001Welcome to the Freda Central School Board of Education meeting for Friday May to May 30th, 2025. We start each uh meeting with the pledge of allegiance. So please join the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. It's a bit of an unusual meeting tonight on a Friday night. It's also unusual not to have any consent. There's no consent here. So, uh, we need to move right into the agenda and approve the agenda for regular meeting of Friday, May 30th, 2025. Got a motion. So, move for a second. Second. Miss Han. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Well, we move right into our first uh round of public comment. Uh, for those of you that have not been here before, uh, the
002board is reserved this time to hear comments from the audience. Uh those wishing to address the board are asked to stand. Uh give your name and address and uh please limit your comments to five minutes or less. Uh concerns and comments during this session should be directly related to the agenda, which I assume they would be. And we have a microphone. So uh we'll open up to anybody have any public comments tonight. We also have one at the end of the session, too. Hello. Good evening on this Friday night. Um once again, I don't wish to be here. I don't want to be here. I feel compelled to be here um related to the budget. So, we'll hear what you are proposing, but I have some assumptions of what you may or may not do.
003But I had a friend who I said it was defeated. There'll be another vote. And she said, "Well, if it had passed, would there be a vote?" I said, "No." And I didn't even think about it. Two hours later, I was gardening. I thought, "Oh, I know what she meant." She meant is you don't like how it turns out? Obviously, I know you're following legal protocol, but some strong lobbying in the past. You don't like how it turns out, so you could put another vote. But I was like, "So, if it was a yes vote, would it ever be a second vote? Are you sure you meant yes? Maybe you meant no." So, I found that kind of funny. But um so yeah, so we know um of course it was defeated. I'm assuming you're
004going to come down. We'll see how much, maybe half a percent. Um but I'm still curious if your budget is still up over 5% being with the state aid that you got, which is less direct taxed, but it's still our taxes. So, and I think last year you're up 8%, but I could be wrong about that. So, um I'm assuming you'll come down a half percent or so. Um, what I don't want to hear is as far as positions cut or not cut is we need time to think about where to cut positions because I've beat that drum so many times. Now, I hope that you've maybe moved some teachers around, okay? Um, without hiring again an outside position. You may have done that. If you have that, that's good. And maybe you've done one.
005So, I hear a little bit. Um, but um to say we need time to where to cut positions, it's like you've had three years. Okay. It's not just me last year other teacher was the year before and you'd always know your numbers were going down and what I did think of before uh was that didn't occur to me right away is there was a lot of grant money through co and I remember there were positions hired and said well what are we going to happen when this co money runs out it's like oh don't worry don't worry we'll absorb it through attrition you know teachers retiring but that has not occurred so that is why you're in the situation that you're in um that has not happened so what happened to that that was just
006all talk and it didn't happen. So again, if you've moved some teach a teacher around, that's okay. That's what I've heard. But what I don't know what's happened at Wheelock or you know what what cuts you've made, but to only come down a half a percentage to maybe assuming you've done that um is not enough. And I know even with retirements, your classes are still small. You have small class sizes. And even myself enjoy a small class size, but where's the data to prove that that really helps? And when I look at I'm not a New York state big test person, believe me. But it is a measure. And so I know you've been stagnant for at least three years and you're even below the New York State low average. So I think that's some
007data right there that your small class sizes something's not panning out. So you know, whatever it changes, um, you need to have that. And again, some things just don't cost money. I know in the high school at one point suggested a hiring a psychologist because of the problems. I admit kids are coming with issues. But then when you eliminated cell phones, that resolved a lot of that. And so what I'm saying is what I said last time I was here in my own background of schooling is there are so many things you can do that do not cost money. So stop throwing money at the issue thinking that you're going to solve problems. It's just like you're addicted to spending or something. I don't know. But so um I would have that to say. Um
008and again what you know it's all the comments I made about the co and all all that kind of thing. Um, I've heard that you're though, even if you've switched some teachers around that maybe the elementaryaries hire psychologist. So that's like hiring out again. It's robbing Peter to pay Paul. You can do better. And so I still recommend to the people that I have that no because I think even at 0% you still with the state aid that you're getting are still having a nice buffer there. So you don't quite communicate that to the public. Maybe not. You know, that's a lot to understand and digest. I know, but you're still up even at a 0%. And I I that's what what I believe you should do because I know of all the waste. And
009going back to that survey sometime, which I've been hammering, you can do that. There's some protocols you have to follow, but you will find waste. I don't think I'm an AI person. There's a lot probably I don't like about it, but if there was AI and they connected the dots, you would find a lot of waste and a lot of things that you can improve in many areas. And again, everything I've said is no one losing a job. It's just being more efficient. So, um, this is not a setback. You should not review it as a setback, which I think was communicated to some of the the school. It's not a setback. It's an opportunity to work with the community and make some changes that you can make. You can make these changes and work
010with the community. They're tired of just the same old same old. So, I think that's um what I have to say in summary. And actually, my grandchildren are here because um their parents are at a funeral in Utah, so I had to bring them. So hopefully they're behaving themselves. But um my one grandson doesn't know much about taxes, but he's heard me talk about it. And he said, "Can I speak?" So as he did bring us a little self, so you can come up if you want state your name or whatever you typed up. Okay. Hi. Um, I'm Lincoln Kraut, 442 Osborne Road. My family moved here from Ohio while my father is in job training in Colorado. I'm living with my grandparents for a few months and homeschooling. Even though I don't go to
011public school right now, there are many things I've been able to do and like living here. I've heard my grandmother talk about taxes, which I don't know much about, but I have been able to do a lot of things that don't cost money. I've tapped maple trees and made maple syrup. Hatched chicks. Studied exhibits at the Barker Museum in the Graange. Studied exhibits. Wait, no. Taken nature walks to learn about plants, animals, and the climate. Taken care of and learned about farm animals. Daisy, our cow, is going to have her calf any day now. And my grandma checks on her in the middle of the night. I volunteer at the lighthouse as a tour guide. I spoke at the Memorial Day service and marched in the parade and hope to attend some of the general
012Lafayette activities coming up. And um I study at local native sites. I'm thinking kids who go to school could do some of the same things. and I enjoy living here, but I will be sad when I have to leave. That's all I have to say. I didn't catch your name. Your name? Lincoln. Lincoln. Anybody else like to speak tonight? Pardon me. Yeah. Yes. Excuse me. I'm sorry. Hi, my name is Linda Shields. I live at 227 Seymour Street in Fredonia. I was at the last board meeting and I hope to be at board meetings from now until I hope someone takes what I'm about to say seriously. I asked about consolidation or mergers of schools at the last meeting. I think in light of the budget being voted down, it's maybe something that should be
013taken more seriously. Um, I saw in the newspaper that Panama Panama Sherman and Climber did a poll or a survey to see if they should move forward on a merger and it was approved. Um, I would like to see if maybe our school district could do the same thing. Um, I think it's time for a lot of mergers throughout this county. We're a small county. Um, we have fewer people than we did 10 years ago. And I think that when say the village of Ferdonia was formed, I think it was 1829, um, everybody was self-contained. So we had all these small governments, small schools. um people didn't travel farther than say 10 miles in their lifetime. But now I think we're at a point financially and you read this in the newspaper every day. Dunkerk
014Fredonia, you know, lots of other areas, we're all struggling financially and I think it's time to consolidate our services. Um, I know this is might freak some people out, but why don't we have two regional high schools in this county? Our kids that go to Boseies travel from all over the county to two schools? Why couldn't we do the same thing with a regional high school? But at this point, I would be happy to just see us start thinking about mergers. Um, maybe that's too pie in the sky to consider at this point, but um, I think we have to do something. We can't just keep paying more. Um, I know I'm retired and my income doesn't go up, so I'd like to see us consider mergers. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Shields. Is there
015anybody else who would like to speak on our first session here? Hi, Darren Pashki for Nance Terrace, Fredonia, New York. Um, I will soon be joining the retirees um and being on a fixed income, but I I just I want to really speak to uh what is in the board uh agenda tonight, which looks like a 1.9% uh increase. And I think it's imperative to understand for everyone who's going to be voting on this uh that 1.9% is exactly equal to what we voted on already. That is the the um the building project unless I'm incorrect. Um I I think that is what it is. So above and beyond that there is no additional monies that we're looking at. So, it's something that was already approved to do the building project and you're essentially coming
016out with a 0% above that. Um, so there's no new spending. And I want to make sure that that that's what people understand that this is not asking for an additional 1.9% on anything. This is just the 1.9% that was already approved through uh the earlier vote. It just needs to be included in the budget at this point. if that's correct. To me, to me, that's a message that I'm not sure everybody got. Um, and it's really important that everybody understands that that there's no new spending here. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Any other comments in our first session? Okay. Well, we'll move on. Um, so now we move right into uh a discussion of the budget. Our final two 2526 proposed budget presentation. Mr. Forbes. And so I did for this evening is
017they took our last budget hearing slide presentation and just updated to show where we are as of today. So we still have a couple remaining unknowns and these will be case until August. We do our tax levy which is a final equilization rate and final assessment. And that won't change the total levy at all. All it will do is move the dollars around between the towns as to what the increase may be depending on the changes in each of those areas. As Mr. Py alluded to, I think it's important to note that this budget is a 1.9% increase on the tax levy, which is the amount that was previously approved by the voters of the district in December for the capital project. That means that you are going with a 0% increase to fund the
018remaining $33 million or $38 million of of costs. Also, uh, we did have adjustments that were necessary to do that. One, we had a decrease in state aid when the legislators approved the New York state budget across six aid categories totaling $23,800 net. We also had to reduce $142,55 of expenses, which you see on that slide there to get down to that level. So taking a look at this slide you can see the last uh budget hearing the last value we have was 38,33605 which is the middle column that at the time represented a 5.23% increase in spending the right hand column which is sl revote is where we are in each of the major categories as of today which represents a 4.85% increase in spending so taking into account and I'll probably mention again
019in a few slides a 4.85% 5% increase of spending and you're getting nothing off your tax levy. It is reflective of getting more state aid in the initial governor's proposal. Taking a look then at the breakdown across categories, salaries and benefits, as we talked about on multiple occasions, totals just about 70% of your budget. The remaining equipment, materials, supplies, contractual expense, doy service, and debt service comprise the remaining 30%. to get to the number we're at today. These are the areas that we reduced in instructional salaries and the second line should say non-instructional. Uh we did reduce the retirements, cuts, shifts to grants, um 956,000 on the instructional side, 40,000 on the non-instructional side. Uh and then we I'm sorry that next because line two should not be there. Line three is the non-instructional 237.
020Both these services we actually had to increase over the last presentation. Uh it was about a $70,000 increase for a student that we had thought was going to be able to come back and couldn't. So we had to put that back in and that resulted in those being up instead of down 60 of 12. Equipment we cut 283,000 contractual expenses things like utilities, maintenance costs, custodial cost, other materials and supplies were down 399. Materials and supplies were down 24,000. Benefits were down 220,000 which the bulk of that is reflective of decreases in social security based upon the position changes up above. And then debt service we're down $2,500 which is your principal and interest on any current debt. Beginning with then the salary and benefits. You can see the breakdown across the board. Instructional budget
021of 3% non instructional 10%. That's reflective in part to a number of aids we would have to add new special education needs and our benefits were up 3.63%. In this proposal, we still have the resignations and retirements of the five instructional positions and the high school principal. We have budgeted and put in four replacements for instructional staff. We have had one high school staff position that will not be replaced. and we have one reduction of staff in the middle school. We also have the five retirement incentives that are contractually obligated to the individuals above. Salary benefits uh you can see we're up to 3.6% 6% the employees retirement teacher retirement system those are all required by New York state those rates fluctuate by year social security of course is tied to wages in the budget
022and then across the rest of you see account life insurance disability long-term disability unemployment insurance group and the group health insurance making up the rest of it equipment materials and supplies were up 10.85% 85% and you have to kind of take a look at the amounts when you look at these percentages in this category. So equipment we're up 13,000 that represents 9% because the amount is so low compared to budget dollars and same thing with material supplies are up only 88,000 out of $38 million budget but that 11% contractual expense and mostly services I mentioned a moment ago our was up from the original 4.3 debt service really um said a minor change here and that's due to a reduction in our transfers to other funds. This is a principal interest on current debt that
023the district has. Taking a look then on the revenue side, the offset side, state aid, you're up $1.4 million. local sources, which is things like admissions, uh, interest, income, rent. We're down 26,000, also non-resident tuition, federal aid, which is our Medicare reimbursement. We're projecting that to be even. We applied 750,000 again fund balance towards the levy, and of course, our tax levy that 17,486. You can see at the bottom that our state aid, the lowest column there across our state aid, makes up 15.67% 67% of the budget and our tax lev makes up 45.78. And you'll notice taking a look going back to 202122, it's actually 5% lower than they had been in those 21 22 22 23 years as a percentage budget. And then this slide takes a look at the breakdown like we
024did on the expenditure side of what percentage it comprises of the budget. So you saw the last slide, 485% for the levy, 50% for state aid, 27 for the federal, 1.31 for local sources, which of course doesn't tie out to 100%. The remaining 1.97% is the amount of fund balance that you've applied against the tax levy. This budget still does include a capital outlay project. We can do up to $100,000 of work per year. We are aided at 82.7% which is our building in ratio. So we get $82,700 back on each $100,000 project. We are projecting right now to do field work at the Main Street campus. If you do a field work, we need to do $10,000 of inside work which will be classroom flooring replacement school and then also we have a required
025New York State architect fee. The next slide we had on a few presentations which just shows some of the shared services that the district participates in. We're in consortiums for electric and natural gas or Boseies health insurance through the stock county school district medical health plan which encompasses all the districts in the county workers comp area one. We share services with other districts for athletics transportation and even a part-time art teacher. The district has a current tax levy limit of 4.65%. 65% which would have allowed our budget to go up 797,000. Our proposed amount in this draft is 1.9% which again a reminder that this is only covering the amount that was previously approved for the project. The district is therefore in compliance with the tax levy limit and is not seeking a 60% majority
026to override that. Also, it should be noted that the district also would have to comply with the administrative cap if there was a second defeated budget and we're currently under that. So, we're in compliance if we had to go to that regulation. So, for contingency budget, it will mean that you'll have to have a tax levy that is no greater than the previous year. So, essentially a zero increase on your tax levy. There are also other things that occur on contingent budget. All equipment needs to remove unless it's for health and safety. you would have to charge rent for all uses of the facilities. Currently, we do on the major items, but not for things like Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. You would have to charge that. There's also some things like removal of the
027athletic uniforms and some other categories that if we get to that point, we would have to bring forward to the board just forformational purposes. Uh if we went to a zero situation, you'd be looking at at least 326,000 in additional reductions. And given that 70% of your budget is staffing and benefits, that would have to be where you look and you're probably talking about somewhere in that three to four staff positions on top of elimination of all equipment and the other things I mentioned. This slide shows the comparison of the tax levy limit. As I show showed a couple slides ago, we're 4.65 as our allowable limit. We're at 1.90. So that means on a 10-year average, your tax levy has been 1.26% 26%. Over the last 5 years, it's been 1.5% of an increase.
028You can know from your own lives what things have gone up over that time period. Over the same time period, the tax levy limit has been 2.29%. So, we're almost well over full a full percentage point below that. And our 5-year average of 2.4. We're almost a full percentage point lower than that would have been allowed to be lev. The next slide just gives a comparison of our actual tax levy in this proposal. We're at 17,486,255 which is at 1.9%. And then our comparative budget just showing the budget per year going back to 2015 16 and what the increases have been over that time period. That's the end of the slide presentation. Dr. Z. Oh yeah, I just kind of want to summarize. Thank you for being here tonight, especially on a Friday night. We
029do appreciate uh your presence and your input. Um so, as has been said several times, but we're really trying to make sure this is understood. The levy increase is 1.9%. Again, that's down from 2.59. Um that only includes what was improved in December around the capital project. I also wanted to note that remember we're talking about Proposition One from the capital project. This was termed um the warm, safe, and dry part of the project. These are maintenance items. Um these are things like roof, mechanical systems, electrical systems, um heating systems, so on and so forth. Um they're really those things that are necessary much like you would do in your own own home over time um to keep things running properly and efficiently and really allowing for a safe learning environment um for both our
030students and our adults. Um as Mr. Forbes pointed out, the difference between that 259 and the one nine is about $166,000. Um, in other budgets where we hadn't paired things down so much to get to the 2.59, we might have had some other room within the budget to maneuver, but we had already cut things down um to get to the 2.59. And where it becomes difficult is when we start talking about um reductions in staffing because there are um implications and there are impacts on a couple different levels there. um as was mentioned in this um adjusted proposal is one high school teaching position, one middle school teaching position, and also some summer school cuts um really focusing on high school and credit recovery to keep students on track um for graduation. Now, our administrative
031team, our board of education really takes this part of our job seriously. there's a lot of time, effort, and energy put into where could we take a reduction um with the least damage or the least impact. However, there are impacts to individuals, whether you're student or adult. Um, our teams of teachers, our departments, um, the number of courses that we're able to offer, the number of students in each section or in a class, um, the scheduling options for students, particularly at the high school, that are trying to get into a variety of courses um, to meet their needs and their interest and really position them in the best possible place for success moving forward. also thinking about the number of courses that each of our instructors is teaching, number of preparations they have um each
032school year um across the board and in the end really that idea of the number of opportunities and experiences we are offering our students. Um at the beginning of this process, I just echoed a few times that you know um this is a yearly process. Again, there's a lot of time and energy just put into um delivering a proposed budget. We get into those conversations about the needs and the strength of our program and the opportunities we offer versus the cost to our taxpayer. So, um, it's a collaborative process of a variety of stakeholders across the district, and we do the best we can to bring a proposal that balances those needs and those programs and those opportunities with the cost. Um, as was mentioned um by Mr. reforms. Um, if this vote on June
03317th is not successful, we go to a contingency budget, which would bring another layer of reductions um and another layer of decisions. Um, for us here, we are hoping to avoid that. We're hoping that we will bring in a proposal that will work for everyone. And you know, at some point we are really just trying to put our best our students in the best possible position to be successful. Um whether they're moving from grade to grade or class of 25 leaving our school district, we want them in the best possible position uh to really maximize their potential, be their best selves as they're um headed to whatever the next step is. So, I just wanted to summarize a little bit and make sure that that was clear. And I think at this point, we would
034open it up to questions or comments from the board of education. Thank you, Dr. Zilox. Um, yeah. So just to summarize your summary to get this right, um we're asking for a 1.9% increase which was our capital project approval proposition one in December which was approved and uh that's all that basically we're asking for the 1.9% to fund that capital project. Uh and to do that we had to get down 166,000. You said correct? And to do that, we've removed a position at the high school level and one at the middle school level. Correct. And I'm a little confused about um I thought the uh we're moving uh summer school K through eight or did I hear that wrong? Did you say high school or That's correct. High school will remain. Okay. So, okay. So,
035I heard correctly. So, we're moving K through Um we've seen these slides a number of times. Um number of times uh basically it's down to that really synthesizing that um in terms of what we're doing. Um so yeah so um that's the essential essentially the difference to get down to 1.9% of course with the capital project. Um, any any questions from the board, comments. Okay. Well, um, yeah, I guess you know, it's pretty How about I get started? Okay. Um, the state is increasing um their state aid by 8%. Um, since the state is providing 50% of our budget revenue, we could go to the 0% and still increase our budget by 4%. Correct. Round terms that round terms 4%. Um the capital project is funded out could be funded out of that 4%. And
036then the increase um the the remaining increase could be another 2% plus. Um my concern here is that our voters have already declined this. They declined it to 2.59%. and we're expecting a different result with a minimal decrease in in our proposed taxes. Um I don't see it happening. Um I don't see it happening. We have um from what I understand there are still positions from our uh co funding that are still here that were hired with the understanding that once the funding ended the positions and we were continually told that once those funds ended Those positions would go away or they would be the individuals would be retained in the school district but the positions would go away. They would fill another position through a tradition through retirements but our staff members would go
037back to similar to what they were pre. Um, so I'm concerned that we we're still spending um, you know, we talk about the the salaries and benefits of our teachers and that's contractual. But the number of teachers and the number of staff are not contractual. Those are temporary positions and those would be the first place that I would look to cut in order to balance this budget. There's a question. I think I asked this um last week, but when we were looking the budget book, the increase in staff positions over about the past 10 years, I think only a couple were teachers there. Others were social or social workers, school psychologists, school counselors. Is that right? So we've added probably partially due to co we've added those because those were our needs from that time
038period. Yeah. And I would say mainly the increases are in um special education instruction um and with some type of student support. So, you're right. Um there's a couple counselors in there, a couple social workers, um school psychologist, I believe. Um a variety of special ed. Now, the special ed increases sometimes are deceiving because um often times they're bringing students back from these programs to be housed here. We would prefer to have our students who live in Fredonia attend school in Fredonia schools. Um so that's not necessarily a straight um addition of staff without returning some students. And you know if you look at it straight from a numbers point of view um some of those placements are you know in between 90 and 120 $130,000. Um and that's what those students need. Um so
039I'm not looking at it as purely a dollar and cents point of view. Um but when we have an opportunity to have a group of students in a cohort um that would participate in a class here um we've done that several times and that's been beneficial I think to the students um also you know creating that sense of community here um amongst uh our students who live uh within our school district and um you know we really don't have what I would say a classroom or um content area additions during this time. You know, there was also a speech position in there. Um we've also added things like um our sports trainer, so on so forth. So, you know, everything that you're describing and I'm describing again really goes back to that idea of needs,
040our student needs, and how do we provide um for those um what I recall, and I might remember things a little bit different than Mr. Oliver, which is that we were saying that when we got to the end of that co money, we would reassess and we would take a look at where we are and try to make decisions um the best we could from there. Um and during this time, um of there has been some impact on student readiness, student preparedness to start school, on student skill level, so on and so forth. So some of those things that we thought in the moment we might be able to address some of these things um make up the difference in those gaps and move on. We found that these needs persist. So, um, like I
041said, at the end of the day, we're trying to balance that out, those needs and the costs and where is the happy medium that's going to work for everybody. Mr. Forbes, um, could you go to the or could you go to the proposed budget revenue summary? Yeah, it's about halfway in. So, you know, I mean, you're right, Mr. about the the co and we added those positions and I'm not discounting what you said in terms of I think, you know, we do have to start, you know, paying attention closer attention to our expenditures. I propose that we start looking at our staffing in November as opposed to in March when And then we have to assemble because we don't know our revenue but we do we would have some idea of where we're going in
042terms of staffing and student enrollment things like that or that's under our control. Revenue isn't uh until the end often it's like the last week in April or even May I don't know but uh I think you know you mentioned about co and I think yeah you're right I mean we we talked about, you know, the once co dried up. But, uh, another thing that has changed over the five years apart from CO is our demographics. I think our demographics are changing. I think in some ways this slide illustrates that. As you look at our uh, state aid from 42 to 50 and a reverse kind of a reverse on the tax, I think that's a signal that our demographics are changing. Uh, They often give more money if the school needs has high needs
043and and uh and also they give more aid if your population is fairly steady which for the last five years it has. It fluctuates a little bit up 10 down 10 but it's not too much different over the five years. Go back beyond that certainly there's been a drop. So I think you know that we have to take this into account too. Uh you know we we have our needs and uh certainly we also have to pay attention the expenditures and you know because they are they are high they are high. Any other comments questions? Could you just tell us about the two positions that there are these uh current teachers who are being laid off? Are they is it attrition? What are what is the one teacher at the middle? Yeah. One of one
044of the things we talked about is out of respect for people who just heard this information today. We don't want to get too deep into it tonight, but one of them is a retirement position that we're not. Um the other is just really looking at um efficiency across the board and what would be have the least impact to students. Um and that would be more of a student reduction than a retirement. Questions? Yeah, I have one more question just to understand um Brian's point to um so if we went to a zero and I want to make clear if this does not pass there isn't another vote it just goes to okay so if that happens and we're at zero which I understand you're saying is still up 4% right so we're up 4% but
045we're using 2% 1.9 for the capital that deficit still although it's up it still will cost four positions that correct I'd say that's a good estimate So even though it's more money than we spent last year, it still comes at a cost of 14 days. I just want to make sure I'm understanding that correctly. And could you just summarize for us the because there may be more money, but aren't there more expenses also? So what are the what are the additional expenses? Yeah, John, do you want to run through? Well, pretty much everything we've talked about throughout this process, the post costs have gone up, the utilities go up, and so all that's getting absorbed in a number of ways. One, we did get the increase in state aid that's been referenced tonight. And then
046we also went through line items that we might normally carry surplus to help our fund balance, but we're not carrying as much anymore and saying, "All right, we got to keep the the levy down. How do we do that? We can't do it with eight. We've got to do it from within. Then you go through and say normally I budget 50,000 extra on this line now I'm budgeting 25 and hope that we come in good on those guests I guess you call and that's things like tracking utilities and say all right what's our you can't really go back 10 years because things have changed so much with cost but if you look at like two or three year period for utilities you can say how did we track we had warm winter we had cold
047air did we stay relatively there because that would be an area I normally would have extra in and then both services typically be a high cost special. I carry extra slots for students. So now I'm I'm down to essentially one extra slot. So as the business officials nightmare, which has happened in other districts, happened in Brockton quite a while ago now. And when I was in graduate school for my degrees, it was Rochester had where a family of five or six move in with varying needs, but you have to pick them all up. And while it's true, you get eight on it in the moment you don't. That's a categorical you have to pay for now and get the eight next year. So those are all the things you look at going through and Kristen
048Farah and I probably had 20 conversations. Is this the list that I need? Is there anybody coming in? Is there anybody going out? And those things occur across all the expenditure areas. Things go up. We have two union contracts on the table right now and you know obviously we like to do what's best for that but I don't know where it's going to land in comparison to what I projected it to be. And if they become extended negotiations and you get into retros and carrying money forward if it goes over next year just it's complicated quickly. Thanks. Other questions. Well, talking about this idea of if if the people vote, why do they revote? It's like the people voted in December and they agreed 1.9% for Prop One of the capital project. And yet we
049to have them vote again uh for it in the budget. So, to me, that doesn't make sense. I understand it's the way it is, but they already voted yes, so now to vote no seems a bit confounding to me. Does seem strange, odd that New York State works that way. Um, things have changed. there's the village and we understand that but you know it was approved but yeah Mr. Forbes um actually K proposed budget expenditure summary the third page because you know there's concern right in the room about uh the 4.85% 95%. So, it's high. It's high. But I was when you're going through the slides, I don't know if I've seen this slide before. Maybe I missed it. Okay, it's probably me. Could you go to your gut service Kate slide? It's right before
050revenue. I don't know if I've seen this exactly like this before. Okay. Right before revenue. Yeah, I only see one slide at a time. So, Sorry putting a lot of pressure. So this is expense right and I see capital fund 70,000 last year 395,000 this year difference of 464%. Maybe I missed that. Maybe you've had that before. Yeah, that slides up there. What that is uh we worked with municipal solutions who's our financial adviser at 2425. She wanted us to have a 70,000 for transfer in case we need it for free project expenses that has to be transferred to capital on all any expense you have for any building project this budget initiative general fun eventually slides over to capital. So 70,000 was in case we ran into a problem with the pre project for
051things like legal notices or lawyers fees or things of that nature. The 395 is budgeted for the first scheduled debt payment on construction. If you delay the 395 and push it out, it changes the term of your final debt service payments. That changes the method in which you get state aid. So try to maintain that and that will be because we're going to be doing work next summer that be the first payment against that. So it's advanced payment. Um we have it in there because at some point in 25 26 we'll have a debt. Typically with bigger projects you do a bond anticipation note for a year or two till the project's finalized then you go full serial bond and so this will be covering any interest that we have. So we have big increase
052in expenditures almost 400,000. What happens next year? Next year you good question. This is only the expense side. On the revenue side in 25.6 There's no aid offset because it's a categorical aid. You have to spend. So this year, so 25 26 you'll spend it. The 26 27 you'll get aid back on whatever you spent which will offset that. And then moving forward it'll be eight of expense each year once you get to and how much how much um what percentage it would be.7% back and on that. So that's a big hit. That's that's a very that's 400,000 out of how much our budget go up or expens right now. What's that? Your levy's up 326. So theoretically if you didn't have that there you'd have a zero left. Right. So that 4.85 on the
053third page. What would that be if that was out of there? Uh well 1% of the budget is about 360,000. So you'd be as Mr. somewhere around that 4% range still. Okay. All right. Still high, but less than 4.05. So, yeah. So, that's on this year and then we start getting revenue next year, but we got to pay for it this year. Any other questions or Okay. All right. Let's uh let's move on. Um, so we Okay, so we have to approve the proposed budget for the 2526 school year and the amount of 38,100 glasses on here. 38,193,800 which will be voted upon at the annual meeting of the voters scheduled on June 17, 2025 from 2 to 9 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. Can I have a motion to bring that to the
054table? So, let's go a second. Second, Miss Thank you. Um, all in favor? Nope. I get to do a I get to do this one. Oh, it's a roll call. That's right. I get I get to do so. Roll call. Sorry. So, we will respond with either an I or an A. Uh, Mr. Johnston. Hi. Miss For I. Mr. Aldridge. Miss Golo. Hi. And Miss Han. Hi. The eyes have it four to one. Motion passes. Okay. So, that's we move on. Miss Morrison. Yes. We move on. Okay. So next we need to approve the Fredonia Central School District property tax report card for the 2526 proposed budget. I have a motion to bring that to the table. A second second. Molo. All in favor? I opposed. I and and that is um I am not
055opposed to the numbers or the correctness but I'm opposed just because I against the motion and for so I consistent with that. Okay. Uh all right. So uh we move into new business. It looks like um we need to approve the legal notice for the 2526 budget revote as presented. Uh I have a motion to bring that to the table. was sent on a second. Miss Morris anything to elaborate on this? No, this is simply the legal notice that needs to run as it we had a legal notice that needed to run prior to the annual initial budget. Um, this just satisfies the uh state requirements to do so. It will run on June 3rd and on June 10th. Okay. Any uh questions on that at all or All in favor? I opposed. Nay. And
056again, it's not because I disagree with anything that uh next we need to approve the propositions to be used in the voting machines for the 2526 school year budget revote on June 17, 2025. Uh we have proposition one resolve with the Fedonia Central School District Board of Education. Expend a budget amount not to exceed 38,193,800 for the 2025 2026 fiscal year and levy necessary taxes. Therefore, I have a motion to bring this to the table. So moved. For a second tie, this I'll get you this color next time. Uh, any questions on this? All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Well, that moves us into our uh second round of uh public uh discussion hearing. Uh, same rules apply. name, address, five minutes. It can be on anything, but I assume it'll be on the budget
057if anybody wants to speak. Would anybody like to speak in the second round? Mary Dave, 4422 Osborne Road. I didn't say that before. Back to the 1.9. It's probably not clear to the public because it's it's that's what you voted for in the first place, but it's not in the fact that you're up over 4%. So really, that 4% with the state aid could you could be at zero. There wasn't that long ago that a superintendent or the board wouldn't even dare to even approach barely 1% because the the voters would not approve it. So this is a new norm. But I'm saying that one is not really accurate when you say it that way. has been explained because you really are up 4%. And to say that expenditures are up, we know the expenditures
058are up. They're up for everybody. So that's where you have to make cuts somewhere else. And you would not be in this position if was had followed through on what you said what was said before through attrition when teachers retired. You don't need that many and now you're in this awful position. Okay? But if you had done it the past two or three years, there wouldn't be an issue. But it is. You put yourself there. Um, as far as students not coming more of a curriculum thing, students not coming from miser I know that this new science of reading or whatever is just it's just going back to pre-ereading even things before phonics pre-ereading activities. It's what was known two three five 1950s decades. It's not new and any student can learn to read if
059they have that new base. That's just the state trying to correct their awful mistake of common core. It just destroyed students for too long. But teachers that knew how to teach reading didn't let them hold that back that much. That's all that is. So yes, I know they're coming less prepared, but that was a failed thing that the state did. So you go back to that, it's just so tried and true. It's just ridiculous going back to it. Um, and I would also comment that um well with the COVID the way I remember it with teachers was there would be nutrition, not oh we'll reevaluate. It's just not following through on what was said. And last thing is I would caution you when you use education jargon and I know the best of the education
060jargon but things thrown out like instructional integrity that's why we have to have the budget or a sense of community those things people will put their own meaning on that they're going to be different meanings but it really has nothing to do with money. So it's not useful to use those comments when you're talking about that because it's just it's not so so you need to cut through some of these these things that you know voters are getting. I don't know more wise to who will even remember it's voting day. I know you like you said you count on that but it's just not realistic. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak in the second session? Just a a question. Is it possible for um when they vote on the budget the
061second time to do like Sherman Climber Panama did an exit poll to see if there's an appetite for other people in the district to want to merge. It's it's possible to do a survey at any time. I mean, the one downside of doing it at um during a vote is that it would only be the people that attended the vote, right? Which tends to be a fairly small um percentage of the overall um community residents. Um so I've felt like if if we wanted to do that and we've got really good results rate um lately on surveys that are available online um for a variety of reasons. Um that could be one example. I can't help but think that I'm the only one that thinks merging is a good idea. Um, there's so many benefits
062to merging. I just would like to know what other people feel about it. I can't believe I'm the only one that thinks about this. And I'm not just talking about school districts. I'm talking about towns and villages, police, fire departments. I think there's a lot of ways we could go with mergers. Thank you, M. Thank you. Thank you. Uh if there's no other comment, uh we can adjourn. So that brings us to the end of the meeting. Uh we will reconvene on Tuesday, is it June 3rd? I think yes, Tuesday, June 3rd, a regularly scheduled meeting and also a special special budget uh hearing. Um so for there's no further business. Got a motion to adjourn the meeting. Miss Gordon a second. Second pick last time. Thank you. All in favor? I opposed. Thank you
063uh board members for your time on a Friday night and for those that came and attended the session tonight on Friday night.