February 12, 2026 KLSD Board of Education Meeting

001Love all the purple. >> Good evening. Tonight is >> Tonight is February 12th and we welcome you to our board of education meeting. Can I have a motion uh to return to public session? Motion by Marjorie, second by That would be >> Arwin. All those in favor. >> Uh if we could stand uh for the pledge of allegiance, please. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I don't know how to get happy. Um so tonight we're gonna welcome our visitors. Uh we have um the extreme pleasure tonight of having our Bose student of distinction >> um presentation. So >> over to Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Good evening. >>

002So, I just wanted to take a moment. I'm Dr. Greg Brown. I'm the assistant superintendent at PNW Boseies, and we just wanted to say thank you for having us. what an honor it is to join your meeting tonight to honor such a special young lady who uh has her whole fan club with her this evening. Um so we're really excited about that. Um I also wanted to just take a moment to recognize uh Miss Tammy Hoy who's here, Lucy's teacher in support. Um Dr. Nicole Janexi, our uh director of special education, and Miss Katherine White, who's going to say a couple of words. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone and thank you for the opportunity to celebrate one of our Walden superstars, Lucy Melman. With me tonight, as Dr. Brown said, I have classroom teacher

003Tammy Hoy, who has been working with Lucy since the start of the school year. Miss Tammy and our Miss Lucy are truly a match made in heaven as evidenced by their interactions, constant smiles, and Lucy's unbelievable progress. Lucy has been a wonderful addition to her classroom and also to our greater school community. Lucy began with us at Walden during our extended school year program in the summer and we are now delighted to have had her full-time. I remember mom and Lucy arriving for their very first visit, full of curiosity, lots and lots of mom questions, a little bit of nervousness, or maybe a lot, but a whole lot of hope. I always enjoy seeing a brand new parent, and even of course a brand new student. Yes, full of nerves for the very first time.

004But I'm not full of nerves at all because I know what they don't yet. That Lucy and all of our new students have found their forever school. The place that they belong. The place that they fit. The place where they are truly accepted for all they are. The place where they will thrive. and the place that they will be loved and cared for so that they can be the very best version of themselves. And our little Miss Lucy Sunshine is the absolute epitome of that and has done so in less than a year. Lucy is certainly one of our greatest success stories. Lucy has an infectious smile and a keen willingness to learn. She enjoys sharing her love for our therapy dog, Disney, with all of her teachers and peers. She also likes reading aloud

005during literacy and participating in speech groups and in math is an absolute rock star. Lucy has made wonderful strides in expanding her comfort zones and always rises to new challenges, trusting that her her teacher will never let her falter. And mom has learned to trust her teacher, too. We are so proud of Lucy and are honored to have her with us each day. Mom, you too are a rock star. You are Lucy's biggest cheerleader, her biggest supporter, and you are the reason she is full of success today. You've done well for her, and I hope that your nervousness has dissipated a little bit. and that you agree that Lucy has truly found her forever school because I have no intention of ever letting her go. We are so grateful for your faith in us and

006trust that we will care for Lucy as you do. And Katona, we are we are grateful for your faith in us as well. There is no greater trust than that of sharing your child with us each and every day. Congratulations, Lucy, especially on getting mom to give you the phone. >> We are so very proud of you, Lucy, and we love you so very much. >> What do you say? Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you so much for those lovely, lovely words about Lucy. You just really made her come to life and we you can feel the love and the the caring um for her. So, thank you so much and congratulations. >> Thank you. >> I think we're gonna >> That's okay. Thank you very much. >> It's my fault. >> Goodbye.

007>> Yes. here. >> What's what's our phone is their phone and what their phone is their phone. I often uh open my phone to find selfies of my one child in particular. Um so thank you for sharing that special moment with us tonight that uh really brings to life what we do here. Uh next we're going to turn to one of our other favorite students. We always love to hear from you and what uh all of our students are doing across the district. >> Oh yeah. Um good evening to all the board members, district officials, and community members uh present here today or listening on Zoom. Uh today, John J. High School celebrated its community and culture day. This yearly celebration invites students and family members to share their unique culture and associated celebrations. Families

008could set up stations and share their cultures and their associated celebrations. Um uh this is in the form of bringing food, wearing traditional clothing, telling stories or playing board games. Families could lead workshops on their culture. This may be teaching a dance, showing a game or preparing a dish. Some of the special cultures today were Croatia, Ecuador, England, France, Haiti, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Milan, Cortina, Poland, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. Uh this celebration is truly special. Offered by John J. It gives students a chance to both represent their culture and to learn more about our diverse student population. Community and culture day aligns with two pillars of the 2030 plan. Pillar two of belonging through hosting an event that celebrates diversity and unity within our school uh and creating community building opportunities for students, parents,

009staff, and community members. Um, also pillar four, global citizenship through embedding global issues and intercultural understandings in learning experiences and having um community- based learning that encourages participation in community initiatives. In the world of robotics, the John J team Mo Robotics now holds the state record and went undefeated, advancing the state championship. John J. Robotics also holds three of the top five robots in New York State. Um with Mo Robotics, Vulcan Robotics, and Screwups. These are staggering statistics. Um our district is on top of the New York State Robotics with not one but three separate John J teams. Uh these achievements are attributed to the long hours students spend during lunch and after school and to the program that Mr. Peters has built at the high school. As Dr. Siciliano mentioned last meeting, two John

010J. High school science research students will present at the University of Albany on February 25th. Senior Francis Hager will present on um I hope I say this right. The loss of TBX5 in human atrial cardio myitis displays diminished atrial phenotype and cellular features that mimic hol or syndrome symptoms. >> Wow. and wow. >> Not sure what that is, but um and senior uh other senior Sophia Wilder will be presenting on the assessment and of depression and anxiety symptoms in young adults with type 1 diabetes. Uh this pays tribute to the hard work and dedication of the students. Upcoming John J. High School will host the freshman plan February 24th and 25th. The show is this murder was staged. What is so special about the freshman play is that it is directed entirely by the juniors

011and the seniors. Uh they are Danny Barav, Emma Chase, Sophia Chen, Caitlyn Domoto, Lily Most, Violet Owen, Adena Talenfield, and Parker Whitney. This is a special opportunity for upper classmen who have been involved in previous acts um to direct one themselves, aligning with pillar 2 of learner centered leadership by mentoring and guiding the freshmen. John J. High School also has two students advancing to states for alpine ski. Freshman Willow Lutz and junior Porter Bish. They will compete on February 23rd and 24th at Bristol Ski Mountain in the Fingerlakes region. On March 18th, John J. High School will be hosting the career fair. This day allows students to meet with community professionals and participate in workshops uh throughout the school. This is brought forth by community members who come in and share their expertise. We thank

012the administration, counseling center, and the community members for coming in uh and make and bringing this event to the student body. Katona Elementary School celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day of Action on Sat Saturday, January 24th. This day offered students the opportunity to honor Dr. King's life through multiple events. This is the second year of this event and it ties back to pillar four of global citizenship, global perspectives, and civic engagement. KS and Metal Pond also hosted their annual science fairs. These events allow students to present topics that they research outside of schools. Community members serve as scientists walking around and talking to students. This event aligns with pillar one of knowledge and skills with project-based learning opportunities. Uh pillar two of learner centered leadership having diverse pathways for students and pillar 4 um global

013citizenship with innovative problem solving. Uh I had the opportunity to meet with 34 of Kona Elementary School student leaders. I got to witness the passion and the excitement of this group of fifth graders. These leaders push into classrooms throughout the school and share information about what is happening at the school and overall expectations for students. The student leaders have the opportunity to go on good morning KS uh in the mornings and share a spotlight on kindness. This is where they talk about a specific example of kindness that someone did for them whether by a teacher or student. They then discuss the impact that this kindness had onto them. Their goal is to spread the kindness throughout the school and create a sense of belonging for students. When the student leaders were asked the most valuable

014aspect of this program, uh many mentioned gaining significant public speaking experience. They talked about feeling nervous the first time um going into the younger classrooms, but after that is much easier for them. They also said it gave them more confidence going forward. Others mentioned having a different point on view being a student uh and having a sense of responsibility for the younger grades um and wanted to be a role model in the school. Overall, this program directly aligns with pillar two of learner centered leadership and pillar three of belonging. Students are now entering middle school with experience as leaders uh with a sense of importance of belonging in our school. These students are excellent leaders and members of the KS student body and they will carry this as they get older. Next week students have

015offered February break which we are all looking forward to and glad is on the calendar for next year. >> Thank you. >> Wow. >> Thank you. >> Really impressive lots going on. Thank you. >> Next we're going to turn to board committee reports. Um 8.01 audit committee has not met. Uh finance >> finance we met on the 28th um start off the meeting discussing investment options that the districts could use to maximize uh the return on our idle funds and our reserve and operating accounts. Uh we landed on a couple solutions, one of which was Niclas that will maximize the rate of return, minimize risk and offer the liquidity the business office needs to run efficiently. Uh we then turned our attention to this year's upcoming budget that we voted on in May. Uh we

016took a look at a very high level and what options were available to us in order to keep a budget under the tax cap this year. Uh there is a possible path. Um but the district will have to make a lot of tough decisions on where to trim our expenses. As we discussed in the past, much of our expenses are in salaries and health benefits. The latter having gone up 60% in the last 5 years. The district will be presenting a preliminary look at the factors affecting the budget and possible options uh tonight and going forward. >> Thank you. >> Facilities. >> Thank you. Just a couple of updates here at the high school. When we come back from the February break, we're hoping that the best of you is going to >> um and

017there was one other thing at the high school. Can you refresh my memory, Lisa? >> Also, >> thank you. >> The auditorium for our freshman and spring plays, >> but um it'll be opening on time for those plays with new um lighting. And then this summer we'll be doing the audio system. So that's exciting. Um and just a note about the high school. So the path for drop off will remain the same um as far as with the high with at the gymnasium. It's just that when now people can use that um entrance as well as a vestibule to um enter the building, but the drop off um pattern will remain the same. So that's exciting >> and Stephen will be reminding and I'm sure Ray will and everyone will be reminding everyone um because

018we we'll forget during that nice break right that week break. But yes, we're excited. So thank you to Mike and his team also for huge thanks. Yeah. >> Um parent council. >> So parent council had our meeting for this month. Um, I think that really the the only thing to comment there is it's really starting to engage in a very open dialogue um with parent council. I think it's just a really good time for Ry and I to meet with the PTOs and discuss what's happening in their schools and what's happening to give them an overview of what's happening here. Just an FYI, many of them said that they didn't actually ever think about coming to the meetings before. So, we encourage them again to um not only come to the meetings but to let

019the people parents know that they can come to the meetings as well. >> Um and uh we also discussed the upcoming budget and that's budget season and that we're we'll be presenting to them as well. >> Great. Thank you. >> Policy. >> Thank you. policy met on January 30th and then tonight you'll see we have one policy that we're bringing forward for a first read and it just um reflects a small change in the state law around our um options for when we reorganize as a board of education. We have a little bit more latitude now in terms of that date when we need to organize ourselves. Um and we are next meeting on March 27th. So stay tuned. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh sustainability >> um sustainability met on February 6. We

020had a brief update on the energy performance contract which is the start date for the project is to be determined. We have a lot of ice everywhere and so can't start putting the solar panels on quite yet. Um there's also some work starting with regard to the electrical infrastructure upgrades that need to happen throughout the district. Thanks Mike for all your work on that. Um geothermal continues to progress and the expectation is that it will go live sometime in August. Um and there was quite a bit of discussion around our upcoming sustainability fair and um a lot of work around thinking how can we improve the format to sort of put more um of a focus on the students who do so much work to come up with their projects and to present so that

021there's more community participation. And so there's lots of ideas about how to bring more people in, how to format it so that the students get more of an opportunity to fully present their work and so that we as a district also have an opportunity to sort of marry all of the student work and to highlight some of the work that we're doing whether it's a geothermal project, the EPC um and so forth. And that was it. Thank you. And there's is there plans again to have the sustainability fair coincide with our meeting? >> Yes. >> Perfect. I like that. That's a that's always a fun meeting to come early for to see all the students work. >> It's going to be April 21st, 2026. So mark your calendar. >> We're planning on the B-wing, too.

022>> That's in the B-wing. So, I think that'll be a nice open space for that. That's great. >> Yeah. For us >> show off our new space. >> Yeah. That's fantastic. Marjorie for the last two. >> Um thank you. Just uh an update regarding legislative advocacy. Uh on January 29th, the Lower Hudson Education Council and Westp had um facilitated a forum with our delegation. And I would say that um the most positive takeaway that I can share is that our state officials for our region are very supportive of public schools and really um receptive to some of the concerns that we have and some of the requests that we are making um to continue to ensure that we have the resources that we need to educate the next generation of students in our state. So,

023um you know, big thanks to our state, uh senators and state council members. And then more recently on the heels of that, we have smaller group opportunities to meet um more individually. So, last week on February 6th, big thank you to Assembly Member Chris Berdick who met with us. And then today, Senator Pete Harkham met with us. And thank you to Neil for joining that call. We were joined by um board members from every district that Senator Harkham represents. and um administrative members too. And we we heard I would say a chorus of concern around things ranging from the EV mandate and how districts are really concerned about their ability to fund and implement the infrastructure for electric vehicles. We heard a lot about UPK and districts are experiencing different pain points. I would say

024some districts are really hindered by their infrastructure, others are hindered by uh the number of students that they're able to fund through their current aotment. So the pain points are not exactly one-sizefits-all, but the the the origin of issue is, you know, really very familiar, I would say. Um and again, you know, our our representatives are familiar with our issues and receptive to our concerns. Um, and stay tuned. You know, we have one more left with Senator Shelley Mayor and um, then that will sort of be the end of our opportunity and we'll be, you know, waiting to hear what happens next from the governor and the state legislature. I >> think we're very fortunate with the amount of outreach they have to us and the number of meetings that they're willing to attend and

025and listen. So, completely. >> Thank you for representing us on. Thank you. Pleasure. >> Um, and not on here, but I would be remiss. The Lewis Brow Shady Lane committee um has been removed from our our committees, and I just want to take this opportunity um to publicly thank all of the members who have served on that committee over the almost three years that we had that going. Um, so we we do thank you. Your inputs were very valuable and I think has put us in a really good place going forward. So, um you know, when the opportunity comes in the summer when Kim puts out or in the fall when Kim puts out the call, we really hope that our community members um sign up because you really do make a difference. Um the

026district safety committee um ERJC >> unfortunately due to a scheduling conflict they did meet. I was unable to be there. So, I'm going to pass it on to Dr. Aliva. >> Yeah, sure. Yeah, thank you. No, it's a great meeting. We met, I think, earlier in the week this week. Uh, a nice group of administrators and teachers and parents as well. Um, and we began to or continued our work what we started back in October. Uh, which is what we're calling right now our celebration calendar or what started off as an acknowledgement calendar building off the work that we did with our partner at Boseis, Coutura Proctor. um she was with us for a lot last year and in June uh really took the the uh energy of the group that was with us about

027what are some of the important themes that we want to look at over the course of the year all connected to one of our empowerment actions in belonging and that's developing that DEIB uh unified consistent uh thematic calendar for the school district. uh we meet again March 9th and then again I think in early April we skip May and then in early June we meet again all with the goal of being able to create this uh calendar as part of our um ERJC goal that we developed a few months back >> that's really exciting thank you >> uh food services Carolyn is not here did food services >> was it um it's going to be rescheduled right >> yes Okay. And um special seek I don't we did not we've not met since um >>

028the last meeting. I think we've got one coming up but we've right so weed out. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. That brings us to 9.01. Any board announcements? Um, I do want to say two weekends ago, uh, John J hosted a two-day wrestling extravaganza. Um, and I just want to point out the heart of our school. Our custodians go so far above and beyond. They were here at 5:30 in the morning. Yeah. Yeah. >> Worked ceaselessly all day to keep, you know, things cleaned up. It, you know, it's it's the first day is a bunch of JV wrestlers. Um I think 550 wrestlers over the two day. >> Yeah. >> 550 wrestlers, all the parents, all the coaches, all the referees. It was just a massive >> amount of people. >> Yeah. and every not

029only was every single little request that we made immediately addressed, but they were so proactive and helpful and always around and what can we do to help. We just people don't realize that the school could not exist without the work that they do. And it really shown over the two-day period. And I think we left on Saturday night at 7 o'clock, 7:30, they were still here working. And Sunday morning, they were back here again. 5:30 6:00 >> and I don't think we walked out of here Sunday until >> 6ish >> 6. >> Um, so please again pass on our our thankfulness not only for what they do but especially that week and they really make a difference. >> Thank you Lorine. >> We we do have a great crew. Every time I see them they're

030smiling and sometimes like you shouldn't. >> Yeah. And you know, I have to add for the elementary schools because we had our elementary concerts. We had band, chorus, and orchestra. And that also requires such a tremendous amount of work in terms of the parents rotating all of the setup for the instruments, the stage, and they do a phenomenal job. And so I think it's the high school, it really carries throughout the district. >> Yeah. >> And that's after digging us out from the storm the weekend before the following weekend. >> That part I'll say, THEY DON'T SMILE. BUT, UH, you know, I talked just about the high school and the elementary, but it really is everywhere you go on our from the grounds crew to each building, you're always met with a smile. >> Um,

031now we're going to turn to 10.01, the non-instructional budget. And Hudson, I do want to specifically invite you, this is your first time sitting through a budget with us, and hopefully you'll be with us next year. Any questions, please just, you know, feel free to ask if you're curious about anything. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Right. So, I'll go ahead and start us off. So, uh in a moment, we'll go ahead and start walking through the non-instructional budget side. And as you may recall, our next meeting is then when we go ahead and grab on the instructional side and then that one in March 12th and we'll kind of bring those together. So, it's kind of an A B and then we'll kind of get to see at the third meeting down. What you'll

032see here this evening is the intentional um weaving in of the ordination and alignment with the pillars from the non-instructional side of that piece and we'll continue that as we look at the meeting in two weeks and stuff. So we have our team here tonight and I'll go ahead and ask Lisa to just go a quick introduction we'll step right into it. So thanks Lisa. >> Absolutely. So yes so tonight we have with us Michael Lavoy our director of operations and maintenance. Jessica Kingsbury, our new director of assessment research and technology. I was just gonna say dark, but I knew it all. Okay. As well as Nora Beltron, our director of transportation, and Melissa Joyce, who's our school business administrator. So, thank you all for joining us tonight. And I I'll just get us started

033just to um just again to say good evening to everyone. And uh tonight we continue our budget development process for the 2627 school year. While our mission is always student centered, tonight's focus is on the essential non-instructional side of the house, if you will, the infrastructure, operations, and fiscal stewardship that make our educational programs possible. Tonight's budget presentation is more is about more than numbers on a page. It's about how we as a district translate our shared values into daily action, not only in our classrooms, but across our systems that support teaching, learning, and our students. The framework guiding this work, as Dr. Blanch mentioned, is our pillars of light. While these pillars are often discussed in instructional terms, they are equally reflected in our non-instructional budget, in the way we operate our buildings, trans

034transport our students, support our staff, manage our resources, and the care and well-being for overall for our community. In many ways, the non-instructional side of the budget is what allows our instructional missions to succeed. So, thank you all. And as always, our work is grounded in our board. I always forget to flip this one, too. Sorry. Our um is is grounded in our board and our board of education's goals as well as the vision 2030. Specifically, tonight we will be again addressing goal three, fiscal stewardship. And our our objective is to adopt a budget that is responsive to our current financial climate while ensuring excellent in our excellence in our facilities and um as well as all of our programming. So pillar one is um is knowledge and skills. Thank you. Um and when we

035talk about knowledge and skills um we're not only referring to our students. This budget invests in systems and professionals who ensure our district operates with expertise and precision from our financial from our finance department to our facilities staff to our technology to our transportation operations teams. Strong fiscal management, reliable infrastructur infrastructure and modern systems ensure that resources are used effectively, efficiently and responsibly, allowing educators to focus on teaching and students to focus on learning. Our budget drivers which we have again um you know we've seen these before and um tonight we're putting these numbers in context. We are um operating in a very challenging environment as has been we've been discussing and as we discussed in January we are seeing a structural gap where fixed costs like health insurance retirement contributions and other contractual obligations

036are growing faster far faster than our revenues. While we are doing everything possible to stay under the cap these costs are largely non-discretionary and outside of our control. Um, and this is just the the development um, you know, of the budget. And now we're in February, so we're hopefully near the end of the development, but we're getting very close. Um, and u, but the primary goal in developing the 2627 budget was to ensure that student programming remains a top priority. This involves allocating resources strategically to protect and sustain essential programs that enhance student learning, engagement, and overall well-being. So tonight we are going to look again at those non-instructional um the non-instructional side of the house and then slides that follow. Um I'm going to start off by reviewing again the components of the budget

037including revenues um and then we'll also look into um the district operations and side of the beginning of the budget. So, just to review revenues, um, the major piece here you'll see on this slide is we're reminded that walking into the school year, we saw a decrease in our state aid ratios, which resulted in a decrease in our state aid even though our expenditures were the same or more far or greater than the prior year. I will go into more depth into um detail into that later on in this presentation. Um right now even though um on this slide you do see an increase in state aid actually what is behind that number and you may I don't know if Dr. Blanch brought the on board. >> No I didn't. >> So >> because I

038think that the title on the on board actually said we're going to get a 3.8% increase and I was really excited about >> I was too. Yeah. >> And I think I was wrong. >> It said it in the headline. It did. It did. >> I actually put I think I was going to put in Freeman and everything, but >> 3.8. >> No, no, that's not how it is. That's not what it is. >> So, the um and we will break down the state aid um our state aid specifically. Um but for us, our foundation aid actually grew by only 1% and once again this year, and I'll go into detail later, our ratios have once again decreased. Thereby, our state aid will once again um be decreasing. But the increase you do see in

039state aid line of the revenue budget here is due to the fact that we are closing out building projects and thereby our building aid begins to flow. Um you also will see um we are proposing um to go again to the maximum allowable tax levy limit. That's the first line there. And um we are decreasing um our interest revenues again um again based upon meeting with our banking institutions and um and um we do see a slight increase in the day tuition we anticipate um based on this year. Those are our um out of district students who um who we bring into our district into our specialized special education programs. Um and again those are seats that are available to other students um that you know not taken away from our students. Um our other

040revenue lines primarily um will be staying um flat. You will see in uh miscellaneous revenue an increase of $300,000. And what that is is um in order for the first year of the EPC to not have an impact or minimal impact on the budget, Honeywell pledged $300,000 um to offset that first year EPC payment because we do have to make an interestonly payment and we're not we're you know we're just going to start getting the um solar arrays and seeing those savings just to begin in that first year. So that's primarily what you see on that. We're very fortunate that they're such good partners with us on that contract and thank you again for all the hard work on getting it. >> Thank you. Yes, Mike actually is reaching out. We're hoping to that they

041will come to Yes. Okay. They'll be coming to our they'll be coming to our sustainability that will be exciting to have Yes. to have Terry there to >> check out now it's in a board meeting. >> No out in the out there. Um but yes, so that's exciting. So thank you Mike. Um, and so this is just a slide from last year just to show you um, the decreases in state our state aid ratios walking into this year. And the next slide shows once again we're seeing a decrease. We luckily our building aid did not decrease last year did decrease by 10 percentage points. Again our transportation our um, transportation as well as our Bosey's aids are decreasing. Um so those are two areas that are decreasing. So what does that look like and mean?

042So what I did is I took the expenses from um the last two year or each year and said if the aid ratios were at 2324 how much aid have we lost over the last two years and it's $1.7 million. So when we talk about that structural gap again, um we this is an area we have no control over and it is a significant amount of money that we have to fill. Um and as we will talk about a little bit today and as well in two weeks we will you know discuss what goes into the tax cap levy limit. Um and again so these are all outside of our control. These are um our revenues are decreasing in state aid. our in our interest revenues are decreasing and um we are limited upon what

043we can um increase our levy by. So um and this slide though this you will see a detail here of um the various state aid lines. Um our foundation aid as I already mentioned is growing by 1%. We are seeing our Boseies anticipating our Boseies um aid to decrease by 18% that's based both on a decrease in expenditures as well as again a decrease in um the aid ratios. Um we also are seeing there interesting enough our our technology I think it was technology our technology aid is the only one that's um a ratio the rest of them are categorical as far as textbooks and everything else but technology is also decreasing that aid ratio is decreasing as well as our transportation aid ratio so again um you know we're trying to keep our expenditures

044as close to flat as possible but um the the percentage that the state is offsetting is um decreased. So overall um what you'll see here is the first column is the current year. Those are the aid runs as of January 28th. And you will see if you look on the building aid line, you may see, oh why is next year's building a lower than our what we received? because we submitted um some of our reports by December 31st and these the governor's aid runs are based on what is in the database they call it that's where we enter all of our expenditures and our budget data into the um SAM system um and it's they call it the November database which is actually the October 15th snapshot so um so that's why so the good

045news is um we discussed last year we projected an increase in the building aid and we have in fact received So that's good news. Um so and then going forward for next school year again working with our partners um we are also projecting an increase in that building aid based upon when we'll be submitting our final cost reports. >> Lisa question. I noticed that the uh the prek line um doesn't have any funding next to it. Is there >> the reason that that is is because actually universal prek is a grant funed program. Okay. So, it is based upon expenditures. Um, we submit a grant as we do with our title grants and anything else. Um, and so, um, the nice thing with the proposal from the governor's office is prior to well, current under

046current law, um, we do have a cap on the number of students that we can serve. It's, um, 5,400 and it is 153 I believe students. Um, generally we have between 200 and 220 incoming kindergarteners. Under the governor's proposal, there will be no cap and it's also 10,000 per student. So, it would depend on the number of students we're serving and then we would receive based upon um the budget. So, for example, we already have a contract with the CCC. So we have that fixed amount that we pay the CCC and those additional funds we could use for such things as um for curricular materials so you know textbook things that we currently are using the general fund to pay for as you know um assessment software as well as um if um we are

047do go forward and renovate lees for UPK we could purchase cast classroom furniture for that. We could also um per charge some of our custodial staff that would be cleaning those areas the same way we charge it to the cafeteria fund. Um so yeah, so those are just some areas that we could utilize that $10,000 per student versus 5,400 which we're receiving right now. Right now it just straight pays um directly for the contract that we have with the CCC. >> Any additional costs we pay for is paid through the general fund. So just because of the way we receive the funding, it's why it's not here. It's we have an allowable amount and then we bill against what we use from that. >> Exactly. >> And then we get reimbured. >> Exactly. Yeah. >>

048Um so it so it you know I mean it it's been um what is it 818 or something I believe what it or 814 whatever the number was the past few years and it looks like wow we have this extra 800,000 but unless we spend it we we can't utilize it. So I just it just it's a little um misleading. So >> thank you. You're welcome. Um uh as I mentioned last month again uh one of our factors is um is the um taxbased growth factor which is based on our um growth and um value or you know that based on the growth in the area that number again that factor is again decreasing and once again um CPI is greater than 2% but that is um tax that factor also is capped at 2%.

049So that decrease this year again from that um 1.008 to 1.0057 translates to about $250,000 less that we can levy and stay below the cap. So again, compounding with the decrease in, you know, in our state aid revenue, it's significant. So right now, what would a budget look like if we um again based on the maximum allowable tax levy of uh 113558301 other revenues again I have that on the other slide where we're projecting our interest income from um tuition out of district tuition and other items. Um we are looking at a uh $131 million potential budget eight um $1642 which is approximately a $4.4 million increase from the current school year. Um and is there any questions before we move on to the departmental budgets? And again, we will go into detail again in

050two weeks about revenues and expenditures and all of these conditions. And then um when we come together in beginning of March, we'll have, you know, all the different pieces. We're just kind of introducing these different um the revenues and tax levy calculations. We'll talk more detail next time because I know everyone loves. But yes, so thank you. So I will begin. Um actually I think Ray is going to talk a little bit about uh the central administrative services portion of our budget. >> Yep. So as we walk through this piece here um you'll see that we have um the central office administration pieces. So that's really going to cover you know basically our board the office where we're at and things. I think we have a slide coming for Lisa. I don't know if we

051want to >> Thank you. Yes. >> Get that coming forward. Sorry. So, just to start, um, you want to read about pillar two or do you want me to? >> Belonging. Belonging. Um, >> I'm feeling like I belong. >> You do? >> Belonging. Well, okay. So, belonging does begin the moment a student step onto a bus, um, walks into a school building, or engages with support staff members when they first come into our school buildings. Our non-instructional investment in transportation facilities saf safety and belonging helps ensure that every student and family feels welcome, supported, and secure. Clean and well-maintained buildings, reliable transportation, and responsive operations are foundational to creating environments where everyone belongs. >> And I think I, you know, heard I saw a lot of positive body language thinking about that idea about our

052kids. first person they greet is often the driver of our buses and on the way home it's the last person they say good night to and things like that. So it is such a powerful piece to just wake up and have a smiling face. Somebody knows you by name, good to see you again. And even drivers where it's like, "Oh, we miss you. Where were you for last couple days?" And oh, I was sick. And so just that welcoming environment does make a huge difference for kids before they even walk into the school or classroom. and something we review for every transportation person that comes from Nora. We talk about that very factor before they're hired and how they answer that question about being the first person and the last person of contact. So very

053important to us >> and the kids get so excited when they start the new year if it's their same bus driver from last year. They're >> like it's it's a big deal. >> It's a big deal. >> It's a very big deal. >> Thank you Norah for and please pass that on to your >> I will. Thanks. And and so just in kind of our shared area then when you think about uh board of education roles and responsibilities really looking that oversight obviously to what we're doing this evening about budget and financing and then representing our communities again you spoke this evening all the different committees we're speaking about there and then really thinking about um getting everything ready for the May vote and be either our um things we have on the ballot this

054year our general request for our proposition andor a times when we have trustee seats avail open up two or three a year and things and so all of that work from governance piece and then really over in the uh um our office with myself and Kim really thinking about where we're looking at how can we implement those board policies and thinking about day-to-day operations that are coming across our organization for example Hudson didn't happen to sneak in we had a nice little fire drill today just before just before things here at the uh high school um again operations manager through that uh you know Mike's team, high school team, students. Um I'm glad it wasn't last week in single digits. I think our kids did okay today and stuff and wasn't too bad, was it?

055>> It wasn't that bad. >> Hudson's a skier, so he doesn't like the cold as much. I think you told him, right? >> It could be a little warmer out >> and so we think about those elements. There's always something happening and going on. So it's that overall oversight and management and things. So also what falls in our space is just Eddie about our public relations office and so thinking about how we can celebrate and share the wonderful things that are happening in our schools and then when things do arise we want to make sure we get that information out quickly and succinctly and things. So and then if we just kind of spill over to uh the next area thinking just looking at we've got some of the components in here you'll see and

056um just those couple of light items for the board of education area. Um the part of these adjustments and changes have been to realignment of where these dollars are identified in the budget. And so I think we had a change with some of our border education pieces this year, Lisa, and things like that with >> our board docs for example. And we will talk about this more techn later on with technology. But um we are moving a lot of our tech all of our technology to be centralized between the non-structional instructional technology budget lines and that just allow it just you know it just allows for the management of it. So when you see the decrease in board of education, don't worry, we're not decreasing your budget. >> We're not getting the double sal double

057zero plus zero still zero, >> but it's just a movement of board docs as well as the um voting software. >> And so then kind of coming out of that, you can see our public relations component there. as the board knows who supported kind of an adjustment last year where we moved to um an um an indistrict employee kind of position to a shared resources with our Boseies colleagues. Now we have two folks who kind of work in roughly three days each and that allows us to bring in a kind of a wider scope of of skill set and different perspectives. And so you can see that the the nominal adjustment that was inside of there with our partnership with again PNW Boseis. And then I'll go ahead and shift it over a little bit

058to the business side of the house if that's okay. At least on the bottom part of that previous slide, I think. >> Yes. >> So the um the finance um business administration of the that's the overall business office. You do see an increase in there and that's an increase in FTE and that's a support um a a secretarial um executive assistant support to the business office. Um we we Julie and I used to share and secretary and we wanted her to stay here so we >> okay I'm sure you did not >> Yes. So we um it was a lot to support two assistant superintendent. So um so yes so we are now um looking at bringing on um a direct um person in the business office. So that's primarily the increase that you see

059there as well as >> I'm just swinging back on that just to the previous year where um it was you know two folks in and the superintendent's kind of board of education office and so we we in essence in a lot of ways that those dollars went to support the team here is that that we've asked and continue to ask you know a lot of work for our teachers and our administrators organization and then um Kim Kim said she said yes you when I asked her if that was okay. So, she doesn't remember announce but uh we kind of really brought that down to the one piece in there. And so again, it's just really moving those pieces of FD across the organization as best as we can to support the what's in front of

060us right now. And we're going to see that as we think about a little bit today, but in particular as we think about when we meet in two weeks about there'll be realignment of FD or full-time equivalent positions across the organization. And again, we as we spoke ear there's needs to definitely be a reduction in that. So there'll be that as well as realignment. I mean it is an absolute necessity and every time a position is open, we come and we ask ourselves, okay, is this the position that must be replaced? must be replaced fully and it is in the best place to support the organization. So it doesn't matter the the level of where the position is the organization that is a conversation every single time we have. So I just thought that that

061was a good piece. Yes, here. But the reality is is from budget year to budget year it was a slide over. So thank you for thank you Lisa. >> Thank you. And um auditing is just contractual increases. Those are there are internal audit or external audit our claims auditor all of which are required by law that we have all of those. So that again it's just the contract from year to year. A tre the treasur is a separate line. the district treasur actually it reports directly to the board of education you know gives reports um monthly to the board of education purchasing um is it's just really um there's a decrease in overtime in that line we've been working Melissa and I and Karen Carol our purchasing agent on um and as well as Jess's

062team helping us to um automate some processes um we're also and our treasurer moving more to a payments so we're not doing paper and also our vendors will be happy because you know they'll you'll be quicker to get payments instead of waiting for the mail as well as um purchase orders used to be printed now they're emailed directly to vendors as well as email to the um to the uh staff members as well. So it's you know taking away from the printing and all the enter office mail and people waiting or calling and say can you send it to me now and you get they get them as soon as they're approved. So, but um so that's also allowed for us to bring down the um overtime in that line. The fiscal agent fees, I

063know it's like 159%. That's crazy. But it's um it's what it is is um it's increase of 47,000 and uh specifically having to do with um we will be once again um there'll be a little u more of going from bands to bonds as the $49 million budget $49.5 million bond budget um goes from bands to bonds as well as potential of um borrowing if um if future proposition ition we'll talk about next week or in two weeks. But that also um so those different components um require additional fiscal agent support as bond counsel as well as the um individuals who write out the um the specific bond agreements and everything. So legal services um it's just um not so much to do with the fees. It's just having to do with um trending and

064just looking at the trends as expenditures, ensuring that we have enough funds there. And the last um the next line is my colleague uh Neil over here and um there is uh actually over in personnel as well there's addition there but you you'll probably talk about the next slide but you don't you won't see this because we had budgeted for it already. And um record management is just you know making sure that we comply with the um the local records management department of the state education department. We have very specific laws and there are specific rules and you know what has to be kept for six years and permanent records student records are permanent. Many of payroll records are permanent. So it is actually a bit of um it is a bit of work to

065make sure that we are in compliance there. Um I will move to pillar three learner centered leadership and this requires systems that are flexible responsible and forward thinking. This budget reflects thoughtful planning and responsible stewardship prioritizing long-term sustainability over short-term fixes. Our operational decisions are guided by what's best support students today while preparing the district for tomorrow. So a little bit more about the business office. Um I just would be remiss again I did mention some of the folks but again I just want to thank them because um you know it's just they're they're just like our operations team and our you know our transportation you see them around but most of the business office folks you don't see around their signatures on the bottom of your check they're your you know your checks are

066in every two weeks in your um in bank accounts but um so again just Melissa Joyce our school business administrator got our district treasurer Rhonda Msina our senior payroll clerk, Karen Carroll, our purchasing agent, Andy Wallik, who does um our account clerk who does helps us with accounts payable, accounts receivable, as well as supports payroll. Um Sean um >> McFeden, thank you. >> Sean McFeden, his first name is Francis, so I almost said Sean McFrans. Um but Francis, Sean McFaden, um our accounts payable clerk. uh Gail Weiss, who's our bond bookkeeper, who has been so kindly um filling in while we don't um are in between senior bookkeepers. So, she's been helping us out there. Um and Jeanie still is helping me too. So, I I have to of course mention my friend Jeannie Stein.

067So, she's still um helping us while we don't have secretary. And luckily, Maryann Carol who retired also comes back a couple days a week. People retirees are so kind to help me out. They come back and help me. So um they're very so but yeah so I I I'm very grateful for really have a wonderful positive hardworking team and I'm very grateful for them. So that's already mentioned that um and you know um so we do um oversee um on the next slide um we oversee you know on&m buildings grounds transportation food services safety and security accounting payroll benefits procurement grants risk management insurance legal and and contractual and that's all those folks are taking part of all of that. Um we administer payroll benefits for 659 employees and as well as support approximately 500

068retirees um as far as their health insurance and other benefits that is they still have to the district. Uh we have two financial audits as I mentioned a financial um audit as well as internal audits and weekly um claims audits and um thus far um this year we've issued over 3,000 purchase orders um over 6,000 pay uh accounts payable checks, 17,000 payroll. Well, they're direct deposits, but um but that's the um as far as because some go into multiple accounts and um process um send out 2,000 invoices. Um just some of the things some of the things we do, but also um as I mentioned um safety and security is a part of um the business services and Melissa's going to talk a little bit more because this school year we added Alteras and um

069we just wanted to talk a little bit more about the work they've done. >> Yeah. Um so Alterus is a leading school safety consulting firm. Um they ensure that all district emergency preparedness response and recovery protocols not only meet but exceed New York State Education Department requirements. Alteras provides expert guidance in regulatory compliance, crisis planning, emergency response procedures, and districtwide safety initiatives. Through their support, the district maintains comprehensive, up-to-date district-wide school safety plans and building level emergency response plans, ensuring alignment with state mandates and best practices in school security. Working in close collaboration with the district and his team at Elter, we have Rich Finn, the district's dedicated safety and security coordinator who oversees the daily operational components of district safety. Rich manages the districtwide drill schedule, observes and evaluates emergency drill. >> That's not

070me, is that? >> No. >> Um, uh, drills across the schools, supports building leadership teams by participating in monthly safety meetings, broad assessment discussions. He leads and conducts ongoing trainings for safety teams and other staff as needed. Rich coordinates closely with Allied security, which is our security greeters, um, district and building administrators, the IT department to oversee access control systems, camera infrastructure, and overall building security measures. Rich has also been a key presence at school events such as curriculum nights, and PTO meetings, supporting staff, students, and families. Together, Alterris and Rich provide a comprehensive safety infrastructure. Alteras ensures high level compliance, crisis planning expertise, and strategic leadership for district-wide saf safety initiatives, while Rich ensures consistent, proactive, and hands-on implementation of all safety practices across buildings. Their combined efforts create a strong, compliant, and well-coordinated

071safety environment, supporting the well-being of student, staff, and the broader community. All of Rich's day-to-day work allows Lisa and I to focus on the daily operations of the business office. And I just have to say, additionally, collaborating with Rich has been both positive and seamless, and he's a great addition to our district. We had the opportunity where when we were doing the meop pond tour to see Rich interacting and training small group and they were so focused nobody even turned around to see this big group of us walking and it was great to see them so involved and you know willing to learn. So I think um thank you for bringing Alteras to us. I think they've been a fantastic >> agreed. >> Yeah. He was also super helpful today in the high school transitioning

072down to the middle school. Yeah, he was very helpful for that. Yeah, instrumental. So, >> yeah. Yeah, >> absolutely. That's just like Melissa said, I mean, even just having the extra Melissa ran, you know, was doing attendance. I'm like trying to get people out of who parked in the fire lane in front and and Rich is, you know, right in Steven's office, you know, in command central saying, you know, you you guys can't come back in the building. you have to go to, you know, contacting Jeff at the middle school and making sure that, you know, the students get down there safely. Um, and even I met with Rich and Brett, our SRO, after the event and um, and the students, you know, they had their go bags. So, you know, they wear shorts and

073short sleeves to school. So, they're outside and even though it wasn't zero, it's still so cold, so they got their Myar blankets. So, Rich is like, "Don't worry, I'll put the new Myar blankets back in the go bags for hopefully we won't have to use them again." But but yes, but um but he's been just that um you know all all the the thought partner like you know um at Meadow Pond for curriculum night I believe it was when they brought um they had all the families all the grades come at one time and Chris and um Rich just being able to work with um you know with Ashlin and everyone on designing how can we possibly get the parking you know and Mike of course working with Mike and just designing the parking and

074lighting and all the things to make things happen. And that's those are just like a couple examples of just how much uh he's already brought to the district. And >> yeah, he's touched all parts of the district, including even home visits with myself. I mean, he's been super helpful. >> Yeah. >> And curriculum, I'll add with certain requirements, cardiac arrest, etc. Yeah. >> Great. Awesome. >> So, thank you everyone. And um Next, I will um turn over to my colleague in human resources to thank you. >> Yeah, welcome. >> Thank you, Lisa. Yeah, good evening to everyone. Uh yeah, human resources encompasses a broad range of responsibilities uh that include um and span uh ed law compliance and benefits. Uh Lisa mentioned just earlier uh about a new employee we have. Uh her name is

075Diamond Brown. She's our benefits assistant. She started January 5th. We love having her and it's just six weeks in and uh just a real uh wonderful addition to the district office and to uh that kind of connective glue between the business office and and human resources. So, so thank you for uh mentioning that. Uh also enrollment uh if you see Victoria Freriedman on the way into the district office uh she's also our district registar on enrollment that falls under uh human resources. Um we also take care of onboarding, labor relations, performance evaluations and think about uh organizational uh culture um while also demanding high degree of attention to to all kinds of operational detail. One of the the features I just want to really highlight here is the and there's many wonderful things about I

076think what we do in human resources and what I really want to center on though is something about relationships and something that we've really have um thought about deeply in human resources and with uh Ray's leadership and and all my colleagues here and and colleagues not sitting at this table is our our really powerful and wonderful relationships with all of our collective bargaining units. um Amy Guyger, Monica Bise, Carrie Ford, and Josh Towns and uh all leaders of their respective bargaining units uh just have really wonderful relationships with all of us and we're able to solve problems as they come and really trusting and communicative environment. So, I just wanted to really make sure that we we highlight that aside from all the other work that we're involved with. I think that's really important that

077we center relationships and the trust that's involved with that. So, thank you to Ray's leadership there. those um all those relationships have really continued. So total employees which includes um folks who also don't receive benefits. That's why that number is a little bit different compared to the uh business office is 750 which is large in and of itself but also we my office with Sylvia Rivero and Lorie Allen who really take care of a lot of the human resources side. We ran these numbers and since July 1st 2025 2025 98 new employees have been onboarded and behind all that are numerous phone calls, lots of different paperwork that we use in human resources, paperwork that goes to the business office and other parts of the district. Um it's an incredible amount of detailed labor intensive

078work and you can see all the different folks we've we've hired over the last um seven or eight months or so. But Sylvia and Lori uh really take pride in their work and it's not just the detail. It's something we we also again back to relationships we really emphasize the warmth and the care. So when the phone rings we really try to emphasize whoever's calling is that they are receiving all of our attention at that moment. and uh something we're we're proud of. We want to continue to do um as well as take care of the uh detailed paperwork that comes in with all the 98 employees uh since since July, which which is um pretty impressive. So, so thank you. So, am I handing it to Mike or am I handing it to back

079to you, Lisa? >> I'm just going to um just >> I can't I can't follow that. >> Wait till you hear the intro. So, so um so we'll dispatch pillar four. Sustainability and global citizenship is not aspirational. Its operational investment in energy efficiency, long range f uh facility planning, responsible purchasing and infrastructure maintenance reflect our commitment to the environment stewardship as well as fiscal responsibility. These decisions reduce long-term costs, minimize disruptions, and model responsible citizenship for our students. So with that, I'll turn it over to my colleague Mike to talk about >> Hey, don't everybody get too excited here. This is operations and maintenance supporting safe, efficient, and sustainable schools. That sustainable schools effort. Uh we do collaborate heavily with the sustainability committee and members uh attached to that committee. So part of what you'll

080be hearing is some repeats about that, but I'm just going to go through these bullet points and just narrate a little bit for you. So operations and maintenance play a critical role in ensuring our schools are safe, compliant, efficient, and fully supportive of teaching and learning. While much of this work occurs behind the scenes, although noticed, and thank you everybody for noticing, um it's essential to the daily operation and long-term success of the district. Our top priority is providing environments where students can learn and staff can work safely and comfortably. And this includes the hard work from our custodians, the daily cleaning and sanitation, using green, clean products, falling in line with sustainability efforts, maintaining classrooms and common areas and ensuring critical building systems. And this is where our maintenance staff comes in. very small,

081but they are able to maintain such things as HVAC, lighting, plumbing, fire safety, although we had a fire alarm today. Um, but they're reliable and our systems are fully operational. >> How how many um HBAC HBAC's did they install over the summer? I mean, that was a a major feat >> that's in here. We're going to get to that, but you know, I'm just No, we might as well just talk about it because uh since the summer, we installed I think 100 or so window well air conditioners because of the heat index law. And by spring, we should have the balance installed, but we checked on prices to have contractors do it, and I love my HVAC contractor, but we were like, nope. So, uh the in-house staff did it, and we did it safely.

082We did it efficiently. uh we didn't just put window wall units in. We used an insulated wall board that's structurally sound. So that's where we do acknowledge sustainability in the effort and we also tried to keep our prices under control. Uh what an effort the operations and maintenance team put together. Got to thank my poor person and the maintenance crew for staying and working extra hours getting it done. the custodians supported it all and um you know I think the teachers are pretty happy. We got some good feedback. >> I just want to say Mike you did such a good job taking into consideration for example the fact that the units had couldn't be very loud so that teachers could teach effectively. um the efficiency of the units for the sustainability impact, the price for

083the budget impact and you really, you know, did an excellent job and and really looking at all the different considerations of all the different stakeholders and everybody and coming to the best possible solution. So, >> yeah, not to get too techy. I'm sitting next to a tech genius. But the HVAC window units now come with dual inverters and they can actually run at a much lower amperage and you can keep your electricity bill under control. And with teachers being in the district for years knowing if you go over 50 dB, they're going to be like, get this out of my room. Well, these units held the mark at about 46 dB. >> So, I don't think we're going to get complaints. I think we're going to have a lot of smiling teachers. So, but thank

084you. Yeah, that was in here. >> Sorry, guys. >> Um, so, uh, part of our our job is to maintain compliance. This is, but compliance is not an option. It's a core responsibility in our department and it includes working with regulatory agencies, um, handling important documentation, handling corrective actions actions timely so we don't get ourselves into trouble. um and we maintain our compliance uh records and protect um these records and the follow through with these agencies for the the better of all of our staff and students. Um some of the examples of the more high level uh compliance things that go into capital would be the Meadow Pond portable water system upgrade. That's a compliance issue that we took on. We awarded the bid that's going into a schedule now, so we're pretty happy about

085that. And in addition, at the high school, the gas and diesel tank upgrade. Uh that's a big compliance upgrade. We don't have any environmental issues, just for the record, but this upgrade is due to the life expectancy of what's in place. So, another part about what we do is preventive maintenance. Um, we do a lot of preventive maintenance that allows us to identify and address smaller issues before they become major failures. Uh, that includes routine inspections and scheduling service of HVAC, boilers, air handlers, electrical systems, roofing, and this helps extend the life of our assets. It would will reduce the unexpected downtime and minimize for disruptions to uh instruction. It's like our goal. We don't like it when someone calls and says we have no heat. We try to keep those down to a minimum.

086Service calls are not favorite thing to hear. Um so this approach uh is a very responsible approach. It's operationally efficient um to get out there and do as much preventive maintenance as possible. In our department, we're trying to bring in the next person to have a really heavy handle on HVAC preventive maintenance. I want to bring that a little bit more back into my department. So, I've been on the hunt for a few months. I'm still working on it. Uh I'm hoping that will happen. And uh this does fall into like operations and maintenance supporting efficiency and long-term sustainability is through efficient HVAC operation. It's kind of paramount that that does keep your electric bill down. So, we're looking into that. We've done lighting upgrades to LED. We have a great building automation system that

087I'm trying to leverage and build that out a little further than it is with the help of just team. Um, and uh, you know, when you combine all those things, you can reduce operating costs. In addition to that, the efforts supporting the long-term sustainability um we see uh and anticipate GHG reductions and that's as part of sustainability conversations. Uh we see them happening in some energy savings as we engage in the upcoming energy performance contract with Honeywell and Eneria. Uh we're also excited about the KS geothermal project coming online in the summer. uh and you're going to see that change in the uh GHG platform and the students will learn about that through the sustainability committee. So we'll we'll be able to share that out that uh in in addition to that we continue to

088look at energy recovery units, do units, VRF heat pump systems. This is all this new technology that actually allows you to get away from the fossil fuels. And it's going to be a little bit of a journey. It's not a leap, but what we're seeing is as so long as this equipment has the life expectancy that we need when we make the investment into it and we can proof proof proof it and make sure that it's a good ma uh well-maintained product that we can in fact get away from the the higher GHD fossil fuel burning systems. So elaborating in closing, O andM are essentially partners in the district's educational miss uh mission by ensuring a clean and safe facility, maintaining strict regulatory compliance, investing in preventive maintenance, and supporting sustainability. We protect our buildings,

089our budget, and most importantly, our students and staff. So I just want to thank everybody on the board for allowing me to speak to that tonight. Questions? Just a very brief one. When we look at the topline number, is that all inclusive of staff, supplies, you know, any other contract? And is everything sort of under the 8.2? >> Uh, and maybe for Lisa, I'm not sure. >> Lisa handles the 8.2 and I'm more in the 4.9 range. So, we share the responsibility. Uh so yeah when you talk strictly operations so maintenance of plant operations and maintenance and paying the bills keeping the lights on uh it's it's not 8.2. So there's a lot more to the budget. But if you wanted to tease out exactly what my oversight is >> oh that's something we can

090do. I know that we're going to dive deeper into the budget at a future um meeting. So if that's more appropriate, Lisa completely fine. >> I I mean I just we could just quickly So it's um >> Don't show all the pictures. >> We'll go back to the pictures. Um so 8.2 so 1620 1621 1622 are um are the three budget lines for overall operations and maintenance. 16 um 20 is operation. 1621 I believe is maintenance >> and uh 16 I can't 1622 is escaping me but >> but uh basically as Mike just said so it is is all of our custodial all of our maintenance staff as well as office staff Mike as well as uh DJ our um um direct assistant director for person um for maintenance and then all of electric all

091of oil all of the fuel all not not nor diesel but Um but all of the electricity um all is comes out of this um um budget codes as well as preventive maintenance as Mike said, building code uh the building maintenance code 434. Um so it is all of our cleaning supplies, tissues, you >> like it. >> It's all in there. Yeah. >> The cups, the um you know the compostable cups. I mean it's just like from there up to up to and including you know um you know making sure that our grounds are kept because the high school middle school our custodians do that but in our other and elementary buildings we have smaller custodial maintenance staff. So um we have to bring in teams to do that you know so it's a combination

092of contractors as well as in-house staff that does all of these different components. Um >> did I forget anything else? No, it's yeah, that so between utilities, expenditures, personnel, and so on, it's a broad range, but that that does cover everything. >> And what I focus on is I I break down within my scope of work. I really focus heavily on the expenditures and the supplies to make sure we have great contract services. Um because it's very hard to get a whole bunch of work out of x amount of dollars. So we do try to get great contracts. We work off cooperative bidding. Uh we have a kind of a diverse portfolio of contracts to get contractors. So we work on that. I have breakdowns of that. I share that with Lisa and Dr. Blanch.

093>> Yeah. No, I I just wanted to have a sense of sort of the the full universe and you guys did, you know, a great job just explaining all of the different components that go into that. Um you know, across the whole district and every building and the Thank you. >> Yeah. Just while we're on the um notion of the full universe, would this be a time to just say a word about the plan for the interfund transfer to capital or would that be something that we talk about in a future meeting? >> Um we we'll probably talk about that more in the next meeting. Um but yeah, so the >> I would think just in general the idea about how when we think about interfund transfer capital to allow us to stay ahead of

094some of the projects that you've even talked about today and thinking as we're looking at some of the tanks that we've got to replace in the future and stuff. So, we'll be able to get to that detail at the next one. And then certainly when we pull both those together, detail that exact amount. Roughly, I think it's about $1.1 million that would be bringing over to there. But, it does allow us to handle things that are much larger than a typical within side of Mike's budget proper yet not to like a bond level or anything like that, but it's those ongoing projects that are going to be there. And I'm just thinking about, you know, some of the water pieces you're working on the in the tank, diesel tanks and things like that and some

095of those projects. So >> and um our um H2M is just finalizing the BCS. >> So that's really going to drive where um that you know the interfont transfer to capital is used. Um so yeah so and we also have um folded that into we'll go into it next time um that interfund transfer into our tax levy limit. So, it's actually um so we're using a little more making sure that we're going to have more short-term projects within that um school year, next school year completed. Um but yeah, so in the past I mean it's been everything from bleachers to tanks to um what I'm just trying to last few years. It's like >> some of the paving things. I'm sure >> the paving. Um Yeah. >> Yeah. We did a lot of paving, >>

096you know, and like Yeah. So in 1620 through 1622, you may have the painting or those types of things, but generally in fun transfer those larger projects that also we could submit to Sedd and get aid on. So that's why you want to transfer it into the capital fund. >> In your mind, sort of conceptually though, that's not those budget codes are not sort of in the scope of the grounds operations and maintenance proper. >> Exactly. Right. Yep. So the it's like 9905. >> So but it's not 1621. So it's a it's so yeah. So it's down but that that is a separate budget line and then we transfer it into the capital fund and then that allows for us um to put um state um aided projects into it into the capital fund. And

097I'll just pop back. We just had a couple pictures. Um, also, um, when we were meeting earlier, we were just really, I mean, we can't believe over 600,000 square feet that, you know, of building that, >> um, that the team of was it? It's a big house. Yeah. And 174 acres of land. And, and then we're even saying two wastewater treatment plants. Like, who has, you know, like bus garage, you know, inhouse bus, you know, transportation. So as well as the almost $50 million of bond work now we have the seven million EPC coming on and you know so as well as like you know as you mentioned Marjorie we do anywhere from 1.1 to up to like 1.8 8 1.9 million of that interfund transfer to capital as well. Um preventative maintenance for 434.

098The building code is usually around a half million dollars as well of work of improvements that are done around the district. So it's a great deal of dis of improvement that goes on and um the building condition survey will be submitted to SED by March 1st. Um and that is um coming to the every five years that has to be done. So that's coming to conclusion. And so this is the new front entrance. It will look much nicer in in 10 days, but we did want to we're excited about that um being um completed and the vestibule and everything. Um and of course the vestibule in the middle school was completed as well. The interior the window is um was installed. I think when we um presented in September that was right at the it

099was just couple little pieces that you know but this is the final um product >> um as well as you know the opening of the H- wing that was also mostly done but we still had some connecting corridors that were completed after um that September. So that is completely um in um you know open as well as some of these are the mechanics for the geothermal which I thought you know that's exciting to see um >> Lisa that that geothermal project we had the students over to KES for a visit last did we do that in the fall >> it was >> and um we're looking to bring them back when we have more of the heat exchangers lined up and we'll have the engineer and we'll have the contractor there to speak to the

100students again. So, I'll work with Jim Panzer and folks to make sure we line that up because I think they liked it. >> Not many students get to see >> I think we had like 30 students there. The last time I was I was like, "Wow." >> And again, we're hoping maybe to um get one of our um engineers to come to um the sustainability fair >> again to talk about the um details of >> the Yeah. the mechanics and yeah so thank you Mike thank you um and yes so that is so I think we already talked about a little bit about the this budget um as well as um also under that is the copying um that is done in-house um we have two large copers that does a lot of the mass

101copying as well as um 7140 is a community use of buildings So that's um >> yeah and just an FYI for the folks in the high school, we moved Rich Aarkawick, who I got to thank, he does all the board meeting recordings and audio video. We moved from the warehouse to the high school, uh which we we've been trying to do for years. So now you have your print shop here in the high school, which I think is really >> helpful and more convenient thing to have centrally located. >> Oh yeah, that's great. Thank you. So, we'll move on um to pillar five, well-being um which extends beyond social emotional learning and includes safe buildings, healthy air quality, reliable heating and cooling, secure campuses, and dependable transportation. The non-instructional budget supports the physical and emotional

102well-being of students, staff, and families by ensuring that the environment in which learning occurs is safe, comfortable, and well-maintained. And with we're going to actually speak um we're gonna hear from Nora Beltran now. She's going to talk to us about transportation um and just some highlights of um um okay so in transportation we have 54 square miles. We have 55 six-hour drivers. We have a number of uh part-time drivers. Um we have about 80 vehicles that we have for the transportation department. Uh we go to 35 private and parochial schools as well as um district place schools. Uh we travel over 800,000 miles. Um, but this is considerably less than when I first started in 1617. We were doing well over a million miles. And a lot of that has to do with um consolidating

103routes and making them far more efficient and combining schools. So um we've seen a lot of of decrease in the mileage because of that. Uh we have a really good staff. My Cynthia, she is a breath of fresh air in the morning to the drivers. She's very pleasant. Um Stacy, too. >> Rocky is a nice addition. And our drivers, you know, they they speak for themselves. So, I'm happy to run this department. >> Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, there's as I think as everyone, you know, I'm sure I've seen, but I a couple years ago, one of our drivers actually received um an award for a special education driver of the year um which, you know, for the state for New York State and um and and just really they do go above and beyond um

104dealing transporting all different, you know, all of our students, right? So they deal they have to have special skill sets, you know, dealing with different students and everything like that. And um so yes, >> and I will say a lot of a good communication with parents. So if the parents, you know, are really good about communicating, it saves us mileage because we don't have to go to the school. We don't have to pick them up. And so I think that's really a key point that we have this really good functioning relationship with the parents. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Would you mind just Oh, pardon me. >> Would you mind just taking a moment to refresh our memory regarding where we are with our electric vehicles and any comments that you might be willing to

105share in terms of improvements or changes that you're seeing with respect to reliability for example perhaps, you know, going back to when we first had EV1 and what >> EV1 is back on the road. It's been off for a while, but it's back. The weather has been very cold >> and it um parents complain that their kids are cold. So, we don't really um put it out when we are at single digits, but now at 30°, we could definitely run it. And it's been uh doing great. The new we have a van which we haven't put on the road yet. Um we're having some charging um issues with that. So we're just trying to work out the kinks. Um we're expecting four more vans. Um so hopefully we'll fix that. >> Thanks. Just really appreciate

106your perspective on that. And I'm sorry, but I don't really understand with the um cold temperatures, are you saying the EV buses are not insulated? >> They don't produce enough heat. >> I see. Yeah. Was that something anticipated? you know did did this a known >> it is known and it also draws down the battery also running the heat. So actually in in northern western part of the state it is uh even more significant of a obstacle of implementing electrification is that component of >> both keeping the in the um cabin of the bus heated >> as well as it um reducing the the battery life. We're we're reaching out too for the sustainability symposium if I can call it that to see if we can bring the microbird bus representative out because it's a

107good teaching tool about that and I think Mr. Gwyn could talk in great detail about that. So we don't speak to it. You know, I think what when you find out the details and the coefficient changes do depend on temperature, then that's a variable that everybody would have to, you know, chew on for a little bit. Um, it's a good learning tool. Both buses, they react the same way to extreme cold weather. And um there's other things that can be done through charging and that's where these folks can come in and and speak to that. But that's why EV1 was a pilot program. We see the microbird bus as pilot program B. And as we learn and get better at this, I think I think we're being very smart and careful about the way we're

108implementing it. And um the technology is going to catch up. So if we do the the examples now and we show folks and we're very transparent. This is how they work. This is what it is. Nora can provide the data as well and the feedback and I think eventually we'll be able to pull the trigger when it comes to going to multiple systems and larger structure. >> That makes a lot of sense and really appreciate your >> patience and ingenuity and willingness to find good thought partners. appreciate Norah's patience >> cuz I put the charger in and she was calling me the next day. What is this thing doing? >> I think one of the things too in working with the sustainability committee is the the kind of the primary piece right now is to

109get the grid of the infrastructure uh so we can handle these buses. So again, we do see in and our clear understandings that technology from the battery side will be catching up and in the interim we'll be working towards getting the actual infrastructure and Mike and the team and working with different partners and things like that to get that ready and so >> really appreciate that there there was some >> real concern expressed today on this advocacy call around the if and when of electrifying the full fleet and the cost of the electricity, >> right? and the and the strain on the grid. Um, just, you know, we don't have to go into that deeply now, but I I thought it was interesting to really think about what it will look like when we have

110fully >> complied with this mandate. >> Great conversation to be had. >> Yeah, >> it's too cold if we can even get the kids to school. >> Well, yeah, I do have a lot of follow questions about the near-term effects of, you know, h having to double like double duty certain buses. we don't have to talk about that, but the insight you've shared just in terms of where we are with our implementation and some of the issues that have surfaced is just really helpful and help us appreciate what you're up against, too. >> Yeah. And the next stage of our implementation is to make sure we have a little bit of backbone for these pilot buses. Meaning, >> as Dr. Blanch was alluding to, I'm working with NYG to make sure we get some utility

111power over at Kona where the buses have to be repaired and inspected. So, we want to have that in place. That way, if we do start purchasing up a little bit, they have a place to go get repaired and recharged. So, that's that's like the next phase. >> The big phase, the long-term plan is to get the big infrastructure in. We're studying that right now. >> Yeah, that electrical load takes a little while. So, thank you to the community for approving that $750,000 prop. Um again that allows for us to build on the infrastructure while the technology the battery technology um improves um and you know when we did our electrification study feasibility study there are routes that we cannot use electric buses on that will not there is I don't remember what was it

11210% at least I believe that weren't possible to actually use electric school bus because it wouldn't hold the charge long enough. Um I it's again it's a public document. It's probably uh was I think it was about $40 million to fully electrify the fleet. So and that doesn't include and again so we're trying we're trying to do all these other things also with solar again we're trying to how can we minimize we know we're going to use more electricity in the future. What can we do? So we're so while we're waiting for the uh technology to uh catch up we're doing all these other build building these other components. I really appreciate all of that and we're we're out ahead. I mean, from in comparison to where some other districts are with their efforts to

113try to move forward, you know, we're no pun intended, we're we're in a good place. And I just had a smaller question because this is my only opportunity to ask, but has there been any impact around that stop arm camera? Do all of our buses now have that? And has that >> lots of impact and I a lot of teachers and some students have called me because They got a ticket >> and if I could do anything about it, but >> so can you. >> I absolutely cannot because the camera as soon as the stop arm is activated that particular camera goes directly to the Westchester County and then they view that and they determine. We actually got a ticket ourselves, one of our buses. I'm like, "Wait, you know, this is not good." But

114it what happened was at Clear View School, they have such a small um going in and out, right? So, they actually wave you on even though the kids are being picked up over there. So, the they they open their stop arm, but it's there's tons of people outside. And so I wrote a letter and you know it was excused but you know for the other ones that have called say no the driver was waving me on it. They weren't. >> Yeah. >> That's really interesting. Thank you. Do we get any stats on how many >> I can get you the stats. >> No I'm not trying to put you on spot. I'm just curious how that works. And >> no I I can they got a stat once and I thought wow. Um there was

115like 230 in a month. >> Wow. >> A lot. I remember when that was first how many will come to how much they'll how much actually >> we get the revenue or >> Yeah. No, there's a lot there's a lot of um people passing our buses. >> Interesting. >> But actually that part of that programs they in installed the stop arm but they also that program allowed for us to put more cameras inside. That's right. That way no cost to the district. Right. So >> yes, inside the buses. >> Inside the buses. Yeah. So yeah, that was so that so that's a good that's a perk. >> Yeah. Offsets our expenses. So it's revenue ultimately. Yeah. >> Thank you so much. >> I I just wanted to make a very brief comment back on the

116electrification uh question because I think what we're seeing here is a tiny microcosm of a much broader issue because buildings are electrifying increasingly. cars on the road are electrifying. And so this is sort of a national and frankly global pro, you know, issue in terms of how do we build the infrastructure to support the electrification of all systems that are currently running on fossil fuels. And I feel really confident that that what we're doing here is, you know, taking small steps, piloting things, doing a tremendous amount of studying. Um, and I think if I recall correctly, the governor has pushed the deadline forward, recognizing that this is not, you know, a a feasible uh short-term problem to solve. But I think I think I feel really comfort comfortable that we're doing all the right things

117in terms of planning and how these things fit together, right? How the EPC and our ability to generate a lot of that electricity on site supports this whole uh process. So, but yeah, it's it's it's fascinating how the district as one institution is sort of dealing with this, but it's really a global issue. >> And Marjorie, it might be helpful. You know, I I know that not a lot of our districts around us have any electric books and I've heard a lot of issues about, you know, feasibility and I've never heard this heat problem. Um so it may be helpful on your next >> this was new learning and we have heard about the feasibility studies and the number that you mentioned the 40 million that literally came up today. Other school districts are coming

118in in the same ballpark I would say. >> Um this is fascinating. I don't recall someone >> I think to point I'm not sure that very many districts are in the position to know to have a bus to be able to and to have weathered it no winter. Oh my god. All right, put the brakes on now. >> Last year we didn't we didn't have the cold. >> Exactly. >> So, we had no idea that this is right. Exactly. >> So, it might not be something that people thinking about and that's a game changer. >> They they have retrofit options to use a fossil fuel heating system on board for buses like that. don't know how good that conversation will go over, but I have seen it implemented way up north. Um, but that's so

119I think if you look at some of the pieces just from school districts and thinking up up the north part there, uh, there's communities that have actually went out and asked their community to provide the support and even through some of the ground pieces where it was nearly a a very increase and they've said no. And and so the the fact is is that there's a significant amount of districts that are just not even looking at it to be honest with you. It's like it's not feasible. The technology is not there. There's no way our budget can handle it. So even the conversation we would be better off forgoing the transportation aid because >> trying to put this in and having community dollars. This it's way more expensive. I I really hear what you're saying

120and we heard a little bit in the call with Assembly Member Berdick about school districts thinking about going out to bond >> or the at least partial cost of electrifying the fleet um in the near term. So >> a lot of a lot of financial strain. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. I think last section I think. >> Yeah. So the last section um pillar six collaborative educators and finally collaboration does not stop at the classroom door. Our operations facilities technology and administrative teams work hand inand with educators every day. This budget supports professional collaboration across departments ensuring the instructional and non-instructional teams are aligned aligned informed and working towards a shared goal. And I think technology is a perfect uh example of that. And so Jess can uh Kingsbury is going to talk to us

121about that. >> Um so I joked that I'm going to read every single word on this page just yet. Um but here these are our six pillars that we're doing throughout the district and coming in this year one of the things that I did is kind of uncovered some of the work that's been done previously and then I know Jeff Sun had come in and presented to the board. So kind of reading through his report and his findings alongside my own onboarding findings and then taking that and turning it into an action plan for our technology team. So up here we have our six our six pillars and the details are there and for each of those we have empowerment actions that our teams are working on. And I'm so fortunate that there is such

122a phenomenal tech team data team that we have kind of behind the scenes for all of this. Um but I do want to call out uh two items up here. So underneath knowledge and skills, our big thing this year is we have to submit our NICAD technology plan to the state education department. It's usually every three-year cycle. This most recent cycle they extended it a year due to some of the ramifications of COVID. Um but one of the things really aligned to what Jeff Sun recommended and just hearing people talk in district is that question around our technology vision. So coming up with our goal but also coming up with our vision with our tech committee and within there we've been really talking about how the way that teachers use technology in district is an

123intentional use of technology and they're using it with purpose. So we're kind of like that's our catchphrase. It's intentional. It's purposeful. Um and then within there we've been fleshing that out into three uh different pillars I guess three different sections. So it is aligned with our curriculum and instruction. It is creative allowing students to really be creators not just consumers as well as empowering. So as Hudson had described earlier like some of that work that they're doing in the robotics class and there's so many opportunities that are created in elementary school brought up through middle school that really allow our high schoolers to have these different pathways and something that alongside the tech plan really having that vision just be something that everybody lives and breathes every day with how we use technology. >> But

124Dr. Kingsburg. Then it sounds like you have an ace there in your I don't think everybody else got that. >> Yep. That No, that's going to be in, you know, we're gonna have to get a graphic or a logo, but it's AC we ace technology, but you can't forget it then. I know it's the three letters. I think next year I want to have a handson use of that Lego that that was an amazing use an intentional use of technology in a fun way that teaches the coding and the listening skills and um and the kids were having fun learning. >> Yeah. No. And and that's one of the things and we have um Lego robotics starting in our middle school and high school, but with that in our elementary, one of the things we

125spoke about just yesterday at the tech committee was making sure that we have that across all of our elementary schools aligned to instruction because some of the ways that they've been using it as KS are directly aligned to their science curriculum and standards. Um so we're going to be working with our science CL to kind of tease some of that out. So it is intentional use of that where students get to be creative and be empowered but right in line with the standards that we're doing anyway. Um, and then the other one here that I do want Oh, that that's okay. Um, is just in number six, the collaborative educators. As we've been working on PLC's districtwide and carving out that time for our teachers to really collaborate, our data team is working behind the

126scenes to build systems so that when we have teachers look at data, they're not spending two hours gathering the data and building the data. They're going, they've got some data dashboards that we've been building, common assessments, curriculum maps, kind of all this behind the scenes work so that when we're ready for that, um we have a couple of groups piloting different things, but really building the systems to make that data analysis, be able to have teacher time focused on actions from the data, not just, okay, how do I group this data and make the graphs and all of that. So, we've got a lot of behind the-scenes work on it. You've been extraordinarily flexible and accommodating to all the things that were on boarding. >> Thank you. >> Got a good team behind me. >>

127Dr. Oh, I have a question. >> Yeah. >> Uh I was talking to Dr. earlier. Um a lot of students are wondering when the NWA >> Yeah. So the NWE testing right now we're going through our winter administration and that's going through K12. Um, so at the building levels and at the district level, we're kind of looking at some of those results. And then I don't know if we're sending home parent reports or if we're sending student like I don't know how much of that is student or parent facing at this point because more so at elementary sometimes, you know, kids aren't used to taking an online test. So we don't want to share data that might be skewed. I know high school might seem a little different because you guys are used to doing

128some of that, but we're trying to be sure that that fidelity of implementation, everyone feels confident and comfortable with that alongside the data with it. And I'll just add also, it's not intended to add additional pressure to students and like be an evaluation of you. It's more designed to help us help you, right? So, um, I love that you're asking though, and that's something that I'll bring back to our team >> too because once we get a hold of the assessments ourselves, understand them as well as we possibly can, then we do really want to share them more broadly with everybody. >> And I think a part of that speaking about um with um Dr. Conrad and the idea about our our MTSS process so that we can start making those forward facing to the

129students and so students can then start taking and establishing their own goals >> and so we'll we'll be walking ourselves that way as that the the fall was the first administration first time anybody's seen that and then here I would anticipate we'd be able to like to even get some piling in the spring and then hopefully in the fall now would be walking out so parental reports be able to be available there student goal setting conversations would start taking place. It's part of the part of the journey. So, >> thank you. >> You bet. Thank you. >> We sometimes have seen and I think it was last meeting the meeting before when Dr. Silano was here last meeting um when we were looking at the numbers for the new regions test. Sometimes those numbers fall

130because it's new and you know so we need to learn um what what's on the test and how to teach it. And >> I think I think part of the key piece in here is that the the assessment here different than the state is computer adaptive, >> right? >> And so as students are moving through it and if they're really able to press and force that forward, they can really have those assessments and you know their initial piece we're seeing, you know, some of our students are, wow, these are some pretty amazing pieces. And that's where we want to work with our students to see they can go ahead and see where they're at today and and the technology to say and here's your most next logical steps. And as an education team, that's where

131we're starting to, you know, wrestle around how do we support those students in that best way. So >> So we're not seeing a drop. So that's really good news. Like we're seeing some >> so that with these >> No, these are intended to look at where students are growing. You may have a student that perhaps is not on grade level yet or on target yet. Is their growth still in the right direction compared to other folks who are in that same area? So you'll see where students across the national lens are looking at maybe a student scores at let's say at the 40th percentile but did they grow with where their like-minded peers are. So we can see where that growth looks like. So that we're getting used to this tool very very much. And

132so back to Hudson's piece exactly that's where we'd like to be. That's our target to get there. It's just going to take us a couple of steps. And so again, we do believe that our students will really help us as the educator saying this is what I need to know and do. And then how do we get there? And so and the high school is is really again for example taking opportunities where there's a growth assessment. So you can just get general mathematic knowledge or you can get specifics like ge geometry elements or algebra. And so they're working on those components and we might even start that science team I think might start dabbling a little bit of science. So it's a big piece for us to learn about. So this year was really a

133kind of hands-on space where we can learn as educators and then kind of to Hudson's point start working with our students and saying now let's look at these goals that we understand these better before again honestly you get the regents and as educators or students they get a months in the rear and everybody is the same assessment. So this tool will be intended to be more specific to you as a learner strengths and what are your next opportunities. Thanks. I guess I hadn't understood that they >> and we'll come forth when we're there and and Jess and probably uh um um Maggie >> Maggie will come and we'll kind of share this kind of conversation out where it looks like >> I think it was just this week we had a full collective clickum leaders

134coming together and getting training on the tool. So that's how like we're like right uh running up against that. So what are the reports that available? How can we look at that? That's not every teacher right now. It's just at the curriculum leaders. So, we've got steps to go forward, but >> yeah, the the interventionists, K12 and administrators all met Monday to learn about how to analyze the growth reports because we now have something to measure winter to fall. So, um we're in the process of learning still. >> When the students sit down to encounter the assessment um in the instructions, is there any expectation setting? because I can see from a student's perspective in high school, you know, you would anticipate you're going to get the results back, but does is it just silent

135on whether you're going to see the results of your benchmark? >> I'm I'm not entirely sure how the teachers introduced it. Do did they say >> uh like kind of like um assume that like eventually where you're at um but it wasn't supposed >> Well, that's great. I >> do see us getting there. And I think like you said just literally this week it was those interventionists and lead teachers who even were able to see some of those reports and now as we now continue to work on our teachers proper and saying here's how you can gain access and then the goal would be kind of getting those parental reports when we're able to have access we haven't even had chance to even start scratching that surface but would be there to get that information

136and so student from year to year and that's the other piece too and so students would start leaving at the elementary level and middle school and high school that pathway and the trajectory is followed within the student and so you can see you know there's all you know oh my goodness you know last week something happened in the family and they came to school and did the best you oh what's the drop and then you'd be able to you can see those highs and lows and so it could smooth that out so the opportunities for look at that is certainly there too so um and then again the spot that we have in here is the opportunity to look at this is back to the old with our PLC conversation I think the board is

137as we're getting more familiar with how We know what students know and are able to do that's here and so in this conversation this is where these dollars and you'll see in a second I think on the next slide is actually the uh cost to you will see the increase in this area because some of these funds were in the in the learning office over in the curriculum office with Julia. So now we've pulled all of those things over into Jess's era just like the board one you saw earlier we pulled the technology over there so it's all kind of landing over there. So whilst that number was like well it went up a lot. It's taking in from other line items and dropping it in here. So it's basically all in the area just

138this is one of those tools that now is in this area versus over being in the learning space in the curriculum space. So just give you an example. So we'll definitely be coming back to this and thinking about how we might do a collaborative inquiry process on kind of data sets in here as we look at this and stuff like that. So >> so actually that's the perfect the perfect bridge um because that's something that we are doing now. Uh when I had come last time to the board with Mallerie um David and Mike PMPA, we did the CI protocol around statewide regions data, but we're actually now working on building that out around the NWA growth data. So it's something that we've got some things in the work that'll happen with smaller groups and

139then go to our middle school, high school teams first, elementary after that. So it's really all aligning that work. And then can you go back one side, Lisa? >> Yes. Um, and then just for our department when we think about that technology part, I don't have 600,000 square feet or 800,000 miles of any better numbers for next year. Um, but within our technology budget, we do cover. >> Is he asking how many >> bandwidth? Yeah. Yeah. How many megabytes of data get transferred? I don't need to put that in there. >> You got to put that up there. But within our technology budget, we are covering support for all of our infrastructure, which is largely in uh in partnership with Mike's team over here for some of the wiring behind the scenes, but our switches,

140our access points, our servers, things that really, you know, from a system side, keep us up and running, as well as our student devices, staff devices, and then from a program side, we have those instructional programs. So, you'll see that some of those being centralized in my budget lines, but things that have always been here. um as well as some of those programs that are really more operations and oversight. So something like at our main entrances when you get your sticker badge from visitor aware and you put in your absences and visitor aware, that's a program that's in our budget line and a tech team oversight. So it does kind of cover this broad range from instructional to non-instructional. Um and we have a fantastic team helping behind the scenes with all of those. So

141>> thank you, Jess. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Um yes. So I I did want to just talk briefly about this budget because you do see these big increases and decreases um between the non-instructional and instructional technology lines. Again um it it is to centralize technology expenses under the appropriate budget lines but um as well as Boseies reclassified their coasters and it's really the state reclassified coasters. So that's another component that you'll see a shift between those two lines because where like for example network um manager and support and everything like that you used to be on an instructional line the state has come back back and so that's really a non-instructional thing also has to do with how much aid they give but that's but um but yes so that is um so there is

142a lot of reclassification of the coasters so that is a part two of the shifting that you may see why are we increasing non-instructional technology so much that's really it and again also just moving um those expenses there. And then finally also as you as many of you may unfortunately recall in the spring of 2020 um we did go to a onetoone student device program. At that time we used uh and and in the um year since we have been using and utilizing yearend surplus funds to support technology purchases. beginning with this current budget year and moving forward, we are incorporating these reoccurring technology expenses directly into the adopted budget, but it will take a few cycles to build it up because there's a significant amount of money, but this ensures that long-term sustainability of

143our students technology program. So, but that is again so that's also something that you will see over the last last going into this year, next year, and going forward an increase in the overall technology line and that's what it is is the built-in of those expenses. So, Um, everyone's favorite topic probably employee benefits. Um, and this is a significant component of our budget. Um, it's actually approximately 31% of our budget. Um, so and is again something that um grows quite a bit. So currently um our calendar year, our health insurance premiums run on the calendar year um and begin uh January want to go through December 31st. So currently we only know our 2026 um health insurance premiums and they did grow by 11.62%. So that's quite significant. Um and so as far as 2027

144that is unknown at this time. So all we can do is project, look at trends, 10, five, and threeyear trends. It's what we um look at and use those trends to project onto the um various rates. So the greatest rate increase we actually saw was in um was in the Medicare um what it is is when you become Medicare eligible, Medicare becomes primary and um nice ship becomes secondary. That was one of the greatest growth areas as far as the expense. Um but we don't we have more people on um family for example. So it's just so overall we've seen in our um health benefits line um we right now are projecting a um sorry I can't find it um 10 about 10 and a half 10.6% 6% increase. Again, that is based on at

145this point, I can project what the expenses are going to be through the end of the year. So, really, it's probably more of a 12 to 15% increase based on actual expenditures going to what I'm projecting for next year. Um, in addition, our teachers retirement system um is actually decreasing. Uh, we're given a range. Um, everybody hears me say this a million times, but a couple years ago, they the state told us to budget 10% and that actually when the rates came in in July after the budgets were adopted, uh, the actual rate was 10.11%. So I always am conservative with the projection there because you know the saying burn me once. No. So uh h so yes. So that is um so we are um we we know we're just we're um just being

146conservative with our projections there. Our ERS for our um civil service employees um is actually going from 16.5 to a average of 17.6%. There are six tiers in ERS. Uh we have employees I don't believe we have any more tier three folks but four, five and six. And all of those um those rates uh range dependent upon which tier you're in. Um it could go and tier four could go all the way up actually next year is projected to go up to like 19%. So that's an average of 17.6 is the average uh rate that we'll contribute for those employees and um so you'll see that um that so a significant projection increase there in the employee retirement system a slight increase in teachers retirement system because it's based on salaries. We still have salaries

147that are increasing. Um, social security is um just uh based upon again the this whole salary in the budget. Workers comp we have a consortium with Putham Northern Westchester Boseies. Um and so we meet as a consortium and discuss our premiums and our rates and just looking at um actual claims um and everything. It's looking like our premiums can go down a little bit for next year. So that's a good thing. So we're seeing a slight decrease there in our workers compensation. Unemployment we're just leaving flat. Um disability is um increasing those premiums and we discussed um insurance um medical insurance. Um Medicare reimbursement folks are you know wonderfully are living longer um but that is longer that we reimburse and we are required under NHS ship law uh rules to reimburse those individuals who

148are Medicare eligible for their Medicare expenses as well as Irma. So it is a significant cost but is a requirement in NHIP. Um, our self-insured benefits are things such as some of our employees um, rather than having a dental plan will reimburse up to x amount of dollars dependent upon the contract. Um, and that is um, and it's just been seen to, you know, just sometimes self-insured benefit plans are more effective or or more efficient um, than using a um, you know, a a different dental plan or or vision plan. and uh welfare union welfare benefits is a trust for the teachers um built in again their contract. It's based on FTE as last is um is the leave benefits and that is based again upon contract. Um there are certain leave benefits as far

149as um those are what uh what you're paid out for approved time essentially. Um and that again is dependent upon the contract. And lastly, debt. Um our debt expenses are growing. Um something I forgot to mention in O and M is we do um we did reduce our anticipated uh electric uh electric use by about approximately $100,000 because the high school and middle school should be going online like around May, June, I believe. Uh again, depending upon if they're able to get on top of the roofs to start in March when they're supposed to start get them up there. >> Well, we'll bring up make sure everything's melted. Um but yeah, so we did um so we did build that savings, the energy savings into um we reduce the expenditure budget, but our um debt

150budget um will be increasing. And um that also is um again just um bringing on more debt because uh you only borrow as much as we're closing up the projects. We will ultimately be borrowing all of the money that um 49.5 million the authorization. So that is that increase in um the debt is all of the everything becoming a bond essentially you know no longer being a band but becoming a bond paying principle not just interest um and so that is that um >> again the building aid will be increasing I'm sorry >> no I just was thinking I'm sorry I just was back to the um conversation about the overall benefit piece there and we kind of wind back to where we started in the beginning of the conversation of the anticipated increase of

151about you know about 4.4 of for the budget and when we looked at that in the previous slide you're talking about 2/3 of that increases right there >> sitting inside the employee benefit spot. So >> yes >> roughly this what we're looking at there. So as we move forward then you're talking about um that's where shifting on next time when we'll get FTEES and and those components to help us make to identify that difference because this doesn't include any you know salary increases or any of those contribute this is just benefits. So so it's a it's a huge um amount again roughly 2/3 or 60% of it is there. If we could just stay on that for a minute, my mind really went to the very same place except I was focusing >> more specifically

152just on the health insurance dollar difference because when you look at the percent change off to the right and you know you see oh 10.8% to the disability line and um you know even 15.78% frankly to ERS but >> off of what number right and so when you think about the 10.61% 61% increase to that health insurance number and look back at that 4.4 million right there. The health insurance premium increase is accounting for 54% >> of the possible amount of the levy increase available to us. And this also came up on the call today. And I'm just going to push the envelope a little bit and say, you know, conversation turned to the tax cap and to the idea of like doing more with less. But that when you have, you know, one variable

153that's just increasing exponentially and completely outside of the organization's control. And he was actually using a military analogy because he was coming from a different background. >> But like at what point do you start to kind of eviscerate the ability of the organization to fulfill its mission? So, you know, that's just that is a huge percentage. And to your point also, once you add in the rest of the benefits, it's closer to 2/3 of the allowable increase. Um, and that's just pretty sobering for public education because we're not alone in experiencing this. And this is why we're seeing so many districts in the region really struggle in this environment to come in under the tax cap. >> Yes. And and back swing back around again. And then you're throwing electric buses on it. Then you're

154throwing universal prek on top of that. >> Honestly, not that folks wouldn't be interested, just where are you going to get the revenue to be able to make those things take place? So yeah, >> it'd be nice for the health insurance to be subject. >> Well, there's talk about Yes. There's talk about exempting certain increases, exempting certain non-instructional >> increases outside of our control from the tax cut. You know, the conversation is turning to like modifications or explicit price tags associated with mandates. You know, every time you roll out a new mandate, it should have a fiscal impact statement to districts, things of this nature. just really trying to drive home the um you know the reality that we're struggling both to live within the tax cap environment and afford the implementation costs of these

155mandates some of which are like truly exorbitant and crushing districts. >> Yeah. >> All right. Great. Well, that I believe um brings us to the next meeting will be February 26 where we'll talk about the instructional budget um as well as go a little bit more into the calculation of the tax cap um proposition. So, so um we'll have again some other areas of expenditures. Uh March 12th will be where um Dr. plan to bring it all to you know together um everything we've heard um from all of our different departments and then um there could be possibly a meeting on March 19th and March 26th is um possible adoption of the budget um by the board of education um May 7th we'll have a public hearing and then on May 19th Tuesday May 19th

156is the budget vote is there any questions or >> le I'm just thinking back on that one and the 12th just as the board we spoke spoke about before we had H2M architecture team here >> a little bit earlier uh in the year and and that the two components there the ales project and then thinking about the capital reserve project so um they gave some initial kind of numbers to where we're looking at they will be back on that March 12 to be able to have the detail for that component so in there we'll hit the general budget like we did today al together and then we'll also spend time on both those lees as well as the capital reserve project and so we'll be able to have those basically those prop two and prop

157three that would be in there. So, >> thank you. And just to confirm what I heard earlier, the BCS will actually be submitted to the state on March 1st before we have that meeting. But then that meeting, my recollection serves me correctly, will be in preparation for the 5-year capital improvement plan. And this is just the very beginning of that process, but the BCS just goes to the state before we do that. >> Exactly. Yep. Exactly. Yes. The BCS is a is ultimately kind of a spreadsheet. Um and then the five-year capital plan takes you take the priorities and and then you you spend a little more time really where where are priorities and um looking at the costs and then really making that long range plan which is we know from the finance committee

158you know takes some thought and um some time to do it with good nice intention and having a good plan. Um, so they'll touch upon the some of the BCS there, but later when we have more of the five-year capital plan, I believe is that's really when we'll see more of a presentation. >> And that's where we're targeting right now for June to be that fiveyear piece. So, get this in here. They'll pull outside those components that we would believe it be going after on that capital reserve account. And then they that truly that fiveyear plan will be at our June board meeting. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. And and then go into discussing les >> and also those items that are higher priority on the BCS and um how we can

159maybe do some of that work utilizing the reserve with voter approval. >> Thanks Lisa. >> Yes, absolutely. >> I know the team wants to stay, but you're welcome to go ahead step out. So, thank you everybody for being here tonight. impressive amount of work that goes into what you guys put together. So, thank you. >> From I was hopeful earlier, Kim, we were having somebody here for >> uh public comments, but um I'm going to close public comments at this time. We turn next to the consent agenda. I have a somebody can make a motion to move the consent agenda. Motion by Bill, second by Arwin. Um, any discussion on anything in the consent agenda? >> Just a couple of quick things. Uh, just wanted to wish the DECA students that are going to be

160going to Rochester were approving their trip to compete for the DECA business club. Um, you know, I was in DECA when I was in high school. Have to say that. So, great luck to them and thanks to uh teacher Gendra Paula for uh guiding them. And I was just really happy to see that we have a service trip happening that it's in his 15th year. >> And right, I don't know if that same teacher has done it for 15 years, but >> I think he has. >> That is just fantastic. and and I just love to see a service component abroad align so well with our pillar in terms of global um citizenship and sustainability. And so just wanted to thank both of those teachers for for what they're doing and wish our uh students

161well on their respective trips. Anybody else being said? Um all those in favor of the consent agenda >> I just so I can just add one one or two uh items. Uh we do have some uh teaching staff there who are granting tenure tonight. So congratulations to them and just to remind the board and the community we celebrated and won in that first meeting in June. But certainly to Julia and and Kristen we're we're thrilled and so congratulations to them >> which is John J grad. Yes. >> Even more fun when we uh when one of our own this environment um comes here and exceeds >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Which is great. >> That is a great meeting at the beginning of June. >> Yes, it is. Yeah. >> Any additional board dialogue? >> Uh

162then we'll turn to 18.01 future meetings. Uh the Finance committee will be meeting in the district office at 6 pm on February 25th. Uh Thursday, fe February 26, the facilities committee will be meeting at 1 p.m. in the district office. Um and then uh that evening, February 26, there'll be a board of education meeting here in the high school library at 7 p.m. Dr. Blanch for any additional superintendent's comments. >> Um just uh just thank you to the board again for this evening with the budget conversation. I hope you um got a clear understanding of obviously the effort from the team. I appreciate you acknowledging their work and then the thoughtfulness that is going into their individual buckets and and what is happening to be done and how we're trying to make that go forward.

163So um and the ability for us to take tonight and then split it out to the next meeting and then come back together that third spot. So hopefully it's not, you know, an exhaustive, you know, six, seven, eight hour kind of day that we can just connect part A, part B and then part C and and pull those together. So thank you once again for us to giving us a chance to approach it this way. So and and and really the richness of the questions is very helpful for us to think about things again living and working through this and and just you're like, "Oh yeah, sure. We know this and I didn't I didn't know I didn't say that." So I really appreciate the opportunity for us to clarify questions. any different one that

164came up tonight, it ties back into are we making those decisions from a budgetary standpoint that will align what we think is the best thing for our children. And so I really appreciate you feeling hopefully comfortable to be able to cast those question out. Again, same thing for you Hudson. Again, thank you for the officer bringing those forward. Every one of those things ties in and saying okay is this stepping us closer to supporting our goal for our students and as their uh you know profile of a learner piece and then what can we do to step it forward. So thank you board. >> Anybody like to make a motion to adjurnn motion by Barbara second by John. All those in favor 6. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. Safe home.