001Elementary education teacher effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? So move. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Thank you, Aubrey. Makes it really easy with only four of us here to um any questions or comments? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations, Olivia. [Applause] Kimberly Freen, elementary um education teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? I have Tom and Aubrey. Aubrey. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations, Kim. Morgan Hill, science teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Thank you, Tom. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations, Morgan. There you are. [Applause] Jean Paul Jordan, science teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May
002I have a motion? Thank you, Tom. And a second. Second. Thank you, Aubrey. Any questions or comments? I don't think here. Okay. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? And congratulations to Jean. [Applause] Haya Crley, elementary education teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? Thank you, Aubrey. And a second. Second. Thank you, Tom. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations, Kayla. Kaitlyn Laoro Wesler, English teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Second. Thank you, Aubrey. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations. [Applause] Christopher Mallister, music teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? Okay, so Aubrey and Tom. All those in favor? I.
003Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations. Katherine Pullen, music teacher, effective September 1st, 2020. Oh, I did. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Apparently, I need to clean my glasses and get the water droplets off of them. Erica Belly, special education teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Second. Thank you, Tom. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations, Erica. Now, Katherine Fen, music teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Thank you, Aubrey. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations, Katie. Sharon Vale, English teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? Thank you, Tom. And a second. Thank you, Aubrey. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations,
004Sharon. And Hope Vega, Spanish teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Okay, I've got Aubrey. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? And congratulations to you. [Applause] And Delila Lyn Wells, elementary education teacher, effective September 1st, 2025. May have a motion. Thank you, Tom. and a second. Second. Thank you, Tiana. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? And congratulations, Delila L. And can we have one more round of applause for the whole group? Congratulations. and thank you very much for all that you do for the district and your students. And there will be no feeling hurt if you decide you want to. Have a great one. Take care. Thank you. You're awesome. Okay, I am going to call to order
005our public budget hearing at 6:14 p.m. And it is appropriate to select a chairperson for this annual election and budget vote. This chairperson will conduct the meeting and will open and close the polls on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. And we wish to appoint Stacy Black as the annual meeting chairperson. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Thank you, Aubrey. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? The floor is yours, Stacy. Thank you. Hi everyone. Um I am just going to introduce our superintendent Miss Ston and to her right is our board president Stephanie Champney and then board members Thomas Tasper, Tiana Mosman, and Aubrey Naraki. And we are missing tonight our vice president um Chris Whittle and also Molly Willis and uh Benny Hopinson. And I'm going
006to turn it over to Miss Ston. you're thinking about maybe not doing that. Okay, welcome everybody. Um um so I'm going to review um our budget for the 2526 uh year. This is our budget proposal. Um as everybody probably knows, May 20th is New York State's budget vote. Very important day. So please tell your friends to come out and vote. Um, in Whitney Point, we have a motto where kids are the point and we have a mission that says to our task is to provide an excellent education, ensuring that all children maximize their potential, become contributing citizens, and pursue lifelong learning. Our district vision is to be a community of excellence achieved through a commitment to high performance, morale, and involvement. And if you see some of those happy faces and you see some of
007these people who work very hard every single day in our school district to make that happen, um all of them are inspired by these words on this screen. Those words also are what lay the foundation for our budget goals each year. Each year we look to focus on education. Obviously, that's our that's our main task, but also to build a sustainable budget, develop a a reasonable tax levy within the applicable regulations. You know, we have a we are stewards of this district. We are hired to make sure that we are taking care of our facilities, that we are attracting employees that will will work with our students and give them a high quality education. Obviously, all of that costs money. So this school year um for the 2526 uh uh proposed budget we have an
008increase of 4.63% in in uh spending. Our budget last year was 46,000 almost $500,000 and our proposed budget this year is 48,000 48,600 I wish it was thousand 48,651,000. Uh that's an increase in dollars of just over $2 million. Just like everybody in their personal life, the costs of things continue to go up. And in our district, uh we are a human enterprise. So all the things that happen in our district just about have to do with salaries and um uh benefits and things that continue to increase each year. and also just paying for materials and supplies and gas and electric and all the other things. Um purchases of buses that are vital to our mission uh continue to go up in cost. Our proposed tax levy increase is um 2.05%. And in Whitney Point,
009when we go out with a 1% tax increase, we get $88,951. So just over 2% gives us that $182,350 um in a tax levy increase. So in our revenue projection, this is a little bit of a tricky thing right now because you may have heard that um New York State has an understanding or is close to having a budget right now, but they actually have not finalized or approved um the budget. And if you look up at the top line, we get most of our uh revenue from state aid. So it's a little bit um out of out of order that we have to come out with a budget and that you're uh you know prop present a proposed budget to you when we don't exactly know what we're going to get from the state.
010So these numbers are based on what the governor had proposed when she first um did her aid uh projections at the beginning of the um this new year in January. Um if you look right there, uh we have an increase. Those projections that we got early on from the governor were very favorable for our district. So we're very thankful um for that. We had a like over a $3 million increase in state aid uh from all sources. And if you look down on the bottom, the the total um increase just like you saw in the previous slide in our budget is is in this proposed budget is just over $2 million. If you look at the at the revenue, this graphic always u brings it home a little bit more. Um state aid again, which
011is very very important to us in our district. Um and the reason I just kind of like to point this out, people often say, well, it's it's maybe not good to be so reliant on state aid, but the reason that uh education is funded the way it is is that um every every school community has a different tax base. And New York State is committed to make sure that students across the state, no matter what town they're or what uh uh school district they live in, they have a reasonably equitable educational experience. So New York State collects taxes and then they redistribute those taxes across um districts based on a funding formula that has a lot to do with the tax base and what can be raised in those communities to try and equal the
012playing field from district to district. So, our district um as you can see here, total state aid is 78.56%. It changes a little bit each year depending on the formula. Um our tax levy makes up our local tax levy makes up 18.66% of our um uh projected revenue. We have some other small revenue sources. You can see it's a little over 1%. And then we tap into some fund balance um to give us another percent and a half. budget by component comparison. There are specific components that are required to be um carved out in a school budget. And if you look here um on these graphics, you can see that um the green portion is the program portion, which is the most important part of the budget because that's actually the teaching and learning that
013happens in classrooms. Um last year that was 69.68% of our budget. This year our proposed u our proposal is a 70.67% of our of our um budget is goes directly to those costs. The other components are the administrative uh component, the capital component um which put all together with the program give us our total budget. So administrative component what is that? Um you can see that that's a pretty significant change. It's 7.78% um increase over last year. Um if you look there's a couple of things that uh drive those costs but salaries and benefits of administrators. Um as I said those continue to go up. Um also though legal services insurance continue to raise. We don't have a lot of control over some of those costs. Uh Bosey's administrative and capital costs also have gone
014up and you'll see that um brought out a little bit more in this this next project and next uh slide. uh the the costs from year to year from 2024 to 2025 um are listed right there. And some significant jumps you can see down on that last line. Employee benefits again are a big driver of these increase in costs. The capital component which uh really is our facilities are the buildings and the maintenance of those buildings. um school bus purchases, all of the things are the capital um of this district. So, salaries and benefits of custodial staff, operations and maintenance and security, debt service on buildings and capital projects, school bus purchases and capital outlay projects, all of those things um go towards maintaining our facilities or keeping our miss our facilities going. And that's
015a 1.11% increase, which is very low, but that's because last year we had um part of our project for the playground was in our was it inflated last year's numbers. You break it out here. You can see the capital component um more clearly. You can see employee benefits even in that category when the overall category did not increase so much. the the benefits did and then the program component. So these are this is the bulk of our budget. So, salaries and benefits of teachers, counselors, aids, monitors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, speech therapists, um programs for students with disabilities in special schools, mandated training and professional development, library and media, computer sciences, instructional hardware, textbooks, materials, supplies, instructional equipment, student transportation, and athletics and co-curricular activities. If you look here, you can see that um you
016know again teaching regular school and programs for students with disabilities had the largest increases um teaching regular school. So anything that has to do with again the human beings salaries continue to go up, benefits um continue to go up and then programs for students with disabilities, some of which we cannot control. Um we had a very big jump in this this year. uh some there are some um special programs that are run by the state that they price out and we just have to pay what that bill is. And this year in particular, we had to pay retroactively because they changed rates retroactively and then we had to pay uh those fees for prior years. If you look um in athletics and co-curricular, there's some, you know, we've uh tried to improve some of our
017equipment and um and our uniforms and and make sure that our teams get out on the fields um looking sharp and there's some increases there. And then uh let me see what else is significant there. You can see also employee benefits that are broken out there. Again, those are significant costs to the district. So, the overall year-to-year change in this category is 6.11%. So, Mr. Woodard is going to explain here everybody's favorite slides. He does an excellent. Oh. Oh, boy. Oh, go back. All right. Solid start. Here we go. All right. How are my school taxes calculated? Um, this is a sheet with a a lot of information, so I'm going to try to break it down. Um, so hopefully you guys have a better understanding of how school taxes are calculated in our district.
018Um, if you follow with me along the top and then we'll work on the bottom or the lefth hand side and work our way down. Uh our current school year tax levy uh that Miss Saxon just explained uh is at $ 8.8 million up top. Um so how do we spread that out amongst our taxpaying uh residents in the district? What you start out with um and again it's that worded thing in the the yellow band. We take the assessed value of property uh for every town within our school district. Um, and this isn't something that we come up with. It's actually determined by the local town assessors. Uh, and again, just another why is there so many towns listed? Um, because Whitney Point is a large massive district. Uh, we have 11 different municipalities
019uh, which is probably the most in our uh, region. We also have property within four separate counties for our district. Um, again, I don't want to go into the the details and confuse everyone. So again, I'm just going to focus on Barker, which is on the left. Um but again, if you add up all the value of all the property of all the towns in our school district, uh determined by the town assessors, they say there's $392 million worth of property in our school. Um the town of Barker, they represent 90.9 million of that number. So a pretty pretty good chunk. And then you can see all the other uh municipalities and and and where they end up. Uh all right. So now that we know that Barker has $90.9 million of property in our
020district, what do we do with it? Um this is where again the state comes in and says how do we know that that assessor is really valuing the property correctly in that town. So the state uh they have their own uh mechanism to determine um what is the true property values of certain areas. They base this off the last time there was a townwide reassessment. Um they look at that data. They do other random uh checks of demographics and and things like that of the area, see when it was done. Um, and what they do is they spit out every year this percentage. And interestingly enough, this is I think the first year I've done this where we've had no municipality valued at 100%. Which is basically um a true valuation of what that property
021is. Uh what does that mean? uh the state for the town of Barker, they say their property values are assessed 77% accurately. Um so what does that mean? Again, this is how we get a level playing field. So you take that $90 million in the town of Barker. We we say it's only assessed 77% accurately. This is where we get the true value of the property in the town of Barker is $118 million. So again, it takes that equation of, you know, when was the last time they were assessed? Is it fair? Again, this is the formula the state is using to say this is how you value property and what it's really worth in the state of New York. So if you apply that same principle across all the other municipalities, um what our
022true value of property is, again, the assessor said it's $392 million of property. When we take in the state formula for calculating the true value, the real value of all the property in our district is $579 million. Quite a number, I must say. Um, again, half a half a billion dollars. Um, so now we we have this great thing, right? So now we we know what our tax levy is. We know what the true value of all the property. We've applied this formula for equity equity amongst all the municipalities. Now, what do we do with it? Well, for Barker, we're saying the true value is 118 million. 118 million divided by that 579 million of all the property. We're going to say Barker is responsible for 20.36% of the school tax levy. Again, you can
023see how all those other municipalities shake out. That's their portion of the school tax levy that they're responsible for and those res residents contribute to the school. Um, and how do we get that into the form of a tax bill? Right? So if you follow the formula again, we know that Barker is responsible for 20.36% of our levy. Um we multiply that by our school tax levy of the 8.8 million on the top of the slide. Um and that's where we say again Barker's worth or we get $1.8 million from the town of Barker. Um again, if you follow all those uh numbers across the screen, it will equal that roughly $8.8 million up there. Um, and again, now that we know Barker has that much, we go back to the value of the property
024within the district or the municipality, I'm sorry. Um, and that's where you get an actual tax rate. So, again, it kind of ties back into the assessed property value. Uh so what we're saying is for whatever the assessor said that house is worth in the town of Barker, all those houses being worth $90 million, even though we know according to the state formula the real value is $118 million, the Barker tax rate per thousand is $19.93. So what that means is again um well, you know, I'm going to go to the next slide. I think that'll help explain it. But again, just keep that in mind. Um, we're trying to have a level playing field. We're trying to make sure there's equity and that no one town or municipality is kind of um, you know,
025they're being held in check, right? We want to make sure they're they're being assessed accurately and, you know, um, $100,000 house is being taxed appropriately regardless of where you live in the district. So, I'm going to shoot to the next slide. If I have to, I can go back to this one. All right. This one's way more easy hopefully to understand. But again basically what that was it was the formula how we get that tax rate and what do we do with that tax rate you'll see here on the slide uh again for simplicity u the way it should work is in green okay so if the assessor uh assessed or re did reassessment and assessed everything accurately um it's 100% right the state saying yep that's accurate you're 100% equalization rate so $100,000 uh
026property assessed by the assessor is worth1 $100,000 uh according to the state. If you follow down uh the true rate in in Whitney Point, um again, if everyone was assessed at 100% is $15.35 per $1,000 of property value. And this is kind of where you can kind of see the the disparity in and what we're trying to get to. So, a true $100,000 property, you can reasonably assume the tax bill would be $1,535. Okay. So now again, all that calculations and formulas I went through in the previous slide, this is what we're trying to do. Um, if we have a $100,000 property in the town triangle, the state says that's not accurate for whatever reason. We're telling you it's 75% accurate. The true value of that $100,000 house in Triangle is really $133,000. So that's
027what it should be taxed at, not $100,000. So when you go down that example again, that tax rate we've just determined from the previous slide, uh even though the assessor says that house of triangle is worth 100,000, it's really worth 133,000. It'll be taxed at a little bit of a higher rate, but again, that's where you get the tax bill being $2,47. And the reason, right, we're that property even though it's assessed at $100,000 in triangle, it's really its true value is $133,000. So, if you kind of look through the other two examples, again, that's all we're trying to do. If a property is in each one of these municipalities, $100,000 house by the assessor, you can have a $100,000 property in each one of these towns, but it doesn't mean it's what it's really
028worth. If you put it on the market, that $100,000 house in Triangle should get you $133,000. The $100,000 house of Willlet should sell for 167,000. And then Nano Coke, obviously, you know, they they have not been assessed, I think, in quite some time. um the $100,000 assessment in the town Anakoke, that value of the property is really worth 246,000. So that's what we're taxing the school rate on. Again, it's not what the assessed value is, it's what the true value is. Um I'm sure it's confusing. Hopefully I didn't confuse you guys too much. Was there any specific questions on this slide? Great job. I hope. Thank you. Um, so that's how that formula works and how we get our true tax rate for Whitney Point. So this slide really represents what is the true tax
029rate in all of our other neighboring districts in our Boseies region. Um, and I like this slide because it it kind of shows you Whitney Point is I think kind of where we want to be, right? Um, if you look at some of our neighboring districts, uh, Wiggle Appen, New York Valley, Windsor, uh, we're right there towards the bottom, but in that little cluster. That's a good cluster to be in. Um, you know, I think we'd have some other things we'd have to deal with if we were at the top end of this uh this slide. So, again, um $100,000 uh valued property in Susuana Valley School District, they're paying roughly $2,300 in school tax. In Whitney Point, the school tax is $1,535. And you could go down the bottom. Um, you know, Tyogga Depos
030deposit, they're a little bit of outliers. They have some other things within their district that affect their tax rate. Uh, specifically, um, Tyoga has been significantly low for a very long time. Uh, they had the casino there. Uh, they also had some, uh, big budget, uh, reductions in the past, and they've had some massive tax increases to try to bring that rate up. Um, but that's why it appears so low here in in the regional comparison deposit. they have an interesting tax agreement with um New York City for the reservoir use. So again, that kind of help offsets that tax levy as well. Um but the rest of these uh they're they're fairly accurate. I think it's kind of a very informative slide from my perspective and you know I I feel proud to say
031you know where we are and where we land in this. I'm glad our our values are on the lower end and not that higher end for some of our you know neighbors around Bingington. Again, uh just to reiterate what I've said a few times. Um again, just for simplicity, you have a $100,000 property in Whitney Point. Um that is your tax rate is $15.35 per thousand. Um what we're projecting in this budget, that 2.05% increase uh that we went over. Um what does that mean? Uh your $100,000 uh property, you could roughly see a $31 increase on that this upcoming school year. Uh again, you break that down. Uh it's about 8 cents a day. And you know, these are projections. Uh we don't have final uh you know, numbers. We don't get those until
032July. Um we don't get the final equalization rates until then. And that's kind of where again we take the school budget tax levy. We work with the towns and that's how we get the tax bills sent out uh right around September. Thank you. Thanks, Zach. So, again, um accomplishing our budget goals, we obviously are focusing on educ education because that's what it's all about. We build a sustainable budget so that we are not getting ourselves in a hole or in a crisis from year to year. And we always are try to be really conscious of the taxpayers and the burden on them. And in summary, um we look to maintain enrichment opportunities and continue to pro provide needed supports to our students. We support a variety of steam and career and technical programs to give
033our students a better chance of postchool success. Continue to work and grow all current partnerships and arrangements throughout the district. Um, we look to not just because we're, you know, we don't have a huge tax base to really leverage our partnerships and and work with other organizations so that we can bring more into our district. We continue to provide our students and community with facilities that are adequately maintained and are top-notch. Um, and we try to be innovative and you can see some of that. Our our re recent project gave us some really cool spaces for kids to learn in. uh continue to be responsible stewards of our facility so that we have a constant maintenance cycle so that we don't um have a crisis there either where all of a sudden we have something
034collapsing or something that we have to spend a ton of money on. We try to always project um what's going to need attention. Um can we continue to uh fund our $100,000 capital outlay improvement projects? Again, that's a way that we continue to do that in small steps so that we um can stay ahead of things. And um in this budget our tax levy levy limit that we are given by the state which has very complicated calculations um but is is 3%. So our proposed tax levy increase is 2.05% which is less than the limit that we were given. So, the budget proposition uh is that shall the board of education of the Whitney Point Central School District be authorized to appropriate for the budget the sum of 48,651,344 the 2526 school year and levy
035the necessary tax therefore with a projected tax levy increase of 2.05%. And then proposition for the election of board of education members. We have two three-year terms presently held by Christine Whitt and Tiana Moseman. And we have candidates Dr. Christine Whitall and Michelle Sanford. And any other potential write-in candidates could also appear. These terms will commence on July 1st, 2025. We also have a bus proposition. Um, as you may know, if you've been a a a voting uh member of our community, you know that we try to continually maintain our fleet and update um buses so again that we don't end up in a crisis at any point. Busing in Whitney Point in particular is really critical. Um we have a very large district as as Zach just uh reviewed for you when you look
036at all those townships. Uh we have a separate proposition which will be placed on the ballot. Um shall the board of education of the Whitney Point Central School District be authorized to purchase four new 71 passenger diesel buses at a cost not to exceed $814,176. And then uh Mr. Woodard likes to put little facts in here. Uh, did you know that the state reimbures the district for 90% of most of our transportation related expenditures and that we have 51 DOT inspected vehicles in our fleet? Our buses annually travel over 540,000 miles, which is equivalent to driving around the Earth's circumference more than 9.5 times in one year. Yeah, that's significant. Yeah, it is. And then again, our vote is on May 20th in the high school cafeteria from 1 to 8:00 PM. Okay. As Miss
037Ston said, the vote will be on May 20th from 100 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. Um, the voting will be done by voting machine and Um, Dr. Whittle's not with us tonight, but she she did leave something to um present with Mrs. Champ. Um, she left a little biography so you can all know a little bit about her. Um, Dr. Chris Woodall is a Broom County native and has lived in Whitty Point um, almost all of her life. As a Witty Point resident, she has been very active in both school and community events. Besides being an active parent and now grandparent. She has taken on many other roles like 4 leader, youth club coach, afterprom party volunteer, activity chaperone, student advocate, Red Cross, WSI and first aid instructor, modified coach, senior
038center supervisor, community volunteer, and a schoolboard trustee for the last seven years. Additionally, as retired Sunni Courtland assistant dean and associate professor, she uses her 26-year teacher education to support educational awareness in the district. Dr. Whittle believes that a board member must ensure equitable and progressive education for all students. She does this by dynamically listening and engaging in changes when needed, attending Bosey'sformational meetings, being a legislative shadow, and informing elective officials the community's needs and concerns. She is humbled by the responsibility of being a board member and with your vote promises to continue to use her knowledge toward the betterment of services in our school for the students, our families, and the Whitney Point community. Thank you. And the second candidate that you will see on the ballot this year is Michelle Sanford and she
039is here with us tonight. Michelle, did you want to say anything? Sure. I'm just gonna bring you this. I'm sorry. Otherwise, it Yeah. Hi. Um, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Michelle Sanford. Um, I am a 2013 Winnie Point graduate. Um, I currently have two children in the preK3 and preK4 programs. Um, my husband and I recently, this past fall, we did coach the U6 soccer. Um, just kind of getting our our toes wet with being involved in the community. Um we built a lot of really really strong uh friendships, connections. Um and I'm also a member of the um Whitney Point Community and Family Engagement Project. Um I I think uh it's it's very important to me uh to be involved in the community. Um and I find that students, we're
040all here for students. Um and uh the more I become involved in the community, the more I understand the saying it takes a village. Uh so I think having the opportunity um to be on the board with such a wonderful group of people um it means a lot to me because I have kids in the in within the community and uh hopefully my my good intentions and honesty will go a long way. Thank you. [Applause] And now I will turn it over to Mrs. Champion to um suspend the hearing. Okay. The board will now suspend the meeting until 100 p.m. on May 20th, 2025, at which time the polls will be open. So we now enter the regular portion of our um public meeting. Um do we have the need of an executive session? We
041do not have a need now. does not conclude that we won't have one later. Um so we come to policy discussion. So in your um for policies for discussion we have a I don't know if you saw you want a paper copy. So this is part of our um this is part of our effort to just um deal with all the antiquated policies that we have. Um we had a policy that was established in 1994 that um was entitled weapons in school and it pertained to students. Um it is recommended uh that we also have a policy for weapons in uh in school pertaining to the community. So this is sort of a two-phase um proposal that we update again 1994 was a long time ago. Um we update our our weapons in school policy
042for students and that we add a policy um pertaining to the community. Now what is included here is um just proposals but it's exactly verbatim from the Erie one um policies that they suggest. Um Aubrey had a question. Do you want to share that? Oh yeah. My question was um under what circumstances would we permit students to burn in the school? I don't think ever but it is in that's the language in the law. Um you So it's the wording, right? I'm I'm with her, but I understand where she's coming from. Yeah. The um so the penal law that um that covers this um says that there you're not allowed to have any um weapons on school grounds um without the written authorization of such educational institution. And that's why I think it's included in
043this policy. I don't know that it has to be. I would think that possibly it would be something that isn't functional, but like Civil War. Well, that's what I Yeah. or something historic that would be brought in that's considered a weapon, but it isn't functional anymore would be allowed to be brought in, but it would be in the service. I'm just saying I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm just saying that if you have something physical, because if you go to reenactments or different things, they usually have the weapon. And for me personally, if it's see and touch. It's a lot more tangible than than looking at saying it's good or bad, but that's one of the things I could foresee that they would allow if it is not functioning and if it came
044in then it would still be educational I would think. That's what I'm thinking that might mean and I do and I know that you know in the past that exact scenario did happen but I know that we don't really do that anymore just because in we're in a different world now where you know there's you know people are school shootings are are a real fear so even if somebody didn't know that that was just a historical but so I don't I mean it's I mean it's the board's policy so it's it's brought to you for discussion. Um, we don't have to act on it even at the next meeting, but I think that we should certainly update the 1994 policy and I think that we should make sure that we have something. Although this I
045know we use the eerie for a guideline, I would be a proponent of rewording that sentence only because I think the interpretation of it Yeah. Although I like what Tom said, um, still think it cause problem, right? It's just that it's just my opinion. I think the one thing we would have to research then is whether because the law that is driving this whether we're required to have that okay in there. Well, and just to take it one step further, my second question was we still have archery do weapons? Is archery considered a weapon? Well, but the archery that we currently have in gym class, do they use real? Well, that's that's where I'm going with this. Like, what is there rubber on the end? Like, I'm curious. No, there's arrows. Yeah. Okay, fair. Fair
046enough. I That's a valid point. So, could we look into the law and see? We can we can we can get some specific legal advice. And then also um what um how you account for that? I mean what you know what constitutes a weapon because there are other tools that we use in art class. There are things that you could Mhm. I I remember going to family court and I had a I have a micro tool that has a blade that's this big that was taken away and I could bring in a metal pen that was that big. I I it's just kind of bizarre to me. Okay. All right. Anything else that you would like to um learn more about? I think The big thing is exactly you know a little more definition for
047us to understand what is you know a weapon what's a firearm and how we account for the fact that you know we do archery and what the difference is okay and it may be that because archery is done under very supervised circumstances it's it's visible everybody knows it's there not something that's being pulled out unawares and being used. And I know it could be changed later, but I know some schools actually do shooting sports as well. And and I mean I know that can get into a lot of things, but if it's too constrictive now, I mean, and I don't want it to be not safe, but it would have to be considered take into account all of that. Okay. So, I will research that and then um we'll bring it back for discussion again
048at the next meeting. Okay. And I do because I know one of the things I I looked at it real quick, but because I was wondering what it was listed to, but it does list what a weapon is as per Yeah. So that Yeah. But I know that the law says lists a whole bunch of things and says but not limited to. That's right. Always and we like that language. These are examples but these are not the only examp. Right. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that. And so the next one did weapons um are we going to discuss the um student representative to the board of education? So, as you know, as of July 1st, we have to have a student representative. Um, we had a brief um conversation, Chris and Stephanie and I, and
049I sent you some information about what's required. Um, I know one of the policies was open at the time that I sent it to you. It's no longer um it was um a school district's uh policy, but the NISSBA policy um is linked there. Um, I think the the policy is almost secondary to us deciding what we would like to see. Some one of the the points that we discussed uh Stephanie, Chris, and I um in preparing for this meeting was uh I think Chris was under the impression that you could only have one member, but it that's not the case. You have to have at least one student member. And we had a discussion about the possibility of having a maybe a junior and a senior and then that then you could onboard them
050both in the first year. And also it might be nice to have because kids are busy, they might be able to alternate if they needed to and then the following year the senior could sort of help mentor a new junior um uh joining. Um we also talked together about the fact that you didn't really want it to be a popularity contest, right? Um, and that maybe we would not, you know, that there are there is an existing student council, but maybe we want to tap into some other students to give them a chance to have some leadership positions. So, we did briefly talk about an application process. Um, is that and then I I linked in here a district who who does that. Um, which I thought was a pretty straightforward simple process. I like
051the application process because gives everyone a chance if they're really interested to pursue that an opportunity as opposed to a popularity contest and that doesn't preclude teachers recommending somebody that you might be really good at this or a student council member that still wants to discourage it but I think it gives everybody an opportunity to pursue that they would like it's a great idea Okay. So, what are your thoughts about having two? I think that's I I think it would work this year if it has to be done by July. The senior this year would be kind of Well, it would be starting July 1. Who's going to be a senior next year? Junior next year. Okay. Yeah, that's all I was. And it would start in September, right? It was It's supposed to start
052July 1, but they said they'll give you grace because kids are, you know, their schedules are busy. Okay. But we would we would be appointing them at our first meeting. Okay. So, we've got to get on it. Yeah. And I the reason why we thought, you know, a junior and a senior was that then we would have somebody who'd be on for two years. And like Joanne said, you they would be able to when they become a senior, they would be able to help out the the junior. And and again, it's kids are really busy. If they have a sports game or whatever, it gives them more flexibility in terms of, you know, one can attend one doesn't and they can both technically attend but only one can sit at the table with us at
053a time. Y did we have a list of the responsibilities so they know what they're getting into? Yeah, it's is that in the application? Yeah, it's in that uh sample application and um I can have that ready for you for next meeting if that if this is the way you want to go. Yeah. Yeah. Will you have enough time? Yeah. Okay. Yes. Okay. I'm shaking my head, but Aubrey, you can't probably see her. So, I also attended the um webinar for the student members joining and some of the things that they said that I thought were interesting is there are resources for the two generational collaboration. So, there's like the co-creation generation which will help us with the youth of today. Um and also one of the students said that one of the things they
054liked best was kind of their own line item on the agenda so that they could get well just like we have the board of education comments we can have. Yeah. And that um webinar is recorded so if you want to watch it after the fact you still can. Is there anything else that caught your eye? Yeah. Is there anything else you want to share? I just I find it interesting. There were some quotes that I liked as people were speaking like students are the expert of their experience so they're the ones that are the on the ground living in it. So a lot of their feedback is very important. Um they provide like that firstand accounts and they can also tell us how the policies that we approve are actually playing out. Um and they
055said one thing that was helpful in schools that have done this for multiple years now is having the senior that way they know what they're getting into for the next year. Um and that a lot of the success of the student depends on the that we really Okay. All right. So, we've got a direction. Thank you. So, that finishes up our policy discussion. We do not have any policies for reading. We do however have a policy for second reading which is policy number 7141 McKini Vento liaison for students in temporary housing um and we which is an update of the title um and it's for second reading and adoption. May I have a motion? So I saw all the changes made but we have to before we can discuss it we have Thank you. and
056a second. Thank you. Okay. I was I was going to say all the changes I know from last Yeah. And I like the consistency of the policies going forward, keeping um you know, if we're going to underline, don't underline. Um Yep. The heading basically everything we talked about. Yep. I think it looks nice. and also um making the change from parents to you know guard parents guardians so it's more inclusive almost and we uh clarified the acronyms they weren't all we said all clear everybody uses them is there an acronym for just wondering Sorry. Um, I think it reads much better at this point. Yeah, any other questions or comments from the board? All those in favor for adopting this? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? This brings us to our first opportunities for comments from
057the public. Um, 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, states 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 to you at the appropriate time. Um, also keep in mind that there
058is a second opportunity for comments from the public towards the end of the meeting and At this point, I will open up to see if anybody would like to bring something forward today. Okay, we will have our second opportunity at the end. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Technically that would be me. flag. And I understand Absolutely. What I didn't see though was increase percent items. Salary benefit. district. Can I respond to that one? Yeah, just those districts listed were the ones in our uh Boseis region. So the broom title of Bosey's region that that's the only reason why Well, I'm again I'm just going to say um when we talk about this the realities of salary and benefits is in absolutely no way a disrespect to everybody who works so hard in the district. It's just
059a fact of life. Um that those things continue to go up and that you know drives our budget. um that we have to pay competitive salaries because we need the best people to be working here with our kids and um and those people work very hard to make those salaries. So that was not in any way meant to to diminish them or to you know complain about them. It's just a you know a reality of life. Just want to have that as a matter of record for the recording because that was absolutely not not the intention. And thank you very much for your input. We appreciate it. Anybody else who would like to speak at this time? Commendations. Okay. Um so commendations. We'll start with our high school robotics um team member Payton Fish for
060earning second place in the Maze Programming Challenge at the 2025 STEMHub Robotics Competition held at Sunni Broom on April 15th. Uh Mrs. Cook and the high school student council for their donations of of $364 to the Whitney Point food pantry and $1,92 to the Green Food Pantry. Um these funds were raised from the Whitney Point faculty basketball game. Uh Whitney Point High School seniors Andrew Whitaker and Dylan Wood for earning first place in welding fabrication at the New York State Skills USA competition that was held in Syracuse, New York. the uh Newberry Honor Awardwinning author Cynthia Lord for visiting the TRA to present to students. Uh thank you to Mrs. Hodkinson for arranging this special visit. The CA specials department, Mr. Hildebrandt, Mrs. Hubard, Mr. Samil, Mrs. Monttoano, and Mrs. Ferguson for hosting the annual
061CE spring festival, a celebration of art, music, library, and physical education held on May 1st. Thank you also to the second grade students for their vocal performance and hallway art show as well as the many students and families who attended. Thank you also to the Whitney Point School District employees in honor of everything that they do. This week is called teacher appreciation week, but in our district we celebrate all of our employees who work so hard every single day. Um they are they are incredibly dedicated to our students and we are very very thankful to them not just this week but every week. Uh Whitney Point High School alumni uh Alicia Whittle for her induction into the great Greater Bingmpington Sports Hall of Fame. Um she did a great job at that event that evening
062and it was an impressive group of other uh athletes from the region. And then commendations to Mrs. Poland, Mr. Jones, all the people who chaperoned and gave of their time to take the Whitney Point High School band and chorus uh to uh music in the parks. They were received a third place in their categories. Uh chorus received an excellent rating. The students earned the speed a spree decor uh award the for the third year in a row and that recognizes that they um displayed exemplary attitude of positive support and outstanding personal behavior. you want to add to that? Um, one thing of note is that from the moment those students step off bus at the performance site, they are being observed for how cooperative they are, how helpful they are to each other, how their
063demeanor is, um, how quiet they are in the hallways, how supportive they are of each other. And so and not only at the performance site, but they're also music from the parks representatives in the park that day um observing the students. It it they all end up wearing, you know, school t-shirts, so they're easy to identify. And so, you know, if you have a bunch of kids who are running around screaming and yelling, that doesn't reflect as well towards that. So, um, the aspir is probably for most students more important to them than how they're rated on their playing because when they're playing, that's a that's a snapshot right there. But when they get the core, especially for the third year in a row, it's a really big deal. We had a lot of students
064who started crying when it was announced. So, wonderful. That's great. Okay, that's it. Um, old business, we have none. We do not have any presentations tonight. I think we saved them all for the 20th when we'll be waiting for the vote. Oh, boy. Um, that brings us to the consent agenda. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Thank you, Tom. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? That brings us to new business. Um, we have several uh retirement resignations. Um, when host typist effective June 30th, 2025. May I have a motion? So, move. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Second. Thank you, Tom. Any questions or comments? Congratulations. Yeah. Who's been here a long time? I was going to say it'll be weird going in and not
065seeing that face. Yeah. I don't know. I would I can't tell you how many times personality times I a day. I don't know what I'm going to do. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Um Wendy, is it? Oh, okay. Part-time food service helper effective June 30th, 2025. May I have a motion? Thank you, Aubrey. And a second. Second. Thank you, Tom. Any questions or comments? We wish Wendy Well, can I just say that both Gwen I think Gwen started in 1999. I think Wendy, I think started in 1998. So, a lot of years, a lot of hard work for our district. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Um, Kathleen Cornell, full-time teachers aid, effective June 30th, 2025. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a
066second. Thank you, Aubrey. Any questions or comments? Miss Kathy very much. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? I laughed when I just saw this one. Joseph Cooer, community schools coordinator, effective June 30th, 2025. May I have a motion? Thank you, Tom. And a second. Thank you, Aubrey. So, this is his second time retiring. I think he really means it this time. Oh, say it ain't so. No, he'll be back one way or another. He's good. Yeah. Um, but so I told you when they started, he started in 1986. Really? Yeah. 86. And he was retired for less. He didn't really ever we didn't really let him ever really retired. He's done like various part-time roles and he most recently has been, you know, working with community schools and Tom works with him
067a lot. He was here when I was here. I loved him. I have to say he's probably one of the people in this district that has made a difference for a tremendous amount of people over the years. I mean, an unbelievable amount of difference for people. I would second that. Students and adults alike. Yep. That's great. All the heavy lifting. He does deserve it, but he still can't. He definitely deserves Maybe he'll take a vacation and come back. Yeah. Very very welld deserved. Yes. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay. Four-year probationary appointment of Jessica Dedricch, special education teacher in the special education teacher tenure area, effective May 7th, 2025. I have a motion. So moved. Thank you, Tiana. A second. Thank you, Aubrey. And another example of a alumni coming back
068to teach and she's been doing the job but she um worked her way through and got her certification and it just got processed. Very excited for her. She's worked very hard. Yeah. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay. Poll clerks. Um, their rate of pay will be $15.50 per hour. Susan Ellerson, Phyllis Edwards, Christine Morehouse. May I have a motion? So move. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Second. Thank you, Tom. Any questions or comments? Everything's digital. They're just checking uh folks in, signing, greeting, reading. Okay, that's it. Just want to make sure you have to physically sign in still. You still have to sign in. Yeah, we don't have the um the digital, right? We're still But the voting is But yeah, the voting is right. The voting's digital, but when
069you come in, you sign your name. You sign the book. Very good. Okay. So, somebody needs to facilitate that. Yep. Appreciate it. Thanks for the clarity. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Last day of school. Um, the last day of school for all students preK through 8 will be a half day on Tuesday, June 24th, 2025. The last instructional day for high school students will be a full day on Monday, June 16, 2025. Regents and final exams will be held on June 17th, 18th, 20th, 23rd, and June 24th through 27, 2025. The last day for faculty will be on Friday, June 27th. Is that a full day? If everything gets done, they have a checklist. Yep. No problem. The last day for the staff unit, which includes aids and food service workers,
070will be a full day on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2025. And that's assuming we don't have to use any more emergency days, right? Right. No flooding. No flooding. I was getting pretty nervous with all the warnings tonight. freak snowstorms on Mother's Day. Yes. Okay, that does bring us to our second opportunity for comments from the public. Um the same guidelines that I read for the first opportunity um still hold true for this one. So, is there anybody who would like to speak at this time? Going once. Going twice. Oh, I did skip superintendent update. I'm sorry. It's okay. I saw it. I saw it. I forgot to tell you. No, that's my fault because I need to put a star next to it when it's like one. So, what I what the update is not that
071exciting. We're going to talk about um timeline. Okay. For evaluations. Yep. Um that's all. Um, so we uh just took the evaluation um timeline from last year and amended it and we just need to make sure that it's okay with you. Um, we would like you to have the board self-evaluation completed by our next meeting on the 20th. Okay. Can you can we do that? I need to get I will I'll get it done. Do the best you can. I hear this is not a good time. It's okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, it's my last year. You're not you're not selling it very well. You need to Welcome to the table. I'll still come visit. All right. And I would have um my self evaluation done. Where did I say that? By the same uh time.
072And then the board will complete the superintendent's evaluation by June 3. The president and the vice president will look at the completed evaluations and they will put together a um you're going to have some kind of work sessions there, the two of you, and you'll put together some tenative proposed goals based on the self-ealuations. um tidy up the superintendent's evaluation and um then the board president will meet with the superintendent prior to the June um work session. I guess discuss that with with me and then on the long and the short of it is that by the June 20th meeting we would have everything wrapped up. So I have a quick question since this is my last year. So as long as I get the evaluations done like I wouldn't going to any additional workshop?
073No, the work sessions are for us to discuss our findings with our self-ealuation because that informs the goals for the next year for the following year. Right. Okay. Because we would still want your input. Oh, sure. Okay. And then of course you're still a board member, so we would still want you to any work session that we have to discuss our evaluation of Joanne. Okay. Oh, absolutely. I just wanted to make sure I understood like where I fall into those discussions to set you up for the following year. Yeah. And and even if I You're not off the hook yet. No, no, no. I don't want to be. I'm I look forward to doing the some chance that we weren't able to complete everything by July 1st. We would still have you come to those
074work sessions because because I was here. Yes. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. Yep. Yep. Just wanted to ask that question. But basically, we want both evaluations done before our next meeting. No, the Joseph one Joseph self by the next by the May 20th and then Joan's evaluation by the 3. June 3rd but I could work on both of them now. Absolutely. If I have time. Okay. That's what I read. Okay. Get them done. Okay. Um so board of education comments. Um first topic is new board member orientation. Um obviously we are going to definitely have one new board member um potentially two depending if somebody runs a big writing candidate um campaign. Um, I know Stacy that we had gotten that um, information for the new board member orientation from NISBA and I've never been
075able to get in and I should have mentioned it before this time and I apologize. Um, so if you can help me figure out how to get logged into that again, that would be helpful. um because obviously we're going to need it. What did we do last year and um one of the first things we did is that we held a work session prior to the reorg meeting in July and we basically went through um step by step um a sample agenda so that they would have an idea of what because the reorg meeting it's a tough meeting and for it to be your first one because there's so much in it um and so much that you don't see any other time of the year. So last year we started doing that. Um you
076find it helpful? I did very much. And there's a training at both these too. Yes. And that was very helpful as well. Yeah. Okay. Um what does NISPA have that's a little different? Well, that's what we need to see. It was like $40 for the course and then I was never able to get in and so um they have sent us like they have a um one of their booklets and stuff like that, but um just some guided things to help us make sure that we're not forgetting anything. But I think the biggest thing that we started with this year was having that work session prior to the New York meeting. That's good. I'm glad you found that useful. Yeah. Good. Because otherwise it's kind of like being dump, you know, dumped into the fire.
077Yeah. It's like I have no idea where that is. I didn't even know. I was like, "What is this? What every meeting is going to be? This is scary." No, no, no, no, no, no. But the reorganization meeting is the the whole first portion of it is all of those things that we have to approve every year. And if you don't know what those are, it's like how can you approve them then? Y. So, we'll again we'll um once we know who the board members are going to be, we will have another work session and and hopefully anybody who can attend will and we'll go over what a reorg meeting looks like and part of that is also the regular things that we do for a meeting too. So, good. So, you're not going in
078with no knowledge. That's really nice. Very helpful. Now, the board retreat. Yep. So we would do that typically in the summertime. Now I will not be part of that. Correct. Because I will be done. Okay. Just want to make sure. So any discussion unless unless we're doing anything. We're still working on evaluations in which case we're not comfort. But we shouldn't. Let's not break it to her yet that retreat really isn't retreat. Well, sure it is because we get city chicken. Oh, the city chicken is good from the red and white. It's good. the only time of year I get it. It is good. It's good food. You get good food. Um but yeah, it's if um everybody can start sending either Joanne or Stacy or myself what their availability or actually what lack of
079availability. Yeah. So the dates that you absolutely can't be available for to start with and when do you want the retreats for them? Is it a June, July? What are you looking at for timing that you want them to send the dates? Tom, you do a lot of vacation July, August programs. I work summer. Okay. Yeah. Um we generally look at July and August. So if you can send before the June 3 meeting um what you have so far, what you know that you're unavailable for, um that will at least give us a place to start. And I think we covered the evaluations. Um, does anybody else in the board have anything? I I just wanted to add I know it was mentioned earlier and I just want to just reiterate again that I know
080you mentioned about the teacher appreciation and I know the teachers are appreciated. Um, I've been involved with schools for a long time. I've had a lot of relative work in schools and I have to say that I am very pleased to be involved with this district where they look at all employees all employees as um important people to the district and it definitely does not happen in other places. So it's been a pretty longstanding thing here and I'm very proud to be up here but I'm even more proud that you people um look at everyone equally here and that that is tremendous and that's why I think that a lot of people like to work there. Everybody's critical. Thank you. I I appreciate that very much. And sometime it would be interesting, not that anybody
081really has to do it would be interesting to see what percentage of our employees are alumni. Oh, that is a good that would be great. I just you know if anybody if it's something that is easy to look at. That would be interesting. Yeah. If if it's not easy, then don't worry about it. It's just something that I've been thinking about, you know, as we keep having um you know, so many people who went to school here and when we were um listening to the teachers who are getting tenure this evening saying, "I went to school here. I went to school here." It was just that would be just something that would be interesting. It would be just a nice if it were possible. Well, Zach's always throwing in those cool zingers of cool information.
082I don't think the high school graduations are my financial No, they're not. But it it is you you have a a knack for cool information. Fun facts. How about that? So, do we have a need for an executive session? We don't. Awesome. That is fabulous news. Not that I, you know, that I would be upset if we had one. Um but don't keep pushing it. Let's get out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, we are going to adjourn the meeting at 7:30. May I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Tiana. And a second. Second. Thank you, Tom. My goodness. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay. Thank you very much, everybody. We appreciate it. One thing that several people mention to me that they would have liked to see, you know, the nice
083flyer that you sent out about the budget and everything. How many students are in the school district?