001It's actually 5:30. Everyone please all rise and pledge to remain standing for the land acknowledgement. I pledge allegiance The Salamanca City School District acknowledges the homeland of the Onondaga, the people of the great hill. The Seneca people on whose ancestral and modern-day land Salamanca School District now stands, and whose water we enjoy. We stand with all indigenous peoples in their resolve to remain connected to their land. While we cannot undo what has been done, it is the goal of the Salamanca City Central School District to recognize the history and make benefits that will benefit I'm sorry, make improvements that will benefit the next seven generations of indigenous students. You're okay, everyone. Do we have any changes to the agenda? Yes. Uh since it was published on Friday, we added section four, which is a executive
002session, and item to section six, item M, which is the wood floor repair and refinishing bid. Then I need a motion to approve the agenda. Motion. Motion by Carrie, second by Dale. Are there any questions? Yeah, where's Trisha? Uh good question. Trisha is currently in Atlanta at a training for Diligent, which is the company that has taken over BoardDocs, um to get trained so that she can help us with the transition over the next It's going to be about 6 to 10 weeks as we shift from board decks to diligent. So. So we'll take a minute. We also have one additional board which is going to be item one A. That one. Okay. So let's So we will just go to the question and then we can edit. So that will be A1. Perfect. So
003the I would like to recommend that we appoint Nicole Beaver as the clerk pro tem for this evening's meeting. So we need a motion to appoint Nikki pro tem. Motion. Second. Motion by Carrie, second by Dale. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Now let's go to approve the agenda. I still make a motion. I'll still second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. All right. Item Yes. Recognitions and presentations. We have our final budget overview. Final final. Final. Will be final even though New York State is not final. So, while we're waiting for the right um so, for real, New York State has not finalized their budget. They passed their fifth um What's it called today? Extender. Um that's due expires tomorrow. So, I'm assuming they'll probably pass another one tomorrow because
004I don't believe they're they're anywhere close to having budget. Um so, So, what that affects is state aid for us. That's why there's a green star on there and I've put on there pending final state aid amounts because it could change. It could go up, it could go down. Right now, we're looking at an 8% increase in state aid. So, um if it stays there, it stays there. If it changes, if it goes up, then our impact aid number will go down. If the state aid number goes down, the impact aid number will go up. So, we'll still remain at um if that's the budget you approved to me. Um and again, tax levy for the ninth year in a row will be at $250,000. It's not really a whole lot more I can say
005about that. Uh this is the first part of the property tax report card. I always want to say payroll tax. I don't know why, but It's not me. Uh so, the top of it shows uh the budgets from this year compared to last year. It also shows the exclusions from this year to last year. Essentially, the the parts that that I feel are important on this part, the upper part, is the increase of 5.82% um on the budget overall and enrollment changed by 0.49%. Uh the bottom section shows where we were at the end of 2006 for our um restricted fund balances, appropriated fund balances, and unrestricted fund balances, and then an estimated where we'll be on June 30th of 27, and it looks like my estimates right now are that we'll be going from
006an 18.4% fund balance to a 29.82% fund balance, which is just a little over the 4% required. Um so I mean, that's just based on what we have. I mean, we're spending what we have. Um and you know, we're getting in a little bit more than we're spending, but at the same time, we don't want to just spend money just because we have it. If anybody does that, that's not the way you should do things. Uh that's not the way that I recommend that we do things here, that we plan on what we're doing, we make sure that we planned it all the way through, how much is going to cost us in the future, etc. So, that's the top half of the the property tax report card. And the second half shows our different
007reserves. Capital is at zero because we use that with our um phase five project that's in in process right now. The repair reserve um will go from 811,000 to 819, is what I'm projecting for interest earnings between now and June 30th. Workers comp will go from 277 to 353, which is two parts. One, it increases based on 2% of the change in fund balance from last year to or from the prior year to last year, and then also taking out 25% of our premium costs for workers comp. Unemployment will go from 226 to 322, which is the same thing, um except instead of covering 25% of the unemployment costs, it'll cover all of it. The employee benefit Our liability fund will go from 1.2 million to 1.27 million and will cover the actual costs of
008unused time of those people that are retiring and just for your memory refresher those are spread out over 3 years so if I retire this year for the next 3 years I get paid out my unused time so anybody that retired 2 years ago will get their last final payment this year so if that spreads it out and helps us out budget wise for that every year. Retirement contribution will go from 540 down to 523 50% of the annual expense because those retirement reserves are getting a little bit our percentages are getting higher so we're paying more especially in ERS. The other reserve is for TRS which will go from 1.2 to 1.6 and we're not using that at this point in time we're letting that fund balance build a little bit and then we'll
009start using it so we'll end up at 1.6 at the end of the year. So what do we don't know? What do we don't know? That was really great English sorry. What don't we know? STA contract settlement still CSU contract settlement as well the New York state budget so we don't know what our state aid number is and then any federal government grant funding changes. No one knows what the current federal administration is going to do. They could delete something tomorrow they could add it back the next day it could be decreased it could be gone it could be increased you don't really know until it's on paper and in our hands so that's kind of up in the air and there's really nobody that knows the answer to that question at this point in
010time so there is a possibility that we'll see some decreases in federal aid but we may see increases as well. Next up and something. There. Okay, this is the requirement by New York State. You have to look at things broken down between admin, program, and capital. So, from 25 to 20 or from 25 to 26 to 26 27, admin goes from 5.9 to 6.2 or a 3.9% increase. Program costs go from 47.6 to 51 million or a 7.06 increase. And capital goes from 6.6 million down to 6.5 million. And that is because of the reduction in our debt service um payments for 27. So, overall, it's a 5.82% increase, 3 and 1/2 million dollars. And this is how I like to look at it um cuz this makes more sense to me. And and as
011a taxpayer, this is the the type of information that really helps me more than admin, program, and capital because unless you actually really study the budget, you don't know what's in those things. So, um but everybody knows what these are. So, your salaries are going from uh 27.4 to 28.6 for a 4% increase. Uh benefits go from 12 6 to 13 5 for a 7% increase. And that's primarily from health insurance increases, which went up 8% this year. We're lucky that it's only a single-digit um percent increase versus some double-percent increases, which I've seen in the outside world and not in our consortium. Uh BOCES goes up a million dollars or 11%. Equipment and vehicles up 200,000 dollars essentially um or 10%. Contractual up about 13%. Materials and supplies up 9% and debt and interfunds
012down 21%. And again, that's that debt service payment that's uh lower for year. So, we have two propositions on the ballot this year in addition to the election. Uh the first one is to approve the budget. The second one is um an e-bus proposition, and I'm just going to read it. Is that resolved in the Board of Education of the Salamanca City Central School District, New York, that district is hereby authorized to purchase an electric school bus, related equipment, and apparatus for use in the transportation program of the district at an estimated maximum cost of $475,000 and to expend therefore an aggregate sum not to exceed $475,000, and be it further resolved that the sum of $475,000, which may include certain upfront costs, with such maximum cost anticipated to be offset by an EPA grant
013of $256,250, shall be funded by currently available funds of the district. So, that means that our 63. 7 million dollar budget for Salamanca City School um is really if this is approved, will be increased by the $475,000. The 475 is not included in the 63 million dollar number. Um if this gets approved, we can proceed to purchase an electric bus and hopefully be reimbursed up to $256,250 by the EPA. Part of the regulations of getting that reimbursement is the bus has to be completely destroyed. We can't put it up for auction to sell it. We can't give it to somebody to use for anything else. It has to go to a registered demolition facility. It has to be destroyed, and they have to certify that. We send that in to EPA, and then we can
014get our money. If we don't do that, if we just said, "Yeah, we're not going to use it," and we sold it to somebody or something like that, we would not get those funds back. So, that's a big chunk. Um and um So, that's part of it, you know, and the other part is the cost of the um charger, which is built into the 475. So, it's So, that's the second uh promulgation of the money. Karen, if we wanted to purchase additional buses in the future, would the EPA reimburse us the 256 for each bus, or is that like a one-time >> depend on how much money they have left, because they did put it out one point in time, and then they stopped it, and then put it out again. So, I don't think
015they got the participation they initiated initially thought they would. So, it's back out again, so it could go away any time. So, this is just for one bus? For one bus. Yep. And if we're not even eligible for EPA grant until the bus is destroyed, how many years old is that? Well, we could destroy it, you know, the day after we get the new one. It's just any bus? It's any bus. It has to be a bus that was in Roger, help me out here if I screw something up. It has to be in use in the last 2 years, and have to have 2,500 2,500 miles a year on it. And we only have one. So, we have one. Yeah. It has to have an engine date code of 2017. And I have one
016left to go. Okay. Oh, so it's the destruction of a a bus that is a diesel bus. It's the bus. Yes. Oh, okay. I thought you meant it was destruction of the electric bus. Oh, no. I was going to say that's why it's 8 years down the road. Sorry, yeah. Um yeah, it's the diesel bus. Okay. So, EPA, that's a federal grant? Yep. Why isn't there or do we know why there isn't any New York State grants, because this is a New York State only funded mandate? Yep. You don't know? It is a non-funded mandate. Um Um, and every district in the in New York state is is in this position. They everybody is fighting it to push it back um because it's we are supposed to starting in '27, which is next year, the
017only buses we can buy are electric. Actually, the only vehicles we can buy are electric. Um, then our entire fleet has to be converted to electric by 2035. So, that means we have 40 buses. 48 DOT vehicles We have 48 DOT vehicles that need to be replaced by 2035. At every meeting 40 of them, approximately, are $475,000 apiece. That's only DOT vehicles, not Right, there's not any Yeah, trucks that are on for maintenance. Yeah, right. How much more is that than the normal bus? Double. Yeah. So, have we had any discussions with the city DPU? We have. >> And what's going to happen everyone with the end? Yeah. We don't know. That will change. >> The the people Yeah, cuz we're going to be We'll be up at Don Barber's site. Okay. By then, it
018goes to National Grid. >> Which goes to National Grid, which means our electric cost goes up. Because National Grid is more expensive than DPU. Okay. So, it's not in the city, does it affect city residents? And it won't affect PEA. That PEA, I really don't know. That I don't know. I've heard Windmill >> Cuz I don't know if they have cuz we don't we don't have any National Grid accounts right now. So, I don't know if they have a PPA thing on there or not. I know that the city buys their um that's what the PPA is they're buying that the energy from I believe it's from National Grid. I could be wrong on that. So I don't know if National Grid has or not. And then I lost my train of thought. You were
019going to talk about what the mileage is. I'm not allowed to say that. Oh. Uh You're going to talk about that? Is anybody going to talk about that? Um well it depends on it's pretty much kind of like anything. It depends on who you talk to. There are school districts that are like this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then there are other school districts that say this is the worst thing since COVID. So I honestly I don't think we'll know until we get into it. And maybe it will be the greatest thing since sliced bread but who knows. It could also be worse than COVID. I don't know. Sorry to derail this a little bit. What's what's the hours or mileage you can get on a charge? Their projection is 110 miles depending
020on conditions. So when you get into the winter months that number drops somewhere close to 12. Yeah. They also don't give you specifics on charging cycles. They give you an 8-year warranty on the battery. That also depends on charge cycles. Nobody has answered me what a charge cycle is. If it's each time I plug it in or if it's only from the 20% back to 80 to 100% charge. No one has answered that question yet. How quickly do they charge? Uh depending on what charger you buy. You can buy a standard charger which is an 8-hour thing or you can buy a rapid charger which also depletes the battery as you're charging. So Let me Let me ask you Basically it's only a difference of 40 We know we can't get everywhere we need to.
021go. Can I go to the girls across? No. So, next year >> And Wilson. we go to a game where I'm going to use Niagara Wheatfield. And Friday, Niagara Wheatfield is coming here to play us. Next year, we're going to Niagara Wheatfield. You can pull that bus, get us to Niagara Wheatfield and back. No. No. You're going to have to drive it only halfway, 3/4 of the way, park it in another district, plug it in and charge it. The day before, we'll have to take another bus home. Leave it there so charge it in order for us to get there and transition to another bus one of the games. When you come back, hopefully the one you drove back there will have a charge to it so you So, now two drivers have to go
022to the game. No, you need that one driver still. Um because the day before, the mechanics and the someone, maybe a driver, would shuttle a bus to a location in order to make the whole thing work. The state says keep at least a diesel bus in order to make those transitions easier. But yet, by 2035, we're not to have any. This is crazy. Bus availability right now, where are the buses at? Is there a lot of them out there or is it The lead time is long. I I mean, we even ordered a diesel bus in July and it's isn't here yet. >> Uh they're being inspected as soon as you see in July. So, and that's for diesel bus. The electrics are a lot longer lead time. So, we could order it, you know,
023July 1 and not see it until August of following year. You know. And one bus company um called Lion Bus Company already went out of business. And the people that bought those buses are SOL because the new company that purchased them is not honoring warranties. Mhm. Interesting. Wow. So, there's you know, there's so many pros and cons and you know, I I'm going to say this as uh district resident, I was appalled when I saw Governor Hochul in Buffalo and somebody asked her about why wasn't her fleet of vehicles electric. She said, "Well, it's too expensive to replace them." And you expect us to But we're supposed to replace them. So, I I almost threw my Mountain Dew at the TV when I saw that. I was like, "Are you freaking kidding me?" But, you
024know, I just I I don't know. Yeah. The DOT inspector shows up in Greece and it's a hybrid but it has a sticker on the side of the car that says electric vehicle. But it's a hybrid. It'll only go 30 miles on a charge and then it goes back over to gas again. But that's their advertisement piece as if they are electric. So, what if what's our longest aside from sport, what's our longest actual daily pickup route? Uh we have a run that probably covers 100 miles a day. Is it? So, the electric buses are No, they're Does that run work? Where does that run go? Uh picks up everything in town here, goes to Williamson back and then back to Williamson back and pick it up and drop everybody off. Yeah. They're in the
025100-mile range and then we have some van runs that go to Father Baker School and I go on them. Mhm. So, that's not going to work in an electric vehicle. Mhm. So, in the wintertime it gets even less, right? Correct. What what about like our Steam World run? Uh that would be pushing it. Um the vehicle is set up so that as it starts to bleed in the battery, it'll start turning things off to give it enough power. Yeah, kids. I'm sorry. You don't get any And what we've been indicating to the drivers is shutting the heat off in some of these other districts is the vehicle shutting off what it doesn't consider needed. Automatically it will. Mhm. So, on the days that it's minus five out and we have a bus out there at
0266:00 a.m., it's going to shut the heat off. It may depending on how fast it runs, but That is just jolly. This is ridiculous. And but we use the same bus for multiple runs during the course of the day, don't we? Uh some of them do. You know, we have some that goes around in town and then they go to BOCES back and then do another town again at the end of the day. But in this scenario, that won't work. >> That's not going to work either. So, we'll need more buses. Mhm. So, we're going to have to increase our fleet size, get an entirely new one by 2030, right? 2030. 2035. And if it's cold out, which it never is here, we're it's going to slowly turn off auxiliary functions like heat. Right. As
027long as long as plugged in charging, it's doing one or two things. It's heating the batteries so they don't freeze or it's cooling the batteries so they don't get hot and start. Depending on the temperature outside. So, let's let's use that scenario example again. What's the downtime between the run? So, what extent does the bus have to charge? He leaves in the morning around 6:15 and is back punching out about 4:08. And then he'd be getting in that bus around 10:02, come back up for the afternoon. So, this guy has 6 hours about 6 hours. And then when I'm on the fast charge, they run around 3 and 1/2 hours. Then the other thing too is that, you know, once you have multiple chargers, you're going to want to get the the charging management system
028where if they can charge overnight, they're charging overnight cuz it's cheaper than in three days. Remember when we first got cell phones and it was expensive to call during the day, but if you call in the evening, it was cheaper. Kids are like, "Why?" Interesting. Um but yeah. So Yeah, there's there's a huge learning curve on this for everyone. And And like I said, I mean, if you you talk to Lakeshore, it's it's great. You talk to Naples, and it's like, "Oh my god, what are we doing?" It's costing Naples, I think it was $3.18 to write to um operate the bus per mile, and it was like $0.22 for the um diesel bus. $3.18 per mile. I think that's what Naples said. Yeah, and this is cheaper, which which will reduce Okay. So, this
029is actually going to be up to public vote then. On the budget vote. Yes. Okay. However, it's a legal mandate. So, if it gets voted down, it's still So, if it gets voted down, that's every business official across New York State is saying that, "Well, if it gets voted down, I don't have the authorization to do it, yet I'm legally obligated to do it." So, which one is it? Nobody knows at this point. If it was only that easy to but They'll throw it back on us now. So, then any other questions I can't answer or might be able to answer? Sorry Sorry to sidetrack us. Oh, no, it's I knew it was coming. I I knew it was coming. No, okay. So, we'll move on. Um Capital outlay. So, we included $100,000 in the
030budget to do two things that we can get state aid back on. Um one is an HVAC upgrade to the IT closet here at 50 Air Park Drive, and also replace one if not two heat recovery units on the east wing of the high school. Those items are eligible for aid and using the capital outlay process versus adding them to a capital project. And that's all I have. All right. Any questions, Karen? Yeah, let's go back to what money is owed to us by New York State. I know you brought that up a little bit. Yeah, I was Is there a slide in here about that money? No, there is not. Um there is not. We are still waiting for our Native American tuition and Native American transportation contracts and every time we ask, we're
031just told they're being reviewed and it's on top priority and we still have them. So, we have not been paid for several years um and it's around I think it's 12 or 13 million dollars that they're owed right now. That we're owed right now. And that's just to get us current? Or is that including this? Just to get us current. Just to get us through 6:30 of 25. Yeah. Okay. So, now 6:30 of 26 is bigger on the plan? It is. It is. Yeah. Definitely. I mean, Mark has contacted Senator Morello to, you know, ask for his help and, you know, we we got the same story from from them as we did from the department that it's being looked at. I don't know who's looking at it cuz we don't ever get that answer.
032Um Unfortunately, I don't have any update. Anything else I can brighten your day with? I tried. I like it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next, we'll move on to our presentation for our warrior values. So, this is a project that Mr. Finn and Mr. Hubbard have been working on for probably about 8 months now, I would say. Since October. And what they recognized is um from the hiring process, there is an important starting point to establish what the culture and values are within the district and that it permeates many facets of what we do. So, they have been working together. They really comes from the HR department, but they've been collaborating with many of the different departments and today they're going to present sort of the final part of the project. So,
033fire away. All right, thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Mike Stead and this is my colleague Josie Hubbard. We both work in the human resources department and today we're going to talk about warrior values. In warrior values, we're really talking about I got it, Anna. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry, Levi. I thought my turn was next. Um What we're really talking about is alignment. Alignment of our board of education goals, which are make students smarter, build a culture of trust, and improve attendance, with our shared warrior values of learning excellence, respectful relationships, effective communication, and continuous improvement. We have clear district goals, but without but without consistent systems, how we operate can vary across the organization, across our three buildings, across our support buildings, and across our various departments through our organization.
034This work is about creating that consistency by embedding warrior values into how we hire, support, evaluate, and make decisions as a collective organization. In short, this is about moving from values as a concept to values as a as a system. Our focus as a district we want to continue to stay grounded in our core priorities of student achievement, attendance, and building a culture of trust. And the question we're working on is, how do we achieve these consistently across the entire organization? And the answer is not another initiative, it's alignment. Alignment of goals and values. So, what's the challenge? As we continue to grow as a district, like many organizations, we've identified some inconsistencies and areas for improvement. And one of some of those areas are practices can vary across buildings and departments within our district.
035And school culture is often defined informally rather than systematically. And key processes, like hiring and evaluation, aren't always aligned with our shared warrior values and Board of Education goals. And the impact of these challenges, our staff and students sometimes have different experiences depending on which building they are, which department they're uh working with. Sometimes expectations are not clear, and then we miss opportunities to strengthen our school culture intentionally. So, the solution is a system, not just a slogan. And our approach is to build this system with a value-based framework that one, aligns decisions, two, creates consistency, and three, embeds culture into our daily work activities. And this work is centered around a full employee life cycle approach from advertising and hiring all the way through their our careers into retirement. And so, we'd like to
036keep Dr. Miller interested, so we got to use a TikTok to illustrate what we're going to say. And if we can play the TikTok now, please. Ideally with volume. Are you a TikTok guy? Always. Yeah. Nice. You can act it out if you want. I can do a little interpretive dance now if you have to. We can talk later. Yeah, you can play some metal. Can we go back to Sorry about that. I should have tested this before we started. My my mistake. I think we can advance the presentation. That's it. When he's done, he'll let me know and he'll advance the slide. Number three, align your goals and your values. Probably the most important thing about this slide. You don't need anything else in that business year. And then sometimes you might not even
037know what your values are until you ask them. You know, what's your value? You can observe it. Every decision has a high lot of value. Things that we value don't have a lot of value to take up potentially no value at all. And these values are going to be highly defined our resources. Our primary resources that everyone has kind of a similar every day is time, energy, and money. However, we invest our time, energy, and money, it all needs to become our destiny. And when our values are aligned with our goals, things that exist like procrastination has a procrastination snowball effect. Over time, your procrastination >> All right, thank you. So now I'd like to give the floor to Josie Hoover to further detail our shared warrior values. Okay, so when we're talking about the
038values, it's not just a slogan. It's more of a foundation of the system. When we say warrior values, we're not just going to post it on the wall. It's actually something we're going to share through ex- expectations and how we operate as an organization, how we treat each other, and the standards that we really operate from. Um earlier um Mr. Pink talked about consistency. And this is how we begin to address that consistency is through these values. So each of the values, the first one is learning excellence, where we're all working together to create experiences and environments that facilitate learning. Um the second one is everyone understanding that we're in this together and we're going to work together. The third one is our continuous improvement, where we're working to be better tomorrow than we are
039today. And effective communication is key in that everybody's getting the information to who it needs to go to. We're not gatekeeping anything. Um And what's important about these values is that they are observable. While we can speak them, we can also see when they're in action, but we can also see when they're not in action. Um it gives us a really nice starting point to start difficult conversations on these values. Um it's really moving the philosophy, what we're doing the philosophy of this, we're putting into practice next. Um next. So we're going to embed all of this into all of the functions of HR as well as other departments starting with the recruitment and hiring. Um this is where really you're going to see it become operational in our postings for next year you'll start
040seeing Warrior Values um right from that when we're onboarding, interviewing, we're going to be talking about these and what our expectations are. And that will lead into the evaluation of how we're evaluating new staff, current staff, and what our expectations are really. Next one. And this is where we approach the life cycle of an employee and currently we're starting out with the recruit, you know, some people are in the middle, so we are going to every stage is going to be intentional with these values in mind. Um it's going to align our decisions and the school culture is going to be reinforced through each part of the cycle. So what it changes it's really changing how we're the whole impact that the HR department, other departments are having um with greater consistency. Um we have
041clear expectation for all employees. There's an alignment between our goals, actions we're doing every day, and just really more sustainable, purposeful culture ahead. And for that we're going to go to the core values All right, why why does this matter now? The strategic importance of embedding our Warrior Values into our daily activities in any of our postings, any of our advertisement, and really our way of interacting with one another is aligns daily practice with our district goals. It strengthens trust across the organization and it supports long-term student success and creates a sustainable values-driven culture. Ultimately, it ensures how we operate matches our operations match what we say we value. And when we're going to measure success, how are we going to measure the impact of of this daily practice of our warrior values? Staff retention
042trends, uh hiring outcomes and candidate quality, consistency in our evaluation process, and staff feedback and school culture. And our goal is to always incorporate our warrior values into our everyday activities at the school. And in closing, this isn't just a statement, it's a system for how we operate, make decisions, and support one another. And I'd like to open it up for any questions we have from our our our board or our audience, please. I'm going to share it here. I'm going to just from my perspective because a lot of times I feel like we're always saying, "Well, we want our students to do this. We want our students to do that." And uh we always have to remember that our students are looking up to us. So, if they see us missing time or late
043to a class or whatever, what example are we setting, right? And so, um I think that's important that we're trying to instill the same values across the staff. Uh and it doesn't matter whether it's a cleaner, a teacher, or an admin, or a board member sitting here. All of us should have those same values uh if we're expecting our students to do it, then we should be held accountable to do it, too. And that's so I I I like it. And it's it's meant to be a systematic approach to exactly that. That's my two sons, guys. So, I'm I'm I'm sorry. It's just Yeah. Sorry. I'll turn around. I'll turn around here for a minute. Uh this is supposed to be a framework for how you guys and HR figure out if staff are a
044good fit during the hiring and recruitment process, correct? Okay. I just wanted to put that simply for myself. So, I could understand what you guys were talking about and my fault for interrupting. If you have a question, that means other people. So, let me repeat it cuz I think that's an important question. He was asking, "How do we use the warrior values in our hiring process?" And so, we're going to be hiring a vice principal for our high school in the very near future. Our questions have our warrior values embedded into them. So, when we're interviewing candidate A versus candidate B, we're going to evaluate their answers by looking through the lens of our warrior values. Does this candidate display learning excellence, respectful communication, effective Excuse me, effective communication, respectful relationships, and continuous improvement? Cuz
045that's what we value here. When we're going to bring an outsider into our school district, onto our team, we want them to have those shared values. And if they don't have them at the inception of our relationship, that they know that that's what we value and that's what we want to develop. This is good. Thank you. I have a question on the life cycle approach. So, it all seems pretty straightforward until you get to recognize and exit. The recruit, the select, the onboard, the develop, and the evaluate. That's pretty I feel like it's straightforward. What are you guys talking about when you're saying recognize and then the exit? So, what I would say by the recognize and exit is once we have a staff on our team and there might be a time to discipline
046them or promote them or offer them an additional stipend position, say maybe a co-curricular after school activity. When we're evaluating those candidates, we're really recognizing whether they need development or that they are displaying the warrior values that would make a great math um math Olympics club We had that when I was in high school. I don't know if we have it here. But then the the soccer coach or the drama club, that when we're evaluating who's the best fit for that, we're looking through the lens of the warrior values. Who displays these four warrior values to further the drama club or the soccer team or the math team? And then the exit, sometimes someone doesn't have isn't the right fit for our district because they're not displaying the warrior values and there are times where
047we might ask someone to that that to leave, terminate their employment. So, that's what we mean by recognize and exit. You got one. Or retire. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, that sometimes happens too. Thank you. That That closes up That That completes the circle for me. All right. Thank you for the question. Any other All right. Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you for your presentation. Uh next we need a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of uh personnel. Motion. Second. Seconded by Dale. Who seconds that? Seconded by Brad. All in favor. Aye. Opposed. Abstain. Motion carried. Uh we shouldn't be that long, so tight, guys. If any of you guys do anything wrong, wear >> Mhm. >> Hey, you better go ahead and open the door. I really appreciate you
048letting me out. Yeah, they told me they told me to open the door. I was like, "Okay." So, I got to get that weight faster or weight slower? Thank you for your patience, everyone. It's open. Yeah. We've only lost three people in the time you've been gone. We need a motion to come out of executive session. >> Motion. Second. I carry. All in favor. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Okay, we need a motion to amend the agenda. We need to remove 8F and then we need to add 10A and 10B and make the current 10 11. Everybody got that? And the current 11 12. Did you get all that, Mark? Yeah, we don't ever have this much excitement here. That is exciting here, guys. Like I don't get it. I know. Okay, do we have
049a motion? >> Motion. Motion by Carrie. Second. Seconded by Dale. All in favor? I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. All right, next we have our public communications. Did anybody sign in there on the board? Nope. Yeah, I don't see sign-ins on there. Did you see people on the board? No. Uh okay. Uh we'll start with Owen. Do you have a message for us you'd like to share tonight? Uh no message, just the ever-present ramblings that I do. Thank you all for letting me be here and the opportunity that it's given to me and the rest of the students for being here and being able to see the the actions of the board. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, then we'll move on to central office message. Carrie, do you have anything else you want to add?
050I do. Um this I have in front of her and the grant award that we received, um the Go Green Initiative grant from National School Board Association that Mark and um Sandy Brundage went out and accepted on behalf of the district in San Antonio. And also Levi, if you can help me out. Um Sandy wrote a grant to the Ralph Wilson Foundation and we received the award. It was 30,000 30,000 dollars. And Um so what we received is fitness equipment for Vestal Park outdoor stuff. So if you're out there walking etc. by the way, you can um jump on these new pieces of equipment. And what we're working on Sandy's working on getting some signage done so you know what to do on each one of them because some of them kind of look like
051a hammer locker thing or something. Um I mean this one does. So Levi went over and took some pictures and stuff and he's got a little video coming up. of them and so everything's installed. It's usable right now. But we're working on Sandy's working on getting some signage over there that tells you um how to use them or going to get a hopefully anyway we're going to get a little QR code so you can scan that and then learn how to use the piece of equipment and then jump on it and do your thing. So Um finally got it. We got the grant last fall right? And then that stuff was installed about two weeks ago. So it's ready to roll. They can take the Rich you can have them take the tape down on
052them and people are using them now if they want to. So Yep. Um Right. Yeah. And then the lab auditorium electrical bid is opening up on 429 and we're still waiting for the Google land phase 5 approval. Awesome. That's all I All right. Then this is in the NSE. I got to take that today. Oh we can send you already told you. All right. So more congratulations on all the awards. You guys have been doing a great job and keep it up. Keep getting us more grants. I mean we love that. All right. How about you Levi? Yeah, I have a few things. Uh, so I just wanted to remind everybody about New York State testing. So, our eighth grade students tested today and tomorrow. Um, the 28th and 30th, we have math in grades
053three through seven. The fifth through the seventh in of May, we have three through seven ELA. Um, and then we have our five eights students taking the science test on May 12th. So, that's the housekeeping item. Um, I also wanted to touch base about summer school. The dates for summer school this year will be July 13th to August 13th. We'll run on Monday through Thursday like we have in the past. Students will arrive at 8:30 and be offered in-house breakfast. Um, and then lunch will be also in-house uh, at 11:30. Classes run from 9:00 to 11:30. Um, right now our controller are identifying the students that will be coming to summer school. A letter should be going home this week if they haven't gone already. Um, we'll be running high school summer school in-house this
054year. The only students going to our to the Bolton program will be our seventh and eighth graders. Everybody else will be in-house. Um, but working with Mr. Barcozik on athletic camps again this year. They'll run again in the AM from 9:00 to 11:00 for grades two through six and focus on a different sport each week. And we've kind of been touching base on how we can reach our high school students in the afternoons, what that will look like for athletics. Our STEAM camps will also run same dates, July 13th through August 13th, but they will have a longer day. They go from 9:00 to 2:30. But, they're also offered our lunch. So, that's our summer programming. More information will be on social media and things like that. We're in progress with that. Um, and last
055but not least, the one thing I'm the most excited about is starting on May 4th, we are going to be uh, reading one district, one book. So, every staff member in the district received the same copy of a book, but it's a secret. I'm not going to say the name of to students don't know. Um and then all students open it up. Hi. And all students say grades pre-K to 12 will also receive the same copy of the book, and we will all be reading it together from May 4th to June 4th. Uh we've kind of identified a reading schedule where students will read small pieces in school with their teachers, but then also have some reading that they'll do at home with their families. We've identified some ways to upload it on our social
056media and our website so that if they forget their book at school, they'll still be able to access the at-home reading. Um and I just wanted to be really transparent that this really isn't about of doing a novel study or checking comprehension of the book. It's really just about common language amongst the district, a shared experience. We have a lot of families that have students in multiple grade levels, so it'll be really cool for them to be able to be reading the same book as, you know, a first-grade student and an eighth-grade student. And so, um it's really just about celebrating literacy and the love of reading and everybody sharing a common, you know, theme. And then our plans for our culminating celebration will be a family uh engagement night over at Betz Park where
057we will show the movie that goes along with the book and hopefully get our food trucks involved and just really celebrate that we had a month-long love of literacy. So, really excited about that. Thank you. I have one more thing. Yeah. She reminded me of it speaking of summer. So, John and his crew Um he's like, "What is she going to say?" will be running the the summer lunch program for breakfast and lunch, but one of the things that they will be doing this year instead of just at the high school and at and at Prospect is going out to different locations in the community, kind of like we did for COVID, and they deliver stuff. So, we're going to be setting up, and Sandy and John help me out. We're doing Post uh gas
058station in Kilbuck. We're doing the ACC and Youth Center and Highland Park Elementary. Youth Center, and Highland Park Elementary. So, those four locations the food truck will rotate around um um throughout the week. They won't be there every single day, right? Right? One one spot per day. So. >> Nice. They'll be there once a week, and if they pick up their lunches there, Yes, sir. I have questions about that. Um will we the food be made in the food truck, or will it be a pre-packaged thing? It'll be made here in the district, and then just taken out and delivered. >> Mm, okay. Thank you. Yep. All right. Then we'll move on to uh our board message. Christine, you want to start us off? Yeah, thank you very much. Um not much tonight. I just
059wanted to uh thank everybody for being here, and uh to our presenters. I really uh enjoyed the presentations tonight, and the thought and effort that went behind it, and uh Karen for your budgetary um update as well. I know you you do a lot of hard work, so I really appreciate it, and um yeah, just um it's uh I'm excited. It's a special day for me and my family. Uh my daughter turned 1 today, uh future uh warrior. So, um you know, excited to be here, but I'm very much uh looking forward to going home and celebrating with her and my family, too. So, thank you very much everybody. All right. Happy birthday, everybody. Stacy? Um welcome all to all the students and stuff. The um school year is winding down. April. Only a few
060months left. So, um just concentrate. If you need help, ask your teachers. Um start enjoying the warmer weather, and always be safe. Thanks, Stacy. Don't remind me. All right. Thank you. Ted? I just want to thank everybody for coming out. Same thing, the uh it's the final push already. It's hard to believe that in a A of weeks we're going to have our budget vote and all that, and shortly after graduation Thank you. I'd say warmer weather, but it did snow the other day. I know Carrie was happy, but he thought it was bad. But the last thing is is that I just want to let everybody know that uh I had to uh go to the spring fling down at Prospect last week. The uh and the all the kindergarteners and first graders when
061I was there and the uh every all the teachers let them know that it was a very good idea and they all had a ton of fun. So, it was uh interesting to see a dance that all the kids truly wanted to be there and they had a lot of fun. So, that was neat to see. Parents had a riot, too. So, um it was just nice to see a good turnout for that event and uh everybody happy. Awesome. Yeah. Great. All right, Brad. Uh I want to second congrats on the go green award to the board and then after that, wish best of luck to the seniors as the year winds down and they're deciding on their next steps in their life's journey. All right. Yeah. Well, dido dido dido dido. Go Sabres. Yeah.
062We have 25 minutes for it. 25 Is that 25? So, they're coming up. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Sabres first time in playoffs in how many years now? 12 years. 12 years. Lightning won the cup. Yeah. Uh thank you to everybody. Thank you to our staff. Thank you to my colleagues, everybody here for doing what you do. So, hopefully you will be a part of our education of our youth here. Thank you to the students for showing up. Um sometimes it's not the most exciting thing to be here, but you know, you get to see a little bit of the public policy making that we do up here and it is what it is. Thanks for being here. Um I'll keep it short and sweet cuz I know T Ray has a face-off in 23
063minutes. 23 minutes. All right. I'd also like to say welcome to all the students. Good to see you here. I'll just say what I always say in brief and that is if you need something, let us know. That goes for not just students but staff. Um we're here to help. We like to think that we think outside the box and we want to make this the best school that we can. If you see something that you don't like, let us know because we want to we want to make sure it's a place that you want to be. There is 22 minutes for puck drop, so I'm going to keep it short, but thank you everybody for coming. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mark who I'm sure will be very quick.
064I'll just be very quick. Don't worry. I wanted to just bring up two events that happened in the past couple weeks. One was the Seneca Nation Salamanca School District basketball tournament or well, it wasn't a tournament, basketball game. The district did get defeated soundly, but we had a great time and actually it spawned I think what may turn into some of us getting together on a somewhat regular basis to play more frequently so that we can come back and have a better performance. Our own Ryler scored multiple points on me and I'm not going to say it had anything to do with the fact that he's my boss here, but you know, I got to at least try and save some face. He just bounced all over me. So, well done, sir. But actually, it
065was a great time. It was good to see everybody in a different environment and I think for our group, we're we're looking forward to getting back at you in the near future. That was a blast. That was a lot of fun and yeah, kudos to everybody and maybe next year I'll have to play for the district. I think the school or the nation got me got their got me first or recruited or however you want to word it, but uh I was walking in and I was like, "Oh man, I'm probably going to get heckled a little bit here." Oh yeah, 300 got the ball and the crowd saying stuff. I was like, "Oh my gosh." It was so much fun and I agree afterwards it seemed like that, you know, I wanted to kind
066of keep going cuz it was so much fun. So yeah. Yeah, I look forward to that. >> That was a good time. Um and then last week I had an opportunity to participate in a Kiwanis event called the Pillars of the Community where representatives from various organizations, Seneca Nation, the city, there's some folks there from the county as well as the school district, really got together to see how we can work together and collaborate for the betterment of children in Salamanca. And you know, reflecting on that, it really is that was really to me kind of a special night >> because people took time out of their evening to get together, spend several hours, and work through a well-organized and structured program of, you know, what are organizations doing, what do they have planned, and
067what do they need. And you just don't find that in very many communities. Uh so, thank you to the Kiwanis for that and thank you to everybody who came to that. I'm looking forward to doing that again. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to our consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion. Motion by Brad. Second. Second by Tracy. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item 8A is a donation from the Seneca Nation of $750 and that is a designated donation to the Cindy Mors Scholarship Fund. So, we need a motion to approve that donation. Motion. Motion by Dale. Second. Second by Tad. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Next, we have
068a donation from Phil and Emily Zimmerman for the amount of $200. Again, this is for the 2027 Cindy Moore 5K supplies and scholarship fund. We need a motion to approve that donation. Motion. Second. By Carey. Who seconded that? Kristen? Seconded by Kristen. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item C is a donation from Nat Cole Pitstop, and that is for $1,000. And again, it is for the 2027 Cindy Moore 5K supplies and scholarship fund. We need a motion to approve that donation. Motion. Motion by Tracy. Second. Uh second by Dale. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item D is a donation from Fuller's Financial. Uh that is from 100 for $100, and that is for again for the 2027 Cindy Moore 5K run.
069Uh so, we need a motion to approve that donation. Motion. Motion by Carey. Second by Tad. Uh Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Next, we have a donation from the Seneca Nation for $490. That is for the 2027 senior trip. So, we need a motion to approve that donation. Motion. Second. Motion by Dale. Seconded by Brad. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item 8F to be removed. Item 8G is the SDA memorandum of agreement, and that is for summer 2026 academic programs. So, we need a motion to approve the STA MOA. STA is 2021-2026-201. Motion. Motion by Dale. Second. Who's seconding that? Ted. Seconded by Ted. Are there any questions? All in favor? All right. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item 8H, STA Memorandum
070of Agreement. Uh and that is uh MOA STA 2021-2026-20. And that is for summer work days. We need a motion to approve uh that MOA. Motion. Second. Motion by Brad, second by Christian. Are there any questions? All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item I is our Cooperative Natural Gas Supply Bid, uh WFL 2027-19. I can read it. You can try and drop it in 16 minutes. But we do need a motion to approve that uh resolution. Motion. Motion by Dale. Second. Seconded by Tracy. Are there any questions? All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item J is our School Property Tax Report Card and our Tax Levy for 2026-2027. So we need a motion to approve the report card Motion. Motion. Motion by Ted. Second. Seconded by Carrie. Are there
071any questions? All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item K is our 2026-2027 budget adoption. We need a motion to approve that budget. Motion. Motion by Dale. Second. Seconded by Brad. Are there any questions? All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item L is RFP 2026-013 Armed Security Services bid award for Patriot Protection and Investigations. Uh and that is for April 10, 2026. Uh we don't have an approval number. So, you're how many guards is it? It's just 76. It's from May 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. Let's make a motion and then you can ask the question. Motion by Carrie. Second by Christian. Are there any questions? You want to know how many guards that is? Christian? You know? Really? Really? So, 20 hours a day? So, that's 11:00 p.m.
072to 4:00 a.m. is our prospect and then kind of halfway through the evening. Okay. So, it's a replacement for the service that we currently have. The current vendor that we were working with, which were amazing people, he has decided to take advantage of some private opportunities he has as well as teach motorcycle lessons, right? Yeah, which is probably more fun than standing outside in the snow with a firearm. So, we put an RFP out for replacement, but the hours will be the same. We've been very happy with that service, so it'll make no difference. Good. Any other questions? Yeah, one of the I see in your letter here they talk about planning on reusing the existing security guards. Correct. >> So, how does that work? Well, really that's up the They have reached out to
073some of the folks that worked with the previous company that we had here and they will just onboard them as a different vendor working with us. So, you shouldn't see some of the staff changes. Which is good for us. We've been very happy with them. Okay. Any other questions? All right. We have a motion by Carrie, second by Christian. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Item 10, we have 2026 schedule one floor wood floor repairing and refinishing bid award to Artistic Wood Floors. So, we need a motion to approve that contract for 20,350 from May 1st, 2026 to June 30th of 2027. Motion. Motion by Dale. Second. Second by Brad. Are there any questions? Yeah. Uh, what floors are we resurfacing? Prospect gym. One of the uh, HVAC system leaked in the winter.
074So, the one we did two years ago. May I say? Yep. Okay. We're repairing cuz some of the wood has to come up and be replaced. Mhm. And then, um, that, you know, fixed. Then the floor you refinish and repaint it. Mhm. So, why do we have a year-long contract for it? Cuz it's only They're going to actually start after school's out. So, we just put it through June 30th of '27, but it'll be done in Well, this summer. This summer. Okay. Any other questions? No questions. We have a motion by Dale, second by Brad. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain. Motion carried. Item nine is our personnel and some agenda. And item nine B, we need approval for nine A. Motion. Motion by Dale. Second. Second by Tad. Are there any questions? All in
075favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain. Motion carried. Item C, do we have any staff we want to introduce? We do. I'll go first. I have Ms. Peterson. She's online and I'll get to that. She's a counselor in our guidance department and she was our first step in our CISR student support center. Um and I'll try and keep it short. She's a huge advocate for our students. She puts the time in to know their interests and help guide them to careers, colleges, and pathways post graduation and the pathway leading up to the graduation. She's up in here after hours supporting our students. And the reason she's online tonight is she was playing mom supporting her daughter at an after school function. But very a very welcome uh to her to be continue be part of the warrior family.
076Just a great part of our department and glad to be able to give her her time. You're very welcome. Thank you. Thank you everybody. I really appreciate this moment. And sorry I'm not there in person. And then we saw Mr. I had I had another one. I'm not sure if he popped up. He was going to try and get him up and see him. Mr. Frazier. He's been in the science department now for approximately four years and just a great addition. Uh a staff member who steps up when needed and often tries to get ahead of things. Um To to no one's fault, there was a vacancy as a department head and he jumped right on it. He's done a great job and continues to to take the lead in um the new standards that
077are rolling out. He He took the the lead last year to start rolling them out so he can be aware of them and start getting kids familiar with them. Um a great continued addition to the warrior family. I'm really proud to be able to give him thanks. He did stop by earlier and told us all thank you. That was great. He's a busy coach. Yeah. Very. busy coaching. We love it. Mrs. Grutain? Yes. I have Amber on. I don't know if she's here. What? Um, but I'm going to say this for Amber Wolk. She is our um We're being recommended for tenure as our elementary uh teacher. She teaches kindergarten at the primary school. Um, she's been here for 4 years focusing on a building of uh love of learning and growth mindset for our
078students and creating a strong educational foundation. Uh she's described as being very empathetic, patient, caring, and deeply interested in helping our children have a positive and memorable kindergarten experience. Um her dedication to building children's uh confidence, independence, and collaboration skills makes her a highly valued member of our school team. We'd like to congratulate you on your tenure. Who is this? No. All right. We will make sure that we welcome uh the rest of those and congratulate those who recently tenured when we see them. Next, we have item 10A. Uh to be it resolved that upon recommendation to the superintendent of the Board of Education of the Learning Region that you include the resignation uh of a particular individual to be approved. Do we have a motion? Motion. Motion by Dale. Second. Second by Stan. Are
079there any questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item 10B is a settlement agreement. Shall be it resolved upon the recommendation superintendent of the Board of Education hereby approve settlement agreement between the Selkirk Central School District, the Selkirk Teachers Association, and an employee agreement previously discussed in the executive session. And it authorizes the superintendent to execute that agreement. we need a motion? Motion by Was that Bradford? Need a second. Second. Second by Dale. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Item 11 is now our board information and reports. We have our enrollment, our CSE BOCES annual budget, 2026-27 brochure, our capital projects phase four and five summary report, transportation report, and our upcoming events. May 12th is our budget public hearing and Board of Education meeting to
080be held here. May 19th is our budget vote. So, please everybody come on out. And then May 26th, we have another Board of Education meeting. It's always three weeks in a row, guys. Excuse me. And it's the number 11, but it's now number 12. We need a motion to adjourn. Motion now. Motion by Kristen. Second. Second by Tracy. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carried. Go Sabers. Thank you, everyone, for coming. Thank you, all.