001Great. Uh so this is the uh uh January 14th, 2026 regular board of education for the East Union Pre School District. Uh please join me in the pledge to the flag. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh may I have a motion to enter executive session to dis uh discuss matters relating to the possible promotion or discipline of a particular employee, negotiations with the EA and the EA CSPA and matters protected by >> moved by second by discussion. >> All in favor? All right, everybody. We're going to get back into our uh our regular meeting. So, um if you're having conversations, I'd ask that you take them uh out
002to the hallway. Uh thanks very much. >> Uh we are on item six, uh reports and discussions part one, which we had one, so we're going to move past that. [clears throat] uh community member comments. Uh just for the sake of the board, uh we received since our last board meeting on December 17th, two or one email uh uh on uh January 7th from Bill Leslie regarding in the international baloria program just confirming that everybody got that and had a chance to review it. Great. Thank you very much. And do we we have no comment cards. So we are continuing to move on to superintendent comments. And we have no superintendent comments. What's going on here? Uh all right. On to administrators. I dare you. Um administrators, who's got who's got something for the board?
003All right, this is >> good evening everybody. Um, I first have to just start by thanking everybody for the warm welcome. Um, this is my first time in this role at a board meeting and after two decades in this district as an educator, I could not be more thrilled for this journey. Um, I want to start just by thanking the administrative team. There was a lot of effort that went into my transition the middle school and it really was spot on. Um, and I think it really just helped in a a very smooth transition for the teacher that took over for me but also for myself at which supports community. So, thank you for that. Um, a special shout out to they have been nothing short of an inspiration to me. I am proud of
004both of them and just grful for support through this journey. Um, so this isn't about me, but I have to just take that moment to share my gratitude. Um, a couple things I didn't realize as I came into this position. One of my I would say passion projects or something I was very passionate about in my work in the middle school was around resorted practices and we had last year transer students practices to lead community circles in the classrooms and when I came on board at Parkdale I found that this same initiative was happening at Parkdale and I was able to get involved and just Tuesday we were able to alongside Baron We were able to train fourth graders who are now aware of what are why restorative practices and soon they're going to be
005restoative. So I could not be more thrilled to be part of that and Tuesday was just such a rewarding experience. Um the last thing I just want to um bring up is we'd like to welcome you all to literacy night. That's on March 12th at 5 p.m. One of the most amazing things I think I've taken my last couple weeks I transition in December but one of the most amazing things I've noticed about the energy surrounding there's so much going on and literacy night it's all around science and it's a lot going on sessions and we hope to see you all >> thank you very Uh, any other administrators? Uh, moving on. Uh, item 10, uh, board president and board members comments and committee reports. Um, I guess sort of I have nothing to report.
006Oh, and also remind people online. Oddly enough, it's been a quiet couple weeks since the last meeting. It's been a quiet couple weeks since the last meeting for me. Um, so I'll have lots next time. Um, also definitely go see the musical. Um, it's going to be absolutely amazing. I promise. Thank you very much. That'll be at the end of January. >> This is Oh, yes. period. We are doing cancer. So the kids can be dismissed and snowball and we are going to start froy. So the normal JC as a fundraiser follow item 11 legislation legislation going Um item 12 reports part two uh we have the business office operations and financial reports tonight's reports are as of the end of November in the general fund we had almostion of that invested uh taxes receivable
007still a little bit under As of the end of our expenditures, we spent about 30% of our budget about 70% again from the state in the federal fund. We have received $365,000 $65,000 to draw capital any noise upstairs they're doing on the library currently and for our capital outlay only about $7600 But availing spots for finance committee meetings. I'm not sure what the board wanted. Um, thank you, M. George. We are going with that. We're going to move on to item B. Uh the tech facilities project. >> Uh yes. So the capital facilities project is really off to a great start. Uh it's starting in November slow. Uh and then they are full demolition mode in the library and computer science classroom. And so the progress has been swift. Uh they're pretty much staying right
008on track. Maybe even a little bit ahead of schedule. So so far so good. Beyond that, there's not a whole lot to discuss. Um, but tomorrow we're going to have an OAC meeting where we get together just about next steps and where we're headed. And then also on February, Steve Showski from Right is going to join us and give us an update, but he might be able to tour you so far. It's going really well. Uh we are on on to item C uh the 20 uh 26 2027 budget portion. >> Yeah. So um so today's first go we've had some conversations around the budget. This is like our first formal presentation. Uh again we're just going to go through some of the basic details because we have very little information that Governor did come
009out with her state of the state address which was yesterday. One of the things that she did address in regard to school is the prek for all. Uh so that may be happening in the next several years. We're really hoping that there will be some additional funding um that will be available this year for our current preK program. So we're hopeful that will happen. Um other than that, you know, she really just said, are we funding schools uh and school districts uh in the right way? So she didn't give us a lot of details. there wasn't much there. So, uh, so we're going to wait over the next, uh, several weeks and months to see where it goes. Uh, I'll be meeting with Senator Gallivan. So, we always get together with the other superintendents in
010his district and we talk about our needs. He's always been really responsive in bringing those conversations back and, uh, um, helping us to work with the legislature. >> Yeah. So, here's our agenda for tonight. Um, you can see we just talk briefly about the projected And then we'll look at some of the uh full value uh comparisons uh for uh tax rates and state aid comparisons as well. And then we'll just put out a few budget development items that we have. It's very small list right now. We're still working through that with our our administrators. Uh and then we're just going to take a high level and have a discussion at the end. So again, you know, we always start off with our our focus on our values and vision. That's kind of the driving
011force behind all of our decisions. you know what's in the best interest of our students and our staff. Uh and so the values and vision have been a really great guiding force. Uh kind of keeps us on track especially these difficult times. So here's our adopted revenue budget. So this is um you can see the 2526 adopted budget was about well 46,881,860. And so that's about a little bit out there a 4% increase from 2425. Uh and so we're working through the process and we are really trying to um save money. We've had numerous budget discussions at the administrative level because we know that this budget like last is going to be uh kind of challenging and it's going to present some difficulties. So we're going to have to make some hard choices along the
012way. So we've been having those conversations gosh for the last four months. So, uh, the appropriations, again, this is where we spend our money, and you can see it balances out, uh, with 46,881,860. You can see for us, again, salaries and French benefits is the majority. It's about um 2/3. It's about $30,000, I mean 36, excuse me, $30 million of the 46 million. Uh, so you can see that's where our money is spent. Uh, but we can we made some increases in equipment because leads for the district in all three buildings. Uh contractual again has come down a little bit which has been helpful. Uh Boseies again it's it goes back and forth. We're hoping to meet with our BOS representative to see what we can do to kind of tighten that budget as well
013in the next couple of weeks. So I'll turn this over to Miss George and she's going to talk to you about the projected uh levy cap. >> Yes. Um this is how our tax cap looks. Most of the numbers that I have to date, the only two numbers that I think could impact the tax cap is where I have to be determined. We may have an exclusion for ERS this year. You'll see it in future slides that is increasing the percentage percent of employee salaries. And then the only thing that Mr. an exclusion for capital um the 2,112,000 number that number could change slightly once we get numbers from the state based on our building ratio. I don't think our ratio is going to change but he just said it could. So we should always
014be so.36% yearoveryear and that's about $942,000 in revenue taxes. Um I went to a class in November. I went to a conference actually and one of the things were instead of using just spreadsheets for projecting your budget, try to tell our story. So, I'm kind of taking a a stab at that. And we have a program that's called Frontline and statewide data is collected there and you can go to the dashboard and extrapulate information. On these next couple of slides, I needed to have what they call peer groups. I couldn't just extrapulate the program didn't work that way. So I picked a few districts that I thought we want to compare ourselves to Clarence as East Aurora is highlighted and this has to do with our total assessed in East [clears throat] and what it
015shows 2013 to 2025, our assessed value in our district has increased by 74.4%. Um, which ties back a little bit to the tax cap. It has to do with our tax base growth factor when there's new building. But a lot of it has to do with the equalization rate and how our assessed values of our homes have changed over a 12year period. Um again the next slide is another stab at just trying to tell our story. And again in front I needed a peer group and I know it's very small but when I extrapulate it out of that program I can't like highlight anything or hold anything or make it bigger for you to see. So the first district the first two green lines is a school district equalized tax rate for 24 and 25.
016The next two columns is Clarence. The next two columns is East Aurora. Then it's Lancaster Park. And I just think it's interesting to look at this because I really think that our rate when it's equalized is really in line with our peers. And again, this is another to just show data in a different way. And this is a breakdown of state aid and it shows each component of state aid. Um and again it's against peer groups. I have Clarence here Lancaster and Orange Park. I couldn't get on there. It wouldn't fit. Um but East Aurora is the second one. And I think this kind of shows us when you compare it to our taxes that our district relies more on tax revenue than on state aid. And it's just the makeup of our district, the
017demographics of our district. And where you can see like Lancaster, of course, they're a much bigger district, but you can see how much more they get in state than Eastern. some of the budget development items are just some of the thoughts that we've had around the budget so far. Like I said, we've been leaving actually for several months because we know we had to make some some difficult choices last year. Um but you know, we were able to move forward and we didn't have to make a lot of changes to student programming. So, we were pleased with that. Um but we know that's going to be another challenging question development scene. We know that. Uh we also know that get about $942,000 uh through additional taxes through the levy potential that that's what we could
018get. Uh we're certain we are uncertain about what the state aid will receive and that that's one of the greatest challenges that we faced last year. Um typically the budget is is is completed at the state level on April 1st, but that hasn't happened for the last couple of years. So that makes it really difficult for us to plan by the middle of May uh and be able to to the public at that time. Um so um and we also as as Mr. said we rely more on taxes than we do on state aid. Um so one of the items that we need that we talked about last year we had a retirement um middle school librarian. So, we decided as part of our cutting measures from last year not to fill that position, but
019we plan to uh fill that position for the 26 27th school year. Uh we're going to have a community library media center. We want somebody to take that home and run with that. Uh TRS rates again uh we're looking at a 9.5% increase. Uh so rate is actually somewhere between 8.25 and 8.75 which is a decrease. That's that's kind of nice. So, we get to save the scores and help in the budget for sure. Uh, and the ERS rate uh unfortunately is is moving up. So, it's going from 16.5 to about 17.6. And so, that's kind of it for today. Uh, you know, so we have a number of budget workshops happening over the next several months. Uh, so, um, you can see the calendar, especially March and April, that's when we hit it pretty
020get more information from the state, from the governor's office, and also from the legislature. And so, we all have to pull that all together that we need to file between that time and May 19th when we vote on the budget. So, it's open for questions. Tell The growth in appropriations is never a problem. We need to certain tax level 920,000 but areas we counted on the last several years balance the budget sales tax just kind of be interest to see if you can move on process how much growth we're going to have in Those areas kind of failed us interesting because we fund balance challenge. How much increase fund balance possibly sales tax, interest off the challenges corporations that manage Everybody knows it is important just because we balance numbers this year. And then the
021only other comment I would have last year thought to work good getting budget proposal. >> So I do have a question about that. Did the governor give his idea of what we could expect from state closer to come up with a number. >> Yeah, I would say that's probably situations like the fewest [clears throat] budgets in the past few years. There wasn't much other than one of her she's goals she's trying to set over the next several years but the actual money she made that statement about how do we proper that's so that conversation started to be working with them and I just talk the state officials for the business officials association. He came to our superintendent meeting. He spoke to us about some of the things that they thought were going to happen. positive
022thing that some of the findings work better than they thought but I don't want to overate that because the original was that >> yeah so for us we would we wouldn't be able to really expand our program because we really don't have any We would have to think about addition as part of our facilities project uh to accommodate the facility program that supports the program even though we have a grant doesn't cover the whole cost. The general fund covers >> and there is some discussion right now increasing people. So that would also help to pressure that last year but >> I was just going to say the plan at this point in time is to face it over. So until we see the runs statements for our district, we don't know how much of a
023change it would be in the first year of of this. And so it would be interesting to know how much we are currently spending from the from the regular budget to support this program. We know exactly how much getting in revenue, but we've never really talked about what the costs are beyond that. So, so it would be good to know that before we receive the state aid run so that we can see how close it is to accommodating and uh and so they some pressure can come off the appropriation side of the budget while if the uh if if some of these other things happen such as receiving the additional state aid, I would hope that we could accommodate the waiting list that the uh for the first several years of this program we accommodated
024everybody who wanted to be in but this past year apparently we did not and so another thing I would like to know in the next few months is how many were turned away and what kind of play if there's additional monies appropriated in the state budget for the program what could we do to make sure that that at least the waiting list is accommodated You know, and I'm not talking about building more classrooms. I'm I'm talking about finding a space for those extra few students who had to turn away this past right now. We're servicing about students and so um it's going to huge success and that's why this figure out just how successful the program has been. So, um, yeah. So, I mean, I I think what we want to talk about is looking
025at what additional aid is to make us whole and then talk about how we expand it to to accommodate. >> Yeah. I think what my understanding again it's preliminary is that it would be it would be completely funded. So we we wait and see. I guess we'll wait and see. So if that was the case, I would think that there would be a wage that would continue to grow. But at the same time, we're kind of reaching our our typical class size. So we have 125 kids. There's 120 that are so close. our weight list. >> You might just have to find one more, >> you know, and it might be re reate that's currently. It's just it's frustrating to see this arbitrary process of picking names out of a hat as to who gets
026their education and who does not. So I think it's just it's immoral that they every 5year-old should receive the same consideration as every other system. So if we get away from Universal is that >> it's been very successful. You know, we have watched the steady growth. So, kids are really taking advantage, you know, maybe take a message back to the students that they have two meals. So, we've been building one sure about that. So, having been for that and so I think it's it's it's doing what was intended to do. You know, kids can get foods in the daytime. So, it's a really positive and to try to relieve the general participation. I would echo that. And just for me, Ryan questionally with respect notes here about the TRS rate and I just obviously don't
027have numbers at this time but how do those work in terms of whether or not they offset it and just give us I think it would be a positive for the district. That's what I'm hoping for until it starts catching up until those revenues start catching up. So that analyst and if you take the total the total salary load that we have for administrators and teachers. Uh and to take 1% of that amount, that's a lot of money. A whole lot of money. the in the the uh the increase in the uh ERS rate is is approximately the same but the but the total amount of money that we that we have in salaries for the employees system is a fraction of the amount. So just generally speaking this is a place where the appropriations
028are going to be lower than they were last year. and and they stick to these numbers. They're pretty good about when they say it's between 8.25 and 8.75, it almost always comes exactly in the middle. It's a multiplication off a bigger number because salaries So it may just be an offset not just not an additional multiplying it's the And typically it rarely goes down million,000. >> Well, the only thing I would help us a lot to go in the next couple months would be fund balance projection for this year. Uh the you know we're halfway through the year now and uh and this is the appropriate time board sometimes have to make adjustments to be spending so that they're sure that at the end of the year they have to spend more than that was
029authorized by the community. And so I I would appreciate it if you take a look at the u rate of expenditures moving forward and with realize that it's not going to be exact change but it helpful in budget development would be an idea of what we think as a as It's the same it's the same thing as we prepare the budget approximating what you think is going to happen when you having that number as one more input in that planning process And I uh I really think that that would be something to see full well that it's not but it would be helpful in um I just want to uh everybody the uh the uh development calendar and so I just wanted to check and see how Mr. How would be help what would be
030a helpful way to get you to dates for those do you want to work via email with members of that committee >> whatever it can be used to engage So um um we are going to be uh so we we lost a member of that committee uh at the end of the year uh with uh Miss Arrest's departure and so going forward uh the committee will meet Mr. Brunson uh Mrs. Daniel and Mr. Flowers is going to move on as a full-time member and um Mrs. could be the new uh alternate for that. Um so I get I I feel like um does well I mean to just try to help get this keep this moving does three feel like an appropriate number of meetings to the members. I was going to say looking at
031the schedule right now. Um, we had one that was supposed to be before because we usually do it before the board meeting. We have in the past we've done it maybe the Monday one week before the board meeting. Is that right? So it's about 10 days before the board meeting. Does that seem like something that would make sense? And so obviously we had the board meeting today. So it'll be the February one. in March. So we just meet back in terms of not having many changing two meetings more than two. So we would have one in February, one in March about 10 days before Mr. >> We really don't know what the plan is for what kind of I think the first meeting is the governor's uh proposal is that this month or >> they
032usually get it this Saturday >> right after usually So would would it be too hard to try to put some something on the calendar after that before the end of the month uh so that you can have those initial discussions and then u aside from that meeting uh if you have room to fit two more on there I think I guess what I would do is just ask you all January 26 >> [clears throat] >> We have a proposal. negotiating two events. I was looking Are you thinking of just a half hour meeting or an hour meeting? >> Um, yeah, I'll see what I can do. The That's an hour. >> All right. Well, why don't why don't we do this? Why don't we say that tend to do that and then leave you all
033to settle that via an email just to confirm all of that. But that at least gets you a a start. Um and with that anything else on the discussion around the uh budget portion I'm just going to take a minute here and uh let our senior friends know that you can You don't have to. You can stick around. Don't feel like you have to. Everybody's topic, right? >> Nobody was gonna have anything to say. Um, all right. Great. We are going to move on to item D uh board discussion. Um, we started a discussion last month around uh the idea of uh filling or not filling uh MR's seat and the discussion around that based on our options. uh afforded us by state law um was to to look for an experienced person to uh
034to fill for the role. So uh in in conjunction uh with Mrs. Danu uh we uh have come up with a person who is uh very much willing to fill out the remainder of the term and that would be uh Judy Malice. Uh Judy left the board back in 2022 after having served uh nine years on the board and her she is very very much uh excited to come and come back and um fill out the rest of Miss Arbur's term. Um, so we have on our agenda item um, uh, to make that appointment later on, but I just wanted to give folks a chance to, um, ask any questions or add any, uh, any comments. We'll start down on this side, guys. >> Just for clarification, how long that she would remain in that
035seat? >> So, yeah. So the the uh it it um for sure she would be uh in that seat until the appointment would go until the next election which is in May. Um at that point in time, uh the top vote getter would be um would get not just the three-year term, but the six weeks essentially uh of the remaining portion of that. So her time would end there. Where it gets a little tricky is that we have two incumbents who uh are currently sitting on the board who uh if they choose to run and are one of the top vote getters, then it that situation doesn't apply to them uh because they already have a seat at the board and they're already going to be filling that. in which case we have the option
036to extend uh uh Malice's uh uh appointment by those six weeks. Um so essentially uh we don't know uh there are options and those options will become clearer to us as the uh as the months go on here. Uh so we can certainly continue to to discuss that. um as we know more. Um but um I think that um you know in the case that the uh first place vote get winner is not an incumbent uh that to continue to uh add on to the appointment to fill out the remainder of six weeks would be a reasonable thing to do. Um unless anyone had any questions about um I've talked it through the our legal counsel and we've continued to make sure that what we do is uh within the uh the [clears throat] options
037you were b experiencing job. >> Um and so along with that uh our committee assignments and having talked with some of you and uh talk with Mrs. in an effort to uh have her hit the ground running. Um as mentioned earlier, uh Ms. Arrest was on the budget and finance committee for which we had an alternate and Mr. Bowers was not and he will step on to the committee. Um Mrs. Bazel will be the new alternate. um the health and curriculum committee uh oh the policy committee she [snorts] will step on uh uh Alice will step on to the policy with standing uh and then the health and curriculum uh curriculum committee um is Mrs. alternate and you were or were you the Yeah. Yeah. So, so uh Jessica was the alternate you and so
038we could put uh Mos as the alternate or if one of you would like to come al and we'll have we can work that out when she's actually here on that specific one. I've already talked to her about the safety committee. She had previously served on the safety committee and uh she is going to take my role on the safety committee and I will be doing that which was uh this is yeah the other um full-time person. Um the only other thing is that you know she indicated that uh another committee that she had had served on uh for a while quite a while and would be uh happy to join again which would and that is the uh textbook uh and curriculum one and so I would uh I just want to let that
039you know um same thing that uh if you're looking she has experience and uh is going on so I think that uh is that um I know that uh once we do the appointment and once we get together to do the post of office pending approval scheduled for Anyone got anything else? So yeah, there will be a couple more to We're going to move on to item 13, the consensus agenda. Are there any board members who wish to have anything uh removed from the consensus items? Any would like to add it? I have a motion to approve the consensus agenda moved by M seconded by Mr. Discussion. All in favor suspensions. That's pass. According to page 114, uh, item 18, the superintendent recommends the board of education approve the adoption of the final corrected districtwide
040safety plan. The plan was presented at the Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 public hearing and public comment period was open until January 9th. A motion discussion. I agree. Uh it was really good comments come back our way. Uh all in favorions. Uh item B. May I have a motion uh to the resolution in the agenda to appoint Judy Malis as to fill out the remainder of Jessica's term. Uh we have a motion by Dr. discussion. I just want to, you know, again echo this sentence that we were at those before that uh really truly appreciate uh Mrs. Ben's willingness and eager willingness. She texted me on Christmas. Um so that is somebody who was ready. So um really can't wait to have you. Um, all in favorions. Do any board members have any new items before
041moving on to 20? I got an email saying there will be one and I have a date and time but it's it's scheduled to occur before our next curious suggestions. >> Yes. So, um just um yeah, so we talked a little bit about just giving some updates on some of the programs that we're working on processing. So, we've made some really good progress there with you. Um talked a little bit about goalsite and discussing what that looks like. Um and then there'll be some time for conversation topics that you're interested. So, if you have anything that you like to add to the agenda, please feel free to send your suggestions my way and I'll send it to you once it's done. Just have to keep in mind that it's a board development opportunity and not
042a meeting. So, we're not going to talk about anything that is pending or a decision has to be made by the board because that's appropriately session. So, Yeah, thank you Mr. We did talk about that um and uh we are going to put together something just to remind all of us of those u those and what it what it can and cannot be. Um, uh, our next regular schedu uh, is the workshops and conferences. I have a motion to conscious this is useful because we're done at 8:21. Um, very good. Um, but yeah, no, thank you all for being here and uh, thank you for the work you do. Um, you know, the work that's done here is very important and we appreciate every being here. Uh, all in favored extensions and that is