001e e e thank you and we're back Board of vation meeting we're going to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge algi to the flag United States of America to the stands na godible agenda thank Mr sco welcome everybody just a couple of uh uh student athlete updates to share with excit in here so uh congratulations to the hotg wrestling team so a few weeks back uh they were crowned the 2025 suff County Champions and at that tournament we had uh the following Place winners so Trevor patri was uh in first place and was also the most outstanding wrestler of the tournament uh Gino Manta also came in first in the counties Conor Sheridan second Elijah infon 5th and Jason the frees 6 so that was at the counties I was actually there for that
002and it was unbelievable I was able to see Gino in particular pin his opponent and it was about a minute so then uh the coaches obviously massina uh family brought uh Trevor Gino and Connor up to Albany this past weekend and all three placed at the states Trevor came in fourth Connor Fifth and Gino 6th so congratulations to those students [Applause] they to represent H and then also this past weekend uh our kick line team was in Orlando Florida and they won first place in the high kick small team category second year in a row am I right on that second time second year in a row for that team so congratulations to those girls Thank you Mr scre thank you 5A we don't have any recognition and any awards for tonight we move on
003to 5 sure so tonight kicks off the first presentation of the 25 26 year so the budget isn't developed overnight it's a months long process the first thing that we tied back everything to is dis goals making sure everything we're putting into the budget ties back on to that the next layer is enrollment to determine staffing needs you have to understand enrollment and then as part of the budget at least 70% is Staffing and benefits and then finally ultimately we're here for the kids who we're making sure that we have plenty of opportunities for students enrollment projected for 2526 about 3,66 kids Staffing updates so with June 30th 2025 there will be 15 retirements we'll be replacing 13 of the 15 reducing overages 1.0 so total decrease of 3.0 FTE and then increases there's a
004need for two special education teachers one reading teacher so it is a wash curriculum and instruction highlights same with every single year we're making sure that we're maintaining class sizes programs we're supporting College awareness other postc uh secondary opportunities continuing investment in classroom Technologies and then we uh provide Fe coverage for PSAT sat IV and at examinations just to thank the board this week uh we had the SAT and the act at the high school uh again funded by this board event so thank you for that absolutely so funding snapshot the largest source of revenue for hop out schools is the tax levy the change in the tax levy from the current year 2425 to 2526 is currently at 3.77 next largest uh source of Revenue is state aid that is 20 million we see
005a little bit of a dip from the4 25 year but we'll know uh about April 1st when the state budget is enacted what the final number will be for hotg ahead of the budget adoption on April 22nd Pilots are payments in low taxes hotg is a really cool place because the industrial park provides the district with at least $7 million in Revenue there other is interest for banking self-insurance recoveries we've seen a lot of interest changes over the last couple years um so there's an increase there Reserve this is a part of our historical funding plan both reserves and fund balance help to mitigate the impact of the taxpayer so we're looking for the 25 26 year a total budget of 138 390 328 all school districts have to provide a balance budget so revenues
006have the total as need and match expenditures which they do expenditure budget 138 39328 which is a change over the current year of 3.8 and then looking forward what we have to do now so the next meeting will be a deep dive into revenue and tax cap that's March 18th April 1st is a budget workshop for curriculum instruction technology and health and safety April 22nd is the budget adoption May 13th is the budget hearing and then ultimately the budget vote on May 20 and that's all I got this it's appropriate time I to ask anyway sure when do we plan for the preschool got a lot of community members asking me I guess Smithtown or neighboring District went through a tough thing with a lot of children did not get with upk yeah so we
007um we haven't done our Lottery yet for our upk our upk Lottery is um I want to say it's in April no how many what our numbers Mr T far somebody asked I really didn't know the number next year's numbers I'm not sure okay we we've been fortunate that we haven't had to turn anybody away so that's we have seven section I believe um so we're hopeful we we'll be in the same situation we'll see what the numbers show last two years you've been able to accomodate we have okay because that was sorry to hear that bad position uh any other questions from the board so every year I kind of ask this you know we have declining enrollment we have a bunch of retirements we always have well not always but Net Zero usually
008we end up with hes versus retirees any chance this year we have a couple FTE that we do not have to replace well and that slide kind of captured the situation so we aren't replacing but then we have some mandated FTE that are uh due to csse decisions and and so we're not replacing everybody so again we we're we're finding that balance between the class size goals that the board has had for some time but with declining enrollment we're able to not replace Place everybody separate from all that we have decisions you know mandates that come out of cse's that are related to student needs so this this is kind of the story over the last 10 years we've actually reduced Staffing uh through attrition uh in many of you know the general areas but
009we're seeing that over that same let's say 10year period we've increased Staffing with special ed with reading Department with enl so different populations have different needs there and and that's why the the that balance is seen where in this case we have a net zero uh in the last few years we've been plus right so we've actually added staff over the last few years so in some ways this is um a good development that we're not adding net uh right it's it's a net zero but we'll see what happens uh you know the next couple months there could always be additional Staffing uh you know retirements and things I think also monitor you also monitor our enrollment in all all our grades especially like kindergarten which is where was my next question we anticipate the
010same amount but it could def right now it's just tracking it's we're watching very closely there could be a reduction in in there you know we don't guarantee it but we're watching that um as far as the registrations that we're receiving right now we're budgeting for the same amount but it could be less there there certain triggers that will you know change our thinking on the number of sections because it's all like a math equation right so right now the projections show that we're still well under our class sizes that we kind yes so we're a to maintain all that easily next year yep that's great we're still in a very good place with class sizes at the at the elementary level in particular good Dr you're looking for Savings of some type not like
011just well I I think we always are right you know we know we'll put it to good use with the students in another way but you know you mentioned that if we get you know a surprisingly low enrollment for kindergarten I know you receive package all the way through the summer yes no we're not looking to excess or release any teachers you know so you know it's just a perfect opportunity with retirements and not have replaced everybody that's the way we prefer it right so yeah and there's the the the person balance but then there's the financial part of it which is even though this is netting out the new hires would be at a you know lower step so there would be Financial savings there Dr M we can look into you know um
012Dr had brought up maybe think outside the box even further and see if there's anywhere for savings I know we run pretty lean and mean but we're going to have to eventually figure somewhere to one less Reen Pap I don't know something we're have to figure out something yes I AG thank speaking of class houses for for the Middle School in a high school what are some of the lowest number of of students in classes in those school I know we always the elementary but I I remember back you know a couple years back there was some classes that had like five kids know even lower so you know those conversations happen at budget time and they're normally the um the Unicorn classes I'll call where it's uh like a an AP Physics um uh
013specialty classes IB dance uh where we have you know kids to our our dance students um so those are are rare um and and normally uh the situations I'm sharing which are very specific um I would say the class sizes in general though at the secondary level that that um that analysis is much different than K5 uh because it's it's across departments and you know we're anywhere from 25 to 30 on average depending on the department and the class but um I will tell you these guys will tell you like the charge I I give is you know we look at every single Department section Staffing you know to to Dr cra's point we're looking at I mean how many different conversations how many times I make you go through this with me Mr Tas
014but are we certain about the numbers it's um over and over and over again so we're looking always at that it's the balance between we don't want to cut courses and sections that we've created you know to give our students this diverse experience um and if that's the one thing that they're passionate about they're excited about we don't want to remove those from the from the course catalog but we do have a general philosophy of if we're going to add a course to the catalog what are we taking away because you also can't do it all yeah and you're balancing like that Dr mury said we're in the 20s and most of our courses from seventh grade up and the AP class a specialized class like that could a single te might have a 14
015or 15 hit to run it for those students who need that course right but most of our classes so do every every year every school year are there classes that are cut and class is added or is it pretty stable yeah I I I wouldn't call it cutting I would call it that they're just not um run they're not part of the catalog um but we have a you know the board has the curriculum instruction committee um new courses are vetted through there ultimately they come to me to bring to you guys um and normally you know new courses are to to fill a certain need you know changing standards you know changing uh needs of our students uh so there's there's a balance we try to keep there that's that's that's a a trickier
016balance but we're you know we're always on top of that as well because again a district our size you just always have to be thinking about what's the right number of courses to offer so you don't dilute everything right sure any other questions any community members have any questions I saw somewhere on the website that a number of teachers took a I don't know if it was a buyou or something yes it was 2025 there was a good portion there yes going into 2026 2027 yes as far as that's said I guess you could hire for something less and then make the determination on what you need as far as classroom SES exactly right other thing I want to add El musal these this train will this affect us for this year at all or
017we're okay we should be okay at this point it's unknown how we don't know whats there would affect us move on guys for five state adoption of minutes the business meeting of the Board of Education February 11 2025 motion Dr second in discussion all those in favor number six questions and comments of tonight's agenda only any Comm members have any questions move on to consent agenda which is 7 through 7.4 I'll make a motion second make motion P second favor no policies for tonight's discussion reports board members next meeting um any number 10 any discussion Matters from the board okay I just want to once again thank all our security guards and all our security Personnel I think they're doing a great job I think sometimes we forget them I also want to thank all
018the crossing guards drive up down our school streets a lot on that do my job and uh always waiting it's great been cold days yeah and and I appreciate what they do and they get the buses out let me tell you when they get those high school buses out it is a yes you better do what tell you U number 11 any new business okay number 12 questions and comments from the community about anything in um our next business meeting will be Tuesday March 18th 2025 thank our committee members for coming out um I'm going to make a motion for anern um Mr for second discussion in favor I thank you for coming thank you