FCSD Board Meeting April 14 2026

001Welcome to the Pedro Central School Board of Education meeting for April 14th, 2026. We begin every each meeting with a pledge to the flag of peace. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation and justice for all. >> Okay. So, um, approving the agenda for tonight's regular meeting of April 14th, 2026. Uh, and everything is in consent for personnel and new business. So, should I have a motion? >> Thank you. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Marshall. Anything uh anybody want? >> No. Uh, all in favor? >> I opposed. Okay. Uh, next we're going to hear from the public. The board has reserved this time to hear comments from the audience. Those wishing to address the board are asked

002to stand, give your name and address. And please limit your comments to 5 minutes or less. And concerns and comments during this first session should be directly related to items uh listed on the proposed agenda for uh this meeting. Is there anybody like Mrs. Shields? Welcome back. >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Linda Shields. I live at 227 Seymour Street in Fredonia. I've been here before. This is the fourth time I've come uh to talk about consolidation. Um many of my remarks I've used before, but I think are worth repeating, as well as some additional things I'd like to say tonight. Um, I'd like to say that Climber, Sherman, and Panama are studying a merger. Beis Point and Shitakqua Lake are sharing a superintendent. Fredonia has previously looked at merging without success. Perhaps people

003are more amendable to some sort of consolidation than in the past. People are financially struggling. More people are using services like food pantries. Look at how many houses are for sale in Fredonia. I've never seen so many. Our population is shrinking and yet we have 18 school districts in Shiakwa County. We have two Bosei sites that serve the entire county. Why can't we have two or three regional high schools? Some states have one school district for the entire county. At a previous audit, it was stated that the district has low reserve funds and the way to increase the reserve funds is by increasing taxes. You can't keep asking the taxpayers to provide more and more. Something needs to change. Even Buffalo school districts are looking at closing schools. The Catholic churches are consolidating and closing

004churches. This hardly makes people happy to lose churches that people have attended for generations, but it is necessary because the numbers are not attend are not there. Change is difficult but necessary. I have asked if you would pull the residents during the the last vote for the budget. If people don't vote, they have no right to complain. During the next budget vote, let's pull the district to see if their opinion has changed. I will share a quote from an opinion piece from the observer. For decades, this region has missed out on private investment. This is because government and school districts keep growing larger in terms of buildings and employment while the numbers they serve keep dwindling. I know the county has launched a government reduction initi initiative to include schools wanting to award $100,000 a

005year for schools or government entities that will look at consolidation or mergers. I don't know if it's still possible to apply for this, but I would hope you would give this consideration. We live in this beautiful community, Shiitaka County. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but we need to come together and share our resources for the greater good. Let's be proactive, not reactive. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Is there anybody else who'd like to speak tonight first session? >> Okay, we'll move on. Um, we need to approve the minutes for the regular meeting of March 24th, 2026. Do I have a motion to bring that to the table? So, move. >> Thank you. Second. Second. >> Thanks. Any questions on those minutes? All in favor? >> Opposed? That brings us into our financial

006treasures report and our uh third iteration of the buzza budget. Um uh and we'll start with Dr. Zil. >> Yeah. Welcome everybody. Uh good to see you. Hope everyone had a fantastic break. Um as a little intro into Mr. the Forbes portion of the presentation. Um, I really do appreciate people who have reached out directly um with questions about the budget or just kind of the status of certain aspects of our district. I appreciate the open communication whether that's through email, calling me directly. A few people have actually come in and sat down with me and had a discussion and they seem to be framed around two things. the changing dynamics um that we've experienced in the district, let's just say over the last five years, 10 years um and also how that has shifted

007um the type of individuals that we've needed to come into the district to help us meet the needs of those students. So, I want to share a little bit of information. I I'm sorry that Mrs. Shields didn't stick around because some of this is related um to her comments uh to a certain extent. So, um, this slide kind of summarizes, um, well, let's, yeah, sorry, I got ahead of myself. >> Um, I just want to remind everybody the board did establish some principles as we process um, our budget um, this school year. Uh we also still are in tune with our mission, vision, core beliefs as um overarching principles, ideas, concepts that are driving our decision-m and also our behavior in the district. Um but some of these areas um that I took a look

008at just to give a little bit more information um were number one related to >> Hold on, I opened the wrong one. Sorry, folks. Bear with me for just a moment. >> No worries. Um, but one of the things that Mrs. Shield brought up is a dwindling population. Now, we all acknowledge here that our student population is not exploding, but we are one of the few districts in the area that is not declining um and has a slight increase. And when Miss Morrison Hines um finds the slides, you'll see that um over the last five years, we're up 2%. Again, not a staggering number um but um probably one of the few districts in the area um that is technically grown. We also looked a little bit at our career and technical education programs, which

009involves PEK. And again, one of the things that we've talked about is students becoming their greatest selves. How do we allow people to be in innovative, dynamic, and global in what we're doing or what our students are doing? And we really try to keep those doors open and options open to students. So over time, we've had about a 29% increase um in students attending mainly Boseies um career and technical programs and also PETA. Um and we're glad to see students um pursuing different options, looking at um ways in which they can gain skills to eventually make a living. Um however, at the same time, that does increase costs to the district, have students joining that um those programs. Also looking at English language learners, we had Mr. Ramirez here um earlier in the year talking

010about some of the shifts here. um in English language learners, we have about a 26% increase over um the last five years. And in terms of um students with disabil with disabilities, um Miss Pharaoh did a nice job summarizing um a big increase of about 58% over time. um looking at economically disadvantaged students um or families about a 21% increase and homeless is a little bit deceiving because um until legislation fairly recently called McKini Bento we did not track this as we do currently the responsibilities were not the same but from a technical point of view about five years ago we had five students in and out of a school year um that would be considered homeless Um currently we are at 51 students who have been out of the district um that have been

011identified as homeless in that period of time. So these are some of the dynamics that are changing that are shifting within the district. And again, as a school district, we're looking to meet the needs of our students and our families to allow them to become their greatestelves, allow them to be successful as they move forward in whatever they choose to do. So, with those shifting dynamics, we absolutely, as we've mentioned in the past, um have added special education staff. Um we've added ENL staff. We added a Hispanic outreach coordinator as part of that effort. We've added school counselors, school psychologists, social workers, um looking at adding speech currently and had a speech teacher within our COVID money at one point in time. And you might have noticed at a recent board meeting, we ended up

012replacing a KOD or a certified occupational therapy assistant um with a full-time occupational therapist for the same dollar value. So, good bang for the g for our district. Um by doing that, we've been able to expand services from an assistant to a occupational therapist and um again better meet the needs of our students. So all this is in play in the background as we've worked our way through these five years. All of these factors are in play as we're looking at budget, increased costs, increased staffing, um these pieces of the p puzzle that eventually show up on paper in terms of our budget. So I just want to provide a little bit more information in terms of those uh demographics also how it relates to the staffing and then how it then relates to the

013budget. So having said that I want to turn the rest of the presentation over to Mr. P. Again this is our third iteration of the budget. We are also adding the meeting this coming Monday, April 20th. Um, which gives us another opportunity to finalize the budget on that date. So, Mr. Ps. Before I do a review of the draft for tonight, I just want to let the board know that I did leave at each of your chairs to revised P6, which is for the budget book that I hand out previously. There was a line that got shifted incorrectly. the totals were all okay just was showing that we had only three science teachers because that was the next line down and obviously that would not be accurate. So this has been updated and thank you

014Mr. Johnson for pointing that out. So taking a look at our 2627 draft number three all the unknowns that we posted the previous two and have talked about at various means remain the same. Equalization rates and assessments are August we do the tax levy final besies costs as I've mentioned previously kind of fluctuate as we go through the process some students moving in and out some services line why rising the amounts are either up or down and those kinds of things. There's about 2,000 lines on the Boseis wing cap system in which we enter the data. Not all of which we participate in, but you still need to go through each one and make sure that you pick those up correctly. So, that's been ongoing. Uh, final state aid for debt service. I had mentioned

015previously that I was working with Maggie at municipal solutions to make sure that the phase one project debt is uh correctly accounted for. We are going with a bond anticipation not in year one which is not unusual for a large project and then shifting over to a serial bond for the balance of the duration of the debt probably next year after phase two or the year after. We did get bids that came in on that kind of as an aside very good for us. They were all very competitive very close and we'll have more information coming on that forthcoming meeting. We also are still waiting for the final state aid figures from the governor's budget, legislative budget. Again, for the fifth year in a row, the state budget is late and it puts occurred on

016all districts, but there's no guarantee that we'll get anything, but it's hopeful that we would and that will be a factor as we go through the final cuts in this process. Final staffing has not been completely reviewed with the administration yet. There will continue work on that. There's not a final number in this draft. And then of course our tax levy which is in part based on all those other items I just talked about and other things I'll go through in a few minutes. Taking a look at our proposed expenditure summary. Uh we are now on to draft three which shows a reduction of 2,476,000 from the start point. And you may say how do you get that much of a reduction from your start? Well as I mentioned previously the first draft that I

017do is kind of all in. includes everything I think may happen and then padded if you will for somewhat unanticipated changes in those just the full cost of staffing and benefits before we take any applicable grant monies that applied against it. So kind of everything but the kitchen sink in the first draft and then we begin the process of going through getting her numbers on all kinds of different areas and making sure that we've got that accounted for correctly. So this shows the adjustments we've made so far. uh budget adjustments would be in the services on the left. That could range from um positions that I had maybe put in as a possibility for things like teacher aids or additional cleaners that were just there as placeholders even though we didn't need those positions. It

018could be benefits related to people that have retired. It could be equipment that was requested and that we ultimately have changed or cut. It could be materials and supplies that have been coded incorrectly and we change them to other categories. And a good example of that is Look at the textbook book edition of 17,000. That's not necessarily that we added it. It's probably a shift between the categories on the left. On the right hand side, we do shift a lot of our salaries where possible to our grants. That would be title one, title two, section 611, 619, and universal prek grants. And there is the bulk of it is instructional. And there is a portion that's non-instructional. So that's listed. We also had, as you're aware, seven retirees with applicable retirement incentives, reductions in salary,

019and projected replacement salaries, which is at step seven with 30 hours of masters on the FDA contract. All of that totals up to 2,476,000 reduction. Also want to point out before we get to this slide, you can stay here. Just as an example, from draft one to draft two, we reduced about 512,000 and draft two three, we reduced about 867,000 over a variety of line items. Taking a look then at the budget in terms of expenditure percentage by category, salary and benefits you can see are listed at the top that comprises about 68.4% of the budget. So the bulk of that I would say is untouchable without reduction in staff. There are some things that we do carry to cover things like thieves which are in that number but basically the 68% is is pretty

020much locked in. Also taking a look at those categories of debt service which is an additional 3.9% which takes you just over 72% in total is also required. So there's really not a lot you can do there. So you're really talking about less than 30% of your budget can be affected by changes that you make in the process. and of that there's things that you can't change like amounts budgeted for utilities and so forth. Taking a look then, you've seen this slide before. There's no real changes here. Just a listing of our benefits. In summary, on the top two, the employees retirement system and the New York State teachers retirement system. Those are locked in contribution rates that the district makes on the employees. Employees retirement system is all non-instructional. Teachers retirement system will be

021instructional and administrative position. So, those are kind of locked in. Social Security will be a fluctuating number depending on what your final staffing is at based on 7.65% 65% of the salary amount. Group life unemployment and long-term those don't fluctuate a lot. You see there's not a lot of money to sign there. Um the premiums on the insurance and long-term disability stay pretty flat and unemployment will depend on what we any staff group health insurance. We are participating in county school district medical health trust. As I mentioned before that was a 16% increase. It's not reflected here as such because there were some changes we could make retiring insurance and changes people made during our open enrollment period, but it is showing as an 11% increase in our health insurance and that's a contractual obligation.

022Equipment requests I've listed here by total by area the request for equipment. Some highlights in there. maintenance. We're currently still carrying 185,000 which will represent two trucks and a net trade on our Gator which we use for snow removal and also the ball fields. Whether we land there or not, I'll continue to mention that we do need to do something with our vehicles. We've got a couple that are in pretty tough shape and at some point we've got to make sure that we at least start getting out some type of replacement cycle for that. Under curriculum place replacement, we do have in there of the 17,500 listed, 15,000 of that is the musical instrument annual replacement amount, which was a desire by the board of education over years code to help keep the musical up

023to date. And then of course across the rest of the areas, you have instructional and athletic request for program. Next slide just shows some major impacts in material supplies contractual expense and Bosei services. Obviously the big numbers sticking out there there's two of them. One is in the top row which is 205 on the Bosey's occupational education at Ptech which are increases in student participation which Dr. already discussed and also on the bottom line the 535,000 which is the addition of debt service for our phase one that does not reflect the fact that we do get aid back at 82.7% which is on the revenue side but we do have to pick it up on this side next slide just shows a summary of our debt service starting in 2324 through projected for 2627 does

024include the additional project 2025 This slide had been also requested in the past by the board just to kind of have an idea of where we land with interest on any of these. Typically on the front end of the debt, you'll have more going towards interest. Towards the back end, you have less going towards interest. So when you take a look across and see some low interest rates in comparison to the project 25, that's probably because you're somewhere down the road and you're being able to see a lower interest amount paid more towards the principal. Whereas in project 25, be the first year principal of interest. This is a summary of the proposed revenue side listing all of our sources by major category. You can see in comparison that we're at 50.1% of our budget

025is state aid. 46.4 is our tax levy. On the March 24th draft, our tax levy was at 49 and then it's now 46. So each change you make, unless we get additional state aid, you'll see the state aid percentage increase and the tax number decrease. If you take a look at the bottom in comparison, we're already going to be below or close to being below where the tax levy would normally end up in the last three or four years. moving in a trend towards 0% and the budget is tax level. Within this proposal, there is a capital outlay project of $100,000. That does get 82.7% $82,700 back state aid. For this, we'll be repairing and sealing our tennis courts on the main street campus. For any work you do on the outside, you also have

026to do a minimum $10,000 worth of work on the inside, which will be the replacement of flooring in the elementary clusters and we also have to put in the New York State required architect fee. Just a reminder in this budget that we do have the seven retirees their salary changes coming out. We do have budgeted replacements in there at this point for all those positions and we do have the fact that five of the staff were eligible for retirement centers contractually. So that's also been picked up. tax levy limit is 2.44% or 426,000 above the 2526 total tax levy amount. If the budget's defeated twice by the voters, you will need to comply with the administrative cap, which is 11.5%. We're currently 58,000 under that cap. A reminder that it's not a 2% cap because

027of some exclusions that are law for each district. So, as an example, ours last year was 4.65. This year it's 2.44. or four. In either case, was it 2%. This is a graphical uh review of our tax levy limit versus our actual tax levy. Just taking a look at the last five years, you had a tax levy that averaged 1.47%. If you had used the tax levy limit as your guideline in that same time period, you would have been at 2.4%. Over 10 years, your levy actual levy was 1.26% 26% average over 10 years and the tax levy limit would have allowed you to be at 2.29% over the same time period. So you really as a board previously and the board now can stand and say that your tax levy has really been pretty

028low given all the constraints of the world these days. In all years u since the inception of the tax levy limit which was 201213 we've been at or below the cap and nine years we've been below the cap. This next slide is just a reminder that we do have shared services for a variety of things. Health insurance, workers compensation, electric, natural gas purchases, central business office, fuel for the district fields through the village of Fonia. We do share part-time art teacher for quite a while now. Forestville, we do share special education programs with them and a number of neighboring districts for transportation. The next slide is a summary of budget comparative data. taking a look back just a reminder of where we've been. So that really brings us to what's left to do. So at

029this point our tax levy for 25 26 17 million 846. If we use the tax cap as the benchmark to determine where we're headed that would be 2.44% 44% above that which takes you to a maximum tax levy without requesting a 60% or more yes vote of 17 million8. Your current proposed tax levy in this draft and this should not be taken to be in any stretch of the imagination where it's going to end up at. So just where we are today 18,670. So you have a difference of 761,000 to get to that tax cap number of 2.44. If you were to take a look at some other numbers and say what would that mean to get to X Y or Z to zero, you would have to reduce 1.1 million from where we are

030today. To get to 1.99, which in the past has been kind of a question as to whether you want to be below two, you'd be looking about 836,000 instead of the 761,000. That can be done through uh three ways. One would be to apply additional fund balance which I don't think we're in the position to do that and actually I'm still hopeful we can get that down a little. The second way would be if we had any additional revenue, which primarily at this point would be small dollars on the local portion of the budget, if adjusting things like our projected interest income off the T bills or additional state aid revenue, or you could look at further reductions in the budget draft that you have before you today, which pretty much is going to be

031where I would be working on the majority of the time to get the number down. Coming back around then before I do that this is just a reminder of where we are in terms of the timeline. We are having the special meeting next Monday which is within the time frame to accept the budget which does give us an extra week. Cross your fingers the state decides to do something which may help us. and then listing the annual budget hearing on May 5th and the annual budget vote on the third Tuesday of May which is May 19th which then brings us back to the original slide of remaining unknowns. Equalization rate final assessments will not help you now. Final Boseies cost is as I mentioned at the onset an ongoing process but we'll be finalizing that

032before next Monday because that all has to be turned into Boseies. Final debt service we'll tie that out for sure but I'm pretty confident we're where we're going to be with that right now. We could look at changing the debt service payment schedule, but in the long run, that's not a good thing for the district. So, we're going to try to keep where we are with that right now. Obviously, final saving I mentioned a couple times in the last few minutes, final staffing, we'll still be having a discussion with the administrative staff in regards to that. And then, of course, what the final tax levy would be. If you're asking me what a recommendation that I would make, and I've had conversation with Dr. Zel about the same thing, I think you need to at

033the tax cap. There's a part of me that in the moment would look to say maybe it's something to consider above that, but I don't think the time is right for that. I think we need to be under the cap or under the cap and in my mind at the cap is where you need to be which is 2.44 correct? Yeah. Um again, Mrs. Shields had mentioned in her comments and she is accurate that back in November um here at meeting we did have our auditor in and sh She shared a variety of information. Um, first and foremost, she shared that we did have a clean audit, which means that we were doing things correctly and from a a business office point of view or accounting point of view, everything was um satisfactory. Um, one

034of the things she said shared was that our unappropriate fund balance calculated by our auditor at that time was 2.32%. Um, she did note that that was a significant decrease from the past. She also recommended that we maintain an unappropriate fund balance of at least the 4% limit. At that moment, we were about half, a little um again 2.3 as opposed to four. Um she also recommended continuing to monitor the fund balance and she did recommend that we consider going to the cap um each year. that not only has a benefit in that year of increased revenue but also compounds over time. Um she did also note that we had been identified as sus susceptible to fiscal stress by the New York State controllers office. So you know typically Mr. Forbes and I have a

035little push and pull in the tax levy conversation. I understand his um point of view as a business official that's more about the numbers. I do take into consideration again all those things I talked about earlier in terms of the needs of our students and families and what we need to provide to make that happen. Um in the past I always haven't been recommending going to the limit. I think this year I am there at this point and agree with Mr. Forbes. However, we understand that our board members also bring a different perspective from either of us. So, I think at this point we'd like to open it up to a conversation um about the levy increase um hopefully ending with some determination about where we need to be because that then will give Mr.

036Forbes and I a clear target um for this coming week. We have an administrative meeting tomorrow at 1 p.m. which will come back to um some of those unknowns and begin to clarify and finalize. So throw it out there to the board at this point. >> I have two questions. The first is whether there's any chance we would get more money than you've indicated from the state or whether that's like a high the highest possible amount that they will give us. And also you mentioned there are seven retirees and I'm wondering um whether the evaluation has already been done on whether all those positions need to be replaced or whether that is being done. >> I'll take what you take. Uh you don't know what the state's going to do. In general, we do get

037more money each year when the budget is finally adopted. Whether it's a small amount or a large amount, I have no way to know that. I would be shocked if it was something in the couple hundred thousand range. I would be more in tune with under 100,000, but every little bit helps. Um, in terms of the position, this is positions. This has been an ongoing uh dialogue. Um there are some within those seven that due to mandates and um where things stand that we're obligated to provide there is not a whole lot of wiggle room there. Um and there are some that are up for consideration. Um I don't believe that we will able to make be to maintain um all of those positions. Um but you know part of our hope which doesn't look

038like it's going to happen is that we would have finalized um state numbers either now or within the next few days. Doesn't look like that's going to happen. But we were also trying to avoid um making a decision and then feeling like oh wait a minute something's changed. Maybe that decision didn't need to happen exactly as we um laid it out. So more to come there and it's an ongoing conversation at the administrative team level. >> Just to be clear, it the amount the possible amount coming from the state though would not really be enough from what Mr. Forb said to bring us like I don't see how that would change the analysis of whether to replace the retirees because it wouldn't be enough money to cover the gap in our budget right now. It's

039possible with other moving factors like one of the things that happens throughout any school year is students moving out or coming in who um require services. So every once in a while there are these changes coming down the home stretch and we just want to make sure that we've given the maximum amount of time to let those things settle. I don't know what the number or the largest number might be that the state could increase, but I would agree that it wouldn't be a massive amount shift on its own. >> Follow the staffing. Um what of the timing for actually posting positions and kind of moving forward with that? we go through this budget process and we can say we're going to fill x number of positions but you know as those state numbers come

040in right we have flexibility in what we actually fill some at some point even after the budget >> yeah so some we've posted a couple things um anticipated >> okay >> we haven't posted others at all um just to allow ourselves some flexibility >> and not pigeon hole us into any one um route forward and also to avoid anyone thinking that we're um in any way false advertising positions out there that we maybe someone could claim that we didn't have any intention of of fitting. >> I have a few questions. Um so to get to 2.4 we still have to cut 761,000. Okay. And Laura had strongly encourage that we increase our fund balance and that would mean don't apply it to the budget. Is that right? >> If you take the right now we're

041applying 750,000. If you were to reduce that to say 500,000 that means that that other 250 has to come from somewhere >> right so but that's what she recommends. Is that right? >> Yeah. I mean that's that was the plan going back probably before co the board at the time felt our fund balance was a little bit high and we were hopeful to bring it down over time and that didn't happen for a variety of reasons and so I think back then we were low 1 million 1.2 do something like that. I think we want it to be somewhere in that 3 400 range ultimately, which would still be the goal, but in the moment, >> right? So, I just wanted to make sure I understood that. So, ideally, you would be cutting even from

042that. >> Okay. And um the I'm just wondering when we list all of the changing demographics, what's the financial impact to the homeless students and what what does that mean exactly for how it fits into the budget? >> Yeah, I mean in in some regards it's tough to quantify because each situation um is different. One of the areas that we've discussed several times is the transportation piece because when we have a student who is identified as homeless that is deemed a Fredonia student and wants to remain in Fredonia then we have got into those contracts of getting students from neighboring towns. um and those things are um uh unpredictable in moments and just kind of come out of the blue. So that is one aspect of it. Um the other aspect would be like you

043know again this is more from a technical point of view and probably someone can mental attorney would probably argue that you know technically we have a student not living in the district that we're providing an education for. I get the legislation but that's part of um what happens in the midst of those >> because maybe they're staying out of town. Is that what you mean? So their home they a fonian >> student but they don't have a home here so they're living elsewhere but we provide transportation >> and education based on the legislation says they were a Fredonia student when they became homeless and we need to continue their education. >> Okay. >> And to piggyback on that just for a second. Um in terms of transportation there's requirements Dr. right? Knows them better than

044I do. But essentially, there's a time period that the family has, I guess you call it a grace period to see if they can get a more permanent situation or even if they do, they're still have the option of of returning to school to the end of the school year and things of that nature. The transportation piece is challenging because one, there's not a lot of places that if they use the county for assistance that the county has the ability to place the child. So, if they place it in the most common places, the econom is There's a couple places in Jamestown it becomes more challenging. So account lodge we have fortunately first student is carrier for ganonia their buses go back and forth so they can pick up something like that fairly easily if

045you get a placement in Ripley or Westfield. Their buses typically aren't coming this way or we don't have any buses going that way and so then it becomes either a large cost to add a run or you're unable to provide the transportation. There are options for the family to do that and be reimbursed under state guidelines, but often they don't have the transportation because of their situation. So, it's very can be very complicated depending on especially if you have multiple kids, multiple grade levels, two different start times. Now, you have two bus runs you need to Westfield or wherever. And so, there's been a lot of back and forth on some of the situations we've had this year. We do the best we can to try to get >> before we leave Courtney's questions about

046the fund balance and um we've been using up our fund balance every year. Correct. Or did we use all 750,000 for last year? >> Well, the way that it works in the perfect scenario is whatever amount that you apply as fund balance. You want to try to build that in or close to it in your budget line and you do that by set not budgeting exactly. So, if I say to you today that gas as a whole for the buses is going to cost 85,000, I have no way to know if that's true or not. So, you might put a h 100red,000 there and hope that it comes and that difference becomes a portion that goes back to your fund balance. So in a situation where we've gone from 12% to 2% in those years

047you had more expense than whatever you applied that year. >> So if you said 750 is what I hope to get back and we got 500 you're down 250. Next year you're down to 250. >> So and and even in this process I've probably got two pages of lines that I'm looking at saying all right if everything happens this is what I I think we're going to spend and this is what I'm carrying. And then things uh like you need to have extra funds available for material leaves and things of that nature. So you've got staff and covered or substitute teachers, those kinds of things. And those become a guess because you have no way to know moment to moment how that's going to play out. So each of those lines at the end of

048the day and on the revenue side, I should say also things like the additional treasury bill interest. I'm putting an amount in that I feel we're going to get unless the market really bottoms out and anything that becomes the gravy that you can then apply to your fund balance. Fund balance is not isolated the expense side. It's a combination of revenue. More revenue than you thought you get or less expense than you thought you'd have and those two things combined together. >> John, could you remind me what our fund balance would ideally be if we hit the 750 from last year? Uh basically right now given things that are happening, inflation, everything else, we're probably treading water right now. So you if if we're at that 23, we'd be lucky in my mind that'd be

049much over 3% if things went good. Hopefully they don't go the other way because then it'd be even lower. So, >> but you can't um we can't put in the budget to save money. Exactly. Right. No. >> And so it I guess I'm you're trying to figure out how are you supposed to build that up if you can't really budget for savings. So you >> you go conservative on >> revenue as much >> hope you guess good on the expenses and >> it's a roll of dice and you have uh the the textbook example is always my administrator certification was a district who had a student in my class had six specialized kids move in all at once. All of them do get aid coming back in the subsequent year but you're talking about six

050kids at 150 180,000 each that you now don't have any money budgeted for. you have to pay for that today. That's coming off your expense. That's coming off your fund balance today. Next year, you're going to see your aid increase, but then next year you have whatever rolls out with that. So, all of this is really, you know, taking a look at historical data, taking a look at things that you know are going to happen like that service we know is happening. So, you can there's things you can say, I know it's that, I know it's that, I know it's that. So, you don't really gain anything there. But then you can also look at other things say you know build rates are holding pretty good still we're already above budget do I raise that

051revenue number in next year's budget to that amount because what's my certainty that that stay so you have to kind of roll >> I don't know if this is a question or not but um maybe I can spin it to the question so uh as we try to assess what the community um and what their willingness to pay for education and the responsible budget is versus what it's actually going to take. And we're looking at the $760,000 gap uh in addition to another 750 we might take out of the fund balance. Um if we have a failed budget like we did last year, so it just happened last year. Can we get sort of an estimate of what the financial implications would be to the district to do a revote assuming it passes? So, not

052the budget implications of say a flat budget or whatever, but just the cost of that vote. >> Okay. I can answer that with two things. One, uh the vote cost us a couple thousand dollars for us to do that. So, which is basically getting the machine when the the balls are we have 4,000. So,000 times. >> So, in the scope of a $40 million budget, that's not a huge reach. And I do budget a little bit extra for the vote lines. Anyway, on the other side, you'd have to immediately take out all equipment, which is about 325,000 in the current draft, unless there was something you can deem health and safety, and honestly, most of it in the moment is not. is things that would be good to have and improve the district. So that

053would come off the top. Um you would have the if you went to contingency, I should say, you would have the option of failed budget to put the same budget up if you wanted to. You could put a higher one up if you wanted to, but if you're at the cap, that would probably not be a good move. And also you then begin to get a pattern of if you vote the budget down, then we you do that. So maybe next year those that rally the negative votes would say, "Hey, if we vote down, they're going to cut another." It becomes a kind of a given in some people's minds. So that that kind of plays into that, too. And John, to kind of piggy back off of that, can you explain or like game

054out what happens if we're at that 2.44% which is where you've recommended you'd like to be, and that's defeated. And then it's we put that same thing out, it's defeated again. Where does that 2.44% end up? Well, you have to take out all the equipment that would remain in at that point. So, today it's about 325,000. It won't be 325,000 to get to 24 because we've got to take things out. And I have some mindset as to what that would be. actually have it here somewhere. So, just give me a second. So, you'd probably be looking at somewhere in a 1.5 range for the levy. >> And that would be that's the >> Yeah. To to get to that right now, you're taking out about 160. You'd probably be one 125 to 15 something like

055that. Um the uh question on the debt service. Um is it fair? Am I reading this right? That it looks like because of the 25 project that were half a million more in expenses this year. >> Am I reading that right? >> Yes and no. Uh as a line item, yes. But in last year's budget, the 25 budget 2526, we did carry an amount of 350,000, which was the transfer of the amount from the capital reserve >> to go to towards the project. So you're really the difference on expenses between year to year, the 350 to the 535 or whatever the number is, >> right? >> Then that's on the expense side, you are getting 82% of that 535 back on the revenue side. So whatever that nets out to be. Yeah, next year next

056year we'll get that back. Yeah. So this year we got the 350 back percentage whatever it is. >> And you didn't get aid on the 350 because that was an assignment of capital reserve where you are getting aid on the 535. >> Oh we didn't get aid on. >> No because that's that's the amount of local share that you applied from the capital. >> Okay. But next year we'll get the eight on the but >> so suffice to say we're we're now we're having to find a half a million this year. >> You're adding antics. Other questions? >> As far as the homeless students and transportation and so forth, we're required to do the transportation for just that school year or say we move into the next school year. Are we still allocating that following

057year? >> Uh, I'm going to answer it this way. Um, essentially yes, but there are some caveats through the McKin Vento language that allows for some continuation depending on the situation, but typically it's the end of the school year. >> And have we ever had students that had to carry over or >> Yes, we're going to jump in on this a little bit. >> So, um, any student who becomes homeless while they are in our district is, as we've said, that's called student that's called your district of origin. So in a situation where a family finds secure housing outside of the district, newer legislation, the parents have a choice to have the child still attend the district of origin for the remainder of the school year or they can start and register in the district

058they now live in. It used to be that as soon as you had secure housing, you had to enroll in that district. >> So now is the parents have a choice to stay let's say in Fredonia or to enroll in let's say Jamestown. So in that case, if a parent chooses to remain in in Fredonia, then we transport only for that school year. >> Okay. >> If the family um became homeless and still doesn't have secure housing and still chooses to return to the district of origin, Fredonia, no matter where they they might move multiple times um you know to with housing with um the uh Department of Social Services helping them to find housing. In that case, each time they move, we are responsible for that transportation. So if they're at the Econo Lodge,

059say for six months, then they're able to find a house in Dunkerk and then let's say something happens there and they have to go down to Jamestown. We are still the district of origin because they do not have secure housing yet. Then there's a couple other caveats that if the student is in eighth grade or 12th grade um that the district of origin is obligated to uh provide the option for the student to graduate from that district. So let's say again they became homeless um near the end of their junior year. They found secure housing, but they want to graduate from Fredonia. So we would be responsible for that if the family chose it. There's a few different scenarios, but that's that's those are the three big ones. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other

060questions or comments? >> Just in terms of the next step. So, we have a meeting on Monday. So, what's happening between now and Monday internal discussions and what >> well one I think Dr. Zar I would like to know if 2.44 44 is where you're heading because that becomes important to me as to what number I have to take out and two we have $761,000 of adjustments to do of which I would say I feel half the first half is not going to be awful. It'll be it won't be nice but it won't be awful but after that we're cutting some things clean. So even if we go ahead, >> but if I mean if you're asking >> um so if I adjust 2016 or 17, 2017 or 18 or 18 or 19 by inflation,

061I come up with three different numbers that are all over 40 million. So I'm more comfortable with being above 2.44 than I am below as a personal. >> And just to clar just to clarify >> personal if we were voting 2.4 before we you still have to buy >> $760,000 of expenditure >> assuming we're willing to take that much from fund balance as well. Right. So >> correct. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> So if we were to just follow the gu guidance of the auditor, we're looking for 1.5. >> Yeah. Yeah. Then the other factor that that comes into play is if the state does approve the budget after you adopt the our budget, uh you do have the ability to make adjustments at the time of the tax levy which won't help your rate

062or your percentages now, but that theoretically could be looked at to go against fund balance later >> or something else that maybe we have to take out or not do in the moment. And this current iteration includes replacements for every retiree >> and then budget those at step seven on the FDA schedule. It seems like we've had a little more veteran >> applications. Okay. Well, Kevin's weighed in. Um we started the ball rolling. Others where where we're at with the tax 2.4 44% or below comfort levels members. >> I personally just given where we are in the world and uh I mean the the the socioeconomic picture out there right now I'm not comfortable with the 2 4 a contingency budget would be 1.5 I don't want to be there or 1.25 25 to 1.5,

063but would love to be as close to 2% as possible. Um, I'm I'm with you on take a look at inflation, right? Like it we've done really really well. This district has done really well. In fact, I know I've asked you this plenty of times before, but I think we've shot ourselves in the foot. We've left money on the table in years past, but at where I'm at that 2.4 and the conversations I've had with people in taxpayers in the district, I'm not there. >> That's others. >> I'm comfortable at 2.44. >> Okay, >> I am as well. I'm with Aaron >> too, >> especially with potential tax increases in the village, uh, the continued water lows and nobody has an exact number on that. >> You're like an auctioneer. >> Um, anybody hear 2.2?

064>> Where are you, Steve? >> Probably 2.2 myself. Yeah. I feel like what we haven't done in the past in other games is we're yo-yoing all over the place have more consistency from the year too, but that's not for today. Um, but anyway, um, so we have two at two and one at 2.2 and math for 2.44 I think >> Jerry and two 2.2 2.44 44. So, we have to give John some direction here. Um, >> I think we've gotten pretty clear messaging from Laura um in the past couple years, especially this year >> um both going to the cap and building our fund balance. So I'm not sure how we can I mean as it is to meet the cap we're spending funding. >> I think the other thing for me is you know

065we're one of the few districts in the county that are showing not only steady but somewhat increasing enrollment even if it's minimal. And I have to believe that's because of our program offering the quality that we're providing and to look at this amount of cuts, we're going to start to impact what we're providing in the community. So, that's what concerns me about that number. Um, and trying to go below that 2.44 is >> then that is kind of undermining the service, the quality, and at this point being somewhat of a district of choice and maintaining our enrollment. Right now, Yeah, I mean we we to meet our needs revenue and expenditures and looking he has defined $760,000 in in expenditure cuts which be a tough one. We do need the revenue too. Um but u

066we're at this stalemate at this point. Um, >> how do we determine this? Sometimes we do it by vote and sometimes So, are you suggesting instead of just that we >> we could just simply go to next week and vote >> um >> Well, I don't know. We We can't I mean, it'll be a number. It will be a number. We have to vote on a number. >> And right now, I'm hearing a majority of 2.44, which means that we go put it up for 2.44. And then you all can vote the way you want to vote. >> Well, I I you know, I guess for me it's like again, we don't know at this point if we say 2% or 2.22 since we don't know where those cuts are coming. >> We don't know

067how how much is that going to hurt in terms of our programs and what does that mean? So, it's hard to say. >> That's true, too. Gord >> given where the board is what we could do is I could aim for the 2.44 you can bring it to discussion on Monday if you have time to think about it from now till then and then if thought remains the same and you vote the 2 to not do the 2.44 and to do some number around that then we would have to take a moment in German or whatever the correct terminology would be to consider the remaining amount to get to 2.22 you're probably looking at 35 to 40,000 more than the 760 >> right so so going to 2.2 would we'd be out 35 >> 35,000?

068>> We don't we don't know what that means. Like it's nice to say, you know, it's another $40,000, but what is what does that what is that $40,000? What are we losing? >> If you're talking about dollars across the district, you have roughly 5,000 tax parcels. So, divide out that amount by 5,000 tax parcels and you're talking about eight n $10 a parcel with that. Some people obviously need more and some people less but on average. >> You mean what it means? What it means to to our >> Yeah. So in terms of of program um you know obviously part of what we do is try to protect program and talk. So, anything that would be part of a two-ish number would not bring a dramatic reduction program. Now, if we're talking about trying to

069do something with the fund balance that you get into a different level of conversation, but in terms of uh you know, he used to offer these 4 classes and we're not going to offer them anymore. Or he used to offer you know um a special ed class, we won't be offering it anymore. That that is not in the works if we're still in with with a number in two4 range. >> I mean, yeah, for me, the fund balance is a big concern. It's um you know, I have an emergency fund at home. I try to have my kids have an emergency fund and the state recommends 4%. We're we're at two or possibly maybe three shade under two upper two. So, We use that 750. Where would we be if we use the 750 this

070year? >> Have to keep picking it up off the floor. We wouldn't be in a good spot. >> But are we saying that's 4% of the total budget? >> So 2% of the budget is 700. >> Oh, what am I doing wrong? Um while they're hammering that but the weights of fund balance is higher tax or people as much as >> well >> which is what you're saying >> that's I mean that's a given >> but that then that would go into the >> you know so you I'm getting the feeling that >> everybody has their positions and they're without much budge. Uh if we were to vote today at 244, it would pass. So there' be an agreement to go with 244. And >> could I ask one question, John? And this I apologize

071if this is putting you on the spot, but I'm I'm just I think if if memory serves me correct, average school tax in in the district is roughly what? $3,000. I know that's middle 50th percentile and mean and median, but >> that number I don't know if I have a >> Okay, >> the average parcel is about assessed value >> of assessed value. >> So, I'm just trying to put you know how we did for the capital project, we we definitely equated like this is the average dollar impact. Can we do the same for that 2.44 to 2.2 >> because I'm assuming >> because that's only >> I mean when we get down into it I just did mine that it will increase my taxes about $72 or something. So then divided by the 12

072months if people are paying every month. >> Yeah. What I can do on the spreadsheet, I have the ability to go in and look at the rates. So I can get it down to a 2.44, see if the rate is multiplied off by the average property tell the difference would be at two or 2.2. >> Just for me, I sometimes I get lost in the big, right? It's the 2.4 of this 3540 million on the average person. It's not a hard calculation. So I can >> Yeah. And when we get down to brass tax, we're talking about six bucks a month. Okay. So, I don't want to push back too much, but we're we're debating between two 244 22 and 244. But your your advice is that we reduce the amount we're taking from this

073fund balance, but this draft has us taking 750,000 from the fund balance. So, >> so, uh, basically what I did is I carried the same number forward >> with the hope that as I went through the process, I could say, "Yeah, things are in a good spot, >> so I can knock that down a little, still get where we want to get to." And I don't feel today that I'm in that spot. >> So, yeah, where I would want to hear what the rest of the board has to say. um because I'm I'm I'm barely comfortable with 244. But the reason I'm barely comfortable with 244 is because I'm really uncomfortable with the 750 coming from the fund balance. >> So where where does the rest of the board want that number to be? >>

074Bearing in mind two things. One, >> 24 is your max cap without going for 60% majority. Yes. And two, anything that you do to reduce the 750 is an additional amount that has to be adjusted. However, it's adjusted in the process. Just pointing that out. >> Y >> Well, I I agree. I don't think we should go above the 244, but I mean I agree. If we He has 750 in there now. If we spend that, that leaves us under a million dollars in our >> So, I I think >> we know we're not going to do it in two years, right? We could do it once more. >> But but my understanding is that if there's if you have been conservative in an estimate and there's extra money, then you don't take that out

075of the fund balance to put toward the budget. >> That's assuming that all those things that have extra or other categories equate to that. And so if you take a look at an example at dashboard, you take the revenue page and the expenditure page, you can kind of see where we're tracking. And right now, we're tracking somewhere in that 700,000 range for this year, which would mean we'd be down 50, but there's some adjustments that happen the year after a few different things is important for today, but you could be at 500. So then you're down 250 or 300, whatever the number is, or the other way. So it just depends where all that tracks. If you had, you know, some kind of large expense occur, unfortunately, if we had like four or five families

076move in where you had to spend that now, then you' be in the case where you did use a 750. But in the perfect scenario, you should be able to replace most of it and therefore you're not eating the 750 this year. And again, back to reducing staff by attrition. I've seem to remember from last year that we don't you don't want us to consider before the budget whether we're replacing the retiring teachers or are we are we making that decision now? When are we making that decision? >> Decision made with the district and shared with the board um prior to Monday and that's our meeting tomorrow. And it'd be nice to think that like just some of those positions with the regulations in place just can't be eliminated. >> Understood. We're only considering ones

077that could be eliminated. Um, so you know, Kevin, you suggesting 500 or something and >> No, I'm really looking for what the rest of the I think what the board is as a whole is looking for. I don't think I've thrown. >> You want to stay at the 750 or just I think we need to have as much in it as possible. >> I I think we have to to have to have as much remaining in that fund balance as possible. It's a tight rope, right? Like we're trying to walk. I'd love to see the a 2.2 a two and a 2.4 and then come to the table next week and and then let's take a vote. I don't know that I'm comfortable with the 2.44 right now because I don't know really what it

078means. >> But, you know, >> you're saying have those options. >> I'd love the options because I I think where we are is we just need to try to do more with less conversation we had. But, um, but at the same time, I'm really cognizant of the fact that we had someone come in and tell us where we need to be and what we need to do in that tax cap. is a good place to be and I'd be all for it. Last year at this time, all for it, right? But right now, >> I think we're in a weird place. >> Senator John, go away with 2.2 and 2.4 options to come back with. >> I guess I would just I don't want to waste his time. If you're not going to 2.2 and

079you're not and I'm not and she's not, then I don't think we need to. >> Yeah. I mean, >> the only thing I would say is it would be interesting to see a couple of different things. Like where is the 750 to$ 1.5 million coming from? So like if you could just get to 1.5 in cuts really easily and you're happy with that, Brad's happy with that, then I could be less than 244. I just don't think that that's realistic based on what you're showing us so far. So I think where I end up is a little bit fluid in the sense that I want to see where it goes. I just can't imagine it would be less than 2.4. Um, but I I think one thing that might be helpful, John, because you've been

080really great in providing a lot of history, which for somebody who hasn't dug deep into very many budgets, this is my first budget, that's been really helpful, is, you know, we've discussed a little bit about how conservative the bud budget has been or or isn't where the fund balance is tracking for this year. But how have we ended up in history where we propose a budget uh with changes or no changes in fund balance and then where did it end up over the last five years? Like how conservative have have those budgets been in the past? Um you know, were they within $10,000 or $100,000 of of what the budget was or was it are they >> in terms of total expense versus budget >> in terms of the impact on the fund balance? Like

081did we ever say we're going to take 750,000 from a fund balance and it was 500 or >> well you were at uh four or five years ago applying over a million and at that point in time we had 10 12% of unappropriated fund balance. >> Okay. >> And then coming off of CO you had a number of big expenses that we had anticipated and then further coming off the co grants it was decided that positions we had added were necessary to keep. So that was an impact at that point affected it as well. So it hasn't been one cost in particular kind of a collective increase in things. So it can be based on decisions we make later that impact the budget like if we if we decided we needed another speech therapist halfway

082through next year would impact the budget. So sometimes it's from that not necessarily conservative or aggressive budget. Okay. I would still be interesting to see like what those numbers actually were for, you know, a reasonable period of time, three or five years. >> If you want to take a look at what the applied fund balance was in that budget booklet document, >> there are several pages that show the historical >> okay >> applied fund balance and also the appropriate amount. I don't remember the page number exactly, but it would be under the OI section, which is the third section. >> Yep. >> Possibly under the tax section in the front. >> Thank you. >> And if you can't find it, just shoot me an email. >> So, just to review, Sheila 244 still4. So 244

083and uh but maybe you could I don't know what 22 would look like but >> we'll shoot for that and then see where next week goes 244 is what you're working on. >> So okay good. All right, back to more interesting stuff. I think as interesting as approving a one-year contract renewal with management advisory group to serve as a consultant to confer with district personnel regarding SAP and Medicaid forms. I have a motion. So >> a second. >> Second. >> Thanks, Dr. Zil. Yeah, just real briefly. Um this is um represents some due diligence on our part and also some good bang for our buck. So there's two pieces here. Stack which is the special tracking and accountability system and also services that we can get reimbursed through Medicaid. Um this can be somewhat complicated.

084So this helps us make sure that we're doing everything correctly. Um that we don't have anything that we're asking for reimbursement that shouldn't be reimbursed. It also helps us maximize those returns. So there is a cost um but being correct and also maximizing our returns. This is well worth um the investment. Okay. >> Any questions on that? All in favor? >> Opposed. All right. We're zipping through personnel and business. Well, except for right back to discussion. So we're really following the open meeting laws here, right? Lot of open open discussion, transparency. Um so uh we are continuing our discussion of board of education member term links. Um uh for being we started the discussion u thanks Mr. B for running it last last time. Um basically this discussion is not new. Uh we had it

085about three years ago, two years ago where we bantered around the idea of possibly going to three three-year terms. Um it was voted down closely back then. Um but it's we we promised to revisit it. We're revisiting it and so we've kind of thrown around the table quite a bit. Uh so I think tonight maybe we should come to a vote on it. But any other uh comments before we uh vote on the three versus five and just for clarity all we're doing we're not voting that if you vote yes three years it's not happening. It means we're putting a referendum out for the district voters to vote on at the budget meeting budget uh vote and uh they will ultimately decide if we go to threeyear terms. So there's a lot of pros and

086cons. we have from two years ago and we've talked about it. So any any uh other further conversations anybody would like to have on it or want to go to a vote? >> One just one thing I think that it's important that it it does go to the community. So that's like one of the reasons that I am going to vote yes to it is that I think it's properly decided by the community um and by people who may be interested in running in the future. Would they prefer a three-year or a fiveyear? And I think that is something properly in their hands. >> Okay, good. Thanks. Anything else? I think we're all tired from the budget discussion. So, >> well, I think I think you know, we've had a lot of discussion. I don't

087know that we need to take, you know, I think this is I think that was something we hadn't necessarily really spoke and explored, but I think we have been through the pros and the cons multiple times. So, >> all right, >> rehashing. >> I just so happen to have a a motion in front of me. Uh, so I'll read it. May I have a motion to approve the change of the full term of office of a member of the Fredonia Central School Board of Education uh to three years and to add resolution to the 2026 27th annual vote on May 19th, 2026. Uh so can I have a motion? >> Thank you. A second. Thank you. Okay. So we're going to vote. Maybe we should do hands, you know. So Well, all right. We'll see.

088That's That's weird. Okay. >> All right. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Opposed. >> Okay. Mr. Kitty opposed. >> So did Kevin. >> Oh Kevin. Okay. Sorry. Okay. So uh >> they haven't been here five years. >> I certainly get their reasonings. I I do. I get their reasonings. And it takes a takes a long time to figure out what you're doing on this board. It's You can just walk in. It's you just know what you're doing. So, it takes time. >> Just a question on that. Yeah. The verbiage there, will that be I'm assuming that's something that >> that will be added to the minutes >> hashed out. >> Um, yeah. And we we'll have legal look at the >> Okay. >> This can go on the minutes as is and that's fine

089because it's just approving to it. >> We'll put it to legal before it goes on >> if we're going to mention from five years to three years. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Done with that and we'll move on to our public hearing. Anybody else like to speak tonight? >> On to the superintendent report. Dr. Zelox. >> Oh, yeah. A couple things real quick. Just want to touch on a couple things. Uh under personnel, uh we were sorry to see the resignation of Christian Ambrosion. um he's been a great addition um over the last year or so working in foreign language, world language and also uh ENL. So um sorry to him see him looking to move on to something a little bit different outside of education. And we also wanted to recognize um

090a familiar name who was in the special ed office and then transitioned to a school secretary in the elementary office. So, she is going from her um provisional to permanent status. Um she has done a really great job keeping things running smoothly, very positive, very upbeat. Um works well with both Mark and Maria Wakefield. So, we're happy to see her um as a permanent employee. We also um want to keep in mind and highlight, although in the midst of some of these discussions, it's sometimes on the back burner that there's a lot of great things happening around the district. um a lot of positive news, a lot of students and adults doing well, excelling and um being recognized. So, Katherine and Ashwan, we're going to highlight some of that positive news from across the district.

091>> Absolutely. Um so, this is just from the last couple months of things since our last good news report. Um, so we have the school social workers were recognized during National School Social Work Week in March for their ongoing support of students and families. The high school chamber orchestra performed at Kleinh's Music Hall in a showcase hosted by the Buffalo Philarmonic Orchestra which was a really incredible opportunity for that group and they have just excelled throughout the year uh thanks to their hard work, dedication and lovely Miss Terry. Several Fredonia students were also recognized at Boseies for their growth, effort and character. The high school students participated in career day which um was a half-day experience. They gave exposure to a variety of future career paths and opportunities. Um a culture fair for elementary students

092was held with the support of multiple high school volunteers which was a really amazing opportunity for those students. It was very meaningful learning experience for everyone. The art department received the community of excellence in visual arts endorsement for 2025, which was a notable statewide recognition um for our amazing art department. The food and garden club had a successful maple season. They were able to produce two gallons of maple syrup through hands-on learning with Miss Joint and the maple trees um right off our property. Um the March spirit week for inclusion was well um attended. School pride, student engagement, and just showing up for all of the students at Fredonia. Multiple student athletes in the girls wrestling program were recognized as allstars, highlighting continued growth in that program. The girls varsity basketball team earned the CCAA

093Division 1 sportsmanship award reflecting their commitment to teamwork and respect. And our coach for Trando was named the CCA Division 1 coach of the year and led the varsity basketball team to a class A championship which was a really strong season for that member. >> Um to add on to what Katherine said, some spring sports have kicked off. We have track, golf, track, girls flag football, baseball, and softball. Um, flag football is off to an undefeated 4-0 start and their season opener was a dominant performance against Tanowanda where they won 630. Um, we wrapped up the musical last month. Uh, this year's musical was the music man and we had four showings over two weekends. There were over 120 people involved in the musical between all three schools and members were a part of the

094cast, the pit, the orchestra, and backstage crew. Um, with some more sports, baseball season has also started off strongly as the guys are currently 2 and 0 and yesterday they played against Maple Grove. And over spring break, they traveled down to for a tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Um, the girls softball opener is tonight against Alagany. And um recently, right before spring break, the senior class met with Mr. Tanelli, Mr. Newell, and Mrs. Moon over the senior events coming up over the next two months, such as the decision day breakfast, class night, and our senior field trip, just to name a few. So, um the time is ticking for sounds >> or exciting, too. Um so, thank you both um for highlighting those things. These are all aspects of our school uh that are

095important and we are really proud of. They are all also things that are supported um by our budget. Um whether it's paying for advisors, paying for travel, paying for coaches, um supporting programs, curriculum, um the musical, whatever those events are, all some way tie back to the budget. So certainly we want to highlight that and kind of bring that relevance to this discussion tonight. Um and if you look at um our Facebook page really you can just see all the things that the budget ends up delivering um for our students, for our families, for our faculty and staff, for our administration. Um and again we want to highlight those things and are certainly proud of all that happening across the district. I also want to remind people we are openly seeking feedback about potentially moving

096graduation not this year um but in the future um as we look at next year's calendar um for um graduation potentially being at the end of the week on Friday night as opposed to Sunday. Um so that's an ongoing discussion that we'll look to finalize um here in the next month or so. Um, I also just wanted to point out that we will be hearing at the beginning of June, not July. I misspoke last meeting as was mentioned. Um, David Or, our district superintendent from uh, Iridosce will be here to share information about their capital project. um eventually the districts who are part of the Boseies need to support that project and the method for paying for that project. So we'll be hearing from him and then also making decisions um about our own individual

097stance um on that project. And also just wanted to mention, it's been mentioned a couple times tonight, but we will be meeting it again on April um to finalize the budget. And that's all I have for superent. Thanks, Dr. Zilc. Um, so speaking on what he just mentioned, uh, the next regular board of education meeting, uh, will be t, no, Monday, April 20th at 6 p.m. here in the library. And then following the following week, Tuesday, April 28th, 2026 at 6 p.m. here in the library. Any other general comments from the board tonight? >> I just want to second some of the things Katherine is saying. Um, a lot of the things in the last three months have sort of directly impacted workings in my house with the impacts in the elementary school and it's

098just been refreshing and it's been great. Um, I'll just share one anecdote. My my daughter likes real maple syrup now. I tried to convince her for eight years and I don't know anything. But I don't know who told her it was better. But I don't know if it was a high schooler, if it was Miss Joy. I'm not sure. But >> it's just been great. I think that's great. Works the same with my kids, too. >> Oh, Mr. Tinelli. >> Sure. Start us off. >> Um, so today I put the actual um senior event uh flyer in front of you today. So, these are the events for seniors starting May 1st with decision day and then all the way through to commencement on Sunday, June 28th at 1:30 at King Concert Hall. So all of

099these events are geared toward geared towards uh celebrating our seniors as as we look to give them the very best time as they uh move on from us and on to bigger better places. So uh you have that that's all the correct information. Now, um I want to just mention real quick and just kind of a lighthouse update. Um that crew, which which works directly with our leader and me, um through some outsourcing and and and begging of some some of our clubs and activities here, um have purchased six picnic tables to put in our courtyard um that we rarely have used in the past and are going to attempt to use in a very positive way here to finish off our school year and hopefully to start next school year as well. Um, those

100picnic tables were purchased from Lowe's, I think. Uh, a few of our lighthouse members got Shervin Williams to donate a couple hundred dollars worth of paint to us and, um, each group is now painting it however they see fit. And, um, they'll all be placed they'll be sealed as well and then placed outside in the courtyard for our students to be able to use. So, we're super excited about that. We're thankful to our Lighthouse team and our clubs and activities that purchased the picnic tables. Um, I also want to thank Sunni Ferdonia, Dr. to write Mrs. Corineski for securing Sunni Fredonia for our AP exams this year, which is huge. Um JCC no longer allows us to use their facility. Um Sunni Fdonia found some space for us. It's really tough to give those exams

101here during the school day for the few weeks that it does kind of uh take up in the in early May, which is a tough time to ask people to shift and move when when we're all getting ready for regent exams a little bit later in June. So Sunni Fredonia was great. they're going to let us use a couple of classrooms in Dodd's Hall and um we've been able to secure that. So, that's great for us. And I just want to mention quickly this Thursday, um we have a Holocaust speaker coming in, uh Miss Lisa Rodwin, who's a former lawyer, judge. She's going to ed educate our high school students on topics connected to and surrounding the Holocaust. And and our goal in this is to educate students about the human rights that were blatantly

102disregarded during that time period. She comes in, speaks to our entire student body. That'll take place this Thursday afternoon. >> Great. Thanks, Mr. T. Hope the weather's kind to us for the picnic tables and it get out there. >> Be nice. >> Yeah. Mr. Dinger. >> Uh, yeah. We started our spring activities this year. I'd like to thank April Powers, a first grade teacher. She reached out to one of the local um green houses and they supplied every single classroom with um a starter kit for flowers for Mother's Day. So, every single elementary, spoiler alert, you know, every single elementary kid is going to come home with flowers if they can get them to germinate and grow in time, but I'm sure they will be able to, which is good. Um, this starts our like

103state assessment season, so three testing begins now. Um, but the fun side of it is the science assessment has changed in the elementary school. Now, it's like a hands-on lab. And particularly in fourth grade, they do the the classic battery and bulbs activity. It's pretty fun. So, we've had some kids um you know extend that and make like little electromagnets bring that in and kind of like there's a lot of positive momentum now with the activities they have to do for their state requirements which is kind of cool. And then lastly, our our packs people keep coming in every two weeks. They observe every single classroom and they're gathering data that's going to they're going to continue to gather that through the last day of school and then they're going to assemble a report so

104we can share that with you guys sometime over the summer. might be kind of fun to look at um all those strategies uh to manage behavior to see the the effectiveness that they have. >> That's all we have. >> Thanks. >> Great idea about the flowers. What we say, keep that a secret. Okay, Miss Barl. >> Um thank you. Uh in addition to the spring sports that were already mentioned, unified basketball is underway. Um so I just wanted to mention that. Correct me if I'm wrong, maybe you know this better than I do. On Monday at 4:00 there will be an exhibition game between Dunkerk and Fredonia D Hall on the college campus. It's always a big event, a lot of energy. Um, and the college really partners well with um, our districts to support

105that event. So, uh, that's something to look forward to and I'll call it that today. >> What's the date on that? >> Monday at 4:00. >> Okay. Four o'clock at >> dots. Dots. >> Great. Oh, >> of course. Of course. >> Didn't think of >> all the fun stuff. Okay. Um >> economy for more fun. >> There you go. >> Hope in a good mood. Miss Piper. >> Um if you are not aware, April is the month of Young Child um across the country. And we were fortunate to partner with the village of Fredonia who made a proclamation declaring that it is Fredonia is honoring the month of young child in the village here as well. Um so thank you to Mayor Ferguson for for doing that with us. Um our lighthouse team has been

106working hard about month of young child. They're repainting the little people that were posted outside of the the uh playgrounds outside for the last few years. They were getting a little bit of dull over time. So the kids are having fun repainting those in the classroom right now. Um they're also this is officially the week of the young child. So they are spending the um each day Monday was music Monday. So all of the kids got together and celebrated music. Today was Tasty Tuesday, so they tried some new things, some some more new things today um as well in the classrooms. Um tomorrow is working Wednesday, so they'll be working on our outdoor classroom. Um taking pride in their own space and really picking up some leaves and whatnot. So we're excited to relax to

107celebrate the month and week of Young Child. >> Great. Thanks, Mer. Dr. Right. >> Thank you. Um I had a conversation with Eileen Kubc who is our um regional rep for WAD STEM um education and Fredonia has been selected to be a pilot district for one of um their new programs um that has to do with coding and so um we're in discussions with that. We'll be talking with Mrs. Paul Hamus and Amanda Pacinowski who is a middle school innovations teacher about seeing exactly what does this pilot entail and all of that. But it was really neat to be chosen in this region to be the district um to be considered for that, you know, and also um shared that um Mrs. Pacinowski also was a presenter at the national wisd um STEM um national

108conference in back in February and um that the just she was sharing that the um the feedback from her presentation was just um ecstatic and so to know that those things are happening in this district to have that recognized at a national conference and you know to have that you know lead to discussions with the younger levels the STEM program we have now and then potentially to um investigate this pilot was just exciting. Thank you, Mr. Forest. >> Nothing more. Nothing else. Okay, Miss Morrison. >> Uh, just real quick briefly as as well as having all sorts of fun at the meeting on Monday the 20th. Um, before that by 5:00 pm, anyone who is interested in running as a candidate for our two open board seats needs to have all their paperwork and applications

109to the district office prior to 5 p.m. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I just want to add, you probably noticed Miss Paulus is not here. She's actually um involved as a parent with the concessions at the flag football game tonight. So, she is uh, you know, involved in participating on that end of things. But, she wanted to share that um, everybody's back at the middle school and uh, the week's off to a really great uh, positive start. Um, as Mr. Drowning said New York state testing coming up ELA next week and then math the following at the middle school and also they are working on new attendance incentives uh for the fourth quarter. So she'll have more information about that but she wanted to pass that along tonight in her assets. >> Thank you. >>

110All right we are all done. Well no we're not done. You're done. >> Yeah we anticipate the need to enter an executive session to discuss personnel matters. So, I have a motion for that. >> Thank you. A second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? >> Thank you. Um, students, anybody up here can sign your form. So, have a good night everybody.