001All right. Uh this is the uh East Rory Union Free School District Board of Education meeting for Wednesday, April 1st, 2026. And please stand and join me in the pledge to the flag. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh thank you all. Uh we are uh uh the superintendent uh recommends the board of ed education enter executive session to discuss uh matters relating to continued negotiations with the EA and the EASPA. Matters relating to the possible promotion or discipline of five certified personnel. matters pertaining to a particular corporation and matters protected by furpa. May I have a motion? >> So moved >> by Mr. Blau. Second >> Second by
002Mrs. Whitel. Discussion. All in favor >> opposed abstensions that is passed. 550 550. >> Good evening everyone. Thanks for joining us tonight. We are returning from executive session where we discuss matters uh uh related to continued negotiations with the EAFA and the EACPA. Matters relating to the possible promotion or discipline of five certified personnel. matters pertaining to two particular corporations and matters protected by firm and we are back into open session. Do we have any agenda changes for tonight? No agenda changes tonight. Move on to item five. Uh, the superintendent recommends that the board of education accept the resignation for purpose of retirement of Pat Fiorella, senior clerk typist, effective June 30th, 2026. I have a motion. Second, >> second by Dr. Any discussion? All in favor? I >> opposed abstensions. That's passed 6. Item
003B, the superintendent recommends the board accept the resignation for the purpose of retirement of Demar meeting June 30th, 2026. May I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Moved by Miss Malice. Second. Second by Mrs. Whitel. Discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Pass 6. Item C. The superintendent recommends the board of education accept the resignation for purpose of retirement of Sandra Tadaro, school nurse, effective June 30th, 2026. >> We have a motion. >> Moved by Mr. Blau. Second. >> Second by Mrs. Danu. Discussion. All in favor? I >> opposed abstensions and that's passes. Uh item D, the superintendent accept uh recommends the board of education accept the resignation for the purpose of retirement of Michelle, our teacher, effective June 30th, 2026. May I have a motion? Moved by Mrs. Whitel, second >> second by Mrs.
004Danu. Discussion. Um, yeah, I'd just like to uh jump in for a moment and to uh thank uh Pat Linda, Sandy, and Michelle um for their amazing careers. Uh each one of them brought so much to school, did so much for our students uh in different ways, right? They they serve the district in in a variety of ways and um these four people I've known for a long time. Uh and uh like I said, we are so fortunate to have them with us. Uh it's always I'm always sad to see them go quite honestly because of the work that they've done. Um and we wish them all the best in their retirement and u we're looking forward to celebrating in June um at our board meeting. So congratulations to all of them. >> Thank you,
005Mr. Russ. All in favor I >> opposed extensions and that is passes. We are moving on to item six community member comments. Uh just for the the board, uh we received uh emails last meeting from Roxanne Perry on the 20th of March regarding a very excellent guest on her podcast. Um Paul Brinkworth on the 22nd of March uh regarding some fine art bronze and Julian Everett on the 21st of March. uh regarding the 2627 calendar and just all confirm that you received those and had an opportunity to review. Thank you all. And do we have any cards for public comments? We do not. So with that, we will move on to superintendent comments. We will move on to administrator comments. Are there any administrators who would like to uh share Mr. Brown? >> Good evening.
006I would just like to thank publicly Mr. Wilmore, our band conductor. As you know, and I spoke at the last board meeting, he obtained a grant through the education foundation to bring world-renowned uh composer and conductor Brian Balages to East Aora who worked with our students um for two full days with here at school and then he was a guest conductor at night for the band concert last week. And it was just an incredible experience. We knew it was going to be special, but it ended up being even more special than we thought it would be. We even had students from local high schools from all over Western New York come just so he could sign their uh program afterwards. It turned into be a pretty special evening. So once again, I just want to
007thank Jeff Wilmore and thank you for all the board members who were able to make it. It was a pretty cool night. >> Mr. Brown, I agree. other administrators. No, Mr. Lamaro, you seem like you're trying to make up your mind. >> No, you're good. Okay. >> Um, all right. Uh, we are going to move on to uh item nine, uh, board presidents and board member comments and committee reports. Um, in keeping with the theme, I'm uh going to I don't have anything. >> I wanted to congratulate our final board member. >> There we go. I wanted to congratulate our student board member for leading a fundraiser at the high school that a lot of the students participated in and they've raised $14,000 for St. James. uh that you told me 8,000 of it this
008year and I just am so excited that our schools can support that kind of community service and thinking about others and I really appreciate that you brought that up. Um I feel like we were just here so not a ton has happened but I have had the opportunity to attend a lot of musical um activities in the district between the the middle school to high school orchestra concert the jazz band middle school high school jazz band concert. also was able to go see Brad Bond and um and several of our students were in the all county jazz competition, jazz ensembles um as well this past weekend. So um it was just it's been a very musical last couple of weeks since the last one and it's it's wonderful. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Flowers.
009Holy cow. Um, okay. >> Who's >> Mr. Fry? >> We'll see. >> You got plenty of time. >> Yes. >> Um, yeah. So, yesterday, um, we concluded the fundraiser for St. Jun's Hospital. Um, we had raised 14,357 total dollars over the past 2 years. Um, and then just this year before the walk, we had raised $8,76. Um, so it was the fundraiser throughout all three buildings. The middle school's walk yesterday had 20 students walking and the high school had around 80 which last year was just 27. So I'm absolutely floored by the growth that we had. Um, and both the money aspect and also the students we had walking. It was it was really great. I want to express my gratitude to the entire district. This was not exactly what I expected and I've definitely
010exceeded expectations um this year. So, I'm super proud that we're able to do this and I'm really glad that Easter was able to fight cancer again for another year. >> Excellent. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, please. Sorry. >> Um I I just wanted to make a comment about um Mr. balmages and the concert was really great. And I had a chance to speak to him afterwards. And so he and I talked about um just the experience and what it brought to our kids. And um he was telling me a little bit that he has, you know, received literally thousands of gifts from places that he has performed. And he said sometimes he gets so many plaques he doesn't know what to do with them. We made a plaque on a BDT for him to thank
011him for coming. and he said, "This one is going to be on my wall." Because it was so was really beautiful. So, our kids did an incredible job um preparing the kids for him. But also, I think the experience for our kids was really, you know, was really exceptional and and so those types of opportunities, like I had a bunch of parents come up to me afterwards and thank us for doing it. And so, they were really grateful because I was really really kind of blown away by our performance, especially the fifth and sixth grade band cuz they're just getting started. But they played that piece. I mean, they played it beautifully and they've only been practicing for a short period of time. And so I just thought what a great opportunity. Mr. Wilmore was
012so grateful that he went to the foundation and that's what they're looking for, those kinds of creative um ideas. And so it was just um an exceptionally good night packed, you know, the standing room only. And I think it was a great experience for our kids. So I just wanted to to bring that up. And then also I wanted to mention that again um this year uh we received the Utica National Let me just get this correct school safety for 2026. >> Um our level is titanium with honors which is the highest level that you can achieve. So we work really closely with our insurance companies. Um we work very closely with um our insurance company to make sure obviously school safety is one of our top priorities and so they take the time out
013to recognize districts that meet this level and I think we're one of 157 school districts in the state which is about out of 700. So you know it's a it's a really nice honor. So I just wanted to share and thank everybody for their efforts on this. >> May I um add something to the Mr. I just um he commented on something that kind of stuck out to to me that night. He said, you know, he as he was looking around, he when he first got there, he said, "This is he doesn't know if we understand how many places he's been that parents haven't and and community members have not come out to fill an auditorium." And he looked around and he said, "This auditorium is full. This is full." I don't know if you
014know how lucky you are as a district and as a community that you could fill this and come to support your youth, but this is not the same across the country. And I think it's important for us to also remember that that we are somebody who supports each other in that way and it's ultimately to the benefit of our kids. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Yeah. >> Uh we're moving on to item 10. Uh legislation. Do we have any legislation? legislation. Uh we're moving on to item 11. Uh uh a 11 A is the capital facilities project update. Um it is there's not not much of an update um because we're just in the process of moving through the rest of this project. We are going to make some decisions on some of the final
015um pieces that we can add through the alternates. And so that will be coming in the next several weeks. Looks like we're going to be focusing on the hallways just to complete that because the entire first floor was included except the wing pass business office. So now we'll be able to complete that and a few other um small items um associated with the project. But beyond that, the I think it's the things are moving forward nicely. We're on schedule. Um we're hoping that once school breaks uh they'll have enough time in the summer to open the library and the um family consumer science classroom for September. So things are looking good. >> Okay. Anyone uh have any questions for Miss Vose? >> Okay. Thank you very much. U moving on to item B. Uh the
016business office operations and financial reports. Miss George. Hi, thank you. Um, tonight's reports are as of the end of February, um, in our general fund, we had just about 16.4 million in the bank. We'd expended about 55% of our budget and received about 73% of our revenues. Um, the cash ties to our cash flow and I feel confident through the rest of this year we will be okay with our cash flow. Um, as we keep moving forward year-over-year, I think cash flow is something we're going to have to pay attention to in the future. In our cafeteria fund, revenues exceeded expenditures by $95,000, which is a good trend. Um, I'm still confident that by the end of June, we will have a sufficient fund balance in the cafeteria fund to help alleviate some of the
017next year's um, salaries and benefits can be shifted into the cafeteria fund for teacher aids. Our federal fund, I would like to start with um, the receivables. Um, with all due respect, last month there was some concern about the amount of receivables um in the federal fund, I just wanted to to uh delineate that the UP prek funding has been received in full. Um, we've also received in March, which aren't reflective here, 88,000 plus against the um summer handicapped receivables. on and that I just want to assure the board that they're being accounted for appropriately. Um, we've had three auditors look at them. One auditor suggested a new process which we implemented where we track these right back to the rate setting unit for the SED. Once we know that information and we keep a
018a really close eye on these receivables, I just don't want anyone to worry about. We really do. you must come in from the oldest one from 2012. >> Uh actually some of what came in was more than what we expected which is going back towards the older ones and I actually brought reports from the past 5 years of how typically we receive 3 to four years worth of back receivables in any given year. So and I have those reports if anybody needs to look at them. We still have receivables left on the books though. There's still some receivables left. I don't >> Yes, there still are. Yes. It takes three to four, sometimes five years to actually collect those receivables from the stack unit which I have the reports that can show that how they've
019been flowing off appropriately or very old. Um, our expenditures were 992,000. Our revenues in the federal fund were 400,000, which is very typical of how we draw. We have to spend it to get the money back and the draw downs have been happening in the capital fund. As Mr. Russ uh indicated we're moving right along on phase 2B, is that what we call it, of the big capital project and spent just um under $4 million to date through February and the capital outlay, which we haven't started the actual um construction work on yet. Um a little over $10,000. Um and that capital construction work should be beginning in April, whether That's all I have for my report. >> Cash flow is always good. >> Yeah, cash flow is always good in our school district because
020the tax collection is such a big part of our revenue sources. We get those up front, >> right? >> We rely so much on state aid, but you never knew anybody that that created some cash flow problem, but we have that advantage here. >> Makes up for other disadvantages. What's that? >> It makes up for the not getting as much in state. >> Oh yeah, we got it earlier. We just balance. >> Thank you, Mr. George. >> You're welcome. >> Uh we are moving on to item C, the 267 budget. Okay. Um, so getting getting down to it. Um, >> oh the side there's a little Sorry. >> Okay. So, here's the agenda for today. Um, and it looks long and Um again we go through just you know some of the uh tax issues
021that we're dealing with the state aid runs um you know what the the drawbacks will be for next year. >> Um again so we we go through this process and we've been using the values division for a number of years. uh kind of keeps us focused on what our purpose is, what we believe in, you know, the driving force of how we want to take care of our our students, take care of our staff. So, we always go back to this and how we're keeping to the values and it's been difficult this year, probably more than the last five or 10, but uh you know, we're we're doing our best and I think the administrative team has done a really great job like sorting through this countless meetings, lots of hours trying to figure all
022this out. So, here's our tax levy um calculation. We've gone through this for the last, I don't know, two or three months. Um so, it's very similar to this year. We are 3.39. Our our levy limit is coming in at 3.36 and that's what we're recommending to go to to the limit this year. Uh just because of the financial issues we're dealing with. Uh you can see on the bottom, we've gone through this, you know, it kind of develops over a period of time. It starts in November. We don't get much information until January when the governor comes out with her proposed budget. Um February, we got some additional details which helped pull today's presentation together. And then unfortunately um it's expected uh the budget passing of the state is expected after the 7th. So
023if it happens before our next meeting, that would be nice because it'll confirm some things for us, but you know, we're not we're not very hopeful at at this point in time. So here's a proposed uh the governor's proposal for state aid and we talked about this uh again through four meetings and you can see uh the on the end um one one worth really positive note is the UPK grant so you know we have about 96 um applicants this year and so we get $10,000 so that would be $960,000 we use the number at that time of 840,000 and we don't know how many kids are actually going to come we always get that drop out u so we'll know tax. Do we know that yet? >> Not yet. >> Okay. Soon though, we'll
024know soon. So, that kind of that's a positive note. So, that's helped us to move about $150,000 out of the general fund to the UPK grant, which is really helpful um in terms of balancing the budget today. But besides that, uh just a little bit of foundation a just over $79,000. So, not a lot of help um from from the state at this point in time. Uh and so you know so we went back and looked at some of the data and uh they're holding uh 492 districts throughout the state that hold harmless. So that means they're going to get the same thing what we got which is about uh two 1%. >> 1% but we're hoping to get 2%. >> We're hoping to get 2%. I talked to Senator Gallivan and he was talking
025about the position of the Senate and the Assembly and they're very they're quite confident that they'll come back with at least 2% on foundation aid. So that would be another additional 79,000 which actually is included in today's presentation. But you can see here uh you know the formula is broken because that even even if we get 2% that's not enough to fund us moving forward. Uh they have to do things differently. Um but they haven't been really really loose. So we're dealing with what we have. And here's another issue that we dealt with and we've been this is kind of new this year but it's it's kind of important. You can see that our wealth ratio over the last uh 6 years has gone up considerably from 0.965 to 1.217. That seems like small numbers
026but it really isn't. So our wealth has gone up considerably and you can see at the same time our aid ratios have declined. So if we look at public uh excess cost aid went from 0.5 down to 38. You can see it on every single line except for the building a ratio. So, that's one thing that's been consistent for us, which is really good in terms of our our our building. We put a building project out, we know that 2/3 of it is going to be covered by the state, but one/3 is for local. Um, so that has been consistent and we're grateful for that. But every other area of aid has dropped off uh considerably over the last six years. So, that's a contributing factor to why we have a budget deficit this year.
027And here's here's just a bar graph showing that. And you can see the blue line on the left is the um oh no that's I'm sorry the adjusted gross income. So the combined wealth ratio on the left and then the state aid ratios on the right um shows that the only one that's going up is the uh building a sale. Unfortunately you can see it just diminishing over time. So when we look at revenues um here's our projected revenues and so um uh we were able to go through it again. And so we keep grinding through this, you know, week after week as we get additional information. And so Miss George is one of the areas where we found some additional revenues about it's about $600,000 of additional revenues from the last time I presented.
028And um part is that part of that is that uh we looked at sales tax at George is comfortable estimating $160,000 in additional state a uh state tax uh sales tax, excuse me. Um uh also a little bit of additional aid in in the basic aid um area under foundation aid that additional $79,000. Um we're also looking though the more majority of it's going to come through um the use of reserves. So we're we're looking at about $529,000 in reserves and that's from the tech reserve uh epil and that's to cover the cost of the retirement incentive uh TRS and ERS. So that total there is about 529,000 which is about $200,000 more than we we allocated this year. So next when we try to balance it against the appropriations and you can see the
029two numbers are equal 48,768,722 the same thing on the uh revenue side. So on the appropriation side, you can see here um some uh adjustments in salaries are only 113,000. That has to do a lot with the um attrition people who have decided to retire and take advantage of the retirement incentive. Uh that has actually helped us considerably. So I thank the board for supporting that uh because that will allow us to um minimize the impact on our staff. Uh you can see a pretty significant increase in fringe benefits also um in BOSEIS about $664,000. A lot of that is related to to special programs for our students. Uh so those costs are um you know they are what they are and we have to respond to our students needs and so this is kind
030of um where the appropriations laid out uh for the school year. So how do we close the gap? Um so we'll uh be reducing um two teaching positions um at Parkdale. Uh we'll be reducing one reading specialist um at the middle school. Uh there'll be a small reduction in world languages. That's about a 2 FTE. Uh we're going to be reducing electives at the high school. Uh 6 in ELA.4 um in math. Um we're going to be reducing six assignments at the middle school. And those six assignments are in a variety of areas of math, English, social studies, and science. Um some in the special areas. Uh we reduce one senior clerk typus from the district level. Uh we're going to be eliminating the family support center. So right now, three of our social workers
031have been doing that for us uh for the last couple of years. Um but again, we need to pull back in that area. We're going to be eliminating uh two slots that we have at Hartness and one uh for Alt Ed. We're going to be reducing materials and supplies at Parkdale and the middle school, reducing field trips at Parkdale, and reducing inter murals at the middle school and high school. Uh we're going to be reducing our late bus, so there'll be available only two times per week at the middle school and high school, but you can see that's a pretty considerable savings, about $159,000. We're going to be reducing software across the district, which is about 61,000 B&G contracts of materials and supplies. We're going to eliminate the opening assembly at the middle school. We're
032going to restructure the cafeteria aids to um be paid through the C fund with Miss Miss George mentioned earlier. And then we have additional funding for prek because we're going to be transferring that from the general fund into the federal fund. And so those total adjustments come out to be about $1,51,100 uh in addition to about the $6 million $600,000 in adjusted revenues brings us to the $1.6 million deficit that we are facing last uh time we were together. Um so because of the um retirement incentive uh fortunately we won't be um laying anyone off completely. I think we both have a couple positions that will be reduced and so the principles we will be talking to those uh people about those. So there'll be um in a few areas there'll be um some part-time
033positions that will be reduced further and some full-time positions that will be reduced to part-time u but no one will be laid off um through this process. So we're glad to hear that because uh initially we thought there would be several layoffs to make the the budget balance. Also just wanted an asterisk there. Uh we're going to continue with the shared library of media specialist. Mrs. Yorio has been working in both schools and she'll continue to do that for the 2627 school year. So here's the proposed budget. As I mentioned earlier, the proposed budget would be 48,768,772. Uh that brings the gap down to zero. One thing we did do is we reduced the um appropriated fund balance. We talked about this like it it has been you can see it's been increasing steadily over
034the last several years. We started back in 1920 2021 at 418 461 568 664 77. So it's been moving up steadily. So we pulled it back to 664 364 uh to balance this budget. So there's um I don't say there's a little room there, but you know we are pulling that back to kind of level that off to make it more palatable moving forward. Um this will also include a capital outlay. So the capital outlay projects, those small projects that will include throughout the district. Um this year we've been working on the bricks over the last couple of years at the high school and this year we're going to be uh proposing upgrade of the camera system at the middle school and that will increase uh include licensing devices or a combination of both. We'll
035also be using the technology reserve that will show up on the ballot. So this is one of the reserves that we have to get um public approval for. So, we're thinking about taking $75,000 out of the reserve initially, but we're decided that we're going to need more than that. So, we're going to be proposing $150,000 draw from the from the technology reserve. And that's it. So, uh here we are, April 1st until next uh meeting. It's April 21st. Um and that's when I'm going to have to adopt the budget. So, we talked uh briefly about possibly having an additional meeting uh on the 16th of April. Um I don't know if we can determine that after our discussion. If we think we need it, we can always schedule it. If we don't think we need
036it comfortable moving forward and being able to adopt the budget on the 21st, then we would need to meet on the 16th. So I'll just open it up to questions. >> Great. Let's start down. >> Flowers. >> I got a few things. Want to do that all now? >> Sure. >> The um I want to talk about revenues for a little while. the uh 620 $628,000 increases uh increasing sales tax, state aid, excess cost, aid, special tuition, reserve, and that's an increase over what we presented a couple of weeks ago. Do we have a breakdown of of the increases in those areas that makes that 628,000? >> Is it on your sheet? It was on my original sheet, but I didn't bring my original sheet. >> Um, it sounds like we have it. Not in
037this room. >> I can give estimates 160 in sales tax. It was >> okay only because that's 160 increase from our last meeting then >> the state aid estimate >> about 79,000 and change whatever 1% is on uh foundation aid >> about 5,000 it went up based on about 5,000 based on the information we received from Mag Special tuition >> that went up um I think it was at 29,000 at the last meeting and it went up to whatever Mac said the 52,000 I believe Paul is around 22,000 >> right the increase And then uh on the reserves that's at 75,000 whatever added to the technology. Is that the reserves we're referring to? >> 75 for technology. Ablar went up based I think last time it was 91,000 based on additional retirements TRSUS and ERSUs.
038If you look at the revenue slide, the reserves are all listed there under the use of reserve. >> I'm just kind of wondering about from our last meeting till now, but I'm focusing that the um the state aid numbers that we're estimating and they're not showing up on any printouts at this point. It's just >> no. Um, so the state aid numbers we're using now are based on a governance proposal plus additional estimates for foundation aid and excess cost aid >> and the building aid based on the February database. >> So we adjust the building aid as well >> but not meeting to meeting that was adjusted two meetings ago the building aid. Okay. So, is there any chance the additional aid that we're that we're will not be receiving we do to the point
039that it's worth worth budgeting for at this point? Is that what we're doing? >> Yeah. I I would say like from my meeting with with Senator Gallivan, I would say that um we was confident about it. Uh you know, we don't we don't even know about the prek, right? So I mean if prek would shift back that would be something very different. Yeah. So we don't know that for certain but he was very confident. So he wasn't confident about a lot quite honestly. He wasn't saying there's all this other aid that wasn't the case but the things that he talked to us about he said that he's confident that that would happen is that he's been confident in the past and most of the time it comes >> look at this point to help balance
040the budget. Yeah. >> And we vote we vote on the budget as voters voted the budget. We still have to make sure we can We have some revenues that support those expenditures. But okay, let's see. Sales tax was increased uh a total amount in that slide. >> Was it 160,000? >> Correct. >> How are we doing with that? Is that as we move forward? Is that maxing out or or >> It's not maxing out because at this point in time I only have three quarters worth of data. So I took year over year first three quarters we received year over year first three quarters we received and how much more we've received actual receipts from last year to this year. That's how I came to that number. This 160,000 increase in sales tax revenue is
041a number that we can support right now and we still bringing in next year. >> That would be my my best guess looking at the trend looking at a 5-year trend of sales tax. the uh m the miscellaneous sources are a big part of funding this budget and those miscellaneous two of the biggest increases you see sales tax that's why I think it's important to discuss that the um let me talk a little bit about the budget gap just taking the information I have from other meetings uh the uh initial budget gap without any uh revenue adjustments appears to been approx approximately 2.9 million. I mean, yeah, 2.9 million. Uh, I believe some expenditure savings may have been included in that number. I I don't know for sure, but the uh 2.9 millions was reduced
042to 1,650,000 by uh maximizing the tax levy increase uh state aid increases, miscellaneous revenue increases, and additional appropriations reductions. And those reduced to the 1.6 6 million that we've been talking about. Uh that was reduced to 628,000 because of increase in revenue estimates and appropriated reserves. This leaves about a million23,000 which 930,000 have been offset by various reductions in line item appropriations which numbers we talked about tonight. Where I'm going with all of this is the last draft of the 2627 projected revenues included appropriation fund balance of 664,000 over the years which supported the appropriated fund balance was underestimating revenues, overestimating appropriations and that allowed us not only to return approval of fund balance back to the general fund. It allows us to do other things whether it's fund reserves those type of things. So
043we use them. Now as we're getting tighter and tighter my biggest concern when we're tightening up our revenue estimates and sales tax um miscellaneous sources those type things as we tighten that up the ability to pay our appropriated fund balance and there's going to be a concern as we move forward. I I just believe that's the way the trends are going. And then we take all that in consideration for 27 28 and now moving ahead a little bit. We're talking about two years budgets. As we move ahead, we have the opportunity to increase sales tax at the same rate we're doing to offset the budget gap that's going to be there. Then um we have opportunity to cut some of the expenses now or appropriations we are now to help balance it. There's a lot
044to that. So I guess my concern is how this budget and I'm really not looking at moratorilic how that's going to play out as we move forward into left room on both sides whether intentionally or not. Sometimes we're totally surprised by our fund balance amount of us anyway but we managed to use that. So as we move forward and we take a look at the new increases in revenues, are those increases going to be available moving forward in 2027? Cuz because the fund if we if we put this budget out there to pass or to did both we've done is just cut it in a way that just gets us through this year. I don't think it sets us up at all for 2027 27 28. If you don't keep that in mind, I think
045it's even going to be more difficult in terms of we're dealing with this and get to the core. two questions I asked specifically after talking about that I thought it was important to discuss that maybe a new one recognize it or want to hear they don't know but I feel better having shared that the um transportation aid come back at 159 is the uh late bus is that does it receive transportation aid or we're not eligible for aid there >> it does receive transportation aid we are eligible for. So the net impact will be a positive impact to to put together the 40 67 budget because we're going to build we're going to be transportation expenditures this current year next year. But then what's going to happen that it'll drop off and you'll wonder why
046transportation is down. The reason is we'll cut an expense expense that'll give us a one-year advantage and then the year after it's going to be added significantly to the gap next year. I mean, I'm not I don't support that cut, but also no wise being brought to get a budget balance. But would that significant increase? What would that talked about subsequent years? Would that happen even if we're not adding it back in? If we're adding it back in, doesn't that are our our aid then level >> consistently from year to year? we've we've cut the expense, then next year we get a lower aid, but that matches our new uh you know that that that flows into an even thing until there's the decision made to then add that back, right? >> Then we're going
047to put the money up front and come in the year after, >> which we wouldn't be able to do until we had we were in a positive situation, right? >> Travis is what brought it up. >> Yeah. No increase. >> It's so you start adding up the areas that you're going to widen that gap in age 27 28. >> It ends up significantly. >> So just to clarify, so this year we will receive or sorry next year we'll receive the transportation aid that we used this year. So that's why it helps us. But then we're also putting out less use of the transportation which in which >> in 2627 we spend less because of this. Then in 27 28 we'll get less aid because of it. And another revenue source has dropped down along with
048possibly not being able to increase um sales tax 120ome,000 miscellaneous revenues. It's just um >> also loss of weight loss for kids question. Is there >> I guess >> speaking of that is there so the transportation aid I one of my things was um it shows that it's gone down every year in any of the this is so hypothetical but in any of the discussions that have been out there is there talk of because of the bus mandate transportation aid increasing the electric bus mandate in 3 years you know like is there talk out there of >> that's a discussion yeah for the Senate in the assembly talking about how are we going to fund that transition in place, >> right? >> It's very feasible for people. >> I think what's going to happen is
049going to be delayed because there's just not going to be the money, but it's part of their proposal to like put significant dollars towards that so that it would be possible to start moving. Again, that may happen in three years, but like to shift your entire fleet, set up your structure, tens of millions of dollars to do that. Just I don't know how they expect districts or the state to do that. So, I I don't know. Yeah. So, I would say it is on the agenda for discussion, but I think it's it's a ways off. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so the the the decrease in our egg ratio is related to our the the you know the uh property values going up the uh the market health ratio going up as well. So any increase
050would have to offset that. Um, and that that'll pro that I mean, if we if we continue on the trend of property value and gross income going up, that ratio is going to get farther and farther away from where where it was, right? Any increase? >> Where's that revenue come from? But that's a really good point. Something you really got to hang on to because the state looks at those values and says you can afford to pay more of your education in your school district because of your wealth. Is that fair? >> Right. Your approach to that isn't fair. That's the reasoning. >> Yes. So that's why we pulled back on the appropriated fund balance. So we pulled that to uh what we did last year not 25 26 it would have been 24 for
051that exact reason what flowers is talking about is the idea of as we pull those other areas higher and tighter revenues and appropriations like there so there's going to be revenue and appropriations you know and so eventually it runs out so these problems are not fixed in one year so I think if we look to 20 26 27 um this isn't going to write itself. We're going to be having to choose again next year. Um, and so I mean what we can do is we can pull back on the appropriate fund balance, but what that does for every dollar we pull back is just another cut we have to make. So I'm not saying that we we don't want to do that now because sometimes when we get in front of it, it pays like
052dividends moving forward. So a cut we make now, we're not paying now and moving forward. So sometimes it's um it has a a greater impact on our budget for next year. But again, you can see there's a lot of cuts we're already making. So, you know, that is something I don't know if the board wants to discuss, but that that is certainly one area where we could we could make some adjustments, but that would definitely impact the type of programming that we can offer. >> Those are all good points. And the other point I'll add to that is if we were able to appropriate fund balance and still have excess over 4%. and we would move that into reserves as you know or other uses. we didn't have that this year and that's a flag
053that things are changing a little bit if we don't have anything over the 4% to uh so I agree with reducing appropriated fund balance um however amount it was and I mean that was that's going the right direction but the amount that we had in excess of 4% was a significant drop because we dropped below 4% to 3 something good so we didn't move anything over I use a worker service because that's probably pretty much what we're talking Yeah, your point is >> now that I've learned more, it's more complicated than I knew coming in. The foundation aid right now they're saying is 1%. If they do pass it at 2%. How does that impact these decisions? >> You already built in that >> you did 2%. >> So normally if the budget would pass,
054we would know today. We would know that that money is is guaranteed to us. But because the budget hasn't passed, we're making some educated guess based on the information. Usually pretty conservative. So, you know, we fairly confident that will come through. >> Okay. And then the process for picking like to cut, how to cut. Can you talk a little bit about how you all pay for that? >> Yeah. So we meet uh we've met many many times um with the administrative staff and of course they're working with their teams what their programs will look like for next year and so we look at um the numbers George gives the best estimate and that's where we start. Um but again she's estimating based on a lot of things that she doesn't know. She doesn't have the
055facts and figures. So she based on like trends and things she's hearing from her meetings. And so then we start looking at the district and and seeing we look at like the the enrollments um the types of um electives and programs we're offering athletics we look at buildings and grounds technology and then we start making contributions from all of those areas. And so for us most of our money is in is in employees and that's where most of the revenue comes from. So that's typically as you can see if you look through the list where the largest dollars are coming from and so what we do is when we start talking about eliminating positions how does that impact the overall program and and so then we work back and forth between all all the members
056of the team to try to find balance and so that's how we came up with the list. I would say, you know, just like um this is an incredibly difficult process. Like it's a painful process for them to go through and so all of these cuts um these are the things that keep them up at night. Um but I'm grateful for their work and the amount of time and dedication they put into this to try to make it as balanced and fair as they possibly can. It's it's a it's very hard work. >> And just remind people to discussions have been going on for a long time. people that kind of meetings and team presentation again. So, thank you. >> And I'll just say to to Mr. Flower's comments, too, is when we're planning for
057this, we're also thinking what is next year or the year after look like that, and we don't know, but we can see trends that are happening like at the state level and the federal government pulling back on funding. So, that those numbers are, you know, better. That's at least in the short term. We're not going to see this windfall of money that's going to support this. So, we're going to have to keep pulling back and so we have to figure out how do we find that balance so when it happens and so like you know again the appropriated fund balance that's why Mrs. George and I talked about it. She said, "Why don't we pull it back?" I said, "You know, let's do a little bit this year because I think we need to move
058in that direction because that appropriated fund balance is money that we have to have left over next year." And as we pull like our revenues are shrinking and our appropriations are are busting this way. It's it's that is incredibly complicated. So that's what we said. Let's bring it back one notch, you know, and then next year we're probably going to have to pull it back a notch or two, too, just to I'm not talking next year. I'm talking 5 years down the road. You know, that's what we're working on while we're doing this now, right? We have a strict timeline. You know, the state doesn't have to follow their timeline, but we have to follow ours, right? And so when the state doesn't follow theirs, it makes it really difficult. >> So we appropriate this
059amount. Will we reach the 4% unappropriated or we don't know that? I couldn't hear. >> Will we reach the 4% uh on the unappropriated? >> I am very hopeful that we are going to reach the 4% on the unappropriated. >> This number here is appropriate. >> I'm a little bit hopeful >> that we'd be able to reenish some of the ablar from the retirement incentive. A little bit hopeful. >> So we're making a big large draw for the ab right now. So, we need to kind of replenish that so that as as other people retire, we have enough funds there to to pay those those um those necessary payments. >> It's just it's disappointing that the city is not supposed to inflation. electricity costs that I've seen go up and up and up and I
060it's not a great position to be in for >> just electricity is going up by $140,000 and just an additional $140,000 unexpect for electricity >> electricity >> can I um just add to that what I've realized in this process that that I hope that the community knows they can ask these like based on what we're seeing here they can ask we have the same questions um but what I'm realizing is that there's the controllables you know the things that we can kind of control like we there are things that you have control over financially but the things for example electricity gas that we just have to pay it in order to to continue so when those go up by 200,000 that is not something that was done bad on a budget somewhere else like like
061and transportation costs and you know those type things there's those things that come at us that we have to pay and um yeah and and there are probably lots of questions on this um and I just would definitely encourage all of us and anyone else out there to not get their answers from social media But to know that that's why the superintendent and the administrators are here is to answer those questions. So I mean how does the how does the community if they have a question on these things where do they go? Obviously here they can ask here we might not be able to answer immediately but where where do you find like I know you find this online on our website but it's >> they could they can check our website contacts my office
062um come to me um you can talk over the phone um send me an email uh any of those choices uh there's a lot of information that's available on the website but again sometimes interpretation is needed because just looking at the numbers doesn't always make sense or usually and just the numbers itself. Um so yeah, please reach out, contact us. Happy to sit down and and talk it through. >> Um a lot of it was covered. I think a very good discussion. One of my comments was exactly what you said, the fact that we do not have the budget from the state and it's April 1st and it makes it incredibly challenging as a school board because we are required to have this information and have a decision made and we don't have definite numbers
063from the state but obviously we can make the decision to based on your discussions with you know Senator Gallivan that we can add this $79,000 into our revenue and have this additional funds but it's challenging very um And then the other thing just just a concern in general, we look at these trends and we see trends for sales tax over five years. But you know that's looking in the past and as we look forward and we see where we're at right now is $4. How many people are going to really be going out and spending a lot of money as you go forward the next year. So these are all things that are in the background that we can't as we said control and when all these costs go up. So those are just big
064concerns as we're moving forward with our budget. Um, with respect to Curtis's question, are we have a community? Um, I know we've done presentations in the past with different are those um set time or something. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I have a I have I do have a have something set up with Quanis. I have something set up with Rotary. So, I will be making those presentations. Thank you. So, that's it. All right. you're still good. >> I was just thinking that I was so pleased to hear Brian mention about the trends um looking at the trends that are happening because Maria's point is so true. Be careful where you go for your information. Brian, you can always make an appointment with Brian. I'm going to I'm going to sit down with him and
065talk about some things that I'm worried about. Um so take the time to do that. Um there in the past I know I talked to Mr. Manrey last meeting we had concerned that we we aren't forecasting out well the times are making it almost impossible in the 60s we used to say the times they are a change and and I think they are very much so and we have to be patient with one another and work together. >> Thank you Mrs. Madison. Uh yeah, the with regards to the the state budget, the only thing that I read uh that gave me any any sort of uh hope with since it hasn't passed is that the uh sticking points do not include any of the educational uh parts of the budget, which is good, which hopefully
066goes into what you heard from uh the senator as well. So that's that's good news. Um Um, okay, great. Uh, so I the only thing we have to discuss with regards to this is the tenative April 16th uh 7:30 p.m. meeting that we uh penciled in at our last uh at our last meeting. Do we still want to do we want to leave that on? Well, actually, I guess my question is how is that a week's notice that we have to provide? How how far in advance do we need to do as >> as quickly as possible? >> Yeah. As as possible, how do how does everyone feel about that? Do do we want to leave it on for now and and then and then you think it'll change? I don't think anything at all
067unless we get something from the state between I don't know how much that would change. >> Yeah. >> And so if you're hearing that it won't change as anything that was presented tonight. Uh how does everyone feel about keeping it or removing it? >> If we don't have anything new, what are we doing? >> Well, let's just be practical. I mean, I I just don't um I mean, if the state settles the budget, I just don't think anything they're going to tell us is going to dramatically change our our income from where we are right now. You know, we're making some assumptions already, but I just don't think anything dramatic is going to happen. So, we won't really be changing the the presentation between now and then. So, but again, it's up to you. All
068right. Thank you, >> Mr. Bers. What are your thoughts? >> Yes. Um, I don't have a meeting. There's not real agenda on it. At some point though, we have to have a dollar amount of the budget, but you know, I don't know if you'll have something you just emailed to us or present at the meeting after that or how would we handle that increase in the dollar? I I would say that the the 48,768 772 all the >> I don't want to meet just >> Yeah. As long as we feel comfortable that change, we have to get information from the state. >> If something if something changes dramatically, I'll let you know and then we can do it. >> Yeah, I would tell I guess I would encourage the board not to remove the holds
069on your personal calendars. uh and then that way we're flexible to do what should be >> Mr. Yes, we may add one more thing which has already been said. But as you look at these different notes about closing the gap and the amount of time that has been spent by the administrators, the superintendent, everyone involved to sort of get to this point to really have it um spread spread around throughout the district in the best way that they felt. I I think that's just really important to emphasize that this wasn't done last. This has been going on for months and months. sound. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. With that, we will move on to items consensus. Are there any board members who wish to withdraw any items from the consensus
070agenda? No. Any board members who wish to add anything to the consensus agenda? Hearing none. Uh, may I have a motion to approve the consensus agenda? Moved >> by Mrs. Daniel. Second. >> Second by Mrs. Mail. Discussion. All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstensions. That's pass. And you're fast forwarding to page nine of 10. Yep. Okay. Um item 17, does any board member have any new business to bring before the board? Hearing none. Um item 18, we have uh items of information uh including uh the upcoming uh BOS's annual meeting which is held up center street this year at Ormsby on April 15th. Um the Thursday, April 16th meeting that we just talked about is the one that we are no longer anticipating and the rest as are listed there. Uh item B, upcoming uh meetings,
071workshops and conferences. Uh you will see all listed there. Then item 19. May I have a motion to adjourn at 8:08? >> So moved by Dr. Second. second by Mrs. Danu. Uh discussion. I just want to thank everybody for being here and uh thank uh uh everyone for the work that uh went into this. Uh may I have a motion to or all in favor? >> I opposed abstensions and that is pass 6 and we are adjourned. Thank you.