001We evoke that blessing on all in attendance here and on those we serve. Help us to bring wisdom and humanity to our deliberations and my spirit, to our Work. Please be seated. Once again. Thank you. Coming. We'll start off with, uh, board of education comments. I will ask, uh, Ms. Benino to talk about the cybersecurity and, uh, something that she's put together at for no cost to the district, she said was $20,000. So if you would like to speak to that General. Hi everybody. Um, so as part of our, we have a incident response plan. Um, in case of a cyber incident and a cyber attack, we have to have, um, a plan in place according to New York state of what to do first, second, third, whether we shut down first, uh, second, third,
002who do we contact? Um, the messages we have to send out, we'll be in contact with the attorneys, of course, and we have to test the plan. So, um, I was at a co, a cybersecurity conference back in October, November and sponsored by the, uh, Nassau County District Attorney's Office and, um, Nassau County Homeland Security, the cybersecurity branch, and New York State Homeland Security was also there. And they let everybody know there, the school districts as well as, um, local municipalities and villages that they offer a bunch of services for free. Um, so when Mr. Zaino asked that we test our incident response plan, I did some homework. I looked at a vendor, um, to find out if they could do it for us and would do like a tabletop top drill. And they wanted
003like $20,000. I tried to explain that we were a very small school district, didn't go very far. And then I remembered, oh, I attended that conference in November and I contacted, um, New York State Homeland Security, and they told me that they've never, they do this often with, um, local governments, but they've never actually done it with a school district. So, um, they were excited, as was I. Um, and they said basically they probably haven't done it with a school district because people are sort of afraid to do it, um, to find out, you know, what's working, what's not working, um, but it must be done. So very excited to do that. We have booked that for August and we're going to save the money, the district some money, and we also need to, you
004know, make sure that the cyber security, uh, measures that we take, that our network is up to date. It's, it will, um, you know, hold its own and be able to stand out to real world threats. Thank you very much. You welcome. Thank. And the last item I have is I'd like to congratulate from Zo Ria over here to the assistant head custodian at The middle school. I brush more. Oh, Brush more. That's Why I came, especially Be Monica. Evening everyone. Um, I'd like to share some congrats with the CarPlay Wheatley gymnastic team. Sandy Jack. She placed, uh, 15th MS dates. I'd also like to thank the debate team. They elevated themselves all the way up to the mock trial tournament at the Nassau County Supreme Court. Mineola great achievement Also next week, um, the
005Key Club builders, well, you don't need to rephrased the key Club Blood drive and the Key Builders Club food drive is next week. Lastly, this weekend is daylight savings time. So everyone remember to change your box. Thank you. Hand it over to vice president. Good evening, and thank you for coming everybody. Um, I wanted to wish you luck to our deaf of students who are presently in Rochester, attending the New York DE of 65th Annual State Career Conference. And thank you to our business teacher Mrs. Who leads this club and pushes our students to excel and achieve success, which helps prepare them for the, for their future careers and life. Um, what I say, Hi, one. Good evening. Um, yeah, bit grief. Uh, I love what I saw. Uh, we had our key club recently,
006couple weeks ago. Uh, partner with, uh, our youngest frogs in pre-K to read a book and to spend some time with them, um, which was really nice to see and to develop that connection to the district. Um, I'm excited about tonight's presentations and, uh, glad to see everyone. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. I'd like to start out by congratulating both the boys and girls, um, basketball teams for making the best be finals. Yes. Um, both teams will be playing tomorrow from August State University. Best both teams. Uh, we home the win for CarPlay, uh, as winter sports. Uh, wrap up. Our spring sports teams are just around the corner. I can't believe it's already March. And just over three months left the school. These final ones will fly live. At our last
007board meeting, we heard some concerns from community members about board of, uh, education. Not fairly reviewing the budget or being transparent enough. Let me assure you. These times are not only inaccurate, but also hurtful. We go through every detail of the budget with great care as call place residents and taxpayers ourselves. We are fully invested in how district respondents are managed. Some expenses like busing are out of our control. We are required by law to provide transportation to attending out of school. The districts, um, out district school, sorry, even if it's in, even if it's their choice. I personally wouldn't want my children to take multiple forms of transportation to get to school. It's not safe and and confusing at times. When it comes to transparency. All of our budget discussions are posted on the
008website. Joanne and DR have also made themselves available for emails, calls and meetings to answer questions you may have. We understand people won't take answers, but sometimes it's just not possible. Um, rest assured, the district is, is not trying to hide anything. We're all working together to ensure this district remains the best can days. Finally, I'd like to remind everyone of the importance of respect. We encourage open dialogue and questions, but it is not acceptable for anyone to address the board or anybody with disrespect. Let's treat each other with kindness and maturity. We don't always have to agree, but we can still be respectful. I always tell my kids, you don't have to like everybody, but you must be respectful. Let's work together to make our place the community we all know and love. Have
009a wonderful weekend with your families. Thank you. Thank you Trustee. Ms. Superintendent Canone. Thank you. Couple of couple of really nice things to recognize here. Um, a lot of you may know Ms. Jessica Young, right? Is a music teacher here in the high school. She led a really great professional development that was available to all, um, music educators in Nassau County. And the title of it was Inclusion of Life Skills Students in Music Programs. She led that for the county and really, really I think spoke to what we do super well here in our district. And that is recogniz the value of all students and give them a place to belong. That after that PD happened, we had our life skills, choral performance this week also with really, really like the highlight of the week.
010So Ms. Younger, Ms. Pa, um, Ms. Tio, Mr. Zo and Mr. Krause all contributed to us having a wonderful show in the auditorium of our family members there, our life skills students, typically developing students also singing together. It was a lot of fun, it was wonderful and a lot of respect to everybody who was involved with that. And also, you know, praised him as younger for leading that professional development for other musician music teachers in the county. It's a great honor, I think, for us to have done that. And, um, we also had our characters of Carl Place at Cherry Lane School this morning, which is essentially equivalent to like a a a career day. You may have experienced that in your time in Cherry Lane. And we had first responders, former military medical professionals,
011Carl Place graduates. There was a graduate from class of 24 there this morning. And also Naau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips. And they read with the students, they talked with the students about their respective careers. It was a lot of fun to see that. And one of the things that was really nice was that some of our visitors said, these children have tremendous vocabularies. They speak with such clarity and the words they use are sophisticated. And it was really great to hear that out of people and so nice to see our little folks making that kind of impression on, you know, people who wanted to come and give back to them. It was very, very cool. Um, I just want to echo quickly, congratulations to Mock trial for making it deeper into the competition. Again, they've
012got great motivation, they've got great determination. They are well coached and well led both by our, our friends at cio, CIO and also by, um, Ms. Frazier here in the, in high school. Thank you brother. Middle school. Anyway, I will say one last piece. It's a presentation about arts, athletics, health facts, fine performing arts. It is a relatively small portion of the budget as far as the amount of money involved goes. It is a giant part of what we do as a school district. So many of the things that are memorable for kids that hold great meaning for kids and that they talk about well beyond their years in school happened out of this portion of the budget. It really represents some of the most wonderful work that we do. And it's an exciting piece
013to hear about tonight and that we'll say thank you for the opportunity to speak and turn it back over to Mr. Son. Thank you, Dr. Koni. Are there any, uh, questions or comments on agenda items only? You do? No question or, uh, comments? Uh, I'll move to the consent agenda. The consent agenda includes resos 5.1 to 5.5, and there's another RESO that I'll read separately. So may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda of 5.1? 5.5 please? I'll make the motion. I'll second that I, I'll read RESO 5.6, its nomination for the Nassau 2025 and 2026 for election, whereas that the Board of Education of 12 Place Union Preschool District will nominate candidates for the three year agencies. Bill on the board of Cooperative Educational Services of Nassau County, and he had resolved
014at the board of Education with the call place Union Free School District nominate. And he's where we, uh, picked the individuals that we wanted to nominate that wants to nominate for the board. Robert shown, uh, Fran Lan and our own John de Frisco. So we'll see if we can get John on the board as well. John. Uh, John has served with Lee on the board for many years, but even, uh, just as important, if not more importantly, he's been on the audit committee with me forever and I've always appreciated is, uh, he's my, uh, he's my elephant. He never forgets anything. And if I, if I want to know a date, he's got it. So hopefully we can get him in. We have a motion to approve. 5.6. I'll make a motion. A secondary. All
015all in favor? Aye. I guess we can move to the, uh, we can move to the presentation, please. Uh, may I have the approval of RESO 4.1, approval of the February 6th, 2020 Board of Education business being, I'll make a motion. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Item 4.2, approval of the February 27th, 2025 Board of Education business being have a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Thank You everybody for coming tonight. Um, before we get into the presentation, just a quick reminder that if anyone has any questions at any time on the budget, you can reach up to Ms. Dr. Kone, any member of the Board of Ed via email. Um, please call myself or Dr. Kone. And, uh, you can also email our budget 25
01626 email, email. So far I have not received any questions. Just a reminder that those aren't all the options available to You. I I'll ask the the members of the audience to please hold your questions until the presentations are completed. Thank you. And before we kick off the presentation, we're just gonna give a quick, uh, review on how to access the budget information on our website and think I'm preaching to the flyer tonight, but we're gonna do it anyway. So when it come to our website, this is our homepage. You'll see this, you just have to scroll down to the green banner. You'll see the budget box for the dollar card in it, that link you read to all of our 25, 26 budget information. It tells you who you can contact if you have
017in question. Our survey is up there, all of the board meeting dates. Some quick facts about the budget, our estimated revenue is linked there. Our tax, uh, have some information about the tax cap in general, plus our calculated maximum allowable levy, our expenditure proposed budget, the summary and full details, um, our school district report card information, and then all of our presentations and the associated details. Okay, so tonight we are talking about our technology expenses, our athletics, uh, health vis ed, family and consumer science expenditures, our fine performing arts expenditures. Um, I'm gonna give a little overview. I'll pass it over to our directors to discuss some of the details. And then at the end, I'll give an overall budget and tax levy update. So tonight, like Dr. Kre mentioned, we're talking about 3.3% of
018our overall budget. So not big in dollars, but certainly big in the value it provides to our community. Here's the breakdown of the proposed expenditures. As you can see, the largest area, both in total proposed expenditures and total changes technology on the opposite end of the spectrum in time performing arts. With that 0% proposed increase, overall, these categories are changing by about 207,000 or 12%. And again, that's largely driven by technology. So with that said, I'm gonna welcome up our district Director of instructional technology. All right. Hi everybody. So I know that by looking at this, um, you can see that my budget is up 16.5% and last year, or $186,000. And while that is addressing amount, there is a very good explanation for that. Um, 70% of this overall increase is an infrastructure project
019that we must do. Um, we have these, um, core, uh, network switches that need to be replaced. They're at their end of of life. Um, just a reminder that a big portion of my budget budget, 70%, nearly 70% of it is purchased through boces. So everything that we purchased through boces, we do get state aid back on. Um, and these are not additional, um, expenses from the last meeting that, um, MS presented on the budget, the BOCES budget. So some noteworthy items that are in my budget this year. Again, I, we do have to replace these network switches. So the network core switches are like the backbone of our network. And every single piece of data flows through these switches. It's communication, it's phones, it's um, online learning, it's student information system. Um, and they,
020they're at their end of life. We replaced 'em about 10 years ago, um, and their Cisco switches and Cisco will no longer service 'em. I would say about maybe it was two months ago, we did have an internet outage in a wing of the high school and it was related to these aging switches. Um, half of the, um, expenditure is being funded by fee rate, which is a grant that we get from the federal government. Um, we had funds available that needed to be used this year, like I think it was by January to submit the paperwork. Um, and if we did not use the funds available to us, we would've lost that grant money. So the project is, I would say, I think it's about half of it is being funded by E-Rate and
021the other half of it is coming out of my budget. Another, um, big increase in my budget is software or one particular piece of software that I'm very happy about. Um, it's called Explore Learning is the mag is the vendor, but it's Gizmos and Reflex and Biz SMOs is science software. And some of the comments that I heard from the science teachers about it is it gives students a real world experience and experiments and include based problem solving and it allows them to experience, um, uh, like a lab with equipment that they would, we would never be able to purchase. So, um, students are very excited to use it. And then Reflex is a program that they also, this, um, vendor also has that is, uh, fact fluency in math. And I was asking one
022of the Rushmore teachers about it. And because the teachers had asked me to exp expand, expand the software package, we first had it, um, to a small group. Um, I think it was just Rushmore and then it went up to the middle school and now it's even being used in the high school. They have a March Madness going on or a math madness going on. Um, a competition between the classes and the students are really excited, um, and doing well. I have a comment that I thought was really to read, um, about it, the teacher. Just bear One second. We've seen such growth in the kids' fluency of basic multiplication and division facts. Kids that use it regularly usually reach mastery within a few months. In fact, we're currently running a March Madness competition with
023the classes in grades three to five. They're excited and loving it. I don't know, I don't remember too many students from saying that they loved math and, you know, multiplication and and division and things like that in elementary school. So that's really nice to hear. Another thing that I'm really well hoping the budget passes to include in, um, my software package next year is Go Guardian teacher. Um, a lot of districts use this across the state country. Um, it allows a teacher to see in real time what students are actually doing on their Chromebooks in the middle of class. Um, begging me for this for years. Um, the teacher can from their own computer see what the student is doing. If they're off on another tab trying to play a game, which a lot of
024'em do, um, they can redirect 'em, they can close that tab down. Um, they can also send little quiet messages to the students to say, you know, Hey Johnny, hey Mary, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. I really want you to focus on number three right now on the problem set, um, to redirect them without necessarily calling 'em out in the middle of class. Um, so really excited to implement that software next year. And lastly, another thing that I'm going to be really happy to be finished with is we will finally be finished, um, with our smart board refresh cycle and at the end of next year we will have basically every room in the district will have a new smart board. Um, it's taken me about three years to do this,
025um, but really excited to do that and then we'll, we'll be good for smart boards for a while. Um, overall you can see a big portion of my budget is infrastructure, the network, the maintenance, security. This is all, um, cybersecurity, um, maintenance on the firewall, it's warranties. Um, it's the actual IT support, um, that we have. And equipment and supplies also a big portion or, you know, a third of it that includes the switch project that we have to do. It's a must do again, um, that normally wouldn't be as high. And that's really all I have to say about that, my budget. So thank you. Thank you. What the presentation done question I just thought would be nice if she explained what once, once, once the presentation plan on coming back to Of course,
026of course. Where they are here. Okay. I'm excited to get smart ones in Jim. Oh, sorry, not. Alright. So first of all, good evening everyone, and uh, welcome. Before I talk about like the possibilities of, you know, the athletics department to This budget, I would just like to start by, you know, just thank you Fred and Don for keeping us safe and keeping our fields, you know, cine Jim on point. 'cause without you, it doesn't matter how much money we throw in athletics, um, you guys are the people that run this. So thank you for everything that you guys, thank you to the board for, um, speak, Joanna, thank you for your patience working with me through this budget. It's never easy taking the phys ed person and teaching them financial stuff. So thank you
027very much for your help. So with that being, with that being said, I just want to, you know, just go over the next two slides. Slide eight and nine. Uh, this is an overview of the ale Athletic budget expense codes. Um, you have handouts so you can get a more detailed, you know, description and that right in front of you, it's also available on the website. So overall, the athletics budget, it's expected to increase 2.7%, which is roughly $11,137. So just to kind of break that down in this slide, I'm gonna go over, you know, how these expenses are broken and some of the key items, uh, that if the budget is passed that were, you know, hopefully obtained, um, in this. And look on the left at the circle, 84% of the budget is
028for athletics. That's roughly $356,330. Um, 8% goes to instructional, uh, instructional activities and administration in physical education, health, family and consumer sciences. That's roughly $33,936. And the other 8% goes to self-sustaining community programs. And just, uh, you know, just so to note, self-sustaining community programs are budget neutral. And what does that mean exactly? It means it generates enough revenue to cover the expenses. And an example of that is the summer camps that, you know, we hold football cross, uh, tennis, et cetera. Anything that's performed over the summer break. If you look on the right, this is the expenditure category for, uh, the athletics department. That 84%, that 356,330 ish dollars that I was talking about before. And it's gonna break down into a few different categories. The first one is equipment, where that's roughly gonna
029be $49,694. On the next slide, I'm gonna go over all the items that that's comprised of. So just gimme a second on that. Uh, the second, the second bulk of it is supplies and material, 78,300. That's, uh, you know, uniforms, equipment, all the wants and the needs that the car place. Athletic teams need to be successful, you know, for training, for competition, and, you know, to really put their mark out there in the community. And as our teams have shown in the state. Uh, and lastly, contracted services. And, you know, what exactly does that mean? Uh, these are the contractual items that we have. One of them, uh, is Gabriel Gabriela Fernandez. She's the athletic trainer. Uh, she is in charge of, you know, keeping our kids safe, uh, working with, with injuries, uh, giving
030good advice, not a medical doctor, but very good guidance for if something is to happen. And, you know, when stuff does happen. She's someone that we definitely warn on our team because she has kept our kids out of harm's way. And for injuries and accidents that have happened. Uh, she's informed parents, she's informed guardian, she's working with coaches. And it's a type of service that we need for athletic programs to be successful. Entry fees for tournaments, bowling. I mean, when I, when I used to bowl bowling game was like a dollar, and you would get a hot dog in Minnesota also. But, uh, times have changed. Um, golf, uh, just for the, the simulated ranges to go to be to the Beth Page, uh, transportation to there and whatnot. Uh, the use of technological platforms.
031We used to just be able to use paper where we write our name sign, but now things are automated. They're automated for simplicity, they're automated for compliance, and most importantly, they're ordered automated for communication with the click of a button. Through many of these systems, you can see a schedule, uh, you can see who the officials are for the game. You can get locations, and most importantly, you could do outreach to your coaches at any given time without having to harass 'em on their cell phone in the middle of the night. It's a very, very, you know, simplistic thing. And that's where a lot of the expenses do go to now, because we are using platforms instead of, you know, pen and paper. And lastly, officials and scheduling costs. Uh, we could have anywhere from
032two to 10 contests in a day. Some of 'em have one official sports like football could have up five. Uh, it's costly, uh, scheduling through s um, creating the schedules, implementing the schedules, uh, working with the different teams in section eight. Uh, that's, you know, that's generally where, you know, the money is going to, uh, on that category. And just also back to the technology platforms, uh, in case anyone is unaware of them, we're using huddle leap, minder, big teams final forms. And huddle is if you've ever live streamed the game and haven't been able to watch in person, you know, you have the capabilities from watching at home. Now, on the next slide, uh, noteworthy the items. This is where I'm gonna kind of talk about some of those other items I was mentioning,
033but I'm gonna get to that in a few seconds. Uh, one of the, the major, uh, I don't wanna say major, but a big expense for an athletics budget is uniforms. Uh, we have a uniform replacement cycle where every five years, uh, the goal, and I say the goal because it's not always perfect and stuff that's happen, the goal is to replace the uniforms of the varsity and the eighth grade teams while giving the somewhat new uniforms from the varsity down to the junior varsity and the eighth grade down to the seventh grade. Uh, after going through the last few years and all the uniforms that were purchased, uh, in, you know, the last, you know, 12 months, we've determined that the next step varsity teams that are up on the uniform cycle are boys
034varsity soccer, girls, varsity soccer, girls, field hockey, girls, varsity cheer, and girls varsity gymnastics, which is generally an an annual uniform purchase anywhere. Also included on the budget is the formation of a new middle school athletics team. Um, we wanna increase, and when I say we, I mean the kids, I'm sure the parents, myself as the athletic director, I want to have as many opportunities for kids as we can. And what I'm gonna do in the upcoming weeks is I'm gonna put a survey out to the community. I have some ideas, you know, myself, like I put here, bowling, indoor track and field. I think these are two very good options for middle school, for, for winter two bowling, because we have a varsity bowling team, and this can be a gateway for middle school
035kids into varsity, indoor and outdoor track because it's a sport that anyone can participate in. Running, jumping. Um, you know, we have, you know, good coaches that have, are working in outdoor varsity track, cross country. Uh, there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of help that we can give our kids and this can acclimate them into other sports as well and make 'em feel involved. Um, in the sports, we don't have an indoor track varsity team because of our facility. We don't really have the capabilities here, but indoor track can lead to any other sport. It can lead to outdoor sport, uh, outdoor sports outdoors, excuse me, outdoor track and spring. It can lead to cross country. It could be something supplemental to football, field hockey or, you know, anything that's cardiovascular based.
036Uh, that will be coming out shortly, uh, in the upcoming weeks. And now the equipment budget, which I was mentioning before that $49,684. Uh, it's comprising of a few different items and I'm gonna kind of talk about them for a second. Uh, the first one is for the boys gym, uh, glass backwards with breakaway rims. The, if the budget passed, we wanna replace all six backboards in the boys' gym. And the, the reason being safety codes have been updated. Uh, we are out of code right now. Uh, we're grandfathered in, but we should be updated, you know, for safety, for safety purposes. In the next slide, I'm gonna show you what we, what we need to have and what we have. And I think you'll see the difference. Uh, when I show you the picture,
037it make sense. A stadium chair, caddy, I know we have a lot of chairs in the back. We have old carts, uh, for someone like Vincenzo who's lugging these heavy carts, and we can help 'em out a little bit with some, you know, new state of the art, you know, material fields that work. So we can transport 50 chairs at a time. They're constantly setting up, they're constantly breaking down and then setting up and breaking down again. Uh, this would make things a lot simpler. Plus, with a new, uh, chair caddy, we can have it transported all across the school, but then take place in other areas where chairs are needed. Not in the gym, the trainer's golf cart and the ice, uh, machine. Our trainer at the beginning of the fall season had a
038golf cart. She had an ice machine by the end of the fall season, the cart was broken, the ice machine was broken, and they were not repairable. We, it's important. And then when I say important, it's super important for the trainer to have transportation. She needs to be able to get to Rushmore, to Cherry Lane, back to the softball field, back to Rushmore again in a matter of seconds because accidents happen. And we need our professionals on staff for the safety of our children. We have the ice machine. She comes in every day, and I, you know, she's an amazing trainer. She comes in every day with a beach cooler, and she either walks to the cafeteria, she walks to the boys' locker room, the nurse's office fills up the cooler, carries it back to
039the trainer's office, which is on the other side every single day just to make sure there's ice. This would be a convenience thing. Plus it's a professional, it's a professional item to have it in the, in the, you know, the, the trainer's room because ice and bandaids are the key to fixing any high school kit. So we need that on hand, you know, immediately, gymnastics mats and beams. I'm also gonna show you some pictures in the next slides of what we currently have. Um, you know, right now they, they present the safety, they present safety issues. And you'll see when I show you the pictures, our girls just came off, you know, an amazing season, a county championship for the first time in ages. They need to be practicing, participating and competing, not just in
040style, but safely on, you know, new match where they can really perform and do their best. And then lastly, uh, a new scoreboard console for the boys gym. We did have a situation this year during a varsity game where the console went out and, you know, Vincenzo, if you weren't there, we might have had a fourth of the game. Uh, but it was a tense situation for a second where we didn't know we were gonna be able to finish a varsity basketball game. And we cannot not have that. We have to be able to have backup plans, and it's getting old. I'm gonna show you a picture of the console too. It's missing the screen. I put a piece of tape on, um, but I don't know how long that'll last for, and we just
041need to have a Plan D for that too. So let me just show you a pictures for the console. I don't know if you can see it. There is a, on the top left, that's a, a tape piece of tape on it, uh, just covering the screen, which is broken. That was the golf cart. Did we miss her? And then you see the, you see the mats. I mean, this is what they're, this is what a county championship team has been practicing on. And what we've been hosting other teams would, uh, in my opinion, I mean, that's just not safe. The beam right there, that could be a serious injury. And then if you look at the right, the basketball hoop, this is one of the, this is one of the backboards from the girl's
042gym that was updated recently. You could see the support on the side. If you look at the bottom right, this is what all six in the backboards look like. There's absolutely no support. All it's, all it takes is for someone to jump off rap, the net slam dunk and the whole thing can come down. So it's, it's, in my opinion, these are tremendous, you know, safety concerns that we need to rectify. With that being said, thank you for your time. Um, and I'm gonna call upon Michael Limo Director Fine. And performing arts. Hello. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Thank you all for being here tonight. I'm happy to speak on the, uh, budget of the Planet Performing Arts Department. Um, so I, I am excited to talk about, um, this budget. It is, it's coming
043in at a 0% increase. Uh, I know Joanna was, was really happy to see that. Um, I do feel though, I, I, I feel kind of funny. I mean, I, I wanna assure you all, um, I'm not short changing the fine arts in, in any way. I, I've been trying rather to, um, to consider what I know is coming and what what we've accomplished and, and looking at balancing the budget in, um, sort of a multi-year view. So what I know that, um, you've had a big expense, and then we're not repeating that. That's the time that I can try and find something else that I know we need. Um, for example, last year when we needed a, a new kiln, um, we adjusted our fine arts supplies budget for the year and tried to
044really tighten up, uh, our ranks to sort of offset where we could the cost of kiln. I know that Mr. Jackon can probably tell you we're scraping the bottom of the barrel this year. Just, um, trying to, uh, to, to make it work in, in the way we sort of reallocated to, to be able to get the kiln without, uh, having a great expense at the, at the cost of the district. So that's the way I've, I've sort of viewed, um, budgeting. I do know that things are coming. I, I don't promise that I'll always be able to do this, but it just sort of happened this year. It wasn't my goal, but it is, uh, coming in, uh, budget neutral. So, um, I'll, I'll, uh, let's share with you. So, um, these are the
045numbers, uh, of, of my line items. Some money's coming in and some money's higher, some money less. As I, uh, shared, it's a 0% increase. I want to, um, I'll just take you through some of the highlights. So, uh, what we are looking to purchase is, um, some, uh, concert microphones for the high school middle school auditorium. Those would hang above the stage. They're permanent. One thing that we're, uh, not repeating purchasing, but we did get last year was, um, we bought some coral mics. I don't know if anybody has attended any of our concerts this year, but the coral mics have made an immense difference in, um, how we're able to amplify the sound of our singers. So much so that it made it very obvious to us that we needed to do something
046similar for our orchestra. The way the acoustics are set up on our stage, a lot of our sound is lost. You may go to schools and, and you'll notice those sort of concert shells, um, in other places or, or at professional concert venues, you'll see those like domes that, that scoop out over the audience. So the sound is sent to the audience. Uh, our sound is just going up to the roof. So, um, we are, uh, hopeful that these, these, uh, concert mics will help us amplify our orchestra. Our band typically doesn't need the help, but, um, I know our, our parents would love to really hear, uh, their students in the orchestra and it can be challenging. So that's one purchase that we're making to improve that program. Um, another is our, uh, uh,
047our music stands are in really bad shape. They're old, they're bent, they're broken. Um, most of them are not working anymore, so we're gonna put a little money into those and, and buy some new music stands. Um, Mr. CRE has been doing a fantastic job building our guitar program back. And, uh, one of the things we don't have is a, an electric base. So we're, it's not a lot of money, but, um, we're, we're adding an electric bass to our guitar program. Um, I've added a photograph of our students at our holiday concert. Mrs. Yoker does a great job. And we we're, we're trying, I mean, one of the, um, things we're very proud of this year is the numbers of our, uh, chorus at the middle school and high school. The numbers have, um,
048increased exponentially. So she's doing a great job. And now we really want to take sort of the pride and, and the, the, the optics of what's happening in the classroom into the course concert experience. So we put a little money into the budget to, um, look into sprucing up, especially the attire of the, our, our chorus for the holiday concert. Um, they look great, but I think they could look a little sharper if they were unified, maybe with all matching ties, matching scarves, something especially to, uh, make them feel special. And part of that coral unit. We're not getting coral roads. I don't think we're gonna go there, um, not getting coral dresses, but when you do see school choirs that that look uniform, there's a, an elevation to the whole program. So, uh, we
049wanted to start looking in that direction. Um, really those are the areas where we're making increases of some of the savings. Um, oh, and I, I, I do wanna say, um, we did, as I shared, cut back a bit on our, um, fine arts supplies and we're putting that money back, uh, to where it was before we were looking to purchase the K. So getting some of our art supplies back, bringing Mr. Joon. And, uh, that's really, uh, just a quick snapshot. I didn't want to take a lot of time, but, uh, that's a snapshot of what we're looking to do this year and finally going on. Thank you To our three directors who presented tonight. Um, I appreciate all the work you've put into your budgets. Also, uh, Ms. Al, I know you feel
050like it's a happy accident, but it really is the result of work we've done together and the willingness to explain to the community why your supply budget's going up and down every year and why your equipment budget's going up and down every year. And I've always said that I would prefer to explain those things to you and have a real meaning behind it than to just say, oh, it's 2% every year in every category. So it's more meaningful and I appreciate it. Um, just to circle back and forth, we move on to the tax levy. Um, to reiterate what Ms. Manino said about our E-Rate funding, it's huge that we use this funding. Um, it is a 50% match on what we spend. So the project you see in Ms. Binos budget, it's twice as
051much cost and half of that is coming from grant funds that we would use, we would lose if we don't lose them this 25, 26 school Year. So our tax levy, um, at our first meeting on February 6th, we talked about the maximum allowable tax cap, which was 2.37%. I had said that I was waiting on some final input numbers from both cs, which we received. Uh, it resulted in a small change to the tax cap, uh, 2.39%. These numbers are still subject to change until the board adapts the budget. Um, present. Daniel would like to give the news. I feel like you should take credit. We've been able to reduce the tax levy 1.99%, Which Was tremendous. So again, that's the same allowable cap from the last slide. Just so you can see what,
052what the good levy, that's the maximum allowable. We are proposing a tax levy less than our maximum allowable at 1.99% for your tax bill. An average class, one home average as determined by the county. Um, if we were to, uh, propose the maximum allowable, it would be roughly $218 on an average annual tax bill. Um, its a 1.99%, it's about 181. So the way we were able to do it, um, You can see, uh, the past couple of years, I'll draw your attention to the retirement reserve one. Uh, for this 24 25 school year, we are appropriating almost seven of a thousand from our retirement reserve to balance the budget. Um, at our February 6th meeting, we proposed the levy to the cap and the difference went to our retirement reserve to balance the budget,
053which was a significant decrease from where we're at for 24 25. So we decided, uh, to increase our appropriated retirement reserve and give that money back to the community, um, through reducing the tax value. So that's how that came to fruition on ballot this year, of course, is the budget. Um, we are going to have a proposition from our capital reserve for, uh, 3.7 million for the following projects. Uh, Rushmore phase eight, which is the auditorium abatement and reconstruction phase two of our middle school high school fire alarm upgrades. This year we did phase one from, uh, the start of this hallway down and around to the science rooms in the high school. The high school girls gym roof is 26 years old. It's the oldest roof we have in the district, and our chances
054of using an overlay, which means like it sounds overlay instead of tearing up the entire roof and replacing it are ending. So it's important that we update that, uh, repointing, uh, the masonry at the middle school high school, and I'll show you a picture of that on the next slide. And district, uh, district wide security upgrades. These projects come from our district's five year capital plan that we developed in conjunction with our architect and our construction manager. And they're continually reevaluated and updated as Needed. So these are just some pictures of the projects that we just spoke about. On the left is the, uh, old fire alarm. And again, those updates are bringing us up to code. In the middle is the auditorium and the corresponding lighting. Mr. Oman. The top middle is our, is
055a lightboard that worked at one time, I think 1960. Um, and the bottom middle is the old sound booth. Also with, um, some really ancient, uh, equipment. And on the far right, uh, that's what we're talking about when we say repointing, it's the mortar between the bricks. Um, when it comes out, the bricks are loose. It's dangerous. Uh, again, that's something we do on a cyclical basis. We've appropriated some funds, uh, for that each year. We're getting closer to the vote every time. We have three more board meetings, uh, including the vote on March 20th. It's gonna be our instructional programs and staffing. Um, uh, April 3rd is the budget adoption, and of course, the vote is on the 20th. And again, to stay on the lookout for any other opportunities to learn more about
056the budget. If you haven't taken a survey already, please do. You've had 85 responses so far. Again, it is anonymous. The goal is to highlight the common foundation we share for the success of our community and our students. Uh, the last day to take the survey is gonna be March 14th, so that we can compile the data. And we're going to get, we're gonna get an update about the results on March 20th also. And still, if you wanna know more, uh, visit our website and you can always email us at budget 25 26 at CPS K12 us. Please join us for our next meeting on March 20th. Thank you Very much. Eloise, you had a question? Can you please step up the microphone? One, one minute, Eloise, please. I'm just going to read our public
057comments. Disclaimer, the board of education allows time at the conclusion of its regular meetings. For comments from residents and attendance, please note that any person wishing to speak during this time shall comply with all provisions of the board policy. Although a total of 30 minutes is allowed for comments, the board president has discretion to adjust the total time. We remind you to keep your comments to three minutes and to conduct yourself in a respectful manner. Please address school matters only and refrain from addressing topics related to personal matters or individual students. Such con concerns should be discussed privately with the superintendent or administrator at an appropriate time. The board is here to listen and cannot provide immediate feedback or engage in any open dialogue. Any necessary follow up will be noted and provided at a
058later date. Thank you. Okay. E um, on the income statement that we just saw here, um, are those reserved? Where, Where in all this Do we put all the money that's in the reserve funds? And how much is, I'm sorry. Where did we put all the money? In the, yeah, I mean, where in The, where does it show up? So in the budget process, it shows up only money that we're appropriating to balance the budget, which is what's in this presentation. The rest of our reserve balances, uh, are part of our district's reserve plan, which is, um, updated annually after our external audit. It's posted on the website and it's officially adopted by the board. Do we know approximately how much we get at this year in the reserve? Multiple reserve funds at the end
059of the last year? Because we won't know if this year we're still in middle of it. Um, I believe we had somewhere between eight and and gazillion reserves. All reserves total, not just one. Retirement reserve Retirement. Oh, retirement reserve is, what does that mean? So, uh, according to New York State, we can only reserve funds for specific purposes. One of those purposes is to pay, uh, to offset the cost of the district for retirement contributions that we need to make for our employees. So both the employee's retirement system and the teacher's retirement system. And that's what that occur. Isn't that automatically part of what we're allocating in the budget? Those, those payments? So we allocate for those expenditures in the budget, but in order to balance the budget, sometimes we need to offset that with
060our reserve funds. Whatever we'd use to balance the budget, we rebuild it in the following year. But, so you could say that perhaps, perhaps we're spending eight or 10 million more than what's in the budget? No, no. You're talking about the reserve funds? Yes. We're not spending the reserve funds. But what I'm saying is the reserve reserve Funds are, are, are balance sheet items. The budget is, is what we call a, a profit and law state. If we didn't have the reserve funds, we have eight or 10 that much money left over. So those reserves have been built up over many years, not just in a single year. We make funding contributions to 'em annually at the end of the year. Um, if you didn't have those reserves aside from poor financial management, you wouldn't
061have, uh, nearly any of the facilities upgrades that we made over the years, or we would've had to issue significant amount more debt to accomplish That. Okay. Um, the, Are there any other, The, the questions, the technical Eloise Eloise, which one maintain the certain form? Yes. Everybody has three minutes to speak. Uh, is there anything else in the We didn't say I only had three minutes at the beginning. Well, no, no one else wants to speak. So continue The technology budget. Um, she wasn't, it didn't tell us about what this, what the cost is of some of these things. I'm actually, you say core switches are core switches, every plug in, every everything. Are they, I don't know what that is. So it's a, and which, when we do core switches and these other, tell
062me what that is and then I want to know about these other, the cost of these other items that you show here. Where they are here is their cost. Okay. So the core switches are pieces of equipment. They are maintained in five closets throughout the district, and they're like a foundation of the entire network. Every piece of communication data, software, phones, wifi copies, paper copies, all the servers all go through these switches. Um, they make sure that our connectivity is working smoothly for staff and students and there's no interruptions. Uh, like I said before, they were replaced about 10 years ago. They are now at their end of life. Um, if we don't replace them, we will continue to have, um, we could have more outages of our internet and that would disrupt learning. We
063have state testing that is now on the computer that kids have to take. AP testing will be on the computer and, and things like that. So we do not wanna disrupt. And while this is a huge expense, I understand that. And it's up, you know, upfront cost, which is Its expense. This, which item Was This switch project is in, um, 26 uhm, sorry, 26, 32, 0 6, 96. Half of the project is being, You said 26 32 2 6 3 0 2 0 6 90. Capitalized equipment 2 6 3 0 2 oh capitalized. So we're talking it's $187,840. Right? That's a total amount that switches are in there. And there's, and What you said is that there's a closet full of wires and plugs And things. Yes. How much? It's not sexy. Know that we
064rip All that out. Is that some we, If we rip it out, we will not be able to function. So we're not ripping it all out. And the people somewhere, I remember in the past, we have contracted with people that are 24 hours a day that, um, They are, IT network support IT people. Mm-hmm. Now what are they doing? This is, Um, daily, they are maintaining our network, the firewall. They're looking to see if people like that actors are trying to send, um, fake emails to get someone to click on it so that they can hold all of our student information and staff information. They're not doing anything physical If a, if the switch is between things That work. They do not. Well, they do do a lot of physical work, but they cannot install
065these switches that it's not their response. It's not their job, not in their purview. Um, we will have the company who is awarded the project will be installing, um, the switches. We have to move on now. Eloise, Ms. Bren, thank you. Um, I guess Ms. Ben's question is for you. I'm sorry, Eloise, there's a follow up. No, go on. I'm sorry. I agree with you. Um, so I know last week. Lastly, please correct the question to the board, then we'll direct. Okay. So Ms. Um, Martino, you expressed, um, the technology And lastly, you Had shared the policies, expenditures, and it was a little bit more broken down. And you indicated that today, you know, Ms. Bambino would explain more. So I know Mr. Block explained huddle a little bit, so I have a question for
066him regarding that. But, um, iReady, uh, I-X-L-E-A, no, not iReady, I'm sorry. IXL math 13,000. Um, I don't see iReady on here and I know that IReady is good. Que good point. iReady is not in my budget. Okay, so that's, that would be in the, i that's in the cherry lane. 23,000 budget over here. Okay. So there's a portion of iReady in, in, in a code and also in the building level textbook code, because textbooks, even when it's digital, again, separate textbook aids. So we have write up, Okay. Um, um, learning A to Z raki 17,000 1 35. Uh, no, sorry. Yes. Uh, it's $135 a subscription for teachers to join. So this number would indicate that you have 126 teachers using that learning cross phone. I'm a fifth grader. Who doesn't use that? I
067Don't Think so this number, I Would have to check on the per teacher license and saying that doesn't match up. So I'm not sure where that number you're getting comes from versus Phone raki.com. So The, so the BOCES subscription software, when we purchase it through BOCES also includes a 15% administration fee. Um, so it's not the per, you know, the pricing that you see on the website is not what we pay. Okay. But we're looking at, okay. And, um, Ella, $10,600, we don't, must not get the free version? No, because there's features on it where you can level the text. Teachers have asked to print some of the materials for special ed students or e and l students and those features, some things like that. The add-ons, sorry, extra features. Don't come in with that.
068Okay. Just so you know, I'm like constantly evaluating software. I send out surveys, we make adjustments to like things are not being used. I can see usage. Newsela happens to be in the top like six Right. Software platforms that we use. Um, I have reduced that over the years because like we had a whole package science, ELA social studies. Now we're just focusing on the ELA part. Okay, Thank you. Um, I know my time's running out, but um, this is a PE question. Athletics. Sure. The swim lane fees, uh, where does the swim occur? I know, and is this PO end rolls the 3000? Well, We started a new swim team, uh, for the boys and we, it wasn't budgeted from the year before, so we took on additional costs from Long Island, new LIU
069Pratt Recreational. That's where practices occur? Yes. Okay. And meets Same place there also, uh, at different schools that have swim pool. Okay. So the trick, the, of course we don't have a pool, but, uh, so travel is like within these, uh, wherever the bus and the maintenance, like our travel. So if you have one athlete, student athlete, you're busing them there. We're Talking about swim. Yes. Still Swimming. We, we don't bust to swim. So parents of drop parents. Okay. And, um, the huddle, so I know this was miss, uh, the huddle. Um, if it's $17,000, is there any way that maybe booster club or athletic club could pay a little bit of that? That's a, I mean, I, I mean I know that the, the, the, you know, the links come for live events, but
070how many families are watching it and how often are you live streaming engage? It's a fair question. And there's definitely much more, many more capabilities than just live streaming. It's, you, it's a, it's a real world tool where coaches communicate with coaches from other schools, get game, film, uh, of their opponents and get to break it down for their team. So there's like a complete learning aspect. The huddle. It's not just watching. And you're right. You know, I wish more people would watch in live stream, wish more people would come. It's an option we have. That's not the key, the key point of huddle. Um, as far as like the booster, I can't, I can't speak on behalf of that. They've been super generous this year with donations. I can always have a conversation. I
071go to the meetings. Uh, it could be something I can bring up. I can't speak on behalf of what they're gonna raise money for and whatnot, but I definitely, I hear you. Okay. We'll Talk. Thank you. Have to move on. Alright. I have one more. Does anybody else have anything? I have one more for Ms. Long. Okay. I have a couple questions. Uh, Mrs. Bambino, you mentioned that you're getting tech orient. What are the grants? Are you getting technology wise? Other, she, I think she stated federal. What about New York State grants? Are any of them being addressed? So, I know it's directed towards her 'cause it's her department, but it's going to the board. Yeah, we, we did get, we did get, we used it. Yeah. We didn't, I didn't receive any specific technology
072brands, um, beyond E Right. There are other brand foundations that are applicable to technology, but certainly if you have any specific, we will look into it. Yeah. Okay. I just, I know that New York State has, that's why I asked. Um, my other question is, um, for Justin, but again, I have to direct it towards the board. So he's upgrading many things that needed to be upgraded. One of the things that I noticed was soccer scoreboard, not granted, I'm biased to soccer. So they're New York State champions and I know the scoreboard is dedicated and has a piece missing to it. Is that plan on being released re uh, replaced and is it going to be mentioned about state champions on school property since it's the field they play on? Justin, Fred, we have this
073conversation that that part is being fixed, right? Correct. Yeah. The metal. Right. So that, that part being fixed board. Yeah. Right. It, it's already on order and we're waiting for it late. Right. And then two, you know, one of the signs, you know, your, your organization greatly, you know, gave to us. We're gonna be posting it up, organization not knowing along, along with the 2013, you know, championship from Yes. Before acre. And we're gonna, we're gonna put that there for you, but, Okay. We, I would say this though. Work, work in progress. I mean, there's definitely a lot of things beautification that I do want to do to, you know, glorify a lot of the sports programs and it, it will, it will happen. If it doesn't happen immediately, it's definitely on the radar. On
074on the agenda. Okay. Then my other question to the board is athletic brands. What athletic brands are the school boards looking at for all these equipment and supplies that need to be replaced and bought? 'cause there are New York State grants, but I didn't hear of any being utilized, so that's why I'm asking the board. So my office looks for grants all the time. Uh, any anything from sports to technology to textbooks? Uh, we've done significant research when we were looking into, uh, middle school cheerleading. The problem with a lot of state grants is that they are geared toward districts. Mm-hmm. Or rural districts, neither of which we are. So it's, it's much more difficult to get copies. There are also grants that I know and I read about them regularly, that for mental health
075Maybe, maybe then you, you can send us what, what you are reading to, to the superintendent so we can write Fine. I can, yes. I swear the speaking in the three minutes. Yes. If I'm speaking for three minutes and a member of the board then is answering, the hunter should stop because I'm only allowed here for three minutes and the questions that I'm asking are being answered and that's being utilized for the three minutes. So I understand what is happening, but you're not giving the community a fair amount of time to ask even the question if my three minutes are being answered in that time. So if you're cutting it down to one minute, maybe everything should be submitted beforehand and members of the community really don't have to come. You know, so's What I
076think you're saying is if there's dialogue Yes. Right. When the community member is up there, time rules. There's someone here is speaking perhaps. Yes. The timer pause. Yes. Understood. Thank you. You go. My one Last question, uh, Is regarding fine arts, um, very pleased to see that there's no increase. That is very delightful. Um, however, I had a very eager fifth grader this year participate in the Wonka production and it would be nice if there was some money in the budget for student costumes. Um, or, you know, we can't pay the full amount of the costume, but we can offer each main roll, you know, a $20, you know, allotment. So it would be nice to see, and I know that the children and Ms. Ti really enjoy putting that production on. So, you know,
077if we could find a few dollars somewhere, well you can still get your kill and your clay, but some, uh, some, some money for, for attire. Thank you very much. I'd like to point out on the technology expenses that we've got. It looks like $194,000 in copier expenses since everything's on the computer. That does seem like rather a lot. Um, I would like to know which, how much is Explore Learning and the Go Guardian teacher, this Go Guardian teacher, is that for every classroom and no, how, how do they have time to be playing with that when they're supposed to be teaching? Um, so it's Integrated into the daily, the, the any kind of in software is integrated into daily lessons. It also could be used after school, the Extra help during Lunch period if
078they, um, you know, they have clubs, um, or you know, after school. It's not like they're stopping instruction and we're gonna go play on the computer. It is instructional. It one of the reasons why, um, it's appealing to students. It is because in some of these software platforms they do make it more like a game because it's, it's motivating to them and they're eager to get onto it. Um, do you, uh, as far as the cost, the Explore Learning package that we had last year, um, was less expensive. I think it was around 6,000 or so. The increase, um, in the subscription due to teacher demand, um, this year is $11,926. The Go Guardian teacher, we are only going to pilot it in four grades. In the grades that we feel Teachers and also, you
079know, myself, we feel are the, the ages that are most likely to go off task, um, which is grades five through eight. I get a lot of requests from teachers, can you block this little game site? Johnny's on this site. Can you block this game site? What happens is we block one site that's like, you know, ping pong or basketball and then the kids find another one. So then we have to block that one with this software. The teacher will see what the students are actually doing in live time, um, and be able to redirect them back to instructional learning so that we don't lose, um, any more time. You know, students are focusing on task Test and that was how much it Cost. That software is, uh, 3070 $4 For four breeds with a
080piece of chalk and chalkboard explaining what we're earning about. Um, nevermind, um, regard the switches. Um, and is there since, um, Joanna you, you said, uh, the increase for an average home and the value of the assessed value for according to the Department of assessment for an average home is what, by your calculations, you're asking what is the county's average assessed value? Yes. It's not mine. The county, uh, class one assessed value average, I'm going back to October. They may have updated IT system, but um, it was 560,000. Okay. And we're still under some other things where there was this five year span of rolling in full, full taxation. Okay. Um, and does the county, does anybody have a number that shows the average household income for the Carl Police School District? I don't have
081it on me, but I actually think there is, have some information on that so I can, I can get back to you on it. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions being no further questions or comments? I'll ask Motion the motion. I'll make the motion I second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you all for coming.