001not notic there's no books something you know ladies and gentlemen just before we come back into public session I just want to let any anybody who didn't catch it on their way in if they have a a desire to speak during public comments there is a sign in uh and there are cards in the back where we ask you to put in put uh your your uh your name uh your address and the uh topic on which you want to uh address the board so I just want to make sure that that that was aware uh as you all Comm thank you very much give a second just in case anybody wants to do that [Music] l [Music] um we uh this is uh the return from executive session um in which we discussed matters
002relating to possible promotion of four four particular certified employees matters relating to two particular employees and matters protected by furpa uh we are moving um on to item four agenda changes do you have any Chang agenda changes on to item five reports and discussion items part one I see nothing we have nothing to add uh we're going to move on to item six uh which is the uh board member election announcement which our district cler we have two board members Terry wer and Maria impro whose three-year terms are expiring on June 30th 2025 these two seats will be filled at the May 20th 2025 election the two candidates that receive the highest number of votes will each be elected to serve a three-year term beginning on July 1st 2025 and expiring on June 30th 2028
003nominating petitions will be available from Su framer in the superintendent's office or myself in the district clerk office beginning on March 6th 2025 they require 26 signatures and are due back in the office of the district clerk no later than Monday April 21st by 5:00 p.m. information is also available for prospective board members on the district website and on the board of education page Erie County associations of school boards is holding a prospective School Board member Workshop scheduled to take place on Saturday March 23rd dur interested the link to registration information can be found on the district website and on the board of education page thank you Miss Casey and I would just add to that that that Erie County Association of school boards uh uh Workshop is uh extremely valuable for anybody considering and
004I I would highly encourage anyone considering to uh attend that um we're going to move on to item seven which is Community member comments uh I just want to uh read off the emails that were received by the board uh since our last meeting on February 5th uh we received uh an email from Christen Heckman regarding to regarding a signing ceremony uh Anita Ray uh which was a request for board nomination uh Anthony day and Pat hokel Uh regarding uh the WNY ES Awards of Excellence banquet uh a uh email from the uh a thank you card from the uh EAS EAS Union Free School District student government uh an email from Brenda Hansen with regards to Title Nine concerns an email from Len zimma with regards to school School District budget concerns an email
005from Jonathan miltz uh with regards to Personnel concerns and an email from Colleen a with regards to bullying concerns uh can the board confirm that they received all those and had an opportunity to next before we enter into um the public comments and hear hear from the public uh I want to give the the uh superintendent a chance to address the public so Mr Russ um yes I'd like to thank everyone for being with here with us tonight um and one thing I'd like to speak about before we go into comments is the situation that we're dealing with at the at the middle school I know um spoke to many people uh that it's deeply concerning for our community and it is deeply concerning uh for the school district um and it has no place
006here and we're dealing with issues related to racism and it is um it has been a difficult process but I would like to share what I can with um the process is long and and laborious um it takes a great deal of time to to research and to meet with people and to investigate and collect information and so I appreciate your patience because I know how difficult that is when we start hearing things we don't have all the details not all the details can be shared quite honestly so it is a just a really difficult process to go through but I thought it may help um to go through what I can share so that you have more information um and so how this started is one of our teachers noticed something that was posted
007on a locker that was uh racist in nature completely inappropriate like I said it has absolutely no place in our school or our community and I'll beon Hest those these things are are they're really devastating I mean it really is it's a painful process to go through and so when she when she she immediately brought it to our administrators at the middle school and they informed the parent of the child who was involved uh from there uh we've gone through an extensive um investigation um they have questioned 30 students uh in regard to this um and uh through this process we see it kind of in two phases one is sorting through it and Gathering all the information what was done and then responding to that and that includes obviously um consequences and discipline for
008the students who are involved those consequences and discipline range from out of school suspension to superintendent hearing a superintendent hearing is after five days of suspension uh the student U and their parents attend u a hearing with a hearing office officer uh the the materials are reviewed and the determination is made for additional suspension um and in addition to that there will be loss of athletic privileges uh for the remainder of the school year how that's going to be distributed or who that's going to impact I I cannot share that with you um I have consulted with our attorneys from the very beginning uh because there's a lot of legal matters that are associated with with these issues um we do that extensively she has providing proved guidance she's reviewed the materials for us and
009like I said she provided guidance in terms of proper um disciplinary action and the people who have been involved um so that is one part of it is the consequences are absolutely necessary um these conversations have been very painful in particular to the families who have been impacted um it's my heart goes out to them uh going through this process has been extremely extremely difficult now on the other side of it is that how do we heal how do we pull ourselves out of this [Music] and how do we pull ourselves out of this and move forward so we have a process that we've already started reaching out to consultants and people who are expertise in the area we've done restorative practices with our students and our staff members um to begin that healing and
010so we also look to you our parents and community members as our partners because the only way that we can get through this and come out on the other side in a better place is if we work on it together and so what I will promise you is this is the first of many conversations um that we will have with you um we will share progress and we are not looking at a plan that's going to take place today next week and next month we're looking at what we need to change systemically for our students as they enter in prek and that we support them through the process through grade 12 um so I wanted to share that with you because I know there's so much uncertainty uh and there's so much frustration there's anger
011I've heard from many parents um outside of of the school in the school and and I and I I concur that this is a probably one of the most difficult if not the most difficult thing I've dealt with in my career um it is in some ways shocking um and we need to fix it and that's what we will do and so with your help I confident that we will be able to rebuild and we will end up in a much better place where we are tolerant and kind excuse me R we are tolerant kind and loving so thank you thank you Mr um and just because um I'm certain there are people here who have not been to a public um spoken I just want to um touch on some of the logistics with
012regards to the public comment session um as I mentioned earlier cards are back there and we've received those and I will call on the uh people who have uh filled out C cards and we will ask them to come forward and sit at the table with us and uh the comments are um are are limited to three minutes um we will have we will we will keep be keeping a time on that if you have written statements that you want to share with the board we have a a box there that we ask you to share you're also always welcome to email the board uh your comments as well uh so that we have those and can uh go back to those as well um we ask that uh all all participants in the public
013comment session uh conduct themselves in a in a in a respectful manner as is the case for the rest of the members of the audience any outbursts uh uses of theme language or conduct that interferes with a me meeting won't be permitted and we will recess if necessary uh to do this um an an important aspect of the public comments is that it is an opportunity for the public to share their voice for us to hear your perspective and it it's in incredibly important to us that we hear your perspective especially in situations such such as this what you need to know is that we this is not a conversation we will this will not be a question answer period it is not a back and forth the students any anytime we are discussing anything
014with regards to a specific student those students are covered under federal law and their privacy is extremely important to us and we will uphold that privacy and we ask that you join us in that while parents are certainly welcome to speak about their children we encourage them not to mention them by name and we ask that they not refer to other people's children we cannot have a discussion about the children in an open form like this I know that it's I know that it's probably difficult for for people to accept the fact that this is not that Forum it can't happen here and we have administrators who who will listen will take appointments from you will take your calls and email and set up time to discuss with you what they're able to discuss with
015you so we just ask for your grace and understanding that there are limitations to what we can and cannot discuss that having been said I thank you all for coming and sharing your perspective as Mr Russ said um if we are to get through this it's going to be as a community uh the uh uh first person that I have here is Annette belela um who to speak to us well I want to thank you Mr Russ for your transparency in addressing the bullying issue because that's actually why here today um and I just want to know but you know because of your transparency I'm kind of um amending my statement on the fly but my name is Nat belela I have three kids in the district I come be come before you because I
016am concerned about bullying bullying I understand that you're shocked by this I'm going to say as a parent of a middle schooler I not shocked there have been instances where my child has been bullied and I did not want to cry I had this beautiful seat to not cry but it is an ongoing problem that does need more attention than what it is already receiving I don't want to say names but I want to say one thing I have realized in talking to other parents my child's not alone and it is repeatedly the same children over and over again if I know that and other parents know that the district knows that and that is very concerning to me because it means they're aware and nothing's changing and our children are realizing nothing's changing my
017son is disheartened to even come forward anytime something happens now because nothing ever happens and he's scared of retaliation he's afraid of being embarrassed those are real consequences for a middle schooler victims of bullying carried these kinds of psychological mental emotional and even physical trauma for years and so I also want to say that I appreciate that the bullies sometimes are also struggling with their own issues and so I don't want to pretend like there's not something going on there too but I do think there's a bigger problem and I applaud you for reaching out to Consultants to try and help improve things the last thing I just want to say is I know I'm a lawyer I know there are rules about um how much you can tell us in being transparent but one
018thing I want to make clear to people I'm an advocate for victims victims of misconduct victims only come forward if they're really strong individuals and because they want to help others and make sure what happens to them never happens to someone else and if we don't address victims and help them what it tells our kids like my own son is that things don't change so it's not worth coming forward and nothing changes if someone doesn't come forward because these things happen in the quiet hallway on the bus in the bathroom so I just really want you to know that the thing I think the kids need and even the parents need at the end of this is some kind of information I don't need to know what happened to whoever I just need to know
019how you're handling it going forward so that we can try and make this place a safe place for all of our kids so thank you so much I apologize if I went over time thank you m our next card is uh Gretchen wichinsky I just I you had basically said what it's my I love this community transplant in here this community has kind of welcomed me um everyone that I'm around uh that I know has been amazing I it would be nice to see a little bit more of the diversity and inclusion training or programming within the you within the school system which it sounds like you are on thank you Mrs Richards our next speaker is uh Ellison KY hi Higgins who is uh here to uh commend the care and passion of Parkdale
020program kind of out of place at the moment but um just a really quick thing that I have the privilege of sitting on two different PTO boards um and I get to hear a lot of what's going on in the schools and maybe it's not terribly out of place because I think when we talk about where we need to make changes in some wayse when kids are really really little so in the elementary schools we need to be building communities where students understand that they really are respectful of each other and that they can care about each other and they can be passionate and I have been fortunate on these PTO boards to see all the programming that is coming and all of the Care and passion from the leadership and the we had six
021different grants that we we provide to teacher grants and we six different grants about books and literacy and so it's just lovely and then there's the literacy committee is bringing in local authors that we can focus on and it's really great and the it's just palpable passion that kids are being encouraged to read being encouraged to care about reading and then there's this other work with I don't know actually who runs if it's pupil services or the committee or both it doesn't matter because they're both really run really well but the bringing down of inclusion week from the high school to the the elementary school it's just exploded this year and we have the new unified club and everybody is really working towards respecting each other and bringing that like love and diversity to everybody
022that's all I wanted to say thank you speaker is Riley speak my name is Riley wus I'm a senior at Easter High School while speaking in front of people is not my strong this is an issue that needs life brought upon it not only is there immense immersion of racial steam bullying not only in middle school but high school as well bullying harassment and more are going Overlook by Administration my family has been hit with these ridiculous and irresponsible acts personally the night of homecoming for instance a group of teens were spreading inappropriate photos of my little sister and it has been a major issue and had been brought to the police court and school's attention when it first happened at the end of last school year my sister and I walked up to a
023thought to be Trust was an adult and staff member and she stated let them be jealous of your body to my little sister we also brought it to the attention of the high school resource officer and he and the S trusted adult said that they would go up to the the individuals in which they did not they also ended the night stating they couldn't do anything and if we and could inform the police if we said police last I checked the resource officer was a police officer along with such there have been numerous racial related incidences such as during my soft sophomore year and particularly there was a girl harassing a male individual who happened to be black calling him the n-word and much more then when admin was presented with this knowledge they gave
024a girl a personal esort to classes for her safety and more recently the captain of the cheer team has been um using the n-word to bully individuals and has called individuals of special needs the r word my next point is bulling related to individuals with special needs they are constantly faced with bullying and unfair treatment other classmates bully them and call them the hard word and that they are dumb or that it doesn't matter if you bully them just because some individuals with special needs don't understand that it's bullying they also refuse to be teamed up with these individuals in in gym class they State they will ruin the game that they suck or roll their eyes and refuse to participate themselves and the school does not um do much of anything to respond to
025them I have seen them do all that I have seen them do is tell them that it's not nice or that there is no room for it with that being said it is not just concerning the middle school but within the high school as well and I know not only me and my family but others and their families would appreciate more attention being brought to uh brought to related circumstances uh our next speaker is Susan I apologize beer fan apologize to talk to us on discrimination bullying uh and thank you to everyone that has spoken so far we really appreciate it and uh we my family firmly believes that we're stronger together so thank you to everyone so uh our sun has been directly and negatively impacted by ongoing racial discrimination both in school and
026Athletics at the middle school a student upstander supporting our son is now experiencing ongoing retal retaliatory behaviors our district code of conduct and the New York State educational legislation passed in 2009 the dignity for all students act are in place to provide and protect an environment free of bullying and discrimination and to prohibit retaliatory Behavior we have met with a superintendent school building leaders athletic director and basketball coach in an effort to collaboratively identify a multifaceted and comprehensive plan to address the immediate issues enact the daa process and uphold our code of conduct our district leaders have been following the process but our kids are still in danger every day we maintain that our plan must address our school and athletic community and that our greater Easter Community also must be involved to effectively impact
027the systemic issue that we are facing in our school the intent of our approach is ultimately restorative which begins with accountability set by the code of conduct of our school district moving forward our desire is for our district leaders to prioritize ongoing rigorous accountability for all in terms of our code of conduct in school and Athletics to ensure a safe place for all of our kids to learn and play empowering our leaders and coaches to implement culturally sensitive learning experiences and positive interventions and enforce and uphold those already in place is critical the time is now this will lead to a consistently safe and respectful environment for for all students such an environment is conducive to learning and sportsmanship it provides healthy experiences that support our children as they grow into young men and young
028women together we can create a strong and inclusive culture that Embraces Partnerships with families School staff and community members silence is not an option and I think we're hearing that tonight transparent communication is a must it is our duty to humanity to speak up against discrimination and bullying it is our right to have appropriate consequences when enforcing and upholding our district and athletic policy when we abide by this consistently our work implementing culturally sensitive and restorative practices can flourish into a culture where this is embraced and where this becomes who we are because we have learned and we understand my family will continue to utilize the educational laws and process in place designed to protect our rights uphold our code of conduct and expect nothing less than than an inherently safe and inclusive District we
029can do this and choose something other than challenging hate with hate we will not do this we have experienced an outpouring of love and support through this and it has far outweighed the few holding on to hate let's amplify the voices of love love and support and let's take this as an opportunity to illuminate the power of unity and continue to grow stronger together please everyone take a moment and imagine that your child or your loved one is going through this please understand what they might be experiencing in their family with this ongoing harassment imagine that every morning you have to talk to your kid about safety pring them stay safe travel in pairs identify teachers and safe spaces that you can go to if you feel cornered this is how we start our days
030this is how we end our days this has become our constant conversation and so if you can imagine yourself your family your loved ones in this or for those of you that have experienced it please we need to come together and we need to be stronger thank you our next uh speaker is uh page sorry that's a tough have to follow um my name is paig hutter I have four remaining children left in the school and I've had countless meetings and phone calls the last week over the issues at the middle school um one of the things that I would like the board to look at and address as a community I think we are a lot better than this um a lot better as an Administration I feel that we failed our families our
031kids our teachers I feel like we let them down um we talk about communication being effective making sure that everybody gets the information it's one of our pillars that we speak on about our excellence in our community because we do have such a great district there was actually a note in the hallway that caught my eye coming up here I am proud to work at a school that is so connected to the community that we really are a family I don't feel that with this situation that has arisen at the middle school I feel that the parents were left in the dark the community was left in the dark and the Rumor Mills fly the hate that is going on online now regarding kids um is atrocious it's deplorable the actions of our kids are
032awful um we need to do better as a community but we have a very big learning curve and we have a very big learning opportunity and I really would hope that the board the administration US as a community can look at that and move forward and that we can talk about these things and do those things um we have we have too many great people in this town but we also have to be very sensitive that we are a very white town um there isn't a lot of diversity in our schools that there might be a lot of families that don't travel they don't get out of other places we need to do a better job of educating our kids we need to have better policies and procedures in place if you look at any
033of the online forums clearly bullying is an issue as we heard from Riley before too it needs to be addressed in a way that is effective because clearly what we're doing isn't working it's hard I don't want I I never want the fears that has a sending her kid to school we have to do better we are so much better than what is happening and I really hope that we can look as a community and as a school and do better for our kids um I would just want to take a minute to to thank everyone who came up uh tonight and and particularly those who who came to uh speak with us um clearly as a community we have a lot of work ahead of us and the the the school board the school
034district cannot do it without all of you coming to this coming to the board and sharing your thoughts on topics such as this is not easy it takes it takes courage courage and I I personally want to thank each and every one of you who came and shared your thoughts on the matter because that is how we're going to get through this you hearing what you had to say is going to help us find a way to heal so I just want to express uh our appreciation of each and every one of you and speak I'm speaking as as a parent myself I'm I'm on year 20 of having kids in this District I've got one more to go but I'm not leaving I love this District I love this community and I am equally
035as passionate about you about this as you and I I ask that you understand that this board takes this matter extremely seriously as does the administration faculty and staff of this school district and that we will work hard and we will work harder to communicate as much as we possibly can within what we're allowed to communicate and we will try to be better with regards to how we let people know about what resources we do have available and and make PE make it so that hopefully people are victims of this sort of bulling uh and racism are more comfortable with finding someone to speak here with here at the district so again I just want to I just want to thank all of you for coming and giving us the opportunity to hear directly from
036you um and as Mr Russ said before this is not the last this is not the end this is this is us uh looking to continue this conversation and work that we do so thank you all I would like to maybe put it out for the people who are in the audience right now um what we can do is um we can meet um so if you want help have a sign-in sheet you can just leave me your name and your email address I will reach out to you to set up a meeting where we can sit down and and start this conversation share your personal experiences with me um you know I'll bring in the rest of the administrative team at some point um but I think it's no uh this is a difficult
037process it's it's incredibly difficult to go through and it's it's not going to be fixed over theight uh but I think um the one way that we will solve these problems is if we continue to have discussions around it and find ways and solutions you have ideas and experiences that that will be new to us and and so I think if you would like to to do that you you mind my secretary Sue Kramer will reach out to you uh to set up a time within the next couple of weeks so that as many of you can be there and so maybe we'll do it in an evening that seems to be easier for most people and that made me the way just to start this out um the students who are here you know
038as well to join us please do so you'd like to share your experience good and bad things that have happened you are also welcome to join us and this is where we start and then you know how do we work from here and get this message out you know that's just going take some time and it's I think our process there's a lot of really smart people in the audience who are deeply caring you know I I raised three kids here my kids are you know young just graduated from grad school and you know we've had great and it has been um incredibly rewarding in so many ways and one of the biggest rewards of this community is our people the wom's community are are wonderful and they have a lot to offer and that's
039what makes our schools great right right now we we've Fallen right and and this is like a low point for me and I think a low point for all of us and so we need to rebuild and I know we can do it I know we can do it it's going to take time but I am sure um that we will be better and we will have a deeper understanding and we will better prepare our kids to be in a diverse world and so somebody could do that thank you I'll put it on the counter in the back pass it around and whoever then just put your if you want to add your your telephone number that would be great too but your name and your email address thank you Mr [Music] Russ we're going
040to move on to item is superintendence comments uh we will move on to item nine are there any administrators who have Mr Brown just want to um let everyone here know first of all reiterate what superintendent has said and thank you all for being here um and sharing your stories with us I want to thank the parents we've met with I've met with several parents over this process and I just want you to know that we are committed to getting this right we are committed to working with our students we're committed to working with our teachers and our parents and we have to get this right um we understand understand that there's going to be multiple layers to this and we we look forward to beginning that healing process beginning the rebuild and we understand
041that that rebuild is going to be a heavy lift of all of us together and and using outside resources but most importantly I think the people that are going to make the difference are the people that are here tonight and that that are in our buildings um but I just need everyone here to understand that the we and when I say we I don't just mean us I mean everyone here and I can speak for the teachers too we've had so many conversations they are incredible people that care a ton We Care a ton about our community and our school and the students and just know that we're going to get this right so thank you thank you Mr I'm justs a little bit um to update about a upcoming event we have at Parkdale
042we have our steam night coming up next week which is a quite a large event um for us um we're excited to Launch a couple of new aspects to our steam KN night this year um one being uh kind of a soft opening for some of our students who might have some sensory needs um they're able to come in a little early with their families to participate in Steam night in an environment that might be more appropriate for them um with some sensory friendly activities for them to participate in um and then at 5:30 the doors open for everybody else to join us in um the presentations which cover all aspects of steam um and lastly a new Edition we have a steam project Fair this year which we opened up to our third and
043fourth graders we had an overwhelming response and we have 92 students participating um with projects ranging from favorite dog treats to why basketballs bounce to growing a tower garden um so those presentations will all be on display in the library um the students won't be there physically presenting but you'll be able to see their thought process through their presentations um it grew way bigger than we thought but they were so excited for this um and it's our third and fourth graders so our second graders get a sneak peek before steam night um to kind of get them excited about next year and thinking about what they want to do so just a little update for per that sort of enthusiasm sounds like um uh T tacking on to the um communication piece that we've been
044speaking about tonight it's been a district initiative this year to work to reach more of our community as well as reach more of our parents and students um we've had some big hurdles met this past couple of months um just this week we rolled out a new busing app so that parents are able to track their students bus not the student but the bus um and it allows them to get notifications when the bus is like a mile away or two miles away so that they know they can go outside then and not wait in the cold um also very helpful if a bus is running late it's a great opportunity for our staff to use in the offices because sometimes we do have delays with buses um without them having to go into our
045notification system and have to pick and choose the maybe 30 students on a bus they're able to send notifications out through the app so that the bus runs are already modified and and pulled so time is saved for them and and communication goes out quicker um on top of that we've also rolled out a new survey system just this past month called thought exchange our first survey went out just about two and a half weeks ago um and it closes any moment now so um it's been a wonderful opportunity for us to hear from um the community members the staff the parents um we've had um at least 700 respondents so far as last time I checked this morning um for people to give input on the budget process and priorities that they feel are
046very important so um you know we really are trying to hear from the community and we're using some really neat new tools to to help reach um and if anyone needs any help with any of these the tech department is always Avail through help at eak k12.org any other administrators hearing none we are on to item 10 board president and board member comments and committee reports um I'll the grou in the um last week the policy committee met and we have on on the agenda uh the first reading of a number of policies um we are going through this uh our our cyclical review of the entire board uh or of policies but we are um along the way out some that need uh addressing sooner and so we have a a first reading of
047some and in addition to that we also have our first reading of our policy with regards to uh the exio student board member uh which uh that law goes into effect on July 1 uh we met and we discussed uh the policy with regards to that and um and so that is on there for its first reading reading along with the job description uh which we feel is important to uh present to the students who are considering this so the expectations are known in in advance and they can understand uh the uh the commitment that they're taking on by uh by becoming a uh a member of the board and sitting with us here at the table um um yes I'm going to speak of the safety committee meeting um Mr Roberts is not here
048so um I will be talking about the meeting that M Dan and I attended on March sorry not March uh February 10th um as far as Parkdale goes two alteris CS have already beened one was with a wild animal and the other one was a plus uh incident on a field trip Middle School new radios have been cycled in and starting this month will be a new pass system where students will Lo be logging in and out of each class um High School um is meeting with the new orber orsy principal for lockdown drills um preparation they going to do one together in March um coming up actually very soon so they've already met with the principal C of conduct uh reconvening soon to reevaluate as we do every year um technology in regards to
049the recent security breach we were told that 64 million students were involved with that breach and um because of that power school has giving us two years protection and anyone who was involved in the breach power school would be actually reaching out to them individually to notify it's not something we need to do as a district it's something that power school themselves would be doing and Athletics is currently in the process of creating a code of conduct and that is all I have Dr um the only thing I have is I had the opportunity to attend the sepa meeting last night um they had a special um guest speaker discussing ADHD and it was the whole thing was very well organized um but it's interesting how I just want to say how hard a section
050of our community is absolutely working towards inclusion um they had quite a few not only you know between our dances and the um the Ste um Fair coming up soon how that they're providing they're making sure that there's an opportunity provided for inclusion of different students um and then they are also very heavily involved in inclusion week that's coming up as well um I just wanted to that's that's all I have tonight but it was a it was a positive experience and I think one worth mentioning that there are there are positive actions happening to make sure that students are included thank you Dr Mr blowers thank you for your leadership tonight the superintendent leadership tonight it's a sensitive issue I thought you handle it very well representing I just want to say that thank
051you Mr Brunson oh I support exactly what Mr blowers just said and I want you to know that that the rest of us are going to be supportive of you through this process and supportive of the students the parents and and all of the folks who are going to work so hard to make sure that we solve this problem so count on us to be behind you Mr BRS Mr stand yeah and joining with Mr blowers and Mr bunson and what they' said in their comments um this is such a challenging time for our district and then we U Miss soer and I attended the DPC meeting last week um I believe it was February 26th then we had the opportunity to meet with the p from the middle school and Parkdale that are going
052on and all their different activities and I actually don't have all my notes so I can't go through everything right now but we did have a really nice couple hour meeting and on Thursday night I attended the Erie County um Association school meeting um and that was just a a general meeting they talked about they were U going to adopt some new bylaws because they don't have enough people I think attending some of the meetings so they had to change the quum number so that was one of the things so we went through all of the different bylaws and that was one of the significant changes there will be no dues increase um this year so they just to say that for the past 12 years they have not had increas there so they want
053everyone to know that one of the um other things that I thought would be um that's really interesting for us going forward as we are um talking about our uh student uh board members they're going to have generic training for student board members this summer and they were also talking about maybe putting together a possible newsletter on a monthly basis a PowerPoint maybe some different um types of opport unities to do public speaking uh for the students to prepare them for that position so those are some things and they think the training I don't know if I said that it's going to be in the summer but it's it's not definite yet um and then they they went through their budget um and the yeah and then just did the round robin and basically the
054round robin with the schools that were there are sort of confronting the same that we are in terms of budget issues and also C and I have all the the notes or the do all right thank you again for Pinch hitting for me on on such short notice I really appreciate that um okay we are moving on to item 11 legislation do we have any legislation so ladies and gentlemen this is the point in the meeting where our uh seniors who have joined us to fulfill their requirements of going to meetings get to leave if they [Laughter] want and very rarely some really good stuff coming up I know there is [Music] over here for those seniors all seniors you right here [Music] trust me trust me nothing humbles you more of it than the
0558:00 moment okay um thank you all who have to stay we appreciate uh that um we are moving on to item 12 reports and discussions items part two and our first is the 2024 25 technology curriculum curriculum review so just to refresh the uh all of our curriculums are on a minimum of a 5-year review cycle obviously if changes in mandates or programs change in between but at least every five years you get to hear from that department to give you an overview of what's working well and what support they need uh today I'd like to introduce to you Mr Ryan Wall the department chair he's up at the high school uh Mr Austin Dodge was at our middle school and started this year at our high school and he's been employed for us what
056six weeks now and we're already throwing him in front of the board Mr Sean keski who is our new Middle School five week five five weeks five weeks so that's called baptism by fire but I'm going to turn it over to these three gentlemen who will walk you through what's going on uh in in the world of technology education great thank you Mark uh I thought they were all here to watch us but I guess not are still staying that's nice uh well thank you all Mark introduced us thank you uh Mr Russ and the board thank you everyone for coming tonight um we're here to talk about uh one of the awesome programs we have uh in this District technology education uh which which starts in the Middle School um what is it in
057case you're unfamiliar um you look around this room um you have a hard time finding something that wasn't designed by a human so what what we teach is the designed World um and and we try to incorporate problem solving skills uh encourage critical thinking uh we're trying to prepare kids for the workforce um um and and 21st century Workforce um CNC Machining and and different things laser engraving a lot of cool uh rapid prototyping 3D printing technology um enhancing Innovation and adaptability so uh it Fosters an understanding of emerging Technologies helping individuals adapt to new advancements and drive Innovation uh providing ethical and responsible use and and Bridging the digital divide and and introducing them to all sorts of different Technologies and software Hardware that see in in the workforce um just a couple of
058of little projects we have we went to the um Niagara County Community College Tech Fair this year and the students made the principal of engineering students made some race cars they made some big uh Balsa Bridges or no I'm sorry they're Pine Bridges uh Blue Devil design is a really neat program that we started up three years ago at the high school and here's just a couple of the cutting boards that they've made uh actually Joselyn left a little while ago she made that one um and Austin's going to talk about um kind of our our Pathways at the high school yeah so at the high school um when students come into ninth grade they take design drawing for production or DDP and that's a class with Mr wall and it's basically an intro to
059all of the different Tech courses that that we have available um once students move on from n nth grade we have a sequence of different engineering classes that that students can take and then we also have um some kind of Standalone classes next year we are changing up three of our course offerings so we're introducing a a woodworking class kind of going back in time getting students back to using their hands building tangible things we are um adding a home improvement class which is going to allow students to learn you know everything that you need to do to fix up your house and we assume that most students at some point are going going to home home um need to take care of things on their own so we're hoping to be able to teach
060them those skills with that course and then the other class that we're adding um it's we're calling it engineering Graphics it is a three college credit course through Sunni as Wego um their course title for it is tell 101 and what we're doing there is kind of combining all of our engineering classes into what we see is a a junior senior Capstone class where students can get three introductory engineering college credits uh program Integrity so that's something that's really important uh for us at the high school um technology is expensive we've got a lot of really high-end tools uh machines laser engravers uh vinyl cutters um and things that that that that you know are expensive and and things that wear out if you think about your cell phone you get a new cell phone
061every 5 years six years um you don't think about that cost but that cost is is real um and in order to keep this program up and running we would be asking for a little bit of an investment into uh some newer tools that the students all really interact with as they go through our program uh so onto those those tools you can see down here we've got a this is a a 4x8 CNC mill uh and it's kids would learn coating and they would be able to design what they actually made on the mill it doesn't require them to do anything except understand how to do it so how to model it on our CAD software and how to generate uh a post and then Cod It Out tool changes everything that goes into
062actually creating things on that Mill and our our laser engravers are getting getting old and and tired they're not as powerful they're slow um a lot downtime there's a lot of downtime with them where we have to order parts and you haven't dealt in a school district is kind of the pain to order things process it so you're talking two or three weeks without a part maybe a month without a part I talked about Blue Devil design we're you we're a business we're trying to stay on on point and it's hard to do when you your biggest machine doesn't work so um we we think we can come up with Creative Solutions and we always have um everyone's been very supportive of our program uh working with the district uh the Community Education Foundation and
063even glue devil design um I think we can we can make it all happen I think we just need to have that conversation and and start working towards a solution uh moving forward um and then I can chime it on this so some other areas of need um with some of the new courses that we're offering woodworking home Improvement kind of in some ways shifting a little bit more to handson things um one of the things that we would like to do is update our our wood shop production space um one of the biggest issues that we have right now and and it's going to become an even bigger issue in the future is storage when we start offering home improvement classes we're going to have students building you know half walls we're going to
064bring in vanities um sinks toilets we want to teach them how to root all of that takes a lot of space currently we we don't have any more space available we're out of storage space so we're trying to figure out you know how can we fit all of these large projects into our rooms and not lose all of our instructional space so that's something that I don't know what the best solution is but we're looking to to find a solution to accommodate these different courses um with that other things that we're looking for one of the ideas that we have is our shop tables are very old um I would be willing to Guess that they're probably original to the building um so 50 plus years one of the ideas was potentially getting smaller um
065wood top tables that are on Caster wheels that we can move around if we can move the tables easily we can open up space um and allow students to work um other things doing something with the floor right now we also teach engines and and some metal working classes in our wood shop space inevitably students spill oil students spill gas it is a slip and fall risk um so we would like to do something to add some sort of texture to the floor that way we can try to mitigate some of that risk um and then the other thing is with incorporating more woodworking courses um we want to find a way to separate engines in metal working space from woodworking space it's it's really disheartening when a student spends you know days weeks a
066month working on a really awesome woodworking project and then they accidentally set their their project down in oil or gas it gets stained it gets ruined um so if there's a way that we can separate those two spaces keep you know wood and dust in one room gas and oil in another that would be tremendously helpful um so looking ahead um I we we think that these new courses uh along with with adding sea at the middle school is really going to have a profound impact on our program um so I think what we we want to do in the future and and Sean has started it which is great already and we'll talk about that in a minute is is increased uh access to robotics when I started here this is my 10th year
067we bought a bunch of robotic kits but again as time goes they they kind of they wear out and they're they're not relevant anymore and the manufacturers know this and they keep making new stuff that that that makes their old stuff irrelevant so uh we want to continue U adding that 21st techn adding those 21st Technologies um levil design has been a great success for us and I think a good opportunity for our students uh we wanted that to grow uh but that requires space obviously um and then uh just creating more opportunities for to bring in Industry professionals we we we took a um a field trip last week or a couple months ago to was the ceiling devices ceiling devices and in Lancaster that was a really cool opportunity for our Blu devil
068design kids to see how that business was run um but uh that's kind of where we're at looking forward and talked about Sean here so we'll I know everybody probably didn't think I was gonna get to talk so yeah I'm at the middle school I I this is only my fifth week in the district so a lot of what I'm doing is is new but I've had super good support from Mr Brown and a bunch of others but I've turned over the classroom that I'm in so I've spent a lot of time throwing a lot of things away and reorganizing and getting rid of tools and machines and Mr Ron's right we probably from when he was over here so I a lot of the same thing so I'm Inna I have sixth graders right
069now and my my job right now with sixth graders is really to introduce them to the whole Gambit of technology so I have kids coding every day they're uh learning uh basic block coding in hopes that they'll be building video games by the end of 10th grade or I'm Sorry by the end of our 10 weeks with sixth graders and then seventh graders they'll build something more interactive that is more broadcast and then eighth graders will have to solve some type of real world coding action using some different block coding totally free stuff that there a lot of them are doing it from home and loving what they're doing uh I'm also using uh tools and machines so they're using hand saws and scroll saws drill presses and the whole kind of gamut of things
070to build stuff so we're making um just the oven poles right now I was told I had to do oven poles Choice it was not a project that I was going to do so uh like with sixth graders my goal is really basic stuff it's mostly hand tools uh with with a dabbling of machines seventh graders they'll get a little bit more machines and then my goal with eighth graders is really going to be to model Blue Devil design so I think what we have going on at the high school is great in terms of Blue Devil design but kids can really make things out of a bunch of different mediums I think when they think of tech it gets caught up in this idea that it has to be metal or it has to
071be wood but I would like to model eighth grade off of Blue Devil design where they're coming up with some type of problem they're solving and a product they're bringing to life and running through the whole kind of scope of that proc process so I mean that's kind of it in a nutshell I I like I said i' this is my fifth week so I have a lot of strong things going in place though I I have a website that I've already put in place that is uh super comprehensive if you ever feel like taking a look it's at it's connected to my name at at U the user website but kids all are using it every day uh to access all of my my curriculum content and things that they are they are using
072um I was able to get a a grant from the EAS Educational Foundation for 20 robotics kits before I even started so that was cool uh so I have all the robot kits put together and students are building robots now uh some of my kids I have them kind of working in cohorts so some of them are already building them this is an example um my son is in sixth grade so there he is uh getting to build some some of the robot stuff uh I have done a lot with the classroom if you go down there it looks completely different than it did a couple weeks ago uh thrown a lot of things away and I've gotten rid of a lot of machines that don't work and uh Mr Brown's been awesome about helping
073make sure that I have the funding I need to make sure some of that stuff happens because like the guy said this is it's not cheap stuff right um and my needs for my program are kind of in line with what these guys said I I'd love to move uh my 3D printers up a bit and I know Ryan said that like our phones are 5 years old I guarantee you none of your phones are 5 years old maybe two years old and I know like the laser I'm using is is way too old uh and I the uh there's just ways of improving and and increasing student access to the tools I don't want it to be Mr keski doing all the work for the tools and machines I would like to create a
074space where it's a maker space sixth and seventh grade I'm doing a lot of the things but not all the things and by the time they get to eighth grade and I get them for 20 weeks which by the way is a lot of time they are they are running the laser they're running the 3D printers they're running those things and the only way I'll be able to do that is by getting machines that actually interface with the Chromebooks that we have instead of trying to create things that are going backwards and that's really what I have right now is trying to trying to match pod things together um do I have much yeah looking forward I kind of went over this just what the updates are um hopefully we'll have students going to Tech
075Wars this year and I have a handful of uh activities that they'll be uh competing with like mous trap cars Robotics and a handful more I don't even remember what all of them were but I'll be taking a bunch of kids to that and that's all I've got so um Mr KES I know a lot it's been mentioned many times that this is your fifth week here so no one gets the wrong impression can you tell us how many weeks five weeks how many weeks in total you have uh of experience yeah no I've been teaching for 22 is years I was in Lancaster at you're not supposed to say that you are a legend of Technology okay so I am a legend right you are a legend in the world of tech ad is
076all we're going to say I'm super ingrained in the district here I met my wife and in the hallway out here so like I'm here I'm you s right I mean it's as much as I can get so uh yeah but I was teaching for several years in another district and uh and it was the whole thing from actually kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade so I am certified to teach uh Project Lead the Way launch to K through sixth grade but we see where that goes know it's my fifth week you know you can only play that card so many times I feel like I can get it in a coule more can you just refresh Us in the Middle School how how much time do they get for so sixth graders
077as it is right now anyways I get them 10 weeks so I'm seeing them during third quarter uh seventh graders I'll get them 10 weeks in the fourth quarter and then eighth graders I get them 20 weeks in the first semester first first and second quarter yeah we'll see how that goes I'll report back okay this is only my fifth week EXA I would like to just say I'm so happy that one of the new um classes at the high school is going to be the woodworking because it kind of takes from what you doing in the Middle School onto the high school so I'm really happy about that um my question is what is a dust collection okay so in the classroom right and if you can imagine there is a question back there
078I I I did see your hand I'll get that's all right um so in the classroom right now there's it's a it's a huge room right if you've ever been to the Middle School room and there's a dust collector that was put in at some point I'm not really sure when it was put in um and it runs off a very small tubing and it should be much wider tubing and it has no suction so as students are using the machines The tust Collector should be running so that it keeps the dust down right so that we're not breathing in dust all day and ruining the equipment or ruining projects as we're finishing things and it just keeps the dust down to kind of piggyback off that when I I was here the past couple
079years to to show how little suction there is on that system when we would be using the shop there would be teachers calling my room from the third floor wanting to know why there was dust in their in their hallway and in their rooms this is kind of a safety issue it it absolutely is so like right now I have four or five different shop backs around the classroom trying to keep the dust down it's just it's not a I mean I'm emptying shop backs every two or three days cleaning out filters and then cycling them through so yeah the dust collector I mean I haven't it's been here only 5 weeks I trying to bug Mr Brown for only so many things you know like and I'm trying to get the big hitters out
080of the way so I I've taken a lot of the bigger machines out of the classroom the big contributors to dust only because I I think kids just need to have the tactile use of of hand tools first so before I'm going to put them on a big band saw I would like to see them using handsaws appropriately and accurately and using coping saws and some of the other hand tools that are more accessible to all kids as they are growing up right I mean if you go into a junk drawer at home you're going to pull out a handsaw not a not a big Banda right so being able to use some of those basic tools and keep the dust down for now until till we can figure out the dust collection is there
081any other board member well I just had a comment whenever we do our visitation in the fall it is always I I just so enjoy our opportunity to go visit you know your classrooms and see the different things that are going on and I feel like every year when we go there's something that you're engaging theud one of the highlights of our someone did have a question y Mr yeah I have well couple comments I'm guilty of being involved in the construction of that room in the 1970s [Laughter] I've been here when I first came the the that room was in the basement and uh and there was a renovation of this building done in the 1970s and that's when we created that room and those the stuff that's as old as you're talking about
082was purchased at that time you know and I would just say to the rest of the board you're well aware that we're in the middle of a a building project right now we're in phase two of renovation we're going to do the uh the fax room on the other side of the hall from that classroom but the the classroom that Mr keski is working in uh not the one with the computers but the long room with the where you do the Hands-On stuff uh hasn't been touched since the 1970s and and um uh and and it's the only room as far as I am aware it is the only room in this building that has not been renovated and is not on a scale schedu to be renovated and so the the uh it's kind
083of been a left it's it's a stepchild that's been left over because we've had some changes in staff over the past couple of years and there was probably no one advocating for for that Ro uh and so I'm going to Advocate a little bit here and say that when we do our next project in a couple of years that room has to be right front and center on the on the thing uh the the dust collector is a good example it's a fire hazard uh that room when there was a substitute teacher working in there maybe 15 or 20 years ago there was a fire in that dust collect you know and dust is explosive it's dangerous stuff so so let's get to it and let's let's get this thing fixed and do it right
084and and with the help of the teacher to to determine what the appropriate equipment is we can have a topnotch this curriculum that he told us about Paul M no so I I just wanted Mr Dodge and Mr wall I just wanted to give you the two of you just a a a minute for your El elevator pitches with regards to your businesses one being um Blue Devil design I know you mentioned it but I'm certain that not everybody here is entirely from and Mr DOD with regards to uh the maintenance and repairs of uh uh Small Engines um start with you yeah so um I I currently am teaching a lot of the classes that are in our our shop in our production lab um so this year I have two different Small Engines
085classes engines one engines two um and basically we are are teaching kids originally with how to tear down and rebuild a small engine now we're more so shifting into small engine surface so how can we them up how can we get you know engines running properly um along with that looking ahead we'll have woodworking um I know my skills personally are are I'm much better with with Woodworking and Home Improvement um I I fully redid the house that I'm actually selling on Friday so I'm I'm very excited about that um I'm fully gutting and redoing a house right now so I'm super excited to be able to teach kids those skills because I think they're really applicable to basically every student that comes through our doors um I know for myself if I want to
086hire somebody out to do something in my house it is crazy expensive and quite frankly I can't afford it so to be able to do things by myself um it saves me a ton of money and there's a lot of pride in my work so I I'm excited to be able to teach kids those those things in our classes and and you do take uh in snowblowers long we do yeah in in Blue double designs specifically um one aspect of the business is taking in um Small Engines from the community so in the winter we do um snowblower tuneups for people we can do minor repairs and then looking ahead to the spring and eventually summer season we are looking to bring in push mowers riding mowers weed whackers whatever we can to help people
087in the community get those things tuned up and and ready to go Mr wall that's a zoom in on a very specific Blue Devil design aspect I'll just uh yeah summarize It For You Blue Devil design is our student run business uh I said earlier it's three years old we have uh a sales department a marketing department accounting department uh we've got manufacturing we've got design did I get them mom and then sales and service so we have our sales part which kind of ties into our entrance too it's a it's a a really neat opportunity for our students to have uh two periods in a row three teachers like facilitating that and and kind of they're in charge they come up with all of of the design ideas maybe guided at times by us
088but for the most part it's it's it's student run and it's it's been a really successful so far I'm sure many of you that are here maybe are following us on Instagram or Facebook great thank you very much and as with eighth graders like kind of following with what they're doing like I I Envision having those same positions within eighth grade group cohorts right and then when they get up to the high school like it's just going to be a natural transition to what they're doing at the high school standing and and I know we had a hand up and at the risk of being a wet blanket I just do do want to remind the audience that this is a meeting presentation to to the board and not necessarily open to public comment I
089would just I I I would knowing that and and being a graceful person I do want to say is it is it something of of pressing of pressing matter that you want to no I was gonna say now that I know his name I'll email him wondering we missed the introductions of the the indiv your individual names we were just more or less curious because we couldn't remember so we wanted to what your names were again sorry one last you Sean K ask got the most experien yes Sean can ask you that's me yeah we have r wall Sean keski and Austin Dodge thank you thank you very much yeah so I would like to thank you for your presentation um like the the program is kind of like just um taking on a length
090of its own right over the last five to seven years the interest has really um has really peaked um you've come up with like such creative opportunities that are really applicable to so many aspects of their life and their schooling so many our kids are are going on to col and and these are prerequisites for getting there for engineering programs compter science and those types of things the Hands-On aspect I think is brilliant because you know we need to get back to that because so much of that kind of went away and now we need to get back to that because you know the kids that are on the farm I talked with our kids that are in our sustainable ad course and they said you know Mr Russ this is like the best part
091of my day I get to go outside I get my hands dirty take care of the chickens you know we're farming eggs doing some really great things so the kids are loving all those types of programs and you're doing exceptional work and and just so you're aware that the the the spaces were on for this project um space especially in the middle school and the at the high school too I mean there's there's definitely need because of the use and the interest um but unfortunately the project was just too small to be able to support um redoing the space because it is expensive there's a lot of equipment this the space itself is is a lot to renovate um but there are some things like the dust collector that we'll have to take a look
092at immediately and make sure that's okay and some of the other things that are related to safety you um that's something we have to take care of immediately but um it will definitely be on for the next project because you know it's uh we know it's uh an important space and I would say one of the most popular spaces for our kids well thank you you just board on behalf of Miss li who couldn't be here today she works with this team year round in terms of the development of curriculum and with Miss George in terms of the funding and those are kind of the left and right feet that move the program forward so we're aware of that um we'll have Mr Merz sof go in in terms of specifically the desk collector piece
093in very short order and we are aware of the thresholds for declaring things Surplus and OBS and we're working through that process as well so all that's the behind the scenes stuff um from someone who's been here longer than five weeks uh we are moving on to Item B uh which which is the universal prek discussion in Mario and James yes so the window for upk pre-registration closed um last Friday at the end of February so I'm here to kind of present what Mr M Bry has coined a happy problem um happy in that the interest in our upk program is much higher than it has been in the past um the problem is uh capacity so our upk program this is our fourth year of running our program and we are proud to say
094in the past four years we've never had a wait list we've been able to accommodate every family that has wanted to send their child to upk has been able to enroll um so we're concerned a little bit about numbers um and being able to accommodate families for next year so I believe you all should have a handout in your folder um that's titled cost analysis of additional upk classroom for .6 um I kind of just want to walk you through some of these numbers and what this increased um interest in the program um would have uh financially for the district so if you look at this top section up here we have 109 um students that have completed the pre-registration process at this point our upk capacity we have five classrooms at Parkdale um is
09585 students so the difference between that is 24 which is our potential weight list that number is actually larger than projected typically we have more families that complete the pre-registration process than actually end up sending their child to upk they for many reasons whatever um they don't complete the full registration and just decide not to send their child in the fall typically that's about 10 to 15 families so we're looking at right now um about having a weight list between 9 to 14 students B based on historical data so the second section of the sheet that I have um I worked with Miss George to kind of go through what the projected cost would be to add a six classroom to accommodate those additional students so we're looking at the salaries and benefits obviously each
096classroom would have an additional teacher plus a teacher's aid um so that's the cost of their salaries and benefits and then I included on here the supplies and materials and furniture that would be necessary um to fill that classroom with everything that they needed to run that program for the year so we're looking initially um at a cost of additional cost of about $132,000 to operate that six classroom so how does that impact the general fund and I do want to caveat registration just closed Friday so none of these numbers have been taken into account with any of Miss George's budget presentations that she's done so far um so this hasn't been worked into any part of her presentation tonight because this is hot off the presses we just found out about this on Friday
097so I presented three different scenarios as I told you we really don't know how many students will end up being in that sixth classroom if we decide to go that route because we don't know what families will choose to do so I presented you with three different scenarios we think that the lowest number of students that would be enrolled in that classroom would be nine um 14 could potentially happen and ideally we cap our classes at 18 so I presented those three different scenarios depending on enrollment because upk is Grant funded remember it's funded on a per pupil basis so we get $5,400 per student so that second row of that table would show you based on enrollment what the revenue to the district would be through that funding so obviously um the projected cost
098would remain the same no matter how many students are in that classroom so the difference that orangish reddish line at the bottom that would be the additional expenditure that the general fund would have to provide in order to operate that sixth classroom um in addition to those hard set numbers um there could be other financial implications that we really don't know yet um we've just started looking into this and investigating what our options would be um sustainability is obviously a potential impact or consideration we've got to consider I don't know and we don't know if this is a bubble year maybe we have a really big group of prek students that are starting we need that six classroom for next year what if our numbers kind of go back to where they historically have been
099are we able to sustain that sixth classroom or not um space obviously is another consideration that we need to consider um we know Space is really at a premium at Parkdale right now I think they're busting at the seams over there so I we haven't even begun to look into would we even be able to accommodate this classroom if we can where are we going to put this classroom so that's another logistic that we're going to have to work out if we decide to go this route um and finally scheduling I in speaking to Miss Parker and Mrs panoa they are just in the preliminary um stages of establishing their schedule for next year our pre students are fortunate enough where they get to participate and a lot of our specials so they go to
100music class they go to art class they go to PE so having that six class in upk may have an impact on some of our special Area Teachers um whose schedules are pretty packed already and whether or not they have to have that sixth assignment or not so really um all of these are considerations that the district is still processing like I said this is kind of a hot off the press topic registration just closed a couple of days ago but we wanted to bring this information to the board um so that you guys can ask us questions and have a disc discussion and and decide which route we want to take for next year thank you very much we appreciate the time with us help us and and you're getting it to us now
101are there questions from the board I have a question so as you said it could be a bubble year which we know happens just in any given year um do you know if there's I know do you know if there's any other thing going on like any of the local preschools are they still going okay like is that a factor have not heard um I'm also on the board at Easter Community Nursery um and they're not making any changes or anything like that so I have not heard that there are any other programs that are closing which is resulting in an increase in enrollment thanks do these 24 families of these students know they're weight listed no the we do um we kind of roll this out in a couple phases we have our pre-registration
102phrase where parents express interest and say yes I would like my child to attend B B on those numbers then we determine do we need to run a lottery or not the lottery doesn't take place typically until the end of March um because we like to have a good idea of do we have the capacity do we even have to run a lottery and we honestly haven't in the past four years Lottery our first year the first year the first year we there is policy wording on the lottery and how all that works so long story short we haven't run that Lottery yet but there is a process so nobody's weight listed yet no thank you that's that's what I was going to ask about because we had spoken about the lottery before and I
103just wanted to confirm have the policy so it's allk thank you uh What uh step on the salary schedule did you use to come to this 123 308 figure George start with Master step five just as a starting spot um right that's what I usually project is we just to use it as a budget number yes so it could be cheaper but it could be less than that if if indeed it turns out that you end up employing an additional individual who's fresh out of college for examp absolutely it could we use that there in the hopes that we can bring someone in below that but knowing that so it's always it's always M5 in terms of budgeting but that's always where we start so that that's helpful to me the um well it's good
104news and it's bad news isn't it you know so it's uh I guess we have to kind of wait and see so so what's your process moving forward are you going to start with looking for a room ideally yes that's probably the next step I think the first decision is are we opening another room right and then if the answer if the district decides that I see that's going to happen then the next step would be money is the first step yes okay so that's for us so when is the full registration process completed because you said sometimes families decide not to complete it so like when a family can complete the registration process and they could if they wanted to decide the day before the first day of school I I don't feel my
105child is ready it's not mandatory that they um enroll for upk so it's a very fluid process so just because they commit to a full registration doesn't necessarily commit them to the program so it's fluid really from now until the day before the first day of school first year we had a waiting list it was relatively short yes what happened is like some people dropped out and we were able to get all the people who were on the waiting list into the program so it worked very nice yes and in the last three years we had just about enough that you know so even we may have had more like go through registration process but then they removed themselves quickly so we didn't have to create a waiting list last four years were has worked
106out very nicely this is this is considerably different like where we have 24 students so that's even Beyond another classroom because we have a limit of 18 that can be in the classroom first of all and then what other issues this presents like we are Beyond tight on space like there is no space left um so we would have to um yeah we have to work on that and also the scheduling is a is a considerable issue because we're at that Tipping Point where all of our special um area people are at the max so we would have to hire our music uh yeah so this this orange line is it's pretty expensive and we've always had families back out but if we don't even if we open another classroom in all 24 you still
107have six people on a waiting so you may not be able to eliminate the weit list with one additional class either so and the other thing is it may be it's not even just a bubble year but it's just people are hearing about the program now and it's getting really you know getting very positive well it's quality they they know it's the best thing around so that's you know that could be so it could continue going forward and and we are an enrollment up to right we're on an upswing small but still nonetheless every year the enrollment sheets showing that we're going to be gaining students over the next several years well that's a good point you presented an enrollment report to us last month which uh projected ahead uh I'm not sure how they
108do that but they prognosticate a little bit they sort of know with five 5ye olds because the children are already born who uh who 5 years from now would enter this program uh so what did that show I can't recall what it said about prek at the kindergarten level so we don't do the projections for prek because we're capped here at a certain number of students so it doesn't make sense to Project based on our enrollment because we can't actually capture the true number of prek students that this district has because they're not all in attendance at our program so I looked at the kindergarten enrollment the projections and it remains pretty steady I think it was around 116 for next year and about 116 the year after that as well so projections weren't really
109showing an increase I mean it's interesting that if there were 109 people who signed up that's almost everybody who would come to kindergarten the following year right interesting um and so so just first space at Parkdale is clearly uh you know the first thing that came to mind as as I heard this but when we talk about sustainability I see the the grant funding and I I just want to ask is that state or federal and if it is federal are there any concerns that is all through State funding now um and it's held that same amount for the entire four years of existence that we've had upk here umed this um thank you so much for for bringing this um and I I assume that we will have further conversations about um the the
110finance Financial aspects as we're um able to uh work on that um I'm going to move us along now uh to item C our cap our Capital facilities project update uh Mr so we um we had a meeting of our um our facilities committee and to talk about the bid results and so the bid results came in kind of exactly the way uh opposite what we anticipated we thought that the work at the high school and the site work was going to come in well over budget just by the nature of the um the economy and and the resources that are available and we thought that the middle school would be tight and more On Target and it just flipped it was completely opposite of that so we had to make some difficult decisions around
111how we move forward with the facilities project and so when we met with the committee um we had discussed um just uh awarding the bids um for the high school because they actually came in far less a million dollars less than we had anticipated um so the the numbers were really good and allowed us to get uh the main parts of the project done which incur the turfield and new tennis courts uh in addition to some other things that are part of that that part of the project and then we're going to rebid um the the pieces that were related to the Middle School in September with the hope that again so these things are cyclical so in September uh you know the work is finishing up for the year so a lot of construction
112um companies come back online and they're ready to take on projects so we're really hopeful that that's going to happen September uh and then so they would start the bid and we would be able to get started on the Middle School in the you know early the late winter early spring of 26 um so yeah it was it was uh we had a lot of really good discussions they were difficult discussions again I think part of it was frustrating you know our main focus was this building and and our Architects and our Engineers are confident that the main parts of it being this library and our our family and consumer science room will be part of the project for sure it's the other ancillary pieces that they are going to put up as like end
113so that's going to be part of the main project and then there will be it's just disappointing you know is really disappointing look at what they did to prepare this room this is supposed to be under construction right now they should be ripping the ceiling down disconcerting have you done that you have been spending over a million dollars that we're hopefully not going to need to spend by reting in September um because again right now so many of the contractors are are at the stadium and the other big issue was the tariffs said that tariffs and that is so hopefully in September it'll be better and we're not it's a gamble the High School portion of this is all set to go but the the Middle School portion is a gamble because you don't know
114you don't know that it's going to be less expensive uh 6 months from now uh could be more expensive so so the uh yeah so it's a gamble but I supported the the process we're following because uh because of the reasons you information we have right now yeah this is this has been the um all the projects we've been involved in in years this has been most unpredictable um it's just the economy things that are happening um prior to the current Administration things that are happening with cars they they said they it scared them they they need to raise their prices in case they go into effect and so that's we're just we're just part of that process there's just no way to avoid it so um we're hoping I think I saw somethings might
115be being pulled back so that I think that for the uh car the three main car most of them are still at least when I came here I don't know what happened since Danny made from the delegate assembly meeting U she attended that you know this isn't unique uh to East for this is a this is a uh Regional and likely um Countrywide issue that school districts are dealing with um I appreciate your efforts Mr gansy is here now what portion y of the meeting will he be talking our next item have some questions and thank you excellent yep we are we're going to move on to item D our business office operations and and while um we're talking about Capital um as per last month's meeting um we the board had a lot of
116discussion regarding last year at this time last month what the projections were for our 2526 tax cap um so this packet as per that conversation the first page are emails between me and Mr gansy and then I also included information that I had at last year at this point in time for projecting forward for tax caps and then what I had at last month's meeting to project what the tax cap was last month um there's a nice little chart in here that Mr cany will go over and um the new tax cap based on awarding of the bids not awarding of the bids and how it changed um and now I'm going to turn it over to Mr gansy to answer your questions yeah uh um I you have uh the item that that Jo
117had circulated around um I do want to just I guess open up with the good news is based upon the you the rebidding concept right so you recall pre- referendum the High School site work was uh kind of problematic because it was over the cost allowance by a significant amount so by that coming inow it's actually helped the overall uh Financial profile of the whole whole project um and that obviously the middle school is yet to be determined um the numbers that we had provided um last month before the bids uh were rejected assumed that you the project wasn't approved by S until December of 2024 the initial thought was to get was going to be submitted in received by S and approved months earlier which would then have generated the building Aid uh to
118be received in the 25 fiscal year to match up with the debt service for the entire project um due to the delay in the submission of the project and s's review time it was quite significant um youti missed missed the whole year of building aidid so would have put us in a position where you're borrowing the full amount of the project but there's a year lag on building Aid so the things that have transpired since then obviously are only the award of the middle school or the high school piece um which obviously reduces the amount that we need to borrow upcoming in June with the you know per Landing of the amount that was already borrowed um and then the delay of that for the middle school then takes us to the borrowing being delayed
119until next June which more lines up with the building Aid you know flow that's going to be received so I think where we're at now is pre-referendum versus where we are now we're trending about $2 million to the good over the 15-year period which is certainly good news uh interest rates since last June you when the district you know went out last year initially um have gone down significantly um so we're trending in the right direction both on interest rates um laying the schedule to better match up with the building need flow uh so I think now uh the projection that we're we provided to to Jo in um is more in line with the timing that we thought through pre-referendum obviously there's a lot has changed since the pre-referendum vote which we didn't really
120have a whole lot of information on than conceptual um but I think now that we we're comfortable with the timing and the and the new scoping and phasing that were um you coming in obviously better than what would had been projected through referendum so certainly good news we're hopeful obviously June is a couple months away interest rates continue to decline by the time we go out to to from bur so um there's a lot of moving Parts but I think now we're in a good position with rewarding the bids on the high school coming in lower than what would PR referendum is important because that was the only building that had issues with with um cost allowance being higher than uh what the state would Aid uh and then Middle School obviously you're capped at
121what's left under the voter authorization so you're you know we kind of know for sure at least what your Top Line budget is so um we've projected that out as well so yeah that was great great explanation when you look at the um tax limit calculations from our end here is a little better a little smoother especially when one from 20 324 to 2425 the 1% that we talked to taxpayers about is is represented in that number it comes out yeah yeah so you recall the one the the the voter authorization was less than 1% over the the life of of the burrowing so it wasn't any onee increase it's a little bit uh you know up and down as you go through just because you have older local share coming in you know coming
122off and it goes up and down so um that's what I looking what we can say though is where we are now with respect to the 1% and what presented to the voters are still below that you know over the life could be below 1% increase at present the life of the project over life correct even though okay so the tax increase into this year when I was calculating out at least the numbers I had then showed that that the 1% was added in in that first year yeah I mean the numbers from last time it was because that large mismatch between building and de serice having to borrow all of it that kind of went away because of the phasing and not having to borrow all of it now so you don't have that
123large increase in the 25 26 fiscal year but what looks better now to me certainly when you look at the uh Capital exclusion 2223 was 1.5 million 23 24 1.5 that went up to 24 25 which is now and then it Smooths out again 1841 mon of 1942 but just it just seems more intact going up 500,000 exactly yeah and it really was um quite frankly it was just a mismatch between all of the project getting bid at once and having to borrow all of it and having that onee R which created that your bump in that one year bu yeah yep yeah but so the unable portion of the project that number has gone down it went down uh roughly a million and a million and a half I think we pre referendum we
124had 2 million over the allowance um High School uh incidental now we're at like 550,000 um with the as bid incident high school so the our financial financial decision the option two that we had the option we implemented makes makes sense that way I think it makes sense in the sense that obviously the bid that the high school came in you know more favorable but what it also did was you're not having to go to the market now in June for the full you know $22 million uh and fund the local share on all of it for one year now at least it's phased in so that we're borrowing a small piece now to fund the remaining portion of the high school you know fieldwork uh but you're not borrowing all of it now and
125incurring that expense with no corresponding building Aid to offset it this makes sense appreciate your time on yeah I know it was really good model to put together but you know with all these projects that we work with the schools it's very difficult to project how the project actually moves forward but um I think now that we know that the bids were received and where interest rates are trending um I'm comfortable that we're in a position now to we're still on track to meet what the taxpayers voted for which is you know a tax impact lower than 1% the um Mr George the the calculation for the capital exclusion then are we applying any of the uh service Reserve toward that or we have not okay there's a very so this is the full amount
126of the local share then correct tax correct that's for all of our debt not just this debt correct and I'm trying to remember off the top am my head what our debt service Reserve is right now and I think it's it's just under 200,000 I think Oh I thought it was less than that but that's okay I could have my numbers mixed up I see got the uh January 31st report a of debt 189,000 some interest I just get my years my years mixed up yep but that's not a lot no a little so just just this is like one positive thing that's come out of how the bids came in um like from a financial perspective and being able to delay financing the whole project these things back and going and so that's the
127that that's one positive thing of having to delay the Middle School it also delays the cost and and the need for B you know so it's and and the numbers of the high school came in exception yeah so looking forward to next year though um obviously we're hoping that interest rates will go down but the tariffs and potential inflation you know spiking up again how would that impact us if interest rates were to stay the same or go up is that going to have a significant like impact in terms of this borrowing I'm assuming yeah I think I mean where we are like compared to uh this time last year we're probably down maybe in the short end of the yield curve like 70 to 80 Bas 7 significant change we've seen a very large
128change to dep positive this last couple days uh the stock market obviously has you know hasn't had great couple weeks but um you kind of look at the treasury market and what we call a flight to Quality you know when there's issues overseas you know unrest in foreign countries um a lot of money goes into you know US Treasury bonds or Municipal Securities so um that is obviously something that has happened the last couple months one of the things that I will you know point out to the board that is a very hot item that um I would encourage the board and others to talk to their you know Federal delegation is there is a very large movement at the federal level to get rid of what's called tax exemption on municipal bonds um so
129the ability for school districts and governments issue tax exam bonds is critically important for roads and infrastructure um there is you know talk now at the federal level um to save money you know with all these you know tax changes to um eliminate the ability for school districts and governments to issue taxes and bonds um so whether or not that happens is yet to be seen but it's um as you're talking to you know local Congress people um make that point to make sure that um you know that's something that uh and I know that you know asbo and gfoa and other associations are working really hard to you know Lobby you know the federal government but um it's gaining some traction and it's something that obviously works following um not to say you can't
130issue bonds but it just be more expensive for issuers to uh to to you know be for critical infrastructure um Mr Bron anything you had something no I'm good excellent Dr I just want to take a to thank everyone for the work they did uh after when the bids came in uh to your point opposite of what we had anticipated and tried to plan for in advance um uh specifically uh Mrs George and our our contractors and uh Architects and uh and Mr ncy it feels like it's been a minute since we've seen you so I just want to acknowledge it's really really truly app this is very helpful thank you good see you too thank you thank you uh so that was business uh office operations Mrs M Geor do you have more for
131us I do I do and just to piggyback off of Rick said the only thing I want to reiterate is especially while we're in the midst of a capital project under the tax cap era and trying to figure out what the local share is from year to year that when you're projecting forward ahead it's really hard to do because there are so many moving Parts like SED approval like accepting the bids awarding the bids not awarding the bids there's a lot of moving parts so just a little reminder that we can project as best as we can at that moment in time but often times those projections change we appreciate thank you um tonight's reports are as of the end of January anuary um and the general fund we had $19.3 million in the bank
132which ties to our cash flow I don't foresee us having a cash flow problem over the summer um we still had taxes receivables on the book of about half a million dollars um the county makes us whole with those in April um we have expended about 48% of our budget and received about 77% % of our budget um again as of the end of January in the cafeteria fund um expenditures are outpacing revenues but again I just often um caution that there's usually a timing difference with receiving our um federal and state funds in the cafeteria in our federal funds um we had received a little under $600,000 in revenue and we have supended um about $900,000 um I spoke to our Treasurer Mrs nle um she's expecting to do another draw down towards the
133end of March with which helps bring those numbers close together in our Capital fund um in the big project we have expended 4.6 million in this current year and just a little over 700 oh 7,000 for our Capital outlay um our bids came in good with the capital outlay just a reminder it's repointing a brick at the high school um which will be a continuation in the upcoming budget um for the capital outlay and that's all I had any questions and with it being I'm sorry with with it being a a two meeting month we'll do the Grid at the next meeting okay thank you very much uh I'm going to just take a quick pole around the table and see if everyone would be agreeable with a five minute uh Break um and so
134shall it be um we in Rec for about five minutes thank you [Music] in [Music] oh [Music] f [Music] mys all right um we are back from recess and uh we are going to move on to item e which is our 2025 budget development Workshop so much and we'll tie that into F because the presentation is part um so um you may have to turn it on and off again on the side it's probably gone to sleep really is like a something up there the Upp left it worked for Mr w he's a tech teacher in the me yeah flip the first thank you Mark oh it's the computer okay you so um yes so the agenda so we've um we've made some progress you know things kind of move slowly um until Miss George
135gets you know the information that we need to actually put out some some uh own the final product but we're getting more and more information so this will pain a clear picture for us and we do have a um we do have a deficit that we'll be talking about in a minute but here's all the highlights of what the D will look like and I'll try to get through this as quickly as possible because you can see this's quite a bit on the on the agenda yep again you we start off by looking at the B and vision we back to this every year uh it's kind of The Guiding course of our our teachers our supports staff the administrators get together we evaluate our vision each year based on our values us respect for
136relationship effective communication and continuous Improvement and and so that's how our budget is is developed it's what and what continues to support other values so the tax uh calculation that we saw a little earlier today um uh some good news because of the project so that's brought it down from where we were last last month it was again because we have more information we're better able to predict what it's actually going to look like so for the 24 25 year we were out at 4.28 and next year it looks like it's going to be around 3.39 so again the school aid runs uh so in November you we start this discussion and then in January we wait for the aid runs to come out and then the uh Governor speaks about what she's thinking uh
137in terms of terms of school aid and priorities and then we continue to work with the legislature I'm working meeting with Senator Gallivan in about two weeks uh to talk about our needs I'll make sure I mentioned what Mr said about the the uh the tax exemption that's a really important part of our future projects uh would add I would assume it would add a considerable amount of cost so we'll have to make sure that they work on that as well and then we enact the budget in April so here it is um building Aid updates um so here we go Foundation Aid uh again we were fortunate because initially when the governor was talking even at the end of last year into the beginning of this year we thought our foundation was actually going
138to decrease which would be really devastating but fortunately for us it came in about $150,000 more than what we received this year which is not a ton but it's it's just positive and it's not taking away Aid uh you know our B's Aid and high cost uh excess cost Aid have gone down and that's related to uh we're using less programming out of district and we're bringing those kids back into District so those AIDS naturally drop because of that um let's see um a transportation Aid is actually going up by $126,000 but that is relatively predictable because M George knows where our our expenditures are so she can kind of predict how that's going to ride out each and every year um and then upk so the upk came comes in at $151,000 more which
139is really great but what they don't say about that that's only based on Purp so we don't actually get the 151,000 we make it available to us but we only get it if we fill the slots for those students and you can see from our previous discussion it's going to be really hard uh to uh add on an additional class excuse me Mr rust the only thing I want to draw your attention to is the building aid number increased from last month and that's due to the fact that um we know what the building Aid is going to be now um whereas last month the governor didn't have it included it in there and that has to do with um the December database and that we filed our final cost reports by December 31st for
140phase one the Middle School drainage project and the high school door project so I worked with Rick gansy to make sure we had the right numbers it came right off of our I think they're called bl4 reports from the state um so I did update that number so Miss George that's a firm number then perfect thank you so projected revenues and this is a draft5 um you can see from the levy is you know that's where obviously the vast majority of our money comes from it's going to be a little bit over $28 million uh interest um and penalties and tax levy it's around 25,000 that's going to be consistent um again the number for sales tax it's uh slightly increased uh that's been going up consistently over the last gosh 5 to seven years
141at least uh so we're we're kind of uh leering is that going to be impacted because of some of the changes in the economy you know just was heing report today that people are starting to spend less they're spending Less on vacations they're spending less um like going out to dinner they're cooking more at home so those types of expenses how is that going to impact our economy and how is it going to impact our sales taxs that's something that we really need to keep an eye on uh interest earnings again coming in solid uh projection of about $200,000 basic foundation and transportation and building that's updated so you can see there's a nice increase of about $666,000 um you know some loss we said on the excess cost a and boses Aid we we
142knew that because we're using less of those services so we're going to get less Aid back uh let's see what else is there um uh the prek with disabilities so that's another positive thing so because we have um uh a uh one of our programs provide services for students with disabilities and then we take kids in from other other areas you know the reimbursement rate there is about $128,000 which is very significant so that's a positive thing and that's like a a really exceptional program and one of in our area so we're really proud of what they're doing uh on both the gened and special ed side for that uh Medicaid you can see here and also um use of reserves we kept it kind of uh uh constant so no change there at all
143so appropriation so where do we spend our money you can see for us it's always in salaries and benefits you know because we're employe heavy teachers support staff administrators you know so you can see the year-to year changes there about 1 point 1, 362,000 on salaries and just under $400,000 in Fringe Benefits equipment we've talked about that the need to increase our equipment budget because there's needs Within the Departments there's needs uh like in uh buildings and grounds but there's also need for furniture related to the uh the facilities project so we're trying to build that in over a period now of two years because again the delay is is unfortunate but it allows us to um take care of those needs over this year and next so which is which again it just makes
144it easier on the budget uh let's see contractuals down by 109,000 any come um yes um after Brian finishes um presenting I'll have Mr M Bry pass out my notes on this presentation with backup documentation most of that decrease it came from bringing certain contracted services inhouse and we hired our own employees um and that's where most of the increase for equipment went also there was a significant decrease under contractual in a certain area of the budget about2 200 ,000 um so I transferred that $200,000 into Equipment Plus $75,000 using the capital um Tech Reserve to address um Capital project equipment needs um and then you see contractual you would think it would go down by 200,000 um why it didn't is because electric costs are significantly up projecting for next year and you'll be
145able to see it in the notes that I pass out um and so you can see bosis again some additional expenses expenses of bosies um as well as Transportation ever since the new contract that we've had it makes it a little uh more challenging to predict uh because how they had to structure the you know if you recall remember they were get to us with kind of an emergency change because they were actually working in the red uh and so we needed to do something so that we could maintain service and so in doing so uh the contractual expenses that increased by about $260,000 so you can see the overall um additions uh is about 2,83 37,1 199 so here it is the proposed budget we're looking at uh our budget right now is about
14645,1 6,998 with the increase of just over 2.8 million we're looking at a budget for next year of 47,9 44,1 197 uh and so so the projected Gap you can see there is about $2 million uh but if we appro use the same appropriated amount that we did this year of 664 364 we're looking at a budget gap of about 1,384 772 um so now of course we don't have all the information right we still have to wait to see what the legislature is going to do there's still additional financial information that Mr George is waiting for but at this point in time that's what we're looking at in terms of so then here's the budget development items that we talked about um so we know that we're going to have three retirements at this
147point in time so that's something that Miss George will figure into the the uh the expenses and the savings of the district and then some of the needs that we talked about uh we need to review Aid and uh B&G rates of pay uh because we know that we've had some issues especially on the aid side maintaining people in our employment making we talked about the need for two technology positions miss m and I met this week and doing some really great things like the thought exchange allowed us to reach out to the entire Community about getting input on the budget and and so what we do with that is so um and we we're just beginning to use thought exchange we just got started in January so working through that process on how it
148can work for the district um but I'll tell you this um with the use of AI I BL way of what that can do with the data it can it can take the data andert it in all kinds of ways to provide us with information for what the community like the Greater Community which we've always had a hard time reaching it's it's really challenging um but going through the process and like we've had 700 responses so we're really really feeling good about that um so um but the technology uh is maxed maxed out our people are working um uh overtime let's just say that and so we really need to consider um one or two of those technology positions for next year SRO has been a has been a goal for us too they have
149two full-time SRO and a parttime SRO so that's on the list as well uh you know uh again a school counselor U that we did not fill like we um we had somebody uh resign and so we never filled the position we just kind of took care of it internally but we're seeing that the needs of the students especially at Parkdale are are are are kind of beyond their capacity at this point in time so we're working on that talked about a library Aid uh to support at Parkdale as well and so that one we talked about a little bit and they're really thinking that they'll be able to work that internally that we have not full-time support but at least part-time support throughout the day uh building level Subs have been on this equipment
150we talked about um portra of a graduate is is is a requirement for us um uh for New York State and we've been asked to be part of a group of other school districts in our area to work on it over a three-year period so that we're prepared and going in place it is about $60,000 but that is aable so it looks like it's about a $24,000 cost per year um strategic planning consultant so and we're looking at like putting together a strategic plan kind of pulling together all the things that we've been working on into one One Stop Shop uh so that's another thing we're considering uh the retirement rates um actually the TRS it's a slight decrease from um 10 right to uh 9.59 so it's not huge but on millions of dollars
151that makes a difference half that helps on the other side we have an increase on the side so TRS side is is it's a greater decrease and it is an increase but nonetheless they kind of wipe each other out um so continuing on buildings and grounds we got to get that for Rubber and we're really hoping to be able to do that uh with with Ms that are left in the budget from this school year fitness center down in the middle school again really needs some attention uh we wasn't able to be put into the project so we're going to try to do that locally uh High School auditorium lighting system again this is something that's worn out and needs to be replaced uh and then the part sound system we need a sound system
152for the auditorium in the gym and we think we found a really inexpensive Solution that's only $500 so well done Mr thank you well done and then the capital project renovation renovated spaces this is the furniture so there's you know it's all of these spaces that we need to purchase furniture for and so like again one of the ni that um so you can see all the things that are that are involved in that and then the high Lev budget items you know this is where we kind of started off was like the importance of maintaining six sections especially uh uh K to four and now we're thinking K to 5 again it's fifth grade's part of that Elementary that Elementary piece um milon level Subs not exceeding the tax cap we've talked about all
153of this how do we expend our surpluses at the end of the year where do we put them our program make that happen um and then discuss a library and Science Program oh yeah so we have to do that as well so there are some library and science needs that presented last time we saw the tech needs Tech needs are are really significant because it's um I'll be honest it's just very expensive you know they're they're doing amazing things and our kids are so so fortunate and we have had I don't know 10 school districts come and visit our programs because they've heard about what we're doing and and so I think one school sent like 17 people teachers board members administrators to come out and take a look at what we're doing so the
154pro the programs are fantastic for our kids uh but they are costly so we talked about can we use the tech Reserve to support some of those technology needs so we're trying to see if that's possible depending on what technology needs how much money is in there uh because those those items that they're talking many of them are 20 30 40 50,000 significant and and they are on the on the on the next uh facilities project as well because the space at the high school also really especially the the shop area really needs to be redone it's it's it's in rough shape um so appropriated fund balance again here's here's what we did um over the last few years we were down to 418 and when and that was a pretty comfortable space for us
155and we've ticked it up a little bit and last year we used 664 and that's what we used in this budget to get talk about uh and then the capital Outlet again we're working on the masonry work at the at the high school you know the um replacement of the mortar and that's going along nicely and we've actually gotten some decent bids on that those those those projects surprisingly are small but the the uh the asphalt work we did at Parkdale came in really positively last year this stuff has come in positive we're getting more work done than we thought so that's that's a really great thing there something else we're working on with in G we've been working on it um with for the last couple of years to increase the capital Outlet to
156250,000 I just will allow us we don't get a whole lot for $100,000 anymore $250,000 would really help us on an annual basis do you know Mr Russ is that um has there been any discussion about that going forward like I'm going to see him in weekview and I'll know about that because we we've been we've been discussing with them at least for this will be the third year that I going to say I feel like we this is all that's coming up but it's not changing yeah yeah so hopefully it will okay um so uh Capital yeah technology equipment so you know we're going to expend we're thinking about expending $75,000 from the technology reserve and that's primarily to we talked about that replacement cycle of of um Chromebooks so you know the kids
157come in and they use it through Parkdale uh like one through four they get another a new one when they come into the middle school and they also then they get a new one when they go on the high school and that four-year cycle works out really well and so this kind of expenditure is just something that's predictable and every year we know so many kids need a replacement and it it it kind of works out perfectly and that's what we're talking about is maybe in on the technology side can we use this Reserve in some way um look at refunding because we're at our Max right now so maybe we need to go back out and say hey can we refund this this T res so we can expand it a little bit to
158include uh the technology department as well I mean the technology class class so here's the rest of the schedule um so here we are on March 5th and so we got two more budget workshops on the 19th and and the 2nd of April and that's when most of this will come into to life right this will really tighten up have a much better idea we have to adopt on the 22nd so hopefully on the on the 2nd we'll be ready to go uh and then uh M George submits the text report card and does all the budget documents we Mak it Avil send home the uh Challenger so that people have the inform information in their houses um and [Music] then my second a Tuesday right yes so some about like you know maybe if
159we need it to schedule another budget meeting in the 9th of April or something like that hope and and we moved our meeting to the 22nd right yeah thank you Mr yeah packet that Mr um M Bry is passing out um some of the things I included um were just insightful things that I picked up from the last board meeting so examples of zerob based budgeting versus how I project certain other budgets um just to give the board a feel of how the budget is built can you explain the surveys that went out to the public um what are we doing with the answers and are we going to see them or who sees them so we we just closed it out and so what's going to happen now is that um we're going to
160um they're going the the thought exchange will help us to evaluate the data so that's that's another piece of this that makes it so hard is that actually taking a look at 700 responses and trying to sort through in the sense of it um the the thought exchange does that for us it's through AI it takes all the themes and bring out the major issues and and that can be um kind of be explained and shared in different ways so we can we can we can create letters that have major points of the data then we can get down into more granular data we can look get like just um they call them word clouds that show these like these are the bigger themes that have come out and and so there's a lot of
161ways to do it but we're just going to get started yeah so hopefully we're going to have some we'll have something definitely for the next board meeting sh absolutely oh yeah absolutely and so we'll put it up on the website to share it with the community share it with our parents um yeah so I'm pretty excited about it sat down with a WRA again this is like all brand new stuff for foro and I and um uh but I was just really impressed with what we'll be able to do and what we'll be able to present and kind of really the the the the mean that we'll be able to extract from from the survey so I'm pretty excited about it yeah I remember I think it was maybe two or three years ago seeing
162that Dew had done one I think was and a great opportunity that was excited to get that email and uh to see that you know we're we're on the road uh to connecting even more I would I would next year I would put it out we were kind of crunched on time getting the you know that the the postcards take time to produce and and when we were able to bring it on board we see we were all we were kind of tight but I think you know we try to get it out like January start it's great because it gives the public an opportunity oh great thank you um can we look again at the Appropriations bud um of this long list of needs that you went through um including new staff including equipment
163uh including a variety of uh of budget development item as they were called and um how many of those things are already included in the proposed Appropriations budget so let's see [Music] um Miss George one sorry it's included is well the park sound system is well you don't have to do it right now you don't have to do it right now but I think it would be helpful if you could take those pages the ones that are listed as budget development items and list uh put a mark on them for the ones that are already in the budget versus the ones that would need to be added to the budget and therefore increase the Gap so the the for instance just a quick question regarding salaries the the increase of a milion 362 on salaries
164does that include uh two technology positions one SRO uh and three uh and Does it include the retirements of three teachers and etc etc so you can go through that list and Mark which ones are included and which ones are not please y it includes the three known retirements and as we spoke earlier I project at Master's 5 for their Replacements um it does not include um reviewing the A and b& rates of pay it does not include two FTE uh technology positions it does not include the SRO um the unfilled guidance counselor is still unfilled in the budget so it's not in there on the library Aid support we're going to try to absorb it the two building level Subs that we have currently are in the rollover Budget on the equipment needs uh
165yes because I increased equipment by that 275,000 that's something that I'll be relooking at next month or next board meeting because we just received the estimated cost for the capital project equipment so I think I can massage that a little bit uh the Bose Initiative for portrait of a graduate that is in the Bose's budget strategic planning is not in the budget and yes the ERS TRS those I have updated does that answer your question yeah that's very helpful uh of course it continues on the next page with uh the next pagey of things y the buildings and grounds floor scrubble scrubber was ordered this week out of current year appropriate ations um the fitness center no um that could be part of the conversation that we have next board meeting on the High School
166auditorium light system um Miss Nagel found a um music boosters grant that the district receives several years ago um that will help pay for the majority of that and then we're going to use current year Appropriations to pay for the last $4,000 of that um as Mr Russ said uh Christy and her staff found and tahani and Andrea they found a good solution quite cheaply for the Parkdale um Auditorium and gym um the capital project that's going to take more conversation I did put $275,000 into the budget for that currently but now that we're spreading that out over two years I think I can make some adjustments to that and then maybe that'll open conversation regarding the fitness center on the technology new spaces in this current budget version of it I added $75,000 for
167the capital project for technology mostly for this area um and then offs it with the use of the technology Reserve we may want to flip-flop that and this year use the technology Reserve to do um Chromebook Replacements instead of for the capital project and then still have that in the back burner for next year for Capital project um yep that's more Capital project to discuss the athletic fields Capital project to discuss and with the addition of two new sports teams on and a cart that's broken in the athletic department we're using current your Appropriations under equipment to purchase those items thank you yeah M George I was going to U make note of on those pages your Blue Notes on there and that was a noticeable difference for me from from prior years to now
168I appreciate you identifying those uh directly on here for us and and so and the one the one uh further up would be to add on uh you know Mr uh Mr brunson's request for the ones that have been uh added into the budget and the ones that we're still talking through would be would be another uh you know maybe one more step towards that but I really appreciate the uh the detail that you've provided us here yes I was I'm trying to use color coding so like when we started two board meetings ago then I updated it with red that changed from that then I updated it with blue and underlining trying to keep some kind of semblance of when things changed and uh I can appreciate that I I create what I call
169Joseph's Technicolor spreadsheets um and uh they get more colorful every day right U Mr brunon do you have any no I I'm just kind of uh taken back by the yeah hopefully early enough that that is find it way think the Gap will ungap [Music] itself that's the Hope Danel um at the last meeting uh there was some mention Mr Russ that you wanted to move the 418 or at least I know you weren't there but there was some like and I noticed that it's still at this the 664 so is that because of what we're dealing with right now that's yeah okay well it's just the idea was like um just like we've been increasing the appropriated fund bounds and it's one thing but like you're saying if we have a gap of a
170little over $2 million I would suggest that we maintain the appropriate right and do we would might get something and say okay do we increase it for this year for for well that's why when when Mr M presents us with the the grid next uh meeting uh we should have a better idea of what the fund balance might be on June 30th and therefore know whether some of that uh Surplus money could be appropriated uh to reduce this Gap without having to lay somebody off for instance right yeah an important part too about appropriated fund balance is what what is it supporting is it supporting one-time purchases is it supporting in the last few years what it's really supported is we've underestimated revenues overestimated Appropriations so you could do that with the whole idea that's
171it's all going to be replaced so it's not a panic number at all especially when you look at this budget here there are some equipment needs one one one time purchases and as you go down through it there's there's probably enough items a support that amount and underestimating uh interest sales tax those type things so there's a lot of opportunities that put that back when you got a tight budget and you start appropria and there's no chance to replenish it then if that's when it gets dangerous but this is I mean you look at last year I mean we added the year 1.1 million to put into Reserve so you technically could have appro appropriate a lot more last year I say last year I'm talk about this year's budget last year's PR you could
172have kept more in the general fund and but we've always made funding reserves a priority and I think the tax levy I think should be a priority I'm out of order but no well I followed up what you're saying the tax levy should be a priority this year and uh I think the way the economy and those things are running we really need to take a look at that and I know right now that everything's based on the the gaps based on the um the tax cap and 3.39 maybe sounds like a fair number but it generates 920,000 ofx doll so to 2425 and the 25 26 you're looking at the tax levy going up a million dollars just setting percentages aside and and I think that's real and I think it's things we got
173a gap we want to make the Gap larger but my suggestion in this case would be under the fenses financially just attitude wise what's going on in public I think that should be under three this year here because I think polit I think I think it makes sense on a on a lot of fronts what it doesn't make sense is closing the Gap but I think we got three we got a few weeks to discuss this or figure it out but like I say we we've made funding reserves a priority but I just think the tax levy needs to be a big priority this year thank you Mrs Daniel yeah no that was got all this discussion I'm good and a lot of the questions that I had were answered during our presentation so I
174had a list and we were answered thank you um to reiterate what Mr Brunson said I too was surprised by the Gap yeah um I'm very happy to see that our last meeting the levy was at 4.67 and now we're at 3.39 um I still would like to see that go lower um I'm concerned about the economy I'm concerned about the economy um so I'm I would like to just see that go lower but obviously our most important thing is to close the gap without cutting staff or programs I mean that's and and then there's the other things we want to add so there's a lot there right it's just and and and we put things on this list that you know we we put them up knowing that we're not getting obviously right you
175know just to let the board know that these are our priorities not only for this year but for kns and the year after that you know whenever we can fit them in some things we have to do right some things you know like the scrubber is broken we have to buy a scrubber because scrubber so those are the kinds of things could use a fund B yeah exactly you know but the other things are things that we want to do to improve the program and I was just going to say to follow up on what Mrs o Oiler was commenting on with the economy we do have this issue with the which is the other thing that's our revenue and and so sort of our concern we EXT ating out what we think the sales
176taex is going to be but um you know I think that's just another concern as we're as we're moving forward with all these different issues that are coming up right now yeah and in your packet I addressed some of the sales tax concerns there's a report in there from the comproller regarding a decline in sales tax revenues um plus a look at sales tax since I started I think I started in 17 and our sales tax budget Revenue was $2 million and we're up over $600,000 closing that Gap every year how much did we move into reserves last June 30 1.1 or 1.2 something like that it more than a million dollars oh yeah um I have one other question yes um Mr Russ any I know a lot of the um technology equipment that
177we have at the high school was donated any chance that that may reoccur um I haven't had any of those conversations lately think um when they were doing it and and again it was a very significant and generous donation um I think it was part of the the steamwork we were doing with the foundation when they raised $100,000 that then led to other people saying hey I'm willing to to donate these these course was 3D printers that were you know we were getting started and and so it's gone on from there so I don't think that that's a possibility but you never know equipment they're looking for are nuts and bolts type equipment you know yeah like some of that is workbenches UHS things that it's not sexy you know you you're not going to
178convince people that this is a a wonderful change it's just kind of what you need to run the program it's bread and butter right you know I was talking about the the um 3D printers and the the engraving things like that that that we work so so they're really they they really they really max out those machines because they're producing a lot of products uh they're doing and then they're they're always expanding their offerings they they research and and discover new things that they can produce which is wonderful it's great but the problem is it it just maxes out of the Machinery that we have and so then they also want to move like the lathe like the wood they want to do more of that woodw that lathe is probably around $50,000 so to
179to buy that that's new that's like an expansion of the program but then part of it like the the laser engraver again tons of laser engraving sell those products and so what we're hoping is that the the monies that their their their profits from the program will start to help to pay for some of these equipment so you know is it ever going to come up with 30 or 40,000 no but could it be 10,000 or 15,000 yes that's well these are items are onetime expenditure so it's appropriate to use uh the reserves uh for that or a surplus that you might have at the end of the year you know that you can simply buy the item in June because you know that there's some particular line on your you you have a little
180trouble there because equipment is is kind of funny you can't just buy equip yeah you have to put it in the budget you know so the the uh uh you anything else you can just move things around bu but equipment was more restricted well that and that's what we thought about the use of a tech reserveer right now the tech reserv pretty much dedicated to M Mao's department and the replacement of the machines and equipment that she uses but could we then reopen the tech Reserve have another vote on it to expand it to put the technology equipment in that Reserve so so that we raise it I don't know say another qu million dollars and that allows us then to funnel that money over to the technology classrooms and to buy like the LA
181to buy those large pieces of equipment that every so many years every four or five years they just wear themselves out right and so that that that was the idea behind uh Dr my questions were answered excellent Mr blers my numbers are accurate we move um m387 435 into reserves um this year from last year's budget 87 873,000 the previous year so the last two years we moved 2, 260,000 I mean that's a good that's a good commitment I know probably when you compare it to other districts and that kind of stuff you know we might be underfunded I don't know but uh we've made a good commitment there a necessary commitment I just think for a year at least we need to focus on the levy and as far as the Gap goes I'm
182not surprised I've talking about that either oneon-one or through the when I or when I ran for election a few times my biggest concern is revenues keeping up with expenditures and to me that's not surprising at fact I probably thought it was going to be a little more than 1.3 million so I think a lot of good work been done even to get it to that point that's something you know I at the risk of an attorney coming in explaining reserves to me again I I value reserves I know the importance of them but I also know that trying to get re know manage the budget and at the same time have revenues to support what we're trying to manage and that is where the drag is and we've had several years where after the
183Gap elimination adjustments and state aid started to run we had some good years the co years weren't good for for obvious reasons but financially they were and then and those things allowed us to get back on our track with some things and then when they paid the balance of the amount to our district for foundation Aid that was all nice and that I mentioned too previously it's a false sense ofure security what we had there because the revenues were running it felt good but it was going to end and this is well last year we actually cut a position so maybe that was the start of it and now we're looking at a gap that we have have to manage it'll be difficult to manage that without talking about personnel and then every year it's
184going to get progressively harder put together our budget so a lot of my skepticism about the about reserves and those kind of thing wasn't I didn't believe in heck I was doing fund balances and reserved back in 1979 for a county I mean I know how to do it I know what they do but I also looking forward it's going to be difficult budgets year after year because the revenue the state a is not going to keep up with it and at some point the tax levy is there going is going to get turned down I I believe that just only based on experience that's all but um no we touched on the key Parts but I think a lot of good stuff's been done in this budget to get it down to this and
185I know it's still upsetting that it's that large but it could be a lot worse it wasn't some of this the financial management that's gone into this that's all I have to say Thank you Mr FL appreciate your sharing I just sort of um a followup to Mr blowers because we're talking just generally about you know the the tax loby and and trying to bring it down I guess you know my only question is what do that impact sort of long term I mean if you leave money on the table which is sort of what you're doing if if you go below what the tax levy it does it have some type of of impact long term in terms of the district and our budget um you know every if you go under the cap
186so I'm just sort of looking to see what what that is just so we know how that impacts us if we decide to do that yeah so like Paul did to US 93 2000 you said that the 3.39 generates 932 is that the well yeah a little bit more so let's just say just say let's say that 330 3.39 is is $1 million in the so each each third of that would be 333,000 right right so one 1% would represent 333,000 really rough numbers that's probably inaccurate but just the concept behind it and so once once you do that so like if you built it in then it's with you the next year and the year after that so on and so forth so when you you use it by 1% below the levy then
187that loss is is is the same loss moving forward right conversely when we want we B oh go ahead oh you go ahead is a reverse compound we we did just the reverse we raised the the the the levy by 6.45 4 or 5% and that was probably three or four points above above the cap yes it was and that was has been with us ever since we are still every single year taxing 3% more than we would have if we had stayed uh with at the tax went over the it works both ways both way right so if you would go over by 1% it would be $335,000 more more exactly so I just want that out there so that we're having that you know we're having that so that we understand that that's
188how that's why I like talking about the dollars we raising a million dollars that's that's a big commitment regardless what the percentage is you know I I'm sorry but I do agree with what you said that's the way it works but I talked to the superintendent when I worked there and afterwards just look at the dollars that it's raising 3% at a small District won't even get you you know 300,000 so we're raising a million at 3% increase yes and it's uh it work Southern here they would raise 3% right okay so they get the most of their money from the state yeah that's it that's a probably be a wealthy District though the wealthy District the state the way that was calculated you know income and and property values they're saying you can afford
189East aurar therefore you know you need a you you need to have your tax impact larger than some of these smaller districts that's a long island thinking because that's what they're doing down there that's why they have amazing offerings at their high schools uh far beyond what we could afford to do because they simply go to their taxpayers and say you want a really good high school we can do it for you you just have to pay more and they do the 3% generates Millions uh great well what do you say we do this again in two weeks um yeah I I George I appreciate the the uh updated information and Mr blow's point the work that's been put into this to to get the Gap to where it is at um my my one
190question for you is remembering last year and when we we uh were getting down to a time where we needed to adopt the budget and we had a lot of uncertainty with regards to the state in in in your professional circles is there any early Rumblings with regards to uh like what are the what are the hot button up uh issues within the budget that are that could potentially put us in that same situation um our Governor's um desire to to take care of the housing crisis so do I I haven't heard anything recently but early on in the process I heard it's going to be very we will be very lucky to have an ontime budget so we may have to use the executive budget right that's what's required thank you I'm sure as
191you hear more you will give appreciate that information um great um all right well thank you all for that discussion um we're going to move on to item 13 um consensus items uh are there any board members who wish to withdraw any specific items from the consensus agenda uh are there any who wish to add anything to the consensus hearing on both may have a motion to approve the consensus agenda move move by D second by Mrs oer a couple things one is item regarding the this is just a first first reading of that that will be that's not a consens that is not part of that's not a consens sorry so consensus goes to7 ah okay I'll be happy to answer your question later I really thought I yeah it's late yeah it is
192late I'll give you that um only go through all right hearing uh any any further discussion hearing none all in favor opposed extensions that's passed 60 and we are all the way to uh item 18 uh items uh that require board action uh uh item a um may have a motion uh to approve the attached policies for first reading this is Danel second second second by Mrs oer policy committee it's a AR like I know I'm not supposed to say yeah I know we're very touchy about that um any uh any discussion regards to the first reading of these policies that's I did have a question on so that would be the notification um the one sorry not I wrote it down from my computer to my paper and I just you're still a nice
193person um here no further discussion all in favor I opposed extensions on to Item B good get ready uh the superintendent recommends the Board of Education perform a first reading and adopt the policy as detailed below uh ex student board member may have a motion no move moved by Mrs Danel second second second by Mrs oer any discussion well I mean since you asked um I I had two things that I just wanted to just put out there um one was is it was it firmly decided that it would be a 12 month appointment for now well and that's what the law is we you there's nothing preventing someone from getting a second term quote unquote oh no I'm saying I'm thinking of we have so many students that are that are not here in
194the summer oh so we're going to have reasonable flexibility so the the by law it is a 12-month term but we are going to especially this first time through kind of dance that line between ex used and unexcused absences um but the position Itself by law has to be a 12-month position yes but if but we're going to have reasonable flexibility if it's the day of the Powderpuff game the promt like we're GNA we're going to work with folks yeah I was just thinking the ones who aren't here in the summer y um and then my other thing was I had concerns over that it would be the president or the vice president of the student um I I liked it and and this aware this goes in the conversation but I I really liked
195the idea that it might be someone in the student government or chosen by the student government but not necessarily one of those people because they have so many things that they're doing maybe it could be maybe it couldn't be but I was wondering if we could be more nebulous in so the thought and I obviously you could I did the leg work with Mr Roberts but obviously the policy committee um was and again the job description we purposely didn't put that stuff in policy because it's that definitely can be more evolving and easily changed so we're not voting on that today the thought was um for the first time out to try this thing to give some kind of meat and authority to the presidency there's nothing to say we try it a year or
196two and it doesn't work or it has to be someone else or we did put in there if the person doesn't in theory want it or isn't eligible for it it could be someone else the thought right now is in terms of how we roll it out marrying the two positions so that you serve them currently is what we want to try first um and see how it goes was kind of where it is um what yeah um I can disrupts again um you know we had a conversation around that he said that um he has been kind of looking for something to attach like in terms of like um opportunities for the president to kind of Reach Out beyond their position the way it's structured right now because in some other school districts that's
197how it runs is that those the soon does have other like communitybased engagements and he thought this was a perfect nage to make that happen he's been kind of thinking about it for a while yeah I don't want to speak for him he's not here tonight but um he went to went to the basketball for us and so um so that's kind of what he was thinking you know but again it's Mr mber say give it a chot and see how it works you know there sometimes the president may say know I want to be responsibility so then it will probably naturally work well and we have that as the option but that's more the um the exception to the rule the way it's currently written but it it very much I mean if the
198president raises his hand says there's no way I can do it that exception kicks right in so it's kind of like the rule and the exception we bake them both in to start and one of the discussions we had in the policy committee was that when the person ran to be president of student council they would recognize that this was one of the you know one of the roles and so if you running to be student council president you would that would also be you know why you were running you would know that this was one of the positions so part yeah part I remember that part of what Mr Roberts thinks is it actually might attract more people to student government and to to the presidency or vice presidency than the traditional pool itself
199because it now has it now has meat to it if that makes sense so um the the law obviously the mechanism has to be selected by policy there's nothing that's preventing us from changing that at any point um what they don't want is you know based on the kid based on the year choose a different mechanism but there's nothing preventing us from trying this two three years if we don't feel we're getting the representation we want um or need I should say um going back to one of those it does have to be one of those options though but yeah but they kind of wanted put this in as the expectation but have the escape hatch if and when we need it um and both of those are codified into the policy they vote in
200May right is that they're going to line it up uh with yeah it's spring we're going to basically with just moving into this so once we have your blessing both on the policy and and more importantly on the description we're going to make a student friendly version of this there is talk about U Mr Roberts Mr heisner maybe president Cassidy superintendent Russ kind of going in and explaining kind of what this is and it is a work in progress but here's what we're thinking and kind of build that up prior to election season and that it's more or less going to mirror the election season for board members as well so once once we get through tonight if if we get through tonight uh then the thought is let's um let's meet and figure out
201how exactly we announce this uh to the to the students and excite them about it all right uh any further discussion uh all in favor oppos exensions that's pass 60 uh we are on to item 19 uh superintendent recommends the Board of Education accept a grant from the East aora Educational Foundation in the amount of $2300 uh for utilizing technology for Innovation and design thinking may have a motion 3200 what did I say 3300 oh 3,200 thank you no move moveed by Mr blowers second it second second by m Mrs Danel any discussion all in favor opposed abstentions that's pass 60 uh Item B um the superintendent recommends the Board of Education accept a grant from from the East Ro Educational Foundation uh up to the amount of $1,000 for the sustainable agriculture program may
202have a motion so moved moved by Dr androa second second by Mr blowers any discussion Dan thank the Education Foundation it's actually this particular one is a private donation for this purpose so there's a private citizen who is providing that ,000 through the foundation for the P purchase of a roto tiller for the um for the farm that's great both of these grants so thanks to this individual but the foundation will take care of and also acknowledging that gift yeah and uh yeah the foundation you know continues to provide us with really importants you know I mean it's like the tiller for the farm again it's just those are the expenses that come up that are hard for us to to to manage during the year when they need something and so these kinds of
203Grants are have really helpful and then there's another music that we just got today that's not yeah that's a really exciting one you that'll be on for next month so this next two weeks we're getting another grant for our music music department at the middle school and these things we couldn't do uh with without the foundation so just um grateful for their work and their generosity it's yep really makes a difference for our kids uh all in favor I opposed extensions and that is pass 60 uh item C uh superintendent recommends the Board of Education accept a donation of a painting valued over $75 from Holly Nar I have a motion move by Mrs oer second second second by Mr Bronson discussion you I just like to say this is you know a really generous
204donation of Rick's Jenning painting so it'll be a really great uh addition to um to our school district and our Collections and it's in in in memory of uh Grayson wolf uh who's one of our former students and so it's just a very thoughtful and generous gift perhaps it could hang somewhere prominently so new library all in favor opposed extensions pass 60 we are on to MD superintendent recommends the Board of Education accept a donation of sports equipments for JB softball valued over $75,000 or $75 use that they'll balance our budget uh we still like you yeah thank you I appreciate that um valued over $75 from the EA softball booster club as detailed below may I have a motion so moved moved by Mrs Dan you oh I was second second by Dr Anda
205any discussion just wow yeah yeah and I'll say this um I don't know if you remember the was talking about expanding the gross off program and they saidh and you know for the equipment that we need again it's something that we've told that when we are going to add the JB program we really don't have the money for the equipment and they said don't worry we'll take care of it and they came through big time and so really grate for them as well that was the Easter softball baseball youth program yes that it's worked hard to raise the money and donate that to the boo us yes very nice great um all in favor Hi O opposed extensions and that's pass 60 we are on to item 20 uh is there any uh new business
206that any board members would like to bring oh I don't know no hearing none uh moving on to item 21 um uh upcoming meetings workshops conferences you will see listed below in our next regular regularly scheduled uh Board of Education meeting is in two weeks on March 19th um on to item 22 may have a motion to adjourn move second second uh discussion all in favor oppose exensions thank you all [Music]