001good evening everybody Welcome nice to see you all it's Thursday March 9th it's my pleasure to make a motion for the board to return to public session seconded by Rory thank you all in favor please say hi hi seven zero terrific and would everybody please join us as is our custom for the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] great thank you so much tonight we are very much looking forward to an opportunity to revisit the superintendent's proposed budget which we started to review two weeks ago and then continued to review through our line-by-line budget deliverations a couple of Saturdays ago um and before we turn our attention to the budget we are going to first turn our attention to some updates and announcements and we have some exciting news to celebrate and it's my pleasure to turn
002it over initially to Jake thank you um the weather in the area continues to get warmer and it's hard to believe that we Spring Forward this weekend um exciting things this is a really bad joke are sprouting within the district um in terms of Campus Congress we've had two meetings since I last spoke um at those meetings especially the recent one we discussed ideas and proposals to promote diversity equity and inclusion across the campus we've also continued our committee work including the purchase of John Jay High School custom gibbets for your Crocs that will be for sale at a campus Congress pop-up store um at the high school the musical nine to five with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton based on the 1980s hit movie by the same name is deep into rehearsals with
003only two weeks left until opening the show follows three office workers who are unhappy with the way their tyrannical and sexist boss runs the company when a Revenge fantasy accidentally comes to fruition it presents an opportunity for change filled with show-stopping numbers and laughter it's a show audiences are sure to enjoy there are 35 students in the cast and countless members involved in crew this hilarious Story of Friendship and revenge will open on March 23rd at the high school and run until March 25th tickets will be sold one hour before performance adding on to that nine to five has advanced into the third round of voting in Aloha March Madness competition of all the musicals playing at high schools throughout the Hudson Valley voting on round three where we are up against Kiss Me Kate
004playing at the Ursuline School in New Rochelle closes tonight so far not to jinx anything um nine to five is winning with a slight Edge but it's getting very close so all of our members are voting right now um yeah if we go on we will compete against the winner between Jersey Boys at stepanak and in the Heights playing at both North Rockland and Peak scale um moving away from the theater um our robotics team the mob was crowned winner of the New York Excelsior Regional Championship and is heading to world champions in Houston Texas the mob had generated one of the most dominant robots in the state the mob moving on to the 2023 first Championship held in Houston on April 19th through the 22nd which will be attended by approximately 190 teams from
005countries all over the world including the Netherlands France England Germany Thailand and Romania a huge congratulations to National Merit Scholarship semifinalists Joseph kletner and Michael O'Donnell the scholarship is one of the most prestigious scholarships students Nationwide can be awarded Across the Nation there are only 16 000 semi-finalists and about 95 percent of those are expected to attain finalists standing and about half of those will win the scholarship worth almost 28 million dollars and another congratulations for all of our winter sport athletes who are pretty much wrapping up their Seasons right now some of our highlights include Cameron World being named 152 section one champion in wrestling swimmers Michael O'Donnell and Thomas Brown both competing at States in Ithaca last week Kayla cambereri helping our gymnastics team win the section one Championship Chris Martini James Beach
006and Luke spieler advancing to States and skiing will Sands and Liam Lynch both being named all league in men's basketball and Will was also just named today to win the William J Tom Court of Excellency award for both Encore and in school as well as Stephanie Halsey winning the Dan beglia award for both her bowling skills and her sportsmanships and something that I'm very aware of is the college admissions process is in full swing for our students regular acceptances come out this month for our seniors and National commitment day it's hard to believe it less than two days away I'm two months away excuse me on May 1st for our Juniors College Planning night part two will take place on zoom on March 21st now with the middle school where their spring musical honk a
007Charming adaptation of the 1842 story of The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson is um will run from March 16th to the 18th and tickets can be purchased at the door recently at the middle school was the science fair an expo run by the middle school science department and was judged by District parents who awarded two outstanding honors to the perfect medium rare to sixth grader Maximo D'Alessandro and hand dryers are they really that sanitary to 8th graders Elise hermado and Ainsley Graham at KES students learned about the Jazz great Duke Ellington and an up close live performance on the school stage the performers just feed away from the kids in the front row did the Lindy Hop let a Scott singing contest and shared the impact that the legendary pianist composer and jazz band
008leader had on his time and on ours also a few nights ago was The KES science fair on March 6 where over 130 students participated at Meadow Pond the what's blooming initiative encouraged students to be more aware of plants around them thanks to parents teachers and students involved in the Meadow Pond Garden Club there are seasonal new centerpieces on all of the cafeteria tables on March 15th the Harlem Wizards will be visiting Meadow Pond which is a fun funny theatrical exciting and spectacular event in the gym at increased Miller upcoming is the PTO spelling bee where two where students can test their spelling abilities on March 23rd and upcoming on March 15th for students who will be joining the district next year as kindergarteners is kindergarten orientation throughout the district students are embracing all that
009klsd has to offer and as the district is getting ready to welcome in our incoming kindergartners and to Bid Farewell to our outgoing seniors so many incredible things are going on for all the students in between thank you Jake so well said and I'll say so many amazing things to celebrate and to feel thankful for congratulations to our robotics team I know we're going to have an opportunity to talk about them in just a moment and to our student athletes finishing up their winter seasons our National Merit semi-finalists are science fair scientists thank you for so enthusiastically and energetically capturing all that's happening across the district we really appreciate opening the meeting with your amazingly enthusiastic words thank you any further comments or questions for Jake some of the campus Congress recommendations were around Dei
010initiatives so the main one I wasn't at that meeting because I had rehearsal but um some of the stuff we discussed in our executive meeting that we talked that we're talking to the principal about include building like a bench and naming it in honor of someone I don't know who we're gonna name it after like a diverse they're dedicated towards like diversity one of the things they've discussed thank you any other board announcements topics to celebrate or news to report I think Jake did an amazing job covering basically everything I will just briefly thank the town of Louis bro for inviting us to represent the school district that the new neighbors social I'm happy to report that we have new neighbors moving into the town of lewisboro and I was really lovely to meet some
011young families with young children and some seniors who have also relocated recently to our district and we thank them for including the school district and for allowing us to welcome our new families as well um happy to turn it over to you Andrew thank you sure uh I don't I don't have things to add to what Jake said because it was a very comprehensive report but I do want to dwell a little bit more on that robotics result uh and I want to start by encouraging people to if you haven't already read to read the story that's on the front page of our website at the moment it's a really dramatically told and I think one of the students did some of the telling uh uh a telling of of how they won uh that
012exciting thing in the New York Excelsior Regional Championship so that's awesome I want to call out the names of the students on that robotics team congratulations to David Bond Orion brand Zoe dollar Christina Fonseca Brooke habanowski Spencer Hadlock Spencer Levine Rachel Lewis Kai Longo will Matthews Lucas Oil and Jack Shapiro and also congratulations to the teacher and coaches Jonathan Peter and Stephen zoller uh Jake's already told us about where they're going next we're thrilled to be able to support them on that trip Houston we wish them all the best it's an amazing opportunity to not just compete with it even just to meet these other students and their teachers from all around the world and to be involved in that and obviously robotics is a lot of where the future is for good and for
013bad for a little bit of a worry for some of us but how great that our students are so phenomenal at it already and what a great collection of students that is so I just wanted to Echo uh those thoughts thank you terrific thank you so much if there are no further announcements then I'm going to just move forward briefly for board committee reports and actually I'm sorry when we're out of order we should have done this before announcements but I'll start with audit committee if there's anything to report there is nothing thank you finance committee we had a finance committee meeting on Tuesday uh which is very productive I think that we are really kind of narrowing um our focus and our getting ready to um put together our report for the year wonderful
014thank you here at Council um and I'll cover sustainability too because the response is the same we have not had an opportunity to meet since the last meeting although we are meeting next Friday the 17th in the morning at 8 15. thank you and for Westchester Putnam School Board Association it's just really been advocacy Central ever since the governor's proposed budget came out there have been numerous meetings with legislators that culminated I think last Thursday Friday and um legislative advocacy conversations happening among school boards in the region and now our thoughts are turning to budgets there was a community conversation just this week where we were you know discussing various elements of our respective School budgets and talking a little bit about you know how our districts are responding to increases in state aid and
015that sort of thing so that's the season that we're in basically um I'll see well I'm so sorry I skipped policy policy so there's a new policy up for a third read and adoption if so voted it's the comprehensive student attendance policy it's actually a combination of two policies making them to one big better policy and it concerns absences tardiness and early departures and it goes over some of the language in terms of defining what is um excessive or chronic absences what are approved um absences or early departures and some of the logistics of Parental responsibilities parental notification and uh how uh some of the disciplinary things would work mostly via the code of conduct um I think some of the other mechanics are going to be in the um regulations that some of these
016policies have a regulation that goes along with it just sort of some of my new detail but um I don't think there are any fundamental changes just some of the you know nisba had some suggestions in terms of some of the numbers and language a little bit but that's the comprehensive students attendance policy great thank you so much Bill and thanks to the policy committee any questions or comments before we move on okay then I think we're ready for tonight's featured discussion revisiting superintendent's proposed budget thank you so um I want to thank the board actually I want to thank the board I want to interrupt myself while I'm doing that uh I was going to say prior to that though um Marjorie mentioned the context of the budget being developed up in Albany uh
017it's anticipated that in the next week or so the legislature up in Albany will come out with what they call their one house budget and that's part of the negotiation process between the budget that the governor has put out as her initial draft and then this one house budget that the legislature puts out and I wanted to mention that because the numbers that we're using in the presentations that we've given you so far when it comes to state aid are the ones that come out of the governor's budget so we do always caution that those are subject to change we don't necessarily anticipate that they may change much but it's always possible that they could change through this negotiation process so we'll stay tuned for that and and we usually try to watch and see
018when that budget gets adopted up in the state and in some years we're able to adopt house I think after the state but the years we can't wait so we go ahead and adopt ours and we anticipate that theirs will not change too terribly much so um I want to I do again want to thank the board for going very thoroughly through the budget that we've presented uh if anyone was has watched the Saturday presentation you know that we've gone line by line now through the entire budget uh we've asked and answered quite a number of questions about it and so the budget that we're showing you tonight are really the same slides again they've now been gone over very thoroughly so I don't plan to go through them all again tonight I'm happy to
019answer any questions that board members have but for the sake of our members of the audience tonight and folks who are watching at home we wanted to just highlight a few of the slides so I'm going to actually Jump Ahead here to the summary slide of the overall budget and start there so the budget that we're presenting for the next school year is that second number line the 119 million 988 980 that's an increase of just over 4.2 million from this year's budget to next year's budget a budget to budget increase of 3.64 percent importantly it's a property tax levy increase of 1.56 percent which is well below the New York state property tax cap limit that we're allowed to go to and per the board's goal and directive to us from the start of
020the year it's important fiscal responsibility is very important to us and to the community and so we measured things in a way to keep that tax levy at a rate that's very comparable to what has been the average tax levy for the last six or seven years the reason the overall budget to budget increase the reason we're able to have it be higher than that is thanks to an increase in state aid and some other revenues that are coming in at higher rates than they have in the past and those are allowing us not only to um accommodate some pretty dramatically increased costs in certain areas but also to add some what we think are some really valuable things to next year's budget so let me just speak to some of those things briefly the
021next year's budget supports what's shown here on the slide as some new positions which help us really focus in a way that we feel very positive about in terms of class size at the middle school and at the uh in the elementary schools we know that um favorable class size has always been important in our district in our community and in light of the pandemic and in light of our wanting to really provide best possible services to all students we're really thrilled at the opportunity potentially to have even slightly more favorable class size for the near future while we continue to help our students and support them in all possible ways as they continue returning to the best possible learning environments so that's this slide is primarily focused on positions in support of class size
022the next slide talks about some of the other programmatic changes or additions or enhancements that are supported by the funds in this year's budget you see here implementation of Next Generation science standards that's something we've been now piloting for some time and now we'll be moving to with the implementation stage you see enhanced instructional strategies in K-12 math we've been focusing on that want to continue focusing on math instruction K-12 we're always focused on literacy instruction and then strengthening in that area and that continues to be supported in this ongoing budget we know the importance of sustainability work in our district and we're thrilled to be able to put support into the budget for that you just heard Jake speak to the importance of Dei we've added the word belonging here because as we do
023further work in this area we're increasingly focused on this concept of belonging for every single child in our district so we're now talking about diversity Equity inclusion and belonging initiatives that are supported across a range of areas in the budget including a number of different professional learning budget lines in the budget as well as some materials for students and then finally on this slide you see the fourth version of our two-year staff Innovation cohort that would begin in this next school year supported by this budget the next slide speaks to some particular positions around professional learning and supportive students we've mentioned number of times the the growing population of students for whom English is a new language and so that's resulted in increased Staffing support for those students we're looking at a new substance abuse
024counseling role for our secondary schools increased monitoring of student Safety and Security particularly at John Jay High School an enhanced instructional support for technology model at the elementary schools that's actually a relatively slight change in terms of Staffing but it's a new model that's more focused on instructional support as opposed to the need to provide support to do things like fixed printers in an old computer lab type setting so now that all of our technology is mobile and in the classrooms we we have the the luxury and the and the great opportunity to focus more on instructional support for students and teachers as opposed to repairs and that kind of thing so uh you we we spoke through a couple of coaching positions to support some increased opportunities for students at the modified level in
025modified Sports we are looking to reallocate one special ed teaching position to be a K-12 staff developer in the area of special education that's actually not a budget Edition we just want to call it out because we we think it's a real enhancement that's supported in next year's budget even if it's not an increase from this year's budget the next slide talks about some of the infrastructure so we're always looking to maintain buildings and you see here in addition to just maintaining you see some exciting new enhancements so the very first thing there this budget would allow us to provide new scoreboards for the John Jay High School gym and in turn then we can reallocate the existing School boards that still function and put them down in the Middle School gym where the school
026boards don't function and then create a much more usable space for a variety of scenarios down to the Middle School thereby increasing Sports opportunities both during the day and after school for students which is really nice then you get to slightly more mundane but equally important things like roof and gutter repairs storm water management you see some playing field upgrades things like bleachers and storage structures and fencing Gardens and playgrounds at the elementary level we've been working to address some very important drinking water filtering systems at a couple of our schools for a number of years Network continues moving forward um there'll be some drilling over the upcoming spring break connected to that work fencing Paving and concrete repairs continued growth in the area of flexible Furniture we've seen that be really nicely integrated where
027it's already we've already made some significant purchase in the elementary schools and that will continue and it's been really well used it's really nice to walk through the schools and see the furniture that they're being used so much already flooring replacement bathroom upgrades and then uh a different type of infrastructure enhancement is a new I mean it's it's a new but it's a growing communication specialist position we have a part-time position currently we're looking to make it a full-time position and the reason we put it under infrastructure is that we think about things like the website uh social media other Communications to our internally and externally to families all falling under the domain of this person so we're excited to be including that in the budget so those are some of the many things included
028in the budget that we just summarized moving forward we do again we want to emphasize that although the budget to budget increase is larger than we've seen in recent years 62.6 percent of that increase is accounted by four by things other than property tax levy so things like state aid and other miscellaneous revenues whereas just 37.4 percent of the budget increase is accounted for by the tax levy and that's why the tax levy increase is 1.56 percent which is comparable um we have the same enrollment slides we've gone over all of these a couple times I'm going to just Gauge by looking around at the board I don't know that we need to go through all these numbers again you've seen them all very recently if you have questions happy to go back over any
029of them otherwise I'll move through these enrollment slides Staffing we've spoken through the changes there we'll go just to the Staffing summary slide Neil you want to just mention that one oh sure yeah the for the staffing summary so when we add up all the teaching and support staff editions of 8.25 plus 4.87 and we discussed how we arrived at that point eight seven uh having to do with the dissolving of the teacher aides and adding teaching assistants and for technology at the elementary schools for teaching assistant positions we end up with a total of 13.12 additions you kneel then we we move on to the budget analysis section I think Danelle you wanted to speak to some of the major increases in this year's budget that are driving that larger than usual increase right
030so the first slide that you spoke about today showed a 4.2 million dollar increase the four items on this next slide total 4.6 million dollars an increase and you can see that health insurance uh really is the biggest portion of that and that represents close to 1.9 million dollars uh we also have some contractual obligations related to our employee compensations um that's 1.3 million those new positions that Neil just spoke about they total approximately 945 000 and then um as everybody is feeling it at their own home we have some cost due to inflations and that's um slightly less than half a million dollars we're projecting of the total increases um of course those major budget increases are offset by some budget decreases and that's shown here on this next slide so we are mandated
031to contribute to the retirement system both our teachers retirement system and the support staff retirement and that's the first two lines uh that's a mandated rate that the state those State agencies set um so between those two we see a reduction of approximately 350 000. and then we have it transfer to Capital funds that's those major infrastructure needs uh that Andrew just reviewed um we are reducing that transfer to Capital by approximately a hundred thousand dollars or exactly a hundred thousand dollars I should say so this slide totals 451 thousand dollars and that offsets that 4.6 million dollar increases right and then there's you know some ups and downs throughout the budget thank you do you want to speak to this one briefly or uh sure I'll speak to this one so uh this shows
032six years of our budget history and our uh budget to budget increases and our tax levy increases so this year our budgeted budget increase is at 3.64 but again I want to highlight the tax levy increase is 1.56 and that's uh less than the average that is reflected on these slides and again we're able to uh not to help the taxpayers by relief that we're seeing in state aid there's also some interest increases that we're seeing um in our income that we receive from investment from the interest Investments and some other miscellaneous Revenue thanks Danelle the the 1.56 I think you meant to say is just slightly more than the average outside yeah sorry I was looking budget budget changes yes it is closed okay but it is it is close and again the overall
033increase we're able to do some things this coming year in addition to paying significantly increased costs that danelle's pointed out we're able to do some additional things and in large part supported by that state that significant increase in state aid as well as some other revenues that have increased in more recent times so I'm going to just jump ahead now because we've gone through things like the tax cap calculation the tax rate calculation uh the summary of all the good things that come through this budget the proposition is what voters will see on the ballot in May when they go to vote proposition one is the one that speaks to the budget itself and asks permission from the voters to Levy uh the amount of dollars for this budget to be supported I do always
034want to highlight proposition number two which is the vehicle proposition last year we were very excited for the very first time to be able to include an electric bus in our proposition we were thrilled to get the voter support to purchase that bus we purchased the bus it's coming soon we're told uh and that's all to do with the with the length of uh the delayed of supply chain uh issues so hopefully that will come soon we want to continue down that road we all know that New York state has mandated it at a certain point in the future that we make this transition to electric vehicles so we've written the proposition slightly differently this year because we haven't received that first bus which is intended to be a pilot for us to see what
035the experience is like of driving an electric bus in our community so with this proposition we're giving ourselves the option by saying we'll purchase either a traditional or an electric we would love for it to be an electric we just want to see that the experience is positive with with the bus that we hope to receive soon and assuming that it is we would certainly move in that direction we also always want to emphasize the proposition number two is not asking the voters for additional funds all of the funds that are indicated on this slide come from remaining funds in the current year budget the money that didn't get expensed in this year's budget goes towards purchasing the vehicles that we need and and we need them to replace vehicles that have reached the end
036of their safe and useful life on the roads which we're helped to know by many inspections from the Department of Transportation so that's what proposition number two is about and then finally we hope we come to the next steps so again we thank our board for all the questions that we received on the 23rd and the 25th we now on March 9th we look ahead where we decided at the last meeting not to meet on the 16th we will meet again on the 23rd we'll do another review similar to what we've done tonight in case any questions have come up between now and then and then on May 4th the state requires all districts to do a full review of its budget within I think a two-week period of the budget vote itself that's called
037the public hearing so we will go through all the slides again on that date May 4th and then the vote itself is on May 16th and then in between that time we will also do presentations in our Middle School theater and our high school theater for anybody in the community who would like to come out if they want to be in an environment where maybe it feels easier to ask questions it'll be the same slides nothing new or exciting from there from that point of view but if people want to come we're doing one morning and one evening and we would welcome anybody to come out and and share their thoughts or ask us their questions on those two days that takes us I think to the end of the board has any remaining questions
038otherwise the vote as there is on May 16th as it is all throughout New York State thank you so much for the opportunity to run through the budget again we appreciate having this interim opportunity before the night when we actually adopt the budget or have the opportunity to vote on a resolution to adopt it and we appreciate that very very little of the budget um funding is discretionary there's very little opportunity for us to do things Beyond required increases year over year and to the extent that you are proposing additional program or additional Staffing we really appreciate the manner in which all of the conversations that we've had over the course of the past few weeks have helped us to better understand the changing needs of our student population of our students and that we're
039not only able to continue to strengthen program in literacy in math implementing new science standards but also really be attentive to you know the new needs of learners for whom English is not their first language or strengthening the work of the learning commitment and the various focused areas within the learning commitment and the fourth fourth of cohort of the Innovation Community which will be showcased at the very next meeting on the 23rd and that'll be a nice opportunity to pair hearing about that work with our opportunity to vote on the budget so thank you very much and I'm happy to open the floor to board trustees if there are any further comments or clarifying questions we just kind of I just want to say again trustees asked many questions I don't want anyone to have
040the impression that they're not asking questions tonight because you've already had ample opportunity and we appreciate all the questions that you have asked on previous days thank you I'll just Express what I already expressed if that's okay I feel like in these inflationary times uh and with the wind at our back in terms of an additional 2.5 million split between date Aid uh County tax I think and then positive interest return of about eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars um that we're we're in a very fortuitous position where where the the district is financially strong we have the wind at our back but if it were not for those additional increases on the revenue side we'd be struggling to Finance the health insurance I think was was one of the biggest items um it'll be
041really really tight and we wouldn't have any opportunity but to max out the tax cap and probably breach the tax cap in fact and so recognizing that we're in a that we're we're in a time where our expenses are rising substantially I feel like it should give us pause to consider tightening our belts a little bit and while I appreciate that the tax cap is is not the full bore we didn't go to the full two point um I do think that there are some areas in the budget that we could have taken a second look at and to try to trim certain items and it's a little surprising to me that on the first pass the first look at the budget for all of us that we all that the majority of the board
042felt that there was nothing that we could trim that everything looked just good especially in such inflationary times when our expenses are drastically increasing and the net net of that is that we now are facing next year 120 million dollar base whereas this year it was 115.8 or something we're facing 120 million dollars that we'll have to fund most likely next year it's unlikely that that number is going to go down so it feels to me like we're next year likely to be getting much closer to our tax cap and potentially even breaching our tax cap so that that's my perspective on it I I think the budget is a very good budget I absolutely will vote for it um but in my heart of hearts I just feel like there are some opportunities here
043in these in these times where our expenditures are increasing so drastically uh for us to sharpen the pencil as I said last time thank you yes I actually share many of the same concerns I think I phrase it a little bit differently it was more of a we're using potentially one time increases in Revenue to fund potentially recurring costs and at some point you know we'll go over the ledge where the cost is still there but the funding isn't there um I think I was focused specifically on some of the staffing issues I think it was um seventh grade I was reassured however that um you know these things might happen next year and if indeed there's less wind at our back and there's a need to either raise the tax levy further or to
044Make Some Cuts we will and we'll have to and for fear of that is it necessarily a reason not to do something this year um in terms of the 1.56 tax levy you know we we could go through the budget and you know make some cuts and make that you know 1.36 um that would actually per text unit per house would would really not be very much you know in terms of in terms of difference in their actual tax bill I think it's more of a philosophical realization that this year we are um I wouldn't say we're using credit cards but you know we're taking advantage of it fortuitous situation that may or may not be present next year and that might mean that next year's budget is going to be tough more tougher decisions
045will have to be made okay well just um because the the finance committee's charge this year was really to kind of analyze where we are um in a budget way as we compare to our peer districts um I and this was going to make my life sound really boring I've been waiting for other districts to come out with their budgets and just see you know what they're looking at um not many are out yet uh but quick look at Scarsdale they have um you know the initial presentation that I saw there were four options that they had and every single one of them was over the tax cap um so there's a lot of different factors going into budgeting this year um and I am you know very much looking forward to seeing everybody else's
046budgets which again doesn't speak highly about the entertainment in my life but I think that it's going to be helpful for us to keep an eye on those things and see where we are in that respect but just on this first one we look very conservative and mindful and I know that we were all very concerned with being mindful about the tax levy given that that we were faced with the week before um a large number of exemptions that we had to evaluate and and determine you know how best to serve members of our community um it's it's going to be a difficult year but I feel reassured that our Administration has done a a good job really trying to manage all of the different competing um things that we have to consider when we
047develop the budget so I I think we all voiced a little bit of concern and uh just how this this impacts the community but I think that we need to look wide and and see because it's it's not just us and I feel we're doing a very responsible job with our budget like I said I feel grateful that we do have a little bit of wind at our backs for this year it allows us to provide some resources to our students who I mean it's kind of amazing how little we talk about covid but our students have experienced a significant impacting situation in their academic career and I think in this moment of time if we can use some of that wind to double down on the supports that they need in the near term
048then it's an opportunity to do so and I'm glad we're able to do it I also think you know we we do have pieces of the budget that are contingent so if we don't in fact need the contingency positions I think it's important that they're there because they provide our Administration with the opportunity to create the best hospital educational scenarios for our students but in years when we haven't used those we roll that money forward and so that is an opportunity perhaps in the budget we want to make sure we have all the resources available that you need and if you find during the year that you don't need to use them then we'll roll them and credit them against next year's budget which is has happened last was it last year to now or
049the year before we we were able to reduce the um the tax levy with money that we rolled forward from the prior year was that last this year last year and yeah yeah we've been continuously continually doing that so we do that yeah so I think you know the budget itself needs to allocate the resources available to the administration to be able to make those decisions that are best for our students and in cases where the budget isn't necessary we can use that in a future you know not use it in the future we can credit it against it yeah offset the next year yeah I mean the the additional Revenue that we're experiencing is a long time coming another way to look at it is that we are able to provide some relief to
050our community true the levy is proposed to increase by 1.56 percent which is a modest increase in these times and given the new needs that have been articulated for our students coming out of the pandemic and the foundation Aid formula has been flawed not all districts are receiving an infusion of money we're receiving additional Revenue but not that much additional Revenue frankly compared to some districts that are receiving a lot more some of which are you know needier but there are other districts not very dissimilar from ours that aren't receiving any you know we've we've received a modest increase it is providing relief it is reducing what would have been possibly a higher proposed Levy increase and I think we established at the last meeting that to stand still more or less would require a
051modest increase of approximately one percent and you're proposing some additional program and staff that brings it up to the 1.56 go ahead please I think any standing still would have required 0.5 thank you so the additional one percent on top of that yeah um any other comments questions just one clarifying question from before about um in one of the slides there's the addition of the substance abuse counselors and I was just curious how that how that differs and complements our current counseling and what yeah in a couple different ways so the program that we're looking at which is one that's widely used in Westchester County called Student Assistance Services uh provides confidential Counseling in schools so when School Employees provide counseling they're actually not allowed to be confidential because and and when I say that
052it'll be caution in day-to-day work with students they do everything in that power to be confidential but there are many things they simply have to share even the nature of what might be shared with them they are required to share whereas a truly confidential counselor providing drug and alcohol counseling to students can working through an outside agency can be a higher level of confidentiality than can a school employee that's one piece of it from a financial perspective the fact that this is not an employee of vows creates both more flexibility for us in terms of the long term if we have to make changes down the road it's easier if we have to reduce the program it also doesn't involve things like employee benefits and some of the other costs that come along with an
053internal employee um and then Roy I was just curious I mean you said it before but I wasn't clear where there would be sort of the belt tightening that you saw and like what what you think the impact of that might be over on the budget I mean I I agree with Bill that seventh grade that the number is in seventh grade I don't know necessarily warrant the addition of two additional teachers to build out that team I'm not sure why we suddenly feel the need to add two monitors at the high school um you know and other other I think less impactful things like there I'm just like at the end if you were sort of doing that at the end what would how much would that change budget and then I'm not sure
054what the total so that would those four positions I I don't know what the what the percentage would be but probably somewhere in the region of 0.3 Maybe I was guessing probably similar to what bill just said it might be 0.2 or 0.3 yeah okay if there are no further comments at this time I think that brings us to the conclusion of tonight's review and we'll have one more opportunity on the 23rd two weeks from tonight thank you very much everyone and this brings us to 10.01 which is an opportunity for public comment and for anybody who's waiting to speak with us we invite you to please sign up we have a computer in the back or in just a minute if you haven't signed up we're happy to allow time for you to introduce
055yourself at the podium just a reminder that this is the time of the meeting when we look forward to hearing from you and um we invite you to introduce yourself and please speak with us for approximately three minutes or less um and then later in the meeting we'll have opportunity um to discuss or enter into further conversation whereas we won't be engaging in any back and forth at this time and I think Erica Glick has signed up already please good evening my name is Erica Glick and as you may know I am passionate about literacy I've been coming to these meetings for years now to ask questions about literacy there's awareness about literacy bring research about literacy and March is National reading month so it seems appropriate for me to come and talk about literacy
056over these past years I have not just been talking to our Board of Education about literacy but also to others in our community parents grandparents teachers therapists clinicians pediatricians Advocates soccer moms corporate moms classroom dads and boardroom dads and there are strong feelings some are curious some are frustrated and some are downright angry and they're looking for answers and they're looking for leadership with this growing group of people we formed klsd literacy 100 an advocate group of parents Educators and community members concerned by the literacy rates in our district we want to be the district where every child can learn to read write and thrive our members are shocked and disappointed that in our excellent School District despite our high taxes and our high spending our reading outcomes are not excellent in fact as you're
057aware based on New York State data we're earning C's at best so what do we propose we're looking for two things right now one formal literacy committee include stakeholders include parents include teachers include experts set clear measurable objectives prioritize data over philosophy be transparent be open to feedback commit to action steps because the second thing that we are asking for is to improve our outcomes this is a clear deliverable this is attainable we can commit to Excellence so I'm not here tonight to bang my literacy drum in fact I'm just here to say that this is happening and I'm here to invite you to join we actually have a virtual event this weekend it will be Sunday morning at 10. I have my email address but I'm happy to send you a link this is
058an opportunity for leadership The Tide is changing and a rising tide can lift all boats join klsd literacy 100. let's be the district where every child can read write and thrive thank you anybody else waiting to speak tonight oh please yes please uh Lorraine Gallagher I just want to let you know I don't know if you've seen any of the great postings around town yet we are bringing back the Wizards uh March 26th and they we are actually going to have assemblies in each of the elementary schools I think to read a pond to increase Miller in one may have that mixed up because the class because of the gym sizes there's going to be um so it's a chance for entertain our kids and um and then we'll have the game between the Wizards
059and our teachers on March 26th at 2. so love to see you there I unfortunately won't be there my daughter's mom's day but Pete will be here running and running things for us so I hope to see you there thank you please you're welcome to introduce yourself thank you I'm Troy Atkinson I I am here for literacy as well they've pulled my daughter from The District in August some of the things I've learned since and that she's been the subtle differences in teaching methodologies and they're not massive but they've made a huge difference in her life and in my own life my family's life and uh I do encourage anyone that can attend to please come to this event on Sunday we're looking for involvement among people that can affect the change if I can
060understand where we're coming from there's a very large group of us that are old discontent with the service that we're being provided by this District uh I think there's a lot of opportunity there for people to hear from individuals and individual families outside of the board setting where I'm more of a conversation just encourage you to please attend thank you anybody else waiting nothing I'll close the public forum thank you very much for those of you who took the time to come out tonight and for speaking with us and now we're going to move to 11.01 which is the board's opportunity to make use of a consent agenda where we can take care of a lot of business relatively efficiently I'm not aware of any items on the consent agenda that require separate voting would
061somebody like to move the consent agenda please moved by Julia seconded by Catherine thank you was there any further discussion if not we can vote all in favor please say aye aye 7-0 and tonight we have an opportunity for a resolution for a very generous gift from the regeneron science Talent search it's my pleasure to make a motion to move this resolution if I could have a second please bye Julia thank you this is in the amount of two thousand dollars you're marked for John Jay High School STEM related activities okay John Jay High School recipient um all in favor please say aye aye Sun zero thank you very much and this brings us to an opportunity for any board discussion new business I'd like to mention one thing and um given some of what
062we just heard and we always appreciate the input and the feedback but I don't I don't want anyone to leave with a misperception either when there's reference made to state test results so there are 697 school districts in New York state that all take the ELA tests in grades three through eight we take the same tests uh we don't always believe in measuring ourselves and putting ourselves on a ranking list but when you do do that and you combine the grades three through eight Ela tests only we are 21 out of the 697 districts in New York state so we recognize there's always more to learn we always want to improve we're always working to improve but I think it would be a mistaken impression to think that somehow you know we're suffering by comparison
063to the vast majority of other districts in New York state we always look for models in other places we're happy to go visit when there are places that are doing things differently than we are in terms of those overall results at least it's hard not to say that we're doing well in comparison to our peer districts around the state similarly in Westchester Rockland Putnam I think there are 54 districts the same tests would put us at 11 out of those 54 districts in this region we're providing that context any other topics or discussion yeah there was there was a first reading of a new of a policy tonight related to whistle blowing and I just wonder if we could get a quick summary of what the changes to that policy where and why we felt
064it was appropriate I don't want to put you on the spot okay I can have it I can look it up okay that's fine I mean I did I looked at the red line version of it and I couldn't quite follow there was like quite a two major paragraphs that were redlined out and then a lot of new sections added in in the middle of other paragraphs and I just couldn't quite figure out what the gist of it was I'm having trouble finding the red vine version do you have it Andrew I don't is it in the agenda it is it is yeah it's um 12.03 it's second policy appended yeah here we go yeah there's one there is yeah it's not red lines yeah maybe for the second reading yeah okay so yeah for
065the next meeting we could I could look at it more closely and summarize it I feel like edited a bit for clarity also and just kind of what needed to be there and what didn't um no major changes what stood out is like there's a section on the whistle blowing and the second section is about retaliation against the whistleblowing and so I think we just it a lot of the edits were for clarity was this one of the policies that we reviewed based on the Elizabeth yeah yeah the uh yeah where they reviewed our policies and pointed out those that need to be looked at was this one okay yeah no it's a perfectly good question we should discuss it more next time thank you yeah and I think one of the updates if I'm
066not mistaken we can again go over it is that um that if you have alleged wrongdoing in the district as a employee here you don't have to go to the district because the right to go to uh yeah to the state and then that there's a language in there just protecting that person from retaliation I think that's Alana said yeah there had been so what caught my eye is the first paragraph that was Redline that was deleted did have quite a bit of language around retaliation and the replacement paragraph did not and I kind of just cast my eye down it to see if I could pick up that replacement language someplace else and I just didn't see it out of the gate so I just wondered you know where any substantial changes around that
067and we could take a closer yeah you could definitely yeah we may have moved it but yeah next time thank you okay we have no further items I have one oh I'm sorry Jake please I will just say nine to five has one in the level um next week we'll be taking on um in the Heights which is two schools so pretty exciting yeah very exciting next week Marshall and forces yeah it was it got close but we still won so well congratulations thank you for the real time update okay then we can look ahead to Future meetings as was mentioned the board will not be meeting on Thursday March 16th we will next convene on Thursday March 23rd 7 30 pm here in the library the sustainability committee is scheduled to meet Friday March
06817th 8 15 in the district office and policy scheduled to meet Friday March 24th 9 A.M District office been missing now we can ask for a motion to adjourn moved by Rory we did by Liz all in favor please say aye aye 7-0 thank you so much everyone have a great night thank you thank you