001Fantastic. Thank you everybody for joining us on a special meeting this evening of April 22nd, 2024. That's exactly what I said. Karen, reminiscing. Uh we will uh begin um with uh a few items on our agenda. Um and the first item on our agenda is the TST uh Boseies uh budget vote. Um, I want to remind folks before we begin that this is um I I don't know if it will be the culmination of a long process, but it's part of a long process at this point in time. Uh, folks are probably aware that the ICSD board of education and admin and teachers and other unions engage in a year of long budget process. Uh, this year was a little shorter given what took place last year. So, it's more like a 10-month budget process.
002Uh but between finance committees, board meetings, uh discussions, conversations, this is where we find ourselves. Um many folks seemed like they were possibly ready to vote at the last meeting and we decided to hold on to give people additional time to make sure they could continue to review questions, ask questions, get information answered. And so this is where we find ourselves. I say all that as a caveat only being in case there is not significant dialogue this evening and there very well may be. I do not want folks to mistake that there has been significant dialogue, debate, conversation and that may continue as well. But I want to make sure we set the context and I would ask anybody both present and uh watching online or watching the archive YouTube to go to the ICS
003budget development page to find additional minutes of meetings to find uh projections both revenue as well as expenditures um all of those things. And so, uh, the first agenda item comes to us from a presentation that was on February the 11th, I want to say, of 2025, if I'm correct. Uh, and that's where Superintendent Lily Tala and Assistant Superintendent Dave Parsons came to speak to us about ICSD's portion, some one portion of the um, TST Boseies budget and uh, we are asked to vote on it, I want to say by the 25th. And so, here's where we find ourselves. see how the board feels. Uh folks may also notice we're without a couple of board members. We've been in contact with all board members, may read some things from some board members as well. Uh
004but here we are as a current nine member constructed, eight member constructed board with five board members present. But we do at the moment. With all that explained, agenda item 2.1, we can entertain motions and then debate in dialogue. I move to approve the 2025 2026 TST Bosey's tenative administration budget as presented in the amount of 6,268,624 whereas the Tomkins Senica Tyogga Board of Cooperative Educational Services has provided copies of the tenative administration capital and program budgets for 2025 2026 to members of the board in in advance of the annual meeting. And whereas the board of cooperative educational services is made available, the tenative budgets at the annual meeting of members of the boards of education and school trustees of the component school districts on April 2nd, 2025 as required by education law 1950. Now
005therefore, be it resolved that the Ithaca City School District hereby approves the tenative administrative budget as presented in the amount of 6,268,624. And be it further resolved that the administrative budget may be increased during the school year upon the affirmative vote of all of the component school districts. Such sum shall be added to the administrative budget and shall be considered part of the final administrative budget approved by the component school districts at its April meeting and adopted by the board of cooperative educational services on or before May 15, 2025. Moved by Jill, second by Emily. Thank you very much. questions, debate, discussion, conversations. That was quite a mouthful. Thank you. Thank you. Very well done. Dom, do you want to tell us anything about this that we haven't already discussed or Oh, I think you
006covered it all on that. That was impressive. So, it's quite a bit. So just um TST, Tommpkins, Senica, Tioa comprises of nine school districts and where ETHA is one of them and um where I believe Ithaca has the largest number of students who participate in any of the Boseies programs. They have career tech and a host of other programming that we have students at. um looking at the budget numbers and we were as Sean had stated uh presentation was done back in February and their budget from last year to this year there's an increase of 1.95%. on page 13 the document which we also have I think we have a copy of there is a copy additional questions debate conversations hearing none I'll call the question all in favor of the motion motion passes thank
007you very much and thank you to Boseis for all that you Uh agenda item 2.2 is budget discussion. Um this is to have a discussion prior to looking at the 2.3 and 2.4 resolutions. The main task of the board this evening is to officially adopt a budget as well as to adopt the property tax report card. Uh both those will need to be sent out to local media as required by law within the next day or so. So there uh not there is time and this is the date that we set according to our budget calendar for some time. So by way of budget discussion we will open the floor unless Dr. Brown there's anything that we need to be doing uh on your end. I think that's it. So board members, any conversation about
008the budget, questions about the budget that's been presented, concerns, dialogue, all your work. in the interests of um not necessarily having a long discussion but just so that we'll have some I'll I'll say that um this disc this particular budget has been the subject of some discussion. I think a lot of us myself included have been focused on the end result which is how much of an increase in property taxes uh would be happening. And I'm I'm pleased to be able to say that it's I think an impressive job has been done with holding down um costs and so that we can stay within the property tax cap. Um and I think that will be a relief to many of my fellow homeowners in the city and in the school district. I um I didn't
009you know I went by this line by line and unlike some previous years I didn't have any particular concerns um and as it is part of our charge as board of education members to present a budget I'm happy to present this one. Thank you Dr. Chair. Any other board members? We've previously discussed at our last voting meeting, we went into depth about the budget discussion and said and Dr. Brown had stated that it's a rollover budget and we saw the impact last year and not that we want to repeat and we're still we know we're waiting the state's budget um that hasn't been finalized as of yet. So there's always a lot of moving targets, yet there's flexibility if certain things need to happen within this budget that our administrators are tasked with. So I
010am definitely in favor of adopting this budget. actually wait till the end. So yeah, well go ahead. Um Dr. Brown, uh before we vote on the budget, I think that we um we have not done a lot of talking about the district's goals and how they inform this budget. I know that it's a rollover budget, but even from last year's budget and where we landed, I I know that you are advocating for this budget because I I assume that that means that you feel like this budget is still holding true to your goals um and to the outcomes that you want to see for our students. And I would appreciate if you could just say a few words about how you feel assured about that and how it how it relates to the budget. Thanks
011for that wonderful question. And um I was hoping not to speak after Jill. Dr. Trip says impressive and uh no major concerns. Um and thank you for your you always going through line by line. Um so when you said you did that um it makes me nervous. Um and though also happy. Yeah. This budget, our current district goal speaks to um a culture of excellence um equity and excellence. Um maintaining um the excellence in a school district where academic achievement for all young people irrespective of their cultural identity, backgrounds, uh zip codes, you name it. Uh we are here to achieve at the highest level for all. And this budget does support those goals still. everything from our enrichment programs, our co-curricular offerings, our still small class sizes, our multiple offerings, both um at the
012highest level AP and honors levels, um our robotics club offerings, um I just so many things that we offer as an organization, as a school district with this $169 million funding request to provide an excellent opportunity for all young people. So, excellence and equity is is a goal of the board and district and this budget supports that. Um, communication enhanced communication. Um, I've been at this table where we had no budget or no line item for communication efforts yet in a community that expects the utmost and the best communication services. So, this budget u while it's still lean from my perspective, it does provide an opportunity for us to engage in two-way dialogue with our community. As an example, on Thursday, we will be administering a goals and priorities survey that will go out to
013every family in our school district um with hopes that f folks will give us some qualitative and quantitative uh information that we can act on immediately and over the next couple of years. Um those surveys don't they they don't come for free. We have to engage with strategic partners. We have to have an excellent staff and some of those members are here today. Um the board summaries that go out now, I mean, I don't want to I kind of need to knock on wood. It's been months since I heard uh that word transparency or lack of that from the board of education and administration. Now I know people may be saying it but from my perspective we have done a lot to share a lot of information about our budget development process. Um meeting summaries
014um we live streamed better more so than any other school district I found. Those things don't come for free. So anyway um as I'm thinking about the three goals excellence and equity communication efforts and professor you may be remind me if I'm leaving out that third one. Which one am I leaving out? Am I leaving out a goal that we have right now in terms of our teachers will be empowerment? Yeah. And our professional development offerings continue to I'm thinking about Miss Grover. Um we have a heat map that shows all the professional development offerings we provide to our educators and how many folks are accessing those. Um so we have a very robust offering um during the school year after school and during the summer. Um, and again another program too, I I've also
015been at this table where we've had conversations about not being able to offer anything to support our young people and for educators to engage in the summer. Those are tough years for us. I can say now that we have a after we have a summer program that is one of the best I've ever seen that engages over 400 young people and we have educators who are here in our buildings throughout the summer daily getting paid to do work to develop their craft. All this is embedded in our budget. So, while we've had to make some difficult decisions over the last year, um I still think we're funded very well. Um and we're in a good position to meet the needs of our community. And also recognize the fiscal and social political climate that we're in.
016And as a team, it keeps us up at night to think about how we plan for the un the unthinkable or the things we cannot predict. and things have happened over the last couple weeks that I would have never predicted happening with the fiscal outlook in large education institutions in this community. That is something that this team and I have been planning for too if that were to come. So anyway, I hope that helps. Goals, district goals and also planning for future goals that I hope I know we all engage in conversations about. Thanks. Just ask uh one question. Um I guess last year something I brought up um in some offline discussions but um last year um when we didn't maybe get the budget that we were hoping for initially um we had to
017make some cuts um to some of the services that we offered as a district um you know one one of the cuts that I noticed came from some extra help that might be available uh to students after school. think sometimes it was called homework club. Um that was just kind of one example of something that we weren't able to to fund um this year. Um some of that extra help I know has been made up um over the summer in some programs. Um, and I'm I'm curious to know that the way that the budget is structured, if we're interested in coming up with some ways to enhance some uh extra help for students who might be struggling, for example, um would there be any room in this budget to add some services if that was
018the the will of the board and seeming important? Um is that something that can come back in? And I know that just to add, I know that um when some of the schools that have had some targeted improvement programs, there is some grant money from the state to go into those uh to go into those programs, but say there were areas that that weren't included in those particular schools. Um is there some wiggle room in the budget to address some of those issues? Another wonderful question and thanks for asking. I think there's always an opportunity for this board and our team to provide support for young people when and if we need it. And that has evolved. Um, as I'm thinking about the homework club, that was not as much of a cut as a
019reallocation or evolution of what we were doing to provide additional support for young people. Um, our summer enrichment opportunities, our summer programming is an evolution of what we used to offer as homework club. There were some logistical concerns and challenges with offering a club after school that competed with other organizations in our community, athletics, co-curricular. There were some challenges with doing it in a way that we felt was getting us the best outcomes. So, that evolved. So, I think that's something we're always looking at. And yes, there are budgetary implications, but it's not it's not a budget decision. and through curriculum committee and through board deliberations, if there's ever a a wish or a conversation for us to look at programs or reallocate or rethink, that's the work we do. So, I I'm trying to
020disconnect that homework club and what we do to provide additional support from young people to a budget cut or a lack thereof because I think we have enough money to do it all. It's just more about how we evolve and allocate if that makes some sense. Thank you. I'd like to remind folks again um an extremely difficult process last year. Not the goal is not to remind us or bring it back up against last year, but it's also a reality. And so there were some difficult decisions that were required between May and the revote in June. Um and some things may have been unanticipated because of the reality of also rushing with the inability to plan to try to get some things in place. what we're talking about. And I know none of us like
021the term rollover budget because it's not an accurate description because there will be evolution, there will be change. Uh but the idea is that we're not eliminating programs at this point in time and we're not eliminating positions, which I can tell you from our two other institutions of higher education, vastly different at a K12 public institution. Uh that is not the reality either one of them find themselves in. And so to be in this position to be uh to spend the time that we've spent to financially plan long term uh also feels good to me as well Dr. trip to go through line by line and be like, I understand some of these things. Of course, details you have some more questions about, but those are things that we can always work out. Uh, but
022it seems like a significant amount of thought and care to be able to make sure that we're maintaining programs and we're maintaining, as we say, the largest portion of our budget, which is people, uh, and make sure we we maintain that. Um, I do want to clarify one thing, and this is just a reminder more for the community than anybody else. Uh the budget that's being presented is without question about a superintendent and administrative team's goals, but it's also about the board goals and expectations. At the end of the day, this is the board's budget. That's why it comes to us. We vote it and we put it forward. We cannot at any point in time ask the community to support the budget once we adopt it. Let's be clear about the language, right? But
023we would not be putting forward a budget that we didn't think was in the best interest of young people has been my expectation from working with from the amount of time and energy that we give. We would not be putting forward a budget that we didn't think was um one sustainable uh and two would be in the best interest of young people. But I also I want to keep clear that you know this budget also reflects a number of priorities that we have some that we'll continue to discuss things like additional support and I think I wrote down and Adam you know unified this conversation multiple times that we're always looking for ways to enhance student success right I mean that's that's the nature of the work um and there'll be some other things that
024are smaller scale that we'll have to have some conversations about so I see these as sort of shared goals or uh a collaborative process um and uh I'm very much interested and how we keep the level of success we've been able to maintain even during a very significant budget year this year that has caused us to readjust and we will continue to readjust and hoping that there aren't significant readjustments coming our way that are outside of our control uh as a board or as the reality as a taxing entity for for being real. Um, and I'm also, and I know I kept saying it last year, I'm also very mindful of the uh amount of weight we place on homeowners um to help support this budget that uh as someone who experiences that as well,
025um I'm I'm aware of that. And I would recommend again speaking of which I recommend folks go back and take a look at the conversation uh that the finance committee had with uh Jay Franklin which I also believe may have been on February 11th or thereabouts as well but check the February meeting for for that as well. So when I go through the budget um of course there are things that I would like to add things that I would like to change. Um, and relatively speaking, uh, I have faith in the process that we've gone through and I am in support of where we we landed at this point in time as one board. Additional discussion, conversations, questions. Should we continue on with the agenda? Yes. Uh, fantastic. Then the next agenda item is agenda
026item 2.3, a resolution to adopt the 2025 2026 ICSD budget. And we will entertain motions. All right. I move to approve the final budget for the Ithaca City School District for the fiscal year of 2025 2026 in the amount of 169,31,619. Second. Moved by Adam, second by Jill. Conversation, discussion, debate. And if I can, board colleagues, I'd like to read two short statements from two board members that were not able to attend but would like to have their voice added as part of the minutes um for today. Um and I believe Adam was copied on both of these message just so I want to make sure that I'm not reading someone's name um out of context, but a message from um board member Aaron Croyle. While I'm unable to attend tonight's special board meeting, I
027support the adoption of the 20252026 Ethica City School District budget. That was a statement from Aaron and a statement from board member Dr. Garrick Bllelock. The proposed budget has careful has been carefully considered by the finance committee, the full board, district administration with valuable feedback from our collective partners and bargaining units, taxpayers, student representatives, caregivers, and other community members. In my view, the budget reflects an appropriate balance of our community needs and deserves the enthusiastic support of the board. I want to make sure I capture that laugh clearly. And the enthusiastic support of the board. Uh we'll do our campaigning through other folks afterwards. Any additional questions, discussion? Uh, hearing none, then I guess I'll call the question. All in favor of the adoption of the budget? Motion passes. Thank you, board colleagues. That brings
028us to agenda item 2.4, which is a resolution to adopt the property the property tax card. And we will entertain motions. I move to approve. Nope. I move to adopt the property tax report card to accompany the annual school district budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. Second. Moved by Adam, second by Emily. Questions, conversations, debates. Hearing none, we will call the question. All in favor of the motion. The motion passes. Thank you. Um, thank you to the team that has helped work this. Thank you to a number of folks who've been working all year long. We know this is one stage in the process, but we also want to recognize the labor. Thank you to board colleagues for countless meetings, ETA meetings. I know we have more coming up. Uh but that all takes
029a lot of work. And so just a a comment of gratitude for the amount of work and time that folks put in. If that is the case, if it's the will of the board, we'll entertain one more motion. Is that I think I have it somewhere. Uh okay. Uh I have it on my computer here. Okay. I move to enter into executive session for the purpose discussions regarding collective negotiations pursuant to article 14 of the civil service law and matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation. Second. Any debate, discussion, questions? All in favor? Uh for those folks here in the audience, for the most part, this will conclude our meeting for this evening. We will enter into executive session. We'll come back to
030close the meeting, but there are no more agenda items on our agenda for this evening. So, thank you all very much.