001this is our February 25th 2025 board meeting and we're going to start off tonight with some public comments Joe will announce the the names of the speakers and as a reminder um three minutes to speak we have a timer that will go off when your time is up we're going to start with Laura Vineyard yes please okay right um my name is Laura Vineyard and I'm a parent of a child at South Hill Elementary and I'm here to speak in support of the pta's air purifier program currently The Chronic absenteeism rate for icsd is 25% for 2024 compared to 16% for 2019 while the boards vision of success is a rate below 10% the current rate for students with disabilities is 36% that for economically disadvantaged students is nearly 40% in black students we have
00247% and Hispanic and multi-racial students it exceeds 30% all of these are higher than the 2019 rates why might this be the case poor health is one of the main factors contributing to Chronic absenteeism the EPA has compiled extensive evidence reporting the correlation between indoor air quality and student performance and even teacher retention in a review of 11 students evaluating the association between ventilation rates and student performance higher rates of ventilation led to improvements in academic performance ranging from 2.2% to more than 15% in eight of the 11 studies there was an association between inadequate ventilation rates or elevated carbon dioxide concentrations and it decreases in at least one metric of student performance another study from 2020 showed that increasing ventilation rates in classrooms could significantly improve learning performance and pupil attendance the EPA noticed
003notes that controlled studies show that children perform schoolwork with greater speed as ventilation rates increase the performance of adults including teachers and School staff has also been shown to improve chronica absenteeism can have long-term negative impacts on learning and other educational outcomes resulting in massive societal and economic costs higher absenteeism results in lower graduation rates reduce Workforce productivity and increase need for remedial education resulting in a loss of potential future earnings for individuals and society as a whole additionally schools May face higher direct costs like needing to hire substitute teachers to cover absent teachers there's also opportunity costs associated with teachers having to shift their focus to make up the learning loss due to illness either to their own or that of their students increasing the time they must spend preparing alternative lesson plans while
004reducing the amount of material they can cover as we all know as of 2024 four of the schools in our district have lost their good standing with New York State due to load of performance particularly among students of color addressing a key driver in absenteeism namely illness and the associated impact on educational outcomes of inadequate ventilation is an an opportunity to improve a vital metric that disproportionately impacts less advantaged members of our community three air changes per hour in our classrooms is simply not enough to prevent illness transmission the Board of Education must act by permitting air purifiers in the classroom to improve our children's health and educational outcomes thank you well good timing very good thank you to get the prize next is uh Casey McGrath he my name is Casey McGrath and I'm
005a parent of a child at South Hill and I'm also here to speak in support of the pta's petition to put air pu or allow air purifiers in classrooms this topic is especially timely for me as my son and I just recovered from the flu which he caught in his second grade classroom at South Hill his case of influenza developed into pneumonia resulting in 10 days with a fever which reached 106.8 degrees he missed school I missed work and we have both missed out on planned vacation family and social activities this is the worst year for influenza in nearly 15 years and the first year since the pandemic that influenza deaths have outpaced covid related deaths these illnesses are not temporary they are not going away and they can be serious for both children and
006adults iscd uh ICD classrooms currently average ventilation of 10 L per second per person which is equivalent to three air changes per hour this is only half the recommended Levels by ashray for Infectious Disease Control which recommends six air changes per hour following these guidelines has been shown to reduce illnesses by up to 82% acute respiratory illnesses are also one of the leading reasons that students miss school based on the results of a 2013 study increasing the ventil rates at icsd to the ashray standards could reduce illness related absences by 16% in addition better clust filtration would have the added benefit of reducing volatile organic compounds particulate matter mold and allergens which also contribute to health issues for students and staff with asthma or other chronic conditions allergies and sensitivities this could mean fewer Mis
007dayss of school less medication fewer asthma attacks and trips to the hospital the pandemic taught us that acute respiratory illnesses like covid-19 can have long lasting effects long Co affects 10 to 20% of children and the risk continues with reinfections this can present as poor sleep and fatigue problems with learning cognition and memory and a reduced ability to fight off future illnesses for 6 to 18 months while vaccination can lower these risks somewhat vaccination rates are lagging less than 20% of kids are up to date on their covid vaccines and influence of vaccination rates among children have reached a 12year low incidentally both my child and I did receive our flu shots this year going to show you that vaccination alone is not enough to protect individuals from these diseases even if just a few
008perc of the children in our district go on to develop long-term health problems that's a huge impact on our children and our community adding air purifiers to our classrooms is a key step in improving the health and well-being of our students it's something that I believe most parents and teachers would support and there is a clear scientific evidence that it can improve both health and educational outcomes for children at a time when science and public health are under attack by our nation's leaders we need our local leaders and the Board of Education to stand up and do the right thing to protect our children and Community thank you thank you next up Erica mudr hello my name is Erica kudra my children attend South Hill Elementary School I'm also speaking in favor of the air
009purifier initiative I've been sick with three seasonal illnesses this winter fortunately my job provides me with reasonable sick leave as well as flexible work from home options teachers and other academic staff do not have that luxury adding air purifiers is a disability Justice equity and inclusion issue schools are a major driver of infectious diseases in our community a nationwide study found that more than 70% of all household cases of covid arose from a child exposed at school this finding applies to other respiratory illnesses such as RSV influenza and pneumonia which we have know we have been spreading in our local community this year ICD data shows that students of color students with disabilities and those who are more economically disadvantaged have significantly higher chronic absenteeism rates we also know that families with a medically vulnerable
010member bear a much higher risk when a child brings home an illness from school the current approach to school illness management requires the burden to be carried by those at risk even though the spread of respiratory illness is community-driven as the US Secretary of Education noted last year chronic as absenteeism derives from multiple interconnected factors some of these factors are lack lack of access to student and family supports and student family health challenges we should keep in mind the impact of long covid and post viral conditions here research has shown that rates of post viral illness are higher among racial ethnic minorities students with disabilities among the neurod diverse and women between thir 30 and 50 years of age we cannot ignore this increased Health Burden Burden that some members of our community carry from
011a lack of action on this issue in Tomkins County 59% of black workers earn below the living wage compared to 35% of white workers there are also gender disparities 41% of women make less than living wage compared with 34% of men it stands to reason that when caregivers are earning an hourly wage for whom access to paay time off when ill is often not possible that students from these families might be most impacted when illness is brought home from school additionally these are the same Frontline workers who also have higher rates of long covid due to not having access to work from home options in 20120 preventing illness is not a trivial matter for many in our community it can be a matter of life or death or a risk of hospitalization for our medically
012vulnerable and disabled community members we can choose to ignore this risk and leave these families with the individual responsibility to protect themselves at a time when very few still wear a mask or we can see this as a systemic issue deserving of a systems level intervention that is inclusive of our disabled and medically vulnerable members let's bring back the spirit of Community Care by lifting this ban on air purifiers in our classroom allow our ptas and teachers to act when they are able air purifiers in some spaces now are better than no action at all thank you thank you um iie colleti hello my name is Ary klei and I am also a parent of two children at South Hill Elementary I also in with Casey um just had my second grader go through 10
013days of the flu um hitting fever of 105 um so uh a recent publication found that for every spent on improving indoor air quality in the classroom to meet assh 241 guidelines over $9 is saved these savings come primarily from lower health care costs and doesn't even begin to account for the expense of paying for substitute coverage when teachers are ill reducing staff illness reduces medical expenses lowering the risk of complications from pre pre-existing or chronic health conditions such as asthma diabetes cardiovascular disease or autoimmune conditions these chronic health conditions also make one more vulnerable vulnerable to the effects of respiratory illnesses such as influenza RSV pneumonia and covid-19 as ICD is self-insured for employee health benefits When employees are sick more often the district sees a direct increase in expenses also directly impacting the
014school budget the 2324 budget for health benefits was over 24.7 million the 2425 budget was over 25.6 million in the ICC preliminary financial report from the June 2023 the district is quoted as saying school district school district management continues to be concerned with potential future increases in employee benefits the report goes on to note the Nationwide Staffing challenges that were also impacting icsd in a very significant way further noting that realistic predictions for expenditures and revenue needs are nearly impossible under the current conditions it is also noted that healthcare costs are expected to increase between 3 to 7% annually research clearly shows that six air changes changes per hour can decrease respiratory infections by over 80% almost equivalent to the effect of universal masking an increas in infiltration inside the buildings where our staff and
015teachers spend 7 to n hours of their day can further reduce the levels of chronic exposure to find particulate matter or PM 2.5 which is responsible for asthma and other chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease arhythmia cerebral vascular diseases pm2.5 was found in a 2024 study to have no safe level of exposure and that despite the epa's safe upper limit if the guidelines for levels of particulates exposure were cut in half in accordance with the World Health organization's guidelines published three years ago we could prevent 15% of cardiovascular related hospitalizations the potential for staff and health benefit savings alone should be motivation to act it was estimated that it would cost just over $200,000 to install a portable air purifier in every single classroom across the district if every dollar spent results in a
016$9 return on investment as this research suggests the district will net a savings of $700,000 in the first year alone the annual main maintenance costs for the replacement filters are estimated to be less than 20K per year our taxpayers ask the school board to find ways to cut expenses air purifiers would be a smart investment and do just that our southill South Hill Community is willing to serve as a pilot study thank you thank you Justine boso hi again I'm also speaking about the air purifiers uh initiative at the South Elementary School and as I said my name is Justine bosu and I'm a parent of two children um at that school as you've heard uh various viral illnesses impact um and and spread in indoor air we also know that bacteria like strap a
017can also spread in indoor air when speaking coughing um or singing in indoors and while surface cleaning and handwashing are re are really important these steps do not address one of the primary and most neglected aspects of illness spread and that is air quality we can learn from Boston Public School District which updated their HVAC systems to three to four air changes prior just like ICD and then one a step further and added an air purifier into every classroom they also suggest that their teachers crack one window by 4 in and they use realtime CO2 monitoring and every teacher every Community member can log in and see what's happening in the classroom for the duration of the school day so they can tell what the CO2 levels are for their students they can see that
018the CO2 levels stay below 700 parts per million even when the room is fully occupied which helps them Reach that 20 L per second per person uh of fresh air and clean air that's required or suggest suggested by 241 we're asking that the school district please act on this today because as you just heard our families are really being impacted by respiratory illness right now and this is not just our school it's across the district and it's across the country but there actually is a science-based solution to this very issue six air changes per hour and it's not a lot right I've heard a couple of Administrators say well that's what hospitals do and that's true that's the old ashray 62.1 standard which is 6 to7 uh air changes per hour hospitals the ash 241
019standards for Infectious Disease Control recommends 12 air changes per hour for hospitals they've doubled it they're also suggesting that schools should double hours so we're really asking the district to look at this and to acknowledge that yes regulations are going to take a while to catch up while we were hope that the state or federal government would act on the science and Implement these changes and provide funds for us to do this now it's probably not going to happen for a while in case you noticed um the reality is we have to take action here and so we're asking for the school district to please let us take action as parents we're willing to do this and we're willing to support other parents across the district too we hear the concerns around equity and we
020acknowledge that you know this may not be possible for every school but that's where the district would hopefully be willing to step in acknowledging that it's only $200,000 here and the possible return for investment is nine times that we will partner with other ptas and other schools and support their efforts to we hope to provide a Clearing House of resources for them so that they also know how to find these air purifiers and how to implement them at the schools we'll support them with fundraising uh and and then some of the ideas that we have at our PTA as well we want this to not just be an an Initiative for our school we want this to be an Initiative for the entire district and we hope that itha City School District would want to
021follow the science just like P Boston Public Schools did and hope that you would act on this information thank you thank you and last Kim Lazaro okay is there anyone else who wish to speak who did not sign up or thought they had signed up but didn't all right that's it for public comment for tonight okay we could entertain uh board responses uh I cannot thank thank you all enough for coming here a lot of people know that my one of my children has multiple disabilities one of them is an immune system deficiency so when I mask I'm masking so I don't get sick to protect him he is sensory issues so he doesn't want to wear a mask and I wish we had air purifiers in every classroom I agree that it's a necessity
022and I uh I as an individual board member will do everything I can to support this effort and figure out how we can do what we can do to make this happen because yall right it's not going to get any better anytime soon and it honestly as someone who loves someone who is very vulnerable it is terrifying so thank you for speaking out additional responses thank you very much um for coming and and thank you for are always coming and bringing this to our attention um I think the first time it was brought to our attention was probably early part of last month and just to note um for those in the audience who may not know as well as um viewers that we have been acting on this we have um done continually doing
023studies we've had discussion about it at our facilities committee which meets on a monthly basis and even have some um dashboards up at a at South Hill to Monitor and it might not be in every class but at least there's been some start and one thing I always want to remind everyone especially when it was stated The Chronic absenteeism um across the board in the district that isn't unfortunately it's a nationwide problem and we were even just discussing at the committee curriculum curriculum committee prior to this meeting about it because that's one of the goals in like um the comprehensive Improvement plan that we're working on um throughout the school district um yet knowing that we um and I think and and our facilities person had done some investigation as to looking at like some
024of the reasons why if it was the air quality and all so we are actively investigating working with the South Hill principal and our facilities um Team to just look at things but note also if you if even if you can't go back to last month's facilities meeting to just see some of the responses that it's not strictly so easy to say yes let us get this entity to purchase for one school only although we were given chronic absentees and number across the school district we have to look at all schools but yes we can we employing and doing this pilot program and investigating since South Hill was brought to our attention so please note that we are actively looking at this and we haven't said no to this um proposal um yeah thank you
025everyone for coming appreciate you taking the time and expressing why this is so important um yeah on the surface I mean I I I do support air purifiers you know I definitely come from a more technical background so like my concern is like electrical load and um you know futuring needs of the buildings because it's not just the cost of an air purifier uh you know potentially being something that cost you know each School hundreds and hundreds of thousand dollars to upgrade the electrical systems so it is a lot more complicated in my opinion um so I think for me you know as long as the buildings do have the electrical load number one if the individual classrooms have the electrical load because also there's fire Cod you circuit can only handle so much electrical
026load so you might run into issues where one classroom can have an air purifier another can't and I'm just type I I don't know if that's the case but I think these are things that need to get looked into um and you might have you know a building um you know J Mar they can't do it because of you know their Electrical uh constraints so um it it is I think a little bit more complicated than just supporting it because I do support it um I I think like you know my concern is just the future needs of the buildings and you know there are State mandates that we need to uphold in terms of you know things change so you know I just want to make sure that if that happens where you know
027we do need more electral load for a building that we would potentially have the option to remove the air bu if need be so and I think the other thing too I I I expressed at the last meeting is just making sure that um the air purifiers aren't disruptive in any way to students because of noise um you know and if there is kids with like sensory things like I don't know if that if there's a humming and I don't think there is but again like I'm just kind of like throwing things out there so um as long as you know kids aren't being disrupted and um you know as long as I think the district had the ability to potentially remove the air purifiers um if the buildings do need like additional electrical load
028in the future I mean I would be supportive of it so um but yeah I think there is there's more to it than just like plugging something into the wall so I just wanted to share that so were you gonna say something on my or um I'll keep it short because I know a lot of people have spoken and I'm assuming that all of you have um listened to the facility meetings for the last two meetings that we've had opportunities to talk about this um I I feel like I've asked a lot of questions of our uh exec team and administration and other experts who have come to speak at the facilities meetings we we have talked about electrical load and gotten other questions answered I personally as a single board member feel like we
029have gotten all of the answers that we need in order to um for me to feel comfortable approving something like this um I really I want to call out specifically both um iie am I saying that right aie Arie and Justine this time too of just you know acknowledging that um of course this is a whole uh district-wide issue I appreciate your um acknowledgement that that um this would be something that would be benefiting one school at this point and and recognizing that there opportunities both to use it as a pilot to inform what other schools are doing and also to offer to be able to actually help them in their own advocacy if they chose choose to do that I think that that's extremely important and so I appreciate coming from that perspective of
030it being um a bigger issue um I so I I'm hoping that we can uh bring it to the full board very soon um as a vote we're not I haven't personally been getting a lot of like new information and so um I'm hoping that at least we at this point we can either find out if there is specific new information that we need to get that we haven't already gotten from the district or if we can move forward um and make a vote take a vote on it I will say though to Todd's Point you know what we're really talking about here is like the removal of changing a policy basically to allow for air purifiers and I think that to Todd's Point we need to be very thoughtful about the language that we
031put in so that we are protest protecting the district so that if there were unforeseen consequences or policy changes that happen in the future that we can then make changes or ask to have them removed or other things and it would require you all knowing that if you're making a financial investment that that you're running that risk of having them removed if something were to come up that that required that to happen so the the language I do think is not as simple as just yes you can do or no you can't but I do think that at this point unless we get new information we we should move forward and allow you all to get a yes or no answer I'll get you in one saying I don't know if we allow um student
032reps to respond during board response time well they areed their time you can okay that sounds good um yeah and also I I I really appreciate everybody coming tonight um I really actually I really appr appreciate um kind of like all the scientific evidence and information that you presented both at the facilities committee um and tonight um talking about cost saving health benefits um you know I'm also generally supportive of it as well um you know of course there's some Logistics to consider but if you're keeping track of numbers of board members and where people stand um generally supportive as well um any other board comments responses okay well thank you very much um and we are going to move on to agenda item 3.3 um that's our student reps so it's only been two
033days since we've been back from break so uh we only have a few updates but we are back to using reusable plates in the cafeteria so um up to when break started we had been using paper like plates um but now we have reusable ones um and like the reusable collection bins have all been located around the school wall and then Mor the Morocco trip happened and it lasted for seven days over midwinter break and there's been a lot of exciting photos posted on their social media page um which we are hoping to share soon and then there's a music in our school's combined band concert next Wednesday in C Auditorium starting at 700 p.m. so it'll feature um the Middle School bands from Bon and dit it as well as both of our high
034school bands and it'll end with a combined piece with all of the seventh to 12th graders playing together just super exciting and then the Spring Fling for nth and tth graders is this Saturday March 1st and we still don't have mirrors in the bathrooms of h building I think the first time we brought this up was last April um because they were stolen by someone and there haven't been Replacements yet so that's just something I want to mention hi it's really great to see everybody tonight first I'll just say I don't mean to Sher procedure I uh by no means am I insinuating that I am a board member but but um I figured I'd give it a shot and we'll see and we'll see we'll see what happens so now that this is technically
035my procedure time to speak um yes I'm going to harp on that I I'm going to uh mention something really quickly so again I can't vote and I probably shouldn't be able to vote but from a student perspective I'll say that well I think Mr Fox's Point makes a lot of sense with regards to you know the the necessity of looking into carefully how this could affect an electrical grid overload um based on some minimal research that I've done admittedly and uh the several previous meetings in which this these ideas have been discussed um it seems to me and you know I could be very off on this but it seems to me that one of the major arguments against pulling back this restriction on having air purifiers is that it wouldn't be accessible to
036all schools in the same way and I get that Equity of access is a very important issue and something that we have to look into but it feels kind of like saying that someone can't improve the health of their area because other people's areas might not get improved so then we all just have to not get improved I just think that that's an interesting I I think that's a bit of a problem because in in what I've seen whenever we put up barriers to letting anyone get something because we're afraid not everyone will get it then it actually just kind of detracts from the total health experience um again I I could be a little bit or very wrong on that but those are the positions that I'd seen and as as a student who
037goes to these schools who's seen a lot of these initiatives get passed through in the same language get tossed around um I I don't mean that in a derogatory sense but get the same language be used it seems to me that it's not necessarily um it's it's while a well-intentioned argument not necessarily the most logical if we're looking at it from anything like a utilitarian perspective or you know anything like that um but on to lighter things um I'm hoping I didn't just flame myself uh so the update on the eighth grade graduating video I've been talking about I've been meeting with the counselors I have a couple more meetings to go one of them with uh miss hilsdorf the department leader for music and art but uh yeah the fire alarm went off yesterday
038morning that was another thing um and there were some construction issues which caused that uh we we talked about it with Mish Hardesty it shouldn't be a severe issue but it kind of it's similar to what's happened in past years with um some smoke alarms that are detecting dust particul or things that they're really not intended to pick up so that's just something else I wanted to mention uh and yeah and then there's an athletic update as we always do so let me see there were pole volters who set new records there was a freshman who ran the fourth fastest 1,00 uh 1,000 meter time in school history we had a new freshman record in the weight throw um we Riley hubit holds the top three as well as six of the top seven 3200
039meter times in school history and he set a new school record we've got a fastest 1600 meter Runner we've got a sophomore Runner who who um was named New York State sophomore of the year with her cross country performance this fall and then in terms of teams we have a JV basketball team with a perfect season a varsity basketball team that just finished as well as the girls varsity basketball team boys and girls varsity basketball teams the Girls JV basketball team also recently finished the Varsity Boys ice hockey team uh had a plus 500 record the varsity girls ice hockey team also finished their season at a record of four six- one lost in sub regionals and boys swim are now 3 and three and for Varsity wrestling we had a wrestler get his 100th
040career win and took first place in the stack tournament and we had a uh another wrestler finish second in the girls stack tournament I think that's everything um okay Hades town is happening the musical this weekend at IHS tickets are free uh several students were wearing crazy getups for theater spirit week uh shows for Hades town are on Friday uh the 28th at 7 pm Saturday March 1st at 7M and Sunday March 2nd at 2m um our Science Olympiad team which is a relatively new club with middle and high school members just made it to State um on March 14th administrator ERS and some teachers from Lacs are joining other New York performance standards Consortium leaders to visit the school without walls in Rochester the only other Consortium School of 38 in New York state
041besides LS that is not in New York City the purpose is to look at curriculum and the pbat process and see some of the classes there yeah um and as some may remember before the meeting right before the break uh I talked about the mission statement conversations we've been having at ACS um those are have continued um we got lots of feedback on the proposed mission statement um and hopefully in the next few weeks we will um form a lunch meeting and finalize a statement for a full School Vote uh hopefully all that will happen before Spring Break um and then a peat update uh ACS we are further entering peat territory uh English pbats will be presented by Juniors and seniors who need to complete requirement um on the afternoon of March 13th um
042the pet process is very unique in the fact that students are an essay and then defend their thesis which is not something you typically do in high school um and science Pats are also underway with experiments many classes being conducted or wrapped up in the next few days and Essay is being finalized in early March thank you so much board responses just want to say how much I appreciate you all and katum thank you for not only your thoughts but the comic relief much needed so thanks okay if there are no other comments uh thank you guys so much we're going to move on to agenda item number 4.1 um which is the approval of our consent agenda and the floor is open for motions motion to approve all consent agenda items listed in consent
043agenda somewhat redundantly consideration of accounts Personnel report and minutes of previous meeting as presented second move by jail seconded by Aaron any discussion questions okay then we can call that to a vote all in favor opposed okay the motion passes unanimously okay that brings us to uh we have three items for business tonight um our first item item 10.1 is a Pres presentation um by the ITA and we're going to invite down Aurora Aurora are you Ro okay sorry about that I I I was debating okay Aurora Ro and Entourage will be coming down uh members of the ITA so come on down that's the thing [Music] yeah hi everybody um Katherine Sera president of the itha Teachers Association um I'm going to pass the microphone around in a second to let my colleagues here
044all introduce themselves as well we know each other fairly well at this point but um we are really excited tonight to speak with all of you about the collective bargaining agreement negotiations that we entered into starting last month give you all an update of some of the agreements we've already reached and a little bit of letting you and Folks at home who maybe have not been tuning in for the long form version of our negotiations give them kind of an overview of what we are um hoping to accomplish in this process so I'm going to just pass this down and pass it around and then we'll move on hi all I'm Carrie Glen K I teach math at Ithaca High School and I've been in the district for a long time I'm Aurora Ro and
045I teach Humanities at Lacs and I'm the secretary of the ITA hello I'm David Eisley I'm 6 through 8th German at Bon and first vice president of the ITA I'm gonna hey I'm Brian Goodman a teacher at Northeast hey I taught Dan's two kids and Aaron's one of Aeron kids this is exciting I'm Gary ISAC I teach science over at Lacs and I'm also a union delegate in a building r all right um so we're all working towards a common goal to develop uh the most supportive and sustaining collective bargaining agreement that we can okay and we are really excited because as the ITA and as the district we have agreed to a very new form of bargaining um new to ICD which is transparent negotiations also known as open bargaining in other places but
046we like new names on new things I guess um so what does transparent negotiations mean um the first and the big thing about it is that it is it is open to the community to observe so most of our bargaining sessions will be taking place in the afternoons and evenings to allow greater access particularly for our teachers who are working all day but also others as well um and ICD Communications will advertise meeting dates times locations and there will be a live stream of all the bargaining sessions and those have already um those that have already happened are already up there with a YouTube link so that you can watch them and we're going to collaboratively publish um written meeting summaries like uh the board meeting summaries um and our next session is going to
047be on Thursday and it's going to be a spicy one so I would recommend tuning in hey we're also open to any ITA employee that's teacher in the district any ICD employee and any community member you're welcome to either watch live uh come iners live there's rules of the room to follow but we are open uh to be observed so the rules of the room um are not a ton of kind of rules but because this is a new process it's important to have an understanding and make sure meetings run smoothly so um people who are at the table as bargainers are the people who will be speaking if um either side has invited guests they also would be speakers anyone in the kind of gallery um section before they come in would sign that
048they agree to the rules of the room which means they wouldn't uh be speaking in the middle of the meeting but uh if they want to write notes so that uh they can get that information to the people who are uh bargaining there's a process for that to happen so that it doesn't disrupt the room and people are agreeing to come in quietly and respectfully uh so that things don't get Disturbed and can keep moving along did I miss any key modes I think that's all right so um we are publishing all of the dates we have agreed to try to accom the task of um finalizing this agreement through two meetings a month we may as we get a little bit closer to the end of the year may find that that is not
049yet sufficient time may add more time if we need to um the real goal is that in order to ratify a successor agreement to our collective bargaining agreement before our agreement expires on June 30th we would need to put it to an all member vote and then bring bring it to the board for ratification so we're working backwards from a June 12th deadline because that is the last possible day that could get all of that done before we all go away for vacation and before our agreement expires so we've been um backwards planning from there like good teachers do on how do we reach that final date by the date that we need to get there and how do we get it all done um so we're really hopeful about that and as Aurora said
050um this Thursday from 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock we have an upcoming negotiation session and this is very timely for all of you because you have to pass a budget you have to approve a budget to put forth to the voters soon so this is the conversation where we will be spending a lot of time talking about salary asks so anyone who's interested in teacher salaries should tune in this Thursday o exciting and who isn't interested in teacher salaries um so uh we wanted to for the next part of our presentation talk about what it is that we as teachers um would like to get out of this new collective bargaining agreement we had a really great really Democratic process that took over a year um learning from our members what our needs were we've
051been under a very long contract so there are a lot of things that have um risen to the surface in this six-year contract so um our slogan is that teacher working conditions are student learning conditions we didn't make that up but we do love it um I think you know I heard just the end of that um curriculum meeting and it seems clear that when there's teacher turnover it impacts how we're able to implement curriculum it impacts our students negatively so um we want to retain teachers um we want to have the best teachers for our students and so to better support our students ourselves and our community here are the things that we need so I've got the Hot Topic of the night and that is health and safety in our classrooms right so
052first ask we want safe clean well-maintained classrooms where we can interact with our students right maslo before Bloom um one of the things that we heard really really extensively from our teachers and then also we heard it earlier in the curriculum meeting is about the length of time of our school day we have teachers who are struggling to implement the curriculum that we have in the time that we have but more importantly the work of teaching goes so far beyond the time that you spend directly instructing a group of students there are Myriad professional responsibilities that teachers need to complete um as part of their work and we have we have not seen an increase in the time to complete those professional duties since before we became a full inclusion school and the reason that
053I bring that up is is because that is important because when we became a full inclusion school we made every solo project a group assignment but added no extra time to complete those assignments in so one of the things that we're really um hoping to be able to have some robust conversations about are how do we use the time that we have to get students what they need but also to get the adults who need to interact with one another in ways that they C when students are in the classroom how do we get them the time that they need to be able to support our students and how do we get everybody the professional development that they need to do their work really well so time to work while at work big priority all
054right the next one is health and leave benefits that work for Working Families this one is uh personal for me I'm hoping to have a family soon and we currently do not really have maternity leave or um childcare leave uh that is paid so we are really excited about a couple of our proposals that will um make our district easier for working parents and um for everybody because all of us have teeth and also bodies um that require care and uh not all of our uh not all it members are teachers that lead classrooms uh you know many of them are speech pathologists um occupational therapists guidance counselors social workers Librarians and more than that um so we need to ensure manageable workloads for these teachers that include time to plan uh carry out their
055plans uh support inclusive practices which directly and indirectly support uh all of our students needs a lot of diverse needs so very important our most important piece that we want to bring to the table is talking about teacher salaries specifically teacher salaries for mid-career and late career teachers that's the teachers represented here at this table the students here in the audience students at home anybody watching has experienced many teachers leaving the icsd when we ask our own members why did you leave the ICD the biggest answer is salary when we ask our members what's the most important issue for you to bring up a contract negotiations the biggest issue is salary we have a salary scale that currently plateaus and so we are not competitive with the districts nearby as we get into our mid
056and late tier we have a plan to fix that we have the means to fix that we have the budget to fix that it needs to get done so that's our that's our biggest goal to make education better for all the students in the district and I I'm going to book end with our final priority and that's about strengthening the Partnerships that we as the Etha Teachers Association have with the district we often have to work together with Central administrators to problem solve and though we may come at problems from a different tact we have the same goals right we want to address problems and we want to address them quickly and in a way that is that best meets the me needs of everyone so that our teaching staff can be doing what they're
057here to do and working with students so finish us all all right we're going to close with a big thank you to you all for having us tonight but even more for um charging Dr Brown with pursuing an increased contribution from Cornell University we're so excited that you all made that step we're so excited that Dr Brown wants to do that and we're like just thrilled and we want to keep working with you all and for everyone watching there's lawn sign available $10 they look like this they're really cute you might have seen them around town um yeah you can uh talk to us afterwards do you want to do questions or do you want us to say thank you and leave it's really at the at the discretion of the vice president well I
058will say thank you first of all um yeah I think if if anybody wants to ask a question or make a comment certainly open to that and if nobody has any questions or comments we can not I think that the questions I mean as everyone knows the negotiations are such a sensitive topic I I don't feel like there's any questions that might be appropriate but I do want to really greatly thank you and really just point out how exciting it is that these conversations and negotiations are able for everyone to watch it's going to be it's really Innovative and it's another thing that I think ICD and ITA we should all be very proud of um so thank you we're really excited about that as well I um just the other day colleague said who
059I've worked with for many many years said to me she's like I've been working here for 25 years and I didn't know what happens in negotiations and now I do and she was very excited well thank you guys so much thank you ask question yeah and that brings us to our next item which is item 10.2 we're going to be having a discussion an initial discussion about the 2025 2026 academic calendar um it's not a voting item for tonight only a discussion item I thought Mary Grover was Poss POS coming down and I am right come on down thank you so for the initial proposal of the draft calendar there are a couple of uh key points one is we want to meet the New York State educational required minutes so this current calendar allows
060for up to three snow days we also have uh our past practice has been 187 days um for educators so it also reflects that uh it is also in sync with our TST Bose's calendar that was approved earlier this uh this year and so we did that with intention had them come out with their calendar first so that our students wouldn't miss out on any programming and I want to thank uh Lynn kenowski who does a lot of the calculations and Emily Tracy arm who holds a lot of the institutional institutional knowledge of every year year to year uh the calendar and I'm happy to take any questions question Dr trip question about whether there's anything in particular we should look at here any big changes it doesn't look like there are any to me
061there are not okay I have one question Mary um you know with the careg the caregiver conferences for the middle schools I know that um it's a half day right and I also know that there's a huge demand for those conferences is there what is what is stopping us from being able to have a full caregiver conference day for the middle schools to allow for more conferences and whatnot that's a great question I'd have to follow up with Lynn on the educational minutes for that um and also building leaders as to the the logic um as to why we've kept them as half days thanks yeah so stay tuned I'll take note of that oh oh sorry one more question I guess um because a lot of is this when will this be submitted for
062like public comment for let's talk so people a lot of a lot of times the public wants to weigh in on proposed calendar when will that be out so folks can look at it and give us feedback we can have it up now okay yeah the community's review and feedback I love there are students in the audience taking note of it other questions just a comment I know that um District conference days are highlighted in yellow and down below it says no school but can you also include next to the days no school in parenthesis yes yeah just to add that yep yes I see that inconsistency thank you okay well if there are no yeah go ahead sorry have one last question and I'm so sorry every everybody but um just one more question
063looking at the regent exams the students that do not take region exams what do they do on those days are they are they able to go to school what typically happens no they stay home no no the students attend school based on their Regent exam schedule so if they if they're not on the standard diploma track then they stay home on Regions exam correct okay yes thank you yeah yeah I do midterm Erin had a question about the half day conference days at the middle and high school and I just checked our minute calculation day calculation um if we were to make those full days at the middle school we would be under our three-day buffer for school days uh for snow days for grades seven and eight in those schools so there's different requirements
064based on grade levels and um because our seventh and eighth graders don't start until a day later it affects that so um we could do one full day and one half day but we could not accommodate two full day conferences for middle school I guess I just wonder if we can get feedback from teachers about that or I wonder what the feedback is because I know how how in demand those conferences are and I'm wondering how that is impa ing teachers students in general and if that's something we should reexamine um period full stop thanks before Katherine even jumps in I'll just say that it's a complaint that I've heard many many times this year about people not being able to get those get conferences um and therefore weren't able to check in with teachers
065until the spring or it's it's yet to be seen I think if they're even able to but thank you Erin for raising that um so Katherine Sera ITA president um I have not spoken with our Middle School Educators about this this year however for the past two years our Middle School teachers have requested that we get as much time for caregiver conferences as we possibly can um when we first started doing this it was like afternoon with a PLC on a Wednesday which was just very very challenging um in general there was one time where we had full day I believe and Middle School Educators responded really really favorably to that so I could do a formal survey but I feel pretty confident that the answer would be Middle School Educators would be happy to
066accommodate a full day if it were possible okay I guess that uh concludes that discussion for tonight um it's everybody left the table very abruptly um our last item for discussion tonight was item uh 10.3 a conversation about the budget and I will invite Dom ly down to the [Music] table good evening everyone as you know we're easing into the the budget process and as we do that I thought we would share with you some of our preliminary budget factors as it relate to revenue we continue to do that as as they're refined so uh the first time we met with you we shared with you the the preliminary runs for State eight and I kind of want to show you where we are with those and and kind of talk through the other three
067major areas for Revenue just kind of give you a head up of where we are so we'll move on to the next slide if we put oh we have the click way down oh sure see I can figure that out maybe I can't let go oh there we go all right so I'm gonna start really with the the bigger picture the overall picture of our Revenue um I I think this has been shared several times at least that's my knowledge from from the past just where our revenues come from in the three major areas just want to share that with with uh both the public and of course the very aware just at three major areas first state aid about 25% of our Revenue comes from state aid uh about 5% from miscellaneous income and
068we'll talk a little bit more about that what that looks like um in the upcoming months and of course the largest portion comes from our uh local tax um levies and again you know I think it's important to also make clear that state a and those local tax levies it's all the same tax dollars it's just how it's distributed and collected so that's important to sure so I'll start again with State a I know I've talked about about this before there's a couple refinements that I wanted to make folks aware of first of all Foundation Aid that figure hasn't changed yet um I would in anticipate some change in um in April when we get our finals we're still kind of waiting for uh a clarification in terms of the formula and if that's changed
069I know we're hearing a lot of conversations about that but nothing definitive as of yet but we're hopeing that will increase um we did that's so that's an estimate of what you think it might increase this is actually still the preliminary run from the state so that figure is still the same from what what they gave us initially um there's been some talk about the formula changing hope that's the case so okay we'll stick with that some of these the expense based AIDS I do want to talk about that a little bit we did mention that the building Aid was probably likely to change by by April um that's driven by our use for for um as an example so one of the figures let's see there is the 2425 budgeted figure a little over
070$5 million okay um and then in 2526 that shows us $3.1 million and that really is based on our use and and the timing of some of our projects I know we had $120 million project at one point and when we uh submit for Aid so a lot of that can be adjusted in the end but for Budget to budget perspectives it's important to look at that because when we created the budget in 20 2425 that was the figure that was used um in 2526 our estimate is 3.1 million but we do anticipate that going up up a little bit end but when you're doing a comparative analysis analysis between the two budgets it's important to look at those two figures and the difference one of the reasons I bring that up is because it
071sort of neutralizes the overall state aid impact when you look at those numbers at the end um where we anticipated a $2.8 million increase that can negate that a little bit overall so we're looking at about a $1.2 million increase if that stays the same I don't anticipate that being the case but it is possible so I want to show sort of the worst case scenario at this point hasard refining figures that can be a lot but we'll we'll again if this changes and as it changes we'll we'll share that with you any questions in terms of state aid the rest of this really hasn't changed much and we wouldn't anticipate that being I almost clicked my computer so the second area here is is our miscellaneous Revenue generally that's about four to 5% of
072our overall overall Revenue um but I did want to share this with you it is about anticipated to be about $6.7 million and the areas to the left there is what constitutes our miscellaneous income we'll dig into this a little bit more towards the end but just to give you an idea of what that looks like and where that Revenue comes from um also one of the areas I'd like to share with you is our federal support and eight and what that is generally derived from is our or what what we use federal for for is our title grants for example um our lunch program idea um that's what uh our federal aid help support particularly title one that's about $5.2 million now that's not part of our overall Revenue picture because it's it's Grant
073funds and it's allocated to specific areas but I did want to make you aware of that um and we'll share what some of these figures are here through at the end the third area is our our Revenue front I did it I did like the computer didn't that that's great the third area is our is our tax base our tax levy and of course we wanted to discuss our tax cap um that responsibility lies with us to develop that calculation uh it's for those who U may not know what the tax Gap as a roades derived it's a New York state law that sets a threshold for what school districts can impose as a tax um and that calculation it's a very complex calculation Em's going to share that with you and kind of show
074you how we came up with that figure uh the 25 26 tax cap was calculated at 3.76% for those who are interested further in what that how that's derive we've uh added a great video that the capital region Bose created about the tax cap and how it's calculated and that's in our FAQ section on our website and I would highly recommend folks take a look at that but I'll turn it over to Emily Emily if you wouldn't mind kind of sharing how we came up with the tax cap okay like I did it right this time yes okay so um you start I'm not going to go through this line by line I'm just going to give you an overall view um you start with the prior year tax levy and then there's a tax-based
075growth factor and that just puts a value it's a state driven factor that puts a value on our area and our value of the property in our area as compared to the rest of the state okay so that that is a set that isn't something we set um and then you take into consideration the pilots that we have this current year what we anticipate this is where it's a little foggy right now and we will go out with an estimate on that one because currently we have 16 Pilots that we actually Bild and then we have 12 other Pilots that are given U it's calculated by Tomkins County and the city um and there are different types of Pilots where there some of them are based on income and expense and those numbers aren't in
076yet and it's until those numbers arrive so usually there's a couple of them we don't get until April so some of this is based on what we received last year and it's a split between the school district the county the city so it's I can't place an actual number on that until those numbers come to me so that's where that number is still an estimated number even though it's Revenue we're getting in this year it's still an estimated number um we have our uh Capital exclusion so that all involves what we what Aid We're going to get what types of projects we're going to be doing going for forward and that comes up to the 6 million uh 524 figure that we have and there we work with fiscal advisers on that to estimate where
077we're going to be and what we can have in for that exclusion um and then it trickles down and there you see that 2% and that's where they made it very difficult on school districts um when they started saying this was a 2% tax cap because everybody thinks that that is what we can go up and that's just a very small part of this whole calculation where it's the uh consumer the uh it's a limit of 2% or the rate of inflation is measured by the Consumer Price Index okay so if the Consumer Price Index the inflation rate is over 2% that's it it maxes at 2% we can't go over the 2% so um when when this first came out and they kept saying 2% 2% it was very confusing to the public to
078a lot of boards because it really trickles down and we get to 3.76% which is obviously not 2% so um we've we've renamed it I think they started referring it to as the property tax cap calculation which is much clearer um but people still remember when this first came out it being a 2% tax cap okay so I always try to point that out to folks because it's very confusing um and those are the factors the the projected Pilots is something I am still working on um and we're working with Jay on that we had some Pilots drop off again that's kind of a because of those 12 Pilots that we have that we can't really uh focus on an exact amount it's an estimate and it's going to be an estimate going forward okay
079so we're still working with Jay on that this will be filed on Friday because it has to be filed our first run of it has to be filed by March 1st so there could be a little tweaking between now and then um but this was our first thing until we hear back from Jay okay thank good enough believe it or not that equation's fun for us I know it's already clear but yeah any questions regarding the tax cap great all right the last slide I wanted to share and let me share the Assumption key points first this is kind of the overview of Revenue where we are at this point and there's some assumptions here that are important to keep in mind first of all for the tax levy that's obviously to be determined uh
080first two certainly the board would want to review that and public votes on that at some point so for just for reference sake we kept it flat you see the first line there it says estimated real property tax flat from the current year 2526 kind of have an overview but an overall picture what the revenues would look like uh state aid we've talked about that a little bit again the building Aid and expense AIDS are estimated that's for lack of a better term a bit of a moving Target so we we use the worst case scenario there at this point um our foundation Aid May adjust certainly hope so and I'm going to reiterate that our Pilots as Emily explained are estimated and our use of fund balance and reserves we simply carried over from
081the current year to next year and and also I just want to remind folks that the last meeting Jay Franklin the director of assessment for toin County was here and mentioned that our assessments are likely to stay flat property assessments are likely to stay flat for the next four years um that's a huge part of the calculation for the tax rate it's an important fact factor and also the there's a possibility of a 1% um tax base increase overall again that's helps with that Pi that he talked about and how that Pi is split up so those are the Assessments in in or sorry the assumptions in some of these figures that we're talking about so again with state aid we've talked about those figures and the other Revenue miscellaneous Revenue um and our the
082use of balance and reserves and carrying those over you can see at the very bottom that only if if things were to stay flat we're looking at about a 1.04% overall increase in revenues I like to start with revenues when we're talking about budget it's good to know where you are before you begin deriving your expenses so this again does not take into account the tax cap or any increases in that area and with that I open up for questions yeah Dr my question would be about the projected 1% increase in taxable um revenue is that or taxable new properties the overall tax base the tax base thank you is that is that because of um abatements that have run out of time or is it just pure growth in the community or what is
083the great question my understanding was growth but I may be corrected that was from the the meeting we had with Mr Franklin but that was my understanding okay what is that was that yours we had uh I think one abatement that expired this year that will not car into next year in The Grand in in the grand scheme of it though it's it's probably a very small small that's what I wonder of that 1% but yes it could be both depending on if the abatements are expiring it would be interesting to get from Jay a projection on expiration of abatements because it seems like at some point with all of the development and all the abatements there would be a ballooning of expiration we have that you do have that all the pilot agreements have
084an expiration unless for some reason something changes in the pilot which is not doesn't happen very often but it has happened um on a few um but we do have the expiration dates on all the abatements maybe we could look at that at some point Garrick if that in in finance I just say my my understanding from Jay's presentation is that it's both new construction and ending you it's remarkable given all the new constructions community that is only 1% of course you have to remember the new construction is the numerator and then the existing inventory is the themometer themometer is very large right thank you any other questions my always question these days is when I see the federal aid I wonder I know we don't have a crystal ball but uh I also know
085that it's not looking 100% do we know if that is guaranteed for this coming school year and something to worry about next year or is this something that we already should be worried about that chis Bal I did not bring with me sorry I I wouldn't speculate with that just yet thanks right now we have it we don't see any change there yet good question um you know so just some thank you for the information and I'm just I have not spoken obviously with my finance committee colleagues or anybody but my my initial reaction I'm curious what other those think is you know this is a lot of good news um you know things are looking nice uh you know obviously we all wonder about our Reliance on federal but you know if you look
086at did I understand correctly about five million yeah you know out of a roughly $160 million budget so it's not I mean well you know we don't want to lose lose that but it's not as big a liability as I think many might have thought so I think something to consider is that these funds tend to flow through the state and I wonder long term if that wouldn't be adjusted if there was an issue so some of that state aid May ultimately be tied to right crystal ball that we don't have but um you know just part part of this also came out in the in the finance committee I one reaction I would just share that came out with uh Jay presentation is the stabilization of assessment rates you know may have come at
087the cost of some precision and there may be a period of time where we're not equitably allocating tax burden out but at the same time it provides a lot of stability for taxpayers which I think May outweigh the Precision so I think it's just nice that people and and you know people at home are not going to be hit with a surprise at least for the next four years so it's good anyway so than thank you this is POS and when you say when you make that comment about Equitable you mean in scenarios where uh sale prices of homes are going up significantly but uh taxes aren't being raised on those properties for the for the four years or I just yeah I think that's right so if you again hypothetically if neighborhood a is
088the hot neighborhood right and we see sales prices going up 10% a year over four years that would mean a 40% uh increase uh in assessed values that residents lucky residents of that neighborhood will not be assessed right so at least for four years they they will get a benefit which will come at the cost of neighborhoods that are not as hot uh and thenly after four years there'll be a a catch-up period [Music] right other questions or or comments from the board okay thank you so much um okay that brings us to our last few items which are are small uh upcoming dates of importance aside from the the High School Musical that will be coming up other other important dates that we haven't talked about tonight um I didn't ask in the beginning
089if there are any modifications to the agenda so I'm assuming now that we're at the end of the agenda we don't have to worry about that um but if there are any other discussion items that uh that haven't come up this would be the time okay hearing none we're going to go on to our last item which is going to be uh a motion to enter executive session before I get that motion um just so everybody knows we're going to um go into the executive session um and then we'll come back just to officially end the meeting but for all intents and purposes this will be the end of the of the fun part of the meeting uh motions to be entertained motion to enter into executive session for the purpose for the purpose discussions
090regarding proposed pending or current litigation 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 move by Jill second in by Aaron all in favor all opposed motion passes unanimously and have a nice night e e e