001committee meeting and we are going to be receiving a presentation from our CFO and our superintendent on our 2526 budget. They've done a lot of work. It's very comprehensive and uh they've had some challenges, but I think we'll find that they've addressed them excellently. So, Madame Superintendent, I will turn this over to you to introduce make your comments and introduce our CFO. Thank you, Madame Chairwoman Woods. Uh, this is probably one of our more important uh business meetings this evening as we talk about, you know, our budget. And I hope that the board will see um the transparency and that this is a good budget and it's coming at a very difficult time. You know, we know that that school districts across the state are, you know, right now um you know, it's difficult. It's
002difficult because the needs continue to increase and the dollars don't always increase. But I hope that the board will see tonight through our CFO Jim Barnes presentation and throughout our question and answer period that um this is a really good budget. When I speak to colleagues, other superintendents across the state, I have to say that, you know, Buffalo schools, we're in pretty good shape. We're pretty fiscally well and that's a good place to be when you're experiencing challenges like all of us are facing. So, I'm going to turn things over to CFO Barnes who does a remarkable job. He and his team should be uh you know congratulated on all of the hard work that they do as well as the board and our madam chairwoman is you know right there with us helping us
003as we grapple through all of this. So, Mr. Barnes, I'll turn things over to you. Thank you, Superintendent. And, uh, good afternoon, board members. Uh, there the next slide. So, I'm going to really go through what our objectives are tonight. There's a lot of numbers and more than a few slides here. So, I've already lost Cindy. She's already upset at me. uh but at the end I think it should provide a very clear pictures of the fundamentals that this budget is based upon and why it should be approved. First thing we're going to uh take a quick look at the budget process levels one through five. We're going to talk about the big picture. Context is more important than ever. not only where we've come from over the past three years, but how we've progressed
004through this year's budget process and how it fits into the four-year plan. Uh we're going to review the level three budget summary in detail, revenues and expenditures. Then we're going to talk about uh where the school-based budget got finalized after meetings with board members and the superintendent hadbacks. Then we'll talk briefly about okay after tonight we're going to roll to level four which means we do some final tweaks and we produce those very very detailed budget books for you. Uh quick update to the four-year plan that's due June 30th and then some summary remarks and responding to questions. Admir next slide. At this time of the year, uh, we always look back, there's five approval levels to our budget process. Level one is like a worst case scenario. We started there with a $17 million
005deficit in red. Level two is based upon the governor's budget. Formulab school base are incorporated into the budget and all the departments have entered their request. At the end of level two, we had an $87.6 6 million deficit. Tonight, we're here at level three. We still do not have a final state budget. Regardless of what the governor is saying, a budget isn't finalized until the legislative vote and they produce aid runs. That might happen tomorrow and maybe we'll get aid runs on Friday. Uh right now, what we're presenting tonight is a $78.8 million deficit. During level four, after tonight, we do a final check of the six different funds, the A fund, C fund, V fund, F fund. They'll all be uh put into a large book that you guys review line by line. You'll
006get that by next Wednesday. So, you'll have plenty of time to review that level of detail before the vote. During level five, after you've approved the budget, we take all those numbers and allocate them out to our accounting system. Next slide, Admir. The big picture. Again, we're going to go through a lot of numbers tonight, but I truly feel this slide and the last slide are the most important of the nine. They just put everything into a narrative and provide the underlying fundamentals that these numbers are based on. So the superintendent's proposed 2526 budget calls for a $78.8 million deficit. Remember that's down from the level one deficit of 117 million. An awful lot of work, an awful lot of analysis, and an awful lot of needs have gotten us to this point. We began
007this process in January. We decreased the deficit recently after the meetings with the uh board members and and numerous meetings with the superintendent from about 87 million down to the current 78 by aggressively utilizing grant funding for certain programs law and after school and substantially cutting the budgets in central office in terms of non-staff expenditures. Some central office staff were also reduced, but I'll talk about this later. Substantial budget reductions and central office nonstaff. There were some necessary reductions to the ARSER related adbacks last year to the schoolbased budget. That was all part of the board approved two-year budget plan in 2425. That's providing a little context when we review the final schoolbased budget numbers. Um the final schoolbased budget books which you'll see tonight, they include the superintendent adbacks of 35 positions, some of
008which were recommended by board members. So the superintendent is dedicating up to $80 million of district reserves to close this budget gap. Now, due to pro prudent financial management the past several years, we can absorb this deficit. We are projected to have a total general fund reserve balance of $290 million and what's called an unassigned fund balance of approximately 90 million at June 30th, 2026, the end of next year. That's the first test of does this deficit uh have unbearable financial consequences to the district. That's the first way to say it does not. We can absorb this deficit and remain healthful. There's another within this document there. I'm going to show you a draft 2526 cash flow projection. Um this is further proof on a very very detailed basis that we can absorb this deficit.
009Admin next slide. So let's take a look at the superintendent's proposed budget. the summary format. The first column, we always look at things over a multi-year period, is the 2425 projected deficit that was included in the third quarter report. If you look at the first blue line, we're projecting a $54 million deficit this year. That's almost $30 million better than the budget this uh the board approved at the beginning of LA of this year. Our FPEES in the general fund right now are 5,085. The last three rows, it shows our beginning audited fund balance of $424 million. You subtract out that projected deficit, we should end this year with a $369 million general fund reserve. The next column in yellow is the budget that you're looking at tonight and we hope you approve in a
010couple weeks. Calls for revenues of 1.1 billion and expenditures of 1.18 billion. So we're looking at a 1.6% increase in revenues and a 3.5% increase in expenditures. on the revenues. There is no final state budget yet. We're usually very very good at using the data available to project out prior to the state approval of the final budget, but I just want to note clearly there's no final state budget yet. The expenditure side, as you're going to see in a minute, we really got hit from all sides this year. Salary increases are always expected because of contracts. Benefits have are trending upward throughout the country and throughout New York State, more so than usual. Our transportation expenditures this year went up more than they typically do because of a new contract we're entering July 1st. and
011the charter schools. There was a change in funding the funding formula for tuition expenditures that hits us for the first time next year. But now back to the yellow column. So we're projecting a deficit of 78.76 million. The four-year plan had called for a $36 million deficit. I mentioned earlier that context is important. This board approved the budget in the current year as the first year of the superintendent's two-year plan to address the financial cliff and avoid layoffs. For the 25 26 year was the second year of that plan. We were going to aggressively try to reduce FTEES by another 150. We didn't do that. There are very very few retirements. But we chipped away at it. As you'll see, we're down 11. But that second year of the superintendent's plan is important to keep
012in [Music] mind. So, we will begin next year with a $369 million deficit uh fund balance. You re you deduct the $78 million projected deficit and you have a 630 2026 fund balance of 290 million. Still healthy. You take out about 200 million of assignments and you still got 90 million in what they call unassigned fund balance. That's still healthy. That's the second check of can we absorb this deficit? Yes. The answer is yes. Um, yeah. Next slide. So, showing you the big picture, it impact on our reserves. We're going to start digging into a little more detail. Starting with revenues. This page shows various revenue categories. And in yellow, what we're projecting for next year, $1 bill, 100 million in revenues, a $21 million increase or almost 2% increase from the current year budget.
013Uh the city contribution remains the same at 70 million in fund transfers, which are largely indirect revenue that we get every time we administer a grant. $4 million in Medicaid. I've answered a question from Miss Woods earlier today on that number, $7 million in what other revenues include? It's about a million dollars in interest income we are now getting from the city, prior year's payments from the state and the county, reimbursements for our e-ate program, and we charge Seastat and West Minister for transportation and maintenance. Our sales tax is projected to go up 2.5 million. Our state aid is projected to go up 16 million or almost 2%. And tuitions from other districts are projected to go up about 400,000. Uh that's all part of our one part of our revenue enhancement. So that's a
014big picture vehicular. Next slide. I did receive questions from board member Zulich and some others. Okay, where does the money come from? This is just a simple pie chart of the numbers you just saw. We get 87% of our revenues from the state, 7% from the city and 5% from sales tax. That's 99% of our revenues. But the other categories, because we're so big, isn't that 1%? We got $22 million in other revenues like inter fund, Medicaid, tuition from other districts. We monitor each and every one of those smaller categories and those are areas where we can often pick up a million here and a million [Music] there. And next slide. So, because uh state aid revenues are 80% of our budget, I I thought I'd take a little bit deeper dive. Again, in yellow
015is the proposed budget numbers. We do not have a final state budget yet, but based upon our data, our analysis, our experience, we think foundation aid will go up $33 million. Charter school transitional aid will stay about the same. transportation aid will decrease by 2.8 million. I've answered that question in detail to Mrs. Woods. Uh it's the way and the timing of how transportation aid is calculated and it's also that we always provide conservative revenue estimates uh based upon our analysis. Special services aid. This is CTE aid. you get extra money for the kids enrolled in CTE programs. A small decrease there. Building aid is down will be down $ 122.7 million. I've mentioned this several times before. When you get building a means projects were properly funded. By that I mean you incurred bonds
016to pay for the construction cost. That's how it's supposed to be done. and then you receive building aid over 15 years that offsets the payments on your debt. So what's happening with us is there's a awful lot of older projects that have gone beyond the 15-year mark and have been fully reimbursed. So building a drops, but you're going to see on the expenditure slides that our debt service goes up or goes down by a very similar amount. Those were properly financed projects using bonds, which is a hot topic these days. So I just want to stress that um public high cost like we kept that about flat private high cost that'll go down a little bit and all other category which I defined earlier that's about flat so overall our revenues are going up we're
017projecting to go up $16 million but it's important to keep that foundation a number in your mind we're going up $33 million the drop in building a sort of deflates that overall increase, but it's offset by a drop in expenses. Uh, and next slide. Okay. Now, part two, we're going to start looking at our expenditures. We categorized our expenditures into 10 different categories. I'm sorry I didn't put them in chron or chronological order. I ran out of time. But we'll go through tuition expenditures. $34 million. This is largely tuitions we pay to children we send to agencies and I think there's nine of them. We're projecting that to be to go down a little bit because we're sending less kids. [Music] utilities. You'll see that drop in utilities because we're ringing out any excess conservatism
018in our budgets. We typically undersspend in our utility accounts. We took those that overspending out of the budget. I was expecting some uh applause there. This was uh contingency. that that's really a non-factor that that's uh at this point in the process we usually have $2 to3 million in there that's for unknown things that can occur during the year look at the salaries one our total FES are down 11 I'm going to talk a little bit about how over the past three years a majority of our fundamental problems have been addressed And this is another example of that. But they're about $18 million or 4.4% simply because the contract staff longevity increases. Our benefits expenditures, they might go up as high as 16 million or 7%. The usage rate for our self-funded plans are increasing.
019The weight loss drug themsself is responsible for $10 million of that. What we're addressing that through high mark where they're going to increase uh the BMI factor from 30 to 50 and have two co-orbidities. So any place we see a cost that's out of control, we are trying to address and the super will even talk about this possibly later a new focus, but um again we put in somewhat worst case numbers. Contracts, we're expecting them to go down 5 million. That is part of a concentrated effort to cut central office expenditures by $20 million. We think we can do that by analyzing the contracts, their benefits, uh, and cutting those that aren't necessary, for lack of a better term. Charter school tuition is going up $10 million or 6%. 90% of that cost increase is
020due to a change in how they're calculating the formula for sped children uh attending charter schools. Our fight over charters, their funding is never ending. I sent an email out to uh Kathy and Larry and Cindy earlier today about their latest money grab and our attempts to stop it. Our transportation expenditures are expected to go up 9.5 million. Uh uh all due to the new contract that hits us this year. Next year we will get aid on this expenditures and the revenues will go up by the amount of this expenditure increase. It's like we take a one-year hit. There's a delay in the aid. debt service, as I mentioned before, it's dropping by $16 million because we're paying off the debt related to capital projects from 15 years. Um, equipment, rentals, repair and supplies, textbooks,
021and software. We took $15 million out of the budget. That's an aggressive number, but again, as superintendent prioritized funding the positions at the schools, the health and wellness, the security, our athletics program. But something has to give. And we're really focusing through an internal audit program, through cooperation from cabinet and department heads to drive these costs down without any damage to valuable services. Um, Ed, next [Music] slide got a little carried away with myself and went line by line uh through that table. And here's a slide that just touches on the big points. Cost increases, salaries, and compensation. Benefits are expected to go up. charter tuitions, transportation, and there's a a fifth bullet here. It really should be noted that mandatory sped related budgets increased by 40 FTEEs and over 6.5 million and brought our
022total spend just in the general fund to over $150 million. They're mandated services. They're our most needy. We know all this, but it's our job to report the financial implications of what's happening. That does not include the 20, 30, $40 million and another 60 FTEES uh in our grant fund. Offsetting these increases are some decreases in debt service. I talked about that enough. During 2526, we're focusing upon delivering central office services from trades, the service center, security, and other areas more efficiently. This is reflected in a projected decrease in overtime by almost $2 million. You might say that's aspirational. You might say it's been like this for 20 years. Well, the superintendent charged me and the department heads to get it done, and we're going to give it a try. We're also reducing budgets for
023travel, meetings and conferences, professional development and contracts. This also is as much a cultural change as financial savings. And we're preparing or stealing ourselves for every reason in the world why nothing should be touched or changed. But this superintendent, like she's been for the last three years, is committed committed to keeping us in sound financial condition. Um, next slide. So, we're going to touch real quick on the superintendent. These are also include the board index. So at the meetings the books we handed out I I would hope that just the summary is sufficient at this time you can see uh through various FTE departments and the superintendent we've added back 35 to the schoolbased budget formulas. Okay. Now schools got their books. We distributed those books to the board members. Board members came in. principles
024were contacting all of you guys. We sat down and met the superintendent. Uh she had adbacks of her own. We included what you board members requested and they went up 35. There's a breakdown. Uh again, I expect lots of questions after this, so please email them. And next slide. And like everything else that is superintendent that we do is uh we just want to confront this one head on. This table shows the schoolbased budget FTE summary. You'll see it right in the final book. The first 2425 column showed 4,712 total FTEES. That included 150 additional FTEES the superintendent approved to avoid layoffs. That was the basis of the budget that uh this board approved at the beginning of this year. That's important to keep in mind. Um the next yellow column, the 2526 total 4,685.
025That's down to 26. The approved superintendent two-year plan that was going to reduce that by 150. Um the superintendent again thoughtful, mindful, understanding what's needed at the schools, backed off of that uh initial goal and cut 26 made an incremental improvement to the process. Everybody got what they needed and requested and still the counts went down reflective of the drop in enrollments in the second year of the plan. I'm sure we'll get lots of questions on this, but should all be very familiar with these numbers. Admir, next slide, please. Um, staffing and enrollment. You might say, why do I show you this graph? Staffing and benefits are 60% of the district's expenditures. Um, you'll often hear we don't do this or don't do that. Well, take a look at the red line. That that's the
026district's total FTEES and the blue line is the districts enrollment. I think this district has uh just by using these numbers adequately supported with staff the operations necessary for the district. I want to point out a second thing in the 2324 year. You see that 6,000 and 6,000? That's the Albuster effect. This year 2425, the superintendent did address that. She cut 276 vacant positions. Um, first time ever vacancies were addressed, take them out of the budget. So they stopped sucking up budget resources and they found out they weren't really needed anyway and we drove it down to 5,822. Um there's a small uptick in next year's projected that is largely related to the increase in spread related staff was a huge increase. So we are providing staffing budget resources to those mandated positions. But this
027is something we always going to have to monitor. Next [Music] slide. No one can probably see this, but this is goes to my first comment. When you have an 80 or $77 million deficit uh and you're projecting about a $50 million deficit in the current year, you better be really sure that you can afford that. This is probably the most detailed check. I gave you a check previously, the impact of those deficits on our fund balance. This is an analysis of every dollar we will receive and every dollar we will expend next year. The top left we're going to start the year with $378 million in cash. Let's call it this includes all funds A fund fund C fund. If you go down to the bottom right, even after absorbing the $77 million deficit, funding
028for the smaller capital projects, signing the commissary lease will end the year with $31 million in cash. We typically beat these cash flow projections by 20 million or so. So, two things We check the deficits on our reserves and our fund balance accounting. It passed here. This is a deep dive into the monthly receipt of income and outlay of expenditures on our cash. We can absorb that deficit and remain healthy. Um I will point out if you look at the months of October, November, December, we don't get much uh state aid revenue during the first 6 months starts coming in in January. So while we're not getting that state aid revenue, our payroll is staying at $53 million a month. So you get a little you dip below 200 million a little bit during those
029three months, but we know how to manage our cash. We know the cash is coming in in January and we're going to end the year over $300 million again next year. Uh as the superintendent referenced, uh 99% of the districts wish they were in that condition. So again, we think it's a good budget and we can afford it. Uh and man, next slide. Real quick, what happens in level four? We roll to level four. Yesterday was Tuesday, yesterday. Remember, we're waiting on final state aid numbers. But during the next few days, the budget team will review each line in the general grant, food service, debt service, capital projects for accuracy. We'll present those to the superintendent. They'll be found in a book and presented to the board members to give you 7 to 10 days
030uh to review before the vote. Tomorrow, we got to present these numbers to the city county council. [Music] We distribute this draft budget and the narrative to the control board and our external auditors for review. We welcome their input throughout the year. And again, we'll distribute a budget book by next Wednesday for your for your review prior to a vote scheduled for May 21st. I only got two slides left. Thank you for staying with me, Edner. Next slide. Immediately after the budget's approval, control board external lawyers, the state wants our four-year plan. We manage our finances in the short term with a detailed review of the current year spending versus our approved budget, monthly monitoring of critical variables, quarterly reports to the board, and cash flow management. But more importantly, we project and plan our
031district finances according to a four-year plan that incorporates the projected consequences of our decisions during the budget process on our fund balances. It will include projections for all funds, general grants, food service capital projects. It's based upon detailed trend projections on enrollment, union contracts, charter enrollment, etc. The this latest update to the 4-year plan will include our first borrowing in approximately 10 years and it will include the capital project plan, the commissary lease and building closures that are scheduled to begin in 2627. Um your next slide going to wrap it up with some summary comments. This is a little small. I talked about context earlier. I think that's more important than ever this year. So over the past three years, we have successfully managed our way through the wild swings of the ending of our
032Besser funding and staffing levels, increased security, addressing the social and emotional needs of our students, increased mandated supports for children with classified needs, bus driver shortages, increased technology needs, and postcoid learning loss. I think we need to keep all that in mind. We've moved the commissary project to the point of completion as far as the lease being uh provided to the board to consider. We begun work on 26 smaller capital projects. You're going to see that construction and completion over the summer's months. Um during 2425, our enrollments increased for the first time in a decade. This has all been accomplished while maintaining the district's financial stability and its strength. We're going to end this year, June 30th, 2025, with a projected general fund reserve balance of $369 million. [Music] Uh, I'm going to go off
033script for a minute. It's not on the script because the superintendent would not not allow me knowing her to do this. But I've I want to say a couple things. What I just mentioned up there. It's a small sample of what this superintendent has led us through the past three years. Uh, she's been the best superintendent in my tenure. I think she was the perfect person for the time the last three years. Um, her calmness, her stability, consistency is just what we need as we navigate our way through all those events. Uh, as she always says, we're not perfect, but boy, she made a dent in almost every fundamental problem or challenge that we had and pushed forward long delayed capital projects. Uh, lastly, I'm on a personal note. I always remember her kindness and
034her calm support. So, thank you, Superintendent. Now, I'm going to segue right into the challenges. They never stop for a large urban district. So, we're going to start planning this summer for structural challenges. School closes, reimagining our summer and after school programs, they're up to $12 million now. a review of all programs. We took a deep dive at YZ uh virtualmies. We made some bets, but there's plenty of other things that that we can look at. We are dedicated and I think charged to help lead the department heads on a more efficient delivery of central office functions including trade, service, and security. We need to dig deeper into the sped related issues of cost and reimbursements. Just the general fund alone is now costing us over $150 million. That doesn't include psychology social workers. Let's
035face that. And contract negotiations are either in progress or will be soon. Got to start working on that. But what we think we've provided and the superintendent has proposed is a very sound budget during another difficult budget year that leaves our finances in very sound shape. We can absorb it. Uh last slide. Next slide. So it'll wrap it up. Super. Do you want to take this or can I proceed? You can proceed. You can proceed. This board should feel very proud of the astute strategic support provided in helping to maintain the fiscal wellness of this district during the last several unprecedented budget experiences. So on behalf of the superintendent and everyone in our district, thank you for ensuring that our children get all they deserve as we prepare them for a better tomorrow. We all
036in on the budget team sincerely. Thank you. Any questions? Well, I want to thank you for a very thorough presentation. I'm sure the budget uh the board members are looking at all these numbers and they hear you say it's u an excellent presentation. So, um board members, I see Larry Scott's hand, but board members, uh he's walked you through the biggest expenditures we have. The first thing on here is our salaries, our staffing, and the fringe benefit costs. That's 60% of everything. Each of you had an opportunity to meet with the superintendent after you talked to your board, your uh to your schools and your principles, and you were able to uh make your case for either something needed to be added, your school had a a specific need. And um as you see in
037this budget, the superintendent added 35 additional positions based upon our assessment of our needs for our our schools and our pleas to her and our requests to her. So, um if you have questions about if you want to ask questions about um the your budgets, your staffing, um now is the time to ask that. The uh question that I have consistently put to Mr. Barnes and the superintendent is the importance of direct services to our children, our our teachers and our schools versus central administration. both are important and I've always uh emphasized that the percentage cuts that you make to our schools make sure that the pain is equally felt across the board that central services also gets a reduction. And I believe I asked um Chief Barnes earlier and he said we lost uh
03826 25 positions. I think it said 26 in his presentation in our schools and we lost seven in our central services. So there was cuts uh across the board which I think that's important for our uh schools and our principles and the board to know that that the cuts were across the board. The other thing that I want to point out is that we did take and give a two-year plan to adjust this budget and to make cuts, but according to you, I believe Mr. CFO, that we thought we would get a 100 layoffs and they did not materialize. Is that correct? Not not layoffs, sorry, retirements. We thought we were going to get 300 retirements and not replace up to 150 of them. We're at like 50 retirements. So, one of the reasons this
039deficit Yes. which which just means we're going to spend $80 million more than we're taking in. The reason for that number is because there weren't enough retirements to cut uh positions and reduce this. But it should be noted clearly $80 million a year is not sustainable. We have a great financial position. It's saying we're going to have 290 million in our our uh cash in our in our fund balance. 200 of that is earmarked. That leaves $90 million. We cannot continue to run an $80 million deficit. So that last page, page 17, is saying very clearly, board members, hear what they're what this is saying. We had planned to match the loss of students. We're down 3600 students, the reduction in students. We were planning to make uh the staff match that and to close
040some schools so that we don't have all that high overhead. So, we have some challenges ahead because $80 million, which is what we're using to make this budget work, is not sustainable. So, uh, Larry, I see your hand up. And any other board members who want to ask questions, please feel free to ask your questions. All right. Thank you, Chairwoman Woods. Um, and thank you, Chief Barnes, and all staff that have worked tirelessly on this budget. Um, I have several questions, two macro level and then several micro level, some of which maybe can't be answered today. and maybe need to follow up with an email answer. Um, but to Chief uh Chair uh Wood's point, you can you go back, Chief Barnes, in your presentation, you talked about in our four-year plan um what our
041projected deficit would be for this year and we are 42 million higher than what was projected and how that is okay. sustainable probably it's not sustainable but give us some rationale as to how that's okay that we're 42 million above where we projected. So if you go to page five and you look at the line that says 4year plan surplus and deficit in the current year our four-year plan called for an $83 million deficit. We're gonna come in the line above it at 54. I'm hoping we can even do better than that. So, we pick up, let's just use about $30 million in fund balance there. But in 2526 in our 4-year plan, because Mrs. Woods outlined it perfectly. The reduction in FTEES, the closure of one school was going to reduce the deficit down
042to 36 million. We're projecting a 78.7 million, roughly $30 million worse. our four a year plan and people that we produce it for ourselves control board external motors things over a time period never one year if you add those two years together we are not very far off where we told people we'd be at the end of next year you got to add them together and that's that fund balance that you found I did add them together and divide it by two and a 66 million point 66.8 million average deficit is unsustainable also. Oh, I I don't disagree. I was just answering Larry's question specifically why it's absorbable. Yeah, the other higher macro level question slide nine um where it's you have contracts there. Um it was 50 about 50 million this year and there's
043a reduction of about 5 million for next year projected. Um, can you explain what those contracts are? Like a just a general idea of what those contracts are and is there a way for us to find out what that contract expenditure was prior to ARP? Oh, sure. Uh, I I need time to get you that prior ARP number. And our contracts are for almost anything and everything that we utilize an external vendor for to provide us services. It goes everything from things at schools to things at plants to transportation uh all kinds of things. So I can get you a list of like our top 20 vendors under contracts. So that that includes that includes transportation. Got the there's smaller contracts within for the operations, not the bus contracts. Not contract. I'm giving you a
044list of Yeah. Just and really what what it was prior to ARP. I got it. The amount of amount of money amount the expenditure towards those contracts prior to prior to ARC. Um the other more specific questions I have um WAZED are we is the expenditure still 3.8 going into next year? Yeah, we uh we cut that and then whatever the balance was left maybe 2 million we moved it to be grant funding. So what is what is the reduction? Because if initially it was two million and now I'm hearing 1.5 million. Yeah. Uh whatever the I'll get you this exactly too but I think the original number we provided was 3.8 to 4 million. We basically cut it in half. Okay. And then what grants now are being used to cover WAZED and after
045school and at what and at what percentage are these existing grants? Are they new grants? Were these grants that were allocated towards something else? Great question. They're existing grants and we we got to make hard decisions. We took out the two. They're existing grants largely title one. There's almost $8 million in title one funds that were not spent. They call them carryover funds. So, if we're going to put something in there that we need and that we know that will be spec that's largely it. Did anything get cut as a result of it to swap it out? Nothing. Yeah, there were other, let's say, contractual things, nothing school related that were removed, but mainly uh we're absorbing any carry forward. We're not doing that anymore. We're going to spend the money in the year it's
046allocated. So 8 million in title one funds. Can those funds be allocated towards math and reading teachers? We already have the math and reading teachers in there and other areas. But could it could it be permitted to be spent on math and reading teachers? No, I believe so at certain schools at certain title one eligible schools which is all of us. What about mental health professionals? Uh, I meant to get you all these. There's certain restrictions on it, but I would say probably yes. All right. So, bottom line is I think we have to prioritize and and I think what I'm hearing is that we know, you know, we've got a finite budget and, you know, as we begin to continue to add things back, it just means that it's got to something has to
047come out. And so, you know, with the budget, we're trying really hard to um not lessen services. So, the reading teacher pieces, I believe we put for the most part reading teachers in Title One. There were just a couple of schools that could not. And so, we were able to fund those reading teachers so that all schools would have the benefit of that. um you know with respect to Wazed um I've been working with uh the leader you know for that um that project and we you know went from 4 million to 2 million because this is the final year of a three-year deal that we've had. we've already allocated, you know, a lot of resources to WAZED and so to pull out in the final year just, you know, it it just would have
048really been um I think a detriment to the children. So what we're funding for this last year are kits and you know we did talk about it in some of our individual meetings but to be trans you know transparent for everyone that may be listening you know the consumables will be purchased whether it is through grants or you know the general fund and that's how we're able to still continue you know with this project but but yeah but we are taking from somewhere else and allocating it there that could be used in other ways. Well, you know, we've worked with schools. Um, we've worked with the board. We've heard from our schools who met with their teams to tell us what they need. And I would veer to say that we've not said no to
049anything that our principles have said to us. We have got to have this. And even when the board members came, you know, and met with the team when the board came, you know, and said, we, you know, we've also talked to constituents and to schools and, you know, these are certain things that are really, really important. They've got to be in schools. You know, we didn't say negative to anything that the board requested either. So, we've been able to, you know, give schools back what they've shared they need, what they've prioritized, and what board members have shared they would like to see in schools. So, just last question on this, and then I want to move to the others that are not as complicated, I don't think. Um, how come if if we could have
050used this grants grant money for title u for after school and wad why didn't we do that in the past? We already incurred an 8.5 million expenditure for WZED. How come we didn't use it in the past? Yeah. The first year WED was our best bund. The second year it's just like the superintendent says it's a billion3. It's 42,000 lines of budget expenditures. We're making these decisions of what to fund and what to cut and then where to fund it most efficiently every year on almost every item. So I I hope they can evade the answer. It's just the process we go through but was grant funded before. All right. So and then next question. What are the 3.66 adbacks for administration? What position and what schools? They're in these in which schools? Uh, I
051can get you that, Larry. Sorry, I don't write my detail here. Okay. At I'll I can email these questions. What are the eight? There are still eight positions cut from SST and 11 counselor cuts. Where are the eight Where are those cuts coming from? Which schools? Sure. I'll take it. And the reading positions were adding back 2.4. four but still still a reduction from this current year. Where are those 2.4 adbacks? If I can just if I can just say for the SST piece um and we will certainly share that but this year what I heard in prior years from principles was they wanted a formula. They wanted to know as far as SST members are concerned what's what's the formula? How is this equitable? And so, uh, Chief Bachelli and Assistant Superintendent Holshire worked
052really closely with principles to develop this formula so that it would be equitable according to the number of students that had needs for mandated services in their schools. So, psychologists and social workers based on the counseling that's in those students IEPs. So I believe if there are reductions, but on top of that, some schools said we still need an additional this or we need an additional that. So that's kind of how how that shook out. It was according to the needs of the students um that reduction. So you know, if a school had two social workers, we really layered up when we got our ESSER funds, but everyone knew it was a three-year deal that it it couldn't go on forever. And so last year, the reason we chose to do the two years is
053so it wouldn't be so dramatic, you know, the cuts, but we knew that we had to at some point start weaning back to, you know, be within where we were prior to our ESER. But there is a formula that drove uh the SST numbers. And as far as counselors, um schools worked with that and some said instead of a counselor, I need a social worker or instead of a social worker, I need a counselor. You know, a lot of this process was driven by that school-based budget process. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I'll submit my questions and, you know, I just I'm going to need more answers and more information before I can feel comfortable being a a yes vote on this budget. Thank you. Thank you all. Thanks. Okay, we have uh we have
054Jerry Shooter's hand up and then we have Jim Makoszi. So, uh, can you ask your question, Siri? Sure. I don't have a question. I guess I just have a comment. Um, I really, um, appreciate everyone's hard work. Uh, it's not easy on anyone's part here, the board members and the the staff. But I just I just want to go on record to say boy oh boy with a deficit deficit spending like this. I don't know what the the Buffalo schools may look like in 2032 if we are you know and that's just my concern. I just long-term speaking and but I I think that um um I appreciate everyone's work but I guess I'm just worried long term right now and uh and I like that you know we know we have to start making
055some hard decisions and uh we'll just I'm sure you'll do a great job the the board that will be here uh next year to face these uh hard hard decisions. But that's all I got to say. Uh just don't forget that there are uh those 150 retirements may not have happened this year, but they're still going to happen. So that that's something that's important to to realize. The plan was 300 people retiring. It didn't happen, but it will. Plet, what would the uh the deficit budget been if those 150? Again, I don't have the number in my mind. I may have had it written down. If we had 150, that certainly wouldn't have cut. How many million would that have cut? Uh Jim, I think you'd have to answer that one. And I need to
056use uh my calculator. Okay. Thanks, Jim. about $26 million. Okay. 26. All right. Well, okay. Thank you. Thanks for the presentation. I appreciate it. I'll follow up with any questions uh via email. Thank you. Thanks, Bo. Member Makoszie, you're up. Thank you, Chairwoman Woods. Um, and thank you so much, uh, Jim. This was again something that was easily digestable. But now I do have I just want to state a couple comments and then I'll email questions that um, I think are a little more minute that we don't have to bring a camera. Sorry, Jen not to interrupt, but these emails, is this to all the board members so we all are seeing the questions and answers because I think we could all definitely do that. I think I could do that. Thank you. That's good.
057So um I I was not so much okay like I said I have some questions but in the summary piece where we definitely have been doing um you know working on social emotional wellness and making sure all of the things that were listed yes we are doing but then in the when we're talking about the challenges we face we're almost attacking the same things that we've been working on right so when we talk about our afterchool programs our summer programs revisiting sped really concerned me because special education right now is because it's federally funded or whatever it is. It's so hard just to get the the basics for our parents and our and our families that I'm almost wondering how do we even write that before we even start thinking about what we're cutting from
058there. Alex, turn that down, please. I'm sorry. Jen, can I I'm sorry. Can I interrupt? Yes, please. We're not talking about cutting spent services. It's reimagining how they're administered, improving our reimbursement for those services, our strategy, and our knowledge. No. Uh we know they're mandated. The superintendent couldn't be more clear through the last three years. Social emotional, the least among us, fed services, athletics, and things like that. It's not cutting it. It's reimagining to get more bang for the buck and administer it better. And that's not enough. Uh Tim Holtz, that's a job in a world beyond. And then it's just skyrocketing that we need support there to administer and get reimbursements. Well, that, you know, that's kind of what I was getting at. And and again, I'm not saying it's on the district. I
059do realize that this is we have to go, you know, we have to go in bus loads to the government and to, you know, to the governor herself and start looking to really change how uh special education and our resources are being used in service to the second largest district in the state. But um yes, I I appreciate you because I immediately got, you know, I got in my feels around special education and you did say it reimagined right in that. So, uh I do hope that we can address um all of the issues that are are, you know, not just reimbursements, but we need to really dig deep and peel back the layers of all of it and then see, you know, it seems like we've been bandating decade after decade. I'm not saying
060this administration. I'm saying since day one um having a student who uses these services in ninth grade. So I'm just you know I was a little concerned about that and um you know I have again I have questions around um how do we attack these you know how do we reimagine these programs? I understand the school closings, but when you list like look at all the programs, those programs were put in place, majority of them around our social and emotional wellness. So, I just, you know, I saw kind of the the ball being batted back and forth in between those two statements. And I just wanted to point that out and that's the majority of like my quote unquote concerns. And like I said, I'll email within the next day the rest of my questions.
061Nothing major. Okay. Uh uh CFO Barnes, I appreciate that you included in your comments in in the material to us that 40 positions, am I correct on here? 40 positions were added to special ed because it is a growing area. It is an an area that uh we are are concerned about. It does have mandated staffing and efficiencies are having more than two children in a class. Two teachers and two children. I think that's what you're talking about as far as reimagining, right? Yes. And then on the reimbursement side. Yes. And the 40 were just added to the general fund. There's another 20 that that were added through uh uh the grants and the uh preschool uh spent grants. No, we are dedicating the budget resources to service every single one of them. And frankly,
062Kim Holster and her team are overwhelmed. They do a phenomenal job. The super's been advocating for additional help over there. This is just reading the numbers. When something crosses the $150 million mark and your FDAs are going, we're just going to take a deeper look at it to see what we can do to help. Okay. But I believe part of the problem that we has has been brought to the board's attention is that we don't have enough special ed teachers and when you have substitute teachers trying to handle special ed children, you have a mismatch and that's a problem. So I believe the need is to get more people to go into special ed training and finding more special ed folk. think that I think when you begin closing down and condensing programs and schools,
063you know, then you'll be able to stretch the resources a little bit. So, you know, this year we're looking at the the collapse of a program from four to two and there are teachers that are there that are certified that will now be able to go to schools and be in front of full classrooms of students with needs. So the more we do that collapse, close, you know, we'll be able to stretch our resources. And this is not to make excuses. It's to brag that context we mentioned earlier. We get calls from all the other big five saying their stud programs are a mess. How do you do it? No one solved this uh current issue. No one. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. We uh uh ferry district board member Sharon Belton Cotman, you have your
064hand up. Thank you. Thank you for this uh presentation. I want to also commend you on the work uh Dr. Williams, you and your team have done. It's easy to play morning quarterback uh Monday morning quarterback. It's a whole another thing to be in the game and you certainly have done that uh during your tenure and I appreciate that. I have a couple of questions. um basically uh somewhat dealing with the fact that we continue to have a deficit and I'm curious to know particularly this summer where you have two very experienced board members who are leaving and myself and Pette Woods certainly no one has ever brought to the table that I've been since I've been here the level of competence that uh Pette Woods brings in regards to the budget handling no one
065has ever done it and probably no one never will, but because she has so much experience. So, I want to also give her a shout out because she deserves that. She's excellent when it comes to handling that budget situation and um I appreciate the fact that she is she treats it like it's her own money. With that said, uh the fact that we are leaving, in addition to that, Terry Shooter is not going to be around as well, who brings to the table a wealth of information, uh for the inside operations of schools and things like that. I just feel that somehow or another an opportunity is being missed not to utilize the three of us in the final months that we're here to look at uh cost savings and streamlining certain things in this
066district. As I'm sitting here and I'm looking at the cost, I can tell you that over the years, one of the reasons why we had high retirement numbers were because uh academics uh the um uh started doing more rigorous requirements. Okay. And people decided they didn't want to uh do that extra work and so they decided to step off. So, I don't know if maybe we're a little too laidback with the academic rigor because we're not seeing the people leaving. So, that's just a joke. But anyway, I'm I'm saying there are a lot of cost uh saving measures that we can be doing. Um I have questions uh in regards to the amount of overtime that this budget includes. Um um I I I think um it's been my experience as a uh single uh
067uh parent and someone who has had to rub nickels to make dollars together, pennies to make nickels and etc. However it goes that um one of the first things I do did was cut costs and start looking at some of the spending that I'm doing. And I'm wondering if we're doing that. My question here in regards to that is the agency tuition is 34 million um dollars 34 almost 35 and I'm curious to know how many children that covers okay and what grades and what grades or whatever. So I would like to see what that looks like because I am thoroughly convinced that um there's another way that we can do um of our our our special ed program. the overtime. I'm concerned about the efficiency of the departments and at one time to save
068money. Uh we redu we reduced overtime and had it only signed off by the superintendent and um we saved a ton of money that year uh with overtime. I'm also concerned with the amount of uh supplies and uh um textbooks and things that are that we already have in stock that are being reordered. And so, um, the additional funding I was, uh, on the last, uh, uh, convention I went to, I shared, uh, with the board information about, uh, special ed, um, monies that we can do. So, I encourage, uh, this summer or for the rema You're muted. You're muted. Sharon, you're muted. I'm sorry. before we leave. Uh because um if we don't tighten our belts, we're not we're not going to we can't continue to uh you're not going to be able to
069continue to sustain it. And I think that there's a lot of uh still there's a need for us to look and make sure that we are uh tightening our belts as much as possible. My questions in regards to the um budget are are are very few. Um my concern um is that in moving forward in order to finance programs um particularly our school construction is that um we are eligible for the joint school construction new phase and um are we is is is the fact that we did not close uh buildings is that's what's holding us up from accessing that or is there something else that's interfering with us taking advantage of that money. Sure. Uh a new phase JSCB would be a two threeyear process for the legislation and all that to filter through.
070After our analysis, we can get we got we currently have the exact same benefits of that but at like warp speed. We chose 26 smaller projects, lighting, roofs, lead abatement, uh, Riverside Field, uh, uh, playgrounds. You're going to start seeing construction this summer with completion by the fall. And how we did it was just by sticking to the New York State playbook and sound financial principles. Get your construction cost for these 26 projects. they came out to like $54 million. You go through the city uh uh capital budget process which is necessary to enable you to bond. We got we went through all that. Then we got bond resolutions, lawyers who looked at the projects, looked at our documentation. Oh, you could sell a bond on these. They would pay for the construction cost. Zero
071cost to us. We get the bond funds in, we pay our vendors. Then as we're repaying the bond, we're getting the offsetting building aid amount. This is being held up to be honest at the controllers's office. Uh but we're progressing because we have bond resolutions. We got the bidding out of the way. The bids are coming in at 10% on average, less than our uh initial cost estimates. and we're moving ahead. And if we make the decision to fund these without the bonds, the only one who gets hurt is the city of Buffalo. Well, one of the reasons why I brought up the joint school construction possibility of going into the next phase is so that we are not at the mercy of the of the city in regards to that. And that's the reason
072for that because as a result of of holding up the money, okay, we impact children and if the money is available for us to use, we started talking about this two two years ago, maybe even two over almost three years ago, had we started going down that uh lane, maybe at this point, we would not be at the mercy of what's going on in city hall. With that said, I guess my next question is, are they still borrowing $60 million from us every uh during this period of time? Uh three times a year. I included their cash flow template uh within the presentation. We update that obviously weekly and monthly to make sure we got money in our payroll accounts and our debt service accounts. The city does the exact same thing. And then they
073combine the two. Three times a year on average the city's cash balance will go to zero. They'll dip into our money. So they borrow from us on average three times a year. Okay. And so that's okay. That's okay. Is it reflected in their monthly statement, cash flow statement, that the money came from the Buffalo public schools in theirs, not ours? But I heard that it wasn't on there anymore, and that's the reason for asking. No. Oh, no. Sorry. No changes. No changes in your reporting at all. It's all Can you double check that and make sure that when money is borrowed from the Buffalo public schools that is reflected on that? Yes. Okay. While we're talking for a second, I outlined the current status of these building projects. I got to give kudos to the
074plane facilities team. uh the five architects uh that have been working on these plans, they beat every time frame established by this controller back in January. They had the stuff submitted. The state has a given us building permits for every project. 30 days ahead of schedule. We've already bid out 15 of those projects. These guys are doing a phenomenal job. I'm not knocking what you're saying. What I'm trying to understand say is that we're in a situation not right now where we're at the mercy of the of the city and I and that concerns me for for several of our projects. So we we can have that talk uh at another time. Finally, the charter schools. One of the conversations we've had as part of the uh with various uh superintendent is um or districts
075across the country is how that we're paying them to make sure that we don't overpay them. Some districts uh have gone to a month-to-month basis and are subtracting the kids that are coming back to their district out of out of their out of their monthly monies. Are we doing anything like that? Because I want to make sure since we can't recapture our money that it's accurate. We're doing exactly exactly. Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate all the work you do. Thank you. [Music] See, I don't I don't see any any other hands up. My hand up in the boardroom. Oh, okay. You uh please answer your question, board member. Okay. So, I didn't anticipate this question, but now I guess I have one. Um, so I'm looking about Title One funds, and I don't know
076if we all know what they are, but it's federal funds provided to schools that serve areas with high poverty. The funds are meant to help students who are at risk of falling behind academically. and it provides supplemental instruction for economically disadvantaged students or those at risk of failing to meet state standards. So, I'm on NYED and I'm looking and I I would just like to make sure we look at the guidance on what's allowable and what's a not allowable expenditure. So, I had no idea that some of the supports um for title one students, we we could use this title one money for all within the frame of meeting these state academic standards. So, we could hire quality instructors for RTI, certified teachers, and teaching assistants, counselors, school-based mental health, mentoring services, preK, summer, and
077extended day programs, nurses for summer and title one programs. I mean attendance programs if that helps student achievement which we do have attendance um challenges parent liaons um well no but I mean could we I maybe it's debatable what we can use some of this 8 million towards and I don't know I mean I don't know if that one program does promote um meeting the academic standards But um maybe that's a conversation we should have. Like I I didn't know. Oh, it could help with preparation for an awareness of opportunities for post-secary education and the workforce including CTE programs. So maybe instead of cutting some of that, we look at some of this title one money because it's something we've heard from our communities like we want this this opportunity for the the technical education.
078I I will put you in contact with Danielle Swanamp who is an expert at Yes. and Jamie Cohen who's also very knowledgeable but I you should start with Danielle Schwan. uh literally an expert on it. And then keep in mind the budget process uh with our chief academic officer and others who are providing us the services, the programs, the teachers that they feel best meet the needs of it. We're not nobody in budget or finance is making decisions on what's in the title one budget. It's a bottomup approach from the academic social emotional side. But you should contact Danielle Schwan. One thing we have to always be mindful of when we're looking at, you know, most any grant funds, but certainly title one is that we're not supplanting. So, you know, we can't put just
079additional counselors in a budget like that that are doing the same work that they would be doing if they were funded through on and m budgets. So, it would have to be something a little different, you know, crafted a little different and above and beyond that. Um, then agencies, you said we're sending less students. Yeah. Is that because there's a weight list or is there less of a need for agency placements? True. And uh I always know the big picture. We used to be at like 950. We're probably at like 885 right now. And I believe there are two reasons. One of which there was a conscious decision to bring more of those kids back to the district and try to educate them. But there's certain levels of services that we simply can't do uh
080as effectively as an agency. And since it's always about getting the kid the best care, that's what drives that. Okay. And then the $10 million in OMPIC of the 17 million increase that is something realistic that we're looking to get rid of. Now, you wouldn't get rid of you. You have the only the health insurer can change the standards for for granting prescriptions. This is a nationwide New York State problem. So, the insurance companies got together. They're raising the standards for getting a prescription that will drive down our cost. Okay. And um you said money grab regarding the charter schools on page nine. Can you expand on it? All right. We we provide the charter works with $170 million a year of tuition payments. Let's say 150 million of that is based upon educating a
081non special ed student and take 20 million of that. We pay them extra for the added cost of a special ed student at a charter school. We do it by monthly. Everything's reconciled. They're prepaying ahead of time every other month. The latest thing they're doing is they're coming back and demanding money from our grant and saying that the the grant says there's a set aside for charters. So just this morning I sent them out a letter. One, we contacted the state. We read the ADA. It doesn't say that anywhere. And I reminded them that you're already getting paid for the special tuition payments. Stop contacting the state trying to intercept our aid payments for something that's simply not accurate. But it goes it's something every two months with these people. On page 11, the No,
082I'm getting the ad bats. Um, are we receiving updated books? Um, so like our little booklets we got before going. Oh yes. Um, May 14th you will have a book that includes a fun T fun schoolbased budget. It's going to be everything though. It's not going to just be the schoolbased budget but that'll be included in it. Okay. And then the staffing that includes all staffing or the 60% of expenditures. That's all staffing. Okay. We have a there's 7,000 boys. It's just a really really big complicated place. Okay. Are do you have any some more questions or uh Shar Paula? It's Cindy. I'm still here too. Can I Is it okay if I just make a comment? Oh, please. I I don't see any I just see Sharon's hand up so I can't We can't
083put them up here. Oh, okay. Please go ahead. Uh, thank you. I appreciate that. Um, so I want to add in I also have questions that are outstanding that are out. I'm still waiting on a few responses. Um, and those are a little bit more specific. So, um, hopefully I will receive those in the near future. Um, but once again, thank you for your presentation for keeping us informed all the way through. I guess I just want to it it's less a question. It's more of a comment and I know I shared this last year at this time. I shared it with you both publicly and privately, right? Just the reality of um when we say we are going to decrease the numbers and we're going to bring it back down in terms of the
084staffing to more align with enrollment. Um, and then hearing that last year we were going to do a particular number than we had far less and we knew going into this year it was going to be even more difficult because we were going to have to reduce some of those FTEEs. Um, and we were going to have to make difficult decisions, right, which are incredibly uncomfortable for everybody. Um, in the end we said we were going to decrease by 100 positions and we decreased by 11. Yes. Right. And so again, I'm just I'm concerned because we haven't quite matched what we said we were going to do and I understand your logic, your maths, the numbers, how they balance each other out. But again, that number is not sustainable. And my biggest fear is that
085people are leaving and the problem remains and you know the the sitting board members that are here and whoever this incoming superintendent might be are going to have to deal with the aftermath of us not making more difficult decisions. Um and being and not that we aren't being creative because I do think I'm hearing a lot of creativity but I think to board member Zulich's point there's opportunity for additional creativity. um potentially to maneuver around and sadly I mean we are in the space where we can't sustain this long term um especially not that level of of deficit. So I I think I'm still struggling to chew on the fact that I remember the same conversation we had at the end of last budget season going into this budget and here we are again still
086not quite making that mark but saying the same praises and what is going to happen you know moving forward right and and so that's my it's just it's more a comment just food for thought just putting it out there I know it echoes some of what other folks have said but I am concerned about it. I think those are good comments um that you have and you know the needs of the students continue to rise and what we prioritize our spending on is what we say we really stand for. So when we have goals like the council of great city school goals, when we look at, you know, where social emotional needs are, when we look at the security needs, it is easy to say, you know, we're going to cut a 100 positions, um,
087they can't be mandated positions, and we're really trying to give our students as much as we know they need and deserve. So what we did last year was not necessarily cut a hundred bodies because the needs are there, but we did a hard line on those vacancies and are not filling, you know, those vacancies that had been open for some time. And so there is on page 13, you know, a chart that Chief Barnes put together that shows just how drastically, you know, we're trying to align the FTE counts to uh the staff, the student counts. So, you know, I think the board can feel good that it's not that, you know, we just said it and we didn't do anything. You know, there was a lot of thought and work and the board, you
088know, supported it that went into trying to make sure that while we're reducing, we're still cognizant of the high needs postcoid that our children have, whether it's technology needs, whether it's security needs, whether it's social emotional needs, and not just looking at the number because, you know, for me the numbers have faces and so we do have to always keep that in mind, too. Oh, absolutely, 100%. Um, I think looking at the schoolbased budgets and a lot of the questions I have, um, I'm still concerned, right, because it doesn't necessarily align exactly with what I'm hearing. And so, I just I think if I if I saw that play out entirely in those schoolbased budgets and what those asks are, then I mean, I could understand that logic. I didn't I didn't entirely see that,
089right? And so I think again I'm still waiting on some answers which might be helpful. Um but I just you know it's just it's a concern because it was I expressed this to you very clearly last year. Um and I just I I just I see it almost like repeating again and at some point we can't do that. Yes. It's got to stop as is the how it ends how the presentation ends. uh and not in all of the things I I do all kinds of feedback on it's essential but on the other hand that $424 million that you recruit through okay either luck or wise financial management part of the standard uses of that are to cover deficits as you're trying to figure things out other districts want to be in our position. So,
090it's also a standard practice to utilize those reserves you've built up while you're trying to figure out how you're going to address your structural problems. And that's what happened this year. It's a good budget. That leaves us in good shape. We're far from perfect, but we're chipping away. Um, board member McCutchen, do you have any more questions? I don't I do not. No, thank you. Can I ask a question, please? Shar, we have Sharon Belton Cotman's hand up. Go ahead. Thank Thank you for indulging me one more time. So, one of the concerns that I have with this budget is the fact that we did not save money and the um alternative school program as much as I thought we could have in our in the meetings and I tried to attend as many as
091I could. Um good conversations were had. One of the things that came up in regards to pathways is that we could add an additional uh pathway uh program to um 131. And that would allow the teachers who normally only have about 20 to 25 students to have additional um responsibilities with the pathway students. So, we were talking about just doing Burgar and uh South Park, and in our conversation, we talked about uh doing an additional one for um uh 131. That is a very expensive um situation there at $4.5 million, 20 students, 25 students a a day. It is a adults uh um uh uh probably one of the uh easiest or I shouldn't say easiest but one one of the most um less least encumbered positions in the district in that building and I
092really would like if we could take another look at trying to increase more students in there so that we can get more uh bang for our buck. Um I have been in that building and I have seen uh um adults uh without any students and so um quite a few adults. I mean at the most days it's 2 to one in that building. Okay. And so I think that if we're talking about um meeting the needs of students and cutting expenses, uh certainly uh that is a program that we need to take a look at and reinvent um in a big way uh because it is it is very costly to this district and and every child in the district is impact by that uh $4.5 million uh for the um uh I think it's
093not even 100 kids now. I think it's about 70 kids that are enrolled in that program. So, thank you. Uh Terry Shuda, board member Shuda, you have a question. Uh you're muted. We can't hear you. Uh we sat on several of those meetings, Mrs. Beltmanc and I think that what we've we've come to the realization sure it's expensive but we've been placing students in those programs that shouldn't be placed in those programs. It wasn't really utilized the way it was supposed to be. So I look forward to the conversation because I just met um uh a young man at the uh St. Luke's mission during the funeral services and he told me how it's changed his life and has asked me to be at that graduation with him. So I think like you said reinvent
094and try and make it cost effective but we have to really take a look that it got totally away from its mission. Uh this is specific just um could librarians count as supporting or meeting literacy standards? Well, my take down. Okay. I mean it's something Well, no. Library I brought it up in the budget just um I mean my my one daughter goes to a very high literacy achieving school. I mean it's just built in from kindergarten. you go, you get to pick out a book, you read it with your parents, then you're reading it on your own. Um, if that could promote or fit within Title One, I just worry we have 60 buildings and we only have 35 librarians. I I worry very difficult to fill. Very, very difficult to fill the position.
095But if you want to send any questions you have, please, we'll get you an answer. Okay. Um board members, um one of the reasons why Buffalo Public Schools doesn't run a deficit and we have such a healthy fund balance is because the theory of budgeting is real simple. You underestimate your revenues. You're conservative. You don't put in there $4 million that is not achievable. So you are very conservative and underestimate your revenues. And on your expenditures, you overestimate your expenditures so that if they come in a little higher, five% here or somewhere there, that you don't wind up in a deficit because you didn't leave you you you underestimated where those expenses are. Now, I did send a question to our CFO because that is the theory of budgeting. It is very careful and conservative
096so we never run a deficit. But one of the things our CFO and his staff has done is they are increasing our revenues. They are going after and bringing in more funds. And at the last board meeting, I proudly reported to you guys how they are increasing our Medicaid revenue and by possibly $2 million. And on page six, we do have the Medicaid revenue and it says $4 million this year, which we are going to exceed. And then it says for next year we're going to have $4 million. So one of the questions I did send to the CFO for clarity and I'll send it to you guys is that that is obviously not an increase that is a same amount 4 million and that that should be under consideration to recognize that that number
097can go up. that's being a extremely conservative on our revenues. Those are the kind of things that will, you know, could give us a little bit less of a deficit because we are overestimating some of the expenditures and this this the staff is doing good things. They're telling you that they're doing things like we are looking at a program to reduce the $17 million increase in French benefits. That's a big area that has to be contained and that's going to change for the better. We are looking at our surplus management. There is no reason for everybody to have pockets of books here and there and up in storage rooms and then they go and order the same book. Surplus management means that you go and look before you order anything if they got it in
098hand and then anything you don't need, you find out if somebody else needs it and you float it around and cert and and and you send it to people so they don't order additional desk or whatever. That's an area that we have an auditor coming on to take a look at and that will that is included in the budget that the plan is to manage better and decrease our expenditures and textbooks and supplies because that's what good management does. It will reduce those expenses. Yes. Uh Cindy, you asked a question and I had already put on your uh we only cut 10 FTE, but if we cut the hundred if we wind up cutting 150 retirements, that's as uh Terry pointed out and Jim pointed out, that's $26 million down off that off of that
099deficit. So, there are many things in here that will be put into a four-year plan that before I leave here will be put together and you will know that you will be sufficient, stable, not in a a deficit for the next four years. So, I just wanted to bring some of those things out to you because the staff is working very hard to do things that will reduce costs and some of them we will have to make hard decisions because we do have to close some schools. There there are things that we have to do and some of them we have to do this year and it will give us a much better fouryear projection. So that's my two cent on that. Any any is that helpful? Yes. Oh, Chair Chairwoman Woods, I just want
100to say it will not be hard for me to end one lease that will save us $7 million a year. Well, for the you do you do you do have input on that. We are all nine board members and we can pull together and support the superintendent, support our CFO and their staff so that we increase revenues, minimize expenses, and stay on a sound budget. So, unless there's any other I see and um board member Everheart, your hand is up. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Chairwoman Woods. Thank you, Chief Burns and Superintendent. Uh, this is very thorough. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on the budget along the way. Um, I just want to ask the 11 FTEES that you agreed to cut last year, was that
101at around the same time or before you cut the vacancies? What was the last part of your question? the 11 FTEES that you decided to cut last year, was that around or before you cut the vacancies? The 11 FTE uh decrease is for next year. 11. We're going to have 11 less FTEES next year than we do now. Last year, we increased the FTEEs by 158 positions to avoid layoffs, right? to provide the extra social emotional security needs of the students. Right. I understand that. I was just wondering if the vacancy cuts offset the 11 FTEES in any way. If that was done for the same year. I wasn't here for the FTEES. Okay. No, the 11 is net of cutting, adding, cutting, whatever. It's 11 less bonds than we have this year. Okay. Um,
102also can you also email me a copy of the list of the schools who received the adbacks? Sure. Thank you. Oh, I just want to say one final thing to everyone that the most important question that all of us uh council and great city school folk should are asking and and and are noticing that the budget has been aligned to the priorities and the guide uh goals and guard rails that we assign to the superintendent. Yes, reading is emphasized. Yes. Security, safety, counseling, emotional stability. The directives we gave her, this budget is aligned to providing those things and that is also a reason for why there is a larger deficit 35 adbacks. Madam superintendent, you can I can I end on one last comment? Please do. Uh, this may be the superintendent/budget. No superintendent has
103ever left this district with as high a fund balance as she's leaving with. $396 million at least. It could be over $400 million. Great job. I wish I could take total credit. I cannot. You know, this board has a fidiciary responsibility and they take it seriously. You all take it very seriously and our staff hears the concerns from our schools, from our parents. The one thing I've tried to do though during my tenure, especially with the budget, is to be as inclusive as possible and to hear from different stakeholders to look at our data and see what our needs are and to let that guide where we spend our money. And so I want to thank you, Chief Barnes, for always being so complimentary. Your team does a phenomenal phenomenal job with a complex budget
104and you know it really has taken a village. It's our entire cabinet principles everybody pulling together understanding we have to do more for our children with less and less each year. So whereas we had other school districts, you know, that had some very very very difficult things, you know, when it came to the budget, um, children taking stances and board members taking stances, I have felt very supported by the board when it comes to this budget. And so I want to thank the board for all of your diligence and reviewing all of these tables and numbers that Jim Barnes puts together. He explains them so comprehensively that, you know, he makes it easy to understand and he makes the work look easy, but it's a lot. It's a lot of work that goes into this.
105So, thank you. I think we had some good questions tonight. You know, we've got to go back to the table and we want to make sure that we answer succinctly all of the questions that board members have about the budget because our goal is to, you know, get the budget passed. And so we want to make sure that we're addressing them. If we have to modify, we have to modify. But, you know, we want to make sure that we're transparent in the process. So, I think we're meeting again next Wednesday to again, you know, take a look at where we are at that point. And so, um, I just want to thank everyone for all of your due diligence with trying to get this budget passed. Thank you and have a good night. Um, you
106know, I do want to say before we end, uh, it's been a little bit of a tough week. We lost a student. We lost a student this week. Um, I went to another student's funeral today, a former student's funeral today. And so, you know, that's why I say, and I know you all feel the same way, you're in this for the children, for the children. And these numbers have faces. So when we make any cuts, reductions, closings, all of that stuff, it impacts our children. So we do it carefully. We do it, you know, inclusively, strategically, deliberately because, you know, it's important. You know, education is what changes children's lives and gives them opportunities and hope. So, hate to end on that note, but I think it puts us in a mindful space that um
107you know, we have to take this serious and um I'm looking forward to next week. We'll come back, we'll answer the questions that you share. You're going to share them with the entire group and uh we'll try to succinctly if we need to have some conversations before we get back next week, we'll do that, too. So, thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you, Dr. Us. And it's it's been a difficult week for for you as well. And um one person's opinion does not define a legacy. I just want to share that with you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. Thank you to each of you for shaping the future, our children. That's right. Thank you. Thank you, Paul Wood. Great job. All righty. Good night, Paul. Excellent.