001Good evening everyone. It is March 11th, 2025. The board will enter into an executive session for a discussion discussing the matters made exempt under federal law or Up. I need a motion and a second Jen on motion. Melissa on the second. All in favor? Motion passes five zero. We will return to open session at 630. Thank you very much. We'll see that you actually have 25. And the board is returning to executive session. I need a motion to Jamie in on the motion. Start on the second. 150. We'll begin the meeting with a pledge of allegiance. To our states, where he stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for. All. At the first general, thank you. This past Saturday, jurors at the school district hosted yet another successful book bash. A number
002of local authors, including past and present boosters, students and staff, were represented. Our football team were installing walking nachos during the day. There are a large number of community partners there. Um, also, you know, giving information and assistance to families. It was extremely well attended and a tremendous thank you goes to Missus Jamie Dini, Mrs. Maisel Morris and Mrs. I.T. Barrett for all of their hard work and coordinating so that tomorrow we will be holding our Spring Superintendent Conference day. Our teachers and staff will be engaging in professional development sessions led by their peers, and we have a very large variety of workshop offerings run by teachers for teachers. And we are also going to be offering some wellness activities in the afternoon for any interested staff. Options include. But this is just a sampling.
003Crocheting with Mrs. Baller, a wellness walk with doctor Josh which is insanely popular, uh, mindfulness. And uh, we even have a staff pick up basketball game and some mindful instruction to creation in the art room. And finally, uh, also tomorrow is our pre-K lottery. We're very excited for this event. It is starting at 3 p.m. and will be, uh, available for in-person attendance as well as live streamed. Important. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hancock. Yes. Just one quick announcement. Our first posting for probationary positions for next school year went live yesterday on the website of the homeless. So if you're interested in taking a peek at what, uh, we're starting to recruit for, take a look at our website, and we're looking forward to welcoming new folks to the chat. Thank you, Mr. Carter. I
004believe, you know was there my comments about Mr. Thank God. Yes. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, we had an incredibly happy moment this afternoon when we had our formal ribbon cutting for the century. That's got a year and a half ago. Uh, Lisa Gadell, who is, uh, one of the authors of JFK, came forward with this idea. Um, and, uh, it was to repurpose a, um, school bus that could no longer be used, um, to provide much needed support for queer students at the educator level. Um, so we got a team together. And as Mary Smith from transportation, Missus Chalmers was involved in the beginning stages, Mr. Fryer and and his team and buildings and grounds. Another administrator stepped in to support the results of this amazing experience for kids, both now and in the
005future. I heard the pictures from, say, one of our our, uh, gifted classes were the first to come in, um, and they were incredibly excited. Uh, the opportunities here. So not only is this flexible space for us, but, um, meets the sensory, uh, needs of a number of our students. It can be used as a reward for, um, their students who can show them some positive behavior and work towards it. It's just an ingenious, um, way to think about being the needs of students. And it really is a great example of who we are in Brewster. You know, someone comes forward with an organic idea, and the team, uh, figures it out in order to create these amazing opportunities for students. So I just want to thank this Goodell and entire team, congratulate them for,
006um, for their work because my comments. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, so for president remarks, uh, Jerry Cunningham was not able to be here tonight. So I just wanted to share some thoughts. Um, happy march to everyone. So the first board meeting in March. And as you may know, it's, uh, Doctor Seuss's birthday was earlier in March. March 2nd. And also known as Read Across America. Day or week or month or however long you want to celebrate. Um, reading. And I was lucky enough to attend the second junior at the Wells Middle School and was honored beyond beyond impressed to witness the level of student talent on our very own stage. Um, it what really resonated with me was the tribute that the students paid to their dedicated teachers. One actor said that although
007the teachers faces weren't seen, their hard work and dedication were all over the stage. And it also made me think about, um. Recently, I caught an interview as I was scrolling on social media that, um, was a radio morning show that was a conversation between, um, averse to Brewster alumni. That one was a radio co-host and the other was a well known actor. And as the conversation went on, it really, um, led to them connecting on a common teacher that they had that inspired them to go into acting, show biz, all the things. So, um, although the students may have changed and the teachers may have changed, the message is still the same. So thank you for all you have to teach in Brewster. And now we'll move on to our student representative Sebastian. Good
008evening everyone. It's nice to have some audience. Um, so for the past two weeks, Brewster High School has been doing the winter sports Awards. And there will be held on Thursday, March 30th. So that is this Thursday starting at 630. Uh, the spring musical Once on This Island will take place Thursday, March 20th at 7 p.m., Friday, March 21st and Saturday, March 22nd. Um, all performances will be held in the park and JROTC orienteering team will complete and compete in the National Orienteering Championship at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, Alabama, from March 13th to March 17th. Uh Brewster High School, in partnership with the Prevention Council of Putnam, conducted our two very successful junior prom meetings, um, for our students and their parents on March 10th. First year high school hosted a blood drive
009collecting 59 pints of blood, which equates to saving 137 lives. Uh, for athletics, the opening day of our spring season is Monday, March 17th. See our website for upcoming games and reminder that family ID is open. Uh, JV varsity closes this Friday, March 14th at 1 p.m. and modified registration is open until Friday, March 21st at 1 p.m. Unified bowling will have a match for Smartpak this Thursday, March 13th at 330 at Carmel Spins. Come see our unified team in action! Uh, well, congratulations to all the students participate in the production of the Super Bowl Junior last weekend at Wells. It was an incredible performance. Thank you to Mrs. Morocco. This is, uh, Mr. Mosley and Mr. Cummings for their direction and leadership in making this musical spectacular event on Monday. Stephen Hill from the
010Sobriety speaks and gives about the robot. He will speak to our students about making healthy choices. It was an informative presentation for our students. On March 26th, The Wells is hosting a pasta dinner fundraiser to support the eighth graders going to Washington, D.C. in May. Families can get a delicious pasta dinner and view artwork from all grades, watch student versus staff volleyball game, or purchase books from the Scholastic Book Fair hosted by our PTA. Please check back for the flier on how to purchase tickets. City star is getting ready for the Scholastic Book Fair, and it's going to be a great opportunity for our students to discover the thrill of bringing home the books to dive into again and again. This week, City Star students are attending an assembly led by their assistant principal, focusing
011on value integrity. During the assembly, students watch a video clip and listen to a book that teaches the importance of honesty and integrity. The Assembly is a part of our ongoing Character Education program, which aims to instill core values in our student body by highlighting integrity through multimedia presentations and literature. We are able to provide students with concrete examples of ethical behavior they can apply in their daily lives. These assemblies represent our commitment to developing not only academic excellence, but also strong character foundation in our students. JFK reads is in full swing and had an amazing assembly where students were introduced to school. One book, honor and who? Guess what? I even made a special appearance. So I'm reading the chapters with their families and engaging activities with their classmates. We can't wait to welcome
012the author, Autumn Medina on March 21st. And finally, kindergarten registration is on the way. Thank you to all the staff that has assisted in this process, and we cannot wait to welcome our new students next year. Thank you so much. Thank you. Sebastian. Um, we will move on to presentations, recognitions, discussion and the one district highlights being asked for boarding team. Community. I'll make that. So I'm going to introduce Brittney first. Um, Doctor Blanco and you'll understand why. This is why. Uh, Doctor Toslink is, uh, first our high school physics teacher. And recently, she was selected as one of New York State's presidential award winners for excellence in mathematics and science. Um, this Presidential award is the highest honors Stem teacher in New York state in the United States can receive. So it's really an
013amazing, uh, achievement, uh, especially since it's one of our teachers in school. So, Doctor Collins, like, I was a physics teacher at Brewster High School. She was nominated anonymously and has completed 13 page application on five domain dimensions that applicants are assessed on mastery of content, instructional methods, assessment for student learning, reflective practices, and leadership inside and outside of the classroom. And you're going to see some examples of that in a couple minutes. Uh, in addition, she had to provide a video for her classes, photos, recommendations, and more. To say that Brittany is an exceptional teacher is a complete understatement. And excelling the idea of being exceptional. Completely sure, she is involved in every single aspect of science in this district K-12. Obviously first robotics. She's our science nirvana, and she's just genuinely a really
014lovely person to be around. And she really puts ethics. She's laughing about that. But it's true. I think these good. Um, that's really true. Um, so I just wanted to say we're exceedingly proud of Doctor Kathleen Coral, and this is an incredible accomplishment. Yeah. No, thank you, Miss Haller. Just to add to that, um, you know, you had said that Brittany has touched every aspect of science, like K-12. And I would even expand out beyond science. And as a member of the curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Assessment Committee and a number of committees, really, um, she has helped to push forward the project based assessments and just our our overall vision in 2026. Um, the work with robotics early on in itself is incredible for physics and freaking physics. Um, but, you know, we're we're not
015surprised. Uh, but we are, um, very happy for her that she was, uh, she misread our certificate for her, although it doesn't really, I'm sure, uh, measure up to all the other carbon that you have. Won another award. Um, so we're going to invite our robotics team up a little bit. Before we do that, I just want to say thank you to Doctor Ghosh, Mr. seaman, who actually came over to Rockland to support us, um, over the weekend in our first regional. So doctor got him on Friday and the next day, coordinating nicely with Mr. Seaman was on Saturday, so I kind of got to see it all. Um, and so we're going to just take a couple minutes. We're going to turn over our team because this is who it's about. So we've got
016Cole, Owen, Hugo, Nate. Well, Kelsey and Emmanuel will join us tonight. Um, so you guys are up next. And when? Because you should also thank our mentors who are here as well Steve Gallo, Gavin Brown, who our outside mentors are engineers. And then we also have a Schneider and Riley who are as well advisors. And you can also to help. Henry. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So as you can see here, this is our robot generally. And for those of you that aren't familiar with first, the first is organization that has teams all over the world, tens of thousands of teams, uh, from tens of thousands of different schools and thousands of different places, um, where they all gather around, they get this one challenge, and they all try and create the same solution to the challenge.
017And eventually they went through. They had the matches at regionals. We just completed our regionals at the, um, at RCC wrestling, who placed 24th, which is a little bit better than last year. Um, the top the top eight teams that are ranked usually get the beat. The other two Alliance teams are for the final tournament. Sadly, this year we felt just right outside that we were going to have to be a little bit of a practice bot, but for getting the robot up the day of learning the controls really well. And for this next competition, we have a couple of weeks to prepare. So I think we'll get the driving down and we'll do a lot better of special work, which I don't have to explain what the game is. So the game this year,
018uh, every year there's a little bit of a theme. Last year with crescendo, with a little bit of music, and there was, uh, the game pieces for notes this year. It's more of an underwater theme. Uh, that has rescaled. So the bay follows. They're the big giant. Uh volleyballs. Um, there are algae. So they either go into their, um, assigned to a processor or a net that's about API, um, and npdc to their, their four inch PVC tubes are known as our corals. Uh, they will go on to those little pegs there and are usually loaded in by a human player. That's why we have that little bottle on the back. And, uh, are we ready to function drives? Yeah, here on the side. I'm just wondering if I could put. Yeah. So what a
019lot of teams don't have that we love. We do as a small project what is able to turn well moving in that direction? Um, a lot of teams have tank drivers too. Frank. So the sergeant takes us to the park where we're at our hub, squaring off with the lower left bar. They're not as active, so. We pull the bar on their back up the robot. That there alone would be only three points. You guys wanna go for the allergy next hour? Three waters of the coral reef. The six sides on that reef. This one. The demo, uh, elevator up on there. Really? Every single. The algae there. I want to bring the ball and put it into our, uh. I'll see you there at an event or five or before it through the loading.
020Called our process. Okay. Um, I have a lot of time to do the algae, so it's kind of process that we can do a little bit of both for a little bit, like a multi-tool. Most teams can only do the coral where they're able to do that before. I don't know. And it gets. I work. I don't think I was standing in a car elevator. When we're resting, we're roughly about 35, and at our backside, we believe we're somewhere around eight feet. So our robot must get pretty tall. Unfortunately, when it does get taller, it does get a little bit rocky. Do you guys want to show it spinning a little bit just to show. So I know what you're thinking around the board. One of the things I like about robotics is not only
021the robot that fits into this game, it's also about strategy, meeting the other teams, alliances working together. However, biotics isn't just about the robot. We also have our scouting teams, our business teams, which do amazing job every year. Fundraising. Um, really, the robot is just what kind of brings us together. And everything else about first is what keeps us there. So, uh, I think. What? Oh, yeah. Um. Um, so we'd like to thank you guys for supporting Jacqui to, uh, regionals and get the busses. I know you guys bustles around a lot. Thank you so much for that. I know it's a lot of work on our bus drivers, and I do. Um, yeah. I mean, like, that's our robot we're good at. Infrastructure beginning. If you live this for a couple of. I mean
022March. Right. Yeah, I know you're give it a challenge. Yeah. Oh, like in the beginning of January. You have to design it, build it from scratch, program it problem, solve it and navigate it through. I mean, just to move it side to side and then up or two different people. Right. So you have to work together to figure that out. I mean, this is an incredible example of I don't even know what everything. Right, everything that is on the wall, everything that we, we try and do, it's just, um, mind blowing that you have built this robot and it competed and you've done so well. And, you know, to be part of that first program, it's an amazing experience. I encourage anybody to go, um, to see it, because you had mentioned the sort of
023collaboration that happens. There are signs at each of these booths position as Booth that say, if you need a partner, if you need help, work up here. There's mentorship that happens. I mean, just the time that people have put into this, it's an incredible, uh, experience. And, um, you all are incredible for representing us. Yeah. Well, the aspect of the aspect of is very different from any other like, sporting event I've been to. Like, I've been in football for a lot of my life. I know Dean. Dean knows that pretty well. Yes, that's pretty good, I guess. Running it over there, it's a little bit of that. Um, and we're like, it's very, very different. It's like not the greatest professionalism, which is a word that we really close in the first environment. Um, all
024the teams are very happy to help. They're very happy to collaborate. Even teams that you would be going up against. Um, every year, first try to incorporate a little part in their game called the competition Point, where the enemy team and your other team as well, uh, work together to find common ground and usually gives you a benefit once yourself. So it is very cool how they, uh, allowed to work collaboratively without having to be competitive of a game. And I can just say from walking around and you compare this model to some of the fancier schools, models that look like they came out of a shop prepared by parents as opposed to students, you can see they did the work, they know how to rebuild and they not fix it. There was a big
025difference. So we got to get these guys some big sponsors. We got flooring on there. But you know, and the really good point is that this is truly their design and what our engineers do, it just absolutely amazing is they take their design and they try to help them perfect it. But it is their arm, their algae. Everything was there and they learned how to integrate it together. They had to make the decisions. And then these guys come in and they say, okay, this is what you want to do and this is what you have. Here's how we can make it a little bit better. But these guys are not taking it and making it their own. It's and to your point, we do see teams that do that. And that's what I love about
026our community is we really is a robot. They drive it. Our coders get really frustrated because it's right. They have they designed this. This code is completely fractured. The brand new, um and so as fresh as it can be, they've learned a ton. And we're so impressed with what they've done. And we're so thankful for the outside help we get. The bottom line is we suggest, but it's the students call. It's their bot. They make the final decision on what gets done and what doesn't. And you're not afraid. And that leads to exciting experience. Sometimes you take a walk. Yeah. Uh, any more questions? No, I'm just so impressed by them. So what? Well, I don't actually buy all our software tech stocks. Oh, Mr. President, help with that? No, but that was actually our
027tech class. So that's another thing we want to thank the school for is, um, our collaboration with the law school, thanks to the plexiglass. That's all on there. All of our polycarbonate, the polycarbonate, polycarbonate. That's all in there. All of you guys are in Covid times. So we have reusable. Good investment of your life. I mean, all the work from the Tigers and I think the P-tech program helped with that. They were also think about it before, but they built it for us, which is the hard work. Yeah. Yeah they are they they did a really good job and they got it up really? Really. Yeah. It was like second or first week. They had a lot. They didn't make it. They were you know we've heard so many other times they said you will
028love it. You should see my garage. They are great capital. What's the capital project has gone and taken Steam labs, 3D printers and all these different. Think of all the additional stuff they can do with that kind of access. Yeah, yeah, we just got trained on the mill, so we're hoping to get that. Um. Yes, I can see and see. Thank you. Um, comes from spring, when we have a little bit more time to actually learn how to fabricate our own brackets and all that stuff, um, because right now, we're still sending it out, or my husband's putting all the polycarbonate of the laser cutter. So once that Steam lab is up and running, these guys can be doing even that stuff, which would be great. That'd be pretty cool. So now will you recruit
029next year and say, okay, I see you're really good at the 3D printer. We need you on our team. So it's not necessarily based on the strategy like or like based on skills anyone can join in will help train them up. That's kind of what we're doing this year. We're a little bit of a rookie team, so we kind of have to train our newer members on and refresh on stuff and get them up and ready for competition, which I think we did a really good job of this year and everyone was helping out with our competition. Our first thing in there, we had to replace all four of our wheels, and they did that really, really fast. I was really impressed with them and P-tech has been amazing to P-tech has been a really
030good program to pull from, especially since they're a little bit more techie. They're a little bit more oriented. They like the robotics, usually a little bit more. So a lot of our members are currently right now and P-tech, I like that. You are right. Yeah. And ideas as well. We basically doubled in size this year and we support the number. I mean like we we have a garage or something. So how many did you count representing for us Kelsey's Lords of Coding helps them with the business Kathy because we will build on the bot. We she actually try driving today. Yeah. So drive by April and Kelsey were one of 20 students that were Dean's list semifinalist at the Rockland County. Um, out of 49 teams. Um, they were they were one of 22 local
031Dems or two of the 20 students that made the Dean's list. Semifinalists were from our team. So. So, uh, that was pretty good. Us. That's pretty good. I take tempers that were pretty good, right? Awesome, awesome. All right, now we gotta get out of here. Now we get to that. All right, we're going to. Now I've got to work on getting the bumper off as you can. Yeah. Uh, I think I have to run in my pocket. So I hope that, you know, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not gonna. Make it. Yeah, I think just give us a second. Will be out of your way. Oh, I was going to pause for a moment. For you guys. Yeah, I, I I. Uh, we've got to. Go over there. How? Can I. Help you?
032Um, I don't know what. That runs up. I love to hear about your. Work. I love it, and I thought. I should bring this back. Okay, I don't know. Yeah. Oh, and that's all up the cup if. You. Like it? Yeah. Well. Sorry. I walk around with you. I, I get it out myself. I can't get it through the door if we don't say one of the topics to our doors that may have been so screwed. I have a question. All right. Thank you very much. I have a question for you guys. Of course. I talked to you for 14 hours. And when you write a letter, you get to know that, say, rapper or rapper based on some of your newer team, you're in the 10,000. So it's based on you, you know, from.
033Okay. Uh, we're, you know, they're there. Okay. Robots running to your doors. You can see what they did to it. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, my God, you are still. Very good. Are you okay? Yeah. So we're going over to our concentration number two. Uh, 20 2026 budget presentation or and, um, environmental guidelines. Mr. Carlton? Yes. Thank you. Uh, this next installment in our, uh, budget series, uh, will be, uh, focused on. And as part of intelligence. And, uh, Mr. Carlson and I will be having you, um, the other major, uh, the budget process really starts in the fall. Where? At the building and department levels, um, teams talk about what their priorities are for the following school year. Um, and then what resources they need in order to reach those priorities.
034And so, as the building or department levels, these conversations happen. Um, and after an intensive, uh, process, a, uh, a budget at that particular level is then pushed forward to the district office to that point. Um, the team meets with that prospectus, uh, principal or director, to talk through and really examine it in a very thorough way. Um, what the spending is, how that spending or resource allocation furthers the goals within vision 2026 and or student learning overall. Once all of those meetings happen. Um, and as we sort of work through, um, and, and prioritize our spending, Mr. Carlson versus magic put together packages and process, as you'll see this evening in in Department of the budget. So I just wanted to reiterate that this is a very, um, thorough process of serious discernment where
035we're talking about, you know, using the resources that are afforded to us by our taxpayers in order to, uh, move forward our goals for the district. Um, and I just want to thank the principals and directors for their their hard work in getting there and at the office on a fiscally responsible manner. So every year when we develop the budget, there are a number of priorities that we juggle as we make these decisions and eventually recommendations to you. The first is the tax gap. So tax gap, as you know, has been in effect for 14 years. And for, uh, every year that research put forward a budget we have been at or below the cap. It's important to note that we have actually been under the cap nine out of those 13 years, including what
036we're proposing to you for the 2526 budget. And this feedback came to us through, um, actually some of our, uh, entry planning interviews and, and data collection, where it's a pretty influential people in the community said, you know, we're we're working hard to lower taxes, maybe at the town level or through bringing in some businesses. And, um, you know, you guys go to the tax cap every time. Um, so it was an opportunity for us to sort of correct the record and say, actually, no. Um, over time, it's regulated about $7.8 million in taxpayer savings. And we worked really, really hard to make sure that any spending that we put forward is strategically placed to meet the goals that that we have set out. Um, in fact, for this particular year, I know we had
037mentioned that given all the formula components that go into the tax cap, that we could go up to 4.15%, that we would never dream of even going that that high. Um, we're, we're feeling like and are very comfortable that, um, we can actually go forward with a 1.54% tax levy. Um, moving into, um, moving into next year. Um, but more on that in, uh, the rest of this budget presentation and, uh, the next two budget presentations. Um, as I mentioned, when I was, uh, outlining, detailing what the process is and principals and directors, um, and at this level, you know, this is all about this responsibility. We understand that we're the stewards of taxpayer dollars. We want to make sure that, again, every dollar that we spend is intentional and, um, aimed towards improving, uh,
038student learning. We talked about a number of factors that go into these recommendations. You know, one of which being, um, mandates, uh, that our, our students present or specific needs and then the accompanying mandates, um, of our, of our students in the state. Um, yes, we're doing that. And you'll see, um, that, uh, some of our, uh, proposed recommendations, uh, in this presentation, in that presentation is not meet those mandates. But it's also important to know that this is about programmatic expansion. That is very, again, strategic under our vision 2026 goals. So any staffing that you might see come out of our our next slide, the presentation will fit into one of those two categories either as a mandate or it's something that we're really working to, um, implement in order to provide additional opportunities
039for our students. If you've been following in the district for a number of years, you know that six, seven, eight years ago we were in a very different place in terms of our class sizes. Um, we are fortunate through really, um, responsible financial planning and user problem. Um, over time to get our class sizes to an educationally sound place. Uh, we're now at the point where we can be really precise and say, okay, we know what enrollment looks like from year to year. We can guess, right? And there are always those spikes and some that are unpredictable in different grade levels. But how can we potentially maybe reallocate some of this staffing into this place in order to achieve these goals? So we're at that place now where we're able to have those conversations based
040on the data that's available to us and, and the goals that we want to attain. Um, we are not just comfortable with the status quo. We want to work to continually get better. And so what resources are needed to make sure that we're strengthening academic and social emotional practices and those opportunities that exist throughout the districts. And then finally, we know that, uh, Mr. Hancock has been incredibly successful in human resources area in order to attract and retain highly effective and highly qualified faculty staff. We want to make sure that we support, continue to support that work as needed, because we know that there's a direct impact on our students. We're not able to attract and maintain those those individuals. Okay, so this evening, we're presenting the, um, equipment, contractual supplies, social services, uh, debt
041service and transfer reporting on our budget. As you can see, this portion of our budget makes up roughly 25% of our spending. Us being a service organization. Naturally, the majority of our spending is in salaries benefits, which will be presented at our next meeting. So beginning with central administration or business administration, as you can see, uh, very little change across the board until you get to the bottom fiscal agency. So the increase there is related to, uh, the issuance of our most recent bond anticipation note. Uh, so we're now actually borrowing at a higher level to begin paying our contractors for the work that's going to be taking place over the summer, next school year. Uh, and accordingly, we, uh, pay as a percentage of that. Our, uh, fiscal agents, uh, on that borrowing, you'll
042notice a similar increase in legal. This is not, uh, related to our general counsel services. This is related to our on council services. So again, with that band funding, anticipation of an increase in our legal expenses for the next year, uh, an increase in records management. Okay, so this is a, um, one year initiative where we're going to be filing, digitizing, uh, our records, uh, and sourcing them, uh, out of District Central printing, emailing and a slight decrease unallocated insurance, which is our property casualty insurance. Like, uh, most of us homeowners and, uh, car owners have seen car insurance and other insurances increase with. You're seeing an increase in our property casualty insurance. Uh, the next several uh sections were advised remain flat for school association dues. Thank you. Reports of real property increase in
043both services. The first one is that one related to for, uh, the courses. Yeah. So the Boces, uh, this is basically our volume and our participant fee to be part of the Boces. So their total administrative budget is distributed among all of the component districts. And each district pays um based on their resident weighted average daily attendance. So basically, you know, their, uh, program, a share of the administrative charges on the Boces. I don't understand attendance. It's based on each school district. That's how it's divvied up. So in other words, uh, it it's essentially enrollment. So each district, it's divided by each district based on their involvement. So Lakeland, which is the largest school district in northern Westchester Boces, their share of the admin costs are higher than. So it's our enrollment across the 3000
044kids. Even though our enrollment is going down, their cost might be going up a little bit. Yes. Okay. And that's not the bulk up like there's multiple Boces increases throughout the entire budget. Yes. Yeah. So you'll see in subsequent slides and it's not broken out. You know, for each uh, individual um uh, building or department. Uh, but it's embedded within those and it's, you know, it's obviously broken out into a larger part on our actual budget statement, but we're seeing across the board a largest portion going to Boces. Uh, well, in terms of the administrative and capital charge, a 3% increase, and you'll see in certain departments a larger increase our Boces participation. And so starting with our operations maintenance budget. So you'll see throughout this, uh, departmental budget, some increases and some decreases overall
045this uh, budget, uh, increase just, uh, $9,000, less than a half of a percent. Uh, but with that, uh, our equipment costs, we're requesting, um, $135,000 for the purchase of a Ford F150 utility vehicle. Um, that would be in replacement of a 2005 vehicle that we have. And it's on its, uh, very last legs, uh, as well as some utility attachments for our front loader they purchased several years ago, which would allow us to do some, um, maintenance work on our fields. Contractual increase, uh, of just, uh, $3,000. Utilities were able to hold flat. So, uh, well, natural. They seeing increases in natural gas and electricity specifically. Uh, we're fortunate in that we're seeing, actually some, um, relief in our electricity. Obviously, we're now sourcing, uh, through solar. Um, so that's really helping us. And
046I want to thank Mr. Friar for enrolling in the district program a few years ago, because that certainly, uh, serving us well. Um, also, with respect to utilities, we were part of a consortium where we actually walk in on the supply side of pricing. And we did that, uh, a year and a half ago. So we actually have another budget cycle where we're locked into work, I think, and accordingly, we're able to hold our budgets for utilities, repairs and renovations increase in that, uh, $67,000. So, uh, these are the things that you see, uh, today we celebrated the ribbon cutting, uh, of our sensory bus. Uh, we renovated, uh, classroom, uh, the high school that was mentioned by a robotics team that allows us to do, um, you know, some shop components in that, in
047that space. So this is where those things happen within our renovations budget. Uh, our facilities department, school resource officers. We're seeing some relief. So, uh, the public county actually changed their methodology for building their, uh, school districts for their school resource officers. In the past, they actually, we built a district, uh, specifically for the officer assigned equity, uh, assets. And now the county is choosing to, uh, to build each district a flat amount, uh, regardless of which WS actually assigned. So we're actually seeing some when we've in next year's budget as a result of the county's do not general service contracts. Uh, we see a decrease of about $100,000. That's due to something that was included in the 2025 budget. So we actually had a, um, a set aside for our electric bus feasibility study,
048which would be performed this year. Uh, and accordingly, in 25, six, we see some relief again about that. Um, now that's as long as, um, that we are no longer needing services like service and repair contracts and materials and supplies both increased 5%, 4%, respectively. Uh, in response to inflation, both of the services remained the same. Here. Again, just another example of, um, both of these costs within a departmental budget remains the same $121,000. So again, as I mentioned, uh, total operations and maintenance budget, about $3.7 million, uh, just an increase of 9000 or less than 11%. And this is, uh, something that we have included in our budgets, just as a reminder from our our buddy one on one series. Uh, every year is unique. Uh, this year was actually, uh, a lot colder
049than it had been in years past. However, it wasn't nearly as snowy as was in other years. Um, so every year we, you know, need to budget for expected worst case scenarios. Moving on to our transportation budget. Uh, bus purchases. Uh, we're requesting, uh, an increase in our bus purchase allocation, and that's due to the purchase of larger busses. Some of the larger busses that we require at this point in time are naturally more expensive than the smaller and smaller busses that we may have purchased more recently. And, uh, I'll obviously have more information on our bus purchase requests in subsequent slides. Contractual operations? Uh, an increase of 38,000. And, uh, this is due exclusively to an increase in student field trips and our, our, uh, robotics team. Uh, you mentioned that as part of
050their presentation. Uh, the increase in field trips, uh, for co-curricular, uh, clubs, contractual repairs costs refer to refurbishment and specialty repairs, an increase of 33,000. You'll see in a subsequent slide, um, the age of our of, uh, some of our older vehicles, we're now needing to invest more money in those older vehicles to keep them on the road. These, um, gasoline budget remains constant at $560,000. We purchased that through a New York state Office of General Services with radio lease and insurance, a slight decrease of, uh, $40,000 bus parts. And again, you'll see this up here. Uh, subsequent slide it, uh, increasing cost parts for these older busses, contractual um, garage uh, decrease of about $21,000. So we had an allocation in 2045 for, um, stop arm, uh, camera installations and obviously 25 six we
051remained for that. Supplies for, uh, the garage increased just $3,000 and contract in both services for transferring between our, um, year students. Attending all of those campuses remains the same at $10,000. So total, uh, budget for transportation, 2.7 million, uh, an increase of 276,000. Again, the majority of that is related to our requests for, uh, bus purchases for next year. So here's a look, uh, at our request for next year again, uh, predominantly large busses of free 65 passenger busses, 248 passenger busses, 135 and two in our plans for, uh, for eight busses. So back to a couple of questions. Um, last year, was it two years ago that we, we put in the budget for the lift in the garage? Yeah. And so last year we got the release for lift on the lift.
052Uh, two years ago, uh, actually, two years ago was. I'm sorry, three years ago. We got a lift. Two years ago, we got, um, uh, fuel tank replace our gasoline fuel tank, 24 to 5. We had. No, no thanks for that. So there's no equipment beyond our our school busses in the 24 or 5 or five. All right. And then our bus replacement has always been that we get 50% back from the state. Yes. And so the 1.2 million that goes into our budget. But we will get back the six, uh, 600,000 as part of our revenue. Yes, over a, over a five year period. So as, uh, Mr. Lance presented at our last representation of all of those state aid components, our transportation aid is where we see that, um, you know, the state
053reimbursing us for these purchases. Okay. Credits are. I just have a question back on the operations and events budget. Uh, we have spent some time the last couple months talking about the maintenance of our fields and the upkeep of it. Is this where that would fall? And, uh, this is the proposed budget. Include the, um. The reversal of the bending that we've been speaking of. Yeah, actually, just this afternoon, Mr. Guerrero and I met with Mr. Fryer and, uh, Mr. Grinch, uh, to talk about, you know, getting ready for the spring. Uh, so certainly the this portion of the budget, materials wise, is what we use to address, um, field maintenance throughout the year. Uh, you can see, uh, on our baseball field, we have a turf blanket that helps us, uh, preserve the infield.
054A lot of work went into repairing the baseball field, specifically this spring. So, yes, that's the area of the budget that that comes into play. And scoreboard. So we'll get to that in another. And another slide. Um, so here's a look at our uh, currently. So we currently have 93 vehicles. This numbers come down. Uh, at one point, uh, to uh, not too long ago, we had nearly 100 vehicles. Um, we started and we committed to our fleet replacing plan in 20 1314. And you see that reflected in each of these age bands. So, uh, specifically in that 11, 15 year category, those ten vehicles apply exclusively to 11 year old busses. We have zero busses that are ages 12, 13, 14 or 15 years old because for those four years preceding the 20 1314
055school year, zero of us were purchased. So that makes it even more important for us to hang on to those busses that are now 16 years and older and especially, you know, getting those ten busses that are 11 years old. Uh, which is why you saw our reflection in the, uh, repairs and targets portion of our transportation budget, because we need to keep these busses on the road. Uh, again next year. We're, uh, requesting to replace eight vehicles. Uh, that'll keep us, hopefully afloat. Uh, but it certainly is a concern as we move forward. And then once we get through this, you know, this could potentially be a, you know, a few difficult years. Uh, we will have fully embedded our fleet replacement plan. Now, with all that said, we have a mandate from New
056York State Education Department, uh, to begin to implement an electric, uh, electric bus, um, uh, fleet. So this year is certainly cloudier than more recent years. Uh, there's a lot of advocacy in the state to try to delay that mandate or to scrap that mandate altogether. Um, but we're proceeding accordingly. We have our bus feasibility study that's being performed in the spring, and hopefully it'll be completed in time for summer or even in the fall that we can then review, uh, organizing committee review with the board our next steps. Uh, but once we get through this budget cycle on the state, we'll have a more clear idea of what is to come. Possibly, hopefully a delay in the implementation of this. So, um, understand the advocacy, understand the the ridiculousness of electric vehicle art. Uh,
057is there any momentum on hybrid busses and then, uh, cost comparison of hybrid busses? Because you don't want to go all in on any. And then they're like, you know what? You're right. We shouldn't do electric, but we can do hybrid. And now we have a very young fleet of, you know, 80 busses that are within ten years. That is going to be, you know. Yeah. So there's a number of things that and it may maybe come over complicated with the number of ideas that are out there. And how do we address this. I mean, it seems collectively there is a push to just let's just let's not go all in on this, uh, you know, for 20, 35, at a minimum, let's delay it. Let's creep into it. Let's explore our hybrid versions. Um,
058also, the busses that we purchase, we are not purchasing diesel vehicles. We actually haven't purchased a the diesel bus and probably 5 or 6 years at least. Um, so we have gasoline powered busses, which we don't believe will need to be, you know, uh, taken out of service as quickly as those diesel busses would be. So, uh, and again, there's, you know, there's lots of advocacy in the state. Again, it's it's becoming kind of overcrowded with all of the ideas of what, what should be done. But again, collectively, everyone understands that this mandate is going to be unattainable for probably the majority of districts statewide for one reason or another, be it financial, be a community sport, uh, be it, uh, actually having the supply from the grid. Um, so it's obviously very, very complicated.
059And we are taking this process as slowly as we possibly can because we want all of those things to be identified before we overcommit to something. But if we if we could actually remove, uh, one large bus that even even if it's not a large bus, but you could almost be on your flat on your budget if you take, you know, less than two busses out, like, obviously it has to be two busses, but two busses out and you do six and then you're hedging again, still on your thing. And then you are living on a on a flat budget. From the distance being at 93 busses. As I mentioned, we were closer to 100. So we're you know, we definitely have you know, we're getting to the point that we don't have, you know,
060too many busses available. Um, you know, should there be a significant number of breakdowns or vehicles taken off the road for routine dot inspections, etc.? Um, so again, we're getting to the point where it's starting to become a little uncomfortable and we're going to be in a uncomfortable position for another few years unless we were, you know, recommitted and projects, you know, a dozen vehicles in a particular year to kind of catch us up for that. And, you know, again, that's not what we're recommending. We're recommending that we stay the course and do the best we can to preserve those 90, uh, busses at the top tier. Those age groups meet and exceed with the older ones after 12 years. One crack in the frame and it's gone. So we have strict limitations. Yeah. And
061I know that a lot of, uh. Input in hybrid. I think only hybrid busses really have to are more for transportation as opposed to schools. The gas powered and they also have electric plants. Electric bus plants in New York State hoping that they'll get on board. But maybe not even the people that have pro electric car. They don't want to scrap it, they want to push it off. So hopefully we'll be able to squeeze through. I would also add this. So we subscribe to a basically a 12 to 15 year replacement cycle. There are other districts that have an eight year replacement cycle. Um, so we're probably at the, you know, the lengthier side of replacing busses and probably most districts. Um, so again, we've always tried to 12 to 15 year replacement cycle. Some
062districts choose eight. Have you done analysis of how young houses should be in 20, 35 and 25 more? We could have had a majority. That is pretty. Well, the good thing is we've been commit committee each year to, you know, a handful of busses. So be five to you know, I think it may be the largest cohort of busses that we've requested. So on a staggered basis, each of these busses in in a grouping of 5 or 6 busses are going to be one year apart of each other. Excuse me? He tells me just happened and we're all really. But but again, we're purchasing, um, gas powered busses that we don't believe they're going to need to be destroyed. Um, which, again, is part of the mandate, which is. In my opinion, it's unreasonable. Um,
063uh, again, this is a, uh, slide from our, uh. But I want to just showing, um, you know, how we budgeted not knowing what the price of diesel or gasoline fuel will be 12 months from now. We've got nine busses that are, uh, over 16 years old and are going to require a lot of, uh, love and care from our dedicated cars. So on to instruction. You'll see, um, increases and every line here, some more significant than others. Um, part of the increase in each of the building budgets, um, has to do with the way that we have recoded, uh, spending for music in the performing arts. So previously it was a separate line item is now embedded into the building budget. So does not represent any decrease in support for that or any funds
064there. It's just related to here. You can see because, um, the opportunities that are available over the next fall in high school, those dollar amounts are going to be higher. Um, onto the middle school, in addition to the performing arts and music budget being, uh, reallocated to that, that building, uh, our principal there has some plans for, um, some classroom furniture that needs to be replaced. So we'll be looking to do that in a strategic way over time. Um, but that accounts for the increase there. You can see in a great year of instruction and assessment budget, a significant increase. Uh, and that is because, uh, the time has come for us to, um, adopt a new English language arts curriculum. Uh, there is handrails leadership, and it's Nelson. Uh, they have a, uh, representative
065group, uh, Brigade five, that have been looking at, uh, different options. They are close to making a decision, but we can expect an increase in the budget and increasing instruction in the budget due to that choice. The increase in pupil personnel services has to do with that district. Uh, tuition and services costs. Our technology innovation increase, um, is due to two things. First is, uh, a new copier lease program, um, that is being adopted and pricing structure. Lord for his work and getting group together to figure out who the best vendor was. And, um, we're happy with the results, uh, financial results of that process. Um, the second part is that, um, there are we are working very hard to diligently to stay at the forefront of, uh, cyber security. And so, as we know,
066there are bad actors out there that are constantly looking to gain access to the system. Part of this increase will, uh, fund a gold standard, 24 over seven, uh, monitoring, um, cyber security monitoring system in order to alert us to any, um, any bad actions that are taking place and, and allow us to, uh, more immediately take action if needed. The health and analytics budget, uh, is increasing as well. Everyone has to do with the, uh, purchasing of a new scoreboard. So the scoreboard that is currently in operation at Archer Field will be moved to field number one or the old football field. So old scoreboard or football field, new scoreboard at the turf field. Um, and that accounts for um, uh, it's uh, good portion of that increase. Um, the other portion of that
067increase has to do with, um, mergers. And so what we have agreed to do, uh, with the merger partnerships that we have with, with several districts for, for several sports, uh, is to be a purchasing agent. So while this shows up as an increase, um, our, um, sort of expense side, but it will be reimbursed by those districts, um, uh, down the road. So it will not affect the general budget overall, but it shows up as an increase here. The final um, line is unallocated instruction for occupational. And so those are Boces programs that hopefully foster in that the Yorktown campus um, as well as nonpublic expenditures. So um state law has us reimburse parents for things like, uh, textbooks that our private school students are, uh, used. Um, we also need to reimburse private
068schools for, uh, health services, um, uh, budget. So, for example, if we have, you know, uh, ten students at a particular private school, they will bill us based on our enrollment. Um, and we it is our, uh, for nursing services. Let's say it's our job to or we by law, we need to reimburse them. So we see an increase. An increase there. There have been questions on that. Um, Plavix. Has this online acolytes now has been moved into the spotlight, has opposed having its own. It has to do with the personnel who are doing who have that a sole responsibility for that. Um, so the building principals are now responsible for the budgeting aspect of the um, and music, um, lines. Um, whereas, uh, Mr. Grado is directly responsible for being held in that. But
069I can say it's consistent with that responsibility. I'm going to ask you a lot of questions about the policies. But before we get to that, um, and I know I'm going to get flayed alive for this one, but, um, from the technology and innovation. So we saw a decrease in the expense on copiers. Awesome. Great. Um, is there any thought of not having Chromebooks for kindergartners and, you know, trying to get a little bit more time, uh, non-digital, um, when this is called, all the things that you do with your hands in the curriculum. Thank you. All the fine motor skills, stuff, like being able to say that kids are inundated with digital. Everywhere you look, you can't go to a restaurant and not see a three year old with a device in their face.
070How do we do that? And I understand we came out of Covid and what a blessing. But kindergartners weren't doing stuff on their Chromebooks. You know, that was, you know, could have that was useful. So is there any thought from it's a savings, but it's also from a developmental perspective of not having kids tied to a device so early in their lives. And even when you go into the classroom, they're not using them that often. So do you need to have a device, a kindergartners hand? I think you get to like for that one, maybe other. Well, I know I don't. I have no I'm great. I don't really need one 200m. I'm like, that's me. And I don't know the. Yeah. No. And you're. Yeah. You're right. I mean, this is representative of the
071debate that we have and really trying to find that balance and introduce these devices in a 1 to 1 basis. What does that look like over time? And how are we making sure that we're, um, enforcing and reinforcing, uh, the, um, defining gross motor skills that students needed at a very young age? So I don't have an answer for you in terms of what what is the, uh, a sort of a magic bullet to to that, to finding that balance because it's an ongoing debate and it's it's something that we are talking about and, uh, across several committees. Um, so there's the educational philosophy part of it that we are working through. Um, and then what is that? Let's say we we don't have 1 to 1. Right. What is that that translates in terms
072of, um, cost and how, especially given our reimbursement rate on, on those Chromebooks. So I don't know what the actual dollar amount of savings would be for that. Um, it it would be nice to still have them. Right. Even if we say that, you know, we limit it to x number of minutes, um, per instructional day students, there still could be a function for that, right? If students are working. Um, let's say if there's, um, you know, independent centers or, um, you know, kindergarten classrooms where teachers are working, a teacher or working group classroom is working with a group. Students are doing, you know, independent tactile activities. And then on another station, they're they're doing, um, sort of educational things at a rate that reinforces skills that, that students need. So there is still purpose.
073It's just a matter of, uh, to what extent and how do we put guardrails around around that overall? But also your best teachers are going to understand the value of doing stuff without a digital. And then therefore do you need, you know, 1 to 1, or do you need 33%, you know. And so so there a cost uh, as cost savings I know it's minimal cost. Chromebooks are, you know, a dime a dozen, but it's minimal. But it's also being able to say, get there. We are making efforts to get digital out of these kids hands. There is no need for 1 to 1 and being able to do more tactile, functional stuff of, you know, uh, uh, interaction with kids without digital. I think pre-COVID it was fifth grade, I think fifth grade, everybody
074got one, um, and has a different system for the rest of elementary. And then it went into a 1 to 1, um, suddenly with Covid. So it's good that. Yeah. Or there have been requests at, uh, previous board meetings for additional information, especially as it pertains to the career and technical education experiences of of our students and how that sort of relates overall. So we put this pie graph together to show the relationship between the spending as part of overall policy spend. So we're looking at about 16% of our policy spending. But then let's look at what that 16% entails. So we uh, in order for Boces to bill us for just the CTE, uh, program, what they do is they use a three year average, okay. So they pick three different points in time
075and they give a school year and then use that sort of year to year in order to know what to charge us. Um, so if you look at that, um, the red, um, rectangle color orange, if you consider it to be seven year old, we'll say red. Uh, when we're talking about the 24, um, 25 class that is, that was determined based on the average of those numbers in that red orange rectangle, which was 106. And, um, if we that is an increase from the 2324 classroom, we would have pushed it out in another year of 75. So we saw a significant increase in those averages. Right. We think about 2526. We're going to still see an increase. Because now we shifted that blue rectangle in. And we take an average of those in all
076accounts or session counts. Um, but then looking down the road, based on what the enrollment in 2425 looks like, and if that trend continues, then in the 2627 budget, we would actually see some relief, uh, due to those decreased session counts. So in terms of how that's calculated, that's how this works. That's how this has been sort of disaggregated over time. Um, and how we're continuing to monitor it to see what and, and predict where those costs could be and in future years. I know there are a number of questions or focuses on this process. So if I can introduce so I don't understand why we would see an increase when we are seeing 24. I mean, I don't even understand how do we get to starting off on 23 a school year start in
0772324? Like, why do we have 37 less kids opposes. We we saw a significant drop in our applications to Boces. We saw 41 fewer students that applied to the Boces proposed attack center for the 2425 school year, when compared with 2320. Oh, you are so ready. We all know that. But I'm actually the answer is everything. Uh, but, you know, five students were not accepted into a program, and and nine were wasted out of those. Um, so is that the 41%? Who are we had? So of that 41, we had kids that wanted to go, but they were either not. Okay, so this is my challenge with Boces because I will challenge you on those 100 kids. How many of them got their first choice of programs? So we are seeing kids not get accepted.
078We are seeing kids get waitlisted. We are seeing kids getting offered other programs instead of that. Plus we are investing a significant amount of money. We have a new, uh, CTE teacher in the high school. We have a new lab coming, and we have a new P-tech program that's funded. So we are actually going to see a decline in students. So we have ninth graders going to ten that are already part of that P-tech program. I'm sure some of them will drop out. But as you have allowed, as we've talked in the past, you're going to have p-tech classes that if you don't have if you if you have space at a random kid can actually come in and start to maybe, you know, take that class. So we are putting in all of the
079foundation with our taxpayer dollars and grants of of building all of these great things that we have less reliance on Boces, and yet our costs are going up and we didn't get our kids what our kids needed this year. So you're right in that, given the P-tech program and, um, what we hope to be able to do is vision 2026 with these shadowing internship experiences where students are going out, they have a work, uh, work based learning coach that can work with them so he can forge credit and be embedded with with high school coursework. Those are different experiences. But I do think you're right in that, um, Boces will be won't be the only option for students who want to have some career or technical exploration. There will be an increase next year because
080of the previous two and a half years average, but in 26, 27 and and as students continue on p-tech. Track and we can build in those shadowing internship opportunities. I would agree with you that moving forward, those in session council will continue to draft and that bill hopefully. Um, what if we need to elaborate time, but where's our accountability from folks that our kids are getting into the programs. So when you have great Lakeland might be the biggest school district, but they have a Lakeland path, has 11 kids in the most coveted program, first year has one. So where is Boces? Accountability for not shuffling Brewster kids wherever they want on them, wherever they have gaps. So if we're going to see a 16% increase, where is the accountability from Boces that they're going to
081be like, yep, first year you are a valued partner of ours and we will make certain that there is a fairness and how this is applied across coveted programs. Instead of dumping our kids in like, oh, well, nobody's part of this class. Let's see if that if, if we could tell them, like, oh, can you choose this one step because that's what they're doing. They're calling that. Oh, we have this one. You want this? No, no, we want something that this kid is going to actually be interested in instead of shuffling them wherever. Yeah. And that's what I'm asking for, like an accountability from folks on how they're how they're going to do that. Because you can't say 16% when you're shuffling our kids every place else. And so I while I certainly can't, um,
082you know, defend their process the way they could, I know that they have, um, tried to make some adjustments. Um, well, short term and long term from the year, um, for example, um, this past year, in 24, 25 applications were considered. And how many of those applications were considered on a rolling basis? Um, so even students that had applications in by the deadline may not have been considered if they had, if that particular program was filled out, or they may have secured that, because where was that notified exactly to it? Because guess what kids to parents do. They will be like, great. Um, first one up and my kid is in. Yeah. Versus and that's about that's a lack of accountability and communication from them. So and I think they recognize that that was a
083faulty part of the application process. And so now they're waiting until they receive all day the deadline closes. They receive all the applications in order to to ensure that I fix I'm not angry at you, but I'm angry at a 16% increase when our kids got the shaft and there hasn't been any accountability from Boces about talking about how Brewster kids got the shaft. I want something new to you that poses complications to both. These are going to be what they are and our, um, increase in resources and facilities and programing that we decide to do in-house should not replace overseas, right? It should be in addition to a different experience, more opportunities for more kids not work. And, you know, some kids may stay in-house where they would have gone outhouse if they have
084the choice. But, um, the hope, I would think, is that we would fill all the programs, right? And still have our share of doses. I actually sorry, I, I am I would have agreed with you a year ago and I actually would disagree with you now because as we built up the P-tech program, as we build up the programs that will will fill the the scheme, well, I think we are going to see kids think twice, like, um, you know, like Boces is a very disruptive program. Like we're nowhere near great. You can't get to your come from here. It's a 45 minute trip. There are 45 minute trip back. And now all of a sudden you are doing electrical in your carpentry class. You are doing so, you are getting exposure. And I think
085that there will be, uh, a bigger push for our kids to stay here and get an alternative learning experience, whether it be tech or CTE, uh, the with the first year versus going out to. But I agree. However, I do think we still need to advocate for exactly what you're talking about, even though that's what I mean. Even if we're having the programs and the facilities here, it shouldn't replace right out it. Like working out that you want to go there plumbing or electricity or auto shop like. Yeah. And I think there's, you know, I think as we as we go into the future, we're going to have more kids interested in trades and all. That's why I was so surprised at the drop off here. But it makes sense if, if another number of
086kids were not accepted or placed, it's it's a closer number. Okay. This was fun. Yes. Thanks for coming. Prepared questions on poses. All right. So to close out the instruction part of the budget, um, as you as we talked about when it came to priorities, uh, we look at things like our actual enrollment versus predicted. Um, we look at the mandates that and the needs that our students, uh, present with. And then we look to make sure that our programing is expansive, uh, and meets the needs of our students, whether that be academic or social, emotional. So what was the line item of the increased emphasis? On how much is the the CTE one the bottom. So of that. Sorry. Yeah. So I've that um, combined section on, uh, unallocated instruction. Uh, the most targeted
087portion is about, um, 1.4 million. I think it's a million for 16. The remainder is the nonpublic, uh, textbook and health service budget, which remain flat year over year. So the entirety of that increase represents the increase in our programs. Okay. Thanks. Okay. So, uh, again, to close the budget so the debt service portion of our budget, uh, the top portion of construction bonds, the this is the debt that we're continuing to pay off for renovations. That's specifically the, uh, JFK star, um, addition projects, um, slight increase of $4,000 for next year. We'll be paying that construction debt off, I believe, in next, uh, five years, I believe. Um, on anticipation note, you'll see an increase of 500,000. As I mentioned, uh, we are now really ramping up, uh, construction this summer. And accordingly, we
088have we borrowed the larger, uh, portion of the bond in anticipation of, in order to be able to pay our contractors. So an increase of 500,000, um, to at our last, uh, presentation, Mr. Wentz, um, presented the, um, clear fund transfer portion of our revenue budget. So we actually have a debt service time that we're using to offset this increase. And those two factors play into our tax platform. Uh, so they essentially they offset each other. So there's no impact on our staff as a result of our construction budget. Installment purchase agreements is the, uh, the lease payment on our modular classrooms that we have through, uh, 2020. So and in total, our debt service budget, um, increase at $510,000 short of that related to our bond. It has mission of 6% increase in FY
089transfers. This is the, uh, the money that we, um, the first year portion of providing, uh, extended school year program for our students. We piece required summer services on the same budget, uh, $400,000 year over year. No, no worries there. Uh, you not include this, uh, budget presentation this evening at our next, um, meeting will be presenting enrollment and staffing recommendations for next year. As always. Uh, each of these presentations are on our website. Three or. So, Victor, last meeting we talked about a 9.7% increase from state aid. What does that dollar amount? Just roughly. Um, well, um, our stated budget about, I want to say 34 million at this point. Okay. So next meeting, what I'd like to just understand is how much additional aid are we getting versus. So, you know, um, if
090our I'm just gonna use round numbers because I'm not going to be able to do this in your accounting terms, but if our, if our last year's budget was $1 million and we are getting an increase of state aid, that would have brought us up to 1.1 million. What are we talking about with that 1.4% increase? Are we at 1.2 million to be able to see because we're increasing the taxes to our, um, tax base. But we are also getting an additional, you know, a state aid. So I just want to be able to see that differential in a slide next month. Yeah. And and if I could distribute it back just make sure that I'm clear my understanding. So um essentially and suppose um a for every four percentage points on the state aid
091state aid increase, that equates to say 1% on a tax increase. Like what? What is that? Make sure. Yeah. So like the offset like we're getting additional state aid. So that's that would bring up our, our overall um budget. But it wouldn't necessarily cost the um taxpayer. And so I just want to understand how much that 9.78 is. So we're getting additional revenues. Awesome. But now how much additional are we charging our thing. Because together is that a $4 million increase to go to like the budget. Is this budgeted? Budgeted I believe is 3.7% and the tax levy is 154 okay. But 3.7. And how much is the 1.4 of the 3.7 million top of mind? I would say about 1.2. Okay. Because our levy is roughly 80 something billion dollars. Call it 800,000. That's
0921%. 1.5%, 1.2 billion. Okay. And then the other question is, um, from a what would be helpful in when you guys do staffing, um, class sizes is I remember the last budget we talked about, you know, kindergarten classes of 17. Did you guys ever pull the trigger on that last teacher? So what was it here versus what was it going forward? Because, you know, is is there we're going to see a significant increase in Boces, which is kind of out of our control. You're going to see staff costs with health care and stuff kind of out of our control. And then also the, uh, special ed needs of out of district, kind of out of our control. So what other lever levers are there that may be, uh, more within our control? Um, that would
093be able to to to be done for something that, you know, it's still going to be an increase in the budget, but less of an increase to our, our going up to consumers, but to our taxpayers. Thanks. Do you have any questions? Well. I'm off again. Yeah. So the next discussion capital project and transfer funds requires. Okay, so this is, uh, continuing a conversation that we began at our February 4th work session. Uh, our construction team was here, our construction managers training construction, and our architects for the new architects, uh, presented on an overall project budget, as they do, uh, design time. Uh, so you'll see, um, most of these slides are, uh, continuations are repeats from that February 4th work session. Uh, you'll see in the top right corner of this slide in particular.
094So you'll see, uh, what's new and what is, uh, really a carry over the last time just because we want to show our consistency in this conversation. Um, so, so this topic we actually began discussing, uh, 13 months ago. So when our construction team was here in February of 2024, uh, we shared concern about the, um, the field house project. Project. So, uh, the field house project budget. Uh, at that time, we we shared a concern and discuss it a little bit further at our February 25th, uh, board meeting. It's one of our budget presentations. At that time, it was recommended by our construction team. Let's table this discussion until spring of 25, when we have a better picture of our actual cost. At that point, a year ago, we hadn't even been a single
095project. Um, we're now in a better position, and we'll be in certainly much better position. Uh, a month and a half from now, once we've opened all of our goods and have a much clearer understanding of our project budget. But again, I just wanted to show, um, you know, a continuation of this conversation for the better part of a year. Um, at our February 4th work session, it was recommended that we consider transferring funds from what we refer to as prop one budget to prop two. And this next slide, again, abbreviation, uh, so forth, uh, distinguishes those projects. So when we refer to uh the prop one projects, you can see there are actually five separate, uh, projects, most notably the C Stark Doctrine as well as the fiscal security bus for all and our,
096uh, track and turf field replacements are also among the, uh, most projects are the building condition survey improvements that are improving the an important infrastructure in our building, Hvac equipment, roofs. Um, and so proposition two is a standalone. It's it's a single project. It's the field house. And as well as the renovations for our steam lab and our, our ROTC space. So originally in terms of funding sources again on new slide. So our original funding sources, when we went out to the voters in March of 2023, uh, we established our overall project budget. So proposition one, um, had an overall project budget and 59,000,009 88 the funding sources, we had $2 million on hand for the JFK, Hvac, um, uh, project completion, because the majority of that project or the majority of that building was
097provided with air conditioning, um, in the 2014 bond project. This now completes, uh, that system, uh, as well as the allocation of capital reserve funds that we have on hand, the majority of which was accumulated through, uh, Covid money. Right. So the American Rescue Plan, CRC, AARP, etc. Uh, in meeting with our finance committee. We use those funds to establish a capital reserve, putting one time funding towards one time expenses. So the entirety of our capital reserve was applied to proposition one projects. And you can see on the right hand side, no money up to Capital Reserve was allocated towards the prop two project for field House. You discuss again? Um. Uh, earlier in February, one of the largest concerns that we have is with the New York State Education Department, uh, and their timeliness
098of approval of our projects, because we can't move forward until they issue us a building permit. Uh, and at that time, we hadn't received approval from SCD for the field house or even the, um, the remainder of those proposition one projects just this afternoon. I'm pleased to report we actually did receive final approval on all of our projects. Um, there's a slide that's no longer completely applicable, but I got this information just this afternoon, and it's a great news. We now finally have approval on all of our projects, so that's no longer a hurdle for us moving forward. Presented on February 4th was the hard cost portion of our, uh, construction budget. So just to distinguish between a hard cost and soft cost. These are construction costs. These are the contracts that we're awarding to
099the contractors for the improvements, the soft costs, which are, um, kind of a separate bucket. Uh, it's what we use to pay our architects, engineers, our construction managers, uh, for new furniture, fixtures and equipment. Um, you know, land surveying, all of those things, uh, structural, uh, engineering to make sure that all the materials that are being purchased are sufficient, all of those things, uh, etcetera, etcetera. Bucket, uh, on a budget. So we talked about how we've gotten a couple of wins so far. Right. So now just going down the line, the security vestibule, uh, project. Um, we've committed $8.2 million in contracts. That's a win compared to our original budget. CV star, for whom we awarded $17.3 million for the projects. That's a win compared to our budget. And we're estimating once we, um, awarded
100or open bids, uh, later this month for the remainder of these proposed projects, um, that we will be awarded roughly $16.8 million worth of contracts. Hopefully we have another way. Right. But at this point in time, we're, uh, we believe that we have a surplus in our prop one budget of about $6.1 million. So that's great news. But again, it's we share. What's not so great news is that we're we're training with our prop two budget with Fieldhouse. Uh, is that we could potentially be overbudget by just $4.2 million. Uh, again, this is based on an estimate. We, uh, are going out to bid for this project. We're actually opening bids, uh, in mid April, so we'll know in mid to late April exactly where we stand with respect to this budget. Um, so how
101do the how how do we trend so well on prop one projects and how we're not tracking so well on, on field house? Uh, so really there are three, uh, three main areas. Um, so one that the, uh, delay in, uh, in improving our project with this project in particular, the field house exceeded ten months. Um, whereas typically and nothing, um, in terms of our current projects is following a typical, uh, timeline, but a typical approval process is just 3 to 6 months. Um, so that delayed our competitive bidding schedule. So ideally, we had hoped to build this project around the same time that Rebecca, the cafeteria, which was in fall. Winter. Uh, instead, we're going to be building this project, which we're doing right now in the spring. Uh, so, you know, there are
102fewer contractors out there, um, looking to bid on work, and it just becomes a more challenging, better bidding environment the closer you get to someone. The second is, uh, the state education department, in their review of our projects, are requiring a fire access road and underground utility relocation around the perimeter of field House. So, not to be confused. And you'll see subsequent, but not to be confused with the, uh, the access roadway that I should say the, uh, uh, maintenance railway that's going to run a long field time, but it's actually something that's going right around the going naturally that wasn't included in our pre referendum design or budget to that arena. Uh, third, and as we do with all of our projects, we establish a user group which consists of the folks who are
103actually going to use these spaces us to get their, uh, feedback and their, uh, requests for what, you know, these spaces should actually look like. Uh, our senior ROTC room improvements. Um, as well as an alternate for exterior storage and restrooms serving track 89 were, uh, added into our project budget. Okay, so here's just a depiction of those two items. Again, highlighted red, the fire access road and, uh, utility relocation. And then pick the, uh, alternate for the exterior, uh, bathrooms and storage. How much is that fire access road going to cost us? It's about $1 million or even in excess of $9. And is there any way that we could go to, um, the county and town and just see if there's any assistance that I mean, they have, you know, all these people
104on staff and so forth that they might be able to assist with anything meaning perform the work. Yeah. Um. Well, these projects are out to date and it's one thing, you know, it's one package. So if you have a site contractor who's required to do, you know, 90% of the work, it becomes a challenge where you have multiple contractors. So it's typically not done. Okay. But then if I can um, I don't know. I have contacted uh, the county in regards to I guess there's multiple projects coming up gathering the materials become part of the village, which is, of course the sum of the parts. But, uh, they have to do what they can get. And then, um. I saw the schedule. There's a not to ask. So. And now we have approval. Awesome. Any
105word on Roxy coming up on the on a different timeline? Yes. Awesome. So, summer of 26 for that project. Um, uh, with the strong caveat that that renovation and what they did, you know, obviously, our construction team and with the smaller, um, discussed, uh, uh, how that might take place, because that's a lot of work to complete within a two month period that there may be just some disruption, uh, either at the end of the school year or at the start of the school year, we need to discuss what that looks like. So I just want to put that caveat. No, I'm sorry, you already said, uh, summer 2020 Astros. That's awesome. Thank you for continuing to work on that. Of course. Um, and and this is, uh, again, something this is over, uh, year
106old, um, just another just to show our virtual steam lab and its design now in the weight room as opposed to the original design back in 2023, when we were going to have it, um, in the existing Roxy space. So if you call it a three way trade where, um, the Stem lab went down to the weight room, the, uh, Roxy is going to remain in place and student lounge is also available. So here is also again from, uh, over a year ago, the design for the office space. And as you can see, we are moving a wall into the student lab to make room for storage to create an armory, uh, again for renovations to ROTC to to really, um, you know, enhance that space again above and beyond the original, uh, scope for
107this, uh, for the RCC space as it was, uh, designed to be in a weight room at that time. Uh, very, very important. And be with our user groups, um, to make sure that, um, we have enough space for our air rifle programs, uh, sufficient storage, the armory itself. So this, uh, again, a repeat slide, but and it's intentionally worded because this slide, uh, needs to be able to explain itself in the absence of, uh, commentary. So what we discussed is that while we're doing really well, um, uh, the prop one budget, we appear to be, uh, over budget on our brought to, uh, budget. So how do we remedy this? So what we could do is we could, uh, request the community to approve a proposition transferring reserve funds that have already been committed
108from the prop one budget to the prop two budget. Uh, important to note, there is no additional funding required. It's merely transfer of funds. There is no tax levy on back because of this, uh, transfer, there would be no further use of the number of reserve funds, and there would be no additional borrowing for that. Uh, again, should the board, uh, approve the resolution this evening, we would be able to place it on the ballot in May and certainly, uh, uh, publicize the importance of this. And what is this? Because it's very confusing. Uh, we'll make sure that we do that, uh, throughout the budget, uh, process. Uh, I think that's like, we've seen this. I'm happy with this. Great. Perfect. I am very concerned about that. If you are not. So clear and articulate.
109And in that message, if we're going to be like what? They're over budget, you know, like and it just takes a couple of people because I don't know if you've noticed, but there's not a lot of people in the audience or a lot of people that pay attention to your projects so slowly. And I want to thank Trump because she's been instrumental in helping us figure out how do we push this information out. Um, and also the state of our, uh, our communications and even like a video of what you just said. We're not increasing budgets. We are just swapping one bucket for another bucket that's going to be so critical. And this, this slide really, uh, you know, drives at home. Um, so it's specifically what's highlighted in blue is really where the changes.
110Uh, you know, the change comes into play. So, uh, there's no increase in the total capital reserve funds. Uh, the use of capital reserve fund. It's merely reallocating a portion from prop one, two, five to that portion amount to be determined. Um, and again, we'll know, uh, mid to late April under all of the bids for all the projects are completed. Um, no increase in the as I mentioned, no increase in the, uh, on the ground and certainly not backwards, you know. So, uh, this timeline, we've now received approval so I can draw. In March 11th, we finally received approval. Um, we requested the board to, uh, vote on by, uh, resolution this evening, adding a proposition to the, uh, the ballot, um, video frame for the field house is in mid April. Uh, obviously,
111uh, after that, uh, the opening, our construction team is going to have to have to evaluate those grades and perform their due diligence. Uh, at which point, uh, there would be a position recommended award. Uh, before that, May 20th would be a community vote, um, uh, on the budget and also hopefully proposition two, which would be a fund transfer funds transfer. And then on May 27th. But we wish to be we'd be in a position to award those contracts again pending the community approval of the funds transfer. I don't know if I see. Any questions there. Thank you. Okay, so now is the first opportunity for a public remark that is specific to an action item. There will be a second opportunity towards the end of the meeting for any other topics. Um, we ask
112any individuals coming to the podium to state their name. Um, specific students or staff members? Um, names are not permitted. So if there's any public remarks, um, specific to an action item. Uh, seeing none what we're going to. Action items. Okay. Um. Action item number one. Approval of a resolution of some. Establishing the proposition at the annual meeting, which authorizes the transfer of capital reserve funds previously committed between capital projects. Yes. So this formal resolution allows the proposition to be put forth in orders for their consideration, approval on May 20 or 2025. And just to be clear, this resolution is not, um, an opportunity for the board or a single board member or multiple board members, uh, to affirm their individual vote in favor or against this funds transfer, but simply whether or not to
113put the, uh, proposition forth. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I need a motion. Uh, Jamie, on the motion that, um, a second. Um, any questions or comments? Not to volunteer you for more work, but in the past we have reached out to community groups, library help, whatever it is. Um, if you think that's something that's valid, we can start to lay the groundwork to see if there's any, um, interest out there in the community to see if it's okay to put you out there for more work than you do now. Uh, but there's no way you can get on. As Jane has pointed out, some more information we can get, even if it's just to a small pool. Uh, the Battery Park was. Absolutely. Okay. Anyone else? Okay, let's get out of here. Motion passes by
114direct action. Item number two. Approval of the 2025 2026 Board of Education meeting calendar. Um, so I'll take this one. This is just to approve our calendar for the next school year. Um. Yeah. Uh, I need a motion. Uh, Melissa. And a motion. Gentlemen, second. Any questions or comments? Seeing? None. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes five zero. Action. Item number three. Approval of change orders for DHS security vestibule. New synthetic turf field and track replacement project. Yes. So this is the change order that we discussed at the February 4th work session for the, um, incorporating the color into the Exchange lanes, a half track for our runners, as depicted in the attached tactical drive. Uh, this change order came in at, uh, a little over $49,000. So it was slightly better than the
11560,000 that was, uh, estimated back in April. And I think you need a motion for this motion on the second. Any questions or comments? None. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Action item number four. Approval of tax refunds. Yes, there are seven refunds totaling $8,365 resulting from reductions to current year assessments. They've been recalculated by the treasurer, reviewed by our attorneys, and our recommended. Okay. Thank you. Motion got of motion. Jonathan Sutton. Questions, comments and. Seeing none. All those in favor? Most motion passes five zero. Action item number five. Approval of 2024 2025. Instructional services A related service contract or a Cardinal Hayes v Devereaux Foundation C Easterseals D Green Chimney School E Popcorn Foundation F Star of New York G Hudson Valley UCP h can arise, a New York School for the
116deaf J Springbrook k the arc Mid-Hudson l West Chester arc um West part and West part 13. Yes, these agreements are up to the federal idea six, 11 and six and 619 grants which have been reviewed by our attorneys and are recommended for approval by our Director of People Personnel Services. Okay. I need a motion, J a motion and a second. Any questions or comments? Seeing? None. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Action. Item number six. Approval of lease agreement for storage equipment. Yes. We'd like to thank Mr. James Condon for what essentially amounts to a donation and leasing us, uh, storage equipment for our robotics team during high competition season. Uh, to this this agreement represents essentially a donation to the project. The Chicago. Animation Jamie on motion. Jan on the second.
117Questions. Comments. Seeing none. All those in favor? Motion passes I zero. Action. Item number seven. Acceptance of donations a bare essentials. Farmers are ordering them to go and extended family and be asked from level their rates. Thank you. Yes, we have a number of donations tonight to our programs and are seeing a prayer from. If I need a motion. Scott on the motion and on the second. Questions? Comments? Seeing? None. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. And action item eight. Um. Approval of first read policy seven 2 to 0. Graduation requirements. Yes. This policy was updated to include a new legal requirement that students, starting in fifth grade received notification of the availability to partake in advanced coursework. It has been reviewed by our attorneys and it's presented to you. I think I'm
118in motion. Listen on the motion. Change on the second. Questions and comments. Seeing none. All those in favor when she passes five zero on to the consent agenda. Yes. Good evening everyone. I just want to point out, uh, what do we carry in tonight's agenda? Wendy O'Connell, cleaner, currently in Roseville, retiring, uh, next March after 26 years of service in district um. And that includes the consent agenda. 44. Okay. Thank you. I need a motion, Scott. A motion. Jamie. All the second questions coming. Let's go a vote. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Okay. I'm moving on now to this second opportunity or public remark. Um, and as these remarks can be on any item that is not limited to the agenda, it could be on anything. Um, they just let the speakers
119get three minutes and anyone coming to please come to the podium across the board. Um, and state your name is obviously. My name is Thomas Benjamin. Uh, my son is here at JFK. First year for Chicago. Uh, I had two serious concerns that I just want my attention. Too much focus. One of whom was actually addressed last year by an older parent to the administration staff and was instructed that it was being taken care of. So this is related to a lunch item called some butter and jelly. The staff at JFK are referred to as cooler. And don't tell the kids as peanut butter and jelly is okay. My son has been out. He is there. He has testified with rage. And a second reason that. So they're telling them it's okay. The king is
120behind jelly. Our kids are coming home saying, uh oh, actually, what are you doing there? Well, I'm going to link to it like, no, that's not the case. They're serving, so they're enjoying. Two hours ago somewhere. John was on the menu and I started here because all the people here. He knows he can't help you better. We have people in the house. He runs the other way because he's scared of peanut butter. Because he knows herself. Um, so I let's see how this is addressed again to the staff at JFK that they are calling it the appropriate name. They're not putting fear in the kids that peanut butter that their actions yet suffer. I. The concern is around training for EpiPen nutrition. My wife was personally told by the nurse at JFK that she's the
121only one certified, and it's not mandatory for other staff members to be trained in any kind of education. So example kindergarten had a class trip and the nurses the only one that could go on that trip in case there was a reaction. You know, for the kids that had a puppy pass. Well, what now happens for the rest of the kids are okay. That happens. I know there's another one in first grade that has it. Who's you administered to that kid? Right. Who's trained to administer that thing for that kid? Now, I pulled some other coworkers and some other, uh, school districts that I told that I had people, and my wife's a teacher, and it's mandatory for all stakeholders to be trained and certified in that area. I don't know why it's not here,
122but it should. Or at least the staff that are in the classrooms that have kids that have college should be trained and certified in every kind of nutrition. I have a boyfriend myself and I have trained for my position, gave me training. I'm not certified but getting trained. 15 20 minute training class to be trained on. Now. There are so many courses out there they can come in. You could also do a 30, 15, 20 minute break in the whole school. So certainly. Um. So those are my two concerns that I have about the safety. You know, we expect the school to, you know, provide certainty for children. And I don't feel my kids very safe knowing these two things are going on. Okay. Right. Uh. That's right. Thank you so much for coming. In.
123Yeah. I, um, I need a second. Byron. Um, I have two students at JFK. Um, and they come with, um, the same. Um, my son does have a peanut butter allergy. Um, I, I was that parent that addressed this to JFK. I am very fortunate to where my son. As a first grader has the common sense or A67 year old to question things? Um, but I am kind of. I feel lucky for myself, but I worry for the other kids who are in kindergarten and who don't understand. And as adults, we know that our words matter. For some kids, peanut butter can help them. So for a staff to be calling some butter peanut butter and saying that's okay. It's really not okay. This could seriously harm a child. Um, for example, my son. He
124kind of understands what's going on in school. He did attend a summer program. Not for the school, but the word stuck with him. PB and J is okay. Um, he got a TV injury from somebody thinking it was okay. Thank God someone so I can say. Oh my God. And Ricky right out of his house. They didn't. He was just any reaction. I had that person. It was fantastic. But. I guess. Am I allowed to ask a question here? Why does the staff call it keeping track? So you can ask questions as part of your comment? For sure. Just so that you know the process and that you have three minutes and when the timer goes off, it's kind of just like a and I have to wrap it up, um, so you can ask
125the question and typically rather than the staff member administrator will get back to you another time is usually a process. Okay. Um, so I could definitely answer your question. The question is, you know, um, why does the staff call it a PB and J and it's not peanut butter? Um, I think there should be a level of trust that they can't have with these cafeteria monitors that I feel is kind of betrayed. Um, especially when an allergy is concerned. I want to be sympathetic to the kids who have food aversions. And here's some butter and jelly. I'm not eating that like I'm a parent, I get it. But when it comes to like and get allergies, it's I really feel strongly that it shouldn't be something that you mess with. So I would like an
126answer as to why they continue to call it the index. So. Thank you. Thank you and appreciate it. And you know. Seeing no one else, we, um, did receive a couple of emails since the last meeting. Um, one was received on February 27th. Um, requesting a bus stop. Location change. Yes. Thank you. There are a number of factors that go into determining, um. What, um, is a safe bus stop? Um, our transportation is well versed in that. And they follow those New York state guidelines. Uh, we are working through that question with the parents and, um, and all come to a resolution. Okay. And one more I was received on March 10th. Um, about the eighth grade Washington, DC trip. Um, being full and having a wait list. Yeah. Thank you. Uh, we are also,
127uh, we're doing some investigating and working after we have been in touch and continue to be in touch with that parent and the affected parents. If you could just circle that. I know it's on social media. I've been contacted for that. So it'll be helpful, you know, um, to get in touch with us. Yeah. Information about that. Okay. Thank you. And moving on to forward remarks and vote committee updates. As I just said, are there a library? Uh, there's no library one today. Um, no. The first, though, is about the book bash. Um, I did have a few minutes ago the book bash amongst, like three times at the, uh, Cisco Musical this weekend. Um, but I will say that it was fun. As always, it's great to have students have the the kids have
128the opportunity to interact with authors and, um, just the awareness for community. Uh, the number of community partners that were there that brought awareness to their programs. When I was leaving, I ran into a parent with an incoming kindergartner. Um, and I just thought, what a great resource coming into the school community of all of these other community resources, including like the, um, rec department, you know, so they can have an idea of what else is out there for in the community, for them. And I just think that shows our commitment to our community that we could have been part of our goal for of it in terms of the middle school musical. Like I said, I had the pleasure of seeing it three times over the weekend. Um, I was really impressed with, um,
129the students performance, um, in general, um, the dedication, the teachers and the other adults is impressive because we all know how much fun working with middle schoolers can be. Um, and the amount of time that the kids spent, um, practicing and perfecting their roles and the, um. The pride that they took in there and it was great to see. And also, it is such an inclusive experience for so many different students. Um, and that is another great thing to see within our district. And it was. And it was wonderful all three times like everyone else. I just have a couple of questions. Um, one is I did get, uh, a question from a community member on immunization. Um, how long a kid can be in school without immunizations. And obviously that's, uh, relevant. You know,
130right now in terms of some things that are happening, um, you know, uh, measles is not going to say just in Texas, it's going to, to travel. So when we do have a student that does not have it, how much time are they per minute? You don't have to answer that today, but just putting that on the docket. And then the other thing that just constantly tickles at the back panel is, um, we are a grant dependent district. Uh, we've had amazing, um, programs that have been started, letters in the pre-K extension, whether it's PTA. Um, so just wondering, you know, like, as we do the budget season, the security, like, how confident are we in the continuation of the grants that we have around some of our bigger programs? And again, you don't have
131to answer. That's part of our next, uh, but I'm sorry, that's part of the next budget presentation when we talk about the staffing share. Um, also, all of our grant funding. Uh, grant funding is so awesome. I will just say some of the much mentioned PTA now, pre-K moving forward or at the state level, uh, versus federal. And so, you know, moving forward, there could be different levels of certainty that come with that depending on how how things shake out. But it'll be detailed. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes. I would also like to say how good so was I was able to get in and it was fantastic. My kids had done that years ago at another place. But guess the way the kids interact with each other? Why they the how the
132thing at the end. It was a beautiful thing to see. And that all rolled into the high school place coming up. As we mentioned, there was a fire that I don't I believe I've never heard of it before, but I heard it's got a lot going for it. Uh, I think that's a 28 to 20 second, so people should love it too. I think the performing arts, uh, boosters are doing a dinner show thing so you can go to the house for dinner beforehand and then to one of the shows. So if people are interested in a and having this meal at the Alex, um, you know, get to that. Um, I was able to get out to the Unified Bulletin last week, and we're talking about things that highlight the district. These are the
133items that I'd like to point out, the interaction between the teams, interaction between students and their. Helpers. I mean, I don't know what the technical terms, but it's just amazing to watch. Plus they can have all the way through, but it is wonderful to see. And he's able to highlight the basketball program. My daughter works for an adult program that has sent, um, you. A team out to the Special Olympics. Italy right now. Special Olympics are terrible. My daughter is flying over there for that. So she somehow managed to get a way out of this. But these are the items that together, these the items that show what is true for me. And so I can't hold them off. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Our next meeting will be March 25th and 630. If
134anyone would like to email the board, you can reach us at BOE at all staff work. I need a motion to adjourn next week. Oh, yeah? Yeah, let's say of the 18th. So the board will have a retreat, um, next week on March 18th. And the next public meeting is March 2630. Um, October 3rd. Oh, just our retreat. Okay. And what time voting notices we made at that time as problem? Um, it's, um, I think. Um, okay. Need a motion to adjourn the meeting. Scott. Motion. Um, I have a second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes five zero. And I want to thank you.