FCSD Board Meeting June 9, 2026

001Welcome to the special school board meeting of May 9th, 2026. Uh we begin each meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, so please please join me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, um tonight, uh we have to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of May 9th, 2026. Uh all of it is in consent. We do have some motions uh in financial, but um personnel and new business all consent. Got a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second? That's Mr. Kenny. Any questions? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? All right, moving on. Uh we have to approve the minutes from the regular meeting of May 19th, uh

0022026. Could I have a motion for that? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second? >> I second. >> [laughter] >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Uh we need to approve the minutes from the annual budget vote of May 19th, 2026. Uh could I have a motion for those minutes? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions on the annual budget vote minutes? If not, all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Which moves us into our special presentations. We have uh two tonight. Uh first, uh we're pleased to have in attendance uh to speak on the uh BOCES capital project, Dr. David O'Rourke. So, let's welcome >> Appreciate the opportunity. Where do you normally have folks address you? Is this a good spot right here? >> Sounds great.

003I just wanted to I just wanted to share before you begin. I don't mean to interrupt, but >> No, please. >> just a reminder to the board and to the community, um, BOCES is a fantastic partner um, with all the component districts, but with uh, Fredonia CSD as well. We have a number um, of students who participate in a variety of programs in a variety of locations, um, and really offer some great service to our students. It also offers some great services to our district. Uh, we appreciate their partnership. Um, we appreciate what they do for our students and also for our administration, faculty, staff, board. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> And it's good to have you. >> Thank you so much, Mr. O'Rourke. I appreciate this opportunity. Um, it's wonderful to see

004the the members of the of the Fredonia board. Um, many of you I've worked with before in searches or in various capacities over the years and and those that are newer to the board, welcome to those roles and thank you for the work that you do on behalf of our students in this region. Um, our BOCES, um, we serve 27 component districts and 43,000 students across this region. Um, uh, we have a number of locations where we where we provide these services, but primarily for the purpose of tonight's presentation, we have four campuses that the BOCES actually owns. And like like a school district, we have to keep up these campuses and make sure we're on top of the maintenance that that's needed. Um, what I'd like to do today is is give you a

005sense of what's proposed for this project. Um, and um, we're using a a method of financing or proposing a method of financing that's worked out with our superintendent and business administrators of our component districts um, that requires an intermunicipal agreement and that would really be the basis for the board's action by the end of of um, the June is what we're hoping. And so, I want to tell you a little bit about this project, what's proposed, the scope of it. Um and I have a number of our team members here that I'll introduce in just a moment as well. If you can click. Um internally, uh these are the uh key folks that are tied to this project. In addition to myself, we have Gina Marie, who's our deputy. Mike Carter is our new executive

006director of finance. He started this year. And Ron Glossick is our um director of management services and operations. He oversees all of our facilities. But also significantly, I have Alyssa here from um Young and Wright, our architects. I think that's a familiar face for the folks at Fredonia. And um from BPD or Bernie Donigan um and his associates, I think we have Chris here. Chris, is that Jason? Jason, I'm sorry. Pitcher and Sorry, Jason's pitching today. And we also have David Water from uh campus as well. Um and they're construction managers. Most important um for for our work as a BOCES or Board of Cooperative Educational Services, are our partners, all of you. And And you'll see Fredonia up here. You're one important uh uh school district that we serve among 27 um both in

007Erie and Chautauqua County. Our project um focused on um originally, although the scope was much bigger than this, and I'll talk a little about how we got down to the number that we're proposing. But the what's left now that's proposed for schools is safe, secure, and reliable facilities. There's nothing fancy in this project. It It maintains the building envelopes. It up It It upgrades the HVAC systems that are outdated and need repair. Roofs, parking lots, and so on. And there's nothing that that does a is an expansion of any facility at all um in the four campuses um across our BOCES. And to give you a little bit of context, um we have the project history for BOCES here. Um this goes back to 2007. Um I was uh I think in still in the

008classroom in 2007 when BOCES did a $7 million project to put some new roofs on um on some of our sites. And um and also did some masonry and and and um as far as abatement. Um there were a couple smaller projects, a few smaller projects that happened before 2018. Um, I came on board in 2012 and by that point we were already planning a a significant project um, that took place ultimately in 2018 through a similar method that we're proposing here to you today. Um, that was a $26 million project that worked on HVAC um, equipment, masonry, roofs, doors, and parking lots. Um, we we then came up with a program with our component districts and their business administrators to have a approx- we ended up landing at $2 million annually that the combined

00927 districts pay into a fund that helps us keep up with needed things such as parking lot refacing and things like that that have to happen. So, you'll see um, we did some doors, we did some security enhancements, but again, nothing fancy in these projects that have happened since that time um, and we've been at $2 million a year um, from 2024 till this year, 2026. Um, when as far as the capital project development itself, um, we began when we started to look just like a school district does. What are your building condition surveys say about what people need in the in the area in the programs and also in terms of facility needs. And we started with over $142 million worth of needs. Um, over the course of multiple phases of winnowing that back,

010we've gotten down to $49 and a half million that's the top priority, have to do this or we're being irresponsible. I mean, we would face damages to the to the facilities or face more expenses down the road. So, so that's the amount that is proposed um, for board's considerations um, now. And that is spread out across all of our 27 districts. So, what's included in the project? And for that I'm going to turn to our architect, Alyssa, who's recently made a partner at Young and Wright. So, congratulations, Alyssa. Um, and um, and she's going to talk to us a little bit about each facility and what's what's proposed. >> Yes, so you guys know there's the four facilities that BOCES owns and we'll be utilizing something that SED allows. So, probably two of the biggest

011things for you to understand as a component district is that every piece of the project is aidable and they all fit within the MCA. So, for those of you that have been included in planning capital projects, you know that those are two really key factors for your voters. The same thing is true. So, as you as the component district, that same relationship is true and those were kind of two of the driving forces. Keep it within the MCA, make sure everything's aidable, and that's what drove the project. So, one of those funding mechanisms with the state is a district-wide IT project. Um so, the BOCES will be looking at operating fire alarm, PA, and phone systems at each of the four campuses across their 14 buildings at those campuses. Um and then we'll go through

012each of the campuses and kind of show you pieces and parts of them. Uh but like David said, there is nothing too flashy. Um so, on the IT side of things, you can see kind of the era of some of the systems that will be replaced across the campuses here. Um and then as we look at La Puerta's, looking there at rebuilding, uh repointing, and roofs, mechanical equipment, and pavement and sidewalks. Um as we look at Hughes, you can see here this is one of their campuses that uh one of the buildings still does not have a secure entrance, so adding a secure entrance at that facility, replacing outdated mechanical equipment, pavement, sidewalks, and doors. Continuing there. If we look at Ormsby, again more doors here, more mechanical equipment, more pavement, more sidewalks. Doesn't get

013more exciting than the last campus. Uh but the welding shop toilet rooms and flooring here are also in need of upgrading the exhaust and the systems associated with those. And then at Carrier, uh if you guys have come here for any training events or anything like that, you've probably seen the entrance or the next time you're there look down um and you'll see that the sidewalks there and entry into there. So, some more pavement, more sidewalks, more mechanical, and then uh small animal renovation for that space. Okay, I'll turn it back over to David. >> So, it's important and it foremost in our mind through all of this is what's the impact on our schools. Um although when the conversations about this began, it was a couple years ago, right now we know that things

014are tightening up on the state aid side and we want to to very mindful of what the budget implications are for all of our component school districts and we work in partnership with you. Um and for for to kind of walk through the numbers and how we we are approaching this, wanted to have our experts from Bernie Donegan's um company talk to us a little bit more about this. >> Okay. Good evening everybody. Uh as Dave said, I'm Jason Schwartz, the president of Donegan Incorporated. Uh we're the BOCES financial advisor and uh some of the components as well. Uh so we're going to talk a little bit about the financial impact of the project now that you've heard about the scope as well. So, uh as Alyssa was saying, you know, one key thing is

015that we're within maximum cost lines and everything's going to be aidable, so that certainly helps. Um and then in terms of how BOCES projects work, we're going to talk through that a little bit. You know, if anybody uh wasn't around or doesn't recall from the 2018 project, they uh BOCES projects are done a little differently than your own uh traditional component capital projects, so we'll talk about that a little bit tonight. Um so on this page here, we'll we'll have another um after this part of the presentation, we'll have a specific financial um slide deck that will have this in a little bit uh more detail, but >> If you grab this packet from in some I think every board member at least has one. If you grab this packet, you'll be able to look

016at some of the numbers that may look smaller on the screen. >> Right. Um so with a BOCES project, basically how we break down the costs across the components is we take the the total project cost of 49.5 million, so you see that in the bottom right-hand corner, that yellow highlighted row, and then we break that down across all the 27 components based on uh their proportionate share of the ARWADA uh for the total BOCES. So, you can see there uh for each uh district and when we get to your specific presentation for for Dunkirk, we'll talk uh we'll have it kind of highlighted on the next slide deck that you see kind of right in the middle of the page there. Uh your share for Fredonia would be about 2.1 million. So, you know,

017one thing that will happen, we talked about this when we get to the uh scenarios, that the ARWADA percentage can change in terms of like the aid calculations from year to year, but this uh ARWADA uh percentages that we're using for uh determining the proportionate share, that is locked in right now as part of the IMA. So, that way you know when the project starts what your responsibility is as a portion of the project. So, like we said, just over 2.1 million for Fredonia. And then, um just talking about how both these projects work. So, David mentioned uh what we're uh looking to have you do is approve an intermunicipal agreement or an IMA. So, essentially, there's two different ways that BOCES can do a capital project. Uh we can do an intermunicipal agreement, uh

018which does not require a BOCES-wide vote, and that can be done just by each of the component boards adopting the IMA. It does have to be unanimous. Uh so, all 27 components will have to approve it for that to be an option. Uh if you were to um approve the IMA, one other important thing to notice is we uh it does state in the IMA that you would also then be responsible for adopting a bond resolution uh after the project is approved. Um that is We'll talk about some of the options you have for financing as a component, uh but we always ask that you do the bond resolution just so you're covered if you did need to borrow versus being able to pay cash for your share of the payments. If the IMA were

019to not work, the other way that a BOCES can finance a project is to go through DASNY, but that would require a BOCES-wide vote. And it's also not generally the preferred method to go because there's extra cost of issuance. You know, if you've ever issued through DASNY for your own projects, you know that the cost of going through that program, there's a lot of um consultants involved, so the fees can be a little bit high, and also with the DASNY, there is just one schedule for all districts, so you have no flexibility in determining what your payback uh time period would be. If it's a 20-year bond, every district has to have a 20-year payback schedule. No way to be flexible to contribute cash or shorten up your payment terms if you want to. There's

020just one schedule for all components to get split down based off the RWA. Um so, we've kind of already talked about a lot of these kind of pros and cons of the daisy. You know, the one other thing about the IMA that we'll talk about a little bit when we get to the next presentation too is just the flexibility of your options. So, you can pay cash, roll [snorts] notes or bond. Um, so there's a lot of different ways that you can do that and that's especially important in a tax deferred because you know, depending on what your situation is locally here, you have a lot more flexibility to really kind of manage this BOCES project with your own projects and try to keep your tax cap as you know, consistent and neutral as you

021can if that's your goal. Um, and then we've already talked about on the daisy side a lot of the um, kind of downsides of having to go that route if if that was where we had to go. Okay. Um, so switching to the the full financial presentation then. Again, we already kind of talked about this in the other piece in terms of the total share. You can see in this presentation, you know, for Donya's share there it's boxed in in the middle. So, just over 2.1 million. And the way that gets paid out is it would be listed in the IMA, but essentially the BOCES, you know, works with the architect and the construction manager to come up with an estimate of cash flow needs. And then we base on that um, have a set

022payment schedule. So, you can see here the current anticipated plan in the intermunicipal agreement would be to have five payments. The first payment starting in July of 2027. So, you'll have if everybody were to approve the IMA before the end of June, you'd essentially have two years to kind of start planning for that. Two fiscal year ends essentially before your first payment's due. And then in the IMA it'll specifically list out all of these payments and the specific due dates of each of those each July for those five for that five-year term. So, the next slide here. So, what we have is tonight is just a couple illustrative examples of how you could potentially pay for this if the IMA were to be approved by all the districts and just kind of really showing the

023flexibility of this IMA option. So this first scenario on here would show what can happen if you wanted to pay cash. So if you have the cash to pay and you don't want to have the the cost or the process of going through financing. One thing I mentioned earlier is the BOCES projects are a little different than your own and in the sense that you get your aid back based off of your payment each year, not on a set 15-year schedule like your own projects are. So if you pay cash each year, you'll get your aid back based on that cash payment each year. So you can see on this scenario, that first column is your projected payments you'd be making each July and then you'd be getting the aid back at right now your

024aid ratio is about 72%. So you get about almost 3/4 of the payment back in BOCES aid and then that far right-hand column you can see is your estimated local share. One nice thing about the the cash flow the way it's set up is the payments are pretty even. You don't always see that in a BOCES project, so especially, you know, in terms of talking about managing tax cap, it's nice that that local share stays relatively even each year because of that cash flow payment cycle. And then this is just illustratively what that looks like. You know, that you'd be at each of those green flags is where you'd be making your payments and then you do get your aid back in the same fiscal year. It does come in closer to the end of

025the year, so where you see those purple flags or purple boxes, that's where the aid will be coming back in your May or June aid payments. So another option you can go with is if you don't want to issue bonds, but you maybe don't have the cash flow to kind of carry that through the whole year where you're making the payment in July but not getting the aid until the end of the year, you could roll notes, short-term financing to kind of cash flow you until that aid payment comes in. So that's what this scenario here is illustrate. So showing basically the borrowing for the payment each year and then paying it off come June at the end of the year when the aid comes in. So you can see that basically the benefit of

026this is it gives you a little bit more flexibility in terms of your cash flow during the year, uh, but still saves you some overall cost in terms of, you know, paying it uh, making all your payments within the 5 years to keep any interest expense lower and keep your total uh, local share down a little bit. So, you can see you have some interest expense in this scenario, but not uh, a huge number by any means um, to be able to have that flexibility. And then on the next page, uh, again just illustratively what that looks like. You'd borrow a band at the start of the year, uh, have it come due at the end of the year when that aid payment comes in. That plus your local share that you're raising, uh, in

027your levy would allow you to pay off that payment each year as you go. And then the next option if neither of those worked is that you can always go uh, issue a bond for your payment. So, that's what this schedule shows. This uh, one here just uses a 15-year bond as an illustrative example. So, similar to probably what you're doing with a lot of your own capital projects. You can do any term you want. So, you could do something shorter than that or you can go up to 30 years for bond payments if you needed to. So, obviously when you go to bond you have some flexibility in terms [clears throat] of what term you want to do, but this would just be showing an example of a 15-year bond. So, you know, one

028thing you'll notice here compared to the other options is obviously your interest expense is going to be more when you're bonding over 15 years and therefore your local share is a little higher in this scenario, but it is an option that gets that annual payment in terms of your local share down a little bit more if you wanted to get less annual impact um, to kind of stretch it out. And again, uh, issuing the bond there would take you through, you know, the whole year and kind of turn your payments into debt service payments that are lower each year and then you'd be getting the aid back on those debt service payments to uh, pay back your local share of the project. So, again that those are all just some uh, options and illustrations of

029kind of what the the benefit of the IMA is is that you have the flexibility to choose as a board and talk with your financial advisor about what option is best for you. Uh, but that's only able to be done if we have the IMA option. If we go to DASNY, then it's just the one uh, bond schedule that we have to do that's the same for everybody. >> Jason, thank thank you for that. Um So, the BOCES aid in the same year, I mean, that's a significant difference for a capital project for a school district. Um we wanted to kind of show you a little bit of our timeline about where we are um right now. Um and you'll see that that flag is is right about where we are, just before that. Um

030so, we have So, I'm pleased to say we have um every district that we've had an opportunity to present to so far has been able to adopt this. Um we're on a good, I think, course here, um which is I think the preferred and least costly method to be able to finance this project for our facilities to help support your kids, cuz your kids are our kids. Um if we can get every district to adopt an IMA by um by the end of June, then uh we would move forward with um with the the next steps of the project. If you can click, and you can see what what would we see this work here in our region, what what would it look like? Um in the first year, you'd see in 2026 um we'd

031be wrapping up here and get it to state aid review of all of the plans that need to be submitted. And district-wide instructional technology would be a 2-year phase-in over 2028 and 2029 school year. Um Hughes Center, which is down in Nashville, that's that is the center that we needed to prioritize first. That's That would begin in 2029-30. Our Orange B Center, which is East Aurora, that would be 2030 to 2031. And finally, LoGuidice Center here in Fredonia and our Carrier Center in Angola would be in 2031 and 2032. So, that's how we would phase the chunks of this project over those years um that are proposed. >> [snorts] >> Um our our BOCES board um has already adopted um our SEQR and also um our component districts are currently on pace to adopt our

032the IMA. Um and again, five five payments would to made annually starting in July of 2027, subject to your own decisions about how you may define it internally. >> [clears throat] >> So, that was a lot of information. I know it's not the first time you saw the slide. I think we we were able to send some of those over earlier, but but now you have the backup to some of those slides, too, and and some of the tables um and as well as the the specific figures for Fredonia are laid out there. So, with that I wanted to open it up to questions either for me or or for our experts that are with us tonight. >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah, can you explain how the RWA is calculated? Is it just based off

033of enrollment? >> Enrollment is a good place to start in our understanding of it. It's It's but it's weighted enrollment. So, it's rated average daily attendance. So, resident weighted average daily attendance is what RWA stands for. So, that The weightings come from things such as um L pop English learner populations, special education populations. They affect your RWA. And also your attendance also affects RWA. Make sense? So, you might look at that number and say, "Hey, that's not how many kids we have." That's because it doesn't necessarily um match exactly because the weighting um adjusts that every year. Make sense? >> Yeah. >> Other questions? >> Can you remind us how I saw that Jamestown approved it, but they get like 91% back. So, what is why the big difference in how much we get back?

034>> Yeah, so in general, poverty of a community affects the BOCES aid rate. And that's also determined annually um by the state education department according to statewide formulas. Um the highest um poverty communities have the highest aid aid rate. Um some of our um more affluent suburbans, at least that affluent by Buffalo standards, um would be um East Aurora, Orchard Park. They have the lowest levels. And we're in Chautauqua County, we're somewhere in the middle of that. Does that make sense? >> Yeah, Lisa, and then I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Does that get reevaluated every year during the project? So, that could or is it set at the beginning of the project and and our rate stays the same? >> Two answers to that, yeah. >> The aid that's used for the share of the

035payments is locked in. That's part of the inter-municipal agreement that we use, what we know at the time of the IMA. So, that was the 25-26 data that was in the presentation. So, your share, the 2.1 million, and then those payments that are calculated for that data is locked in in the IMA. But, however you decide to pay for it, cash, bonds, whatever, you get those annual aid payments back. The aid water in those years can change will be recalculated each year by the state and published in that. So, you would receive the aid at on those payments. >> And the BOCES aid rate that corresponds with based on your aid water, >> All right, just for information, our BOCES aid rate does not change significantly month to month. It's generally around that 70%. >>

036Appreciate that, John. >> Yeah, um the So, is the cost locked in even though you're not starting the Wheatland for 5 years? It seems like by then things will >> This is a really good question. >> That's a moving target. >> Well, and that's where we have played a large role is with the CM estimating all of that piece. But, the other thing that you guys should know is unlike your projects where you have to finish them in start the in order to start the aid flow, BOCES just has to start them. So, all we have to do, and this sounds silly, but all we have to do is start them on time on time, and then we'll get all of the aid up front and then distribute it. So, from your perspective, it's much

037easier in the sense of you don't have to get us to finish the project to get your aid. You just have to get us to start the project to get your aid. So, the New York State sees those a little bit differently. >> So, we used some conservative assumptions to determine what the cost increases might be over the course of the 5 years so that we can hit the target on the Wheatland renovations that are coming. Um but, you're right. I mean, when we go to bid on those components, we will have to deal with that current reality based and we're hoping that the cushions that we built accommodate. Make sense? >> And you guys can remember some of that process, yeah. >> Yeah, we did. >> Similar just with a timeline, you know, I

038did notice on one of the slides that emergency projects are not allowed. So, when we're talking about looking out that far and some of these kind of warm, safe, dry, earthquake situations, what's the contingency for you know, the the projects that will be at the end? >> Yeah, so we we have in in our in our current way in which we're operating, which we are suspending for the purpose of the payments right now, we have an annual capital charge that we put forward to our component districts. Um if we ended up with a let's say a $200,000 um thing that we had to handle on an HVAC unit or a a roof area that needed patching, um our current internal budgets, um including rates, have some operations and maintenance ch- charges embedded that would allow

039us to have some reach to be able to hit some of those targets. But, the bigger numbers, you know, when we get to 2 million at the end of this our our proposal is as you're coming down on the aid, um as you're coming down on the final payments, um our our business officials and and um superintendents have agreed that we want to float that that final capital charge to 5 million rather than 2 million going forward. That will allow us to prev- to prevent having to come back right away again on another big project if you can get that to an annual charge. Does that make sense? Keep that steady, we can do it in bites. We'd like to get back there, but the way in which we handle the emergencies would be to

040keep some of the internal capital charges, yeah. >> What you're describing, is that essentially like you you want a capital reserve? Capital fund? >> Yeah, it's not a reserve though because at the end of the year what's not expended is always refunded back to school districts. BOCES is not able to maintain fund balances for capital um in the same in the same way the school district is. And so, we have to operate in partnership with schools to help co-plan the financing of of the capital facilities like like this. Like we meetings like >> Life would be easier if BOCES could >> It it sure would, you know. >> [laughter] >> But, at the same time, we're responsible to school districts. Do you know what I mean? And so, we want to make sure we're hitting

041the target and also we want to make sure what we're doing is reasonable and our boards can get behind it. So, that's why we're coming out to explain it and show folks our map, you Yes. >> This is more commentary than a question, but it seems like everything you're proposing is warm, safe, and dry. It's important to us in Chautauqua County to have our kids have an alternative. A lot of them go through BOCES and do alternative to a four-year college afterwards, which at this point seem like a very good bet. Um and so, it doesn't even seem like there's much to debate to me. What else would we do? >> Well, I appreciate that perspective. It's a perspective I share, but I I also um and I also want to plug in for our

042CTE programs. We do have some kids that go through CTE and then still go to four-year college because they've learned some things along the way about themselves and they've learned some things about a way to go deeper in a trade, for example. So, yeah, but our options for programs at BOCES, I think we try to get the right students in the right program and we try to make sure that the facilities are in the shape so that our kids and our our being well cared for while they're there. >> Other questions? Um so, you know, in terms of us um with uh aid, which is great to get in the same year. >> That's great. >> Uh if we paid cash, we're we're looking to find 110 to 130,000 a year, roughly? >> That's right.

043>> So, we need to do that. Okay. Um if there's no other questions, uh thank you. >> Thank you, Alyssa, and congratulations on making partner. And uh to all others that came tonight. >> Mhm. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Johnson. Appreciate this very much. Thanks for this opportunity. >> Thank you, too. >> Yeah, you mentioned about attendance in that you know, for BOCES, they get more money if it's that there's another, you know, that not only applies to them, applies to us, too. So, a positive spin-off of kids coming to schools is we get more aid, too. So, it captures for us. Okay. Well, we need to talk about that and discuss that for the next meeting. It sounds like we're reaching the end of the our other presentation tonight is elementary 26-27 schedule

044review with Mr. Bolger, Dr. I think Dr. Margie on there or Dr. Wright. >> It's Dr. Wright. And on the screen it's Dr. Wright. >> I'll answer to you. It sounds pretty good. Okay. And Dr. Wright is here as well. So, we'll pass it over to you. >> Yeah, thanks for everyone being here tonight, adults and students. I also wanted to say thank you to Marie Ann and Kiana for being here, who are incoming board members as we start to say goodbye to both Mary Ann and Courtney. Appreciate everything you've done. Very nice to see you. Welcome aboard and we look forward to July 1 as we get going. So, um you know, there's been a lot of conversation over the last week or so regarding our elementary schedule, so we wanted to provide some

045information. Um I'm going to take a couple steps back to go back to our budget process, which is definitely in the mix of everything that plays out at the building level and just wanted to share some information. So, you know, each year we talk about the board, the superintendent, business office, our administrative team taking the budget process really seriously and looking at it as a very important part of our job. Each year as Dr. Wright was talking about with just shifting dynamics, shifting state aid, increased costs across the board, the budget process becomes more and more challenging each year. Um our costs do continue to increase for us currently. Gas and diesel, transportation, special education costs, BOCES services, medical and prescription drug premiums as well as required contributions to the New York State employment retirement

046system have represented increased cost least over the last year or so. Um and our student needs continue to increase as well. Um students who are part of our special education program involved in speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, um our English as a new language, um CTE programs our population continues to increase in those participating. Um those students who identified as economically disadvantaged and also those involved to some degree with homelessness. So, you know, our budget is finite um even more so over the past couple years where we now have a tax cap um and we have limited resources available. Um our task um in all of that is to meet the needs of our students, maximize our resources, and be fiscally responsible. So, our Board of Education along with assistance from district office, our business

047office develops broad budget principles or focus areas that become the parameters for the work of the admin team as we think about how we um progress in decisions that we make. Again, the board is typically involved in great big broad statements, um umbrellas in which we operate under. Hardly ever, very rarely do they get into the real fine details um of a particular building or a particular group um in their conversations. Um Mr. Johnson always reminds us that the board keeps that 30,000-ft view um of the district and are really overseeing um the work that is done um underneath their leadership. So, one of those principles this year was the idea of efficiency and adjustment. And the statement we built around that was maximization of our resources in terms of staffing, service, aid, materials and

048supplies, and equipment. Um in several meetings this year, um we talked openly about the variety of changes and the challenges that we were facing. Um as far back as on October 14th, we had a discussion about the severity of our financial situation, which I'll touch on in a minute. And also, you know, the the year prior, our initial budget um did not pass and how we could avoid that um this coming year. And we're very thankful that that was able to happen. Um on April 20th, we talked a lot about um reductions in traditional class staffing, also um where enrollment permitted. Um we also talked about um specialized staffing and response to student needs, um and the increased needs um amongst those populations, especially around mental health and counseling, OT, PT, speech, special education, ENL,

049so on and so forth. Um on April 28th, again, we had another conversation really thinking about those targeted staff reductions, um and how it is that we will move forward and what challenges um those reductions uh create for the district. March 5th, um ongoing conversations again, um about all of that, but really again thinking about um how is it that we make this work within the budget. Now, we did have a number of retirees this year, eight. It would be nice um if we could have replaced all of them, however, that was not possible, so we looked to attrition. Um one of the things that is a conversation between district office and our administrators, and there's some push and pull in this, is that obviously the principals, assistant principals at each building, the director in

050certain areas, um, fight to hang on to their staff. Um, they advocate. Um, they do their best to make a compelling case for maintaining the staff that they have. Um, ultimately a decision to make a reduction comes from district office. Um, oftentimes our principals are not in total agreement about that, but recognize that it's a district office decision and eventually what is approved by the Board of Education. Roughly 70% of our budget is dedicated to salary of employees and benefits, and that leaves 30% of the budget for remaining things. Um, you know, that 30% this year we paired down to a very bare minimum. There were roughly about 30, uh, sorry, $3 million in reductions there. Our unassigned fund balance at the moment is about 2.4%. Um, and we have been identified by the controller's

051office as a district susceptible to fiscal stress. Our BOE proposed going to a tax cap this year to provide maximum funding at 2.44%. Um, the district budget continues to be below the administrative cap, um, a level of minimum funding set by the state. Additionally, our administrative team is then tasked to carefully review all of our school schedules, all of our school resources, um, while keeping the importance of class size, instructional time, efficiency, and equity for learning opportunities for students in mind. Ultimately, ultimately, as I said, reductions through attrition um for two elementary teaching positions were proposed as part of next year's budget. Again, that recommendation came from district office. As a result result, we developed an updated schedule that maintains strong programming while meaningful learning experiences um are also uh maintained in a variety of

052subject areas. On Monday, June 1st, we shared a draft of the schedule with our faculty and staff. Um in that communication, feedback was welcomed. There was a line, "If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, please don't hes- hesitate to email Mark Drowlinger or stop by and speak with him directly." As part of the process, discuss discussions have been ongoing with instructional leaders, classroom teachers, special education teachers, special area teachers, and departments to make concerns known and attempts made to resolve the issues that are brought forward. These conversations have helped shape several refinements to the schedule and reflect our shared commitment to providing the best possible experience for our students that we can. Um this process, there has been draft, feedback, then refinement, a lot of dialogue um back and forth along the way, um

053and this is commonly used each year as we fine-tune and tweak our schedules. Um before I turn it over to Mr. Drowlinger and uh Dr. Wright, you know, there are um difficult decisions, and you know, again, I think we would all prefer to not make any reductions. Sometimes people ask me, "How is it that you ultimately decide a reduction in one area and not in another?" Um one person asked me recently about our high school tech position, which we are looking to replace. Um and to the credit of the elementary teachers, and again, I'm a secondary social studies person, middle school, high school, um I'm always impressed by their ability to not only teach multiple sub- subjects, but also weave things into um their instruction that often times are new from the state, new standards,

054so on and so forth. Um and in the case of the high school tech person, if we decided to make a reduction there, there are five or six classes that are currently taught that just would not be taught um for students who are in different sequences working towards graduation. That would certainly be an interruption and problematic on a few different levels. Um what you'll see as Mr. Dowlinger and Dr. Wright are speaking is that within the elementary schedule, there is room to shift and work within what we are offering to move um content from one place to another. Um so, I would ask each of you to highlight that as you're speaking uh to each area. Um and that is a difference typically between elementary and secondary, where again, I was certified to teach a

055relatively narrow group of classes, although I could teach one class outside of that, and could not keep teach multiple classes beyond social studies. So, Mr. Dowlinger, you're you can kick us off, and Dr. Wright, chime in whenever you would like. >> Awesome. Thanks. And feel free to stop me along the way if you have any questions. Um so, my job tonight is kind of explain the why and how and how we landed at the schedule we did for next year. And it starts with STEM and computer skills. Um so, as Dr. Ziliak said, um my number one priority when I learned about the loss of two teachers through attrition was to say, what is the immediate impact on the building? If I were to have done nothing in the fourth grade, our classrooms would have

056went to 26 kids. It's just a number that I wasn't comfortable with. So, I started looking internally. And we looked at teachers, um, certifications, and one particular teacher had certification that would be beneficial to our programming. Um, our computer teacher is dual certified as a general education teacher, and she also holds ENL certification. So, that can help with our, uh, English language learning population. So, next year, our computer teacher will move to the fourth grade. That will drop our class sizes in the fourth grade down to a more reasonable 20 students, about. Um, Mrs. King, who is that teacher, will be, um, also grouped with the three ENL students, and she'll work with them, um, in her regular day, and when she's working with them in a small group, she can provide ENL minutes to

057those kids. So, that's helpful, um, and a win for the district. Now, um, to understand the impact of computers, I think we kind of have to look at my history in this building. Uh, seven years ago, when I got here, um, kids didn't have computers. I remember pushing a cart of 100 computers around the days we would do the benchmarking assessments. We'd have to pass them out to each kid, give them their login, take them back, and put them in a different classroom. Um, a lot has changed in seven years. And, um, and our programming can reflect where the kids are today. Now, every kid has their own device, either an iPad or a Chromebook. And they're coming to us with skills that they didn't necessarily have, uh, seven years ago. So, um, it is

058a loss that we're losing computer programming, but it isn't going away entirely. So, within the schedule, we are able to add 10 instructional days to the STEM classroom and other special area classrooms. What we intend to do is have the the current STEM and computer teacher work together to identify some priority standards. Like, what do the kids need to know? Cuz things have changed. They don't they don't need to know how to open a a window and close it anymore. They have those skills. So, after we have our priority standards, next year, those lessons will be taught in the STEM classroom. So, um a way, going to computers is just going to look a little bit different next year. So, uh there also was an impact on music and chorus. Our schedule added some additional

059days to um to general music. 10. And we looked at that, and we said, "Okay, how can that help us give kids general music, but at the same time recognize that chorus is a different course, and we and we want to provide chorus to our kids?" So, just like this year, just like last year, we're going to have chorus. There's still is going to be the same amount of performances that there's ever been before. But, what I was tasked with was how do we fit chorus into the schedule? This year, kids have chorus once every 5 days. Next year, we're moving to a 4-day rotation, and if we built chorus in once every 4 days, that would give kids about 45 days of chorus. This year, they have around 35 days of chorus. So, at

060the same time, I was trying to maximize the amount of time that kids have in the general ed classroom. So, there was a little bit of a give there. So, what we're working with right now, with April and uh the instructional leader for the music department, is we're looking at landing on a number that's agreeable, um a number that gives kids the amount of chorus that they need, and we we will build that into the schedule. So, chorus is not going away. General music is not going away. So, then art. Art instruction will continue um for all students, much like it does this year. However, we're going to add about 10 more days of art so kids can have uh a little bit more time for creativity and to grow their um their skills in

061the art classroom. Physical education was something that we also looked at and um we want to prioritize that every kid gets PE every day and that's going to be maintained. That's unique in our school and that's something that we're very proud of. In our current draft of the schedule, um students will have the same PE teacher three um out of four of the days and then another teacher on one of the four days. However, an elementary student will have the same PE teacher the same two PE teachers all year long. The reason why for this little shift is because of the next thing we're adding next year, which is health education. So, um I'm very happy to add health because just like um our our kids' skills with computers have changed, I've seen the needs

062of kids change in the seven years that I've been here. You know because you supported our our addition of a counselor and next year I want to add health education to the programming. Um it's going to cover things like obesity, anxiety, nutrition, screen time, and other age-appropriate things that will help our kids grow and develop. Currently, 21 of the 27 component districts that Dr. Rorick spoke about have some form of health instruction. Uh we do not at this moment. And then lastly, uh Dr. Wright can walk us through some changes with our library. >> Sure, absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Balancer. So, the library, we have to again look at the broader picture. Currently, in the Fredonia district, we have one certified library media specialist assigned K-12. If we are going to look at the New

063York State regulations for library, um students in grades 7-8 are required to have daily instruction by a certified library media specialist. And based on high school enrollment, and in this case the threshold is 300-500, so we fit in that window. A certified librarian is supposed to be half-day in the high school every single day. So that high school students are accessible, you know, have access rather to that librarian. So that classrooms, uh, certain teachers, project research, those all those things. So, to meet those regulations, again, having direct instruction to every 7th and 8th grader, half a day every day in the high school library with one staff member, that requires some shifts. Currently, um, the elementary, the K through 4 library classes are taught by a teaching assistant. So, a teaching assistant, by New York

064State regulations, cannot make their own lesson plans. They used to be, ages ago, you know, um, they could do that, but that was changed the years they changed that guideline. So, currently, and whoever the teaching assistant works with has to create the lesson plans, and the teaching assistant can execute those lesson plans. So, that means our one library media assistant is creating lesson plans for every K-4 class that is taught every single week all year long. In addition, she's currently teaching fifth grade classroom, so she's making those lesson plans, along with co-teaching a seventh grade section. So, and that includes the budget, the collection, and all the things that, you know, the collection being books, not money, um, that, you know, that goes along with, um, running a library across the district in three buildings.

065So, that's big. That is a very, very, very big thing. So, the shift is to have our library media specialist direct teaching in the high school in those regulations, and that means that our library, which currently, as you can see on the screen, the elementary library classes are about 20 minutes of book selection and the other 20 minutes is that mini lesson taught by the teaching assistant. So, um elementary classrooms will have the opportunity to sign up for what day of the week they want to bring their class to the library, do book check-in, check-out, and a member of the library staff will be there. We have a library clerk. We have um two teaching assistants that um also assist with the library team. So, whether it's the library media specialist, one of the teaching

066assistants, or the clerk, somebody will be there to greet those kids, make sure they know, you know, where they're supposed to be going and which collections belong to which grade level, things of that nature. In addition, the intermediate library, which is this is high school library, the intermediate library is accessible to classroom teachers and classes all the time. It always is. It is currently right now. Any first through eighth grade teacher can use the intermediate library and have classes in there or work in there. Um so, that that doesn't change. Nothing about that changes. And in Wheelock, the library is still going to be there and active and a member of the library team will be down there just like they are now. Teachers can bring their students to book check-in, check-out. So, those are

067the shifts um that are going to be happening for the library. >> Cool. Thank you very much. >> Mhm. >> And then lastly, what is what happens in the grade level classroom? With the addiction with the adoption of the new um HMH reading program, we're looking for more instructional time. So, teachers under this new schedule will have an increased number of minutes each day with their kids and they can provide um explicit literate uh instruction in literacy. And we've been using our new UFLI program and we've seen tremendous amount of growth in this. And this will give teachers more time with their kids. So, the changes might sound big and I am asking everybody to do something a little bit different next year. It isn't easy, but at the end of the day, if we

068focus on kids, we're still going to um we're still going to have a lot of the programming that they have this year. It just might look a little bit different. Um I'm proud of the the amount of um instructional minutes that I was able to carve out of the day. Um and I'm expecting to see more growth particularly with letters. >> And I think sometimes with literacy people don't understand there's a gigantic umbrella. Literacy includes reading, it includes writing, it includes vocabulary, it includes discussion, it includes presentation. There are so many skills that go into literacy, all of those things. And to be able to, you know, support our students in all of those areas, it requires classroom time, classroom minutes. Thank you. >> I just wanted to be sure, Dr. Wright, um Mr. Gardner,

069was there anything that I didn't include in the slides that you wanted to clarify or are we all set? >> No, it's the typical process that is shared, right, every single year. You share your draft schedule, ask for feedback, refine it, and uh work to come up with the final schedule. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Um I guess to uh encapsulate um what I'm hearing, what the board's hearing is uh things aren't disappearing. Um they're shifting, I guess, and for lack of a better word, and taking on going into different areas or forms. Uh STEM's a good example. Uh Would you say 10 additional? >> Yeah, 10 additional days for staff, but those lessons will be primarily computer-focused. >> All right. Well, you'll you'll want to what's most important >> Mhm. >> for that,

070yeah. And uh you know, I take what you said about tech, you know, technology teacher, our excellent technology teacher, high school technology teacher, Mr. Haas, retiring, um it it's hard to replace those core you know, if you don't replace technology, um those those five classes go away. So, um and that's kind of similar to chorus, I think. I don't think anybody would want me teaching a course. I'm the only one here with a mic. Um so, it's it's it's nice to hear that you've been working with music to bring back those hours. And the lost cells, like it's equivalent now? >> We're real close, I think. We're going to be there, I think. >> Okay. Um Yeah, and uh you know, I know that you know, we're we're asking teachers a lot. You know, shift

071is hard and change is hard. Um but we appreciate, you know, the work that teachers do on a daily basis. Um Yeah, I think one thing that resonates with me is the increase in instructional time. Do you have any any number on that of hours >> We can get that to you. >> Yeah, okay. >> We'll get the numbers. >> But there's there's increased hours. >> Yeah, it depends on where we land in the quarter hours, I think. >> Right. >> Things like we can sort >> Give and take, yeah. Okay. Well, uh thank you for that. Um Hopefully that's provided our clarity and context uh to to the public. Um but uh now it's uh it's time to hear from the public. So, uh for those of you that haven't been here before, we

072have a we have kind of a set guideline here. Let me just read through the uh the recipe here. Uh the board has reserved this time to uh hear comments from the audience. Uh those wishing to address the board are asked to stand, give your name and address, and uh please limit your comments to 5 minutes or less. Concerns and comments during this session uh should be directly related uh to items listed on the proposed agenda, which would include budget and the elementary. Um and also uh you know, we like to uh review your statements because when you get up and speak, uh we don't well, I'm speaking for myself. I don't get everything. So, I like to review it. So, if you please leave your statement at the back of the room, Ms. Morrison,

073our district clerk, and uh pick them up and photocopy them for us or email them to us so at a later date. Um so, if you do that, that would be great. Uh due to a fairly large group uh tonight, um it's important to stick to the 5 minutes. Uh I'll probably give you a 4-minute heads-up very kindly at 4 minutes so you know your time is running. Uh so, without With that said, uh would anybody like to speak to the board tonight? If you do, please state your name and address, and there's a microphone up here that will help us hear you. Would anybody like to speak tonight? >> Uh good evening. I'm Burnett Drive. Is the microphone on? >> Uh >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Excuse me. >> It It should be on.

074Tap it. >> Okay, go ahead. Okay. Good evening, everyone. My name is Ray Dai. I'm a current senior, and I'm the valedictorian at Fredonia High School, as well as student body vice president. Last year, I campaigned extensively, including writing to the Observer and hosting several weekend demonstrations at Barker Commons, urging the this community to vote for our school budget. And I'm here tonight because I believe in what the school offers, and because of that, I hope I have concerns I hope this board will hear. My fellow district residents, I understand that we're under real financial pressure. The community responded this year by approving the budget even with the maximum allowable tax increase proposed. What we do with that support from our community matters just as much as securing that funding. And that's why I'm bringing

075my concerns tonight. My main concern is with staff cuts and movement of staff, as I'm sure we've heard at the elementary level. When positions aren't replaced, the programs those teachers sustain don't continue by themselves. They're often means they're reorganized, reduced, or even quietly lost. One example is with the elementary school chorus classes. Chorus requires consistent repetition to make progress. Students cannot adequately prepare for performances, let alone develop as musicians, on a schedule that meets less often or shorter periods. We know decreasing attention spans, especially among children, is an active concern with educators. How can we expect them to stay engaged if they're expected to stay in a course room for long periods of time during a dedicated course day? Moreover, having a handful of shorter or more spaced rehearsals before each concert could diminish the

076valuable skills learned in course, whether reading music, performance etiquette, confidence, collaboration, or listening skills. And we know that having a creative outlet through music improves performance in all other academic areas. This district has been recognized for music education for over a decade, and that reflects the work and dedication of teachers, of students, and community members, and it won't continue without the continued support of our district. Also, as a personal anecdote, I also am simply a little bit confused about how course instruction will stay the same uh if course is meeting for more days a week and with these dedicated days added in. Uh so, I would like to ask, what are what's the specific proposal for class time, and what are the specific changes being made? Eliminating the librarian comes with similar concerns. For many

077of our youngest students, structured library time is not only an academic supplement or a story time, but a key window into guided reading. It's where many students, including myself when I was in elementary school, saw can see how fun reading is. More than that, it's a lesson in how to use the resources our immediate library has to offer, such as learning how to search the catalog, how to find the most interesting genres, and so much more, even personal support, things like that. Losing that position, even if library time remains, might compromise a key foundation of students' enthusiasm for literacy, and it's often the students with the least support at home who will be impacted the most. Simila- Similarly, I understand that the elementary computer teacher was reassigned to a classroom position, with computer instruction being

078integrated into daily classroom instruction. While this may provide for a greater frequency or accessibility, it does mean greater strain on teachers and a new curriculum that they must teach. And while kids today are growing up with more and more screen time, this does not always mean computer literacy, such as how to use MS Word or how to install a program, when much of that time is spent scrolling or playing Roblox games. I ask that we understand the new workload that teachers must take on and ensure that they're properly equipped to do so, whether through adequate professional development, um equipment, or technology. I want to be clear with you. I'm not a budget expert and I don't have all the solutions that we're looking for, but I'm an engaged student and community member who pays attention.

079From what I understand, our unassigned fund balance sits well below the state comptroller's recommendations and what other districts in our area maintain. We've asked this community to give the maximum and it's fair to ask whether our management and administration are meeting the same standards and putting in the maximum effort, finding balance and solutions that utilize what we have to the fullest. I urge this board to proceed with prudence and I'm sure we are, uh and to find solutions worthy of the students who depend on our school district and the myriad resources that it has offered and should continue to offer. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay, Brianna, you have packed a lot into the 5 minutes. Thank you. >> Hello. Brianna Kelly, 140 Center Street. My name's Brianna Kelly and I'm the parent of three

080children in the district, also a special education teacher here. When deciding to buy a house, we chose to live in Fredonia because of their educational reputation, mainly being music. I'll admit, I did music in high school. We knew Fredonia had a strong reputation and that's why we wanted to be here. Paving innovative pathways to dynamic and global educational experiences are something we pride ourselves on. However, this proposed schedule does not honor that mission. I'm in strong opposition of the direction that this proposed schedule takes and the educational priorities that are reflected. The elimination of a dedicated computer class in a world where technology is so readily available is Students are learning digital literacy, internet safety, and specialized technology instruction. While I appreciated the additional instruction time that's being built in, asking your classroom teachers to

081add additional technology skills into their already demanding curriculum is not only unrealistic, but out of touch. The changes to the library services are ultimately the most concerning and the most shameful. Time after time we've heard about how we need to improve our readings readings students students reading scores in fostered a love for reading. But what kind of message does it send to students when you remove this core class, my daughter's favorite class? It tells students and parents that reading and library instruction, where students are inspired to research, to inquire, and be curious doesn't matter. This reduction is being portrayed as an enhancement, but the truth is it's taking away from their experiences. Furthermore, the addition of additional additional literacy learning opportunities delivered by their certified classroom teacher is an undue burden placed on classroom teachers,

082as they are not literacy specialists. That is a separate certification within itself. Fredonia's consistently honored as being a best community for music education, and we did not earn that prestigious honor by treating music as a mere extracurricular activity, which is how the proposed plan is portraying it. Access to music instruction and ensemble experiences are paramount for a well-rounded education and foster skills such as dedication, perseverance, discipline, and creativity. Posing these changes as additional opportunities does not mask the fact that these important instructional positions, specialized learning experiences, and continued opportunities for students to be themselves are being lost. I strongly urge you to table this and reconsider the proposal until continued communication, feedback, and reassessment with all stakeholders can take place. Failure to do so will result in the deterioration of the reputation of Fredonia School

083District and will have long-lasting impacts on the futures of our children. I understand that difficult decisions and adjustments need to be made. However, it should not be done at the detriment of the students. I'll leave you with the following questions to consider. How do you plan to prevent teacher burnout if additional instructional time is added to accommodate special area instruction? Not to mention the additional classes that special area teachers are expected to teach. How do you plan to schedule adapted physical education classes for students in their busy schedule? Per NYSED, adapted physical education is vitally important to the quality of life for students with disabilities. Providing safe and successful experiences in meeting the unique needs of students with disabilities through physical education will enhance self-actualization, including development of abilities and psychomotor, cognitive, and effective domains.

084We already don't have a playground that's adapted to all of our students' needs, so I hope that this is at the top of your priority list. Also, what other solutions or options have we looked at? I will admit some of these changes are concerning as in the current and past they impact some of our most vulnerable populations and our youngest populations. The nursing situation resulting in no nurses at Wheelock, no pre-K specials besides gym, no high school special education for summer school last year. I have a sign who's coming into Wheelock in special education and I love Wheelock, but I'll admit I am so concerned because the amount of care excuse me, not care, the amount of support that he receives through related services at Buffalo Hearing and Speech, we can't match and I'm very

085concerned about that because we continue down a road where we are not prioritizing the right things. Thank you. >> Thank you, MS. SNOW. >> [applause] >> IS THERE ANYBODY ELSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK IN THE FIRST SESSION TODAY? Uh okay, if not, uh Ms. Kelly Wade, uh thank you. you can leave your statements at the end. We appreciate that. Um, all right, well, moving on, uh, we are into some financial treasurer reports. Um, I think we're good. Okay. Yes. Okay, sorry. A lot of a lot tonight already. Um, so, first up is, uh, the special of the, uh, 2026 non-resident tuition rates. Um, Miss Morrison, do I have to do two motions, one to bring it to the table and one to approve the numbers we talked >> No, you just do a motion,

086the discussion can then lead into the action. >> Okay, so, a motion to discuss it? >> Mhm. >> So moved. >> Second. Okay. >> First and second there, I didn't get it. Um, uh, so, we have a a motion and a second, Dr. Zuliak, Mr. Forbes. >> Yeah, so, this is an annual resolution. Um, we do, um, need to set the tuition rates for non-residents each year. Uh, Mr. Forbes sent you an email, I believe, on May 29th with some detailed information. We've kind of been around the block a little bit on our, um, approach to this. Uh, the first couple years I was here, we set a flat rate, I think roughly around 3, 3 and 1/2%. Um, a couple years, um, at one point, there was a suggestion that seemed to make sense

087that we would make it equal with the tax levy increase. Um, and then last year, we looked at the budget-to-budget increase. And, uh, I if I remember correctly, although I could be wrong, I thought like there was some indication that maybe we wanted to stay with the budget-to-budget increase, um, although that's just my memory, and certainly, I'm okay with whatever the board would like to do tonight, um, to set a rate. And, Mr. Forbes, anything I missed or do you want me to follow up on? >> Okay, so yeah, I do remember we we discussed that and we moved it all over the place for a couple of years. So, we tried to talk about budget to budget every year moving forward, but uh how do people feel about that? Are you Are you good

088with that? Are you forward with that? Mr. Kenny? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Is Marshall good? All right, that's really good then. >> What is the um what is that percentage increase? Could you just >> It's 3.61. Looking forward our K-6 tuition, it would be about $116 increase per student and for our 7-12, it would be about $165 per student. >> Okay. Um yeah, the I'm I'm okay with that increase. The only thing I would add is I I think we're struggling a little bit with the budget and whether or not we can resolve some of our long-term budget issues. Um this should probably be separate and apart from that. So, I would like to keep it there and I'm comfortable keeping it there this year, but if we have like a budget that doesn't keep

089up with inflation, I don't think we can provide the same support to tuition kids. But, I I'm comfortable with 3.61. >> Okay. >> And hopefully we can maintain that consistent policy. I would like to, but >> Okay. >> It depends a bit because of our uh well, situations. >> Yep. >> Mr. Johnson, I I I just would like to reiterate I think that some of the rationale for why we wanted to have some consistency so that tuition families can plan for it that when we're having budget conversations and they're seeing where the budget is that they, you know, are kind of a part and you know, can follow along in that conversation. So, I think that consistency is important as well as you know, that it's reflective of what the impact is to the budget.

090So, I think it's just important to, you know, but we're all in agreement just to reiterate that the rationale behind that. >> Okay. Fair fair comment. >> And additionally, each one of those students brings additional state aid. Yeah, so >> Yes. >> Something to consider. >> Yeah. >> Any other comments on it? Um So, um I guess I just read this out. All in favor or opposed? So, we need We're going to approve the 2026-2027 tuition rates for non-resident students as recommended by the business administrator and superintendent as follows: K through 6, $116; 7 through 12, $165. All in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? Thank you. [clears throat] All right. We're moving on to our next item. Need to approve a 30-day emergency transportation contract. Can I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >>

091Thank you, Mr. Kim. A second? >> Second. >> It's hot there. So, Mr. Forbes, This We had the last one, didn't we? >> Yeah, about a month ago you approved the first of a 31-day situation, which is the families that were displaced from the Economou and moved to other locations, and in this case specifically Faulkner. So, that 31-day contract expires on June 11th by New York State regulation. I think I have the chart. By New York State regulation, you have the option to go with a second 31-day contract before you have to do a full out bid, and since that'll take us to the school year, that is why we need a second emergency contract. >> Okay. Any questions on that? >> Again, just for people who might look at this and say, "Oh my

092gosh, that's a lot of money." Like, so we are obligated by law to do these things, to provide these services, and additionally, we're doing what's best for the student in any given particular situation. >> Correct. And that's 100% of the cost, so we do get transportation aid back against that. >> Okay. Any other questions? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Uh next, we need to award the bid uh for trash removal for the 2026-2027 uh school year in the uh Casella's at the cost of $35,540. Um could I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Thank you. We'll second. >> Second. >> Yes. Uh Mr. Forbes. >> Yes. Uh again this year we only had one bid, which was Casella's, and the price increase is about a 1% difference, so very reasonable change

093there. >> Any questions on that? Yeah, 1% is reasonable, but I look at 35,000. That's for trash, and uh but and my question was going to be were there competitive bids? No, there weren't. >> Yeah, we put out uh I think we had 10 or 11 companies that we submitted to. >> That's for you. I would imagine we generate a lot of trash. >> Well, you get two two pickups a day. >> Two pickups a day? >> Yeah. >> With the whole school, so $35,000 makes sense. >> That should make it fair, though. >> John, is there something in the contract that that drives the the lack of competitive bids, or is that >> No, in the years past we did have other companies that bid, and just the way things are changing, it comes

094down to one company pretty much now. >> Okay. >> Why can't they come once a day with a bigger truck? >> Varies on uh cafeteria times and overnight cleanings, so. >> It's a good question. >> Thank you. >> The truck is pretty big. >> If you want to start a company, you want to do this. Compete. Uh all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Uh next we need to uh uh award a bit of gasoline diesel fuel for the 2026-2027 school year to TPS for gasoline at a cost of $4 $4.08 cents even $4.08 and 1/2 cents a gallon. And then TPS for diesel at a cost of $4. 51 and 1/2% per gallon. Do I have a motion to bring that to the table? >> So moved. >> Mr. Sale, and then Mr. Forbes,

095thank you. Mr. Forbes. >> Obviously a large increase from last year to this year because of what's going on in the world. So we did uh pick up an additional amount in the budget to try to compensate for the anticipation of that happening. Fuel regular gas is not a big deal for us. We don't have a lot of transportation use of that, and we do have a mutual bid with the village for our vehicles, which are all gas. And so it's the diesel cost that will be the place where we have an impact. >> Right. Okay. Any questions on that? >> Well >> Go ahead. >> If fuel prices go down, will that be readjusted? >> There are some escalating clauses within the bid process, so yes, that's possible. >> And if it goes the

096opposite direction? >> Yeah. I guess same thing. >> The correct term is de-escalator, I guess, but >> Okay. >> Yeah, there's there's language within the bids. >> Okay. What was it last year, do you know? >> Uh gas was $2.43 and diesel was $2.36. >> Wow. Another cost increase. >> Um okay. Any other questions? Uh all in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? Mr. Sale, too enthusiastic. Um need to approve the external audit report as originally submitted at the December 9th, 2025 regular board meeting including the corrective action plan contained therein. [clears throat] Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Um who does this go to? >> Yeah, I'll take it. Um you know, every once in a while we get feedback from the state in

097terms of our resolutions and their question was why didn't you approve the corrective action plan with the external audit report and we said, "Well, it's part of the external audit report." And for whatever reason, they would feel more comfortable if although they agreed this parts of that report, um but they would like to see it specifically named in a resolution. So, nothing has changed here, no problems here. It's just that we are specifically identifying that we're including the corrective action plan even if it's part of the >> Sorry. Any questions on that? The housekeeping, um all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? And finally, under financial, we need to approve the purchase of two Cardiac Science G5 AEDs plus supplies for health and safety at a cost not to exceed $3,700. Can I have a

098motion, please? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Kenny. Um who does this go to? Dr. Zoller? >> Yeah, I got it again. Um these are um no longer being manufactured, which is making the batteries and the pads difficult to find now and it will continue to get more difficult to find them. So, um they're also a little old school, so we are just going to upgrade and move on. >> So, we're buying completely new units? Like they're already >> Yeah, there's a couple pieces to that. One, uh we didn't have anything specifically budgeted for the cardiac units, uh AED units, and two, we had Cardiac Life evaluate the list that we have current units suggested that we replace the two G3 units that are the

099oldest and will soon not have software and back up or pads available. And right now the G5s are running 14 to 18 weeks on back order because many districts who have the G3s when we purchased them are also doing the same thing we're doing. So we brought this forward now as opposed to waiting it to the next school year to try to get on to the queue to get those two units in and then in the next budget cycle we'll have some additional years that we can plan for and based on the list review. >> Out of curiosity, how how long have we had those? >> Uh 10 years we've had them. >> These are different from the portables. >> Wait, those were purchased last time out. So I asked Eric our trainer to put

100together a list of that and we're looking at that, but I think we're good there for a number of years. I >> Okay. >> Anything else on that? >> If [clears throat] not, all in favor. >> Aye. >> Opposed. So personnel new business all in consent tonight is a rarity. Uh so that brings us to our second of public hearing from the public. The board has reserved this time to hear it. It's very similar to the earlier one. It actually 5 minutes or less. Um but you can speak on anything. So is there anything else tonight on other topics or anybody that hasn't spoken that would like to speak? No? Okay. Um so um we'll move on to superintendent's report. Dr. Zale. >> Oh yeah, given our time I'm going to push a couple things

101that are less urgent. I did want to recognize in consent that Ryan Williams, one of our teacher aide, is going from probationary to permanent appointment. So nicely done. We also appreciate uh Kelsey Mosher, who came on board as our OT um working through the civil service process, which at times can be a little taxing. So, she came on board provisional and is now probationary. So, we appreciate her um working through the paperwork and other details to get to a probationary status. So, um thanks to her. We also wanted to recognize real quick um also we consent that our trap team will be headed to the national tournament um this year. Mr. Kinney, I was hoping you could give us a quick update on what's happening and where you're going and who's going. >> Uh as

102far as the whole of the spring or would you just like me to touch on nationals? >> Whatever you'd like to do, but I was recognizing the national >> Okay. Um so, the regular season is coming to an end with uh Friday state competition. It was a 10-week season. Uh students were shooting about 100 rounds a week. So, for the spring season, 17,000 rounds are used. Uh so, it was rather busy. We ended up in fourth place for our conference. We did have eight students go to the Western New York High School Trap competition in all of New York where we placed third place as a team and Chelsea Pierce, one of our Westfield students, she was uh fifth place for females. Um from there we went on to states. Uh Friday we competed at

103Bridgeport Rod and Gun in Cicero. There was 79 schools that participated. Our varsity squad came in at sixth place and our JV squad took second place for the day out of 79 schools. Um as far as nationals, that will take place July 8th through the 12th in Mason, Michigan. Um Aiden Kinney, Thane Trow, and Chelsea Pierce will be going to that. And the all three fathers are coaches, so they will be doing 200 rounds a week in preparation for that. Between Must Field, they did have a little bit of a a wet practice in Northeast. One of the fathers took the kids to shoot this evening. And two of the kids came out with 25s. >> Wow. >> So they're they're doing rather well. And the team continues to grow. Knock on wood monetarily, it

104doesn't cost the the district anything up until this point in the first spring season. >> Well, thank you for the update. And also thank you for really taking the initiative to get this going here. Seems odd now, but I remember a couple board meetings where there was a little controversy about starting a trap team and some trepidation and some hesitancy, not necessarily amongst the board, but from the community and perhaps some outreach and some concern. And I think especially with your focus on safety and protocols and procedures, you've helped put any of those concerns to rest. >> And and if folks ever have a doubt, they're more than welcome to come and and watch during the fall or the spring season. It was nice to see you step up along with Mr. Johnston this spring.

105>> Yeah. It's fun to It's fun to see. It's a well-oiled machine out there. It's really Everybody should take a look. It's really cool. You might You might want to consider ear protection. >> I wore ear plugs. >> Yes. >> I took some towel ball I got home. >> [laughter] >> I did. It was a little loud. >> [laughter] >> But my fault. I didn't have any ear ear plugs. I I digress. Sorry. >> No, you're good. Um connecting back to our um public speakers tonight, thank you so much for sharing um your thoughts. Um just a couple things I was hoping, Mr. Dowlinger, we could clarify a common theme in uh both Ray's and Ms. Kelly's comments um connected back to chorus. I think it was Ray that was hoping for more specifics, and

106I was hoping you could just reiterate and I know we've met with the music department three times, so fourth time is coming Thursday to kind of arrange this, but as of right now in your mind, if Ray's asking for specifics, maybe it's a repeat of some of what we already shared. >> Yeah. So, compare this year to next year. This year, our rotating schedule, we scheduled about 34 or 35 sessions of chorus. The reality of it is, things get in the way. We don't uh run chorus on half days, field trips, other days, and things like that. We generally run about 33 sessions of chorus. Would you agree, April? So, if I'm a student in the second grade, I go to chorus 33 times. Next year, if we schedule it once every four days, which

107we have a four-day rotation, that would be 45 sessions of chorus. April and I agree that 45 sessions of chorus would be outstanding. But, we want to get it more close to the 33 sessions that we have this year. So, right now, myself, April, and Andy are working together to figure out how many sessions of chorus we need. And right now, we we've met uh three times. Um and we have a meeting on Thursday with April and Andy again, and I anticipate that the number of times that a student will meet with April for chorus will be very close to what it is this year. >> Mr. Ryan, would you like to say something? >> problem. What would be How many times do you use that for the day where If we're If 45 is

108like a little bit too much or we're getting closer to the 33, what are we doing with the other time? >> That will be time where the classroom teachers will have their students. So, in our current schedule, a student leaves the second grade classroom and goes to chorus. If they don't If they go any amount between um you know, 33 and 45, that'll be additional time that they'll be in the classroom. So, they'll be with the classroom teacher for uh regular instruction, math, literacy. Um and that need for instructional time came from the the classroom teachers. The request um came through Margie's meetings. >> Um the literacy meetings. Yep, every week I meet with literacy um with K through four um all year long. You know, there's a couple weeks here and there depending on

109you know, schedules or especially Christmas time where teachers are like, "We really need this time." Um and a couple times where I've had conflicts, but I would say out of the you know, 40 weeks of school, we've definitely met 35 times. You know, um and the request was more additional instructional time. And we're trying to meet that halfway, making it a win-win with the um you know, with chorus and with our teachers. >> Yep. >> And are Are there dedicated chorus days a thing? And if so, what was the rationale behind that? >> It's It's the exact same thing we do this year. So, for example, um last year in late August, I released a schedule to the entire um elementary school and chorus wasn't in it yet. What I need to do next is

110I meet with Andy Bannick, we coordinate our schedules between elementary, middle, and high school. We need to know when that room is available for course instruction. Then we pick days and we bake it right into the schedule. We're in the middle of that process right now. Um I hope that answers your question. >> That does. Thank you. Um and again, I just want to reiterate what Mr. Johnson said. If you can later some point either email or provide your written statements, that's really helpful. Um the board absolutely listens to district office administrators listening um to the comments that come forward here tonight and uh to see them again in print is really helpful. So. Um other than that, I'll push off a couple things um until next meeting and uh we can move forward. I

111did want to thank Mr. Schneller, who's not here tonight. He's at the LaGuardia's graduation. Um it's a really cool event. Sorry that I missed it uh this year. And also to Miss Polhemus, who is at the middle school uh concerts tonight. So. >> So the parking lot at school is uh >> It's all right. It's all right. >> Okay. >> Mr. Johnson? >> Yes. >> Um it was brought to uh my attention that we were missing a potentially timely item on the agenda tonight and I was wondering if we might be able to make a motion um about the approval of the release of purchase orders for 2026-2027 um so that those could be accommodated in a timely manner. It's allowable. >> It's allowable. >> Can you tell me what to say? >> Exactly what

112Lisa just said, actually. Just ask for a motion for that. >> I'm not reading that. >> Hope you can read my chicken scratch. >> All right. We need to approve the release of the purchase orders for the 2026-2027 school year. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Um any questions on it? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? >> Aye. >> Um so um I'm just moving off my game here. >> Sorry. >> So we have announcements, board correspondence. Um actually uh you know board correspondence uh uh Ms. Ford, myself, Dr. Ziliak, Ms. Han, and Catherine uh attended I see she's She did We attended the uh salut- salutatorian valedictorian ceremony uh dinner at um at the Chautauqua Suites, I think it was. Catherine, I was wondering if you'd like to speak on

113that a little bit. >> Absolutely. It was a really nice event getting recognized and getting to meet all the other students in Chautauqua County who are now at the top of their class. It was really interesting. We all got to go up on their stage and kind of give a little bit about our high school experiences and where we're going next. There was a lot a lot of networking things. I even got to meet another student going to Cornell next year, so maybe potential carpool, uh which was really nice and I mean Rainey was there with his family. My family was able to go, too, which was It was just really nice opportunity. Um thank you to everyone else who was able to go. It was really special and it was really fun fun night.

114>> It was a great night. You had your families there and uh you had Rainey in attendance, you in attendance tonight. Congratulations to you both and good luck in your graduation in a couple of weeks, so thank you. Um so in announcements, the next regular Board of Education meeting will be Tuesday, June 23rd at 6:00 p.m. uh here in the high school library. And uh so we'll go around the table. Mr. Paul Haymes is not here. Mr. Smalley is not here. Mr. Jones, anything else tonight? >> Yeah, I just want to thank a few people. I want to thank Thurmont Fire for coming out again for our field day where they bring the new truck, spray the kids down. It's always really nice to see. I think our PTA, Mr. Zappy, Mr. Sabolski, Mr. Priandy

115for their work with that. Our award ceremony is coming up on June 22nd where we celebrate the growth both academically and doing a couple new awards this year as well. Our students are given goals at the beginning of the year and if they meet their goal, we recognize them. So I want to thank Mr. Hassett and Mr. Graham for that. And then lastly, um our courage for Carter. If I'm sure you've seen online, we have a student who's going through some challenges. I really like to thank Mr. Hassett and Miss Beach for all their fundraising efforts. Thursday, everyone is encouraged to wear green. We're going to assemble outside of the elementary school as a school standing in a big old heart. I'm going to hop on the roof, take a picture, and we're going to

116send that off to him wishing him a good summer. So thank you for all your help with supporting that cause. And that's about it. >> Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Farrell is not here. Mr. Piper, anything? >> Yeah, a couple things. I want to put in a shout out thank you to Albert Ramirez, Aaron Lamp, our social workers, our school counselors. And I went out to Green Acres after school today and did a community outreach meeting families and welcoming them, letting them know to see our faces in person. I had registration packets. We had information out about our Parents as Teachers program. And it was nice for the kids to be able to meet and introduce their parents to some of the people that they work with and see every single day. We had popsicles

117we gave away. And it's my white shirt is no longer white. We had a lot of book donations. Literacy volunteers gave us books to give away. It was just a really nice event until it started to pour. But until that point, it was it was great. We do this every year and I'm just grateful to that group to give up their time to go do that and feed these families. It's terrific. Um we have our UPK meet and greet tomorrow, so our parents are bringing in their children to meet the pre-K team, do a screening with those children so we can start on the UPK placements. Last Friday was the kindergarten screening for all of our students going in that in our pre-pre-K program, which is getting smaller and smaller every year. Um that was

118last Friday, and on June 22nd at 10:00 a.m. is our kindergarten moving up ceremony. So for our students who are leaving the LARK and moving up to the big school, we do a moving up ceremony and an art show, and it's a fabulous event. >> That's a great ceremony. >> Yes. >> Dr. Wright. >> This one. Thank you. I know Mr. Nelly isn't here um right now cuz he's post-graduation, but I did want to give a shout-out to the high school with their recent job fair. Um they worked the counselors and team at the high school worked so hard to get all of these different community organizations um and you know, enterprises or businesses, etc. here, and students had the opportunity I know you guys can you can speak more about it, but um I

119know a lot of students were able to get summer employment secured and to look into potential, you know, career things, to network and talk, and all of that. So it's a big shout-out to the high school team that made that happen. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Flores. >> No. Mr. Morrison. >> No. >> All right. Um so um Let's see where we're at. So where does this begin? Um So we anticipate the need to enter into executive session to discuss personnel tonight. Uh can I have a motion to enter into executive? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? >> Aye. >> Thank you everyone for attending tonight. Close this. Thank you for those that spoke. And students, you can sign your forms

120up here. Anybody can sign. Drive safely. Anybody can sign forms. >> I got our table. >> Is that good? >> Yeah. >> Thanks you too. >> Here you are. >> Thank you. >> That was amazing. >> You got it. >> Yeah. >> Looks like