001All right, we'll go ahead and uh call the meeting to order at 7:34 and we will start with the pledge of allegiance. Everybody stand please. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Just a few things. If everybody can silence their cell phones um in the case of an emergency, we do have an emergency exit directly behind me and also through the door came through. I'm going to start with excused. Joy Marco um board trustee is excused. We have both Ashley Dreer and um Danielle Bruno with us remotely. Um I'll start um on the left. We have Roger Broker, um, trustee. Jay Rover, board trustee. Sherry Stephins, board trustee. Jude Kum, district
002clerk. Dr. Brian Graham, our superintendent of schools, myself Marston. We have John Fitzpatrick, our superintendent of curriculum, staff development, and human resources. We have Cheryl Cardone, our assistant superintendent of people personnel services. and uh Bob Merkel, our assistant superintendent for school business and finance. All righty. If I can get an approval of our agenda for this evening, please and a second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carried 6 and approval of our minutes from um our March 24th and 31st meetings. If I could get a motion, please make a motion and a second and a all in favor opposed. I motion carry 6. Okay. On our student ambassadors, please. Hi everyone. This is Leah Peppers. She is an eighth grader at ECMS and a web leader and also the treasurer of um the student council. Hi,
003my name is Leah Peppers and I'm the treasurer of the middle school student council. One of our upcoming events we are having is our spring dance on Friday, May 2nd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. There will be a DJ in the gym and snacks in the cafeteria. This is one of our most popular events in BCMS. Tickets will be going on sale next week for $10 each. Leading up to the school dance, we will be having a spirit week. This is when we have theme days for the whole week that everyone can participate in. We will be doing Lion Day, Disney Day, Neon Day, Rock Your Crocs, and Flower Power Friday. Something we are planning is a teacher appreciation lunch to recogn recognize our teachers and all that they do for the students here at
004BCMS. This upcoming Thursday, we will be having a bring your child to work day. This is when the teachers will be bringing their kids to school. There will be fun activities for them to do throughout the day. Next week, the math state assessment will be taking place on Wednesday and Thursday for all the students in the middle school. They'll be taking the test. Lastly, the PTA is using the money we earned from the penny awards to buy games and activities for students to use in the courtyard when the weather gets nice. Thanks for listening to what's going on in VCMS right now. Have a great night. Good evening board of trustees and district admin. I am so excited after a very very extensive rigorous process. We have two student board representative members to introduce to
005you tonight. Siana Saris and Charlotte Tower. These young ladies are amazing young women. I am so excited that they wanted this opportunity. They put the work in to not only apply came and interviewed and showed grace and poise beyond their years. Tonight, Sienna is going to give you our um update and then Charlotte will give you the update in two weeks when we have our next meeting. But I thought we'd want to meet both of them. If there's any questions you have for them, they are happy to answer them. Good evening. My name is Sienna Saris and I am the board ambassador representing the high school tonight. I am honored to be here tonight. I look forward to sharing what the high school has been up to and what is upcoming as all students and
006faculty return from spring break. We have officially started the fourth quarter here at Grand Island High School. As students, our focus has now shifted more towards final exams. This time of year can bring along a sense of pressure and stress, but also excitement for the summer. Speaking of the fourth quarter, AP exams are right around the corner, so many students, including myself, are in full preparation mode. The stretch from now to May is very stressful, but it is rewarding in the end. This time of year also goes to show our dedication and commitment to our academics. We are very thankful for our amazing teachers that provide us with everything we need to ace the exams. Spring sports are officially underway and all teams have begun to practice and play games. Each team is working hard
007and playing their best to represent our school. Tonight, the varsity girls softball team and varsity girls lacrosse team each play a game. Both teams are looking for the win so that they can advance in the standings. Matt Sense and Marissa Setti have the honor to travel to Orlando, Florida for DECA Nationals. These students have received remarkable scores at regionals and states, which allows them to advance to nationals. Both Max and Marissa have shown great public speaking skills, persistence, and problem solving abilities. Congratulations to these students, and good luck to them in each of their categories. This year I interviewed for the student representative for the board of education. This has been a very positive experience for me. It has allowed me to step outside my comfort zone, engage with my community, and have a better
008better understanding of how decisions are made within our school. When Charlotte and I are approved as coboard members, I hope to contribute a perspective that will help to advocate for the students in our school and improve our community as a whole. I am very excited about what next year will bring. Thank you and have a great rest of the night. Uh so uh we're really excited to announce our distinguished alumni for Grand Island High School. Um they will be in uh this at the end of the week. Uh Thursday there's a meet and greet. Friday there's a student assembly. So first uh we'd like to congratulate Salvatore Gandelina from the class of 1974. He is a virtuos so clarinet and saxophone player. Uh he has mastery and has performed at Carnegie Hall uh and the
009Buffalo Philarmonic. So he's going to be an excellent representative and we're excited about his address uh with our high school students on Friday. Also Dr. John Robinson from the class of 1986 distinguished career emergency medicine. uh also an author and storyteller dedicated to writing service and advocacy uh and inspiring others and a former Navy ROC and a former athlete with us. I know that he's shipped some books to your house Sue. So it'll be fascinating to see some of the books that he's written and uh I'm sure that'll be a big focus at the mary as well. And then Carl Hartman, class of 1990. Uh he really truly is a legacy built on excellence from our high school uh from uh achieving the most points scored uh on our basketball team in the history of
010Grand Island. He went on to play for two lane university and then uh has coached in several different uh universities across the United States and most recently he is an associate head coach with the University of Florida. And we all know that Peters won the national championship just uh just recently, just a few weeks ago, and we're really thrilled that he's coming back to Great Island uh to be honored and to address our students. So, we're looking forward uh to that. I want to thank Jude, who has done a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure this goes off effortlessly, and our committee that has worked uh tirelessly to look at all the nominations and to uh select our most newly inducted uh alumni. So, I don't know if anybody has any questions.
011Okay. So, that should be a great event. Uh, so Thursday night, our board can attend if you're uh available. The uh meet and greet, which is at Bridge View starting at 6:30 and then Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. uh the three uh distinguished alumni will present to our students. So it should be great. [Music] Okay. Public comment session will not have anybody sign up curriculum and instruction doesn't look like they have anything tonight. So personal instructional. So um can I give them does anybody have any questions on instructional? If not, I would like a motion for PI 1 through PI 5, please and a second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carry 6. [Music] Moving on to personnel [Music] noninstructional. Hello. All right. Can I get a motion for the uh high wall 3,
012please? And a second. All in favor? [Music] All in favor? I opposed. Motion carried [Music] 6. Finance. Thank you. Um why don't we start with the budget presentation first and then it's it's up for uh action. So we'll go through that and then we can go on the items. I just want to before uh takes over I just want to again thank the board of education. This is probably one of many but one of the top uh duties of the board as a whole and uh it's a very rigorous process. Starts early in November with uh meeting with supervisors, administrators and the district team then presenting uh for uh many months to the board of education getting input and making adjustments along the way. Uh and uh all of this work is being done and
013it's really important as our board knows that New York State is late on getting their budget approved and uh they're currently negotiating really nonbudgetary things which makes it even more frustrating. It's uh you know mandates and things that the governor wants to uh you know install across the state. some some could be good things, some could be challenging things uh for schools and other entities. So, uh to see the budget be this late on April 22nd when it's due April 1st uh is not good role modeling in my opinion. Uh so, I appreciate the board. I appreciate Bob and put together a budget that uh meets our goals but is is missing just a little bit of information from the state. I think Oh, thank you. Yeah. So this can change depending on just the
014revenue portion. You know, we're hopeful that uh the revenue will go up to maybe 2.9% or 3%. That's what the assembly and the house have been recommending, but it doesn't mean that the governor could accept those recommendations. So we're we're seeing a budget based on the actual numbers we received from the governor based on the executive. Correct. Yeah. So we could end up getting a little bit more revenue. It's not going to be a ton. Uh but it that would be a good thing for us. We have been approved. No. No. No. So go ahead. Historically uh the budget comes in slightly above the executive revenue. So hopefully we would end up with a little bit more revenue than than what we have right now. But we won't know that until the budget's actually complete
015and they agree on on all the values. So the only time they have to reapprove something is if they came in last Oh yes, for sure. Yeah. tomorrow. Yeah. And that's not anticipated at all. Correct. I mean, if we were anticipating a cut, we would have a list of things that were on the block. Um, and I would also say that the outstanding issues with the governor's budget are not focused on education. Correct. Um, so if they if they were, we would be the cell phone part of it. Yeah. Well, the cell phone, but not financial, I guess, not financial, right? Right. So if there is a budget that comes in a little bit more, what happens to those that money? So uh you know a portion of this budget our revenue does not cover
016the entire budget. So a portion of of it comes from fund balance. So if we get more than anticipated we just use less fund balance uh at the end of the day which is well said. So Bob again and the board thank you for all the work. Uh to be honest with you, I've been doing this 9 years with this board and and other members. Uh this board takes this very seriously to looking line by line and I think that's accurate right and we appreciate that. We want a board that that's involved in looking at the finances as one of the major duties. So I thank the board for that and then turn over. Thank you. So uh just um going through no major changes uh you know page five as we said is that's
017still based on the executive budget runs. Typically by now we would have updated information. We would have updated our revenues for state aid. Uh but since there is no um additional information at this time there's been no updates there. Um on page six the revenue portion. The only change here is the amount of appropriated fund balance did increase to cover our uh new budget items which we'll go over in a couple minutes right now. So page eight is the um budget items that uh we kept in. Oh yeah, right there. Yep. So those are the items that uh that were requested for this year that we kept in. uh these are additions for this year. So that 376,000 at the bottom is uh added to the um the initial budget that we had been discussing.
018Um so that was the change in the appropriated fund balance was to cover uh these additions there. Good. I just want to make sure everybody's okay. Great. So uh we discussed some equipment needs and uh we discussed being able to do some things this year. So, these are some of the items that we've been able to do so far this year. Um, there was some classroom tables for Sidway, some uh tables for Kegabine, a new secretary desk for Kegabine, uh, some touchscreen TVs for the middle school. I'm working with Robin on those. We've got a whole lot of those coming from this uh, smart school bondex. So, we're going to work with Felicia to make sure that we get to there where she needs them the most. uh right now. Uh we did have to
019purchase some dust collector filters. Uh as we repaired the dust collector in the middle school and the high school, uh we found that some of those filters were uh in need of replacement. So uh we also did we're are in the process of replacing those to get our uh dust collectors back up and running. Um they came in and finished up the middle school dust collector today. Um so two of the three high school ones are back up. We just need to replace some bolters on the third one and then uh the middle school ones will be back in service tomorrow. So that project is essentially complete. That was our capital outlay project for this year. I'm going to just check in question. I'll check in with Danielle too. So this was um discuss Danielle
020or Ashley. Do you guys have any questions so far? Not right now. Thank you. What about right now? I have a good question on on the smartboards. Um, is that something I I know or I I remember and teach here. Um, but I thought there was a capital project. We had some additional funds left over when we were done. And I thought that was the what we bought our first run of all of our smart boards with um Lisa Pitch was actually the one that that brought it to the board and we approved it. So, is that not something we can do in a capital project? I thought the question came up with the last budget meeting that it was not, but is that is that something we could I believe you could um or
021ask if it could be one of those. So, so these ones are actually coming from the smart schools fund act. I'm not saying wait. I'm just saying, you know, when we get into our next capital project that we're going to look at, if you know, if we find ourselves in another situation where we have the funds, right, if that is something we can look at in totality, right, across the district, right, as an add-on, if if they're if you find because I know I think that's Cheryl, do you remember? I Yeah. I mean, it was a long time ago and I thought there was a chunk of money and Lisa brought it up at the table and I I I if my memory serves me right I don't I don't know it was a long
022time ago. Um what keep going and I think we that was when we first bought all of the Yes. the first I think we smart boarded. Yes. Yes. Um those were probably but uh you know a lot of those Prometheium boards are outdated. No, I know they are. And I guess that's that's what what I'm getting to, right? If we get into our next capital project, we've met everything we feel is whatever. If we find ourselves with I can't remember being more expensive, but I think that's what we did with a chunk of money. It might have been one one of the alternates maybe alternates at you have to get the alternate approved, correct? the referendum and all of that, but um you know, so just something maybe you could absolutely include them in a
023capital project. I believe they would be hatable. We have to wait until I'm just thinking a lot of them were bought at that one time, right? We bought a lot. I think we're buying 75 right now, you know, so that's a big jump. Uh I don't believe the smart school bond act is going to be a continued thing either. You know, they keep saying that that's going to go away. So that's that's a good thing for us to consider going forward for sure. Um so uh on page 10 um I put together that's would be the next slide please. Um so you know we we looked at a lot of equipment needs for the different schools and you know saw that there was a lot of different needs. So, I tried to uh allocate $100,000
024for next year's budget towards this and I I tried to divvy that up based on the enrollment at each of the schools. So, uh you'll see the projected enrollment that we uh presented earlier in February uh for all of the schools here and kind of split that $100,000 up proportionately between the schools. Uh, so I hope I I met your mark on that with what you guys asked me to do. Yeah, I'm I'm just looking at the um the immediate equipment need from I mean I realize it's $33,000, but for $33,000 more, we could have hit 100%. Well, we we did hit a lot of those in the ones that we already did this year. So do you feel this immediate need list has been met then? Uh for the majority I believe so. Yes.
025Okay. And everybody's comfortable. [Music] I mean we I just want to get that close, right? We would always love more, you know. No, I know. So we were able to We don't have a million dollars index. So at least this this will help them, you know, start getting some of the the items that we were able to sneak some. Yes, ma'am. That is correct. You think this will be an ongoing I I would think help with this because the next page is 619,000 for shortterm needs. Yeah, I I would think that we'll try to maintain this going into the future because the needs are definitely there for sure. Sure. Do you think we could define short term? Like do you think there's a way we could break this down? I mean, I'm sure we all
026want it in the next year, 26, 27, but I mean, maybe once we get through this year into next year, we could Yeah. I mean, we can reassess every year. I I kind of I don't want to pigeon hole the principles and saying, you know, I know X, Y, and Z. There's got to be some stuff that's they, you know, some of the stuff's been here since I've been here. Correct. Correct. And and this will help them start to replace some of that stuff, but this will give them the latitude to, you know, cuz the needs might change. You know, we they might say they need something now, but July 1 something might break and to shift that. So, any other questions on the equipment? Uh, slide 11 hasn't really changed. The tax cap calculator
027has stayed the same. Same thing for the estimated proposed tax rates on page 12, which brings us to page 13. That's a recap of the budget for this year. Um, you know, the there's ongoing challenges in transportation as we know. So I did uh increase the the amount for the contracted transportation quite a bit based on the number of requirements we are foreseeing. I did uh reduce the bus proposition uh a bit uh according to that because if we don't have as many drivers they won't be driving as many of our buses because the contracting companies use their own buses. So hopefully we make some good progress on this over the next several months. Um, but something where we're constantly trying to improve. Teresa's been doing a great job in in trying to get some
028ads out there. She's uh put some stuff on uh at the the bowling alley's. Uh Brian's helped quite a bit with a lot of different techniques. So, something we're still working very hard to to try to improve. Um our bus driver pay will go over $25 an hour for next year. So, you know, hopefully that will help attract some people, but you know, doing a lot of a lot of uh leg work to try to improve that situation for sure. So, uh the total expenses for next year, including the additional items, is [Music] $79,321,145. On page 14, that is the number that I am seeking your approval on tonight. Page 15 is proposition two. Uh we're going to keep that flat from what it was last year. I think I initially proposed 820,000. Um I
029did take some of that out uh and reduce the number of buses that we plan to purchase. But as always, buses are getting more and more expensive and supply chain issues are not helping that situation. Just just to note the change to proposition two, it looks like we've dropped um from two 65 passenger buses to one and from 329 passenger buses to two 35 passenger buses. Just to say thank you. Any other questions on the most proposition? and then the uh the draft budget recap and fund balance. So um I do anticipate um using a little bit of our reserves this year somewhere around 2 and a2 million as of my projections now. So we'll be trying to tighten that up and uh finish up the year as strong as possible. And then after tonight
030uh the next scheduled regular board meeting is May 6th. That would be our budget public hearing and then our vote on May 2. Any questions, comments, concerns? All right. So, with that, I will look for a motion on items A through F, please. Yes. A second. Second. I thought we all in favor. Opposed. Motion carried. 6. Thank you. Thank you everybody. That [Music] one. Is that everything for finance then? Uh there's there's a fewformational items on the items. GH GH. Does anybody have any questions? All right, move on to special education. We have two action items. That would be our CSE and our CPS program recommendations, please. Motion and a second. Second. All in favor? All right. Then for opposed motion carried six. You're welcome. Um and then for your information is the athletics and
031extracurricular activities 2025. Um Janelle Redbanker is our new athletic director. So myself, Felicia Palace, Maria Prince Harvey, Mike Antonelli. Um, we did have a a couple of teacher reps as well, you know, to look over the athletic code of conduct. Um, I think the last time it was reviewed was long time ago. I think 2018. Um, so we reviewed it, made sure that it was um, really reflective of our full code of conduct. Um, and tonight it's for you to look at and answer any questions that you have. But there's not a lot of wholesale ch changes just a lot of language clean up um and then making sure that it reflects the code of conduct as a whole. Does anybody have questions for Cheryl? We'll go ahead and review that and I guess next
032meeting will be up for the superintendent. uh with the students being off last week, I had to put together a slide deck and getting our budget passed was our priority. So, uh next time we're together, I'll have some nice slides of all the great spring sports that are going on and all the wonderful things including our distinguished uh SRP awards dinner. We are getting ready for that. That'll be later in May. But I do want to just uh thank uh the corporate sponsors. So um we our administrative union as well as the GITA sponsor uh and provide donations to this distinguished SRP event. Uh Jeff and Tina Hassler uh family here in Grand Island, but also uh a business owner has donated uh Leonard Bus Sales, Mercen Power Equipment, uh the New York uh school
033insurance reciprocal, Zero Eyes, the Loi Company, and Curriculum Associates have all provided donations to support this wonderful event. And now we get to shine a spotlight on our school related professionals uh later in May. So just wanted to share that with all of you. I believe the admin also. Okay. Y thank you. All right. Okay. On to the board of education reports. We have the area. Does anybody have any questions on that? Okay. I have a motion to approve um A and B, please. And a second. All in [Music] favor? In favor? Opposed? Motion carry. 6. All [Music] right. Does anybody have any questions for them? I know they kind of any anything you want to add to joining our group up here, ladies? Anything on the process? Any questions for us? Where do you
034want us to? How about right? How about right here? Any questions for us? We're excited to have you join us and be a part of what we do. Really exciting to have on the students point of view and um we look forward to working with you next year. So, congratulations. I'm sure the process was um stressful and intense. I guess intense was the word for welcome aboard and look forward to working with you starting July 1. Last questions. [Music] Okay. [Music] What is the date ceremony for the May 16th? While you're looking that up, Gizball report is on there. As always, I just want to mention the day to our car show which is May 18th and our annual golf outing which is July 25th and that will be at [Music] um May 6th and
0352016. All right. All right. Um, public comment session will be signed up for that. So, we are on to the committee of full items and information. We'll start with you. Thank you for all your laid out very easily. Easy number. Sure. See how each of the schools did and put a lot of work into it. Yeah. Making sure there's some good work with banker and their wellness teams to get an update. We can share with John. Just want to welcome both Sienna and Charlotte. Uh just happy birthday also my son's birthday. That's our birthday. We need our permit today. Um but today is also bus driver appreciation day. So, a shout out to our our bus riders and transportation team. You know, they're rock stars. They work really hard to to get our kids here,
036uh, safe and on time every day and get them home safely as well. And, uh, you know, they, as we know, very short and so they they've all been pitching in extra hours and everything else. So, a huge shout out to that team. Before I pass it on to Dr. Graham, I just want to wish Danielle a very happy birthday. I'm sure there's I'm sure there's other things you'd rather be doing than sitting here approving our budget. But happy birthday, Danielle. Thank you for joining us and thank you. Yeah, I keep forgetting it's my birthday to be honest, you know, a lot of work today. Yeah. So, you know, maybe one day I'll celebrate it and I do think, you know, the district and everybody to virtually unfortunately um not so much leisure purposes right
037now for my birthday, but I'll get there. So, thank you everybody. Ashley, anything for you? I'm all set. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh just briefly, April 30th, which is coming up relatively quickly, uh we're excited to honor Christopher Simpson and Randro uh as part of the Western York Education Service Council Awards of Excellence. So, that's going to be a very exciting event. Unfortunately, it butts right up against the uh celebration of inspiration. So, we have over 40 teachers, staff, and coaches being honored that evening. I want to thank John for uh being available to attend the celebration of inspiration. I'll be at the Western New York Education Service Council. Uh and we have, like I said, over 40 teachers, staff, and coaches being recognized by our graduating seniors. So, it should be an
038outstanding event. It's a a wonderful tradition that has preceded me. It's I don't know, Sue, if you know when that started, but it's been really great. many years. I don't know exactly when it started, but it is it is exciting. Um, for those of you that have never attended and will attend for the first time, bring in Kleenex. It's um it's quite moving. That's right. [Music] Oh, 1990s. Yeah, I would say I think we have a prom coming out in date. Is it first week of May? Weekend of May. Yeah. So, lots of things to celebrate. Very exciting time for our students, faculty, and staff. So, uh stay tuned. We'll have lots to share. Okay, just a couple of dates. I was going to mention celebration of inspiration. We also have uh our second annual
039bike night that's coming up June 11th which will be um also the uh spring signing day for all of our athletes that are going on to compete at the 25th level. That will be at 5:00 p.m. with the bike night starting at 6 p.m. Um we mentioned proms. There's a lot going on for us senior moms. It's very exciting and very sad at the same time. Um May 6 is our bud uh public budget hearing and our next board of education meeting and May 20th is the annual budget and trustee vote. Good luck to Jay and to Beth who has been attending our meetings. Um we do have two um positions open and two people running for those. So um look forward to the vote and um the budget being passed. Right. So, um, we
040don't have anything else. I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:12. Motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? [Music] [Applause]