001Right. So, this is called to order for the Easter union free school district board of education meeting dated Wednesday, May 7th, 20125. Please 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. Thank you. Uh, may I have a motion to enter executive session to discuss contracts for 10 particular employees, contract negotiations with the EAA, contract negotiations with the EAFA, contract negotiations with the EACPA, matters relating to the possible discipline of two particular employees, matters protected by FURPA, the superintendent's evaluation, and matters relating to a particular corporation. Some moved. Moved by M. Stan. Second. Second. Second by Mr. Blauers. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed
002abstensions. And that's passed 5. We are headed to executive session. Great. So, uh we are uh returning from executive session. um where we discuss uh contract negotiations for 10 particular employees, contract negotiations with the EAA, contract negotiations with the EA FA, matters uh relating to possible uh discipline of two particular employees. Can I see that? That's my major concern. Um, two particular employees contact negotiations with the EA CSPA uh matters protected by FERPA the superintendent uh evaluation and matters relating to a particular corporation. Um, moving on. Uh so uh I don't need a motion. I'm just calling to order the I'm going to call to order the public hearing for the 202526 proposed school budget. Uh and we will start with the presentation. uh for the purp um here we are uh after several months
003some challenging um processes you know I think we've put together a budget that's uh good for the district good for our taxpayers and most importantly good for our students so here we go here's the agenda won't spend a lot of time on this but this is everything we'll be covering today um in in the presentation men values are driving our our decisions. You know, as we prepare programs uh and opportunities for our kids, we go back to the values and make sure that they're in alignment. And I would say that this uh this budget is aligning nicely um what we want to offer our students and our staff. So the proposed revenues uh you can see here um proposed revenues are are through our tax levy uh which is um we're proposing will be increased
004by about $920,000 or 3.39% and that is at the tax levy limit. Um also we uh look at sales tax and and projecting that it'll go up by about 41 a little over $41,000. Um we're a little concerned about that because of the nature of the economy right now. uh there is a little bit of instability, but what we did do uh is we got a good report from the controller that sales tax has come in strong and so like future quarters or at least in the next future quarter uh should should look pretty positive for us. Um appropriating reserves, we're going to um appropriate an additional $100,000 this year over what we did for 2425. Uh, and I'll talk about that a little bit later when we get to the reserve portion of the
005um of the of the presentation. And then the appropriated fund balance, we're suggesting to move it from 664,000 to uh 707,000. Again, that's to help us uh balance uh the budget. Uh so appropriations, um where where is it coming from? Where do we spend our money, excuse me? And that's primarily in salaries and fringe benefits. And you can see uh there's an increase of 261% in salaries and about 3.52% increase in infringe benefits. Uh we are also proposing to increase the uh equipment line by about $175,000 and that's related to a couple of things. One related to the facilities projects and items that we need to include uh to make sure that those those uh renovated spaces are properly outfitted. And then the other piece is that we just have equipment that's in need of
006replacement. So, we made a concerted effort. This is always a line that we kept putting off and putting off and then, you know, our trucks in disrepair, the salter isn't working and those kinds of things. So, we're trying to be a little bit more proactive and getting ahead of it. Um, but that's always an easy place to cut because it's kind of the last place that affects kids. But, we're kind of committed to doing this and I think it's important. Uh, let's see. Uh, Boseies, you can see about a $265,000 increase. And again, um, that's fairly significant. Again, that's related to both uh programs uh all kinds of contractual programs for our kids um related to special education, also technology and those types of things. And you can see too about a quarter of a
007million dollar increase in transportation. Uh and that's related to the increase in in first students costs. Uh the last year of our last contract, they were actually in red. Uh they said we lost money, you know, um managing your account this year. So when we came back to negotiations and we didn't have a choice, they came back significant increases. Um, but it's something that Miss George was planning for and so that quarter million increase has been uh been accounted for. Um, so the levy limit calculation again it's this stuff is pretty pretty uh pretty uh complicated and you can see for us and and one of the most important factors and I'll let Miss George talk about this a little bit too is our growth factor and that's one of the reasons instead of being
008at 2% it's always been above that because we've had some good growth throughout our community over the last several years. Um is there anything else? Um, and the other thing, I know I seem to harp on it, but it's an important piece, is trying to keep our capital exclusions from the prior year and the upcoming year, um, stable. Trying to keep those pretty close, those two numbers. Um if you look at the third line down in both columns the 1,558 and then the next column the 1819 and then you look down the 18119 compared to the 15 that's about the $250 3000,000 swing and you see that the cap is higher then because of that swing. And if you look in the next column from the prior year, it comes up the 1819. And then
009you look down, we're at 1987, which is a lot closer. And you see that the cap is a little bit less than it was the previous year. So capital planning is an important part with managing the tax levy calculation. Um, as debt is falling off of the budget, it would feel really good to say, "Oh, wow. the levy's going to go way down, but eventually we're going to have to have a capital project and then when that debt comes back on, it's going to look really, really high. So, if you manage it and keep these numbers similar by bringing on debt as debt is falling off, it really helps manage the calculation. Tax rates, I can go through the tax rates. uh at our last meeting I kind of gave a gave a presentation on
010how we figure out the tax rate how the levy becomes a tax rate. So the levy is the number in the budget a revenue number and that revenue number the 20 got to go back $28 million is then a portioned between our two our three townships where we levy taxes. Um, Aurora is the majority of where our households are and they receive the largest aortionment. Um, and as you notice, um, each taxing jurisdiction has a different rate per thousand of assessed value. And that's because of what the state deems the equalization rate. And the way that I explain that is, let's say a home in the town of Aurora is assessed at $100,000. And let's just say it's a ranch, threebedroom, two bathroom in Elma. A ranch with three bedrooms and two bathrooms may be
011assessed at $5,000. So the state goes through and assigns an equalization rate to each township. And that equalization rate is to make sure that people within our district are being taxed fairly. And in Elma, I use Elma because you see it's $400 per thousand. That's because their equalization rate is one of the lowest I have ever seen. It's at like 4% or might even be in the threes. Now, um the number that I like to look at per thousand um is the full market value rate. That's if you're assessed at 100,000 and we put a 50% um equalization rate on it, then your house is really 150,000 at the market value. Your or 200,000 at the market value redo math. And if you look at our rate per thousand once it's equalized, it has been
012slowly declining. And that's a direct relation and correlation to the taxbased growth factor that was on the previous slide. If you look back in 2020 2021, the total number of parcels between our three towns was 6,33. And then if you move over to 2425, you can see that our total parcels are 6,344. That means we picked up 41 more properties where the tax is spread out, the levy is spread out amongst. So our proposed budget, our current budget is $45,16,998. Uh the proposed increase is 1,774862. uh budget to budget that's an increase of just under 4% uh for a total of 46 million81,860. Uh capital outlay we do a capital outlay project which is approved at during the budget process. Uh this allows us to use $100,000 in one of the schools in any given
013year. Uh we've been working at the high school because a lot of repair and brick and uh we're in year number two. We'll be proposing year number three. And um talking with the architects the other day, we're hoping that one more year we'll be able to finish the entire building and sorry store. So our reserve plan again these are our savings accounts. You can see the number of reserves that we do have and how they're funded. uh and the actual line for uh June 30th of 2024. Uh if you look at EPAR, that's related to our obligations for those people who retire. Uh and so Miss George puts notes at the end. Uh do we want to fund this if we have leftover funds at the end of the year or do we want to
014use it as we move into 2026? Uh and there are some questions for a variety of of different reserves. Uh you can see ERS and TRS help us to to cover some of the expenses related to the retirement system um expenses that we have each year. Uh the the capital reserve are used for our capital projects. So it was zeroed out a few years ago because we used we used the money that was in the capital reserve to finance this last facilities project. And so now we've been building that up over the last couple of years as well. Uh and then the technology reserve is one that we're we're proposing to use for this year and that's one of the more restricted reserves. So we have to go out for a vote and I'll show
015you that in just a second. Uh we have to go out for a vote uh when we establish the reserve and then we also have to go out for a vote when we want to use the monies. So here's the propositions and what it'll look like on on voting day. First one is for the budget itself of $46,81,60. And then proposition number two is for the expenditure out of the technology reserve. This year we're talking about expending uh up to $75,000 and that's primarily to what happens if the budget doesn't pass. We have a revote on June 17th. Um that is unsuccessful. we have to go to a contingency budget. That contingency budget for us would be we would need to reduce the budget by $856,475. And Miss George just provides one possible scenario. Uh
016that would be um equivalent to the layoff of five full-time equivalents and that could be administrators, teachers or support staff or a combination of all of those. We would have no equipment purchases. We would have to reduce athletics and co-curriculars. we wouldn't be able to do the capital outlay project. Uh various contractual obligations we would have to pull back from and then we would also have to reduce materials and supplies. That's just one area. That's just one possible scenario that we would need to do to make that $356,000. So here's our budget development calendar and we're at the end. Yay. Um so it starts way back in December, right? So we have a lot of meetings, lots of discussions. We have the budget finance committee that meets throughout the process as well. Um so there's
017a lot of time and attention that goes into this especially this year because we didn't have that nearly $1 million to go around. And so we've been working on that um pretty much every day. And so that looks like you know through attrition we're going to be able to save some of that money um because we've had a number of retirements on the civil service side as well as on the teaching side. Um so through attrition we'll be not filling all of those positions. We may be reducing some of the new hire positions. We're still working through that based on enrollment, but we'll be able to save a few dollars there as well. That's possible. Also looking at savings in technology uh and savings in other areas um throughout the district uh to make up
018that $1 million budget. But we're making good progress. I appreciate the administrator's uh efforts uh because it's difficult, right? There's a lot of good things at play, some co-curricular and extracurricular activities. uh but the principles and directors will be making those determinations as we see um enrollments in clubs and activities and so that'll be happening over the next several weeks even months quite honestly that's it just um any questions questions for Yeah, I'll move that. Okay, we'll have we have a fourth comment section after community comments. Um, all right. We're going to move on to item uh C, which is community comments. Uh, and we have uh one card. Welcome back, Mrs. Horn. Travel's got the best of me. Just have a uh a few uh budget questions on three topics. As I stated, budget
019savings, professional development costs, and substitute costs. Uh what if any cost-saving initiatives, cuts, or new efficiencies does the district plan to pursue in the 2526 budget? In particular, the district is projected to spend 115,000 next year on legal cost. One recent lawsuit concerning discipline of a middle school student for stating there are two genders is an example of legal fees and potential settlement costs that could be prevented. How will lowering these unnecessary costs be addressed in the budget? Secondly, uh the budget line for inservice is up nearly 10% in this proposed budget. Uh I'm curious is what is driving such a large increase? Did the board receive an annual report on the costs for each professional development initiative including consultant fees? Consultant fees are costly. For example, due to the bullying issues at the middle
020school, the two recent presentations by a consultant on racial racial discrimination cost taxpayer tax taxpayers $3,700. Also, um are the costly precoid trips to Disney for administrators on Veos and Visions still continuing? Uh regarding the substitute expenses, especially for teachers, is costly. The district projects it will spend 205,000 next year. Uh what efforts will be taken to reduce these costs? For example, the board has been privately discussing the potential discipline of three to tonight uh professional employees since March 19th. Uh once professionals are placed on paid administrative leave, substitutes must be hired as replacements while the employees are provided. Start that over. Once professionals are placed on paid administrative leave, substitutes must be hired as replacements while the employees are provided full pay and benefits. The process of considering discipline by boards is required to
021be prompt. The longer the board continues to deliberate, the more costly it is to taxpayers. Uh I believe this is week seven of the board deliberating in executive session. That's all I have. Thank you this morning. We're going to move on to the board members comments. I'll start down on this side. I don't have anything for all the hard work is challenging. Thank you for your work. Um, yes, that's one of the things I'm hearing is that it's challenging. We appreciate that. Um, I just want to thank the League of Women Voters and everyone who came out on Monday to the meeting candidates night. There was myself and this is this is just this is just on the public. Yes. Sorry. My bad. Yeah. So, going back to the fin and so actually just going
022back to that part, um Mrs. George and I the tech department had us um do a little bit of informationational community what is the community asking about the the or not asking but just how to break down the the information for the budget. So, we did a podcast today and that is on um BBTV if you're would like to check out 12 minutes of fun. That's 12 minutes of fun. I just wanted to also say thank you to um budget finance committee, administrators, superintendent, business office. Um having to put a budget together with not having a state budget is extremely difficult and very frustrating. Um so thank you for everything you did to make that happen. Thanks. Yeah, the budget every year is just straightforward. Salaries, fringe benefits, and capital costs are the budget and
023those numbers are filled in and some of your other areas. As you can see, the contractual part of the tuition been posted add to the budget. So, there's nothing in the budget except some excess appropriation. I'm sure to cover some some contingency items that may occur. Budget is solid. I know we spent a lot of time talking about those areas set coming in part of it. I have nothing other than just the obvious what I just Thank you. Well, I would like to also express my appreciation to the staff for uh for being very attentive to uh being making frugal measures measures to close this gap that that occurred. and and seems to be that this budget contains u a very lean approach to almost all the categories uh of the budget the staffing and
024uh whatever we can control in the other areas. So, you know, it was not easy to close a gap that large and uh I I think uh that you've done a terrific job in making that happen and presenting a balance budget to the community that the entire board voted in favor of supporting. Um I also would echo my appreciation to everyone working on the budget, preparing this budget. It has been very challenging and I just find it very discouraging that the state we are required to come forward with a budget and we still do not have the budget from the state and it's been I think a couple of years since this has happened but it makes it particularly challenging as we go forward to have to do this and you know we're required to
025do this and I just feel like the state should have their budget together for for us. Um and I would say that this is a very thoughtful budget. It was challenging, but it takes into account our students and also our community and being cognizant of the challenges that that people are facing in this environment. So, um, thank you to everyone. I think we've all said it all and I'm just going to leave it at that. Thank you. Um, we'll move on to [Music] uh item E. May I have a motion to adjourn the public hearing? second. Second second by Zarbrust discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstensions. And that's pass 70. We're on to item five. Uh, agenda changes. Any agenda changes? No agenda changes. I'll trade you. I am. We're on to item six. Uh
026community member comments. Uh one card and welcome back. You're up again. Oh, this one's this one's real thing. being away. Um it's difficult to keep up with things and um the taxpaying public deserves open and transparent communication during the budget process especially and of course year round. Yet the posting of the video stream recordings of recent board meetings that included a budget discussions has been a repeated problem. Um, March 19th board meeting video was posted 9 days late after the board clerk was contacted and intervened. Uh, the April 2nd board meeting, which was a really important one, um, video had no audio. It was useless, you know, to the taxpayers. Um, we count on that when we we can't attend. And so going forward, hopefully this is going to and also the April 22nd board
027meeting still hasn't been posted. It's been 15 days since the meeting. So hope we can do better in the future. Thank you. Item seven, superintendent comments. Um yeah, just once again this year we were we received the uh national insurance group honors level uh school safety excellence award. Uh the honor presented annually recognizing uh districts outstanding safety efforts to create a safe environment for students, staff and visitors. And as direct as an as a direct result of our diligence and adherence to safety principles, on March 27th, the district received a commemorative plaque and a check for $500 to use as reimbursement for um anything connected to our school safety plan. So, we're we're we're grateful for that. back up really quick and I I didn't acknowledge the emails that we received uh since the last
028meeting. Um so uh just for the sake of board members to confirm that you got and had a chance to read all of these. Uh Andrew uh Petrick uh emailed us about the UPK weight list update. Uh Leslie Carlson about to meet the candidates night. Kim Gra about it was a thank you uh my post. Um Mr. Manrey invited us to the corporate challenge. Great. And um Mr. Petronix uh sent us a follow-up email on the EUPK weight list. Uh did everyone get those have a chance to? Yes. Thank you very much. Uh we're going to move on to um item 8 uh administrator comments. Are there any administrators who have anything to share? I guess I'll start outside of a nice semi. Um, otherwise spring sports are up and going and reschedules and I
029will say Chris Heman in my office has done a very admiral job with the construction project going limited fields and us having to move games every which way because of weather and still getting games in. Um, girls lacrosse is currently playing a game for probably won't be the number one seed for playoffs as we speak. Um, but the turf and stacking and the appreciation of coaches and the support around I think has been great. have even even the parents in the community um and how they've supported understanding how fluid this season is for a variety of reasons. Um we also had our first meeting for um our student our student athlete handbook. We have kind of some ideas. We had a framework there. We got some ideas from that committee that's going to go out
030to our coaches for feedback. Bring it back to that committee before hopefully by July having it through our lawyers and back to the board. um as that is as that idea is continuing to progress. So that's where we are with that. So there's why don't that. Thanks Nathan. Anyone else? Um yeah, I just want to give um a big thank you to Parkdale PTO. Um they've assisted um Miss Pantoa and myself with um putting on a wonderful teacher appreciation week this week. Um tomorrow's probably our favorite day of the week where the PTO hosts their big lunchon. Um so just very big thank you to them. Um, and we're super excited for this Friday. It's our PTO fundraiser, a fun run. Um, it used to be the obstacle course that was hosted in the back
031of Parkdale, but they've revamped it a little bit and they've moved it to the block um that our Halloween parade usually um marches on and they've included bubbles and sprinklers and music. Um, so we're really excited to be able to invite the community to spectate um that. So, if you're around Friday morning, um it starts around 9:05 with our UPK kiddos walking through the little fun run. Um and then our older kids will be passing through a little bit later on. So, um feel free to stop by on either West Filmore, Hamlin, or Parkdale, um to cheer on the kiddos. Um and we're super excited for it. It's a great fundraiser for our PTO. Thank you, Mrs. Parker. Anyone else? Going once. Excellent. Thank you all very much. Uh we are moving on to item
032nine, board president and uh board members comments. Uh I'm going to again use this opportunity to BTV. If you're not subscribed on YouTube, subscribe, sign up for notifications. you'll get notifications like I did this afternoon uh about the uh the budget uh conversation uh which was uh got halfway through it. Yeah. Oh yeah yeah yeah for sure. Uh but uh but yeah BDTV sign up be a fan. Um uh since the last meeting I attended the uh uh East Road Educational Foundation uh uh distinguished alumni breakfast which was fantastic. Uh five fantastic inductees uh hearing their stories and getting to hear directly from them as well was great. And uh my understanding was that they had a a fantastic trip to the high school afterwards. Um the uh not long after that uh attended the
033uh Western New York Educational Services Council awards uh at which um Superintendent Russ was uh presented with one of the distinct leaders of the year awards uh that his entire uh leadership team nominated him for. So across of all of Western New York, he was the only uh he was the superintendent that was selected for that. It was a great honor and it was a great night as well. Lots of again lots of great uh uh stories about hearing about the the good that is being done across multiple districts. Uh but uh cong certainly congratulations to us. Um delegate assembly for Erie County Association of School Boards. Um uh coming away from that uh we approved the the uh the uh calendar uh the list of events uh has been sent out to us. Uh
034I want to point out that uh from a committee standpoint there are a couple committees that they pointed out that they are going to be looking for new members uh coming up and that was the awards committee and the nominations committee. deal details on the both of those were in last Friday's uh update from uh Mr. Lowry. Um and then the only other thing was the uh the round robin. Um lots of discussion about uh the student board members. Um it uh many of the the districts uh talked about that including myself. Um and we prompted further discussion and um it sounds like uh there's a lot of different approaches to it, but uh much like us um districts who haven't had that in place are putting something in place with the acknowledgement that it
035may not be perfect the first year and they're open to uh you know working on it to continue to uh to make it uh better and better. Um so uh so yeah uh couple of of notable things that uh I heard from uh uh in Ron Robin I think it was Erie Wooseies who is going through to summarize their 90page code of conduct uh and they're using AI uh to assist them in that to put together something that is actually digestible. Um and I thought that was kind of cool. Uh, I think that was uh Linda uh Hoffman and uh I thought that was pretty cool. Um and then uh really mentioned that they have um during school days uh they have a student forum uh that uh board members participate in with the uh
036with the students which uh which was which was interest an interesting concept something that um might be interesting for us to um to that point and to my point about the um the uh student board member uh yesterday just Yesterday morning, I went up to the high school and spoke to uh the student government and uh informed gave them information about the uh the student board member and our policy and the expectations and all of that. And that was great. And then I recorded uh for Blue Blue Devil Television a uh a quick interview uh providing that same information. When will we know who they select? So their vote is uh Mr. Heisner said that it will be end of May, beginning of June. Um so we should know by December. I'm just kidding. Uh
037we'll know in June. Um moving on. I've got more here. Sorry. Uh it's been a busy two weeks. Um community engagement uh committee met right here uh not long ago. Uh and that was uh I thought that was a great conversation. um got a budget presentation for the members of the community who were part of that and then um also got to provide updates, hear updates from the uh administrators and uh the board and then hear from uh some of the communities and it was it was a really good discussion. I attended a candidates forum that I'm not going to uh uh spoil the fun about, but it was excellent and I think we're for very fortunate. Uh I'll leave it at that. Um, and that's it. Nothing else. Uh, I would just say thank
038you again to the League of Women Voters for hosting the candidates forum. I think that's a wonderful opportunity for the community to hear from. Okay. Um yes, backing on that, thank you to the League of Women Voters and anybody who came and if you are interested that is also on um BDTV and you can watch myself and three other amazing candidates that were super we had a really excellent time talking um and just learning about each other and answering the community questions. Um yes, I also attended the community engagement and the only thing I'll add is this is now our third time at the meeting and I think This is the time that everybody was like, "Yes, how now we're gonna how can I help you? How can you help me? How?" And it was
039before it was like, you know, separate entities, but you know, oh, I'll support you. And this ended with much more of a okay, let's let's find ways next time that we can actually how you know that we're going to really engage with each other on another level. And I just I left just thinking that great. we we got to that point. Um yes, and I also attended the athletic advisory committee with Mrs. Stanu. Um and it was excellent having Mrs. Stanu there because she written much of the policy which was already on our website. But so we were able to reference back to that and understand um Mr. Lara helped us understand that it is you know a handbook. So we and the students there also talked about what they would be willing to read
040and not read and and things like that. So I thought it was an excellent discussion. Um and then today we did the podcast. Um and I do want to say Mrs. George reminded us on the podcast that our all of our budget presentations um beginning in December with the Yeah. beginning in December are on the website. So, um, she reminded us all that they're all on the website, each presentation, and then as well as the most recent presentation. So, anyone in the community can access the progress that that we went through as well as the final one that was approved. That's it. I just uh I'm going to wait until we do the cap facilities um [Music] discussion flowers. Just want to thank you for all of your efforts on behalf of the board. That's
041very important. You represent the board very well and the entire district. That's all I have. Thanks Mr. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, I also attended the Western New York Education Service Council banquet and had my congratulations to Superintendent Russ and it was great to see table packed with your colleagues uh who came to support you and uh the uh and I I attended distinguished alumni breakfast Uh uh we had a reception the night before for the uh for the the nominees who were selected to to represent the graduates of our school over the years. And we do this every year and I'm always uh amazed at at the careers of the impact that our graduates have on not just our community but on the world. And you know, one of one of our
042uh uh awardees this year flew in from Japan for this event, you know, so it it and I had a conversation with a couple of the the graduates who I one of whom I knew from years ago, but had been away for quite some time and he was very enthusiastic about finding ways that he can support the schools even though he no longer lives here, you know. So that was that was terrific. So, so I think what we're doing is we're we're keeping connections with folks who who want to help East Aurora students in memory of all the good work that they did when they were here and and a good start in life that they received. So, it's well worth doing. Uh and along those lines, we had a meeting of the uh of
043the uh board of directors of the foundation last night and another grant was approved uh a very large grant for the high school for a piece of technology equipment uh for Mr. Austin Dodge. He he made a presentation, but it affects all of the technology uh classes at high school and we'll tell you more about it when it gets on the agenda uh next time. Uh, but I I just couldn't keep quiet about the I mean, it's been announced. I sent out an email about it. So, it's it's no secret, but it's it's just great that the foundation continues to provide large grants in areas that the school district frankly cannot afford. and it saves the taxpayers money and it provides the the children with uh with facilities to do things that they would not
044otherwise be able to do. So, congratulations to Mr. Dodge and you'll hear more about that. I'll just comment to say thank you again to the foundation. Um and they approached me about um this new um like CNC lathe for woodworking um but it was just too expensive. We couldn't afford it. So I always say to the foundation they they will be willing to support the projects and they've been incredibly gracious and generous to us and um again this this this m piece of machinery will allow them my understanding is to make furniture and so it's all kinds of stuff that's got capacity. I used to teach woodworking and this this boggles the mind what what can happen when what my days were saws and chisels and hammers and I like doing that. Sure. But now
045it's you need to be on a computer and then once you tell the computer what to do out comes furniture. So yeah, that's great or other things. I'm going to ask them to come and show some of the projects. He made a good presentation and it showed pictures of some of the and they're going to the first thing they're going to make is a sign acknowledging the contributions to the sustainable agriculture program. So it'll have tentacles all around them. Yeah. And um I was there and and this is like the beginning of this the two two students working on creating a table that was kind of wood that has been sanded and smooth and filled with like the table is absolutely beautiful and u that's the kind of work they're doing with this machine wall
046out and um and produce some really amazing things. So, I'm going to have them come and just show you uh because some of the stuff they're doing is really really impressive. That's great. Will that will this be for the next school year? Yes, it's the the the machine is is manufactured in New York State and is currently available. They'll ship it as soon as they get the the purchase order. So, it should be here in a few weeks. Yeah. Thank you, Danny. I'm just following up on everyone else, but I did it was wonderful attending the League of Women Voters the um candidates forum and you know we had wonderful candidates. It was so interesting listening to the questions and the responses and um very appreciative for the people you know running and and stepping
047forward to run for the board. Um and then also thank you to Mr. Lombardo for guiding us in our code of conduct, the athletic advisory committee as we work on this code of conduct and um just a little I didn't write the policy. I worked with I I meant to say a lot of work you have very intimate knowledge policy what I meant to say. Sorry. So in any event, um just a little clarification. Um so but that was very yes it was very um helpful and very helpful to have the students there. I thought that was a great um you know addition to that. So thank you. That's it. Great. Thank you very much. We are on to item 10 legislation. Any legislation I have a comment about? Yes, please appropriate at this time.
048Uh the budget's going to be passed soon. uh and when it passes, we're we're all concerned about what the dollars are going to be and how it might affect programs like UPK or others. But also in that budget are a lot of policy issues that have been resolved and they're going to require some work on our part. So, so I I think the district should begin thinking about, and you probably already have, about how you will plan for the the banning of cell phones, the implementation of universal breakfast and lunch programs, and the several other things that are magically in that budget that might not even know are there. So, so there is a legislative movement this week which affects us significantly and and we just need to be right on top of it. Yeah,
049I couldn't agree more. All right. Um before I move on, hey Lou, you're good to go. You requirement. Thanks for being here. It was nice seeing you. Thank you, Mr. Gy. All right. We are moving on to item 11. Uh reports and discussion items. Uh do we have the business office operations finance versus? Yes. Um our reports tonight are as of the end of March in our general fund, we had approximately $19 million which ties to our cash flow. Our cash flow looks very good for sustaining us through the summer. Um, we had expended about 62% of our budget and as I'm tracking our budget, it appears we'll be spending approximately 98.5% of our budget. Could go up a little, could go down a little. Um, and we had received approximately 91% of our revenues.
050And again, we're tracking to receive about 101% of our revenues again in the cafeteria fund. um expenditures are exceeding revenues. I dug into this a little bit more. The majority of this is the spending down of fund balance from when we were delivering meals during CO that was a direct result of an audit from um the state regarding child nutrition. So, we were able to update um things in our kitchens. I think this tied to um the new line in the middle school serving line. Our federal funds um as of the end of March, we spent a little over a million dollars and we have received um about three4ers of a million dollars um which is very typical. And in our capital fund, um expenditures are chugging right along for um the capital project, we've
051expended about 4.8 million on phase two of the capital project in the followup from phase one. and our capital outlay, we've still only expended about $8,300, but at our OACM meeting, um we did get word that they're starting hopefully this weekend by Friday, repointing the brick and then we'll start seeing some of those expenditures happen. That's all I have. Thank you so much. Item B, the capital project. Okay. Okay. So, on the capital outlay, as M. George said, masonry is planning to start making work. Uh they've been delayed because of the bad weather, but they're hoping to also um work on it this Saturday and uh expected to finish this month. So that's we're hopeful that the weather's going to improve. Uh the capital project um at the high school site work is going well
052even with the poor weather. Contractors are actually ahead of schedule slightly, which is good news. That just that doesn't happen very often. Majority of the submitts have been approved, including color selections for the field and the accessories. Um on the board agenda is the contract for U uh UNS services uh start for the PA system upgrades in the middle school. Uh that is going to be completed as part of the work this summer. BCC and the contractors have advised that the schedule will require this work to extend into the fall. I was hoping it would get done this summer um but it just uh not possible unfortunately. Um uh and he says everyone will see real progress with stone and drainage in the coming days. So that's that's good news. They're making really nice progress
053especially it's supposed to be um we free so that'll really allow them to get ahead of things. Camp project at the middle school uh young and right and BCC will be working in May to develop a schedule for construction of the middle school work. The plan is to bid the work out and open bids in September. uh which could allow work to start over the winter and we're hoping that maybe we can actually start it in January so we can get ahead of it on this space and also the uh family and consumer science space. So um that would allow us to have it ready for September of 26. So that that's also good news. Um and then Young and Wright uh and BCC will bring the proposed alternates to the O OACM meeting in
054June for a district approval and agreement. That's legit. I just want to add a couple more things. Um the power panels up at the high school, if you've not been up to the high schools recently and seen what it looks like, you have to go up there. The mound of dirt, I mean, they're really moving fast up there. Um or at least it's appears moving fast. Um the power panels, they will not be installed until October. So until October, until they're installed, there will be no power. But they do plan on um playing on the tennis courts for the fall. um the fall season, which is great news. And the turf, right? And the um other thing I wanted to mention was that um right now we are projected to be a little under budget
055from phase 2A, as they were calling the high school. Um so hopefully we will have some additional money left over. Um we're hoping around 100,000 could be higher. Um, and we won't know that again until that um until we're all done. But right now, we're hoping to have some money left over for our middle school contingency budget, which would be great to alleviate some of our concerns, Dan, that there's not enough money to complete the middle school. Um, so that was very good news. Um and the only other thing I wanted to mention is that um even though we're still in the still in the middle of this capital facilities project, we have to complete as you know every five years of building condition survey and we have to do it within the 2026 calendar
056year. So we'll be doing that toward the end of 20 we have to have done by December 31st of 2026. So we'll be doing that next year. Um so just keep that in the back of your mind. That is something that um even though we're still in the capital project now, we are going to have to start the process all over again and it'll start next year. Thanks. Thank you. Uh we'll start on this end. Any uh any questions just touched on library 26? Yeah. start like in January. Um we're going to start in January 26 uh in this space and the family consumer science space so that it's ready for September of 2026. Dr. Any questions on the capital? This is sort of related, but did going back to the legislation, where are we
057in terms of the 250,000? That is just not there, right? That's not going to happen this year. We haven't heard any. Yeah. So, they were considering it at one point, but that hasn't been part of the conversations conversations about cell phones, universal feeding, right? Um, yeah. So like um UPK. So we're hoping that there'll be some positive news for UPK, but we haven't heard about the 250. Okay. Every year because it's so expensive, everything is so expensive that $100,000 is gone. Well, but you have to budget for whatever you So you know, if we have 100,000,000 in the budget for this, so the you'd have to put 250,000 or you'd have to take money from reserves to do it. the the uh the good thing the community should be aware of is that that money
058is returned at the uh state aid rate for uh for building projects the next year, right? So you spend it this year and you get it next year. And so that becomes a revenue stream, which is why you want to do everyone every year because then you can count on about $60,000 a year of additional revenue that comes in year after year after year. So you're getting $100,000 worth of work done for about $40,000 a year. It's it's a no-brainer. Just a point of clarification, this is the capital outlay capital that we're talking about that have been at $100,000 for who knows how long, no matter how much costs have escalated. You can't spend more than if you spend a dollar more than that, they won't give you any aid on it. So no, I
059know I was kind of going back. Well, that's why he's saying this is sort of related, but it's going back legislation to what we were talking about. That's why it's taken us three years, four years to complete the high school masonry work. Yeah. So, you can whittle away at it. It's like your home. You do a little maintenance every year and then you don't have to do the big things. Yeah. Yeah. To your point, every year it's mentioned that it's going to be 250 and then it just goes gets lost in. Yeah. I mean, I hadn't heard anything more about it. I know we're talking about the different capital project, but I just it reminded me of that. since we talked about we get it'd be great if they went up to 250. We get
060that whole news and they were done. Yeah. They did send out updates as of 6:38 p.m. stating that they'll send in within the next within days within the days to come. So they give us the actual details so they have a little more information but not a ton. I'll respond in All right. Uh, Mr. Brunson, I I'm I'm working my way around the I think I already Can I have Dan off topic? Let's You can have Dan's turn. Yeah, sure. You got a question in my mind came up. We're talking about the budget. We're talking about what happened. The capital outlay project was listed on something that could be could have that year. Unless it legally forbids us from doing it, that would not be a thing to cut out the capital outlay because the
061revenues continue on. You get a benefit for if you pull that out, you get a revenue benefit for one year, but then you Good point. Is it is it a contingent expense? Um I don't So it is a Yes, because it's part of um you have to have voter approval as part of the budget in order to do that work just like you have to have voter approval to do any capital work. So it's not an ordinary contingency, right? So it has to be pulled out if we go to a contingent budget. Correct. Sorry. I just want to thank you. Um All right. Great. So we are going to move on to item 12 items. Are there any board members who wish to uh remove uh withdraw any specific items from the consent agenda? Hearing
062none. Uh are there any board members who wish to add anything? Also not may I have a motion to approve the uh consensus agenda moved by Mrs. Danu second by Dr. Proa. Any discussion? Uh all in favor? Opposed abstensions 70 and we are item 17. A superintendent recommends that the board of education nominate David Lowry to be a candidate for the position of one director for a 2-year term beginning in January 1, 2026. May I have a motion? So moved by Mumbra, second by Mr. Blauers. Discussion. All in favor? Extensions or opposed? Extensions. That's passed 70. You're on to item 17A. Uh the superintendent recommends that the board of education adopt the resolution below uh regarding uh compensation for an impartial hearing officer. May I have a motion? So moved by second second by Dr.
063Discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstensions. That's pass 70. Item B, superintendent recommends the board of education accept the resolution detailed below to authorize the issuance of serial bonds. May I have a motion? Some moved. Moved by Mrs. Oil or second. Second. Second by Miss Arbrust. Discussion. All in favor? I opposed abstensions and that is passed 70. Item C. Superintendent recommends the board of education approve the following resolution regarding bids for the capital improvements project 2022 phase 2 contract uh being clocks. I have a motion. So moved. Moved by Mr. Soil or second. Second. Second by Dr. Aroa. Discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstensions. That's pass 70. We are moving on to item 19 A. Uh the superintendent uh recommends the board of education accept the reg resignation for purpose of retirement of 1.0 kindergarten teacher
064Jamie Martin effective June [Music] 30th second discussion I think that changed July 1st uh all in favor I opposed abstensions S that's passed 70. We are on item B. Superintendent recommends the board of education accept designation for purpose of retirement 1.0 language other than English teacher Jeff Mackey. Jeffrey Mackey. May I have a motion? Moved by Mr. Blowers, second by Dr. Discussion. also 28 years. It's amazing. I'd just like to take a second to congratulate both of them and um yeah, they both had a very distinguished careers school district and um they'll be missed but happy for them as they as they enter retirement and we'll celebrate with them in June. So uh all in favor I opposed. Not that wasn't for the cupcakes by um opposed abstensions. That's 70. Uh item 20. Uh, do
065any board members have anything new to come before the board? Hearing none, we're on to 21 items for information. We have our next regularly scheduled board meeting on Tuesday, May 20th. That is also the day of the budget and school board uh budget vote for school board elections. Um item B, we have upcoming meetings and workshops listed and we are moving on to item 22. May I have a motion to adjourn. So yeah, I was just gonna the only thing I was going to add to our items of information because I know in the past we've tried to attend as a group is in August we had the board of the law conference and I think it's I think it's August 6th but in case people wanted to put it on their on their calendar.
066I think it's the local. Yeah. And and we sometimes try. So, I just wanted to throw it out there because they didn't see it now. Yeah. Thank you. Just don't want to forget to tell someone. Um I'm taking motions to so moved by Mrs. Danny. A second. Second. Second by Dr. Discussion. I just want to thank our sparse crowd for being here tonight. Uh this is unusual uh based on recent meetings. uh and thank uh the administration and uh for all the work that goes into this uh it's important work and it's much appreciated. May uh all in favor opposed extensions that's pass 17.