Whitney Point Board of Education Meeting - March 17, 2026

001That's what I'm recognizing. than they were this morning. If everybody could please stand and join in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay, to start off this evening, we have um a foreign exchange student presentation. Okay. I'm sorry. >> My chair right over there. >> Thank you. All right, now that that's out of the way, let's do that. >> So, my name is Lily Davis and I'm a senior here at Rosen Point High School. And last year I was uh blessed with the opportunity to go on exchange uh with Rotary to the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. And I'm just sort of prepared to like tell you guys

002a little bit about it and like why I feel we should promote it a little bit more here in Whitney Point as well as just in general because I feel that exchange doesn't get talked about enough outside of like an unintable goal that a lot of people are unable to reach. So just as like a little um little like note here um oh that already went but this is like four to five separate presentations all sort of like wrapped into one. So, I will definitely be glossing over a couple of things and I won't tackle some stuff as well as I probably could. So, uh I will have an option for questions at the end if anybody wants something clarified or just curious. So, we're just going to start off with my experience with Rotary

003in general. But like before we really get into the nitty-gritty of it, I just like why Rotary like why exchange in general. So, for me, my story is that I've always wanted to go abroad. life. I just like ever since I saw like the streets of like Paris in London on the screen as a kid, I was like, I want to go there. I want to do something there. While like what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go changed as I got older. Um just the want to go to a foreign country still remained. And um the whole reason I sort of like started really jumping on like the opportunity to go on a change is because I really wanted to go to college abroad. And especially since I'm going to be

004studying architecture, going abroad is something that like really helps with that. Just getting a different perspective on like cultures and different like ways of building because there it's it's a whole other thing. I could talk for hours about it. So I'm just going to stop myself right there. Um, and Rotary is a very accessible method to doing that. And it's very caring, might I say, because everybody who is like within the organization is a volunteer. So, they want to be there and they want to do these things. So, it's unlike some other exchange programs where the host parents are paid. So they don't care as much because they're getting a paycheck for taking them to student and um they may not treat them as well because of this paycheck. So I really feel that Rotary

005sort of like negates that worry that a lot of parents can have them send their kids abroad that their most families just won't like them. But anyway, I'm going to talk a little bit about the process because it is um a little bit of a pain. I will be honest. Um, so first you have to get in contact with the member of Rotary because you have to be invited. Um, so and then they will send you this form. You have to fill it out, get a bunch of papers signed and then you will be invited to attend interviews which are group, family and individual. Well, I know that the parents will usually get pulled out for like a completely separate interview themselves. Um, it's like they'll ask you like a bunch of questions like to

006make sure that you are a like a viable candidate to be a representative of your community and America as a whole. And then you'll get to select your countries. Well, each uh Rotary Club has a different selection of countries. I know that uh the CNY Rotary um has options of over I think 24 countries from like all over. So like Central Europe, uh Asia, I think you can go to Africa as well, of course, South America. Those are some of the more popular countries. And then you will hopefully get accepted. It's you get a call. It's a whole thing. It's great. You get very excited. And then you will go to a bunch of meetings and orientation. You just make sure you sort of like have the rundown of what's going to happen, how things

007are going to work, and then you need to fill out insurance and apply for your student. You said this is the most tedious and painful process, I will be honest, because it's just a lot of waiting and making sure you get the right information, the right people. Uh, and then you get to book your flight. And, uh, Rotary usually does it through a travel agency. So, you don't really have to do much. You just have to send the agent the date and time that works best for you and they'll do everything from there. And then you get to arrive in your host country and you are going to be very jetlagged and delirious, but still it's a great first day. So yeah, that image is just basically a accurate representation of what it feels like.

008So our district is district 71. Um it is commonly referred to as CNY Rotary as I mentioned previously and in the little map there you can just sort of like see all the counties that it encompasses. So, it is just a whole lot and it's oh my gosh, I remember I was trying to help uh another exchange student like with stuff and I was like, "Oh, we're in St. Mary's or do you want to meet up?" And she's like, "I live in Middletown." I'm like, "That's not going to work." So, uh yeah, and it consists of over 111 clubs with over 2,800 members. And our the current district governor uh from when I made this uh was Robert Balk. It has probably changed by now, but because roads like cycle through uh presidents and governors

009and people in position of power like on a daily basis. So there's always like fresh ideas and like a a fresh face uh within Rotary. And um my host club was the Naka Rotary Club and it is within the Stockholm and Upstall Rotary District. And as you can see in the little map um you can't really see it because I didn't highlight it, but Naka is like all the way down in sort of like the corner uh from like central Stockholm. So >> yeah, uh it it is a little bit of a instance like with public transport. With a car it's not that bad, but obviously I didn't have a car. So hour on the train, yippee. Um let's see. So now we're going to get a little bit into host families. And this is

010an image of me with my personal favorite host family. Um I would go through all the relations, but it's it's a little much. But just know that they are very nice people and I love them dearly. So usually within Rotary uh you have two to three host families. Um because the whole thing with Rotary is that you are on a cultural exchange. You are learning about a new culture and a new language. You are not trying to excel in academics per se but you are trying to excel in becoming a better person. And um like going through host families really helps with that. And my first home host family right here they were like native suites. they had like grown up in the area and sort of like were very Swedish in a sense. Whereas

011my second host family um my host mom was a Slovakian immigrant and her husband's family came in from Germany. So they had a different perspective on Swedish culture and a different take. And it was honestly a really enlightening experience to go from a like a very Swedish family to that of like an immigrant family with a little bit of a more alternative perspective on traditional Swedish customs and cultures. And um while I did have a third host family, they weren't the best. But uh Rotary was very quick to like jump in and just sort of like get me out of that situation. So that way I could be comfortable and happy with my time abroad because that is what is most important along with your learning because you can't learn if you aren't comfortable and

012happy to be quite frank. So anyway, so school and uh my just sort of time making friends. So that is an actual image of the school that I went to. It was a refurbished factory building so it was a little bit industrial on the inside and um I had to go up many flights of stairs every day. It was seven. I I will still complain about that to the day I die. Um so basically Kotarama is an art school. It's the number one aesthetic school in all of Scandinavia, which is honestly really cool. It was such an honor to to go there. So they have like a lot of so since it's an art school they mainly focus on like art programs like dance, art, music, photography, theater, etc. Um but they do also have

013special like science and art programs. So it's sort of like a hybrid and I was in that specific class. I was a nature art. So, I took art classes along with a bunch of science and math classes and it was a pain because let me tell you, learning biology and Swedish is not for the faint of heart. Um, but honestly, being in a school like this just really helped me like make friends because a lot of the kids here were more alternative and more open and they just really wanted to like hear about my country, hear about where I came from because they had only ever seen any movies. And while some people had some like family, they were mainly on the west coast because I remember one of my classmates talked about going to

014like San Fran often to visit uh their uncle. Um and also just the school itself was so inviting and so helpful. um they they really did make an effort to make me feel like one of them and like I really belonged and that honestly just you know it it really helps with the whole transitioning process because that can be difficult. I'm not going to be light about that. It's it's a whole thing. Um but to get into a little bit of Swedish culture um going to talk about fica uh so I love fica. Um, I did go go to Fica quite quite regularly while I was in Sweden, both with my friends and by myself. Um, but so Fica is something that's often translated as coffee break, but it's it means more than that. It's

015like a it's a cultural thing. It's spending time with the people you care about, just sort of unwinding, relaxing, just talking with the people you care about and sharing a moment. And honestly, it's it's some of the best things that you can do. It's just going to get a feed and unwinding after a long day. And now we're going to talk a little about Lucia, which um is celebrated on the winter solstice, uh the darkest day of the year in honor of St. Lucia, who um delivered light to Catholics hiding in Roman catacombs. Um, it's it's celebrated widely in Scandinavian countries, but I know that some southern American countries and Italy are also huge celebrators of this. Um, while it's not like a day off, uh, it's just sort of like a they will hold

016a ceremony within most schools and churches will also have like a lot of like ceremonies. And here's a video of the ceremony that my school held. Oh. Oh. Sorry. See By the way, she is really wearing real candles on her head. So, honestly, applaud her. Okay. And right there is just a little image of the crown that they will that Lucia will traditionally wear. and Midsummer. I'm sure most of you have heard about this. It is not like the movie. I promise I'm still alive, but I haven't been inducted in. I swear. Um, so it's the celebration of the summer solstice and typically uh you just sort of like get together with a bunch of family and friends. You just be like in a boot field sometime like flower crowns and stuff and you'll dance

017around the in English it's the maple, but in Swedish it is the midsummer stone. Um, and you usually say people say traditional nursery rhymes like small, which literally translates to the small frogs. Um, and this this aspect I think is where the culty sort of feel comes from because you're just like holding hands with people. You're going so it can freak people out if you're not used to it. But overall, it is a some it's a holiday of superstitions like what my foot's mom described it as because like there's this one tradition that young girls will typically will go pick seven flowers and then put them under the pillow overnight little trees of their true love something like that. So it's I know like a bunch of different countries will celebrate it ways a lot.

018I think they they light fires and the Icelandic people uh they have yol masa and they will uh roll around uh completely naked in like dewy grass uh to like use something and cows can talk that day. I don't know. It's it's very interesting. Honestly, I feel put your own research into it because it is honestly such an interesting topic. and we're going to talk a little bit about differences between holidays. So, first off, I have Halloween. Halloween is relatively It's only about 30 years old and um people don't really go as like excessive as we tend to do here in the US because, you know, like when you drive around like wealthier neighborhoods and every every house has blow up dragons with like big lights and they're moving. Uh Sweden doesn't really have that.

019Some people may put like a pumpkin outside their door and that's about the extent that they'll go. Well, grown aloons, which is one of Sweden's biggest use of parks, does typically go a little bit more um ham on it. Um and that is an actual image of gaoons right there. I I did go during Halloween and it was very nice. I really felt like I was at home like just walking around seeing all the decorations. It was so much fun. And then we're going to have Christmas. um they typically do uh like the present opening and family time stuff on Christmas Eve whereas we do that um on Christmas day. It's just sort of like flip-flopped like where they really celebrate. Um and also one interesting thing about like the Christmas uh breakfast is that

020it'll be like rice pudding with uh like almonds in it and if you eat an almond you have to say a rhyme about Christmas. So everybody is just sitting very tense thinking about the wrong that they are going to get in the event that they get an almond or they just crush it very slowly so that way nobody notices who simply wants to be there. And next we have Easter. And in that image right there you can see uh some young girls dressed as Easter wishes. Um, I I can't say I'm exactly privy to the reason why they have uh Easter wishes, but it's very cute to just see like the little girls like running around in like their cute little dresses and just like having freckles painted on their faces. It's it's overall very

021sweet. Easter's, you know, for the most part very similar. Like my parents celebrated it. They came over. We celebrated it together and tend to individually paint eggs um instead of like dip dying them. That is like the biggest difference that I at least noticed when I was abroad. Um, but I know that friend is celebrated differently all over the place. Next, we're going to talk a little bit about some architecture. And while I could go into the extreme, I'm just going to give some cool fun facts on like churches and castles that I saw while I was there. So, first we have the oops. It was built in 1435 and is located in Oopsa. And it has a lifelike statue of the Virgin Mary with an actual human skull in it. And one of my

022best friends thought that she was a real person the first time she went and she didn't know that it was a statue until uh our tour guide told us that it was a statue. Um it's honestly freaky. Uh like if you go there, you're like, "Oh, very very devout person. She is not real." Um, and they also have like a couple of uh like noble skeletons in there. Like a whole bunch of stories following those. That's a whole presation in of itself. So, I'm going to move on now. Um, and here is the directly translated. It is the royal church. Uh, it was built in the mid 1700s and I actually went there for a New Year's Eve concert. Uh, is anybody here familiar with uh Grena Tunatti or Brett Thberg? Uh yeah, I I

023saw her mom sing opera live for New Year's Eve. It was honestly such an interest so love that experience. Um and it is located in Gablastan or the old town. So it's just history upon history upon history. And then this is the Tisker. It is also in Gastan. And it was it's dedicated to St. virtue and it was originally made as a guild for German merchants but eventually over the years just sort of got turned into a worship and the inside is absolutely gorgeous. I that the stained glass that I have the image over there has to be one of my favorite stained glasses that I have seen in Sweden. Then we have uh Gromes which um if you notice the lion I'm sure some of you may have seen that wall um on the

024internet at some point and there is actually a very interesting story behind it. So um it belonged to King Frederick I who had a pet lion and when his pet lion died he was very sad and asked for it to be taxiderermed but the taxiderermis did not know what a lion looked like and so it ended up becoming that very sad times indeed. I I feel bad for this line. Um and it also has one of Europe's most wellpreserved 1700 theaters. So that's super cool. I went in there. I don't have a photo over here. It's not enough room so you can see everything, but still very cool. Then we have and this is where the Swedish royal family actually lives still to this day. And um bit of a train ride away about an

025hour depending on where you are. But this was one of my favorites. I sent mom so many photos of it the day I went there. Um it has a very pretty garden. That's one of the main draws of of home is that like you get to just walk around the gardens open to the public. Um they have some closed off sections but you know overall you just get to like to see the like the fruits of the landscape and build and there's also a Chinese style castle with one of the queens actually very into China and Chinese architecture and she's like well I just want a little China in my backyard and I'm the queen so I can do that. So she did. Um, and they do have separate tours for that. It's very pretty.

026Um, I wish I could have gone there, but um, alas, there wasn't enough time. And also those tours will happen at the middle of the summer. Anyway, um, do you guys have any questions or anything that you'd like me to expand upon? >> How long were you there? >> I was there for the whole academic year. You said you had like multiple exchange families. So, how did that work with you going to the school? Did they all have to be in like the same area or did you just have one group? >> Uh, you you tend to be like all in the same area. It's sort of like you have a group of like two to three other exchange students and you all share the same host families because you're all going to school within

027the same area. I don't know how to word it, but do you know if the were you learning the language prior or did you have to learn it either? >> I was I was learning the language prior and I had I had been learning Norian before then. So I did have a little bit of a jump start. But the thing is there is also a whole different to actually like speak with native speakers rather than just teaching yourself and speaking with also speak the language as their second. So I did definitely have like when I uh like went I was able to learn it much more in depth. I know you went the whole academic year and I know like Rotary is like real academic based. So do they offer like shorter programs like half

028a year or during the summer? >> Um they do do summer programs. Yes. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Um, we do have a need for a brief executive session um to hear discussion on >> specific personnel. >> Oh, may I have a motion to go into executive session at 6:22? >> Thank you, Chris. And a second, >> thank you, Aubrey. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? We will be back as quickly as we can. We wait for Tom. We should be back. Yeah. that you like 30 seconds. >> Thank you. Good idea. >> Okay. Um, no more giggling over there. Okay. You'll see that we had two pieces of correspondence. One from the Mary Will Cox Library and one from the Brum Tayagga Boseis board candidates. That brings us to

029policy discussion. >> Okay. Um the first well actually we have for the first reading we have one policy um that is be um removed or we're going to suggest that it's removed and that is um policy 765 but um as it goes when we tend to look at sexual policy manual we start to think oh geez it's um like the all of these I I actually did these in 2009, all the special ed policies um were were reviewed then and there's been lots of changes uh to regulation and to um uh stateed requirements. So, we're going to be in the next couple of meetings going through a number of them. Um, and the goal would be to simplify language to not necessarily have policy that just restates what regulation is because those things change over

030time and there we're required to do that as a public school anyway. Um, and to sort of just streamline that whole process to future proof us as we've been doing as much as possible moving forward. Um but the policy that we're going to look at for first reading it and this is sort of an example of this but um regulation has just changed uh where students with disabilities can stay in school through the year that they turn 22. Um which is now just a requirement. Um our policy said through the year that they turn 21. Um the suggestion would and then it also just says some things about child fine which are also requirements. Um, and it actually has language in here for a procedure that we do not do anymore. Um, so we're going

031to suggest that we not have this policy and that we just follow regulation as we're supposed to. Um, I'm going to ask that you over the next couple of meetings do like chunks of like three at a time and we just kind of get through them. Um, make sure that we don't have anything that is once one against regulation or a practice that we have. Um and then again try to get rid of things that we don't necessarily have to have. Okay. >> And just making more of the language that says we're following the laws that we >> Right. Right. Just you know law and regulation. And when you do that you you pretty much >> covered. Okay. >> Okay. Okay. So that brings us to policy for first reading which is the before mentioned

032uh policy and it um for removal. They have a motion. >> Thank you Chris and a second. >> Thank you Benny. Did anybody have any questions on it? So, you can see the specific language in this policy is something that we actually did do once upon a time. Um, and that was to conduct a door-to-door census throughout the entire district and we would pay people to knock on doors. That's me. >> Yeah. And so now what we do is we make sure that the hospitals and the um healthcare agencies and all you know everybody know um where how to register for school make sure that we're checking with them so that we can um meet the obligations of childfind. >> Any questions from the board? Okay. All those in favor? >> Any oppose? Any policies

033for second reading number 8271 internet safety internet content filtering. May I have a motion? >> I'll bring nothing. >> Okay. >> Um just to follow up. Uh last meeting we had our um public hearing. Um then we did put uh our required uh input section on the website for anyone that wanted to make a comment had comments. Um again this policy was really to be in compliance with being able to be eligible to receive uh ERA funds which again is something that the district does uh get every in fiveyear intervals. So you at this time we'd like to move forward with the policy >> and everything that's outlined in this policy are our practices. So it's not it's just have to state it clearly in policy. >> The referred to policies have we already looked

034at them Zach? >> The refer >> at the bottom. We already them already. >> Uh I believe so. It's been a little while. >> The student acceptable use policy. We did both staff and student. We just updated those two. Student use I mean this actually should not be student use of personal technology. We changed. That's a different name. >> Yeah, it's got a different name, right? >> We might need to do some edits there. >> Yeah. >> So, that policy needs to be corrected. And then and then also let's double check those numbers. The policy number. >> Thank you, Chris. >> Yep. So, do Tom and Aubrey, would you be comfortable amending the motion um with the changes we just discussed? Yep. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor? >> Any

035opposed? Any abstain? Okay, that brings us to our first opportunity for comments from the public. Each speaker will be limited to a maximum of three minutes and the entire public comment period to a maximum of 30 minutes. This may be waved by a majority vote of the board. The board requests that each speaker stand, state their name, residency, and topic of discussion. By law, the board will not permit any public statements regarding individual students or employees. And please be advised that while the board takes public comment very seriously, we are not allowed to comment or respond during the meeting as this is our opportunity to hear from our stakeholders. Items brought to the attention of the board will be taken under consideration for future responses or action or the proper staff member will get back

036to you at the appropriate time. There is also a second opportunity towards the end of the meeting um just in case you don't want to speak now may come up with something later. But being said, is there anybody who would like to speak this? >> Um I'm Amy Lynch. I do live in white address. Um this is Sue Sterns. Uh, thank you very much for giving us a moment to speak to you. Um, Sue is one of the board members at Mary Wilcox Memorial Library and I'm the president of the board of trustees. Um, and as you've seen in our correspondence, um, we've submitted our meeting minutes where the Mary Wilcox Memorial Library Board of Trustees voted to override the tax cap and have passed a resolution to have an increase in library tax placed

037on May's ballot. Um in fiction we have uh a petition um to be placed on the ballot with sufficient signatures. Um the library has not requested an increase since 2020. Um at that time the budget was created with the intention that we would go out again after 3 years. However, we stretched our budget for an additional three years. Um, with the increases across the board, the library has reached a point where we can no longer sustain our current level of services. In order to do so would require major cuts that would be detrimental to the community. We have also had lots of questions on how we were able to afford to build um an addition um if our funding is insufficient. The addition was built um using New York State Library construction grants um and

038we were eligible for a 9010 match um meaning we got 90% grant money um the 10% that the library put forward consisted of monies that were designated years ago the addition uh the library was also able to obtain multiple private grants that required no matching funds. Therefore, the addition um was not built using library tax income. So, the increase we are seeking is for our current operating expenses. >> Thank you very much for your petition. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to speak at this time? >> Okay. Commendations. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. >> Anything with that? We don't need to do on them yet. Right. Right. >> For what? >> For this? >> No. For the board down at Boseies. We don't vote on them yet. They're just asking us

039to vote for them. Right. Right. Yeah. >> Thanks. Okay. Okay. All right. Um, we'd like to commend the following high school art students whose art is on display at 2026 high school uh uh at the well no at the 2026 art show at Johnson uh Watson Cultural Center in Endicott. Emma Davis Davies, Mia Davis, Brooke Feathers, McKenzie Harvey, Ava Oliver, Alyssa Whittle and Allison Zedc. Coach Danvers and the varsity girls cheerleading team for earning the IA league class C championship. The f uh the following high school students and BoseCTE students for their representative representation at the Skills USA New York State region 2 competition at Marsville. Samuel Baker, a senior, first place in diesel equipment technology. Uh CA Cadence Benfield, senior and her partner from Vestal High School, first place in TV video production. Um,

040Mercedes Tonkin, Junior, second place in nail care. Uh, Coach Black, assistant coach Ballard, and the following athletes from from the girls wrestling team for their showing in the section 4 girls freestyle wrestling championship on Friday, February 13th. Colleen Hildigrant, fourth place. Julie Smith, sixth place. Zoe Taft, strong showing, beating the second seed wrestler. Coach Black again, assistant coach Ballard, and the following athletes from the boys wrestling team for their showing in the section four wrestling championship on Saturday, February 14th. Kyle of place, and Elijah Baker fifth place. Mrs. Stanley, Miss Driscoll, Miss Hill, Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Busanel, and the students, the many, many, many students for wonderful science fair. And uh the participants in grades six through eight presented on March 4th, and the participants in grades four and five presented on March 5th. Uh,

041there's a Is there a link to the coverage, which is really cool? >> Hey, I'm Petey aka Peter Pan. Turns out that's kind of awesome. With Triple A, I get grown-up perks with zero grown-up stress, insurance, travel, roadside assistance. With AAA, it pays to be a member. Back at home, students at Tafy Yoga Riverside Academy held a special science fair today, showcasing off months of hard work. Fox 40's Katy Lynn has a story. The Tia Yoga Riverside Academy gym was lined with rows of fourth and fifth graders and their science projects. Today, it was a scene of the school's annual science fair where middle and elementary school students present their science and STEM projects to students and families. We have um two events at at our school. We have a science fair for sixth through

042eighth graders which was last night and then our fourth and fifth graders present during the school day and they also have their science fair tonight for the families and community. >> Participation in the fairs voluntary with students free to choose any topic that interested them. >> It ranges anywhere from you know their favorite animal. they might focus on their favorite animal and do a researchbased project or we have several students this year that really um grabbed on to that scientific method and they they actually collected data and that's really we're really looking for them to graduate into that type of a project where they collect data. >> One student fourth grader Bryson PTO researched mouse trap cars small DIY vehicles powered by the snap of a standard mouse trap. like cars where the mouse trap

043the spring powers the axle or the string to untwine it which when it's untwining it moves the axle to make the wheel spin >> said his love of science inspired him to take part >> I think science is really fun and I love doing it I like creating and I have an imagin >> Stanley said she's always impressed by the work her students bring to the fair each year. >> I, you know, I've been doing I've been here for 25 years, so every year you think you're going to keep seeing the same things over and over again. And every year I am just so shocked and and um really proud of of their displays and the ideas that they come up with, the questions that they ask and and and research. >> The school science

044activities aren't over yet. Chney Yoga Riverside Academy will host night this year's version of its annual family science night on Wednesday March 18th. Reporting in Winnie Point, Katy Lyn, Fox 40 News. >> So, um I think all of you here know that the science fair has been a long tradition. In fact, I I sent Andrea a picture of um because after talking to my kids at the at the science fair, I found this picture of my daughter in the science fair and um you know, just the fact that it's such a celebration of learning and each of those kids stands there and they're so proud of themselves and it's just the coolest thing and it's and it's really taken on like a whole new life now that we have Andrea working in the science and

045in that STEM lab. Um, and I can't tell you how many kids said,"I love science or I I want to, you know, I want to be a doctor. I want to be a biologist. I want to be an, you know, it's just um it, you know, it was such a great thing." >> Um, and even with the split up with four, five, and one, you know, one day and six through eight, it was packed both times. Yeah. >> Hearts coming out for >> Yep. Yeah. Really cool. >> Okay. So, um, Coach Bill McNeel for his induction to the section 4 Hall of Fame class of 2026. The induction ceremony will be held on April 25th at the Holiday Inn downtown Bingmpington. U, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Polland, staff, volunteers, and the talented students in

046the high school drama club for great for their great performance. And somebody sitting right here was part of that um for Bye-Bye Birdie. uh Coach Hayes and the varsity indoor track team athletes for the following uh showing at the section 4 indoor track and field state qualifier championship. Qualifying for the state meet division uh two girls 4 by 200 uh meter relay was Addison Feathers, Ava Oliver, and Maline Zair and Payton Martin. Fourth place, girls 4x400 uh meter relay team, Brooke Feathers, Ava Oliver, Maline Zair, and Pton Martin. Fifth place, Payton Martin 300 meters, Ava Oliver 55 meters, and Dylan Whitney 300 meters. Whitney Point SAAC members Payton Martin, John Mars, Eleanor Jordan for presenting at the section 4 student athlete advisory committee conference on February 26th. coach Hayes and the following varsity indoor track

047athletes for earning sixth place at the New York State indoor track and field uh 2026 state championships in the 4 by 200 meter relay. Addison Feathers, Ava Oliver, Maline Zair, Payton Martin and Brooke Feathers and Emily Brunick. We had a big uh send off for them even though the weather wasn't really very cooperative that day. uh Capernick Observatory and Science Center for it has not happened yet. Tomorrow night, TRA's family science night on March 18th. Um they will be hosting the earthquake engineering activity and lucky Martin for sponsoring the earthquake engineering activity at TR uhology family science science night which will be tomorrow and I can't wait. Yeah, >> that brings us to our student board member report. >> Okay. I wasn't actually supposed to be here today, so I don't have like a big

048report planned, so I'm like kind of winging it. Um, last meeting I reported on our CATIs, which you know, went well. And as of now, a few of us have gone to the TR. I haven't gone yet, but I'm going to be scheduled to go. So, next meeting you should have more data about our visits to the TR. And then, as some of you may know, we've been trying to bring Eagle time activities back. So, we decided that on once a month on a Thursday, I think it was, that we would have an Eagle Time activity. And we had our first one last week, maybe two weeks ago. And um I've heard really positive results so far. Everybody was really happy that they had the opportunity to do an activity. Um, all the all the

049clubs were nice. They weren't last time we had Eagle Time activities. Some of the clubs were very random like Barbie Club. We weren't actually like doing anything. And I think we really set a more more of a guideline for them. So, a lot of the clubs were actually there was more of a limited amount, so kids would actually like be doing the activities, not just hanging out in a classroom. Um, lots of people signed up. If they didn't, they would be sent to a study hall. And I didn't hear like really anything about that. So, I think everybody actually did sign up for an activity. And I heard like after the Eagle time was done, I heard lots of students express joy about it or say how they had fun at their clubs and how

050they were excited to do it next month. Um um we set some teachers were like allowed to set limits for their students so it wouldn't get too overwhelming in their classroom which I think worked a lot good because there wasn't too many students in each classroom so the teachers weren't getting overwhelmed and there was still time there was still like rooms where people could focus on their academics if they didn't necessarily want to do an activity. Okay, we're like still working out all the kinks on what's going to happen for the activities, but you know, they've been going well so far. >> So, do you want to Jordan just like share with the board why everybody decided that this they felt like that was important in our school? >> Bring that back. >> Um, in

051our school like lots of kids are involved in clubs, but they want to do more stuff or they don't have like time after school to go to these clubs. So they were kind of upset that they never had time to do fun activities after school or with school. So the Eagle Time activity was supposed to be a way to give like students a break and increase their school spirit as well as giving them a fun opportunity but that they couldn't have if they can't go to clubs or if they, you know, can't stay after school or do fun things for some reason. >> Excellent. Very nice. >> Yes. Okay. Um old business there is none. Um first up then next is um budget presentation. >> Probably won't be quite as fun as the exchange student

052program or but >> I will do my best. I promise. >> Uh so today um back up last month we um talked about state aid and the governor's budget. Uh this presentation is really going to be about um school taxes, the tax limit, and really take a look at that uh in detail and kind of give an update on where we're at with trying to balance budget with expenses and uh revenue sources. um so comparative data uh again um how I like to kind of uh go into this is uh you know you can't just have the the focal or the lens of Whitney Point school taxes um they're too much you know I like to kind of go into it and compare to our region. Uh what is too much? Um what does what

053you point look like uh within our county system within our Boseies and you know again what do we get out of the school taxes and how does that really make up the the school budget. So this next slide I think there's a pretty good narrative. Um there's a lot of data on here. I try to simplify it. Uh I guess I would ask for you to look at the slide. Um, the most important thing to take away from from my perspective is if you have $100,000 of of value in your school district, what are you paying school taxes on on on that? I think most people can kind of relate to that example. That's how we see it in, you know, newsletters throughout the region. Um, so for my $100,000 property, what is my school

054tax bill? Um, and that's what this slide tries to tell you. Um, and it's sorted from highest of Suscoana Valley down to lowest of Tyota. And what I like to try to say is clearly we want to be closer to the bottom of this. Um, we like to see, you know, that range of what districts are we near. And then again, you know, to kind of further explain it, like why would there be such a gap? Um, so again, taking that uh view of $100,000 property value, uh, if you lived in Whitney Point, uh, your school tax bill would be $1,467. Um, for that same $100,000 property, again, we're saying the same value of property in any of these districts, that would be your school tax bill. So for Whitney Point, you live here, your

055tax bill is $1,400. If you go to Susan Valley, that same tax bill would be around 22.49. Um, and so again, the what goes into these numbers is really the the the value of the property within the school district boundary, right? So we take all the property value and divide it by the school tax levy and that's where you get these figures, right? And there could be a lot of reasons why some of these districts in the higher range um are there. uh they have more value, they could have more business, they could have way more taxpayers paying into this pool or way less. Um and so that's kind of how you have to look at it. Um but again, when I'm trying to explain school taxes, um I like to show this slide in

056that to put in perspective Whitney Point, school tax rate is relatively low for our region. Um, and that's where we like to try to keep it. Um, another important thing to try to understand when you go into city budget cycle, which budgets taxes is how much of the school budget does the tax levy represent? And there's a variety of revenue sources that we go into detail that make up the school budget. Uh, and the the school tax levy is obviously a big factor. Um but it ranges widely within our region itself. Um so again on this slide same districts in our Boseis region uh you can kind of see that if you take the school taxes that are collected by each one of these districts that's the percentage that makes up their overall school budget.

057Right? So for any point the amount of taxes we collect in here in our district uh represents 18.66% 66% of our school budget where you can see a district like Vestal um you know again their school taxes are representing uh over 50% of their school budget and again a lot of factors go in that reason uh reason you know property values businesses things like that um but also you know if you're if you're looking at this and the school the local share school taxes are coming up with 18% where's the rest of the the revenue come from that funds our budget Right. And for winning any point, it's it obviously it's state aid. That's important to know and just remember when we go through this process where you know for a variety of reasons of

058why foundation a may be so important to what you point maybe a little less important to a district like their budget they have way more say in increasing their school tax levy to whatever percentage they think they need to balance their budget. where even if we wanted to go out with a much higher figure, uh it's still going to be a much smaller portion of our budget. So again, those are interesting slides. So I went through those slides early about the school taxes and the current employment budget. This goes into the word budget goals. Um you know, a lot a lot of consideration goes into the budget. We try to break it down to these three things. maintain the focus on education, build a sustainable budget, and again for tonight's topic, develop a reasonable tax

059levy within the applicable rights of so back in 2011, um school taxes were uh growing exponentially. Uh there was a lot of the pressure at the state to do something about it. uh you saw these wild fluctuations in tax rates of 4% 11%. Um and so what the uh state tried to do at that point was to make this formula for uh death threats New York State can only go out for so much each year on their school taxes unless they had a super majority which is a 60% uh approval rating which is you know not common. Uh this formula is very uh complex. Um I'm just showing you again how it's calculated the state. Uh we'll go into it for how it actually plays out for Wendy Point School District. Um again, our current

060tax levy uh is that $9,77,000. That's how much we collect our local share uh currently for the school budget. um we have these factors and these numbers that are given to us by the New York State Department of Taxation. Uh the New York State budget gives us another one. Um but when we run through the formula, what it's doing is it's telling us basically within the current law of the school taxes in the formula, what can we go out with um and still be within the the rules in compliance? And so we plug in our numbers. Uh the bottom there is 2.57%. Um, and that's not very surprising, right? We know that 2% is um, you know, the the formula. Um, that's just one factor of it. It's the number given to us by the

061budget, the allowable levy growth factor, but you know, just everyone's own personal budget. Everyone knows inflation has gone up. Um, it's the same thing. It allows kind of for a little extra money to come into the school budget through the form, right? So, our number for this current tax year that we could go out for without a supermajority vote is 2.57%. Um, and what does that bring in? That brings in an extra $233,000 uh to the school. Again, comparisons. It's a theme. Um, I do like to look at where everyone else's uh tax limit uh falls. Again, I like to make sure we are um you know, steady with the pack. I don't want to be too low. Something's going on. Too high, something's going on. And as you can see, um the 2.57% is

062right within the range of our region. Um and in fact, when you break it down, uh 11 of the 15 districts are within that 2 to 3% um range for a tax levy increase for this year. Uh this slide, um I think it's important to try to understand this slide. Uh we came up with it uh during COVID um for the folks that remember um it was a time where such a a crazy school financial time where it looked like we were going to have drastic major cuts and then all of a sudden this crazy federal stimulus came through and we were flushed with, you know, additional tax dollars. And um going through the budget, we as a board uh realized we could go out and keep the levy zero, which was fantastic for our

063community at the time. Every was going through a lot. Um which is great. We were able to build the budget. That's that's okay for, you know, a short-term approach, but it's nothing you ever want to really get into long term. And that goes into the other budget goal of building a sustainable budget. And what does that mean? So, I built this slide to try to show you what happens like for that year that you don't go out for an increase and how that uh amount could snowball over time. So, in this example, assume our again I like nice round numbers for this calculation, but uh our tax levy is $9 million. 1% gives us 90,000 or you know simplicity say we could have went out for a 2% increase this past year. We could have

064brought in $180,000. We chose not to. So that's zero additional dollars on our tax levy base. Um say, you know what, next year, same thing. Uh for a variety of reasons, we decided to do it two years in a row with no no tax increase. Well, what does that mean after five years? And so what I do is kind of show the next years three, four, and five, um the district does go out for their 2% 2% 2%. And then what you can see is after this fiveyear look back, what our tax levy B, what our tax base would be if we went out every year versus our tax base if we went out three years with an increase and two years with none. And over those five years, what happens is our tax base

065is actually $385,000 less annually. Right? So it's not just a one-year thing where you technically don't bring in that additional dollars. It's really how you're building a sustainable base for future future years. Uh this slide's very very busy. Um Stacy, do you mind putting in a little camera over in prior years somewhere yet? Um so this is really a nice historical slide with a lot of numbers on it. I'm aware it's very bright. Um but it shows a story I think of the Wooding Point budget in the last six to seven years there. No jokes please. So the far right is our current uh budget in progress and it's going to look interesting and there's always a story, right? You don't want to be the low, you want to be the high comparison. Well, if

066I'm looking at this and I see the budget for this next year is looks like it's gonna go down. That's weird. Like, why is it doing that? Right? Um, and this has to do with the capital project and how that comes into our budget schedule, how it falls off of our budget schedule. And you can see a couple years ago in 2425, this is when we uh first borrow for the project, our budget actually went up 12.4%. That's that again I try to um separate the amount of portion to the debt the cap project debt that 8%. Um so I kind of take that out of it but what happens is that comes on budget goes up and now it's it's falling off this year and what that means is we have debt payments but

067we also get state aid to make those debt payments. So they really are a revenue and expense driver. So they fluctuate depending on our debt schedules could sometimes annually right um so again we are projecting about 2.2 million less in debt payments next year but that would also mean uh 2.2 million less in state aid revenue building aid to cover that. So, just I, you know, it's important to explain that why it looks like the budget's flat because we know our expenses are going up, right? We have salaries, we got benefits, we talked about last meeting. Um, our health insurance is going up 20%. Our health insurance is a big number. You know, anytime you have a big number and you're talking about 20%. Uh, it's a big increase. Um, so again, those numbers are

068built into this current expense total of that 48 uh,310,000. Um but then you know I like to look at foundation a you know we were talking about how uh the tax levy you know as a percent of budgets around the 18 19% of our overall budget. We rely on foundation aid and you know there's a variety of sources of state aid right allows a reimbursement base. Foundation aid is really the state's money given to us for uh general operational needs that we have to say in where they get spent, right? And that's over 50% of our budget, which is great. Um you know, we'll take every dollar that we're appreciative of it, but how we do all these great things is typically when we get increases in that number and that's how we can expand.

069Um right now at the state budget, which again all the talk there's really not a lot of talk of there being additional dollars at the state level to go to school budgets right now. Um we're looking at a 1.6% increase. Again, it's great, right? We'll take it. But as you can see over the years, uh that's that's low uh in the last historical view of of our foundation increases. Um so just running out the rest of this uh we have our other state aid which again the reimbursement bases uh that's the debt service that's the transportation that's the BOSIES uh other revenue it's a small number but you know we get some uh uh Medicaid reimbursement comes in through there um we run out our bus garage uh for our maintenance contract um anything that

070doesn't quite fit into those other categories you know uh we build some uh districts for students that may be uh their responsibility to come to Wy Point etc. Um, and then appropriate fund balance. These next two, appropriate fund balance and budget use of reserves, that's really the district savings accounts, right? That's how much the district is uh putting into the budget to help uh balance the expenses, right? Um, and you can kind of see over time it's been relatively stable. We're on that 500,000. There's a little um, you know, blip in that 2425. We did have a onetime expense that uh, was again announced for the CA uh, playground project, which we're happy to do at that time. Um but keeping that again $750,000 is what we're looking at putting in the uh appropriated school

071reserves balance the budget. Um currently there is no planned use of reserves. I can almost assure you next time we meet in April that number will be in there. Um because I think that's probably how we're going to balance this budget. Um but going through the the columns here the tax level you kind of see that over time uh going back to 1920 uh the increase the percentage increase right 2.3 2.16 1.2 there's that zero I talked about there's 1.03 03 295 205 and then again with that levy or that state formula calculated 2.56 uh in there. And so what does this mean? We take our revenue, we take our expenses right now at this point. Again, not all expenses are known. We have a $735,000 gap. Again, it's not minor um but it could

072be way worse and that number is way worse in some of our neighboring districts. Um, again, if I had to balance it today, I'm gonna recommend we use budget use reserves. We're going to take one of our reserve accounts for retirement and put that in there basically saying we're going to pay a retirement bill next year with money in our reserve savings account. Um, so that is an option, but again, we don't have both these expenses finalized yet. And that number is a big number in the budget. It's around 20%, 8 million or so. So that is a big number we're working on. Uh it is hard um because right now March we're trying to sign up for slots for both these programs in September. I mean there is no uh you know evaluations done

073yet strictly projections. Um you know I I we want to give you guys the best number and data possible. Um that's not done yet, right? We'll have that figured out by midappril. That's kind of what we're working on on a daily basis until we get there. Pie chart. There's only like pie charts. Um this just kind of shows you I just went through but in pie chart form. Um, again with the tax levy increase over 2.57 that would result in our local tax share being about 19.27% we have our little other tiny slices of the pie of the revenue and then reserves savings fund balance at three. But again, that chunk of pie, right, state aid, that's that's what funds the school budget for the most part. And again, that foundation aid is a large

074chunk of that. And then disclaimers, right? uh January, the governor puts out their initial budget. You know, that's what politics are. They start negotiating that. Uh they're still negotiating it. Uh it hasn't been uh finalized. You could always normally rely on it being finalized by April 1. That's out the window. Uh you know, um will there be a final budget by the time we meet in April? I hope so. There's no guarantees. Um I don't think it's going to change much from where it currently was, but anything's possible. Um, you know, we didn't can even really talk about, which was much more of an issue last year, loss of federal funding. Um, there was a big push to eliminate the Department of Education. Um, you know, all things considered right now, uh, our our federal

075grants are there. Um, but there's still that kind of lingering, you know, could that be on the chopping block next week? Possibly. Um it's a hard time to kind of project a bal a budget when things are very fluid. Um and you know depending on what happens worldwide that could be uh something that gets targeted. Uh as always we're being conserved in our revenue expense projections at this time for items still being developed. Uh again I mentioned one key cost driver is still Boseis. Um, so I'd feel way more confident telling where we're at once I once we get that kind of finalized. But that's what we'll be doing couple weeks. What's next? Uh, you know, we'll go back through everything, make sure we do our eyes, crossed our tees, look for additional efficiencies. Um,

076go through that request, see if there's any services we could potentially reduce. Um, wait for the governor's budget, see what happens. again hopefully no news from the federal level and then we'll continue to meet with our internal teams and DOSI's budget team very very resource and really you know they they help us a lot in this process and report you can consult there any questions >> thank you >> okay the consent agenda vote May I have a motion? >> Is that you, Molly? >> Second. >> Thank you, Chris. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Um, new business, tenure appointment. Um, recommendation for Amanda Dunham, elementary teacher, effective March 14th, 2026. May I have a motion? Second. >> I didn't hear who the first one was. Thank you. >> Any questions or comments?

077>> All deserving. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Retirement resignation. Um Jeffrey Dedricch, librarian, effective June 30th, 2026. May have a motion. Thank you, Benny. And a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Molly. Any questions or comments? >> Thanks here. How many years? 25. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Don Fox, school psychologist. Yeah. Effective June 30th, 2026. May I have a motion? >> Some moved. >> Thank you, Tom. And a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Michelle. Any questions or comments? >> Also, >> all those in favor. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? >> The letter. This is my definite >> by saying, "Are you mean it?" >> Wish them the best. >> Yeah. >> Appointment. Um Cindy Clark, bus driver, effective March 12th, 2026. May I have

078a motion? Thank you, Benny. >> And a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Michelle. Any questions or comments? >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay. Our next one is a donation um from the baseball group from the Eagles Nest Booster Club for the Whitney Point High School baseball program. The donation is valued at $2,98464. May I have a motion? >> Hello. >> Thank you, Chris. And a second. Thank you, Benny. Questions or comments? >> Appreciate it. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Resolution committing to the purchase of technology equipment for the instructional technology service from the brimosis. Whereas the instructional technology services budget A557 requires additional technology equipment to the currently available equipment. Whereas the Whitney Point Central School District wishes to spread the cost over five

079years with a multipleyear installment purchase. The room tay yoga is hereby authorized to expend annually on behalf of the Whitney Point Central School District in conjunction with the instructional technology service funds to acquire the following equipment. Um you have the list in front of you but it is two Baboo Labs carbon 3D printers, 130 Dell Chromebook 11s, 20 Dell 24in monitors, 12 Dell 12in monitors. They're different model numbers, so they do a little bit different. 28 DellPro 14s. The total purchase cost is 99, excuse me, $99,500. The estimated financing cost $13,529.65 for a total cost of $113,29.65. It is an estimated um payment schedule of $22,65.93. Um the schedule above is based on the estimated interest rate of 6.5%. The annual payment amount may fluctuate depending on the fine final rate assigned 3 to seven

080days prior to the funding date. The interest rate will not exceed 7% and the payment amount will not exceed $22,814.39. May I have a motion? >> Thank you, Molly. And a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Chris. Any questions or comments? >> Just to give you guys a little bit more um followup. Um this is an annual uh resolution that we do. Um it really from the district's end is beneficial um for our ultimate replacement schedule of IT assets in the district. So what we budget for again is roughly 20 22,000 a year um in our IT budget through Boseies and then every five years we've been doing this for so long a payment comes off the books so we're really putting a payment back on the books. So the budget wise it stays the

081same but we're really rotating our equipment every five years as >> which is kind of important nowadays because technology changes so fast that >> yeah we first time we've ever had the 3D burn on there so it's fun. Make a bus. >> Yeah. >> But not an electric bus, please. >> What's the cost on the 38? >> Um, individually, they're about 2,300 ause, >> but I know that the um in the TR they're going all the time. The couple they have there, they're going all the time. And that was the thing where so these are for the high school and really we're getting like for like one area but that was the recommendation of our IT guy was that you really only get two because if you're printing a long job it could take all

082week to print like one thing. So at least now you kind of have two kind of picking. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> All those in favor. >> Any oppose? Any abstain? Resolution of the board of education of the Whitney Point Central School District, Broom Schneango, Courtland, and Tyogga Counties, New York. The district authorizing the submission of one proposition to be voted upon by the qualified voters of said district at the annual meeting thereof to be held on May 19th, 2026. be resolved by this board of education of the Winnie Point Central School District, Broom, Shenango, Courtland, and Tyogga Counties, New York, as follows. Section one, at the annual meeting of the qualified voters of the Winnie Point Central School District, Broom Cheno, Courtland, and Tyogga Counties, State of New York, the district to

083be held on May 19th, 2026. The following proposition shall be submitted submitted to be voted upon in addition to the proposition seeking approval of the budget for the district's 2627 fiscal year. Proposition number two, acquisition of buses. Resolve that the board of education, the board of the Whitney Point Central School District is hereby authorized and directed to purchase two new 71 passenger buses at a cost not to exceed $416,500 and two new 42 passenger diesel wheelchair buses at a cost not to exceed $424,71. and to expend therefore not to exceed the estimated total cost of $841,21, including incidental expenses in connection therein, and that such sum or so much thereof as may be necessary, shall be raised by the levy of a tax upon the taxable property of said school district, and collected in annual

084installments, as provided by section 416 of the education law. And in anticipation of such tax, shall the board of education be authorized to issue bonds or other obligations of the school district in the aggregate principal amount of up to $841,21. Section two, the district clerk is hereby authorized and directed to include within the notice of said annual meeting required to be published and posted by the district a statement to the effect that the proposition so forth in section one of this resolution will be voted upon at such annual meeting which notice shall contain the full text of such proposition. Section three, this resolution shall take effect immediately. May I have a motion? and a second. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Any questions or comments? >> No replacement. >> Yep. Same as with the technology.

085>> Absolutely. >> You have to buses start getting older. They cost more to keep up. So, you're if you keep on the schedule, things don't fall apart. All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Section one. At the annual meeting of the qualified voters of the Winnie Point Central School District from Sheneno, Courtland, and Tyogga counties, state of New York, the district to be held on May 19th, 2026. The following proposition shall be submitted to be voted upon in addition to the proposition seeking approval of the budget for the district's 2627 fiscal year. Proposition number three, library tax. Resolve that the board of education, the board of the Winnie Point Central School District, is hereby authorized and directed to levy and collect an additional $29,000 in annual taxes year after year, separate and

086apart from the annual school district budget, thereby authorizing a total annual tax in the amount of $191,000, of which $126,000 shall be paid to the Mary Wilcox Memorial Library for the support and maintenance of the library and $65,000 will be paid to the Lyle Free Library for the support and maintenance of the library with this appropriated amount to be the annual appropriation until thereafter modified by a future vote of the electors of the Whitney Point Central School benefit. Section two, district clerk is hereby authorized and directed to include within the notice of said annual meeting required to be published and posted by the district a statement to the effect that the proposition set forth in section one of this resolution will be voted upon at such annual meeting which notice shall contain the full text

087of such proposition. Section three of this resolution shall take effect immediately. I have a motion. >> Thank you, Penny. and a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Michelle. Um, I will be abstaining from this vote. >> I have a question. This is a really odd question just came into my head and maybe Zach or Joan. These are these come up to us to vote on to put them on the ballot, right? What if a board voted not to put these on the ballot? legally has to be brought forth um if they do the procedures outlined in uh education law. This is how the libraries can secure a funding source by it's kind of like how you guys approve the tax levy warrant. We're going to collect it anyway. >> You can vote no or something

088collected like an after the fact kind of thing, but they they follow the protocol which allows them to be placed on the ballot. you can vote no, but they would still be legally allowed to do it. >> That's weird. I just thought of that. I just thought like question. >> Why do we even have this here? I mean, it just dawned on me. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. >> I need to go to another one of those law conferences again. Well, I guess whatever, not this, but if the board all voted no, then that would show the public that maybe it wasn't something that was even though by law it had to be, it might been something that whatever. Again, I'm not saying this, >> right? But it might show what the consensus of

089what if that is something that and then when the community votes on it, they have some input on what we did even though lately. So I guess that's one thing that >> Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate that answer. >> Yeah. And I just think just like Tom just said even short of what he's saying just articulating that question is or sort of restating the fact that it is a very separate thing. Yeah. >> You know that it's not the board deciding to do this, >> right? Something we have to do and the board doesn't any real voice too much, >> right? >> Thank you. Any other questions? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? I am abstaining. A resolution providing for the holding of the public hearing and annual school district meeting

090and budget vote in and for the Whitney Point Central School District central sorry >> this is a long one. >> Yeah I know um Whitney Central School District from Sheneno Courtland and Tyogga counties New York and providing for other matters in connection therewith. Be it resolved by the board of education of the Whitney Point Central School District, Room, Chenango, Courtland, and Tyogga Counties, New York, as follows. Section one, a public hearing of the qualified voters of the Whitney Point Central School District. Counties of Broom, Sheneno, Portland, and Tyogga, New York. The school district shall be held on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 at the high school auditorium, 10 Kyle Road in Whitney Point, New York at 6 PM for presentation of the proposed budget for the following school year. The budget will be available for review

091on May 6, 2026 and thereafter at the school district office. Section two, the annual school district meeting and budget vote in and for the for the shall be held May 19th, 2026 at the high school cafeteria, 10 Pel Road in Whitney Point, New York at 1:00 p.m. And the poll shall be kept open for voting by voting machines between the hours of 100 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Prevailing time on said rate on set date, excuse me. Propositions herein after set forth in the notice of said annual school district meeting and budget vote are described in exhibit A attached here too and hereby incorporated herein by reference. Section three, voting at said annual school district meeting and budget vote shall be conducted by the use of voting machines. Section four. The clerk of said school district

092is hereby authorized and directed to cause a notice of annual school district meeting and budget vote in substantially the form attached here to as exhibit A to be published in a newspaper having a general circulation in said school district. Such publication to be made so that such notice shall appear in said newspaper each four times within the seven weeks next proceeding such district meeting. and the first publication to be at least 45 days, but preferably not more than 49 days before said meeting and to give such other notice as may be deemed desirable. Section five, the school district clerk is hereby authorized to amend the notice of annual school district meeting and budget vote from the time to time as in his or her discretion. Such amendment may be required or desirable. Section six, to

093the extent required by law, the board of education shall appoint election personnel to conduct said annual meeting pursuant to a separate resolution of this board of education. Section seven. This resolution shall take effect immediately. Notice of annual school district meeting and budget vote. Whitney Central School District, Central School District, Broom, Chenango, Courtland, and Tyogga counties, New York. Notice is hereby given that the board of education of the Winnie Point central school district, school district broom, Sheneno, Portland, and Tyogga counties, state of New York. The school district will hold a public hearing on the budget of the qualified voters of the school district that the high school library, Pen Kyle Road, Whitney Point, New York on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 at 6 PM for the purpose of presenting the budget for the 2026 to 2027 school

094year. Notice is further given that a copy of the statement of the annual of the amount of money which will be required for school district purposes during the 2026 to 2027 school year. The budget exclusive of public monies as well as a copy of any propositions to be presented at said annual school district meeting and budget vote may be obtained by any resident of the school district during business hours between 7:45 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. at any school district building and the school district office during the 14 days before the annual school district meeting and budget vote except Saturday, Sunday, or holidays. The statement shall also be available on the school district's website and at all public libraries located within the school district. A real property tax exemption report prepared in accordance with section 495

095of the real property tax law will be annexed to any tentative preliminary budget as well as the final adopted budget of which it will form a part and shall be posted on school district bulletin boards maintained for public notices as well as on the school district's websites. Notice is further given that the annual school district meeting and budget vote of the qualified voters of the Whitney Point Central School District District Central School District counties of Burm Sheneno Courtland and Tyogga, New York will be held on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026 at the high school cafeteria 10 Kybell Road, Whitney Point, New York between the hours of 100 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. prevailing time when the polls will be open for the purpose of voting by voting machine upon the following propositions. Proposition number one. Shall the

096following resolution be adopted to wit? Resolve that the proposed budget of the expenditures of the Whitney Point Central School District, Central School District for the 2026 2027 fiscal year in the amount to be determined and for the proper purposes shown in the statement of estimated expenditures adopted by the board of education of the school district be and and the same hereby is approved and the amount thereof shall be raised by a levy of tax upon the taxable property of the school district after first deducting the monies available state aid and other sources as provided by law. Proposition two, shall the following resolution be adopted to wit resolve that the board of education, the board of the Whitney Point Central School District is hereby authorized and directed to purchase two two new 71 passenger diesel buses

097at a cost not to exceed $416,500 and two new 42 passenger diesel wheelchair buses at a cost not to exceed $424,71. And to expend therefore not to ex Excuse me. You can see the estimated total cost of $841,21, including incidental expenses in connection therewith, and that such sum or so much thereof as may be necessary, shall be raised by the levy of the tax upon the taxable property of said school district, and collected in annual installments as provided by section 416 of the education law. In anticipation of such tax, shall the board of education be authorized to issue bonds or other obligations of the school district in the aggregate principal amount of up to $841,21. Proposition number three. Shall the following resolution be adopted to wit resolve that the board of education, the board of

098the Whitney Point Central School District, is hereby authorized to levy and collect an additional $29,000 in annual taxes year after year, separate and apart from the annual school district budget, thereby authorizing a total annual tax in the amount of $191,000, of which $126,000 shall be paid to the Mary Wilcox Memorial Library for the support and maintenance of the library and $65,000 will be paid for the Lyfree Library for the support and maintenance of the library with this appro excuse me appropriated amount to be the annual appropriation until thereafter modified by a future vote of the electors of the Whitney Point Central School District. Notice is also given that petitions nominating candidates for the office of member of the board of education must be filed with the school district clerk between the hours of 7:45 a.m.

099and 3:45 p.m. not later than April 20th, 2026 at the district office high school building 10 Kyle Road, Whitney Point, New York 13862. Candidates must be a citizen of the United States, 18 years of age, able to read and write, a legal resident of the school district one year prior to the election, not an employee of the Whitney Point Central School District, and remain a qualified school district voter throughout the term of office. The following vacancies are to be filled. A three-year term ending June 30th, 2029, presently held by Aubrey Noraki. A three-year term ending June 30th, 2029, presently held by Thomas Taspber. A three-year term ending June 30th, 2029, presently held by Molly Willis. Each petition must be directed to the school district clerk, be signed by at least 25 qualified voters, shall state

100the residence of each signer, shall state the name and residence of each candidate, and whether such candidates are nominated for full terms or unexpired portions of such terms. The candidates receiving the largest number of votes shall be declared elected in accordance with education law section 201, excuse me, 2018-B. No person shall be nominated by petition for more than one specific office. Notice is further given that absentee ballots will be available for this annual school district meeting and budget vote. Applications for absence absentee ballots for the annual school district meeting and budget vote may be obtained at the office of the school district clerk, 10 Kyle Road, Whitney Point, New York. The application must be received by the district clerk at least 7 days prior to the election if the ballot is mailed to the voter

101or day before the election if the ballot will be picked up personally by the v voter. Absentee ballots must be received by the off office office of the school district by no later than 5:00 PM prevailing time on the day of the annual school district meeting and budget vote, May 19th, 2026. A list of all persons to whom absentee ballot shall have been issued will be available for inspection by qualified voters of the school district at the school district clerk's office during regular business hours 7:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. prevailing time until the day of the annual school district meeting and budget vote. And such list will also be posted at the polling place on the day of the annual school district meeting and budget vote, May 19th, 2026. Any qualified voter in the polling

102place may object to the voting of the ballot upon appropriate grounds for making his her challenge and the reason thereof known to the inspector of election before the close of the polls. Notice is also given that military voters who are not currently registered may apply to register as qualified voters of the school district. Military voters may request an application to register as a qualified voter from the district clerk. Military voter registration application forms must be received in the office of the district clerk no later than 5:00 pm on May 7th, 2025. In order for a military voter to be issued a military ballot, the school district must have received in the office of the school district clerk a valid ballot application no later than 5:00 p.m. on April 24th, 2026. A military voter may designate

103a preference to receive a military voter registration, military ballot application or military ballot by mail, facimile transmission or electronic mail in their request for such registration, ballot application or ballot. Such designation shall remain in effect until revoked or changed by the military voter. Ballots for military voters shall be mailed or otherwise distributed no later than April 24th, 2026. Dated March 17, 2026. May I have a motion? >> Thank you. >> And a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Aubrey. >> Will we tweak one thing on that? >> Yes. uh for the last paragraph of the military ballot, they need to be received by district court later than 5:00 pm. It should say May 6, 2026. >> Um so in the middle of the paragraph, >> okay, >> I have to read the whole thing again.

104>> That's not true. Um, >> change every time. >> Tom and Aubrey, are you do you both approve of that um change? >> Okay. I have a quick question. Where does this writing come from? >> Our bond council. That's the K Helen Wink bond term. >> Okay. So maybe next year before we do this again, the his and hers could be changed to theirs. >> There's no >> one to >> There's a couple. There's one in section five for sure. There's another one that's down in notices further get the absentee ballots. >> And then >> I want to change it right now. >> No. No. I'm just saying yes. For next year, yeah, for next year we can look at that. And the other question I have is newspapers are like almost obsolete. Um, do

105we know what other districts or people and rural that don't have newspapers and have lost their newspapers are doing instead of that piece? So, I would like to see what we see other places. Not today, not now, but if we could figure out what's going on there. >> The law is written as your newspaper. >> The what? >> The law says it has to be a newspaper. >> What happens when there's no newspaper for people to get? You have to publish it in the next closest one. >> Until they change the law. There we go. >> I think we need I think this is we need to bring it up in both. >> I mean the news it goes in the digital newspaper as well. So press. >> Okay. I can look into myself then.

106>> Thank you. >> Comment. Thank you again for reading all that. Very nice and very eloquent as usual. Thank you. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? I have to abstain. Okay. Um, next one is to approve the establishment of the Mason Armango Memorial Scholarship Fund. They have a motion. >> Thank you, Chris, and a second. >> Thank you, Benny. Any questions or comments? Would you like to say anything? >> Would you like to say anything? >> I don't have a copy. I don't know how this is going to work. >> Oh, thank you. It was a very eloquent letter and >> I don't know. We'll be hearing from you. >> Thank you. >> It It'll be an honor and hopefully we'll help more people seek help when they need. Sorry for your

107lost stuff. Anything else? Okay. All those in favor. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Superintendent's update. >> Um I think the only thing just to mention is along those lines, um in remembrance of Mason, um we just had training here um for all our faculty um on the conference day this past week. Um and then um all students in the high school are going to receive um training just because one of the things that we became really aware of was um we're not doing a good enough job in equipping kids to notice with their friends and then to know what to do. Um so that's going to be coming up very shortly. >> I'm very >> and that's been a priority for Mason's family to do that. So we appreciate that. >> I'm very glad to

108hear that the students will be included. Yeah. Is that it for superintendent? Okay, that brings us to our second opportunity for comments from the public. The same guidelines that I read earlier are still in effect for the second. Please don't make me read it again. I'm quickly losing my voice. So, is there anybody would like to speak at this time? Okay. Um, board of education comments. >> Go ahead. >> Oh, sorry. No, I didn't. >> Mine's for nobody talk. >> I just wanted um to say that I won't be running again for a second. >> That makes me sad. my fan emojis on >> I mean I've enjoyed it very much so but just with time >> thank you very much for doing what you've done now >> Chris I guess it's up to you

109so I have put the four goals that we talked about they're all own superval right now. Um, we just need to really be conscious of our dates because we want to make sure we serve Joanne and so that she can get her valves done. Um, so, uh, last year, I mean, they're all in the system. You can go in or do the evaluation. It's live even now. Um, but last year we sort of had a due date that we would do it. So, we included everybody before we used Molly. um and uh bring on new board members. So we need to just collectively decide a date that we all feel we can go in and get this done so that we are appropriately getting everything done for Joanne and for the end of our board

110season. >> And Michelle, if you need any help navigating super val >> Yeah, I'm sure. >> Just let one of us know. >> Okay, thanks. >> What a blast. >> It sounds exciting. >> Thank you. So, um, last year we were sort of hitting the level. So, I'm wondering if we could try to get it done by the middle of May because we're going to be getting into a lot of evaluations and looking for a new superintendent. Is May sometime good for everybody? >> We'll rely on you to keep reminding us. >> When's the board meeting in the vote of May again? >> 19. Do we want to have it done before that? Because then if we have dead time, >> we can go elsewhere. We have I could get the collective done. >> Yeah.

111Okay. So, we'll have it done. >> I would need to have it done at least two days before that so that I would have enough time to put the evaluation together. 17. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good. And yours is already alive too, Joan. Thank you. >> If you could continue to >> Yep. do periodic reminders, I can greatly appreciate that. >> I think I can set the system up to send reminders to >> Sometimes I'm very good at ignoring my calendar. >> Sounds good. And I can send you all a copy of the four that we had. We deleted a couple and just made it more. We've already been meeting a few of them already. So, we can Yeah. So it shouldn't be too too drastically difficult. >> Yep. Sounds good. >> Okay. Um

112we do have the need for an executive session this evening um to hear discussion on hiring of a specific employee. >> Sorry. >> What? Oh, I'm sorry. Did you have something else? >> He said the budget votes the 5th of May. >> No, the budget hearing is the 5th of May. The vote is the 19th. >> Okay, we're good. >> Strike that. We're good. It it's two dates that are very confusing. >> It's okay. So, >> right. >> No, go ahead. >> I just wanted to remind everyone that the next board meeting is on Monday. >> So, one. >> Yes. Because that's the day that we have to legally vote for the OC's representatives, which is why it's the oddball on a Monday. Um, do you have my joint dinner? >> Yeah, I think I've

113heard from everyone who is not going to >> not just let me know if you haven't already. Um, and then I can >> Hey, Stacy. >> Oh, sorry. Is there anything else? >> Right. >> March, right? >> Yes. >> Um I gave you a reminder for the annual business meeting as well. So um yeah come to >> if you haven't gone down for the annual business meeting in Boseis it's worth going to I usually go I can't go so my son-in-law's having open heart surgery so I'll be with the families and >> okay so following our executive session this evening we will be immediately um going back into open session and then closing our meeting. So, so people know that they don't need to hang around to wait for any other business to be conducted

114tonight. >> Yeah. For the students who are here for class, any one of us at this table can um sign your form for you. >> No, I haven't. Yeah. Could I have a motion for the executive session? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Please make sure that your form is filled out. None of us will sign a blank form for you. >> Yeah. You can spray our name on it and sign