Board of Education Meeting March 19, 2025

001yeah all right uh this is the call to order for the uh East Aurora Union Free School District Board of Education meeting Wednesday March 19th 2025 please join me in the pledge to reply flag United States of America to The Republic which it stand Nation with liberty and justice thank you I may have a motion to except uh enter executive session uh to discuss matters relating to the possible promotion of five particular employees matters relating to the possible dis discipline of two particular employees and matters protected by per by m Dan second second second by m blowers any discussion all in favor I opposed exensions that's pass 5 thank you uh and we ladies and gentlemen uh welcome uh we are returning from executive session discuss matters relating to the possible promotion of five employees

002uh matters relating to the possible employes and matters protected by F uh we are moving on with our agenda items uh item four do we have any agenda changes [Music] and on to community comments [Music] I need this sorry [Music] at the end um right okay um so I just want to remind folks of the uh the the Community member comments um is uh is the opportunity for community members to address the board uh the comment section is not uh intended to be a a discussion with the board but uh the board uh will listen to the remarks and uh and may not directly respond uh to the speaker each speaker is given three minutes um um and uh we ask that uh you come up and join us here at the table if you

003have anything to give to us there's a bin for you to share that in and um just want re read specifically the last point that uh individuals who participate in visit visitor comments uh must conduct themselves in respectful manner shouting outbursts and use of obene language or any other conduct that interferes with the meeting will not be permitted in the unlikely event the board become the the meeting becomes unruly the board will recess the meeting and return once order has been restored and that um unruliness is also with regards to the audiences so uh starting with our community comments we have uh Cecilia hi oh dear hi um I wanted to say thank you for the detailed email about addressing the racism in our school uh I was relieved when two weeks ago Mr Russ

004when you first addressed the community that you specifically stated that you were looking for structural change to address these issues because I I think that is critical to the success of any initiatives uh the district is looking to implement I also appreciate in your email you spoke about holding students accountable according to our district policies before we can move towards healing students must have consequences for their actions and relieve with the dist toing action so that students know that hate speech racism and harassment will not be tolerated students must learn that this is not acceptable in our school or our community moving forward My Hope Is that the training for teachers mentioned in the email is followed through on not just for next year but for multiple years and is part of all teaching development

005days moving forward because understanding how to properly facilitate the restorative practices is so critical to the success of those restored practices I also really appreciate uh that at the end of the email you proactively included that you will be soliciting feedback and conducting ongoing assessment of those misses that will be really really helpful for the success of everyone in the district so that all of our students and our staff and our admin can have a safe environment to learn and teach than moving on to the next uh commenter which is good evening my name is Amanda Jetty and I am an EAS War Community member who is who also has children who attend the Easter War School District including the middle school I was encouraged by the email Mr Russ recently sent out regarding the

006school involvement and the statement that RIS have no place in our school the district update included a segment on community engagement and the need to build the network of support we look forward to the district's transparency accountability and the need for a collective action a group of community members have come together to represent the EAS or Community to show that eora stands Against Racism we are assembling as a community to show public solidarity for all the kids struggling through this difficult time we want the children to know that we love and support them we are also assembling to show all the students at the EAS middle middle school that the adults around them are willing to show up and stand up for what right and the students can stand up for what's right too we

007encourage every east War Middle School student to be an upstander to Stand Up Against Racism even when it's scary and they fear backlash the Easter or Comm Community will be doing a peaceful Pro session we will be starting at Hamlin Park we want to and we are doing this to support all the students no matter in their no matter their involvement direct or indirect in this incident we want to unite them to work together to heal the Easter War Community will be doing this peaceful procession starting at Hamlin Park at 1:30 on Friday 3:21 and proceed towards the middle school we will be ending it across the street from the middle middle school and the green space that's by Rosies and the roycraft we want to do this to limit any disruption and to ensure

008safety of all the kids the Middle School anybody who resides in EAS aora should come out and show our children that that their Community is safe welcoming and racism will not be tolerated by any of us thank you thank you very much our last part is David o'ri good evening The Village pass through the school so I just wanted to respond give you some feedback email out super um obviously there weren't a lot of specifics in it but it did uh indicate some sweeping actions following it um and my concern is simply uh implicit in the response of the school board in the district um it's implicit not explicit but implicitly implies uh you know Collective action um when it's coupled with uh imp planting in children the idea of collective guilt is something that

009uh I would be very concerned about and uh I don't know the specifics of what individuals are involved or what what the incidents actually were but I'm confident in the school board I know some of you and I certainly know the reputation that uh if there were code of conduct violations and that you've adjudicated they were done properly and that the matter is settled it's what happens after the fact um and how it is presented and I would remind um everyone that one of the purposes of scandle is separate individuals from their principles defend uh remove their defenses and get access to what it is that they protect now what you protect is our children and our faculty and those people are not hostages and they are not prisoners and whatever actors are moving around

010in the background um what I would ask the board is to consider um one of the things we expect you to do is guard against you one of the things that you Cony whatever your reaction to this is is confidence or lack of confidence and if it's really true that our children and our faculty have somehow failed collectively to understand the dangers of uh racism it's truly a collective failure well who's in charge and who has been in charge and whose fault is it if we're looking to assign fault and maybe we're not but um the point is is that you know children are innocent and they're in the charge of their parents and then in local parenes uh our teachers and our administrators are in charge and um uh my concern is that this

011uh response of the board uh appears to overreach in so far as it really suggests the implantation in children that maybe there's some kind of collective guilt for something and that's that's just not American and I think the board should consider its response in the light of you know the American principles that are embedded in the foundational documents of the school district it's curriculum it's online you could find you know what the school district says about the consti so any rate uh I hope that the board will consider my comments thank you thank you um second here just to review the emails that we've received since the um last meeting on March 5th uh we received an email from uh Sean Kim with regards to middle school bullying uh suzan plon uh with regards to

012uh Title Nine concerns uh Kelly cyol uh regarding participation in government yes uh Mr Man Bry uh save the date for the Corporate Challenge no thank you another one from Mr M which was an invite to last Friday's Wellness um from our clerk Miss Missy uh for the nisba convention RSVP we received one from Aaron and Aaron uh naan with regards to Middle School issues we receiv one from Len Z regarding school budget uh School District budget vote um did you all receive those and have a chance to review them yes um I want to thank all of our uh commenters tonight as those who have reached us reached out to us Emil um we encourage Community to reach out to us and uh share their perspective with us uh no matter what times we're

013in right um it's it's it's certainly in in this time helpful for us to hear all of your uh uh thoughts and uh we certainly do appreciate it um we are going move on to item six which is the superintendent com yes I would like to uh um president kessie said just thank you for being here and thank you for sharing your thoughts I've received a number of emails and phone calls um uh just about you know people going through this process in dealing with it it's been a difficult couple of weeks and and as I said at the last speaking you know we have come to to know that some really serious issues are coming around um racial issues and and racism and inappropriateness and and and language that is is is in many

014ways degrading um and and we're working through that process to to to correct it and and so we've gone through a very extensive process with those people who are involved and their families um and and I think uh said about consequences and and there are consequences and they need to be impressed because that's part of this healing process and so we've gone through that and we work with those families and and those students are being reintegrated into our schools um and and that's that that has to happen as well and and we want this to happen in a way that is um is supportive so that we can be successful for the long I think uh gentl that just spoke is that you know these are young children and not that we're excusing it but

015they go through a process and and they learn from that and that's what we're we're hoping and we're expecting as we move down the road um and so we've been working hard also on the second phase of this which is uh the Gathering working together as a community coming together to support each other and putting things in place that we're hoping that are going to get us there and this is a a multiphase process we don't have all the parts in place because you know we're doing things right now today Mr Brown is going to talk in a few minutes about a couple things that we've done that we're going to be doing now and in the next couple of weeks going to talk about some of the the speakers we're bringing in and those

016types of things um but this is a not a multi-week or month it's really a multi-year approach right we want to put things in place that are going to um to uh to stay uh that they're going to be a w that we do business from here on forward and they're going to be something that's sustainable and it's going to change and improve who we are right it's going to make it a better place this is this is an easy work really there's a lot of emotions and and and we need time to process through that and work together and and there's ups and downs I'll be honest like the last three or four weeks have been been probably some of the greatest challenges of my career so it's but I'll say this too um

017I'm very hopeful you know um I'm I'm seeing progress already I'm seeing people come out and wanting to support who we are and what we're thinking about doing and and where we're going in the future and what we want for our kids which is most important um so today you know uh today just to go over a few things and I sent this to um parents in the audience and our board members um and our staff members they received this yesterday um but for the people who weren't there were part of that group um today we have Community Day for our Middle School student want to comment on how that went today you'd like me too so this morning we had um a community day and this is not really a new thing at the

018middle school we started this year where um students are meeting with their homeo teachers and they're having Community Building circles um so we have a modified schedule for that and today what we did is we made a few changes we made the group smaller so we had it where every single teacher was involved with a community building circle with students every single teacher was involved um our counselors worked with um restorative practice leaders in the area to develop a script where the teachers read a statement um and then we started with some surface questions to warm it up and and there were groups of about 10 students with one teacher and then we got into some serious questions um and some serious statements and they talked um or answered questions about you know different times

019of different feelings they've had um when someone has said something hurtful to them and then we we changed it to what is something you can do to make someone else's day better and we had a few different questions that the circles went around and or the students went around answered but the end was an action statement uh we believe very strongly in those action statements when you end a restorative Circle and the action statement was what is one thing that you can do today to make eore Middle School a better place and the students all the feedback I heard I walked around the building and just peaked into all the classrooms and I had this sense of of just um feeling good that I I saw all the students engaged I saw the teachers engaged

020I spoke with many teachers teachers this afternoon and I heard only wonderful comments from them in in regard to they said that students got deeper than they've ever gotten in these circles and that it was taken very seriously so again this is just one step um would you like me to speak about our next steps in regard to that so our next steps Mr Li Brock and I um have been meeting with the center for resolution and Justice in Buffalo and what they are doing is they're going to help us put together a plan that is more strategic for the students who have been involved and how can we um bring those students together how can they learn from this how can they become leaders and that is the kind of the plan moving forward

021for those students directly involved we are going to include the parents um of those students within that process so they understand exactly what this is going to look like and we're going to do this over time um our goal is to get the first session in within the next couple of weeks and then Build It Up over time with those students um in regard to the entire school I'll let Mr Ross explain our speaker who's coming in next week um as well as working with teachers in the future and we also do in intend on having more of these Community days that we had this morning we have a modified schedule so it's all there the the infrastructure is there for our school the teachers are all trained and feeling confident in it so we

022are looking at braining those uh more often because we see the positive impact that it had today and we believe that this obviously cannot be a oneandone this has to become part of our culture in coming together and bringing kids together and empowering students to be leaders and to stick up for each other and and to do what they know in their heart is right so today I would say it was very successful overall but we we certainly have more steps to take thank you um Mr BR I um we also met with Dr on Hunter and I'll just I'll read his V for you so you know his background um Dr Hunter is a wood field endowed chair for urban education in the school of education and professor in the elementary education literacy and

023educational leadership department at State University War winning author and literacy Justice educator his intellectual and research interests are principally collaborative having partnered with youth their teachers and others to share the benefits of culturally relevant education and other dignity and justice-based educational Frameworks designed to help our young people shine in school and in life and so we had a chance to to meet with him and talk a little bit about our situation he's an expert in the field he's worked with many other school districts on similar issues and so he'll be joining us on Wednesday um March 26th uh to meet with our students in grades 5 through 8 and they will be individual grade level meetings uh 5 and 8 will focus around the power of your words and the idea that words can be

024painful and hurtful and how do we go about um correcting that and standing up for one another and then the message to seventh and eighth graders is going to be similar U but he's also going to be incorporating dignity for all students act Dasa which talks about the implications of using like hate speech and inap appropriate language things that are degrading and the consequences for that um we know that like our seventh and E graders are at a point in their development where they can understand the consequences for their actions so we're looking forward to that happening and then Dr Hunter will be back on Thursday evening March 27th at 7 pm uh he will be at the high school auditorium and this will be to facilitate a discussion around uh for parents around dignity

025and belong how do we create a culture and a community uh that is committed to that and so just in talking with him for about the hour of time that we spent with him um I think that he understands our needs and I think that presentation is going to be very relevant to our families and will also include a question and answer period as well so you'll have you'll have a chance to speak indirectly U so we're really U looking forward to that um next Monday I'm meeting with a group of parents um kind of a steering committee I guess they were at the last board meeting I put out an invitation to them and I had a number of people respond I've had a number of people asked to be added on to that

026group so we'll be meeting here in the Middle School library next Monday at 7 clock um and then just a few other things that are happening in the schools right now Parkdale it continues um really to to focus on character strong uh we've been using character strong and other other related like Mr Brown talked about restorative justice um practices we've been working with historic practices for about four years uh it's pretty much throughout all of our our buildings now we just had a training uh about uh was in January uh for the entire staff uh which went really well and so those those practices are being utilized in our classrooms on a regular basis and now we're going to use them in I guess even a more meaningful way to address these issues specifically um

027at the high school um they're they're initiating a community climate steering committee and the first meeting is um on Friday of this week and that includes students and teachers and administrators and the idea is just to um create a like a thoughtful exchange and conversation around how do we make our schools better how do we deal with these issues at the building level how do we intervene in a a more effective way and in a more efficient way so then it doesn't grow of something like we're dealing with right now um so those are some of the things that we're we're dealing with right now um same thing on Athletics uh we're working with a reintegration of students into their athletic programs Mr Lombardo has a plan in place that he'll be sharing with with

028our students and their families um at the end of this week um so a lot of this is like you know what we're doing right now to put something in place over the next weeks and months as we we approach the end of the school year uh these things will continue to happen um uh Dr Hunter will also be providing our our teachers with um activities and and materials that they can use in their classes to facilitate these conversations so this is kind of the immediate approach we have some other things that we're considering um as we return to school what does that structure look like how do we Implement things earlier and more often uh for for kids that we' deal with from ages four to 18 um reiteration of of things is really

029important we have to keep coming back and sending the same message uh we've been doing some evaluative beings we've been working with their survey to tap into student wellness we've been doing that for the last two years we're getting some good data from that but again those types of questions are about how do you feel do you feel like you belong do you feel like you can you have somebody to turn to um some of the data is really strong and positive and there's other data that you know we are concerned about and those are the things that we're addressing um so there's going to be a variety of ways that we continue to approach this these issues um for me personally like you said this type of of of hate and inappropriateness and harsh

030um just just harsh dealings and harsh feelings and harsh conduct have no place in our schools and we we have to fix that and we're going to we're going to do that by working here and working with our community and our parents um to to make it a better place so again I thank you for being here tonight I thank you for um all the Outreach that I've received over the last several weeks um it's it's very important and and some people aren't some of that Outreach is angry right I'm not saying it's all positive it isn't but that's part of this process and and those are things that we have to consider and that we have to um incorporate um as we move forward um all of it is important and so I thank

031you for that thank you Mr we are moving on to item seven uh administrator comments do we have any administrators who have oh m brown you're got you're all warmed up warmed up there are other busy things um happening at the middle school so I just wanted to let you know two of the exciting things um happened this week so one our unified Club um one of our best clubs that talks about inclusion of all students has sponsored um our inclusion week this week so every day we've had students write announcements come down and speak on the announcements everyone's participating wearing a different color today was blue day um and we're just bringing awareness to um different disabilities and different things that our our students are challenged with for example cerebal poliy William syndrome autism

032um tomorrow is ADH awareness day um ADHD sorry and World Down syndrome day is on Friday so it's just really really neat to see all the students get behind us we have a an awesome balloon arch down there um it's neat to see the number of students and staff we're participating by wearing the colors and you can just kind of you can see that um connectedness within the building the other thing is our web program that we started last year I know the board was very familiar with that today and yesterday were exciting we started our recruitment for next year's web leaders so we met with some seventh graders over the past two days and those are the students that are interested in applying for our web program which is an eighth grade leadership program

033that also helps fifth graders incoming fifth graders transition it was an incredible success for our students this year and we're excited now to see the upcoming um eighth graders for next year in their excitement our current web leaders that are in eth grade met with these students and they talked about the pride that they have and the things that the web program brought to them as leaders and the impact that they felt it had so it was just a good day today a lot of um feeling good and and seen students connect and seen students laugh and it's all based around a purpose and the purpose for everything was that collectiveness we all belong is the web program the inclusion week those are the the things that are in the Forefront right now at the

034middle school which which we're proud of and we understand that that's that's what needs to continue um with the momentum so that's it thank you uh other administrators Mr Lombardo good evening um obviously where JB and varsity spring Sports have started and it was nice the last couple days to walk around the outside and not have baseball teams and softball teams cooped up in the gym and um being able to kind of watch coaches hitting fly balls and doing things and in the open that's always when it's March 18th and 19th we'll always take that um the more they're outside if if you're up and I know I don't want to steal Steve Thunder but the athletic advisory committee met um as well we discussed updates on the project if you were up at the

035high school they have laid the flags for where the fencing's going to go for the construction I don't want to take away from that later on but those are up and you can kind of get a visual of where things are um and in that meeting we also discussed um the student athlete code of conduct and kind of the time frame we're going to have for our committee back to the athletic advisory and hopefully in parallel um wrapping that process up into the board itself once we have some rough drafts to go so that's kind of one where were what happened in that meeting as well thank you Mr for Parkdale sure you ready for Parkdale we are we had an exciting week um last week we had our um steam uh night and it

036was a huge success I just want to thank our steam committee who really worked hard to put together an amazing evening for our students um this year our students were part of the process and they created amazing projects so we're super proud of what they did um as they did in uh middle and high school we've been celebrating our inclusion week this week today we had uh a Special Assembly Dan and Emma came over and talked to the kids about uh persevering and did an amazing job of uh just sharing um being unique is cool um and uh up next we have our author visit we're super excited uh this year we have two of our very own published teachers who will be our authors and um they have a wonderful residency and assembly plan

037for our students so lots of fun and uh we're excited to uh get into literacy in April um at the high school Mr lar I mentioned Spring sport starting and every mention inclusion week but just to didto that um our high schoolers have been so engaged this week the energy is amazing and just the opportunity to give some of our own students to share their disabilities and they're the ones teaching and giving the knowledge has been so awesome to see I don't know if you follow our unified on Instagram and everything but you'll see some pictures of the involvement this week and excitement that's all I have thank you Mrs ski U Mr Man Bry I see your yeah my both of my things are nowhere near as exciting as is what happens in the

038buildings the first is just an update from uh Mr mof who could not be here today at the last board meeting there was a question about um airun air air handling and dust collection in the Middle School wood shop uh he did investigate everything uh everything is in working order he did change the filters on the air scrubbers but they are working the dust collection vacuum there is no buildup in any of the vacuum pipes uh it can in theory work better but it's not worth fixing it until we move the stuff around and do it but there is no fire hazard there's no buildup in any of the pipes he did tune everything up but um but it's it's not a fear that that was raised so um the wood shop is in good

039shop good shape uh second reason the reason I can't talk today is today was teacher recruitment day and from about 8:00 a.m. till 4:15 we met with candidates in 15minute increments uh for about nine straight hours um all of the local school districts including Statewide and even National School districts gathered in the nager Falls Convention Center with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of candidates um and the EAS aora uh table was a a hot stop uh we collected resumés and requests for interviews um so exhausted I forgot the shirt I was supposed to change into so we had these work at EA shirts we were wearing all day today um and lot of interest um folks joining our team so the hiring process will be starting uh very near future we don't have that many

040openings um but we have a tremendous amount of interest and Buzz around folks wanting to be here so uh we're we're confident we're in good hands and we'll bring great candidates to you and just out of curiosity is there a quick and easy way uh that people can find our website perhaps it might be on your back show it up I will tell you uh Mr Roberts joined me today and for those high schoolers here who only know him as Mr Roberts his first name is Bill and did not know he would be wearing this all day today and he hated even more that every time someone said is there a QR code I saides turn around Mr Roberts you can see our human billboard oh no you absolutely hated that so tomorrow uh when

041you see them just say hey you look a lot like a billboard and or don't but but we we do things to separate ourselves from our neighbor districts but a lot of lot of Buzz and energy and we we are confident we're going to bring great candidates to you uh for the fall great thank you Mr fr any other administrators going once twice thank you very much uh to all of you uh we are moving on to item eight board presidents and board members comments and committee reports um I just want to point out uh uh a few things here one uh I had a chance to go to the steam night um and it's something that if you haven't been to you shouldn't Miss um the uh being somewhat removed from Parkdale um it's

042great to get back down there and see the uh excitement uh not just in the the students but their families as well as they move through the Halls chitchatting um I learned from U Miss Parker that uh the students with the the medals around their uh necks were the ones who had one of the 90 uh presentations in the LA libr uh Library um and so I made the point every time I uh saw one of those to talk to them and their eyes lit up uh with such Pride uh and tell me their presentation so so so great job with that um I want to thank the administration for the uh invitation to the wellness day uh I was able to attend for the morning and again it's something that I I never want

043to miss uh love to get up there and spend the day with fa staff Administration um in an effort to uh you know provide ourselves some uh some self-care uh and that was uh fantastic and then I just wanted to do one one personal shout out uh on the on Blue Devil TV if you're not subscribe to bdtv on YouTube I highly recommend it one of the best channels on on YouTube and you can see all sorts of things produced here uh within our school district specifically the wake up EA program which is live uh every morning from the high school the uh the middle school does uh some some uh uh video announcements as well and the one that uh caught my attention recently was the Arkdale one with regards to their um inclusion

044and um and my point of pride is that I'm the neighbor of Lewis who uh whose idea and who I thought I thought all three of them did an EXC excellent job I was so proud to see him up there uh and and um those are my coms can't even attempt to follow don't have anything this evening um I actually on my notes had to mention the BL devil TV as well because this it is great that all all the schools talk about inclusion week this week but um and then the live Ann announcements so if you ever want to know what's going on I mean that's that's where you find it um and then Stu and I attended the athletic advisory committee meeting um which already presented so that was very informative um and

045we also had the there was the community engagement committee not the one that's going to be formed but that was previously um where we met with different members of the the um the rivy club and and different members of groups in the community um and what we got from it was one of the big things was that some of our Outreach to some of these programs for example like the senior center um how much they really enjoy going to the musical to the musical um so we got we got a lot from the the community talking about how there where our big question was how can we tell you more how can we get you more involved so that is as far as like we want to see we want you to see what's going

046on here and um that was good and then also thank you for the invitation to the wellness day that was super informative as well as relaxing at times and um excellent yeah um I also want to thank everyone who was involved with the wellness day I was there literally until the end of the day um it was just there were so many sessions that I wanted to go to but the one that I did want to mention I actually went to two of her sessions it was Miss Scott Warren um one of them was how to be an upstander and agent change in your community in your classroom and community and she was absolutely amazing um and then the other one I attended of hers was um check in gauging your mindset and she was

047just absolutely incredible I know you were in there with one Mr rush you were in there with me for one absolutely um wealth of information wealth of um knowledge as to how to to change our community um and it was just perfect perfect person perfect time for her to be there at Wellness day so whoever arranged for her to come thank you thank you yes um later on in your agenda there's a an item requesting approval of Grant from the EAS art Educational Foundation uh which was given to Jeffrey Wilmore who is the band director for the Middle School Mr Wilmore has asked for and received funding to employ a a world-renowned composer to compose a new piece for the middle school band two new pieces one for the sixth grade another for the seventh

048and eighth grade that new composition will be premiered here in East Aurora uh and uh and it should it's it's it's a a fantastic idea it brings creativity right into the building with uh with someone who uh who is very well respected in in music circles so congratulations to Mr Wilmore for his $50,000 Grant covered okay thank you very much you're going legation is there any legislation to come [Music] before our change for it reports and discussion Capal facilities project update to First St here us he's give us an update on the project where we are today [Music] and us and her foundation not for profit not for profit thank you um uh it's about the um potential for the expansion on the playround EXP um good evening everyone uh thanks for having me again

049Mr Russ asked me to come back and uh give an update on the capital project while I'm here I'm going to hit on a couple of the other projects going on in the district at the same time uh first off the yearly capital outlay projects now that the weather is finally uh turning around and it looks like we're going to be in the clear from snow uh the contractor that was awarded this work back in the fall um has acknowledged that they'll be site hopefully in the next 3 or 4 weeks to start doing the work uh most likely the majority of it would happen over the April Break um there'll probably be some lingering work into may but the weather turning that'll allow us to finish the masonry repairs at the building this year

050is part of that project um as a reminder next year's Capital outlay will continue that work uh the three Pods at the high school were definitely in some dire need of masonry repairs so this is likely going to be an ongoing process for the next few years to go all the way around the building so um as everyone's aware uh the the unfortunate bids received in in early February had some numbers that were higher than we wanted to see especially on the mechanical side of things um but with the district accepting to move forward with the site work at the high school um the new schedule for Phase 2 kind of looks like this where phase 2A as I'm going to call it for tonight's sake the site work at the high school uh will

051proceed this summer as originally planned the intention here now is to take the remaining work um that was here at the middle school repackage that and bid that in September for construction starting in the winter into next year so at the high school as a reminder um it's great to see fencing and things like that starting to go up the contractors should be on site within the next two weeks starting to clear ground um as long as we don't have a wet spring that bodess really well for us getting ahead of construction uh the entire area that you see just to the east of the existing uh track and and football field is going to be enclosed in a fence so it'll be nice and safe and secure while all the work is happening um

052but the target here is that everything gets done this summer for for use in the Fall colors and everything have have B basically been already selected we'll just need final submittals from the contractors to ensure that we get the actual colors and materials uh that were promised to us during the the bidding process so as I mentioned the plan for the fall um we're going to do the same thing we did uh with the High School site work and really treat the middle school a little bit like an alak har menu um with some alternates just to make sure that there's some insurance policies in place the goal though is to make sure that the main tenants of the capital project get completed and we are confident that that is definitely going to be able

053to happen um as a reminder uh really the the the monetary concern that came up from that was mechanical focused uh due to a lack of contractors only one bidder and in contacting multiple cont contractors and vendors over the last month or two um it really was apparent that the market this summer on the HVAC side of things is just completely swamped there's there's no workers available and that's what was driving the price um additional things that do impact the overall $22.3 million project referendum was the additional work that got completed already as part of the project the drainage work that had to be done here which was unexpected and then the additional uh PA system work that's going to be completed at the at the middle school as well um totaling around $700,000 $800,000

054in in additional costs that fortunately with the good bids on phase one we're able to move forward with um and we're still pretty confident we'll be good with everything in phase two as we move into that so as some some quick reminders a couple of these renderings you guys have seen before um this will be in the fall once we bid this out the full reconversion of this space opening everything up to its original historic character creating a new circulation desk which will actually be right over there in that corner um having windows open on both sides so you'll get a lot more natural light into the space an IT Help Desk is going to be located behind me in this corner and then a print station um and then the other real major component

055for renovations is the full renovation of the family and consumer Sciences room in this building um so yeah I see the the eyes go I don't think you Terry You' seen that this rendering before um if you've been in that space now it has some very beautiful 1970s yellow countertops um so this will be a a complete conversion of that space and really making it a lot more functional uh for the students class so to jump over um as Mr Russ mentioned uh there's a couple parts to the playground work at at Parkdale um really this started with conversations between the PTO and staff for a need for a more inclusive playground specifically targeting pre- kindergarten age students um so that work was submitted to the State education department for review back in the fall

056and is already approved and pending some fundraising um it will be constructed this summer with with uh a local vendor that is do going to be doing the work um so it would be located so the building is right here the existing playground is down on the side this is that front drop off Loop um so this is a completely independent Standalone location a um where there would be a small playground built with age appropriate equipment specifically for pre kindergarten uh age students uh this was a preliminary rendering wrong colors everything this from from months ago um this is a a later rendering it has some other things in the background that I'll let Sarah speak about um but the the this would be what the the general concept of what would be constructed uh

057this summer uh provided fundings available would move forward with so before we jump to uh the playground and turn it over to you here um I just want to touch on a couple goals and things that we would continue to move forward with um as part of our responsibility to the district um we talked during the pre-referendum phase about the long-term plan about not just looking at one Capital project or one series of tasks and then walking away from that um we're wrapping up kind of this phase two of this project uh but the building condition survey that was completed in 2021 did have other items on the list and over the course of the last 3 years in conversations um we've heard a lot of other items that are on the needed list items

058specifically air conditioning and mechanical upgrades at the high school that are that are from the 90s and before so those items have all made it to this list I believe I shared this list with the the board a few months ago um this is an ongoing process and really where we'll go from here forward is continue to add to that list and then help the district plan and look forward as we continue to do and Tackle capital outlay projects yearly look for opportunities for Grants donations or other things like completing playground work or investigating future Capital Improvements projects somewhere down the line as financing becomes available so that there's no impact to the community um but with that does anyone have any questions on the project or with regards to the uh the building condition

059survey it was 2021 when are we for our next 2026 that's correct years right yep so next year in the next in the next calendar year so 2026 um you can fall in either School in the 2526 Academic Year or the 26 27 Academic Year but the report has to be completed in the 2026 calendar year um so you're you are correct you're right around the corner for another another review and that would fit right into a long-term plan you know it's an update to the facilities and that report and then we see what tells us moving forward just a reminder Steve with the current um tennis Sports what are we going to be doing with those moving forward with the budget issues the current tennis courts are going to remain as is untouched um

060so they'll still be able to be used by the community obviously they have some cacks and some deficiencies there uh we have already talked with Mr moft about maintenance things that could potentially done to improve the function of those um but unfortunately the capital project budget really won't allow us to do more at this time um long-term plan though that could be something on the docket to turn that to a grass area keep them as practice courts or do something else with them so things that we had talked about previously correct yes thank you Mr BR thank thank you [Music] so this is the unveiling of our preliminary render don't take it person as we just as our visitors dismiss we'll just give you a second so okay don't take it personal oh no I

061I know I did the same thing when I was there okay meeting deadline couple more right thank you so much okay so this is our rendering um a preliminary rendering of what we would like to do at Parkdale Elementary so um yes I'm Sarah orcut this is Lauren Nicholas we are on the board for a not for-profit called friends of East schools um one of the things that we have been very passionate about is having a fully inclusive playground for all of the students to enjoy um so as I know the board has seen uh the beginning stages of that what we're calling phase one um the not for-profit uh has an interest to come in and help fund raise for what we're calling phase two and three so this is a culmination of two

062and three um it would completely go over the current playground so it would mean ripping out the old playground and putting in a fully new playground that is completely inclusive so it would have the rubber bottom um it would have a whole host of fun things including what we're hoping to do with phase three is a pavilion so that teachers can actually have classrooms outside um if they so choose on the playground um and an area down here that's actually geared towards um fette um so one of the things that the teachers had told us the fette teacher had told us that sometimes you know they love to utilize the playground as part of their curriculum but a lot of times there's kids on it and they don't really have a space that's more designated

063for them so we kind of designed a like ninja gym area down here for them um to utilize um this project currently has a dollar value of $2.5 million uh none of which the district would be responsible for we would be fundraising for it um as I know we've I've discussed with uh Dr Russ and some of the other board members um what we are requesting is a letter stating that we have the ability to build on District property um this would allow us to receive grants because when we did some preliminary investigation into grants we got a lot of well why how could we give you money for property you don't own how can we be sure that what you want to build is what's going to be built um so that's why we're

064asking for that letter um it would be really a community effort this is a group of parents who have come together to do this we're also helping on the smaller part of the playground so that's the part you guys have already seen which we call lovingly the upk portion of the playground that's up here um we would actually add on to that add some swings um and then go on all over here it does not slow down the Implement implementation of this part we are actively working on um on getting that one in the initial timeline of this summer um so this that's why we have phase two and three in here um any questions okay you oh do I just the screen no no I did it wrong this okay all right uh so

065and we have uh we do have a committee of like teachers the school nurse has looked at this we're taking feedback from everyone on it that the uh the principal has been I can't do this I am not good at this at all what do you tap now I'm really messing it up okay there we go so this is the upk for part of what we'll add on is these playhouses for the kids some swings in the back here um you can see there's some musical instruments here and over here so there'll be Pathways with it um a lot of the stuff you're used to seeing on playgrounds normal stuff with the rubber bottom um this nutting thing is actually very very cool um and the school nurse did not like visibly react when she

066saw this so I thought that was a good sign worried um yeah we want to have some shade structures built in there so um we've been working with principal panoa and vice principal Parker to talk about what the needs are how many kids need to be on the playground at a time um all of those things have been taken into account and that's the fun fad area kind of like a ninja warrior gym what we're calling it want do how does something like bars and all that kind of stuff far either rushed wear and tear I don't know yeah so we were hoping that pects would be here to answer those types of questions they weren't able to make it today um they're the same company that's doing the small playground they would do the

067entire project um but we we did impress on them that durability was one of the things we needed help with um we are we were worried about drainage issues with some of the pieces of equipment all those things so we are taking all of that into consideration um when pieces are getting picked and stuff like that your building grounds been part of all of those to they've been part of of a lot of it um I'd like to pull them back in to see they have not seen this latest update so I'd like them to see um this more latest revision but yes they're a part of it too Brian meroff actually has been in meetings with us about it yeah so they've been meeting with m p Barker through the whole process yeah and

068so um and and uh Steve sh's been involved Architects which is the U the architect for the ex ground they've been involved so there's been a lot of conversation Mr meroff has been there as well uh so it's it's been a work in progress with the initial piece was how can we Y and that's where it started and then you know our playground is is is is aging there's no question it and so as you look through the surface is one of the biggest things and one of the greatest costs of the playground but it really makes that that inclusivity piece kind of spread out across the whole entire PL there's not many um sorry there's not many playgrounds that are inclusive um I mean there there's more and more but it's partially inclusive yeah

069or partially inclusive but to have a a full playground that's inclusive I think it's great project yeah in easa certainly there's not an inclusive playground so and what we found in working with the sepa the special education PTA is a lot of um the members there had to take their kids to other parks in different areas so um there's definitely a need here for it R should we have the need to add on to a building Parkdale because of this will obviously this is not going I me that's a that's an excellent question so there's there's there's there's some pieces to this and one of them is about the that they need in terms of trying to raise um funding for for the project um so there there's a lot of complications and we've been

070working on that too help to understand how these things have to go through the process of the first piece went through relatively easily through State actual approval but the fundings comeing from a private source so therefore we didn't have to go out to vote so that made that process go much more quickly this is probably going to be a combination of fundraising and a future project right so or maybe not it depends we're hoping we can fund resolve it but if not then yes it would be partially Capital project yeah the goal is to fundraise all of it if that doesn't happen then we would think about how can we incorporate this into a future project yeah and so um and so those types of things happen but in this initial stage for them uh

071in order to go to um to raise the money they need some kind of support from the district and I'll have to look into that because I don't think we've ever done that before I don't know Dan you've been long yeah I'm sure the district can write a letter of support for the process that's occurring because this is a wonderful project and it really deserves a lot of support and and encouragement however the the state has very uh strict guidelines with regard to how you build on School District property and you need a building permit and you get well Steve just went through it he he he explained how they did apply for a number you have to get a a a project number you have to get permission you have to submit the paperwork

072and uh and we received approval for the for the project that we were shown the first time we talk about this so so if they go through that process and get the uh the district has to go through that process the district has to apply for the permit receive the permit and then the the district has to take bids and do because like that is is beyond the scope of the uh of permissible expenditures uh without quotations and bids and so you have to you have to go through the process and as long as they go through the process uh it it it'll work and it'll be through uh but but you can't just send a a blanket letter saying uh that people have permission to just come on to the property and start digging

073and building something it it it just doesn't work that way I did send a sample letter so the closest I've come I mean you're right Dr Russ this is not like a traditional thing that happens normally schools build their own playgrounds um so this is very out of the box um but the closest thing we were able to find was in Chestnut Ridge the Chestnut Ridge Conservancy did a similar thing and they received a letter from the county that was very detailed and I boarded that um I believe that you have that now um so that's kind of the vibe of what we're looking for so yeah and obviously we know that like legal is involved and there's a lot of things but um yeah we just we're anxious to start fundraising there was a

074time when they used to just claim like a found building on on school property but probably not a found playground it just so happened a playground hopped up overnight we don't know how it happened yeah I just told they actually have a process for that for building that's [Laughter] discouraged else any else going once going twice thank you so much appreciate it thank you one is worth the visit and right by the tennis courts when you go in it's worth it because that's the the opportunity to see like this is this is this is all all no matter what their abilities could go on this particular thank you Dr uh we are moving on which is office yes um Mr M Brady has the grid oh you already did this month yeah I did this

075month sorry you're going back to the grid okay uh what you have is just our ongoing just kind of snapshot of where the budget is at this point in time um spoiler alert if you don't have long attention span we're in a good spot not a great spot but definitely a good spot we're on the on the plus side of things salaries are coming in uh under budget we financially that's good um some of that is we're not fully staffed especially in AIDS and b& and we're working on that but from from a financial standpoint that's helpful um you're going to see uh uh supplies are coming in good contractual is coming in good A lot of that is um some of our outside Contracting or outside sources are not um we're just under budget

076just go that way uh Bose's bill that has come in that was many years ago the reason why we started this grid was a surprise Bose Bill to the other end at this point um we over budgeted that which is tremendous um transportation we knew that's up that's just just life but in terms of what we can control in spending we're about 480,000 to the good um you then have that debt service transfer that we've spoken about and that's the band and the bonds um but again to the good to about three and a quish uh revenues again are all coming in stronger than expected um the the reimbursements of halfe building AIDS um some County payments that are due to us uh year-over-year projection assuming uh for sales tax is looking strong um other

077Revenue really is coming in in interest um but as you go to that uh we're about half million to the good uh in terms of unexpected revenue or unbudgeted Revenue I should say so between the 327 to the good that we've saved in terms of expenditures and the 550 to the good in terms of unexpected Revenue puts us at about 880 to the good uh I will remind you at the same point the unappropriated fund balance is at 664 though so when all of a sudden and done it's about 200 rough thousand to the good which sounds like a lot of money but in a budget our size is actually a very small fraction um but it's on the right side of the line and that's what we want at this point in the school

078year we are running uh lean mean uh operation here um and we have just a little extra money to spare um but we're not we're not uh on the opposite side of that deal so life is good thank you Mr thank you Mr anyone have any questions for Mr M BR I'll start on the uh the West End oh no thank thank you Mr no problem I'm sorry just jumping back to transportation we have the jump from the 100,000 to the 200,000 I was just yep I'm just watching that very closely I still think it might be more okay on we need spring Sports to happen you know I can project D General bus eight um runs pretty easily but other things transpire throughout the year that impact that thank you sorry one more thing

079to add and you'll see in the presentation that I'm making that adjustment for next year's Budget moving on to item C the 2025 26 budg development Workshop agenda try toor this to the best for our ability you can probably see that on your on your presentations at the table there's so many adjustments that are made especially the fact that we had a pretty significant budget Miss George has been working really hard like line line by line that up and and fortunately able to pull money out is smaller but it's still sign see that in just a second again you know this is what drives um everything we do is our vales and vision uh The Rose That was created a number of years ago learning Excellence respectful relation communication Improvement you know those are the

080values that drive us uh in the classroom the process like I said in pretty much everything that we do uh here's the property tax cap and and um Mr Cassie found this and and he thought it was an interesting way to kind of understand how the property tax cap works so we incorporated this slide for you and Miss George I don't know if you want to just yeah it just shows the um different pieces of the formula in a different way um what CPI means there's different factors CPI you hear about it all the time but it depends on what CPI they're looking at um our tax-based growth factor um and how that impacts the um tax cap um and as you see anything over a one means that we've had growth within our community

081and that's a piece that's factored into the calculation and then we talk about these Capital exclusions and if you've been here before you've seen me point to two different numbers in the calculation and they're the capital exclusions that we want to keep close to each other so we want to we want to schedule as debts falling off we want debt coming on so that that stays relatively flat um and this is just a a different way of looking at it like you could see was 1.022 can that grow Factor come down pretty considerably for us here it is the actual calculation um again as Miss George explained uh I can show the two numbers thanks yeah these are the two Capital exclusions that we try to keep relatively similar um because that impacts the calculation

082so this year for the tax cap uh at 2526 will be 3.39 that's so the state aid uh School runs you know they come out November January February is a big month so we we have an updated Aid run and that's really helped us to recalculate some of the cost that we think we're going to do um in the new school year and that also allow Miss George to kind of tighten the budget up so I think we're in a bit of a better place uh so Governor state aid runs you know we talked about this and and I did talk to I met with uh Senator and um I'm happy to say that they're really hoping to increase uh Foundation aid for the districts across the state uh they're looking at where they started

083off at 2% that are looking at an additional percent and on the Senate side so that would be really uh important for us also we talked a little bit about uh the capital outlay uh project moving that to 250 and that is on their agenda for this year so that would also be helpful for those projects that we do on an annual basis um fate 22 is free and appropriate public education for students um special needs allowing them to stay to the age of certain students allowed are allowed to stay to the age of 22 now so there's um they move up for fund isn't following it so we were all concerned about cost will be coming from and one of the really important parts is the prek funding um so we get a per

084pupil U payment uh and they're considering somewhere between the Senate and the assembly about $6,500 $10,000 up from 46 45004 54 I say it backwards sorry 5400 we get right now they're thinking about 67 to 10,000 somewhere in that range and that's per student and we have 90 students we might have another class so that would allow that maybe that class to happen and so we could we could include all the people who were interested in also would help us to really actually pay for the program because we're we're covering a lot of the cost through the general fund right now so um that would be a really postive I think that's going to come through at some level there's some level that pre will Beed so that's really good and the only thing I

085want to mention on this Slide the things that are bolded and underlined are the things that I looked at including the February database so some of the numbers changed like bosis went up I can't remember what I said uh $26,000 something like that from our last presentation um some of the excess cost AIDS they changed a little bit and our library textbook software Hardware AIDS went down a little bit because they're using our beds day enrollment in the February database um so here we are with the revenues we take where we getting our money from most of it's coming from the levy and you can see the Lev is going to be going up and that's with be 2.39% tax levy Max included by $92,000 uh sales tax is slight you know we're definitely sing

086seeing sales tax level off you know we've been surprised over the last couple of years that sales tax has been pretty robust coming in higher than expected almost every year uh but we can see due to the economy things that are happening you know slowing down right and so our our tax revenues will slow down with that uh let's see interest earnings continues to be strong at this point in time but again depending on how the economy shifts that interest rate kind of goes along with it so we don't exactly know what that looks like but for right now it's looking good uh let's see what else we have here we talked a little bit about the Bose's AIDS and the excess cost AIDS part of the reason why those are those are going down

087is because we've been bringing students back to uh back to the district uh and bringing them into our classrooms here so when we pull them out of the bo classrooms we get less Aid the next year it just kind of goes hand in hand uh let's see what else is on here anything I think that's pretty much it our prek program oh yeah prek program as I mentioned you know um right now we have a a waiting list uh and and the affordability of that right now in this current budget is pretty tough but with the new potential funding increases per pupil that may they may be be very helpful yeah go ahead the skis program oh that's right that too yep so we have a special we have an inclusive we have inclusive special

088program and so for us we take students from other districts because um I don't know another school district in our area no but I've received at least two emails from different districts that are interested and want to see how we do it y you already have how many students this year we have five students St in the program we have the potential to have eight we're approved for eight so um yeah Y and as meetings are happening I'm watching this um the 170 I'm watching that number and the receipts that we'll receive from the county based on the recommendations we get for placing students from out of District here so basically speaking it's about, that we take from other districts that come into our program of course we offer those those openings to our students

089first so um it's been just a super great program uh and again U I think we are the only School District in yie County maybe I I think so I think one other yeah there might be others that have it are in the process of starting it and we have had both laana and West Sonica have actually come and toured and met with us about it so it's important like so so what happened with that we we be that direction and the process was so difficult to have it approved that the state actually reached out to us and came down to our district to help us get through the process so that we could offer offer the program to our kids so it's it's really fun when should we get when should we get the

090The Firm figures like what are we looking is it April first or what's you know because we're talking about these numbers kind of so yeah so the budget is supposed to be passed April 1 but when I spoke to Senator gallan he's not U very certain that that's going to happen thinks it's going to be delayed by a week or two just because of other things that are happening at the state level that they're negotiating just they have some issues are he was hopeful within the first few weeks that would happen thank you and when do we have to have our bu I think it's April 22nd that's I was goingon to ask that question you delay can we delay but I think it's April 22nd in the next time I meet with it so

091uh so we may need another yeah we may need to fit another meeting in just because of the fact that we're just not going to have a whole lot of time to talk about that and so Appropriations you know where where do we spend our money uh for us it's it's it's primarily for our our staff salaries and Fring benefits you know our teachers administrators um all of our support staff our OTS GTS all those people um and so like equipment you know we've been talking about equipment over the last uh several meetings and the importance of of AA establishing a stronger equipment line because we have a lot of equipment um that is it is quite old and it needs to be replaced and so we have to come up with a plan for

092incorporating into the budget on an annual basis so we can kind of slowly chip away that each and every year so uh so that's why that number is considerably um supplies you can see are kind of flat contractual is actually moving down a little bit uh Miss George any comments on the contractual um the contractual it ties right back to the grid and it's looking year over-year um and projecting forward off of what we currently are using under contractual um so I actually you'll see on another slide I reduced contractual in one area of the budget by $200,000 but then you don't see a minus 200 there that's because in another area of the budget electricity I had to budget an additional $80,000 and then there was another part of the budget our um general

093liability insurance and cyber insurance that is going to go up more than what we normally see so that's how it shakes out and that electrical piece is really significant because they won a an actual lawsuit them to G through the roof that's the reason why that's great so it's it's impacting us consider so here it is the proposed budget uh this year our budget's 45,1 6,998 looks like an increase of about 2.5 million uh to th000 um but with the appropriated fund balance uh at 664 which we used this year we're looking at now a gap of 900 6 7,770 which is down from about 1.3 million 1.4 million from the last budget so so U Mr has done a great job like finding that you know for $500,000 to tighten this budget up but

094still we're near milon U but we're going to continue to work at that if that pre- dollar comes through that that could be really significant it could be several hundred, which will definitely help to does this also include um if we get additional Foundation Aid with that so that's not in that either so if we were right so that's another okay thank you y so our needs you know we've talked about some of the needs um for this year and next uh we know that there are going to be three retirements um and so that's been adjusted and included in the budget um you can see some of the positions that we talked about reviewing the AIDS and having some problems keeping staff in those areas so we really wanted to look at adjusting uh

095they're starting and and continuing salaries uh we need some help in Tech um but honestly just so much technology throughout the district not only in the classrooms but business office um technology special education all of it is is basically run on Tech and uh we're just really kind of tap that we have right now they're doing a great job but it's just uh the amount of work is it's really pretty overwhelming we wanted to add an SRO we've been talking about that for a year or two uh we have full-time S at the high school and a partime person here fulltime person in the middle school and then move the parttime person to Parkdale um and so I've been talking with the chief about that and and he's aware so he needs to obviously adjust

096his staff and get people on board as well that comes through uh the UNF we didn't f a school counselor position this year we we try to get you know around it it's gone okay but again I think from that position they're feeling kind of tapped out in terms of providing mental services and those kinds of things I mean they work together they do a great job and they don't even work only at the building level but collaboratively across the district they're doing really good work but again it's just a need that we're hoping to fill uh Library a we're able to absorb that into the current 8 hours just rearranging some schedules um building subs two of them are built in uh to the budget so we had two this year we're going to

097have two for next year at this point in time uh we uh the capital um oh project yes so we got $100,000 one thing about delaying the uh the project um by year that helped us to work on the uh the capital project Furniture so instead of having to buy it all in one year now we can spread it over two budgets that's that's quite a that's quite helpful so that $100,000 has already been built in uh both a portrait of a graduate again I talked to you about that you know we have some responsibilities to um to respond to the significant changes around graduation requirements and so we are going to be part of Consortium other school districts in County um to to help us through that process over a threee period uh so

098it's it's a really really great way to kind of um study what needs to be done and then go through the implementation process so that we're compliant uh three years from now uh strategic planning yeah again this is something that I've been talking about the last year so I really like to to work with someone to do some strategic plan pull all the things that were're together one space so that it's just more accessible and and more available even to the public as well um the retirement rates uh you can see for for the TRS it's actually gone down and that's actually significant because we talk about a half a percent adjustment or a full percent adjustment on on millions of dollars that we pay in in salaries it really makes a difference but unfortunately

099ERS for our support staff in place that's gone up but it's definitely a savings because the TRS is always always more expensive so here we are buildings and ground oh yeah so some of the things we've been able to to take care of from this year's budget um we have a building [Music] so we need that's about ,000 purchasing that actually with Appropriations from this budget same thing with our fitness center in middle school we able to incorporate that into the facilities project we're going to try to upgrade what we have um you know so some of the equipment down there is still good but some of it is is well past its life and so it needs to be replaced and we have about $117,000 to work on that from Appropriations from this this

100budget as well um the lighting system again had some technical difficulties and we're using that with the music boosters brand so that was really great that we found that and grateful to be able to get that work done and the uh sound system they found it really inexpensive through Tech about $500 to improve the sound system uh in the auditor in Jil uh so if we look at the capital project renovated spaces um the Middle School library we're moving at 2627 so that still down a little bit so along those lines too we need uh furniture and equipment for Municipal Library the district um office uh new uh technology for new spaces the fa classroom um which we put off till next summer um but um there's still some equipment that needs to be purchased

101for that space uh the athletic fields need to new goals and the ad we we provide a a kit with an a for every coach so that every sports team has those uh and so here's some high Lev things do just like we we talked about this right from the very beginning and so I won't really go through this again but just um some of the stuff that we're still deciding you know like especially like the expectation for Surplus you know what do we want to do if we have more money at the end of the year than we expected do we want to look at reserves do we want to look at the tax cap you know do we want to um uh do those types of things with the money at the end

102of the scho so here we are just again the appropriate fund we at it last year we're assuming 664 364 number this year of course that can be increased or decreased depending on our Fin and the high school of the capital Outlet we know we're working on on brick work and Mason that's a four years um but again slow and steady and that $100,000 helps to get that work done and and then uh replacement technology we have we opened the technology reserve and we talked a little bit about this from two perspectives right now this is basically for Mrs maano and her needs in regard to replacement of laptops Chromebooks um smartboards those kinds of things we use the reserve money to take care of that then we also talked about I was just visiting

103with bdd today and talking about they have some really so we talked a little bit about maybe moving some of those Techni into this Reserve or starting a new Reserve um that would include those the pieces of equipment can be you know 510 to $40,000 and so being prepared for that is not easy in in a general year so I think a reserve would be would serve as well and here's the rest of the calendar March 19th right so next meeting is on the 2nd of April ail uh and then we miss George and the and the business staff goes through a variety of things to make sure the report cards and all that kind of stuff are are submitted then what the next meeting after the 22nd 22nd thank you yeah there we go

10422nd and then uh we have another meeting on and then we vote like everyone else on May 20th so here we go any questions I'm going to have Mr mber pass out backup documentation my um workpapers um I don't have a lot on this this meeting um the first thing in your packet is an updated budget calendar and the only change I put a little red star by it is a change to the date of our finance committee meeting the next document is a word version of what's in the budget what's not in the budget what's been asked for for the budget trying to keep you and A Narrative of how I've been progressing throughout the third document is the updated revenue and attached to it is the February database and how I came up

105with those numbers the fourth document is from nyclass our investment vehicle showing where our yield is for um interest revenues and I had our Treasurer Reach Out deny class our represent representative to see what she was thinking is going to happen with Revenue um interest rates going into the future um I saw today that the feds didn't make a move yet but um our rep at n class believes that there's going to be two moves over the next 12 months of0 five basis points it'll end up being two moves of 0.5 that'll be a 1% change and then think it'll stabilize after that and I think it's the last one I have in there is the two house budgets just to give you information thank you for all the information m well thank you for

106all this good information I it stries me that if Mr gallivan's uh projection is correct that uh we will have an idea of State revenues uh just in time for our April 22nd meeting and that's the meeting in which we have to adopt the budget and then turned in on the so um I think between now and and we need options we need to have a a variety of options for closing this Gap you know now some of them may be projections for hopeful increases in Revenue uh and and there could be an option associated with that there could be another option associated with decreasing expenditures Clos to that but I think we need some options and I don't think we can wait until the 22nd to look at I think we need to look

107at them on April 2nd even though we won't know what the state is we can take some one of option one could be some presumptions associated with it and we would then know that when when the in we can go to option one because we you know we projected that so that's my suggestion is that you you consider developing several options M George am I right remembering that that's sort of what we did last year in anticipation of a delayed budget and the the potential that we were going to have to vote on our budget without the state having approved theirs and with information that I mean information's coming in every day every other day as I get more comfortable with the information that's coming in and do we think it's going to happen or

108not happen like with Foundation Aid hopefully I'll be able to do that yeah so I mean I and I agree with you Mr Brunson that um you know even if they do get it the state budget approved uh you know two weeks into the month um that doesn't give us much of a chance to discuss it and then vote at our so what I would ask is that maybe we look as a group to see if there's an opportunity um maybe the 16th 17th 18th for us to schedule a me a tenative meeting if needed um I don't know if that's something that we we could certainly do that but could we also possibly request a a list of priorities is it possible to make order the things that aren't yet in the budget we

109have this much money here's what we're proposing if we have this much money here's what we're proposing two to three Ops in One Direction and then scary steps the other way could we look at if there's a gap of this much here's where we can rain it in if there's a gap this much bigger here's what else we would R in have a backup plan to have a second meeting but if we can have that for the next meeting the board will know we can see if we're in agreement with the superintendent in the administr administrator's proposal yeah and I'm suggesting we schedule I mean sort of maybe sort of keep our dance cards clear uh in the eventuality that we do have to meet except for well maybe maybe it's wise to look at

110it to see if it's even possible do we even have a forum is that Eastern it is it's the week before 18th there's no school like you're thinking this is well we have a meeting on the 2 um and if we don't think that they're going to be passing it until [Music] the 14th at the earliest right um or early that week that's why I went to where I went because then the next week is when our meeting is will require to adopt a a budget it might be tight for the business office to turn whenever they pass into our reality but we could certainly have discussion yeah but we're really going to need a budget a b and c in order have not to put Miss George through all of the work right we

111don't need budget abnc we need budget with I I understand plus orus not different line items I'm I'm talking about bottom line bu bottom line budget right yeah I mean like we have here the you know the the simplified version it's those extra pages after that say this is what's in this is what's not yeah right that that prioritized y yeah well it's hard because you got to get rid of that Gap we don't even know if the Gap is real that's that's the biggest challenge right we've gone through multiple budget workshops and we never know what's real so very much appreciate that we're all brought along for the rid so we understand way information but but the side that we're not sure of I mean I assume the that the expenditure side has beened

112reasonably well you know you know what the salaries are going to be in the yep um this two weeks I went through salaries equipment and I think it was contractual I think those are the things that changed the next two weeks I'm going to be going in depth with Bose's participation and looking at that I did a deep dive into um Revenue I have done that um sales tax over the past several years we've been closing closing closing that Gap uh right now I think where we have it budgeted is where my comfort level is that's not to say that we couldn't increase it but um where I'm projecting over budget this year is about 100K and I increased it by 40K already and I'm getting word from um the com troller like Mr Russ

113said that sales tax revenues are starting to decrease and spending is starting to decrease which generates the sales tax revenues um I've increased interest in based on I got this information this week on what interest rates are going to do in two weeks to ask again I'm not sure if that's realistic or not um and trying how far do we want to risk that um when I did it year-over-year analysis of interest rates last year at this point in time to this year point in time it's relatively flat this year we're about $5,000 under what we were at last year so but we've seen the rates starting to decrease not as quickly as we thought they were going to decrease but they're starting to decrease so that would be the Comfort level and guidance that

114I need on how comfortable you are with risk M George and just so for clarification because I was going to ask about this so the salaries obviously there's a a big change from our last meeting two weeks ago to this as well as the equipment there so that's because you were able to do that deep dive and these are the I did the Deep dive so for the equipment yes that has to do with the capital project now going over a 2-year fiscal year instead of having to get all the um equipment Furniture those types of things in one year now I can split it into two years so I'm going to need that equipment money again in 2627 in order to make sure that our spaces have furniture we don't want a beautiful library

115and no F Furniture um those types of things and I went through my um salary spreadsheet with a very very fine tooth comb um one thing that we've been budgeting is the um retirement buyout incentive when teachers retire and I've been carrying three people per year when I went through with a fine tooth comb I found that I had four budgeted so I took one out um I looked at people who are being paid with Federal monies and I brought that closer I'm always very nervous with that because you know Title One title 2 611 619 title four what am I missing 2 three four you got them I got them all um a lot of those Appropriations in federal funds comes from enrollment so you know I'm always juggling you know are we G

116to get more are we going to get less I error on the side usually of caution we're going to get less in federal funding so I'll use somebody just to make it simple math let's say it's a $100,000 employee uh but $8,000 is supported through federal grants I would normally budget it at 70,000 because I'm not sure if I'm going to get that 80 I went through and I brought that closer and closer so like I adjusted it by five right adjusted it by that's how I made those changes that's actually one of the questions I was going to ask is is there any way to predict how some of the cuts happening on the federal level will so that's one of the predictors and I'm glad you brought that up because that's a risk

117that I'm taking by bringing this closer because if we get Federal grant Aid cuts that makes our Gap way bigger it goes back up because that's where I closed some of the gap I have no idea the state has the same problem which maybe is one of their is that would that be right like one of their issues they're dealing with I think at the state level it has more to do with when I was watching I can't remember which news program I think it what is Medicare and Medicaid is where the state issues are with revenues from the federal government how complicated is it to do a an estimated number of our Rel I on I have that number for you right now we receive $64,000 annually I think it was in your packet

118last year um that's what we're receiving this year excluding u prek in Federal grant money questions I've got a couple quick ones yeah sure two quick ones I just observation the um so the uh proposition two of 75,000 so that that exp should be supported by the reserve that part that 229,000 um revenue and reserves yes okay so that pass was you get the line item to expend it and then it'll be closed out to the reserve so correct that 75,000 will come out of the reserve to purchase um replacement I'm not sure what's up for replacement if it's Chromebook or if it's laptops or if it's smartboards but we have a replacement cycle I just want to make sure was part of that use of the reserve up rather than tax for that which

119is good then the capital outlay if it looks like it's going to happen 250,000 would that be something we would appropriate fund balance for and actually put it in the 25 26 budget or if it came in later would we amend the 2526 budget to cover I would refer to the board and the superintendent on how they would want to handle that yeah you wouldn't really want to tax for right now I wouldn't think I mean when I say tax for you got the tax cap but then there's only amount you can use that for to back up so if it's a real item coming get you can the 250 and a line item that appropriate fund balance if it doesn't happen then the money stays in the general fund for used for don't NE

120have to spend it just a suggestion I don't know which way if they leave it up to the board that would be my recommendation the um and then as far as deciding on which way you want to go the appropriated fund balance 600 and some thousand pretty big number but the uh we have excess to Appropriations already built into the budget I mean you know there going to be contingency um other equipment items you don't have any access fund balance I mean uh Appropriations to cover in 2526 yes yes historically the um finance committee has recommended that I put that into the Bose's budget which makes sense but if you're going to appropriate fund balance you start adding all those up that you may expenditures you may or may not have that so met excess

121Appropriations with so that'll be the next area that I look at be an important area the end right so we have yeah will be it'll be difficult getting down to that number I mean based on the report we received tonight and what we're looking at but those are the questions I had okay thank you answered my question or ask my question I um yeah and all my questions um been asked I just wanted to point out so we're resolution as you were talking about the 250 my concern was are we approving anything that uh might impact that but it's it seems to be worded and such a way that um that if it goes up we're okay with because it's just uh a type to unders Seer that we're approving for it and then when

122we when we approve the budget that's when we would approve the and this seems to adjust that so thank thanks for bringing that up thank you um so uh Miss George um to uh Miss arr's points um like trying to give us some idea of prioritization I know you're going to get into the weeds with uh the uh theosis yes um and I appreciate that and appreciate the work that you've done on S um would you would would you take a a shot at that for the April 2nd for us just to see what that might look like knowing that nothing is definite and then uh we can go from there and figure out where we're uh what we need to do in the superi right right I think we have cabinet Tuesday yes yes

123come with your ideas usually where they come from um great if there are no more comments we will move on thank you so much you're welcome Mr Russ um we are moving on to item 11 the consensus agenda uh are there any the board members who would like to uh remove anything from the consensus hear none uh are there any board members who would like add anything to the consensus agenda also hearing none um me get a motion to approve the cons consensus agenda as detailed in the U Move by droa second second second by Miss arm discussion all in favor all right opposed and those pass 7 uh we are moving on to item uh superintendent recommends the Board of Education perform a second reading to adopt uh the revised SL new policies as

124detailed below may I have a motion not supposed to move am I move by Mrs this is Daniel uh discussion all in favor opposed extensions and that's pass 70 uh we are on to item 17A um superintendent the Board of Education accept a grant from the East Educational Foundation in the amount of $15,000 for so move moved by Dr second AR discussion say uh again and thank you Foundation especially this grant it's really unique it's something we used to work with some performers from fosis that's been a number of years so having somebody professional work really this person has worked at the Kennedy Center at at all these venues in New York City that are extremely car my memory for name is but at any rate this composer has done all this wonderful stuff and

125and the theme for these pieces will be based on the history of East Aurora and so he's going to be invited to come to East Aurora and learn a little bit about us and then go back and spend months and months writing these these pieces and then he'll come back for the uh the premere of the compositions here in yeah oh he'll do some uh workshops with the kids while uh all in favor opposed abstentions and that's passed 70 we're moving on to 17b the superintendent recommends the Board of Education approve the uh uh the below resolution um in the agenda declaring the district's proposed Capital outlay project to be a type two action under seeker and authorizing the and directing the inclusion of funding for such project in the district's proposed 2025 26 budget

126may have a motion so moved moved by Mr second second second by Mrs oer uh discussion all in favor opposed extensions we're moving on to item 18a uh the superintendent recommends that the Board of Education pass a res resolution recognizing or authorizing notice of the May 20th 2025 annual School District meeting budget vote and election may have a motion so move by Mrs arros second so many s Mr Mr Brunson yeah go him discussion because I'm louder than anybody else the discussion um all in favored extensions and that's passed 70 we on to uh item 18b um the superintendent recommends the Board of Education approve the 2025 26 instruction calendar as detailed in the attachment may have a motion move by Miss arros second second by Mrs oer discussion that's usually where I just go

127over quickly as I could okay so um we uh there's less and less discretion in putting together calendars because Erie 1 and eie 2 have come up with a unified calendar and basically all districts fall in line behind it so there's very little discretion in terms of building that that being said I just want to go over some highlights uh school will begin for students on uh Thursday September the 4th uh we are able to put in a 4-day weekend uh full for um uh in October uh teachers will be here on the 10th but students will have off the 10th 11th 12th and 13th um we move in uh then into December it's one of the rare years uh where Christmas and New Year's fall on a Thursday and we get the two full

128weeks um normally that only happens on a Wednesday um but this year it was on a Wednesday and we didn't get it so things work out this way uh so the two full weeks uh around New Year's for Winter's recess uh the president day recess again is a full week there the spring recess uh falls into early April there um there is another 4-day weekend for students around Memorial Day and the last day of school for students will be Friday June 26 the teachers uh will work the 29th and 30th but the options to have uh buyback and by doing professional development um during the school year which is a very effective use of time um both for them and for us so so that's always a crowd favorite um there is we had great

129success this past year creating a parent friendly version of this because they really don't care what all the colors mean they only care when their kids have school so what will be publicly released tomorrow is the simplified one that only has when school's in session out of session and region stays um this is more because different contracts code things different ways we have to have all these colors on the calendar um but the public facing one will be a simplified version all the data is the same just a lot less colorful the only comment I have is and it's out of our control is the regions are I mean they continuously so not to be that way I mean so graduation on Friday or Saturday well and what's H what's helping here that there's two

130things if you notice they actually put the January Regents in my personal opinion a week too early um because one semester is about 10 days shorter than the other semester uh so by pushing that back a week the semesters would have been equal length um the other thing that does help this calendar which doesn't always help is uh Lunar New Year which is a new holiday in the state this year happens to fall during the February recess so um it's just how Lunar New Year has like a month that it can fall between um it just happens to fall when we would have been off otherwise so that actually made this a cleaner calendar and gave us the two weeks uh for like it understand that the blues we cannot change the blues that the

131state picks those and we have to work around that so we don't have much it has to line up with all component districts or everything gets all mixed up so yeah so in terms of uninterrupted recesses for families and family time it's actually a nice calendar it's not Choy um and does that so it's it is what it is can I do one other discussion I forgot to do earlier um Mr Roberts wasn't able to be here tonight he will give you an update on the rolling out of the um uh the student board member now that you voted on the policy I was supposed to say this back at the policy time he's working on the mechanisms of rolling it out in the student selection so that's in work and he'll kind of give

132you updates as that goes on but we're on track to have the student board member um start U on time awesome thank you so much thank you can I ask a question about just uh for just please our own knowledge so I know that we do have days that we can take off that are that are off that we could add again if we have too many snow days in this calendar there's four okay uh we can choose based on how the days fall the rest so there's 4 days before we would either have to go remote or um or cancel a a recess day thank you okay um all in favor opposed exensions pass 70 we are on to item 19 new business to any board MERS have any new business to bring tonight

133[Music] done we will move item 20 uh we have there the list of the next uh upcoming board meetings uh including the Bose's annual uh meeting B's vote is on there as well I canot make tomorrow night's meeting either a choice of legislative team meeting or [Music] the quarter thank God [Music] came out to park principal and assistant principal they took care of rotary we had a meeting Elementary School ass Tuesday they took good care of the group and stuff the only problem is they locked the doors they wouldn't let us out to we wrote a check so we did which we're very grateful for thank you I meant to mention it when I was up there but very grateful for that donation not out the road they're good partners of the school district 10

134thousand yeah that's yeah and we're moving on to B we have the list of upcoming meetings and workshops on to item 21 adjournment may I have a motion to adjourn just one thing just can of remind the board consider may I have a motion to adj second second by Mrs oer discussion I just want to add something I missed during the uh budget Workshop I wanted to thank M for adding that slide that uh I had put somewhere safe I wants to find um but I think that trying to uh put things in there that are are going to help explain to the public uh uh the complexities that are are bud are great so I appreciate you uh um I also want to thank uh once again everybody for coming tonight uh we appreciate

135uh you know the the Public's participation we appreciate all of our Administration and of course uh all our board members as well so thank thank you all uh for being here uh All In favor of adjournment I I opposed extension 70 and we oh my God