March 19, 2026 - Board of Education Meeting

001meeting order. Stand for pledgece to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Tonight we have a presentation from the Svin County Boseies. >> Is that mic? >> Oh, just just real quick. Uh Kristen's the only one gonna be absent tonight. She couldn't make it tonight, but Amador is here, >> so we're all set. >> Yes. Is that M? Go ahead. Y >> can you hear me? Okay, >> there you go. >> Uh thank you for having us. My name is Suz. I'm director of instructional support services and the data privacy officer for Salvosis. And this is Vicki. I'm Ferguson. I am the executive director of finance and business services, which is a very long way

002of saying I'm a business. >> Thank you. >> And we'd like to thank you for inviting us out tonight. And we'd like to share a little bit about our programs. And we are going to start off with our student programs, special art, alternative education, and career. Uh so this is our special education enrollment and uh as you can see you have uh a couple more students each year over the past couple of years and also this is where you would be purchasing itinerant services. Um we currently have uh Tammy Lwood Miller in the district who does uh visual impairment services for the district. So that's where you would find her. um alternative ed. Um as you can see this year we have three students in that programming and our middle school just opened last year.

003So um that is an an option that is really kind of new service to all of us and um you know as needed. You can certainly take advantage of that as well. >> This is one of your CTE students and CTE career and technical ed. We apologize in advance if we use acronyms. Please stop us. We use something that doesn't make sense because we all do it every day, right? So, uh, our CTE program has had significant growth growth across all of our districts, including here at Eldrid, and that has led to not just additional students in the classrooms that we have, but we've expanded our programs, especially to include HVAC as well as electrical. This shows Eldrid's enrollment in our CTE program. As you can see over the past few years, there's been significant

004growth. Currently, 41% of Eldridge's juniors and seniors are attending CTE at Sullivan Boseies. This shows the different classes that they are involved in. And um overall, our CTE enrollment is at about 740 students this year, which is significant for SolventBosies. We haven't seen this many in a long time. H um the students have different pathways as they go through their CTE careers. One is they have the opportunity to earn college credits. We have articulation agreements with several different schools and this allows them to earn college credits which will make them better prepared as they move into either their associates or their bachelor's degree, but also it can ultimately save them on tuition money when they get there. And by them um probably their parents. speaking as a parent. Um, so right now the oh the

005other opportunity within CTE is technical endorsements. So this is maybe students choose to go directly into the workforce and they have this technical endorsement which makes them more hirable. It's a higher level certification than just the rest of the students within the CTE program receive. and they have to they earn um a regent's diploma and then there's a lot of additional work that they do in order to qualify for that and 63% of Eldridge students earned that endorsement last year. Now I'm going to talk a little bit about the money because that's what I do. This is shows your year-to- date student costs here at Eldrid. You can see just kind of how it's spread out. the largest chunk for your students is in fact in special ed um with the next being in CTE

006and then some of the other programs that we offer for our students are there. You'll see up top it says that crosscontract expenses are not included and that's just purchased you purchase through us but they're actually from other Boseies. So if it's a service that another Boseies provides it's called the cross contract and you purchase it through us but they provide the service if that makes sense. That's you. So, one of our uh a couple of things that are new to the plate over the last year, our arts and education coaster is uh starting on July 1, we'll be able to purchase instruments. Um that would be a BOS's Adable. Um it's a lease to own um type of uh similar to a Chromebook. um if you think about um that. So that is going

007to be an opportunity. Um the state education department is looking for more equitable um music programs and there that is how they are um hoping to to accomplish that at the statewide level. So that is now going to be an aidable purchase that was not allowed prior through arts and education which uh Eldrid does a great job using that coaster. And also um new uh this this past year is early college access. Um and that coaster is where the district pays the students uh college tuition for courses where they're earning dual credit. So they're earning credit at the high school level and they're also earning college credit at the same time. So, um, that coaster allows you to for the district to pay the tuition and receive aid back on that as well as teacher

008salary. Um, so a portion of the teacher salary can be aided through that coser. Um the cap is currently at 40,000 this year, 50,000 the following year and 60,000 the third year which is the maximum um aidable amount uh for a teacher salary who's teaching college courses. Um, so those are two exciting uh coasters. And then we also have technology services which um is a heavily used uh coaster just all around um the county. So, instructional support services is uh programming for professional development for um for the uh employees, educators in within the district. And a couple of highlights I'd like to share is some of the work um that's been happening, which I'm sure you've your administrators, your building leaders, and Scott have been talking about. Um but I'm just going to highlight a

009couple here. Franklin CVY is um is professional development for not only the teachers but also for students to have more voice um in in their um in their schools and um creating a platform for them to to do that through. So um we're really excited about the Franklin CVY work that's happening. Um we just were in Middletown and the students were sharing um some of the uh ideas that they have and and like student government and all those things. So that was that was a fun day for me to see how that's um shaping up in in Eldrid. And also um there's been some math coaching and some uh literacy coaching um happening throughout the last two years. Um and I think you're seeing some fruits of that labor. So that's exciting. Uh so some

010collaborations that we currently have going on right now is um we have a grant in partnership with the New York State Department of Labor and that is our teacher teacher residency program or what we refer to as the TRP and that is where uh folks with a associates degree I'm sorry folks Folks with a bachelor's degree are eligible to take um courses towards becoming a certified teacher and we have a candidate here in Eldrid. Uh we have 13 people over the county in that program and everyone is on track to graduate on time and they start their student teaching in the fall. So we are super excited about that and there is zero cost to the student for their bachelor's degree. So, no, they're bachelors. I mean, sorry, not their their certification for teaching, not

011their B. They already have their bachelors. I'm sorry about that, guys. Um, and Vickiy's going to share some other collaborations. So, we talk a lot about and often when people think about the Boseies, they think about the instructional side of the house, but we also provide non-instructional support such as the TRP grant. We do coordinate RFPs and so I know recently Eldrid did participate in our liability insurance. So we go out as a county we worked with our business officials and were able to go out as a group to just kind of streamline that process for everyone which was really helpful I think. And then um we also do meetings. So when I say that we have meetings so we have monthly meetings either of the business officials or different leadership meetings throughout the districts.

012So whether it's the building level principles or the PPS directors or the IT directors and those are things that are coordinated by Sullivan Boseies to help bring everyone together to encourage collaboration and support and working together to kind of better harness the resources in the county management services. So this means your non-instructional services. Those would be your management services. And this includes a lot of different things. One in particular that I think is helpful to Eldrid is our HVAC. So we have an HVAC technician and I think this is a great example of how a bur Boseis brings added value to a district. You as Eldrid might not want to or need to hire a full-time HVAC technician. You actually hire we Boseies hire one and then that person comes to your district one day

013a week and is able to provide those services for you. So you don't need to have somebody or try to find somebody to only work for you a day a week. Instead, you come to us and then that person is shared either with the Boseies or with other districts. And so we do that through HVAC. You also participate. Our financial services is another one. We currently provide claims auditing to Eldrid and we work closely with Caleb on that. And then in the other photo, oh nope. And those are just some of the other examples. This is a photo slide. There we go. Um and then I'll let Sue talk about community partners. So a couple of partnerships I just want to highlight is one uh our Garnet. So we do partner with Garnet um and

014all of our health services courses are out at the hospital and in their spaces um which is such a value ad for those students in those programs. sometimes they can just swing by and watch someone doing surgery or see what's happening um on the various floors. Garnet has allowed us to be there and giving us that access levels. Um so that is really an enhancement for for those students in those programs. And the other one I kind of talked about previously which is Sunni Sullivan. Um we are partnered with them in the early college access program. Uh we also offer PD and things of that nature for teachers teaching college courses in the high school. Um and of course Sullivan 180 um you see all the big checks come and uh we work with them

015as well with professional development and many other um things to bring resources to our schools. >> Every year we do different uh capital projects just like a school district does. And so some of you may have had the opportunity to see our welding program when that renovation was done. The next renovation on the horizon that we're very excited about in our CTE program is cosmetology. It's going to get a complete facelift and it will be a more spa-like environment. So that's really exciting for the kids as well as for the instructors. The not as exciting one though very necessary is our roof project that's coming up this summer. Last year or a couple years ago, we did the roof over the other wings and this summer is phase two with our AM wings. And then

016we do try to do some things internally. So that's actually Fahheim who's working on our door swipes. We are moving to having all using our badges to swipe into all of our doors to remove key locks. And so those are just things that we try to do on an ongoing basis within the Boseies and utilize our staff to do that. So between our on&m and our tech team, they were able to implement that project. So that's really exciting. Um, and then this is a summary of your costs for Sullivan Boseies. And this just shows you, as you can see, the majority of your costs are studentbased, but then all of those other programs that we discussed tonight, whether it's ISS or management services or the admin capital, we did, all of that is shown here

017on this graph. And this is finally um an quick overview of your Bosey's cost, aid, and surplus here at Eldrid over the past few years. Those year-to- dates are anticipated currently, what yours will be for this year, although that fluctuates based on whether or not you choose to add additional services between now and the end of the year. A great example of that is if you decide to purchase tech equipment that would of course increase that. But what you see I want to mention is that there's the Sullivan Bosey's cost. There's your other Bosey's costs which are the cross contracts that I mentioned earlier. That's your total Bosey's cost. And then you have your Bosey's aid and that's our projected amount for you this year but that will probably change. And then you have your

018surplus refund. Unlike a district, a at the end of the year, ABOSIS doesn't have a fund balance. Any additional funds are returned. We are required to return them to our school districts. And so anything extra that's left at the end of the year, we return back to you and then we start at square one beginning July 1 the next year. So that's how a Boseies works. So those are your average Boseies costs after all of the both the aid and the refunds and then the share will be determined later in June. So stay tuned. Um I think that that's actually our last slide tonight. We just wanted to give you a quick brief overview of the different things that we provide and the different ways that we are engaged with you. And so we're happy

019to answer any questions that you might have about any of the programs. >> Any questions from the board? All good. >> Okay. Well, thank you so much for having us >> from the from the public to the presentation. I'll open it up. Any >> All good. Okay. >> Well, thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate it. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> This is the approval of the superintendent's contract for an extension for three years for Mrs. Tracy Ferrer. be resolved that the board of education hereby authorizes the board president to excute an extension of the employment contract for the superintendent of schools Mrs. Tracy Fer originally dated June 30th, 2020, extending the term of the contract from June 30th, 2027 through June 30th, 2030 in the form presented to

020the board at this meeting. I need a motion. >> Um >> motion motion by >> I'll second >> second by motion by Beth. Uh we didn't put this in the normal consent items just because we didn't we wanted to make sure that the public knew that we were going to extend Tracy's contract and I just we wanted to be you know open about it. So at this time I'll take a vote. Beth >> yes >> Justin >> Yes. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay at this time we will take the superintendent report. >> Okay. Um, so Sue actually mentioned this in her presentation. It's number three on my report, but I'll since she just mentioned it, I'll talk about it. So they have had that college access coaster, but we did not join

021it in the previous years because it would have we would have paid 100% of the tuition cost and our aid is the state minimum. So it would not we would have end up in the red. We would have had to spend more money. Now what the state did is because they're opening you know equitable access to higher education they have now expanded the college um access coaster and what they have now added is the subsidization of teachers um salaries. So our teachers in the high school that um teach the college level classes they get a stipen for teaching those classes. this early college access, this expanded coaster will now pay that stipen. So then we can pays the st it subsidizes that stipen. It subsidizes their salaries like you know Sue mentioned up to $50,000

022and then $60,000. Um and then we can afford to pay the tuition for not just the students in the pathway to get the college degree, but for any student that wants to just try a college course because again, you know, it's that open access for education. Sometimes they want to try a college level course because they're here, they're comfortable, they know the teacher, and it they do have a little extra support. So, I am excited about that. That's why we have it in the past because we couldn't really without going in the red afford it. But with this we can um all right bus proposition. Now we've been we've talked about in the past that we can't you know four years ago we said well here's the EV bus mandate and we were like 2027

023and it seemed so far away. Okay it is no longer far away. Um so we will need to purchase buses prior to the 2027 purchasing deadline for diesel vehicles. So we have to have them purchase because in order to get transportation aid then um we have to have already have the PO purchased and delivered. Um now the purchasing cost is more money than the leasing. You know it's just like a car. So the purchasing cost is $2,474,42.75. That will give us 11 66 passenger buses, one 44 passenger bus and one 30 passenger bus. The 44 and the 30 passenger bus, they will be mainly used for athletic and field trips. We per in the leasing purchase we did five years ago, excuse me, was for um three minibuses. We ended up sending two of them

024back because we don't use them because they're not big enough for certain field trips, but they're way too, you know, they're just it it was kind of poor planning. Um, now right now the lead time for bus builds is one and a half years. Um, this order is for the 2728 school year and the buses we currently have are under a 5-year lease which ends September 27. So currently right now that is where the legislature from what I understand is at um impass. Um from what I understand and what I've heard is that the governor realizes that to do this mandate it is going to be cost prohibitive. Not just we don't have the infrastructure. Um we don't have the um it's going to increase electrical cost, power grid, um gas, everything. So right now

025she would like to roll it back. Um but a lot of her downstate um base is arguing against it. They want to push it forward. So we still don't know. So we're still operating that 2027 is our deadline for purchasing diesel vehicles. if we cannot lease them purchasing, we get the transportation aid for the um 2728 school year that then um we comply for the waiver that pushes us to get EV buses for two more years. There is a second waiver that pushes us again for two more years. So, and with purchasing, we're still we're looking at Matthews. That's who we currently use because last time we did lease from them, the build took longer than expected. We were allowed, Matthews was nice enough, they allowed us to hold our buses until they got our

026buses. And that's we're just kind of worried about this year and a half out. So that's right now with bus proposition. Um Sullivan County Sheriff's Department, I've been working with um our district's attorney. Earlier this week, I was informed that overtime would not be approved by the Som County Sheriff's Department without a memorandum of understanding. So, I just got theou today. Um, so that will be on April's agenda. Um, and that and two items I asked to be included in thisou timeliness of invoices, including documentation, a backup of how we get the overtime calculated and um and then specifications regarding overtime. So, we did add that into theou. You know, I'm asking for quarterly those invoices um with backup data because right now I think we're operating like twice a year. We get one in

027like January and then we get one in like August and I would like more timely invoices. So, um working on that. Um Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Grant. Um we applied in the past for this New York State library grant. I applied again. Um, and this would pay for 50% of that literacy program, which is where the literacy the imagination library you sign up. It's for anybody that any child b from birth to 5 years of age, their parents can sign them up where a free book gets delivered to their mailed to their house free of charge. So, I'm applying for the money again. We have 61 children receiving books right now, every month. Um, and we've had 21 children aged out. And this is again, it's all about literacy. You get books in the kids'

028hands. They start reading earlier and um and there's bulk mail, so it's like little tiny, you know, just cute little books. Um so I applied for that. The strategic improvement plan check-in. Probably you've gotten um a text message from me this afternoon. Check your email. So two years ago, we did the strategic plan and we're doing another check-in. So this is again the thought exchange where all community members can post their feedback on how they think everything's going, what needs to be added, what needs to be um taken out. You know, it's just a check-in and that survey or the thought exchange closes a week from tomorrow. And this will have that data for our um April 14th workshop meeting. And so that and also it'll be on Facebook and the website tomorrow morning. So

029there will be lots of avenues and also you will probably get I think I've scheduled two more school messengers just reminders please send it out. So you'll see that um I did apply I did not know this until Sullivan United Partners sent me an email and I get it's on I'm on a list serve Lowe's has a grant so I applied for this grant um and it's Lowe's the home improvement store. Um, it is I applied for $100,000 to because a school has to apply for it in order to help the community. So, I applied for it to hopefully move the fitness center from JSHs to the Highland Senior Center. I've been talking to John Pizzalado on that because one, it would open the fitness center to the community for extend their hours. Right now

030their hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and then we have our kids have to use it and then I think it's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in the evening. So if I can move it to the fitness center then or move it to the senior center, it opens it up for community and this would um also with I put kind of quickly come up with a cost. So this is where it would cover the construction, plumbing, electrical, um, and it would also create a tailor space for the community members. Like they would rather have probably double the amount of treadmills that's in our current space and less of the weights. While our athletes, they want the weights. So, you know, I did apply for that. I'm hoping my fingers crossed we get

031that information. Um, but I wanted to let you know about that. Um, and that's it for my report. >> Any questions for Tracy? uh with the um fitness center moving, would we then uh get different equipment for here so that way the students would be able to still use it in this building or would they have to go over to the >> No, we would still have it here because we have to have a fitness center because there has to be a space for adaptive PE. I'm just trying to figure out and how we can get one for the community and cover some of their costs. And I know I've worked with John Pizzada on a couple of different grants trying to get, you know, money from here and there because I think the community,

032they've also said they would love to be in their own space instead of relegated to our calendar. >> Great. Thank you. >> Back to the buses. >> Okay. >> So, it's 2 million. How much is it to purchase them? >> 2,474,142.75. >> So over what do we lease them buses for? 5 years. >> We leased them for five, but we'll own them for longer than that. >> I understand that. But how long are we going to take a loan out for these? >> Five years. Same thing. So, what's that going to do to our budget as far as a loan for five years to what we're paying for five years? And I understand I mean I'm all I'm all don't anybody take this out of context. I am all for purchasing buses and going that

033route to keep us from the electric. I am I don't want anybody to be misconstrued here. But budget-wise, what is that going to do to us as far as what do we pay a month or a year, however it's worked out, >> right, >> a year to what it's going to do to our budget to pay for $2 million, 400 and blah blah blah. So, what will happen is it will cost an additional 150,000 a year temporarily. That will increase taxes by 150 a year, which is 75%. Right? How the tax cap works is the difference between your capital expenditures and what the state aid comes in gets added to the tax cap. Once you pay the loan off, it comes out of the tax cap. >> So you'll you'll have 75 added to whatever

034it is. Like this year's two and a quarter, so this year would have been three%. So for the school, it doesn't really hit. And whenever you read those those um agenda items, those um propositions, they say, you know, approval to purchase the buses and tax therein. That's kind of how that works. So it will raise raise taxes about 3/4 of a percent for 5 years. Then they'll drop back down at the end of that. >> And depending on where that raises taxes into our tax cap will be depending on whether we have to go over or not. >> No, no, it goes into the tax cap. It goes into the tax. >> It's part of the tax cap formula. >> Okay. You know me without going over because that hurts the star program for the

035senior citizens. >> Yeah. No, it doesn't. It becomes part of the tax cap. So like I said, so this year it's two and a quarter is the tax cap. This year would have been 3% if it was the first year of that. >> Okay. >> Um >> so back to >> so 2027 is when they want is supposedly is when the state wants to roll this out. Correct. >> Yes. So that gives 2027 and July our calendar year or January's calendar year. >> It is the end of Jul I think it is August 2027 where we have to have these where it comes in that you cannot order any more diesel vehicles. >> So if she doesn't push this back Oh. Oh okay. So we Okay. So it's order them. >> Yes. You just have

036to order them. So, when are we looking at deciding what we're going to do with buying buses for us? I'm just trying to do the timeline here to make sure we have them buses before we are forced to to do this. We're forced this in 20 >> We can't buy any Wait, 2030. >> We can't buy >> any 2027. >> In 2027, >> August. >> Yep. >> But we have time to order our buses and purchase them and we'll still fall within half. When is it? 2030 that do we no more uh buses gas >> 2027 is no more you can't buy new ones >> you can't buy them but when is it when do they have to be off >> 35 okay so we're good all right I just want to make sure that

037we're not get our backs up against the wall here that we got to you know >> maybe what Caleb needs to explain is that we have to order them so far in advance too >> well it's a year and a half out right >> it's a year and a half out so that's why we're bringing it up here I was planning to put a letter of intent in this month which is pending approvals it doesn't lock you in if if it gets shut down or um or anything like that, it just kind of locks our place in their on their list. Um I'd have to check. You might be able to do it next month. Um if you guys need some time to think about it, um the the prices change every like they have

038a price index for their stuff. Um so if you don't lock it in by May, it might be a higher price. >> Just just food. Just thinking out of the box. You're thinking out loud. I know we got a big bond. We got we got a bond. How can you bond transportation? Can you bond buses for five years instead of throwing them, you know, putting it on tax on a >> you It's difficult to do because they don't usually let you do five years for municipal bonds. Um >> two two years or three years. >> I can look into it because you get a little bit of a lower interest rate because it becomes taxfree debt. But um >> it was just another avenue I was thinking of maybe we could I was just trying

039to work the English. I know in the past we could so I don't think you can when when we did it with the legal last time. So how we did our lease was technically a lease buyback. So we purchased the buses but there was an unbreakable clause that we had to sell them back for the for the balloon payment whatever we negotiated as a price for the buses. The title was in our name. I had to sign the titles over when we give the lease buses back. >> Um so it was like 1.9 million was what the last set they've gone up 25% in the last five years. Um and then we essentially, you know, quote, sold them back to them for the last two loan payments. >> Okay. >> Um and we weren't able

040to do the municipal thing. We had to do >> everybody's, you know, on the same page with me as far as >> timelines and trying to, you know, figure out how much it's going to cost us in a budget, >> you know, versus what we're paying. No, I'm just trying to watch the dollars and cents of it, >> right? >> Oh, no. Absolutely. It it will definitely it won't impact our budget but it will impact well unless you don't go to the cab then then it would impact the budget. Um but I would say that the lease will too. This is the cost of the buses now and we went to three of the manufacturers the major manufacturers with the state. These are state contract prices. So when we do the lease how it works

041is we have to then we get into the negotiating room and it becomes a lease buyback and we negotiate the price of the buses what they think they'll be worth at the end of five years. they make a balloon payment, >> right, >> for that amount at the end. >> And so, >> so my point is that um because they're more expensive in general, they're $500,000 more, even the lease is going to be a fair amount higher than >> what the one we're getting right now is. >> The one we're getting right now was on 1.9 million is what it cost us for the buses. >> And you're talking to lease on electric buses. Is that what you're saying? Or >> No, no, no. Normal buses. >> I mean, if you're trying to decide between

042leasing and buying, um, the lease is going to be more expensive, too. I mean, le's the way to go because we don't have to worry we turn them back in and see you later when there's a problem with him. But, I mean, leasing's not going to be the way to go with this, you know, other >> Well, right. Because then you're going to have to buy electric buses soon. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> Yep. >> All right, enough of that. I just wanted to make sure I did know where we were going with this $2 million here. So, all right. Elementary principal report. Mr. Carpenter. >> Thank you, Mr. Hock. Uh, so our attendance just dropped very very um minimally uh last month. So, I think we have a real shot uh for the first

043time that I've been here at GRM for in five years since the pandemic to get that 95% attendance rate that we're looking by the end of the year. Um some grade levels, second grade and sixth grade actually went up this past month with the other grade levels going down just a significant drop, not insignificant drop. So, I'm really really happy about that. We're through the winter. So, hopefully now with the the good weather, kids being outside running around, we get them in school. And it's something I stress every month in my Mackenzie buzz as well. Uh academic outcomes. So, we are preparing for New York State assessments in math, ELA, and science in our fifth grade coming up. Uh, part of that um preparedness is we're running targeted enrichment for our first through sixth grades.

044Um, this allows students who may be struggling with some specific concepts that we're um trying to target um come to school early in the morning at 7:30. We also provide bus transportation. Um, I'd like to thank Melissa Mueller for running those routes. Um, in order to pick up our elementary school students with the junior senior high school routes, those students transfer at the junior senior high school. Little different when we do band and chorus for our fifth and sixth graders. We could have students as young as first graders, right? Transferring at the junior senior high school. So, Lisa, I know you're out there in the morning as well. So, thank you. All right. And Mr. Conklin. So, all right. Well, thank you guys for your help because you know the littles and transfer them on

045a bus to get them to GRM. I appreciate it. And so right now we have 63 students enrolled in 1 through sixth grade receiving target enrichment in ELA and we have 53 students some of those are the same students um that are receiving target enrichment in math in grades 1 through sixth grades. Um leader in me we just had an advocation vocation day at GRM. You'll see some of the pictures on our website. Um it was a phenomenal day. It is amazing to think all of the advocation and vocations we have in our small community here in Eldrid. Um, for example, there was law enforcement, the Forest Park Rangers. We had a mother who's been on Shark Tank that's running her own business. We have um we had an archer, an am I saying that

046right? Archer, right? Yeah. Who came and uh a professional like archer, this is like not only a hobby but a job um for him where you know it's it's income. We had um we had a retired teacher who came back, June Lombardi, who talked about um all the shelter animals that she helped support and and the missions that they have. Um we had a a minister uh that came that operates within the Elder Central School District. Um we had an actor who's been on Law and Order. I mean, I'm just random off the top of my head, but we had 15 um volunteers, community members who came and gave our entire school an opportunity to see what is out in the world. And so we were really happy about that. And a big shout out

047goes out to uh Miss Kurtzman who runs student council and Miss Gallow who helped to coordinate this. Uh the kitchen helped. They made kiche. Um we had donuts and bagels out, coffee. It was really just a great great day. Um and really the most exciting part for me was our fifth and sixth graders in student council are met the community members. They brought them to their tables. They checked in with them throughout the day. Hey, do you need a bagel? You need a donut? You need a cup of coffee? And they provided them. So it was almost like two students for every community member to to show what our student leaders can do. So it was just a phenomenal day. Um and with that um I myself and Miss Gallow attended a winter community day

048at Liberty Elementary School last Tuesday, March 10th. And that was also a great day for Miss uh Gallow and myself to really see where the framework of Leader Me can go and can get. Liberty Elementary School's been uh utilizing Leader and Me for almost 7 years now. Um and so we are now currently in our third year. So, they're a little ahead of us. Um, but you can see the growth of the students um and them becoming leaders. So, we were happy to see that. Um, our spring clubs commence uh the second week after we get back from break, April 13th. We're excited about that. All county band um occurred last week at uh two weeks ago um at the Liberty Central School District. And then we also have the week of the young child

049coming up uh which is that also the second week of April, April 13th to 17th. It's a very exciting time in the building. A lot of collaboration uh amongst grade levels. It's just really an enjoyable enjoyable week to be an educator. And there's some important dates we have coming up. I I spoke about advocation vocation day that we had on Tuesday. Um tomorrow is our conference day. Student council spirit week is next week. And then on March 27th, Friday of next week, the culture team from leader and me culture action team for breakfast. The they coordinated with the kitchen. They're going to have waffles for breakfast and the culture team is going to bring toppings. >> So strawberries, whipped cream, might even be a little ice cream. So, and that was all approved by teachers.

050So, it's going to be a lot of fun. All right. >> Yeah. Well, I sugar them up and then I give them to him and then, you know, on a Friday before break. So, great idea, right? So, but that came from our culture team and so, uh, just a lot of great things happened at GRM and that concluded my report. >> Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Carpenter? I >> I have a question. Mr. >> Where does the archer work? >> Yes. So, this was a gentleman. He was a husband to one of our teachers in the building. Um, and he brought in all of his supplies. He talked about how he hunts um during uh bow season, but he also goes to significant amount of competitions um around the country um to compete. Um

051and he came in looking like a Viking. It was really cool. It was really cool. Yeah, it was great. I can't you can hear my excitement probably. >> Thank you, Mr. Lup. >> All right. >> All good. Okay, moving on. Secondary. >> All right. Thank you very much. Um, so our attendance at JSHS from our our last board meeting is at 90.94%. We want to we want to raise that up a little bit. Uh, hopefully as we do head into the uh spring springtime, we do see some uh we see an in increase in that. Um, our course guide for 2627 has been uh released to uh our staff and our students. Uh, students are going to be provided with course selection sheets that they're going through in Miss Garen right now. um going to

052go over what courses they want to uh take next year. Um it's going to be the same as kind of the past couple years, but it's also going to be going home to the parents as well, so the parents are aware of what the kids are going to be taking while they're in school here. So, parent signature is required. Um testing SATs took place on March 13th and the ACTs were offered today, March 19th, and I think that went pretty smooth, right, Mr. Krebs? So, all good there. an academic schedule transition for 2627. So next year we've done a lot of uh research, a lot of leg work into this. Um we visited schools who uh operate on a rotating drop schedule, all different kinds of schedules, looking at master schedules, talking to the faculty.

053Um so we have made a decision that we're implementing a rotating drop schedule next year at the junior senior high school. Um there's a lot more information to come. I will be meeting with parents, stakeholders, whatever that means. But for me uh it's an increase on time on learning for the students. Uh it provides them with consistent high energy instructional periods. It increases our instructional periods. Allows us to the teachers and the staff to foster those more positive relationships and also kind of changing the instruction which uh would be project based learning collaboration and uh also some direct instruction incorporated into there. So we're partnering with Mark Stern who right now is the assistant superintendent in Livingston public schools in New Jersey. He's getting promoted on July 1st to superintendent of public of Livingston public

054schools um to ensure that it aligns with what our departments want, what our subjects want and uh we maximize our faculty and uh we do what's best for students and we're very excited he's coming tomorrow um to do two different groups of what instruction look like. So we do increase the periods and you know lengthen them. So we're excited for that. Couple things that it does it reduces that daily transition. Uh so so the subject load for students is down but also for staff it's down as well. So like sometimes your classes aren't going to meet every single day. You're going to drop specific classes during the rotation. Um and it's more complex course work and like I said before project- based learning. We are still finalizing the transition road map what that looks like

055and like I said professional development is taking place and I want to stress that communication with parents and stakeholders is going to take place in person. and I want to be there to answer the questions and explain why I think this is the best route for JSHs to go. So, I'm really excited about it. Couple of miscellaneous things. I actually have archery mentioned in my report as well. Um, archery uh went to the state tournament um up by Syracuse. Um, they they had a they had a good showing. Uh, no, unfortunately nobody made it to nationals this year. Um, but you know, they they uh they did a nice job and they got to go to dinosaur barbecue. So, they they enjoyed that time as well. So, um, and I I did mention this at

056a couple meetings ago, but I'm going to mention it again. Mrs. Pratcher along with Miss Stringer did host the first ever archery tournament here at the junior senior high school. I forget what the exact date was because it was in January, but they did uh they did host a tournament here, which was a good thing. So, it is picking up a lot of traction. A lot of kids are interested in it, so it's good to see. Um, upcoming Washington trip, that's going to be from Thursday, April 23rd and through Saturday, April 25th. uh Miss Druit uh sent out the list today. I think how many students do you have? >> 25 students going to Washington. Um so uh we're really looking forward to that and uh Miss Drew does a nice job with the fundraising

057and stuff and making sure the kids have everything taken care of. So kids always have a good time. Senior drip senior trip details are being discussed finalizing all that stuff. The seniors did a wonderful job uh at the last meeting presenting uh their their proposal. So proud of them. And before you know it, graduation's going to be here. So graduation planning is going to begin soon. We'll get there. So uh and that's it for me. >> Any questions, Mr. Compton? >> How are the seniors making out with their uh goal to uh again? There's a lot of chocolate flat around. >> You really Hold on. Wait a second. Hold on. They really think they're going to earn $13,000 by selling boxes of chocolate? I bought $20. >> Um, >> I've sold four boxes at work.

058I'm just going to say that. >> They're doing a bunch of stuff. Um, >> and if anybody wants crispy cream, the 10th graders are selling crispy cream. >> I know. I heard that. >> I bought some from Victoria. >> I know. It's like the greatest day of my life. The whole building. The whole building smells like crispy cream and it's awesome. It's the best smell. They are >> del melt in your mouth. Yeah. Best thing about >> you love them. >> Uh, are they going to meet their goal? I >> I they're they're trying. Um, I think they do have enough to uh fund what they wanted um originally. They might have to pivot on some things, but um they're they're working on it. So, >> I I thought about that the other day. I'm

059like, I wonder how they're making out doing that since they were running around here ball game selling chocolate. It's It's funny because I actually emailed Heather today just to say like, "Hey, how are we looking with this like >> but also when they did their presentation it was like the max >> the max." Yes, it was >> of everything. So yeah, >> we can descale a lot um because they do they do have a lot of senioritis a little bit going on right now. So we're working through that. >> Well, you have a senior sitting next to you. >> I would receive a question for her actually. just when it came up >> who does not have senioritis. >> Not Tabitha. She's she's doing what she's doing. >> Any other questions? Any any other discussion?

060Good. >> You're up, Tabitha. >> Right. Yeah. >> I've been known to skip things here, so you guys keep me in check with this. >> All right. So, we had a couple trips today. Hope Squad attended a training in Liberty. The Fearless Teen Summit went on a field trip to advocate for themselves and like teens. Um, we're encouraging more students to join the leader and me culture and leadership teams. Um, next week the high school's also participating in their spring spirit week, which I think a lot of kids are excited for, specifically the seniors. Um, we had another countywide student council meeting and we extended our expanded our participants to the 10th and 11th graders. So, it'll continue past this year. We also might be hosting an inerson meeting so we can talk about a

061little bit more and it's a little clearer. For athletics, our spring sports just started. Um, varsity, I think, started two weeks ago and modified started this week. Um, some of our athletes represented Eldred in the Ulan St. Patrick's Day parade last weekend. Girls basketball, they won their sections and traveled to Long Island to play in the regional game, which they sadly lost. And the boys basketball also went to Mount St. Mary College to play in their sectional game, which they also did lose. But for music, um, as mentioned before, like the all county festival at Liberty, it was on March 6th and 7th, we had seven students from the school in general selected for the middle school band. Two students selected for the junior high jazz ensemble. Sam Turilliger was first trombone. Five students were

062selected for the senior high concert band. Marissa Gotchinau, Claudia Wasaki, and Tyler Mendy's were each selected for first part, check second chairs. Tyler and Claudia also each played solos in the different pieces. Eight students selected for the junior high treble chorus. We also had a student percussionist featured in the chorus. Riley Abato was the only drum set player in the county who placed played a NISMA jazz solo. She earned it outstanding. Um, Mr. Mr. Nson was the chairperson for the treble chorus and we rounded out with 12 students selected for the junior high mix chorus. Mr. Iverson and El were the only school in the county with students in five different ensembles. Most schools only had like one or two and the elementary chorus also had 10 students. And yeah, >> that's all. Any questions?

063All good. Okay, very good. Mr. Krebs. >> Oh, good evening. So, let me just start with you got one of these portrait of a graduate school board. New York State put these out. It's it's a great um a great thing to kind of look at because what they did is they took a look at what our portrait of graduate is for our new students that are coming on board. And you can see that in the back and then on the front it talks a little bit about what the school board could do. And there's one I thought this was apppropo to kind of just share with you. Here's your schoolboard things, but they also put out ones for a parent, um, for a student, for an educator, and an administrator. So, each one of those

064they kind of like, um, separated out for the roles that each one would kind of fulfill to look at our new portrait of a graduate. So, I thought I'd share that with you and you'll still hear a little bit more about portrait of a graduate. Mr. Conklin talked about, you know, making a schedule that kind of fits some of the needs that the state is suggesting our students should kind of have some experiences in and some longer periods would allow those things to actually occur. Um, I also went to a um regional AI summit at Mount St. Mary's College this past week. It was amazing. Um, it was not specific to ed educators. They brought in community members. They brought in businesses, they brought in government and talked about how the AI landscape is changing

065for each one of those. So it was somewhat eye opening to the type of things that a lot of uh the government and uh businesses are getting involved in that is making things a lot easier for um things to occur. And immediately I thought about like financial like some of the prefuncter things that happen with uh uh per um accounts payable and some of the businesses are turning a lot of the accounts payable over to an AI agent to kind of like it gets the bills in they look at the amount and it sends out the invoices and the checks and things all done by AI. So, um, not it didn't take away a person, but it kind of assisted them with their job duties and the, uh, amount of, uh, percentages of, uh, things

066that typically could go wrong decreased enormously when they bring in something else to oversee that. So, those were just some things. And then lastly, u, we have our conference day tomorrow and we're looking at budgetary needs. And a couple of things that we're looking at is our programs. Again, Tina and myself and Tracy and the governance group have been looking at our programs to make sure that what we're offering here in school are things that students and and staff are using. >> That's all I had to share with you. Thank you, >> Mr. Grebs. Any questions for Mr. Grubs? >> All good business. >> Okay. Mr. Russell, the man of the hour. Let's see. Okay. So, this proposed budget includes everything that is in the legislative proposal, which hasn't actually been passed yet. Um, there

067doesn't seem to be much on the way of disagreement about it, though. Um, on the education budget side of it, there's disagreements on um Okay, so this is not uh Where are Oh, you >> He's back there. >> Is it on, >> Jason? It's uh Is there an on button? Oh, there is. It's off. >> All right. Well, that'll do it. That'll do it every time. >> Okay. So, in the proposed budget for property taxes, our tax cap is 2.38% this year. That's $326,000. Um, state aid, uh, for the first time in quite a while is actually going up. Uh this includes the so the legislative proposed a 2% increase to foundation aid as opposed to a 1% for um the governor's proposal. But uh what's really driving ours going up now which is not

068a great thing in the long run but it's great for planning is since we're at the minimum aid uh it's not going down. So as our expenses go up our aid will go up by whatever those expenses go up. So you have expense based aids like Boseies. If you spent a million dollars with Boseies last year, um, one year we got 44%, that's 40, um, 44,000, right? Or um, 440,000. The next year expenditures for Boseies go up 5% because everybody's costs go up and then it drops down to 36% as a portion. So it looks like we're getting kind of the same aid, but we're really not. We're spending more money and getting the same amount back. So now that we're at the minimum the 36, our aid numbers when you look at our runs

069are going up in transportation boseies and everything for the first time in a number of years. Makes planning easier because if my expenses go up, I at least get more aid. Um the other I just dropped more or less. I don't like to play around with those. They're very hard to predict. Um there are things like uh interest, donations, um refunds on insurance recoveries. the Boseies refund goes in there and it's, you know, you you saw their presentation. It was 366 one year and 724,000 the next. So, um it's really difficult. I try to keep it around the same, but I did drop the interest by 20,000 because we aren't earning quite as much interest. I do think we'll still beat that number, but um there's a lot of talk of interest rates lowering at

070some point and uh I just wanted to be conservative with that. So, I was expecting 125,000 in interest. We budgeted 145 last year. we're actually going to make 170. I usually keep our our coffers loaded and I and I try to make sure that our cash flow is coming in and it goes straight to an interest bearing account. And then the reserves, the use of reserves I'm putting in there is not going to be forever, but for right now it is to pay off essentially a loan to ourselves. So that that I which I agreed to pay off over 5 years for the cafeteria um which was like 10 or 15 years of deficits that you know smaller deficits but they added up. So we had a $360,000 loan from the general fund which uh

071the state said you should pay back and I said okay we'll pay it back over three years by transferring more money than we usually do into the cafeteria fund. Um, and then that will go back down to probably 130,000. Oops. So, this is what I was talking about here where you see our some of the state aid is starting to level off the percentages. In the previous years, that's what was really hitting us. Um, losing especially transportation and Bosey's aid, losing 8% of well over a million dollars hurts. Uh, same with uh transportation aid nearly 10% has gone down over the years. um as a percentage of our revenue, property taxes make up the bulk of it and then state aid is is the next largest chunk. So when state aid doesn't go up, it

072becomes problematic. Again, we don't have that problem this year, which was nice. Um they also gave a a UPK grant, it appears that they're in agreement on um we get right now 56 or $5,400 per pupil with a cap of 34 pupils. They now want universal. So they've eliminated the cap and they've increased the payin to $10,000 a student. So on the we have at least 20 right now. So that would have been that would have under the old um formula been um $108,000. Under the new formula it'll be $200,000. So it's like an extra $92,000 bucks um which actually pays for the prek class. It didn't used to fully cover the prek class. This is how we did our tax cap. Uh it didn't change from the last time I presented it. Um I

073didn't realize Boseies didn't have any change to their capital. That was the last number that I was waiting for waiting for. So they didn't do any capital projects this year. So it was the same as last year. And you'll see that the pilots in pilots out and the exemptions those exemptions are where the bus lease goes. So uh or or purchase lease or purchase doesn't matter which. So it's the cost of that minus the transportation aid I get goes into the exemptions and then the difference between the two years you'll see the ensuing year and the base year is is how much I get. So if it goes down it comes out of my cap. If it goes up it goes into my cap. Um this is our expenditure budget. We've gone up uh employee

074benefits are the biggest hit this year. Uh you're getting a 7% increase to health insurance. Um, you're getting a 10% increase to ERS. You're getting an 8% decrease to TRS. And I I currently have budgeted the workers comp flat, but that's actually going to go down a little bit. So, I might tweak that the next time it comes here. The bottom line isn't going to change though. That 20 million84788, that's how much money we're going to get. So, that's what our budget has to be. Um, debt is more or less the same. It's fixed. It's on a schedule for our bond. Um, transportation 1.93%. That's just basic increases in in costs. We did budget for a new van in there. One of our vans is not going to pass DOT inspection next year. It's a

075little older. Um, we're going to buy a hybrid van to show that we're making uh some headway into the electric. Um, you're allowed to do it. It's so it's a little bit of a misnomer where they're saying it's electric buses. It's technically zero emissions. Unfortunately, for the large buses, electric is the only one that qualifies. But hybrid, many hybrid vans are considered zero emissions, which, you know, because they're part gas, they don't have that range problem. Lots of people drive hybrid. So, that's a more practical thing. I don't know if like that's just the technology that is not practical on something so heavy. >> Um, but if they could come up with that, that would uh certainly make it easier. Um, instruction, it doesn't look like it's going up. We're not hiring any additional instructional

076staff, but some of that decrease, in fact, the bulk of that decrease is from out of district placements. So, uh we have one um two high-cost students who aren't going anymore. So, it would seem like we're not spending as much on programs, but it's almost exclusively from um high cost out of district placements that are um leaving either leaving the district, graduating, or found different placements that aren't as costly. So, we haven't made any changes to our program plans except for the college program, which over time is actually going to help us. We should save some money on that. Everybody will get we'll pay the tuition that's required for that, but uh the aid we get on that will cover the tuition and an additional $20,000. Uh and then in general in support that is

077up mostly just your basic raises on on staff and and uh a couple expenditures on equipment, but otherwise relatively small. It's just because it's a lower number. It swings easier to get to that 4%. It's really 45,000 on the total amount. In total, the budget's going up 2.45%. When you're dealing with 20 million, it it looks like a lot. It's $500,000, but on 20 million, that is only 2.5 or four or five%. Um, we try to keep it around or below inflation, which is historically 2.7 around there. Uh, except for those two years where it was like astronomical. Uh, how we break our expenditures down, we do spend 49% of our money on instruction. Um, probably a little more. They, this is how the state, by the way, requires us to present it. Um, and

078it's how it gets presented in the budget newsletter. Uh, employee benefits are 24% and obviously a chunk of them is going to the instructional benefits. So, um, transportation's 5%, our transportation is relatively low actually um, compared to other districts. and uh general and support. That's that's your admin, that's your maintenance teams, your fuel, electric to run the building, all of that kind of stuff. Um the cost savings we currently have is the governor and the legislature, they're proposing that increase in UPK. Uh as Scott had mentioned, they're reviewing programs, softwares that we're using. Um we've been able to save on the out of district placements as I mentioned, and we're holding the staffing levels the same. Um we're not hiring or reducing in any way right now. Um the $100,000 project which we have to

079present to the public each year. As of right now, we have proposed work that's going to consist of a fiber optic upgrade we need in this building in order to have uh internet uh in order to increase our internet capacity. Um, also one of the things that Boseies was talking about, which I have, uh, I'm actually a committee member of now, um, is we're going out to get better bids on our, um, on our internet. Uh, we received very favorable bids, but we did it as part of a 4count ring and one of the district and all four would have to agree to the proposal would have saved a significant amount of money for us, but cost a significant amount of money for one of the other counties. So they shot it down and understandably,

080you know, you got to make a decision based on what works for for your group. But so at our business officials meetings that they were talking about, we said, "Well, I bet we could get those prices." We've got enough in our county to get those kinds of prices, I think. So we're um looking to try to put together an RFP and see if we can get better pricing on our internet, but we'll need this fiber optic upgrade to even be able to to do that. Um, and then there was additional safety related upgrades. Uh, it's going to I'm going to fill that in as we find out what happens with Tracy's request for safety upgrades from the assembly person, which is why that one's a lot more vague than the other because I'm just kind

081of waiting to see whether we're going to get that or not. Um, that amount is already included in the tax cap calculation presented. Um, so it it doesn't have any effect on it. Uh and then this was just uh for this year is a projection of our expenditures. These are expenditures over the last four years. We pretty much nailed our budget for expenditures every single year what we've passed. I mean we've come in less than 1% of whatever the public passed when we came in there. Um I'm expecting nothing different this year. So that 12 20 million 348487 which is what the the public passed last May is what I think we'll be at around in June within 1% and I'm being conservative. You can see that I usually come much closer than 1%. Um

082but this year the difference is this year I think we're going to hit uh above our revenue targets which should give us a little surplus to cushion away which would be nice. Um, one thing I wanted to bring up and I'm not sure if you guys are interested in doing with this year's budget. We have a number of projects that we've been discussing. There's almost certainly not all going to be able to fit into this year's budget. I wasn't sure if you guys wanted to do a budget workshop. We've talked about it before. Um, I know our auditor wasn't able to make it today and I know that our next board meeting is quite a >> 28th, isn't it? >> Yeah, it's quite it's, you know, it's not because of because of the budget. it's

083further out than normal. So, if you wanted to do one in between, >> that's just something for you to discuss. It's not my decision to make, but um I could have them come to that. They are allowed to present at them because you're not making a decision or accepting anything. They're just in fact, it's appropriate for them to be there because they're going to present financial findings to you. So, >> well, I'm sorry. You want to have them at the workshop? >> Well, you can. I'm just That's for you to decide. >> I'd rather have them at a public meeting. workshops are public, >> right? >> I understand that. >> All right. Well, okay. >> It's up I'm I'm >> totally >> I'm not making the this I'm just letting you guys know that um

084that you are allowed to do that if that is something you wanted to do. >> What's the date you want for a workshop? I didn't I was bringing it up for for your discussion if you wanted to kind of be a part of the process of hey we have these six projects that needed to get done and we could only fit two or three of them in >> everybody everybody available the week of the uh 13th through the 17th >> we've got it on the 14th >> got one on the 14th >> we got one on the 14th because that's for that strategic planning >> update >> oh okay >> could combine We could combine them. >> How long a night's that going to How would that >> I don't I don't know how long

085the strategic planning one >> um I can I I'll ask Dr. McGawan how long he expects it to be. Um >> is everybody good with uh like three weeks in a row? You got the 14th and then you got the 20th through the 24th and then the 28th would be our regular meeting. You're not going to be here for the meeting from what I think I saw in the email. >> The 28th I will not. >> Okay. So, do we want to do a workshop? Are you I can make myself available >> or whatever. You know, uh if we want to do a 14th, 21st, and 28th, you want to do three Tuesdays in a row, make it simple, easy, or >> or combine it, you know, >> or combine it, but I'd like to

086know how long it's going to be before we combine it. I don't want to be here for 5 hours. >> I can find out tomorrow from Dr. McGaw >> cuz all I got to do is text him and ask him and he'll let me know. >> Who? >> Um McGowan who runs the for the strategic plan. >> Do we ever have a strategic plan meeting yet? >> Yeah, cuz remember two years ago we did it and that was the gentleman that came and worked with us. So he's coming back >> to do the checkin. >> That was it. That was a couple hours now. >> Yeah, that cuz that we were work we were constructing it. This is just a check-in. So I'll ask him tomorrow how long he thinks it's going to be. >>

087How are we starting that meeting? We put it at >> we're doing at six >> six I think. Yeah. >> I mean you want to go for a marathon. I mean how long would it be for a budget workshop? >> I mean I could keep it to probably well it depends if you're going to have the auditor there. I could keep it to 45 minutes. She's going to present for 15. Right. >> I'm going to come in. If you would like I could break it down to just the things that are discretionary. >> You know because there are certain things it's not like you really have much of a choice. Right. We don't need to discuss whether or not you want to pay the bot. >> Yeah. Figure it out. >> Figure it out. Caleb,

088figure an hour. >> Yeah. Or less. >> So, you want to do from 6:00 till 9 roughly that that same day >> on the 14th? >> I'm good with that. >> All right. >> Do that then. Me, too. >> Okay. And I will let um >> Kevin and I'll let Kevin know that May he can start at seven. >> Yeah, we'll do her first. >> First and then have him do seven. >> All right. That that works. We'll do the Okay. All right. So, that's what we'll do. We'll do April 14th for a workshop for everything and then we'll have the 28th for >> a regular meeting. >> The regular meeting. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Where am I here? >> And was there any other questions or anything? >> No. >> Budgets

089I mean the budget's the budget, right? I mean it's what it is, >> you know? I mean every you know we do our best here to you know stay under the cap or stay at the cap so we don't >> Yes. >> upset anybody. We've done it for the last seven years anyways and we've always done good at it and we've never, you know, it's always worked well for us. That's why my my concern was the buses. >> That's where my concern was going with that. >> I don't want to break our, >> you know, what we've been doing here for the last seven. That's right. You know, >> I agree. >> So, you got Speaking of the buses, >> you got to look at everybody out there in the public where you, you know,

090the senior citizens with the star program and that all plays a role in everything, you know. So fixed incomes with the senior citizens and they they lose their star program. They they lose a few few bucks and it hurts. >> Go ahead. I'm sorry. >> I'll I'll wait for public comment. >> All right. Well, you're up right now. >> All right. >> Sullivan Boseies. So White and Partners is doing the organizational study. So So they uh promised to give us monthly updates. So they just started. So they have uh met with the Bosey's leadership team and all of the superintendent and um they they sent it out as a written thing. Um no feedback yet, but they will continue to give us updates and I will um update us as as they give us. I

091guess that's all I had. >> Any questions for Amador? The only thing I forgot well I forgot to mention was the auditor, but we already we've already settled that so that's all good. I just spoke enough tonight. So, moving on. >> Yeah, I said I already spoke enough. I'm good. I said that I have the buses and everything like that. I'm good. It's just, you know, budget time of year. So, it's try to stay focused on that. All right. At this time, what did they do? I'm sorry. Public comment on the consent to Jednoff item only. >> Nothing. Okay, at this time we will move on to Oh, I'm sorry. >> Just I don't know if I'm doing this correctly, but would we be able to remove something from the consent agenda? >> Let me

092let me let me Yep. We're going to get there. >> Okay. >> Uh motion to approve the consent item 7.01 through 10.04. I >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion by Amodore. Second. >> Second by Justin. Discussion. >> Could we please remove uh item number 9.07 07 from the consent agenda. >> for discussion and then >> it y >> uh chair chair is going to be the director for the performing arts part performing arts like >> Yes. >> But you want you want to >> I just have some questions and just want to discuss it. So >> go for it. >> Well, should we do we approve the consent agenda first or we do this first? Discuss first. >> Do this first because once you approve it, it stays there. >> Yep. Okay. >> So

093that's why you approve a motion in a second and you ask for discussion and then whatever gets moved out of there, then we approve whatever gets moved. >> Gotcha. Okay. So I just have some questions about it. Um, I I know that Cherish is listed as the director of it, but I'm hearing that Ally Glee is actually going to be directing the show. Um, so I didn't know if it was appropriate for Cherish to be listed as the director or is she the advisor and Ally should be listed as the director. >> No, that's that's a good point to to have her listed as the adviser. She's going to oversee the entire operation, but Ally is going to be somewhat of a student director. Um, I've met with her a couple times just to get

094there. There is a lot of interest in EPAC and I took what you said the couple board meetings ago that just need to find something. Um, and there is traction gaining from that. Um, and they they want to do a small production, not anything extravagant like we used to do, but something small. So, is the plan to do an actual musical um now starting in the middle to end of March by the time that we're done in June? >> There's no there's no plan set in stone right now because it's I'm I'm going to be monitoring the entire time of what's going to be allowed and what's not going to be allowed. Um they have talked about a couple small productions, you know, like Susical Jr. obviously they don't want to do that. Um they've

095mentioned uh I don't know the the length of the play but Mean Girls they've talked about um you know I but I still have to approve everything with Mrs. Ferrer and talk about that. So >> okay. >> Yeah. >> Um I think it I think it's amazing and extremely admirable as a huge supporter of the arts. Obviously I think it's incredible that they are willing and ready to take this on. And I know it's been very difficult to find somebody um who's been um able just because of various reasons to be able to you know uh continue with uh this programming. I just want to make sure that whatever is planned that the students are going to be successful in it and that it's not going to be something that they start and then are

096not able to finish again. >> Yeah. Mhm. because that's happened so many times and I want them to be able to feel good about the um end result that happens. >> I agree and that that's why I kind of uh had realistic, you know, kind of brought it back down that we need to be realistic about what we can accomplish, especially being mid-March right now, >> right? >> Um and how much work goes into a big production. Um, so you know, some some things we've talked about is like maybe a small table read of something where you the community can get together and just have fun with it. You know, nothing >> monologues. >> Yeah, like a monologue, something like that. >> One act plays. >> Yeah. Everything that's being done is going to go

097through my office to make sure that we are going to be successful with it. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You got it. >> Sorry. So, are we keeping that title of director in the >> consent agenda? That was the main question, right? The director about >> advisor or advisor. >> I I I I don't know what we have >> as advisor. >> We can do advisor. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that's >> advisor >> because technically she would be advising >> to EPAC >> to EPA. >> Yeah. And then that's, you know, that's an extra credit. >> And that rate would be prrated. It's not the whole stipen because again, it's mid-March, >> right? >> So, it would be prrated. >> Okay. And then hopefully, you know, if she wanted to continue being

098the adviser, it didn't necessarily mean that she'll have to direct the sher that Cherish would have to direct the show next year, but she could still be the adviser for the club. >> Yeah. >> If if that's something she's interested in doing. Okay. >> Okay. So, I can amend my motion to change 9.07 >> to Cherish belief neck advisor. >> Yep. >> Pro rated. >> Prated. >> Yes. That's what we're going to do. >> So, so I understand what prorated means. So, is this a stipen for the year? Is this something that normally goes on for the year and now we're just picking it up now? Is that what's going on? >> We had somebody at the beginning of the year who then I think and >> got another job relocated. Uh so, we went

099back to the drawing board once again >> and uh this Ally Cherish's daughter approached me uh with this idea and we kind of we've met a couple times. We kind of just ran with it and what I told Ally was you need somebody to be the adviser and uh she went to >> mom. Oh, there you go. >> Moms do everything. >> Okay. So, a motion. I have the motion to approve 7.01 through 10.04 with the change to 9.07. Right. 9.07. >> Mhm. >> To be in Cherish Blenick as the advisor >> and her daughter as the director. >> All right. Is that what we're looking to do? Right. >> Are we going to list her as the director? >> Oh, no. No, we we wouldn't list her as we wouldn't list the student as

100the director. >> Advisor. >> Okay. And the adviser to be chairs to be prrated from the stiper. >> Yes. >> Everybody good with that? >> Yes. >> Take a vote. >> Yes. >> Beth. >> Yes. >> Justin. Yes. Yes. >> Okay. >> Perfect. Any old business to become before the board? >> New business. Okay. First thing, district clerk is announcing that the petitions are available for the board. There's two seats open on the board. They're they're filled now, but there are there are there are two seats for this term. And they have to be in by >> April 20th. Monday, April 20th by 5:00 p.m. >> Monday, April 20th by 5:00 p.m. So the clock's ticking. We're already what? March 19th or whatever it is. So, we're we have a month away. >> So, that's

101why we're putting it out there now that petitions have to be picked up, signed, and handed in by 5:00 p.m. on that date, April 20th. Okay. Any other new business come for the board? >> Don't you just have to save it for new business? >> I'm going to save it for public comment. >> Oh, >> all right. Public comment. Anybody? Well, so I was thinking about the buses and um with a year and a half lead time, how long will our lease company work with us since our lease is up next September? >> Lease is up 2027. >> Yes. Which is next September. >> Right. So with a year and a half, if we order today, it lands in September next year when the lease is up. >> So how how long will they work

102with us? >> They'll work with us because we're putting the order through them. >> Will they work with us a year and a half? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> So they did with us on the last time. So what happened last time was we put the order in in August actually for the next year. We were hoping to have them delivered August now because we were using the same company. So essentially they were getting their buses back from us and they were the ones building the buses for us. Um when and we did that last we put it over a year ahead of time, right? And they weren't ready in August. They didn't get here until October. >> So in the meantime, they said, "We're not going to take the buses back and you know,

103you don't have to pay us anything extra. We're still going to give you whatever it was we got." >> Which will work the same. We we've spoken with them. It will work the same in this case. if we went with another company. >> Yeah. >> I don't >> who knows. >> I I do think that some of the companies had a quicker lead time. >> Um but they were also a lot more expensive. >> Yeah. >> Um and then there was another one that was like middle priced, but uh we actually had um loaner buses here for all the uh crew to use. And that one all the drivers to read was was not as >> So like Bluebird, we even we got a proposal from Bluebird. Bluebird manufactures their own buses. >> Mhm. >>

104They let us, they loaned us a bus. I think it was like two weeks. Everybody got to drive it. Um, their lead time is less because they build their own buses. >> Matthews, we deal with them. Their buses or Thomas built buses. They're coming from North Carolina. So, they've said a year and a half out. Leonard Bus, which is international, they also said a year and a half out. Now, Leonard um buses, they're the most expensive. Um I think Matthews ended up being, you know, again, because it's off of state pricing, um they're all the same price. I think what we're running into is because of that 2027 >> deadline, >> supply and demand, it becomes perfect economics. Everybody's trying to do a bus purchase because they get the transportation aid, it gives you that

105waiver, it pushes that can down the road. everybody. So now the supply, the demand has shot right up. >> We've gone up in price 25%. And >> Thomas Built and Bluebird and International, they're all just keeping up. >> Mhm. >> And I bet in my experience of being at Arizona Town Board, ordering equipment all the time. I bet that year and a half >> ain't going to happen. >> No. >> Ain't going to happen. Because I remember being in in uh Rochester and I spent my two or three days at the conference center at the electric bus place and the guy looked right at me. He says they can want they can hope for anything. >> Mhm. >> But we can't build them that fast. >> Well, and that's why we we are sticking with

106Matthews because we do have that relationship with them so that they're not going to all of a sudden say, "Well, you didn't, you know, we're going to just take our buses back, right? >> And we're, you know, without anything." It's just going to be it's just going to be a snowball effect. You know, they're trying to build electric buses. They're trying, you know, trying to meet this deadline, that deadline. Everybody's, you know, it's it's going to be it's going to be a mess. I mean, >> we'll we'll get through it, but it's I don't that year and a half timeline, which is a good question. You know, how long are they going to work with us for with the buses that we have? >> I'll ask them. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> So, I'll have

107that for you next time >> because I just don't I just don't foresee a year and a half even on a normal year. I mean, we used to wait, you know, sometimes it was two years before we got it. >> You're a salesman. So, this isn't this is you can't hang your hat on this, but you didn't seem alarmed, >> Right. >> Scott, since we're on the the bus topic, so switching from a lease methodology or architecture to owned, do we have the parts? Do we have the diesel mechanics, right? Because with a lease program, right, we we shell out an engine, it goes back to the company, we start to own it. What do we have as far as parts, logistics, moving pieces, and then do we on staff have the folks that are

108going to maintain the buses to the same degree? So we do and Matthews because of the and we've used them for the even though for purchasing leasing we would still have preventative maintenance the PM schedule done here the heavy duty of stuff like again in like if you've got an engine block cracked or whatever they would take it they would do the work there. So we still have that within kind of like a maintenance contract that's built in. >> What's the warranty on >> I was about to say we we have a maintenance contract built in. like a very very robust bumper-to-bumper warranty for um any major repairs. We're mostly going to be taking care of >> um >> some cosmetic stuff, but mostly your um preventative maintenance, >> brakes and tires and oil changes

109and stuff. What's the warranty? What is the What is the maintenance on that? What how many years? Five. >> Five years. >> Y >> just so everybody's This isn't new to us owning our own buses, too, though. We used to own them all the time until we decided to go this route. >> Yeah. and and in year six and seven, you won't have a lease payment anymore, but you'll have significantly higher because the warranty will be done. You'll have significantly higher repair cost. Probably not the cost of, >> you know, the the >> and they're even talking about um you know, because of leasing several districts, I'll give Monaceel because they own their own buses as well. Monaceel, they've been able to they purchase and they call them stacking. So, you purchase five buses every

110couple of years. Um, we with a lease, you get a whole new fleet. Um, now what they're talking about and some of the things I'm hearing in a in a possible waiver because of the EV stuff is that if you purchase um, you know, again, your fleet, they're talking about doing an a waiver saying if you need to replace a previously purchased within that timeline, then they're saying that's okay. So, they're starting to realize that this is not an end all be like we can't automatically go. Um, plus they are, you know, what I was listening to a podcast is um after the winter we've had. Rochester had done a pilot um starting about three years ago, four years ago, half their fleet went electric. Rochester is an urban school. It's also very cold. They're

111like, we'll take the free EV buses. We'll test it. And now I'm hearing on this podcast that this winter because of just the temperature the um they ended up having like half of those EVs didn't start. They didn't even come close to the range. Um and all these like they've said we'll give them back to you for free. Like we are willing to end this um pilot. Um the other thing that um again in my research is when you buy a new car or you buy a diesel engine bus, they have to put on the um proposal on the sticker your miles per gallon. Like that's by law right now. Um the EV com um I guess you can say the consortium, they don't want to put the miles per charge because they don't know.

112>> Yeah. Exactly. >> And that's what you know, municipalities, school districts, and counties are asking you, if we have to be informed consumers, >> MPG should be on that sticker price, why can't MPC's >> be on the And they're like, "No, we're not ready for that yet." >> Again, I think there's a lot of there's a lot of movement, but I also don't I don't I'm not a gambler. I want I don't want to hedge like I'm gonna hedge my bets >> and be prepared. So, is anyone talking about zero emissions buses >> as far as in the county? Everybody's cooking it, kicking it down the road. A Monaceel has one and they got for free. >> They're just wild. >> It's a zero emissions bus. >> It's It's just an EV bus. >> Oh,

113other than EV, like >> hybrid cars are zero emissions. >> They don't The technology is not there for the buses. >> Okay. >> For the buses, the the closest thing which isn't ready yet is hydrogen. They don't have any commercially available yet. >> Okay. >> But that that technology supposedly and that's a >> Yeah, it's still in R&D. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Who's the little guy sitting in the audience by himself? >> Is that your son? >> Yeah. >> Oh, >> he Justin is not >> I'm I'm just sitting I'm watching him and I'm like the little guy's perfect. He's sitting there. You don't even know. >> You don't even know he's there. He's perfect. I'm like, why is he sitting next to you AS >> I've been watching him the whole meeting.

114I'm like, why is he there by himself? >> All right. All right. That that's that's question answer. >> He's the next one. >> Yeah, there you go. You can have my seat. Come on up. >> All right. Any other public comment? All good. Kicked it kicked it around enough. the buses again. >> Yes, >> we'll be kicking it around a lot more, I'm sure. >> All right, before I ask for a motion, uh, our next workshop will be April 14th here, and it's public. It's not executive session, and our next meeting will be April 28th here. >> All right. Now, I need a motion to enter into executive session for contracts and personnel. I'll make that motion. >> Motion by Amador, second by Justin. Everybody get home safe. Hopefully we'll get some nice sunshine and

115weather here pretty soon. They got spoiled there them last them couple two or three days >> and then Tuesday. >> And uh everybody enjoyed your vacation and we'll see you in April.