001Go. Good evening everyone. Thank you very much for joining us on the March 24th, 2026 meeting of the board of education. We'll call the meeting to order. I am upset that I lost my pen. I will No, I am not going to take that pen. It's too fancy. I'll find one. No, >> I want to take Dr. Thank you very much. Um, are there any modifications to the agenda? Hearing none, we'll continue on with the agenda. Uh we do not have anyone who currently signed up to speak and which then I presume again that there are no board responses. Fantastic. Uh we at this point in time do not have um our student reps from Ethical High School are not even going to join us, but we do have our amazing reps from LACS. Hello.
002>> Hello. How's it going? Okay, that I think it's the first board meeting I've ever attended where public comments been empty. So, I guess refreshing. We'll keep it. >> You said it. >> We'll keep it in the future. >> Well, yeah, that's part >> we'll keep it light. Um, I I just want to thank everybody for the meeting last night. I I really I thought that was very productive. I really enjoyed it and like again trying the exhibition policy the work session. I I got a lot out of that. I really feel like we're close to having a pilots that we can institute for next year and have it be really really meaningful and again like good experience on and just I I feel very good about where we're at now. I want to talk
003briefly about the uh Albany Day of Action sponsored by Triage that LCS attended about a week ago. We lobby law uh both our state lawmaker, state senator and uh state council members on v various bills along with attending a massive protest in the million-dollar staircase. Like you can actually find a bunch of videos of us like waving on our signs and whatnot. Specific bills were uh New York's climate leadership and uh community protection act. You may have heard that a memo was sent out with some ended use information regarding the financing of that bill. We lobbyed our lawmakers to support that bill and to fur and to further the budget put into that as well as the sustainable future fund and the clean green schools act which this district has directly benefited from in different
004building audits, state funded building audits to see where we're at climate glass. So, and we want we hopefully want to see more of that more funding in our schools to get a green world at least or at least a green district. So pass it off here >> to me next. Okay, sounds great. >> Um, as I kept talking about for for so many meetings leading up to it, we had our interview week, so these uh this is my shirt from it. Uh, we printed a few of those for the team and um it went really well. So, I want to thank all of the board members who were involved. Um, and all of the community members who came in and I great reviews from the school, bunches of students and teachers saying it was the
005best infusion week that they had experienced. Um, and our the planning team is very proud. So, uh, we're we're really excited about how that went and how it's carrying into um the school going forward. So, uh, last time I was here with y'all, I tal I mentioned that we were, uh, going to start shadowing. And so, we have, in fact, started that. Uh, it's really, honestly, one of my favorite parts of LACS. I mean, I know it's kind of just this like little part of what we do, but it's really nice to see people from elementary schools, but also from the middle school. Uh it's incredible to watch them come in and like see what's going on with the school because a lot of them have actually negative preconceived notions about the school, but they
006wanted to come and look anyway. And a lot of them I've actually seen completely turn their viewpoint around. And I've seen people who started off being like, "Oh, I think LACs is all just like they viewing it in a kind of like the slacker school." You know, you know the idea. But a lot of them turn their view around and some of them I've seen go to LACS after that day. So, it's just kind of it's a really nice experience to see. I also mentioned the us doing our elementary school road show. We're still doing that. We're in our process. Um, we're just going around two elementary schools. I'm also signed up. I think I'm going to Fall Creek, so that's going to be a nice place to go. I mean, that's where I went
007personally. So, I don't know. I'm going to have a good time. And I'm also kind of I haven't been in the building, so I want to see how that's been like, see if there's anything different. See how the like teaching staff has changed. So, yeah. >> I'm going to call Sherman on road. That's where I went. That's it. >> Excellent. What responses? >> Uh just one for for Julian. I appreciate your comments on on climate. Um and stay tuned because we're going to have some uh some information to present I think on the climate action plan. We have the climate action plan advisory committee that's been meeting once a month. Next meeting is actually this week Thursday for some board members are there. So you'll see a little delegation from us as well too. >>
008Yes. Awesome. >> Well, Dr. Kramp took all my thunder. That's exactly what I was going to say. Uh, and there will be as part of that agenda for Thursday's meeting, there will be an update on the uh the event, the legislative event that took place as well. So, please feel free to join us. And the climate action plan advisory council will be planning to present to the full board uh in May. We're trying to decide in the first date in May or the second date in May to make sure there's enough time for any possible action uh during June. So, uh please take a look at that. Uh congratulations on infusion week. We know how much work you put into that. We know how much work is for everyone put into it, but thank you
009Emily as well and your team. Um and shadow week. I just signed my permission slip for my grandbaby to go and shadow. So, we're looking forward to seeing how she comes back and I'll I'll be sure to keep you all updated. So, >> yes, please. >> Look it up. >> It's a hard cell, but we're we're selling it hard. >> Um, any other board responses? >> Just thank you to Julian echo that um yesterday was a a good policy committee on the board session meeting. Um, and appreciate your engagement. You've shown up consistently and brought really great ideas. So, always appreciate you being there. Fantastic. Uh we will move to the consent agenda and entertain motions. Move >> to approve all consent agenda items listed in the consent agenda. Personnel report consideration of the town
010students and minutes of previous meetings presented. Second move by Adam, second by Jacob. Discussion, debate, questions. Uh two things to note from my end is again uh the district trying to uh be wise with its resources and so there is uh surplus property. We've been following both community wants and wishes about how we take care of surplus property. So thank you Dr. Briman for taking the lead on that. I assume that was you uh you've been taking the lead on that and uh we should definitely continue to recognize the significant uh financial investment of the FO public education initiative. So, uh, we thank IPDI for the continued support of our students, our teachers. If there are no other comments, we'll call the question. All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. The board members who are present.
011Um, that brings us to Dr. Brown. Good to see you, Dr. Brown. >> Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to share. Good to see everybody. Uh, two notes of appreciation this evening. One, thanks to the board members and the community members who have attended the community conversation. Uh we have one more I believe that's tomorrow night at Infield Elementary. Well, no, Infield Community Center, I'm sorry, community center tomorrow evening. But thanks for the folks who've been out um everyone who's been here um have learned something. Um and we've heard a lot from great folks and thanks to the team members who are spending evenings um out as well and we've been doing some here in this room during the uh school day as well. So thank you for everyone who's doing that. It has become
012customary for me when I see community legends in the groom. I like to note their service to our community. We have another person here this evening I wish to say publicly thank you to. Uh Eli Eric is here and Eli has served on multiple boards in this community and has done a lot to service this community. He is uh he if you ask him he'll share all he's done. So make sure you all lot a lot of time. So he's done a lot and he likes to share a lot. But um I love Elder Harris and whenever he's in the in the space, I wish to say thank you for your service, man. We appreciate you've done a lot for young people in this community and we we love it for all I have right
013now. We have a lot to do in that we teach. Thank you, Dr. Brown. And I'll echo a long-term school board member as well. So, thank you, Mr. Harris, for your service on the school board as well. Uh we are going to continue on with our agenda of school business. I apologize in advance to my board colleagues uh that I will be leaving at 8:30 if we are not done for uh child care reasons but I just want to let sure everyone knows that that is not an attempt to rush through anything. It's just to give notice if I leave at that point. So uh the first item agenda is district uh schoolwide safety plan adoption and uh we will call you up just in case here. Sure. Uh Dr. So, as board members may
014know, the safety plan goes through policy committee. There is a required public hearing. It has been available. Uh, I don't believe that we received any feedback. We did get a question in regards to extreme heat and I think I tried to point folks to the appropriate pages. If you take a look at the safety plan that's currently up on the website, this I'm saying this for the community, uh, Dr. Brian has done an excellent job of every year highlighting the changes from the previous year. So, if I'm not mistaken, it's page five and page six, which highlight the changes from last year's safety plan. Uh, we'll continue that practice because it just makes it easier for folks. So, thank you for that as well. Uh, but it's an opportunity for the board to ask any
015questions, to get any clarifications. Uh this is not the first time we've seen it. You've been seeing it for two and a half months, I should say. >> Yeah. >> But I also want to recognize the work that it takes to create a 106 page document. >> Sure. >> 14, >> give or take. Yeah. >> Uh questions for Dr. Brian and board members, questions about the safety plan in general. >> It's very comprehensive. Thank you. >> How how does it how does it get operationalized? >> Um well, we uh do a presentation with building principles and then they have to incorporate their individual building uh safety plan. So they take a lot of these elements, especially the updates that are in here on page five and six, and they incorporate those into their building safety.
016um they pay uh careful attention to what's new and that's what's uh in the very beginning of documents. That makes sense. And that includes like um extreme heat uh response. That's a that's a new item. And then any other um mandated items from the state that typically come uh to us in July and August. >> Yep. Like all policies, this is a living document. say should it need to be updated or changed at any point in time would require another hearing but we can do that at any time that we need to. So this is not saying that this is the end all be all. Yeah. >> This is what we're presenting to the community at this point in time. >> We have to do it every year. So I'll be coming back to do
017it again. >> Um I just have a question >> not for this iteration but kind of forward thinking because we do adapt it or you know update it every year. Just for clarity, I mean, this is more kind of physical safety, but when we're thinking about cyber security and AI and deep fakes, is that something we would consider potentially adding to a safety plan or is that some more of a code of conduct? Well, there is there is some information in our code of conduct about that, but there's also some uh it's in different places code of conduct and then there's uh some information about that in one of our technology policy. So, it's it's in different places. The safety plan uh probably would not be an appropriate vehicle for it's more about um evacuation.
018It's more about emergency um planning if you will, >> right? Like physical moving bodies, safety, >> lock down, lockout, threat assessment. Um yeah, but good question, additional questions. Hearing none, then we'll call the question. >> Oh, that is a great point. We will entertain motion. Move to adopt the district life safet by Adam, second by Jacob. Additional questions now that it's been moved and second hearing. None. We'll call the question. All in favor passes. Thank you very much. That'll bring us to agenda item 10.2, which are the corrective action plans for extracurricular activity buses. Um, a little different than normal. I know we have some folks here. We'll see if there are questions for board members. Uh, normally we have our audit committee sort of on a set rotation. Uh, we'll get back to that
019moving forward so folks know what the dates are. A little bit of a time crunch to make sure that we meet deadlines. So, the audit committee met yesterday at 10:00 a.m. to review the audit, take a look at the correction plans. Uh, if I'm not mistaken, if I'm reading the minutes correctly, no substantial uh concerns. Uh, in fact, uh, we're very appreciative of all that was stated in there. And so, if board members have questions about either the audit committee or the corrective action plans, now would be the time to ask those. Uh, we will move them before we have further discussion. I will say just as someone who's been on the audit committee for maybe 12 years, uh these corrective action plans for this specific area of the audit um happens almost every single
020year. That's difficult when you have student clubs and activities and you're asking the students to maintain a student unit that sometimes that comes the most difficult aspect we have and relatively speaking I forgot the number was but it's like 0.001% 01% of the total budget. Not saying it's not serious and more concerned. It does. And um we're not talking about, you know, about a $75 pizza purchase here or there. But let's entertain motions first and see if there are additional discussion items. I move to accept the attached 2024 2025 corrective action plans extracurricular activities funds as recommended by the audit committee the logging on the state educational portal second >> move by Adam second by Jacob questions comments clarifications >> you said if it if it happens all the time is there some sort of
021standardized process to try to avoid it or is it or is this just Yes, that's what the corrective action plan is trying to standardize. >> Oh, I I guess I mean if it happens every year, like year after year, I I guess maybe I misunderstood. It looked like each school had its own corrective action plan and process. >> It's the schools that have student activities and clubs. So, it's our middle school and our two high schools or our three middle schools and our two high schools. uh and I shouldn't probably misspeak in saying it happens year after year but more importantly it happens regularly and it's a difficult thing for us to address just >> the humans change each year >> right students change the advisors change >> and there's a standardized process and it's
022a problematic process process problematic people who are trying to learn it make the problem >> so but that is the purpose of the corrective action plan is to continue try to do training Right. We worked on that very hard over the past number of years. It's been an area of focus of its own specific audit a couple of years ago because we are recognizing that that was coming back to us all the time. Um yeah, our team does a great job of trying to reconcile all the, you know, $10 purchase here for pencils and right $20 purchase here for soda. It's sort of where we're at. So again, even if you read the audit very specifically, they'll know where it's off and it again trying to solve it and um relatively speaking to the total
023budget, it's an extremely small amount of money and there's no and outside the budget there's no other implications. I think that's correct about lately. It doesn't negatively impact our audit anyway. >> Yeah. Okay. Cool. >> Thanks. I I wanted to ask who oversees the club activities because it in the corrective action plan is stated that every year too that um if a club has been financially impacted over one year should be discontinued. But yet prior years we had like 17 of these clubs in this one the high school was 18. So, my wife got rid of I imagine that's a policy issue if if there isn't attendance or appropriate attendance. I I don't know. I have to look um that that's something that we have to look at because if you don't have attendance, there's
024no point in having a >> and the timing of the audit doesn't always line up to when we're going to know we're going to have to qualify. If that makes sense. Um yeah, because this audit starts when? >> June. >> In June. Yeah. and we know about clubs in early fall. So it just the timing just never really work >> and the focus with the clubs is really learning. It's not so much the hundred or $200 that's associated with clubs. So that can get lost in the mix and it is a relatively small amount as was mentioned earlier. It really comes down to back pain to folks all the time. So it is difficult. It's a training issue constantly have to keep up with folks involved. >> But at the high school they have a
025handbook that um to give to advisers. at the middle school and I'm not sure if LCS has a handbook too and I'm wondering why the inconsistency >> I I think it does come down to folks changing and then still I was going through the handbook and the train associated with that >> it's different than the high school we need to do better um because this comes up the difference between the two schools and this particular fund and let me be clear auditors know where to look at every school district and this is an area they find they look for in most school district and we're one this is the first place they look and we want to get cited yet. >> So the um corrective action plan is the oness of the principal to write
026that plan >> not to write the plan but to facilitate facilitate is completed. Yes. >> So the LACs one was corrected here but online you still have the incorrect one that references a policy change. Yes. >> Just to be clear, it's not like this is fraud. This is just human natural air that comes in >> every collection, how much money you have on site, what you deposit. >> And some of it is like the timing of the deposits like if you're supposed to deposit it by Wednesday be all different extra day kind, >> right? >> And and policy too. who like there was one school at the which one that used cheddar were they approved to use cheddar so policy not adherent to the policy how did they sign up for it >> right as
027as an organization don't you have to provide the right documents to sign up for it to go to the correct bank accounts >> correct >> uh something we could look into again put it on uh policy there's a lot that's going on policy But it could be something that the future policy committee takes a look at. It's an ongoing thing to Dr. Brown's point and I don't want to minimize it, but it's what we would consider to be for like the word like petty cash. Like it's usually no more than a $15 receipt that we can't find or wasn't provided because the student didn't think to keep it or um and again all of us who work with young people probably understand exactly where it's all. So we'll plan of action put it on a
028policy agenda at some point in time continue to do additional training work with our principles and >> additional questions, comments. We'll call the question. All in favor of adopting the corrective action plan as presented. Motion passes. Agenda item 10.3. Uh this is the internal audit report and corrective action. We'll entertain motions then we'll discuss. >> I move to approve the resolution to accept the internal audit report prepared by Quest Star three Boseies and corrective action plan for the 2024 2025 fiscal year ended June 30th 2025. Second >> moved by Adam second by Jacob. questions, clarifications, discussion. >> When I read it, am I correctly reading that that that our time cards are appropriately sorted in all departments except for transportation or was I missing misunderstanding? >> So, the audit looked, if I may, the audit
029looked at a snapshot, one area. So, no, that would not be accurate. it was that's where they looked specifically during so we have three to 400 employees that would in a similar way but that's the area they look at so that's where that that discrepancy was found and I guess historical context is this a reg something that's regularly happened as well or this is >> well the audit only looks at a snapshot time so we we actually asked for that particular area to be looked at in the audit, but it's that's that's an area that is typically a concern in school districts. So, one of the things we were also looking at, I think it's an effective act action plan as well, is that we're looking at um an electronic way to maintain time, right?
030And so, it was also a validation for that change for one point, but also uh it the the opportunity for human error in time cards is high. So we wanted to take that out of the mix and that was part of this process. >> Dominic, correct me, Dr. Lis, correct me if I'm wrong. That's an area that we asked. Right. >> Right. So we recognize that there may be some things that should be looked at. The district asked for a focus on that particular area. Uh for next year, the focus is going to be on purchasing >> on purchasing. Um and we will put together or the audit committee has asked for a listing of prior areas of focus that the district asked for in terms of its internal audit and then potential future areas
031as well. So we found things in this audit because we asked them to go looking for things in this audit and the same thing will happen you know we did athletics a couple years ago right did performing arts you know so um every year we ask for a particular area of focus this is that we asked for this year >> we'll make sure all board members get prior years as well as what may be coming in the future for the all >> additional questions what is Does this have in place for tracking time codes? >> So, right now it it is a paper system. >> Yeah. >> Writing your time down and then a supervisor is supposed to cross check that so forth. What we did was we we're using a system that's now tied
032to our financial system WCAP. That is a electronic system. So, you're code in code out anytime you're in and out of the district for work. So it takes at least one step out of that and the possibility for human error whether it's check system or the the side and side out that a lot of districts use that. So that's part of the reason why we went through this process to kind of validate are we making the right move and adopting the system. So yeah clearly we are >> and and they they manually do it like on site or it's done like on an app on our phone or >> it can be an app on the phone. I don't think we've gotten there yet. No, it can be. We're not there yet, but right now
033it's a slight. Okay, hearing no other additional questions, comments, we'll call the question. All in favor of the adoption of the internal audit. Motion passes. Uh we'll bring us to item agenda 10.4, which is our independent audit, and we'll entertain motions. Move to approve the resolution to accept the independent audit report prepared by Insera Ins and Company CPAs LLP for the 2024 2025 fiscal year ended June uh 30th 2025 >> moved by Adam second by Jacob. Uh Dr. Liy may be helpful for just a a couple sentences about the internal audit that's done that then goes to an external independent audit as well. I may actually turn this up to pro of our audits. >> Yeah, absolutely. But Emily, if you wouldn't mind. >> Okay, so um Inro is our outside auditing firm that comes
034in every summer and does our big financial audit on the school district on the tax the general fund. Um they also do a single audit which is now called uniform guidance report. Um that was changed this past year. Um they usually do that at the same time that they do our main audit. This year however there were some changes and that we are waiting for um insur was actually waiting for guidance from the state and the federal governments. Um what that focuses on is our grants and I believe it's a threshold over 700 750 $750,000. So we have a few grants in our food service department um title grants and this year they focused on the IDA special education grants. Um so those are the ones that they like rotate so next year it'll be
035on a different piece. Um it was delayed this year because of all this new um new guidance that was coming down. It was released I think at the very late part of November, early December. So it kind of threw us off our regular schedule of dealing with the audits. it's due um to be filed by March 31st. So, this is that piece of audit that you usually see. They usually had it as part of our general audit, but this year was separated out. So, >> and that's when they come take over the entire board building. >> They do. Um since CO though, it's become a little bit easier on us. They have a shared file that we throw a lot of information. So, it's become a little bit smoother. But, they do come in and
036they're here for a couple weeks during the summer. They start in June short a little bit and then they come at the end of the summer. questions, clarifications, comments. >> There was language that I just didn't understand and I would love someone to just help me understand. >> We do that on purpose. >> I don't know if it's like standard language. Anytime I see something that says material weaknesses or significant deficiencies, I go, "Wait, what?" It talked about we did not identify deficiencies in internal control over compliance that we consider to be material weaknesses. However, material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal control over compliance may exist that were not identified. >> What that's covering themselves they did not find anything wrong in in how we um use we used the money. We expended the
037money. We tracked the money. So there were no material weaknesses found when they did the review of the single audit and and the grant money that we received. Um, however, they're looking at this at a very small period of time, so they can't say for sure that there isn't something else that that's standard language in any audit. So, it just says that, you know, we've looked at everything we can. We're not finding any material weaknesses, but we're not guaranteeing that there might not be something >> as >> there isn't. I wouldn't sleep at night if there was. >> Thank you so much. >> Yep. And that's standard language for um audits and and it's good to visit the audit committee because I've been at the audit committee here too. They meet once a quarter and
038very informative and have one of their CPAs there who can answer questions and they go into that with their lingo. Thank you. >> Additional questions. Uh hearing none. We'll call the question. All in favor? The motion passes. Uh, and it would be an appropriate opportunity to um thank Dr. Lesie and particular to thank Emily uh for all the work. Uh, it is no small task and uh, it does not go unnoticed. We appreciate all the work. So, thank you very much. Um, that'll bring us to agenda item 10.5, ascent cell phone policy update. And I believe we'll turn this over to you, Dr. And uh Miss Grover is going to join us at the table with some data and some questions. >> Hey everybody. >> Evening. >> All right. So, um, my apologies because you
039got the survey data, um, emailed to you this afternoon, so I don't expect you had time to look at it. It was a collaboration specific to Ithaca High School. So, the Ithaca High School reps worked with Principal Arnold to compile that survey. So just so we have a context for the results from that survey um that was conducted and we can go in I can prepare a summary but I I think you'll benefit from looking at the individual questions and and you'll see the the wide array of responses. But per this cell phone check-in implementation check-in for the the board policy, I wanted to start by the with the framing questions that we used back in August 2024 with um union and community leadership. So what about this legislation was bringing us hope and what
040was bringing us concern? So, our hope was, and you you will see this in the questions reflected on the survey, our hope was increased face-to-face communication, increased engagement, learning um and some of the concerns were um appropriate, you know, will there be structures to support the restriction? um what's going to be the approach to enforcement and discipline? What equity issues are going to come up? How are we going to navigate student needs that might be reflected on, for example, an individual education plan? So, the survey you'll see reflects some of those hopes and concerns. you're going to see a referral um data tracking. Now, that was something we added to school tool that's required by this legislation that we report that to the state at the end of the academic year. And so, we have
041for that specifically, you know, you don't see um elementary schools because they're the the data point is zero. The school isn't on there. present a referral to school. And so for our conversation tonight based on the resources that you have, what's working well in our approach and then where we see some challenges and this across the levels. I want to draw to to the community and those watching, draw attention to the communications page that outlines, if you're curious what exactly the legislation says and there's frequently asked question that's populated that we get questions about. So, thanks to the communication team for that. questions board member conversation. Do we have averages on from the spreadsheet like this all this raw data here and I see a lot of >> yet? No, we don't have averages. >>
042Not yet. It came in um yeah this morning and I I wanted to pass it along but they >> I understand. I didn't know if it was just that we got it this morning or that I so we're not ready. >> It's hot off the presses. >> Okay. I apologize if I missed why why don't we have middle school data? >> Um well there is middle school data on the discipline referral sheet you'll see but as far as the surveying of students that isn't high school students ran point with the QR board reps. So there weren't surveys given at the middle school level. >> It was that um what was the rationale for not surveying at the middle school like staff or or students? >> I guess I I was I was expecting that. So
043I guess I'm surprised >> that >> we talked in the fall. Well, we talked early fall about what data we collect to monitor the implementation of this policy. We talked about the state mandated data, the discipline referrals, and then there were conversations at the table about the high school students putting together a survey to get some qualitative information. Um, so as a governor's team, we decided on I guess we decid we allow for the uh the collection of qualitative data via the high school survey. Now, if there is a wish for us to do more qualitative surveying in the future, we can definitely do that, but that would be a a different process and probably led by our uh accountability office. I'm looking at that person Lynn if we want to if we want to
044collect it in some kind of formalized way but again our first effort was just the students at high school who put together this survey very I don't want to use the word informal but uh it's an informal approach to what we've done in the past >> okay >> so there's a way um for referral um to differentiate between veral and nonurp We provide meals for students. How do we differentiate? We provide meals for all students. The families don't have to complete that document. >> Lyn, will you please definitely Great question. And what's changed? So this this shift actually has happened over the last few years that the majority so reintroduced price lunch data is still what drives funding formulas um for for us in the state and most of that data comes from a process
045called direct certification where our food service department receives files from New York State. So any student that is a member of a family who receives any sort of social safety net. So we think about HEAP, SNAP, uh Medicaid, uh they are they are automatically qualified. So it's largely a reporting of that direct certification with a few families that continue to fill out the application. Um so where we have seen a shift is probably in the question around reduced lunch, right? uh the kids that qualifies for direct certification are students that would have qualified free lunch. We have fewer of the county that produce such folks. >> I know much has changed from the blue ticket that I grew up with. >> Some people laugh. So, as we're looking at this, we hear or we hear
046I'm sure many board members do a number of anecdotal notions of that it's going exceptionally well or there's more engagement during lunch periods or in class time. We folks saying things like, well, I don't know why I get singled out but other people don't. Or we heard teachers saying they they don't always feel like they have support administration. Why the folks feel like it's greatly enhanced the engagement and pedigogy of their classrooms. So if we sort of merge all that together and a quick scan seems to sort of affirm all those various ideas, different data, talking points, realizing that this just came in just hot off the press >> and I don't mean to put you on the spot and I'm going to put you on the spot. My apologies, Mary. >> Um how do
047you think you know from you know less than a year ago where the mandate is here to where we are now? How would you assess it or things that you think we may need to do moving forward? So one of the questions know Jake when you asked why not all the schools we have some beginning of the year data too from the high school because of the student learned survey and some similar questions. So my hope to be able to answer that with more specificity is to take some time to look at this data that we we just received with the data from the beginning of the year because when I glanced at it, I notice um one thing that stood out for me was the comfort level of teachers addressing it in the classroom.
048um and that I don't see a drastic improvement in that for example. So I'm curious about that. I'm curious about um what how feeling supported by an administrator and some shifts we're seeing there when I'm just looking at the data point. And then the one that really I'm really interested in is that this the question on I feel more engaged in teaching and more satisfied teaching because one of our biggest hopes was an increase in studentto student teacher interaction and that one does seem to be continuously rising. So those are just some I would anticipate um anything we do will work until it doesn't. So, you'll see, for example, at the high school, they implemented a new way to take phones and have students come pick them up at the end of the day. Um,
049it looks like a raffle ticket and it's a sticker and a kid keeps half of it and the other half goes to the office and um that you know that's fairly new. started in January in response to coming back and we we did thanks to the communication team pushed out more prompts about how for for caregivers to have conversations with their families because the thing that I'm um really would would like for us to make a a priority is partnership caregivers. It's crucial. >> So interesting you say that. I was not maybe I should have expected that at least in the student responses the number of students say the thing that they like the least is the inability to contact their parents and caregivers. >> I know it's a significant change in culture and generation
050um you know but I was expecting more like I can't talk to my friends like nope I can't >> you know I can't figure out what after school plans are or I can't figure out you know what we're doing this. So that's a very >> interesting thing for me again just as well. >> Yeah. And who do I sit with at lunch? We heard that at the beginning of the year from students. I used to coordinate my social plan for lunch >> um via my my cell phone and now I don't have that. I'm going to take um a cue from our policy committee last evening about why we have student reps here and um ask uh if you have any thoughts about the cell phone uh ban policy or how it's going or things
051that you think that board members should be considering as we move forward. And don't no pressure. We had this conversation last night as well, right? So don't feel like you have to respond, but I want to make sure we have space. We have student reps with us. >> It's going incredibly well for our school. I mean, we've obviously taken a slightly different approach. A little more community oriented like direct uh community oriented. >> Yeah. And we've gone for this kind of self-inforcement vibe. I mean, I don't know how how that's happening with the other schools where we're kind of like you walk into a classroom, half the time it'll just be, hey, is that a cellular device? Think. >> Yeah. >> I'm going to jump in there. Um it is formalized. Um the LASS restorative
052justice committee came up with a very thorough uh proposal that was in line with the state uh law and with the district policy. Um and we as a school we ran it through ASM twice, right? And uh discussed it and proposed changes to it and uh created this implementation structure that seems to be working pretty well uh so far. Um, and I think I think you know students put that into action by voting for it in a vast majority. Um, so it really is like a feeling of ownership over the way that we approach uh dealing with this this new law. Um, and I've been happy with with the difference that I see. I mean it it just the marked difference from last year in ASM and this year is is very pronounced. I think
053like last year you would look at the stands in ASM and it would be phone phone and this year I haven't seen uh much of that at all. Uh and when there is our bouncers are now empowered to say hey put that away. Um so I mean I'll say like personally I'm not impacted by that much because I don't have a phone but um it has been tricky for some of my friends like figuring out some of these things. But we are a smaller school, so it's not hard to find your friends during lunch or coordinate after school plans. The line for the phone in the office is usually not too bad at all. Um, >> yeah, that that's my experience. >> Yeah, I I will say I think it's very difficult for us to
054without the backing of any data like every student has experienced it differently in LICs and we are a small community. So I I think we've experienced different growing pains in that way. though in my personal experience like when I think back to last year the year before that I walked into a classroom and the phone just aren't there which is a shift and it's very noticeable I think noticed that too the like again with the the parents thing I personally experienced that it's like I'll say an hour after school for mock trial I could tell somebody that or I don't know an issue we faced is kids don't know how to use the office phone so we've had to like make directions on how you you >> remember a Um well that actually yeah like
055or how you put eight before the this >> say that has been up for for years. >> I know looked at that. >> Well no still it's like we there we still have some growing pains with it. I don't think we'll be out of that for years and honestly but again back to when I walk into a room I don't see like I don't I don't see that then that's different. So I think in that case it's we're doing self. >> We appreciate that feedback. Board members questions, comments. I'm having a hard time coming up with too many because the data isn't synthesized in a way for me to see many takeaways from it. So, I'd be a little inclined to ask for a reschedule of this for like the next meeting so that we
056can look at it in a way that it tells us for um I'm also curious. I know I I believe I could be wrong, but the last time that they developed the um IHS reps developed a survey um they just kind of did that on their own and came up with questions on their own. Um, so I'm curious about the process this time because um the policy itself does explicitly say that um the implementation and effectiveness of this policy should be monitored um and uh to look at factors related to classroom and school climate, student learning, student discipline, student mental health in collaboration with school leaders and report outcomes to support the board. every um annual every March 2026 and it's a little hard to even compile like which questions fall into which one of
057those buckets. >> Yeah. And I would say so that's one thing when I take some more time to synthesize it can put it into those buckets based on the policy that's a great >> suggestion but just to clarify even the first survey was in collaboration with Principal Arnold. >> Okay. So, and and the leadership team at Etha High School implementing it. And of course, you know, we can expand that across all schools. >> Yeah, I think that would be great. And my only other question before I J I have not yet done um I I'm really I um I'm wondering about the data in the other in the referral report. Um there's a for DIT to only have one single disciplinary incident is a little surprising. Um and it's quite quite less than either of
058the other ones obviously including >> and LACS have zero. >> Yeah. >> So >> I'm not sure I I would >> having a child that goes to DIT, right? I was quite surprised by that. So again, I'm wondering a little bit about like the accountability for how much is really being input into the system regularly and being captured. and um obviously you nor is anyone else there looking over everyone's shoulders to make sure that that is the case but I guess I'm wondering from even the p perspective of teachers and building leaders at the different schools if it feels more or less doable to be inputting the kind of information that they're being asked to do. So we'll we'll look at this data in our next um administrative PLC but I noticed that as well.
059So my my first uh action was to to email the administrators at that school to say, "Tell me more about what you're doing and how you're implementing it." >> And so we do have a number of things that we can do prior to writing a referral and taking the phone and having the caregiver come. Um and so they wish to talk about what they're doing rather than through a fertile battle. >> Um and LACS knows you talked about work on sort of the practices and so how do we want to track that? The state's requiring one certain way of collecting the data and then how are we differentiating that based on the school or based on is in this first year there's going to be some differences across schools and that's part something I think
060we need to do as leaders is checking on that. So just just ask for a point of clarification on that. Does that mean that the information that is being collected in >> can school tool in school tool does that mean that that information is aligned with state expectations and not the grid that you and other and Carrie created that kind of directs what the >> Yeah. So in that grid and I actually should add that grid to this so we can look at that because there is leader discretion even in that grid on how to to document or not document but how to escalate the response for lack of a better term. Um and duet has a really robust restorative practice. Angela Knight seated it at Wayne and you know some of the founding staff
061of that work. So >> so I'm you know I'm curious about but it really it really stood out to me too. So >> I maybe you do too. I know like I I always read data with my own biases about like what what I think should be true. And so of course I'm reading the data through my bias of I think the best solution to not having cell phones in school like like during the instructional day is to actually not have the cell phones in the instructional day, right? I move them, you come back at the end of the day. Um, but I am noticing in the staff survey, I guess there's two things. One, I just want to note that it does seem like in the staff survey that comments overwhelmingly would speak to
062stating that like there's a lot of issues with cell phones that like there's of course improvement when there wasn't a ban, but that it seems like people are calling out massive inconsistencies. So, I would love to see more about that. And I'm not sure You're probably right. I have I just have a different recollection. I thought we were going to get middle school Davis. Would it be helpful? Is that something that you are going to get for us or is that something that like we should vote on as a board to see if it's our desire to have that? I guess that procedure- wise I'm not sure what we do. I just know that I personally as an individual board member would like to see comparable data from the middle schools to make an informed
063decision about policy. >> What would be a decision that you'd be making about policy? Well, I guess I'd be voting on whether or not there's adjustments to the policy for the next year, right? I thought that was the purpose of annual reporting. Like when in the initial conversations about the cell phone policy, we were sort of told, you know, like we're on a deadline, right? We're kind of like behind where the state is right now. We can vote on it, but we can always revisit in the future. >> Yeah, I think you can always revisit any policy. I think the question for me is not to say about the policy, but more about implementation. So it may be a connection a correction to the policy but I'm just trying to understand the I'm trying to
064understand what the next step is. So if I heard correctly the request is can we get some data from the middle schools >> prior to that I would also make a request that maybe we just have middle school leaders come have a conversation with us as well. Um there may be things that are working that aren't working. Uh it may be without question right that want to take it down and tell us part of the story but I'd be interested in some other ways in which this happen. Yes. >> As as another port >> for clarification you're you're suggesting that those should be sequential and separate or you're saying that you just want to see those? >> Uh I don't know that I separate them. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Yeah. I guess I I would
065like to see both. I'd love to see the quantitative and I don't think it's negative in any way to get building leaders to come in. Um, but we also have this data that's here that's that's quantitative. Um, in the absence of a building leader coming in to be consistent and we can do both. >> I thought just to underscore from my perspective, we're in year zero of an implementation of a policy. And if we think about a policy that's been around for over 100 years, code of conduct, it takes us a lot of time to figure out what data we're going to capture quantitatively and qualitatively and then how we report it out, what categories and what surveys we would use and not as an excuse at all. We are a couple of months into
066an policy implementation that we didn't plan for last spring as we would have had we known we would be administering a qualitative survey with significant questions connected to the language which we didn't have last spring. So I'm hearing I'm take from my perspective I'm taking in all of this. Next year's report out in March will be much more data driven with a qualitative and quantitative approach that is aligned to the policy and our expectations. And I also envision principles coming to talk through it as well. Um, again, I've been operating in year zero and us just getting a policy in place first and then thinking about what it would look like to report out in a way that can be quantifi digestible by a community. Um, and so I don't again that's where I see
067us going next. um and starting to plan a lot in the spring, late spring and summer with our teams and with Lynn because I'm thinking this may be a K12 insight survey that we would have to administer to different groups and look at it in that way. No, just having it be put together by a principal and students and us getting it to the board on the day of a meeting is not our style. All right? That's just not the way. If we're going to be asking for qualitative information, we're going to be much tighter about how we gather it, how we're going to look at it, and how we're going to lead a discussion about what to do next to inform what policy shifts we should or should not make. And yes, um, as
068I said last spring, um, we're I don't want to call this an experiment, but this is a significant shift in culture. I've gone to several concerts and restaurants over the last couple of months, and no one has asked everyone in the room to take away their phone. we're doing that with young people in a space and the feedback you're seeing is what happens when we do that and there are issues. Um I would be the first one to say and I think it's significantly shifted what happens in a school and instructional space. So it's a both and um and now we got to figure out how to capture data on it. >> Probably said way more than I wanted to on this one but >> just just so I understand you talked about more robust
069data a year from now. It um I might have just missed it. Is there are we going to get middle school data though where its year? >> No, but we don't have a surve we have not administered a survey unless to our middle school students on this particular topic. >> Yeah. >> No, >> parliamentary wise. I'm not sure how it works, but I would love to entertain a request for middle school data and see if a majority of the board would be interested in that. But I don't know how to do that because I just don't know because I haven't done it before. Maybe someone can help me. >> Well, I'm looking at the policy now and um it did state that we'll this is in the first few months of um putting this policy
070out and that we'll get a report out in March and then we have to do a report annually to the state beginning September 1st, 2026. So it doesn't say in here and and I I don't think we have to adjust the policy in any which way because this is all new and I don't it doesn't state that we were going to get K to 12 or secondary school data. So this is a learning experience as we're going through and as you said um Jacob about the um taking phones away or seeing them in certain situations. I remember when this first um came up in 2024. I I put the onness on community members on parents. Who gives these devices to children? We the adults, right? And but yet we expect the schools to the um
071be the commander and chief and trying to take the devices away. But yet, let's how do we work together? And I don't see us saying that we're going to contact PTAs or have meetings where we encourage um families to and caregivers to speak to their students to make sure that their students are not using the devices during the school day. >> I think schools are doing that though. I mean that come >> and PTA should be doing that too. You should be following up. >> That's cool. >> Yeah. I mean, I guess my feeling is that we should be doing everything and I'm not sure what the concerns are about getting information. I mean, the policy is a New York state policy. So, like we don't have a choice. We we have to do this
072and we are doing. And I think the question is just kind of like how is it going? And if it's going great, that's great. And if it's not going well, then I feel like we would just use that information to talk as a board about what to do. And we can get teacher input, student input, qualitative data, quantitative data, middle school, high school. I'm just not sure that it matters. I I don't know what why we would be concerned about getting too much information or information too quickly. I'm just a little bit confused about that. It just feels like let's just get a bunch of information and then let's have a conversation about it. That's just my philosophy. I don't know what the other I don't know what the other side is. >> As one
073person here's my other side. Um and I don't disagree that data helps inform how we make decisions. Uh this was enacted on in September. It's asking for annual data and we haven't even gone forward the entire school year yet. And so for me it's it's it's almost the and it's an example and I'm not talking about the legislators or the policy makers who created it. It seems a very interesting mode to ask for an annual report prior to the year being complete. And so I would be much more in favor of waiting to the school year to be over to then be able to look to see what took place over the entire year as opposed to third quarter or threequarters of the school year end. Not that we still can't ask those questions. Not
074that we still can't make changes, but I think the expectation that we'd have a whole data set without a full year. Um I experienced this, I'm sure many of us do in our various professions, right? But that happens to me pretty often. It's like, you know, well, we just started a program. Well, give us a review. Well, we just started it. How can I give you a review if we just started it? So, I'm not in disagreement. That's more data would be helpful. I'm just wondering. I think I'll echo something that Brown said. We're not even sure what data and I know the state says some things. I hit that. Um, as one board member, I challenge the state says that I don't have that authority. So, but I I would just I would like
075a little bit more time or or maybe we set up another meeting to have a conversation or would you set up a a Google document about what kind of additional data would be helpful and see what we can gather um as opposed to I don't think I mean it can be as formal as a resolution does have >> I mean well I I my my mind went to resolution because I correct me if I misheard I heard Dr. said that they would not collect the middle school data for this year. And so what I'm proposing is I think we should I'd like to see middle school data. I I find the high school data helpful. I've only just started to produce it. I find it very helpful and because we have multiple middle schools, we
076now have incomplete data that we're having discussions about. So, I would propose a motion to, I guess, I don't know how to phrase it, to direct Brown to gather comparable middle school data for our next board meeting or a month from now to review as part of the data review. >> It's possible to gather data that I I personally speaking, I'm less concerned about like formality of the data. Like I think there's two different things, right? there's like the state reporting and the requirements that it needs to meet which it sounds like we're slowly doing that and we're not going to be able to do that until the year's over and I think the other aspect of it is like I'd like to get feedback and information you know anecdotally from teachers administrators um because
077I know I I I have a problem when you like allow things to be too bureaucratic like well let's wait till like the end of the year before make a decision I think we can get information now we can pivot and we can maybe implement some things that could be consequential and impactful by the end of the year. I don't think we should wait to the end of the year to to make changes if possible. Like if there's some ideas that could make things like I'd love to hear more of what like what you guys are doing like is there something that we can take from that and then implement it in the other schools that would help you know be beneficial. Um so for me like I'd love to hear feedback and maybe there
078are some meaningful changes that we could make and to me that's mutually exclusive from the state reporting aspect of it. So for me like I I don't need the data. I just want to kind of hear and like get ideas and suggestions to figure out like how we could implement this because it is it's >> you know cell phones to me like they have such a negative impact on on kids you know like especially the learning environment and um so I I I think that this is such a huge issue in terms of like kids ability to learn in the spaces where they have the opportunity to learn and so I I want to do as much as we possibly can as quickly as we can. So that's my position. Also, I'd love to jump
079in just to remind us all that we all adopted this policy. Was it this part last year's point? So, this board adopted the policy and the policy says that we're going to be getting our first report out on data March 2026. So, as much as we may or may not feel like maybe maybe that was like too clean, sure, maybe we shouldn't reflect on whether we should have put that date in. But like the reality is that the date is in the policy that we would be asking for um for this information to be shared in March 2026, which I think we've been talking about for several months now, and that at least some board members have been asking that we explicitly for data. So, I think that, you know, I feel like I'm hearing
080two conversations about like kind of reflecting on the process and maybe we should have done things differently or maybe we want to choose to delay, you know, asking for more information. That's one piece. But I think, you know, hearing from board members that they were expecting to get more comprehensive information today, I don't think it's unusual given what is in the policy. Um, and so since we've all been talking jointly about the fact that we were expecting to hear something about cell phone data today, I guess I'm I'm interested like the again the language says like the superintendent shall monitor the implementation and effectiveness of this policy level below what I already said beginning in March 2026. I'm interested from you, Dr. Brown and from your team about you came to this meeting with the
081data from that policy and some of the data from school tool. So I'm curious like based on what is how like how did you decide that that's the data you wanted to share with the board in this March 2026 meeting that we have been planning to have around this? Do you feel like this is like sufficient data to >> let me the state minimum was what we the report we have to turn into the state and that data set is what we were prepared to present tonight knowing that to do this in the way we typically do we'd have to have a lot of time to put together a survey to administer all secondary students and maybe some students as well that is a year one two or three from my perspective but the state
082minimum data collection and reporting is what we have provided anything more is an enhancement on what we would do and maybe what we'll do after hearing tonight's conversation, we'll do that next year. Or if the board wishes for us to survey all middle school students over the next couple of weeks, which I don't know how we would do that, that could be something we would do, too. But um we want to use data to learn and we all are learning about this implementation a lot every single day. >> I think that makes a lot of sense and I appreciate that. I I'm I want to make sure like even in the the section of reporting requirements, there are two paragraphs. The first paragraph is specifically talking about the state requirements of which I think you
083know I've heard multiple board members um question whether you know we have nothing to do with what the state is is asking for um and nor are we necessarily interested in it. I don't know. But there is a second paragraph that I read as being very separate to that. And I know having been on the policy committee that at least in my individual policy committee member mine was very separate to the state and was really focused on our conversations as a community and as a policy committee about what we were interested in hearing about, which is why it's kind of more broad about school climate and student learning and mental health and things like that. So again, I just feel like that is very explicit in the policy. It sounds like what you're saying just
084fine is that you don't feel like in order to meet that requirement that you needed to do surveys of say middle school. So again, I'm just kind of interested in like what did you decide to collect and share at this meeting like and what like what was the thinking behind it? >> Yeah. So I'll I'll say that I what the policy requires is the discipline data and we can learn a lot from that. That brought up a lot of questions. Oh, these numbers are different. Well, LACS isn't on the grid because it's a zero. So let's explore that. What that's a great conversation for administrators and unpack what they've been at faculty meetings how students were engaged what's our partnership with PTA looking like our first viewing of screen majors had close to a hundred
085people the second one not so much and we revisited that and scheduled one again in December because we were hearing from families we need some more support on this. We need some more support on talking to students. So Todd, to your point, we're constantly monitoring this, but I walk through the high school and I have three teachers come up to me and say, "We need a refresher. We need another system." So January, we come back and Principal Arnold and her team have a ticket system. We've sent out weekly prompts to all caregivers in this district on Tech Tuesday talking points for their caregivers. I don't um I don't need a survey to tell me to react to input that I'm getting um from staff and and students and caregivers. And that's not to say that
086we can't gain something from that, but I don't see that survey is crucial to me um really doing an archaeology an archaeological dig on how this implementation is working and where our growth areas are. >> Yeah. And see that to me, we as part of our conversation, we'll figure out the student s official policy afterward. >> Um, Julian, please. >> No, no, I just wanted to clarify briefly with LACS's new device implementation plan, the pol the proposal that passed through the student body, there is a gargantuan spreadsheet that exists. I I know because I'm on it that that is period by period every incident that has been recorded since that implementation. So we can either get that data you somehow I know that be I I I just I know for a fact as again
087I'm in there is that it exists. So I just want to clarify that for the board >> and we would make sure that that was fal compliant before we say anything. >> Oh yeah. I just wanted to clarify that. >> Uh I guess there's a a couple of maybe points I want to follow up on. I heard this around like the length for getting a survey. Can someone just the survey once the survey that was given to a high school was created? How long does it take to get to administer? We have from my mind we have the survey right. So how long does it take to administer? >> Can anyone speak to that? >> They're not here. So we can ask um and get that answer back. It's a student >> because my assumption
088is it's probably I just had never experienced surveys that have a window longer than a couple of weeks. So I guess I'm surprised at the notion that you couldn't get the data and I guess I guess I just want to posit like some things the data could tell us because I'm hearing some trepidation around whether the data is helpful. Like again, just by eyeballing it would seem like certainly a majority, if not a vast majority of high school teachers that filled out the survey had significant concerns about the way the policy is being implemented slash the policy itself. And it could be that at the middle schools it's comparable or it could be that it's radically different. So like whether we could learn from consistency or from outliers. I think you've sort of spoken in
089curriculum maybe Adam about outliers. I know I guess to me the data is helpful to so we can see how we're doing and right now I just I I feel like I have incomplete data and I think um I think there's going to be incomplete data. I understand the idea for a survey but I also want to speak to it makes an assumption as if our building leaders aren't already engaged in changes and modifications as they're getting feedback throughout the year. You can shake your head. That's the way I'm hearing it, right? I'm hearing that we need data to make those changes. And I would assume having worked in a school, having been an administrator that those changes are taking place whether we have a liker scale or not. >> I think the point though
090is we just don't know. I mean, Mary even just sharing like, oh, I walked through schools, I noticed this, we had conversations. Now they're like that's data like that's information. it would be. So I don't think that there's any I I want to be very careful that this is not any kind of like implication that people aren't doing great work in the schools. It's just that we don't we're not in the schools. So we're just asking for like what is happening and I think the kind of data that Mary always brings with which is anecdotal and having conversations is hugely valuable. >> So to that point of having a conversation with building leaders, why wouldn't that provide additional? >> I didn't say anything. I'm I'm just saying like what we were presented with when we
091first got here was left much to be desired even if it's just great storytelling like that and like what's happening still >> my my apologies I'm I am not facilitating this conversation well and that it's a conversation about data not a conversation about the cell phone policy implementation so I'd like to find a way for us to pivot if at all possible to figure out what are the best next steps we're hearing that some board members members want data. We have not heard that from all board members. I want to be clear about that as well. But the best next steps for us as a board would be to do what? >> Well, uh complete the averaging out of these data points from the high school so that we can get a sense of the
092numbers associated with the data that was collected. possibly, I'm not saying this, possibly get middle school data as well so that we can see at the middle school the same thing we have at the high school also talk with building leaders who can come in and give us a briefing about how things have been going so far. Uh possibly teacher rep although we have teacher information that was also collected so we could compile that somehow. I'm just bring a few possible suggestions. >> So March 24th, April is going to be budget season. We're talking about looking at sometime the end of May if we're being honest with everything that we're putting on to folks. Um not saying that things can't happen in between then or that there wouldn't be changes, but I also want to
093be realistic about the expectations where we're at in the school year, the academics, the things that are taking place. Is that something that we've put back on an agenda? Uh I don't think we can do it in April if you're asking me. Um I'd like our focus to Well, I don't think we can do it in April. what I would like does it need to be on the agenda or you asking for it like just to get the data right like you mean for the survey to your point like it's it's already made if the super apps are willing to do it like could they then you know facilitate that to buy the data to us it's just like allowing stuff to kind of trickle in the information trickle in like I don't know we
094can we can do both I appreciate that I don't think we need it necessarily I don't think we need to wait for an agenda item to get additional information with that being said um I'm going to presume from this conversation that there are some disagreements and or differences of opinion about both the implementation andor the policy itself. And so I think a comra an additional conversation is helpful so to share perspectives. So um if it's all right with the board the board officers will work with Dr. Brown and have a conversation about a possible schedule of what we can anticipate or what we can expect. We'll get a message out to board members. You can say I want this, I want that. We'll see what's feasible and you progress from there. That is a a
095tenable approach going forward. >> I both agree with that. Oh, I'll turn. I'm sorry. >> No, you start. >> Okay. Um I agree with those steps. I I also do though I do want to propose a motion to direct superintendent to like or is designated however it would be phrased to collect information on the middle school like on the middle schools or like the same information collected from the high schools for the middle schools because what I heard like what I last heard was that you would not be collecting their data and as a board member I would like to see it. So I I'm proposing that motion I guess. Does that mean I then ask for is there a second? >> So parliamentary wise and I'll look to our parliamentarian. Uh you made the
096motion that is not currently on the agenda was required making the motion a second and then an approval to make the motion. Correct. >> Right. My understanding is that's sort of how it right. So it's not just you making a motion getting a second and we vote on it. It's you making a motion you get a second and then the board votes whether or not they want to vote on that motion. given that it is not previously on the agenda. >> So my motion is to adjust the agenda. >> There was never a motion on the agenda. This is a discussion point. So that's why I'm backing up and asking if Sean, were you saying that the board officers will meet with Dr. Brown and discuss the data what was recommended during this discussion? What
097were the board looking for? Therefore, we don't need a motion. >> Right. And let me clarify too the question. I may have misunderstood it. I thought you were asking were we planning to collect middle school information. That's why I was quick to say no. There were no plans at that point in the discussion to to collect middle school information. I do wish after in consultation with the board officers thinking about we're going to put this on the agenda to talk about again that we will be reaching out to the high school reps to get a sense of how long it would take to administer the survey to multiple schools and then think through what it will look like to get that done in anticipation of a May meeting. So there were no plans to do
098that, but based on if it comes back on an agenda, we're going to be we will be planning to bring you additional information that's qualitative based on a survey that's already been developed. >> I I'd like to second the not formally second, but I'd like the idea of hearing from building leaders because they're the ones implementing and to me that would be more valuable than a survey at this point. Not that surveys aren't valuable, but Yeah, >> I I think they're both data. >> Yeah, I don't know what's more val is survey >> qualitative hearing. >> I just have a different opinion that they're getting involved. >> I I don't think that's the disagreement. I think the question would be what is possible to do and that's why I said right >> maybe the idea
099would be to give the board officers a meeting to talk with Dr. around explore what's possible and bring it back to the board or at that point time says insufficient then by all means make the motion if you want to make the motion now by all means again that's the prerogative then board >> I do want to um I do yeah but um so I'm sorry I do need help with the language I'm requesting a >> is modify the agenda >> I'm requesting to modify the agenda to consider >> well it depends on how closely we're following Robert's right now. >> Well, we all got books. Why don't we have >> Right. We wouldn't be modifying the agenda. But Emily, >> well, the new rules state that there should be a motion to amend the
100agenda or suspend the rules and that has to have a twothirds vote and then you can make your motion to be seconded and voted on. So I'm making a motion then to suspend the rules >> or to modify the agenda either way >> or to modify the agenda. >> Yep. >> That needs to be set to >> I >> discussion debate dialogue. >> So this vote is just agreeing to >> agreeing to allow me to then make a motion to ask for you. Yes. >> No, that's one way of saying it. The motion is the motion is to modify the agenda. It's not to allow to do anything. It's to modify the agenda. >> Okay. Then added the motion and not the second. >> Jacob made a motion to modify the agenda. Second by Adam.
101Discussion, debate, conversation. >> I don't see any. >> You can share that with your vote. >> Yeah. >> All in favor? >> The motion does not pass. We can go. All opposed. We want that on record as well. We probably do need that on record. All >> opposed. >> Extensions. >> Well, thank you for considering that. >> It does not prevent us from continuing on the process that I have outlined. The board officers will meet with Dr. Brown, have a conversation. We'll send a followup to board members afterwards. Additional dialogue about cell phone policy at this time. >> Now, for me, the that is You raise your hand. I did. I want >> I just wanted to um comment to what Mary was saying about screen ages and the multiple times that it was shown
102here to caregivers and not and it's on the schedule this I think this Friday or sometime justice week here at the high school students will be seated. So at least it's coming from different angles of students did not come out during your evening time shown previously. >> Thank you. For me the data is really important as well as sharing like the conversations with u I I want the full data set. So thank you. Thank you. >> All the stuff that we talked about right like getting getting information from the middle schools trying to get like something that's more comprehensive. Um you know having this filtered down and you know synthesized in a way that's like makes sense. Right now it's just numbers on a spreadsheet like you can't edit it. You can't put in list.
103So I I I I want to actually have data that know whose and I do want to hear from building leaders. Um I I abstain because like I want to like give you guys the opportunity to kind of present something but I don't want this to slip through the crack because to me it is important. So I just I want to put that out there. So thank you. >> That's not what that extension just I I knew I knew what it meant. I didn't want the conversation to to delay anything. Whatever you wanted to say. >> Yes. We're not going to debate on my obsession. >> Uh then we were going to move on. >> Just wanted to say that um on our website too, our communications team does a good job of like updating
104about cell phone policy and everything cell phone device. So hopefully in the future we'll get feedback from caregivers. Are they finding the relevant information they're looking for? if they inquired about it because we do keep things updated at the accus. >> All right, good. Thank you for a uh important conversation. We will go to agenda item 10.6 that is strategic access plan RFB second draft. Uh I don't know if this was from you Dr. Brown is the expectation or the idea that the board will be approving an RFP this evening or giving additional feedback. Actually, the board probably doesn't even need to give approval for the RFP. >> We were asked to make edits to the previous iteration and then bring that back to the board for more discussion and then for some direction for
105when to put it up. And there probably still some blanks in there for us to complete. That would be based on the discussion this evening. dates. >> So, we'll begin with um reactions, thoughts, feedback regarding the RFP. >> Oh, in the um opening paragraph it different numbers from when we did the RFP two years ago, we have 5,400 students and two years ago we had 5,000 in the demographic part. >> Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And um LCS as I mentioned state 12 health schools but some description about LC it's not mentioned >> we're capturing this notes >> alternative is it um sorry I just lost it is I I see most of the changes deal with universal design principles for learning. Um, is that is that it's I guess I'm curious that that that's like
106a it's a trademark term from a specific organization. Can I get more understanding of like why we're including that throughout the strategic plan? >> Sorry. Why do you think that's a trademark term? >> It is universal design for learning. It's from understood.org. They're like that's they're the people behind it. It's a it's trademark. Look that up. This universal design for living and learning is this common pillar. >> I haven't realized it was trademark. And that's why I'm curious about the intention because I I'm getting the impression that the intention is about um like making it clear that we're a district that promotes inclusivity. And so I think we are, you know, like I I I actually don't know if that's one of our goals, but probably should be. I I guess when looking at at
107the lens I was looking through the strategic plan, I was thinking is this something where we're opening up to a broad group of like whoever that might fill out the request for proposals aligned with our goals and universal design for learning is something that I personally like I teach about it. I read about it. I I I hope I practice it. >> I'm not seeing that trademark. Can you like sorry that's just a common vernacular and I'm not saying the trademark you're referencing universal design >> universal design you can say universal design for living and say universal design for learning but universal design >> oh >> is not a trademark term it is a common term that goes beyond accessibility beyond ADA say it is a best practice. >> So I I I don't I
108don't it based on what I'm seeing I think you're right. It is universal sign. >> Yeah. >> Good. Um >> I guess I still um Yeah, I guess I >> I guess I I I'm not sure if I understand the purpose in putting it throughout so heavily in the document. I'm just not sure how it supports the art. Universal design should be incorporated in our entire functioning of the world. It is incredibly important. >> Agreed. And that it's more a matter of just should it feature so heavily in this strategic plan. I personally don't see that's >> synony with inclusion and equity. >> I mean, it's again, it's not something we're voting on. I just wanted to highlight my perspective as an individual board member. Additional comments, uh, suggestions, additions, thoughts, although we don't have
109specific dates as of yet. What's the time frame? when it's sent out and when we expect sponsor >> not selection but >> that is a date we can insert into the document as well when we expect the sponsors again this is completely filled in by you all the information you want to be in there will be in there and you took the feedback from the last session for us to highlight and include what I thought was a mission from the first generation's universal design so yes uh we're open to any date yeah really of this what you want in your RP people respond within two weeks or two months whatever you don't >> so it depends on how long you keep it open >> yeah I give it a little bit when you want it
110done what is a typical response time for something like this I've seen some go ahead >> yeah anywhere be anywhere from a month to six months it really depends on you what you expect from respondents >> my experience is you set a time for like four weeks. >> Yeah. I was going to say like is there like a best practice to get like best I almost feel like it's like 6 months if like people aren't going to take serious like oh let's get to it this goes on the back burner like if there's urgency again like I don't want to rush people. So once we're getting into the end of the school year the academic year so we need to get something in here before May I would say four weeks >> so we can
111deliberate and think about over the summer. >> It's also a tough time to be putting out our really busy time. Um so I would recommend whatever the board size it's due but to try to put put it out sooner rather than later with a four to six week window I think is a reasonable time frame because then it takes about another three four weeks to you know read through all hopefully there'll be multiple responses that will take some time as well. Yeah, if I may, there's also an interview process associated with this for each of the respondies that you choose to speak with speaker. >> We can do it on your behalf, but we can set up something. Yeah, I'm sure I understand the process. >> Yeah. Could you explain that a little bit if
112you want? >> It really depends on the board's wishes in terms of plan. If that's part of the process that you'd like to implement, the respondees that you wish to bring forward, you have that opportunity to interview if you'd like. It is a long process the entire strategic plan. So this is uh it's not something that takes six months. This to take three years essentially. So something you'd want to choose very wisely. And we have a recent experience for this where we selected finalists and all board members were invited to participate in those finalist interviews that they chose. So I think it probably would follow a similar process where we'd ask the administration to set up finalists and then invite board members who would want to attend to participate in the interviews of who the
113final firms may be or consultants. That seems to have worked well on other RS. Uh, if board members had thoughts to send your way about particular items, uh, how much time would you need for a turnaround time to have an art be ready to send out? >> I s with your pleasure. I can do it in a day. I can do it for homework one night. Just tell tell me what you need. If we set our own timeline that by April 15th, we want something sent out sent out >> um with a response back by June 1st. >> We can plug those things in now. Um >> I'm I'm not trying to dictate the process. I'm putting it out there. So please feel free to challenge change. I'm just trying to keep this process moving.
114>> And so you described it to be a quick process. So that feels quick, right? That feels >> I mean if if folks are ready for it to go as it is, you can say Dr. Brown do it tonight or get it out by March 1st or April 1. >> March 1st already passed around. >> There's other dates though we need to plug in that y'all need to talk. We're going to do it that quickly. We need to know when we want this done. We want it sent to the community. It's quite a bit. So for right now I'm looking for some suggestions about the language of the office and then the timeline will be next. Right? >> Additional questions, comments, additions, changes about the language of the RF. >> Okay. Uh, I do have
115one. The page two, the second bullet point says address and reduce person disparities and outcomes and access. Um, I would ask for that to be a little bit more specific. Um, either referencing some of the subgroups that were on uh the accountability reports or historically marginalized groups. There's some sort of language. I don't have what it is, but I send it your way. But for me, just addressing persistent disparities is not um specific to the way in which I think that phrase is intended. I think it's trying to say that we know we've had historic disparities and inequities. We want someone who's able to address those by several student identity groups, whatever it may be. But I I need to think about the language there, but I'm also saying yes to my board members. So,
116we're ask we're asking for someone to facilitate a conversation about how to address those. That's someone come in. >> Um, I think the strategic plan should include being a little bit more specific about the persistent disparities. >> Yeah. Gota. >> All right. folks where we find ourselves. >> How do we Yeah, I mean I'm not quite without a motion. I'm not sure how we >> We can uh send out an updated version with some updated language and some of those initial dates and maybe we can also via board docs also land on collectively a end date like when we want this thing done. I think that may be tough for us to figure out tonight in real time, but those first two dates send us on a path where we can get there. Maybe we
117do this offline. >> The the issue date and proposal due date is what you're talking about. Those two dates can start. >> Yeah, we got those now. But the but the like the how long do we want this plan to last? It could be a six month process or six years. Like we got and that's one of the dates that needs to be plug that needs to be plugged in and that will then drive who's going to respond. I >> thanks. >> I I just I wanted to circle back to the question of like the ideal time frame to get the best possible results because it sounded like six months was too long. Four weeks probably rushing it. We're talking about trying to figure that out now. Seems like one of the things that we
118could address like what do you think is appropriate timeline especially also given where we're at in the back here. >> Let make sure I'm I'm clear about what we're asking. >> We're talking about the RFP going out. >> Yes. But I'm I'm now asking about the entire process. >> Okay. >> Like how long we want someone to be working with us to develop a new plan. >> Thank you. >> And that's a big date we got to put in before we send it out. And somehow we got to figure that date out. And I don't know if we'll be able to figure that out tonight. Maybe that's something we all think about, but the initial dates we have. >> Would you be able to present with us like a couple of options? >> Yeah. or
119is that not your purpose? >> A suggestion would be to have someone work with us for a semester through December of next year or the entire year to come up this plan. In the past, this organization before I got here, they took a year to do a plan. When I got here, we did an abbreviated approach that we did call strategic planning, but we did it over six months and I reported to the board what I learned and that informed these things here. So traditionally um it can be a six-month engagement or a year-long engagement would be a suggestion. >> I personally feel like six months but just six months can work without question but as an example the idea would be creating multiple listening groups >> uh trying to collect and put together as
120much data as possible. So being able to get parents and caregivers all in a room as we were just talking about survey data just in the right trying to do all that. The idea would be all that would be used to inform whatever the strategic plan is. So it's not just put out the plan, pick your finalists, and then they're probably going to need I would say at least six months to be able to collect all the data necessary to put together a plan would be in in most cases and we all have different experiences in different fields, right? My experience is usually a year of planning to get a strat plan. Um doesn't have to be that. there's ways in which to but just know what you're getting in return. You're not spending that
121time. >> Go ahead. >> I was gonna say just alter my perspective. I I I I think I agree with Todd that six months is a really appropriate timeline. I guess in the past I found that beyond that it's like it might produce some marginally better plan but at the expense of like lost. So, especially in the absence of a current strategic plan that we're operating from, I personally would just really love to see this process move um quicker quicker than you think. Uh since you have so many connections with superintendents from around the state, I found it really helpful to speak to some of the boards and superintendents that were at the NISA conference who spoke about what they felt were effective timelines and effective outcomes to their strategic planning which varied in the
122kinds of links that we're hearing here. if you had any people that you could actually they really went through and said to Sean's point like we did this many you know robocalls about this we did this many groups blah blah blah blah and it took us this long I realized that all districts are different but I think that it would be helpful if you had a few actual um examples from like colleagues from around the state to >> share and expend I can and that's I think that's part of the RP folks going to come and present to you what they've done in the have and you're going to probably hear six months is what folks going to want to do. Um but I know our community I mean we just completed an RFP and
123we had a group come back after working for six months and we had a lot more we wanted to know. So I I yeah we're going to be between six and month and a year but I'll bring some examples >> and and looking at the refined deliverables we have to see well what what is the outcome I'm looking for and stakeholder meetings and sessions and then we have a good um turnout with even these community conversations and that was given notice. So, um, there's going to be some indepth discussion that we had to have with caregivers and community members and staff, students. >> So, I my recommendation is to change to send to we're going to you're going to send us a a third version of this if I answer correctly. If there are any
124language correction suggestions, uh, send them immediately back to Dr. Brown or Dr. Liy. In the meantime, we have some idea of some rough dates to try to put move some things forward. We'll wait to see if those dates are appropriate given where we are in the academic calendar year. Um, and have you uh report back to >> Yeah, with your permission, we'll plug in some dates. >> Yep. >> And y'all can say yes or no. >> Yep. Does that work for folks? Fantastic. All right. Our next agenda item, we're good to move on. Next agenda for this evening is uh the budget developments uh agenda item accept. >> We've been looking forward to this one. Thank you. Um and this is a continuation of our conversations. Um we always say that budget is a year
125round conversation and it continues to be and we've had some significant conversation the most recent board meetings and committee meetings including the most recent finance committee meeting which you're going to hear a lot of the same information tonight. um a lot of macro information and some get into some micro as well. At our last board meeting, you asked that we bring back three options based on uh where we want to see the levy go and we have paired three approaches to the budget with some hope for some discussion tonight and in a minute you're going to also see what kind of timeline we want to be on so that we can get this thing adopted and in front of our community. So that's the initial framing. It's also going to be different tonight because we're
126going to present it in a different format than what we've done in the past. I think it's an enhancement to what we've done and share with the community in the past. I would love your feedback on it. It's going to be using a newer technology tool and we have a fancy new business newer business official Dr. Lisa is going to join to walk us through some of the things. I think you can put it up on our screen. So, what you're going to be getting will be this budget. We've been asked often what is the budget? Can I hold on to it? Um, we think this may be the best iteration of uh giving someone the budget that we've ever had. It's no longer this long binder or something we could never print. But now,
127Dom, if you could walk us through >> the the the tool and our presentation of the numbers and what what we're recommending to the board. >> Thank you, Dr. Brown. Slightly out of character in practice. I'm going to stand and deliver. I just want to make sure I'm following sit. That was good. Uh, so as Dr. Brown mentioned we are sharing the budget in a slightly different way than what we normally do. We refer to this as the budget book and the reason why we did this is a we want to continue with the level of transparency that we've had over decades. We also want to make sure that we provide this in a linear approach and we tell a story about the budget. So the ultimate goal is to make this as easy as
128possible for folks to understand and uh ingest. So bear with me, we'll kind of go through this. This will be available online and it's now one link. So you click on the link, you can kind of go through the whole story and you can see this for yourself. The way that this is designed, just so everybody's sort of aware, it starts at the the 30,000 foot level, this grandiose big big number picture, and it kind of works its way down into the the granular level. So the reason why I'm standing delivered, it's a lot of small figures here. So if there's any questions, point it out and I'll I'll try and get you. So first, this starts at the financial section. There's a whole lot before that folks that are interested. everything from our mission
129and vision effort. So, we'll start with the first page here. This is just a summary of our revenue and expenditures over several years. Just shows from 2024 through 2027 where what we uh anticipated our revenues would be, our actual revenues, and what our actual expenditures were. And if folks mouse over this when you're online, it'll show you the actual numbers. So, we'll go ahead and progress through that. So, we'll start. And we've talked about this before. This hasn't really changed. This is a summary of our revenues. Kind of where we are at this point here. Uh this is a you're kind of used to this story at this point. Our uh our the largest part of our revenues about 68 almost 68% of it is the local tax share. And if if I'm using the
130there's a 4.18% tax cap figure that I'm using because it is the one figure that we have. It's definitive. It hasn't been decided, but I'm using that because that is the calculated figure we have at this point. So you'll hear me talk about that at the end. We'll talk about other options, but I'll use that right now. At the 4.18 figure, the tax levy would be almost 120 million. It's 119.8 million. And again, that's about 67.5%. State is uh calculated at almost 42 million, 41.99. Uh that's almost 24% of our overall uh revenue picture. Our reserves and fund balance, we typically roll that over from year to year. uh our current use of that is about 8.5 million which almost 5% of our revenue and we have other revenue as well that figure is about
1317.3 million. The bulk of that is our B3 fund and there's some other uh some other revenue built into that as well. If you can scroll down just a little bit we can see we break that down so that that can be explained a little bit further. So line by line in terms of what our revenue looks like. So you can say our state aid is our foundation age the largest piece we have there and so on our other revenue breaks it down a little bit the some you know funding that we receive from other sources uh and our totals are there at the very bottom our use of reserves and fund balance so I'll pause here for a moment any questions about our revenue I realize it's the third time we've been through this
132some iteration but this has not changed Very good. All right, we'll move on. So, the state obligates us to report our budget for the most part and what's referred to as a three-part budget. So, we'll start with this and then we'll kind of work our way down. I'll show you the uh proposed budget in several different formats. So, we'll start with the three-part budget. And this is broken up into into the program component, capital component, and the administrative component component. The program component is our largest section for the most part. is what supports instruction. So everything from teachers teach teachers salaries and equipment and so on. Uh our capital component is what keeps the buildings running, energy and so on. And administrative component is the uh district management and that includes schoolboard expenses as well.
133Uh what we like to see here is this sort of breakdown. You have the largest component of course being the program that in the current year is about 74.54%. If you look at the proposed just mouse over that real quick at 7 74.28% just a slight drop in that uh the how do you mouse over darkly people that's the capital component so the current year it's about 24.6 million which is 14.6% as opposed to the proposed which is 26.4 4 million that's 14.9 and the last is the administrative component. In the current year it's 18.3 million at 10.86%. And we see a slight decrease in the administrative components for the proposed budget. It's 19.2 million at 10.82%. And then if we scroll down a little bit we show that in a line by line format
134what those expenditures look like. And what we do here is it shows it in those three different components. the current year and the proposed budget here for 2627 and how those are broken down into the three sections questions with this. So what you'll see next is different ways of explaining the proposed budget and different ways of of doing it but uh this is what we normally have to report. This is what the state requires. So we'll break that down a little bit further if you wouldn't mind. So this is by object summary. Uh this is just kind of one way of looking at the proposed budget just in big terms. Obviously our salaries and benefits that's the largest part of our budget. You can see that clearly here. And then it breaks down even further
135into the different areas. Our contractual obligations our borrowing we talked about that we talk about capital uh capital project and so on transfer supplies and equipment and it breaks it down into those figures there. Again this is at 30,000 ft. And then we can break that down even further. You can see that in a line by line format. So I'll have you scroll down even further. It's the sort of the same thing. Here's the line by line for that for those elements. And it shows you where we currently are in budget, what the proposed increase is and the percentage of some of those questions here. I'm sure you've got all this counting down and you're good to go. We're all set. Very good. All right, we'll scroll down. This just shows the current budget at
136169 I'll have back to your at 169 031 and the proposed budget is 177.6 million and the proposed increase is 5.09%. And without getting into too much detail what I can share with you is that the overall increase is primarily due to inflationary uh rise the cost of living has gone up a bit energy costs and so on. our contractual obligations certainly plays a role in that and also we're seeing some of our grants fall off and the certain programs are now being carried out. So things like our literacy program that's part of our budget. So again we'll scroll down a little bit further just a different way of explaining that in state area and you'll see it's the same thing that's just explained a little bit differently and broken down at a slightly different
137level. So instruction costs uh are distributed benefits and general support and so on. It makes more sense if we scroll down doing some fast forward. So stop me clarified. Again just another way of breaking that down and we can scroll down a little bit further as far as we go. >> That's it. We don't go to the next page. And so this is each of those areas within that state within the state explanation. So again, general support and it shows each of the items in the general support area and it's a line by line budget from unit the larger picture of that and we if we can go right straight through to the next level. This is general support shows those. Thank you. The instruction expenditures and this is by function. Again, it shows the
138differences in where we are currently and what the proposed budget is and percent increase for those particular areas under instruction. Okay, we'll move on to the next. The next is just a transportation cost. kind of put those together to show you that figure overall. Move on to the next one. I had to ask about this one today. It's called community service. It's actually $13,000 for a lifeguard that was used. Interesting. And the last one is our distributor expenses. So, this is things like state retirement fund, social security, workers comp. This is where our uh our debt service is located and so on. So that's approximately currently 55 million. The proposed is 565 and it shows you what makes up that that budget difference. Go on to the next. And here's the important part. So currently
139our tax levy in the current year is 115 million just slightly over that. Our increase last year to this year was 3.76%. So the proposed figure right now at the tax cap shows that we have a levy increase of about $4.8 million and that would have no impact on our fund balance. That's what we project at this point. If we were at the tax cap again, no uh impact on fund balance to reserves. We just showed a couple of different iterations here at 3.18% if we decided to use that or 2.18. So we if we did go with 3.18 there would be a slight impact on fund balance. uh about $1.1 million in increased use of fund balancing reserves. And if that were dropped down to 2.18, they have about a $2.3 million increased use
140of fund balance. So something to consider uh they're looking at particular proposals and where we want to land with the tax level. And at the bottom here, I just put sometimes we get questions about how do we come up with the tax cap and it's a calculation New York State gives us and we plug in certain figures. There's a sort of a misunderstanding because New York State says you can't go over 2% and that's not actually true. Uh you can 2% is the cap by law, but there are exclusions that we add. So the exclusion we add in this case is our capital exclusions which are about $9.6 million. When you add that in, that brings the levy to about 119 million, which is 4.4% difference. I know I did that in extremely fast fashion,
141but if there are any questions, I'd be happy to address those. Dr. Brown. >> Oh, thank you. Um, we think we put together a funding request that will meet the needs of our learners. Um, no significantly new initiatives and and no significant cuts to anything we're doing currently. um we won't use that term roll over budget ever again, but I hope folks do understand we're maintaining our program programmatic offerings um for the most part and uh you know thinking about that tax cap we've been there picked up a lot of budgets here and I've been asked by the board uh to do it within the tax cap and we've done that. Um we used to talk about we wanted to live in a 2% world even though we never really had a budget that only
142went up 2% year to years. Um, I would say now we revised that statement. We're probably in a four or 5% world when we think about all the inflationary costs, everything that everything that's coming at us. And I think we have a budget and a funding request that represents the kind of fiscal reality we're in. Um, tonight we just need to know uh if you wish for us to continue with the budget at 4.18% tax levy increase or to make some adjustments to that. And we gave you two other options. We gave you one at 2.18 and one at 3.18 and those other options. This has us going into what I can say publicly is a healthy reserve to uh make up the difference. But our suggestion would be if we don't go to the
143cap, we use our reserves and fund balances to bridge that gap and not do any FTE adjustments of >> you said keeping programs for the most part. Can you expand on them for the most part? Well, every year there are some minimal adjustments. If we cannot uh fill a position, for example, that would be an FTP that was not filled and that may and sometimes that have an impact on program offering. So, I never say we're going to do the exact same thing next year that we did this year. Um, so I will correct that going forward because I can see that that was something that someone thought, but yeah, >> that's the management rights. We're always making adjustments um to our programs based on enrollment and requests, etc. To that point, I I'm the
144one that made the mistake and used the term rollover and realizing how inappropriate that is. Um and wondering if you would speak to um program evaluation. So, not just we didn't fill an FTE, but we realize that we need more in this area or we may not need something in this area. How are those decisions made to maintain? Right? Because we're we're talking about additional funds, but we may move classrooms around or we may move transportation around. who may be making those kinds of decisions. >> I think those decisions are made every day at every level. Um whether it's supplies that PE folks are purchasing at the classroom level or andor making a request to the building principal um andor making a request to us for an emergency up in our budget. We assume we
145I think we budget for four emergency. Uh so if there's a class size that we think is a little too large or we want to make sure we maintain a program and a particular building even though we don't have the enrollment at the time we can make those kind of decisions at the central level. So those those are management decisions I think are made at all levels every day um based on the monies that are available to us. >> I have to always ask the crystal ball question. >> I regret mentioning crystal ball. No, but I mean I mean there are always things that we don't foresee. So particularly, you know, oil prices skyrocketing came out of what felt like nowhere. And I mean I imagine that that has an impact on not just transportation
146costs but energy costs. >> Absolutely. >> So I mean when we're thinking about how unpredictable things are right now, I I think about safety. So in that regard, >> sure. >> I mean, I don't even know if I have a question. I just feel like we have to >> I I will I think I understand. So >> yeah, >> you know, particularly when it comes to energy costs, we try to have the foresight to look ahead and not assume, you know, that it's going to continue to go down. So energy has traditionally cycled and so we kind of take that into consideration when we plan the budget. this does take that into consideration. >> Okay. >> And let me also say we we're talking about 170 plus million dollars. Um and those kind of spikes
147we should you should be expecting your superintendent, your business official and the team to manage those kinds of spikes in any particular area with that kind of money and the kind of fun balances we have. Now there are some districts near us where their budgets are a fraction of ours. Something like this can really impact um their day-to-day operation. But we're just in a because of the scale, we're able to accommodate some of those needs and shifts more. >> It also speaks to the the importance of keeping a healthy fund balance in case we have an issue. That's really what that can be used for. >> Speaking of which, and watching education institutions both at the K12 and secondary level try to negotiate a very difficult fiscal situation. Uh I am as one board member
148of the belief that you have a fund balance for a reason and that there are times in which it's necessary to be able to mitigate the costs to taxpayers. So while we can go up to 4.18 as one board member I don't think I would recommend that. I would recommend because we do have a healthy fund balance and it wouldn't have a significant worry. It wouldn't be like we went from you know a healthy fund balance to now we're in trouble. And I understand that those costs repeat year over year over year. Um, but I would be much more inclined to thinking about a 3.18 increase to the levy as opposed to a 4.18. That would seem a much better use of the fiscal health that we put the school district in to be able
149to use some of those funds to mitigate the cost uh to our local property tax. >> Yeah, I just like to double down what Dr. Rival said and I said this, you know, last week at the the finance meeting. Uh, in terms of um expenditures, I'm solid what we have. I think that's that's a lot to me. The critical point here is where we're going to land on the uh revenue side, particularly on the tax cap number. I like the scenarios, the high, medium, and low. What I like to see to the best you can is what you think to be the most likely five-year projection on the unassigned fund balance in each of those scenarios. Um because what I'd like to do is try to bring the the uh the tax levy down as
150much as possible, but to thread the needle and make sure that we're leaving enough in the unassigned fund balance and particularly that we're not affecting allocations from the unassigned fund balance to any of the reserve funds particularly because we have reserve funds that have obligations for example to employee healthcare and so on. So just a little sensitivity analysis on kind of what's the relationship between you know each basis point you reduce the tax levy and what that looks like for the fund balance and reserve fun projection. >> Sure absolutely >> I agree with Garrett because I feel like otherwise it feels very arbitrary trying to decide like well do you want to dip in one million do you want to dip two million like how would we how would we decide? Um the other thing
151I guess I would want to raise is just that the if we take some of the budget out of the fund balance it will affect next year's ask to the to how much we can raise you know our levy. So that's just something else to consider that if we take you know I I'm not even sure which way I feel right now but I'm just pointing that out that if we do go into the unbalance and we ask for fewer dollars this year and next year it's 3% then it's 3% fewer dollars. So it's just another thing to consider. Adam, I agree. I think the one thing we have to consider is we also have been asking folks to be efficient with the use of expenditures. So, it's possible that while we may have an
152assigned projected expenditure >> that we still could come in under that as well, right? So it's not it's not an automatic but but I completely agree what you're saying right that it's it has an impact for every year moving forward as well and we have to be cognizant of that and given our past you know audit as well there are ways in which we don't have to spend all the money that we've allocated or we won't spend we don't build a position >> something else happen maybe we get a new grant coming in right there's other ways in which that that revenue side can increase or hopefully maybe our expenditures can decrease as You mentioned >> lotto. I don't know. Can we play lotto? >> There's a school district. >> I play you mention um
153that one of the programs um the grant is no longer here. So therefore, we're going into operations or administrative funds or >> Sure. So I'm glad you asked that. So, one of the issues that a lot of districts have run into is is the legacy cost associated with CO grants. And so, for example, one of the contracts that we were part of was a three-year term contract. So, even though the CO fund ended, we had paid for the three-year term contract at that time and that three years has now ended, but it's a successful program. I think literacy was one of the one of the programs that we're talking about. So, to continue that, it has to become part of the budget now. So, we had to increase the budget in those areas. be in
154the instructional area for the most part. Long answer to your question. >> I'm sure this was discussed at finance and my apologies for not taking a look at it. Can you remind me of our calendar between uh Oh, and we have a slide. >> Yeah, we were waiting. >> I wish we had this conversation in advance. >> Yeah. So, we do have a what's not on here is we have a facilities and finance committee meeting on April 9th. So, I can share those projections at that. February and then on the 14th we would have to adopt uh the proposed budget and the property tax report card >> and that would be our next board meeting >> correct >> or a special meeting in the book as you >> and what is the yes I did
155propose that uh without talking about it I'm just trying to think about um I didn't propose it I said come consider this what is the date by which we have to the absolute last date by which we have to adopt a budget >> it's that week it's like April 17th or something, right? >> Yeah, it is 17th. >> It is that that week. >> It's that week. So, we have our board meeting on Tuesday and in the past we've had this conversation where we had a Wednesday night meeting or Thursday night meeting of that week. So just for or the reason why I said that the possibility is there's been times where we've had a board meeting on a Tuesday to more thoroughly ask the questions be able to digest the information and then either
156that Wednesday or Thursday was the adoption vote a single agenda item for the adoption but it gave people time so they didn't feel like they have to vote right then and there at that meeting. So that's also an opportunity or possibility to make sure that folks are comfortable with their vote no matter which way they're going to vote on the >> and professor back in the past you've turned that finance meeting into a work session a regular board meeting so possibly could be April 9th be a board meeting work session where we >> yeah so it's 9 14th um you know I'd like to see tonight be the meeting where we really try to dial in exactly what number we want. Uh and then you have to give members between the 9th and the 14th
157to you look at the data and then you hope they have a vote on the 14th. Would that work? >> Um yeah, I mean you talk to board members. The 9th is a Thursday. Yeah. >> Um and in for the way in which we're currently progressing this could change as well giving some projections right sensitivities. We're not talking about significant shifts necessarily in the budget. We'd be talking about what lever we can move to be able to achieve a particular budget number and the impact on the global tax. That's my understanding. Yeah, that is our recommendation. Yes. thoughts, reactions. Should we try to encourage folks to attend on the 9th to be able to feel like we have more time? It's a Thursday. I think it's currently scheduled. I just lost it. >> Yeah, it
158is scheduled. What time? >> 5:00 p.m. It's scheduled for from 5 to 6:30 is the finance facilities committee meeting on the ground. I mean, we'd love to have folks come, but I I again, I don't want to speak to my colleague, but I think we could try to have the finance committee make a recommendation at the end of that meeting. We if we arrive at consensus that the the committee would recommend a number at the end of the meeting of the 9th, >> we can do that, but it would be good if everyone comes if they ask the specific questions and >> but then procedurally only the finance committee is going to put it forward. So I mean if we all attend that meeting still three members of the finance committee will put it forward
159to the board. >> No I think it's like a policy or any else it's a recommendation recommendation that's a the board is the only accord with the board is the only that we have right the finance committee make a recommendation we like thank you for your recommendation. No, >> let me clarify. It could also be a regular board meeting. >> You could just call it that and have it at least there and do it as if it was work. >> Yeah, >> that's what we've done in the past. That was the work session format but no anticipated vote. doesn't have to be a voting item on the agenda but discussion >> and just so I'm clear on the purpose I'm sure this I apologize but so the purpose is for us to get all of
160the questions out so that on the actual date where we must vote it's more a single item just and if that's the case then that makes a lot of >> we are time bound and so getting all the questions out sooner rather than later is essential uh because we will have to have a vote either on the 14th or the 16th just be adding additional meetings. But yes, the idea would be if folks are amendable or their schedules permit to maybe turn that April 9th into a board meeting and focus solely one agenda item. So focus solely on the budget and ask questions, getting additional information. We can also ask for additional information in advance of that as well. and then on the 14th to be ready to adopt. And there is some benefit to
161adopting even a couple days early. As you all know, the turnaround time is pretty tight in terms of the budget mail or giving things out to local media, right? There's a couple of very strict deadlines that have to be met to be able to get number out. >> And what we're asking questions about essentially is what you have walked us through this. That's my that's my go-to document. And also uh we'll provide a projection ask if if a three-year projection would be sure okay concerns about beyond that >> and we don't have to wait for the nine for that to come to we do that. >> Sure. >> There might be some. >> So with the budget book since that's new um did you have to put in historical information too and how far back?
162That's a great question. Three years. >> Three or four years. Yeah. I have to go hard concentrate on the last two. I think it was like three or four years. >> One of the reasons why I'm confident we can give you a three-year projection. >> Is there a plan to push this budget book out to folks prior to its adoption? Like is it in a draft forum? >> Yes, it is in a draft form and I assume the link would be available after tonight's presentation. Again, it's a living >> death. I mean, sorry. >> In the past, the board would had to adopt before we real pushed it out to the entire community. So, once we pushed that out, that is the budget that we are asking them to vote on. We can do it
163both ways, but I just want to remind you of how we done in the past. Um, once we push it out publicly, >> you would adopt on the 14th, the 15th, the community would know everything and we would get the mailer out. I would be hesitant to put something out before the border, >> but the mailer doesn't go out before the end of April because other things have to be >> Right. Right. >> So, this is sort of like the mailer too, but it's >> But it'll beible. >> Yeah. >> Additional well, additional questions, comments, concerns, and then let's see if we can make a decision on or at least a tenative decision on the 9th. can also run a poll afterwards if folks don't have access to their calendars now or don't know that
164they can commit to the night now. >> I can be on the night. So, >> so we'll have a board meeting on Monday. I'm seeing you shaking your head. >> I I'm out of town. >> Oh, so if we were to have we still have a facilities committee, right? We're essentially replacing that meeting with a board meeting. >> That's that's one recommendation >> because we've already wrote it on the language for the capital project and the proposition. >> We have. >> Yeah. >> So, you know, we're just looking at a recommendation on the night. So, you know, all the folks who come better, but it can't, you know, the vote would not take place for the 14th. >> Yes. >> Any additional that that part we'll follow up with via email or have Emily reach
165out to folks and see if we'll keep it as a finance facilities committee meeting or we'll turn it into a a board work board work work board work board work board work board work board session both have been effective in the past and the reality is what we call it as a matter of still be public notice and still right still be able to have a just be a different forum >> the final vote will be on the 14th regardless of what we do >> that's correct that's the current uh calendar and if you have additional questions or particular talking points. I would um reach out to both uh Dr. Liy and Dr. Brown. I would include both of them on there. >> Questions, thoughts, reactions? >> Well, there's always a level of uncertainty in
166future, but looking at what other grants that we might not be able to access, >> right, >> that we currently have doing this >> sure projection. I I don't foresee any issues right now. We have our title grants and our federal grants. I I don't foresee those going anywhere. So, the co grants were kind of a one time. >> And we were all sweating here this time last year because that federal grant was being questioned. >> We're talking about a significant amount of money. It impacted everything from our negotiation strategy >> to what we were putting together as a budget. So, >> I don't know if that was true. Um it will it does raise the question about at some point time in our way about um a grant writer that we had discussed at
167one time as well and that's I'd like to revisit that conversation when the time comes at the meeting as well. >> Uh hearing no other major issues we'll continue on with the agenda. Are there any other business items that the board should be addressing? I had one quick question that came up from a couple of community members I think because today is nice. Um I would just love to know about air conditioning. How do I find out about air conditioning in the building? I was reminded also because of the safety plan and extreme heat. I remember last summer or spring or whatever it was there were like some extreme heat waves and I feel like people were writing to me saying that some of the buildings did not have adequate air. I'm just curious. I
168don't think I've been part of conversations about that, but are they happening? And if so, I just love >> they happen every year. Um, and it's an unfortunate reality when you build a California style high school in the middle of the southern tier. Uh, I would recommend if that's a possibility to include as part of the finance that meeting on the 9th to be able to provide some additional information about what has been done and in particular to go back and take a look at what the actual statute says. it is a little bit more complicated than what people feel right >> the statute >> on extreme heat in particular right about what steps need to be taken or what action steps need to be taken so um I first I would recommend reading the
169safety plan and seeing that section first and foremost um and then realizing that's as part of the capital project that is one of the questions that are being asked about how do we address some of the HVAC in the high school I jump in here for folks who are concerned Please, the capital project is critical to help mitigate some of the concern. >> Well, the people >> for what it's worth, they folks weren't reaching out about the high school. I think they were reaching out about other schools. >> Yeah, I get it. So, the capital project will have a lot uh for not not every school, but building >> I think I'd say it different. >> I haven't sat through hours of construction management meetings with Lifter Fox and Mr. Levi. Let's get title what
170we're asking for because this could be a five hour conversation or 40 minutes. So let's we say hback. >> I think that's probably what I was going to say is that for some retrofitting buildings, right? I mean it's not an easy process. >> Yeah. I mean you can bring it to facilities if there's like specific concerns too, >> but and or specific schools. >> Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. And we could also bring it to per communication protocol too to have individuals move it up within their respective areas to where they whereby they will eventually connect with Dan. >> I just give them straight to Dan. >> I'm just kidding. >> I have more questions but I'm sure they're for another. So thank you for thanks for >> and that is it and we will bring
171the meeting to a close. Thank you all.