually need a formal plan is what talked about um, and what role everybody will take in that. So, that's still being worked on. We talked about my favorite lead and water testing. That's and I'm sure I'm going to mess some of these numbers up, but I know the threshold has been changed. Correct. Correct. So, there were some ones that we needed to work on and they're posted on the website. And how long do we have I didn't ask that question to remediate remediate? We don't
058there's not really a timeline as far as that goes. We are in the process of remediating now. We did retest some of the um outlets at Willeridge and they've all come back as as good uh from that standpoint. But they did um the Department of Health lowered the threshold of uh parts per billion lead parts per billion from 15 parts per billion to five. Uh and many of our failures this time around fell in that five to 15 range which would have been sufficient the last time we tested. Okay. And the federal number is 20. The federal number is 20. That's correct. Yeah. Oh, you took that down. Yep. I was right in I got that one too. And um just for like the future of board meetings, I just was interested now as I'm
059again reading through the special ed what our summer school is going to look like. So, in your next presentation next month, if you could talk about that as well as what we're doing as far as food distribution for our families for this for the summer and if there's any chance we could feed everybody during this summer. We're we are on it. Thank you. Yep. Anything else? Nope. Go ahead, Scott. Um, just a couple quick things. Um, and I'm way behind on the list from the past several months and I apologize for that, but I just want to touch on one in particular. I um last week I attended the Boseies twist on tech night. They've been doing this for the last handful of years and they've been rotating through the the every one Boseies facilities
060and this one was at Harkness and what they did was they set up for the areas. They bring students and staff in to explain things and we got to go through three. We also got fed very well which was nice to beginning and end. Um, but I was in the electronics and applied technologies area first and they were talking about the things they do with kids and it's it's basic electricity theory but then working on things. In a lot of cases they were bringing projects from home. They had a um an LED TV and that they actually took the TV apart and replaced the LEDs on it so the TV would work again. Um they were rewiring a golf cart. I mean this thing you want to drive on the road the way the time
061they're down. But anyway, but a lot of projects like that they're working on their own stuff and learn how to move forward with it. Then I went into an animal science one. It's it's juniors and they're learning about animal care. There's a handful of different things. I might go to vet tech programs among others. Um it's pretty fascinating because they had quite a few animals. I got to hold a fair which I've never held before in my life along with a Russian tortoise who had very sharp claws. Um and then the final one was aviation technology and mind you this is right back at the airport. They have a handful of uh flying simulator simulators there for actual flying and they're work with the kids so that they're working on one but they're actually flying
062plane all over the country in simulations and they're follow they're changing off every two hours to keep going on this. It was pretty fascinating to see how they do it. Um I actually got to go on one of the simpler simulators which still had three screens and this was supposed to be like a Piper Cubsiz plane and it's still the number of things that were in front of me was scary. I did get it on the ground at the Nagara Falls airport without crashing, but I was going this way. The runway went that way, but it was on the ground. Um, the other one is a personal note. I've talked to my colleagues here at the board and some of my friends know. Um, I'm I've had prostate cancer now. I was diagnosed for six
063years ago and just earlier this year, I went through treatment on it. I've completed my treatment. I rang the bell. I'm waiting to find out if there's any other issues with it. What I want to say for any men who are listening to this, get your PSA tested on a regular basis. Any women, get your men to get out there and test their PSAs. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lel. Well, first of all, Scott, congratulations on ringing the bell. I know that's a it's always uh nice to hear if you happen to be there. And usually every day, you know, if you're there, um, you do hear that bell ring and it, uh, um, you know, a lot of clapping and, uh, it shows the good work and the hard effort of the
064doctors and and and the patients and and their family and support around them. [Music] um couple of activities u over the last month I just want to mention um I believe I mentioned this last time but Willidge multicultural night um that was on in March but then um Willow Ridge also had a science night um this is the uh the PTA um on the uh on the 4th of April and then the middle school uh which uh my family and I attended had multicultural night on the ETH and I just I'm bringing that up because the kids have a great time. Um and but it's a lot of work for the PTAs and the PTSAs and and you know there's students, there's parents, there's faculty. Um but um they all came together. Kids had a
065great time and um you know it's nice to see a lot of that you know there's a lot of extra effort in these extra activities that go well beyond you know what we're doing here in the classroom. So congratulations to all of them. Um I also wanted to mention I attended the athletic council which we briefly mentioned here in terms of um potentially bringing forth some uh proposals. Um so that's uh I think going to be some exciting work that'll be unveiled over the next um you know few months and and beyond that as to what um not only the billing use committee is bringing forth but the athletic committee looking at that in terms of how do we bring in more um of our younger athletes at an earlier stage? How do we engage
066the communities and and other um of these youth sports um so that um you know we can um connect with young athletes at at an earlier age and recognize the talents um and uh and connected with the athletes. I had a chance to uh attend one of the practices for the girls lacrosse team. It was there it was the first week of practice but it was freezing that week. So, I mean, even when it's cold, I mean, this was like probably high 30s, but kids are out there every day practicing. Been there yesterday, they were out there in the monsoons. Um, but um and I appreciate also, I think, um, you know, that they um, you know, the the cheers and the different things that they do to bring the team together. My daughters happen
067to be with me and they included them in that as well. And it's just nice to see the camaraderie and the teamwork and that team. I don't know if everybody if people recognize this, but it's moved up in a division. So, it's going to be, you know, they did so well in the past that this year they're actually playing in a tougher division. There was an article in the Amherst fe. It was nice to see that they got recognition for um you know, just moving up again in that tougher division. So, um you know, it's an accomplishment for them, but obviously a tougher season ahead. Big game tomorrow. That's it on my end. Thank you, Kirk. Sure. I was able to attend the Heritage Heights uh PTA meeting back uh seems like a while ago.
068Um it was their uh meeting to roll over their leadership for next year. Um it looks like most of them are going to stay in place except for the the leader. She'll she'll be moving on to the middle school. Nice group of people. They talked about their STEM night, their multicultural night, and um friendship day, the bouncy houses. Sounds like all these things go very well. Again, a very good group of parents and people that participate in all this stuff. You talked about things coming uh in in May and June. Uh May 16th, the author Doogie Hero is coming. He uh apparently wrote a book called The Invisible Boy. Uh June 24th is their friendship day. Today, by the way, was they call it a hospitality day, bus driver day, tomorrow is secretary day, principal
069day on the 1st of May, lunch hero day on the 2nd, nurse day on the 7th. Oh, I like that one. And then May 5th through the 9th, they get a whole week, I guess, teacher appreciation week, which again, good group of people. So, uh I did get an email requesting uh whether or not I'd like to attend a uh presentation of a movie called We Will Dance Again. And uh I originally signed up for it, but I'm going to be out of town a day earlier than I thought. So, um if you could express my uh but I'm sorry I can't make it. So, I saw the trailer. It's very uh moving and uh I know we all support, you know, the that stuff. So, that's all I have. Thanks. Thank you, Danny. All
070right. So, I had my first babysitter in nine years, and you know what I did? I went to the Glendale PTA meeting. Um which was great. It was great to actually be able to be there with everyone in person. Um they had a great STEM night and a great MC teacher night where they raised a whole bunch of money, which is awesome. Um, upcoming events at Glendale would be flower sale and they've got FunRun. Um, I'm fairly certain leadership days are also coming to all of the elementary schools. So, if you are listening out there and you get the opportunity to attend a leadership day at an elementary school, it is magical and those kids are just so excited to show you everything. So, I'd encourage attendance for that if you're able. Um, Durk mentioned
071it already that teacher appreciation week is May 5th through the 9th. So, this is my Super Bowl. This is like my favorite time of the year to just spoil the heck out of my kids' teachers cuz I appreciate them so much. So, each school um does different events each day for teacher appreciation. So, if you're able to participate in any of those just to show some love to our teachers, I would encourage you to do that as well. Um Willow Ridge actually has a flower sale which I think ends May 7th. They sent out an email um where you can, you know, buy a voucher to uh Lavocats and if you've never been there before, that place is awesome. So, you get your voucher and you go and you pick out all your plants and
072then Willow Ridge gets a percentage of the money for their community garden. So, it's a great fundraiser and it is just so much fun to go and wander around the greenhouse and pick up flowers. Um the last thing I have here on my list is a question for Mr. Ryan at Maple because state assessments are coming. Um, did you do a music video with a dance this year to wake the kids up? Because I'm not on social media anymore, so I didn't get to see it. If you did, Friday. Excellent. I love that. He's rubbing his legs right now. Could you make sure we all get a copy? Mr. Ryan, could you make sure we all get a video of that? Sure. Thank you. Excellent. You make it part of the superintendent report. I like
073that. Could you make sure that that gets tested? Thank you. That's it. All right, Peter. Um, so at the end of March, Scott and I were at the legislative ECASB legislative team meeting. Um, I forgot that that was after meeting. So, um, the cons the the the biggest topic was ECASB's stance on the cell phone um, and where the governor was and legislative was going with that. Um, we did cancel the May dinner. Yeah. dinner with legislative. So, we're working on um our next year schedule. So, um with Brian, I was at the athletic council meeting. Um he talked about that. And then last week, I was in Myrtle Beach with the baseball team for spring training. So, 3-1 and one. Um did very well down there. Um played a lot of upstate New York
074teams. um one team from the Pikipsy area, a team from Elmyra, team from Rochester, and then Fredonia and St. Joe's. So, um just happened to be the week that we were there. There were a lot of New York State teams there. So, how the kids do? They did well. They went 3-1 and one, so they played very well. Um back to regular season tomorrow. So, that's all I got. Okay. Um I had the high school PTSA meeting last week, not last week, two weeks ago, I think. Um I attended virtually. They are in good shape. They are getting ready to select the scholarship winners for their uh scholarships that they have. Um but they are doing very good in all of their endeavors. Um, I want to say thank you to my colleagues for their
075support over the last six months. Uh, and that's it. So, on to our next section, open session. Would anybody like to address the board? You have three minutes. You can speak on any topic. Please state your name, address, and relationship to Sweet Home. Hello, my name is Jonathan Mekley. I live at 5 Durham Drive. I'm a community member within the district. Uh, and I had a few things I would like to speak on. Uh first off, I'm glad to hear that uh we were able to find a way to be able to maintain the psychologist uh position for the coming year uh since uh having a psychologist and support for students is rather important. And uh secondly, I wanted to speak a bit on some matters regarding to busing. Uh in the last meeting we
076managed to have some good updates in terms of the changes for uh walking radius and mentions of uh plans for bus aids on the buses. Although uh you know from communications uh conversations I had uh with parents and other community members, there seems to be still some uh concerns that uh people have particularly in regards to the uh middle school busing about uh possibilities of uh congestion with vehicles at the middle school about uh concerns about uh plans for maintaining safety on the buses. uh beyond uh just the needs and uh hopefully as planning progresses uh more information will come out uh things will progress to be able to address the concerns of community members and that's what I wanted to say and thank you. Thank you Jonathan Jonathan. Anybody else? Again, my name is
077Peter Hoyick and I live on Milwood Drive in uh the district. Um brought this a topic up previously too. I asked why the superintendent has been fired yet and I gave a list of reasons and unfortunately those reasons are growing again on social media. This school district is being criticized for discipline problems. This time it's at the high school. So again, I don't understand why things keep getting worse and he's still here. That's I assume that we're going to hold people accountable eventually on a board of education for not doing anything about this. Um, next, last year I came because in my mailbox, I found a publication describing what was going to be voted on at the at the at the school budget vote the day of the of the vote. I hope that's going
078to be rectified and it's going to be on time this year so that the residents find out with enough time to do something about coming here and voting and nobody has anybody I know what the status of that is. Yeah. All right. Um it was mentioned earlier in the meeting that the amount of federal aid to the school district is unknown. Does that have anything to do with the fact that you're being directed to drop all your DEI policies? And are you have you dropped them? I guess I looked online and it didn't look like anything changed. So, I guess you're just going to write that money off, huh? Um, electric buses. Last time I was here, I was told that you were going to still buy three electric buses, maybe. Has that changed? We
079have any electric buses? We do. And how how are you paying for the millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements that had to be done to pull that off that you did not tell the residents about? You're not going to answer. Okay. And as far as non-citizens voting, just because you get a driver's license doesn't mean you can vote. They give non-citizens voting uh driver's licenses all the time. And I'll tell you another thing. To get that driver's license, New York State gives the applicant a fake last for social security number that they could actually use to register to vote right there on the spot on their their application form, but it's a federal offense. However, there's a there is a web page on the DMV's website that once you get that last four digits of
080your social security number and you got your license number, you can register to vote. You can even change the address so it doesn't match the address of on your driver's license at the time you applied for it. And and you can apply for absentee ballots. What happens then? I don't know. I'm just asking you as a board and as a as a superintendent what you're doing to prevent non-citizens from voting. That's it. Thank you so much. Anybody else? Okay, that brings us to personnel. May I have a motion and a second on personnel items one and two, teaching and administrative and service. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I That brings us to the end of the meeting. May I have a motion in a second to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor?
081I thank you for all all for coming and have a good night. Yikes. We need to change Albany. I suppose we need to change all the even licenses.